Bitten by the Vampires

by Sophie Stern

  Then I close my eyes, and my entire body aches. Abigail might be talking to me. I’m not sure. Time is passing, maybe. I can’t quite tell. All I know is that right now, everything feels warm, and weird, and hot, and then suddenly, everything feels very, very cold.

  I open my eyes, and she’s still there.

  It’s dark outside, and the stars are shining.

  “It fucking worked,” she whispers, and she holds her hand to her chest. “I can’t believe it. It worked.”

  “What?” I whisper. I start to move away, but Abigail shakes her head.

  “Don’t move. You’ll be too weak. You can’t move just yet. Shit. I can’t believe how fast it was, either.”

  “How long was I out for?” I ask.

  “Not long,” she tells me. “A few hours.”

  A few hours?

  Shit.

  My mates will be looking for me. I was supposed to meet them for dinner. They’ll be worried about me. They’ll be...

  Wait a minute.

  I close my eyes, and I realize that I can hear...everything.

  I can smell...everything.

  There’s a bee buzzing on a flower about twenty feet away, and I can hear it gathering pollen. There’s a bird flying in the sky, and I can hear it breathing as it flaps its wings.

  It worked.

  I’m a fucking vampire.

  I look up at Abigail, and I grin.

  “I can never repay you,” I whisper.

  “Don’t worry,” she laughs. “We have all of eternity for you to try.”

  I’m not sure whether I should be thrilled or scared, but either way, I laugh and grab her and hug her. Everything is going to be okay.

  Everything’s going to be fine.

  Then I hear a loud, booming voice.

  “Tyana! Where the fuck are you?”

  Abigail looks at me and grimaces.

  “But you have to tell them,” she says. “And leave me out of it.”

  Chapter 11

  WHEN I WALK INTO THE castle, I know that I’m quite a sight to see. My hair is disheveled and I know I’m covered in blood. Abigail is – probably smartly – hiding away so that no one knows what we did, but the truth is that we both know, and her brother isn’t stupid. He’ll immediately figure out what happened, so I just have to do my best to hold him at bay until he calms down about this change.

  Because oh, it’s a wonderful change.

  The humans who see me can instantly tell. A couple of them murmur under their breath. I know what they’re thinking.

  They probably think that I’m crazy, or that I have a suicide wish. I look at one of them and make eye contact. I remember that my mates told me they can calm down humans with just a look. Can I do that now, too?

  Instantly, the human seems to relax. I turn to another and focus my attention on her. She does the same. Her shoulders slump and she seems to immediately calm down. I look at the third girl, and again, she calms down.

  Good.

  I don’t need them alerting my mates to the fact that I’ve gotten into trouble while I was supposed to be out exploring the grounds with Abigail.

  “Tyana!” This time, it’s Matthew’s voice that booms. I don’t yell back. Instead, I follow the sound until I reach the dining hall. I glance at one of the grandfather clocks in the hallway. It’s suppertime.

  Well, it was.

  I’m late.

  It’s okay.

  I push open the doors and step inside.

  Instantly, the three of them are on their feet. Instantly, they’re sniffing the air.

  Then they look at me.

  I can tell the exact second they realize what I’ve done because they all start yelling at once. I can’t even understand what they’re saying because they’re screaming over one another. The entire castle feels like it’s shaking.

  Finally, I open my mouth, and I yell.

  “Enough!”

  They fall quiet, and they look at me.

  “Don’t you complain about this,” I snap. “If you want me as your mate, you’ll have me, but it won’t be for a week, and it won’t be for a year, and it won’t be for twenty years. It’ll be forever.”

  “Tyana, what have you done?” Eli whispers. He looks at me like he’s scared, like he’s worried. “You could have died.”

  “I did die, technically,” I say, looking down at myself. “And now I’ll never die again.”

  “Who helped you?” Matthew asks. “Who did this? I’ll fucking kill them.”

