Nicole gave Alec a curious look, but he betrayed nothing.
A short time later, Alec pointed to a dark street corner. “Let us off here.”
The cabby pulled over without comment. Alec paid the man and he drove off.
“What are we doing here?” Nicole asked.
“Follow me,” he told them.
He led them into a dark alley where they found a steep staircase leading underground.
“This is the back way in,” he told them.
“To where?” Nicole wanted to know.
Dash laughed. “He is taking us to the City of the Undead. It is an underground city, built in the abandoned tunnels under New York.”
“Oh.” Nicole really didn’t know what else to say. Over the last few days she had grown accustomed to the strange and unexpected.
They entered a dark walkway. Nicole could not see anything at all when the door to the outside closed behind them. She grabbed hold of Alec’s shirt so that he could guide her through the darkness.
“You know, I wish you would remember that I cannot see in the dark like you guys can.” Nicole’s voice echoed through the empty corridor.
They came to more stairs and descended further under the city. Nicole held tightly to the rails, taking the steps slowly. The staircase seemed to go on forever, but finally they came to a door. Alec pulled the door open and they stepped out into a tunnel.
It was dimly lit with emergency lighting that seemed to flicker every few seconds. A rat scurried across her foot and Nicole yelped.
Both of her companions laughed at the same time. Apparently they were amused by the fact that a mere rodent would frighten her.
“Not much further,” Alec promised.
“I hope not,” Nicole told him. The last thing that she thought she’d be doing tonight was walking through abandoned subway tunnels under New York.
At last they came to a small break in a cement wall and Alec slipped through it. From the other side, she could see him motioning for her to follow. Nicole eyed the opening skeptically. She was puzzled by the fact that Alec had managed to squeeze through it.
Finally she took a deep breath and held it so that she could slip through the opening. Dash was close behind her.
Nicole’s eyes adjusted to the brighter light, but what she saw led to more questions. They seemed to be in some type of underground city. There were actually structures built from cement and bricks.
“What is this place?”
“This is where vampires go that don’t want to deal with the hazards of the sun … and vampire hunters?” he told her.
“How do they feed?”
“Like the rest of us. They go out to hunt at night, or they bring a feeder down here,” Alec informed her.
Dash was staring at the city as if he was seeing it for the first time.
“Have you ever been here Dash?” Alec asked him.
He shook his head. “I’ve heard of it, but never really had the desire to go underground. I’m a Light Seeker at heart.”
“You would think someone would have found this place,” Nicole said, to no one in particular.
“The people that have worked in the subways for a long time know about these underground nests, but they keep quiet and they stay alive. The vampires hunt elsewhere,” Alec said.
With only a couple of hours until dawn, it appeared as if the inhabitants were winding down. Nicole could detect little movement around the maze of small - apartment like buildings.
“You sound as if you are familiar with this place,” Nicole commented.
“I’ve spent some time here,” he said, giving her no more detail.
“Well … I’ve seen enough,” Dash told them. “Can we get on with what we’re here for?”
Alec led them into the city. They walked down a narrow sidewalk with structures on both sides. A vampire stuck his head out of a door to inspect them, and immediately recognized Nicole for human. He began hissing and looked as if he were ready to leap on her. Nicole moved closer to Alec.
Stopping in his tracks, Alec stared at the vampire, his eyes glowing with fury. “Do not accost someone in my company,” Alec warned.
The vampire withdrew, and immediately became non aggressive.
“So few of our kind are civilized these days … wouldn’t you say?” Dash directed his question to Alec.
“Yes,” Alec answered. “I would say that.”
Alec turned his attention back to the makeshift building where the vampire was still watching them. “I am searching for Donavan Ashe. Is he here?”
Again the vampire stuck his head out of the door, this time he appeared normal. Nicole thought that he looked more like a school janitor than a vampire. His hair was short and gray, with a bald spot on top. He was even a little overweight. Not exactly what you’d picture a vampire to look like.
She couldn’t help but wonder how many vampires roamed the streets at night, without the human inhabitants even realizing it. What would they think if they knew that the world was full of these creatures?
“Down that way.” The vampire pointed to the end of the alley-like street.
Alec started walking again. “Well at least we know he is here.”
“My father … we’ve come here looking for my father?”
Alec nodded. “Your father would be in a much better position than we are to back down Omar. He is not someone that Omar’s followers will want to tangle with.”
Soon they come to a gray stone structure that was much larger than the rest of them. There were even steps leading up to double doors.
“This is incredible!” Nicole exclaimed.
Alec knocked on the door and a moment later it opened. “A woman with long blond hair stood there, glaring at them.
“I want to speak with Donavan,” Alec told her.
“And you are who?”
“Alec Norwood. Tell him it is about his daughter.”
“Wait here,” she said, before closing the door on them. Nicole did not miss the hateful look the woman cast in her direction.
When the door opened again, it wasn’t the woman, but the dark man from the park. He looked exactly the same as he had all those years ago.
