Volume 1. 2: Not Dead!

Type: Series

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Rating: M

Characters: Luca, Julian, April, Warrick, Richard

Word Count: 2754

Glossary: prana-life energy in Sanskrit

Warning: blood, sweat and tears....And oh, gore and things, language too and some nudity

Those who are dead are not dead 
they’re just living in my head 

and since I fell for that spell 

I am living there as well 

Oh…

42-Coldplay

Sonja was gone but Luca was still seething from their encounter. He didn’t realize just how much anger and hate he harbored for the Witch until he saw her on his front porch.

Twenty one years had done nothing to cool off his rage. He’d wanted to kill her right there and then, but mind had won over heart, she could still be useful to his plans.

In haze of anger, Luca stalked across the courtyard to what used to be their family library in the west wing.

The moment he swung the door open and his shadow filled the door way, they cowered close together in the corner of the room, fear and panic gripping their fragile hearts.

His eyes zoomed in on the girl.

She was pretty little thing, but painfully thin, with long blond hair framing her perfectly round face.

The scared look in her eyes reminded Luca of deer caught in headlights.

But he wouldn’t let it deter him. She had a job to perform.

Silently, he held out his hand for her. She ignored him, stubbornly looking at everything but him.

“Don’t make this harder than it should be,” he told her quietly. But he bared his fangs for emphasis, and it got him the desired results.

In a flash she was holding her hand out to him.

“It will be over before you know it,” he told her gently as he picked her up from the floor and carried her to the cellar.

“I want to go home,” the girl whimpered in his arms.

“I know. You will. Soon,” he smiled down at her. The hard look in his eyes though told her they were done talking and trying to change his mind would be pointless.

They reached their destination too soon for the girl and she cried pitifully as Luca carefully placed her on the stone floor outside the cellar’s door.

“Your meal is here,” He rapped on the wood, rousing his brother and the others from their famished sleep. His voice barely carried, but the rustle of activity on the other side of the door told him they’d heard him.

“Luca—”Julian croaked in a hoarse voice. He sounded very weak, but alive. And it was all that mattered to Luca then.

He laughed manically as feelings of relief washed over him.

He’d barely had time to settle in and check on his brother when Sonja paid him a visit, and throughout their chat he had been a tightly wound up mess, wondering if Julian and the others were still alive. Returning home always filled him with dread because he never knew what he’d find.

“Feed for now, we’ll talk later. You need to save your strength.” Luca told his brother firmly through the door.

“This won’t take long,” he told the girl as he knelt in front of her, holding her in place with her back pressed against the door.

Her fear was so strong he could taste it at the back of his throat. And not for the first time in twenty years he hated himself for what he was doing, not just to her, but all the prey he’d lured to the manor.

As much as he loathed his actions, he knew he had no other choice. Either the clan fed on the psychic energy of those around them, or they died. And the latter had never been an option for him.

The sounds from inside the cellar were faint at first, but with each fill of their lungs as they drained the energy from the girl, the Vampires’ cries soon rose to unbearably primitive, guttural sounds.

Their scratching on the wood as they attempted to get closer to the energy source grated on Luca’s nerves. And he wanted to leave the basement and retreat to the crypt, but he couldn’t. He had to sit through their energy exchange and watch over the girl and make sure they didn’t drain her to death.

Initially when they’d started the practice, they were sloppy and they’d had a high body count. But over the years they’d improved their feeding technique, and they had also learned not to be greedy and take only what they needed.

Luca noticed the girl’s heart had slowed down to a dangerously low pace; her breathing had almost stopped too. Her whole face was now a sickly blue color where as it had been a normal hue just moments before.

He pulled her away from the door and carried her to the cot on the opposite side of the room.

“Richard!” he barked as he watched the girl.

Within moments, his family butler, stood beside him like an apparition. He had aged considerably since he saw him last over a month ago.

“Luca,” he bowed and tilted his graying head slightly.

“Please take care of her,” Luca jerked his head at the unconscious girl.

“Certainly,” Richard bowed again before he proceeded to do as he was instructed. He would nurse the girl back to health and when she was well enough, Luca would compel her and return her home.

“Where’s April? Is she okay? I miss her so much!” Julian cried from inside the cellar. He sounded much stronger now, and the yearning in his voice for his mate couldn’t be mistaken for anything else.

