Crimson Awakening

By Ms. Leticia Edghill

A young writer gets sucked into a world she thought only came alive in other authors books. She is pulled in by a man she becomes enchanted with upon first sight. By the time her mothers stories spring to life it is too late to unravel herself, and she soon begins to realize that she was born to be part of that world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499005851

Ms. Leticia Edghill

Writing has brought me delight from the age of thirteen. I have written poems and stories. My first published book was a book of poetry called 'Reflections of Me In Time'. 'Crimson Awakening: The 1st Line', is the first novel I am publishing. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as it has been a joy to create it.

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Ms. Leticia Edghill.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2014907157

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-4990-0587-5

                Softcover        978-1-4990-0589-9

                eBook             978-1-4990-0585-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 05/22/2014

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Contents

Introduction

Prologue

Chapter 1 Meeting

Chapter 2 Trouble Brewing

Chapter 3 *Ren’s Heart*

Chapter 4 Blinders Gone

Chapter 5 Council Meeting

Chapter 6 *Settling In*

Chapter 7 Vampire 101*

Chapter 8 Mom’s 1St Visit

Chapter 9 *Queen Of The Arias Clan*

Chapter 10 Beloved Twins

Chapter 11 *Too Close For Comfort*

Chapter 12 *Great Great Grandma?*

Chapter 13 *Learning New Powers*

Chapter 14 *Returning To New York*

Chapter 15 A Glimpse Back

Chapter 16 Try And Try Again

Chapter 17 Peace. Could They Have Forgotten?

Chapter 18 Triplets

Chapter 19 Reflections

Chapter 20 Vampire Colonies

Chapter 21 Quiet Time

Chapter 22 The Shoe Drops

Chapter 23 Yalena’s Gone

Chapter 24 Home: Beaten And Scared

Chapter 25 S?@* Hits The Fan

Chapter 26 Finally

Thank you to all those who believed in me. A special thanks my editor Jeff. I couldn’t have completed it without you. To my former student who is all grown up, thank you for encouraging me to get the book publish. I love your enthusiasm.

Introduction

Wow, I can’t believe I am doing this. This is my first book. Not sure whether or not I will write about the rest of our lives, but since my mom won’t do it, I figured I would. She said that no one would be interested in her story. I thought she was wrong, but since she saw how much I really wanted to write this book, my mom helped me. Also, some of the parts of this book are written by my aunt. My parents have always been affectionate and all over each other. I think it’s gross, so I sure couldn’t write that part. But, I didn’t want to leave it out, either. I wanted this story to be as close to the truth as possible.

Anyway, here goes. I hope you like it. I am Katherine Amenet Arias, Kat for short. When this story started, I wasn’t even born. It took a long time to gather all the information about what happened and how it happened. Then of course everyone had a different view of what happened. I can’t even verify it with what I remember, because I was born several months before my mom went to Cairo to find the Goddess Sekhmet. I’m in college now. My mom has my brothers and me taking a break and enjoying life before we get caught up in helping her and my dad maintain order. Funny, right? Maybe even weird.

My parents are great actually; they range between cool and strict depending on where we are and what we want. My mom had seven of us. There are four girls and three boys. I am the second eldest child, and at times it sucks, but not always.

My parents are also freaks. I can’t help but laugh and gag at the same time. Uncle Mark says that they were always all over each other before they had children and well even after almost four decades that hasn’t changed at all; it just got worse. I could babble on forever, but then the story might not make sense. So I’ll start from what uncle Cell told me happened before Mom walked into my dad’s life. Now, brace yourself and enjoy.

While my mom’s name is Yalena, most people call her Lena.

Kat Arias

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