Crimson Awakening: The 1st Line

By Leticia Edghill

Yalena Count, a young writer gets lured into a world that she though only came alive in her family's stories and other authors books. She is drawn by a man she becomes enchanted with upon first sight. By the time her grandfather's stories spring to life it is too late to unravel herself. Yalena doesn't realize that she was wasn't just born to be a part of this world, she was born to rule it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Leticia Edghill
• Release date: Jun 4, 2015
• ISBN: 9781499005851

Leticia Edghill

Leticia Edghill is currently the author of the newly released novel, Crimson Awakening: The 1st Line. Born in Queens, New York, Edghill started her career at the University of Southern California. She pursued a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and finished with a Masters degree in Secondary Education: Social Studies from Queens College. Edghill also went on to get certified in Event & Meeting Planning at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte, NC. A teacher, dancer, jewelry designer, event coordinator, poet and mother. Leticia Edghill has been teaching in the public school system for eleven years and was the event planner, director and choreographer for her schools dance ensemble for seven of those years. Leticia has been writing poetry and short stories for more than half of her life. The expressed enjoyment of her poetry and stories by family and friends encouraged her to begin creating for the world to read in her first poetry book Reflections of Me, In Time. Edghill hopes to become a New York Times Bestselling Author and is currently working on the next book in the The 1st Line series. When she is not teaching, dancing or working on her writing she is creating custom jewelry for family and friends. While Leticia loves her work, it is not the most important thing in her life. That position belongs to her family. She has two wonderful children, Khari & Tiy. They live just outside of New York City.

Book preview

Prologue

My grandma has always described my mom Yalena as a recluse on more than one occasion. She’s just fine when she confines herself to her apartment with nothing but her writing to keep her company. This day was no different. She opened her eyes that morning, but didn’t want to get out of bed. The only thing she wanted to do was veg out in front of the TV. You see her latest novel was still in its creation stages, and she seemed to have writers block. The only thing that appeared to work for her when she hit the wall was to take a break and try not to overexert her brain. So, Yalena decided to turn on the TV, and cocoon herself in her covers. This was her third book. The first two were on the best sellers list, and she wanted to keep that momentum going. She laid there for a few minutes listening to herself breathing and her heart beating. She was now twenty-six years old, and had yet to have a serious or long term relationship. Not only did she have writer’s block, but she was feeling lonely as well. Don’t get me wrong, she enjoyed her life and the blessings given to her. But it would mean so much more to share it with someone. Who would her someone be?

With the noise of the TV in the background, she lay there thinking back to her teenage years in high school. She had lots of fun that carried over to college, but there was no boyfriend per se, just friends. They all hung out and had a good time. Somewhere around her twenty-first birthday she decided she would give away her virginity. After all, she had held on to it long enough; well that’s what she guessed. My mom had a really good friend named Andre. He was a sweetheart, she said, and she spent most of her down time with him. As I remember her telling the story, she had just spent the night at a friend’s house, and the two of them ended up making out on the couch after everyone else had gone to sleep. To her it was such a surprise, but not to Andre. They both felt the tension, but the question they both seemed to think of, was whether or not romance would change everything for the worst.

That weekend they figured they would see where it would go if they spent some of their time alone. Yalena thought it was very nice, actually. She never realized what a gentleman he was. He even cooked dinner for her that night. They dated for a while after that. Actually it was more like three years. Yalena’s mom and dad thought that she was going to marry him. Yalena thought they would get married also. At least until he got a job in California. That’s when she realized that she preferred to stay in New York. They tried the long distance thing for a while but they were both very lonely and that was the end of that. Sometimes she wondered how he was doing. Every time she got a book on the best sellers list he would send her two dozen roses. They had even spent a few weekends together whenever they were in the same state.

After a time she figured that still being single was ridiculous. She was a beautiful caramel sistah and yet she didn’t have a steady man in her life. Actually it’s a wonder she had any friends. She spent most of her time working on her writing. When she wasn’t doing that, she spent time with her mom. Every now and again she would get together with a few friends and they would have lunch. She rolled over onto her back and groaned. Maybe it was time for them to do lunch. Or maybe she should call her sisters. Lord knows she hadn’t spent much time with them over the last few months.

