by Ginna Moran
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Epilogue
Other Series by Ginna Moran
About Ginna Moran
Academy of Vampire Heirs:
DHAMPIRS 101
~Book One~
by
GINNA MORAN
Copyright © 2019 by Ginna Moran
All Rights Reserved.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
ISBN 978-1-942073-49-9 (soft cover)
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Cover design by Silver Starlight Designs
Cover images copyright Depositphotos
For Inquiries Contact:
Sunny Palms Press
9663 Santa Monica Blvd Suite 1158
Beverly Hills, CA 90210, USA
www.sunnypalmspress.com
www.GinnaMoran.com
For the okay(ish) Katie, Thanks for keeping it together.
Chapter 1
A DHAMPIR’S DUTY
“MY DUTY? MY DUTY? CAN you believe she said that?” I tap my fingers on the dashboard, bouncing my feet. The sun sets on the distant horizon as night descends on the desolate stretch of road that probably hasn’t been driven on in years, maybe decades.
Rylie shifts her gaze from the road to look at me. “If my only duty for the next year was to get laid—” Tipping her head back, she releases a loud laugh that lights up the depths of her hazel eyes. “Shit, Fiona. Are you sure you really want to do this? You don’t even know what’s out there.”
I fidget with the seatbelt, yanking and releasing the weathered fabric. “Don’t care. What’s out there can’t be as bad as what’s back there.”
Frowning, Rylie drums her fingers on the steering wheel, her nerves not doing better than mine, and she’s been out here twice before. But me? I have never left the protection of our community. The elders of Mount Light Haven wouldn’t risk the life of the only dhampir to have survived to maturity in their care.
“It’s worse. There are shadow dwellers everywhere,” she says, tightening her mouth.
I flick my tongue across my lip. “Sounds perfect to me.”
Rylie groans and shakes her head. “Come on, Fiona. This is serious. Night is coming, and once you open that door and get out, I can’t stay. I can’t come back.”
I let silence fall between us as I think about her words.
“You’re my best friend. You know that, right? I know you hate the idea of a union and procreating, but we’ll still be together.” Rylie’s eyes glass over with her words. “I don’t want you to die.”
“If I go back, I will. You know what they expect of me.”
“Things can change.”
I unbuckle my seatbelt and swivel in my seat to stare out the window at the stretch of endless landscape, abandoned by humans and vampires during The Divide as everyone was corralled into walled-in cities. Blood Life Corp said it was to keep civility, but the humans who managed to escape knew it was much more than that. Someone has to protect the food source. And now, here I am wanting to enter one of the very cities I was taught to be afraid of. I’m joining the world that the elders say will eventually be the end of me. If a vampire were to find out about my bloodline, about the fact that as a dhampir, I survive on vampire blood, my life would be over. Done. Dead.
“They don’t,” I say, finally responding to Rylie. “Even leaving won’t change things. But now, at least I have a chance. You know the moment I produce an heir, the elders will force me out. They’ll expect me to fight back. I don’t want that.”
I’ve been told all my life that I’d die by the fangs of a vampire. A death of supposed honor. Fighting for humanity against the shadow dwellers who rule the general population of humans is the fate of a dhampir like me.
Elder Newberry called me a genetic anomaly—a symptomatic carrier of a mutation derived from the venom of a vampire—and the other Blood Rebels of the resistance against vampires declared me a gift to humanity. My great-great-great-grandmother was supposedly bitten while she was pregnant during the horrifying years of the Vampire Uprising that decimated the back-world. And up until my birth, the Flamme bloodline contained all male carriers. No one knows why or how, but the mutation chose to show symptoms in me.
“Fiona...if you can help, why wouldn’t you want to? You can take Alder up on his proposal. I overheard him talking to Elder Newberry about training to be your handler.”
I huff a breath. “That’s exactly why I have to do this. Alder doesn’t actually want a life with me. He wants to use me to gain status. I doubt that guy can even get me what I need. I asked him to bring me my blood source last week, and he didn’t even step one foot into the bunker before saying he was late for training.”
Her mouth drops open. “What? Seriously?”
I nod. “Like I said, he couldn’t handle my needs.”
“Too bad I couldn’t be your handler.” Rylie pouts her full bottom lip.
“I might’ve decided to stay if you—”
Something rams into the side of the SUV, shattering the rear window. Rylie screams, gripping the wheel, but the force of whatever hit us sends our SUV spinning across the uneven pavement. I fly out of my seat and onto Rylie, hitting my head hard on her window. Stars burst in my vision and my right eye blurs.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” Rylie says, the world finally jerking to a halt. “The sun went down. I misjudged our timing.”
She shoves me back into my seat and tries to stomp the throttle. The tires spin, sending dirt through the air, but the SUV doesn’t jolt forward. I twist in my seat and catch sight of two silver flashing eyes. A filthy, mud-covered vampire grips onto the rear, using his superhuman strength to stop our SUV from moving. Rylie doesn’t give up, smacking her hands on the steering wheel, begging the SUV to go.