Luca draped his long frame on the wine crates as he silently regarded his brother’s question. He closed his eyes, thinking of an easier way to break the news to him. He quickly decided against it. It wasn’t his place. April would have to clean up her own mess. Besides, he knew his brother, Julian would be devastated and may just give up all hope of ever getting out if he knew what April had done and he couldn’t have that.

“She’s great,” Luca replied at last. “She should be here soon.”

They talked for a little while, and Luca asked after everyone.

There were ten initially locked in the cellar, but over the years, it was easy for five of them to give up hope of ever being freed from their claustrophobic hell, after all they had no one to live or fight for on the outside.

It had nearly killed Julian and the others to watch them die. But it was nothing compared to the guilt they’d felt for feeding on them. For weeks after each death they were filled with self-loathing and hatred towards the Youngbloods for reducing them to cannibals and making them turn on their own.

Luca was relieved to learn the remaining five were still holding on. Even the baby of the clan, Warrick Kent, was doing okay. When he walked in to the cellar that fateful night he wasn’t a Vampire. And he wasn’t really a baby, in fact he was a grown man, but they all called him that because he was the last to transition.

They’d secretly thought he’d be the first to die, but he’d surprised everyone. His resolve to live had given them strength to get through their darkest hours. Warrick Kent had lost more than everyone in that cellar, but he also had a lot more to live for too, he had a wife and baby to return to.

“How’s Andrew and Willow?” Melanie, Luca and Julian’s cousin, asked after her brother and his girlfriend. 

Like Warrick, she wasn’t supposed to be in the cellar that night, but she’d taken Andrew’s place because he couldn’t attend Court.

After many assurances on Luca’s part that everyone was okay, the clan allowed him to take his leave. He was mentally drained and he wanted to rest before April and Andrew arrived.

He left the cellar and retreated to the crypt.

But sleep eluded him. Hard as he tried, he couldn’t close his eyes and shut down his mind.

He gave up after numerous attempts and settled for staring up at the ceiling instead, thinking about the last twenty years, conversations that had taken place in this very room resurfaced, memories and feelings he’d struggled to keep locked away over the last two decades rushed forth.

He'd run through that evening a million times in his mind, wondering if he could have done anything differently, thinking if he’d delayed his hunting trip, postponed it for another week and stayed for the Court they all wouldn’t be caught in this mess right now.

The morning of the Court, he’d awakened from a troubled sleep.

The deep sense of foreboding from his dreams had stuck with him the whole day.

He’d thrown himself at his piano, convinced his favorite compositions would do the trick and help him shake off the feeling of doom deep in his heart.

But nothing had, not even reading Othello, his favorite work by Shakespeare, from start to finish.

He’d talked with Julian and explained his premonition; something bad was on the way, something dark and evil and it would change their lives forever. He’d told Julian he thought it had to do with the Court that evening.

He’d even begged his brother to cancel the meeting, but Julian had stubbornly refused.

They’d argued for a large part of that day, with him accusing Julian of using their family tradition to promote nights of indulgent blood drinking and promiscuity.

Julian had vehemently denied his accusations, explaining it was what their father would have wanted.

Over a game of chess, Julian had assured him the gathering would go on without any hiccups.

He’d also encouraged the trip and asked him to take April with him since he’d noticed she was in bloodlust, the last thing he wanted was to worry about her.

Luca had eventually agreed to go hunting.To be honest, he’d found the gatherings tedious and bothersome. But he’d never voiced out his opinions because he knew how important the evenings were to Julian, and it was the only reason he’d never missed any in the past. Until that night.

Just as the sun was setting in the horizon, he and April had teleported to Sunset Valley. The pact with the Youngbloods prevented them from hunting on home ground.

Their hunts were usually overnight stays, but that night, still puzzled by his premonitions, he had rushed through his meal, and he’d harassed April too. He was eager to return home and wait out the dark cloud with Julian.

The whole way back to Twinbrook, April had talked about Julian and how much she loved him, and how she regretted missing Court. Paralyzed by the feeling of dread deep in his gut, Luca had said nothing. Not a word.

He knew something was wrong, as soon as they cut through the creek. One, there was no sound of music and blood-drunk voices expected from a rowdy Court…

And there was trail after trail of human bodies, devoid of blood, zigzagging all over the swamp…

The Faelon pack,  was also out in full force, baying for their blood.

They’d never really got along with the pack, but they were not enemies either, they’d had a ‘live and let live’ relationship, and for decades they’d tolerated each other because neither side had broken the rules or crossed lines they shouldn’t.

But with the mutts baring their canines and viciously growling at them then, they knew things had changed, a shift had occurred in their absence and their clan was now the town’s biggest threat.

