Aleron: Book One of Strigoi Series (Stringoi Series) (32 page)

Raya and Sakina searched for her every waking moment, save the time they took to hunt along the way, each night returning without the slightest inclination of her whereabouts.

I finally spoke to Eliza about the dreams that haunted me. I told her of the fate of Sinaa in one of them. After a blood kiss, she knew my
words to be true. Frantic with the thoughts of losing one she loved so dear, Eliza began to stay out longer and longer. For three days, she didn’t return to our home. Instead, she would rest in a cemetery vault or the various ancient ruins surrounding Egypt.

Then, shortly after awakening together, we both sensed something strange, Eliza more so than I. It was the faint voice of Sinaa calling out to Eliza, and though I couldn’t hear the voice, I could feel it. Eliza looked at me with pools of blood surfacing in her eyes. I’d never seen such despair in her. She began to grit her teeth in response to the call of her child.

“We must go to her, Aleron! She’s in grave danger, and I fear if we wait, she’ll meet her demise by the hands of the one who haunts you without regard.”

“Fear not, my love, for I’ll go. You shall stay here.”

“You cannot defeat this Vlad alone, Aleron. He’s ancient. He’s the first of us. He’ll kill you upon sight! You need me.” Eliza began caressing my face. Her gaze was calming yet full of concern. She wanted Sinaa back but not at the expense of her king.

“I won’t go alone,” I said to comfort her. “Raya will go with me. She and I will return with Sinaa or destroy the one who ended her life!”

“You’re strong, my lord, but you know not of the power you face.”

“I know of my power!” I responded boldly. “I forbid you to seek Sinaa. You’re to stay behind with Sakina and look after the youngest and least powerful of our family.”

Eliza knew it was futile to continue, for my words were uncompromising, my decision final. She put her head to my chest. Somewhere in my cold embrace, she found warmth and solace. She found salvation. I kissed the top of her head as I’d always done, and I held her tightly, the kind of hold one gives when it may be the last one ever given.

Raya, Sakina, and three fledglings were standing in the doorway watching me put on my black clothing.

Raya and Sakina had overheard my decision, and Raya was ready to join me. Sakina took my place cuddling Eliza. Raya looked into my eyes, and with a slight movement of her head, she gestured for our departure.

Raya and I left for the northwest, Eliza’s thoughts not far behind. Raya, young yet powerful, possessed necessary abilities I would need
once a violent confrontation ensued. Sakina, though strong in her own right, didn’t bear the ferociousness needed to defeat whatever lay ahead.

We continued near the city of Saida on the westernmost border of Syria. I knew Raya was too young to take the long journey from Cairo to the Isle of Cyprus, though it was the most direct route. The travel over the vast sea would slow us down a great bit. Therefore, we took rest in Saida until sundown.

We entered the city as thieves, using the cloak of the waning shadows as our cover, for the sun was rising. Raya cried out as her young immortal body began to stiffen with the coming of the early sun. She dropped like a stone, for her energy had been exhausted during our long journey. Before she hit the ground, I caught her.

I desperately sought cover, for her body temperature began to rapidly rise. Her hair began to smolder. I saw a structure in the distance near the coast. I had very little time, so I took flight. The effects of the sun were upon me, although our flight lasted but a moment. Gravity hurled us downward, and instead of landing gracefully, I lethargically fell, purposefully protecting Raya from the ground and covering her body with my cloak. I then dashed toward the structure with her limp in my arms, barely beating the rays of the renewed sun.

There was a cellar entrance on the side of the house. Though the place was not vacant, I had no time to enter quietly. Instead, I kicked the double cellar doors open, breaking the wooden boards that kept intruders out of the cellar. Wood and nails littered the air, then the dirt floor. I threw Raya down onto the dirt at a distance from the entrance, then hurried back to close the doors. I crushed them together, creating a barrier that provided much more protection than had the wood alone.

I hastily broke through the compacted earth to make a resting place suitable for Raya. I laid her within the trench, wrapped in my cloak, and proceeded to cover her with the removed earth. I sat up against a stair post and drifted in and out of sleep, awakened periodically by footsteps of the mortals whose home we haunted.

Cast into another dream filled with darkness and voices, I could distinguish only two. One was of Eliza calling to me. She feared Sinaa was near her end. The other was my familiar specter. His powerful
awe-inspiring voice took hold of me once more.
Pericolul te arunca pisica moarta, Aleron. Danger awaits!

I was awakened by a robust man descending the worn wooden stairs leading into the cellar. Deeper into obscurity I retreated. Raya was already out of direct sight. The man lit a flame, and for an instant I was before him; with barely a thought, I caused the fire to dwindle, leaving him unaware of our presence. I spoke to his mind and persuaded him that whatever he sought wasn’t there. He turned around and went back up the stairs. I returned to my resting position. The time for hunting would be later. The family would never know our infectious bite.

The day came and went as the coming of the new moon and stars began to call out to the creatures of the night. The earth began to move as Raya’s limbs awakened. She broke free from the gritty grave I provided, and we were again off, leaving behind a scene that would generate much speculation, though no mortal would ever know what happened there.

We fed on two unfortunate vagabonds on our way to Turkey. Able to cover hundreds of kilometers in a single night, we pressed forward. We flew through the trees and brush as swift as the wind, until suddenly I felt a deep feeling of sadness and loss. My heart stopped for moments at a time.

