The Vampire Kiss Read online

  The Vampire Kiss

  A Dark Love

  Lucy Lyons

  © 2017

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 1

  Most eighteen-year-olds only have a few things to worry about, like completing their last year of high school and figuring out what to do with the rest of their life. These days, the options were pretty limited but a choice still had to be made.

  For Viktoria Willow, it was a little more complicated than that.

  Almost as soon as she’d eaten dinner, she was ready for bed. Her father looked at her from across the table with approval in his deep green eyes. “You worked hard today, Vikkie.”

  “Thank you, Dad,” she said politely, turning her head to hide a yawn behind her hand. She hadn’t done her homework again but her father would just write her another excuse about it. At this point in the school year, the teachers all stopped caring about attendance and who did their work.

  She didn’t really need to learn complicated math equations or vocabulary words for things she wouldn’t use in real life. Her father was training her for her job, and he had been ever since she came to him. Technically, he came to her but he insisted it was the other way around because that was what gifts did. They arrived. It wasn’t a gift if you picked it out yourself.

  “In fact,” Viktoria’s father continued, drawing her focus back to the conversation, “I think you might be ready.”

  Her heart leapt up in her throat with excitement, and her leg started to bounce beneath the table at the same time. “I am?”

  “Well, maybe not yet.”

  Don’t tease me, she thought scowling and disappointed. She had been waiting for this opportunity for ages so it wasn’t fair to get her hopes up like that. Still, her father kept smiling at her and she knew she couldn’t be too upset with him. That was practically impossible.

  “However, after your graduation, you’ll be more than ready.”

  “Really?” she demanded, knowing that if he tricked her again she was going to look really gullible. A hunter couldn’t afford to act like a fool and go chasing shadows. It was what hid inside those shadows that she had to be prepared for.

  “Oh yes,” her father nodded. “You’re strong enough and fast enough now. We just need to work a few kinks out of some of your moves and then you’ll be off killing nightwalkers in no time.”

  Nightwalkers. That was what her father called vampires. A shiver of excitement raced up and down her back. She couldn’t help but jump to her feet and race around the table to hug him. He laughed and wrapped his hand around the back of her head, holding her as close as he could.

  “It seems like just yesterday that this giant head of yours didn’t fit on your body.”

  “Dad!” she protested, laughing anyway. The rest of the Willow clan, who had been respectfully silent up until now, also let out amused chuckles. It was no secret that everyone thought she might have had some sort of birth defect when she first arrived, but the doctors assured them that she simply had a big head for a baby.

  Once the laughter died down, her father released her and she stood up straight again.

  “Congratulations,” someone else at the table said. Viktoria glanced over and smiled at the speaker, her uncle.

  “Thank you,” she said happily. “I’ve been working really hard.”

  “Oh, we know,” said a woman to her left. With her hair pulled back into a tight bun and a pair of spectacles balanced on her nose, she looked more like a librarian than a vampire hunter. “Not a day goes by without Maximus giving us a status report on your progress.”

  Viktoria smiled even more, basking in the praise. “Thanks, Mrs. Chambers.”

  As a few of the others gathered around the table congratulated her, Viktoria looked over at them all and felt proud. Most of the Willow clan were related to her father in various ways, but there were also random members of society here united by their goal of fighting vampires. Mrs. Chambers really was a baker, and her uncle delivered babies at the hospital nearby. Tom over there, with his crazy brown hair and perpetual weariness, was a teacher. Sitting beside him was one of his students, Janet.

  All of these strangers, living a secret life under her father’s guidance. Viktoria was amazed by him and could only hope that she was someday as enigmatic.

  A light wave of dizzy exhaustion rolled over her shoulders and she yawned again. “I think I’d better get going. My bed is calling me.”

  “Yeah, and you’re calling back to it!” a lady named Ruth snorted playfully, eating with her gun lying across her lap.

  Viktoria would have come up with some retort but she was too busy yawning again. Bidding the rest of the clan a good night, she headed up the stairs to change clothes and brush her teeth. Outside the bathroom window, the sunlight peering over the high walls of their barricaded city showed only a pale tinge of pink. Twilight was still a ways away, and full dusk was even further off but curfews were strict. The police patrols ensured everyone was asleep and all lights out in each house before darkness fell. People ruled the day, and the vampires came out at night to take their turn. Anyone who ran counter to that established schedule was only asking for trouble.

