There were no mirrors in the entire palace. I guess the vampires didn’t want the lesser of their creatures to discover the truth about themselves—that they were the most hideous of beings, and the vampires were beautiful and youthful looking.
Maybe that’s what the vampires wanted them to think. However, it was the vampires who were despicable. They were beautiful on the outside but inside dark and sinister. They traffic in death and destruction for all that came into contact with them.
Looking at Terry, a once beautiful young woman who had a beautiful soul, now reduced to this despicable creature, sickened me and reminded me of Sebastian.
I would have to include Sebastian as wicked because of what I saw him do to that young girl. He took everything she is or hoped to be and left an empty shell. But I couldn’t help thinking that maybe he couldn’t bring himself to do that to me. But look at Terry. Look what they’ve done to her and all the young people they came across. Sebastian wasn’t innocent either. He had a life before he met me. He had many lives and caused many premature deaths.
It was Sebastian I hated more than Aare because he allowed me to believe that he could be different and I could love him and live with him.
Knowing what I know about Sebastian and that my life would be in constant danger, I was still willing to take my chances with him because somewhere between blind youth and painful maturity, I fell in love with him.
Sebastian being a vampire and the undead, I must be a fool to fall for him. But then smarter women than me have falling for the worse kind of men. Some were not as beautiful as he, and many had more charisma than Sebastian.
Maybe that was it. Maybe I loved him for that sour pain laden expression he carried around, which showed that he was in constant pain. He didn’t like what he was doing or had done and he couldn’t help himself. I had to believe this or I would go crazy.
Some of the lesser beings weren’t as horrible as those vampires, I thought. Terry didn’t lose her goodness just because she lost her beauty. That at least was intact for now, otherwise she wouldn’t be in here with me pleading for me to go away from this place.
“The sun will be rising and the vampires will go to their resting place. I keep watch over their crypts along with guards.”
“Will Sebastian rest there too?”
“He has to if he’s to live. But I think Aare has other plans for him. I tried to find out what he intended to do to him, but I couldn’t. He keeps those zombies around him and they are all males. He doesn’t trust women. He thinks they will betray him.”
“The way you’re doing now,” I said.
“Exactly.”
She thought about what I had said and looked at me with her red agonizing eyes. She didn’t have to say more.
“I’ll come for you and help you get out of here,” she said. “Only if you want me to.”
“Of course I want to leave here,” I said not quite sure. It would mean leaving Sebastian.
“Do you want me to tell Sebastian anything?” Terry said looking to see if I would change my mind.
“Don’t say anything,” I said. My voice low and filled with pain.
“Not if he meets the sunlight without you sending word of your love?” I paused and looked around and back to Terry.
“What do you mean, Terry?”
“It’s possible that Aare will try to kill Sebastian, soon,” she said. I cupped my mouth and closed my eyes. Terry didn’t say a word and I took that as Aare would do exactly that.
“But Sebastian is far stronger than Aare and Aare knows it.” I stood trying to convince myself that I was right.
“He may be stronger, but you are his weakness and Aare knows it why else did he kidnap you and bring you here? Not to ask you to marry him,” Terry said. Of course I knew that but I had confidence in Sebastian’s strength of mind and body.
“What will you do if Aare discovers that you helped me, Terry?”
“Hope for a quick death.” I wanted to hug her, and I did, even with the stench of her body repelling me. I held my breath as she held on to me and I grabbed her with tears pooling in my eyes. I didn’t know if I was crying for her, for what I could become, or for the prospect of losing my love—Sebastian.
Trying not to throw up all over her, I pulled away because she would have the stink of vomit on her as well to contend with. I extended my hand and we touched fingertips. She smiled at me and turned and walked to the door, peeped out, and stepped outside closing it and locking it behind her.
Chapter Three-Sebastian
When Zoey left me because of what she had witnessed, all I could do was stare at the door.
As I turned to Aare, I noticed a sly grin.
“Go to her. Take her in your arms and make love to her. I want you to do just that. I want you to know just how much you will miss being inside that warm living body.” I didn’t understand what he wanted from me at first. He was inviting me to make love to Zoey before he claimed her as his wife. I walked away to go after Zoey to convince her that I still wanted and needed her.
When I returned from sleeping with Zoey, Aare had reduced two more young bodies to nothingness.
They lay at his side one on the right and one on his left. These were two young males he had kidnapped off the streets. He no longer took them when they were young to indoctrinate them into the life of being a vampire before he changed them. He can’t wait until they are eighteen when he changes them. This was the rule of my father and mother but since they are gone, he doesn’t have them to stop him.
Now with his thirst and depravity at all-time high, and his cruelty reaching its peak, he doesn’t wait, but uses others to deceive them and bring them in his pen like a corral of sheep.
It’s then he takes everything from them. All they are and all they will ever hope to be. That’s what he wanted of Zoey—to be his slave where he could feed on her and take her blood. The blood I never wanted him to taste. The blood I never wanted to taste, but by my actions I feel I have doomed her.
