The Savage Vampire (The Perpetual Creatures Saga Book 5) Read online

  He sat in a cafè drinking a dark cup of coffee, pondering the strange vision, and thinking about Jerusa.

  The more he let his mind drift aimlessly toward her, the more Silvanus could actually sense Jerusa’s presence. It was as if the jolt he had received from touching her had somehow supercharged his connection to not just her, but the remaining two Divine Vampires. He could feel the others in a way he hadn’t been able to since all ten had been alive.

  Could they feel him as well?

  Jerusa had leapt a couple more times since leaving the bunker, never staying anywhere very long, and had now stopped moving. There was a chance that she was hunting again, but Silvanus doubted it.

  The other two Divines, Augustus and Danielle, were somewhere together. Their close proximity to one another caused them to burn brighter in his mind, as two candles light a room better than one.

  A dark shadow filled his thoughts as Silvanus considered something he hadn’t before. If he could once again sense the other Divines, could the last surviving umbilicus do the same?

  Silvanus stood up and made as though he were going to the restroom. He felt a little guilty about not paying for the coffee, but he didn’t have any money. As he passed through the doorway into the cold tiled room smelling of human waste, he turned his mind toward Augustus and Danielle.

  During battle, they had stumbled upon the umbilicus’s weakness: the disgusting barbed cord they used to transfer the venomous savage blood. He had killed one of the twins, forged from his own blood by burning its cord with his hellfire. Augustus and Danielle, though powerful in their own right, could neither one make fire.

  If the last umbilicus was still hunting them, they would need Silvanus’s help. And he needed their help, too.

  Silvanus vanished from the restroom doorway and reappeared in the heart of a dense jungle.

  The sun drifted toward the west. The air was heavy and humid, laying a thin coat of moisture on his skin. The temperature was high, but within the thick valley of vegetation, the canopy created a cooling shade.

  Life was teeming all around him, from the tiniest insect to the large predators feasting on fresh kills. The place rang out with unending noise as the primal circle spun ever outward. The scent of rich soil, animal fur and everything green overwhelmed his sense of smell.

  There was no place not filled with something alive, leaving him with a closed-in, yet not completely unpleasant feeling.

  Silvanus hopped down from the thick bough on which he stood, preparing to call out for one of the other Divines. But just as his feet hit the soft earth, a crushing attack struck him from the left.

  Chapter Three

  Celeste found her prey in a back room of a drug den that stank of an overpowering concoction of sweat, body odor, mildew and cigarette smoke.

  The man who had claimed this area as his territory had his back to the door. He had just helped inject a young woman with a syringe full of an enslaving potion. He laid the incapacitated woman down upon a pile of soiled blankets and discarded trash, his twisted mind set on terrible things.

  Celeste slipped inside the small room, as silent as a viper. She didn’t need blood at the moment, but being stuck in a crate for the next week or more was a real possibility, so it was better to feed now while she had the chance.

  Besides, even though she couldn’t read his mind like she could other vampires, as an augur (and a fairly powerful one), she could read his emotions, feel his intentions. This man deserved to die.

  Celeste darted forward with blinding speed, snatching up the man before his deeper instincts could alert him to the danger hiding in the shadows. He tried to shout, but she choked off his air. He pounded on her arms, her face, but he was powerless to stop her.

  She didn’t toy with him, as Taos was surely doing with the other dealer further in the house. She yanked him in close, buried her fangs deep into his hammering carotid, and drained him until his heart fell silent.

  Celeste pricked the tip of her tongue with her fang and smeared a dab of blood on each of the puncture wounds, causing them to heal immediately. The authorities wouldn’t ask too many questions. Just cast his file upon the heap of countless other junkies who overdose every day.

  She laid the man down on the floor next to the woman. Though his body was dead, his mind continued to fire. Celeste caught flashes of fear crackling from within him. It brought a twinge of sadness to her, but he was a killer of the innocent, and deserved no pity.

