Beyond the Veil (Vampires of Velum Mortis Book 1)

by Stephanie Summers

  Leaping from where I stood, I landed just behind where they struggled to defeat one another. Grabbing his arms, I forced him to let go of her. My fangs descended, my mouth watered. Without hesitation, I sank my teeth deep into his neck. Blood flowed thick like wine over my tongue, nourishing and energizing my tired cells.

  “Wait. Stop,” she squeaked out.

  I disengaged, though I held him firmly within my grasp, my tongue grazing my bottom lip and catching a drop of blood before it could fall.

  “Don’t kill him.”

  “Why should I spare him. He wasn’t going to spare you,” I growled, baring my bloodied fangs and lowering them closer to the man’s wounded flesh. It took all I had not to continue feeding. It had been so long since I’d tasted human blood that I couldn’t remember the circumstances of my last feeding.

  “If I help you, will you let him go?”

  “If he lets me go, I’m still coming after you,” the man stammered. “I won’t rest until you’re dead. Both of you.”

  Raising an eyebrow, I asked, “Are you sure that’s what you want? Even after hearing the words from his own mouth telling you he’ll hunt you down and kill you?”

  “Yes,” she said, her tone firm.

  “I’ll let him go, but only if you help me get back home.”

  I didn’t really need her help. I could get there easily enough on my own, but she didn’t know that, didn’t know that I would never be satisfied without her by my side. But for her sake, we needed time to get to know each other, and I needed time to convince her just how much she meant to me and my people.

  “I swear it.”

  I released the man and held out a hand to help her to her feet, but she declined.

  She picked up her weapon and walked over to him, weakened now by the loss of blood. She stood behind him, raised the hilt of her sword, and struck the back of his head, causing him to fall to the ground.

  “Let’s go before he wakes up, and I’m forced to kill him,” she commanded.

  And all I could think was as you wish, my queen.

  7

  Delia

  “You should’ve left him awake,” the vampire said in a slightly condescending tone.

  “Why, so he could follow after us?” I asked, cocking my eyebrow. He likely would anyway, but at least this way we had a head start.

  “No, so I could make him leave you alone. For good.”

  “It wouldn’t work,” I said, turning away from him. “He’s been trained to resist vampire compulsion.”

  “He hasn’t been trained to resist mine,” Liam said, picking up the leather jacket Harmon had discarded and inspecting it.

  I sheathed my sword and faced the vampire just as he slipped into the jacket.

  “You’re a thief, too? Good to know.”

  “Generally, no, I’m not, but I didn’t kill him, and they way I see it, he owes me. In any case, you managed to slice open my shirt in several places,” he said, looking down at his chest before locking his eyes on mine. “Would you rather I traipse around shirtless the whole way to Velum Mortis? Because a king cannot return to his people in tattered clothing. My goddess, the horror…” he said with a sexy chuckle.

  What a jackass…

  “No, I’d rather you keep your clothes on,” I said, though a small voice in the back of my head whispered that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. I couldn’t be sure whether it was my voice or his.

  He was hot as sin, but he was a vampire, and I needed to get that thought out of my head immediately. I’d already gone too far when I kissed him. Those few seconds had changed the entire course of my life. It was a moment I’d likely regret forever.

  “Let’s go,” I said and picked up the flashlight that I’d never gotten around to turning off. Its light had faded quickly, but it’d have to do. “My name is Delia, by the way.”

  “I know who you are,” he said, but I ignored the urge to question him, uncertain as to whether or not I wanted the answer.

  We walked up the stairs, dodging every crumbling piece, until we got to the spot where I had squeezed through earlier. The opening was slightly bigger now, no doubt where Harmon had come through it.

  Liam stepped in front of me and grabbed at some of the stones, effortlessly pushing and pulling them out of the way. After only a few seconds, he had the passage mostly cleared.

  I picked up my backpack, though there wasn’t much left in it now. It almost seemed silly to take it, but it was the last thing I had left of my old life.