“See, Sebastian, this is one battle you can’t win. I will have the woman you love and your inheritance as the elder son.” He sat smugly in his chair with corpses scattered around him and throughout the room. Some alive and some dead and some in between living and dead.
“You can’t inherit anything until father is no more. The council will not allow it. He’s the leader of the vampires.”
“He was king,” Aare said with a quivering lip. And he shot his head back and laughed. Then he clapped his hands and a group of men came into the room and led the young men and women who could walk on their own outside, and the rest like the girl that asked to die, one zombie placed her over his shoulder and strode out with her limp body already beginning to stiffen.
I knew where he was taking her. To the tower to be food for the hungry humans. I had seen this too many times. Aare had convinced my father to do this. ‘It would save money,’ he said. Not that we needed money. We had generations of money we managed to horde from our plunder throughout the ages of civilizations.
My father with the Romans as they invaded countries in Europe and brought their treasures back to this castle. I was with the Spanish when they invaded the Americas and stole the riches from the Incas.
Aare still young, wanted the treasures for himself. I think he had plans all along to get rid of me and our parents.
After the bodies and the walking dead left me and Aare, we stood toe to toe gazing at each other. This was his domain now. I had left it to go protect Zoey from him and from my father.
“Why are you speaking of father in the past tense?” I asked.
“It shouldn’t come as a surprise that he would be the only one who would stand in the way of me killing mother.” His voice rang light with pleasure. His eyes cold and scornful.
He had admitted to me what I suspected—that he was the one who killed our mother.
“I had to get rid of father first. Even though he didn’t love mother any longer and had his eye on someon
e youthful and a human. He would have given that human everything that belonged to us. We would have had to wait thousands of years to claim this throne and the power that goes with it.
“So I lured him to one of the towers claiming a rebellion had arose among the humans and zombies. He had been sick and sleeping in his crypt for a long time and no one had seen him, therefore, he believed me and sought to show his face, but he had gotten mixed up with the time.
My soldiers took him to the tower and when the dawn broke, he couldn’t find shelter. The rest you can guess about it because you will follow father to this fate, and I will be with Zoey the way I’ve dreamed about.
“She is older now but that doesn’t make her blood less sweet. Or her body less inviting,” Aare said. His breathing strong as he looked away and smile at the notion of being with her.
“Do you think I would allow you to molest her?”
“Allow me? Allow me? I’m the king now.” He clapped his hands and the door opened. “Take him to the tower. Get there in time. Not one second before or after day break. I want him to feel the pain of being burned inch by inch. I want him to smell his flesh being consumed by fire,” he looked at me and in a wisp of air he disappeared.
Before I could turn, something struck me and brought me to my knees. It wasn’t a stake to the heart like mother, but a silver hammer. Each blow from it rendered me weakened and unable to move.
The zombies wrapped me in a blanket and periodically hit me over and over. The blows felt as if I had been stabbed in my chest. I weakened and was no longer able to fight them off.
When the blows stopped, I heard a voice of a woman. “Where are you going with that?” The zombies never stopped walking and she walked along with them engaging them in conversation.
“The king wants him in the tower. He’s to meet the same fate as his father,” one zombie said as he hauled me up the stairs.
“Do you have him secured?” the woman’s voice asked walking behind them as they climbed each step.
“As long as we have this silver hammer, he won’t be any trouble.” The beatings stopped and I was able to garner some of my strength.
“Are you hungry?” the woman’s voice said. “Everyone has dined except you two. Aare left some tender one’s for you in the tower,” her tone light and playful.
“After we’ve done our job then we can eat.” And they continued the long climb.
“But there won’t be anything left,” she said trailing behind them and out of breath. They stopped. These creatures were brain dead. They had but one desire and that was to satisfy their hunger.
“You’ve missed the first break of day. No one will notice if you go through those doors and feast on what is left of those bodies. Just leave him here with the hammer. I’ll use that hammer on him if I have to.”
I heard them grunt and then walk away dragging their heavy feet. When I gained consciousness and my strength, I heard her whisper, “Sebastian. Sebastian.” She threw the cover from around me. It took me a few minutes to command my power.”
Rising from the blanket, I took a long breath. Then I stood looking into Terry’s blank eyes. “Thank you, Terry.”
“I didn’t do this for you. I did this for Zoey. And I need you to do something for me.” I glared at her.
“Please, kill me. Do whatever you do,” she said.
“I can’t. I’m done with that. I can’t take your blood. It will poison my body. It is diluted with all kinds of toxins from Aare. It could turn me into a killing machine.” Her eyes became sad and her head fell. I needed to help her.
“You can drink from me. Not too much. Just enough to make you beautiful and young again. I don’t know what Aare will do to you when he discovers what you’ve done, but you will look like yourself again only better.”
“Then take me with you and Zoey.”
“I don’t think Zoey will come with me. I left her after we made love to go back to destroy Aare. But I underestimated him. I thought he would fight me, but he knew he couldn’t win so he used silver to weaken me.”
“I’ll convince her to go,” Terry said. “We have to leave from here.” And she headed down the stairs and I followed her. Meet me on the third floor, she whispered.”
