Chapter One
Welcome to Aboit, Maine
Over 400 Years Later, America
J
uliana Bristow raced through the darkened streets. Speed was her ally, the moonlight her friend. To the human eye, she would be a blur of red and white, and still, she stuck to the shadows. The sleepy seaside town was slowly tucking itself in for late evening meals and prime time television. This was one of the reasons Jules had chosen Aboit, Maine as a home. It was quiet, it was peaceful, and it was safe. Or so was thought. In Aboit, vampires ran free. Well, three of them did.
Jules stopped abruptly and took in her surroundings. She’d taken a wrong turn. Gabriel was going to gloat if he and Eileen beat her to their destination. She thought of the smug expression that would undoubtedly appear on her best friend’s face and bolted toward the center of town. Jules’s run was fierce. She rounded a corner like a cheetah on the heels of its prey. Deducing a quicker route than the one she was currently following, Jules launched herself onto a nearby rooftop. She sped across it, easily making the distance. One, to the next, and then the next. Her feet moved soundlessly over the humans’ heads. Each and every one none the wiser.
Long ago, after her first taste of blood, Jules had been appalled by what she had become. But now, over four hundred years later, she had come to embrace, but control, what she was. As Jules reached the first restaurant rooftop, she stopped to take in the view around her. She could see the bustling marina clearly from her perch. The cry of seagulls rang in her ears. She took a deep, unnecessary breath. Jules loved the smell of the sea. She then peered down into the dark alley beneath her. Empty. She had meant to drop to the ground in silence but instead landed in a puddle with a splash.
“What was that?” someone asked.
“Probably nothing,” said another.
Jules flattened herself against the stone wall and waited until they passed. She had reached the busy downtown area. At least what the people of Aboit considered busy. This seaside haven was sparsely populated when compared to the last city she’d lived in.
Jules sighed. It couldn’t be helped. She’d have to walk the rest of the way. The sweatshirt she wore concealed most of her pale, freckled skin and she pulled her blue hood up over her radiant auburn hair for good measure. Shoving her hands into her pockets, she walked briskly, but not fast enough to draw extra attention. She was drawing enough as it was. It seemed, no matter how she tried to blend into this human world, being dead made her stand out. Jules’s closest human friend would say that humans looked for magic in their lives and that Jules’s unearthly beauty made her feel like magic. Jules thought it was because humans craved danger, and there was nothing more dangerous than a predator that hungered for your blood.
Jules came to an abrupt halt when she reached Henry Park. Which, in reality, was more of a bench and flowerpot in front of the public library. She sat on the weather-worn bench and waited.
“You took the rooftops, didn’t you?” Gabriel asked in a conversational tone, still at a distance that only her vampire hearing allowed her to hear. She smiled coyly but said nothing as he and Eileen reached the bench where she sat.
“Well, at least you didn’t make us wait like last time.” The jest was showing in his iridescent, silver eyes, which had just a hint of blue around the edges.
“Impatience constant in the mind brings unhappiness to the soul,” she rebutted, looking up at him.
“You remember you live in twenty-first century America now, right?” Gabriel teased as she stood.
Gabriel was tall, strong and protective. Jules felt that his name fit him well, the angles of his face were near perfection and his blond hair reminded her of a halo. However, in actuality, it was his personality that reminded her of an angel. Gabriel had a passion for people. He was a teacher, a protector, a guide. His greatest joy was teaching new generations. Jules had found him after the Battle of Brier Creek. A new vampire fresh off the battlefield, unsure how to be what he was. Jules had tried to teach him but, in the end, it had been he who had reminded her that human life was sacred.
For Jules, the temptation to kill was too great. So, together, they invented other ways to get the blood they needed: Red Cross, campus blood drives, even raiding the blood bank at a hospital when necessary.
Eileen, Gabriel’s wife of near forty years, was as free-spirited as they come. Her black hair hung long, past her waist, and complimented her bronzed skin, native to this land. The silver of age had not overtaken the original black color of her human eyes yet. She was still an infant vampire.
It was always a risk, taking such a young vampire into the heart of human habitation. Eileen didn’t possess the control that Jules and Gabriel had worked many years to attain. Regardless, Eileen had begged to accompany them to the Promenade tonight. Apparently, she saw an art show opening advertised that had sparked her interest.
Jules let down her hood as the three deadliest predators in Maine walked down a busy street to enter the small gallery a few shops away.
As they walked, Jules felt Gabriel’s hand grasp her shoulder. Her head shot up. There was one…two…three… Jules counted six in the pack that was congregating outside Seaside Soda Shop.
They hollered and howled as they were joined by yet another. This one was bigger than most of the others and he had an Alpha’s commanding presence.
“Werewolves,” Gabriel hissed.
Jules placed a comforting hand on his arm. “Just keep going,” she said quietly. “They’ve never attacked us before. This town is big enough for both species.”
