For the Love of Dawn

By Rebecca Jose

The land formerly known as America has been war-torn and shattered. The few humans that have survived have fallen victim to the vampires and shapeshifters that have taken over the land now known as Prodigium Mortem. Their inability to co-exist threatens to start yet another great war, wiping out all forms of life forever. When a vampir

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nethersouls Publishing
• Release date: Jul 11, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088187258

Rebecca Jose

Rebecca Jose enjoys a simple life with her family in Kentucky.  She has enjoyed writing since she was young, and is working on a full-time career as a writer.  Her legacy as a writer of fiction is something she would like to leave to her children, grandchildren, and all of her family and friends who supported her through her entire career.

Book preview

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my sons Ernie Brannon and Joseph Maggard for keeping me young and never letting me forget what it was like to have an imagination. You make me never want to grow up!  I love you.

Contents

Dedication

Contents

~ Chapter 1 ~

~ Chapter 2 ~

~ Chapter 3 ~

~ Chapter 4 ~

~ Chapter 5 ~

~ Chapter 6 ~

~ Chapter 7 ~

~ Chapter 8 ~

~ Chapter 9 ~

~ Chapter 10 ~

~ Chapter 11 ~

~ Chapter 12 ~

~ Chapter 13 ~

~ Chapter 14 ~

~ Chapter 15 ~

~ Chapter 16 ~

~ Chapter 17 ~

~ Chapter 18 ~

~ Chapter 19 ~

~ Chapter 20 ~

~ Chapter 21 ~

~ Chapter 22 ~

~ Chapter 23 ~

~ Chapter 24 ~

~ Chapter 25 ~

~ Chapter 26 ~

~ Chapter 27 ~

~ Chapter 28 ~

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

~ Chapter 1 ~

Prairie Dawn glanced at the night sky as she stood on the hilltop behind the stream.  She had been bathing after her exhilarating nightly run through the forest, and the water was dripping down off her long, straight, black hair and down her shapely legs in rivulets of moisture.  Her bronze, freshly scrubbed skin shimmered, looking even darker in the moonlight. 

A slight gust of wind lifted the dark locks from her head, drying them slightly and whipping strands of them across her face.  Goosebumps sprinkled across her naked flesh, and her nipples hardened from the chill of the night breeze.  Her dark brown, almond-shaped eyes focused on the full moon, and her shapely full lips thinned into a satisfied smile.  She raised her round face with its high cheekbones to the sky and closed her eyes in ecstasy.

This is what she loved and what she was made for.  The raw elements, nature, and her naked form being one with the universe filled her with peace. 

With her eyes closed, she opened her other senses to the night and the forest around her hill.  She concentrated on the feel of the breeze blowing through her hair and across her naked skin.  She curled her dainty toes into the rough dirt of the hilltop, loving the feel of the ground beneath her bare feet. 

Switching to her sense of smell, she wrinkled her small, straight nose and sniffed the night air.  Pine from the forest, the slight scent of fish from the stream, and floral scents from wild honeysuckle and thorny roses assaulted her nostrils as she breathed deeply of the forest.

Opening her ears to the land, she heard the deep song of a Barred Owl from somewhere above her, and she snapped her eyes open to look for the bird in the lone treetop on her hill.  Her smile widened as she spotted the fat, gray-and-white striped owl perched on a branch, and she hooted back at it.  It gave another hoo-hoo-hoo…hoo-hoohoo-hoo and flew away into the night.

Her smile widened even further.

She felt free here.  The sense of peace and happiness radiating in her core grew to a fierce crescendo as she stood naked to the elements she was so attuned to.  She was one with the wind and sky.  She was akin to the earth and water.  This was who she was in her small patch of freedom, and she relished the small pieces of it that she could attain.

Back home in her small village, she was the daughter of Chief White Cloud of the Sky Eagle tribe of shapeshifters.  There, she was under the thumb of her overprotective father.  She would never be free there because her father was conditioning her to take over his role.  Back home in her small tribe located in the lands of the master vampire Yarina, she was the princess Prairie Dawn.

