A Monster’s Birth: Aris Crow Vampire Legend

by McClellan, Rachel

  She slapped me hard across the face. "That's for compelling me." She shook her hand out as if it stung. "I'd slap you again, but that freaking hurt."

  I stared at her, able to say only one word: "How?"

  "Well, first, I'm not an idiot. I knew something was different about you the moment you returned. I've also met many vampires. I know the signs, and I've done my research. It was just a matter of trying to figure out how it would be possible. I considered that maybe you were turned while you were away, but you don’t act like a newborn, and you don’t have an older vampire, a sire, living with you. None of it added up. Those reasons are what stopped me from accusing you from the very beginning, but then you tried to compel me a second time, jerk. I was prepared though."

  She tapped a metal bracelet on her wrist. A tiny flask-looking charm was all that was attached. "It holds a couple of drops of vervain oil."

  I inhaled a breath, genuinely shocked. Burning hunger replaced my surprise when I smelled her sweet blood. "You should not be here."

  I glanced at the door, fully expecting Roman to show up. He had to have heard her come in. I'm surprised she got this far unless… he wasn’t here. What was he up to?

  Emma placed her hands on the lip of the open coffin. "Do you really think I care that you're a vampire? You’re still you, only with a different lifestyle. You should've trusted me enough to tell me. And for the record, compelling me? That was a dick move."

  "How did you know?"

  "The first words out of your mouth right now should be ‘I'm sorry’.”

  "I am sorry. I hated doing it, but I was just trying to keep you safe."

  Her hand slid over mine creating a sizzling sensation up my spine. "You've always kept me safe, but I'm a big girl and doing the best I can to take care of myself in this crazy city. As for how I knew you compelled me, I didn't until those men attacked me, and I got hurt. The pain erased your compulsion, and I remembered everything. That kiss…”

  She moaned and bit her bottom lip, making everything inside me come alive.

  I ignored the sensation. "We are too different now. You need to be with someone who can live a normal life."

  "Again, Aris, my choice. You're the only person I want to be with, strange lifestyle and all." Her fingers caressed my skin up to my wrist. I released my own tormented sigh.

  "I'm dangerous," I whispered. "I don't want to hurt you." My gaze dropped to the throbbing vein in her neck. I wanted to lick it.

  She slowly leaned toward me, while I still sat in the coffin. Her palm glided up my arm and to my bare chest. "I don't believe for a second you would ever harm me."

  I sucked in a shaky breath as she drew closer until I felt her warm breath against my lips. "Look at me."

  I lifted my gaze from her neck and stared into the same eyes I'd been dreaming about moments earlier. Even though I was still in the shadows, she was here with me.

  In a smooth and fluid motion, I swept my arms around her and lifted her into the coffin, lying flat on my back. The length of her body pressed against mine. The lid snapped closed from the motion, and she gasped.

  "It's a tight space in here," her voice squeaked.

  "Are you scared?"

  She hesitated before saying, "Not when I'm with you. Is there enough air in here?"

  "Yes. It's even temperature controlled."

  "The Cadillac of coffins, I like it." She maneuvered her hands to my face and brushed her fingers across my cheeks. Her face was only an inch from mine. I could see her clearly, but there was no way she could see me through this concentrated darkness.

  "Please don't ever lie to me and don't ever compel me to do something against my will."

  "I promise."

  She swept her thumb across my lips, slow and deliberate. I parted my mouth and slid my tongue out to taste her. She moaned and dropped her lips to mine, kissing me deeply. Every nerve ending in my body came alive and ignited a primal heat in my core. My hands slipped up the back of her shirt, skating the material high so I could feel her bare stomach against my flesh. She ground her hips into my pelvis demanding more of me.

  We took in as much as we could of each other in the tight space for what felt like a long time. Eventually Emma fell asleep, her head resting on my chest. I, however, couldn’t sleep. It had been the best night of my life, and I didn’t want to miss a second of it.

