Born to Darkness Book 1 in the Immortal Destiny Series: Vampire Romance Paranormal (8 page)

“Omar can tell you whatever you want to know about this.”

“Does it exist?” Alec asked him.

“Oh yes, it exists … I assure you.”

“Then take me to it,” Alec told him.

“That is not something I can do. I too, have been banished from this place.”

“You can tell me how to get to it.”

“I could, but it wouldn’t do you any good. Omar has the key of entrance to the place called
Outerlands
.”

“Why would he keep it from us?” Alec asked.

“That is something you must ask him. I know no more than the legends myself. But … what I do know is that Omar will kill my granddaughter, if given a chance.”

“Who is that?” Alec asked, wondering if he was talking about Nicole.

“Who it is doesn’t matter, but I intend to make sure he never gets to her.”

“Is it Nicole?” Alec wanted to know.

A thought suddenly occurred to him.

Maybe this was why Omar wanted Nicole.

Lex shook his head. “It is not Miss Ashe, though she is also in grave danger.”

“So what do you want me to do … kill one of my own kind?” Alec sneered.

“Bring his secrets into the open. It’s these secrets that make him a danger to my granddaughter … and to your young lady. He wants to keep the truth hidden. As long as they live, he risks the truth being revealed.”

Alec heard a gurgling sound coming from behind him.

At first he was confused, but then he remembered the old drunk.

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that the old man was on his back - passed out and choking on his own vomit. Alec turned the man to prevent him from aspirating and drowning. He would hate to spare the man’s life - just to have him die in such a disgusting manner.

When Alec turned back, Lex was gone.

Nicole pulled into the driveway of the small - white house located in the Gentilly Terrace District. It was the house she’d grown up in, and the place she came back to when she needed to feel the comforts of home. Today what she needed, were answers.

She found Vicky Trenton in the backyard - trimming the rose bushes. Her mother had always loved flowers, and she took pride in her garden. Nearly every morning you could find Vicky outside, taking care of her garden. After Nicole’s stepfather was killed, Vicky never remarried. Instead, she’d filled that void with caring for her children. 

And then Jay was gone, and the only child she’d had left was Nicole. Though this should have brought mother and daughter closer together - Vicky seemed to distance herself from Nicole after that.

This only added to the guilt she felt for her little brother’s death.  Nicole was sure her mother blamed her for what happened to Jay.

Of course she did.

Why wouldn’t Mom blame her for it? After all, it had been her job to look after Jay when it happened.

Nicole knelt down next to where her mother was pruning the bottom of the rose bush. There was almost no resemblance between Vicky Trenton and her daughter. Where Nicole was dark - with brown eyes and hair, Vicky was fair. She still wore her blond hair in the puffy style of the 80s, and used colored contacts to change her brown eyes to green.

Her mother looked up and smiled, but her eyes seemed vacant - as if she were miles away. “Well hello Nicole. What brings you here?”

“Can we go in and get a glass of iced tea?” Nicole asked.

Vicky shrugged and set the pruning sheers on the ground next to the rosebush. “Sure … I need a break from the sun anyway.”

Her mother always kept a large picture of iced tea in the fridge, just incase company stopped by. She reached into the cupboard and pulled out two tall glasses - filling them both with the brown liquid. From a small bowl - Vicky pulled out some lemon slices and squeezed the juice into the tea.

Nicole wasn’t sure how to broach the subject of the dark man. Finally she just decided to come right out and ask her mother about him.

“Mom … do you remember that time you took me to the park at night … when I was about five? There was a man there that talked to me after I skinned my knees.”

Vicky went pale. She was shaking so badly, the tea splashed over the top of the glass. Nicole reached up and took the glass from her and set it on the kitchen table.

“Are you okay Mom?” she asked, alarmed by the distress she saw in her mother’s eyes.

“Why? Has he come back?” Vicky asked with a whisper.

“No, but he promised to come back. Why didn’t he … and who was he?” Now she knew there was something significant about the man, and she intended to find out what it was.

Vicky sank into the kitchen chair opposite her daughter. She looked down and appeared to be absorbed in the tiny purple flower design on the plastic tablecloth. When she looked up - she had tears in her eyes.

