Before she could respond, I sank my fangs into her neck and pulled her blood through the hollow points of my teeth. Her fingers curled into my shirt and gripped tightly—the epitome of the term “death grip”—until I’d drained so much of her life that she was unable to maintain her hold on me any longer. Her hands fell to her sides, and her body became lax in my arms. I listened with enraptured attention as her thundering heartbeat slowed to barely a crawl before it stopped completely. I released my hold on her, and she slumped to the bed, landing partly on top of Clarence.
Fitting—they lived together, died together, and rested in peace together.
My clan and I left the Dunns’ and sprinted to Slade’s house. His staff was immortal, so we’d have more of a fight when we converged on them. But after our thorough feeding, I felt ready to take on anyone and anything.
While my clan surprised Slade’s servants with their strategic attacks, I went straight for my immortal obsession. Alea slept in their bedroom, unaware of the war that raged in the rest of her home. I moved through the door and froze in my tracks. She was scantily dressed in the sexiest see-through nightgown I’d ever seen. Her perky round breasts were on full display, her nipples already hard from the cool night breeze that wafted through the partially opened window. Her long hair was fanned out on the pillow under her head, and her beautiful neck was fully bared, just for my taking.
My mind warred with my thirst. Her body was as perfect and as tempting as her blood. The intense lust I felt toward her in no way stopped with the fluid flowing through her veins. I thought I might die if I didn’t fuck her before I killed her. At least once, I needed to feel my cock buried deep in her perfect, tight pussy before I watched the light fade from her eyes.
Did I say just once? One time would have only made me want more. Since time was of the essence and Slade could show up at any time, I knew I had to control myself and my libido, or I’d get us both killed.
It would take my entire clan and me to restrain Slade once he realized what had happened; I knew that deep down in my psyche. Regret filled me over the loss of the pleasure of Alea’s body. I’d never know it. I’d never experience it firsthand. My only consolation was the different kind of pleasure I’d have with her. In the blink of an eye, I covered her body with mine. In her sleep-filled state, she understandably confused me for her husband.
“Slade, I’m so glad you’re home early,” she purred, her eyes still closed. “I waited up for you as long as I could. But I’m glad you woke me.”
“Tell me something, Alea. Do you let Slade drink your blood when he’s fucking your pussy? Has he tasted all of you? I do wish I had time to do it myself. But since you expect him home any second now, I suppose I’ve missed my chance.”
Her eyes flew open in shock and horror then quickly changed to anger and determination. Though she knew what I was and what I could do—what I would do—she wasn’t going down without a fight. She’d do her best to inflict her own kind of damage, even though I knew she couldn’t hurt me.
“Your feistiness turns me on even more, Alea. I do wish I could show you just how much. It’s really a shame how your friend Sean can’t be with us.”
Her face blanched as her eyes darted between mine.
“How do you know that name?”
“I know more than his name. It’s sad, really. Somehow, his little secret got out, and they hanged him just a few days ago. Do you think they would hang me for ‘unnatural acts’ if they knew all the things I wanted to do to you?”
With an angry scream, she swung her fist toward my face as she lifted her upper body off the bed. I grabbed her arm and easily stopped her struggle. While she was suspended in midair, I took the perfect opportunity to finish what I’d started.
My fangs slid out.
My fingers skimmed across her scalp and gripped the base of her hair.
With a gentle tug, I pulled her head to the side and exposed her long, smooth neck.
Then I leaned down, taking an extra second or two to rub my nose along her skin and inhale her intoxicating scent.
With painstaking control and precision, I sank my fangs into her neck, puncturing her skin with my needle-sharp teeth, and drew her heady and invigorating blood into my mouth.
That was heaven. Pure bliss. Nirvana.
That was where all the lore and tales originated from—the pure ecstasy of her taste, her scent, and her energy was what heaven must be made of. There’s no other explanation. With Alea, I didn’t want it to end. I never wanted to stop. I wanted to keep her for all time and drink from her whenever I desired, which would be daily at a minimum. I wanted all of her blood all to myself for the rest of her life.
That idea had merit. I could make it work. I could keep her, along with others, and establish a new system. A new way of feeding and living as a vampire could be so easy to establish. These thoughts flew through my mind at lightning speed as her blood slid down my throat.
Then my question from just a minute before reverberated through my mind and rang in my ears. The fury it evoked rose up inside me and fueled my original plan even more.
Do you let Slade drink your blood when he’s fucking your pussy?
Had he tasted her blood yet?
Had he taken all of what was supposed to be mine?
Had she willingly given him all of what was mine—what should have always been mine?
At that moment, I decided she couldn’t live. I couldn’t let her. I couldn’t keep her if he’d tasted her blood before me. So I increased my efforts and drained her blood faster. Much like with her mother, I listened as her heartbeat changed. The fast, scared thumping started first, then it slowed as the volume of fluid in her body decreased, until the end drew near and it became barely audible.
