Sacrificial children
The vampires of soldiers cove:
Book 5
Jessica Macintyre
Acknowledgements
If you, the reader, have come this far with me on Rachel’s journey than the first acknowledgement I have to make is to you. Thank you for your patience and enthusiasm during the last few years. From your wonderful comments on the fan page, to the lovely reviews some of you have left, to the private messages on social media, you have no idea how much your support has meant to me since the first book has come out. The fact that people become invested in your characters is something that never gets old. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you!
Also I need to thank my righteous beta babes, Tiffany Samson and Denise Hunter for their honesty and work, not just on this book but on all the others as well.
And lastly, once again, I need to thank Jenny Laatch for a beautiful cover. A job well done time and again.
Dedication
For my one true love, my fierce protector and cheerleader through good times and bad. This one is for Andy.
Prologue
The beat of the donor’s heart failed quickly, and had less than satisfied. She and the others waited. Waited in pain and agony as the one they craved was quietly brought in and positioned on the floor on a thick downy blanket. It was her instinct to go to this one and rip into her as quickly as possible, but the man who always accompanied her made sure none of them would brutalize her.
It happened once.
Their hunger, both physical and emotional, had overwhelmed the group and they had proceeded to descend on her as if it was the last blood they’d ever know. The man had made quick work of them, which wasn’t hard seeing as how they were weakened. Necks had been broken to subdue and when she finally came around again she was bound and the man, who never told anyone his name, told her that if she harmed the one named Rachel that next time he would not only break her neck, but he’d twist her head clear off.
There was no doubting that he meant it. Although it had never been revealed she was certain only a passionate reaction like that could come from a maker. Most vampires never cared one way or the other if someone they knew faced death. There was always another to take their place. Except, of course, in the case of maker and progeny. Even an absence of years produced a strong reaction in those who had no contact.
That’s why she was laying here, waiting her turn to feed on the one who had taken her own maker’s place. Angus had been a very powerful clan leader and as such, had been murdered by another vampire who, for some reason, wanted his position. It had probably sounded good at the time, but looking at Rachel now she could only imagine it was an existence of regret.
The hushed whispers said that their new surrogate guardian was of no more than twenty four human years at the time of her turning, but at the moment she retained the appearance of someone much older.
Her eyes were sunken and yellowed, her hair mostly grey with some streaks of black running through it, and her skin, white and ashen was mutilated from having to feed so many. It was a wonder she was still alive and it was probably only by the grace of her maker that she was surviving. He did not look so well himself.
With shaking hands and darting glances he kept his eye on them all, never looking away even for a moment, fearful of what may happen if he let his guard down. She didn’t blame him. She herself looked for an opportunity to kill her. Even though the withdrawal would be excruciating it still didn’t override her vampire born instinct to eliminate the one who had orphaned her. Gavin knew this and watched them all whenever they fed.
Just then she noticed something. He began blinking ferociously and clenching his jaw ever so slightly. She read the signs that he was fighting to stay awake and decided on the next full blink she was going to sink her hand through Rachel’s chest cavity – it was half torn open anyway – and pull out the traitor’s still beating heart. If it worked she’d be ash immediately. Likely so would she once Gavin got hold of her, but still, the urge to kill was too strong to ignore.
Taking three or four more good swallows of the precious blood this one provided she grew stronger, steadied herself and watched him closely. Then, the moment came. Gavin’s eyes closed and she dug her hand into Rachel’s chest, and there she felt it. The heart felt as though it was failing like the rest of her physical body and for the moment she rationalized that she would be doing her a favor. Nobody should have to live like this. Basically being eaten alive, the strain would most likely kill her anyway. Now, all she had to do was give it a tug and free the barely pulsating organ from its tether of arteries.
Just as she was about to give the final tug something hit her from behind. Startled she let go and flitted to the other side of the room where Gavin followed. She turned and came face to face with him for a brief moment. She was older than he was and under normal circumstances would have been stronger and faster, but the breaking of the blood bond had left her weak and slow by vampire standards. Before she could stop him, a hand reached out and pierced the skin above her breast, grabbed the old beating heart from her own chest and holding it in his bloody hand, showed it to her in the moment before it transformed to dust.
Her mouth parted open in surprise, but also letting out a breath of relief for the hundreds of years she’d lived. Then all at once a great warmth filled her and she lifted her arms toward the sky as the darkness came, lifting the burden of existing from her and claiming her forever.
Part One:
Gavin
Chapter One
Gavin let out a growl of possession. A warning to let the rest of those feeding off Rachel know that she belonged to him and he was entering the crush to retrieve her. Most of them weren’t finished and reluctantly backed away, but after having killed yet another of Angus’ progeny the rest got the message, for today at least.
He scooped her up, the hole in her chest trying to heal itself but failing miserably as it hemorrhaged blood all over her naked chest. An assistant opened the door for him and he ran all the way back to the guest room they had been accommodated with. There had been an overflow in Soldiers Cove’s sanctuary and Ely had generously offered to house some of the sick in Chapel Island’s.
