Vampire

By Sarah Luddington

I am a vampire. I feed, I fight, I follow orders and I am good at my job.
However, I once betrayed my Master and paid a heavy price. He loves me but can he trust me? For I am torn between nature and nurture.
I now have to question my very existence in order to save humanity and vampire kind from the strangest threat yet. The demons in hell, the fallen angels, have decided to return to the Host and the only way they can do that is by killing us all. Lucifer has decided to use me to stop them.
Can I prevent this madness if I find a way to survive the insanity and recover true compassion once more? Not an easy task for a monster, who just wants to follow her hunger.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mirador Publishing
• Release date: Jun 27, 2011
• ISBN: 9781908200297

Sarah Luddington

I've been writing for twenty years on and off, but it is only the last five I've been serious. So, I'm still in my apprenticeship. This website is to give all those interested a way to access my writing, read snippets and learn how to download to Kindle or purchase some of my work. I have published and unpublished works here, some still being written, some in the editing stage. Browse as you wish but be warned, I write both violence and erotica. I have also been accused of writing love stories. If love is half as painful as some of the stuff I write here, then maybe it ought to come with a health warning. There is love in these tales, I am an old romantic who thinks love makes the world go round. However, love generates passions which aren't always so physically pleasurable. My stories, some about redemption, some about saving the world from the ultimate evil, some about obsession, are fun, fast paced and pure urban fantasy - FOR ADULTS! A theme I've thought of in one is often carried into the next. I have a style, I have a subject I enjoy. If you like the same things then great. If not then good luck and thanks for visiting. Personally, I have been everything from a tree grower, to a book binder, a barmaid and cleaner. For the last few years I've been running an award winning full time martial arts company and taught three disciplines within my club. I hold three black belts and have a degree in Medieval History, which comes in handy if I ever need to use either an English or Japanese sword. I have achieved all this despite having once lived in a squat in an abandoned Victorian schoolhouse. My husband and I now live with three cats on the Somerset Levels, just down the road from Glastonbury, the centre for inspiration in everything esoteric and strange. Music is my inspiration and my love. Live music the one thing I will actually leave my house for voluntarily. My links page is full of the bands I think should be compulsory listening but apparently I'm in the minority! One thing I will say - any reference to a band is made with due respect and reverence. If you want to comment on my work then do get in touch: [e-mail]

Book preview

Vampire

By

Sarah Luddington

Mirador Publishing

First Published by Mirador Publishing at Smashwords

Copyright 2011 by Sarah Luddington

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

All right reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission of the publishers or author. Excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

First edition: 2011

Any reference to real names and places are purely fictional and are constructs of the author. Any offence the references produce is unintentional and in no way reflect the reality of any locations involved.

A copy of this work is available though the British Library.

IBSN : 978-1-908200-29-7 

To my Sensei and my muse

Chapter One

The blood drenched me. Filled me. Completed me. Quenching my thirst at last. The sticky mess covered every square inch of my skin. The burning tang of iron on my tongue mirrored the burning ache of my jaw. The delicious smell of rich, warm blood filled my nose making me slightly giddy every time I took a breath. I raised my arms, smearing it up my neck and face with muscles taut, in a cat like stretch. My fingers were unable to run through my hair. It lay in thick ribbons, matted tight with gore. I sighed, it would take hours to wash it clean and then brush its long length.

My mind gradually came back to itself. Slipping from its orgasmic postcoital bliss, which is the closest I can come to describing the sensation after a feed, into normal awareness. The others around me were stirring, the frenzy over. We were sated. For the first time in a decade, we had all fed to the point of ultimate gluttony. Throughout this event, we gorged, taking more into our bodies than we would ever need. It felt wonderful. My limbs were heavy. My mind quiet, calmer than it had been for a long time. My body no longer hurt. I smiled.

On the opposite side of the large room, I watched my Master as he picked his way fastidiously through the drunken vampires and dead mortals. I smiled; Suresh’s high caste Indian heritage bellowed snob. Disdain for his fellows imprinted in every movement. He headed away from me, which meant he must have important High Court business. He reassured me constantly that my company attracted him far more than the Court’s did, but I take some convincing. I sighed heavily and forced my bunched fists to relax. My resentment against them burned just that little bit brighter.

