The Vampire's Slave (Tales of Vampires Book 1)

by Zara Novak

  “There’s a reason for this storm.”

  Wind battered at the walls of the spire outside, while thunder rolled through the air all around them. Eric glanced left out a narrow window in high spire, and caught glimpse of the storm that raged outside.

  “It’s all part of the incantation.” Ira explained. “I’ve been summoning the energy to do this for months. Harnessing the power of the storm I could take control of the witch, the golems within the castle and I even had energy left over to open a portal.”

  “A portal?” Eric tried not to betray his surprise. Portals were a rare feat of magic, and only the most accomplished sorcerers could summon them.

  Ira turned back to face Eric. “Yes, you don’t think I’d start my dynasty here do you?” He laughed. “You vampires have such a penchant for the macabre. I will build a real fortress, it will make this wreck of a castle look like a stone shack.”

  They came to the top of the spiral staircase and walked through an open door that led onto the broad rooftop of the Castle Belmont. Eric caught sight of the gruesome scene Ira had orchestrated, and felt fury burning within him instantly.

  Ira had positioned five stakes against the North East corner. The stakes were set into the stones wall, angled back so they hovered over the river far below. On four of the five stakes, were the remaining members of his family. His father, Wraith, Veronica and Sophia.

  Just away from the stakes, a table had been positioned, on which Ira had tied Claire. Eric felt his whole body burning with fury to free the girl, and he also felt the burning heat of his mating frenzy too.

  Finally, set into a wall just left of the table, a portal sat burning through stone, giving brief glimpse of some far and distant room. All the while the storm raged around them, wind and rain whipped across the broad stone expanse, biting at Eric’s skin from every angle. The wind screeched all around them, and thunder rumbled through the valley several times a minute. The scene was illuminated by the high torches that covered the walls of the Castle Belmont, and white sheets of lightning added to the chaos too.

  “The last stake is for you. Ezra, do the honors.”

  Eric growled as the witch moved his body swiftly through the air, fastening it to the last stake with magic bindings. He cast a quick glance over his shoulder into the valley below, the river swam deep below them.

  His stake was the last in the row. Beside him was his youngest sister Sophia, Wraith, Veronica and then his father. Sophia cried in fear upon seeing her brother being tied next to her.

  “Eric please! Do something!”

  “It’s alright Sophia, I’ll get us out of this, I promise!”

  Eric heard Ira laughing somewhere ahead. He looked over and saw the doctor fiddling with a mountain of luggage that had been arranged by the portal. Stone Golems were carrying more boxes out by the minute. Eric looked across at his family. Sophia, was the only one looking back at him. Veronica and his father had their eyes trained keenly on Ira, their faces etched with a fury that Eric supposed was similar to his own. Wraith’s eyes had rolled over white and his face was cast up to the sky. Eric heard Claire’s voice, and his eyes were on her in an instant.

  “Eric? Eric is that you? Please help me! It burns so much, it burns so!”

  “Claire! What did he do to you?! I’ll save us, I promise. Just hang in there!”

  Claire was tied to the table in the pajamas she had fallen asleep in. Her eyes were blindfolded. She flinched at the sound of Eric’s voice. Eric turned his attention on Ira.

  “What have you done to her you sick bastard?”

  Ira spun from his trove of pillaged treasure, seeming to remember he had prisoners at his command.

  “I haven’t done anything you stupid fool!”

  He walked back from the portal, past the table and paraded in front of the family. “You really think I’d risk hurting a breeder? She’s burning because of her mating frenzy! Her body is craving for sex. No worry, for I shall give it to her now. And then I will cast stakes into your hearts and cast you into the river.”

  “No please!” Sophia cried out at Ira’s threat. Ira simply cackled in response. Eric looked at his sister, who was trembling in terror.

  Another voice came from the other end of the line. Eric glanced sideways to see it was his oldest sister, Veronica. Her eyes burned into Ira’s while the wind dragged her red hair across her pale face.

  “You don’t have to kill us Ira. Take the girl if you must, but let us live. There’s no sense in this.”

