Rogue, Bitten (Temporarily on hold for publication of Beloved Beast)

Chapter One

   

   

         She trembled so badly that her teeth rattled uncontrollably with it. Her body curled instinctively against the chill that crept from the cemented floor into her bones like ironfisted fingers of the undead. She would have given anything for a sliver of warmth but surmised apprehensively that perhaps this was a preface of what was to take place.

             Leonie clenched her eyes shut as icy fingers trailed over the ridges of her spine. She wanted to cry but feared that unleashing would cripple her sanity. She would survive this. She would survive him, no matter what he intended to do to her. She was a Camden - a fighter. Had her parents not fought him tooth and nail to protect her? Had they not given their lives to ensure her escape?

             And now he has you.

             That daunting truth snatched at her breath and there was no preventing the trepidation that latched onto her vitals. She couldn't allow her fears to overcome her defenses. They would consume her entirely to the point of hysteria and if she was going to best him, she needed to remain sound of mind.

             But her thoughts betrayed her and strayed to that night her parents were savagely murdered. She shuddered and closed her eyes, unable to quell the image of blood, so much of it, splattered on the walls and the floor, even the ceiling. Her parents lay sprawled on the floor, their faces frozen in death.

             And a demon with black, soulless eyes stood amid them, his talons coated with their blood.

             Come out, little one. His voice, a modulation of menace draped in velvet, had paralyzed her beneath the floorboards where her mother had hidden her. It clamped around her heart like a terrible vise, squeezing until she wrestled for air.

             Monsters were just a fabrication of a child's mind. At least, that's what the authorities had tried convincing her of once she revealed that a creature of black, fathomless eyes and sharp fangs had killed her parents. They merely pegged her story to be one of delusion and shock after having witnessed an animal maul her parents. She argued against their perceptions but after a time they began to question her sanity and in fear that she'd land herself in a padded room, said nothing more on the matter and thereafter was placed in foster care.

             Desperation had led her to a church once. She recalled gazing upon those colorful, stained-glass windows with deflated hopes. What could she have possibly said to the priest? That a minatory, deadly-centuries old vampire who had massacred her parents hunted her relentlessly for reasons nothing short of crazy? But it was her fear that the Almighty would shun her prayers for her mother's betrayal, and that had driven her away from the cathedral without as much as a backwards glance.

             It was because of her mother's blood that a vampire wanted her. Her mother had always forewarned her that she was different. You must protect your secret at all costs. No matter what, tell no one, Leo.

             She felt a tear trickle down her face and gasped. I'm sorry I failed you.

             Leonie sniffled and retreated from her dismal musings to gaze upon the darkness void of shape and light. The vampire had deposited her here while she'd been unconscious and hadn't returned. She didn't know what she feared most, the unwavering screen of darkness, or his imminent return.

             It was the sound of a barred metallic door unlocking that jarred Leonie awake. She bolted upright with a protesting of sore muscles and scrambled into a darkened corner as somewhere across the darkness, a heavy door scraped open, brandishing a torch to illuminate the stone walls and - her monster.