  The irony of her own long life of killing didn’t escape her.

  Finally, the fragmented emotions ceased, and his soul departed for whatever lie beyond.

  For most of her immortal life, Celeste had convinced herself that there was nothing beyond death. That every living creature eventually blinked out of existence like a bolt of lightning crackling across the sky. Some bolts were longer than others, but they all returned to darkness.

  She had held tight to this belief—if for no other reason than to justify her duties as a Hunter—but then, along came Jerusa Phoenix and smashed that stained-glass facade into dust.

  As always, the thought of Jerusa brought a knot to Celeste’s throat and a blood-tear to her eye.

  Taos stood in the shadows across from the house. He slid in beside her, wrapping his hulking arm around her waist, and planted a gentle kiss upon her cheek. “Thinking of Jerusa again?”

  “No fooling you, is there?”

  He caressed the nape of her neck, sending a cascade of chills down her spine. “Nah, I’m afraid not. You’re an open book to me now.”

  Celeste smiled. She liked being an open book to Taos. She had spent centuries hiding her true self from other vampires for fear of her life. Taos had set her free.

  They walked at a mortal’s pace. Seemingly just another human couple out for a quiet stroll. Half way to the car, Taos cleared his throat—a sign that he was about to expose some emotions. Something the blond giant truly hated to do.

  “Do you think she’s here with us?” The question brought him great pain. “Maybe watching over us? Or maybe she doesn’t even realize she’s dead.”

  Celeste had pondered the same questions over and over again. She had no good answer. “I hope not. I hope she passed on to whatever comes next. I hope she found peace.”

  Taos gave a saddened nod of agreement. “I just hope that, wherever she is, she doesn’t hate us.”

  “Why would you say that? We were her family.”

  “Family,” Taos repeated with a dry laugh. “It’s our fault she’s dead.”

  “That’s not true. She was in the late stages of the stone cloak. I doubt even drinking blood could have reversed that.”

  “We should have left well enough alone.” His voice grew angry, but not at her. It was his own demons Taos fought with. “What if the Dwarf was right? Maybe if we would’ve just let the stone cloak finish its course, maybe she really would have become Divine. Who knows? But instead, we stripped Alicia away from her, and served her up for the Hunters to roast like a pig.”

  He turned suddenly and kicked a parked car. The windows shattered, the frame buckled, and the tires squalled like injured dogs as it slid into the middle of the road.

  Celeste grabbed him by the hand, pulling him along, and the pair bolted away with vampiric speed. They halted in the shadows near their own car, but remained in place, listening for police sirens. It was easier to outrun human authorities on foot than in a car.

  They could hear angry voices filling the street near the wrecked car, but the police were in no hurry to enter this neighborhood.

  “Sorry,” Taos said, refusing to look her in the eyes.

  “It’s okay. I understand.”

  None of them liked to mention Jerusa’s name—not since that night in the cemetery—but not for a lack of want. It felt like a building charge of static electricity waiting to explode. An unspoken trepidation permeated throughout their broken coven that if they spoke Jerusa’s name, it might somehow bring retribution down upon them.r />
  Sooner or later, they were all going to have to pay for their part in her death.

  They both pressed their enhanced senses to the brink, searching as far out as they could. Not that it would make any difference. If Silvanus chose to come for them, there was nothing on Earth they could do to stop him.

  Only mortal creatures stirred around them. Silvanus didn’t appear before them, conjured by Jerusa’s name. They both breathed a sigh, but there was no relief in it.

  Silvanus was only one in a list of enemies they were destined to face. The Hunters, the Stewards, the remaining High Council who were seeking to become Divine. And if they survived that, there was Suhail and his savage army. Even the vile umbilicus were still lurking about, waiting for their chance to strike.

  If they failed, the world of mortals was doomed. But, to be honest, right now, Celeste was a little more concerned with keeping her and Taos alive.

  Taos enfolded her petite hand within his massive one and pulled her toward the car. “C’mon. We’re late meeting the others. They’ll start to think the worst if we take much longer.”

