Jerusa moved at supersonic speed, her feet over eight feet above the water. Appearing beneath her as quickly as she approached, and vanishing behind her like a comet’s tail, was a procession of glowing ghosts, their upturned hands supporting her like a bridge.
The ghosts vanished, and sand and dirt exploded upward as she made land, yet it slowed her not a bit. Jerusa slammed into Suhail, creating a concussive blast that sent him into the air like a rocket, and knocked all the others to the ground.
Silvanus jumped up, rushed to Jerusa, but stopped short of touching her. She looked from Silvanus to Danielle. “Leap the blood drinkers out of here. All of them.”
“Where?” Silvanus asked. “The sandbar?”
“No. I left the Necromancer there. Take them to—”
Suhail materialized on the island almost directly in front of Jerusa. She jumped to the left just in time to miss being speared by the barbed umbilical cord. Jerusa thrust her hands toward him, and suddenly, an army of ghosts appeared all around them. The ghosts slammed into Suhail, driving him backward.
Suhail struggled against the ghosts, looking much like a man braving the winds of a hurricane. He dug his feet in and slid to a stop at the water’s edge. Then slowly, one heavy foot at a time, he regained his lost ground.
Jerusa’s jaw clenched tight, the tendons of her neck standing out like thick ropes. She flicked her eyes to Foster. He nodded, then turned to Silvanus.
“Shufah and I had a home set aside in Rome,” Foster said. Silvanus flinched at the sound of the ghost’s voice, as did everyone else. “It’s a place we were going to honeymoon in after she turned me. No one else knows of it. Not even Suhail. Take the others there.”
“Rome is easy,” Silvanus answered. “But we can’t leap to a specific location without knowing where it is first.” He looked to the nine vampires, then back to the ghost. “I’m also not sure that we can leap so many at once.”
“I’ll show you the way. Just link up with everyone and I’ll get you there.”
Celeste placed her hand on Taos, Megaera on Shufah, and Tisiphone on Alecto. Victor, Thad, and Sebastian filled in where they could, with Silvanus and Danielle closing the gap. As Foster approached, Shufah sat up, clutching her chest while a spasm of agony overtook her, and reached her hand toward him. He brushed his fingertip against hers, then placed his spectral hands on Silvanus’s and Danielle’s backs, eliciting a shiver from both.
“When you leap, just focus on Rome. I’ll do the rest.” He leaned close and whispered into Silvanus’s ear. “No matter what happens, don’t kill them.” Silvanus turned, but before he could ask his question, Foster yelled, “Now!”
The nine blood drinkers and two Divine Vampires vanished from Howland Island, leaving only Jerusa and her army of ghosts to face Suhail.
Jerusa stepped forward, and the flood of spirits bulled forward with battle-madness blazing in their glowing faces. They collided with Suhail with a physical force but caused no lasting damage to him. He slowly pressed through the ghosts like a bear against the river’s flow.
Suhail was within twenty feet of Jerusa now. The sharp barbed cord extended a bit further, as if tasting the air.
Jerusa glanced at Alicia. “Are you ready?” Each word came out in a strenuous huff.
The ghost girl’s eyes fastened on Suhail. “Have I ever let you down?”
Jerusa laughed despite her situation. “Just don’t miss.”
Alicia stepped forward. “I won’t.”
Suhail pressed in another five feet, and it was all he needed. The cord shot from his navel, the barb whistling through the air. The ghosts slowed its velocity, but not enough. It came in hot and on target.
Five feet from impact, with only a fraction of a second to spare, Alicia darted in front of Jerusa. A vertical line, a scar of light, flashed on her chest, mirroring the one burning in Jerusa’s chest. Suhail’s barb struck the burning scar on Alicia’s chest, and an explosion of blinding light sent Suhail flying backward across the sand and out into the rolling waves.
The army of ghosts vanished in a blink, all except Alicia and Foster. Jerusa turned, took a single step, Alicia and Foster taking her by the hands, and leapt from Howland Island.