The moment the dogs caught their scents, they were unforgiving in their well-orchestrated attack.

A part of him had wanted to see the fight through, but they knew it wasn’t a battle they’d win; they were outnumbered and unprepared.

Instinct had taken over and they'd ran. Miraculously he and April had managed to outrun the wolves and they’d made it home by the skin of their teeth.

Nothing would have prepared them for the chaos waiting for them at the Manor.

Most of the fifteen or so vampires they’d found in various rooms in the house were dead, with stakes still stuck in their hearts.

He didn’t feel the full devastation of that night though until they wandered to the cellar where the Court was normally held and they found it magically sealed with his brother and the rest of their clan locked inside.

For days he and April had stayed and talked with the clan through the door. That’s when the details of the massacre had emerged and a plan to break them out was formed. He didn’t want to leave, but Julian had insisted; they were their only hope to get them out. Immediately after leaving Twinbrook, he and April met up with his cousin, Andrew, and his witch girlfriend, Willow, in Sunset Valley.

A loud thud directly above him pulled Luca from his troubled past.

He was instantly out of the door and running up the stairs.

He crashed into Richard on the landing just as the butler was about to come and find him.

The butler was distraught. The girl was having fits and he suspected it was heart failure.

Luca didn’t stick around to hear the rest of his explanation, he ran downstairs to the basement where they kept their medical supplies. The dark leather bag, very much like the ones used by countryside doctors, was still where he’d left it over a month ago, inside the steel cabinet; he took it out and emptied its contents on the floor.

His fingers worked deftly as he rummaged through the dozens of containers and tubes. Miraculously he found the syringe he was looking for and he filled it with adrenaline.

A minute later, he was back upstairs and Richard was in full panic mode.

“Get a grip!” Luca growled at him to pull himself together.

Richard’s panic subsided some, but his fear was still there, filling up the room and making it hard for Luca to focus on the task at hand.

“Get out!” He barked at the elderly man, who wordlessly obeyed.

Alone with the girl, Luca crept over her and peeled off the damp t-shirt. Her pulse was dangerously faint and for a brief second he debated whether or not to save her life.

He was tempted to let her go, pack her up in a nice sheet, and get rid of her, chalk her down as one of the many casualties of their war with the Youngbloods.

But then he remembered Hannah, and he wished someone had saved her.

This girl may have been an energy pack for the clan, but she was also someone’s daughter, someone’s sister and a friend. She had a life outside these four walls and the people who loved her would be devastated if she didn’t come home.

Without thinking more on it, he plunged the syringe in her heart and emptied the adrenaline.

Within seconds her heart rate soared again and her pulse was steady, her feverish blue eyes flew wide open and she jerked on the bed, frothing at the corners of her mouth.

“You’re okay. It’s over now,” Luca held her until her tremors had subsided.

A little while later the girl was fully dressed in one of April’s outfits and judging by the dazed look in her eyes as she sat at the table in the dining room, the compulsion had worked. She still looked pale and sickly and that’s the only reason Luca was going against Richard’s warnings and taking her to a hospital.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Richard murmured from behind him.

Luca continued to ignore his words of caution like he had been doing for the past fifteen minutes while he got the girl ready. But he knew Richard was right, taking the girl to a public hospital wasn’t the best of plans, if the townspeople saw him with the girl it would raise a lot of questions and suspicion he didn’t want or need. But he’d never forgive himself if something that could have been prevented, happened to the girl.

“Get the boy and meet us in the car,” Luca instructed his thrall as he helped the girl from the chair and guided her out of the room.

Outside Twinbrook’s Medical Center, Luca and Richard stayed in the car and watched the girl and the boy dazedly make their way inside the bustling emergency room. Luca had given her strict instructions to approach a nurse inside and insist on getting checked out.

He knew she would follow his instructions to the t and they’d catch a bus home after receiving treatment. He was just worried about the medical staff, there was always a chance they’d turn her away since outwardly she looked okay.

“You did all you could.” Richard placed a consoling hand on his shoulder and Luca nodded his dark head. He just hoped it would be enough.

As they drove out of the city and into the bayou, Luca decided to hold off on finding prey for a while. There’d be four of them in the house now, two at any given time, and their combined energy would be enough to sustain Julian and the clan…

_____

Credits: Warrick Kent is one of the sims especially made for The Forsaken by Karima.
Thank you Karima, for your awesome blood-work. You did an amazing job!