The Vampire Touch 3: A New Dawn

by Sarah J. Stone

  So, I gear up. I am stronger in my wolf form, but that will have to wait for now. This battle could rage on for days. I can’t expend all my energy in one strike on the first night. Heavy ballistics armor. A shotgun over the back and a machine gun in front. A bowie knife on my hip and in my boot. A few smaller, more concealable blades here and there. You can never have too many knives.

  I make my way down and out of my house. Gun fire blasts through the crisp, night air. That and terror filled screams of those that were not able to shift in time, those that thought bullets were a better solution and those that tried to scatter and hide.

  There was no time to speak to my people. There was no time to prepare for this fight. There was only time to lick our wounds from the defeat before being thrust into another battle. The witches have abandoned us. Or rather, they’ve left those willing to stay and fight to stay and fight. Verona and Atticus opted out. A wise decision. They had no place in this war. They are not ready for this situation. For this kind of battle. They are weak. Not in the traditional sense of the word, but rather, they’re just not ready for a fight.

  I do know a few stayed. Not nearly enough to make a difference in this battle but enough to give a kick in the right direction. They may have more troops, but we have the magical advantage. Moving deeper into the forest. It’s quiet. Too quiet for a start. Then it erupts. Vampires that have breached security surround me. One runs, scrapes me across the chest with his long claws, and is on the other side of me. Another does the same. They’re toying with me.

  “Big bad wolf too afraid to play?” I lift my gun and shoot a few bullets out in the direction of the one that spoke. I miss horribly. Another scrape across the vest. They’re too fast and my mind’s not in it. Not like this. Luckily, to my relief, a few wolves come to where we are and immediately start tearing away at the vampires that stand before us. Vicious snarling and the snapped bone beneath powerfully clenched jaws fill me with delight.

  Enough of this, I think, running toward a tree, leaping in the air, and by the time I touch down I have shifted into my wolf form. I feel more powerful. More attuned, but I know I’m weak. Very, very weak.

  I howl out into the night. My wolves know my distinctive call and know that I have now joined the fight. Hopefully, this spurs them on to fight harder. Myself and five others are running through the forest to the main breach. This is where, I believe, the vampires have begun their strike from. Wiping out the wolves on the border and pushing deeper. They’re not rushing in from all angles. They’re not splitting apart from a few brazen vampires. We reach a hill overlooking the main battle and there they are. Vampires flooding in from every direction, almost trapping a good number of wolves in a circle. We push down. Five of us are better than having no backup at all. When we near, we go low. Moving slower but more tactically. We near the back of a group that has circled a good deal of our forces. I can hear the battle continuing on elsewhere, so this is not it. Then we strike. I leap high into the air, my paws clawing two vampires in tremendous swipes. My large frame lands directly on the two fallen wolves, while a third vampire’s throat gets stuck between my jaws. I tear and he collapses.

  Then the true battle begins. This was just a test. These trapped wolves are playthings as I was to the ones that circled me. Other wolves join and leave this battle as they are needed and as the tides dictate them to be. The smaller vampires stand no chance. Between my wide jaws and my powerful front paws, I tear through them. This doesn’t mean they don’t return the favor. With the crowd outnumbering us a great deal, we face the threat of multiple attacks in one. The five wolves that have joined me form an arched straight line as we fight. We try not to allow the vampires around us and those who do are swiftly dealt with by wolves that slowly join the fray.

  Those ahead of us are in a circle formation, each protecting the other. A good tactic with these overwhelming forces. Various strike patterns, but we still stand no chance. We will fight and die for the honor of our people. If only they knew what this was truly about. Would they have continued the fight? Would they have been willing to give their life to the cause if they knew that Daffyd was the soul intention of this battle. A vampire that has long ago forgone any care to this fight, only now pushing forces and forces so as to not to lose favor among the people he commands. A selfish king that deserves nothing more than the death I so deeply wish to offer him.

  The fight wages on and still and the numbers of the vampires seem to stretch on to infinity. With every vampire we kill, two more take his place. In the center of the line, with six more wolves taking our rear and four on each flank, we have created a solid fortress to break. The vampires, noticing that we will fight to our deaths, have spread out, giving many of us no room to breathe, but a bit more ground to move in. They were causing more harm or growing bored waiting for a turn with the trapped wolves, so they pushed on and so did we. We do not break nor cower. We fight and dominate. A force to be reckoned with.

  Bullets whiz past our heads as a few more of our wolves come in among the crowd, and to my great surprise I see William among them. He gestures with his hand that I come to him but on my own time. There is no rush in a situation like this. And so, as soon as the moment presents itself, I dart off to him. I shift back into my human form the moment I get there. My face is bloody, body ripped and torn yet again.

  “How did you even make it out of there?” The same could be said for him. Tattered and knackered, and still he’s back out here to fight.

  “No time for that now. The Peace Grounds. Head down there. There’s someone waiting for you.” A cryptic message and one that I will follow for now. I believe I can trust him. “We’ll be right behind you,” he replies before returning to combat. I begin making my way to the Peace Grounds. He would have warned me if there was any danger.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven: Victor

  I can see that neither Jack nor Madison understand what’s going on. They have proven themselves to be quite the threat to my operations, however, and must be kept until I am ready to let them back out. This prison? It’s not where they will live and die. This is just to keep the Agency facing a different direction. Their noble director and their precious Deicine.

