Children of Dionysus (Always Dark Angel Book 1)

by JN Moon

  “She's upstairs. I've explained, well, almost everything.” Jamie raised his head and called past me, “Nathaniel, your progeny got the better of you, huh?” He was talking to a shadow in the distance now, and I could sense then that my saviour was indeed walking towards us. Still clutching his heart.

  “Go inside, Jamie, take him with you.”

  I refused Jamie's hand and got up without my dignity and then ran back into her house and raced upstairs.

  Rachel was sitting on her bed, bite marks on her wrist and neck. She looked languid and peaceful. Drugged from the bleeding and dazed from the bite.

  “Anthony,” her voice was soft and her eyes wide with the drugged venom in her veins. A delicate smile starting across her face.

  “Rachel, are you alright?”

  We hugged tightly and I would never let her go again. Never.

  “I will do it, Anthony. You are too young, too inexperienced.” And before Jamie could speak Nathaniel continued, “And so are you, Jamie. But are you sure, Anthony? Not everyone makes it through. Most do not survive. At least mortal she is alive. But the bleeding, that kiss of death, it could take her life and she will be forever lost. I don't want that for you.”

  “Just do it, Nathaniel,” I cried without letting go of her. “And if she dies, then I die, too.” Though in truth, I already had.

  “What will Tyrell say, Nathaniel?” Jamie joked.

  “I don't answer to your leader, Jamie. I have the authority to make or break whomever I please.”

  “Interesting choice of words.”

  I shot a look at Nathaniel. He was really pissed that I had hurt him, but he was impassioned by my act of love towards Rachel. Or so I thought. A love so strong that he himself had never known.

  “I could never hurt my progeny, Jamie. I may not be his maker, but I have saved his life. Maybe one day you will experience that for yourself. If you live that long. Now I need some room.”

  And gently touching my shoulder he whispered, “Come, Anthony.”

  As I moved away, Rachel and I still locked eyes.

  I stayed beside her, holding her hand as Nathaniel came closer. He moved towards her neck and I motioned him towards her wrist. I did not want him sucking on her beautiful neck.

  Softly he said, “No, Anthony. The neck is best.”

  Rachel glanced at me, expecting me to say something, to do something but I did not.

  And then I watched my true love die.

  The Turning

  Anthony

  At first, she looked completely dead and she nearly was. Nathaniel drained her almost to the last drop of blood. Then slowly he bit his wrist and placed it to her mouth. Nothing. She just lay there on the edge of death between the two worlds. It was surreal. I pleaded with her, I kissed her head, begged her, but nothing. She would not drink his sweet, rich blood. Nathaniel sat there patiently whilst I fumbled, implored her and Jamie stood in the doorway watching motionless, fascinated.

  Still nothing. “Nathaniel!” I cried. I bit my lip, causing it to bleed. My body was stiff in anticipation.

  He did not even look at me, but kept his wrist just above her mouth, blood slowly dripping in. Drop by drop. It was intensifying. Totally focused.

  Then ever so slightly, she reacted. She was gradually taking in his blood.

  Then a bit more dripped in, she seemed somewhat animated until at long last she started drinking from his wrist as I myself had done on so many occasions.

  He took away his wrist and she lay there as still as stone.

  Silence. Like an effigy she lay there, eyes closed and head tilted slightly back. Her skin turning ashen, a cold gust swept over us. I wanted to speak, but I had acted like a child enough, perched next to her, transfixed on her dead body I said nothing.

  Then the convulsions started. I had a flashback to my change, gasping I looked desperately at Nathaniel but he was concentrating on Rachel. Jamie re-appeared at the door, I hadn’t even noticed he'd left. He passed me a bucket and said, “You really love her? You're about to find out. Adios.” He turned and was out of the door.

  Rachel doubled up on her bed convulsing and I remembered what would follow. It was just the three of us now.

  “Anthony, let us go to the bathroom. You know this is a disgusting experience.”

