Reborn to Bite (Vampire Shadows Book 1)

by Mark Gronwald

  "Thresholds are a type of natural magic, like a witch's ward but not as strong – Lorenzo's words. He says you can push your way through it if you want to risk death."

  "What do you mean? What happens?" Sabine asked.

  "All I know is that it's bad. Do I look like I'd want to risk death?"

  "You fought alongside Lorenzo. That could have been dangerous."

  Shelby turned and walked down the hall. "That's different. I owe him."

  Sabine followed, feeling a frustrating mix of worry, agitation, and thirst. Worry about Trent and the witches in the home of vampires, worry about what they'd think of her if they saw her thirsty. She felt agitated by the vampire auras swirling in the house, and then there was the ache in her fangs and her stomach. She'd been able to starve herself a whole week before, but something had changed. The well of blood magic within her, whatever it was, had deepened. Just like someone who'd been used to surviving on tiny meals and then switched to feasts.

  She smelled werewolf and could sense heartbeats getting closer as Shelby led her down a long hallway decorated wood-cabin style, then down a flight of stained rough-wood stairs. The place reminded her of a hunting lodge. It seemed too alive to be a vampire lair. Then again, she felt the same way about her apartment. The silent march grated on her nerves, so she decided to find out more about their new acquaintances.

  "So, you like being a vampire, Shelby?"

  Shelby shrugged as she held the railing, trying to glide down the stairs like a sophisticated vampire, but not quite pulling it off. "It's not all glamour and power like I thought it would be. Especially not when you're the low vampire on the totem pole. I didn't know about the part where I have to address the head of the Family as Master or Mistress."

  "I didn't know you were all related."

  Shelby laughed. "That's 'Family' in the vampire sense... with a capital F. Some people call groups of vampires 'Covens' or whatever, but we're not witches. We prefer the term 'Family' because it means a group of people related by blood, where the older and more powerful members run the House."

  They reached the bottom of the stairs and walked through a large common area to the open-style kitchen. Trent and the witches were sitting at a heavy wooden table in the kitchen, eating what looked like burritos. Lorenzo sat with them, sipping on a glass of something thick and red. They all watched Melina as she spoke, half with her hands.

  "...And then, Esmerelda tripped when she went to get her diploma," Melina said, laughing. "It was so cute."

  Heather snorted. "And here I always thought Esmerelda was perfect."

  "It's good to respect your elders," Esmerelda said before picking up a piece of burrito with her fork.

  Melina laughed her musical laugh.

  "Sleeping Beauty has awakened," Shelby said, opening the refrigerator.

  Everyone turned and greeted Sabine. Melina and Lorenzo bowed their heads, watching her with curious expressions. Their auras flared too, making Sabine want to scratch something.

  Sabine walked up to the table and fixated on Trent's and the witches' steady heartbeats. The smell of blood permeated the air, and her fangs ached as she opened her mouth to speak. "Glad to see you're all safe."

  The witches stared at her, and Heather's heart rate jumped.

  Sabine slapped a hand over her mouth at seeing the look in their eyes. "Sorry."

  "Here, drink this," Shelby said, offering a glass filled with red liquid.

  Sabine took the glass from Shelby. She tipped it to her lips and took a sip. The familiar warmth flowed into her, even though the drink was cold. She tipped the glass back and chugged the whole thing down.

  The whole group watched her.

  "What?" Sabine asked, licking her lips.

  Lorenzo stood and walked over to her. He looked down into her eyes. "You have no aura, and no heartbeat. Yet you have fangs and feel the thirst?"

  Esmerelda cleared her throat. "How are you feeling, Sabine?"

  Sabine looked at the concern on their faces, and nodded. "I'm fine."

  "Would you like a refill?" Shelby said, holding out her hand for the glass.

  Sabine nodded without even thinking, then paused. "Who did this blood come from?"

  Lorenzo sighed. "A small supply yet remains from the bounty that we stockpiled over the last month, courtesy of travelers."

  Sabine watched Shelby pour a second glass, suddenly feeling guilty for enjoying the blood, and suspicious of her hosts. "Were the donors hurt?"

  "Not at all," Melina said. "They enjoyed every donation."