  Ira smirked and walked up to Veronica, stopping just in front of her stake. “You really think I’m that stupid? You would come after me as soon as you could, I’ve been the subject of your bastard father long enough to know that truth.” Ira looked at Atticus, who simply stared back.

  “What? No words for me old man?”

  “If you’re going to do it then just do it.” Atticus growled. “You always did take too fucking long with everything.”

  As Eric watched the exchange between his family and his captor, he looked at his brother Wraith, who seemed far removed from the scene before them. His face was twisted up at the sky, his eyes filled with white. Eric could see the reflection of the storm in his brother’s blank stare. The faint trace of a smile hung on Wraith’s lips. The expression felt familiar to Eric, for he felt he had seen this look on his brother once before. The night that Wraith’s body had been taken prisoner and possessed by the demon.

  “What have you done to Wraith?” Eric shouted over the commotion of the storm as he watched Ira approach the table upon which Claire was restrained. He trembled in rage as he watched Ira draw a hand up the inside of Claire’s thigh. He broke away for a moment to answer Eric’s question.

  “That fool? Nothing. His mind is so weak, it seems to have been possessed as a side effect. Another testament to the weakness of the Belmont lineage.”

  Ira’s hands were back on Claire again, but for a moment, Eric saw past the transgression. If Ira didn’t have control of Wraith, then that meant his brother still had control of himself. Ira didn’t know the Belmont family secret. He didn’t know the truth about Wraith. That meant there might still be a chance.

  “Eric is that you?” Claire writhed on the table underneath Ira’s touch, her arms and legs struggling at the bindings. “I’ve been waiting for your touch for so long, please take me!”

  “Yes it’s me darling.” Ira said, taking advantage of Claire in the confusion of her sexual frenzy. “You want me to mate you darling don’t you? You want me to fuck your cunt with my dick?”

  “Stop that you bastard! She doesn’t know what she’s saying! This isn’t fair!” Eric lunged against the restraints, trying to break the magic that held him to the stake, knowing that it was impossible. His father spoke from the end of the line.

  “You’ll kill her Ira. You know that. Her body is only suited for Eric, you’ll only end up killing her.”

  “Probably.” Ira laughed. “But what’s the harm in trying? She’s deep in the heat of her frenzy, she won’t know the difference…”

  Ira pulled back the blindfold that was on Claire’s face, allowing her to see the scene around her for the first time.

  “You want me inside you don’t you Claire? You want to be my slave for all time.”

  Eric could hear Ira trying to flare his intention, which in comparison to his own was weak and pathetic. Claire’s face twisted in confusion at the sound of Ira’s weedy voice.

  “Eric? Eric… that isn’t Eric.”

  Her eyes widened in realization that it wasn’t her lover hovering over her. “You? You?! No! Get away from me! Don’t touch me! Eric, Eric, help me!”

  Ira’s cool resolve melted for the first time, replaced by incarnate rage. Eric smiled weakly at the sight. “It’s okay darling. I’ll save you, I promise.”

  “It doesn’t matter if she wants me or not.” Ira said with a tone of finality. “I’ll make her mine either way, and place my child in her womb. I’ll lock her in the tower o
f my new fortress, and keep her there for all time, using her over and over until I have an army big enough to take the world!”

  Ira wrapped his hands around the waistband of Claire’s pajama trousers and yanked them down, stripping her lower half in one powerful move.

  “There’s just one small problem with your plan Ira.”

  The doctor looked up from Claire one last time to meet Eric’s sneering expression.

  “Oh yeah? And what’s that?”

  “You forgot about my brother.”

  Eric turned to the vacant expression of his brother, and he stirred every ounce of his intention. He called to him, pushing his voice deep into the mind of vessel that was once his twin. He found the demon that had laid dormant within him all these years, finally woken by the storm tonight.

  “Wraith! Look at me, it’s your brother, Eric!”

