by brett hicks
His blood rushed to meet me. The taste of fresh hot life-blood flowing into my mouth was almost intoxicating. I pulled from his vein, sucking greedily. With his blood, I saw it, I saw the darkness, the night, and the fangs of death sinking into his kin. I saw the rush of memories buried inside his heart. The creatures, grey-skinned and violent, but calculating, analytical, and crafty.
Not vampires, but something very like a vampire. I pulled back as his boyhood sobs wracked my body. His heart and his emotions flooded my gut. I looked up through tear-filled eyes at him, knowing him for the first time.
“They weren’t vampires, but I can see how that would have been mistaken at your age.”
I blurted, yet again. Clarke looked at me, his eyes wide as saucers. He knew what I had seen. I felt a sense of violation, and a deeper sense of curiosity. An urge to know what it was I could gleam from his family’s deaths.
“How?”
I shook my head.
“I don’t know, sometimes Rachelle can share memories with me like this. I have a strange gift for reading people, their emotions, and I can sometimes live them through blood.”
Clarke nodded, his cop stare was back in place.
“What were they, if not vampires? You saw the fangs, the blood drinking, and the way they killed.”
I nodded in confirmation.
“I saw something that was not what you mistook it to be. I will find out what they are. I have a hunch, I need to consult Lyra and Rachelle. They have books of mythological beings, libraries full of everything that is Born, or otherwise created. I have a feeling that your beasts will be in there. I just need to find them.”
Clarke’s eyes widened a bit, he had never heard of such books, clearly. He seemed to be mulling this over.
“These texts are sacred to our kinds. Born will not take lightly to anyone discovering this. Detective, I am only telling you this now, because I believe, despite everything, we can trust you. I believe you are a decent man beneath what I saw. It is past time that we slay your demons, or you will be bitter and vile for the rest of your life.”
His eyes hardened at the jab at his character. I seemed to be running off at the mouth a lot. I felt like I no longer knew myself. I sassed at the interrogators, I beat up prisoners, and I bit a police detective. None of this was like me.
“Occam’s Razor, huh? I could have just asked, the easiest answer…”
His statement trailed off, he almost sounded…amused. I looked up at him and gave him an understanding smile.
“Hindsight is always twenty-twenty. We cannot go back, only forward. However, you must show my lady-love some penance. I am afraid she might be planning to neuter you!”
Clarke cringed slightly, only noticeable to me, because my kind read body language like words in a book. Yet another thing I did now, without even thinking to. I had become a predator, an apex predator. I was scarcely the same girl I was two months ago. I just needed to make sure it didn’t change my heart, or my core being.
***
Clarke pulled up at Lyra’s house. He let out a breath, I could feel his nerves. He had been detained the last time he stepped foot in here, I could hardly blame him for his reluctance. Still, we needed answers, and we needed a police liaison, if we were going to track what was sullying the vampire name in Richmond.
“If you would have told me I would be willingly helping you, after yesterday, this morning. I would have called you crazy, then kicked you in the nuts.”
I sassed at Clarke, he chuckled, it was slight, but I felt some levity wash through him. I opened my door, and I saw a flash of shadow, and before my eyes stood my blonde Nordic Goddess. She stared with her whiskey-eyes, studying my every line and curve. I bit my lip, feeling like a giddy school-girl suddenly. All thoughts and cares fled from my mind.
“Rach, I’m home.”
Her thick lips devoured mine, and I moaned into her greedy mouth. I felt her wandering hands grip my ass in a possessive manner that sent hot liquid to my core. I wrapped my arms around her slender shapely curves and I pressed myself against her body. I felt like my mind was going to be lost in the insanity of my need, hunger, taste, and my carnal passion. My soul screamed for this girl before me, and my lips reciprocated her motions in kind.
One moment I was more vampire than I was succubus, and the next, I was a fully charged sexual Energizer Bunny.