“But Jules,” Gabriel protested as he placed himself between Eileen and the wolves. Eileen’s hand went reflexively up to brush one of the long scars on her face.
Jules knew the unspoken treaty of the supernatural beings in Aboit had never set well with her coven. Past events had left them uneasy around members of this other supernatural species.
“I said, ignore them,” Jules whispered and made to move on down the wide sidewalk. But just as she started to turn away, she froze. She had caught sight of one of the wolves. He was stunning, tall, and lean. He had tan skin, dark hair, brilliant green eyes, and features reminiscent of someone Jules had known long ago. His eyes locked with her own. She could not turn away.
“Jules?” Eileen’s concerned voice seemed distant.
She heard Gabriel hiss again. This time it was directed at the pack, and yet, she still couldn’t tear her gaze from the mesmerizing werewolf’s.
The Alpha charged at them and Gabriel met the challenge. The two crashed into one another with supernatural force. But the scuffle knocked into Jules, pulling her focus away from him. As she assessed the situation, she noted that the other wolves had yet to join the fray. Jules knew she had to intervene before this situation escalated. Just then, the Alpha threw a full-fisted punch at Gabriel, who avoided it by sidestepping ever so slightly. Jules took advantage of the moment and leaped directly between the two fighting men. She stood, arms outstretched to her sides. This move had the desired effect, the Alpha froze, mid-stride. Jules turned her full attention on Gabriel for just a second. “Back down,” Jules commanded with a hiss.
“Jules, move…” Gabriel said.
She silenced him with a glare. “I know what I’m doing.”
Gabriel conceded and moved back a few paces to stand in front of Eileen. Jules turned to confront the Alpha.
“Vampire scum,” the Alpha said, apparently having gotten over his shock that such a small woman would intervene.
Jules scowled. She couldn’t believe he was stupid enough to say that out loud. By now, the incident had drawn quite a crowd of spectators.
“Move, or you’ll be the one to die,” the Alpha spat, but this time it was only loud enough for Jules to hear.
Jules ignored the threat, but said, “you are the Alpha, yes? According to the rules of proper engagement, you must deal with me now.”
“You lead this coven?” the Alpha asked.
“I do,” Jules stated evenly, stepping into a stance that exuded the position and power of her years. Out of the corner of her eye, Jules saw that the other pack members had begun to encourage the crowd to disperse. She breathed a sigh of relief. At least she wouldn’t have to deal with being exposed to the local humans on top of this inconvenient confrontation.
“You?” the Alpha mocked. “A girl…what about that male of yours?” He gestured toward Gabriel.
“I may look young, but I wouldn’t underestimate me if I were you.”
“You’re a child,” he said, growling at her a bit as he said it.
“For an immortal being you seem to be unaware of how immortality works.” Jules heard two of the pack member’s chuckle. The Alpha’s face grew redder.
So, lightening the mood to defuse the situation would not work. Jules changed her approach. “My coven should never have engaged you. And for that, I offer my apologies.” This approach, however, did have the desired effect.
“Your apologies mean nothing to me,” the Alpha spat. But his expression had turned smug, rather than murderous.
“I am sure this can be solved diplomatically,” Jules said. “If my apologies are not sufficient, what do you suggest, Alpha?”
The Alpha seemed to be considering this question. After a few moments, he said, “this town is under my jurisdiction. You and your coven are no longer welcome here. You will leave tonight.”
Jules sighed. This is not what she had intended. “We have coexisted peacefully in this town for years. Surely we can come to some other arrangement,” she said as politely as she could manage.
“You will leave tonight,” he repeated forcefully.
“You see, I know that we can live in peace. I’ve been alive much longer than this feud has had fire to fuel it. Some of the greatest Alphas of your species advocated for peace. Like Stephen Cain. Surely, you want to follow his example.”
This seemed to only anger the Alpha. “How dare you mention his name. You have no right.”
“I have every right. He was one of my dearest friends.”
“You’re probably one of the demons who assassinated him,” the man growled.
“It wasn’t me,” she said easily, making sure any sadness was concealed well. She watched as the large man, who towered over her, shook with anger. Diplomacy was failing. Jules knew this could go only one of two ways now. The Alpha will attack and die, or he will back down. He stepped closer to her, rage in his eyes.
“Be my guest…” she said evenly, “expose yourself right here. Right now. Wolf or man, this is not a fight you will win.” Jules prepared to strike if need be.
He growled audibly.
“Carson, back off!” someone called.
Momentarily taken aback, Jules looked over the big man’s shoulder. The voice had come from the werewolf she’d been captivated by earlier. She looked the wolf all the way up and down, from his floppy hair to his Converse sneakers. The resemblance.
“Stay out of this, Luca,” the Alpha, Carson, snarled, turning to look in the direction of the one who’d spoken.