Katherine?

Sometimes in life, you have moments which don’t tally with what is expected. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been alive, in my case over one hundred and thirty years, there are still times when you are surprised. This bombshell made me move with surprising speed, considering how bloated I felt.

Nathaniel, his name dropped from my lips, a missile discharged from an aircraft on an unsuspecting village.

Looking me up and down he said, You appear to be wonderfully satisfied. I suppose the old man is keeping you happy?

How? I really am the bluntest knife in the drawer sometimes. This was definitely one of those times.

I used my dastardly powers to gain entry, he bowed with a flourish.

Rushing toward him, I grabbed his arm, and propelled him toward a door. Some young vampire half rose off the floor, I kicked his head to knock him out. I didn’t need witnesses. We had to leave the feeding room before Nathaniel drew attention to himself. Fortunately, because I’m strong I recovered faster than most of my comrades in the room. The others were too soporific to notice our hurried exit.

Tut, tut, Katherine, your unseemly haste shows me just how desperate you are for my wonderful body, Nathaniel purred.

Shut up, I snapped, pushing him through a doorway. My heart raced with fear. Nathaniel produced fear in me. Also, irritation, anger, disappointment and great love.

We were in one of the antechambers, which surrounded the ballroom. They were used by the aristocrats of our society to hold small private soirees during Court sessions. Anything could happen in one of these rooms, the plotting and manipulation of business and governments, or the intense pleasures of physical torture. It depended on your point of view, of course, as to which was the more depraved. This room seemed harmless enough; it consisted of over stuffed chairs, brocade and cushions.

Lovely, Nathaniel sneered, flicking his elegant hand at a cushion. Retro Georgian. I hated it the first time around. He’d been born at some point toward the end of the fifteenth century. To be honest it might not have been retro, it might have been original for all I knew.

Damn it, Nath, what the hell are you doing here? Suresh will kill you if he finds you. Fear and the agony of memories actually threatened to choke me. I grasped the back of a chair to hold myself still.

Nathaniel is my older vampiric sibling. We share the same Master. Unfortunately, Nathaniel really fucked up three decades ago. I hadn’t seen him since. He’d been banished. I still bear the scars of his treachery, literally. My fear bloomed like black roses on twisted vines.

He stood motionless for a moment, watching the play of emotions run through my eyes. I should have more control by now, but he always left me weak. They both did. He stood the same height as Suresh, but his eyes were grey, where Suresh’s were almost black. Nathaniel’s dark blonde hair, cut short, curly and rough. Suresh’s, like a river of black jet with the consistency of clouds. Where Suresh’s skin would always be dark, Nathaniel’s had become alabaster with centuries away from the hated sunlight. They both had slim, muscular bodies, which I yearned to bite. Being a good girl though, I only bite one.

Grasping for control of my emotions I asked more softly, What has driven you to this madness? The fear in my voice finally manifested enough to jolt him from his arrogant state of mind.

He folded in on himself slightly and said quietly, I have a message for the High Court. I need your help delivering it. I knew you’d all be here. I’m going to need you to talk to Suresh. He moved toward me slightly.

You are mad. I moved for the door. Not wanting to be trapped.

Don’t you want to know what the message is? he asked, reaching for me.

No, yanking my arm out of reach, I continued back peddling. No, I don’t. I will never be caught between you and our Master, again. He almost killed me. You want to talk to him? You talk to him. I won’t become involved.

My voice thickened. The last time I’d been in a room alone with Nathaniel he’d tried to heal me from the terrible beating I’d received from Suresh. The only beating I’d ever received. I had pushed him so far the High Court forced him to punish me. Forbidden him from healing me and banished Nathaniel from our lives forever. That had been thirty years ago. It took ten years for Suresh and I to be comfortable with each other once more and another ten for the trust to be reestablished. The terrible pain of that night scarred us both. He never wanted to hurt me, it wasn’t in his nature, but if he hadn’t the High Court would have killed me themselves. He’d wept with every blow that fell. I hated the High Court.