Without warning, I found myself flying through the air and slamming into the wall on the opposite side of the room. Caught off guard from the surprise attack, my eyes first darted back to where Alea lay still on the bed. Thomas, Slade’s right-hand man, was covering her body with a blanket and lifting her off the bed. In my confusion, at first, I thought he was trying to take her for himself. A sharp jab to my face followed by a searing hot pain in my neck nearly brought me to my knees.
That pain could only come from the silver blade of a knife at my throat.
There’s only one man on earth who could do that to me.
My brother.
Thomas and Alea were gone, and Slade was so angry, so vicious, he moved faster than even I could see. The cries from my clan streamed through my mind, and I immediately ordered their retreat. They didn’t stand a chance against him in his blind rage.
Regret and shame filled me as I came out of my crazed state and realized the full ramifications of my actions. Though I hated to add more pain to my brother, distracting him was the only way I could keep him from killing me.
“Slade, I know you’re in here and you want to kill me. I can’t blame you for that. But your wife is close to death, and I think you should go to her before it’s too late. You’ll never forgive yourself if you’re in here fighting with me rather than at her side when she breathes her last. I’m immortal. I have all the time in the world. I’ll always be around later if you want to resume this.”
His voice was low and controlled when he replied. He was deadlier than I’d ever seen or heard him in all the decades upon decades we’d been vampires. Rather than the normal blue vampiric hue, his eyes were a deep red. I’ve never seen that happen with any other vampire and I had no idea what to make of it. “Your time just ran out. Immortality won’t last much longer for you.”
Slade rushed out of the room to get to Alea’s side before her heart completely stopped for good. I moved to the window outside and watched Alea, Slade, and Thomas.
Slade drew her limp body into his arms, their chests pressed together, and he buried his tear-soaked face into her hair. His cries of pain and heartbreak echoed off the buildings all over the neighborhood. I had to leave at that point. I couldn’t bear
to watch what I’d done to my brother. When the devastation subsided and the real anger took its place, I would meet a side of my brother I’d never seen before.
He’ll come after me with a new vengeance, a renewed purpose, and more strength than imaginable.
And he’ll be coming for my head.
Chapter 9
Slade Barnett, 1790
I am going to kill my brother.
He’s not even my brother anymore.
He ceased being my brother in any way when he attacked my wife and my household. He betrayed me in a way no one else could have. The total disregard he had for me, the complete lack of brotherly love he displayed toward me, and the cold, calculated way he planned his assault showed me more proof than I’d ever need to see.
When I came home from my business trip, I knew in an instant something was terribly wrong. I’d saved Ramses from his crazy alter ego before. He changed into what could only be described as a mindless animal, bent on the total destruction of everything that walked, breathed, and had fresh blood.
But what I sensed this time was not that out-of-control brute. He was directing a large number of vampires with his mind. As if they were trained guard dogs, they carried out his every direction. That was not the sign of a man out of control. He was very much in control and very much in command of all his faculties.
It was when I realized the entirety of the attack was happening in my home that I lost my composure. It was the moment I saw him feeding on my wife—my immortal love—when I became the deadliest vampire in the world. He felt the change in the air after I tossed him against the wall. But when he heard my voice, he knew he was a dead man walking in more than one way.
He used Alea as a diversion, but he didn’t have a clue I’d already decided to wait to kill him later. My Alea always comes first, but she wasn’t the only reason I let him leave with his head still attached to his body.
I’m going to kill him slowly.
I plan to take my time with his demise.
He doesn’t get off easy for what he’s done. He doesn’t have the luxury of a quick death waiting for him. He will watch everyone who matters to him die first while he sits helpless and listens to their pleas. He’ll have every scream and cry of his clan ringing in his ears when I finally relieve him of that fucking crazy head on his shoulders.
Like the coward he is, he left his perch outside my window while I held my wife’s lifeless body to mine. As I cradled her like a child in my arms. While I cried like a baby over my loss. I couldn’t hear her heartbeat any longer—not even a faint blip. All that mattered to me in the world was gone. A vampire only has one immortal love in an eternity, never to be replaced, even if one dies.
Eternity is such an abstract term, and until a full century has passed, the true meaning doesn’t begin to reveal itself. Because of Ramses’s actions, I’d spend an eternity loving a woman I’d never see again, never hold in my arms, never make love to again. All that he took from me could never be replaced. Or forgotten.
Or forgiven.
“Slade, we may still be able to save her,” Thomas said in between my sobs.
“Her heart has already stopped,” I countered, afraid to hope.
“I met a doctor who has worked with patients who appeared to be dead from blood loss. He used a tube with needles on both ends. He stuck one end in his arm and the other end in the patient’s arm. He gave her his blood, and it saved her. It’s worth a try.”
Thomas rushed through the house and gathered the supplies he needed. They weren’t exactly standard medical supplies, but if they worked, I didn’t care what it took. He inserted one needle into my vein, and I watched my vampire-tainted blood crawl through the tube and flow into Alea’s arm. Thomas massaged her arm, pushing my blood through her veins. I held my end of the tube high so gravity would force my blood into her body while Thomas mimicked the actions he’d seen the doctor perform.