He lay her down as gently as he could, trying not to panic. He could see her slow beating and vulnerable heart exposed to him and immediately offered her his wrist so that she could drink his healing blood. She was too weak for her own fangs to emerge and so Gavin opened the vein for her and let the liquid drip on to her tongue. As it did she swallowed and slowly began to heal. In between biting his wrist over and over to keep the blood flowing he pressed the open flesh of her chest together until it began to knit itself back into its regular form. Also as she nourished herself the grey in her hair began to turn back into its normal black and her skin smoothed itself. Her eyes became clear and she looked at him for a moment, silently thanking him as she finished.
“Sleep,” he said, knowing she was too weak to verbalize. “We’ll talk about it later. You’re safe now.”
With that Rachel closed her eyes and drifted off, peacefully. He covered her exposed naked body with a warm fur blanket and stroked her hair. She looked better, but still didn’t look much like herself. The humans had been told she was undergoing treatment for cancer and was receiving experimental medicine of some kind in Halifax. This worked to explain her long absences to the community, and regretfully, to their children.
Rachel had been back and forth ‘to Halifax’ numerous times over the last year since she had killed Angus and taken over as leader and Ryan constantly cried for and asked for his mother.
He cried and asked for him as well, but right now his place was at her side. Holly and Duncan had moved in and were caring for the children as well as seeing to the care and training of Leiv, Rachel’s own progeny. The house was crowded to say the least, but he preferred to be where she was anyway. He would take Rachel home to see the children for a few days after she had fed. It would take the draining of several donors for her not to be overwhelmed by blood hunger, but it was a necessary evil. Their children had to be safe.
The search for answers about Ryan’s transformation had all but been forgotten about by everyone but Rachel. Gavin was too consumed with her wellbeing to look for answers and she begged him to give up staying with her at either one of the sanctuaries so that he could devote his time to the search. He refused, but she was mostly too weak for her angry words to have much of an impact.
A soft knocking at the door sounded and Gavin crossed the room to answer it. Standing there was Ely, his long, smooth black hair tied back in a ponytail. He eyed Rachel with concern. “I heard she had another close call.”
Gavin motioned for him to come in and they seated themselves at a small table across the room from the bed where Rachel lay, now in quiet slumber. “Yeah, too close.”
“I’m going to put others in there with you next time. It was stupid of me to let you go in there alone when they feed. Those vampires are dangerous right now.”
“Ely, I’m so sorry. I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done for us. I don’t think she’d still be alive if she were trying to feed them all at our own sanctuary.”
Ely nodded. He knew all about the hardships Rachel had faced in the last year, including the lack of a warm welcome by her own clan. Very few would have stepped up to protect her. Some openly wished her dead or called for her execution. Here, at least, they were safe from that threat.
“Don’t beat yourself up about the one you killed. As far as I’m concerned it was in self-defence. We’d all kill to save our own. If I’d had someone with you perhaps it wouldn’t have happened.”
“I doubt it. They seem to get more aggressive every time they feed.”
“That’s normal. We’ll do our best to avoid something like this happening again.”
Gavin shook his head in agreement. “I’m going to take her home after she feeds. She’s going to want to see the children.”
“Of course. I have the donors lined up for you. Just come and see me when you’re ready. How long do you think she’ll be out for?”
“Hopefully for the rest of the night. Then we can feed and go home in the morning.”
Ely stood. “I’ll leave you then, brother.” Ely had taken to calling Gavin, ‘brother’ because upon spending so much time at the Chapel Island sanctuary they had got to talking, and discovered that each of them could shift into birds. Gavin into a crow, and Ely, into a beautiful osprey with a wingspan of six feet. It was a sight that could only be described as majestic.
“You should get some rest as well, and don’t hesitate to call on me if you need to.”
Gavin thanked him again and then closed the door, locking it behind him. Then, he undressed and settled in under the warm fur blanket, encircling a sleeping Rachel in his arms and pulling her close to him. He listened to her heart beating. The heart that had almost been torn from her chest today, and thanked god that he had been quick enough to save her. Another second and he would be laying here alone. A tear fell from his eye and he quickly wiped it away taking in the smell of her hair and the feel of her skin. She was his whole world. He had neglected everything around him in the last year to see to her care. Hopefully the need to feed these last few vampires who had been intensely sick would be over soon. A lot had come and gone, most needing her blood for only a couple of months, but the ones that were still left were like addicts, and the woman he loved more than anything in this world was their fix.
He closed his eyes but anxiety kept him from sleep. He remained ever alert, ever vigilant. Danger seemed to be all around him now as the night closed in. Silently he held her, keeping watch until morning came.
Chapter Two
After feeding, Rachel had grown stronger and looked more like her old self, just simply tired and worn out with dark circles under her eyes. The deep scar she had gone to sleep with in the center of her chest had faded and disappeared. Nothing of the incident remained, but Gavin was sure he’d be haunted by it for a long time to come.
