The Witch of Endor: Vampires: The Witch of Endor

By RK Wheeler

Lilith grew up speaking with the dead and can wield magic.  She falls in love with a man named Lamech.  He is not just another pretty face.

Lamech was cursed when he accidentally killed Cain, who was cursed by God for killing his brother Able.

Love, betrayel, suspense and battle rise from the pages in a unique telling of vampires, werewolves and Medusa.

Don't miss out on this dark fantasy that will keep you entranced until the last page.

• Language: English
• Publisher: RK Wheeler
• Release date: Jan 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781983487231

RK Wheeler

I dream of traveling the world with a laptop and gleaning inspiration from frosty peaks, deep valleys and thick forests, but for now I write between patients or after hours. I enjoy beekeeping when I am not writing or working as a chiropractic physician.  The busy buzz of the female bees is a relaxing hum, well, until one gets into your bee suit.  Then there are moments of sheer terror, with the occasional lancing pain.  So I recently invested in a new dragon armor for bees, that thus far is immune from their little stingers. They don't seem to understand that I am there for more than robbing them of their honey, but to help keep out pests and to give them food or medicine when needed. I like to exercise almost daily.  During this time I listen to audiobooks, either my own or authors in my genre typically.   Of course I succumb to Facebook's allure, but it is not all laughs and politics, for I belong to perhaps 30 or more writing groups where I learn and share information about authorship. Family time is very important to me and now that my books are being converted to audio I am having more success in getting family to listen to what I have writen. My favorite spot to read is on the sunny deck of a cruise ship in the turquoise waters of the Caribean.  No cell phones or interuptions. I am excited to get the sequel to Scions of Azazyel to paper for my fans.  It is all in my brain, it is a matter of getting it all on the computer and then the editing begins. I love writing fantasy, as not even I know where the story might take us until it is complete.  It seems to have a life of its own as I read, ponder and dream. 

Book preview

The blood's the life, the life's the blood

Beware the night, and vampires bite

A cross, a stake, be sure to make

Or pray the Lord your soul to take

The Witch of Endor: Vampires

Copyright © 2018 All Rights Reserved

Robert Kenneth Wheeler Jr.

Scions of Azazyel LLC

ISBN 13-978-1983487231

ISBN 10-1983487236

6x9

RUINED FLESH

CHAPTER 1

Beauty is marred, burned flesh laid bare

The blood she must drink from men unaware

Lonely Lilith a companion now seeks

Through severed veins, the blood doth weep

Dark blood and clear fluids wept begrudgingly from the tender fissures in her ruined flesh.  Lilith rose, slowly, painfully.  Her skin split as she bent her elbows and knees.  She struggled against the pain as she left bloody footprints upon the floorboards.  Although she did not have to breathe since she had been turned, she gasped instinctively as she limped down the dark hallway.

Her head spun.  The pain was terrible.  She winced at the sun's radiant beams as they violated the shadows through the uncovered windows.  She leaned against the wall for support as she cowered in the darker areas of the abandoned house. 

It's day.  I shouldn't be awake.  Where am I?  What happened?  Where is my baby?

The old, rotted floors protested her weight as they creaked and moaned beneath her burned feet.  She fought the urge to vomit as a wave of nausea rose within her from blood loss.  The room seemed to rotate of its own accord.  Her eyes went in and out of focus as she stumbled into an old bathroom.  A beam of burning sunlight streamed through a small hole in the roof striking the back wall.  Mosaics covered the tiles. 

This must have been a beautiful home once, but now this place smells, of mold, dust, and rotting wood.

The crash of ocean waves sounded in the distance. 

Images of a ship flashed in her mind, a fire, an explosion...

A large, grey, rat scurried away, racing through a hole in the floor breaking her thought.  The bloodlust rose within her, but the rat was long gone.  She was parched.  A drip of water sounded from an old copper tub. Lilith watched as the next small, translucent, orb clung to the old ceiling.  It was losing its battle to stay in the light.  For just a moment she could see the reflection of the sun through the water droplet. 

I miss the sun sometimes.

The water began to pool as liquid behind pushed against that in the lead.  It stretched until it could hold itself against gravity no longer.  The tiny, translucent, globe lost the image of the sun's orb as it fell.  It relinquished itself from its brethren which remained behind upon the roof.  As it fell, her vampire eyes focused on it as it appeared to move in slow-motion.

So beautiful. 

