The Dresdan Coven Trilogy

by Amber Ella Monroe

  Something exploded outside, but it took Elaina more than a second to realize that the sounds that followed were the panicked screams of her colleagues. She rushed out of the storage building and saw a fireball near the left gate where an eighteen-wheeler had either been bombed or set on fire.

  The sun had barely receded, yet a handful of vampires had made haste in attacking them. Two workers were already dead.

  Elaina dropped her duffle bag to the ground, grabbed her Glock from the holster on her hip, and opened fire at the throng of swarming vampires. She couldn’t tell if they were weaker rogues or Dresdan. They worked in a team, debilitating the few workers that hadn’t left for the day.

  What a coincidence that they had enough weapons here to start a small war, but most were locked up in boxes waiting to be shipped to headquarters. Not to mention, the vamps had bombed a truckload of that supply. Despite the immediate availability of weaponry around them, these District 5 workers weren’t trained to fight. A few were probably trackers or had been—like herself. But many here had been re-assigned to this station until their official post was provided to them. Stocking weaponry wasn’t Elaina’s idea of a frontline duty assignment. This wasn’t exactly the average clerical work either. In either case, the attack had caught everyone off guard, including Elaina.

  As she fired a series of rounds at her targets, a vampire blocked her path. She sheathed her Glock quickly and pulled out a set of daggers. There was no use trying to shoot at close range. When a vampire stood within a few feet of its target, the best way to fend for oneself was the use of hand-to-hand combat force or small weaponry like her daggers.

  The vampire was quick, but she used her training to anticipate his moves. Luckily, he still moved around and fought like a human, which told her that this one was, in fact, a young rogue.

  Her break came when his back was turned. She propelled herself forward and drove her dagger straight down into his spine. The vampire flung itself forward, turned, and ran straight for her. Pushing off the ground with the balls of her feet, she leapt about two feet in the air and executed a jumping axe kick. The vampire took the blow to the upper chest and landed on the ground in front of her. When he regained his balance, she hook-kicked him across the side of the face. She dropped her daggers while the vampire was still down trying to pop his spine back into place, grabbed her Glock, and shot the creature twice in the head.

  As she moved forward to finish off more vamps, she reloaded her Glock.

  The scene before her wasn’t pretty. Several of her colleagues were lying dead on the ground. She picked up another weapon from the ground, raced up behind an unsuspecting vampire from behind while he was feeding on one of the dead, and sliced through the middle of his neck with a machete she found lying nearby on the ground.

  When Elaina looked up again from the carnage, that’s when she saw him. Vicq. A dark figure approaching the scene as if he owned the place. At first, she could have believed that he was responsible for the wreckage, but then he began to murder his own kind. He grabbed them, one by one, and snapped their necks for an easy execution. All the while, her colleagues labeled him a threat just like the others and continued to pump him full of bullets. Blood wept from his wounds as he expelled the bullets. That’s when Elaina realized that what was left of her crew was no match for a Dresdan.

  They couldn’t kill Vicq. He was unstoppable. It was why D5 wanted his blood and why they wanted him dead.

  Odd though. Elaina didn’t want him dead. From the moment she had exchanged words with him in that old dilapidated warehouse, to the days that had gone by without him returning to her condo, she’d been harboring the very same intuition that rose in her gut now. An intuition that went against everything District 5 had ever taught her—Vicq wasn’t the enemy.

  All the rogues had fallen, most of them by Vicq’s hand. The only people who remained standing were herself, two of her colleagues, and Vicq.

  As Vicq closed the gap between Elaina and himself, her colleagues continued to shoot, clueless to what she already knew. Vicq was trying to protect her.

  Blood leaked from his mouth and down against his fangs as his pace slowed.

  They were killing him. Elaina let go of her weapons and dashed toward him.

  “Stop!” she yelled. “Stop shooting.”

  Of course, they wouldn’t listen. A District 5’s employee’s number one rule was to kill all vampires on sight.

  When her body collided with Vicq’s, she linked his arm around her and rushed him toward the metal storage unit. A bullet caught her in the shoulder as she ran. She cried out once, but kept pushing toward safety. Once they were inside and she had bolted the doors, only then did the shooting stop.

  Vicq slumped to the floor, sitting up against the wall. “Elaina, are you okay?”

  “Yes.” She choked on her words as the pain from the bullet in her shoulder began to consume her.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner.”

  She knelt beside him. “What? You knew about this?”

  “No…I’ve been watching you.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

  He lifted his hand and stroked her cheek. His hands were surprisingly soft, and she exhaled softly, trying to focus on how good his touch felt instead of the bullet inside her.

  “I’m going to protect you now,” he said. “I don’t trust your mafia organization with your life.”

  “Here’s what you need to understand. Stay away from me and from anything connected to the District. They’re going to kill you if you don’t stay away from me.” She reached behind her and tested the severity of the open wound with her fingers. She cringed. “Fuck…”

  “You’re hurt. Let me heal you,” he said.

  “Vicq…”

  He held his hand out, palm side up. “Trust me. Come closer.”

