The Devil's Fool: A Paranormal Vampire Romance Novel (Devil Series Book 1)

by Raven Steele

  “Be gone within the hour.” He picked up speed.

  “Wait!” I tried to catch up, but he had already disappeared.

  I stared after him, at the empty space that felt so big. Tears stung my eyes, and I gulped in air. What was wrong with me? The faint imprint of the girl I used to be lurked near the edges of my mind, a ghost risen from her grave.

  The thought repulsed me. I hated to think of how weak I used to be before I met Boaz.

  Boaz.

  I returned home right away, hoping I would find him there, but he was still gone. I curled up in bed, but I couldn’t get my mind off the vampire I’d met. Over and over, his sorrow-filled gaze tortured me, and an unexplainable gnawing pinged in my gut. I felt pity for him, but it was more than that. It was as if the light from his touch still lingered inside me, and it made me question everything.

  That night, when I finally fell asleep, I dreamed I was sitting with the vampire in a field of tall grass, the sun shining brightly. I thought it strange to see a vampire in full light, but he didn’t seem bothered by it in the least. He was curled up on his side, head resting in my lap.

  Looking down on him, compassion followed by peace overwhelmed me. The moment seemed to last forever, but the dream didn’t. I woke to the howl of wind blowing outside. A storm was approaching. I rolled onto my back and stared at the high ceiling.

  What had happened to me?

  A flash of light filled my window, and I sat up. Boaz was home. I didn’t have to look. I felt it.

  Excitement and longing replaced my recent regrets, and I rushed to greet him. Before I reached the bedroom door, he was already there, grinning mischievously. His arms came around me, hugging me tightly.

  “What took you so long?” I asked.

  “I finished your present.” He pushed me away to look into my eyes, still the silly grin. Behind him, standing in the doorway, Hunwald, too, seemed to be grinning.

  I laughed. “What have you done, Boaz?”

  “I did it. I finally did it. I can’t wait to try it on you.”

  “Try what?”

  “Do you still want to be with me forever?”

  I hesitated but quickly shook it off. This was my life now. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

  “Then that is what you shall have.”

  He kissed me hard. I barely had the chance to catch my breath before I saw a flash of the snake on his upper arm followed by a syringe in his hand. Boaz plunged it into my back. The pain was immediate and dropped me to my knees.

  “Boaz?” I reached behind me to try and get at the needle. A fire-hot sensation spread quickly throughout my body. “What did you do?”

  “It will only hurt for a minute, love.” He sat down in his usual red chair, pet Hunwald, and watched me expectantly.

  I tried to speak again, but the pain became unbearable. It washed over me in great waves, rocking my entire frame. I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists as my body unwillingly twisted into a tight ball. I tried to stop it with magic, but the pain was too excruciating, preventing me from thinking about anything else.

  A horrific sound exploded in my ears as if I were suddenly stuck beneath the belly of a great roaring beast. The screaming filled my head, creating an unbearable tension inside my skull. Pressure built behind my eyeballs, and I was afraid at any moment my eyes might burst from their sockets, but instead, the blood found other outlets. It poured from my nose, ears and out my mouth.

  Finally the pressure proved too great, and I lost consciousness.

  Chapter 20

  When I came to, I was lying in bed with a fresh nightgown and the covers tucked to my chin. The lights were off and the curtains drawn. I moved my limbs, expecting them to feel stiff, but they felt remarkably good, considering what I’d just been through. I only wished the inside of me felt as good as the outside. Something had gone horribly wrong.

  I threw the covers back and jumped out of bed to turn on the lights. I flinched at their brightness. I had to find Boaz. I had to know what he’d done to me. I left the room and hurried down the stairs.

  “Boaz?”

  I called several times and searched every room. When I found no one, not even Lisa, my anxiety grew. The mansion had never been empty before.

