by Zara Novak
“What’s wrong with my clothes?” she asked and looked up at the vampire. He grimaced and looked back at her in disbelief.
“I’m not sure if you’re that familiar with these parts of the forest darling, but I’m not the only vampire out here. Heck, there are shifters out here too somewhere. We haven’t run into any yet as I’ve taken the back route to the North Border. Evasion is no longer an option though. Rumor has it a pretty nasty coven runs the border now. We’ll have to go through them if we want to get out. Your clothes have to go.”
North Border. What the? Had they really come that far? Why had he brought her all the way up here? There were many things wrong with the vampire’s last sentence, and Ellie only had a hundred more questions to ask. She dropped her mouth and had to laugh. “You’re crazier than I thought if you think I’m stripping naked just to voluntarily walk into a coven of deranged vampires.”
“Not naked,” he grunted as he rummaged through the satchel on his side. He pulled out a fistful of clothes and threw them through the air. Ellie caught the clothes despite her handcuffs and looked down at them in confusion. “What is this?”
“Camouflage,” he answered. “Plain trousers and a jacket. Put them on and ditch your uniform. Those bastards at the border won’t touch you if they think you’re a regular slave, but we haven’t got a chance if you walk in there dressed as a vampire hunter.”
Ellie dropped the clothes onto the floor and turned her head. “You’ve got another thing coming if you think I’m putting this on. The uniform stays on.”
Another smile curled on the vampire’s lips and he stepped forward, causing Ellie to step back and press against the tree behind her once more. He picked the clothes up, thrust them into her chest and unlocked the chains around her wrists. “You can change yourself, or I can strip you naked and do it for you.” The vampire’s eyes sparked with mischief as he looked her up and down. “So, what’s it going to be princess?”
She considered for a second that he was just bluffing, but as she stared into his eyes she realized the vampire was completely serious. Stepping to the side, Ellie put some distance between her and the vampire until she could breathe again. “I’ll just… go put these on behind that tree over there. No perving.”
“Don’t worry,” he said with a toothy smile. “I’m a lot of things but I’m still a gentleman. You’ve got one minute to change before I come check up on you. Better hurry unless you want me to see you in your… delicates.”
Gulping, Ellie hurried off to the nearest tree and disappeared around the other side and changed as fast as she could. The distant scent of earth and oak lingered in the air around her and it seemed to carry something unspoken with it. She’d almost fell for it only a few minutes ago stood back at the tree. She didn’t dare to think how she would react when she was wearing almost nothing, with his body pressing against hers again.
Changing quickly, Ellie stripped down to her underwear, threw on her new clothes and re-laced her boots. She half considered running but knew her escape attempt would have to be much more creative. Her captor excelled against her in almost every physical way. Super sense, super speed, super strength. She didn’t have a chance running now, so she didn’t.
This moment of trust will give me an opportunity in the future though. And that’s what she had to do. She had to build trust slowly, and then use it against the vampire when it was most opportune. Taking a deep breath, Ellie walked back to the vampire, holding her old uniform in her hands. He pointed down to a shallow hole in the ground and nodded.
“Throw them in there and we’ll bury them.”
Ellie did as she was told and then grunted her displeasure as the vampire seized her wrists and chained her again. They resumed their journey forward through the forest. They had only walked for a few minutes when the vampire broke the silence for the first time, continuing to walk in front of her as he spoke.
“The story is that I am a travelling nobleman and you are my blood slave. I’ve not been to this part of the woods since this new coven took over, but I’ve heard they’re particularly bad. Stay close, keep your head down and let me do the talking, we shouldn’t have any problems.”
A dim light appeared in the distance before them and Ellie realized it had to be the gate to the North Border. Her eyes traced over to her captive and she felt herself starting to panic. “W-What is your name?” she stammered as she looked at the approaching gate.
The vampire paused briefly but didn’t turn back. “My name?”