Jules waited, silent but very deadly.
“We’ve already been too exposed,” Luca added, seemingly undaunted by the glares of his leader.
The Beta?
“Don’t you see how old she is? Look at her eyes,” another werewolf added.
The Alpha spun and took a closer look at Jules’s eyes. Solid, pure, silver. With a vampire’s age came increasing strength and skill. She knew he was starting to loose confidence in his ability to win against her one-on-one. “As I said, our species have coexisted in peace for years,” Jules said when she saw the Alpha’s resolve begin to weaken. Long moments stretched out between the immortal creatures.
“Fine demon,” the Alpha said, “you may go about your business.”
Jules kept silent. But nodded all the same.
“But this is not over,” Carson said under his breath as he turned to walk back toward his pack.
“I didn’t think it was,” Jules said under her breath as she took a few steps backward, still unwilling to turn her back on the Alpha. After a few moments, as she was about to turn away, she caught the gaze of the Beta, Luca, one last time. He seemed to be peering into the deepest depths of time and age through the windows of her eyes. She nodded at him and he at her, neither looking away for a long moment. Then they did, going their separate ways.
Jules returned to Eileen and Gabriel, who had hovered nearby during the confrontation. “So, shall we enjoy this art show?” Jules asked, her easy countenance reappearing. Gabriel looked at her in disbelief, while Eileen was staring at her in wide-eyed wonder.
“Oh, relax, both of you.”
LUCA
Luca Cain looked away from the strange and beautiful creature. He’d never seen a vampire before, heard of them yes, but had never come into contact with one personally. She wasn’t at all like the rumors suggested. Jules, was that her name? Wasn’t a walking corpse. She may be technically dead, but she was also full of strong and fiery life.
“Luca, let’s go!” his best friend Kyle called.
Luca turned, it was then that he realized the pack had moved on toward the parking garage. He’d been staring through the glass doors of the art gallery, watching the red-haired vampire as she chatted with the other female.
“Luca!” Kyle called again.
“Coming,” Luca called back and made to follow the rest of the pack.
“So, she was hot, you know, for a dead person,” Kyle said when Luca joined him. Kyle was a thirty-seven-year-old werewolf who had stopped aging in his late twenties. He was tall and lean, like Luca, but his dark hair hung to his shoulders when it wasn’t pulled back.
“Have you ever seen one before?” Luca asked him as they walked a few paces behind the rest. Luca was in his eighties, yet he looked to be a few years younger than Kyle.
“A couple of them,” Kyle said, “but none as hot as that.”
“You two need to cut that out before Carson hears you,” Ben said, falling back to reprimand them. Ben was yet another member of Carson’s inner circle. He looked to be in his early thirties, but Luca didn’t know how old he really was. Old, like really old. “Vampires may look enticing boys, but remember they are soulless, immoral beings. Trust me, I’ve known the worst of them in my years.”
Kyle shrugged, and Luca nodded. Ben had a lot more life experience than either of them. He probably knew what he was talking about. Ben patted Luca on the shoulder and then moved back toward the front of the group.
“Cover for me?” Kyle asked when they’d reached the side-by-side parking spots that contained Kyle’s sleek motorcycle and Luca’s soft-top Jeep.
“Don’t I always?” Luca asked rhetorically.
“Yep. I don’t know why you put up with me,” Kyle commented playfully. Then hopped on his motorcycle, leaving to go see his biggest secret.
GABRIEL
Gabriel Prentiss was still trying to resist running after those beasts and tearing them to pieces. He couldn’t comprehend why Jules was being so frustratingly calm after what had just transpired. He glanced over to where she stood, taking in one painting and then another. Not only had she existed before the feud began, but she had been in the midst of its inception. In England three hundred years ago, she’d seen firsthand what the werewolf packs did to their kind. She’d been faced with their threats for centuries, and still, werewolves didn’t seem to set her on edge in the slightest. He, on the other hand, could never forgive what they had done.
Gabriel took a calming breath. His body didn’t need this to survive of course, but he always found that this repetitive motion helped clear his mind. Gabriel left the girls discussing some arbitrary contemporary painting and moseyed to the back of the gallery, toward some of the more forgotten pieces.
He found one that struck him tucked away in the back corner. Hands clasped behind his back, he studied it intently. The accuracy tugged on his senses. He heard the gunshot in his mind and rushed his hand up to where the bullet had penetrated his body over two hundred years before.
He should have died that day on March 3rd, 1779. Like so many other Patriots had. Why Colonel Smith had saved him, and only him, had confounded him all these years. Why did Corporal Gabriel Prentiss deserve to survive when so many other souls were dead or dying? Gabriel could remember clearly, lying there on the wet ground, crying out that he didn’t want to die. He remembered Colonel Smith leaning over him.
