Eternally Bound - Book Three ✎

Chapter 1

The old highway was deserted; piles of dead leaves lay scattered across the dark road that stretched on for miles until it became lost in the distance. From its position at the top of the starry sky, the moon glowed, casting a silvery light and illuminating my surroundings.

The only sound to break the heavy silence of the night came from the roaring engine of the motorbike I rode.

There were still several hours until sunrise and I had the throttle twisted to maximum speed. I flew over the asphalt, kicking up leaves and dirt in my wake. My hair whipped behind me in the wind, but I hadn't bothered to tie it with something. I liked the exhilarating feeling it created within me. It gave me a sense of freedom, yet I was far from free.

I was on a mission.

A mission I didn't know if I would survive.

Last night I had left Seattle behind to begin my journey across the old continent of North America, towards the former capital city, Washington DC. This was where my maker, and now the man I knew I loved, had been sent as a captive of that evil son of a bitch, Shax. I hadn't known hatred until I'd met the former vampire king of Los Angeles. He who had kept me prisoner in his hotel because he wanted my powers for himself. Powers I still didn't quite understand, but was beginning to control better day by day. This blue energy I could conjure was the reason I was in this mess to begin with.
A gift from the father who had abandoned me as a child, whom I had just recently met again in Seattle, but had just as quickly been taken away from me again, this time by Seattle's vampire king, Pedro Lopez. I had not been lucky so far with the vampire kings I had met and I would be fine not meeting any more.

However, as I drove farther from the city, King Pedro was lying in two pieces in the ruins of his mansion. Unless the sun had already burnt the remains of his body. I hadn't seen exactly how that worked, not that I wanted to find out, and I knew that I wouldn't, at least not for a while. I supposed the only way for me to find out was if I was the one burning, and I was definitely not planning to do that any time soon. How about never?

The younger the vampire, the less time it could stay awake when the sun came up. That was what I had learnt in my brief time as a creature of the night. My maker, Nox, was able to stay awake for hours, if not most of the day whereas I, only a couple of months or so old in vamp years, still got tired as soon as the first rays of sunlight spilled over the horizon. It was a right pain in my ass, but there was nothing I could do about it. At least my internal clock warned me of the coming dawn so that I'd have time to find proper shelter for the day. An abandoned house, preferably with a basement or sometimes I'd have to bury myself in the ground, but I'd only done that with Nox. I always felt better rested waking up, nestled in his protective arms.

A hole in the road shook the bike, making the steering wheel rattle, forcing me to grip tighter on the handlebars. Despite having never ridden a motorcycle until last night, I thought I was doing quite a good job at it. I'd only crashed once when I'd first gotten on it, but after that I felt the balance between me and the bike and let it become a part of me. An extension of my limbs. However proud of myself I was with that, it was probably my superhuman vampire reflexes, which allowed me to stay upright as I drove through the night, putting Seattle further and further behind me.

I carefully lifted a hand and pushed my sunglasses further up on my nose. The tinted glass made everything in my vision a shade darker. I had bought them at one of the stalls in Seattle right before leaving. I'd gotten a lot of curious stares since being turned, all thanks to my powers that had turned my eyes a startling blue instead of the normal red. The sunglasses were great for keeping a low profile and I had seen many other vamps wearing them. I had no idea if any vampires, loyal to King Pedro or Shax, would be on the lookout for a dark-haired vampire girl with bright blue eyes, so why take the risk?