  They will have no time to get involved in my doings.

  “How did you do that?” Jack shouts at me. I just look up at him with a smug satisfaction on my face.

  “Do what?” I tease him. This provokes the reaction that I very much appreciate. A first comes flying toward me, and I fade before his eyes, reappearing behind him, “Oh, you mean that.”

  Madison keeps still. Calm. I can feel her fear. “How are you doing that?” she whimpers.

  “A magician never reveals his secrets,” I add. Jack draws a pistol. One of the Agency’s standards. I look at it. It’s against my head. He’s itching to pull the trigger, but between them both they know this placed is littered with magic. They wouldn’t be able to break free even if they tried. So, pulling that trigger would not only result in my death but their own, too.

  “Do it.” I smile. I give him a few seconds to deliberate. Kill the man that has caused so much chaos or let me go and live. A tough decision but one that doesn’t only concern him. He’d think about Madison before himself in this matter. I shake my head and slap at the gun. As soon as my fingers touch the cold steel, the gun disappears. “Quite a nifty trick, wouldn’t you agree? I just added it to my arsenal, and it’s already proven wonders,” I begin walking away from the pair.

  “Now, I’ve got business to attend to,” someone opens their mouth to speak, but before the sentence is finished, I am standing in front of Daffyd while he sits in his throne room, lazily draped over the throne with Hamish at his side. Neither of them notice me at first. They’re both too preoccupied with the war.

  The war…the one that I forgot about in my endeavors. How it must have progressed and escalated. I’m quite interested to find out how it’s come along.

  “They won’t last the night. I’ve heard word that the
wolves are tired. They’ve killed a few of ours but not enough to make a dent in the armor, and with vampires piling over them constantly they have no wiggle room. Defeat is at their door, Ham.” He’s snacking on grapes. I never thought that the vampires enjoyed the simple human pleasures. After eating on it over the centuries, I’m bored of the taste, no matter how they try and present it these days.

  “Now didn’t I say that there was a castle that was to be handed over to the wolves?” I cut Daffyd off calmly. Now they know I’m here. He’s up and at attention. Hamish is cowering behind his master like a pup behind its mother. How pathetic.

  “Why would I give it up? The wolves are on their last legs. They are heading for a loss of the ages, and you want me to give in to them? You must be joking,” Daffyd snaps his neck to the side and looks deep into my eyes. I can feel he’s different. He carries his power with command and not the way I knew it to be. “How did you even get in here?” I step forward and disappear. When I come to again, I am right in front of him, my hands around his lapels, and his face loses all expression. I lift him from his throne and toss him across the room. His back strikes the wall. I turn to Hamish. He scampers off. Daffyd is not even upset.

  “That’s how I got in here.” Daffyd shows his fangs. A hiss or two follows, and he lunges from across the room. This time, I don’t teleport. I just grab him around the throat as he nears and raise him high into the air. My eyes looking deep into his own.

  “Did I not tell you to hand over Torrine? You had very clear instructions. Twice, in fact. I will not speak a third time.” I throw him back down and look at him.

  “How?” he shouts at me.

  “Didn’t you hear? I’m a god killer,” I reply, walking down the stairs. I would have thought it public knowledge by now that Zeus fell to the hand of what was seemingly nothing more than a mortal. I can’t say I’m not a tad upset that it hasn’t.

  “A g…god k…killer?” Hamish mutters from behind.

  “Yes. Zeus fell to my hand. Something you couldn’t do in ten years was done in a matter of seconds.” A tremendous right kick into Daffyd’s face and he goes down. Dazed and confused, he looks back up at me. “The castle…” I extend my hand as if he had the deed.

  “Right. Hamish, draw it up.” It takes a few minutes. An awkward silence, which I can understand, between Daffyd and I while we wait for Hamish. He returns with the deed signed by the king and himself on the original date I ordered it.

  “Good.” I hear the main entrance to the throne room’s door click open. I fade away.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight: Mason

  I can see there’s something off with Daffyd the second Brooke and I step into the room. The tensions are high, his face cut and bleeding from nose, lip, and above the eye. His pristine suit is ruffled. Hamish cowers behind. Something just went down, and whatever the fading specter was had something to do with this reaction.

  “If you’re not here to tell me that the wolves are all dead, I don’t want to hear it.” The only words that spill from his mouth. The grim attitude surrounds him and the power in the room. All of this together only leads me to think one thing. One thing that has nothing to do with the other but everything at the same time.

  “Daffyd,” Brooke says calmly. Patiently. Afraid, almost. “We need to talk.”

  “What do you want, Brooke?” Daffyd snaps.

  “Remember the favor Mason did for us?” She sighs. “My payment was you, my love. Your head for the wolves. You are going to be the beginning and the end of this war. The wolves will take you as a peace offering for both Mason and I. I’m sorry.”