We came to rest in the city of Mersin, still with several thousand kilometers to go. Though this sensation was the first of its kind, I knew what it was. It was the feeling of tragedy. Something tragic had happened to one of mine. Sinaa! I didn’t know the exact state she was in; I just knew something significant had suddenly occurred that awakened a numbing feeling of loss and sorrow. Eliza also felt it, and she called to me in pain.

Raya’s sense of awareness was also heightened. Following my lead, she stopped. We looked at each other in silence, for words were not needed. The muscles in Raya’s jaws tightened as her hands became fists at her sides. Hers was fierce determination, while mine was vengeance. We took flight in pursuit of the Carpathians, this time even faster, with a renewed sense of urgency.

The climate became thick with death. Immortals frequented the land of Istanbul. Raya and I read the minds of the many townspeople searching for the source of an unknown plague draining the life force of both women and men, leaving their bodies to rot. Several people were reported missing only to be discovered dismembered, some found without hands and feet, some without heads, nothing removed with regard or care. The missing body parts were never found, and the vampires had been purposefully savage in their removal to hide the puncture and bite wounds of victims.

Many of the dead, however, were found intact, each bloodless, with small holes either beneath the jaw or above the wrist. An immortal was feeding and leaving plenty behind for speculation, myth, and legend.

The vampire folklore continued to flourish as empty graves were discovered and those who were said to be dead walked freely among the living as glowing specters of the night, ghastly creatures needing blood to survive—creatures said to be impossible to kill.

We settled in a town in Macedonia, where the murders screamed loudly from the minds of nearly all of its inhabitants. Young and old alike dreaded the night, and a curfew had been enforced to keep people indoors from dusk till dawn.

Raya took interest in a man closing his butcher shop for the evening in accordance with the newly established ordinances. We watched as the man locked the doors of his store and began cleaning the floors of entrails that had spewed from the various animals he had slaughtered and sold throughout that day. He was a rather robust and hairy man, who apparently hadn’t been acquainted with a bath in quite some time. The aroma was of spoiled and rotted flesh—a cologne the butcher wore daily. I couldn’t understand what drew Raya to this smelly specimen, but her choice proved to serve our thirst well.

When the time came to feed, we advanced on the house. We heard him curse and yell as we entered his butcher shop through a rear door. The place was covered in filth. From roaches to rats, vermin openly dined on the discarded remains of cows, pigs, and horses. To our surprise, the butcher was already bleeding profusely from the neck. One of
his arms was missing, and a scent that didn’t belong to the living was present. Raya and I stayed in the darkness as the butcher began to cry out again. “No! No! Please don’t kill me. Please!” And with those words being his last, we saw a vampire descend upon him.

CHAPTER 28

he vampire in the butcher shop was unfamiliar. I didn’t know if it was instinctual or by choice that Raya instantly pounced upon this immortal woman and tore her from her prey. The vampire threw Raya into a wooden pillar, which shattered on impact. The ceiling of the store began to collapse on top of Raya, and using nothing but my thoughts, I kept the ceiling intact, remaining out of the sight and awareness of the unfamiliar vampire.

She leapt out and grabbed Raya again, throwing her across the room. Raya landed on her feet, and after an instant recovery, launched herself into the woman as a cheetah would her target, biting and clawing at the neck. The nails of Raya pierced the skin of the vampire, shredding her silk garment and her flesh. A terrible screech escaped the vampire’s mouth as she fell to the ground. Raya pounced on her again, ripping her hair from her head while holding her neck with the other hand. The vampire managed to throw Raya off and regain the upper hand. She
broke one of Raya’s arms in the toss, then bit flesh from her leg. Raya fell to the ground.

As the vampire leapt into the air, I released my hold on the ceiling above her. It fell directly on her, driving her hard into the ground. I then reached into the rubble before the dust settled and ripped her from the broken wood, iron, and other debris. I held her in the air from behind, clasping the back of her throat. She was facing away from me, watching Raya recovering on the floor. She could see that Raya wasn’t holding her. I turned her around so she could face her captor.

Her eyes grew large, and amazement and fright filled her thoughts. I drew her closer to me. Her blood spilled from the wounds inflicted by Raya; her eyes, of a pinkish hue, stared at me, unblinking. I spoke to her before her thoughts translated into speech.

“I’ll ask you this only once. I seek a female vampire. She would be unknown to you. Have you seen her?”

Struggling to speak, she managed to utter, “You’re the one the master speaks of! It’s true. There exists another.”

I tightened my grip on her neck. I could feel her bones cracking, her voice wavering with the blood gurgling beneath the skin.

“I know of whom you seek. But it’s too late. She’s no more. Death is her companion now. She sleeps for all eternity.”

Anger filled me. She was lying. Sinaa couldn’t be dead! “You lie!” I growled, bringing her nose inches from mine.

“Believe what you will, but know that upon my return, the master will know where you are.”

“Indeed, he will!” I replied as I brought her neck to my waiting thirst. She struggled, but she was a mere child in the grasp of a parent. She hit me with a force that damaged my face, but her attempt to harm me was futile. As soon as she retracted her hand, my face would reveal no wound. I bit down feverishly upon her neck and exposed her throat. I drank of her immortal blood. Her searing nectar provided warmth from the butcher to my body. Memories came rushing into existence, a journey on a path unfit for mortal feet. Through brush dirt and stone she had traveled from the Carpathians through Varna until our encounter with
the keeper of the land, each resting place visited by her and her sisters. Owned by her master, her memories played for my entertainment!