Bitten by Darkness (3 page)

He
adjusted the thrusters and prepared to enter the atmosphere, first hacking into
the planet's information networks. His computer quickly assimilated the latest
information: maps, air traffic control, and possible weather issues. When he
was satisfied that he could make a quiet landing, he tapped his screen and
entered the command for entry. Then he sat back and tried to enjoy the view.
Earth didn't look much different from when he'd left, except for the
proliferation of artificial light. It was rather pretty. He’d kept abreast with
all the changes by skimming
Dekcol's
classified
information databases. Even though the Blood Council told the people they'd
stopped all extra-planetary activity, Jasper knew better. He was one of them,
after all, a viper in a pit of fat pythons. He smiled again, amused that even
his metaphors veered toward native Earth species. Soon he would be home.

Dekcol
had been systematically harvesting life from numerous planets for centuries.
Earth was just their latest conquest, and of course, the most seductive. Jasper
grimaced, tightening his fingers on his harness. He thought about his brother.
Ambrose had fallen in love with a native and married her. Had a child that even
now Jasper regretted being unable to find and care for, all those years ago.
The people here weren’t perfect, but they did their best to care for their
children. The Blood Council, on the other hand, enslaved the ones they loved
and ate the weak. He’d hated being one of them.

The ship
rattled as the atmosphere heated the hull. Jasper closed his eyes. No sense
dwelling on it now. He knew there were some
Dekcolians
left on Earth, blood-drinkers like him, except for one crucial difference: he
never, ever took sustenance from a sentient creature. It was not only
pointless,
it was also unethical and immoral. Living in such
a way poisoned the eater. That way
lay
madness.

Unfortunately,
most of the
Dekcolians
stranded on Earth after the
last exodus, when Jasper was forced to leave, thought differently. They
believed feeding on
humans
conferred gifts.
Strength.
Longevity.
Psychic powers.
Drinking sentient blood was also addictive.
Once begun, there was no stopping.

The
ultimate tragedy, as far as he was concerned, was that eventually, all
Dekcolians
developed the same gifts over time. There was no
need to hurry the process and lose whatever sense of compassion they had in the
process. At a little over five hundred years old, Jasper was one of the oldest
of his people, though some rare few could live to see a thousand.
Like
Alucard
, may he die soon and
badly.
Jasper had all those gifts of strength and mind and more, as well as the wisdom
to use them wisely.

No,
they're not my people. Not now, not ever again
, he thought, forcing his eyes open. The viewport was
flaming orange as the friction of the ship heated the air's molecules. Soon
enough, though, the fire gave way to soothing darkness. He shut off the
automatic protocols and took control of the skimmer.

It was
time to go home. He'd programmed the ship to zero in on the North American
continent then used the old beacon embedded in the east tower of the mansion to
orient
himself
. The soft, rolling Appalachian
Mountains stretched out below him, dark and comforting. As he flew closer to
the surface, his heart began to beat faster and faster.
Calmly
, he told
himself as he spotted the light stone of his family's manor, hidden in the
trees that had grown wild over the centuries.

There
it is. Home,
he thought,
dipping the nose of the ship down until he hovered over the flat surface of the
back courtyard, protected by the east and west wings of the house. Not even a
leaf stirred as he set the ship down, the anti-
grav
dampeners working just as well here in Earth's lighter gravity as they had when
he was testing the systems back on
Dekcol
. He sat
silently for a moment then shut everything down. He had to force his fingers
away from the controls. He felt light, as if he were dreaming, though he knew
better. He tapped one last command. The ship's canopy dematerialized and he
took the first free breath he’d had in longer than he cared to acknowledge,
lifting his face to the night sky.

He was
home.

Chapter Six

Sienna
stood over the dead girl's body, feeling nothing. Maybe feeling a little upset
that she felt nothing. She stared at the strange angle of her neck. She stared
at the tears in the girl’s skin where the creature had ripped to get to her
jugular. Police swarmed around her, their radios squawking disrespectfully.
When someone put a hand on her shoulder, she had to fight herself so she didn't
flinch away. Or attack.

“Sienna,
come on, there's nothing you can do for her,” Linda's dad said, tugging on her
elbow.

Sienna
sighed, heavily. She could smell the blood on the air.
So much blood
.
She glanced away
from him, to the east. The sunrise had just crept over the horizon, though the trees
were too dense here in the woods to shed any light on the scene, not that it
mattered. The place was lit up like high noon at an airport. The FBI had hauled
in generators and big lights. Forensic experts were combing the trees for
fiber. She knew they wouldn't find a damn thing.

“They're
wasting their time,” she said, turning to Linda's father.

Ted
rubbed his eyes.
“Yeah.”

“Why do
they even bother?” Sienna glanced at the men rolling the girl into a bag.

“You know
why.”

