Authors: Tracy St. John
The female vampire’s voice was filled with satisfaction. “Heriolf’s blood whore. But no
longer
.”
A stinging slap landed on Naya’s cheek, and she was thrown to the ground by its force. The ground seemed to absorb her fall, allowing Naya to keep her breath despite falling heavily to its surface. Her head rang nevertheless, and the side of her face where Mariel had struck felt as if it had been seared.
A deep voice spoke above her. One of the other vampires, no doubt. “Let’s not toy with her. I’d hate her blood to go to waste.”
Mariel answered, her tone strident. “Her blood is a trap. We must not taste it.”
Naya peered up at the shapes standing over her, slowly coming into view as her vision adju
sted to the dimly lit night. “
Please! I’m on your side. Heriolf killed my parents. I want him dead too!”
As if she hadn’t spoken, a second male voice argued, “With her blood, we’ll have the strength to defeat Heriolf. We can’t waste this opportunity. Once she’s drained, she won’t be around to tempt anyone anyway.”
Mariel sounded furious. “No! Don’t you see? Already we are fighting over her. She must die without defiling another one of us
as she has Elisha
.”
The second male huffed, but it was a resigned sound. “Fine. If it will make you feel better, Mariel, we’ll kill her and not drink.”
The first male
growled, but it was only token protest
. “I still say it’s a damned waste.”
The three shapes bent towards Naya. There was no hope but to scream for help. “Elisha! Elisha!”
Elisha took in his surroundings upon rising, concerned that Naya wasn’t waiting for him among the intricate maze of children’s playthings.
He was forced to think past his hunger, which set his nerves on edge.
It was too early still for Heriolf to have gotten to her, he was sure. But maybe his human slaves had found her. Or maybe she was simply too frightened to leave her motel room.
Or maybe he’d been a fool to trust her to not run back to the vampire
king
.
Trust her. She’d never go back to him, not after what he did to her family. She’s not going to turn her back on you.
Elisha rose into the air, the need for blood clamoring to be sated. He had to find Naya first. He
followed the road from the playground equipment distributor
just in case she’d gotten a late start and even now
hurried
to meet him. Streetlights lit the road in circular pools ahead of him, oases of illumination in which nothing else moved.
The wind moaned, setting the pines on the opposite side of the road to creak achingly as they swayed, like old men with arthritic joints. The monotonous drone of the interstate traffic was a constant hum, nearly drowning out the piping cry of “…
elisha
…
elisha…”
The vampire’s fangs erupted from his gums in an instant, and his stomach tumbled in
a mixture of
terror
and fury
. He
shot through
the sky in a blur of speed, heading towards his beloved’s screams.
* * * *
E
xcitement pour
ed
through
Heriolf’s
veins as he swooped down on the seedy little motel. He and his
en
tourage landed on its roof. His ability to feel Naya’s pulse was fading rapidly, but here it still
hummed with warmth
. She’d only just left, and on foot he discovered. He could sense her passage across the parking lot
. It continued
down the side road that led away from the exit’s amenities for passing travelers.
The relief he felt to be so close again was almost womanish in its intensity. His ability to read his aide and guards’ thoughts had disappeared
except for the occasional
whisper of emotion, a word or two of thought. That was all. And though his physical strength was fading the least fast, Heriolf knew a head-on fight with her abductor might yield disastrous results. They had been evenly matched the night before, and no doubt this usurper Elisha Midyet continued to feed on his Font. The only choice Heriolf had now was to take Naya back like a common thief himself and feed hard from her before facing off with Elisha again.
“We are near her,” he told his followers, now only numbering four. “Concentrate your attack on the
kidnapping
traitor. He must fall before all others.”
They nodded, the fools. He
riolf
was signing their death warrants most likely, sending them against Elisha with his enhanced strength. He didn’t care. All that mattered was getting Naya back, getting his powers back, and ruling for eternity.
He led them after her, drifting soundlessly through the night, away from the garish display of the exit’s businesses fighting to lure tired, hungry travelers. His fists squeezed shut and opened as he readied to feel the Font’s soft flesh. He would take her blood and her body tonight. He would make her his for eternity, even if it meant keeping her tied to her bed, always prepared for his hungers. Perhaps he would bind her that way even if she swore neverending devotion to him. Heriolf grinned as her path brightened with her nearness. He could almost smell her, so recent was her b
eaming
passage. Naya was as good as his again.
* * * *
Somehow Naya managed to evade her attackers long enough to get her flashlight back. It wasn’t truly a weapon, but it was better than nothing. She swung it wildly at the trio gathering around her.
She’d lost the little pocketknife at some point, probably when Mariel had knocked her to the ground.
The three vampires easily evaded her flailing
lunges
, looking amused as the light illuminated their faces in a nightmare of fanged expressions. Naya knew they toyed with her as one of the males and then the other darted close enough to poke her before jumping back again. She stood her ground and
swung
at them, hoping against hope that Elisha would appear and talk them out of killing her.
She would have been better off to run she realized as Mariel grabbed her.
Fleeing through the woods
might have delayed her death by a few seconds.