“Come in,’ Donavan told them, stepping aside.
Nicole was again surprised by the interior of the structure. There appeared to be a few different rooms to it. The room they entered was lavishly furnished with antique pieces. The walls were even adorned with fine art. The woman was nowhere in sight.
“Alec … it’s been a very long time.”
Alec nodded and then pointed to Nicole. “Your daughter.”
Donavan stared at Nicole, a smile touching his lips. “Nicole … you’ve grown even more beautiful than I imagined.”
A storm of emotion raged through her. Here was the man that had abandoned her and her mother - the dark man who never returned like he promised. “You never came back,” she accused.
A sadness entered Donavan’s eyes. He looked toward Alec and Dash. “Can I have a few moments with my daughter?”
Alec hesitated.
“She is my daughter. I will not harm her,” Donavan assured them.
Alec nodded, and he and Dash left through the door they had entered.
When they had gone, her father reached out and touched her cheek lightly. “Nicole … you are truly a rose of the night.”
“Why did you leave? Didn’t you care about us?”
“I left precisely for that reason … because I did care about you and your mother,” he told her.
Nicole shook her head, unable to accept the truth of his words.
“A little girl needs to grow up in the light, not the darkness.” He motioned with his hand to the structure he lived in. “When I saw you playing in the park, all I could think about was how I should have been able to watch you playing beneath the sunshine.”
“So you left for selfish reasons,” she spit out.
“A born vampire is forbidden. If the others had found
out about you, it would not have been safe,” he explained.
“But I am not a vampire.”
“But you are Nicole. You are a vampire that can live in the light … but a vampire nonetheless.”
“I’ve never …” Her words trailed off.
“You’ve never consumed blood,” he finished for her.
She nodded.
Donavan smiled. “You are what would be called … a half vampire. You will not turn unless you are infected by the poison, but it would take very little to do that.”
“What do you mean?”
“With most mortals, they must be bitten first and then they must drink the vampire’s blood. Even then, they must carry some type of DNA from the original vampires before they will turn. A born vampire will turn quickly, if they are even given a drop of the vampire’s venom. They do not have to be bitten.”
“Omar knows about me,” she blurted out.
Instantly, a look of apprehension entered his eyes. “You must go into hiding,” he stated.
“What good is it for me to remain mortal, if I must hide in the dark?”
Donavan seemed to be wrestling with some internal demon. Finally he spoke. “Omar will use you for his own ends if he gets his hands on you.”
“What is this Place of Light? What is he hiding?” Nicole asked.
“Yes …what about that?” Dash stuck his head inside the door.
Donavan motioned for them to come in.
“The place of light is not myth. This is a common story circulated by the oldest vampires, but only because they do not want others searching for this place. This is the realm of the vampire … the Place of Light is the realm of the wolf. We have never inhabited that place.”
“Can the vampire live in the light there?” Alec asked him.
Donavan nodded. “Yes … but we are forbidden entrance to that world because we prey on the living.” He reached into his shirt and pulled out a medallion that hung from a gold chain. It was the same as Omar wore.
“Only with this can you gain entrance to that world … but the wolves would kill you as soon as you crossed. That is if you even knew where the entrances were?”
“Do you know where they are?” Dash asked.
Donavan shook his head. “That knowledge has been lost.”
Alec spoke up, “One of them talked to me - sought me out.”
Donavan appeared shocked. “What was the reason?”
“He claimed that Omar was a danger to his granddaughter, and that the only way to stop him was to bring the secrets into the open.”
“His granddaughter … the granddaughter of a wolf?” Donavan seemed to be in deep thought.
“Do you know what secrets he is hiding?” Alec wanted to know.
Now Alec had Donavan’s full attention. “I do,” he said.
“Well,” Dash held up his hands in the air. “What are these secrets … what are we?”
“We are more ancient than man himself. What we are is not a curse, but a species.”
“How can we live in the light?” Alec asked.
“We can’t … not on this side of the veil, but not because of some curse.”
“But technically, if we could find this portal, we could get through with that medallion?” Nicole asked.
“Why are you so interested in this place daughter?”
Nicole wanted to tell him about Jay, but what could she say? That Ethan had told her that the Place of Light might lead her to her brother. Even vampires may not believe in such nonsense.
“It is to soothe your pain that you seek the Place of Light?” He had read her thoughts. So far, he’d been the only immortal with the ability to read her.
“You can see into this place … with this medallion,” he told her.
Taking it from his neck, he placed it in her hands. Immediately, everything around her changed and she was somewhere else. She was in some type of land - the same as the earth, but yet so different. Everything was so brilliant and colorful. The land was unspoiled, unlike in her world.
There was a small village, with people milling around. All types of people - and there was a lake.
From a distance, she could hear her father’s voice. “As long as you hold the medallion, you can look through to that world. Go ahead and explore it.”