  Melina stood and faced Sabine. "We follow the 'no kill' laws set forth in the concord of 1494 with the witch clans. There were a few deaths here in this town due to other vampires, before we convinced the residents not to come out after dark. We used a little glamour to help start a rumor about a loose Shoshone spirit to explain the first disappearances, and most people locked their doors. The gas station owner wasn't one of them, as you saw."

  Sabine took a breath and sighed. "So what do we do now?"

  Lorenzo smiled. "We pack up and fly you back to the city."

  "We got a call after we went to bed last night. The wards fell. Dark magic breached the ward at the Bay Bridge," Heather said. "I guess the city will have to just deal with them. I just wish there was a way to make sure what happened to my family never happens again."

  "We can talk to the Masters and Mistresses of the Twelve Houses," Melina suggested. "Maybe they'll be willing to make some concessions to keep you from reconstituting the wards and banishing them again."

  Heather shook her head. "Even if I enchant another wand, I wouldn't subject this town to another vampire invasion. The Masters and Mistresses could call my bluff."

  "Did anyone hear from the group that was looking for the ceremony?" Sabine asked.

  "They were looking at the Golden Gate, so they missed them," Esmerelda said, shaking her head. "By the time they got to Oakland and found where the ceremony had taken place, it was too late."

  "But not all our news is bad news," Lorenzo said.

  Sabine raised an eyebrow. "Let's hear the good stuff then."

  Heather smiled. "My coven got Julie to a safe place, and stopped Neville's assassins."

  "When you say 'stopped'," Sabine said, holding up her fingers for air quotes, "what does that mean?"

  Trent smiled a vicious smile. "It means Mike and the pack tore them to shreds."

  Sabine nodded her head in approval and turned to Lorenzo. "I'd like to meet Neville face-to-face. Can you arrange it?"

  "He's the regional representative of the North American Council. He doesn't grant audiences easily, but I'll see what I can do," Lorenzo replied. "Why do you want to meet him?"

  "I plan to kill him."

  Lorenzo leaned back in his chair and stared at Sabine, rubbing his chin in contemplation. "He has more than a dozen vampires."

  "I know."

  "He's the most powerful Master in San Francisco."

  Sabine nodded and narrowed her eyes. "I'm not worried."

  "Then you're naïve," Lorenzo replied. "He'll stop you with glamour before you even get close enough to challenge him."

  "Didn't you try to glamour me during the fight in the street?"

  Lorenzo nodded slowly, rubbing his chin again. "Yes, and you surprised me. I didn't use my full strength, thinking you were human. Neville is three times my age, and if he knows what you are –"

  "He made me what I am."

  Lorenzo contemplated her. "And you have no idea what that is."

  Sabine looked to Esmerelda, but the old witch just shrugged. She searched the faces of the others, coming at last to Lorenzo and his the slightly raised corner of his mouth. "But you do."

  "I have a theory," he said. "If you plan to go against Neville, you'll die without allies. As it happens, my Family has a grudge against Neville as well. So our aims may be aligned. You'll need a Family at your back."

  Melina stood and put a hand on Lorenzo's shoulder. "What my lov
e is suggesting is that you'd need us at your back."

  "I guess I wouldn't mind the help," Sabine said.

  "But we have rules about these things. Since you are a – " Melina paused, looking at the witches before deciding how to continue, "vampire – you must defeat the Master of the House in a contest of glamour."

  Sabine took a breath and let it out. "Meaning I have to fight Lorenzo?"

  "If you win, you take over our Family," Melina said. "If you lose, you join us and follow Lorenzo's commands."

  Lorenzo nodded. "And if you're not able to defeat me, then going after Neville would be suicide. So my first command would be to avoid him and bide our time for a century or two."

  Sabine went to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of blood from the shelf. She popped the cork and drank the contents, feeling the well of power inside her fill. She put the empty bottle in the sink and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Let's do this."

  Lorenzo's aura burst forth, and Sabine felt Melina's aura adding strength to Lorenzo's. Sabine held the image of a fortress in her mind, but it changed as she pictured it. Waves of a turbulent sea crashed against the walls, and stones fell as the walls shuddered. The gate leaked, water flowing through until she imagined the gate walled up and water-tight. The water raised, surging against the walls, and threatening to flow over the tops. She'd never experienced the mental image shifting before, and the shock of it confused her for a moment.