She could never be truly free there.

~ ~ ~ ~

The lone man on horseback stopped short before riding out of the trees.  He sat for a long moment, gaping at the sight he beheld through the pine branches.  It had to be a dream, for even the most beautiful goddess could not compare to what he beheld standing on the hilltop above. 

Her straight black hair caught in the wind and flew around her long, curvy body.  Her skin was the color of copper, her hips full and voluptuous, her legs long and shapely, and her breasts were full and perky.  Her head was tilted slightly, and a slight smile touched her lips.  She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.  His gaze scanned the length of her voluptuous curves, dipping downward past her flat stomach to the dark sprinkling of hair that covered her mound. 

He felt a hardening in his pants and shifted uncomfortably in his saddle.  He could feel his animal urges coming to the surface, causing his stomach to cramp painfully with different kinds of hunger.  He shifted in the saddle again, concentrating on tamping down the urge to fly from the saddle and take this goddess in more ways than one.

An owl called out from a tree above her head, and he watched in fascination as her eyes snapped open at the sound. She smiled brilliantly, causing the tightness of his erection to grow at the sight.  It lit up her entire face, causing her dark brown eyes to sparkle in the moonlight.  She returned the owl's call, and it answered her before flying away.  Her smile became even more radiant.

Alek sucked in a breath as she lowered her head, and he saw her face fully.  She had the face of a bronzed-skin angel.  Her delicate features were etched in a round face that Alek longed to stroke with his fingertips.  He imagined biting down on that full, kissable bottom lip and had to shift in the saddle once again as his erection hardened even more.  He winced as the top of his cowboy hat brushed across one of the pine branches above his head, sending a rustling noise into the night air.

Suddenly, the goddess's head snapped down, and her luminous, dark brown eyes slanted suspiciously as she carefully scanned the night.  He ducked lower in the saddle, glancing around to be sure he was still concealed in the trees.  However, she must have heard him because she turned on her heels and disappeared down the other side of the hilltop. 

Before she could leave his sight, he saw the most beautiful and shapely bottom his eyes had ever beheld turn into a wolf's tail.  He shook his head and glanced back toward the vision, but nothing was there.

She had been a shapeshifter.

He was certain that he had been dreaming now.  He glanced again to the top of the hill but saw nothing.  However, he spotted a small stream at the end of the clearing right at the base of the hill.  It looked like the perfect place to find shelter and rest.

He was so tired and weary that he was almost ready to collapse from his mount, so he dismounted slowly, slipping the reigns over his horse's head and removing the harness.  He stepped into the clearing and ambled to the stream, looking for a place to lay his weary head. 

The vegetation had been scarce on the bare forest floor, but here beside the stream, it was more plentiful.  Tufts of tall grass, flowers, and even a bush or two were scattered along the earth beside the water.  The hillside was rocky and bare, and the top only had a few trees and sparse grass.

He would have to find a concealed place with plenty of shade to rest in.  The sun was not a vampire's friend.  It was not deadly, but vampire flesh burned quickly and severely, and burns healed humanly slow for a vampire.  Most vampires slept during the daytime to prevent the blisters, burnt flesh, and pain of a sunburn, and Alek was no exception.  It was almost sunrise, so he would need to find a sheltered place to sleep soon. 

He found a small cave in the rocky hillside with sufficient room to climb in and lie down, and it was deep enough to be hidden from the sun.  He checked it carefully for other signs of life, but luckily it was empty.  He returned to his steed, removing the saddle and patting him gently on his flank.  He laid the saddle on the ground inside the cave so he could use it as a pillow. 

He did not bother tying up his horse.  He let Bolt run free during the day, but Bolt never went far.  The trusty steed was never far away whenever Alek awoke for the day, and Bolt always came at Alek's whistle.