  I opened the front door to search outside but stopped when I remembered Boaz’s private study, a room I was still forbidden to enter. Not anymore. I turned around and walked toward the entrance. The door was locked, but that didn’t stop me. Using magic, I jerked it open. I had to know what he’d done to me.

  The inside was not what I’d expected. Instead of a room, a hallway stretched long, the décor completely different from the rest of the house. There were no pictures hanging on the walls, no elaborate decorations, and the temperature had to have been at least ten degrees cooler. There was very little light by the time I reached the end of it. Just enough to reveal a circular, stone staircase leading down into what looked like a black hole.

  “Boaz?” My voice echoed down the long flight of stairs.

  With my heart thundering within my chest, I began the climb down, feeling my way as I went. The rock walls around me were wet with moisture, and the air smelled stale and a little like rusty pipes.

  When there were no more stairs, I slid my hands along the wall searching for a light switch. Eventually, I found one and flipped it on. Dull fluorescent, low-hanging lights flickered overhead, barely illuminating a long and narrow hall. Six doors were on each side, all with a single glass window to view its contents. There was one last door at the end of the hall, black and as wide as the walkway.

  I took a few hesitant steps forward to peer into the first room. It was empty except for one object—a girl with short, uneven brown hair and pale skin that looked more gray next to the stark white walls. Her lips were the same dark purple color as her fingertips. She sat on the floor, leaning into the corner of the room. Her head was tilted up, staring at the ceiling with her mouth agape. Each of her hands rested on the floor next to her legs, palms turned up.

  I watched for a moment, wondering how I felt about her. Most of me felt nothing, but a small part of me knew I should try to help her. I hadn’t experienced this sort of caring, if that was even the right word, for a very long time.

  The vampire in Coast City.

  He must have done something to me. Had this been yesterday, I might’ve walked right on by the girl to find Boaz, but this new feeling, this light, couldn’t be ignored.

  I opened the door and rushed in, hoping she wasn’t dead. When I grabbed her by both shoulders, she slumped forward, her head dropping to her chest. I pushed her back up and checked for a pulse. It took me awhile to find one, but it was there.

  “Are you all right?” I asked.

  The girl didn’t move, not even to blink.

  I squeezed her shoulders tight and yelled, “Wake up!”

  Still nothing other than the slow and steady rise of her chest as she breathed in and out. Very gently, I carefully laid her on the floor and smoothed back her hair. That’s when I saw them—two red puncture wounds. I scurried away backwards, finally understanding.

  All this time, Boaz had this girl trapped, slowly feeding off of her, slowly killing her, while I was upstairs having the time of my life. I glanced back to the open door, remembering the other rooms. My throat filled with acid, and I turned to throw up but nothing came out.

  I staggered out of the room and down the hallway. The sudden emotions raging inside me made me disoriented and blurred my vision. So many feelings, some I hadn't felt in a long time. The new ones - compassion, hope, and love, cracked through my blackened heart. The battle between the two opposing forces racked my body with pain and I clawed at my chest, wishing for relief.

  The remaining rooms contained more of the same: white enclosed areas filled only by empty human shells. The last room, however, imprisoned two girls sitting opposite of each other. I didn’t recognize one, but the other was Mariel, the maid I’d met when I’d first come
to Boaz’s home. She was lying on her back, her skin and lips as gray as a corpse’s. She’d slit her wrists. Most of the blood around her had already dried.

  Would this be Lisa’s fate too? Had Boaz already begun to feed off her? The thought of my friend suffering like this made my head spin even more.

  So many emotions. I couldn’t process them all.

  I stumbled into the black door at the end of the hallway and fell through to the other side, tears stinging my eyes.

  “Eve?”

  Boaz stood in front of a fireplace, flipping through a book. He set it down and walked to me. Hunwald followed behind. My eyes darted around the strange room. It looked old, the decor straight out of the eighteen hundreds with heavy, ornate furnishings. Large wooden cabinets pressed against all the walls, filled with antique weapons and small statues. Rich, dark jeweled tones stained the woods, the furniture, and the rugs. All of it was meant to add warmth to the room, but I couldn’t have been colder, even with a roaring fire not far away.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked.

