# # #
The following is an excerpt from the upcoming second book of the series as the Vampires and Cavers move to their new home: Caveena
On Thursday morning, Shelby, Brad, Stephanie, and the other Double E Club members were walking down a long hallway of Lucent Central on their way to the cafeteria for lunch. They walked together and any student coming their way stepped to the side to let them pass. They wore their normal gray jackets with crest and looked the picture of perfection as always. Shelby’s phone rang followed by Stephanie’s, and then Brad’s and the rest; this was unusual and had never happened before. They stopped in their place and checked their phones without talking. Each received the same text message and in unison they turned in the hallway and began walking toward Mrs. Taylor’s lab room. They walked down the dimly lit hallway around the corner and to the lab room. Shelby led the way and opened the door and went inside, the others quickly followed.
They walked to the back closet and some of them went inside the small room while the rest waited their turn on the outside. Shelby did not need a code; she pressed her palm to a hidden panel that slid down. The door opened and she stepped into the cramped elevator with Brad and Stephanie at her side. They traveled several levels before the elevator halted and when the doors opened Stella Taylor was there to greet them.
“We are abandoning this location; hunters have found us and will be here soon. You and the children will leave at once. Take charge of the others and lead them to safety.”
Stella spoke directly to Shelby and then gave her an envelope. They nodded at each other followed by Mrs. Taylor nodding to both Brad and Stephanie.
The three walked down a hall and around a corner and were gone.
Mrs. Taylor stayed there and waited for the next group of vampire students to come down and directed them to the hall that Shelby took. They quickly followed and then last in the elevator were a group of girls wearing their necklaces and earrings: Cavers. Stella gave them their instructions as well.
“Shelby and the others have left for their new home. You will go and help Melanie get the children and take them to safety. You will stay with them in their new home and see to no harm coming to them. You know your charges; see to it that they survive.”
The Cavers all shook their heads in agreement and traversed the opposite hallway to help Melanie. Each carried a small backpack of personal mementos they wanted to bring with them; mp3 players, favorite books, photo albums, and the like. They all knew what they signed up for and always kept a bag ready in their school lockers for an emergency departure. Some of them chatted as they moved quickly down the hall while others stayed silent and concentrated on the job at hand. They moved through a tunnel and new set of rooms before reaching Melanie.
“Thank god you made it.” Melanie hugged each of them. “You will get your child and take them through the trees to an underground entry. I will lead, keep your children in front of you and after we get there we come back for the next group. Understand?”
They shook their heads in unison; the older girls had taken the trip before after completing their first full year of service. All knew of what had happened to Bertha Johnson and their friend Sara. They were glad to be leaving the townspeople, but were apprehensive about leaving school and friends they had made. They followed Melanie to the children to help arrange for their departure.
After preparing the children, Melanie led them out to the surface and they began their trek through the forest. They told the children it was an adventure to see friends and they eagerly swung through the trees laughing while the Cavers watched for hunters as they traveled.
They arrived miles away at a shed and Melanie put in the code and they went underground through a tunnel to a railcar. These railcars were different from the others, they were like subway trains, completely enclosed with sliding doors for entry and padded seats and poles in the aisles. There were overhead compartments for them to place baggage in and each seat had a seat belt and jack for earphones. The trains consisted of two small cars; the children were strapped in the first, while the Cavers and a conductor traveled in the next.
The Cavers bolted the door of their car and sat down to enjoy their trip. They would travel in luxury during the long journey and the young girls would come in to feed the children after they had made it to the halfway mark. The rest of the girls stood on the platform and watched the children waving their arms about and giggling as the car sped away down the tracks. The small subway train-like railcar went down the tunnel as it began its long journey to take them to their new home. The others returned for other children and performed their duty with great pride and confidence.
The first train arrived in a new complex, the same complex; the other was a satellite city. They were now in the main underground complex, the true Caveena, beneath the surface city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Their home was a large well-hidden underground city about the size of a small city of 10,000 people; roughly two thousand were vampires. It is a great complex which contained a domed ceiling with faux lighting to simulate day and night. The tallest building in the structure towered three stories tall and most went deep beneath the complex’s ground level. It had taken centuries to build these hidden, self-contained marvels, built by both Cavers and Vampires, for the enjoyment of both. Here, in Caveena, they lived together and the people did all the things one would do in any city. You went to school or to work, you played in the park, you shopped, and lived a normal life, except for the fact that you did it all underground in secrecy. Everyone was free to live his or her life and there was not much in the way of prejudice although a healthy fear did exist. The people here were a Matriarchal society with vampires occupying the highest levels of society and their Queen as supreme leader.