She did, walking along a small road toward the lake. For some reason, she was drawn to the lake.
“What do you see Nicole?” her father asked.
“A lake,” she told him.
“Go to the lake Nicole. The lake is a window to what you seek.”
Nicole kept walking until she was at the shore of the lake. She nearly stopped breathing. “It’s Jay,” she cried.
Jay sat on the sand. His knees were drawn up to his chest with his arms wrapped around them. He was watching Nicole.
She wept freely, not caring who would see. “Jay … are you okay?” she sobbed.
He nodded and smiled. “Why do you cry so much Nicki? I’m okay.”
He was calling her Nicki. Jay was the only one in the world that had ever called her by that name. “I’m so sorry baby! I swear, I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
He shrugged his shoulders. “It was just time to go Nicki … that’s all.” Then he faded away and was gone.
“Don’t go Jay,” she cried.
She felt her father’s hands on hers. He gently pulled the medallion from her grasp. Then she was back. The three in the room looked on her with pity, and some confusion. They had obviously not shared her vision.
“This Place of Light … it is the afterlife?” Nicole asked when she had composed herself.
Donavan shook his head. “It is only known as the Place of Light to the immortals. To others it is known as Outerlands. This place exists on the fringe of reality, in a different dimension … a higher vibration.”
“It must be heaven,” she insisted. “I saw Jay.”
“No, it is as real and solid as where you are now, but it is a magical place. From Outerlands, there are windows into the afterlife, but the place that the soul goes exists at a much higher vibration, than even Outerlands.”
“How is it that you know so much about this place, if you’ve never been there?” Dash asked him, entranced by what he had just witnessed.
“I am very old,” he told them.
“How old?” Nicole asked. “When did you turn? Who were you before?”
Donavan smiled. “I have always been what I am … I am a born vampire.”
“I thought they were forbidden,” Nicole said.
“I am one of the original immortals. It is a long story, and not one that any of you are ready to hear,” he told them. “Trust that I have always been what I am, but I have not always been banished to the darkness. That is something that happened to our species a very long time ago.”
“All of this is what Omar doesn’t want others to know?” Alec put in. He had been quiet through most of the ordeal, but now he wanted clarity.
“It is. He feeds off of the hatred of the immortal. They believe they are cursed, but it is not that simple. He doesn’t want his followers to believe in the Place of Light for fear that he will lose control over them. He will have no power there.”
“But if we are forbidden, its existence makes no difference,” Alec shrugged. “What does it matter if they know?”
“There may be a way,” Donavan said with a dark smile. “But first, we must change as a species.”
“Impossible,” Alec scoffed. “We are predators … it is in our nature to hunt.”
“Well there is my recipe,” Dash reminded them, but no one was listening.
“There are three born vampires,’ he told them. “Three sisters … all three sisters must come together to face Omar and destroy his nest. They can then seek an audience with the Gatekeeper of Outerlands.” Donavan motioned to Nicole. “You are one of those sisters.”
“I have sisters?” she asked.
“You have two sisters. You must find the othe
r two and then you will be strong enough to destroy Omar.”
“Why can’t you do this?” Nicole asked.
“I cannot … Omar is my brother. I am forbidden to kill him.”
“Why do you know this stuff?” Alec was still skeptical.
“You could say I have some inside information. What I know is that as long as Omar lives, the darkness will prevail.”
Chapter Ten
Nicole lay in bed, tossing and turning every few minutes. Her nerves were too fried to sleep. She was still trying to absorb everything she had learned about her father and who she was. She had sisters!
Her father had not contacted her sisters at all. Though he’d kept track of her whereabouts, he had lost her sisters. He’d felt the less he knew himself, the safer they would be.
How could she possibly find two sisters that she knew absolutely nothing about?
Donavan had offered them his home to sleep. He had other places to go in the City of the Undead. Though she was bone weary, she just could not forget the fact that she was surrounded by vampires. If she fell asleep, who knew what would happen. Nicole did find some comfort in knowing that Alec was just in the other room. He would sense an intruder and wake.
She’d wanted to ask Alec to sleep in the same room with her, but Nicole wasn’t sure how her father would like the idea. It was true that he had not been there while she was growing up, but he still seemed to harbor some protective instincts when it came to her.
They brought water in for her to cleanup, and she had bathed in a large tub. The city had electricity, but lacked running water. They apparently brought water into their city via a valve in the subway.
For dinner, her father had ordered someone to bring her food from a takeout from the city above. The whole ordeal still had a dreamlike quality to it. Nicole half expected to wakeup at home to find that the past week had been no more than a strange dream.
Closing her eyes, she tried to relax. The atmosphere in the room changed and she sensed another presence. Nicole’s eyes flew open, and she saw him standing there - staring down at her as if he wished he could eat her up.
Alec wore no clothing. Even in the dark, Nicole could make out the scrumptious contours of his body, and his thick erection. He pulled the covers back and slid in beside her.
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