  I looked back to the open door and into the dimly lit hallway. “The girls …”

  “What about them, love?”

  “There’s something wrong with them,” was all I could say. My insides trembled. “Mariel … ”

  “They’ve been feeding a vampire. Their condition is perfectly normal. As for Mariel, she was weak. Come. Sit down. You look exhausted.”

  He took my hand and guided me to a small love seat. He sat down next to me.

  “Boaz, we have to help those girls,” I said.

  He frowned. “Help them? Why?”

  “B-because,” I stammered, searching for something in me that would tell me why it was wrong, but it was as if my conscience had been lost. “It’s not right.”

  “When did you start caring about what was right?” he asked. When I didn’t answer, he countered my logic. “Are you saying it’s right for me to starve?”

  “No.”

  “I’m a vampire. That’s what I do. Don’t be naïve.”

  “I just didn’t realize—”

  "How are you feeling?” he asked again. "I really must know."

  “What’s wrong with you?”

  He let out an exaggerated sigh. “Would you please just answer the question?”

  “Why are you talking to me like this?”

  “I’ve invested a lot of time and money into you,” he explained, “and I want to make sure it worked. Now answer the question. How are you feeling?”

  I fought back more tears, but said, “I feel different, I guess. But what are you talking about, time and money?”

  He leaned forward and picked up a notebook from off his desk. “What feels different, and please be specific.”

  I took a long moment to focus on my senses, something I hadn’t done yet since waking up. My vision seemed better. I could see the tiny intricacies in the velvet fabric on a chair across from me. My hearing also felt stronger as did my sense of smell. “Everything around me is sharper, more clear.”

  It dawned on me then, all his questions. “You made me a vampire, didn’t you?”

  Boaz scribbled on the lined paper and then tapped a pencil on his head as if thinking.

  “I’m a vampire now, right?” I asked again.

  He looked up. It took him all of three seconds before he burst out laughing. I’d never heard laughter like this from him before. It made me feel all kinds of wrong.

  “Then what did you do to me?” I cried, my eyes brimming with tears.

  His laughter subsided. “Well, if all my research proves to be right, then I have just made you an immortal.”

  “How is that different from you?”

  “You won’t have my strength or speed, not without using magic anyway, which can be depleted. You also won’t have my blood lust. You will simply live forever, unless, of course, someone cuts off your head or you burn to death."

  “How did you do this?”

  “You wouldn’t understand, but to put it in simple terms, I gave you the immortal part of vampirism and left out all the good stuff.”

  “But why? Why spend your precious time and money when you could’ve just made me a vampire?”

  “And risk the chance of you becoming more powerful than me? I couldn’t do that.”

  I reared back as if I’d been slapped, but I quickly schooled my expression. His words sounded like something my parents would’ve said. Reacting emotionally wouldn’t get me the answers I wanted. Whatever was going on, I had to think through this calmly and rationally.

  “I thought you loved me,” I said, my voice even.

  “I do. I love you like I love those girls out there.”

  “And how is that exactly?”

  “They give me something I need.”

  “And what do I give you?”

  He inhaled deeply. “Beautiful, untainted power. And unfortunately, I need someone to make mine unstoppable. Not just someone, mind you. I need you, Eve.”

  I held my hands together to keep them from shaking. I had to keep him talking to get to the truth. And who knew? Maybe I could use his truth to my advantage.

  “Why me?”

  His brows drew together, and he narrowed his eyes, studying me as if trying to determine if I was ready to hear the truth.

  To ease his mind, I added, “Boaz, I understand the desire for wanting more power. I get this when I’m with you. I’d be naive to think you’re also not getting the same from me, but I want to know, why me?”