  Lorenzo's siege felt like a battle that might never end. But if it did, it would end with the psychic sea swamping her imagined castle. Anger welled inside her, and she collapsed the mental castle into a solid needle, imagining it flying at Lorenzo. A shield came up around him, like a solid bubble of glass. She pushed, inching her attack forward. She felt like she was drowning, unable to see or hear the world around her. All except the imagined needle that she pushed through the glass bubble around Lorenzo. Time slowed as the needle punctured his shield, entered his skull, and splintered. Shards shot to Melina's mind.

  Sabine's mind filled with their thoughts, hearing their amazement and the other thought – the dream come true that she might be their salvation – an answer to what she was: Damphir.

  "What happened?" Shelby asked.

  Lorenzo and Melina knelt facing Sabine.

  "Sabine is the new leader of our Family," Lorenzo said.

  Shelby shrugged and knelt with them. "Okay then."

  "We have one other matter that will require discussion before we pack and leave," Lorenzo said, returning his attention to Sabine. "As the new head of the Family, the responsibility is yours to deal with."

  Sabine leaned back and crossed her legs. "Okay."

  "This concerns Ms. Wilde, so it's a matter of some delicacy. I want to make sure that I express the situation with the proper respect."

  "What situation?" Heather asked, putting down her fork.

  Lorenzo looked between the women, and then to Melina.

  Melina continued for him. "My Lorenzo swore a sacred oath to protect Ms. Wilde twenty years ago. He has fought many battles in the last two years in the name of that sacred duty, and we have lost three dear friends in those battles."

  "Did you say twenty years ago?" Heather asked.

  "Yes. Since the night your parents were killed." Melina replied.

  Heather's pulse started to climb. "Tell me why."

  Lorenzo took a deep breath to speak. "Neville, in his capacity as our representative to the North American Council, decided to trade favors with another House in a financial matter. He wrote an edict at their behest which threatened our House's ability to provide for our members. A member of our Family, a vampire named Cassius, became incensed with the situation. His wife Claudia and I argued with him for patience, but in the end we could not keep him from his fate. He accused Neville of dishonorable dealings in front of witnesses, and was killed in the subsequent honor duel.

  "Our house was devastated, but none more so than Claudia. They had been married for more than a hundred years, and she knew no other way to live. She locked herself away and stopped feeding. The night the thirst took her mind, we had been called away to handle an emergency."

  Heather's pulse started racing.

  Lorenzo continued, looking to Heather. "By the time we tracked her down, she was in your living room and there was nothing we could do for your parents."

  "Goddess," Heather choked out, tears streaming down her face. She scrambled out of her chair. "You. You're the one who erased my memories."

  Lorenzo nodded. "Your powers hadn't developed enough to resist. It was the only thing left that I could do for you. That, and swear right then to protect you for the rest of your days."

  Sabine remembered making a similar promise, and silently cursed herself. She had already missed a night of guard duty jogging with Kim.

  "What happened to Claudia?" Heather asked, her hand shaking. Esmerelda got up and held Heather's hands, soothing the younger witch.

  Lorenzo swallowed the rest of his drink and put the glass down. "You have to understand, she didn't act with malice or forethought. She was insane with the thirst at the time. We lived only a block from your house, and it was a matter of random chance. She was sentenced to one hundred years of solitary confinement."

  "Where is she?" Heather asked, her voice quiet.

  "I think it might be wise to take a moment to collect yourself," Lorenzo said, trying to sound as calm as possible.

  Sabine put down her glass. "Go ahead, tell her."

  Lorenzo closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He let it out in a sigh, seeming to ponder whether to give in. "She's confined in the basement, as she was in our previous home," Lorenzo said, standing.

  Heather's eyes grew cold, and she nodded. "I want to see her. Now."

  Lorenzo nodded, a solemn look on his face. "It is your right."