  Elaina crept close, knelt between his thighs, and bowed her head. She grimaced as he peeled the leather aside and ripped it away from the bullet hole. When he dug the slug out, she screamed. Relief finally came when he pressed his lips to her wound. She felt the sting of his healing powers as the serum in his saliva coursed through her flesh.

  “Elaina, I have to…slumber. It’s imminent, but I’d rather will it myself. I’ve lost too much blood, but I’m not leaving you out here to go back to them.”

  “Slumber?”

  “It’s how a Dresdan heals, but slumber should happen in a safe place. Not here.”

  “I can’t go with you.”

  “Then I won’t go.”

  “You have to. Please,” she urged. “My crew is still out there. Soon they will call to report this mess. They saw me bring you in here. They will kill you.”

  “Come with me. I can’t risk losing you because of how you helped me.”

  She swallowed.

  This time he opened both of his arms, inviting her to embrace him. “I have just enough strength to shift one hundred miles. It’ll be quick. All you’ll feel is rapid movement.”

  “Where will you take me?” she asked.

  “Someplace where you’ll be safe. A house near the countryside.”

  Elaina hesitated, but then she heard the footsteps of her colleagues just outside the storage warehouse. They weren’t going to relent until Vicq was dead, and she had no idea how she would explain herself. She’d assisted a vampire. The same vampire that she’d been assigned to execute. Time after time, she’d failed her mission. She had failed it on purpose.

  She glanced at Vicq again. His eyes weren’t red anymore, but rather a dull hazel. Almost human, but not entirely. He was weak. Vulnerable.

  “Ven conmigo,” he whispered. “Come with me.”

  Chapter 13

  Elaina couldn’t sleep.

  Not because there was a vampire slumbering in the lowest level of the countryside manor. Not because the home had very few windows and steel doors. She was fatigued, and her eyes were heavy, but she had this inclination to observe everything around her.<
br />
  She hadn’t gone outside yet since it was still dark, but when she looked out the window she spotted nothing but fields of straw and hay under the moonlight. She would have never imagined that she would be here, taking refuge in a vampire’s home. With a vampire slumbering only one story below her in an underground vault.

  Vicq’s injury must have been severe because the moment they’d touched down in the foyer, he’d told her that the home was stocked with everything she’d need and then disappeared. Moments later, she’d heard footsteps on the level below her and a loud thud as if someone had closed a door. She’d understood what he had done, and her uneasiness had soon worn off as she ventured from room to room, admiring the intricate wall paintings; old, refurbished English style furnishings, and wood carvings.

  The miniature carvings were what fascinated her the most. They were on almost every flat surface of the home. There were wooden cranes and other animals. Carvings and depictions of people and buildings. Bowls, utensils, pedestals. As far as Elaina could see, there were hundreds of them.

  Elaina wondered if he’d made them? What had his life been like in the past? What did he think of his life now?

  And what would her life become now that she’d committed a District offense by befriending a vampire—and not just any vampire—a Dresdan.

  A carved, wooden owl sat on the mantle of the brick fireplace. She traced the perfectly cut ridges with the pads of her fingers…

  Vicq would have followed the scent of Elaina’s blood anywhere, so finding her looking at some pieces on his mantle was easy. He’d gained enough of his strength back by shutting his body down for a few hours. Now he hungered for the very thing that would empower him the most. But first, he had to see the woman that intrigued him. The female that stirred something so deeply within him that he hadn’t really figured out what it was yet. It had been so long since he’d felt the need to protect anyone like he did Elaina. He would protect his coven members, yes. But with Elaina, his urge to safeguard her was different.

  He stood in the doorway for a few minutes, observing the fluidity of her motions as she walked through his great room. Her hair was deep brown, long, and naturally curly. She could have almost been a hair model or a beauty queen, yet she’d chosen a profession not normally entered by women of her caliber. Her skin was a golden honey color and soft to the touch. She was taller than most women, but not as tall as him. The leather boots she always wore brought the top of her head to his chin. He remembered how her hair had smelled like sunshine when she was thrown into his arms that very first night.

  Her cheekbones were high and her lips were full. She barely ever smiled, but Vicq wanted to change that. Somehow, he’d have to convince her to stay with him…and he would make her happy. Whatever he had to do to make her happy, he would do it.

  She raised her hand to rub the back of her neck, and that’s when Vicq saw the 5 mark that he’d come to recognize and hate. Those scumbags she worked for had burned their brand right into her flesh. She was marked as an enemy to his kind.

  But his enemy was also the woman he wanted for himself. But not just for her blood…

  In that moment, Elaina turned to look at him and gasped.

  “How long have you been standing there?”

  “I lost track of time admiring your beauty,” he replied.

  Her large brown eyes sparkled, and she pressed her lips together and narrowed her gaze. “You love people watching? Is that why you’ve been spying on me?”

  “I just love watching you.”

  “So…” She circled him, her eyes sweeping up and down the length of him. “Are you all better now?”

  “Not entirely. I want to feed.”

  She stopped walking around him, and he picked up on a tinge of fear.

  “Don’t worry, I know how to contain myself.”

