She looked up and down both ends of the street.
“Hello?”
When no one responded, she continued through the town. Starr wasn’t the best telepath, but she wasn’t fooled, either. She knew it was likely that her trip might cause unwanted attention, and even dislike. It was common knowledge that the Primordials didn’t want people to find them, let alone common vampires.
“I know why you’re following me,” she said to the air. “You just try and stop me. You just try…”
In the town center, in the middle of the street was 100 foot long barge. People milled in and around it.
On a high table on the stern, a d.j. was playing old music, and many of the older crowd danced and sung around him.
“Starr,” called a small woman in a pink jacket. She waved, walked down the steps of the barge, and ran up to her.
“Hi, I’m Anna; I’m Emil’s cousin. He told me to look after you until he gets here,” she said with a wide smile.
In the center of the barge was a couple of bar men who kept stemmed shot glasses full of schnapps. Every few minutes, one of the men would yell something in Danish, the crowd would shout back, and they’d down the drink.
Anna grabbed her hand, dragged up into the barge and pressed one of the glasses into her hand.
“Skoal,” she shouted.
Anna raised the glass to Starr; she rose her glass back and they, both, shot it down.
After they’d done, trays of food went around.
“Are you and Emil dating?”
“No,” she said. “We’re just friends, I think.”
“What are you doing here, then? You didn’t bring any gear, so you must not be here to ski.”
“No,” she said, wondering what kind of lie she should make up.
Fortunately, she was saved the trouble. Two men came up and interrupted them.
“Hi, I’m Tom,” said the guy with a white snow beanie. “This is my buddy, Brad,” he gestured to his buddy in the enormous blue jacket. “Would you, two, like to dance?”
They moved to the stern of the bow. Starr felt a little lost when dancing to the old timers music.
She was relieved when the music picked up tempo. Many of the old people moved off the barge.
When eleven approached, Starr looked up the road and saw Emil approaching the barge.
He took a few shots of schnapps, and said hello to his friends, before approaching Starr.
Immediately, he pulled her to the stern, into a close dance. Her heart sped when he put his arms around her waist and look into her eyes.
The last time they looked at each other like that was in New York. He’d nearly saved her life, twice.
“Why did you never call me?”
“I was busy. Plus, I didn’t want to get mixed up in Council business.”
“Well, I wish you would have.”
“I figured you’d be off with the Fleet, exterminating vampires.”
“Well, I was, for a while. Then I decided to take some time and visit my family. This is my favorite time of year, here.”
She laid her head on his shoulder.
“I’m so glad to see you,” he said.
He ran his hand up to the back of her neck. The touch of his fingers sent a chill down her back.
“There was something I wanted to tell you, last time we were together.”
“What?”
“This,” he said, and leaned in and kissed her.
Blood rushed to her head.
He pulled her in, closer, and kissed her more deeply. His tongue was soft and warm, and a hint of blood.
“Sorry, that was the rabbit I drained earlier.”
Suddenly, the barge vibrated as all his mates ran around stomping, shouting and singing in Swiss-German.
They shoved glasses of schnapps in their hands, and toasted to the witching hour.
That night, he walked her back to the lodge.
“Stop,” he said.
She looked at him, looking around.
“You sense someone, too?”
Slowly, he turned around, looking at the sky and the buildings.
“Are you being followed?”
“I don’t know. After you left, I inspected part of the mountain. Since then, it feels like someone is behind me.”
“Come out, now!” he said.
When nothing happened, he put his around her shoulders and guided her toward the lodge.
The next morning, Emil knocked on her door.
She invited him.
“Where are you going, now?”
“To the mountain, of course.”
“Don’t you want breakfast?”
“Emil, this is important. Why do I feel like you’re trying to dissuade me for reasons other than my safety?”
“Starr, I don’t want you to get hurt.”
When she refused to go home, he said, “Fine, but I’m coming with you.”
Flight Condemned
Chapter 4
For hours, Starr held Emil’s hand as she circled the mountain. He was still a young fledgling; he hadn’t come into flying yet.
By the early evening, Starr had had enough.