  His pinched expression relaxed, and he placed his hand over mine. “You were bred for me, Eve. The treaty I told you about between your parent’s families? It was my idea over a hundred years ago. Whenever I came near either side of your family, I could feel my power grow as it reached out to theirs. It was as if the dark energy between us needed each other. But it wasn’t enough, and eventually the power would fade. That’s when I came up with my brilliant plan. I knew if I could get the two families to breed me a life partner, then I would have enough power to make me invincible. There were some mistakes along the way, of course. Take the mental twins, for example, but ultimately I was right. I knew the moment I held your infant body in my arms that you would be the one."

  I stared at him, dumbfounded, and tried to hold back a hitched breath.

  “Erik and Sable had their chance, but they failed. That's when I took you. I knew I was the only one who could change you, the only one who could make you fall in love with dark magic, and you ate it up like a hungry pussycat.”

  The tears I’d been trying to hold back came now. They spilled onto my cheeks. “It was all a set-up, wasn’t it? The diablos in the forest. They weren’t real. My parents weren’t trying to kill me.”

  He glanced down at his book and scribbled something. "No, but they would've had I failed."

  The hands in my lap looked small. Everything had been a lie.

  Chapter 21

  “Don’t be sad,” Boaz said, his pathetic attempt at comforting me. “You were created for me, yes, but I made you stronger, too. I mean, you didn’t really think all of those magical stunts you pulled were all you, do you?” He waved his hand and chuckled. “Oh, who am I kidding? Of course you did! That’s one of the few things I love about you, your prideful, cocky demeanor. It reminds me of me.”

  I shook my head, hoping the motion might help my brain understand. “Not my power? But—”

  “The water you conjured in Dare the Demon?” he cut in, raising his eyebrow. “I gave you my power. We did it together. I need you to be greater, but you’re nothing without me. Don't ever forget it.”

  I wiped at my eyes, my mind wrapped in confusion. “You can use magic?”

  “I learned how centuries ago, but I found that being a vampire depleted it quickly. I needed another source, like a battery, to keep it running. That’s where other witches came in, especially those at a Master’s level, but I couldn’t always keep them near me willingly. A real problem.” He chuckled. �
��What I needed was a Legend witch, one that would be drawn to me as I was to them. That’s when I remembered the debt your family owed me.”

  “Debt?” My tears had dried upon my cheeks. In their place, anger had filled my eyes.

  He didn’t answer. “Then you came along and exceeded my expectations. Not only are you beautiful, but sexy too, and so full of magic that sometimes I can barely stand being next to you. It’s made me more powerful than I could ever imagine.”

  He brought my hand up to his lips and kissed it. I tried to pull away from his touch, but Boaz was right. I was drawn to him. So much so, that in that moment, I wondered if maybe magic had been used at my conception to bind me to him. I’d heard of such spells. They were a perversion even among supernaturals. If that was the case …

  Mustering up inner strength, I withdrew my hand from him. “Just because we are drawn to each other, doesn’t mean I’m forced to stay with you. I can choose someone else to be with or no one, for that matter.”

  I knew it was risky to say such a thing, but I couldn’t let him hold that much power over me.

  His jaw ticked, and he leaned away from me. “I don’t think you’re understanding, Eve.”

  I stood and shook my head as I walked across the room. “Have you forgotten how powerful I am?”

  A slow smile slid up his face and he came to his feet, an evil glint in his eye. He snapped his fingers. At the exact moment, my arms jerked to my body and tight pressure squeezed my chest as if a thick cord had wrapped around it. I gasped for air and tried to fight against the invisible restraints, but it was useless.

  “You think you are more powerful than me?” While glaring at me, he lifted his hands. Behind him, objects rose from the floor. Books, chairs, and papers, lifted high and began to spin in a wide circle throughout the room.

  I thought I was afraid before but raw terror burned through me. I had no idea Boaz could use such magic. How was it possible? Vampires shouldn’t be able to, as they were considered undead and only the living could wield living energy. I paused, thinking of the vampire in the park. I had sensed a considerable amount of magic inside him. Could he be connected to Boaz somehow?