She was not in the direct beam of the sun's rays, but even being this close her skin was heating up despite the coolness of the air. 

Her shadow stretched before her, a dark reminder of how she must now appear.  She looked at webbed fingers where the flames had melded once supple flesh together.  Her once beautiful, sensual, legs were now scarred and disfigured.  She leaned over the edge of the tub and peered into the rippling water.  A drop of cold liquid struck her back as she leaned forward.  The cool wetness was a welcome sensation against her burned skin.  Her silhouette was all she could see at first, due to the small waves created by the memory of the last droplet.  As the water went calm, she muffled a cry with one hand as she saw the monster that she had become.

A brief search in the room next door revealed an old blanket lying discarded on the floor.  A broken chair sat in one corner.  A writing desk was against one wall.  Grey with dust its beauty was shadowed.  Lilith carefully reached down for the blanket as several rats jumped from where they had been hiding within the cloths confines. They scurried from across her feet as they fled.  What would have once repulsed her was suppressed by the bloodlust.  She leaned forward quickly trying to grab one, but the skin on her back and shoulder split as she did so.  She cried out and gave up on her feeble attempt for rat blood.

She shook off the old blanket and wrapped it around herself.  There were a few holes where the rodents had gnawed through the fabric.

Summoning magic might be difficult in my condition.  I have never been this badly injured.

It rose within her, a warm tingling that started at her center and worked outward.  She held her right hand before her as cool blue flames flickered, awaiting her command.  Concentrating, the magic gradually responded.  The small ball of light obediently raced away, roaming room to room, searching.  Another was here, her baby.  Lilith staggered towards the front of the old house in concerned anticipation.  The magic had revealed where her infant lay unmoving. 

If anything has happened to her...

Lilith pushed the thought to the back of her mind.  She struggled to recall the details of how they had arrived here.  She was careful to avoid the sun's rays until she found her infant lying in one dark corner.  Lilith kneeled and wrapped her child in the old blanket.

The snakes upon Medusa's head began to wake, coiling defensively in the half-light as if to strike.  The babies' eyes began to open, yellow surrounding slit-like pupils. 

There, there, Medusa, its mommy.  She used the vampire trance to keep the child asleep for now. 

Medusa smiled before closing her eyes again.  The babies' serpentine-tail slowly wrapped around her mother's wrist before going still. 

Lilith lay on the floor, placing the small bundle of her child upon her chest before passing out.

She dreamed.

Her hair was gone.  She lay naked on a hard wooden floor.  The light shining through the window across the room did not touch her in this dark corner, but it was far closer than any time since she had been turned into a vampire.  Memories both wonderful and terrible flooded her dreams.

How could he leave me?  No, he had not loved Medusa, but how could he leave us to the flames?

The sun was setting.

Lilith's dream was disturbed by the sound of men talking just outside.

That language...it sounds like Greek.  That is where we were headed when the sailors found the baby.

The footsteps moved away from the cabin towards the docks.

She drifted off once more, a welcome reprieve from the pain.  Her brain tried to process what had happened while she visited the past in her mind.

Lamech was here, she was dancing in his arms.  She wore the beautiful gown he had bought her.

The dream changed.

The ship was aflame; Lamech was drifting away as she burned....

The last rays of day had faded.  Lilith felt some strength return now that it was night.  She carefully lifted Medusa off her chest.  Scabs and fluids pulled away from her skin as she did so.  She grimaced with the pain and effort.  She looked with worried brow at her daughter.

I must get blood and a corpse for Medusa.  The lust for the red elixir was so strong in her.  Until the night before, she had never tasted human blood. 

Lilith did not consider herself evil.  She was somewhat ashamed of what she had done.  Certainly, the men deserved to be punished for breaking their agreement not to enter the cabin where her baby had lain.

Medusa should be ok for an hour or so without me.  It does not appear anyone has been in this rotting building for years.  Besides, any would-be abductor would be turned to stone if they were so unfortunate to lift the blanket.  If my baby awoke, her cat-like eyes would come ablaze and in seconds, the fool would become a monument to his or her folly.

Her enhanced hearing detected voices down near the docks.  Two men, gruff of voice and foul of language, who had started their weekend drinking early it sounded like.  The door parted unwillingly as the hinges cried out in protest.  She secured the lock with a click of metal.  Placing her hands on the surface of the entry she chanted quietly as she summoned her power, casting a ward across the doorway.  The magic flowed around the wood and into the lock and hinges like green smoke until it faded away.

