Perpetual Creatures, Volumes 1-3: A Vampire and Ghost Thriller Series

by Gabriel Beyers

  A light from a tiny flashlight blasted her in the face. “What are you doing to that rabbit?”

  Jerusa would have recognized that haughty, spiteful voice anywhere. It was Kristen, Thad’s ex-girlfriend.

  Kristen was having trouble holding the flashlight steady and she stumbled side to side down the path as though the ground was unsteady. Even if Jerusa couldn’t smell the alcohol on her, it was still obvious that Kristen was drunk. She could hear other voices calling out farther down the path. Kristen had wandered off with the flashlight and her drinking buddies were searching for her.

  “Didn’t you hear me, Frankenstein?” Kristen’s speech was thick and slurred. “I asked what’re you doin’ to that rabbit?”

  Jerusa dropped the rabbit and the frightened beast darted off through the underbrush. Kristen would have been wise to follow it, but instead, she stumbled forward to within a few yards of Jerusa. She was ripe with sweat and booze. Despite being drunk and stumbling down a wooded path, Kristen managed somehow to still look great. Her hair remained styled and her dress, though too short and tight for Jerusa’s taste, still looked better than any other at the prom. Kristen’s heart beat with a healthy thudding and the blood rushing through her veins, called out to Jerusa.

  A sober person might have noticed the look in Jerusa’s eyes. A sober person might have been able to read her squared shoulders, arched back, and dropped stance as a telegraphing of eminent attack. Had Jerusa been well fed, she might have been able to employ the hypnotic stealth her new powers afforded her. But Kristen was drunk and Jerusa was starving.

  “Do you enjoy having my leftovers?” Kristen asked. She opened her mouth, perhaps to vomit out another slurred insult, or maybe it was to scream. Either way, she didn’t get the chance.

  Jerusa darted forward, snatching Kristen by the throat and knocking her off of her feet. She moved through the trees, away from Shufah, Taos and Thad, away from the calling voices of Kristen’s drunken friends. Jerusa couldn’t stop what was going to happen, and though Shufah and Taos would understand, her own shame demanded that she complete this grim task alone.

  Jerusa stopped beneath a patch of ancient-looking pines. Kristen was unconscious, either from fear or because of her inebriation, so Jerusa laid her out on the ground. The entire scope of creation vanished around Jerusa, leaving Kristen as the sole focal point of the void. Reason, kindness, morality, all fled from her mind. All that mattered was the blood.

  Jerusa straddled Kristen, unmindful of the dirt and grime that stained her white gloves and wrap. She scooped up Kristen beneath her arms and pulled her to a sitting position. The girl’s head lolled to the side, revealing a lone pulsing artery running down her neck. Jerusa opened her mouth, suddenly very aware of the deadly fangs, and went for Kristen’s throat.

  A powerful hand pressed against Jerusa’s chest and a terrible pain flooded her body. It was as though a javelin of lightning had fallen from the heavens and struck her borrowed heart. Jerusa wrenched backward, her only instinct to flee the torment. She landed on her back on the mossy earth and the pain subsided.

  Jerusa sat up and looked around. Someone had touched her. In the back of her mind, she thought Silvanus would be standing there, but he wasn’t. She checked the shadows for Shufah or Taos, but they were absent, as well. Slowly, as if to make a point, Alicia materialized between her and Kristen.

  Alicia looked beautiful standing beneath the pines in her prom dress, the bright aura emanating from her as though she were some sort of forest nymph. She stood in her patented stance with arms crossed over her chest. Her eyes were wide and haunted.

  Jerusa stood to her feet. “Did you do that, Alicia? Did you hurt me?”

  Alicia nodded.

  “Why did you do that?”

  Alicia touched her chest then pointed to Jerusa’s. She had only made that gesture one other time. It was the night Jerusa had awakened in the recovery room after having the heart transplant. It was clear what the ghost meant: My heart is your heart. But Alicia wasn’t just speaking of the piece of meat used to pump blood. There was a deeper meaning. They were connected, bound to one another. What one faced, the other would face with her.

  “I can’t help what I am,” Jerusa said with a growl. With the pain gone, the thirst had returned. “I can’t keep from this forever. She’s as good as the next person. Leave me alone and let me do this.”