It had taken several hours to get there and the subway train stopped at a platform and the doors opened wide. Out stepped Shelby, Brad, Stephanie and the other vampire teenagers, still wearing their gray jackets. Johnathon, the head of security for the royal palace, met them. He wore a military type uniform with decorations near his left shoulder all neatly lined up in a row. He bowed his head slowly in honor of Shelby and her eyes darkened briefly in recognition before returning to their light blue almost gray color. Her long strawberry blond hair was tied in the back with a metal clip and the loose ends seemed to move as if a breeze blew by.
“Tabatha is honored by your presence,” he said.
“Why is she not here?” Shelby asked with an authoritarian tone, showing her dominance.
Johnathon bowed his head again in respect. He wanted to convey submissiveness and tolerance to the future queen.
“She begs your forgiveness, the hour is late and the council is in session. I volunteered my humble presence to escort you to sanctuary and the inner chambers.”
Pleased with his performance, Shelby signified with a hand gesture to proceed and they moved to a car. The city had small one-lane cramped streets and a train system. Shelby and the others were driven out of the immediate city to its edge where they got out of the car and stood in front of a large castle, Willdara. This was the royal palace; it had a tower at each end and a large wooden door as the entry. Johnathon led them inside and a group of humans wearing servant uniforms lined up to greet them. Shelby performed the customary inspection and gave Johnathon permission to dismiss them. One of the housemaids took them up the long winding staircase to the Guests’ quarters and they viewed several rooms. After making their choices, assigned servants prepared their rooms so they could rest from their long journey. They retired to their bedrooms for the night.
Caveena was built centuries ago while they were being hunted and driven to near extinction. The city was first wood and dirt, carved out as hiding places and then homes for them to survive without detection. It later over decades evolved into a beautiful modern city absent the skyscrapers and monuments that cities used to distinguish themselves. It was a city built with the finest metal and constantly updated by workers all about
the city.
Brad chose a room in the tower facing the city so he could monitor the comings and goings of those entering the castle. He chose the room for defensive purposes, not knowing what trouble lay ahead.
Shelby was the last to go to her room; she stayed outside on a balcony overlooking the city. One day it would all be hers to rule over and the thought warmed her heart. When she had had enough of the view she went inside and closed the double doors to the balcony. Shelby walked down the hall and two servants stood next to the wall with their heads bowed as she passed by them. She went to her room and closed the door.
Her room was large and contained a big bed with canopy. There was a stereo for music and a bookshelf with dozens of books. Vampires are not big on television and spend leisurely time reading a good book, so no television was in the room and very few were in the city. Opposite the bed was the familiar white tiled wall and in its center a wall-sized crest of an eagle with its wings outstretched and clutching the moon with its feet. The rest of the room was a different shade of white and was not in tile form. Shelby went to the wall and pressed the sun in the lower right corner below the crest. A vault slid out from the wall an extended for six feet into the room. This was a horizontal form of the vertical vaults that they stood in back in their Barlon hideaway.
Shelby pushed a button and the top slid back toward the wall and she examined the inside of the coffin-like chamber. Like the others, it contained buttons on each side for its operator to use, only there were two rows of buttons on each side where her hands would be. She focused her eyes and her pupils shrank and then grew larger and she saw writing on the buttons. She read them and then climbed inside the chamber and lay down.
She lay in the vault and for the first time allowed her thoughts to drift to the Cavers. She had lived her life with them, but never allowed herself to get close to them because of her station in life. Shelby was their future leader and she thought keeping her distance was best between them for the sake of the monarchy. She now thought of them, of Sara, of Malcolm, and of the little pain in her side, Allie Carter, whom she was glad was gone. Shelby was not sad at the thought of losing any of them, except for the fact that it diminished their numbers and the future of their survival. She experienced a small sorrow for Sara and Malcolm, and then began to consider replacements if she in fact had to make that decision. Shelby then let her mind wonder to the lost vampires and finally to her mother and her unknown fate. After she had finished indulging in thoughts of torment, she refocused on her surroundings and looked around the tight chamber.
Shelby operated the controls and closed the lid, turned on the inside light, and slid the vault back into the wall. When it finished closing, it made an undetectable seal. She operated the controls by her hand and a tube came from the side vault wall of the chamber. She sniffed the open tube before turning her head and allowing the tube to enter the side of her neck. She turned out the light and drifted off to sleep from the feeding tubes mixture of blood and sedation.
The second train arrived at the same platform hours later and slowed. Monica and Elizabeth were the Cavers who accompanied the two and three-year old children. Monica was a third year Caver and had been here before. This was Elizabeth’s first trip and she stood with her mouth open looking out the window at the beautiful black steel city that was passing in front of her. All the buildings were black metal and had tiny white lights on them that reminded her of Christmas trees, her favorite time of the year.
Monica tapped her on the shoulder, “Are you ready, Lizzy?”
“Oh yeah! I can’t wait! Who will meet us?”