Alek climbed into the cave and removed his old, battered hat before he lay down.  He shifted into a comfortable position on his back, leaning against the saddle.  He placed the hat over his eyes and fell asleep almost instantly.

~    ~    ~    ~

Alek Barnes awoke abruptly, some noise rustling a bush near the cave opening where he had fallen asleep.  He lay very still, eyes still closed, hat still on his eyes, listening intently for the sound that had awakened him from slumber. 

His intensified hearing was attuned to the rustling sound.  It was moving steadily along the ground at his feet, but the sound stopped as suddenly as it had started.  Alek carefully removed the hat from his light blue eyes, glancing down toward his feet.  He focused his acute sight on the spot where the sound was coming from but saw nothing. 

He heard his horse grunt nervously and shuffle his hooves outside the cave, and Alek stiffened apprehensively.  Bolt usually alerted Alek at any signs of danger, so his horse's jumpy movements raised the question of what was in the cave with Alek.

The sound began again, slow and steady, and Alek's eyes tracked the sound. Finally, he saw a flash of something moving in the cave's darkness right at his feet, and he lay extra still and quiet as if he did not exist.

He had fallen asleep leaning almost upright on the saddle, so looking down his body to his feet without moving was easy from this advantageous position.  He waited steadily for whatever it was to leap on him, thinking him easy prey, but then he would take his would-be attacker by surprise.  When he finally spotted what was shuffling around at his feet, he became the attacker instead.  Quicker than the eye could follow, the giant, fat jackrabbit was dangling in his hands, dead from a broken neck.

The rabbit became breakfast and was the fattest, juiciest jackrabbit he had caught in days.  Animal blood was sustaining, but he would need to find a human soon.  A diet of only animal blood made him humanly slow and weak, so he had no choice but to feed off of humans. 

He only fed on one or two humans a month just to keep his keen senses and heightened strength.  Fortunately, he did not have to kill the human and only fed on willing donors.  He was a peaceful vampire and did not believe in senseless killing.  He killed out of necessity, for self-defense, or to protect the lives of others, like his master Yarina.

As he sank his teeth into the rabbit, he pondered on the vision he had seen on the hilltop.  In all of his travels and many sexual flings, he had never beheld the beauty of that entrancing goddess on the hill.  He was still convinced that he had been dreaming.

He had had a long night, riding through the tattered remains of a large city before he had made it to the forest, and he had ridden through several other remains of smaller cities before that.  He had stopped only a few times to drink from his small canteen of blood and rest his horse, so by the time he had reached the middle of the forest near the stream where he had spotted the maiden, he had been so tired that he had almost fallen asleep in the saddle. 

Vampires were very sexual beings, and sex for a vampire was just as life-giving as blood.  Every village, community, or town he had visited had at least one or two willing females that would feed both of his hungers since he was good-looking enough to attract plenty of female attention. 

He was well-built, tall, and muscular.  He kept his blonde hair short to fit under his cowboy hat.  His blue eyes sparkled with life when he smiled.  He had a strong jawline, a straight nose, and full lips set in an attractive square face.  He naturally did not grow facial hair, so he was always clean-shaven.  He could pick any girl he desired in whatever town he was in.

He had been wandering for years, drifting from town to town on a quest for his master.  However, for the past twenty-two days, he had done nothing but ride, not stopping long enough in any town for food, so he had not had sex or human blood.  He was famished for both and would need it soon, but he had almost reached his destination, which had been the reason for his hasty traveling.

Alek was heading home. 

After the apocalyptic war that wiped out most of humanity, the land had been war-torn and shattered. Alek's father, mother, and younger brother were among the first families to come to the land after the war when Alek had been a human boy.

When the war started, his family escaped to the safe land of Tatus Otium behind the wall, formally known as Mexico.  Alek was only six years old then, and his mother had been pregnant with his baby brother. Ten years later, his family volunteered to explore and settle in the desolate land and try to bring life back to the earth.  Little did they know then that there had been survivors, and most were not human. 