“Yes,” she said. “Won’t it look a bit suspicious if a blood servant doesn’t know her vampire’s name?”
The vampire looked half back, his red eyes lost in some unknown distance. He looked down at the ground, thinking something over. “I… I don’t remember my name.”
The statement caught Ellie off guard, and she found herself repeating his question. “You don’t know your name?”
The vampire shook his head in silence. “No… I have problems with my mind lately. That is one of them.”
“Well, you need a name,” Ellie said, looking around at the stark trees for some sort of inspiration. A large black bird loomed in the branches of a tree above them. “What about Crow?”
The vampire looked back at her, his eyes burning with slight bemusement. He followed her gaze up to the bird and spoke the word back to her with uncertainty. “Crow?”
“Yeah… that’s moody enough for a vampire, right?”
“Maybe so,” he said with indifference, “but that isn’t a Crow. It’s a Jackdaw.”
Ellie blew out an exasperated breath. “Okay. What about Jack?”
The vampire considered the name for a second but didn’t look at her. “Whatever. I won’t remember it come the morning. Call me whatever you want.”
The chain tugged at Ellie’s wrists as the vampire resumed their walk. She stumbled after him, rolling her eyes and mumbling under her breath. Who the hell was this guy, and why was everything about him so difficult?
The northern gate approached, looming over them as a towering arch of twisted tree trunks. Two large metal gates towered between the archways, and sheer walls of rock lay on either side. Ellie looked up at the arch, which was studded with wooden torches and human skulls. Fear beat through her and she felt her feet slowing in reluctance. The vampire carried on regardless, only pausing when the gates creaked open. A male vampire emerged from the crack in the gate, flanked by two guards on either side.
“Stop right there,” the vampire said in a cold and harsh voice. “State your name and business.”
“I’m just a lone vampire making his way to the mountains,” he turned slightly, tugging at the chain in his hands, causing Ellie to stumble forward. “This here is my blood servant.”
The vampire in the middle looked them both over with dull, examining eyes. “All those who wish to cross the gate have to pay the toll.”
“Money isn’t a problem,” the vampire answered back. “I can pay.”
“No,” the vampire at the gate said, amusement glinting in his voice. “The toll has changed. We no longer need money. To cross you have to fight. Do you accept these terms?”
Ellie’s captor was silent for a moment. She could almost imagine the wry smile crossing his lips. “I guess I find those terms acceptable.”
“Very good,” the guard said with a dark smile. “Be warned that we fight without limits.”
“Meaning?”
“Our combatants can only leave when the other is dead. Our fights are to the death.”
Silence beat again, and Ellie stared at the back of her captor’s head. He glanced halfway back at her then looked at the guard once more. “Very well,” he said, no note of fear or trepidation in his voice at all. “I guess we’ll play it your way. Let us enter.”
The guards slipped back behind the doors, which opened out into the forest, groaning on their ancient bearings as they swung open. They walked forward through the skull-studded archway into the dark path beyond the
gate. Ellie swallowed as she heard the giant doors closing behind them.
Something told her this hadn’t been part of her captor’s plan.
3
Ellie followed Jack along the narrow stone corridor until it opened into a large ravine that was nestled between two cliff faces. The ravine split into a large round circle, with giant cliff walls towering above on either side. Jack pulled her chain shorter, bringing her close and turned back to whisper to her. The sound of chaos floated from somewhere in front.
“Stay close, this is worse than I thought.”
The short path ended abruptly at a waist-high fence, to their right a set of wooden stairs led down into the main circle of the ravine. They were stood on a platform overlooking the border town. Ellie looked down at the scene below them and gasped.
Heavy rock music floated up from the pit below them, crossed with the sound of brawling, loutish laughter and chaotic fighting. Ellie stopped next to Jack and looked out, her eyes catching sight of insanity everywhere she looked. Men and women fucked out in the open, vampires dragged naked slave girls across dirt covered floors, bent them over bannisters and went to town.