  Benjamin just shakes his head.

  “Abby, come out. We know you’re lurking around here somewhere.”

  Almost instantly, Abigail appears and gives a little wave, as though that’s enough to calm the beasts. It’s not, and we all know it.

  “Um, hello,” she says.

  “Don’t you yell at her,” I say before Eli can start screaming again. “Never. You were too afraid of losing me to change me, and I understand. Now you never have to lose me.”

  “You’re a vampire,” he whispers.

  “I’m a vampire,” I say, repeating his words.

  Then, suddenly, a huge grin spreads over his face and he reaches for me and kisses me. He pulls me close, and Benjamin and Matthew join in on the hug. They envelop me in their arms, in their love, and I realize something really, really important.

  I realize something wonderful.

  This thing between us? This is forever. It’s really, actually, totally forever. I’m going to have Abigail as the world’s most wonderful sister-in-law and sire, and that alone will bond the two of us in the most wonderful way. Then I’ll have Benjamin, Matthew, and sweet Eli as my mates, and I’ll never be alone. I’ll always have best friends by my side.

  I’ll always have them to love and to take care of me.

  I’ll always have....

  I’ll always have them.

  And something inside of me changes in this moment. There’s a part of me I didn’t know I was still holding back that suddenly feels free. Right now, it suddenly seems like my entire heart can fly and soar and dance because it’s in this moment that I realize Abigail was right.

  Everything is going to be okay.

  Epilogue

  Many, many years later

  ONCE UPON A TIME, A beautiful girl was trapped, but she shouldn’t have worried.

  She didn’t need to worry.

  Her world was going to change whether she was ready for it or not, so it was a good thing that she was ready.

  It’s been years since I joined my vampire lovers.

  Decades.

  It’s been years since they sired me: years since I was torn away from the human world and joined theirs, and I’ve never looked back.

  I’ve never needed to.

  My vampire mates are the most incredible thing that’s ever happened to me. There are days when we don’t get along, or days when we feel cross with one another, but that just shows that we’re real people. Vampires aren’t immune from human problems, including problems that make us want to fuss at each other or be hard on one another.

  But most of the time, we get along just fine. We support each other. We admire one another.

  And no matter what kind of mood I’m in, and no matter what I want to do each day, I have the love of three incredible vampires who have chosen to make me their vampire queen.

  Their mate.

  Their lover.

  I always dared to dream, but I never truly believed I’d find a happily-ever-after, but I did, and it’s everything I hoped it would be.

  And more.

  Author

  Sophie Stern loves cowboys, soldiers, and shifters. When she’s not busy writing, she’s got her nose buried in a book. Sophie lives with her husband and two little boys who are always keeping her on her toes.

  You can connect with Sophie through her website or on Facebook.

  Make sure to sign up for Sophie’s mailing list here! You’ll receive updates when new books come out and be the first to k
now when something goes on sale!

  Readers!

  If you enjoyed this book, will you do me a favor? Reviews are one of the best ways you can let authors know what you loved – or hated – about a book. Would you consider leaving me a review on Amazon or Goodreads? Thank you!!!

  More shifters!

  Need more dragons? Bears? Wolves? Check out one of my other shifter stories.

  Dragon Isle

  Stepdragon (Dragon Isle)

  My Lord and Dragon (Dragon Isle Book 1)

  The Dragon Fighter (Dragon Isle Book 2)

  A Dragon's Bite (Dragon Isle Book 3)

  Lost to the Dragon (Dragon Isle Book 4)

  Beware of Dragons (Dragon Isle Book 5)

  Catching the Dragon (Dragon Isle Book 6)

  Cowboy Dragon (Dragon Isle Book 7)

  Dark Heart of the Dragon (Dragon Isle Book 8)

  Once Upon a Dragon (Dragon Isle Book 9)

  Polar Bears of the Air Force

  Staff Sergeant Polar Bear (Polar Bears of the Air Force Book 1)