  31

  Eventually, the tug of sun’s light left me. I slowly raised my hand and pushed the lid of the coffin open. The motion stirred her awake. Straddling me, she sat up and stretched.

  "It's so dark in here." She bit her lower lip. "But you can see, right?"

  I didn’t answer right away. I was too busy taking in everything about her. “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

  I sat up and hugged her tightly. Her arms came around my neck, and she kissed me again. Only one thing stopped me from taking it further—we were in a coffin. Our first time should never be in such a place. It was incredible, and kind of sexy, that she wasn’t creeped out by already being in one, but the fun stopped there.

  "Hang on," I said. Her legs came around my waist, and I lifted her from the coffin, as I hopped to the floor.

  I shifted my grip to set her on the floor, but she clung to me tighter. "Do you have to go out tonight?"

  "I must," I responded, my voice gentle. Unless she asked, I wasn’t going to tell her that I was going to the airport hangar where I believed new vampires were being made.

  "Promise me you'll be safe."

  “I promise.” I kissed her lightly on the mouth. A wave of intense hunger surged through me, tightening my stomach muscles. I gently forced her to the ground and stepped back. "I need to go eat."

  I darted across the room, leaving a gust of air in my wake, and flipped on the light. She smoothed down her wind-swept hair, laughing light-heartedly. I winked at her and disappeared from the room to get blood from Roman’s office. I didn’t want to drink from the stash in my room. The idea of doing that in front of her at this stage in our relationship made me uncomfortable.

  Relationship? Is that what this was? I had always wanted one with her but had never allowed myself to consider it because it wasn't fair to her. I gripped the refrigerator door, pausing when I remembered what she had said. She could decide what’s best for her life. Maybe it’s time I let her do just that.

  I snatched several bags of blood and guzzled them before I noticed Roman standing at the mouth of the halo. I quickly wiped at the blood running down my chin, as if I had been caught with my hand in the cookie jar.

  "Emma knows now?” Roman asked, even though he knew the answer. He must've heard us rise together.

  I swallowed the blood in my mouth. "She broke into my house during the day and found me in the coffin. Where were you?"

  "Saying goodbye to Richard."

  I turned my back to him and continued to drink two more bags of blood. I would've drunk a few more, but I felt Roman watching me carefully. I ignored the hunger still burning through my stomach and turned around.

  "Are you going to the airport tonight?" he asked.

  "How did you know about that?"

  He averted his all-white eyes, or at least I think he did. Sometimes it was hard to tell. "I spoke to Victor."

  I shook my head and walked toward the halo. "I think you do that entirely too much. And yes, I'm going. Victor swore this was the night to kill new vampires before they rise tomorrow. The Physician will be with Bastian so it will be the perfect, and probably the only time, I can destroy them with little effort. Where's Rebecca?"

  "She surfaced about twenty minutes ago. She didn't say where, but I suspect she deliberately left before you woke to prevent you from stopping her."

  "She's going to try and find Hacksaw, isn't she?"

  "Yes."

  "What does she have against him, other than him being a psychotic nut job?" The way she'd gone after him, it must've been something severe. I had never seen her so angry before.
r />   "Hacksaw used to be in Wildemoor until he was exiled here. He was banished because he murdered the shifter wolf she was engaged to."

  I lowered my head and closed my eyes. No wonder she was so angry. I would do the same.

  "I’d like her to join you at the airport," he said.

  "So would I. I’ll wait a little while, but if she doesn't return, I must go. Maybe I can look for her."

  "I will try and find her and send her to you. You worry about what’s going on at the airport."

  My gaze flickered to the streets above us. “Do you feel comfortable going up there on your own?"

  "I grow stronger each day. My vision may not have returned, but I'm able to sense everything around me now. Sometimes I'm slammed with sensory overload that can be quite painful if I lose my focus."

  "Maybe you should take Oz with you," I suggested.