The door, still behind me, sprang open. Twisting to avoid a broken nose and to cover the entrance, I registered Suresh. Rage hit me first as he rushed in.

I acted before I thought, stupid girl. I saw the glint of the blade in the candlelight. I threw myself in front of Nathaniel and agony ripped through my lower intestine. Wet heat drenched my skin once more but it was mine, not someone else’s. Both men cried out in shock. Serve ‘em right, I thought, while trying to breathe around the pain.

Katherine, why? Suresh gasped. He clutched me to his body and we sank to the floor.

Nathaniel needs to talk to you, I struggled to inhale. Vampires don’t need air to survive but we do need it to talk. He can’t do that if he’s dead, I tried to smile.

Suresh’s expression showed I hadn’t pulled off the smile very well. He grimaced as he withdrew the knife, pushing his hand over the deep wound. I knew it was deep because I’ve been stabbed often enough to tell the difference between a flesh wound and a mortal one. Let me try to heal you, foolish, child, he said, placing his arm in my mouth. Both Suresh and I knew I should have healed easily with my Master’s help, but things had changed. I didn’t heal as vampires should, certainly vampires with my power.

No, I coughed and grabbed at him, doing what I could to stop him. I didn’t want to waste his blood, we’d discovered I needed to begin the healing process myself, or it didn’t work. Besides, once I’d healed he’d be at Nathaniel’s throat and I’d be cleaning blood off the ceiling which wasn’t mine. No healing until you talk, I panted.

You will bleed to death, Nathaniel’s soft voice rippled through me, he appeared in my eye line.

Then you better tell him what you’re doing here, I said.

You’ve risked her life again, Suresh growled, holding me just a bit too tightly. If she is harmed through your actions I swear, Nathaniel I will stake you myself.

Watching them I wanted to bang their head’s together. The pain radiating through me from both men felt worse than the knife, buried to the hilt in my guts. I moaned. The noise dragged both men back to me.

Nathaniel sank to his knees in front of me, I have a message for the High Court.

You will give it to me, Suresh ordered.

I can’t do that, Nathaniel’s jaw set in a familiar way.

If you don’t Katherine will bleed to death because I am your only option. You have no rights or voice in this place.

I drew a shaking breath around the wound, Please, Nathaniel, do as he says. You know nothing of the current politics, Suresh can’t help you easily.

With amazement, I watched Nathaniel relax slightly. He never backed down. He might be the most laid back vampire I’d ever known, but once he was set there would be no compromise.

Fine, but only for you, Kate. He smiled so sadly, I wanted to weep, or maybe that was the pain. I have been charged to give warning. The Light Bringer’s cohort is rising. They wish to destroy mankind. When sufficient numbers have gone, they will wage war on the creatures of darkness. They wish to recreate Eden. They wish to raise the vibration of all living things, enabling them to bring about the union of heaven and earth. They wish to rejoin the Heavenly Host in a state of Grace and Light. They no longer wish to be separate from their originator and we stop them from reaching this state of Grace and Forgiveness. The words came as a rehearsed litany, falling from Nathaniel’s lips quietly but exploding like small bombs on the carpet and soaking into it with my blood. The effect on Suresh shocked me more than the knife wound.

A fine tremor ran through his body. His distress reflected into me. It made me flinch. Neither man noticed. They were trapped sharing some unspoken level of communication I didn’t understand. My own fears lay with Nathaniel’s possible sacrifice, he might die for just walking into the room, never mind delivering what Suresh deemed an important message.

From where did this information come? he said calmly and quietly.

You won’t like it, Nathaniel warned, taking my hand. A mortal of my acquaintance has been contacted by one of the angels who watch the Light Bringer and his kind.

The world started to go black. Regardless of whether my innards were healing, I needed help. I am happy to have that blood now, Master, I murmured. Nathaniel’s message of doom shifted from being important to irrelevant, I wanted the world’s focus to be on me.

Suresh moved slightly. In moments, his arm lay against my mouth filling me with his life.

