by H. T. Night
And that’s when something amazing happened.
I stopped picking up speed. In fact, it felt almost as if I was slowing.
Maybe that was part of death, too. Everything slowing down, right before I hit bottom.
But I didn’t hit bottom. In fact, I was slowing down even more.
What the hell?
I looked at my arms, and that’s when I received the shock of my life. My arms weren’t arms. My arms were wings. Beautiful white wings. I instinctively angled my arms—or wings—and I swooped up, just missing the ground and the shocked faces below. I made my way up into the sky again. I yelled out, and an eagle-like screech echoed along the canyon walls.
Somehow, I had transitioned. Somehow, I had turned into...the white eagle.
Lena!
I looked down, and my eyesight was amazing. I could see all the details below. Lena was still in Atticai’s arms. Her head was forward. He was fastened to her neck like a goddamn sucker fish. He was drinking deeply, his throat working, swallowing her life force. A deep bruise had formed around her neck where he was sucking her blood, sucking and sucking...
I angled my wings, tucking them in, and dove down.
I shot through the night, going faster than I had ever gone in my life. It was exhilarating. Atticai never saw me coming. Someone—Wyatt, I think—shouted to his vampire leader, but it was too late.
I slammed hard into Atticai, piercing his neck with my great, hooked beak. The force of the impact was great. Atticai was thrown to the side, spinning through the air. My beak, I saw, had gone in one side of his neck and out the other. Just as Yari had said to do.
Atticai rolled across the dirt, and I rolled with him, tucking in my wings. We were still deeply attached. Finally, we stopped and he opened his mouth, gasping. His terrified, confused eyes fell on me. And they widened even more as he realized what he was seeing...a white eagle. His mouth worked. Blood poured out of his nose and mouth, dripping over my own beak.
“I don’t understand,” he whispered, unable to find his voice.
I considered killing him. I considered watching the bastard die, but he had spared me once—although it had been a half-assed gesture. Still, I decided to return the favor.
Except, I didn’t know how to transition back. What was I supposed to do? And suddenly, within seconds, I found myself—my normal self—lying next to a bleeding Atticai. Apparently, just wanting to transition back was all that was necessary to switch back and forth.
“You...” gasped Atticai, holding his neck and sitting up. “You were the one in the visions. I didn’t know. How could I have known? You were the Chosen One.” Atticai coughed, and more blood dribbled down his chin. “I was the evil. I was the evil in the dream.”
Atticai closed his eyes and then just disappeared. In a night, where I had found myself turned into a white eagle, seeing a man disappear in front of me, really freaked me out. But I didn’t have time to worry about it. Next on the list would be to save Yari; that is, if I wasn’t too late.
I scrambled to my feet, and discovered I was still wearing the same clothes I had been. Okay, now that was a neat trick.
Focus, Josiah. Find Yari.
But I didn’t have far to go, or much to worry about. She was standing with Wyatt and Hector, all three of whom were staring at me, open-mouthed. Yari stood still, staring at me as if she had seen a ghost. And that’s saying something about a girl who was already extremely pale faced and was a supernatural being herself.
“You’re the one, Josiah. You’re the Chosen One. I can’t believe it.”
“Never mind that, we need to help Lena.” I turned and spotted her lying on the ground. Blood dribbled from her neck, soaking into the dirt around her. I ran to her side and picked her up. She didn’t look as if she was breathing.
“What do I do?” I yelled. “Someone tell me what to do!”
“There is only one thing you can do, Josiah,” said Yari.
“What? Tell me!”
Amazingly, the others didn’t seem to care what happened to Lena. Why should they? They were used to killing; they were used to death. What was one more dead Tandra to them?
“Tell me, or I’ll rip all of your fucking hearts out!” I screamed.
“She is lost,” Yari said. “Unless....”
“Unless what?”
“Unless you choose to turn her.”
“What the devil are you talking about?”
“To save Lena, you will need to turn her into a Mani.”
“I don’t understand.”
Yari smiled gently at me. “You are one of us, Josiah. You have been bitten three times by a Mani. It takes three bites to turn her.”
Through my scattered, crazed thoughts, I realized she was right. The first had been when Wyatt bit me. The second had been when Yari sucked the poison out of me. And third had been Hector, up on the cliff. That’s why I was able to transition.
“You need to help her become a Mani, or she’ll die. She has lost too much blood.”
“But you just said three bites...”
“This will be her second bite.” Atticai was obviously the first one. Yari walked over and lifted Lena’s wrist and bit down into it, drawing a small amount of blood. Blood dribbled out, but certainly not as much as I would have thought, until I remembered how much blood Atticai had surely consumed.
“Now, you Josiah,” said Yari gently. “But you need to get her conscious.”
“Why?”
“Perhaps she should have some say in the matter?”
“Of course.” God, I wasn’t thinking at all. Who could, under these circumstances? But I did as I was told. I patted her face gently. “Lena, wake up.”
I repeated this a few more times until her eyelids fluttered and finally opened.
“Josiah?” she whispered.