  Master Sergeant Polar Bear (Polar Bears of the Air Force Book 2)

  Airman Polar Bear (Polar Bears of the Air Force Book 3)

  Senior Airman Polar Bear (Polar Bears of the Air Force Book 4)

  Red (Wolf-Shifter Romance)

  Red: Into the Dark

  Red: Through the Dark

  Red: Beyond the Dark

  Honeypot Darlings

  The Bear's Virgin Darling (Honeypot Darlings Book 1)

  The Bear's Virgin Mate (Honeypot Darlings Book 2)

  The Bear's Virgin Bride (Honeypot Darlings Book 3)

  Honeypot Babies

  The Polar Bear's Baby (Honeypot Babies Book 1)

  The Jaguar's Baby (Honeypot Babies Book 2)

  The Tiger's Baby (Honeypot Babies Book 3)

  The Wolfe City Pack

  The Wolf's Darling (The Wolfe City Pack Book 1)

  The Wolf's Mate (The Wolfe City Pack Book 2)

  The Wolf's Bride (The Wolfe City Pack Book 3)

  The Wolf’s Darling

  Want more shifters? I have a series out called The Wolfe City Pack. Check out an excerpt from book one: The Wolf’s Darling! You can also visit Amazon to get your copy!

  Chapter 1

  Amy

  The rattling sound my engine is making can’t be good, but I ignore it. I’m excellent at ignoring problems. If you ignore something long enough, it goes away. Isn’t that right? Yeah, I think that’s right. I ignore the sound and keep on driving, keep on moving. It’s not something that I can do anything about right now, so I’ll just keep going.

  That’s what you do when you’re having trouble.

  You don’t quit. You don’t give up. You don’t stop. You just move. You have to move or you’ll die. You have to move or everything will fall apart. You have to move or nothing will make sense anymore. You have to move.

  Tears slide down my face as I try to focus on the road. I shouldn’t be running away from my problems, but I am. I totally am. I know that, and I know it’s a bad idea, but I’m doing it anyway because I’m nothing but a big, fat coward who can’t tough it out when things get hard.

  I’m nothing but a loser.

  A failure.

  A huge disappointment.

  I put on one of my favorite songs from my angst-driven teenage years. Down by Something Corporate starts blaring through the speakers and I lose myself in the tunes for just a little bit. For just a little while, I lose myself in the song. I lose myself in the music. For just a little while, I forget what I’m running away from and think about what I’m running toward.

  Freedom.

  Hope.

  Something new.

  I peek at the GPS on my phone to see how much further I have to go. It’s just another hour to Honeypot, Colorado. My cousin Hope is graciously allowing me to stay with her and her family for a little while until I get back on my feet, until I figure out what I’m going to do with my life. She knows what it’s like to lose everything and have to start over.

  She knows what it’s like to have nothing but yourself and your car and a couple of boxes of junk from your childhood.

  I think about the fact that I reached out to Hope when my world fell apart and I think about what she said.

  “Just come to Honeypot,” she told me. “Everything is different here. You’ll see. You need a fresh start, Amy. You need something new.”

  Maybe it will be a fresh start. Maybe it will be exactly what I need, exactly what I hope for. Maybe it will give me everything I long for, but I doubt it. A city is a city and a town is a town. They’re all the same, in the end. Everyone is looking out for number one, and heaven help the person who gets in their way.

  Nobody has time for other people.

  Nobody has time to go out of their way and help.

  Nobody has time for patience.

  Nobody has time to forgive.

  I start crying again as I drive. I wipe my eyes because it’s getting hard to see out the front window, but then I realize that’s not because of my tears. It’s because the engine has now started to smoke.

  As the clouds billow from the front of the car, my heart sinks. This is it, then. This is the end of my wonderful, grand adventure. This is the part of my story where everything stops, where the heroine realizes she never really had a chance. The whole world was against her. What was she going to do?