  "I will consider it, but I’d be afraid I would lose my hearing if I did." He chuckled at his joke, and I laughed with him until his smile slowly faded, and his serious expression returned. "Please be careful. I think of you as a son. I know I am not the best at expressing things of this nature, but I do care a great deal for you."

  I raised an eyebrow. "Careful, you might hurt yourself."

  A faint smile returned. "Go. And come back soon."

  I returned to Emma, saying a quick goodbye. I feared to linger for both our sakes. Our relationship—my new favorite word—would need to be handled with care. I still had an army of vampires to defeat. I couldn't get distracted, and it was easy to do around her.

  I surfaced as close to the airport as I could get. No tunnels had been built in that direction since it was constructed fifty years ago. I walked the long distance toward the airport, keeping to the shadows best I could. There weren’t many.

  The smell of vampires grew stronger the closer I came. In fact, it was all I could smell, which worried me. Depending upon their numbers, it could take me all night to destroy them, especially if I didn’t have Rebecca’s help.

  I hopped a six-foot barbed fence that surrounded the small airport and super sped across an empty field and past a long runway. I stopped behind the first hanger, a large metal building that looked like it could hold four small airplanes. I smelled the air again, still only detecting vampires.

  I carefully crept around the side of the building to the front. Large garage bay doors were closed giving me no view to what lay inside the enclosure. I listened intently, but only silence echoed back. I found a doorway and, with a quick tug at the doorknob, broke the lock and peeked inside. Two airplanes, smaller Cessna's, parked next to each other. A workbench was pressed against the back wall. Other than that, the place was empty.

  The next few hangers held the same thing, but on my next inspection, I sensed movement. The smell of vampires was strongest here. I looked for another way into the building, but the only windows were fifteen feet high. The only way in was through the front door. I didn't want to make a grand show of my entrance, but any vampire, even humans, would hear me coming.

  Having no other choice, I kicked down the door and walked inside, my boots thumping on the metal door lying in my path. I expected to see something much different than what lay in front of me. Instead of concrete floors like the other hangers, this one was covered in at least three feet of dirt. I didn’t see anyone, but there was a balcony office.

  The stairs leading to the small room was at the back of the hanger. I stepped on top of the soil and carefully walked across. My flesh began to crawl as if a thousand maggots had been dropped onto me, and a cold chill wrapped around my spine. All my senses screamed danger.

  I crouched down and pressed my fingers into the cold earth. My consciousness spread outward but didn't go very far before I detected vampires. Many of them all buried within the soil. But there were other entities here too. Ones that weren't waiting to rise.

  My gaze lifted to the upstairs office. I crept up the stairs, detecting at least two more vampires nearby, but something about them felt wrong. Their presence was weak; very little power pulsed from them.

  I reached the top of a small porch that overlooked the great space. From up here, it looked so much larger. They could easily have at least a hundred vampires buried, if not more. I couldn’t imagine the damage they’d cause if even half survived the transformation.

  Turning away, I reached for the office door and slowly turned the doorknob, barely making a sound. I walked into the darkened room, preferring the lights off. It took me a second to make sense of what I was looking at. A male and female vampire had both been chained to the wall and stripped of their clothing. Several bite marks and deep cuts littered their bodies. My face paled at the extent of their injuries that hadn’t been allowed to heal.

  Their heads were slumped painfully forward, but at my approach, the male vampire slowly bobbed his head up until he was looking at me. "Help us."

  "What happened?" I looked around the office as if I could find the answer hidden between a stack of papers or behind a cabinet.

  "We are being forced to make new vampires," he said. "For weeks now. Please, free us."

  "Victor said you’d stop by," a gravelly voice said from the doorway. A familiar, bitter scent followed.

  I whirled around, coming face-to-face with Dax Banter, the Physician.

  32

  I looked from him to the vampires hanging on the wall, my mind reeling. The Physician was a shifter wolf? It all made sense now. I always thought there was something off about him, but never knew why until my heightened vampire senses inhaled that memorable shifter smell.