It will have to do.  I have not the strength to enchant every entrance, but the front door is the most likely to be used.  It will not open now without destroying it entirely and I will be alerted if it is breached.

She looked around with effort as her skin was pulled taut with fresh scabs and scars that threatened to split with any further movement.  A couple of dim oil lanterns violated mother night on the boardwalk down at the docks.  The smell of rotting fish was enjoyed by flies and gulls.  The workers and city folk would find a more accommodating venue tonight. 

It is likely that these two are vagabonds or thieves, planning their night of mischief.  They will not be missed.  I do not have the luxury of finding a sheep or goat it seems, and after tasting the blood of the ship captain, I am not sure I could go back to animal blood willingly.  I am so weak...perhaps I should try to find someone alone?  She paused considering her options. 

She listened intently to the sounds of wavelets caressing the rocky shore.  The calling of the sea came from just outside the stone wall protecting the harbor.  The tang of salty air wafted upon a gentle breeze as it teased her nostrils triggering fonder memories of standing with Lamech on the bow of the ship.  His arms were around her waist as his lips nuzzled her ear.  Then he kissed her neck.  Lilith moaned slightly at his touch.  She leaned into his broad chest and turned her head as he kissed her passionately on the lips just as a fine mist crested the bow. 

Her heart raced as she recalled their last moments in each other's arms.  Her hands were upon his as they caressed her body, while they ignored the lustful stares of the sailors.

She would have cried then were there enough fluids left in her shriveled flesh stretched over bones.  Her cheeks were drawn in, and her eyes had shrunk deep within their sockets.  Their lids would not even completely cover the emerald and white orbs.  Only her eyes held a reminder of the beauty now lost.  Her lips were pulled back into a permanent, skeletal, grimace from the burns.

She startled suddenly; her mind snapped back to the present as something darted from off a boat to her right.  It leaped at her as she stepped back defensively, summoning her magic.  A black cat paused and hissed at her, arching its back, its hair on end; its fangs seemed to extend as its lips pulled back.

I wonder if that is how my fangs appear before I drink blood? 

The cat sprinted away, as Lilith sighed in relief.  She focused again on the sounds around her.

Off in the distance of the city, music could be heard.  A play it seemed.  She had heard the Greeks were fond of plays. 

She was distracted again as the bumping of wooden hulls sounded quietly through the dark like lovers in the night.  The creaking of woven lines croaked through the darkness as the ships struggled against their captors.  It gave Lilith the impression that the vessels yearned for open waters as they pulled against their bonds.  The white sickle of the moon was just beginning to breach the confines of the Mediterranean Sea.  She would need to act soon before the reflected light of the sun's mistress gave her away.  When she was certain that there were no others about she focused on her course of action once more.

Lamech had warned her that fire, or a wooden stake through the heart could kill a vampire.  He had taught her that while the sun would burn exposed skin, only the surface layers were damaged and that it would not kill, although you would wish you had died a mortal death rather than endure the sun's rays upon exposed flesh for long.  Wounds such as a knife or sword normally healed quickly once the implement was removed, or the body would attempt to push the object out like a splinter in mortal flesh.

But it had been a full day since she had been burned and her wounds were not healing.

THE GHOUL OF GREECE

CHAPTER 2

Legends speak where monsters dwell

A creature saw I the gravedigger tells

The graves are dug the dead to sleep

But now one comes to take and eat

Dark the ally, and dim the streets

Beware the night the ghoul of Greece

I could not endure an eternity like this!  I am hideous.  Who will raise Medusa if something were to happen to me?  No one could care for her without being turned to stone, no mortal that is.  I will make a vampire, a friend, and caregiver for Medusa. 

As she limped slowly between the dim lights of the wharf towards the sounds of the men joking and bragging she thought how such an idea made sense.  Her heart was broken seeing Lamech drift away in the lifeboat.  He had abandoned them.  She did not want to think about love right now. 

A woman, I will find a woman for my companion. 

There is safety in numbers.  But there will need to be rules, order, and a hierarchy within the coven.  I will create a group of vampires that will be loyal to me and protect my child and one another.

She was so weak she could scarcely walk in her condition.  It would be risky to try and take the two grown men.  Based on their conversation they were both likely armed.

But what about the magic, perhaps I can use it to bring them to me or allow me to get close? 

The magic required a price, physically