Mira

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This book is for sale to ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It contains substantial sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which may be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

All sexually active characters in this work are 18 years of age or older.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover Photo Credit:
Sirawat Nak-intanond

Used with the permission of
Natnalin Publishing

Cover Design: Leighann Phoenix

Mira © 2008 Leighann Phoenix

e
X
cessica publishing

All rights reserved

Mira

Dedication

To Meegs,

Thanks for your critical eye, your honest commentary, and your encouragement.

But most of all, thank you for your friendship.

Chapter 1

           
Trembling in the warm light of the setting sun, Mira stared into the icy darkness of the cave, her white shift blowing slightly in the breeze.
 
Her mind raced endlessly, trying to remind her of why she chose this, attempting to dull the fear in the pit of her stomach, and reminding her of the importance of what she was about to do.

           
Average in all ways, Mira had average brown hair, average brown eyes, average weight, average height, average intelligence, and average bravery.
 
She was just average.
 
So it was no surprise, even with her education and knowledge of the decision being her own, that she had been dreading this moment since she watched the first of her sisters commit to the path.
  
Mira couldn’t believe it was finally her turn, as the last of this generation.
 

           
Stop thinking!
 
I’m only making it worse,
she told herself.
 
I’m sure it won’t be nearly as bad as I’m imagining.
 
Perhaps going first and dying young would have been better than living a longer life in fearful anticipation of this moment
.
 
To think, if the last girl had lived only a month or so longer, I would have been too old and one of the newest generations would be standing here now.
 
I would become a teacher and spend the rest of a long, normal life, in the sunshine.

           
Her heart raced, as she peered into each shadow.
 
He could be here already, watching, waiting.
 
I would never know it.
 
Mira pictured him as some kind of vicious, desperate creature. The druids had kept him around for centuries, hiding him in the recesses of the mountain caverns.
 
Mira often contemplated what type of man could live like that.
 
She could hear the lessons running through her head.
 
She considered what may have been left out of the teaching.
 
Mira had even helped to teach the new generation of girls about him.

Stop thinking so hard,
Mira told herself again.
 
Her hands fidgeted at her sides.
 
Feet shuffled.
 
I’m only making it worse.
 
I’m sure my imagination is more frightening than this will actually be.
 
Somehow that’s little reassurance
, her brain argued
.
 
Mira took several deep breaths.
 
The voice of the high priestess, Lilith, droned out over the audience.
 
Mira had long since stopped listening to the words, but she almost felt ever syllable, like grains of sand raining on her skin as they sifted through the hourglass she felt trapped in.

“Rillan ap Tiernay,” Lilith intoned over the crowd, “was created to protect and serve the Circle.
 
Our guardian. Each generation a group of girls is chosen as companions in darkness.
 
This is the price of his loyalty.”

Mira didn’t hear Lilith’s speech.
 
Not that it mattered.
 
She knew the speech by heart.
 
It was the same for each of the girls who entered the vampire’s cave.
 
Mira’s mind was more concerned with the parts of the story that were left out of the flowery farewell.

Each girl given to the vampire was there to feed him until she died or asked him to kill her.
 
Then she was replaced by another.
 
Once she was sent into the caves, she would not emerge again until her death.
 
Rillan left only when there was an assignment from the druids, by his own choice.
 
Every girl who entered the cave believed that maybe she would be different.
 
Maybe I won’t want to die
.
  
Most survived several months.
 
The longest lived ten years or so. The girl before Mira lasted three weeks.

When Mira collected that girl’s body from the stone altar just outside the cave entrance, it had been a sobering experience.
 
The other times that Mira performed the duty, there was a feeling of detachment.
 
She rarely even looked at the girls’ faces, let alone the rest of their bodies
’
.
 
She had never been next in line before.
 

Mira remembered staring at the pasty white skin pulled tight over skeletal features for a long time.
 
She had examined the numerous vicious bite marks that riddled the shoulders and neck of the dead girl.
 
Mira had bathed the body for burial and found the bruises on the girl’s arms showing how she was held down.
 
Mira found the blood along the inside of her thighs.
 
Her body itself was shriveled, drained of blood and starved of food.
 
Mira had no idea what exactly the girl suffered over the three weeks that she was inside the cave.
 
She tried to tell herself that anything imagined would be worse than what actually had happened, but was having little success in reassuring herself.
 
He is a good man.
 
Our guardian.
 
The other girls simply weren’t strong enough,
she told herself.

Mira looked up from her thoughts to find that the high priestess had stopped speaking.
 
Everyone was waiting for Mira to finish the ceremony.
 
They were patient and stood quietly.
 
Mira didn’t know how long they waited for her to realize it was her turn.
 
Now as she looked around, she was more afraid of what was to happen to her than she thought she would be.
 
The lessons were all so cut and dr
ied
y;
,
so matter of fact.
 
This is what we do to survive.
 
If not for Rillan their Circle would have been found, their secret knowledge would have been stolen, and they would have been destroyed long ago.
 
The sacrifices are all voluntary.
 
The girls go to him as a service to their people.
 