The humans that survived were outnumbered by the only two intelligent lifeforms to survive the plagues, wars, and evacuations that ripped through and destroyed the over-populated land which had once been known as America. Vampires and shapeshifters ruled the land now known as Prodigium Mortem. 

The shapeshifters had lived off the surviving plant and wildlife, nurturing it and caring for it year after year until they had rich gardens, tiny farms, and small communities thriving and surviving.  They were wary of the surviving humans but kept their distance from them unless threatened.

The powerful and evil vampires imprisoned humans and kept them alive, feeding off them just enough to keep up their strength and breeding them like cattle.  There were also good-hearted vampires who took care of humans, allowing them to settle and build homes and families close to the vampire in exchange for allowing the vampire to feed off them.

Alek's family had met one such vampire soon after settling on a nice piece of land that boasted rich plant life, a trickling freshwater stream that ran from a large lake and drained into a flowing river, and a neighboring village of friendly shapeshifters. 

They had been there only a couple of years when Yarina had come.  She was a master vampire of three hundred years, and she had offered peace with the shapeshifters and Alek's family in exchange for her protection and his family's acceptance to let her feed from them.  She also asked for one family member every twenty years to banish her loneliness and add to her vampire ranks.

It had been Alek's choice to be turned and accept the peace offering, and Yarina taught Alek's family about Prodigium Mortem and how to survive in the post-apocalyptic land. 

Alek remained under Yarina's tutelage for ten years as a vampire.  His father and mother grew older, and his brother met another human in a neighboring settlement and married her.  That settlement joined his family's settlement, forming a small community.  Yarina became the protector of this small community, and it was still growing.

After another thirty-five years, Alek remained the sole underling to Yarina, but he became restless.  His brother's family grew larger, and the community was prospering.  Still, Alek's wanderlust grew more and more as time passed.

Yarina would take him on short outings, only a day or two at a time, to visit other communities and investigate how the land grew.  The lands were growing increasingly populated, and Yarina feared the outcome.

With every race, some do not live in harmony with anyone except themselves.  Vampires and shifters were no exception.  Yarina knew that the evil vampires wanted to keep the land to themselves and did not want humans repopulating the land other than the ones they kept for food.  It was a reasonable fear.  The vampires did not want the humans to overpopulate, sending them into hiding again. They were enjoying their freedom.

However, Yarina believed that they would be able to live in harmony with the humans no matter how populated they became if only they could rid the land of the evil ones.  However, she did not know how many evil vampires still existed.  She had heard that humans were standing up for themselves, and a couple of evil masters had been killed by their humans.

Yarina had also heard that the humans who had been poorly treated were now wary of shifters as well.  They had even begun to hunt shifters and vampires, whether they were peaceful or not.

She decided to send Alek on a journey, not only to possibly cure his wanderlust, but as her spy.  Yarina told Alek to remember everything he saw on his journeys so that he could report to her. 

On his five years of travels, Alek discovered that the races were becoming more prejudiced of each other than Yarina had believed, and Alek feared there would be another war if an understanding were not reached. 

The troublemakers needed to either change or be killed, and it did not matter if they were vampires, shapeshifters, or humans.  If they could rid the land of the menaces, then maybe the peaceful ones could repair what damage had been done before it got any worse.

Alek only hoped it was not too late.

Alek was stirred from his thoughts by Bolt wandering into the clearing to drink from the stream.  When Bolt was finished, he trotted into the open field at the bottom of the hill to graze while Alek watched after him.  Alek smiled as he watched him.

He was thankful that he had found such a good mount.  Alek found Bolt wandering around a desecrated city formerly known as Lexington in the land that used to be called Kentucky.  He was just a baby and was lost, scared, and alone. Alek had captured him easily and taken him with him on his travels. Bolt grew into a robust, sleek stallion with the softest black mane and tail.  The rest of him was black also, save for a white streak that ran down his nose.

He was a beautiful horse, and Alek loved him just as much as Bolt loved Alek.