  “Just a few minutes more.” Celeste reached up, cupped her hands to the sides of his face and pulled him down to her level. She kissed him as though this would be the last time.

  Maybe that’s why she’d felt so cowardly of late. She had been an augur on one of the best Hunter squads ever formed. She had faced savages, rogue vampires, even the Monster himself, yet she had never felt such fear and trepidation as she did now.

  At the same time, she had never before had so much to live for. Everything she ever wanted was standing right in front of her. The whole world was at stake, but the only thing that mattered to her was keeping this hot-headed blond giant alive.

  Taos yielded to her affections. When their lips parted and he stood straight, he watched her with a puzzled look of concern.

  “What is it? Another vision?”

  Celeste shook her head. “Not for a week or so.”

  Being an augur had many benefits, like a heightened sense of perception, instinct, and empathy. Not everything in the package was a blessing, however. Being telepathically connected to other augurs had its uses, but mostly, it was just a liability. She had to constantly guard her thoughts so not to tip off the Watchtower to their location or plans. The visions, though, were, by far, the worst part.

  Visions were not set in stone. They were fluid, evolving with every choice she made. Sometimes, she couldn’t tell if what she saw was a premonition of the future, or a rerun of the past. Sometimes, the visions were quite literal. Other times, they were types and shadows of what was to come.

  It was more than a little annoying.

  Celeste had been having visions of Jerusa Phoenix ever since the first time they met. No two were ever the same. She had had a bad one last week. Jerusa stood atop a pile of fallen vampires. Jerusa crawled over the pile like a massive spider guarding a fresh kill. She was no longer a vampire, but a savage. The fiercest savage Celeste had ever witnessed. And her scar… Her scar burned like a white fire.

  But Jerusa was dead. Celeste played it off as nothing more than a nightmare to the others, but the more visions she had, the less she believed that to be true.

  Taos raised an eyebrow. “Give me the truth. What is it?”

  Celeste shivered, but not from cold. “I don’t know. Really, I don’t. I just have a … feeling that we’re headed for something bad.”

  Taos sighed and looked nervously from side to side. “Yeah, I have the same feeling.”

  They dashed to the car, neither of them wishing to remain in the open night. It seemed a silly concept: vampires afraid of the dark. But the world was changing at break-neck speed, and that, for vampires, was the most terrifying thing of all.

  It took an hour or better to get to the rendezvous point. When they arrived at the desolate parking lot sprawling behind the burned-out husk of some big-name superstore, two cars were already waiting.

  It was as good a place as any to plan a suicide mission. There were acres of asphalt in every direction, and the ground was as flat as a western plain. Only a Divine Vampire could sneak up on them. Not that that made Celeste feel any better.

  Taos killed the headlights to not attract any more unwanted attention than they already had. He pulled up to the other two cars, all three front ends facing one another, forming a Y configuration.

  The doors of the other two cars whipped open. Shufah and Thad exited one car, while the three Furies slipped out of the other.

  “Took your sweet time, didn’t you?” It was a rare break in Shufah’s normally calm demeanor, but it wasn’t unexpected.

  Celeste felt the heat rise in Taos, and she held up her hand before his mouth got the better of him. “We were being cautious, that’s all.”

  The tension melted from Shufah. “Trouble?”

  “No, but we wanted to make sure we weren’t followed.”

  “Okay then,” Shufah said. She nodded to Taos and he nodded back. It was as close to apologizing as either one was going to get.

  Jerusa’s death had injured their coven, and while the wound might someday heal, there would always be a scar to remind them of this pain. Perpetual beings didn’t easily forget past wrongs. Though they were all trying to place the broken pieces of their friendships back in order, it would never again be the same.

  The seven vampires formed a tight circle in the center of the cars.

  “Is everybody ready?” Shufah asked. The question didn’t just pertain to their voyage. She wanted to make sure they were prepared to see this through, no matter what.