Naya screamed as the vampire knocked the flashlight away once again and pulled her close. Mariel
cupped one hand under her chin, the other around the back of her head, preparing to snap her neck.
Naya pounded at her, punching the taller Mariel in the belly, kicking, battling for all she was worth. Her enemy acknowledged none of this, simply grinning down at Naya.
Mariel’s expression took all hope
away
. Nothing she did would keep the vampire from killing her.
Looking into the merciless eyes of her murderer, Naya stopped struggling and waited to die.
A dark shadow suddenly swooped through the group, knocking everyone down like a wrecking ball. Though she wasn’t hit as hard as the three vampires who threatened her, Naya fell too. While the others thumped hard against the ground, again she felt almost embraced by the earth beneath her.
Someone stood over her, his long legs straddling her body. Elisha’s voice rang out. “Get away from her!”
Mariel and her cohorts rose, their mouths opened wide to display their fangs in challenge. The dark woman was furious with her desperation. “She has to die, Elisha. There is no other way!”
From her prone position, Naya saw how Elisha’s attitude remained conciliatory. His fangs were still sheathed
though his body thrummed with a slight tremble
. “No, Mariel. You will have to kill me too, and you can’t. I have her blood and am too strong for you.”
Mariel h
issed. “She corrupts even the
incorruptible
. You were our champion, Elisha! The one who we were sure would resist her siren song.”
He spread his hands. “I have not betrayed you. I still believe in the good of the council. I do not wish to be supreme leader.”
“Pretty words, just like the ones Heriolf spoke until he seized control.”
“I could
kill you all right now, with little effort,
if I really wanted to take Heriolf’s place. That I don’t should prove to you I only want the council reinstated
. I am and will always be
for vampires to go back to the old ways where we lived without fear of each other.”
Mariel scowled. “Not everyone has your ethics, Elisha. Surely you cannot be blind to the threat the Font represents!”
Elisha bent to offer Naya his hand. She took it, allowing him to help her to her feet.
His skin was so cold. He hadn’t fed yet.
He must have been hanging onto control by the slenderest of threads. More than ever, Naya thought Elisha remarkable. She
stood at his side, and they both faced the other vampires. Only Mariel still looked certain of herself, Naya saw.
Elisha also
noted it
, to judge the way he aimed his words at
his adversary
. “I am not blind, but I cannot see Naya killed. When Heriolf is dead I will take her away, where she will be no threat to anyone here. I will –”
His words were cut off as four vampires burst into the clearing, all simultaneously attacking him. Naya whirled away and screamed to see Elisha set upon by so many. She recognized the assailants right away: Heriolf’s new assistant Lyndon and members of his personal guards.
Elisha knocked them back, but they came at him again, harrying him and trying to overwhelm his superior strength with numbers. Naya wasn’t able to watch however, because Mariel took the opportunity to come after her.
“Now before Heriolf claims her again!” she screamed to her companions, and they lunged for Naya.
As if uttering his name had summoned him, Heriolf dropped from the sky like a god of doom between Mariel’s group and Naya. Sweeping his massive arms out, he sent them flying as Elisha had only moments before. He turned to Naya, his snarling face bestial in triumph. She turned to run, but his arms were already banding tight around her, pinning her arms to her body.
“No! Elisha!”
She had no idea if her lover heard her scream. The ground receded as Heriolf carried her into the sky, quickly flying away from the battle.
* * * *
Elisha’s world was red rage as Naya’s cries faded into the distance. Heriolf had her, had his Naya, but Elisha’s opponents kept coming at him.
With a roar he threw off two guards. They flew so hard through the air that the
thin pine
trees they fetched up on broke with earsplitting cracks. As another bodyguard jumped on Elisha’s back, he got hold of Lyndon and tore the vampire’s head off. Then Elisha grabbed the vampire pummeling him and flung him to the ground.
“Heriolf has the girl! Return to the mansion!” someone yelled. The three guards still living, looking more like car accident victims than the mighty creatures they were, fled into the night.
Elisha tensed to follow them. The next instant something wound tight around his
torso
, pinning his arms to his sides.
His shirt had been ruined the night before, leaving him bare from the waist up.
Burning pain shrieked from his naked flesh and he screamed as he fell to the ground, the silver chain that lassoed him rendering him helpless.
Thrashing failed to loosen the loop of metal
that held
him prisoner. Elisha became aware of Mariel and her two helpers standing over him.
Her voice, sympathetic yet merciless, rose over his gasps. “I’m sorry, Elisha. You’ve left us no choice. If I live when this is over, I will grant you an easy death rather than leave you for the sun.”
One of her cronies, a thin British-born vampire named Clark, looked askance at her. “We can’t go after Heriolf now. He has the Font again!”
Mariel was determined. “He’s been deprived of her blood for days. This is the only chance we have, while he’s weakened. Call together our people. We attack now.”
Elisha knew his pleas fell on deaf ears, but he tried anyway. “Mariel, please! She’s an innocent!”
Mariel voice was colder than the night air. “Even innocents must die for the greater good sometimes.”