  “You’re not thinking about biting me, are you?” she asked.

  “Why would you ask a vampire that question?”

  “Is that why you brought me here?”

  “I wouldn’t have brought you here just to bite you,” he said. “My other reasons are more important.”

  “And they are?”

  “Protection being one. Courtship being the other.”

  She arched a perfect brow. “Courtship?”

  He moved to the sofa where she stood and held out his arm, welcoming her to take a seat. “Or friendship,” he said. “Sometimes you’ll have to question me about these things. I wasn’t born in your time, and English isn’t my first language. My father spoke Pangasinan and my mother spoke Spanish. They used them interchangeably, depending on their moods. I spoke very little English before I was made, which I learned through the blood of others.”

  She took a seat. “Have you ever courted anyone before?”

  “No. It’s not often that I find someone whose blood satisfies all my needs and even awakens some others.”

  “You’re very frank,” she said, giving him a warning glance.

  “I don’t know how not to be.”

  “Well, in case you haven’t noticed, I’ve never befriended a vampire, or courted one. That word sounds so strange. Where are you from?”

  He took a seat close beside her on the sofa. “I grew up in the Philippines where my parents lived together for a short time. My mother’s family was from Mexico and they were merchants. When she was sixteen, she met my father after her family sailed to Luzon to trade. My father courted my mother during the months her family remained. She became pregnant with me, and her family left her behind. I was born out of wedlock. My parents made their living as woodworkers in the Philippines, and then again for a short time in Mexico.”

  “Woodworkers?” She glanced around the room. “Did they make the pieces throughout your home?”

  “No, they’re something I collect to remind me of them. My parents were killed in an earthquake in Mexico when I was nine. The owl on the mantle was made by my mother, however.”

  “I’m sorry about your parents. When were you made into a vampire?” she asked.

  “About sixty-three years ago. I was twenty-nine at the time,” he said. “I had spent the previous twenty years of my human life working as a farmer, sometimes migrating into the US to work. It wasn’t an easy time back then. I wasn’t suicidal, but I often wondered what my purpose was. I met Zaket almost by chance. He noticed me, and watched me working in the fields for several years before approaching me. Zaket was unique in his way of thinking and in his reasoning. He’s never made anyone a vampire as a result of their imminent death. Every vampire he’s ever made was healthy with no signs of death on the horizon. From our first meeting, he revealed to me what he was and how he lived. Vampiro, I called him, but little did I know then that many vampire breeds existed. I was fascinated by his vision and I wanted what he had. I chose death to rise again as vampire and become Dresdan.”

  “Did it hurt?” she asked.

  “I don’t remember much about the transformation. He fed me his dreams and memories to divert my attention away from the discomfort. The change happened over a period of a few days. We are all fledgling vampires before we ever come into our own. The ascension process takes more than a few days.”

  “Ascension.”

  “We ascend through the blood, kind of like a hierarchy. Humans are at the bottom. And then we have blood slaves. On top of them, we have Donors.”

  “Wait…blood slaves and Donors.”

  Vicq nodded. “Yes, these are humans who willingly offer blood to Dresdan. Donors, of course, only belong to one Dresdan.”

  “What’s next?”

  “Fledglings are newly created vampires. They’re like students and really don’t become viable members of the Court until they’ve ascended to Soldier status. After becoming a Soldier, there are very few who will make it as Superiors. Superiors are as close to a Master vampire as many will become. Masters usually serve until death or permanent slumber.”

  “What are you?”

  “I was a Sup
erior to Master Zaket until Russo betrayed him. While he was in slumber, Russo took it upon himself to behead my Maker.”

  Her eyes widened. “Okay…that’s harsh.”

  “I denounced all ties to Russo and what he stood for, so I’m no longer a ranking member of the Court. I run with a circle of vampires called a coven.”

  “Coven?” she whispered.

  “Yes, Elaina. Coven.”

  “What’s it like being a Donor?”

  He smiled. “I’ve never been one.”

  The way she pressed her full lips together stirred his libido. He was so close he could pick up on the imbalance in her blood as her mood changed from complacent to anxious.

  “Do you have a Donor?”

  “No, I’ve fed freely…up until now.”

  She licked her lips. “What do you mean, up until now?”

  “It means I’ve found my preferred blood type in you. All Dresdan have a preferred blood subtype. There are four main types that provide sustenance, whether we like the taste of it or not. Partaking of all four will provide a Dresdan a well-balanced diet. And then there are thousands of subgroups, but only one of those groups appeals to each Dresdan’s appetite. When they find what that subgroup is, nothing else will ever compare. In fact, when a match like that occurs, a mating bond almost always follows. And even though I detect chemicals in your blood from the drugs you’ve been given, I can still tell that you were meant for me.”

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  “I wanted you to know, but by no means am I trying to be pushy. I’m still coming to terms with the fact that I’ve found something a Dresdan can literally take decades—centuries—to find. And some Dresdan never find a mate with whom they can truly bond with.”

  She laughed nervously. “Don’t you understand what I am? A vampire killer. I’ve killed creatures just like you.”

  “Creatures?”