She couldn’t sense anything about the peak, from the air. She didn’t know if it was the cold, distracting her animal instinct, but she hadn’t a clue of which direction to fly. Heck, she didn’t even know if they were on the right side of the mountain.
It became apparent that she couldn’t make the journey by flight instinct alone.
Finally, she lowered them onto a peak that was many thousands of feet higher than Grindewald. Emil tried to talk her into going back to the lodge to rest, but she couldn’t stop.
She trudged up the peak, facing the daggers of wind and snow that tried to blow them back down the mountain.
They hiked well into the night; Emil complained nearly the entire way.
Starr wasn’t ready to camp until midnight. They’d reached a leveled off inclined with a rock cliff that provided shelter from the down draft.
Emil hunkered down with his back against the rock while Starr flew off and gathered some wood that was, amazingly, pretty dry.
Staring at it and concentrating, she ignited a small fire.
As she zoned out, looking into the flames, she felt distracted. She looked around, again.
Emil stood up and shouted, “Who are you? Come out, now!”
But no one answered.
“The fire isn’t doing any good. My muscles are so stiff.”
“Look, if you want to go back, then fine, but I can’t take you. I need to keep going.”
“And let you alone out here? What kind of guy would I be?”
They agreed to take turns sleeping. Emil had pointed out that if they both did so at the same time – and they froze like ice cubes, they might not wake up until spring.
The sound of breaking limbs woke Starr, the next morning.
Emil had gathered more wood and was breaking it down and shoving it into his backpack.
Immediately, they set to hiking up the mountain again.
After about an hour, they came upon an icy slope. Starr was about to lean forward, and climb up on all fours, but Emil stopped her.
“What is it?”
“This slope is an avalanche waiting to happen,” he said sounding annoyed.
She grabbed his hand and levitated them up, past the ice and landed on another peak.
At that point, the temperatures really dropped, and their limbs became especially stiff. Each step took great effort, and each step required yanking their legs out of the snow, which only exhausted more of their energy.
Only stopping for a break, they continued on and on, miserably.
At the top of another incline, they looked down, and it was just like out of book or movie. They were thousands and thousands of feet above the biosphere, where most people lived.
It was a breathtaking view.
That night as they sat close to another fire, they
heard a loud Earth shattering crunch that echoed all around them, vibrating through Starr’s very bones.
Emil stood up fast, a look of distorted fear on his face.
“Come on, let’s go! Get us out of here!”
He grabbed her hand and pulled her up.
“FLY!!!! NOW!!!”
“What, why? I’m tired!”
But her moment of hesitation cost them both.
The mountain rumbled, and the snow came down on them.
Before she knew it, she was tumbling back down the mountain.
She felt herself zoom off a cliff, and free fall for many feet, before crunching into the ground.
Pounds of snow crunched her into the snow-ground, packing and burying her in, deeply.
She screamed through her teeth, the weight crushed down on her body, making it stiff and shrivel.
Starr cried and prayed that it would stop. But more and more snow weighted her down.
When it finally stopped, she tried to move but couldn’t.
She couldn’t even open her mouth to scream.
Starr tried to command the snow to move outward and off her. Unfortunately, she was always a terrible telepath and telekinetic.
Again, she felt the strange presence of someone nearby. She cried for the person to help her, but whoever it was simply went away.
Starr cried herself to sleep.
Vision
Chapter 5
“No,” she cried out, but he was there, forcing her to see him.
Lucenzo sat on the cozy pouf with his long red hair and blazing eyes. As usual, he was stuck in the room with the gold prison bars.
“Stop resisting me, Starr. You’ve only a little time left.”
“For what?”
“To save yourself.”
“No, I’m done! I’m buried in an avalanche.”
“Who do you think is responsible for that?”
When she gasped, he said, “Louisa is coming for you, soon.”
He stood up and walked to his tiny cell window and looked out at the sky.
“Now that you’re closer to connect with me, I will tell you everything.”
He turned around with a look of contemplation on his face.
“We haven’t much time, so I’m gonna tell it to you quickly. Ask me no questions, and do not interrupt me.
The Primordial blood, or vampire virus to you, was spread to mortals because they were dying out.