  Fight it?

  I pull over to the side of the road and shut off the car. Then I just sit there. It’s dark, and I’m tired, and I’m on the side of a road I’m pretty sure shouldn’t even exist anymore. It’s not even a highway. It’s just some side road I thought would be faster and have less traffic.

  Lucky me.

  Always making the smart choices.

  A quick glance at my cell phone confirms what I already suspected: that I have no towers. I can’t call for a tow. I can’t do anything right now but sleep in my car or walk to the next exit. Something tells me it’s not safe to sleep on the side of an empty road in the middle of nowhere, though, so my choice is easy.

  Walking it is.

  Finally, I get out of the car and open the hood. More smoke billows around me, but I try to ignore it as I prop the hood of the car open. I’m going to be making a journey on foot, and I’m hoping that if I make it obvious the car broke down, the cops won’t give me a ticket for illegal parking before I can get a tow.

  I take my backpack and pull it on. I also grab my wallet, keys, and phone. Then I lock up my car and start walking. There’s other stuff in my car, of course. There are plenty of things people can take and resell, but I don’t really care about any of that. Right now I just care about moving forward, about reaching my destination, wherever that might be.

  I’m going to need to call Hope as soon as I can to let her know I won’t be making it in to see her, but I think she’ll understand, and I think everything will be okay. I hope everything will be okay. I need everything to be okay.

  I start walking.

  As I move through the darkness, I realize I should feel afraid, but I just feel annoyed. Why can’t a single thing go right for me this week? Hell, why can’t a single thing go right for me in my entire life? Do I really deserve this? Have I really been such a terrible person that I deserve to have a million and nine things go wrong for me?

  I want to say I’m not.

  I want to say I’m not that bad and I don’t deserve it, but you never know.

  Maybe I was a really terrible child or something and this is Karma’s way of getting back at me.

  As I trudge along the side of the highway, I wonder how long it’s going to take to actually get my car fixed. Realistically, Honeypot is an hour away by car. I can’t afford to have my car towed there and fixed in Honeypot. I’m sure Hope would spot me the money, but I don’t want to be a burden. Asking for help is already hard for me. Asking her to pay for a tow? I won’t do that.

  No, there’s got to be a town closer than that. I’m
sure there are several rink-a-dink little places here and there that have mechanics. The biggest problem right now is that I didn’t take the highway. It’s at least half a mile to my left and right now, I’m just going straight. I’m just going to keep moving. I’m just going to keep walking until I find something, anything, anywhere.

  I reach an intersection and I take note of the street names so that when I do find a mechanic, I can tell him exactly where the car is. It’s dark, but the stars are so bright I can see where I’m going.

  “You don’t get views like this in the city,” I mutter, and keep walking. It’s strange to think how much my life has changed in the last week. It’s strange to think that a week ago, I was just a normal person living a normal life. I had a normal boyfriend and a normal job and a normal future.

  And then Jeremy decided I wasn’t worth protecting.

  He decided I wasn’t worth fighting for.

  I wonder how people survive break-ups and still move on to find someone new. Isn’t it strange? I suppose it’s kind of like how women go through childbirth, but then continue on to have another child. It hurts, but it’s worth it. The pain is awful, but soon the memory fades, even just a little.

  In a month, will I still feel so broken?

  In a year, will I still feel so sad?

  I’m still crying as I walk and now, strangely, I have the feeling I’m being watched. I wasn’t worried before, but now I’m starting to get a little nervous. This is Colorado, after all. It’s known for wild animals. Hope told me she saw a lot of wild creatures when she first arrived. Hell, she even saw a bear. Like, up close.

  I shiver as I think about running into a bear out here alone. I’m not terribly out of shape, but I don’t think I’d be able to out-run a bear. Even if I wasn’t completely tired and worn out from my week, from the drive, I don’t know if I could face a bear. I’d probably faint from fear.