After Bolt had eaten his fill, he trotted back to Alek's side and nuzzled his shoulder. Alek stroked the side of Bolt's face as he stared longingly at the stream.  Alek needed a bath before he left because, by the end of the night, he would finally be home to his village and his master.

Sighing, Alek patted Bolt's side and said, Just a bit longer, boy, and we will be home.  Right now, however, I need a bath.

Bolt nickered, tossing his head in the air and stamping one foot as if disgusted at the thought of a bath.  Alek laughed aloud at the horse, who stamped indignantly at Alek's laughter, turned, and trotted back into the field.

Bolt hated baths, so the horse's behavior was not surprising.  Still, Alek was laughing as he walked toward the stream.  He imagined the look that would come over Yarina's face if he showed up stinking and dirty, causing his laughter to grow louder. 

Yarina did not mind a bit of blood and gore.  She was a vampire, after all, but that was no excuse for one not to bathe.  His heart lurched in his chest as he continued to think of her, causing his laughter to suddenly fade.  He missed his master and his family.

Alek could not wait to be home.

~ Chapter 2 ~

Prairie Dawn was in trouble again.  Her father was none too happy with her nightly visits to the forest stream. The stream was at least an hour's run or half an hour's flight from her small settlement and was outside the borders of Yarina's protection.  Her father demanded that it was too far and unsafe for her to go there. 

She knew he feared for her safety, but she could not help herself.  The forest was Dawn's special place, where she ran to escape her mundane life in the village.  This was the place where she communed with her beloved nature.  She was not going to give it up easily.

Dawn was stubborn and proud.  She may be female, but she could outrun, out-aim, and out-shift any of the males in her tribe.  Her senses were keen, so she could usually sense someone sneaking up on her, much to the chagrin of the boys who always tried. 

She could shift into two forms, while the other shapeshifters her age had only mastered one form.  She could shift into a wolf and the tribe's signature eagle.  She had already mastered her eagle form, and it would not be long before she mastered her wolf form.

She could take care of herself.

Her father did not think so, especially outside of Yarina's protection.  They lived close to a human village that was inside the protected lands.  The humans there were good people.  They would not venture out of the boundaries of Yarina's land for fear of the other vampires, and Chief White Cloud wanted Dawn to develop that same fear. 

Dawn had no experience with the cruel and evil ones of this land, so she just assumed that all people were the same as the ones she knew.  She believed that the stories her father told her about evil humans, vampires, and shapeshifters were fictional and were made to scare the young ones from running off outside the boundaries of their village.

Well, Dawn was not a child anymore.  She was an adult woman, and she could take care of herself. Dawn knew that her hillside was outside the boundaries of Yarina's lands.  Still, she did not think anyone would wander this close, even if the stories were true.  Dawn had been coming here for months and had never seen any life except wild animals and plants in the forest.

Dawn now sat by the stream again, or rather she sat above the stream.  She was concealed high up in the branches of a large oak tree growing by the water because she had run off after a fight with her father, and she did not want anyone to find her. She had just shifted back to human form after a flight over the land in eagle form, and from her high perch, she could see anyone that came along below.  They, however, would not be able to see her far up in the branches where she sat. 

Unless they looked up.

Something suddenly caught her eye, breaking her out of her reverie and alerting her senses.  A horse!  Dawn had not seen a horse in a very long time.  It snorted, stamped its foot, turned, and trotted away, revealing the lone white man that had been hidden from Dawn's sight by the horse.  She sucked in a breath as the man stepped into the clearing, and that breath caught in her throat as she watched him approach, praying he did not look up and spot her. 

The sound of his laughter filled Dawn's ears as he passed under the tree, but his laughter abruptly stopped as he paused directly under the spot where Dawn was perched. She dared not move or make a sound, scarcely even breathing.

Every story her father had told her about the evil people that hunted and killed vampires and shifters ran through her mind.  She remembered how she would just scoff in disbelief at him when he would tell her these wild stories. It would be a cruelly ironic twist if he was one of those people and he caught her here alone. 