  Had I known things were going to turn out the way they had, I would’ve packed my own bag and brought along the things that meant the most to me, seeing as I couldn’t go back home now. For all the things I possessed, the only thing that I could think of were the pictures of my parents. My mother had died in childbirth, and those pictures of the two of them, so happy and in love, were the only thing keeping her memory alive. At least I could still hear my dad’s voice in my head if I tried really hard.

  “We can’t leave until dark,” I said, irritation coating my words. “I hope he doesn’t wake up before that happens. There’s a few hours yet until sunset.” The days had grown shorter, but this one had lasted about as long as any day I could ever remember had, and it was nowhere near over with yet.

  “We can go now,” Liam said. “The sun has little effect on me.”

  We set off into the forest, and he seemed to follow my lead, though I didn’t know why. I had no clue how to get to Velum Mortis or if the vampires actually dwelled there. Most of the vampires I’d heard about didn’t congregate together much, and I found it hard to believe they’d ever bowed to a monarch. In fact, before I was assigned to kill the king, I had never even heard there was one. I’d believed, perhaps foolishly, that Velum Mortis was a mythical place and that vampires were rogue creatures who mostly acted alone, the pursuit of blood being their only driving force.

  I stopped abruptly, aware of the close proximity of his body behind me, and asked, “Why are you following me?”

  “Because you’re going the right way.”

  “And how is that?” I asked, turning to face him. “I don’t have a fucking clue where I’m going.”

  “I know where we’re going, and I’m telling you, you’re going the right way,” he said with a smirk, almost as if he wanted to say something more but refrained.

  “They’re probably going to kill me as soon as we get there, aren’t they?” At least I’ll be put out of my misery and won’t have to worry about being homeless.

  “I won’t allow it. And if any of them have murderous intentions, they’ll likely be directed at yours truly.”

  “Wait,” I said. “If they all want to kill you, why bother going back to them?”

  “Not all. Only a small group, but I suspect they’ve taken over in my absence and the sooner I make it to them, the sooner they’ll be dealt with for betraying me.”

  “What if while you’re heading toward them, they’re setting up an ambush? You said they know you’ve been awakened. What then?”

  “They wouldn’t know for sure I’m awake, only possibly that today is the day it was supposed to happen if the witch flapped her gums to anyone about the details, and as I said, it’s not all of them. If they wanted to challenge me so openly, they could’ve done so instead of luring me into a trap like the cowards they are to be taken out by your people. Just because I’ve been sleeping, and another has likely sat his or her ass on my empty throne in the meantime doesn’t change the fact that I am the rightful king. I’ll still have a host of loyal subjects. A twenty-year absence isn’t nearly long enough to rock their loyalty.”

  “Whatever,” I said, not wishing to engage him in further conversation about vampire politics, even if I did find the topic mildly interesting. Who’d have thought they had a complete society going on? Not once had I ever been taught that vampires interacted with one another in such a way. What else didn’t I know about them?

  My thoughts turned toward my own home and how I
didn’t really have one anymore. The vampire’s problems paled in comparison to my own, as far as I was concerned. At least he had a home and maybe friends or family to go home to. I’d help him get back to his city, even though I hadn’t quite worked out exactly why he needed my help in the first place if he was so powerful that he could just walk back into his old home and pick up where he left off twenty years ago.

  Once I delivered him to his people, I could focus on finding my path in life again. Even if I couldn’t be an official Mallory Falls slayer, it didn’t mean I couldn’t go out on my own and offer my services elsewhere. I was was willing to bet there were other pockets of vampire activity throughout the world where I could easily set myself up. I just had to follow my gut and go where it led me. And if I couldn’t slay vampires, maybe I could put my skills to good use and get a nice job in security. I could think of a few rock stars I wouldn’t mind guarding…

  The two of us trudged forward, deeper into the forest as the day wore on and the temperature dropped. A chill snaked down my spine, goosebumps prickling my skin, with each gust of wind.