Taking a breath, I bend down and feel the floor for a silver stake, the only weapon I could find to take with me from home. No one leaves the guns unattended, and I thought the massive, sharp, dagger-like weapon would do better than one of the dull kitchen knives I use to help prep food in the dining hall. My hands comb through my small pile of clothes and toiletries until my fingers brush against cool metal.
Rylie doesn’t have a chance to say anything as I fling the door open, praying the vampire doesn’t suddenly let go of our vehicle. I blink through the haze created by the cloud of dirt and burning rubber and manage to stumble out of the SUV without eating shit on the ground.
I swing my arm out, slicing the air around me with the stake. Nothing attacks, but my fear instincts, born from the part of me that is human, want me to fight just to be safe.
No human can outmatch a vampire in strength and speed. The only thin
g that keeps rebels alive is the ability to predict moves and catch the assholes off guard. I’ve never fought a vampire in my life, and I just pray my training is enough to get Rylie and me out of this alive.
Covering my mouth with my shirt, I risk running around the hood of the SUV. I brace to get plowed down, but I can’t sneak up on the vampire unless I go a way he won’t expect. In this moment, I’m more brave than smart, going against my good sense.
Rylie jerks her attention to me, her wide eyes screaming at me to run without saying the words. It’s in her training, and also in the rest of our colony’s training, to protect me first. That’s why the elders want to assign me a handler, especially for when they decide to kick me out into the world. I bet they never expected I’d leave by my own free will like this.
I motion for Rylie to honk the horn, something that goes against everything we know about surviving. Under Blood Life Corp law, humans are forbidden from driving. And back-world cars like the one Rylie stole from a soldier? They’ve been banned for decades. Our colony scavenged everything our vehicles need from abandoned cities. They’ve been passed down and taken care of for years. But they’re loud as hell. Vampire magnets. Blaring the horn might bring dozens running toward us. But I need this. I need her to block out any noise I might make. It might also surprise the vampire and slow him down because of his super hearing.
Rylie doesn’t listen to me right away, and I scowl and motion to her again. Squeezing her eyes shut, she pounds her hand into the steering wheel, honking the horn. The loud noise echoes through the night. The SUV barrels forward, speeding away without me. And hell. This was not what I wanted. Stupid vampire.
I rush toward the spot where a figure stands among the haze. The vampire sees me and disappears too fast for my eyes to follow. Dropping to the ground, I roll a few feet to lie on my back. I tighten my mouth to stop from gasping, clutching my stake until my fingers throb.
A heavy boot lands on my wrist before I have a chance to react. Pain swells up my arm, and I automatically release my weapon. A disgusting man, covered in grime, stands over me. He releases a low growl that stiffens every muscle on my body.
“If you don’t fight, I won’t kill you,” the vampire says.
I stare at his mouth in confusion. The vampire only has one visible fang peeking out from beneath his lips. I’ve never seen such a sight. The three blood sources that live in Mount Light Haven never even show theirs except to me and not in a threatening way. I’ve been sneaking extra blood from them for two years now because the allotted amount the elders enforce isn’t enough anymore—so my blood for theirs is just how it is. Their willingness was one of the factors that pushed me into leaving. I know I can survive among vampires if I just give a little to get a little. At least I hope.
The vampire takes my silence as compliance. “Good.”
I remain utterly still and quiet. I know if I don’t fight right away, he won’t give me my final donation. He’ll try to bite me and drink what he wants. If I’m lucky, he’ll try to take me to wherever the fuck he stays during the day—and from the looks of the dried mud, it must be somewhere outside. Probably in the shade. A vampire’s light sensitivity gives them massive burns if they’re in sunlight for more than a few seconds, but the shade does protect them somewhat. I hear it’s hot as hell for them, though.
If that’s the case, all I have to do is survive the night. There is no way this blood sucker will be able to keep me all day.
Grabbing my hand, the vampire launches me to my feet, tossing me a foot into the air so that I have to steady myself on him to get my footing. My skin crawls as I look into his eyes. The gesture goes against everything inside me, knowing that vampires can lock me in a gaze I can’t escape to manipulate my mind—that is, if I hadn’t just consumed way over my normal amount of vampire blood before leaving.
The biggest benefit of drinking vampire blood is that it stops the effect of mind manipulation while it’s in the system, which lasts a few hours. Second, it offers some regenerative qualities to help a human heal. And of course for me, it helps me survive like human blood helps a vampire. It takes a special kind of vampire to give up that kind of power, so I know when I reach the city, it’s the first thing I’ll do, no matter what it takes.
“That’s it, pretty donor. Don’t look away.” The vampire hooks his hand around my waist, holding me as I purposely slacken in his arms. I hope he can’t tell that I’m faking it. I’ve practiced the technique of pretending to be mind manipulated a few times, but I didn’t take it seriously. Now, I wish I had.