After the first couple conversions of humans to vampires were made, it was obvious that it was killing them, and turning them into something else.
They wanted to experiment. So they brought humans in by the hundreds. They’d put them down here, in these very dungeons.
Some, they’d try to convert without the nasty side effects of needing to drink blood. Needless to say, it didn’t work.
We are two different species. We can’t breed with humans, and we cannot share blood. Only a few people were able to conceive, together, but it is unlikely that such connections will ever happen again.
After a while, they gave up. They were prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice, and accept blood drinking half breeds into their families. They were immortals and would take with them the traditions of their people, never to be forgotten.
But, then, one day an old scientist of the order by the name of Stelar made a prediction.”
Starr remembered Stelar; he converted Sestin.
“He predicted that one day, the vampires would figure out how to put the soul back in the vampire. When that day came, a new and most powerful species, the world will ever see, will arise. The soul is pure energy, and it will make the common vampire more powerful than the oldest Primordial, and more powerful than any soulless vampire.
Credenza, who is one such rare connection, half human-half Primordial, was born with a soul.
Until you came along, she was getting closer to figuring out how to get it back.”
Abruptly, he stopped speaking. With a quizzical look on his face, he tilted his head as if he were listening out for something.
Starr was impatient. She didn’t want him to stop talking.
She said, “I still don’t understand what this has to do with me.”
He looked at her.
“There is one thing; one person preventing her from reaching her goals: you. Once she has her plans in place, she’s coming for you. You are the last piece that she needs, to bring back her soul from the beyond.”
He stood up, quickly.
“Someone’s coming; I have to go.”
“Wait, but why me?”
“Because you’re connected. The soul is…” but then he trailed off.
“Wait!” she screamed.
All went black; he’d pushed her consciousness out of his mind. She tried to get back in but couldn’t.
Her consciousness was pushed out of the room, and toward the city walls of Valhol.
As she was flying back, she saw Credenza, as she’d seen so many times that summer, running through the streets of the cobble stoned city.
Somehow, she thought she’d wake up under the cold snow, but, instead, a feeling came over her.
It was fear, so great and crippling.
She was soaring through the air. She smelled salt and ocean.
Then she saw Lake George. She flew into the house.
Shane and Marla were lying on a bed in her room. Shane had her arm wrapped around her waist, and was trying to comfort her.
They knew, thought Starr.
Somehow, they found out Starr had been buried in the snow.
But, how?
Someone had to have told them, because it wasn’t possible for Shane or Marla to tap into psychic waves from so far.
Marla was crying uncontrollably.
“Don’t worry,” Shane said. “Everything will be fine.”
Suddenly, she shot up, looking around the room.
Can she feel me? Starr asked herself.
But then Starr was distracted.
She floated into Mica’s room where loud music was playing. Humming loudly, she danced about the room with her hands on her ears, and her eyes shut tight.
Starr heard the voices in Mica’s head.
A few towns over, a man screamed to someone that they needed to go, now, if they wanted to survive.
In another, a group of vampires were discussing the number of estimated vampire deaths in Europe.
And yet, in many homes across the state, she heard people crying, and talking in panic.
Starr couldn’t stand it, in Mica’s consciousness, so she returned to her body.
Under the White
Chapter 6
She woke but still couldn’t open her eyes, or move her limbs.
Tears leaked out of the sides of her eyes.
How am I gonna get out of here?
From above, she sensed the presence that she felt, earlier, lurking.
Whoever it was, was standing right above her. It occurred to Starr that it could have been Credenza.
The presence flew off, leaving her there under the icy snow.
More tears leaked from her eyes, making the snow seal to her face.
She started to get sleepy, once more. Slowly, all went black….
END
More about the series:
Lost and want to play catch up?
Visit the Vampin Box Set for Year One, books 1-9.
Vampin Year 2 Series to Date:
#10 Primordial
#11 Valhol
#12 Road to Heaven
#13 LYSSA (Scheduled for release 2012)
Originally a monthly short with the Black Press Online, Vampin is now available as a monthly teen series. For all questions and comments, please contact
[email protected] https://vampinofficialsite.com
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