A Hunt Among Vampires (The Angel Series)

by M. Cheykota

  Early the next morning, Kayle and Roman leave the estate to reach their destinations. Kayle is on his way to France. Roman will continue on to his father’s werewolf pack in Italy. The house is quiet when I finally crawl out of bed. Moving through the common areas, I deduce that Christien must not be around.

  Strolling into the kitchen in search for a cup of coffee, I notice several human servants having breakfast. My search for coffee is forgotten when a young, pregnant woman walks by me. The woman’s heartbeat pounds in my ears, nearly causing me to drool on myself. The woman continues on, oblivious of my blood thirst, to her seat at the table.

  Unknowingly, I follow her. As I stalk closer, my eyes flash with silver as my fangs extend. A few others at the table notice my approach and gasp in alarm. Just as I grab the pregnant woman’s shoulders to keep her in her chair, a young man jumps from his seat.

  He cautiously touches my shoulder. My attention turns to him, irritated by his interruption. He brushes his shoulder length, light brown hair to the side and bares his neck in offering.

  I release the forgotten pregnant woman and place my hands on the man’s chest. The blood thirst inside me roars to life as I run my tongue experimentally over the pulse on his neck. He moans in anticipation. The sound causes me to hesitate, but only for a moment.

  I lift my head from his throat. Turning his face towards me, I capture his mind with my gaze, putting his mind in a daze. As fast as a striking cobra, I plunge my fangs into his neck. A rush of blood fills my mouth as I drink deeply from his neck.

  He moans in pleasure as I pull his life giving fluid into my body. His hand plunges down the front of his pants and he jerks at himself wildly. A few seconds later, he is shouting his release.

  I moan against his neck as his pleasure ripples through me.

  Another man with black hair approaches me. He touches my arm gently and my eyes snap open. I release the slumping man, quickly licking his wound and grab the black haired man. He smiles as his head tips back in invitation. I am still feeling ravenous so I sink my fangs into his neck after capturing his gaze. The black haired man also jacks himself off to completion as I feed. With my blood thirst finally sated, I release him and lean against the countertop.

  My fangs retract as I regain control of my blood thirst. It is then I remember what I have just done.

  Oh my God! What did I do? I never feed from anyone anymore. What is wrong with me? Christien is going to be furious!

  I look around the room at all the faces staring back at me. I lower my eyes and see two men on the ground with their eyes closed with a woman fussing over them. Recognizing the men as Christien’s servants, I drop to my knees and crawl over to them.

  “Oh my God! Did I kill them?” My voice shakes as I watch a woman pressing a damp towel on the light haired man’s head.

  “No. They are weak, but I think they will recover. They will not be able to donate for a while.” Her tone is static.

  “I am so sorry.” I cry out, tears streaming down my cheeks. “This is why I never feed from humans. Is there anything I can do?”

  The woman checks the first man’s pulse. “His pulse is really weak. He needs blood. You nearly drained him.”

  I cry harder as I grab a knife from the table without hesitation. “Here, give him mine.” I force the knife into my palm as I move closer to the man.

  The woman jerks the man away from me. “You have nearly drained him. If you give him your blood, you will turn him into a vampire.”

  I am stricken with grief. “I can’t turn him into a vampire. My blood can heal him.”

  “How?” The woman asks skeptically.

  I grab a towel to catch blood dripping from my hand. “It is dangerous for me to sit here bleeding with a house full of vampires. They will drain me dry. Now please, allow me to help him while I can.”

  Reluctantly, the woman nods and holds the man’s head into position, apparently willing to trust me.

  I reopen the healing wound on my hand and position my wrist over his face. Blood flows freely into his mouth. After he takes a few swallows, I abandon the first man and do the same for the other one.

  As my wound closes, I wipe down everything with my blood on it with a clean dishtowel. When finished, I demand one of the servants to fetch lighter fluid and matches. I put all of the bloody towels into the sink. Minutes later, the servant returns with the requested items. Wasting no time, I drench the towel with lighter fluid and set the towels on fire right there in the sink.

  Yelps and exclamations of surprise echo through the room as the flames lick the ceiling. The flame dies down quickly as the lighter fuel burns off and the towels turn into embers. After double-checking the room, I begin to relax as the embers turn to ash. Rummaging under a couple of counters, I find a bottle of bleach. Using paper towels instead of cloth towels, I clean the floors, counters and knife with bleach. The pungent smell causes everyone to evacuate the room. I ignore the burning feeling in my own sensitive nostrils as I dispose of the paper towels by fire.

  Satisfied that I have destroyed all traces of my blood, I check on the men that the others carried into the other room. Resting peacefully, their pulses are strong and the fang marks on their necks have almost disappeared. Astonished by their remarkable recovery, I touch the pink marks left from my fangs. I estimate the marks will be gone in less than ten minutes if the rate of his healing remains constant.

  My mother has spoken to me about the healing properties of my angelic blood, but to see it in action in a human for the first time is quite spectacular. Seeing the healing happening before my eyes reminds me of the goal Tyler and I made to sell my blood on the Black Market. Now knowing how foolish and dangerous our ideas were, I inwardly recoil at the thought of Hassan buying my blood and using it to gain power to defeat Christien or capturing me.