I volunteered for this duty without prompting from anyone
. Still, she couldn’t stop her mind from churning.

Mira stepped shakily forward.
 
The moon, high in the sky now, cast a blood red sheen over the clearing and an eerie light beyond the gate.
 
She passed through the tall, rusted iron gateway, and it creaked, swinging shut behind her.
 
The clanking gate lock sent a jolt though Mira.
 
The last of her courage was locked on the other side.
 
She looked into the darkness beyond the mouth of the cave, trying to see if he was watching.
 
She couldn’t see anything.
 
The little light that touched the hungry cave mouth was swallowed into the black, offering no hint of what lie within.
 
In all the times she had delivered food or other supplies here, it never seemed this ominous.
 

The unkempt clearing in front of the cave was unlike the other gardens kept by the druids.
 
The plants and trees along the perimeter were rotting and overgrowing the gate, breaking it down in places.
 
There was the carved stone altar at the center of the clearing.
 
That was where he would leave her body after her death, so that the druids would know that it was time for a new sacrifice.
 
There was the table where they would leave food for her and any supplies that she requested.
 
There was the stone basin where letters could be left.
 
She was never to speak to anyone except Rillan from now until her death. It was as though she was taking inventory of her new life as she looked at each cold thing in the clearing in turn.
 
She could almost feel loneliness creeping up on her, like a demon in the dark.

Mira turned around to see if the others were still watching.
 
No one was there.
 
The gate was locked and she was standing alone.
 
All that was left for her was to enter the cave and find him.
 
Her eyes traveled the twisted metal archway that she studied so many times in the past.
 
Now it was backward as she stood on the wrong side.
 
Finally.

Liam ap Arnauk watched Mira from the darkness beneath the trees at the edge of the clearing around the gates that guarded the cave entrance.
 
He always thought it ironic that they bothered to “guard” the thing inside the cave.
 
A single tear formed in the corner of his eye, as he waited.
 
In all their time together Mira rarely acknowledged him.
 
They both knew her fate.
 
He wondered if she had any idea how he felt for her at all.

How could I have fallen in love with one of the chosen cursed?
 
Liam turned away from the scene.
 
He couldn’t bring himself to watch her so willingly go to her own death.
 
He had done his best to keep her from this, subtly making sure that she wouldn’t be picked until the last wasn’t an easy task.
 
His father, Arnauk, had been one of the elders until his recent death.
 
That position gave Liam some small influence over minor affairs.
 
If the girl who preceded Mira had survived only a little longer, then Mira would have been too old, and the next generation of girls would have come of age.

I suppose I’ll not be the last man to lose someone to the vampire,
he thought and shambled back to town.

Resolutely, Mira took a deep breath and walked toward the cave mouth.
 
Best to get this over with.
 
The breeze blew her shift around her legs.
 
There were rumors that he would insist that she walk about naked after he took her.
 
That was why the sacrifices didn’t bring clothes with them into his home.
 
The dirt floor was packed hard, and her bare feet made a soft padding sound as she entered the darkness.
 
Mira lifted the front of her shift so that she wouldn’t step on it as she stooped under a low ceiling in the tunnel and continued farther into the darkness.

Rillan must live like an animal in here,
she thought.
 
The stone wall was cold and damp under her hand, as she used it to guide her way.
 
I wonder if he’ll come get me or if I’ll wander in here for hours before finding my way.
 
The least he could do is provide some light.
 
Mira was beginning to become frustrated and more frightened.
 
She couldn’t see in the black and she was tripping on either her shift or loose stone.
 
Suddenly there was a swishing noise, like something flying.
 
Screaming, she fell to her knees, scraping them hard on the ground.
  
Stone bit into the palm of her hand.

Mira held her wrist and turned to sit on the floor with her back against the wall.
 
What if I took a wrong turn or missed some sign.
 
The tunnels were rumored to be endless so that no one could find Rillan should he choose to not be found.
 
It was a test of the new sacrifices.
 
The girls were supposed to find him to prove that they were worthy.
 
Some test, stumbling around in pitch black, down caves with no end, looking for something that I don’t want to find and doesn’t want to be found.
 

Mira began to cry.
 
She knew that she had only been here a few minutes, five maybe fifteen, but it felt like forever.
 
So she waited.
 
I’ll not be fool enough to wander around in her.
 
If he wants me, he can come get me,
she thought fearfully defiant.
 
Without being able to see the moon or sky, Mira couldn’t tell how much time passed.
 
Eventually, she fell asleep leaning against the wall.
 

When she opened her eyes, Mira could see daylight streaming in from the entrance.
 
It was only about a hundred feet away.
 
I was certain I had gone a little farther than this,
she thought, feeling stupid and a little guilty.
 
She couldn’t see any deeper into the cave than maybe fifty more feet ahead of her.
 
Mira stood up.
 
She didn’t know why he hadn’t come looking for her.
 
He must know that the sacrifice was last night
.
 

Daylight chased away the fear, but now she was worried that he would be angry at her for taking so long to come to him.
 
Now she could see there was only one way to go.
 
The cave went on into the mountainside in a straight line, from what she could tell.