Bloodties: Bloodlines Trilogy, #2

Chapter 1

He felt the bullet enter his back between his shoulder blades and he fell to the ground. The wound burned as the battle raged on around him. The war waged on as his eyes closed and he passed out from the loss of blood. When he woke, it was dark and the battlefield was eerily silent. As he turned his head, he saw the bodies of his fallen comrades strewn all around him. No-one was left standing.

He staggered to his feet and searched for other survivors, but soon realised he was alone. His sense of direction was blurred, so he wandered aimlessly for what seemed like hours. The wound in his back continued to pinch with every movement. He had to find help, or he too would fall victim to the war.

Two days had passed and his injury was beginning to turn septic. He slipped in out of consciousness. Too weak to continue, he resigned to the fact that he was going to perish.

He could hear his pulse in the depth of his eardrums slow down to a slow beat. He opened his eyes for a final glimpse of the world he was about to leave behind. Knowing he would never see his wife and children again.

By the light of the moon he saw a figure, a god perhaps, or maybe an angel, swoop down from the heavens. He felt himself being scooped up and carried away.

It took almost 300 years for him to realise his god was no more than a devil in vampires clothing.

Damon met Elizabeth Moresby in the year 1920. She was the wife of a saw-man at the old timber mill on the west side of the city. She would come down to the mill every night and eat with her pig of a husband who would work into the night, sawing logs of wood that were sent in by the lumberjacks contracted to clear the mountains skirting the city.

Damon would watch her from the loft of the mill. Discovering that listening to her voice seemed to calm his angry heart.

He was angry because he should have been buried three centuries ago when the French Revolutionary war was being fought. A musket was aimed at his back and he fell with his comrades: destined to die an honourable man that should have left his family proud.

However, because of the interference of his maker, his body was never retrieved, No-one even knew he’d been wounded. He was considered a deserter, with no way to prove his innocence. He lived as a creature of the night, repulsed at his own existence and bitter to the core that his maker was urging him to turn his beautiful Beth into his forever companion.

He’d watch her every step on her journey home, ensuring her safety right to her front door. Victor had been on a feeding frenzy and people of the city were being massacred by his hand. The city was on the hunt for a madman or a cult; they weren’t sure what, but they were scared. He would not allow his Beth to fall prey to his masters’ hunger.

Finally one night, he stepped out from the shadows and made his presence known to her. At first he would simply escort her home, again ensuring her safety, desperate for conversation with his beauty just to hear her melodic voice. Eventually she fell in love with the vampire Damon Cartwright. Even after he exposed his gruesome identity to her, she did not flee from his company. He made her feel safe, like a woman, like she was beautiful.

Victor would taunt the young vampire. You must turn her if you want to keep her. Damon ignored his taunts, but they went on and on. She will age, and then she will disgust you. He would say, It is time you became a maker, she is a fine specimen to join our realm.

NO! Damon responded, I will not subject her to this disgusting existence. Not alive, not dead, never to frolic in the sun again, never to set her eyes on the faces of her children again. You have no right to demand this of me.

I have every right. You feed from her and her alone; you are losing your way. Turn her! he demanded.

NEVER!

Months passed, and with it grew Victor’s anger toward his prodigy. Even under compulsion Damon resisted the orders to turn Beth and take her as his own. Victor in turn took his anger out on the city. Bodies were turning up everywhere. Some were dismembered, some drained of blood and some simply vanished.

You have disappointed me, Victor told Damon on the last night that he was ever to see him. You feed from one human that you refuse to turn and make your own, you feed from rats when your beauty is too weak and unable to provide you with your sustenance. Your refusal to become a maker as is your destiny has left me no alternative; I’m ashamed of your very existence!

As am I father. I would do anything to change it. he responded.

Then I beg you, turn her.

I cannot.

Then I release you. I will no longer claim you as one of my line. Victor turned his back on Damon and in an instant, he was gone.

Many nights past and Beth had not been to the mill. Damon went to her home and peered through the window. For a while he watched as she read to her children. Then when they were nestled in their beds, he threw small pebbles against the glass. She looked out to see him standing in the garden. She looked over her shoulder to ensure the children were asleep then quietly came to the door.

You must leave, she whispered with concern, Henry has heard of you. He thinks you are responsible for the murders throughout the city He has forbidden me to leave the house after dark and alerted authorities of your presence.

Heard of me? By whom? he enquired noticing the faint bruising on her cheek and feeling the colour of his eyes change with his fury. He has struck you again. I will make him pay.

It is nothing Damon, please forget about it? she begged then went on, We were seen. I do not know by whom, but please, he will hunt you down if we are seen together again, and he will kill me. Please you must leave my love.

Damon drew her into his arms and kissed her, I will make this right. I know not how, but I will fix this. he assured her before he vanished.

Two nights later a crowd was forming outside the mill, headed by Beth’s husband Henry. I will pay the first man who can bring me the strangers head on a platter. His name is Damon Cartwright; he has taken my wife from me and dishonoured my family. Find him and I assure you, the gruesome killings in our fair city will cease. He was certain Damon was responsible.

Damon was confused, ‘Beth is missing? They think I took her?’ He ventured without haste to her house, then set about to find her scent, but could find nothing. Her scent was still at her home though any fragrance of her leaving the house and yard had blown away over the days that she was forbidden to leave. ‘What have you done to her?’ He silently asked her husband in his mind.

He returned to the mill to find the angry mob had dispersed. Henry was preparing to return to his children. Damon swooped down to block his path; his eyes were an angry green as they locked furiously with Henry’s. What have you done with Elizabeth? he asked of him.

Henry was frozen to the spot, unable to move and in a trance like state, he replied Nothing, I have done nothing. She has abandoned me with her lover. His name is Damon Cartwright.

NOT TRUE! WHERE IS SHE? he shouted.

I know not of her whereabouts. His tone did not waver.

Damon knew he was telling the truth. You will never strike a woman or child again, you will show the children the love and compassion they deserve from a good father, and raise them with a gentle hand. Do you understand?

I do. He said still without wavering.

I will be watching. Damon said as he broke eye contact and vanished before Henry could fully recover from his stare.

Over the next few years Damon searched every corner of the city as well as the forest that was fast depleting due to the loggers, for any sign of his beautiful Beth. Alive or dead he needed to know what had happened to her and where she’d vanished to. But the answers he sought were never found. Eventually he moved on, deeming she was lost to him forever, and he would lead a solitary existence forever more.

Chapter 2

Damon froze when he came face to face with Beth on the other side of the door. Beth? Do my eyes deceive me? How is this possible? His questions coming faster than she could answer.

You have our master, I have come to free him. She answered in a voice he almost didn’t recognise.

VICTOR! he barely got his name out when Beth flew at him in an attack he was not expecting.

He struggled not to retaliate. Beth, you are no match for me, I do not wish to harm you. Please Stop!

Beth’s fangs were exposed and her claw-like nails, were extended in an attempt to subdue the older, stronger Damon.

Once his bearings were regained, he was easily able to fend her off and hold her at arm’s length.

STOP! he shouted at her. But under the compulsion of Victor, she was unable to abide. He’d summoned her to his aid, and it was her duty to follow his commands. Damon spotted a length of sterling silver chain on one of the desks, compliments of their new employer. He had no