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Authors: Simon Clark

Her Vampyrrhic Heart

BOOK: Her Vampyrrhic Heart
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Table of Contents

Cover

Recent Titles by Simon Clark from Severn House

Title Page

Copyright

Nicola and Tom: The Story so Far

Part One

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

Part Two

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Chapter Forty

Chapter Forty-One

Chapter Forty-Two

Chapter Forty-Three

Chapter Forty-Four

Chapter Forty-Five

Chapter Forty-Six

Chapter Forty-Seven

Chapter Forty-Eight

Chapter Forty-Nine

Chapter Fifty

Chapter Fifty-One

Chapter Fifty-Two

Chapter Fifty-Three

Chapter Fifty-Four

Chapter Fifty-Five

Part Three

Chapter Fifty-Six

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Chapter Sixty

Chapter Sixty-One

Chapter Sixty-Two

Chapter Sixty-Three

Chapter Sixty-Four

Chapter Sixty-Five

Chapter Sixty-Six

Chapter Sixty-Seven

Chapter Sixty-Eight

Chapter Sixty-Nine

Chapter Seventy

Chapter Seventy-One

Chapter Seventy-Two

Chapter Seventy-Three

Chapter Seventy-Four

Chapter Seventy-Five

Chapter Seventy-Six

Chapter Seventy-Seven

Chapter Seventy-Eight

Chapter Seventy-Nine

Chapter Eighty

Chapter Eighty-One

Chapter Eighty-Two

Epilogue

Recent Titles by Simon Clark from Severn House

LONDON UNDER MIDNIGHT

THE MIDNIGHT MAN

VENGEANCE CHILD

WHITBY VAMPYRRHIC

HIS VAMPYRRHIC BRIDE

HER VAMPYRRHIC HEART

HER VAMPYRRHIC HEART
Simon Clark

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author's and publisher's rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

    

First published in Great Britain 2013 by

SEVERN HOUSE PUBLISHERS LTD of

9–15 High Street, Sutton, Surrey, England, SM1 1DF.

First published in USA 2014 by

SEVERN HOUSE PUBLISHERS LTD of

110 East 59th Street New York, N. Y. 10022

eBook edition first published in 2013 by Severn House Digital
an imprint of Severn House Publishers Limited

Copyright © 2013 by Simon Clark.

The right of Simon Clark to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Clark, Simon, 1958- author.

Her Vampyrrhic Heart.

1. Vampires–Fiction. 2. Horror tales.

I. Title

823.9'2-dc23

ISBN-13: 978-0-7278-8319-3 (cased)

ISBN-13: 978-1-78010-464-5 (ePub)

Except where actual historical events and characters are being described for the storyline of this novel, all situations in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to living persons is purely coincidental.

This ebook produced by

Palimpsest Book Production Limited,

Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland.

NICOLA AND TOM: THE STORY SO FAR

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

H
er Vampyrrhic Heart
is a direct sequel to
His Vampyrrhic Bride
. It's not essential to have read
His Vampyrrhic Bride
in order to understand and enjoy the novel that you now hold in your hand. Having said that, it might help if I give you an idea of the story so far.

In
His Vampyrrhic Bride
,
twenty-three-year-old Tom Westonby falls in love with Nicola Bekk. Nicola lives a solitary life with her mother in a remote cottage in the woods. Nicola's mother tells them both that the relationship is doomed from the start, and if they continue to see one another an ancient curse will be triggered. This will lead to Nicola being transformed into an inhuman, vampire-like creature. Of course, when two young people are in love that's a powerful magic in its own right. They'll move heaven and earth to be together. If they're told they must not continue the relationship they will steadfastly ignore such warnings. Love conquers all, or so they believe.

However, the curse is a powerful one. To Tom Westonby's horror Nicola is transformed into a vampire and vanishes from his life. Tom refuses to believe that the woman he loves has gone for ever. He moves into Nicola's family home in the forest.
She will
come back to me
, he tells himself.
We'll be reunited.
Living alone in the cottage, Tom patiently waits for the return of his vampire bride. And, five years later, this is where we pick up Tom's story in
Her Vampyrrhic Heart
.

So, my friends, it's time to invite you warmly into the pages of this novel where there'll be plenty of surprises and excitement – not to mention cold, shivery touches of fear and ‘Vampyrrhic' horror. Get ready. We're just about to enter the loneliest and darkest part of the forest.