  Eric howled over the orchestra of the storm. Wraith turned to him, his white eyes reflecting the chaos of the night overhead. He spoke to Eric, with a voice that the family hadn’t heard for a long time. It wasn’t the hollow voice of the demon that possessed him, it was his voice, soft, frightened - the voice of someone that had been trapped by a demon for a lifetime.

  “Eric? Eric is that you? It’s been such a long time brother.”

  “Stop this!” Ira yelled, clearly perturbed by the eerie scene unfolding between Eric and Wraith. “Stop this nonsense at once! You won’t stop me from taking your stupid human!”

  Eric ignored Ira’s attempt to distract him. He knew he only had a brief chance to hold Wraith’s attention. “Wraith! I need you to do me a favor, I need you to take hold of the demon within you and use it to attack Ezra, can you do that?”

  Wraith’s white eyes glanced at the drop below him.

  “But the fall…”

  “If you don’t do this we’ll all die Wraith, you included!”

  The white eyes of his brother passed over the scene in front of him, as if seeing it for the first time. He took it all in, considered something for a moment and then he nodded solemnly.

  “Stop this now!” Ira screamed, climbing from off the table to confront the brothers. He turned to Ezra and held a hand in her direction. “Witch, I’ve had enough, kill the brothers first!”

  Eric turned to his brother, who was staring back at him with all his focus. Wraith spoke, his own voice entwined with the spirit of the demon possessing him.

  “Now?”

  “Now!” Eric screamed back. “Attack!”

  *

  The storm swelled in the sky above, and in an instant, war broke out on the rooftop of the Castle Belmont. Ira left Claire on the table, to deal with Eric and Wraith. He stood, body shaking, a hand stretched in Ezra’s direction, hoping that the witch would carry out his order in time.

  “Kill them!” He screamed. “Kill them both!”

  His order came at the same time as Eric’s. The possessed hands of the witch flew up and red light frothed at her fingertips, but all eyes were on Wraith.

  The brother raised his eyes to the sky, and a horrific groan left from the tortured creature’s lips as if he were letting out a great torrent of energy. Suddenly, the thunder and lightning in the sky above intensified ten fold, and a bolt of white electric thundered down through the night, right into the body of Wraith.

  The fire of a thousand suns coursed through the body of Wraith, the electricity swam through his veins, breaking the magical shackles set on him by Ezra. Lightning channeled down through his body, Wraith lifted his arms and pointed them at Ezra, pushing the raw energy of the storm out through his palms.

  A colossal rail of white light leapt from Wraith’s hands, his throat screaming a hoarse cry of pain all the while. The bolt leapt straight through the air into Ezra. The witch was sent flying back across the rooftop, crashing into some wall that was in the far off distance. Ira’s dark possession of her broke immediately, for each one of the Belmont family fell forward from their stakes dropped to the floor, their magical shackles existing no more.

  Eric jumped to his feet and set his eyes on Ira. The doctor was already making a run for the portal, realizing that his plan had failed.

  “Not a chance.” Eric growled as he leapt through the air, and in one swift movement he was across the roof and his hands were around the neck of the treacherous doctor. Ira looked up at Eric in horror, his face burning with fear.

  “Eric, no! Please! It’s all a big misunder-”

  Eric shot his hands to one side, breaking the neck of the doctor immediately. He left him standing for a moment and a fraction of a second later he was back in front of the traitor holding a stake. He plunged the wood through his chest without saying a word, and turned without stopping to watch him burst into dust.

  A moment later he was at Claire’s side, untying her from the bench with the help of his sister Sophia. As soon as she was free, they helped her redress. Eric picked Claire up from the table and held her in his arms, squeezing her as tight as he could.

  “Eric! Eric is that you?!”

  “I’m sorry.” He repeated the words a thousand times over. “I should never have let this happen, I’m so sorry.”

  She squeezed him back even harder.

  “Don’t be stupid. This isn’t your fault. Can you set me down?”

  “Oh no.” Eric shook his head. “I’m never letting go of you again. Seems every time I do something bad happens.”

  “She’ll be alright now.”

  Eric turned at the sound of Veronica’s voice.

  “You must be Claire, I’m Veronica. Eric’s older sister.”