She decided to pick up the phone and call her sister Yolanda in London first, just to see how she was doing. Of course she was always on her way out the door when Yalena called, so they didn’t talk long. Just enough for them to be cordial and for her to tell Yalena to relax, and that the next best seller would come and if it didn’t, she would love her anyway. Nothing different with Yolanda. It’s always the same. Yolanda was just as popular in school as Yalena was, but she always seemed to have more fun. Yalena was popular, but she always felt like she didn’t fit in anywhere but at the dojo. After all, she had spent so many hours there sometimes that even her parents would complain that she needed to just go have fun with her sisters or her friends.

Calling Yolanda didn’t change the way she felt at all, so she decided to call Yazmine. If you can’t see a pattern here, I don’t know. She and her sisters all had first names that started with the letter Y. They were three girls in all, no boys. Yazmine was the oldest, then Yolanda and then the baby, Yalena. Cool, huh? At least her parents certainly thought so. They are all about two to four years apart. Yazmine was thirty-two, Yolanda is twenty-eight, and Yalena was almost twenty-six. Yalena loved her sisters. As children, her mom said the three of them had loads of fun together. They would play dress up and have tea parties and everything. Yalena had seen the pictures of course, but didn’t remember anything before her sixth birthday. As she got older there was a lot less playing together and more fighting over who got to watch what on TV. She spent more time with Yolanda until she became a preteen, then she became best friends with Yazmine. You’re probably thinking that there was only two years between Yalena and Yolanda. But Yalena admired Yazmine so much she couldn’t wait to be old enough for her big sister to let her hang out with her. But by that time, martial arts had become more important than trying to hang out with her sisters who thought that she was just too young.

The phone just rang and rang. Obviously, Yazmine wasn’t home. When the voice mail finally picked up, Yalena left a message. Unfortunately, it usually took Yazmine a day to get back with Yalena. She hoped to be out of this funk by then. She took a deep breath and let it out. Finally she decided to take herself to a movie and dinner. She figured that she would take a good book to read as she ate. Maybe that was just what the doctor ordered. It was the longing and restlessness that Yalena blamed for the direction that her life took. Not that it was a bad direction; just unusual to say the least. But she was ready for a change of pace. At least that’s why she figured she met him.

Chapter 1

MEETING

Sweet, Lena thought to herself while looking in the full length mirror on the bathroom door. It had been a long week. Lena was going over her book that should have already been sent to her editor. This was the final step before it went to print, but Lena didn’t like the ending and tried to change it, yet nothing seemed to work. She had decided to take a break and unwind at this club she heard was all the rage; her friends had been bragging about it for months. They said that all the cutest guys and girls went there. Basically, everybody was there. It didn’t matter if you were gay or straight; this was the place to be. The club was called Zoë’s. When her friends called and told her that her favorite actor was there, she decided to go check this place out for herself. It was a Thursday night when she went. She was told that Thursday’s was Caribbean night, and they played all the latest reggae, soca and calypso. That was her kind of music. After all, her parents are from the Caribbean.

She dressed in her tight black dress. It was floor length without her heels in the back and right above her knees in the front. The dress had triangle cut outs on each side, a studded collar and no sleeves. She wore red bangles, and earrings to accent her dress with her red strap around the ankle shoes. She was hot. And just to make sure, she grabbed her bolero and her pea coat and went next door to check with her buddy Marcus.

Hey, Marc.

Hey yourself, Marcus replied. Aren’t you hot to trot.

Lena just smiled. Just checking to make sure I’m totally hot. Going to Zoe’s.

Oooo, you’re going to Zoë’s? Girl, if I wasn’t going tonight I would be mad at you. You can’t go out by yourself looking like that. She hadn’t noticed at first but Marc was dressed to party, with his tight black pants and a thin silk sweater. Let’s go girl. The party is about to get hot.

Don’t you have to go to work in the morning? Yalena asked.

