“I’ve never been so hungry in my entire life!” Clyde said with a ravenous look in his eyes after Logan had finished examining his scars.
“That’s to be expected,” Logan said with a smile. “I gave you some blood from my farm animals last night while you healed, but your body has been through so many traumas, you’re going to need a lot more nourishment than usual.”
Clyde’s eyes fell upon Sophia, and she was startled to see his pupils dilate and his fangs bare themselves. She felt like a mouse caught in the gaze of a hungry cat. If Logan hadn’t been there, she wasn’t sure if Clyde would have been able to control his instinct to attack her, but fortunately he was.
Logan guided Clyde in how to use farm animals to feed himself and how to control his new powers and abilities. Sophia watched, impressed by what a kind and patient teacher Logan was.
She asked him, “Are you going to take Clyde to your secret lair in the forest to train him, like you did Michelle?”
Logan shook his head. “No, that location will no longer be safe. Michelle will undoubtedly have told Peter where it is hidden, and Mark might be forming a mob that is sure to comb the forest looking for vampires. It’s safer for us all to stay here. The castle has many safeguards and security features that will help protect us.”
“I’m sure Mark is just blustering. Besides, no one will believe him. And maybe Peter will give up on wanting to kill us and just leave,” Sophia said naively.
Logan put his hand on her shoulder. “Hopefully Mark’s friends do believe him. It will make them more alert and able to protect themselves. Just because Peter failed to kill us doesn’t mean he’ll give up attacking people. If anything, it probably makes him more desperate, since he knows that I now have a recruit of my own.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, Peter has Michelle to help him and I now have Clyde to help me; that makes us evenly matched; two against two. Peter will undoubtedly want to change those odds so that he has me outnumbered as much as possible before he tries to attack us again. No one in the entire town will be safe until he can be stopped.”
Sophia turned to look at Clyde and saw the same fear in his eyes that she felt in her own heart. They both loved all the people in this small university town; all the kids they went to school with every day, all the professors and teachers, and all the people who ran the shops and businesses they used every day. All those lives were now in grave danger.
Clyde stepped forward bravely. “What can we do to stop him? Whatever it takes, I’m willing to help.”
“Me too,” Sophia said.
Logan gently pushed her aside. “You’ll stay here where you’re safe. This is a battle between vampires.”
Sophia was about to object, but Clyde cut her off. “So how do we stop him?”
Logan reached into a box and pulled out a collection of spikes. He showed each of them to Clyde. “I had these specially made out of pure silver. Each has been enchanted to strike the heart. If I throw these at Peter, no matter where I aim, they’ll pierce his heart and kill him instantly, but I have to be close enough to be sure I hit him. If I throw them at Peter and I miss, they might turn and hit me in my heart instead.”
“That’s a terrible risk!” Sophia gasped.
“No risk is too great when it comes to stopping Peter. You saw how he was willing to throw Clyde onto my weapon just to save himself. He’ll hurt anyone and everyone in this town if I don’t stop him first. The trick is going to be getting close enough to him to use the weapon. That’s the part I can’t figure out.”
Everyone in the room looked thoughtful for a moment. It was Clyde who finally spoke first, saying, “You know, Peter was right about just one thing. You’re inability to harm humans is your greatest weakness. It is what makes him strong and you weak.”
Logan turned on Clyde angrily, grabbed him roughly by the collar and growled, “How can you say that?”
Clyde shrugged in Logan’s grip as if unafraid and said casually, “The way to get close to Peter is obvious, you’re just refusing to do it.” Logan looked utterly puzzled, so Clyde explained, “You’ll never be able to get to Peter, so you’ll have to get him to come to you. Just use something you know he’ll find irresistible as bait, then when he comes for it, kill him.”
Logan released his grip on Clyde. “Of course I thought of luring him here, but I don’t have anything he wants enough to put himself in that kind of risk.”
“Of course you do.” Sophia smiled. “Me. I’ll be the bait.”