She was not defenseless by any means.  She could always shift and run away.  She could shift into an eagle right now and fly away if she wanted, but she did not.  She was not afraid, at least not much.  She still could not accept the existence of cruelty in her small world.  Curiosity overrode her trivial fear, so she stayed silent and simply watched from her perch in the tree.

The man never acknowledged her presence and instead continued his steady pace until he reached the cool water of the stream.  Then, to her surprise, he began to remove his clothes.  He was going to bathe in her stream! 

She started to get angry; started to climb down from her perch and tell him to go find his own stream, but then she noticed the blonde hair as it tumbled from his hat as he removed it.  It looked soft and luxurious, and her heart skipped a beat as she imagined running her fingers through it. 

Her breathing hitched as he unbuttoned his shirt, and she stared at the rippling muscles of his back as he slid the shirt over his shoulders.  She wondered how soft that alabaster skin would be under her hands and then realized how white his skin was.  This was no human at all!  This was a vampire!

Her heart leaped into her throat as fear gripped her mind.  The stories her father told of the evil vampires that hunted the lands for stray shapeshifters flashed through her mind.  It was told that they kept entire villages of shapeshifters for slaves, and Dawn did not intend to become anyone's slave. 

A tiny sliver of fear radiated up Dawn's spine, and she thought to shift and fly away for a moment.  But then she remembered Yarins's teachings about a vampire's speed; some could even fly.  Her heart lodged in her throat at this thought, so she decided to sit and wait him out.

Surely his bath would not take long, and then she could fly to Yarina's place and tell her of the strange vampire near her lands.  Dawn continued to sit as still and silent as possible, watching the vampire pull off his boots and touch one toe to the water as if testing the temperature. 

He squatted beside the water to take a quick drink, and she noticed how the muscles in his bare back rippled and stretched with every movement.  He rose from the stream, turned around, undid his trousers, and pulled his pants down his legs.  Only his boxers remained.

Dawn's heart pattered for a different reason as she looked him up and down.  Fear gave way to desire as his hair shone under the full moon, glittering golden fire where the light hit it.  The way his muscles strained as he raised his arms to the sky in a tension-releasing stretch had tendrils of pleasurable sensations coursing through her veins. His intense blue eyes shone brightly in the moonlight, and her own dark eyes widened as she saw the prominent bulge in his boxers.  Dawn swallowed hard as a wave of need flowed through her.

Suddenly, his eyes darted upwards, looking her way as if he could see her.  She sucked in her breath, afraid that he had seen her, but her fear melted away as she looked into his eyes.

A feeling Dawn had never felt before made her heart stop.  She felt strangely drawn to him, as if she had been lost her entire life and had finally found her way back to him. She had the strongest compulsion to have him in her arms, or she would be lost and empty forever.

She looked at his faraway gaze staring into the trees and wondered if he could see her too.  She wondered if he felt this same strange attraction to her, but that was impossible.  She did not even know who he was.  She did not know where he had come from, where he was going, or if she would ever see him again.

Suddenly, he reached for her, and she knew then that, whatever this feeling was, he felt it too. He felt it as intensely as she did, and he was reaching for her.  Her hand reached back, as if of its own volition, as her heart pounded in her chest and her breathing became ragged. 

She was so focused on the fascinating vampire and the feelings he had elicited into her heart that she did not hear the arrow being nocked into the bow.  She paid no attention to the sound of the bowstring being pulled taut, and she did not hear the arrow flying from the bow and through the air until it was too late. 

The arrow pierced her shoulder in white-hot agony, knocking her unconscious from the pain, and she lost her hold on her perch in the tree.

Prairie Dawn fell from the sky.

~    ~    ~    ~

Alek had just finished shedding his jeans and was enjoying a long, muscle-loosening stretch when he heard something in the trees above him.  His eyes darted up into the trees, and he swore he could see a pair of dark brown