Hmmm, like that is going to stop me.

Well, the club was hopping indeed. The line was super long and wrapped around the corner. The music was blasting out of the doors. They were lucky; Marc didn’t have to wait in line.

That’s what happens when you’re a regular, and you’re not allowed here by yourself.

She didn’t hear anything Marc said. She was lost in the atmosphere of the club. Zoë’s was great. The club had white walls and all black furniture and black sheer curtains dividing small sitting rooms from the dance floor. She wasn’t really sure what color the floor was.

Is that a bed? asked Yalena. What do they do in there? I mean, what are they doing?

Never you mind. You are not ready for all that right now. And did you hear what I said? He grabbed her arm and turned her towards him to make sure she stood and listened to him. Lena, did you hear me? You are not allowed in here without me.

Why, this place is me. And who is that? Yalena’s focus was straight ahead and up. She was looking into the DJ booth. And there he was, tall, dark and hot. And if she didn’t know any better, she would swear he was looking at her.

And, don’t even think of making him your next boy toy, Marc admonished. He’s not for you.

What, he is hot and if I didn’t know any better, I would think he was watching me. Lena smiled and so did tall, dark and handsome.

Of course he is, you’re fresh meat and you’re a hot tamale.

I want to meet him and then some.

Marc scoffed. Come dance with me.

She followed Marc to the dance floor but never took her eyes off that booth. He watched for a while before turning to talk to someone in the room with him. Then he disappeared. Marc and Lena danced most of the night away. Eventually, Marc disappeared for two hours or so. She continued to dance for a while, still it seemed like all the women who were surrounding her were being asked to dance. She wondered if she was making more of it than she should. Maybe they were intimidated. Or they figured she was too much upkeep. She really just wanted to dance. She wondered why no one asked her to dance as she looked into the mirror above the bar and adjusted her curls. Yes, she thought, she was still stunning.

Eventually, she decided to go sit down after the fourth girl was taken to the dance floor and then to a room behind the curtain. She sat by the bar and had a drink. She looked around and decided she really liked Zoë’s. It was a pretty cool place, except for her not being asked to dance, of course. The music was great and so was the atmosphere. The rooms were a little weird though. It looked like people were making out behind the sheer curtains. Not exactly where she would be, kissing a guy and having him rubbing up on her, but to each his own. Still, pretty cool. There were guy/girl couples dancing and guy on guy and girl on girl. She liked a place where people could be themselves.

Lena hated facades. That was one of the reasons she didn’t have a lot of men in and out of her life. She kept things pretty real, and didn’t really want to deal with a lot of bull. So after the third date, she usually tried to assess the situation and let the guy know what was up. If he wasn’t down, so be it. But if he was she would see if he lasted for three months without the loving. If he did, he may get to second base and so on.

Lena decided to pay for her drink and get another one but the bartender wouldn’t let her pay for it. He said that her money wasn’t any good here and that she could have whatever she wanted. Odd but cool, she thought. Someone really liked her. So she ordered another pineapple cosmopolitan and sat at a table near the dance floor. She wanted to be in plain sight when Marc decided to grace her with his presence again. And that was when he floated over to her table. Well, not literally floated, but there he was. She wasn’t expecting to see him but there he was. The sight of him sent shivers down her spine. He was tall, handsome and muscular, but not too much muscle. His big curls of brown hair cascaded around his oval face. His eyes were dark and his lips full.

Hello, beautiful lady. I am Lorenzo Michael Paulo Arias.

That’s definitely a mouthful. Hi, I am Yalena Charleen Count. His proximity seemed to pull her in. She had to catch herself before she fell off the stool trying to close the gap between. Just then her favorite song came on and she couldn’t help dancing in her seat.

Would you like to dance, Yalena.

Sure, and please call me Lena, all my friends do.

Ok, Lena. Then you must call me Ren, all of my friends do. Lena nodded and smiled. She got her wish; she got to meet tall, dark and handsome. She wondered if he was the one who paid for her drinks.

He took her hand and help her off the stool. So is this your first time here? Ren asked her.