  Alicia shook her head no.

  Jerusa tried to step around Alicia to go for Kristen again, but Alicia grabbed Jerusa by the elbow and squeezed tight.

  Jerusa gasped and stopped in mid-step. She could feel Alicia’s hand on her arm, her fingers digging into the crook of her elbow just as though she were a corporeal being. Jerusa reached out, her hand quivering with shock, and brushed across Alicia’s face. She could even feel the ghost’s eyelashes bristling against her satin gloves.

  As amazing as this revelation was, it did not compare to the lashing whip of the thirst. Another pang ripped through Jerusa’s midsection and she pulled her arm free of Alicia’s grip. She went for Kristen again, but Alicia was too fast.

  The ghost embraced her, clutching her around the waist with one hand while the other pressed against Jerusa’s chest. Jerusa’s scar sizzled with pain while the heart within rampaged beneath Alicia’s lightning touch. Jerusa’s legs gave out and the pair tumbled to the ground. Alicia’s face was twisted in pain and Jerusa realized she was receiving just what she was giving. But still, the ghost held on. Finally, just when Jerusa thought she could take no more, Alicia pulled her hand away. The absence of pain was so great that Jerusa cried out.

  After a moment, the fire roaring in her bones subsided and with it, Jerusa realized, the blood-thirst had vanished, as well. She stood to her feet and faced Alicia.

  “Why won’t you let me feed? Do you want me to die? Should I sit here and wait for the sun? Do you want your heart back, is that it?”

  Alicia shook her head. She still couldn’t speak, but the anguish in her face spoke for her. It wasn’t about drinking blood or taking another’s life. Alicia didn’t want Jerusa to die, nor did she want her heart back. There was something else, some secret the grave had divulged to her that she could not share with Jerusa. Alicia pressed her hands to her chest. Trust me, she was saying.

  “You stopped my thirst?”

  Alicia nodded.

  “Will it come back?”

  Alicia’s face grew solemn as she nodded again.

  “What am I supposed to do now? I’m a vampire that can’t drink blood.”

  Alicia gave an apologetic shrug. She didn’t know any better than Jerusa did.

  “This is just wonderful.” Jerusa walked in the direction of the school, leaving Kristen where she lay. It was best to go before the thirst returned. “We’re gonna need some help. Maybe Shufah will know what to do.”

  The vampire and the ghost moved through the forest, hand in hand. Jerusa reached up and touched the scar on her chest and wondered just where her endless lot of tomorrows would lead her.

  The End.

  Beauty & Power

  Perpetual Creatures 2

  CHAPTER ONE

  Jerusa Phoenix perched in a high limb of a walnut tree, relishing the chilly October wind as it tugged at her hair. The breeze brought the scent of decaying leaves and pine cones from the surrounding forest. Had she been human, that might have been all she could smell. But her vampiric senses were a thousand times more powerful than her human ones had ever been. She could smell the fermenting of rotten apples coming from a tiny orchard several miles to the west. To the east came the pleasant aroma of hickory burning in a fireplace. A skunk, startled by a coyote, had sprayed somewhere to the south. And to the north, not too far away, she detected her prey.

  She steadied herself on the tree branch, preparing to swoop down like an owl on a mouse.

  Soft and wary footfalls sounded in the overgrowth up ahead. Jerusa’s prey stopped to check his surroundings, making sure he was not pursued. He gave a so
ft grunt then continued on. He was following the dry creek bed at the bottom of the hollow, just as Jerusa hoped he would. If he kept on, he would pass right below her.

  Loose slate rock clattered in the creek bed below and Jerusa held her breath. Her prey stopped to drink from a puddle remaining from the last rain and she bit back a scream of frustration. She had been a bit short on patience of late, though no one could blame her. She hadn’t fed since becoming a vampire, nearly six months ago. That was enough to put anyone on edge.

  The underbrush stirred and then the whitetail buck emerged into sight.

  He was a magnificent specimen. The envy of every hunter. His chest was broad, with a thick shiny coat. He stood with the confidence of a king, shaking his crown of antlers back and forth. Jerusa counted fourteen points and wondered how many years the deer had been evading arrows, bullets and the occasional automobile. He scanned the shadows for danger, then lifted his snout and gave a loud grunt.