  Christien walks into the room and looks around at the human servants, trying to understand why everyone looks so tense. He reads a servant’s mind and finds out what has happened.

  Lowering my head in shame, Christien turns to me in disbelief. I know he has read his servant’s mind and found out that I have fed from his human servants.

  “Jessica, what is going on?” Christien crouches to check on the two men.

  The light haired man stirs.

  Christien helps him to a sitting position. “Logan, are you okay?”

  Logan raises his blonde head, smiling as his grey eyes rake over my body in appraisal. “I’m great. That was incredible.”

  Christien barely contains his rage as Logan replays images of me feeding from him in his mind. Without realizing it, Logan is projecting the images into Christien’s mind because of the strong emotions behind them.

  I pick up the images from Logan too and blush. “I am so sorry Christien. I don’t know what came over me. This is the reason that I don’t feed from humans anymore. Well, it is one of the reasons. The other is because my blood thirst is too strong. Either I drain them or this happens.” I point to the two men sitting on the couch.

  “We will talk about this later.” Christien says coldly as he looks over the black haired man. “What happened to Ian?” He looks over at the group of servants.

  “I fed from him too.” I confess in a quiet voice.

  Christien visibly shakes in jealousy. “You will not feed from other men!”

  “Hey, you don’t have to yell at me! I know I should not feed from humans, whether or not they are men, is irrelevant. Just be happy that I didn’t kill them.” I shout back irritated at his barbaric behavior.

  The pregnant woman looks at me in disgust while talking to Christien. “You almost did. If Logan and Ian had not intervened, you could have killed me and my unborn baby too.”

  I could not have been more shocked if the woman had walked across the room and slapped me across the face. Too stunned to reply, I turn away from everyone to hide my tears. “I am sorry for feeding on the men. I am grateful they intervened on her behalf. She is right Christien. I was out of co
ntrol. I nearly drained both men in a few short minutes. If I had fed from her, I would have killed her and her baby.”

  Christien finishes his assessment of the men’s condition. “Clara, the men seem to be fine. You are overreacting.”

  Clara rants defensively. “I am not overreacting. You should have seen them. They were both pale and their pulses were weak. Logan and Ian would have died from blood loss if she had not fed them her own blood!”

  Christien explodes in rage. “She did what?” He scans Clara’s mind and watches the scene play out in his head. “Jessica, what in the hell were you thinking? Have you lost your mind? You could have been killed!”

  Before Christien can reach me, I spin on my heels and move to the other side of the room. “I knew it was a risk Christien, but Clara was right. They were dying and it was my fault. Giving them my blood was all I could do to save them. They did what they had to do to protect Clara and the baby. I could not sit there and let them die for their heroics.”

  “At the cost of your own life Jessica? After everything we have been through to protect you from Hassan, you take the risk of my own vampires slaughtering you?” Christien is barely able to contain his anguish.

  “Would you be okay if I allowed Logan and Ian to die for my mistakes when I could have saved them?” I finally turn to face Christien and his human servants.

  Christien’s temper dissipates as he looks over the confused faces of his human servants.

  “What I did was wrong and I am sorry.” I look into the eyes of the servants. “I will stay away from all of you. I understand your anger and it is justified. Please accept my sincere apology.”

  Everyone watches me leave the room and climb the stairs before they start explaining their version of the story to Christien.

  I shut the bedroom door and get dressed quickly. In order to avoid seeing the servants again, I open a window, shift into a seagull and unsteadily fly out of the window towards my house.

  Chapter 4

  I am about a block away from my house when I decide to retake human form. Still not confident about landing in bird form, I aim for a group of bushes to soften my landing. Finally, on the ground once again, I retake human form while no one is watching and walk cautiously to my house.

  I notice Christien’s form lounging in one of my patio chairs. There is no doubt in my mind that he is here to yell at me about my irresponsible behavior again.

  Assuming I am safe in Christien’s presence, I saunter up to my door, completely ignoring Christien in the process. I almost have my door unlocked when I sense him moving. Doing my best to ignore him, I open the door and walk inside.

  Christien stands in front of the doorway, but he does not say anything to me. I take a moment to look around the room and listen for any danger. This is common practice for someone as paranoid as I am about my safety. I leave Christien at the door and throw myself on my couch.

  Christien watches from the doorway patiently, respecting my need for privacy. Since he has been in my home once before, he no longer needs an invitation from me to enter.

  I mumble into one of the pillows by my face.

  Christien strains to hear what I am saying. “I am sorry Jessica. I did not hear you.”

  I turn my head towards the door, removing the pillow from my face. “I said, come in and shut the door. The brightness of the sun is giving me a headache.”

  Christien steps inside and closes the door. He walks around the room silently before taking a seat on the couch near my head. He gently runs his fingers through my long, dark hair.

  Purring in delight, I reposition my head to rest in his lap.

  Christien continues playing with my hair. Sunlight from the windows catch strands of auburn in my hair, making it shimmer between his fingers.