“A woman named Samantha. She will take us to the Center. Come on, let’s get the children ready.” Monica unbolted the door and walked out of their railcar into the children’s car. The six children were looking out the windows just as excited and awestricken as Elizabeth. The young girls waited for the railcar to stop and the doors to open before they took the children out of their seat belts.
When the doors did open, a long-haired woman with green eyes came on board the car. Her underlying hair was dark brown, the top portion was a long-flowing red with dark brown highlights at the tips. She was wearing a necklace with a large red-jeweled crest emblem on it, neatly centered between her breasts. She wore a low-cut white dress and stood five feet ten inches tall and wore a jacket with the crest on it. If she had been a little taller she could have passed as a model. She smiled and waved at the children and they gleefully waved back at her. She was the first new face they had seen in sometime. She then turned her attention to the young girls.
“Hello. I am Samantha; you can call me Sam, but not Sammy, which is my father. How are you ladies?”
“We are fine, thank you. I am Monica Talbot and this is Elizabeth Freemont. Others will be arriving shortly.”
“Good,” said Samantha. The conductor stepped out to get instructions from her. “Go back and get the others. The tunnel is not to be sealed, place guards at the entrance and tell them to protect it with their lives.”
“It is my honor to serve,” said the conductor. He turned and went back to the controls and waited for them to leave so he could return.
“How are you, Elizabeth?”
“I’m well, thank you for asking,” the innocent looking girl said with a big smile.
“Let’s get the children off. We will walk a block up the street and board a train to the Children’s Center. Keep them in front of you and watch for distractions.”
They took the children out of their harness-styled seat belts and had them form two rows. Samantha stayed out in front leading the way, the children followed. Monica and Elizabeth followed in the rear, trying to anticipate anything that would distract the children, and everything did. They boarded the train and rode right up to their next stop and went inside the two-story Children’s Center.
“Well, ladies, this is your new work area. Each of you has two children to care for. In addition to their exercise program, you will be responsible for their educational needs. I will test them on occasion to see how well you are instructing them, outside of that, there are no rules to your training. I want you both to go in and meet Aiden, she will take you to your living quarters and I will take the children to meet a new teacher.” Samantha pointed down the hall to a closed door and the girls went in that direction, merrily chatting as they went.
Samantha took the children into an empty room and had them sit in chairs. Toys were on a table next to the chairs and they picked one up each and were playing, making sounds as they played. A tall thin woman came into the room and gave the children the once-over with an intensely odd stare. She was a vampire and hissed at the playing children, showing her fangs. The children stopped playing and sat rigid in their chairs without talking. Each of them looked at her with wide-eyed curiosity, wondering who she was?
“Children, this is Velma Brianay. Velma will be your schoolteacher, can you all say hello, Velma?”
“Hello, Velma.” The little toddlers said, each in their own squeaky little voice.
Velma tilted her head and gave an evil smirk to the children and then she left the room.
Monica and Elizabeth walked down the hall and entered the room Samantha sent them toward. They were met by Marcus Lang, a male Caver who was one of the directors of the Center. He pushed a button and a woman came in from the next room.
“Monica, Elizabeth, this is Aiden Komer, she is over the floor where you will be staying. She lives there and will be available for any questions that you may have. Think of her as a live-in adviser. You will rest today and tomorrow we will meet and began making out class schedules for the children. Welcome to Caveena. Have a good night and I will see you tomorrow.” He went to them and shook their hands before leaving.
“Hello, ladies, I’m Aiden. Nice to meet you both.” Aiden had shoulder-length blond hair neatly trimmed above her eyes in a box cut. Her inside edges were a dark brown with streaks of brown as highlights throughout her thick blond hair. She had haz
el eyes and a beautiful face. She stood five feet eight inches tall and was medium build. She knew Monica from an earlier visit.
They each said hello to her.
“Welcome to Caveena. Let me show you where you will be living.” She gestured toward the door and they turned to walk out.
Velma came out of a room with two men who might possibly be vampires. She sniffed the air and looked down the hall and saw the two young women and turned her face into a scowl. She turned to the first man, “Make an appointment to fix that one’s hair before Queen-princess sees her and tries to kill her.” Velma pointed at young Elizabeth.
The man standing beside her bowed his head in agreement. Velma walked off. When gone, the men faced each other. The second spoke.
“Serve Tabatha right if she turned out to be her albatross. I hate prophecies with a passion. Did you hear the revolting way she spoke?”
The first man smiled and bowed again and they both watched while the girls walked down the hall with Aiden.
Aiden led them down a hall to an elevator and went down two floors. This particular building had four floors, two above ground for classes and two below for living quarters.
After getting off the elevator, Aiden talked while walking them down a long hallway. “The children live above you on the next floor and you will live here. You will work a five-day week with the children and have weekends off to explore the city.”
“Can we go out alone; we won’t be attacked by the vampires will we?” Elizabeth, the younger of the two girls asked.