Ryan was still in school on the dark January day, but Holly was in the kitchen holding Jade when Rachel came through the door. Immediately the toddler put her chubby arms out to her mother and Rachel held her close as the little girl giggled and played with her mother’s long hair. Holly embraced her quickly and then freed Ruby from the high chair. Looking after two little children all day would have been a serious task for any human, but Holly was in her element as a mother and the more children around, the more she thrived.
“Are you guys eating dinner tonight?” she asked.
Rachel nodded. “God yes. I’m starving.”
“Good, we’ve all been waiting to eat for a week or so. We can have a big dinner with Ryan tonight. He’ll be so excited to see you.”
“How is he?” Rachel looked as though she was afraid to hear the answer to that question, but Holly sensed that and patted her on the shoulder.
“Don’t worry about a thing. He misses you of course, but we’ve been keeping him busy. Duncan has been teaching him to skate and takes him out on the pond every night after he eats. He comes home so exhausted that he doesn’t have energy to do much else other than crash into bed.”
“Where is Duncan?” Rachel asked.
“Took Leiv and Alex to the blood den in Sydney. They’ll be back in time for dinner.”
Gavin looked at the clock. It was almost three and just about the time that Ryan’s bus would be letting him off at the end of their long driveway.
Just then as if on cue, Ryan burst through the door, threw his schoolbag in the corner and ran to his mother immediately. “Mommy! I knew you would be here after school. I even told my teacher. She said you might not be, but I told her you would, and I was right.”
Rachel passed Jade over to Gavin and he couldn’t help but notice how heavy the little girl felt in his arms all of a sudden. She had learned new things and developed a little every time he saw her again. His little girl was growing up and he was missing it.
Jade wrapped her little arms tightly around Gavin’s neck and snuggled into him. “That’s my girl,” he whispered to her as he rocked her back and forth. In a moment she was sucking her thumb and closing her little blue eyes.
“Mommy’s only home for a couple of days, sweetie,” Rachel said to Ryan. The look on his face broke Gavin’s heart. His bottom lip quivered and his eyes threatened to spill over with tears. “It’s ok,” she said, taking him in her arms. “I know you miss us. This will all be over soon, I promise.”
Ryan shook his head in the affirmative but Gavin could tell the words were cold comfort to him. To a small child the way things are is the way they always will be and so Gavin knew he didn’t quite believe his mother.
Holly must have noticed the look on Ryan’s little face too because she interjected. “Hey Ryan, after we all eat why don’t we go down to the pond and show Mommy and Daddy how you’ve learned to skate. I bet they’ll be really surprised.”
His face lit up. “Yeah! Grampie has been taking me to the pond. I’m gonna be a hockey player,” he announced.
“Really?” Rachel said. “Well that would make me very proud. I love hockey.”
“I’m gonna go pack my hockey bag so I’ll be ready.” Ryan burst into a run and pounded up the stairs, excitedly slamming the door to his room behind him.
Rachel turned to Holly. “Hockey bag?”
“Yeah, Duncan is set on turning him into the next Sydney Crosby.”
Rachel smiled for a moment, and then suddenly the smile ran away from her face and she paled, having to sit down at the kitchen table. She
sat with her head in her hands and Gavin and Holly simply stared at each other. Holly looked guilty as if she were mentally kicking herself for saying something insensitive.
“I’m sorry, Rachel,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking.”
“It’s fine,” she murmured. Holly took Jade from Gavin and placed her in the playpen in the living room, along with Ruby and the two little girls began to play together, passing a ball back and forth.
Gavin and Holly each took a seat at the table next to her. Rachel didn’t look up. He knew instinctively what she was thinking without having to mentally listen in. Ryan wasn’t going to be the next Sydney Crosby. Ryan wasn’t going to be anything because he was going to grow up, hit the age of fifteen and forget all about them and his human life unless they could find a way to turn him. And even if they did, he’d be stuck at fifteen forever. None of the options for Ryan’s life looked particularly appealing.
“Have you found anything new?” Rachel asked, drying her eyes as she looked up.
Gavin stayed silent. “You haven’t even been looking, have you?” she said, not accusingly but with sadness and exhaustion.
Gavin figured it was better to confess than tell a lie, even though he’d have given anything to say something different and give her even a little bit of hope. “No, I haven’t,” he said.
Just then Duncan came through the door, stopping at the entrance to remove his heavy boots and winter coat. Alexander and Leiv were directly behind him and Alex smiled warmly at Rachel before being the first to run up to her and hug her tight. He guessed they were silently communicating as they both stood for a moment and smiled at each other. Then Duncan came in for his greeting.
“Hello, lass,” he said, his thick Scottish accent ringing loudly in their ears. Duncan always spoke with a booming voice when he was excited. “You’re looking a little better than the last time I saw you.”
The Vampires of Soldiers Cove: Sacrificial Children Page 1