  They all got up and followed Lorenzo as he led the way across the house to a small door. He unlocked the door and opened it with a wave of his hand. Sabine marveled at his telekinetic trick, and how strange her life had become that she was following a vampire into an underground lair. The narrow staircase seemed to go deeper than most basements, and ended in a small room with shelves on all four walls. Lorenzo pressed a hidden button. The wall with its shelves moved back, allowing them access into a hidden chamber. It was a decent sized room, filled with a cache of weapons and what looked like boxes of food.

  "This house was built by a survivalist," Lorenzo said. "The irony being that he died in a car accident on the way to purchase ammunition."

  "I'm not sure this is the time for that story, Lorenzo," Melina said. "I'm sorry, Heather."

  Heather just stared at the doors ahead.

  Lorenzo stepped up to one of three doors in the far wall, and pulled a key from his pocket. He fitted it in the door and opened it. The door creaked on rusted hinges, opening on a pitch black space beyond. The group made a semicircle at the entrance. Light filtered through them, illuminating a small cement-lined room with chains mounted on the far wall.

  A dried up husk-like corpse lay curled at the base of the wall, naked except for a camisk that barely covered her. She resembled a mummy, except for the thick silver-plated chains attached to her wrists, ankles, waist and neck. Her shaved head bristled with tiny stubble, and sunken eyes blinked at them from withered sockets. The mummy raised a withered arm to shield her eyes.

  Heather sobbed and ran into the room. "You killed my parents!" She screamed, then pressed her hand against the vampire's chest. "Praecantatio Mortalis!" she hissed, staring into the vampire's eyes.

  Light flashed. The concussion from the spell blew everyone off their feet.

  Sabine scrambled up and ran into the room, her ears still buzzing. There was blood everywhere, along with pieces of Claudia's chest. Claudia's disconnected right arm lay in the far corner of the room.

  Lorenzo yelled "Shelby get blood!" Then he was suddenly beside Sabine. "She needs blood immediately. Yours might heal her quickest, b
ut sharing your blood will give you a blood bond. She'll be able to draw energy from you to heal."

  Sabine didn't hesitate to think about what that would mean. She bit her wrist and stuck it in Claudia's mouth while Lorenzo held the disconnected arm against Claudia's withered and half-destroyed body.

  Melina grabbed a stunned and blood-spattered Heather and threw the witch over her shoulder. Heather didn't resist as Melina carried her out of the cell.

  Shelby ran in with several bags of blood, and Sabine lifted her wrist away from Claudia's mouth. Claudia gasped in pain as her arm reattached itself, and the blood she'd taken from Sabine did its magic. Sabine slowly poured a bag of blood into Claudia's mouth. The skin around the wounds started to puff up and get some color. The horrible wound in her chest had missed her heart by mere inches, and started knitting itself together.

  Sabine stared at the wounds, fascinated.

  Claudia drank another bag of blood, and another, as the wounds healed and her withered form started to look human. Even her hair grew out, sprouting as a beautiful wavy blonde. She took several deep breaths before starting to sob.

  Sabine could see the depth of pain and sorrow and regret that filled Claudia, etched in her face even before the bloody woman spoke in a voice that shook with emotion.

  "I wanted to die. She should have killed me. Why didn't she? She had her hand over my heart, but she changed her aim. Why?"

  Then Claudia had a moment of shock. "I'm... feeling again!" Her eyes looked up at Lorenzo, imploring. "I feel emotion! Oh God, I didn't want to feel again! Make it stop!"

  Sabine felt a compulsion to do as Claudia asked, and reached for a blade before she managed to stay her hand. She turned to Lorenzo. "Why am I feeling like doing as she says?"

  Lorenzo looked between he two women, his eyes dilated and fangs down from the smell of all the blood in the room. Then he stared into Sabine's eyes. "Bite her. Now. Do it!"

  Sabine looked to Claudia, and suddenly felt herself locked in a war of wills, her power being drained. She latched onto Claudia's recently attached arm, and sank her teeth in. She took a mouthful of blood and the world shifted. After a second or two of mental struggle, her power stopped draining from her and equalized between her and Claudia. Sabine fell back, overwhelmed by the emotional trauma, not her own, which spilled into her mind from Claudia.