The Vampire's Revenge
Read The Vampire's Revenge Online
Authors: Raven Hart
Raven Hart
Contents
This book is dedicated to that
old
gang of mine, the McEachern class of nineteen—well, never mind. Ken(ny), Dobbo, Warren, Judy, Frieda, Cindy, Vicki (aka Lizzy Myrtle), Lynn, Bev, and especially Sandra and Jeannine, the inspiration for Doc Barton. All for one and one for all.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to Jennifer Labrecque, Rita Herron, and Stephanie Bond for their guidance and encouragement. You’re the best!
Letter from Jack, a Vampire
My so-called life has become a nightmare. Each time I climb into my coffin at sunrise and the deep death-sleep claims me, I think I’ll wake up and things will be normal again. As normal as a vampire’s existence can be, anyway.
In my dreams I’m back in my old, ordinary life. My maker and mentor, William Thorne, is whole and with me again. Connie Jones, the woman I love, is just a regular human being coping with nothing more complicated than being a cop and the girlfriend of a vampire—as if that wasn’t tough enough. Melaphia and Renee, my human family, are untroubled by their own nightmares and secure and happy, as a young mother and daughter have every right to be.
But when the moon rises and the shadows lengthen to hide the monsters that exist on the fringe of human consciousness, my sweet dreams of normality implode under the weight of the here and now. When I wake, the real nightmare begins.
William, my sire and the friend who had my back for more than a hundred years, is dead, slain by Connie, the woman I love most in this world. That leaves me alone to protect Melaphia and Renee. Already tortured and traumatized by the most evil of my kind, the crowning blow of William’s death was nearly too much for them to take. As the most powerful
mambo
s in this hemisphere, the daughters of my heart might not be as vulnerable as ordinary humans, but because they bear the priceless voodoo blood that can give vampires otherworldly powers, they are now hunted for their life force by the most evil and determined of fiends.
If that weren’t enough trouble, there’s a whole menagerie of monsters out to challenge me for the role of chief enforcer that I inherited from William. Now I have to ride herd on all things nonhuman around here. Without me to watch over the local monsters, they would be free to threaten the mortal population of Savannah, which is one of the most haunted places in the world. And for the first time I have to do it without William and his formidable power at my side.
Oh, and let’s not forget the worst enemy of all. I have been left to contend with a council of the most evil vampires in history. They are trying to harness the elemental powers of the universe to enslave peace-loving bloodsuckers like me and turn us into killing machines. Their most recent show of force briefly opened a portal to the underworld, through which dozens of reanimated vampires clawed their way topside in every demonic form imaginable. The only way I was able to convince Connie to let me live was to promise to help her track down and destroy these double-dead demons before they can wreak enough havoc to send the human world into a full-scale panic.
Yeah, Connie wanted me dead. You see, the moment Connie murdered William, she turned into a creature that I barely recognized—part demon, part avenging angel. As the vampire Slayer sworn to kill me and my kind wherever she finds us, Connie is the new favorite target for every evil blood drinker on the planet. So I have to try to protect her from them while I protect myself from her and hope to God it’ll be a while before she figures out that she doesn’t really need my help. She’s lethal enough all on her own.
Oh, and incidentally, Connie’s pregnant with my child but doesn’t know it yet. A child that is an abomination of nature and has no right to exist, but whom I already love with a ferocity that frightens me. I would do anything to ensure the survival of Connie and our baby, even if it means giving them over to the care of another kind of monster altogether. Probably just as well that she hates me now, don’t you think? At least that’s what my rational brain tells my shattered heart.
So as you can see, reality bites. Even worse than I do.
Welcome to the new normal. Welcome to my nightmare.
One
“Hey! Watch where you’re swinging that ax!” I yelled as the blade whistled through the air, grazing my cheek. “I’m helping you bring that demon down, you know. The least you could do is try not to lop off my head.”
The demon, a nasty little number, was covered with slimy brown scales. It ducked, but not before Connie’s ax connected with its shoulder. The demon howled in pain and outrage and backed further into the corner of the alley where we had trapped it.