  I would never forgive myself if she died. She was ill, so we washed her, cleaned up and put her back into bed. I kept a cold compress on her head and Nathaniel showed his compassion by helping me clear up and nurse her. Nights turned to days and on the third night, he said, “You go out, get some air. Get yourself someone to feed on. I'll watch her.”

  Days followed. She had the fever, boiling hot then freezing and violently sick with diarrhoea. Seizures shook through her as her body fought Nathaniel's diseased blood. Turning vampire is a most vile and excruciating experience.

  But I could not go out. I had to stay. “Nathaniel, she's getting weaker,” I agonised.

  “Be patient, Anthony. She is not dead, and that's the main thing now. I am feeling weaker, though. She took a lot of blood and your excellent fighting skills have left me feeling fragile. I’m not used to being the prey.”

  I tentatively offered him my wrist wondering if I could not sense any malevolence from him, but there was none. His eyes narrowed, he looked disgusted as he felt my fear of him. Too upset to mention it, he took my wrist and drank.

  At last, on the sixth day, she started to regain some colour. Her body stopped convulsing and tranquillity sprang from her. She looked different. Her breathing had settled.

  She looked almost flushed, glowing.

  Her eyes opened slightly and she stared at the ceiling in shock then suddenly gasping as if she’d been holding her breath for a long time.

  Looking at me, then that smile, the smile I had missed started ever so slowly to break over her face.

  “My love, my lost love,” I called quietly to her.

  Nathaniel shuffled discreetly in his chair and sat up looking at her.

  “Nathaniel, what do we do now?” I asked.

  “Anthony, we wait a bit longer. You can offer her your own blood first. I will wait downstairs. Later, I’ll take her out.”

  As she took my wrist to her mouth and drank, I had the strangest sensation. When I had met Rachel years before, I knew immediately that I wanted to spend my future with her. But I had never envisioned this. Odd, seeing my one true love draw blood from my veins.

  I had opened the door to her, to step into the darkness and she obliged easily and willingly. I hoped that that was the right decision. At least she would be safe from the blood suckers roaming our tiny city.

  I had thought she would resist and I would have to leave her, my heart tormented and shattered, but instead, I had her now and forever. And I had Nathaniel and my other vampire friends.

  Sublime creatures of a bygone age involved in a ritual seen by the modern world as fantasy. And yet we exist, living on the edge of society, sharing blood. To be together forever, locked in love and blood.

  “Anthony, can we speak now?” Nathaniel called quietly up the stairs.

  I drew my wrist away from her, her dazed, dreamy face with my blood coursing through her body.

  As I approached him, I saw past his calm demeanour. My own feelings of guilt and horror at my treatment towards him rushed to the fore and I was ashamed and embarrassed at my behaviour towards the one true vampire friend I had, the friend who had saved my life.

  “I know how you're feeling, Anthony, I feel it. Look, I would do the same for the one I loved. If I thought you had genuine feelings of hate towards me, I would have already let you die or killed you myself.

  “You will need to go back in a few days. Tyrell let you live because I demanded it but there was a price. I will return soon, I’ll watch over her and guide her. I think you already know I can be trusted. We need to stay in favour with Tyrell. I have contacts, but now it is in our best interests to play it safe. I don’t want to take Rachel there, at least not
yet. I have already crossed Tyrell and his son for you. Don't ask me to do this again.”

  Nathaniel had the look of a man who regretted this situation, the timing with Rachel's transformation was not good, but I didn't want to risk her being at the mercy of any other vampire. Tyrell was right, the blood of innocents was spilling into the streets, and that needed to stop. Otherwise, we would be found out and all be killed. And I wasn't ready to die. Not now.

  So, I explained to Rachel that I had to leave for a while. That there was a complex hierarchy of vampire politics, and I had to play my part in stopping the carnage. I told her Nathaniel had saved my life and I trusted him with hers, and I would return soon.

  We hugged each other, not wanting to separate, but Nathaniel as ever used his charm to calm and persuade her otherwise.

  “You can take my car, Anthony,” he said with a mischievous grin on his face as he threw me the keys. “Treat her well,” he finished.

  “The same to you,” I replied.