  Daffyd snaps. Pure rage burns through him from the deepest pits of his core outward. I understand it. Betrayal is not something one easily deals with. It’s never something that you come to terms with. He opens his mouth to speak, but I raise a hand and he holds his tongue.

  He may be on his most recent power binge, but he still knows his place among the true vampire hierarchy. “Daffyd, you will have no say in this matter. If you come willingly, there will be no issue. This is where you meet your end. For better or for worse. You are no longer to walk this Earth. It has been written in the stars.” I try and sound prolific. What a waste of time.

  “You think that I’m just going to bow down to you? Who do you think you are?” The question is directed at Brooke. He knows as well as I do that I am just a mercenary. A gun for hire. I had no part in this apart from benefiting my own agenda.

  “They blew up the chicken man in Philly last night…” I say calmly. In the state of confusion, I dash toward him, restraining him. One arm around his throat, the other hooked under his right arm to keep him from moving freely. A simple quote from a song I heard on the drive over here. Something that was so unexpected in this situation that no one was expecting the latter.

  “Hamish, I need you to…” I squeeze Daffyd’s throat so that he can’t utter the rest of his sentence.

  “You will do nothing, Hamish, but bow to your queen.” Again, I begin my dash, this time with Daffyd in my hands. I move fast. Many vampires do, but my speed is so much greater than theirs. A flash of lightning against a jackrabbit. An apt description given to me when I was first learning under the man in black. I wonder tonight where that Mason is. Where he finds himself. Is he joining me in handing over Daffyd?

  And before I can complete all the thoughts rushing through my head, we are deep in the forest. Behind us, the war wages on. We moved, and I do believe the vampires know that their king has been apprehended between the battle grounds. I make my way directly to the meeting point where I have already sent word to Romulus. When we get there, Romulus sits in his human form, watching the small clearing where I drop Daffyd. His legs are draped over two branches as he reads a parchment before looking down at the pair of us.

  “And what’s this?” he asks.

  “This is a peace offering,” I feel wolves around us. They growl and snarl, all their ill intentions directed at Daffyd.

  “A peace offering?”

  “Yes. Brooke and I believe that this war must now come to an end. How better than to deliver the man you seek? This is to call an end to the war. She wishes to inform you that her reign is to move away from the fighting side, giving you Daffyd as a peace offering and to bring the wolves and the vampires together instead of pushing them further and further apart. I am to deliver this message to the wolves as soon as I finish here.” He knows that there is more to what I am going to say.

  “Go on. What’s your end of this bargain?”

  “For me? An apology. You lost your family too soon. This is my way of giving you a way to get the revenge you deserve. In doing so, getting us back on good footing where we lost it. Do you agree, Alpha Wolf?” He nods, pushing himself off the branches. The wolves begin circling in.

  “I agree, Ancient One.” I move away, leaving the wolves to do what they must. Calling peace between wolves, witches, and vampires.

  A new dawn.

  Prologue: Olivia

  The world has moved on.

  Alone.

  I find myself in this state more often than not lately. The hope of anyone finding me, the hope of anyone guiding me, teaching me, loving me…

  All gone. There’s nothing in this world that I would do now but go back to where I was when I was a human. Making the mistake to trust the vampire that promised to take care of me after my turning was one of the biggest mistakes I could have ever made. Trusting a vampire, the biggest. I’m hungry. Normal food doesn’t really have any effect on it. I’ve even started eating uncooked steak to try and get my blood fill, but that doesn’t seem to work.

  I don’t know how to do it, though. How to kill a person. How to drain them. Do I just drink it normally? Will that even taste nice?

  So many questions with no answers. I can’t be the first one that’s been abandoned, though, can I? I can’t be the only one that doesn’t have a place.

  “All aboard!” a boat captain shouts. I pull my coat off my lap, get
up, and head toward the small boat that’s meant to take us on a journey around Miami. I don’t even know why I’m still here. I bought the tickets with friends weeks ago. Back when I was still a human. How quickly things change.

  ***

  Have you ever wanted to be a vampire?

  Have you ever dreamed of being a creature of the night?

  Do you have what it takes to be the master or mistress of your own eternal destiny?

  Then this is the website for you.

  By simply filling in your information and taking part in one of our courses, you will be welcomed into the fold.

  I browse over the website before me, with Allyson and Meghan snickering over how bad it is. I’ve never been one to buy into the supernatural mumbo jumbo. Why would I? It’s all just fiction. Good for a fright and scare, or the rom-com setting that people are pumping out in books but to ‘become part of the fold,’ well, that’s just nonsense.

  “We’ve already joined up with the site; you should, too,” Meghan nudges me on the arm. She puts on a pair of plastic Halloween vampire teeth and does her best impression of the Count. Her and Allyson snicker as she does it.

  “Fine, fine.” I begin tapping away at the keyboard until all my details are in. I press ‘send.’ The internet is slow. It takes a while for the page to load, so I turn to my friends. “Are you happy now?”

  Allyson doesn’t say anything. I can see the set of cheap teeth are too big for her mouth. The reserved, shy kind, even with her besties, she would rather not sound as silly as our more outgoing Meghan who doesn’t care if she sounds the fool with the oversized chompers in her mouth.