The endless drone of heavy metal shrieked from a platform near the center of the bowl, on which a band stood thrashing the music out to an audience of brawling and blood-covered vampires. Ellie had never seen so many vampires in one place at once, and she had never seen chaos condensed like this. She felt the urge to turn and run, but there was nowhere to run, she was here now. She glanced over at Jack to study his expression, but his face betrayed no hint of emotion. He watched the scene below in perfect passiveness. A voice sounded behind them, catching their attention.
“I have to apologize, things aren’t always this crazy here.”
Jack and Ellie both turned to see a female vampire standing before them. She was tall, slender, and wore a tight leather outfit that was sleek and revealing. Her long hair was pulled back in a shiny black ponytail. She had a strange beauty about her, but there was also a wickedness in those bright red eyes that filled Ellie with a sense of dread.
“Monica Valentine,” the woman said and nodded at Jack. “What is your name?”
The vampire standing beside Ellie looked over at her briefly then addressed their host. “Jack. This is my blood servant, Ellie. We are travelling to the mountains north of the forest.”
A curious expression sprang on Monica’s brow, followed by a cursory smile. “The mountains? What takes you up there? There is nothing but snow this time of year. It is certain death for even a Super such as yourself. Your servant certainly wouldn’t last a day.”
“Our business is our own,” Jack growled in response. “I simply wish to pay the toll and pass through this… madness.”
Monica’s gaze floated past them to look at the chaotic town below. “Yes, as I said, things aren’t always this crazy. We are celebrating. My people have only just moved to this valley, and we are in high spirits. There is much to celebrate. Black Fang has subsided, and we have no fear to drink from humans again. There is also talk of there being many breeders within this part of the world. A lot of the men in my camp hope to find a mate.”
Jack said nothing in response. His eyes simply held the enquiring vampire’s gaze. “I’d just like to fight and move on. I care not for you or your coven.”
A cold smile flickered over Monica’s face. “Suit yourself. Fights are held hourly within the pit at the center of the bowl. I’ll gladly look after your slave while you are preoccupied. I must warn you that our fights are to the death. If you die, then your possessions belong to us. That includes your blood slave here.” The woman glanced over to Ellie, and she felt a pang of revulsion flare inside of her.
“That will not be necessary,” Jack growled in response.
“Confident,” Monica said and smiled. “I like that. Another thing, all servants passing through this gate are required to donate one pint of blood as an additional levy. It is required to pass through. We will do that now.”
Two guarding vampires stepped forward from Monica’s side and approached Ellie. Ellie barely had time to react when Jack did so for her. Her captor slid in front of her in a flash, holding one fist in front of him, ready to fight. The guards stopped in their tracks, looked at each other and glanced back at their master.
“You’ll do no such thing,” Jack growled. “The girl is mine and mine alone. She stays with me. No one touches her. No one drinks from her.”
Monica Valentine’s polite smile faltered from her lips, and her bright red eyes burned with flat intensity. “I’m afraid that’s not an option. If you wish to pass you must—”
Whatever the vampire’s threat was, they had little time to hear it. The guards began their approach again at their master’s insistence, taking two steps closer to Ellie before her captor responded with a flash of violence that took no longer than a second. Ellie wasn’t really sure what happened. One second Jack had been standing there before her. The next, a blur of black streaked across the air in the direction of the approaching guards, and then Jack was back at her front, holding her chain once more.
The two guards writhed on the floor, screaming and twisting in the mud as they held up their mangled looking arms. “My arm!” one of the guards shouted. “That fucker broke my arm!”
Fear flashed through the eyes of the female vampire in front of them as she realized her guest was no ordinary vampire. “Guards!” she shouted, looking around the space surrounding them for more backup. “Guards! Guards!”