CHAPTER TWO

I didn’t need much to make the pain stop and for the worst of the damage to mend. Suresh is old and powerful. Meaning his children are powerful, mainly because Suresh is a fussy bastard so there have been just the two of us. A Master vampire has two choices, many minions so they can dominate by force of numbers, but their children are potentially weak. Or few children, who are powerful and hopefully loyal. Suresh chose the latter, for which I was eternally grateful. The loyal part made Suresh and those who made the same decision vulnerable. I’ve discovered over the years no system is perfect.

He helped me to my feet, but spoke over my head to Nathaniel, Take her back to my rooms. Stay quiet and out of the way. Try to stay out of trouble and do not fill her head with your nonsense.

When Nathaniel was away, Suresh treated me as an equal. When he returned, my sibling usurped my position as equal and became Suresh’s second in command. It was irritating.

I can bloody well look after myself, I said. I pushed away from my Master and I stood on shaking legs. The door looked a long way off.

Kate, please, let me help, Nathaniel gently touched my arm. I glanced up at him and saw understanding and sympathy in his eyes. Suresh and Nathaniel had been together for hundreds of years before I arrived, he knew our Master. He also knew how irritated I became when Suresh played games with us.

Too weak to argue I decided to let Nathaniel lead me out, back to the main room. With the clean up operation in full swing we were ignored. Younger vampires than me pulled bodies out of the main room. Hoses, brushes and mops would soon make light work of the lake of red liquid slowly congealing on the stone floor. This was the first gathering I didn’t have to take a share in the work. I’d been a vampire for just over a century, so no clean up duty. Which was just as well because the smell no longer filled me with a thrill, it made me nauseous. The quantity of new vampires in the hall surprised me. We only had this feast once every ten years. A union, a gathering, of all the vampire clans. Apparently it helped us bond. I thought it seemed a great excuse to show off and start fights.

What a fucking waste, I mumbled, swaying against Nathaniel.

What, all the dead bodies? he asked, taking my elbow and my balance.

I frowned, No, silly boy. All the blood I’ve spilt in that damned room saving your sorry arse. I might not have needed to feed for a month. Now I’m going to wake hungrier than I was before.

The dead mortals don’t come into this equation of waste? You are not sorry you make them suffer in this orgy of lust? Nathaniel asked in a tone I didn’t recognise; forming a sub text I didn’t understand.

I frowned up at him, Nathaniel, it isn’t a waste. They volunteer.

They are tricked into their surrender, Nathaniel said very quietly.

Looking up at him, I felt something akin to fear shiver through me. Nathaniel, my beautiful sibling, looked older and weary somehow. A world I didn’t understand moved behind his eyes, clouding the clear grey. I wanted to ask him what had happened while he’d been in exile, but I couldn’t, I didn’t have the courage. I’d grown used to being the centre of Suresh’s existence. I’d grown used to not thinking too much. Nathaniel always wanted to challenge me. It made our relationship hard work.

When we arrived at Suresh’s suite of rooms, I headed straight for the shower. My head buzzed unpleasantly and my stomach hurt. I didn’t want to stain the furniture by lolling about. Nathaniel, free of bloodstains flopped down on the old leather sofa instantly.

Leave the door open, Kate, so I can hear if you pass out in the shower, he called after me.

You just want to see me naked while I’m all wet.

If that were true, Sweeting, I’d have jumped in the shower with you.

Once I’d removed my sticky, damp clothing and found a towel I returned to the lounge. Nathaniel? Who is she? something tickled against the back of my scalp as I asked my question.

He held an old book Suresh had been reading to me. What are you talking about, Kate? he asked.

Watching him lying on the sofa, his grey eyes clear now and looking at me with a hint of amusement, I decided I didn’t want to know. Nathaniel had changed. I felt it in my bones. The question which concerned me, centred round how it would affect Suresh.

Never mind, Nath. I’m talking rubbish, turning away I knew I would have to pursue this instinct at some point. But right now, I ached far too much to concentrate on Nathaniel.