  Jerusa took in his musk. She listened as his powerful heart beat and the blood thirst rose in her like a terrific storm. She ran her tongue across her small but deadly fangs, tasting a few drops of her own blood from the tip. The buck stepped beneath the walnut tree and Jerusa prepared to pounce.

  Just as Jerusa leaned forward, committing herself to the jump, the cell phone in the pocket of her pants began to ring.

  The buck flinched. Though he seemed unsure of the sound, he darted down the creek bed. Jerusa landed on her hands and knees in a pile of jagged slate, missing the buck by mere inches. The buck, now sure of the danger behind him, turned and ran up the hill. His speed and agility were impressive for such a large animal, especially one with a hat-rack on top of his head, but he was no match for Jerusa.

  The buck moved side to side, zigzagging around the trees, trying with all his might to put some distance between him and his attacker. Jerusa evaded the larger trees and smashed through the smaller ones. She caught up to him at the top of the hill, leapt ten feet into the air and landed on his back.

  The buck stumbled, but didn’t fall. Jerusa gripped his antlers with her left hand while wrapping her right hand around his thick, muscled neck. The buck stopped and reared in an attempt to shake her, but when it didn’t work he took off again, at a run, slamming his body against the trees and darting under low lying branches. Jerusa took each blow with clenched teeth. She would not let the deer throw her. His blood would not strengthen her as human blood would, but it just might quench the fiery thirst tearing through her core.

  Jerusa yanked back on the buck’s antlers, twisting his head to the side. The beast lost his balance and fell on his side, rolling over Jerusa as he attempted to regain his feet. The deer weighed at least three-hundred pounds, but it didn’t even knock the wind out of her. She held tight to him, wrenching his head back and giving her a clear shot at his throat. The buck kicked at the air, bleating in horror. Jerusa rushed in for the kill.

  A blinding pain exploded within her chest, as though her heart were being cooked by lightning. Jerusa struggled to hold on to the buck, but the unbearable agony burned all conscious thought from her mind. She arched her back and would have screamed had she had the power to pull air into her lungs. Her hands, pried open from the electrical pulses firing with every throb of her heart, fell at her sides, and the buck jumped up and fled into the forest, without even a grunt of thanks.

  When the buck was out of sight, the pain cut off as though someone had thrown a switch. Jerusa turned her head. Alicia lay beside her, wearing her beautiful blue prom dress as she always did. The ghost’s eyes were weary and her pain-filled panting matched Jerusa’s.

  She didn’t know how much more she could take. The blood thirst was growing worse every day and every time she tried to feed, Alicia would send that inexplicable pain rushing through her. Her only consolation was that Alicia felt every bit as much agony during this as Jerusa did.

  “You know, when you’re hunting, it’s best to turn off your phone.”

  “You don’t say,” Jerusa said, without looking up. She recognized Taos’s voice and sarcasm anywhere.

  “Who’s calling you at this hour?”

  “My mother,” she said with a sigh.

  “How do you know? You didn’t even look at your phone.”

  “Because she calls me every day. Sometimes nine or ten times.”

  “Maybe you should call her back.”

  “I will later. She wants to see me, but I can’t go to her looking like this.”

  The vampire spirit—as Shufah liked to call it‌—‌had worked a wondrous magic in Jerusa. Besides giving her eternal life, immeasurable strength and speed, it had also enhanced all of her natural beauty, leaving only the scar from her heart surgery as a reminder of her mortal years. Be that as it may, she had not yet fed since becoming a vampire and signs of her hunger were starting to show. Her skin had paled to a snow-white pallor. Her lips, however, were a dark shade of crimson, as though she were wearing a thick coat of lipstick. Most unnerving of all, though, were her eyes. The vampire spirit had turned Jerusa’s dull green eyes into burning emeralds, but the lack of blood had left a thick ring of red visible around the irises.