“The way he described it sounds like the opposite of what we do,” he explained, trying to keep me focused. “As we drain blood from a body, the heart slows until it stops. The more blood we get in her, the more the heart should start to pick up. That was his theory anyway.”
I’d give her all of my blood if it would bring her back to me. But I also knew it would change her. If it worked, if it saved her, she’d be a vampire before we were ready to make the change. But I’d gladly take her any way I could have her.
After several long seconds, I heard the most beautiful sound in the world. It wasn’t her heart beating—any blood that came from my body would make sure of that. But it was the sound of her tissues and organs filling with the instant healing power a vampire’s blood provides.
The change a human goes through once infected with vampire blood begins to occur instantly. It’s painful to experience. Human traits change over to vampire traits, and the result is a thorough destruction of almost everything that makes up a human’s body. Fangs replace normal teeth. Internal organs undergo complete overhauls to accept foreign blood. All the internal changes lead to the external changes.
I was thankful Alea was unconscious while the most painful parts occurred. I was elated when she opened her eyes again, and they searched for me as her brain adjusted to her new eyesight. When the blurriness cleared and she recognized me, her beautiful smile covered her face.
“Slade, you saved me.”
“You saved me, my love. I can’t live an eternity without you now. So there’s no way I could let you leave me.”
A pain hit her abdomen, and she drew up in a ball from the swift and severe force of it.
“You need to feed, sweetheart. It’s important for a new vampire to feed quickly and often for the first few days while you’re building your strength. Dying takes a lot out of you.”
She flashed a small smile my way, even through the pain she felt. “Okay, my love. Let’s go find Ramses, and I’ll feed on him until he’s no more than a shriveled pile of bones.”
“I love your feistiness. But you’re not strong enough to take him on yet. Let’s go find you a nice, defenseless mortal first. Ramses will get his comeuppance soon enough.”
After helping her to her feet, I turned to Thomas, and for the first time in our immortal friendship, I hugged him with all my might. He chuckled and coughed mockingly.
“I can’t breathe, Slade,” he joked.
“We don’t breathe at all, Thomas,” I replied. “Thank you, my friend.” I released him and stepped back.
“No thanks needed. You would’ve been hell to live with for all eternity without this pretty little lady to keep your grumpy moods in check.”
“You tried to warn me about Ramses, but I wouldn’t listen. I was sure you’d misinterpreted your vision. I won’t make that mistake again.”
“I didn’t see this, Slade. I saw the clan he was building and treating them as his own personal army of henchmen. But this attack was hidden from my sight.”
“It’s not your fault, so lose the guilty tone. You saved Alea’s life. She’s still with me because of you. Now I’m going to take my wife out for a drink to celebrate. Don’t wait up for us.”
Alea and I talked about the events of the night as we strolled the darkened streets together. She remembered most of it, but by the time I’d tossed Ramses across the room, she had already passed out. I filled her in on the details she missed—right down to the silver-bladed knife I held to Ramses’s throat. The blade was so sharp, just a touch against his throat split his skin.
That was when I decided to give him a slow, torturous death. Alea’s devious side came out with full force when I clued her in on my plans. My feisty little wife will make a formidable vampire. Beheading a vampire with a pure silver blade is the only way to kill him. She has plans to chop off more interesting protruding body parts first.
When we reached the area where her parents live, we both stopped walking at the same time. With her change, our thoughts and feelings are much more in tune and shared. We both felt something terrible
had happened to them. In fact, we knew before we confirmed it with our own eyes. We knew Ramses had already been there and killed her family.
Once inside the house, her whole body shook from a mixture of desolation and wrath. Upon seeing her parents, her tears of pain turned to wails of anguish. All I could do was hold her in my arms, reassuring her as best I could, until she had no more tears to shed. The man in me, the one who worships at her feet, wanted to take the pain from her. The monster in me, the one who always lurks in the shadows, wanted to repay Ramses for it one hundredfold.
“Is this normal for vampires to kill the extended families of other vampires?” she asked quietly while staring at her mother’s lifeless body, when she was finally able to speak again.
“No. Even among vampires, this is off-limits. It’s a completely disrespectful act—an intentional act by someone who knows your family is my family.”
“I just nursed her back to health. She wanted us to come over for tea and stay for dinner when you returned from your trip.” The sadness dripped from her words and her tone. She will feel this loss for many years to come.
* * *
Alea Barnett, 1790
When Slade first told me he was a vampire, and I knew he’d eventually change me, I couldn’t bring myself to even consider feeding on people by drinking their blood. Besides the fact it made me nauseous even to think of ingesting blood, killing someone was so far beyond my realm of comprehension I never even gave it much thought.
After feeling the stabbing, searing pain of hunger pangs, the mere thought of it no longer repulsed me. It excited me and made me feel everything related to elation all at once. I felt more alive than I’d ever felt when I was actually still considered as one of the living.
All of my senses were on high alert and extra-enhanced. Sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing—it was all so much better than before. I felt stronger, too, even though Slade basically told me I was still too weak to confront Ramses.
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