The Night's Caress

By Tamora Rose

A College Student...

As a little girl, Mallory watched her sister die at the hands of a vampire. But vampires weren't real. They were just a bunch of stories. Weren't they? Of course they were. Everyone knew that. But how could she reconcile what she'd seen with what everyone believed?

She couldn't. Vampires did exist. She knew it. Ten years after her sister's death, she is determined to prove it to the world. To convince even the most skeptical that vampires walked among them. Years of research, of carefully sorting through every myth and every tale, was finally starting to pay off. She had her first real lead...

An Ancient Vampire...

Born in the streets of ancient Rome, Victor has seen civilizations rise and fall. He has born witness to most of the great discoveries of man. And he has known hundreds of woman, even loved some of them along the way. But he'd never felt truly drawn to a human. Until one dark night when he pulls a young woman from the clutches of a small vampire gang. From the moment he'd caught her scent, touched her skin, looked into his eyes, he'd known he'd never be able to let her go.

But even as they come together, discovering their love, Mallory is a target. Can Victor protect her from a danger she brought on herself?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tear Drop Books
• Release date: Dec 11, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311808721

Tamora Rose

Tamora Rose was raised in the chill of Canada's North. She has been fascinated with literature and the human mind since she was a small child. As she grew into adulthood, a fascination with writing her own stories developed. She majored in English with a focus in creative writing when she attended university and is now pursuing her PhD. She also studies anthropology, religions, and politics, all of which contribute to her written work.Today, Tamora Rose resides in central Canada with her two sons. She is a full-time writer with several pseudonyms. She always has several projects in the works including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and running several popular blogs.If you’re interested in discovering more about Tamora Rose and her work, connect with her through her blog which can be found at: http://tamorarose.blogspot.com/

Book preview

Chapter One

Midnight seemed like a distant memory and yet still she sat at her desk. Papers where everywhere, her laptop was open but ignored, and books lay in random piles, discarded on the floor in her haste. She was close to her goal now, closer than she’d ever been. She could not stop now, not when searching might finally pay off. If she could just find out where…

That was the only problem she had left. If she could figure out where the vampires might be, where they made their home, she could maybe, possibly, prove that they were real. And if she could do that, she’d not only get the best grade her college had ever handed out, but she’d finally convince her family she wasn’t totally bug nuts. Then maybe, just maybe, she could go home. If she still wanted to go home.

With a heavy sigh and a shake of her head, Mallory reached for her giant book of city maps once again. Despite being this year’s edition, the pages were worn and stained from too many hours of use. Pages were littered with sticky notes and flags, showing her crime patterns, crazy sightings, and places she’d already checked. It was impossible to check every nook and cranny in New York, but she’d give it her very best effort. Even if it killed her.

If she actually found a nest of vampires, it might. The only contact she’d ever had was that one night nearly ten years ago. Her sister, four years her senior, had been dragged from the window of their shared bedroom by a creature with white fangs and eyes that had glowed red in the dim light of the crescent moon. It had been a vampire, she was sure of it, even all these years later. Of course, her family hadn’t believed her. The police hadn’t believed her. They’d all assumed her sixteen-year-old sister had run away. Teenagers were always running away. Especially troubled teenagers with boy issues. Her parents had looked for Maggie, but they’d never found her. Mallory knew they never would. Because Maggie was dead. She’d died that night.

Wrangling her wayward thoughts, she focused on the maps before her and shoved her unruly chestnut hair back behind her ears for the tenth time in an hour. Her hazel eyes, as always, went to the green flags, the flags that marked the sightings. Any sighting made her list, and since this was New York, there were a lot of sightings. Most of them nothing more than rumor. Many of them simply mistakes, such as the one she’d pursued last week. How was she supposed to know there was a gang in Central Park that wore strange contacts and plastic fangs?

Well, she knew now. No more mistakes. This time, she’d pay more attention to crime patterns, minus the known gang activity, and less to the crazy people in Central Park. Central Park was a stupid place to look for vampires, she decided. With that in mind, Mallory bent her head and studied her maps, ignoring the green flags and focusing on the blue. It was going to be a long night.

There were so many crimes in New York. It would be difficult to narrow anything down unless she approached it all systematically. Picking up her Little Mermaid pencil, she quickly dismissed any crime that was nonviolent. Purse snatchings and the like were probably not done by vampires, and scrapping all those crimes narrowed down the field considerably. Instead of focusing on everything, she sorted out all the crimes that occurred at night and were violent in nature. Then she waded her way through police reports. Many, many police reports. This was New York, not her hometown of New Hope.

