The New Beginning - Dark Love 4

Vampire's and Mage's and Blood Bond's oh my.

THE CIRCLE STARS AGAIN

Dark Love - 4

New Erotic Adventures of the Undead

Prologue

The woman swerved, trying to miss the car pulling out in front of her, swearing to herself as she pulled hard at the wheel, forcing the speeding car she was in to settle back on the road. She had to hurry nothing could, slow, her down, if she didn't stop what was playing out in her head, then there would be people dying, way, too many people. People she didn't ever want to see die. People that, if, she didn't make it in time, would.

It all started back simple enough, she thought her ideas and creations were so wonderfully neat. The book sold well and she was suddenly popular among those that enjoyed adult books. Often joking that her book, 'Blood's Lust', was, in truth nothing more than a high-class one-handed rag. And oh how she loved that book, all the characters in it were just so real to her, so vivid and full of life as she wrote their story. Stunned that it fell from her mind to the paper so easily.

But the good times she was having, were, very short lived. Just after she had finally recovered from the third of her series and had it printed, she received a package in the mail one day, that had no return address, and held only two things in it's contents.

One was a article from the Chicago Times, that had a photo and article talking about the life and death of Adrian Matthew Carr, the youngest District Attorney in the Cities history, the picture with the article was a picture of those that were attending his funeral. The caption read that the woman in the picture, who was leaning against another man, was Robyn Elisabeth Carr, his younger sister and the sole survivor. And even though the picture was in black and white, she knew that the woman's hair was blue, just as she knew that the man who stood at her side was none other than Torin. And they both were just fictional characters from her writing.

The other was a small clipping from one of the many tabloids in the city, discussing the mysterious death of six prominent businessmen, who had been killed under suspicious circumstances. Their bodies discovered behind a locked door, and with the exception of one man, who lay in a pool of his own blood, were cold, dead, and almost completely drained of blood. The writer of the article, commented on the strangeness of the deaths, noting the fact that they were all locked in the room, one, that showed no obvious signs of force entry or exit. The lack of blood, and the look of horror that was forever frozen on their faces, stumped the police. Then the tabloid writer speculated, with the lack of any other evidence to the true reason why the men died, that could there possibly, be vampires in their midst's?

She didn't remember much of the next couple of months. It was all nothing but a drunken haze. As she struggled to come to grips with the fact that her book, the one that she was so proud of, it was all real, and the characters that she had fallen in love with, were real. Vampires really did exist.

Fortunately for her, the madness that she was sure she would never come out of, from learning that her characters, the ones that she was so proud of, were not only real, but were truly vampires, finally passed. Some how, knowing that it was all-real, that she wasn't going insane, helped her.

Once she sobered up, and got her life back together, the first thing she did was burn, the fourth book. Vowing that never again would she ever expose them. Going even so far in her plight to erase all the evidence of their existence, to wiping her Hard-drive clean. So never again, would anyone ever see anything else, and she swore that she would never, again, write about them.

Things should have settled down once she had corrected her mistake. But it didn't. The dreams, and visions, that she used to be so tickled about, now frightened her. They came with more and more frequency, until at last, every time the sunset, she knew she would be visited by not only visions, but feelings, as well. Feelings that would, almost, overwhelm her in their strength and intensity.

The passing of, over, six years since she had had her first dream. The struggle to hold on to her sanity and the need to push away the loneliness had become, almost, a continual thing for her. No one would ever believe her, if she ever tried to tell anyone. And living with them all in her mind, as, she had, made it impossible for her to betray their secret, even if she had wanted to. So why, now, after so long was she finally willing to expose herself, and brave going to the place that had haunted her dreams for so long. She had never wanted to intrude in their world, never wanted them to know who she was or what she knew. She kept asking herself this question, over and over again, as she sped to try to stop what she knew was coming. But even as she asked herself why, she knew the answer.

There was going to be an explosion, and too many of those she had gotten to know, to love, almost as if they were her family, her closest friends, would die. And she already had suffered from the loss she had felt when Torin and Sapphire had died, so she couldn't live with that, couldn't accept that she would lose so many with out at least trying to do something to save them.

Her name, her real one anyway, was Rachel Turner. She was, as far as she knew, with the exception of the one that sent her the articles. The sole keeper of the secret of their, existence. And though she had never wanted to ever intrude on their lives, she was going to have to now, intrude or, feel so, many die.

There was going to be an explosion, she knew this, had woke this morning with a bad feeling that had progressed over the day. Those that, she knew so well. Who she had spent the last, three, years as her hidden secret. Were in mortal danger, a danger that if she didn't make it in time. Would be fatal for so many.

It was a bomb. A very large bomb, she knew what it was and how it would come. And she knew that if it did, she would lose so many of those that she had grown to love, almost as if they were her closest friends, her family, even her lovers.

'What am I doing'? The thought ran through her mind for the umpteenth time as she glanced down, quickly, rummaging through her purse for her cigarettes. But along with the question came the answer. Too many of those that lived in her heart and mind were going to die. Too many were going to be hurt both physically, and emotionally, if she didn't stop this. So many, would die. Of the mortals that lived there, only Wolf, Julian, Casey, Willow and William would live. The vampires, the Kin, she didn't want to think about who would die, or what it would do not only to her, but to those that remained. She had already lived through death in their number; it almost drove her mad as she felt both Torin and Sapphire die. She just had to get there in time. She couldn't live through that kind of loss again.

The thought of what might happen to her, if she made it in time, kept trying to form in her head, but she kept pushing that thought away. She knew, once they found out about her, they might very well kill her to keep their existence a secret. But that was a risk she had to take. Better she die now, than live though what she knew was coming.

But, as she struggled to light the cigarette, trying three times with the car lighter, before she could light it, she just didn't see them killing her. Some how or the other, she just couldn't see Azrael seeking her death. She had spent too many years living in his mind to believe that he would ever kill her.

But, if he didn't kill her, she didn't know what he would do. She couldn't see herself as one of them, even as a pet. She had grown accustomed to what he wanted in the way of pets, and she just wasn't it. Even Jenna was prettier than she was. What with her mousy brown/red hair, gray eyes and maybe an extra thirty pounds. She wasn't ugly, just plain. Yes plain was the best word for her. She just couldn't see any of them wanting her for anything more than an evening snack. So she knew it was madness for her to do this. But, madness or no, she had no more say in her mad dash to save them all, than she had in all the things she felt and saw every night with the setting of the sun.