Yes, my friend Marcus is a regular.

Marcus, Marcus…Jones, right. He’s bi-sexual.

Yes, you know him.

I make it a point to know all of our regulars.

’Your’ regulars? You own Zoë’s?

Yes, I’m partners with my friend Marcellus. He’s the DJ.

Oh, wow. He’s really good. I like his mixes. Some are hypnotic. The two danced in sync to a smooth melodic rhythm. On more then one occasion she looked up and realized that he was watching her intently. Their eyes would meet and the distance between them diminished before she noticed and widen it again.

Yes, some are. You’re a pretty good dancer. You should come on Latin night. I think you would like it.

Maybe. If I didn’t know any better, I would think you just wanted to see me again.

You would be right in that presumption. Tomorrow is Latin night; maybe you’ll save me a dance?

Maybe…. At that point Lena was thinking ‘yes’. The song ended and he took her hand to lead her back to the table.

Would you like to get something to eat? Ren asked. We have some great seafood. You look like a lady that would enjoy a good lobster. It would be on me.

Okay, I’ll let you buy me something to eat. You choose; after all, you would know what’s good. But don’t expect anything.

I won’t take that last statement personally. You must have met some trifling men. I am a gentleman and am not looking to take advantage of a beautiful lady. I will have your order sent as soon as it is ready. And I’ll see you tomorrow.

Tomorrow, Ren. As Ren was getting up to leave her, she saw Marc walking toward her out of the crowd on the dance floor."

Marcus.

Lorenzo.

I have met your beautiful friend. You have been keeping her from me.

Actually, yes I have, agreed Marc. She’s too innocent for you.

Yes, she’s an innocent. But I have met her now. Guess I will see you tomorrow also. I’ll tell Marcia that you’ll be back. With that, he disappeared into the crowd.

Marc, what was that about? Yalena asked.

Nothing, you need to stay away from him.

In her mind she was thinking, yeah right. What came out was, why? He seems nice enough. Besides, you appear to have hung out with him. He can’t be that bad.

He’s not bad. He is probably the nicest of the two owners. But he is not what he seems.

What? Anyway; where were you? For someone who didn’t want me to meet him, you didn’t stay to keep him from me.

I had to go see Marcia. She works here.

Oh. How do you know these people?

I’m Ren and Cell’s accountant. They are the ones who invited me down here… Sometimes, I wish I had said no.

What did you mumble?

Nothing. Before she could get any more out of him their food arrived. Ren must have known that Marc would be hungry because he sent two plates instead of one. They ate and really didn’t stay much longer. Marc was in quite a hurry to leave the club. He complained that he was tired and ready to go and he refused to let her stay there without him. So, they went back to the apartment building. The next night was pretty much the same. Lena went to Zoë’s; didn’t have to pay at all for anything. She danced for a while to salsa and merengue with Ren while Marc went to see Marcia. When Marc came back, Ren disappeared, but not without the two of them eyeing each other. Then the food came, they ate and went home. Again Marc was in kind of a hurry to leave.

This went on twice a week for a little more than two months, each time Ren would spend a little more time with Lena than before. She always enjoyed her time with him. It wasn’t all night, but he would spend a few hours with her when she was at the club. She did learn that he was from Argentina and his parents died many years ago. He owned a building on Park Avenue and lived on one of the top floors. It seemed like the club was his life and all the people who worked there knew him for a few years before the club opened.

Yalena why do we keep going the club. Aren’t you tired of it? I haven’t seen you club this much even with Andre.

You said the A word. I thought we agreed to never bring up that name.

And I thought we agreed you’d stay away from him, not date him.

NO! You said stay away but you never said why. Why Marc, why?

He’s just not the one you want to fall in love with. It’ll change your life.

What the… Marc all love changes your life.

Just stay away from him and the club. Stop going by there to see and spend time with him.

I can’t. Well actually, I won’t. Marc, I feel connected to him some how. See you Saturday.

Yes, he replied as he slammed the door. Yalena chuckled before going to her apartment.