  "I'm surprised he didn't kill you when he had the chance," he said, as he walked over to the vampires and gave them each a cup of blood, which they drank eagerly. The female was much slower to swallow the blood. There wasn’t much life left in her.

  "He came close though, you know. But killing you while you’re knocked out was too anti-climactic for him. He felt you deserved a much better death, one where you go out fighting. He's old-fashioned that way. Personally, I think it’s a bunch of shit. If you have the chance to kill your enemy, you take it."

  A sick feeling turned my stomach.

  He chuckled. "I guess I should thank him. Now I’ll have the honor of killing you.”

  I felt stupid asking it, but I had to know. “The Principes Noctis, they have nothing to do with what’s going on here?”

  The corners of his mouth threatened to lift. "New vampires are a problem for Bastian. They risk exposing vampires to the human population. Once that happens, humans wise up and chase vampires out of town. Or kill them. Either is fine with me. I just want control of the city again. And Victor too, of course. Unfortunately, you are a threat to our plans and must be dealt with.”

  Rage, primal and hot, exploded inside me. I growled and lunged for him, wanting to tear out his throat. Victor’s death would follow.

  Just before I reached him, he kicked out his foot slamming it into my chest. The force of the blow knocked me through the office window behind me. I fell twenty feet down, shards of glass falling with me, until I crashed onto the ground. Glass fragments pierced my skin. Blood flowed freely and poured onto the soil.

  I jumped to my feet and was about to super speed back up the stairs when a throaty sound vibrated beneath me. I glanced down. The dirt swelled and fell as if something were attempting to get out. I turned around and saw the same thing happening behind me.

  A hand broke through and then another. I slowly backed up, more of my blood spilling. I quickly slapped my hand over the worst of the cuts on my forearm to prevent blood from feeding the earth.

  The scent had woken them.

  At the balcony above, the Physician laughed. "Sounds like someone's hungry."

  Fueled by anger, I raced up the stairs again and collided into him, forcing our bodies right through the side wall of the office. I smashed my fist into his face over and over until he finally bucked me off.

  "Help us," the chained vampire asked during t
he lull. "They will force us to make more."

  The Physician swung at me, but I ducked and pivoted behind him, swinging two fists into his side. He grunted. I swung at him again, but he surprisingly caught my hand and shoved me away. I tripped over the broken remains of the wall

  I flipped up to my feet, just as the Physician jerked his shoulder back. There was a distinct pop. His other shoulder did the same. He bent over, and his whole spine went pop-pop-pop as it arched upward. Fangs grew in his mouth, and his shirt ripped from his shifting body. Him turning into a wolf would make our fight much harder, but interrupting a werewolf mid-shift could be deadly. They were far stronger during this time—a man with the strength and speed of a wolf. It was better to fight a strong wolf with no hands than to fight a man who could crush you with his grip.

  While he continued to transform, I broke the chains bounding the vampires to the wall. "Run."

  The male vampire slipped the arm of the female over his shoulders, and together they limped from the office and down the stairs. I could still hear new vampires pushing through the dirt. They would be hungry. The two older and much weaker vampires wouldn't stand a chance without help, and I had to try. There was no evidence that they had deliberately harmed humans. No, this was all the Physician's and, apparently, Victor's doing.

  I darted after them kicking the Physician in passing. His half-changed form flew up to the ceiling and back to the ground. By the time he hit the floor, he was a full wolf, snarling and snapping, but I was already out the door and down the steps.

  At least a dozen vampires had fully risen from their graves. I slid my scimitar blade from its sheath and began slicing off heads of anyone in our way. The vampire couple were using all their strength just to stay upright.

  I was almost to the door when the black wolf took hold of my foot, his teeth tearing right through my flesh. I howled and shook him free. A new vampire grabbed onto his bushy tail and tried to pull him back, but he reached his massive head around and nearly took off the new vampire’s arm.