I smiled down at her. She was still in my arms. “Yes. Lena, I need to know...do you seriously want to become a Mani?”
Lena smiled. “Of course, Josiah. That’s all I ever wanted.”
I looked at Yari. “Now what?”
“Bite her anywhere. Allow your new teeth to pierce her deep enough so that her blood flows into your mouth. Drink her and swallow. It won’t have to be much. Just enough so that the bond is felt by the Triat.”
“Okay.”
I ran my tongue over my “new teeth,” pausing at the canines. My tongue stopped and slid along the full length of them. They were as long as a mountain lion’s incisors. Hell, longer.
“Hurry, Josiah,” said Lena.
I nodded, opened my mouth, leaned down, and sank these new teeth deep into her neck, the opposite side where Atticai had feasted. Her blood tasted metallic and warm...and utterly delicious. I stopped, forcing myself to pull back. I released my teeth and looked down at her. And before my very eyes, the two puncture wounds in her neck closed. As did the wounds in both of her wrists. She looked up at me and smiled.
“You can set me down,” she said.
I did so, and she stood and rubbed her neck, and I could only stare in stunned silence. It was all so much to take in. I knew that at any moment, I would wake up from some long-ass dream, no doubt fueled by some highly illegal hallucinogenic drug, slipped to me by some nefarious means. But for now, I was awake. Wide awake. And I was a Mani.
“What happened to Atticai?” asked Lena, looking around. I knew then that she had sincerely loved the tall bastard.
“Atticai is gone,” Yari said.
“Is he okay?”
Yari shook her head, and Lena covered her mouth. Finally, she said, “So the prophecy wasn’t fulfilled?”
“Oh, it was fulfilled, just not by Atticai.”
“I don’t understand,” said Lena.
“Josiah is the Chosen One.”
She stared at me, and it was then that I also knew that she had strong feelings for me, too. Yari saw the look that passed between us, and didn’t like it, but she didn’t say anything. I turned to Wyatt and Hector. Both were openly star
ing at me, and both looked nervous as hell.
“Relax, guys.”
“We cool?” Wyatt asked. “I mean, no hard feelings about us, um, trying to kill you and all?”
“Oh, I’ll be kicking your asses later, but for now, we’re cool.”
They both grinned, and we all stood there in silence. I wasn’t entirely sure what had just happened, but I knew more would be explained to me, much more. But for now, there was only one thing I wanted to do. Well, two.
“Let’s get out of here, guys,” I said.
We all transitioned: Lena and Yari into beautiful red hawks, Hector and Wyatt into black ravens, and myself into the great white eagle.
We flew, together, over the San Bernardino Mountains. I was now part of the Children of the Night. I was now a Mani. I was now supposed to be their savior. But two beautiful women, C.O.N. business, and even the ass-kickings of my new henchmen would have to wait.
My first order of business was to find Tommy…
To be continued in:
The Werewolf Whisperer (Book #2) is now available
(Vampire Love Story #2)
Click Here To Read
About the Author:
H.T. Night is the author of the Winning Sarah’s Heart series, Vampire Love Story Series and the Werewolf Love Story/Entwined series .
Please find him on Facebook
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To be continued in:
Vampire Reign
Coming Summer 2011
The Vampires’ Last Lover
The Dying of the Dark Series #1
by
Aiden James
Acclaim for Aiden James:
“Aiden James has written a deeply psychological, gripping tale that keeps the readers hooked from page one.” —Bookfinds review of The Forgotten Eden
“Not only is Aiden James a storyteller par excellence, but his material for his story is riveting.” —Ruth Wilson, Huntress Reviews
“The hook to this excellent suspense thriller is the twists that will keep readers wondering what is going on as nothing is quite what it seems. Adding to the excitement is that the audience will wonder whether the terror is an evil supernatural creature or an amoral human…Aiden James provides a dark thriller that grips fans from the opening.” —Harriet Klausner, Amazon’s #1 book reviewer
“Aiden James writing style flows very easily and I found that Cades Cove snowballed into a very gripping tale. Clearly the strengths in the piece were as the spirit’s interaction became prevalent with the family…The Indian lore and ceremonies and the flashbacks to Allie Mae’s (earthly) demise were very powerful. I think those aspects separated the work from what we’ve seen before in horror and ghost tales.” —Evelyn Klebert, author of A Ghost of a Chance and Dragonflies on Aiden James’s Cades Cove
“The intense writing style of Aiden James kept my eyes glued to the story and the pages seemed to fly by at warp speed. …Twists, turns, and surprises pop up at random times to keep the reader off balance. It all blends together to create one of the best stories I have read all year.” —Detra Fitch, Huntress Reviews
“Aiden James is insanely talented! We are watching a master at work….Ghost stories don’t get any better than this.” — J.R. Rain, author of Moon Dance and Vampire Moon on Aiden James’s The Raven Mocker
BOOKS BY AIDEN JAMES
Cades Cove Series
Cades Cove
The Raven Mocker
The Talisman Chronicles
The Forgotten Eden
The Devil’s Paradise
Ghost Hunter 101 Series
Deadly Night
The Ungrateful Dead (coming soon)
The Dying of the Dark Series
The Vampires’ Last Lover
The Scarlet Birthright (coming soon)
Blood Princesses (coming soon)
With J.R. Rain
Plague of Coins (coming soon)
COLLECTIONS
Deadly Lover: Two Novels
Terror: Two Novels
Dark Legacy: Two Noverls
Vampires: Three Novels (with J.R. Rain and H.T. Night)
THE VAMPIRES’ LAST LOVER
Copyright © 2010 by Aiden James
Published by Amazon Kindle
The Vampires’ Last Lover
Chapter 1
Consider this a diary of sorts. I’m not an English major, so forgive the occasional grammatical errors. I haven’t got time to take a class to further hone my writing. They’ve told me that it all could end very soon...unless the experiment to save my blood earlier this morning works. If it does, then we can outlast the ‘others’. But in case it doesn’t, I’m writing as much as I can about what has happened during the past ten days and what it all means to the survival of our world.