Three exhausting hours later, she was holding three nearly identical reports. Each was a murder, and in each case the cause of death was exsanguination. And all three indicated significant neck trauma. There were two other reports that read the same except for the location of the trauma. The breast in one, the inner thigh in another. Five people had bled to death, all within a three block radius. Certainly suspicious, especially when all reports indicated the murder scenes were relatively clean. Not a lot of blood left. Vampires?

She couldn’t be sure, of course. But not one of the five victims had any apparent gang affiliation. That was promising. So promising Mallory jumped to her feet with every intention of investigating this very moment.

Until she glanced out the easternmost window of her apartment. Dawn was no more than an hour away, and vampires would be difficult to find by the bright light of day. She couldn’t imagine they’d like the sun much, not after everything she’d read.

Disappointed but not disheartened, Mallory got up from her desk, walked across the tiny bachelor apartment, flopped on the bed with a frustrated sigh, and buried herself beneath her Tinkerbell bedspread. She’d get some sleep, go to class, and search for vampires after a quick dinner. Anything else just didn’t make any sense. She’d have to wait.

But she didn’t have to be happy about it.

Chapter Two

The enchilada burned her mouth and caused her stomach to turn over itself in the most unpleasant manner, but she took another bite anyway. Why did she do this to herself? Enchiladas made her ill each and every time. Diarrhea, sometimes vomiting, and always a sore belly. She hated it. But she loved the taste and just couldn’t stop herself. What was wrong with her?

With a shrug and a final swallow, Mallory decided she’d answer that question tomorrow. She probably should have gone for a real dinner before setting out, but between her anthropology professor grabbing her in the hall after class for a quick chat and having to spend three hours in the library researching a religions paper that was due this week, there just hadn’t been time. Not if she wanted to comb every inch of her search area. And she did want to. Her body vibrated with excitement as she crossed the street, almost getting hit by a taxi in the process. Ignoring the driver’s irritated shouts, she kept going, her anticipation growing with each step. Tonight was the night. She could feel it. Tonight she would find a vampire.

But not out amongst the lights and people. Vampires couldn’t possibly be stupid enough to kill out among the crowds. If she was going to find a vampire, it would be away from the street, probably in an alley frequented by very few people. Making her way north, Mallory kept moving until she could no longer hear the din of a hundred people shouting for a taxi all at the same time. New York was crazy sometimes, especially to a girl from a small Pennsylvania town many people had heard of but almost no one had ever been to. For a moment, just a moment, Mallory felt a strong flash of homesickness.

But small-town Pennsylvania was no place to find vampires these days. New York offered so many more possibilities, especially when it came to creatures of the night. Even if it did smell like the back end of the dairy cows her uncle raised.

Shaking off that particular thought, Mallory kept going, zipping her Sleeping Beauty sweater up further as the cool night air chilled her flesh. Eventually she ran out of streetlights, or at least streetlights that weren’t burned out or broken, and had to dig in her knapsack for the flashlight she’d remembered to pack. Now she could see the overturned trash cans, the piles of garbage, the discarded mattresses, and the homeless guy digging through the dumpster. And it smelled worse here. Like…well, like nothing she wanted to think about. It certainly smelled worse than her uncle’s farm. It was unnerving and a little bit disgusting.

And yet she continued on. Further, she went. Deeper, she crept. Until Mallory found herself in an alley that made her skin crawl. Her light swept every corner, every cranny, but there was nothing here. No movement. No sound. No life. That was certainly unusual for New York. New York was always crawling with people. Even the darkest alleys had a homeless guy sleeping in a doorway. But here…no one. Nothing. Freaky.

A sense of dread slithered up her spine, but she shook it off and took another step forward. Every instinct warned her to turn and run, and that’s exactly why she didn’t. She’d expected this. All her research, as well as her one personal experience, led her to believe that vampires were a bit like snakes. Highly dangerous, they inspired a natural fear even as they aroused an unnatural attraction. Right now, she was feeling the fear. She was sure of it. Vampires were near. Very near. It was scary and exhilarating all at the same time.

Her hands shook as she swept the light over the nearest pile of trash. There was nothing there. Nothing she could see, anyway. Some myths claimed vampires could become invisible at will. It might be true. If it was true, she’d have a hard time convincing anyone vampires actually existed. She needed to see one, take its picture, maybe even get a sample of its blood, to have any hope of proving her case.

The fear became more intense, prompting Mallory to reach inside her sweater and draw forth the small cross she wore on a chain. Every single myth she’d ever come across mentioned sunlight and crosses as viable weapons against the undead. She didn’t have sunlight at her disposal, not until dawn, but she did have the gold cross her grandmother had given her fifteen years ago. It would be enough. It would have to be enough.

Belief was everything, so she straightened her spine and put her faith in the tiny cross around her neck. No, that wasn’t right. She put her faith in God. Or tried to. Maybe she should start going to church again.