  This was all just an excuse, though. She could hide all of the physical signs from her mother. It was the mental signs she feared. On occasion, the thirst for blood overwhelmed her senses, driving her mad with rage. In those moments, all she could think of was feeding on blood and she didn’t care from whom or what. Had it not been for Alicia, Jerusa would have taken Thad’s life a few months back. For this reason, Shufah demanded that Jerusa not be alone with any humans until they could figure out why and how Alicia was preventing her from feeding.

  Jerusa reached out and touched Alicia’s hand. It still amazed her, even after six months. Ghosts don’t have bodies. And you can’t touch what doesn’t have a body. Yet, somehow, since her transformation, Jerusa could touch Alicia. She wove her fingers into Alicia’s and it felt no different to her than if she had taken Taos’s hand.

  No one else could feel Alicia, of course, but they could sometimes see her, or Foster, if they were touching Jerusa. Foster appeared above Jerusa’s head as if bidden. He looked down on her with a wry little smile. She reached up for him and he extended his hand, as if to help her up, but her fingers passed through his palm with no resistance, leaving only a slight numbing chill to her skin.

  Why Alicia and not Foster?

  Jerusa sat up. Taos squatted on a boulder of limestone jutting out of the ground. The handsome hulk, with his ice-blue eyes and long blond hair, seemed a Nordic god come to life.

  Jerusa stood to her feet and dusted away the bits of crumbled leaves clinging to her clothes. “It was worth a try. The buck, I mean. I’m getting desperate.”

  “You think you’re desperate now,” Taos said with a small laugh. “Just keep letting that ghost push you around, not letting you feed, and eventually the Gray Death will set in. Then you’ll know desperate.”

  Jerusa shuddered, though from the cold breeze or the thought of what awaited her if she didn’t start drinking blood, she couldn’t say.

  “Yeah, I hear it’s pretty bad.”

  “The Stewards sometimes use it to punish the worst of offenders.” Taos brushed his wind-tossed hair from his face. “Most times they just have the Hunters burn you up, but if they are in an especially cantankerous mood, they’ll drop you down a deep pit or lock you in a box and let time turn you into a rock.”

  Jerusa waved him off. “Yeah, yeah, I got it. It’s not exactly what I want to hear right now.”

  Taos shrugged. “Sorry. I tell it like it is.”

  Her relationship with Taos hadn’t started off on the best of terms, seeing as he had once tried to kill her and Thad. Things were different now, though. Taos liked to play the uncaring scoundrel, but Jerusa had learned to see through his façade. Behind those cold blue eyes, he was concerned for her.

  “Let’s change the subject.”

  Taos shrugged. “Okay. What are yo
u going to do about your mother? You’ve put her off for as long as you can. Eventually she will force a meeting with you. You don’t want her dropping by the house unexpected. You remember where that got you.”

  Jerusa smiled. “Hey, if I hadn’t dropped by that night, I would have never known the blessing of your company.”

  “Or the beauty of my face.”

  “Too true.” Jerusa sighed. “What do you think I should do about my mother? Maybe I should just tell her the truth. She’s a smart woman. She’ll understand.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” Taos said. “I tried to tell my father the truth.”

  “How did he take it?”

  “He ran me through with a broadsword and tried to set me on fire.”

  “No offense,” Jerusa said, “but most people that meet you want to do that.” Taos smiled at her. “So, what happened to your father?”

  “The truth drove him insane. He spent the rest of his life as a raving madman, proclaiming to whoever would listen that his son was the devil. Eventually, they locked him up in a sort of sanitarium.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she said. Taos shrugged it off as if it made no difference to him. “Did he die?”

  Taos raised an eyebrow. “Well, yes, a little over three hundred years ago, but not in the sanitarium, if that’s what you mean.”

  “So, he got out?”

  “Yes. He finally found someone willing to listen to his stories.”

  “Who?”

  Taos hopped down from the limestone boulder. “It was a group known as The Light Bearers. A sect of humans obsessed with discovering the ‘truth’ hidden in the darkness of the world. My father joined the Light Bearers and eventually rose to some lofty position in their ranks.”

  “The Light Bearers? They sound like some kind of crazy cult.”

  Taos walked up to her and brushed the hair from her forehead, sending a shiver down her spine. “Oh, they are that, for sure. But they are also well financed and insanely dedicated to their purpose.”