“God, I missed this…”
I breathed against her cheek. Her possessive hands roamed my lower body, and my center tightened in response. I let out a long needy breath of desire. I could feel my succubus magic flowing like a torrent around the neighborhood.
“Well, now that Melony’s given everyone a raging hard-on, why don’t we take this party inside?”
I peeked over Rachelle’s shoulder, and I spotted the sassy Chinese form of Jaden. She was smirking at me with her darker brown eyes. I could feel her palpable relief, even if she was acting all humdrum about my release.
Beside her stood a very antsy kitty. Lyra’s chocolate eyes drank me in, all though, in a sisterly manner than, Rachelle’s had. She flipped a long pink lock of hair over her shoulder. I could see her eyes water a bit, and she shifted her gaze to the detective. I reluctantly, stepped back and held up my palms.
“Easy there, tiger. He’s on our side, well sort-of. He got the charges dropped, and well, we have a lot to discuss. You might want to bring out that special book of yours, the one you need to keep translating, because I have a new research project for you.”
Lyra’s eyes tightened. I had been very careful about my mention of the Druidic Codex. That book was, literally, worth killing over.
Jaden snickered at my inadvertent joke.
“I’m a leopard, not a tiger, get it right. Now, get your boney little Lana Lang look-a-like ass over here!”
Sassy as ever was my best friend. I walked over and threw my arms around her in a sisterly hug. We were different colors, and different species, but Lyra was my sister-from-another-mister!
“Can I expect a hug too, since I have been such a help in securing your release?”
I heard the tenor tone of Ellison’s voice teasingly from behind Lyra. I looked up, and my eyes widened. This was a historic day indeed. It was one thing that Lyra had allowed Rachelle on her land, Ellison was a Clan Leader! That ranks on a whole different scale of unprecedented!
“Ellison, who let you in packland?!”
I blurted, and he chuckled warmly. He strode up to me and I accepted a slight hug and a peck on the temple. My body didn’t seem to fear him, not that it should. I just used to have a much more knee-jerk reaction to any man getting in my proximity. I still wasn’t attracted to men, but I had noticed my fear was diminished. Maybe time does heal all wounds?
“You know me. I have connections everywhere; even certain apex shifters seem to have warmed up to me.”
His tone was teasing and light, but Lyra rumbled a low growl at him. I could tell there was zero bite to it—pun not intended!
Twelve:
Giving a full recount of everything I had learned, and experienced, had taken time. A lot of time, and I had to embellish a bit with the parts pertaining to Clarke. From the ashen hue of his complexion, I would say he just realized how viscerally violent the beings he had incited were.
Detective Clarke had now experienced, normal vampire, and shifter violence. I could tell that he seemed to gleam a lot from that. He could see a difference in their reactions to my story, and the behavior of the grey-skinned bat-looking people from his memory. Like I had told him not vampires!
The vampires before him were plotting their slow, painful retaliation on every guard, and staff member of the prison. Their plots all included more typical, if medieval ideas. Like hanging, drawing, and quartering, or Lyra’s idea to strip them naked, and hunt them on the next full-moon. (That was my personal favorite!)
Point being, none of their thoughts flowed towards massacring families. Most sups had a very in-your-face approach. They fought
you head on, and they seldom ever targeted people not on their shit-list. There were exceptions, but typically, you earned your spot in hell with them.
“Guys, there is more, a lot more. Detective Clarke showed me into a crime-scene on the way back. It was setup to look like a vampire massacre. Someone, or something, is trying to pit humans against vampires. That is the conclusion my mind reached upon seeing this scene.”
Rachelle stepped forward and she spoke in a hushed tone.
“Show me, please, I need to see for myself.”
I nodded, forgetting that she was going to likely get the whole memory. I swore to myself, but I just prayed my girlfriend didn’t rip out Clarke’s throat.
She pulled me to her and I tilted my head. We had exchanged blood many times now. I felt her fangs sink into my neck, I felt the hunger in her core for me. I felt her need, her love, and her devotion to our relationship, to what we were building.