Simon Clark,

Yorkshire, England

PART ONE

‘
The human heart is like Indian rubber.
'

From
Agnes Grey
by Anne Brontë

ONE

D
ARKNESS … The word
darkness
didn't adequately describe that absolute absence of light in the forest.
This is the darkness of the grave.

The man turned the key in the ignition. Nothing happened.

‘Don't worry,' said the woman sitting beside him in the passenger seat. ‘The car's electrics are just a bit temperamental, that's all. Come on, sweetheart, I know you won't let us down.'

Even though the darkness meant he couldn't see his girlfriend, he knew she'd gently patted the dashboard when she'd coaxed the car. After all, Rose had done this plenty of times before, because the fact of the matter was the car had clocked up a hundred thousand miles over the last ten years, and however much they did love every inch of the old girl's dented body that didn't guarantee that the dicky electrics and worn-out motor wouldn't let them down one day. Or, rather, one night – when the darkness inside the car seamlessly merged with the darkness outside.

He found her hand and gave it a loving squeeze. ‘I'm going to have to call out someone to help us.'

‘The old girl's had a rest. Try again.'

Without so much as a shred of optimism he turned the key.

‘There is a God!' He laughed with relief as the engine started.

Straight away, the headlights came on, too, lighting up the track through the trees. The man could now clearly see his girlfriend's sparkling eyes and smiling face in the dashboard lights. He also glimpsed the cast on her right leg. A nasty slip when she was rock climbing had left her with a cracked bone. The cast had scraped his back when they made love tonight. Although he wished they were doing exactly that back in their apartment. It had required real willpower to climb out of their warm bed for the twenty-mile drive across the moors to this remote valley – all in order to replace a battery in a camera that was fixed to a tree. But this was part of the job. One of their many duties as park rangers required them to try and capture footage of woodland animals. Motion sensors attached to the cameras would trigger them when a creature had been detected.

However, driving into this wilderness in a car that creaked and clattered towards the end of its mechanical life hadn't been at all straightforward. But at least they were now making progress again.

He glanced at Rose. ‘When we get there, I'll leave the engine running, dash down to the river, swap the battery, then get back as fast as I can. With luck, the engine won't die on us if I don't switch it off.'

Rose smiled. ‘I thought we could continue what we had to interrupt earlier.'

‘You mean engage in wild, outrageous sex out here?'

Her eyes held a mischievous twinkle. ‘Why not? Sex in wilderness places is invigorating.'

‘Says the voice of experience?'

‘Oh, I'm experienced, John. I can show you not only paradise, but what lies beyond paradise.'

She stroked his leg as he drove between lines of massive tree trunks.

‘If we do erotic stuff in this car,' he told her, ‘it will kill off the old girl once and for all.'

Rose laughed. ‘You switch that battery in record time, and when you get back to the car I'll show you something that you'll remember for the rest of your life.' She ran her fingers up his thigh.

‘OK. I'm going to break records. I'll be back in five minutes.'

John stopped the car, kissed her on the mouth and opened the door.

‘Make it four minutes.' Teasingly, she pulled the fleece zip down as far as her full breasts. ‘Do you hear? Four minutes max.'

After kissing her again he stepped out of the car and closed the door. Quickly, he checked that the replacement battery was in his pocket.
Good, all present and correct.
That done, he switched on the flashlight. The distinctive musty, damp smell of a forest in winter struck him – the aroma of fallen leaves, wet bark and earth. He smiled at Rose as she switched on the interior light. Pursing her full, red lips, she blew him a kiss.
Damn it, she's hot. Sex on legs.

John Cantley hurried along the woodland path, the light from the torch glaring against trees. His breath came in billowing, white gusts. Already he could hear the River Lepping as it flowed down the valley towards the nearest village five miles away. Apart from a cottage and a few farms nothing much in the way of human life existed between here and Danby-Mask.

Eager for his erotic surprise, just minutes from now, he moved quickly. Within seconds he'd reached the river. The specialized camera, inside its protective box, had been fixed to a tree trunk at head height. Earlier in the week he'd angled the camera to film whatever scuttled down the river bank to take a drink. In a few days he'd collect the camera and review the footage.

Gripping one end of the flashlight in his teeth, he slipped the device out of its waterproof casing in order to switch the dead battery with a fresh one. He focused on the fiddly job – especially fiddly when his fingers were as cold as this.

BOOK: Her Vampyrrhic Heart
10.3Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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