Raiders of Vampyra

By Nicole Ash

Mai had often fantasized about vampires, but she'd never really expected to meet one in the flesh. Such is the case, though, when the aliens land and they are--what else?--vampires! Xavion not only captures her imagination from the moment she spies this gorgeous specimen of Vamprian manhood, he captures her. She discovers fairly quickly, however, that 'turning' her is not part of his plan.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nicole Ash
• Release date: Apr 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9780463483374

Nicole Ash

It's been a while since I had anything new out, but I'm happy to report that I've recently gotten my mojo back, and will be releasing new works in the near future!

Book preview

RAIDERS OF VAMPYRA Nicole Ash 63

RAIDERS OF VAMPYRA

By

Nicole Ash

© copyright January 2013 Nicole Ash

Cover art by Eliza Black © January 2013

Published by Nicole Ash

Smashwords Edition

This is a work of fiction. All characters, events, and places are of the author’s imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely coincidence.

Look for these other titles from Nicole Ash!

Dark Carnival

Rowan Wood

The Vampire Chronicles Book One

The Vampire Chronicles Book Two

Romancing the Stone

Rise of the Wolf Clan

Ravished by Wolves

Oath of the Dragon

Ninth Orb

Ja’rael’s Lioness

When Night Falls

Dedication:

To Mrs. Hale, the best English teacher I ever had. Do not read this story.

Chapter One

A territorial fight broke out between the Trekies, the Doomsdayers, and the Christian Soldiers. Battle cries rang out from the opposing groups, fists flying--wildly for the most part since they weren’t ordinarily violent people and had had little practice in hand-to-hand combat.

Despite the excitement, it seemed unlikely anyone was going to get hurt badly. The Doomsdayers were battering the Christians with ‘The end is here’ signs while the Trekies pelted them with their rubber weapons.

The police had their hands full trying to control an escalating fight between warring factions of Elvis fanatics and could not come to the aid of the Christians, who were finally driven off by the ferocity of the Trekie/Doomsdayer force. The alliance, of course, collapsed with no common enemy to unite them and battle once again ensued, this time between the Trekies and the Doomsdayers. Except for keeping a wary eye on them, the military, safely behind the concrete barricades set up to protect the scientists and politicians from the general riffraff, ignored the battles for the most part, standing with guns at the ready in case another group tried to storm their position. Some of the pacifists who’d tried to do so ten minutes earlier were still on the ground clutching the bruises inflicted by the rubber bullets they’d fired on them.

I have never in my life seen so many lunatics gathered together in one place, Mai thought in disgust as she watched the shifting masses at the forefront fighting for a better position on the tarp. Glancing toward the group of ‘aliens’ she had come with to see what they thought of the ruckus, she wondered if she should include herself in that assessment.

The media were interspersed in the crowd since no one was willing to give up their spot near the front just so some reporter and camera crew could stand there and block everyone else’s view. The throng of people closest to the front was shoulder to shoulder--and getting chummier every minute--but there was still breathing room where Mai stood. She could just make out the president in his seat on the dais twiddling his thumbs. Politicians from around the world were seated behind and to either side of him. A group of scientists were squeezed together in the very back, looking around nervously.

All in all, Mai considered hers a good spot for the night of a life time. She couldn’t see as well as she would’ve liked, but she could still see everything going on and she felt a lot safer getting a distant view than trying to work her way into the crazy crowd.

Not far from where she was standing, an anchor woman shouted into a microphone over the dull roar of the crowd. We’re here live in Atlanta Georgia, where NASA projects the spacecraft will land. As you can see behind me, there’s quite a group gathered here for this historic event--

The loonies have gathered from the four corners of the Earth.

It was no surprise things had gotten a little out of hand. When NASA had announced the discovery of a space craft that had entered Earth’s solar system, it was the biggest thing to happen--ever. As soon as it was made public where the predicted landing site might be, people had started pouring into the city from around the world. Mai had hopped a ride with a girl she worked with and her friends and had only had to endure three hours of rabid Star Trek talk to get to the city.

What if they were wrong? What if the aliens decide to land somewhere else? She could well imagine the crazed people around her fighting for a piece of the scientists. I wonder if that thought’s crossed their minds?

But maybe it had. Maybe that was the real agenda of the military presence. She couldn’t see that they were going to prove to be much of a deterrent to the aliens, not shooting rubber bullets.

Or maybe they were planning on switching to live ammo when they saw the ship?

NASA may or may not have tried to hide the discovery, based on the length of time the craft had actually been coming toward the planet. The conspiracy theorists had had a field-day with that one. NASA, of course, claimed that they just didn’t see it coming until last week and blamed it on the budget. The president pledged many billions of tax-payer dollars for their program to avoid anything like this ever happening again, despite NASA’s assurances that the odds were astronomical--and also despite the fact that the sod had already spent more ‘tax’ money than the ten presidents before him. The aliens, meanwhile, had yet to respond to repeated attempts at communication and NASA had issued a warning that they could be hostile.

Naturally, no one paid that any attention. If they were hostile, why bring only one ship? Why move so openly without any attempt to hide the fact that they were heading straight for Earth?

Despite the doomsdayers, and the Christian soldiers who seemed to think the aliens had come with the sole purpose of fucking up their religious beliefs in the ‘creation’, the majority of the people gathered had come just to watch the show of a life time.

Real, live, aliens!

Mai could hardly believe it herself. She didn’t think she’d ever been so excited in her life. This was the sort of story everybody dreamed of being able to tell their grandkids.

Not that she had any--or any kids for that matter--or even a frigging boyfriend if it came to that.

She did hope they were cute and not something butt ugly and completely undesirable because the pickings on Earth sure as hell were getting slim.

As she watched, the people at the far edge turned, falling silent, their faces tipped toward the sky. Their actions created a domino effect until at last everyone was looking. In the sky, a large, oblong ship floated lazily, silently, into view. Its surface was dull and metallic, covered in pockmarks as if it had seen a lot of wear and tear. On the nose of the ship were strange, blue runes, lit from within.

Mai watched as the ship floated over her head, toward the center of the throng where a wide open space had been carefully set aside for their landing and maintained with grim determination by the military. Feeling the briefest sense of displacement at the dreamlike quality of the scene as a whole, Mai startled at the sudden shouting that originated in the ranks of the Doomsdayers. The mood of the throng shifted palpably from awe and she was buffeted with a cacophony of sounds.

The ship, now centered over the clearing, set down with slow dignity, settling in a small cloud of dust kicked up by the engines. Jumping to his feet, the president shambled ape-like to the microphone at the center of the stage. Looking down carefully to ensure his feet were on the large X he’d been told to stand on, he fidgeted as he waited for the ship to open, making ineffectual hushing sounds at the crowd.

Apparently too impatient to deliver his ‘historical welcome’ to actually wait for the appearance of the aliens, the president leaned over the mike Welcome friends. Minutes slipped by and he stood twitching nervously as he awaited their reply. After a moment, when nothing happened, he turned to the crowd and plastered a lopsided grin across his face. Please, uh, everyone quiet down a lil’ You’re scarin’ our space visitors, I, uh, think.

No one paid him any attention, continuing to murmur and gesture toward the craft. Abruptly, the door to the ship hissed open and a ramp extended to the ground like a great slivery tongue. From the dark, yawning hole emerged the sound of tramping feet. With bated breath, the crowd watched as a figure emerged from the dim interior