She hoped to get some sleep tonight. It now took her a while to fall asleep. At first she thought it was because she was thinking of him. But now she knew different. Since she met Ren she kept having the same dream. Each night she would wake up with a start after seeing the face of an old woman. It wasn’t like the old woman tried to harm her. Each time she saw her in the dream the old lady said that she was watching her.

She took deep breath and tried to focus on Ren’s face as she closed her eyes. It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep, she was tired. Being up late partying and then not getting her sleep was starting to take it’s toll. Yalena slept but fitfully, tossing and turn. Finally, she jumped up. She was sweating as though she was running. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. Yep, she was in her room, she could hear the light music and her water fountain on the night stand.

Yalena tried to calm herself. How could this disturb her sleep? It wasn’t like the old woman appeared dangerous. She was just so creepy. This time she was laughing at Yalena and telling her how she couldn’t resist Arias. It’s as if that amused her.

This is ridiculous. It’s just an old woman, Yalena exclaimed out loud. She was hoping to have at least one night without the old woman watching her. She clasped her pendant in her hand, turned over and tried to go back to sleep. She wonder why this old woman was haunting her dreams and if it meant anything at all. Then their was the amusement at her infatuation with Ren.

In spite of the dreams, Yalena was enjoying the time that she spent with Ren. But she wanted more. They had a good time at the club, enjoying each other’s company. But the club wasn’t the best atmosphere to really get to know someone. She wanted to get to know Ren, see what he was made of. He seemed so mysterious and that drew her to him. It seemed like he finally got the hint because he asked her to go to a movie and dinner with him. Finally! She thought.

Chapter 2

TROUBLE BREWING

Cell walked quickly through the hospital doors. He had made an agreement with Ren to meet in the front, but he preferred to go in alone. He was hoping that Ren would forget since his mind was occupied with Lena. Of course it was unlikely for Ren to forget anything. That made Cell walk faster.

How are things looking tonight, Marcia?

Cell, it’s getting worse. It reminds me of the time before we started the club.

How many dead bodies tonight?

Ten. It’s our highest count this week. We had ten with bite marks and no memory. So far no one has turned tonight. But the night isn’t over. It may not seem like a lot, but it adds up. More than two hundred a month.

Who do you think is doing this?

I don’t know, but it’s not just our area. I spoke to Renee at the Queens hospital and she is having the same problem. But I don’t think she has as many. Someone needs to rein in their family.

If Ren finds out.

Bite your tongue. He is already up in arms about the complaints he’s getting from the Mayor about the increased number of missing persons in the city. Only thing keeping this reined in is the fact that most of the missing people are our bite marks and no memory victims. But this is getting out of hand. How do we deal with this?

Not sure.

Cell, has he found her yet?

He found her years ago.

What? So, what is he waiting for?

For her to come to him.

What, are you talking about? She doesn’t even know him.

Yes, she has met him. He made a promise to her mom, that he would let her live a life before taking her into our world.

You can’t be serious, Marcia said. Our world is coming down around us and he is keeping a promise. We need the dhampirs.

He has always been a man; well, vampire of his word. But he feels she will be his soon. Besides, dead bodies popping up all over the city aren’t exactly what we’re looking for either. We’re not ready for his children, their children. Besides, it’s time to move on. We’ve been in this city for almost three centuries and we’ve had that club for more than half of that.

I don’t want to go somewhere else. This city was our best place yet. Even before the club.

Now you know we only came here to find her. We were never meant to make this our permanent home.

What about soldiers? Do we have any? Are we creating any?

We always keep a few. But we’re adding to it. It’s hard to create and train them in secret though. They need to feed and they need to know the city.

I didn’t know he always kept a few, Marcia said.

You’re my mate, not his, Cell replied. You don’t need to know everything. I’ll see you at the club. I need to go. We don’t want him coming up here.

No we don’t. But he’ll find out eventually. He always does. I don’t know how he does it.

Let’s just say, he has many loyal followers. Cell wrapped his arms around Marcia and kissed her lips. He held her for a minute. They hadn’t been apart for more than a day, but it felt longer to Cell. Later.

