Deathless Read online

  20. HUNGRY VAMPIRES

  Kristi Brolen was glad to be home. This past semester, the first of her junior year at UConn, had been her most difficult by far. Upper level courses were much tougher than those she had taken her freshman and sophomore years. She had done okay, but it had required a lot of work. All she wanted to do now, at the beginning of her three week holiday break, was relax.

  So that was exactly what she was doing, sitting and reading in the backyard of her parents’ Ledyard home. She had dragged one of the heavy, dark green Adirondack chairs close to the edge of the yard—not an easy task for the five-foot five-inch, blue-eyed brunette—onto a small cement patio her dad had built a few years back to hold their propane gas grill and a wooden picnic table. She could have read at the table, but the Adirondack was so much more comfortable.

  She loved it back here. Every breath she drew was tinged with fresh pine fragrance from a row of slender Blue Spruce a few feet behind her. The trees separated the yard from the woods and hills that stretched for almost a mile behind the house. The yard was quiet and peaceful, especially compared to the inside of the house, where her nine-year old twin brothers romped and raced about the place with little regard for the sanity of the other members of the family.

  Sure, it was cold out here, and growing steadily colder now that the sun had set, but her purple L.L Bean jacket and matching ski cap pulled down over her ears shielded her from the chill. A pair of gray knit gloves kept her hands warm, yet still allowed her to turn the pages of her book without trouble. The dark was not a problem, either. Kristi’s dad had run an electric cable to the patio last year so they could use it after dark. The covered brass lamp attached to a wooden pole behind her provided plenty of light to read by.

  Kristi’s attention was riveted upon her book. She loved to read, but had spent so much time studying and doing homework the last few months she’d had almost no chance to read just for pure, mindless fun. Over the next few weeks, she planned to make up for that. Breathless had her off to a great start.

  She had sworn off vampire books—they were all starting to feel too much the same—but her best friend had recommended this one so she had decided to give it a try. She was glad she had. Breathless was proving to be a fast-paced read with lots of new and interesting twists—and plenty of romance, too. She found it easy to escape into the story, which was exactly what she wanted after the long, difficult semester.

  She was so immersed in the book that she almost missed the soft sound from behind the spruce trees the first time it happened. The noise registered in her consciousness just enough to pull her eyes from her reading. She looked quizzically around the yard. She was pretty sure she had heard something, but had absolutely no idea what it might have been. Putting her finger in the book to mark her place, she pushed herself up to the front edge of her chair and listened.

  After a few seconds, she heard it again, this time more clearly. It was a soft, mewling sound, the kind a wounded animal might make. She thought it might be a dog. It was definitely coming from behind the trees, and not very far behind them, either. She put her bookmark into Breathless and laid the book on her chair behind her, then pushed herself to her feet.

  The mewling sounded again, longer and lower this time. Whatever it was, the poor creature seemed to be weak and in great pain. Kristi moved toward the row of spruce, separating the boughs with her hands and getting ready to step to between them.

  Three shadowy figures moved easily through the dark woods, heading south and east. There were few paths here, but they weaved their way effortlessly among the leafless trees, making almost no sound. They could have moved faster—much faster—but they had no need for haste.

  The leader was a woman, short in stature, with full lips and black hair cut just below her chin. She looked to be in her twenties, but she was older, much older. Her name was Victoria, and she was nearly four hundred years old. She was a vampire. Victoria had been turned by an eccentric Austrian nobleman in the early 1700’s, but had the good fortune to encounter Ricard soon after. When the vampire leader decided to journey to the New World, Victoria joined him, sensing her existence would be far safer and more rewarding than life with the Count. She had been with Ricard ever since.

  Her two companions were also vampires, following the Council’s decree that they leave the caverns only in groups of three or four. Behind Victoria came Wallace, a tall, stocky, vampire of English descent who still maintained the vestiges of his upper class London accent, despite having left the city almost three hundred years before. The final member of the trio was another female, Candice, a slender, aristocratic blonde who like to call herself Countessa, despite having been born to a poor Massachusetts silversmith and his wife nearly two hundred years ago.

  The three vampires had no specific destination in mind, wanting only to get far enough from their lair to be safe, in a direction different from those taken by other hunting parties. They skirted the edges of several southeastern Connecticut towns, seeking a lone human in some isolated place where there would be no witnesses.

  As with many of the younger, weaker vampires, Candice’s hunger was becoming increasingly difficult to deny. She needed blood, and she needed it soon. Victoria and Wallace were there to make sure she did nothing foolish. The two older vampires were still in near complete control of their urges. Wallace kept a feeder back in the vampire lair, and Victoria had long grown accustomed to satisfying her needs with the blood of animals, taking a human only rarely.

  Candice sensed the human first. Her keen hunger sharpened her senses, bringing the scent of the human female to her a moment before her companions noticed it. The human was not far away, behind a row of evergreens. She laid a hand on the shoulders of her companions to bring them to a halt. Her fangs were already dropping into place, but a harsh look from Victoria made her pull them back up.

  “Patience, Candice,” Victoria cautioned.

  “But she’s alone,” Candice protested. “Can you not sense that?”