The shower sprouted water from the walls and the ceiling. I stepped into it and sank to the floor. I let the blood soak off my skin, staining the water through all the shades of red and pink, finally I watched it run clear. My arms were heavy and washing my hair grew tiresome. I just wanted the world to go away and leave me alone. I liked my uncomplicated life. Suresh gave me uncomplicated. Having Nathaniel here left me feeling strange. I loved him, but I never, ever wanted to explore the depth of that feeling. So, mostly he just irritated me. Now he’d been profoundly altered, which doesn’t happen to vampires easily and it left me vulnerable. Though why that should be I didn’t understand. I guess I didn’t want him to change because I knew where he stood in my life, if he changed, that changed.

Katherine, you’ve been in there a long time, Nathaniel called.

Pulling myself up I said, Alright, I’m fine, stop fussing. Reaching for a towel I realised the hole might be gone but I hadn’t healed very well. A red scar left a puckered mark under my ribs. A few nights needed to pass before I would be fit.

Are you sure…Shit, Kate, your back, Nathaniel stood in the doorway, horror in his voice and eyes.

I grabbed for a towel to cover myself, Get out, I snarled. Trying to wrap myself up, I slipped. Weakness is not something I suffer from regularly. Nathaniel moved in to catch me. I tried to push him away. I lost control of the towel completely. He knew me too well. He’d taught me how to fight. He turned me in his arms and ran a free hand over my back. Bridling at the uncalled for familiarity I aimed an elbow at his head. He jumped free of me.

Katherine, there is only one thing which causes those marks, he continued to retreat, grief now lacing his voice, like thorns dipped in acid.

I know that, my voice sounded raw and wounded. I plunged into the sitting room after his retreating figure. My rage sought to dissolve the acid of his pity. An impossible task. Suresh was just grateful it wasn’t holy water.

But a sun blessed crystal whip? the incredulity in his voice made me laugh.

Nathaniel, you might have given me enough blood to survive after the punishment, but you never asked what it was and you left too soon for the clean up, I ranted. I heard with great detachment the hysteria in my voice. I couldn’t stop myself. The old pain suffocated me. It took Suresh three nights to convince the High Court to allow him access to me. And in that time the tiny particles of crystal in my bloodstream set to work. The sunlight in them began unpicking my immortality. Therein lay the rub. The source of my constant agony, my weakness, my vulnerability and Suresh’s grief.

And you still love him? Despite this? Nathaniel managed to put the sofa between us.

Who do you think stitched the wounds when they wouldn’t close? I stood with one hand clutching the towel, the other clutching the back of the sofa. Who do you think helped me while I cried and cried and begged for forgiveness? Who changed the dressings every night for weeks? And who still holds me when I wake with nightmares? I found myself screaming. You see, complicated.

Katherine, Suresh’s voice came to me on a whisper from the doorway.

I stopped. My Master’s quiet voice instantly stilled the building violence. As though a Rottwieler had been told to stop barking. That’s one of my functions. I am Suresh’s fighting dog. Nathaniel looked green.

Turning to me, his back to Nathaniel, Suresh said. Katherine, I need you to pack, we are leaving tonight. We are returning to England.

Why? I asked, only mildly curious. The volcano of violence inside me instantly switched off with his attention focused purely in my direction. I didn’t know if he were controlling me or if I simply ran out of steam. It didn’t matter. Suresh would never hurt me, even if he had set a mild compulsion to calm my screaming.

Because that is where Nathaniel has been and that is where we need to go, Suresh said, now looking at the other vampire.

How? Nathaniel wasn’t calm. I guess having a reminder that you are never free of your Master is a bummer. I didn’t have a great deal of sympathy.

You are my child, Suresh replied calmly. I have always known. I knew when you arrived in Amsterdam. The only time I have lost contact was during the Feeding, but I knew when you found my Katherine. I wished to protect her. He walked to the fireplace and leaned against the huge gothic mantle. He stared into the fire, his black hair and warm skin glowing slightly. He looked so far away from me in that moment, so old. His words came slowly, travelling from a different galaxy. She has been permanently weakened, and will always be affected by those marks you find so shocking. Think well on that, Nathaniel, because I wish it were you bearing those scars. Not my Katherine. Now you will tell me of this mortal witch of yours. He suddenly focused again on us, once more a