  “Are you sure it’s a good idea to split up?” Thad asked. “What if we run into trouble?” The fledgling wasn’t asking from fear, but out of practicality.

  “For once, the twerp and I agree,” Taos said, playfully elbowing Thad in the shoulder. Thad didn’t seem to find it as funny as Taos did.

  Celeste rolled her eyes. She loved that man, but he just couldn’t not pick a fight.

  “I know staying together seems the best path,” Shufah said. “But any number of misfortunes could befall us while we travel. If one group falls along the way, it’ll be up to the others to complete the task. This is too important to gamble over. Besides, there’s less chance of the Watchtower detecting us if we’re separated.”

  “Okay, so for argument’s sake, we all make it to the Ice Sanctuary,” Taos spoke up. “How do we get in?”

  Shufah looked to Thad for the answer.

  “There is a network of caves branching out from beneath the house.”

  Thad spoke with the authority of knowledge. He, of course, had seen the tunnels with his own eyes, but it was more than that. The fledgling was a terra-kinetic, a unique gift that Celeste had never seen before. He held a powerful bond with all things connected to the earth. He knew the tunnels were there because he could feel them hiding deep below the ground.

  “The Stewards keep the tunnels stocked with savages,” Thad continued. “It keeps prisoners from escaping… and intruders from invading.”

  “How many savages are we talking about?” Taos asked.

  “I don’t know for sure. A lot. At least, there were in the tunnel Sebastian and I used.”

  “The Stewards have the tunnels monitored,” Tisiphone said. The mouthpiece of the Furies stood, her hair blowing in the wind like a fiery red inferno. Sometimes, when she spoke, it was as if the words were really coming from Alecto or Megaera. Right now, though, it was truly Tisiphone that spoke. “Even if we successfully dispatch the savages—which I’m sure we can—the Stewards will know we’re coming. They’ll lock the house down and trap us below.”

  Thad faced the three women, allowing his eyes to drift across each one. It impressed Celeste. They weren’t called the Furies for nothing. Though each was beautiful and mysterious, the nature of their synchronous connection and movements made it unnerving for most to behold.

  Perhaps it affected Celeste more acutely because she was an augur. The
three vampires stood shoulder to shoulder, breathing in perfect synch. Alecto, the only one of the three who still had eyes, watched Thad with genuine curiosity.

  Megaera’s head cocked slightly to the side as her powerful ears caught the sound of bats darting for insects at the far end of the parking lot. Immediately, the other two mimicked her movement as though they still had ears to hear with. Though the other vampires caught the sound, Celeste got the feeling that Megaera (and by proxy, the other Furies) could’ve snatched the insects out of the air as if she were a bat herself.

  “I’ve thought about that,” Thad answered Tisiphone. “If we want to get the jump on the Stewards, then we’ll have to go back in the way I got out.”

  The question was, how was that going to make a difference? It was etched on all of their faces (except Shufah’s, who somehow always knew the answer before everyone else). Thad spared them and answered before they asked.

  “I may have caused the tunnel to collapse on my way out. It was a really stressful situation. I had only been a vampire for about an hour and I had no idea that I even had any powers, let alone, how to use them. Sebastian had hoped I’d be a pyro, but you play the cards you get.”

  Shufah touched Thad’s shoulder, halting his rant. It was just a friendly gesture. Celeste didn’t sense that Shufah was using her strange brand of tactile mind manipulation on Thad. He smiled nervously, and a spark of boyish charm returned to his eyes.

  “Most, if not all, of the sensory devices in the tunnel are wrecked. I should be able to clear the path. The problem is, there still may be some savages roaming around down there.”

  “That’s an awful lot of ifs and buts we’re hanging our hats on,” Taos retorted.

  “You have a better plan? Let’s hear it. You’re not afraid of a few savages, are you?” Thad blasted back.

  Taos stood straight, which made him seem even more giant. “Listen, boy. I’ve killed more savages than you’ve ever even thought about.”