To get it down on paper…this warning for others.
For if this experiment doesn’t work, they’ll soon be coming for everyone else. They’ll feed enough to stay immortal, and many of you will die. Ridiculous, I know. But what I tell you is the truth. You may have already seen the beginnings of what I’ll tell you on the latest television news reports.
Throughout my nineteen years on earth—my entire life—they’ve watched me. They’ve studied and hunted me and other females in my family, feeding at will. And I found out just this week that it’s been going on for many centuries.
Hidden voyeurs in the shadows. All quiet…all hungry.
All vampire.
My name is Txema, which is pronounced ‘Chema’. Txema Ybarra. I grew up in Richmond, Virginia. Part of a proud Basque lineage, although my immediate family is like most American families of immigrant descent. My father and brothers cheer for the Redskins, and only my mother still adheres to the tenets of our Roman Catholic heritage. I grew up in an affluent neighborhood, where I enjoyed all the benefits of a privileged education. This later afforded me the opportunity to attend college on a full-ride athletic scholarship. But I want to be a veterinarian. Or, at least I wanted to be a veterinarian.
It’s what brought me to Tennessee, where I enrolled at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. It was to be the start of my medical career, while playing basketball for the legendary Pat Summit.
But I will never do either one.
A fall down a stairwell in September that resulted in a partial tear to the ligaments in my right ankle took care of my freshman basketball aspirations, and my present circumstances have ensured my pursuit of a veterinarian career—or any other—won’t happen either.
Ironically, that accident may have set much of what has happened since in motion. I met my boyfriend, Peter Worley, while lounging in the lobby of Massey Hall. Tall, dark, and great looking, he had caught my eye at orientation, and we shared the same biology lab. But we never had a chance to talk beyond basic pleasantries until he saw me struggling to balance my laptop while trying to stand up holding my crutches. I’ve seen other girls glare with envy, and he could have his pick, I’m sure. He’s not intimidated by the fact I’m as tall as he at six foot-two. He says he likes my smile and the way my hazel eyes shimmer when I’m laughing, and how my dark hair hangs in curled waves upon my shoulders. I think it’s more my other curves and the fact I lack nothing up top…although I’d like to believe what he tells me. At least he would have that in common with the vampire boys that soon came to call on me.
Am I in love? No…not yet, although Peter and I seemed destined for something special between us. On up until my cast was removed from my left foot, a few days before Halloween, we spent almost every waking moment together. They say initial passion can smother you if you’re not careful, and at times it has seemed too much. But when apart, I’ve often thought of nothing else but being with him. His smile, and the way his deep brown eyes turn brighter when he tells me he loves me, has made it near impossible for me to complete my studies with the steadfast focus I’ve always had for my schoolwork.
Maybe it’s the fact we’ve only known each other for
just a few months. Regardless, I’ve not been able to fully commit myself to him, and yet I cherish his touch, and how the Ralph Lauren cologne mingles with his skin when I’ve kissed his chest. He is like a drug I can’t get enough of. But, each time he says he loves me something inside me tightens up. And as October gave way to November, I’ve sensed how my hesitation to commit in return has begun to really bother him. Patient, he is. But it’s hard for such a catch to remain that way when other girls are more than willing to give him more than closeness—and I mean something more than just sex. My soul is not ready.
This torment upon my heart…this desire to be close to him along with the need for distance was the main conflict in my life, until the night of my nineteenth birthday, just a little over a week ago. Tuesday, November 9th. While getting ready for a dinner and movie date with Peter, a sudden chill entered my dorm room. My roommate, Tyreen Davenport, had already left that night to be with her man, Johnny Ayers. Being on the fourth floor gives us both a sense of security, but it felt like a window was open and the cold Smoky Mountain air had been allowed to rush in. But the window was closed, and when I turned to look at the door to my room, it remained shut.
A young man stood in front of it, staring intently at me. The man’s paleness and presence immediately announced he wasn’t from around here. As it turned out, he wasn’t even from this world.