I guided my recent memory through the past twenty-four-hours. I showed her everything, the girls I met, the prison fight, and I showed her the crime-scene. I felt her watch it all, her emotions roiled in many directions, as she watched me feed from Clarke, and she felt his heartbreaking loss at the hands of grey-skinned bat-people.
Rachelle pulled back and her eyes seemed… haunted.
“Ghouls, a pack of them, at least. Powerful, lucid, not the craven variety.”
Ellison sucked in a breath, as did Lyra. It’s never a good thing when two of the most powerful beings on the continent each share a disturbed expression. Lyra looked to Ellison, like they were communicating without any speech.
“Our pack shall be open to your trusted, until this matter is resolved. We cannot stay divided on such a potent threat.”
Ellison nodded to her.
“Agreed, my Clan shall respect you, and answer to you as well, until this is over. I give you my vow.”
They spoke the next line of the oath in unison.
“Let there be peace between us.”
They finished the small ritual oath with a handshake. I felt magic cut through the air, the bond was sealed. I was in marvel at the sight before me. And, at the expediency in which it had happened.
“Um, could you guys share with the rest of the class here? What the hell is a ghoul? And, why in the hell are you two jumping into the same boat, not that I’m against the whole caring and sharing idea.”
Jaden chuckled, and she shook her head.
“Ghouls are creatures that were once vampires but have been twisted by dark rituals. They have been forcibly changed, their bodies part bat, and part man. The one they say knew all these rites, was Kimiko of Kyoto. In short…”
“My mother could have done this…”
I cut her off, and Jaden shared a saddened look with me.
“Sorry, but I think it’s better that you know. I mean, I don’t think you’re going to turn evil, just because you’re her daughter! Neither does anyone else that knows the truth!”
Rachelle cut in with a hard tone.
“It’s not Kimiko. I would know; besides, she might know the rituals, but she has never practiced them. I would know that much, being that I was once her only student of the arcane and all things magical.”
My eyes were wide as saucers now. I felt my heart aching. I had millions of questions now.
Why had she kept this from me! Why the hell is she just telling me this!?
Rachelle looked at me with sorrow in her eyes.
“Mel, baby, I’m sorry, I just didn’t know how to tell you…”
She sounded as frail as a master vampire ever could. Her eyes spoke of hurt and betrayal. Her emotions swam with a deep guilt. Some dark secrets she had kept locked inside her soul for hundreds of years.
As if reading the mood correctly, Ellison stepped in and spoke calmly.
“We have enough to go on, to start the hunt. Rachelle, you should tell her everything. She will remember it all eventually. Or have you forgotten that Succubi have genetic memory?”
“I’m sorry, but did you just say Succubi? As in, Melony is a Succubus?! She’s a vampire, I would know! She bit me and everything!”
That was Clarke, his tone was disturbed, and slightly betrayed.
“You bit him?! Lucky bastard!”
That was Ellison, he sounded both proud of me, and envious of Clarke. Strange, silly vampire!
“I am both, technically. I was Born a succubus, from a succubus mother. She was knocked up by a vampire, so yes, blood and fangs came with my quirky genetic package. Don’t ask me to explain it, because I’m not any surer than you are now!”
Clarke nodded deftly at me, eyeing me like it was for the first time. I huffed and rolled my eyes. I turned back to Rachelle, she sighed and closed her eyes. She knew me, I wouldn’t budge, until I had heard everything!
Jaden watched everything unfolding as if she wished she had a bowl of popcorn to munch on during the show. She often scared me more than nay craven vampire ever could! She had a very dark and morbid sense of humor. We still found it in our black-hearts to love her, despite her evil twistedness.
“Clarke, it’s like the OC in here, except we didn’t kill off the leading lady. Not yet anyway. There is always room for that later, or on the next full-moon.”
She spoke casually, as if she were talking about the weather. Clarke managed a very reluctant nod to her. She wrapped her arm around his shoulders and pulled him closer.