  “Edgington City is just on the other side of the hill. If we walk through the night, we should be there by early morning. He called it a hill, but to me, it was a mountain we had to trek over. He was right though, at the pace we were going it would take a significant portion of the night to get to the top and back down the other side. I contemplated suggesting we go around it, but that would likely take even longer. “Once we get into the city, I’ll fetch us a car.”

  “Fetch? Don’t you mean steal?” I asked. I’d already seen him take Harmon’s jacket. I couldn’t say I was shocked that he would commit grand theft auto as well.

  “Borrow.”

  “Why don’t you just run us to wherever it is that we’re going so we can be there already, and I won’t have to feel like I’m going to freeze to death before we get into the city? You moved pretty fast back in that tomb.”

  “So desperate to be in my arms, pressed against my body?” he asked with a sly grin. “Fine by me, but the running part… not so easy.”

  Glowering at him, I tried to suppress the thought and the way it had my body humming in anticipation.

  “Your boyfriend’s blood helped a bit, but I can’t move that fast over long distances until my strength fully returns.”

  The term boyfriend had me cringing, but at least he hadn’t said fiancé. I couldn’t believe that someone who had pledged their loyalty to me and claimed to love me and to protect me could turn on me so easily. I’d made a mistake that had to hurt him. I got that. Completely understood it, but Harmon hadn’t hesitated to try to end my life, and if the vampire hadn’t stepped in, he would’ve likely succeeded.

  “We’ll make camp here for the night,” the vampire said.

  “No, we’ll keep going. You said we’d be in the city by morning if we keep going.”

  “You won’t make it through the night. You’ll tire out,” he said with a subtle head shake. “It’s better to do it now than to wait until you’re nearly falling over before we find a place to stop. You haven’t eaten anything all day, and you’re bound to need rest by now.”

  “This isn’t a good spot. It’s too open. Let’s go at least a little further and try and find something with a bit more cover.”

  “As you wish, beauty,” he said.

  If looks could kill, that’s all I would’ve needed to take him down in that moment. I almost wished it would work so I could be done with the whole thing.

  “Don’t call me that.”

  We continued on for another quarter of a mile or so before spotting a shallow cave that I nearly missed due to the foliage covering most of the entrance. It seemed like the perfect spot to settle for the night.

  “There,” I said and headed to check it out.

  I stepped over a twisted branch blocking my way, and when my foot met the ground, a root I hadn’t seen threw me off balance, causing me to stumble to the side.

  Before my body slammed into the earth, I found myself unexpectedly upright. The vampire’s arms wrapped around my body as I clung to his biceps. He leaned in close, his lips calling to me without saying a word, and just like that, the connection I’d felt while he was still asleep came rushing back. The same force that had driven me to seek him out before I ever knew he existed whispered to give in to my urges and take him right there, right now for myself.

  His lips lingered dangerously close to mine, ghosting over them so close I could feel his breath mingling with mine. I closed my eyes and waited, aching for him to kiss me as deeply as we had kissed before.

  “I’ll get a fired started,” he said and, to my dismay, let me go once I was steady on my feet again.

  I had to get away from him, if only for a moment so I continued on my way to check out the cave. Just as I’d suspected, it was shallow with not much room at all, but it would provide shelter from the wind and the foliage would keep us hidden.

  What the fuck is wrong with me? What is this pull he has over me? I’ve never felt anything like this before. And why was he breathing? Isn’t he supposed to be mostly dead? These thoughts played on a loop through my mind while the vampire quickly gathered twigs, branches, and pinecones. After arranging the wood in a pile just in front of the cave, he crushed the pinecones to dust in his hands as if they were nothing and placed the material in a neat pile in the center of the wood.

  “I’ve got matches,” I said, pulling the matchbook from my pocket and tossing them to him.

  He lit the dust with a match, and soon, flames licked at the wood surrounding it. He blew air gently toward the base of the fire, coaxing it to grow.