“Absolutely not!” Logan said firmly. “No way will I allow you to put yourself at such risk!”
Sophia looked at Logan and parroted his own words back at him. “No risk is too great when it comes to stopping Peter. If you’re willing to risk your life to stop him, why won’t you let me do the same? I grew up in this town with all these people. I want to help save them as much as you do, perhaps even more so! Let me do this.”
Clyde looked at Logan and said softly, “You know how determined Sophia can be when she sets her mind to something. Let her do this. She won’t be alone. We’ll both be there to protect her.”
Reluctantly, Logan nodded his head in consent. While Sophia and Clyde beamed with excitement, Logan felt his heart sinking with dread. That feeling of fear would have increased a thousand fold if only he’d been aware of the jeweled necklace, which was still glowing as Peter created his army.
Chapter Six
“There are vampires!” Mark insisted. Many members in the crowd scoffed and laughed, but a few agreed. They swapped tales of seeing Michelle lying in the street, drained of all her blood on the night that Peter first attacked her. Others had seen her escape from the hospital along with Logan Longfellow and another swore he saw Clyde being carried into Longfellow Castle, looking dead.
“We’ve got to march to Longfellow Castle and stop these vampires before they attack the town!” Mark cried. The crowd was beginning to become riled and his supporters shouted out in agreement, inspiring the doubters, who were beginning to change their minds in support as well.
Suddenly, Peter and Michelle descended upon the crowd. The huddled mass made for easy pickings as the two vampires used their supernatural speed and strength to bite as many victims on the neck as they could grab. They didn’t waste any time trying to drink their blood; this wasn’t an attack for food. Their aim was to infect as many people as possible with a single bite on the neck, so they would turn into vampires themselves. In the few minutes it took for the screaming crowd to disperse, they had managed to bite fifteen victims. It would be a nice-sized army for Peter to use against Logan.
“I told you!” Mark said, as his friends slowly gathered again in the aftermath of the attack. “I tried to warn you, but no one would listen.”
“We believe you now. So what should we do?” a man shouted from the crowd.
A woman called out, “I read that when a victim is bit by a vampire it takes them twenty-four hours to transform into one themselves. That means by this time tomorrow there will be over a dozen more of them for us to fight against!”
Mark rallied the crowd and said, “That means we should attack soon, while there are less of them to fight us! We’ll march on Longfellow Castle at dawn, when they are the weakest! Who’s with me?”
The crowd cheered and formed into a mob, all of them plotting violence. They would not let their friends and loved ones fall victim to vampires. At sunrise the next day, they would march upon Longfellow Castle, break down the gates, and kill everyone inside! The mob cheered and followed Mark to the university lab, where they began building weapons of wood and silver.
With the mob had finally gone, a lone figure crept out of hiding and fled into the night. It was Michelle. She had been helping Peter carry the bodies of their victims back to his secret lair and had come back for the last one. When she saw Mark and his friends reassembling, she’d taken the victim and hid with him behind some bushes. Now that they were gone again, she didn’t know what to do
.
Michelle knew she should take the final victim back to Peter and tell him everything she had heard. No doubt he would want to use the humans’ attack on Longfellow Castle as a way to aid his own attack against Logan. Still, she could not bring herself to go to him.
Clyde was still in that castle, and despite everything that had happened, she still loved him with all her heart. It’s why she had turned him into a vampire; so they could be together. She had been devastated when Peter had thrown Clyde’s body onto Logan’s weapons just to save himself. It was a breach of trust that she knew she would never be able to forgive.
Peter had assured her that Clyde was all right, but she had sneaked back to Longfellow Castle just to be sure. Once she knew he was going to be okay, she returned to Peter and pretended to be his partner, but only as a way to protect Clyde. She would do whatever she had to do to keep him safe. Now, she just had to figure out what that was.