Aiden smiled politely at the naive young girl. She thought about the many Cavers who had come through and had long ago decided to stop explaining that they are not actually vampires but instead were human like them. She chose to use the common language like everyone else and ignore the obvious.
“Don’t worry Elizabeth; vampires do not attack humans here. Well, let me correct that, those with self-control are harmless. The children have no self-control. When they reach ‘the age of being’ they will gain control and be harmless, until then, keep your necklace, earrings, and other protections with you.”
“Then I don’t need protection from the adults?”
“No, Elizabeth, you will be fine. After you two get settled-in, I will take you on a quick tour of the city and you can judge for yourself. But I will warn you, stay around here and don’t venture out until I get a chance to talk with each of you in depth about protocols and rules.”
“Is living here different from the outside, I mean the vampires themselves?” Monica asked. She had visited twice before but never stayed longer than a day and definitely not overnight, surrounded by vampires.
Aiden thought for a moment and then had a puzzled look on her face. “I don’t know. I have never been on the outside with them.”
“Never,” said Elizabeth in disbelief.
“Never. I have never had a reason to leave here.”
“Then you were born here?”
Aiden opened a door on the left side of the hallway toward the end of the hall and they went inside. “What a silly thing to say? Of course, I was born here. My family has been in the service of the Queen for eighty years. My parents met and were matched here and so were their parents. My parents have never left and my grandparents were brought in like you were.”
“How old are you Aiden?” The inquisitive Elizabeth asked.
“I’m 21 years old.”
“And you were raised with their children?”
“No, that is not allowed. The children have no control and would attack the human children. It is one of the reasons why they are raised on the outside and then brought back in after they have been educated properly.”
Elizabeth was curious and loved to ask questions. “Do you date here?”
Monica jumped in. “Excuse our friend here; she forgets curiosity killed the cat.”
“No problem. Let’s get to why we are here. These are your sleeping quarters. If you brought bags with you they will get here if they are not here already. You have adjoining rooms. Decide for yourselves who gets which, they are pretty much the same. A bed, closet and dresser, books, stereo, and a shared bathroom. I will call on you by morning. Stay here until called on. Good night, ladies.” Aiden left them so they could rest.
The girls talked as they went from room to room having a quick look at both before making a decision.
“Do you think they are crying for us right now?” Elizabeth asked Monica.
“Who are you talking about?”
“The townspeople! Stella told me their cover story. We died in an explosion. Do you think any of them are crying for us?”
“I doubt it. We were foster kids, remember?”
“Yeah, I know, but still, we were a part of their community.”
“Lizzy! They killed our friends and if we were there, we would be dead too! Don’t waste time thinking about those monsters!”
“I know you’re right, but I can’t help it. I think a lot. I wonder if they will throw us a funeral.”
“Lizzy!”
“Sorry! I know, I know, I know!”
“Which room do you want?”
“Can we stay together, at least for a while? I’m glad I’m here, but I still feel a little … you know.”
“We will stay in here, in my room!” Monica said, grinning.
Since Elizabeth had other things on her young mind, Monica made the room decisions and picked the one she liked best. Still, they would share a room for the time being, for safety’s sake. Monica and Elizabeth found bed clothes in the dresser and each took a turn going to the adjoining room to change. When they were ready to sleep, they slept in Monica’s bed.
About The Author:
R.G. Richards is a lifelong Missourian who writes Fantasy/Paranormal/Romance novels. He was an enthusiastic reader of tales of foreign lands (China, Japan, Hong Kong), most of which were “borrowed” from his father’s private collection—a big James Clavell fan (Noble House, Shogun). These faraway tales provided the fertile ground which produced a rich imagination capable of spinning strange and unique stories of distant lands and people. Outside of reading and writing, he is a beginning swimmer, a gym hater, an avid gardener of Sugar Baby melons, and a lover of jokes. If you know a good one, send it his way.
SPECIAL NOTE:
Feedback is essential to an author. I look forward to hearing from you. Tell me what you liked as well as what you hated. I can take criticism so don’t worry, you won’t get a rant in return. With your help, I can make the next book that much better. Again, Thank You for purchasing and reading.
Books by this author:
VAMPIRE SERIES
Vampires aRe Real
Cavers (Cavers #1)
Caveena (Cavers #2) December 2014
ZOMBIE SERIES (Zora Baker Series)
Zombie Zora - Zora Baker #1
Zombie Invasion - Zora Baker #2
Kill Happy - Zora Baker #3
Zombie Eden - Zora Baker #4
Zombie Jokes – Companion book of Jokes told by children.
DEATH SERIES
The Demon Warrior’s Light
ROMANCE SERIES
The Flame
Singed Hearts
You can find him online at:
Mail: [email protected]
Website: rg-richards.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/robertgrichards/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5823275.R_G_Richards
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorRGRichards
Cavers: A Vampire Tale Page 48