  Many years ago, a sudden rise in violence revealed itself not to be a product of video games, or drugs, or gun control. It was vampires. Thousands of them. They swarmed the world out of nowhere, and life as everyone knew it changed overnight. Earth was a realm of darkness now, where regular humans lived in fear that they might be stolen away in the night as slaves or worse. Only tentative peace agreements and the formation of walled cities kept the creatures at bay, but the beasts still had to feed. To prevent rampant feedings, humans were occasionally culled from their cities by way of a lottery whenever the vampires came calling.

  The Willow clan was part of a secret sect meant to one day become a full-blown rebellion aga
inst the vampires. There were many others like them in other cities and even out in the middle of vampire country.

  Excitement stole through her body again, making her breathless. She stared at herself in the mirror, wishing she looked a little more fearsome. To her own eyes, she looked just like any other girl and not the fearsome killer she was supposed to be. Long brown hair and medium blue eyes, the thing that stood out about her was her muscles. However, she figured her appearance would cause vampires to underestimate her, so it was a good thing after all.

  Loud footsteps started up the stairs, signaling the approach of one of her clan brothers. Viktoria left the bathroom to make room for them and went to her bedroom. It was small and actually a closet once upon a time, but her arrival had been unannounced. The room seemed a lot bigger when she was a toddler, but now she just thought of it as home.

  Viktoria was adopted by Maximus Willow, her father, after watching her parents die in a vampire attack. He trained her, teaching her how to fight vampires. Her “real” job, the one approved of by the government, was going to be working for him in his blacksmithing business.

  Sliding into her cot, Viktoria pulled the blankets over herself in a tight cocoon and shut her eyes to fall asleep.

  Nothing happened.

  Despite the tiredness she felt earlier, now she was wide awake. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest, counting the seconds. She was aware of every single breath. The excitement was too much for her to wind down, so she flopped over onto her back and put an arm across her eyes to block out everything.

  Nothing again, just restlessness in her spine that asked her why she was lying there like a log. She should have been doing something. That homework, for instance. Or she should have been exercising, or practicing the moves she knew she needed to work on.

  No, I’m tired, she told herself. The exhaustion hadn’t gone away, she knew. It was just the adrenaline pumping through her veins. If she went out to practice, she’d be so sloppy that she might actually get worse.

  So, she had to sleep.

  She wondered what her first fight would be like. Would it be a solo mission or some sort of test, or would she be taking part in a normal hunt? Most of the time, the hunters came back with nothing to show for their efforts because they mainly prowled the outside of the walls, searching for any straggler vampires who weren’t obeying the truce. The police made sneaking out and returning difficult, especially since there weren’t supposed to be any unauthorized attacks from either side, but the city was full of secret tunnels and pathways left over from the days before the uprising.

  Maybe she wouldn’t even see any action her first time; she couldn’t decide if that was disappointing or relieving.

  Now that Viktoria had stopped fighting her excitement, the feeling began to run its course. Soreness returned to her forearms, and her thighs ached in the good way that they often did after strenuous exercise. Snuggling down deeper under her blanket, she turned back onto her side and curled up while her imagination continued on ahead without her.

  Viktoria’s eyes slipped closed as she imagined the future, and then she was out.

  Fear trickled down her back like icy water, leeching cold into her heart. Her eyes snapped open, her heart pounding.

  What woke me up?

  Her senses strained as she struggled to keep her breathing deep and measured, knowing someone who was unaware of an eerie presence wouldn’t be gasping like they were in labor. She heard nothing but the voices of her family, but the sound was so muffled she had no idea what they were saying or how loud they were. Taste was a useless sense at the moment, and all she could feel was the warmth of her bed.

  On her next breath in, she used her nose.

  An indescribable scent, like a hot gun barrel after just being fired but without the acrid burn of gunpowder, filtered into her nostrils.

  The cold inside her grew until it filled not just her heart but also her stomach, and every single other part of her. She knew that scent. She often caught whiffs of it on her father when he came home from hunts.

  There was no time to think. Her instincts roared into action before she even knew what she was doing, and she threw herself off the bed and onto the floor. There was no sound but for a small whisper coming from elsewhere in her tiny room. Quickly, she shoved herself under the cot and then forced her shoulders up against it as fast and hard as she could. Standing up, the thin cot launched in the direction of the metallic scent.