  I sigh before I break our calming silence. “I was not expecting to see you, at least, not this soon.”

  He chuckles. “Do you think this is the first time my servants have complained about their duties?”

  “It is not their duty to die by exsanguinations.” I pout, less than amused by Christien’s attitude.

  “Both Logan and Ian are fine. In fact, they have both offered themselves to you any time you have the need. You have made quite a good impression on them. They are not usually so…” Christien hesitates, searching for the appropriate word.

  “Accommodating?” I supply bitterly. “Enamored? Willing?”

  “Accommodating will suffice.” Christien says between gritted teeth.

  “Right, I am sure that’s what it is.” Rolling my eyes, I raise from Christien’s lap. “I know what I did Christien. You can say it.”

  “Can you say it Jessica?” He asks curiously.

  I am quiet for nearly a minute. “I didn’t mean to do it Christien. That particular power has been becoming increasingly stronger every time I feed off a live donor. I knew better.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I influenced their minds. I took their thoughts and made them mine. I bent their will and forced them to do what I wanted. They would have allowed me to kill them if I wanted to, without a fight. I made them my slaves.”

  “Why did you do that? It was not necessary. They were willing donors. You did not have to bend their will in order to feed from them Jessica. Do you know what their lives are going to be like now?” Concern crosses his face as he gently touches my cheek.

  “I know Christien. They will be mindless zombies bending over backwards to do my bidding.” I push his hand away. “I have seen what it does.”

  “Have you done this before?” He asks as softly as possible.

  Launching myself from the couch, I begin to pace. “Yes Christien. Is this what you want to know? Have I even done it deliberately? Yes! I know they become lovesick fools when I influence them during a feeding as strong as mine has been becoming. I could not stop myself. He was pulling away and I was still hungry. I warned you that my blood thirst gets out of control sometimes. I don’t like feeding from humans for this reason. The last time I fed from a human before today was when I fed from Tyler a couple of years ago. I almost influenced him too, but I was able to stop myself at the last instant. Even now, he follows me around like a lost puppy. He’ll do anything for me. I have no idea if it is remnant from the feeding or if he is just gullible like that. You don’t need to lecture me on the dangers of feeding from humans. This is the reason I drink from bags or drain my victims. I cannot seem to feed without taking it all and I don’t mean only their blood. Their hopes, their dreams, and their private thoughts haunt me after I feed.”

  Christien stops me from pacing and sits me beside him on the couch. “I can teach you to feed without influencing their minds. You will not need to kill them to stop your nightmares.”

  I look at Christien with skepticism.

  “Sometimes, I forget how young you are and that you had no one to teach you these things. Normally, a fledgling learns control from their sire. Since you were born a vampire and not made, I cannot imagine how you learned to feed with no one to guide you. I imagine there were a lot of body bags in your childhood.”

  I blush furiously as I remember my misguided teen years. Now almost 25 years old, that time doesn’t seem that long ago. If Austin didn’t step in and take me under his wing when he did, I wonder how bad I would be now.

  Christien pulls me close to his side. “Do not concern yourself, ma chatte petite. You could not help yourself. I should not have to remind you what my blood thirst caused me to do when I was a fledgling.”

  I flinch in response to his comment, remembering the story Christien told me about Hassan forcing him to kill his human wife and children to sate his first blood thirst.

  “It is okay ma chatte petite. I do not blame you for doing what you need to do to survive. You have demonstrated a lot of restraint not to feed from humans when your blood thirst arises for this long.”

  I relax in his embrace. “I am sorry for feeding from your servants.”

  “I am not an
gry because you fed from my servants. That is why they are there. My anger comes from the fact that they are men and they have received pleasure from your bite.”

  “You are jealous?” I look up in surprise. “You are not mad that I almost killed them? You are angry because they are men and they got off on it?”

  Christien blushes from his reaction to my statement.

  I regain Christien’s attention by changing the subject. “How are they doing?”

  Christien smiles brightly. “They are doing remarkably well. They are showing no ill affects from your feeding. In fact, your blood seems to have caused a profound change to their bodies, even if they are not aware of it yet.”

  “Really? You’re not saying that to make me feel better, are you?”

  “No, I am not. What you are not aware of is that all of my servants are sick with various diseases and illnesses.”

  I give him a perplexed look. “They seem healthy to me.”

  “I give them regular doses of vampire blood to keep their disease from progressing. I cannot cure them of their diseases, but I can offer relief. In exchange, they have agreed to be my human servants and blood donors for vampires in my get or for guests. Until today, I did not believe there was a way to cure them without turning them.”

  I gasp. “My blood! Are you saying that they are cured of whatever was ailing them?”

  “I cannot be absolutely sure without bringing their healthy status to the attention of the other servants. From what you have told me about your blood, it is a strong possibility that they are no longer sick. Ian had leukemia. I do not think he carries the disease in his body any longer. I did not sense the sickness within him when I was checking on him.” Christien admits with pleasure.

  “If that is true, I am happy for him. It is the least I can do for almost killing him.” I attempt to be nonchalant.