“I don’t know why he never came back,” she told her daughter. “I never saw or heard from him again after that night.”

“Who was he?”

“He was your father,” Vicky confessed.

“That was Donavan Ashe?”

Vicky nodded. “Your father and I were never married, but I gave you his name. I did love your stepfather, but not like I loved Donavan.”

“Then why did you marry Jake?”

“I hadn’t heard from your father for years, and decided you needed a normal family life … so I married.”

“What do you know about him?”

Vicky again turned away from her daughter. She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again.

“He was a vampire … wasn’t he?” Nicole swallowed hard, not sure she could accept the possibility.

Vicky looked up. “How do you know about those creatures?”

Nicole thought it best if her mother not know didn’t know what was happening in her life at the moment. Vicky had already gone through the heartbreak of losing a husband and child.

What would losing another child do to her?

“I’ve met someone and I think he might be a vampire?”

Vicky shook her head. “Don’t do it Nicole. They have some kind of power over women - but they are cold down to their core.”

Nicole would have protested, but her mother cut her off.

“Don’t forget … the reality is, you will age into an old woman, but he will remain young forever.”

She was more troubled by her mother’s words than she cared to admit. Alec’s immortality was something she hadn’t yet considered.

He might desire her now, but what about twenty or thirty years from now?

“Why do you say that they are so cold?” Nicole asked, purposely avoiding the issue of immortality.

“He never came back,” Vicky said - tears forming in her eyes.

“Maybe he couldn’t … maybe something happened to him,” Nicole suggested.

Vicky waved her hand, dismissing the possibility. “What could happen to him … he’s a vampire?”

Nicole thought of Omar and knew there was a chance that something had happened to her father.

Then there was Bellea. The old woman told her she needed to find the man.

“Mom, you need to tell me everything you know about Donavan Ashe.”

With a sigh, Vicky sat back in her chair. “To tell you the truth, I don’t know much about him. I fell madly in love with someone I really didn’t know.”

Nicole could relate. Wasn’t she on the verge of doing exactly the same thing? After all, what did she really know about Alec?

“Well don’t you think it’s time you enlighten me?”

“It was strange how I met him,” Vicky began. “I was walking home after my shift at the diner where I was working at the time. You know … Pete Snow’s place… down by the riverfront?”

Nicole nodded.

“This man came up behind me and stuck a gun in my back. I couldn’t see him well … it was too dark, but he demanded my purse. I would have given it to him with no problem. I didn’t have two cents to rub together anyway.” Vicky shrugged her shoulders.

“Then Donavan was there. He just showed up out of nowhere, and boy did he scare that mugger. That man took off like the devil was after him.” Vicky smiled at the memory.

“Donavan walked me home, and then he started doing that every night.” Again, there was sadness in her mother’s eyes.

Nicole said nothing, but waited for her mother to continue. She didn’t want to risk Vicky changing the subject.

“Then you came along.” Vicky smiled. “He did love you, but he changed then. He became more distant. Then one day he went away, and I didn’t see him again until that night in the park. He’d sent a message that I should bring you there … that he could see you.”

“What did you know about him? Who was he before he changed?” Nicole wanted to know.

Vicky shook her head. “He never talked about his life before he was a …” She couldn’t seem to bring herself to say the word vampire.

“A vampire,” Nicole finished for her.

Vicky nodded. “He did claim to have brothers that were the same as he.”

“Go on,” Nicole urged.

“He told me the original vampires were really a species, but that their bite was poisonous to humans … especially those sharing the same genetic makeup as the original vampires. I think that’s what he said.”

Vicky put her hands up in the air. “That’s really all I know.”

“Where do you think I can find him?”

“If I knew that … I would have tried to find him myself.” Vicky forced a smile.

Nicole’s eyes strayed to the calendar on the wall - next to the fridge. Jay’s little face stared back at her from the top of the calendar. It had been a Mother’s Day gift to Vicky that year. He’d made it for her in Kindergarten, and had been so proud of it. The calendar was still open to the month Jay died.

Like every time she thought of Jay - Nicole’s heart shattered into a million pieces. Tears stung her eyes. It had been three years now, and still the wounds would not heal.

“Mom … do you hate me because of Jay?”