Michelle knew she could not let Clyde be killed by Mark and his mob, and she knew she could not trust Peter to help her protect him. The only people who had protected Clyde and nursed him back to health had been Logan and Sophia. It was with them that her loyalties now lie; but would they ever trust her again? Michelle decided that for Clyde’s sake she would have to try. Carrying the last victim’s body with her, she ran as fast as she could to Longfellow Castle and pounded on the door.
“What are you doing here?” Sophia asked with startled surprise and more than a touch of fear.
Michelle told Sophia everything she knew, the words rushing out of her in one long sentence that never seemed to end. She feared that if she paused even for a moment that Sophia would slam the door in her face, but her former best friend didn’t. Sophia listened to every word Michelle told her. Then she opened the door wide and hugged her tightly before pulling her inside.
“I didn’t think you’d ever trust me again!” Michelle sobbed with relief as Sophia released her from her embrace then locked the door behind her.
“We were best friends for many years,” Sophia said, matter-of-factly. “I’m not going to let a little thing like you becoming a vampire who tried to kill me get in the way of that.”
Michelle burst into fresh sobs, knowing she didn’t deserve Sophia’s forgiveness, but grateful to have it. When she finally regained her composure, Sophia had her repeat her tale to Logan and Clyde.
Logan said thoughtfully, “Go back to Peter’s lair and tell him that Mark and his mob are going to attack at dawn. Tell him Sophia plans to negotiate with Mark and will be standing alone, in front of the castle gates at one hour before dawn for a secret meeting with Mark. No one else knows about it. No one else will be there to protect her.”
Michelle shook her head. “He’ll never believe me. It makes no sense that I would know such secret information about Sophia’s plans. He’ll know it’s a trap.”
Clyde stepped forward. “He’ll believe it if the information comes from me. I’ll tell him that I’ve run away from Logan and wish to join again with his side. I’ll give up the secret about Sophia’s plans as proof of my loyalty to him.”
“I think he would believe that!” Michelle grinned and hugged Clyde.
Logan frowned. “There’s just one major flaw with that plan. It means that Clyde will have to leave with you and go to Peter’s lair.”
“So?” Clyde said.
Logan said, “So, that means I’ll be the only one here to defend Sophia in the midst of our trap. That’s a big risk to take.”
Sophia kissed him on the lips, deeply and full of passion and love. She smiled at him. “I trust you, and no risk is too great when it comes to stopping Peter. I’m willing to go through with the trap.”
The friends all agreed, and so one hour before dawn, Sophia Marshall stood alone outside the gates of Longfellow Castle. The full moon lit up the sky, but the thick old trees that lined the yard cast great shadows, where danger could easily lurk. She hugged her jacket tightly around herself, but it couldn’t warm her from the chill of fear that ran up her spine.
Something was out there, drawing ever closer. Was it Logan, watching and protecting her from a secret perch with a location that even she didn’t know about? Was it Michelle and Clyde, escaped from Peter and come back to serve as allies? Was it Mark and his angry mob come to lynch them all and burn the castle down to the ground? Or was it something far darker and more sinister and evil.
As a figure stepped from the shadows and moved quickly toward her, she knew her answer. Now the only question remaining was… could Logan truly save her?
TO BE CONTINUED IN BOOK FOUR: Longfellow’s Legacy - Volume 4
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Longfellow's Legacy
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Chapter One
Sophia Marshall stood alone outside the gates of Longfellow Castle, hoping that no one could see how much she was trembling. A brisk wind gusted through the air, blowing her auburn hair around her face and making the fair skin of her cheeks turn pink. She blinked her blue eyes and stared into the darkness, watching the shadows cast by the moonlight carefully for any approaching danger.