He left the ICU ward, but not before noticing the two patients that were brought in. He knew they would be going up to Marcia’s ward. How could he possibly hide this from Ren? He had a right to know that other vampire families were rebelling against his laws, more now than before. It didn’t matter that the rules Ren set in place kept them safe from mobs of people trying to annihilate them. It didn’t seem to matter that the laws kept their feed healthy and free from random attacks. Not to mention it controlled the vampire population. It kept order. Who in their right mind would want to challenge that? Unfortunately, Ren made it to the hospital before Cell could walk more than a hundred feet from the main entrance.

So how many do we have tonight, Cell.

More than I wish to say. It’s getting worse. We need to find these vampires. They will ruin everything.

I know, but how do we track them? I went to the Queens hospital. Renee seems to have her hands full also.

We should use our soldiers.

They’re not ready yet. They could create more of a problem then they could solve.

Where is she?

She’s at home now.

Ren, why don’t you step things up with her? I can see the energy between you. After all, you say she still wears that necklace you gave her.

She doesn’t know who gave her the necklace. I took care of her memory the day we met. I didn’t want her trying to find me before I had fulfilled her mother’s wishes.

How long before you can tell her what’s really happening?

Soon. I wish I had longer. Make sure everyone knows; she is mine.

You got it.

Chapter 3

*REN’S HEART*

It was early in the afternoon. The club was closed. For the first time in a long time, Ren was at the club early. He had to get everything set up, because he wasn’t planning to be there that night. That night he was going to wine and dine Yalena. He had to win her heart before he told her who he really was. He was nervous. How weird was that? A vampire, nervous. He could make her love him if he wanted to; what had he to be nervous about? But he wanted to win her heart. For some strange reason, she enticed him. No other prey or vampire had caused such emotions or such arousal in him.

Ren, man, do you really think that this is such a good idea? Cell asked. After all, how do you know that she is the first bloodline? Maybe she’s just another feeder.

Is that not how we all start? And is that what Marc is to you and Marcia? Is he just food?

No, you know that. But Marcia and I only feed from a few people. It’s hard to explain. We are attached to him, but it’s hard to say if it is love of him or just his blood. We love the taste of it. And unlike our other three feeders, he doesn’t seem to want to be one of us. He just wants to be with us as long as he can. But Yalena, she will want it all. Can you not see it in her eyes? She wants you, and only you.

Yes, I see it. That is how it should be. That is how I want it to be. I just hope that she will still want me when I tell her what I am. Ren paused for a moment, lost in his thoughts. I want her for a companion. Just for me. It doesn’t even matter if she’s the first line or not. You make sure it’s still known that she is off the menu. She will be mine.

We need her to be the first line; things are getting rough around here.

You let me worry about that. As Ren was walking into the cellar to get drinks for the bar that night, there was banging at the door.

I’ll get it, Ren. Cell was not expecting to see Marc at the bar so early. He was happy until he realized Marc had not come to satisfy him.

Is Ren here? I must speak with him.

He is. What do you want with Ren?

I must talk with him about Lena.

You can try, but I don’t think it will do any good. Ren, Marc is here to see you. Ren came up the steps with the liquor in one hand and a glass in the other.

Hey man, you’re going to see her tonight, Cell said to Ren. Why are you drinking the reserve? You haven’t fed since she started coming to the club.

And I am not feeding tonight either. It’s not time yet. What do you want, Marcus?

I don’t want you to see her. Don’t make her part of this.

That is exactly what I intend to do. Don’t worry, she will be well taken care of. She will be my queen.

No! Marc caught himself and lowered his voice. She is innocent. She doesn’t belong in your dark world.

Is your world not filled with its own darkness? Besides, I believe that’s up to her, isn’t it? You seem perfectly happy with it.

I am; my love is here. But it’s so restrictive. It ends when the party ends.

She won’t have to deal with the club if she doesn’t desire it. I won’t take her away from the life she lives now, unless she wants me to.

"Yeah, right. You know she will sink right in. I am