Too late now. But she made a commitment to go to church first thing Sunday morning. Any church. The nearest one to her apartment. She was almost certain there was one on the corner. Feeling better about herself, she turned—

And saw him. Tall and lanky with skin the shade of moonlight, he was crouched on a fire escape. He was wearing black leather, arms bare, with a heavy gold chain around his neck. His hair was short and spiked straight up and his eyes…they glowed a dull red as they studied her every movement. As his gaze moved over her trembling form, his mouth split into a grin, revealing short fangs that were surely sharp enough to pierce her flesh. Those fangs looked real enough to her. For a moment she felt like a mouse right before the hawk struck. Just for a moment, or so she told herself.

Mallory nearly dropped the flashlight as she tried to convince herself he was a gang member of some kind. Like the fakes she’d found last week with their funny contacts and ill-fitting plastic fangs. But something in the way he studied her, the way he moved, convinced her he was no fake. He was the real deal, and the real deal was terrifying in in its maliciousness.

A slight chuckle from behind had Mallory whirling around, searching for the source of the sound. Another one, this one leaning against the wall of an abandoned building, was there grinning at her. His gaze moved past her and she whirled again. There, perched on the trash heap she’d noted earlier, was a third…creature. Vampire. Vampires. Three of them, and they didn’t look at all friendly. In fact, they looked decidedly threatening.

It was just possible she was in over her head.

Chapter Three

Pretty little thing wandered into our lair, the one on the fire escape said, voice dancing with amusement. We don’t even have to hunt tonight, boys. Dinner’s come to us.

A chorus of masculine laughter filled the air, laughter that was tinged with lust, hunger, and a frightening madness. Mallory repressed a scream, took a deep breath, and grabbed at the cross around her neck. Shouldn’t it be glowing or something? Maybe she should have brought a garlic clove. Or a bigger cross. Maybe some holy water. Something with a little more oomph than her tiny little cross on its flimsy chain.

The one on the fire escape moved, dropping to the ground without a sound. As he stalked toward her, she backed up. Fear swirled about her stomach and wound its way up her spine, warning her not to let him touch her. That seemed like good advice, so as he moved forward, she moved back. But because she was so focused in the creature in front of her, she didn’t notice the one behind her until she backed right into him.

Mallory jumped, dropping her flashlight. It clattered to the ground, its lens shattering as they laughed at her. The alley was plunged into darkness as her eyes sought to adjust, but she didn’t have time to wait. They were going to hurt her if she didn’t do something to protect herself.

Get away, she snapped, trying to sound brave. Someone’s breath brushed across her cheek, promoted her to lift the cross until it nearly touched the leader’s chin.

And they laughed some more. Arms came around her from behind, holding her in place so she could not flee. Her eyes adjusted to the dim light just as the leader reached for her, grabbed the cross, the tore it from her hand, grinning all the while. His fingers trailed down her cheek, over her chin, and came to rest on the hollow of her throat. Her pulse fluttered like a deranged butterfly as her breath grew ragged. Mallory was surprised to discover it wasn’t only from fear.

You only fight as long as we allow, the leader promised with a heavy chuckle. If we want you to lie still while we drain you dry, you will.

Mallory wanted to argue, want to slap his hands away, but she found herself unable to do either of those things. Not because the vampire behind her held her, but because she had no control of her voice or body. She just stood there, leaning back against one vampire while another touched her and a third looked on, snickering at what his buddies were doing. She could do nothing to stop them. The helplessness of the situation brought tears to her eyes.

The leader dropped his finger further, tracing the zipper of her sweater. That one finger continued its descent until he could grasp the pull of that zipper. He eased it downward, opening her sweater, revealing her thin t-shirt, the grin never leaving his face.

And if we want to play a while first, you’ll not only let us, you’ll enjoy it. He leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers. Pretty little virgin.

How did he know that? As his hands groped at her, she decided it didn’t matter. Her body trembled, partly from fear, partly from something else, as her sweater was pushed off her shoulders. The vampire behind her moved just enough for the sweater to fall to the ground. Her t-shirt was ripped from her body as her tears finally flowed down her face.

I like tears, the one behind her whispered. His tongue found her cheek, caressing her flesh as he drank the salty liquid.

The three of them gathered around her and lowered her to the filthy ground, stretching her out on her back. One of them, the one who liked tears, continued licking her face. The one who hadn’t really touched her reached for her bra, which unfortunately fastened in the front. As cool air moved over her breasts, the leader unsnapped the button of her jeans with one hand and caressed her naked belly with the other.

If she could have screamed, she would have, but her throat was paralyzed. Her arms were nothing more than lead weights and her legs had turned to useless jelly. She could not move and she could not call for help. Not that it would have mattered. This alley was surrounded by abandoned buildings. There was no one to hear her call even if she could have screamed.

Her jeans were pulled down over her