  Wallace sniffed the air. “Yes, she’s alone,” he agreed. “But alone does not mean unwatched or unseen by others.”

  Candice’s thirst was spiking from the nearness of the potential prey. She could almost taste the hot blood pouring down her throat.

  “I can take her before anyone can stop me.”

  “But can you take her without anyone seeing you?” Victoria asked. “When we don’t know who might be watching?”

  “I don’t care,” Candice said. She inhaled deeply through her nose. “She smells so young and sweet.”

  “But we care,” Victoria said. “You know we must draw as little attention to our kind as possible.”

  “I want her,” Candice said determinedly. “I need her.”

  Victoria studied her younger friend. Candice’s need radiated from her in such strength Victoria knew Candice would not be able to deny it much longer.

  “Perhaps you shall have her,” she said.

  Silently, Victoria crept closer to the line of pine trees. She motioned her companions to join her. Through tiny openings in the thick branches, they saw a girl, reading.

  “Watch,” Victoria whispered to Candice. “And learn.”

  She squatted low, bringing her face but a few feet from the ground. A low mewling sound issued from her throat, the perfect imitation of a wounded animal.

  The vampires sensed movement on the other side of the hedge. Victoria waited a few seconds and repeated the sound, longer and lower this time. They watched the girl rise to her feet and move toward the trees. Her hands appeared first, parting the branches, and then she stepped through the opening.

  Candice was on her in a flash, her fangs sinking into the girl’s throat.

  Kristi Brolen barely felt the strong hands that gripped her shoulders. A burning pain erupted in her neck, and then everything turned black.

  21. DANGEROUS TIMES

  “Oh, dear,” Aunt Janet said, “not another one.”

  “Another what, Aunt Janet
?” Leesa asked, emerging from the kitchen with her mom where they had been doing the dishes. It was the first time since Leesa arrived in Connecticut that her aunt had permitted her to help with the clean up for any meal. Since all Leesa’s previous visits had been for just a few days or less, Aunt Janet had brushed off all Leesa’s offers to assist by saying she was a guest and guests did not do dishes in her house. This time, Leesa was staying for more than a week, which apparently moved her out of the guest category. She was happy to finally have the chance to pitch in.

  “Another young woman has disappeared,” Aunt Janet said.

  Aunt Janet was sitting on the couch next to her husband, watching the news on television. Max lay on the floor by their feet. Bradley was perched on the front of the big easy chair, staring intently at the TV. Anyone who vanished mysteriously held special interest for him.

  “That’s the second one in two days,” Aunt Janet continued. She eased over to make room for her sister as Judy sat down beside her. “Plus, a young man went missing yesterday, too.”

  “That’s horrible,” Judy said.

  Leesa slid onto the wooden rocking chair that was her favorite place to sit when she was here. Max immediately took up his post beside the chair, where Leesa could pet his head easily while she rocked.

  “Three people just since yesterday?” Leesa said, more to herself than to anyone else. She did not like the sound of that. Yesterday was the first day after the solstice. She wondered if Rave’s fear was coming true—that the solstice was magnifying the effects of Destiratu. Were the vampires becoming less careful with their hunting, driven by their increased thirst for blood? She hoped there was a simpler explanation.

  “I heard about the guy who got lost hiking down by Haddam,” Bradley said. “Where did the first woman go missing?”

  “Up by Tolland,” Aunt Janet said. “Her husband said she walked four blocks to the mini-mart to get some chips and dip yesterday evening, and she never came back. They’ve been searching for her since last night, but haven’t found any sign of her.”

  Leesa pictured a map of Connecticut in her head. Tolland was fifty or sixty miles north and east; Haddam was much closer, to the south and slightly east.

  “What about the woman today?” she asked.

  “Over in Ledyard,” Uncle Roger said. “She was a junior at UConn, home for the holidays. Her parents said she was sitting in the backyard, reading. Her mom went out to tell her something, and she was gone. The book she’d been reading was still on her chair.”

  Leesa frowned. Unless the girl had taken off on her own for some reason, her abductor had been very bold. She shuddered to think about vampires being so driven they would snatch someone from her own back yard.

  “Where’s Ledyard?” Leesa had heard the name, but couldn’t place the town.

  “Over by New London,” Uncle Roger said. “A bit north of it.”

  Leesa pictured the map in her head again and felt her heart speed up. If you made a triangle out of the incidents, the area where Rave said the vampire lair was hidden would be inside that triangle. She doubted it was a coincidence. She especially did not like that this was happening on the heels of her dream the other night.

  “I think it might be vampires,” she said quietly.

  For a moment, no one spoke. Any other group would have scoffed at such a statement, but not this family. They knew well that vampires existed and they had suffered at the creatures’ hands. Judy was wringing her hands now, and Bradley had grown pale.

  “What makes you say that” Uncle Roger finally asked.

  Leesa thought for a moment. She couldn’t tell them what Rave had said without giving away his secret. Still, she had to say something. An idea popped into her head.

  “Something Dr. Clerval told us in Vampire Science. He said sometimes the solstice magnifies their thirst, making it hard for them to control themselves. The solstice was just two days ago.”