“Is head-lopping one of the ways you can kill a vampire?” Connie asked. She never took her gaze off the demon, but her eyes lit up with a deadly fervor that made me cringe. I knew her question was a reference to me.
“Well, yes,” I admitted. “One of the few.” The demon made a break for it, but I caught him in the jaw with my fist—if that lump below its mouth
was
a jaw—and spun him back into the corner.
Connie sighed. “I have so much to learn. So many vampires; so little time.”
Our friend Werm, who’d acted as bait to lure the creature into the side street where Connie and I were hiding, danced back and forth. I knew he was looking for an opening so he could use the ninja throwing stars he’d ordered from a martial arts catalog. He’d gotten each of them specially engraved with an ankh, which is the ancient Egyptian symbol for eternal life. The ankh is also a good-luck charm for vampires—or so he told me. Werm can be ridiculous at times. Even though his greatest weapon is his ability to make himself invisible, he’d still rather play with kung fu toys.
“And as for you,” I warned, pointing at him, “if I wind up with one of those chunks of steel sticking out of my forehead, I’m going to make you rue the day you begged to be made into a vampire.”
“What makes you think I don’t rue it already?” Werm asked, holstering his ninja stars with a pout. The little goth had thought being a vamp would be all fun and games and give him a chance to scare the shit out of guys who used to kick sand in his face. He didn’t figure close-quarters demon fighting would be part of the deal.
The demon charged me and I kicked it in the side, slamming it back into the wall. Connie raised her ax again and swung with almost as much speed and strength as I myself could have mustered. The demon’s head left its shoulders with a spray of blood. As its body fell forward onto the pavement, it instantaneously turned into a pile of dirt. The smell mixed with the sickening-sweet stench of the nearby Dumpster and made my nose twitch with disgust.
“Another one bites the dust, uh, huh,” Connie sang with a little victory dance. I watched in awe as she shimmied her shapely booty. I wasn’t quite sure whether I should be grossed out by her bloodlust or turned on by it, but I seemed to be a little of both. Maybe I’d inherited William’s infamous death wish along with all his responsibilities.
“I’m going back to the club,” Werm said. “Call me when you need me.”
As I waved him off, Connie turned her attention to me, noticing the trickle of blood running down my cheek. Her eyes dilated, the pupils turning into slits. Her irises were bloodred. She grabbed me by the neck and pulled my face next to hers so quickly it startled me. I searched her eyes for a sign of my old Connie, and didn’t see it. Would she ever be back? Or was she lost and gone forever, lost in the shell of this vicious, half-human killer standing in front of me now?
When she pressed her lips to my cheek, I felt myself go weak in the knees. She hadn’t shown me any affection since. . . well, since the night I tried to kill her. Of course that had been for her own good.
I quickly realized it wasn’t her lust for me that had caused her to move her lovely lips along my skin, though it had sent a shiver down my spine and a throb of desire running everywhere else. As a
dhampir,
she was part vampire, part human, part goddess. She was savoring my blood for its flavor and its power. She was a predator now, and I was her prey of choice. She flicked out her tongue and lapped away the dribble of my blood.
“Mmm. Good to the last drop,” she murmured in a throaty whisper.
Even as I glanced down to see her pull back her lips and reveal her small fangs, I felt more yearning than terror. She was driven to kill me, after all, and I swear if it weren’t for Mel and Renee, I would have let her. I was tempted to just tell her to get it over with, as long as she made love to me one last time.
I closed my eyes, relishing the serrated rasp of those fangs across my skin, and nearly swooned. I know, I know. Kick-ass vampires with superpowers like me don’t swoon. But you don’t know Connie. Her hot breath burned from my cheek to my neck.
“Please,” I heard myself beg.
“Please what?” Her tongue probed the hollow of my throat, searing my cold, dead flesh.
I bit my tongue to keep myself from murmuring,
Kill me.
It was tempting, but too many innocent people depended on me for their safety. I couldn’t take the easy way out. As much as I might want to die in Connie’s arms, perish at the point of her fangs and be done with it, I couldn’t.