  “How is it that you breathe?” I asked. I couldn’t ask him any of the other things racing through my mind, but that question seemed harmless enough.

  “How do you breathe?” he asked, cocking his eyebrow as he glanced at me before turning his attention back to the fire.

  “Do you do it so you can blend in with humans easier?”

  “No… Well, sort of. We breathe because we need to, but the notion that we don’t breathe was started by my uncle many centuries ago as a way to help us blend in when mingling with humans. If a person was suspected to be a vampire, one only needed to check for a pulse or if they were breathing or not.”

  “You have a pulse, too?”

  “A vampire’s body functions mostly like a human’s as long as there is a good supply of blood coursing through our veins. The less blood we have, the more dead we become.”

  “So can you eat food?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you can have sex?” I asked, the words hung heavily in the air, a representation of the embarrassment I now felt.

  He dragged his hand through his hair as he glanced toward me again, his bottom lip tucked under his left fang. “Yes,” he said and continued stoking the fire with that damn cocky grin settling on his lips.

  I left the conversation at that, mortified that I’d said something so ridiculous.

  Before long, the fire was big enough that I could finally feel my hands warming.

  It hadn’t been so cold the night before, but it was getting to be that time of year when the temperature could swing wildly back and forth from warm to blue-ass cold. I usually enjoyed this type of weather, especially when I could curl up with a good book and a warm blanket at night.

  This was to be the second night in a row I would spend sleeping in the dirt. No book and no blanket. My back ached, mostly from the battle I’d endured earlier in the day, but I had no doubt I wouldn’t have been as stiff had I been able to sleep in my own bed beforehand.

  My bed… Damn. It had been a comfortable one, and I’d likely never sleep in it again. Maybe would never sleep in a bed at all ever again if the vampire couldn’t keep his kind from killing me.

  Liam. The name tickled my mind as if he’d whispered it into my ear. As far as I was concerned, he didn’t have a name, but there it was invading my thoughts anyway. I’d always liked
the name Liam, but the vampire was the only thing that suited him.

  “I’m not just a vampire,” he said.

  “Excuse me?”

  “You keep referring to me in your thoughts as the vampire. I prefer it if you call me by my name. Your Highness or my king is also suitable,” he said with a smirk.

  “There is not one scenario in the entire universe where I can envision ever calling you Your Highness,” I replied. “Or my king.”

  “I can think of one that would have you crying out the words my king…” he said, laughing to himself.

  “No, just no… And maybe if you could refrain from listening to my thoughts you wouldn’t have to concern yourself with how I refer to you. In case you hadn’t noticed. I don’t appreciate the way you’ve been whispering to me the last couple of years. It makes me sick.”

  The vampire smirked. “So easily riled, you are. But if it makes you happy, I’ll stop.”

  “I’m not usually so easily worked up… Yesterday I was comfortable with where my life was, content with going wherever being a slayer took me. Proud, even. Today? Total crap, and I don’t know what happens to me from here.”

  “Your people will view this as a betrayal,” he said as if the thought hadn’t occurred to me a million times already.

  “You think?” I asked, shaking my head. “I don’t have a home anymore, not to mention no possessions. I have the clothes on my back, the boots on my feet, my sword, and the very few things in my bag. What a wonderful birthday this turned out to be.”

  “The price you pay for helping a vampire, I suppose. I’d wish you a happy birthday, but I suspect you might try and jab me with that sword of yours if I do.”

  “I didn’t ask for this, if you recall.”

  “Neither did I,” he said, his eyes, intense and almost frightening. Darkened pools of blue locked onto me. “Was it not your father who arranged to have me cursed?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  “I didn’t ask for that either. Didn’t ask to be lied to by those in my kingdom who wished me dead so that I would go to that meeting in the first place or to be cursed by a witch and forced to dream of the one who would eventually wake me while I was imprisoned in sleep. I went there to broker peace, and look how that turned out… Life sucks, princess. Get used to it.”