  I sprinted back across the city to find his car and I have to admit, getting into his Lotus did put a smile on my face. My future, at last, looked promising.

  Soldiers of Darkness II

  Anthony

  “I know what Alexander did to you, Anthony. I know.” He paused as he surveyed the city before us. “You are not like them. Your malevolent companions led you astray, however fine they may seem to you. And a young vampire? Well, restraint doesn't often come easy. Still, you always had a choice and that you refused,” pausing before he continued. “I’m glad you made the decision to change Rachel, and for my part I’m sorry I toyed with you. Don’t forget how we first met though, you do seem to have a knack of bringing it on yourself.”

  Jamie was incredibly self-assured. I envied him. He seemed to have it all. He was the leader of this Elite squad that I was now assigned to, and although his past behaviour had forced my hand at changing Rachel, I had to admire him.

  “You didn't behave like that?” I asked him.

  “No, but my maker stuck around. And as a human, I was very conscientious about compassion. I prided myself on it. Now that has changed. After my latest alteration I'm fully aware I have less compassion, I'm afraid to say. A strange sensation really. Or rather no feeling. Back then, with my maker, it never occurred to me to take life, not even the life of a criminal. As for the sex and bloodlust, for me and my...partners, it was exciting.”

  He turned to face me. He had probably been just as striking as a human.

  “You realised your fate early, Anthony, to exist on and on and on. Endless existence. The sensations lessen with time so you become more barbaric, more aggressive. The ones we hunt tonight, they have no such insight. They will continue to hurt or kill innocents unless we stop them. Remember that. If I see the one that was pursing Rachel, I’ll let you kill him. Be assured, that one’s intent was purely evil.”

  For the next few weeks, I hunted the dispossessed, those creatures that felt no remorse for their victims. Their blood spilled from my gun and washed into the gutters.

  Nathaniel kept me updated, secretly by text, regarding my beloved and I missed her. I missed them both.

  But night after night, blasting away the lives of those who walked the line between mindless violence and yet in some ways were not so dissimilar to me. Or at least who I had been.

  Jamie and Louise were able commanders; they had the ability to brief us on our missions and to explain themselves clearly each time. The reason for our taking these lives to save the mortals and in turn save ourselves. They drummed this into us, but for me, it still seemed insane.

  I left at dawn with my victims' blood splattered and soaked into my clothes, and as I stood there staring them eye-to-eye before I pulled the trigger, I felt this was wrong. It was often impossible to take that many back to the compound and Tyrell had near enough the full complement of soldiers anyway. And donors. And I reasoned with myself that taking their lives saved innocents and that they were better off dead rather than becoming those harrowing creatures locked deep within the compound cellars.

  Sometimes we fed on them first before putting the bullet into their heart. Or head. Vampire or human, the body cannot function without the brain or the heart.

  But one night I pulled Jamie aside, my soul tired and torn. The rising death toll was taking effect on me. And I knew I wasn't alone.

  “Jamie, this is genocide. I know some of them are delinquents, like the ones that changed me. I know they have to go. But others, they are not unlike me. As I look into their eyes, I feel like I am killing myself every night. I’m just not cut out for it. I am no soldier.”

  Looking around us to make sure no one was listening and putting a reassuring hand on my shoulder, he whispered, “I understand, Anthony. I also feel sick of the killing, the same as you. But we are all that stands between them and society, and as much as society would hate us if they knew of our existence, I for one would rather keep the innocents safe. Pick up your gun, Anthony.”

  “Fuck the guns, Jamie. I need to get away.”

  “Not now, Anthony. Don't do this now. Tyrell, well, let's just say, he won't be pleased. Not now, not today. Neither Nathaniel nor I could protect you at the moment. Why not grab your bike and go for a spin? We'll be here for some time, I guess. The others are tracking our movements and after the last few weeks of Bath, Bristol, and smaller cities it seems a lot have congregated back here. Luckily for us,” he muttered dryly.

  I knew my insolence made him angry, I could feel it. But I was never one to obey the rules. The only thing that made me feel alive now was riding the motorbike they had issued me. And the hope of seeing Rachel.