The small, yet lavish home on the outskirts of Rome had its specialized shutters closed against the newly risen sun. Jerusa glanced briefly at the heavy metal shutters and reinforced doors, and had a sudden, yet pleasing realization that she would never need such devices again.
A chorus of painful wails were echoing throughout the house, and Jerusa followed them into the next room. The three savage-bitten vampires writhed upon the marble floor, while the others knelt around them, trading looks of despair, pity, and fear.
Silvanus jumped up and ran to her as soon as she entered the room. Questions swam in his eyes; the greatest being how did she, being a newborn Divine Vampire, have any memory of who she had been in her mortal and vampiric days? It was a valid question, but now was not the time to answer.
“I’ll explain later. I have to move fast if I’m going to save them.” She gave him a quick but loving kiss on the lips, then stepped past him before he could ask her what she meant.
Shufah, Taos, and Alecto lay side by side, convulsing in agony, as the savage venom worked the dark magic of transformation. Already thick, black veins protruded from their necks and arms.
The remaining two Furies, Celeste, Thad, and even Sebastian surrounded them, weeping great bloody tears. Victor wept too, but did so in a solitary corner.
Shufah snapped her blood-rimmed eyes to Jerusa and extended a pleading hand. “Take us… take us to the sun.” Every word seemed to double her agony. “Let us… die… as vampires. Reunite… me… with Foster.” Her head dropped back in exhaustion.
Jerusa’s face remained stiff, emotionless. For all the love she had felt for, and received from Shufah, a schism now rested between them. Shufah had stolen Alicia from her. Had banished her to a storm of savage wraiths. Jerusa had done horrible things under the influence of those demons. Taken many lives. And now, and forever, their faces would literally haunt her. Forgiveness wasn’t as simple as it sounded.
“You’ll not see the sun this day,” said Jerusa flatly. “This war isn’t over. When it’s finished, then I’ll reunite you with Foster.”
They all looked at her aghast. Even Victor the Monster turned from his corner. Silvanus started for her, a gentle plea for reconsideration in his eyes, but she stopped him where he stood.
“Wait,” she said to him. “Just wait.”
Jerusa closed her eyes and extended her hands toward the suffering vampires, her fingers working as though kneading dough. Her chest suddenly burned bright with a glowing spectral scar.
All at once, ghosts flooded the outer walls of the room. Victor shied away from his corner like a startled child and joined the others. The ghosts extended far beyond this room, filling the entire house. Alicia and Foster appeared on either side of her.
Shufah, Taos, and Alecto arched their backs as if they were trying to fold themselves in half. A deep-throated growl erupted from each, causing the other vampires to flinch in fear.
Jerusa worked her fingers until she felt them take hold of the deep cold of outer darkness. A cold not of this realm. She clenched her fists tight, Alicia and Foster mirroring her movements. The cold fought her grip, thrashed to break free. It burrowed deep, trying its best to remain rooted in its hosts, but they would not deny Jerusa.
She yanked her arms in close, as did Alicia and Foster, and a black, smokey haze formed over Shufah, Taos, and Alecto. The three convulsed violently, and bloody froth formed at the corners of their mouths.
Jerusa, Alicia, and Foster took a step back and a living shadow slithered out of each of the savage-bitten vampires.
The three savage wraiths thrashed like a trio of captured dragons. Now evicted from their hosts, the wraiths lunged for the other vampires, seeking any warm body they could find.
The vampires sprawled backward
just as the surrounding ghosts rushed inward, snatching the thrashing wraiths in their spectral hands and carrying them up through the ceiling.
You could’ve drowned in the thick silence that followed. Every eye gawked at the ceiling as if expecting the wraiths to return and reclaim their hosts.
“Foster,” a raspy voice said, and the group made a collective jerk.
Alecto had rolled over onto her stomach. Taos laid on his back, rubbing his face with his hands. But Shufah sat up, her arms extended toward Foster.
Blood tears spilled down Shufah’s face, reabsorbing quickly into the soft, perfect skin of her cheeks. Foster stepped forward and placed his hand in hers. Their fingers seemed to intertwine for a moment, but then his hand passed through hers.