  Eric begrudgingly set Claire down. She brushed herself off momentarily and took the hand of the red haired girl.

  “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

  “Well, I wish the circumstances could have been better, but yes. It’s nice to finally meet the latest addition to our family.”

  Atticus and Sophia stopped at the side of Veronica, and the family stood as a unit, staring around them at the aftermath of chaos that Ira had left.

  Eric’s eyes darted about the roof, surveying the damage. The portal through which Ira had tried to escape still whirled on the wall. The Golem Ira had possessed had turned back into inanimate statues, frozen in time until magic would wake them again.

  “Wraith.”

  Eric turned in the direction of the stakes upon which he and his family had been tied to. He walked toward them quickly, pulling Claire by the hand as he did so.

  “Four,” He spoke quietly to himself, realizing there was one stake missing. His father spoke from behind.

  “The stake he was tied to fell when the lightning struck. The blast must have been too much.”

  Eric looked over the edge of the castle wall, where the stake had been fixed into the stone. The river raged peacefully hundreds of feet beneath them.

  “We can still save him!” Sophia said hopefully. “We can send a party to look for him!”

  Eric turned and saw Veronica and Sophia staring at his father with the same hopeful expression.

  “No.” Atticus said gravely. “The blast, the fall - there’s not a chance he survived.”

  “He gave his life to save us.” Sophia started to weep, throwing herself into the chest of her father.

  “Did it leave him?” Veronica said, looking at her father.

  “The demon? I can’t say for sure. All I know is that he saved us all. I hope he found peace in his last moments.”

  Eric turned around to look back at that fall below. His eyes wandered over the dark landscape below, knowing full well that his brother was dead. Claire’s hand tightened around his own. He looked at her and smiled softly.

  “He saved us all.” She said. “He was a hero.”

  “Indeed.” Eric said sadly. He knew that the majority of his life, his brother had been haunted by the demon inside of him. He hoped as his father did, that there had been peace somewhere in his final moments.

  “Stop witch!” Everyone spun on the
ir feet at Veronica’s voice. Ezra stumbled towards them, tendrils of smoke rising from her body. Atticus put a hand out in front of his daughter, who was ready to launch into battle.

  “At ease Veronica.” Atticus said. “I think we have our old Ezra back. Is that right?”

  Everyone looked at Ezra, who had been on the receiving end of a bolt of lightning. Her hair was a mass of black wire, her clothes were ripped and smoking. Her skin was marred with dark smoking burns, her eyes scored with red. She spoke, her voice etched with the grain of suffering.

  “You are right Atticus, you old fool.”

  Everyone took a deep breath and relaxed at hearing Ezra’s usual voice. She looked at the aftermath for the first time, taking it all in with jaded realization.

  “Ira. What a cunning bastard. I should have known he was up to something. He’s been sneaking around my library for months. I didn’t think the bastard had it in him.”

  “None of us did.” Atticus said. “Are you alright?”

  “I’m okay. That was an old incantation he used to take over my body. I should have seen it coming. This is my fault.”

  “None of this is anyone’s fault.” Eric said. “We couldn’t have known Ira would betray us like this, after all these years.”

  Ezra turned to the portal and held out her hands. “I’d better close this.”

  “Wait a moment.” Eric walked back to the group to get a better look at the portal, he kept a tight hold on Claire. “It’s just as I thought. Father, Veronica - look through the portal. Do you see anything that looks familiar?”

  They looked through the portal. On the other side there was a stone room of some sort, in a keep in some unknown location. Boxes of luggage and pillaged artifacts lay in the room, along with the frozen stone giants that Ira had cursed to do his bidding.

  “On the far wall.” Veronica lifted a hand and pointed through the portal.

  “The sign of the White Order.” Atticus said. “We should close this portal at once.”

  “What about the things?” Sophia said. “There are several artifacts I can see from here that belong to our family.”

  “That is a room in the fortress of the White Order.” Atticus said calmly. “There’s no telling what spells they have in place to protect themselves against vampire.”