She knew he would be coming soon; Peter Longfellow, the evil vampire obsessed with revenge. Not all vampires were like him; some were gentle and kind, like her beloved boyfriend Logan. Peter and Logan were cousins, and now it was Peter’s desire to destroy Logan and all that he held dear. Peter was amassing an army of vampires by biting the citizens of the small university town where she lived, including two of her dearest friends, Michelle Greene and Clyde Mason. Peter had bitten fifteen new victims just last night, and by sunset tonight they would all transform into vampires. It would be too large of an attack force for Logan to battle alone, even within the safeguards of Longfellow Castle. That’s why it was so important for him to defeat Peter now, before his victims transformed. If Peter were not there to guide them into his evil ways, Logan could teach the new vampires to live a peaceful life without ever harming another human being. The fate of everyone depended on it.
That was why Sophia was willing to stand here now as bait to lure Peter to Longfellow Castle. Peter had vowed to Logan that one day he would kill Sophia as an act of revenge against him, and so she was offering him that opportunity as a lure. Logan assured her that he would be able to defeat Peter in a one-on-one battle, and her friends Michelle and Clyde had sworn to help. Despite their promises, Sophia understood what a huge risk she was taking in agreeing to act as bait. Any number of things could go wrong, and she could wind up killed. Still, it was too late to back out now. She loved Logan too much not to help him in every way she could; even if it meant her death.
Sophia wondered if things would have been better if she’d never gotten involved with Logan Longfellow. She remembered fondly the first time she had knocked on his front door. She had been nothing more than a naïve and eager student, hoping to learn about the architecture and history of the noble building she had always admired. Logan had let her into Longfellow Castle for a tour, and they had ending up spending the entire night talking. He confided in her once that he had fallen in love with her on that first evening together, and Sophia realized in her heart that she had fallen in love with him then too. After that, they had spent every moment together that they possibly could. She had even given her virginity to him in an act of pure pleasure and love. He had taught her so much about lovemaking since then, and he was ever so gentle and tender. She was inexperienced and shy, and he had the knowledge and experience he had acquired over multiple lifetimes. After all, as a vampire he was practically immortal, and he had been around since before her great-grandmother was born.
Still, he was never pushy or impatient, and he allowed her to learn about sexual pleasure at her own pace. She remembered with a blush the first time she had wanted to perform oral sex on him. It was an act he had performed on her countless times, much to her delight, and as she gained experience, she longed to return the favor.
“Happy Birthday, Logan Longfellow!” she had said happily, as she enter
ed his bedroom wearing nothing but a pink silk negligee. The delicate lingerie was cut low, revealing the ample cleavage of her pert, round breasts and barely covering her nipples, which were already hard with desire and protruded against the fabric enticingly.
Logan had sat up straighter in his chair and whistled his approval. His white-blond hair hung long to his shoulders in a carefree way and his pale-blue eyes dilated with desire, as he bared his fangs with passion.
Sophia had giggled and tried to make herself look sultry with a sexy pose. She purred playfully, “I’ve got a special present for you that I think you’re really going to like.”
She knelt in front of him, where he sat in his chair and made a show of unzipping his pants and releasing his hard member. She held him gently in her hands, not wanting to hurt him, and delicately licked the length of him, from tip to base as he moaned with delight. When she suddenly took him into her mouth and suckled his tip, a groan of intense pleasure escaped him, followed by a gasp as she took the full length of him into her throat and began to thrust.
“I’m going to climax!” Logan cried out in warning, and Sophia beamed with pride as he exploded in orgasm, clutching the arms of the chair and gasping loudly. When he finally regained his composure, he embraced her. “That was the most incredible birthday gift I’ve ever received. I love you so much.”
Sophia knew it was more than just the euphoria of his orgasm talking; it was the true love for her that he held deep in his heart.
Sophia realized that the love they shared and the time they had spent together since that first fateful night was worth any sacrifice, and she didn’t regret any of it. If she was meant to die tonight for the man she loved, then at least she would die happy.
Suddenly, a noise nearby jolted Sophia from her thoughts. A rustling came from a nearby shrub and Sophia gasped as a familiar figure immerged from the dark to come face to face with her.
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