“Why don’t we go fix some dinner, and you can tell me all about how being bitten by a hybrid was. I mean, that had to be different. She can give a man everlasting wood from a simple touch!”
I groaned internally, and I sighed. I pulled Rachelle with me, towards the stairs.
“We have to talk, now. Rach let’s go upstairs.”
She nodded in agreement, and Ellison blew us a kiss as we rounded the corner. She muttered something about obnoxious brothers. I could hear Lyra and Ellison beginning to discuss ghoul hunting strategy. Mark was adding his two-cents in when needed, and Jaden had taken Clarke into the kitchen. I could hear her pumping him for the gritty details of our bite. (She is a very disturbed little cookie!)
Rachelle moved more sluggish than I could have thought possible for her. It was like she was trying to drag her feet, lest I see her past. I could feel her pain, fear, and shame rushing through my gut. My heart twisted, if this wasn’t about my birth mother, I wouldn’t press her. I felt like a real asshole, that I was making my girlfriend confess her darkest memories. I had little doubts that that was what I was feeling from her. That this was her darkest secret. It was so akin to the darkness I felt in Clarke, that I could now recognize it for what it was, the shadows of the past.
I was sure that this was a gift from my mother’s side, because she seemed to read me like a book, even from miles away. It was somehow connected to how she was able to drop into my head, like she was watching my life through my own eyes, from time to time. I couldn’t help but wonder for a second, if I would develop that same gift?
***
Rachelle closed the door and locked it behind me. I noticed that the bed was still disheveled from the day I left. She hadn’t slept in the bed since then, or at all, knowing her. I ran my fingers down her left cheek and I leaned in and kissed her temple.
“Baby, please tell me what happened in the past. How do you know my mother?”
Rachelle’s eyes swam with emotions as deep at the Atlantic Ocean. She sighed lightly, and she looked sorrowfully into my eyes.
“Nothing you hear about Kimiko of Kyoto, is the truth. All written history about her is a lie. A fabrication invented by her jealous sect. Invented by the younger succubi. Your mother was the first Born, ever.”
Thirteen:
South Scotland 1295:
I ran, ran until my lungs were going to explode. He was a monster, a creature of darkness, a demon! His teeth still pierced me, his spicy blood peppered my lips. I felt them growing, the fangs in my mouth. I felt the starvation roiling my stomach.
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I ran, ran through the fields of sheep, and past the farmers outside Edenborough. Me father was an English Lord. Me mother was but a humble servant. I left with Ellison, thinking I could outrun my fate with my brother! Instead, he had changed me into a beast, a demon like him!
I could hear the blood pumping in the veins of the sheep, and the wildlife around me. The sparse humans I had passed, were even more tempting and vibrant to my senses. I ran, far, wide, praying to escape the thirst building in my throat, in my stomach!
Time seemed to stretch on before me, every moment was like an infernally tormented year! My senses ran amuck. My eyes could see clear into the distant fields. I could see the smallest of movements, and the tussling of the leaves on the chilly wind.
The very Scottish air I breathed was full of a depth and complexity my human taste had never detected. There was a richness, crispness to the air, even in the south. I could sparse imagine what the Highlands might taste to me now!
Part of me rejoiced in these new senses, the other feared them—and what it was that I would become!
I passed the third village in my frantic travels. My thirst protesting every time I passed a slumbering villager’s home. My mouth seemed to water at the scent of fresh human blood. My mind was devoured with the thoughts, plagued from the need, and haunted by my inconceivable hungering!
Forests bloomed around me. Hunters often ventured this way for wild game. I knew I wasn’t far enough away from the humans now! I had to keep moving! My will was like forged iron. I would not become a demon! If I must, I would not become a killer, even if I was damned!
Why had Ellison done this to me?! Why would me own brother betray me in such a manner?!
It could be, because he secretly hated me?! I thought to myself. Every answer I could come to, brought more questions with it. I needed to satiate this thirst, now!