Discovery

by Thianna Durston

  Discovery

  Drakyl Ranch, Book 1

  By Thianna Durston

  © Copyright 2015 Thianna Durston

  Copyright information

  Words Copyright © 2015 Thianna Durston

  Cover Designed by Jay Aheer, Simply Defined Art

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons living or dead, or places, events, or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are products of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

  About This Book

  Discovery is an M/M paranormal suspense/romance novel with splashes of horror. It is expected that the reader is over 18 years of age.

  Table of Contents

  Definitions

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Coming Soon

  About the Author

  Definitions

  Definitions for Discovery, Book 1 of Drakyl Ranch:

  Vampyr: (plural is Vampyr) (pronounced vampire) Evil, creature of the undead. Created through death and pain. Sun and silver can instantly kill them. Vampyr must stay to the night or to somewhere extremely dark. They live to control, to destroy, and to feed. Human blood is their only food source. They hate drakyl.

  Drakyl: (plural is drakyl) (pronounced drah-ˈkül) a blood-drinker created through genetic means. Historians assume drakyl are a genetic link between both the human and vampyr races. A gene, passed down through certain human births, once activated, turns a human male into a drakyl. Very few who contain the gene actually turn into a drakyl. Only males are affected. Their heart beats and their skin, while pale, is still considered ivory as long as they are well fed. Human blood is their best food source, but they can get by on animal blood. If well fed, they can be in the sun for a few minutes. Otherwise, the sun can harm or kill them. More humane than vampyr, they are hunted by their enemy. Weaker than the vampyr, they rely on their wits alone to escape.

  Chapter One

  Speeding up, Jaret took the turn as fast as he could, swearing as the stupid vehicle he drove rolled up onto two wheels. Time had not always brought out the good inventions, he surmised as he jerked his body and with a jolt the car slammed back on all four tires. There was a time when he would have been on horseback and it was so much easier. But no. There were now automobiles, cars that went way too fast, ate up too many resources, and were too impossible to control. “Fuck,” he growled as two large armored vehicles followed him around the corner. Since when did it become okay for ordinary citizens to have attack cars?

  Well, okay, they weren’t ordinary citizens. They were vampyr, which was so much worse. And he was a drakyl, which compounded the issue. They hated his kind with such intensity that for many centuries, it had confused him as to what reason they could possibly have to dislike him so. Now, he didn’t care about the why, he just cared about surviving the attack.

  Thankfully, he was close to the barrier of this god-forsaken city. Once he was out on open land, the chances they would follow him were low. Or so he hoped. This particular group was far too equipped for his peace of mind. Just like the groups in New York City, Pittsburgh, and Roanoke. “Blast!” he hollered as a shot rang out and almost instantly, the rear of his car swerved to the side, lifting the left front up even as the back right side went down. Out of his rearview mirror, he could see the remains of his back tire scattered over the road. Spotting an alleyway up ahead as his car screamed its way toward a stop, he hoped this was the right thing to do. Grabbing his rucksack from the passenger seat, he slammed on the gas, threw the door open, and leapt out, running into the alley as the car surged forward and hit the wall.

  The piece of machinery might have been troublesome, but it did have one perk he had added to it. Reaching into his pocket as he ran, he squeezed the small device he found and a second later, just as the voices of his attackers rang out heading toward the alley, his car exploded. Not taking the precious moments he needed to escape to look behind him, he ran straight through the dark alleyway. The scents of rotting cabbage and piss assaulted him, but he ignored them. Now was not the time to complain. He’d save that until later.

  The alleyway was long and he hoped his pursuers had no idea where it came out—though he assumed that was a stupid wish. They owned this city, knew each and every dark crevice. No doubt they had used this particular dark tunnel for their feeding. Even at the thought, his mouth filled with saliva. He hadn’t fed in six days. Not since running into vampyr the day he arrived. Seemed they didn’t like interlopers feeding in their city. Of course, the fact they found him feasting on one of their favorite humans hadn’t helped his case.

  He truly needed to feed before he left, but Jaret had been in such dire straits before. No doubt he’d find something to feed on between here and the next populated city. Animals did not taste as good as humans—and some of them were quite dreadful—but they would do the job of keeping him alert.

  A bunch of crates blocked his way and he quickly scrambled up the sides of them, pausing at the top for a second to sense any trouble. It was difficult to discern, even with his acute senses, as there was trouble behind him and there could be misfortune in front. The air filled with distasteful smells from the alley as well as the stench of burning oil from his car. But it also had a touch of mold-encrusted iron—the odious scent of vampyr. Hissing, he leapt off the other side of the crates and barreled toward the opening.