  “Oh, my god,” Judy said quietly. “What should we do? We have to tell somebody.”

  “Tell them what, Mom?” Bradley asked skeptically. “That we think vampires are behind these attacks? They’d put us in straitjackets and lock us up.”

  “But people need to know they have to be extra careful.”

  “I don’t think we need to worry about that too much,” Uncle Roger said. “With all the attention these disappearances are getting, people will already start being careful.”

  “Uncle Roger’s right,” Leesa said. “It doesn’t matter whether people think it’s vampires or some psycho serial killer. They’ll either be extra careful or they won’t.”

  “They’re likely to be more careful if they think there’s a psycho running around,” Bradley said. “That’s something they can believe.”

  “Did the professor say how long this solstice thing would last?” Aunt Janet asked. “With the vampires, I mean?”

  Leesa shook her head. “He didn’t know. Not much longer, I hope.”

  For the first time, she felt a bit of anger toward Rave and his people. They were vampire hunters, after all—they should be here, acting as a check upon the creatures, not hiding somewhere in New Hampshire. Her anger faded as quickly as it had appeared. An all out war between volkaane and vampire was something nobody wanted. Vampires hunting humans was nothing new—they were usually just a bit more circumspect about it. The last thing the vampires wanted was human armies searching for them. They would rein themselves in, she was pretty sure, before they drew too much attention.

  At least she hoped they would.

  22. A MERRY CHRISTMAS

  Christmas had ceased to be special for Leesa a long time ago. She had a few faint memories of joyous mornings and big, beautifully decorated trees from when she was very young, but once her father left all of that ended. Bradley tried to keep the day special for her, but he was just a kid himself, and there wasn’t much he could do. He usually managed to find a small, scraggly “Charlie Brown” Christmas tree they could hang a few decorations on and always provided one small present for Leesa, but that was about it. Not the stuff memories were made of, not by a long shot.

  This morning was different, though. This was a real family Christmas.

  It started late yesterday afternoon, when they all piled into Uncle Roger’s Expedition and headed to a nearby Christmas tree farm. Aunt Janet and Uncle Roger had a tradition of not purchasing their tree until the last moment, insuring it would be as fresh and lovely as possible for the actual holiday. They all wandered around the huge farm, enjoying the pine-scented air and looking for the perfect tree. Finally, they selected a beautiful, seven-foot-tall Blue Spruce. Uncle Roger did the bulk of the sawing, but they all took at least one turn with the saw, so that it would truly be the whole family’s tree.

  After dinner, they had spent more than an hour decorating the tree with brightly colored decorations and tiny white lights. All the while, Christmas carols played joyfully from the stereo. They finished by wrapping strands of silver garland around the tree, and the result was the most beautiful tree Leesa had ever seen. When she had finally gone to bed, she had fallen asleep with “Frosty the Snowman” playing over and over in her head. Something about the magic in the song was especially appealing to her.

  And now, this morning was even better than last evening.

  They were all gathered in the living room. Leesa was sitting her in favorite place, the rocking chair. Max was beside her, as always, and she absently scratched his furry head. Her mom, Aunt Janet and Bradley were all on the couch. Uncle Roger, looking jolly in a worn Santa Claus hat, was taking his time pulling presents from beneath the tree and passing them out to the proper recipient one by one. The room was fragrant with the scent of the recently cut tree and more Christmas carols played in the background.

  Even the Old Man Winter had cooperated, sprinkling a light dusting of snow over the area last night while they slept. The snowfall totaled barely an inch, but it had still managed to turn everything into a white, winter wonderland. F
or a girl from San Diego, an inch was more than enough. Leesa was a bit disappointed they wouldn’t be able to build a snowman, but it sure looked beautiful outside. She was planning on going out later to make a snow angel or two on the front lawn.

  Uncle Roger pranced over to her, chortling “Ho, ho, ho,” for what seemed like the hundredth time that morning and carrying a small package wrapped in candy cane wrapping. A bright red ribbon bow covered most of the front of the package. He handed the present to her.

  “This one’s for you, from your Aunt and me.”

  Ever the practical one, Leesa carefully pulled the bow from the box and set it aside so it could be used again next year. Sliding her finger under the wrapping paper, she gently peeled it off. Inside was an i-Phone.

  “Wow! Thank you, Aunt Janet and Uncle Roger.” Leesa got up and gave her uncle a big hug.

  The phone was the perfect gift. She had been thinking it was probably time to get a cell again, and now she had one. Even better, this was from a totally different service from her last one, so if that guy who claimed to be her father was still trying to find her, it would be that much harder for him.

  Uncle Roger turned to Leesa’s mom. “Judy, don’t you have something for Leesa that goes along with this?”

  Judy crossed to the tree and pulled another small package from beneath it. This one was wrapped in red paper decorated with small Christmas trees. She smiled and handed it to Leesa.

  “This is from Bradley and me.”

  Leesa smiled back. Her mom and brother didn’t have much money, so any gift was thoughtful. She unwrapped this present with equal care. Inside was a purple rubber bumper for her new phone. She laughed.