This is bad, Ellie thought. This is very bad. They had barely been there ten minutes and things had already taken a turn for the worse. Jack shielded an arm around Ellie and stepped back until they were nestled against the railing behind them. Vampires appeared from all sides, springing to action at the call for assistance. Eyes flicked from the groaning masses of broken bones on the dirt and quickly flicked to Jack and Ellie. Within a few seconds there were fifteen vampires surrounding them at the front, waiting for their next instruction.
Monica Valentine’s ire was replaced with a salty smile now she felt she had the upper hand. She walked forward across the dirt, lifted a foot and twisted her heel into the arm of one of her broken men, causing him to shriek as she did so. She looked up at Jack and Ellie and smiled. “You’ll do well to remember where you are vampire. This gate belongs to the Valentine coven now, and you will follow our rules while you are here. Hand over your servant for letting now, or she will be taken by force.”
Adrenaline flooded through Ellie as she stood shaking behind Jack’s protective silhouette. Everywhere she looked she saw dull red eyes staring back at her, daring Jack to make another mistake, begging him to put another foot wrong. She’d underestimated her captor for sure. Even she hadn’t realized that vampires could move that fast. Jack had somehow surged forward, broken the arms of both men and flashed back to his original position in a fraction of a second. He hadn’t even broken a sweat.
His initial display of speed and strength had been terrifying, but surely even he couldn’t stand against a group as large as this? Ellie scanned her eyes across the faces of the men looking back at her. As far as she could tell Monica was the only super standing among them. The rest were regular vampires, but surely their large number was enough to subdue Jack. What would they do to her once they apprehended him?
Her mind cast back to the pit behind them and replayed the sights of the slave girls being mounted by vampires with fully black eyes. Was she doomed to live her life out here, stripped naked, lead around on a leash and used as some communal fuck toy? She felt herself shiver at the thought, swallowed hard and brought herself back to the current moment.
“She stays with me,” Jack growled. “Unless you want to lose a lot more men, I suggest you back down.”
The steely resolve in their host’s eyes wavered momentarily, but she quickly pulled it back. “Suit yourself,” she said with a carless snickering. “You can die up here. It’s a shame. It would have been good t
o see you in the pit.” Lifting her arm as if to give signal, the female vampire opened her mouth to bellow out an order of attack. Before she could speak a voice rang out from somewhere to the right.
“That’s enough!”
Ellie and Jack both looked to their right to see a man pushing his way through the crowd of guards. He stopped at the front of the circle, looked at the guards writhing in the dirt, looked to the female vampire standing opposite them, looked to Jack and Ellie and then rolled his eyes. “Christ Monica. What is it this time?”
The vampire strode across the dirt and pulled the two men to their feet, lifting them as if they weighed nothing at all. His eyes fired wordless commands to the men standing around him, who took the broken guards and escorted them away from the fight, presumably to be healed.
Indignation etched across the female vampire’s features. “This insolent swine attacked two of our men!” she shouted, her voice hoarse and desperate sounding. “Now he refuses to give his servant for blood tribute. He insults our family with his—” the female vampire broke off suddenly, her words ending abruptly as choking sounds filled her throat. She clutched at her neck, eyes bulging as her feet kicked at the dirt beneath her heels.
Ellie looked over at the man, seeing his hand held out in the air. He was tall, broad, with blonde hair that was slicked back on his head. He was somehow choking this girl without even touching her. Ellie tried to make herself completely invisible behind Jack, feeling that the situation was only getting worse.
“What have I told you about messing with vampires like us?” the man growled while keeping his choke held tight on her throat. The female vampire’s pale face reddened as she fought for air. “Our family were lucky snatching this gate. If we wish to hold on to it, you have to stop with these stupid little mistakes.”
The vampire held his grasp for a moment longer before releasing it, making the female vampire drop to the floor. He turned his head slowly and looked back in Jack and Ellie’s direction. “You’ll have to excuse my sister. She’s got a lot to learn when it comes to looking after guests. My name is Rourke Valentine, the idiot lying on the ground behind me is my younger sister, Monica. Welcome to the North Border.”