  At the edge of the alley, he forced himself to stop, staring with disgust at what was in front of him. A huge, filthy body of water. Blacker than the midnight sky, it looked more like the oil needed to keep an automobile running than water. Looking to his left and right to divine an escape route, he saw nothing but the sides of brick buildings both ways. Which way would bring him to a bridge so he could cross this accursed waterway? Before he could decide which direction to take, he spotted movement to his right as two of his enemy came into sight. Seconds later, a breeze brought their rotting stench to his nostrils. Unfortunately the breeze came from the other direction and turning to his left, he growled as two more appeared. “All right. Water it is.” Putting both arms through the straps of his bag, he jumped, his body sluicing through the ice cold water seconds later.

  He dared not open his eyes as he could only imagine how long it would take to clean them from the filth that surrounded hi
m. Thankfully, he had a strong sense of direction and as soon as his feet touched bottom, he headed west. Holding his breath was a nuisance, but bearable for up to an hour. By the plink-plink-plink of something hitting the water above him, Jaret assumed the vampyr were firing silver-jacketed lead in the hopes of hitting him. The bullets wouldn’t kill him, but they could sicken him dreadfully. Without another to doctor him through such a sickness, it would be best not to have it happen.

  The floor of the body of water was deep and sloped downward. Not wanting to get too far from the surface for when he needed to breathe, he kicked off and swam forward. Coming to the United States had been more of a lark. Jaret had been looking for something fun to do and as he had never been here before, he elected to give it a go. He had a distaste for the young country that he couldn’t describe to most. Maybe it was the fact they had defeated his unbeatable home country of England by pulling some very ungentlemanly tricks—and he was more than willing to accept that reason—but he just had never had an interest in visiting.

  Now he wished he’d visited before the onset of the new technological advances. How he hated them. Unable to fly due to their invasive scans, he’d had to swim. Of course, he could have caught a boat, but a week or two on a boat would have ended up with several human deaths and an inquest he could not be around for. Swimming was simpler. And yet dreadfully annoying. It invariably destroyed his clothing, clothes he had worked hard to gather from some of the best clothiers of the time. Jaret wasn’t sure if he would ever get used to t-shirts—what a dreadful invention—but he found jeans a more-than-adequate pair of trousers. Thankfully his rucksack was waterproof. Inside it was what little money he had taken from his food sources, another pair of jeans, and several button-down shirts. There was also a flask he kept on hand for emergencies. Unfortunately, his last few emergencies had emptied the damn thing. Now he had no blood at all to keep him warm.

  Tension in his lungs told him he needed to breathe. As a drakyl, he was an odd mixture of vampyr and human. Whereas vampyr only breathed to gain the air to speak, he still had a need for air to fill his lungs and his blood with oxygen. Just another difference between him and vampyr—their heart stopped beating at the moment of their death never to beat again. As a drakyl, his heart still beat. Not as often as a human’s, but it beat nonetheless, pumping thick blood through veins almost impossible to penetrate.

  His head broke through the barrier and he instantly spat, keeping liquid from getting inside his mouth as he took a deep breath of air. It smelled better. The stench of the alley was long gone, there did not seem to be any chemical traces, and there wasn’t even the slight stench of vampyr. Relaxing a little, he continued to swim forward. While he wanted to open his eyes to see where he was, he daren’t do so until he had the time to wipe them off first. Jaret had learned over the last century that man-made chemicals tended to burn his eyes and once under the lid, almost impossible to get rid of. Once, it had taken him close to two weeks to get rid of the slime. As such, he kept his eyes shut even as he swam unwaveringly west.

  It took several hours before he could feel the change in the water and knew he was almost at land. As it was still night, he hoped nobody else was around when he appeared. On the other hand, if it was just one someone, he did need a meal. He breathed in the closer he got, but did not smell any human scents, which was disappointing. Of course, on the plus side, there wasn’t any vampyr stench either. As soon as his feet felt hard ground, he quickly moved out of the water and yanked his rucksack up, practically tearing at it to get inside. The first thing he found was a piece of cloth and he pulled it out and wiped off his face and eyelids. Once he was sure there was nothing left behind, he opened them.

  “Damn.” The moon was low and the night sky was black to the west but a lighter blue to the east. He needed to find shelter and quick. If he was properly fed, the sun wouldn’t affect him too badly unless he had been out in it for longer than fifteen to twenty minutes. But as he wasn’t, the sun would turn his skin into a hive of boils and blisters, bringing with them extreme heat and illness. Before that happened, he had to feed and find cover. Lifting up his nose, he inhaled, looking for any scent that might be edible. A rather odd dusty scent hit his nose. It carried with it a hint of blood and he instantly took off in the direction of it, pleased to see a forest in the same direction. If the trees were close enough, it would be the perfect cover for the day. Once the sun went down again, he could truly hunt.