Vicky’s face twisted with grief and tears streamed down her cheeks. “No … it was just meant to be.”

Nicole was not convinced. “I’m so sorry Mom. If I could do that day all over again …”

Vicky cut her off. “There’s no sense of dwelling on what cannot be.”

Nicole leaned over and hugged her mom. “I should be going now.”

“Don’t go looking for him. You belong in the light … not the darkness,” she told Nicole.

* * *

The Lafayette cemetery was not just a place to reflect on grief and loss, it was also a place of beauty and tranquility. This is where Nicole would go whenever her pain became too much to endure.

She sat on a small marble bench, her eyes fixed on a nearby tomb. It was beautiful - with depictions of angels and heaven carved into the surface of the tomb. On the plaque were the names of several members of her family that had come and gone before her. The last name on the plaque was Jason Trenton. This was the one name that shouldn’t be there. He’d gone to heaven much too soon.

She couldn’t stop thinking of Jay, nor could she stop the tears that came whenever she did. Nicole was glad for the privacy of the empty cemetery. 

Lost in her sorrow, she failed to notice the fading light, or how the black clouds obscured the sun - darkening the sky even more. As the light faded and dusk settled on New Orleans, Nicole continued to sit on the bench - crippled by the darkness gripping her soul.

Emerging from her haze of self-pity - she was suddenly alert. From the corner of her eye, she’d caught a flash of movement nearby. Nicole didn’t move - giving no indication she’d seen them.

She continued to watch them, but without turning in their direction. It wasn’t easy, but she could see them from the corner of her eye. They stood behind a tomb - maybe a hundred feet away. They were vampires - she could sense the predator in them. Her head began to ache as they tried to crawl into her thoughts.

She wondered what they were waiting for.

Why hadn’t they attacked yet?

She was alone and completely defenseless against these creatures of the night.

Why did they wait?

Without giving any hint that she knew they were there, she stood from the bench and started walking toward the cemetery exit. Her car was parked on the street, just outside the cemetery gates.

It had grown dark - almost too dark to see.

She heard them behind her and picked up her pace - still not daring to look at them. With her heart pounding, she started to run - though she knew she wouldn’t get very far.

“That’s right … run Nicole!” The laughing female voice called out.

Stopping suddenly, Nicole turned to face them. There were two of them - a young man with blond hair that hung in his eyes, and a woman. The woman was dressed all in black - her red hair in a punk style that was not so common anymore.

“What do you want?” Nicole asked them, her voice even and strong. She wouldn’t betray her fear. They seemed to feed off fear - as much as blood.

“You of course,” the girl told her with a giggle.

A dark rage took hold of her - smothering any fear she’d felt a moment before. Nicole’s anger over life and its horrors finally erupted like a furious storm.

Smiling, she lifted her finger and motioned for them to come closer. “Then come and get me.”

Snarling - their eyes began to emit that unearthly light - the glow within them that indicated that they were ready to feed. Suddenly the night lit up and lightning flashed across the sky. Nicole’s hair seemed to come alive as a gust of wind blew across the cemetery.

Then, as if by magic, Alec was at her side. His cold eyes promised a painful ending for her attackers. As soon as they saw Alec, they backed away.

“You won’t always be with her Alec,” the male vampire told him with a smile.

Alec didn’t respond - instead he continued to stare them down. Slowly they backed away and disappeared into the darkness.

Nicole looked over at Alec. “How did you know where I was?”

“Your terror was like a beacon,” he frowned. “I simply followed that beacon.”

“It’s a good thing you did,” Nicole told him. “I thought you said they wouldn’t come after me?”

“I didn’t think they would,” he said, looking out into the darkness, as if searching for something that simply wasn’t there. “Omar must be getting impatient and willing to take things into his own hands.”

Another streak of lightning illuminated the sky. Nicole had to catch her breath as she gazed upon Alec. He looked almost ethereal with the wind blowing through his hair and the stormy sky behind him.

Alec turned his attention to her. “What are you doing here? It was a bad move to come to a place like this … so close to nightfall.”

Nicole took his hand and started walking toward her little brother’s tomb. When they reached it, she pointed to Jay’s name. “My little brother.” Her voice trembled - the grief threatening to crush her once again.