“You are my perpetual love,” Foster said, a contented smile perched upon his face. Then he and Alicia vanished from sight, as did the rest of Jerusa’s ghosts.
The nine vampires—Victor included—fell into a heaping embrace. Danielle stood close by, but she did not join them. Silvanus clutched Jerusa around the waist and peppered her with kisses until both of them broke into laughter.
The laughter, even more infectious than a savage bite, soon filled the entire room. They spent a short time hugging and kissing each other with a gratefulness that only comes from surviving certain death.
Later, came the inevitable questions, and Jerusa answered as many as she could. It was too dangerous to remain in the house very long, but Jerusa assured them they had enough time to rest and rejuvenate.
“Are you sure it’s safe to go?” Silvanus asked her later as they sat near a roaring fire on the hearth.
The vampires were all huddled together, asleep in the other room. Even Danielle slept so that her wounds could heal.
“I won’t be gone long,” she said between kisses. “Just a few minutes. Promise. I just have to tie up a loose end.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“No. Stay here. Get some rest and protect the others. They won’t feel safe if you’re not here. The battle’s not over, but they’ve earned a brief reprieve from the madness.”
Silvanus reluctantly agreed to let Jerusa go alone, but he made it known that he didn’t like it. Jerusa kissed him deeply, feeling a new level of love for him she never imagined could exist. A Divine love, one might say.
Jerusa turned from him and leapt, in an instant, from Rome to the tiny sandbar nestled beneath the tropic sun.
Her eyes narrowed, and a lump rose into her throat. She stood alone upon the sand.
Jerusa wanted to believe that the Necromancer had lost all hope, swam out into the waves, and drowned like the vermin he was. But she knew it wasn’t true. Avoiding death was the Necromancer’s modus operandi. His time of mischief was not yet over.
Othella huddled in a dank, foul-smelling crypt. They had not laid a fresh corpse to rest here in more than a century, but still it stank.
She sat upon a cracked stone vault, staring blankly into a dwindling torch, waiting for the sun to set so she could start her long journey back to the Ice Sanctuary.
The torch flickered as a pair of figures appeared before her. Othella jumped up, staring at the two men, both of whom she knew well.
The Necromancer was a much taller, more muscular man, yet for all his power he was still only mortal, and so stood bent with pain in the grips of the much smaller man.
Othella glanced at the creature who had once been Suhail but couldn’t bare the fluid dance of bronze and gaunt flesh for very long.
“Kill me and be done with it,” she said, unable to mask the quake in her voice.
“On the contrary,” Suhail said. “I’ve come to continue your work.”
To be continued in Book 6…
Coming Soon
Jerusa Phoenix’s undead adventures will continue in Book 6: THE DIVINE VAMPIRE.
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About the Author
ELEVATOR GUY BY DAY, STORYTELLER BY NIGHT!
Hello, my name is Gabriel Beyers, and I’m just a blue collar guy who loves fishing, the outdoors, reading, and of course, writing about all things paranormal, supernatural, or just plain weird.
I once lived in a haunted house (honest, doors opening and closing by themselves). I’m always on the lookout for UFOs (pretty sure I’ve seen one, but the video is a little blurry). And I may or may not have the power to fly (I’m still too chicken to test this theory).
I spend my day-job hours tinkering with elevators (in a safe and legal way) and the dark hours of the night at the keyboard immersed in my imaginary worlds. One day I hope the latter will pay enough so that I can retire from the former. Until then, no sleep for me!
If you want to delve deeper into the muddy swamp of my twisted little life, then check out my website. It’s the hub for all the various places I tend to haunt.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Best wishes and happy reading,
-Gabriel Beyers
www.gabrielbeyers.com
Copyright © 2020 by Gabriel Beyers
THE SAVAGE VAMPIRE: The Perpetual Creatures Saga, Book 5.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover art created by J Caleb Design.
The Savage Vampire (The Perpetual Creatures Saga Book 5) Page 27