Bright lights flash in my eyes, engulfing us in the headlights of the SUV. Rylie honks the horn, and the vampire lifts me off my feet and spins me away.
“Don’t move,” he commands, dropping me to the ground.
The vampire disappears, leaving me in the dirt. I risk him noticing that he didn’t actually manipulate my mind to do what he asked and prop up on my elbows. I spot Rylie turning the SUV around a few hundred feet away. I can’t see the vampire yet, but I know that’s exactly where he’ll head.
Rylie honks the horn, the noise an incessant tune that steals any other sounds around. She navigates over the rough, compacted dirt in my direction. The closer she can get, the better off we’ll be. Two humans against one vampire have a better chance to live.
The vampire materializes between me and the SUV, and he prepares to jump. Instead of rushing out of the way, he launches into the air and lands on the hood. Rylie slams the brakes, sending him falling in front of the SUV. She runs over the guy, and a loud noise rips through the air. The SUV slows to a stop. I spot the vampire behind the vehicle holding what looks like a long metal tube. It’s now that I realize Rylie didn’t stop the SUV on purpose.
“Hey, asshole!” I yell, waving my hands in the air. “What are you doing? You can’t expect me to wait around for you.”
The vampire jerks his attention to me, his eyes flashing silver. He glances at Rylie in the SUV and to me, choosing to hunt the easier of the two of us. I brace to get my throat ripped out with no chance of defending myself, especially since the guy is now pissed the hell off. Instead of charging me, he strolls at a human’s pace, taunting me, savoring the fear being stalked by a predator elicits inside me.
I lick my lips, suppressing my human rationale. Because even though my mind screams to run, a darker, more feral part awakens inside me. My dhampir half triggers me and usually takes over when I’m hungry or scared, and my deep-seated nature steels me in place. I might be the only person in existence who will bite back.
“Go on, pretty donor. Make a run for it. If you get at least twenty feet away, I might not kill you.” The vampire flashes his single fang.
Tipping my head back, I can’t control the nervous laugh bubbling from my throat. I know it’s a terrible idea to comment on a vampire’s appearance—I mean, I wouldn’t be rude like this to anyone in Mount Light Haven, but stalker creeps do not deserve kindness.
“How am I supposed to take you seriously with one fucking fang?” My shoulders shake, my voice rising through the air.
Ah, hell. I really pissed him off now.
A deep, guttural growl escapes his throat, and he curls his fingers into fists. He picks up his speed a bit without moving so fast that I can’t see him. He wants me to see him, to know that my possible death will come at any second. I dig my fingers into my palms, struggling to keep my shit together.
Movement behind the vampire catches my attention, and I try not to react to Rylie exiting the SUV. I do the only thing I can think of to muffle her footsteps and scream out as loud as I possibly can. The vampire’s scowl shifts into annoyance like how dare I cause such a racket to ruin his hunt.
But it works.
Raising her gun, Rylie aims it at the vampire’s back. I drop to the ground and cover my head with my hands as she opens fire. Loud pops pierce my ears, and I tilt my head up to watch the vampire startle. Bullets might not kill him, but if he’s injured enough, it’ll slow him dow
n. Blood loss weakens a vampire and gives us an advantage. Unfortunately, it’s the donor who shoots that ends up dead first.
Fuck if I’m going to let that happen. Rylie is only here because of me.
Launching to my feet, I charge the vampire. He directs his full attention to Rylie as she unloads her gun on him until she runs out of bullets. He disappears from in front of me and materializes behind her, not giving her a chance to reload her gun.
“Rylie!” I yell, pushing my feet to get a move on it.
The vampire grabs Rylie from behind, and she thrashes, doing everything she can to break free. Bending her head, the vampire exposes Rylie’s neck. She yells and jerks her head, managing to head-butt the asshole in the nose.
He roars, locking his fingers into her hair. Before I can reach her, the vampire pierces her neck, and she releases an angry yell, dropping a dozen F-bombs. The vampire drops her on my approach. I dive to the ground, spinning midair to land on my back, knowing he’ll use the same move to get behind me. I kick my foot into his knee, buckling his leg long enough to sweep his feet out from under him. He hits the ground in surprise, and I don’t give him a chance to get up.
I straddle his waist and lace my fingers around his throat. He doesn’t even attempt to fight me. Any normal human without a weapon could never kill a vampire. But I’m not a normal human. I’m stronger, faster. My dhampir mutation gives me some vampiric traits without the annoyance of light sensitivity.
Grabbing the hem of his shirt, I surprise him by yanking it over his head. This vampire is scrawnier than the three blood sources back at the colony. He’s probably so aggressive because he’s hungry. I know the feeling. Blood hunger legitimately can drive me wild in a bad way. These are the kind of vampires I hate, but from what I know from growing up in Mount Light Haven is that they’re far less dangerous than those who run the world—the ones who don’t act like the starving monsters of the night.