“You and Zoey can’t leave just yet. I have to sleep. When I wake, then I will change you, but now I need rest.”
“Where will you go?”
“Don’t worry about me. Worry about yourself. I can’t change you just yet. Meet me in Zoey’s room when the sun is down. Once I change you, you will be as you were before but strong and beautiful, but you won’t be able to die and you will have to feed on human blood, or animal blood.” A smile crept on her face as if she thought that was an easy transformation and it would be easy to feed on blood. She didn’t know the hellish nightmare of desire she would face. I would hope she would take animal blood over human. In that way she wouldn’t lose her humanity.
Slipping away from Terry, I found the many catacombs behind the walls of this castle. There was no way I would divulge to Terry my hiding place. It’s not that I don’t trust her, but as long as she is under Aare’s control, I could never be sure.
This place had been my home for over five hundred years. Only my father knew this place better than me. I pushed aside the wall near the fireplace that led down to a room on the third floor. It was near Zoey’s room.
I slept there to watch over her when she was a child. If anyone thought to do her harm, I would have awakened and killed them whether it was night or day. I was ready to lose my life to keep her from harm.
Aare placed her into the same room she slept in as a child, and I would sleep in the same space between those walls and watch over her.
Before my eyes closed, I heard her crying. That sound had never left my mind. The soft moan filled me with her pain and I wished then as I do now that I could take all her pain from her.
She wept then for her parents when she had just come to this place, she cried for me when I left her at that church in England, and now she’s crying again. It had become too painful to listen to her and I was spared by my need for deep sleep.
Chapter Four-Ryan Cole
“I couldn’t believe I had just missed that doctor, Dr. Sebastian Vesper,” I mumbled to myself as I sat at my desk. I was on night duty because I like the night. It was when all the animals came out to feed.
Reaching for my pen, I scribbled the name down so as not to forget. I had to check on him. I fired up my computer and typed his name into the Google search engine. Nothing. A lot of Sebastian’s but no Sebastian Vesper. What kind of name is Vesper I asked Google. Then I got a hit on just the meaning. The lover of children.
“That’s curious,” I thought. All these young children have disappeared and the only one to show up years later and then disappear is Zoey. She would have told me what I needed to know and what I already know. There are strange creatures roaming the streets and nearby forests of Seattle and they are killing and in some cases taking our children.”
“Talking to yourself again, Ryan,” Harry said as he put on his cap and dropped his phone into his pocket. He straightened his cheap red and blue tie and placed his suit coat over his wrinkled shirt. Harry was married with children, something I never wanted to be. I enjoyed my job but it was just a paycheck to Harry.
“I’ll be here all night checking this, go home to your family,” I said pointing to headlines on the local news coming up on my computer. “I have to study these papers about the kidnapping at the mall.”
“It’s that girl again. The one you’ve been obsessing about from the day you walked into this station house. What’s her name? Zoey?”
“That’s her,” I said rocking back in my leather chair that hadn’t been of much use to me. There was no way I could sit here and push paper around. I had to get out and knock on doors and talk to people. That was the only way I found out about all the strange things happening in Seattle.
When I first told the chief of police about men
in the area were werewolves, he wanted to lock me up. He sent me home and gave me a week off to get my mind straight. My mind has always been straight. No one wants to believe that walking among us are werewolves, witches, and now I suspect, vampires.
“You’re not going to find anything. We’ve been over that. Talked to everyone who wasn’t dead and we got nothing. Get some sleep,” Harry said taking me out of my thoughts and trying to place doubt where none existed.
I was certain that there are beings that no one knows about and it’s my job to unearth them. I laugh at the idea. When will someone believe me? Maybe there is someone out there who does but like me everyone thinks they are lunatics. It’s a good thing I do this job not for the money, but as a hobby because I love it.
“I sleep here or haven’t you noticed,” I said to Harry as I watched at the computer screen only looking up for a second and then continuing my search. Harry’s eyes swung to the old dusty clock on the wall. It was nine o’clock and the guys coming on for the night shift were all milling around and the others sitting with their feet on their desk hoping it will be an easy night. They didn’t want to have to kill anyone tonight.
They could lose their family or their lives if they made a mistake.
I looked through the glass window to see Harry leaving, then I sipped my cup of cold coffee, as I tried to make sense of the disappearance of Zoey Miller.
No soon as I put the coffee to my mouth when my phone went off.
“Who is this?”
“You gave me your card and said to call you if I had any news about Zoey.”
“Mr. Miller. I hardly recognized your voice.”
“That’s understandable,” he said. “Can you come over here? I have something important to tell you about Zoey.”
“It’ll take me half an hour. I’ll be there.” This was the first time Zoey’s father would agree to speak to me. There was no way I would pass up this opportunity. I placed my jacket on, and headed for the door. I didn’t have to tell anyone I was leaving because this wasn’t my shift. I just came in and stayed on the job most of the days because of all the open cold cases.
The Soul of a Vampire Book 2 Page 2