  I jumped on my bike and pulled on my helmet. Jamie had shown me how to put headphones inside my helmet, so I turned up the music full blast and revved the engine just because it quickened me.

  Then I sped off to get away from the death, the blood and the darkness that strangled the life out of me.

  Tyrants & Rules

  Anthony

  After my blast on my bike, I had joined Jamie for de-briefing and then returned back to the compound with them. Jamie rode his bike, much faster than my bike, and a few others joined us as we sped the long way back across the Mendip hills, through Cheddar Gorge and into Wells. With the cool wind around me, my heart sped up and my body soaked up exhilaration, riding fast along those twisty roads, helping to clear my mind for a while at least as I threw my bike around corner after corner and raced with Jamie and some of the others. It felt like we were free, even though we were not.

  On arrival, there was some commotion. It seemed Tyrell had important visitors, but no one knew who they were.

  Nicolas flustered around us, catching up with Jamie.

  Aside from Tyrell and his crazy son, everyone liked Nicolas. Such a timid vampire, we felt protective of him, especially Jamie. But though Jamie may not be as compassionate as he used to be, he was endearing to most and had a gregarious nature to all that he met.

  “C'mon Nick,” Jamie spoke informally to Nicolas who no one ever called Nick. “So, tell me, who are these guests? Surely you can tell me?”

  Nicolas tried his best to politely ignore Jamie, but Jamie was persistent.

  “You'll have to ask Tyrell,” Nicolas told him, avoiding the question.

  I returned to my quarters and sent Nathaniel a text. I needed to see Rachel. It had been weeks now.

  No reply. It was too risky to call him so I made my way to Jamie's quarters. He opened the door before I knocked and beckoned me in.

  “Fancy a bite?” he asked me cheekily. I noticed two vampire women sat on his bed.

  Even though Jamie's face was beaming, I could see in his eyes that he was bored. They were somewhat lifeless, something seemed dead inside, his light dimmed.

  Every whim and every desire provided for him, but I could see this wasn't enough. Like me, he wasn't interested. After all, when a man has everything every day it ceases to become interesting. It becomes expected, normal, an
d thus boring. Freedom is the only true happiness.

  “I haven't seen Tom and Josephine for an age, where are they?”

  “They've been held by Tyrell and Alexander. I know they'll be assigned to our squad, but...”

  “But what?”

  “I've said too much, Anthony. Unlike Nathaniel, I am not prepared to put myself in danger for you. You seem to demand that of others. They'll be back, quit worrying. Now, fancy a bite?”

  “OK,” I said dully. Though the sight of the women aroused me, I felt that it was a betrayal to Rachel, though my body did not.

  “Come on, Anthony, let go a bit. I'll keep an eye on you, if you like?” He made me laugh because he winked.

  “That's what worries me,” I joked back. I recognised the women; they had joined our squad the week before.

  I took the brunette and Jamie took the red head. They beckoned us like sirens, beautiful and deadly. I guess they thought their luck had changed, spending an evening with Jamie. How wrong they were. Had they known their true fate, they would have fought us like wild dogs.

  As I plunged my fangs into her neck, she gasped and writhed around underneath me. This is not what I wanted. My body coursed with lust, swelling, overpowering me. She wrapped herself around me and I felt an unstoppable urge to take her. She touched me, gripped me. My mind tried to rationalise my lust as I concentrated on drawing her blood and taking her hands away and holding them down. I had enough regrets already, all too recent. Rachel was all I wanted now. For this woman, I just wanted her blood. She seemed annoyed. I can easily understand, but that was too bad. I ushered myself up from her and she lashed out, so I pushed her away.

  Jamie looked on as he delicately drank from the red-head’s wrist, amused by my apparent battle. It seemed he, too, was fighting the bloodlust that rages inside.

  I sat there on his bed, blood dripping from my mouth, chin, and onto my chest as the brunette leapt over to me and tried to jump me. I grabbed her easily and held her down. “I don't want you. Get out.”