“Just breathe. It will all be over soon,” he had whispered in Gabriel’s ear.
But it wasn’t over, Gabriel remembered his neck being pierced and the piercing pain that had surged through him after he, himself, had drunk from the British Colonel’s wrist. What followed, he could not remember. When he awoke, he was in the woods alone. There was a note in his jacket pocket that read:
When you wake, you will be feared by all men. You can never return home. You have a new existence. Live on. - a Vampire, and now, your friend.
Gabriel remembered the words as if he’d read them that very morning. He’d read them a thousand times, trying to figure out what it all meant. Not long after his change, he had met Jules. He could never thank her enough for being his friend, teacher, and ally.
“Are you ready?” Eileen asked, coming up behind him and slipping one arm around his waist. She rested her chin on his shoulder and gazed at the painting he was standing stoically in front of. Eileen stood at about five-eight. She was stately and beautiful. It wasn’t until Eileen had walked into his life that he’d found real, true love. “I’m getting really thirsty,” she said quietly.
Gabriel turned at this and gripped her hand. Eileen was so young. She wasn’t skilled at resisting the temptations that the human presence brought. It was his job to protect her from the heartlessness of the kill, and thus far, he’d done this well. Eileen had never tasted fresh, human blood and therefore didn’t know what she was missing out on.
“If you’re ready, I’m ready,” he told her. “Is Jules coming with us?” he asked.
“Nope,” Eileen replied. “She left already.”
Gabriel sighed. Jules insisted on getting her own residence when they’d relocated to Aboit. He didn’t like it. Covens should live under one roof, especially in a town infested with werewolves. “Let us go then.”
Together, they left the quaint art gallery and walked down the sidewalk that ran along the sea. A young couple on a moonlight stroll passed close by them. Too close. Gabriel increased his pace when he felt Eileen stiffen. She clung tightly to his arm, fighting the instinct to attack.
“You’re alright,” he assured her as they neared their destination.
They made it to the parking garage without further incident, but they were followed into the elevator by a group of young humans. Gabriel wrapped an arm tightly around Eileen and placed himself between her and the innocent teenagers. Eileen held her breath, closed her eyes tightly, and let her head fall back against his chest.
“See you tomorrow Mr. Prentiss,” one of his students from the local high school called as he and Eileen exited on the third floor.
LUCA
Luca loved the drive that took him straight through the town’s center. The calm of the shopkeepers closing for the night. The young couples that moseyed the sidewalks, defying the night’s end. The smell of the sea as his drive paralleled the coast. Luca loved this town. But, he was seeing none of that this time. Luca’s mind was racing as he processed the events that had transpired. Or rather, as he thought about the fiery, petite, stunning, dead, vampire coven leader. There was something about her. Something he’d felt. He wondered if she’d felt it too.
Once Luca got back to the place he tentatively called home, he pulled passed the cars that belonged to various Den members and parked his Jeep on the side of the house, under his bedroom window. The Den was a six-bedroom, three-bathroom, two-story crap pile on the far side of town. In which, Carson crammed the six members of his inner circle. Luca and Kyle included. Luca looked up at his closed, second-story window forlornly. Sometimes, he preferred to jump directly into his room, rather than deal with the chaos that was life at the Den. Luca sighed and walked through the yard to the front door. On his way, he passed one of the two shutters remaining on the front of the house and ran a finger along the chipped, white paint. As he entered, the front screen door banged shut behind him.
“Luca,” Carson called as he walked quickly passed the family room.
Luca backed up a few steps without turning around.
“Where’s Kyle?”
“He went for a run,” Luca lied easily.
“Are you sure?” Carson asked, one eyebrow raised.
“Yes.” Luca nodded and then moved down the hall before Carson could ask him any more questions.
CARSON
Carson growled and resumed his pacing. Having Luca as his Beta was truly a pain in the ass, but it was Luca’s birthright. Not only had he been in line to inherit his father’s pack before they were massacred, but he was a descendant of Stephen Cain’s family line. Those facts alone gave Carson no choice as to who his Beta had to be. The fact that he couldn’t entirely trust Luca was an annoyance that had to be swallowed.
As Carson paced, his anger only grew. Of course, Carson knew that there were a few vampires in Aboit. But until now, they had seemed to understand that this was his town. They had certainly never challenged him before. Defiance could not be tolerated; humiliation even less. The little vampire bitch had damaged his reputation with his pack. How could the pack trust him if they saw weakness in him? Something needed to be done to repair the damage that tiny, dead girl had inflicted. The vampires need to be dealt with.
“I am not fond of vampires,” Ben complained as he joined Carson in the common room.
Ben was one of the only pack members that didn’t make it a point of avoiding him when he was angry. Carson saw value in that. “Yes Ben, something must be done,” Carson said, with fury in his voice and conviction in his heart.