  The animal was small and there would not be a tremendous amount of blood to be had. He caught it as it burrowed underneath the hard ground and drank the tiny bit of sustenance it offered. It didn’t feel like enough, but the light blue of the sky had turned into an orange. Sunup was upon him. Dropping the little beast, he sped toward the woods. His body ached in need of food, but it would have to wait. Thankfully within ten feet, the trees drew together so much that the sun would have a hard time reaching through. Good. A perfect place to spend the day.

  *****

  Bored. He was so bored. And hungry. And that damnable sun still shown above. As it turned out, once the sun came up, the trees weren’t as complete a cover as he’d hoped and he’d had to half burry himself in the dirt to keep the sun off him. From the direction the light came that filtered through the leaves above, it looked as though it was finally headed down. “’Bout time,” he grumbled, watching the light as it grew less and less until he could finally crawl out.

  “Bah!” Looking down at his clothes, he wrinkled his nose. “Ruined.” He’d rather liked this pair of jeans, but it was now caked in mud as they had still been wet when he dug into the ground. Growling softly, he waited until there was no longer any sunlight and darted back to the water he swam through the day before. While used to not exactly being clean all the time, he hated being incredibly filthy and right now, that was how he felt. After ripping off his clothes, he dove back into the water, burying the pieces of cloth at the bottom under a couple feet of dirt.

  After cleaning up as much as he could, he crawled back out and dried off before pulling on his last pair of jeans and one of his shirts. Now he needed to find sustenance. Lifting his head, he inhaled. And everything stopped. A scent so wonderful, so enticing, so…captivating filled his nostrils. A mixture of vanilla cigars and peppermint filled his nose coupled with the sharp trace of lemon. Whoever was the wonderful cigar and peppermint scent was also a drakyl. Well, now. It had been years since he had run into another of his kind. He was a stranger in a strange land. Seemed just the thing to find a member of his species. Maybe they could tell him how to keep the vampyr off his tail. Pleased, and rather excited for he loved adventure, Jaret ran straight north, directly toward the lure, stopping only to feed when he found a human out riding by himself.

  As usual, taking his meal was simple and easy. Stronger and faster than humans, he was able to run up, yank the man from his horse before he even knew Jaret was there, and had him on the ground with his fangs sunk deep into the man’s neck within seconds. Delectable blood filled his senses. While it held a slight tang of cigarette smoke, it was a taste he was used to. As the blood filled his body, any weakness he felt disappeared as once again human blood made him feel new, powerful, and unerringly strong. In addition to feeding him, the man also gave him some extras. Now, added to his jeans and shirts, he had a knee-length leather coat he instantly loved. After adding the man’s money to his own—and his hat to his head—he turned his mind and his body back to the aroma that called him. It wasn’t far, but strangely enough while he could still smell vanilla cigars and peppermint, the lemon tang had increased. Just how many drakyl lived up here? By tomorrow, he would find this drakyl and watch him. Once he’d figured out how many there were, he would decide what his next actions were.

  His heart gave an added thump and he hopped up and down a few times. Something told him that what was ahead would be a find more important than he had had since realizing what he actually was. As the darkness changed to light and he found a place to hide
in for the day, he had a hard time staying still. Jaret loved new challenges and excitement, and the promise of it was almost too much. Plus, that wonderful scent still tickled his nose and he just had to find it. Hunkering down for the day, he glared upwards, cursing the sun for stopping his quest.

  Chapter Two

  Thunder rolled down the mountain like an oncoming tide, as if warning those below it of what was coming. Aaron Drakyl turned toward the sound even as he patted his horse Krage’s neck. The animal had a distinct dislike of thunderstorms. Aaron couldn’t quite blame him. The thunder was loud and the electrical charge from the lightning was impossible to get used to. At the same time, it was one of the few times he could come outside without being completely covered. Diagnosed thirteen years before with a disease that made him allergic to the sun, he never let it stop him. Didn’t mean he didn’t hate having to go outside completely covered so that there was no chance a touch of sun could char his skin. But today, with a huge thunderstorm above him, his face was free of cover. It was wonderful to feel the wind coast across his cheeks and to remove his hat to allow the rain to plaster his short blond hair to his skull. Thunderstorms made life difficult for some in the Montana landscape. For him, it was as close to nirvana as he could get.

  A stomp from the beast below him made him grin. “All right, Krage, let’s go home.” As if he knew English, Krage turned and quickly broke into a canter heading straight toward the homestead. Most of the land they were currently on was dusty and covered in sagebrush. At over fifty thousand acres, the ranch had a mixture of landscapes. Besides the one they were on, they also had forested land, range land for the cattle, and several acres of grass for their horses.