  A dull grunt and a small thump followed her attack, and she saw it now. Before, it had been using one of its many supernatural talents to appear hidden in the dark, but now it was stunned and its defenses were down.

  Amber eyes glowed at her from the darkness. The shadowed vampire pushed the cot away and smashed it against the wall, breaking it in two.

  Viktoria ran at it, faking back and forth twice before coming at the beast. Her fist swung out, whistling through the air. Her eyes shut tight for the impact, but she never hit anything but the wall.

  Whirling around, her senses strained to relocate the vampire but her heart was pounding too loudly for her to concentrate. Shaking and trembling, she slapped her hand out and miraculously found the light switch.

  Light doesn’t hurt vampires and never has, but it’s hard not to notice their strange appearance in broad daylight. That’s why they are nocturnal by nature.

  If I ever needed to be able to see one, now is the time.

  She braced herself in the instant the light went on, waiting to catch a glimpse of the elusive monster, but she was alone.

  “Oh, no,” she murmured. No, she wasn’t alone. Her father was out there somewhere, and suddenly she just knew something was going to happen to him. “Dad!”

  She grabbed at the smaller piece of the broken cot, knowing she wouldn’t find anything better to defend herself with, and ran out of her bedroom.

  A hot strike of metal scent struck her nose. Fear surged over her again as she twisted around, but it was too late.

  Something hard struck the back of her head. Black spots swam in front of her eyes, interspersed with hazy colors. Even before she was aware of falling, she was looking up into the golden eyes of a monster. One dark hand reached down for her, and then the darkness spread until she finally lost consciousness.

  Chapter 2

  When she came to, Viktoria kept her eyes shut tight. People were talking nearby and she needed to know what was going on, so she tried to act like she was still unconscious.

  “What do you think she was doing there?”

  “Hell if I know. Visiting, maybe?”

  A third speaker interrupted the two who were currently arguing. “I would hedge a bet on this being a case of simple welfare.”

  “Do you have to talk like that?” the first voice grumbled. Male, Viktoria realized. As she lay there and listened, she felt the rest of her body awaken along with her mind. Her head ached abominably, to the point where thinking made her brain hurt. Light danced behind her eyes from being hit. “It makes you sound like a pompous idiot,” the voice continued.

  The third speaker snorted. Cloth rustled. Viktoria pictured them crossing their arms and huffing like an offended child. “That’s is very rude.”

  The person who had spoken second piped up again. “Can we just get on with this? Does it matter what she was doing there?”

  As inconspicuously as she could, Viktoria took inventory of her body. She wiggled her toes and fingers, tensed the muscles in her thighs and arms. Her stomach roiled with nausea, and her throat was tight, but other than her throbbing head and where she had fallen on her arm, she wasn’t hurt.

  If I ever find myself in a bad situation, I gather myself, and then I gather information.

  Viktoria repeated her father’s comforting mantra. She couldn’t afford to sit there and stress out about all the different possibilities of what could be happening. No, the best thing to do was simply wait this out and be as calm as she could. That strategy
hadn’t worked out for her last time but this was a second chance! She could learn from her mistakes and still make her father proud.

  “Of course it matters, Darcy” the third person said. “We have here someone who was with the Willows!”

  “But she sure isn’t a Willow herself, so what’s the point?” the person called Darcy grumbled under her breath. Victoria realized why this one particular person sounded so strange: she was a child. At least, she was in a child’s body.

  A vampire. They’re all vampires. Three vampires are just sitting around and…calmly talking about me.

  The monsters continued to squabble amongst themselves, not really paying much attention to her at all. Their scent was everywhere, choking her. It was so hard not to gag on the reek.

  Without more context, she couldn’t know what else they thought about her or what it meant to them. She didn’t even know what group they were from! So, maybe it was best to tune them out and figure out what else was going on.

  The air was full of a horrible smell of smoke, choking her now that she was aware of it. Gunshots split the night every couple of seconds. Hardly daring to, Viktoria peeked her eyes open just a tiny slit.

  The vampires were visible, standing out in the deepening twilight on the very edge of her vision. In front of her were thick gouts of black smoke, belching up into the air to spread out over the city far below. Ash blew on the wind, wreathing through skyscrapers and dancing down the darkened streets. Like frantic ants cut off from one another, people filled the streets with panicked shouts that were swallowed up by the crackling of flame and the sirens beginning to blare from the wall’s watchtowers.

  I’m on top of the wall, she realized. The vampires brought me here. But where…