She shook
her head. “It's pointless.” She walked over to one of the FBI's all-terrain
vehicles and leaned on it. It was a miracle they'd managed to get up the rocky
trail at all. “How's Linda?” It was quieter here. She could actually hear some
birds beginning their morning gossip.

Ted shook
his head. “I'm not sure she's going to remember much.”

Sienna
grimaced. “That's probably a good thing.”

He looked
at her, his bald head and face strangely intent. “Why aren't you upset?”

Sienna
wondered what to tell him.
I always knew there were monsters. My mother
warned me. And, oh yeah, by the way, I don't think I'm completely human.
She nearly laughed out loud, had to work hard to suppress the urge.
That
would go over real well.
Instead of speaking, she shrugged.

Ted
looked away, uneasy. He sensed her unspoken thoughts—she knew he did.
Somehow.

“They've
taken your statement. You were the last one. Let's get Linda and the
boys
home,” he finally said.

She
nodded. “It shouldn't take more than an hour to hike back down to the
trailhead.”

He smiled
tiredly and put a hand to her shoulder. A scream pierced the air. They stared
at each other for a split second then ran for the trees.

“That was
Linda,” Sienna said, pounding along the dirt path. “When did she wander off?”

“I don't
know. I left her with Officer Martin while I sat with you during your
statement. John and Dillon were with her, too.”

“Shit.”
Sienna ran harder. Ted gave her a look that said
be careful
as she
pulled ahead of him. When she ran into the small clearing where they'd set up
camp, she found Linda being cradled by John while a strange man stood over
them, staring into the trees, fists clenched. Dillon crouched by his brother,
trying to hand Linda a tissue. She was crying.

“Linda!”
Sienna hurried over. “What happened? Are you okay?”

Ted
staggered into the campsite, breathing heavy. “Don't move!”

Sienna
glanced up, eyes widening. He had a gun pointed at the stranger. She hadn't
even considered him a threat. Somehow, he'd completely slipped past her
stranger,
danger
radar.

“Ted?”

He
ignored her. “Step away from them slowly.”

The man
deliberately relaxed his hands and turned around. Sienna gasped. How had she
thought he was no threat? He was huge.
He has to be over six feet tall.
He wore jeans and a grey t-shirt that did nothing to hide the muscularity of
his body. The only thing that softened his looks was the jet-black hair that
fell softly over his face. As she stared at him, he slowly reached up and
brushed it out of his pale grey eyes. She'd never seen eyes like that on anyone
before. They were so light they almost glowed.

“Sienna,
I'm fine. Thanks to him,” Linda
said,
hiccuping
as she pointed at the man. She took the tissue
Dillon offered and wiped her eyes.
“Dad.
I'm okay.”
She dabbed at a scratch on her arm with her wet tissue. It was long, but not
very deep.

“You're
bleeding.” Sienna tore her eyes away from the man and gently tilted Linda's arm
toward the early morning light just beginning to filter through the trees. The
man squinted as if the light hurt his eyes.

“Dad, seriously.
Put your gun away. I'd be dead if he hadn't shown up,”
Linda said, louder.

“She's
right, Ted. I couldn't have stopped it by myself.” John turned slightly, enough
for Ted to see the reddened mark on his face. It was going to bruise
spectacularly. Dillon just hunched his shoulders.

Ted
looked at his daughter, a question on his face. Linda nodded. He put his gun
back into his shoulder holster and buckled the safety strap. “Who are you?” He
looked at the stranger.

“My name
is Jasper
Librae
,” the man said calmly, as if Linda's
father hadn't just pulled a weapon on him. He eased a handkerchief from his
pocket and handed it to Sienna, either not noticing or not caring about Ted's
unease. “I was hiking up the trail to see what was happening when I found these
three fighting off an attacker.”

“An attacker?
What was he wearing?”

Sienna
knew Ted was trying to see if it was the same one that had killed the girl.

“He had
on all black. And there was something wrong with his face,” Linda said,
shivering. John put another arm around her.

“His mouth.
Something was wrong with his mouth,” Dillon whispered.

Sienna
frowned. Not because she disbelieved them, but because she didn't expect the
vampire to attack again so soon in the same area. Dillon's face was pale, too
pale. “Don't think about it, Dillon.”

Jasper
gave her a sharp glance, but whatever he saw on her face reassured him.

“What did
you do?” Ted asked, clearly not letting his guard down.

“I
grabbed him by the arm. When he tried to strike me, I blocked it and twisted
his wrist. I'm fairly certain I broke it. He ran.” Jasper shrugged.

Ted
looked at John who nodded.
“Yeah.
Pretty
much.
The attacker had black hair. His eyes, they were weird, too.
Brown, maybe?
But with a weird tint to
them, as if he was wearing colored contacts.
He had to be at least six
feet tall.
And strong.”
He fingered his cheekbone,
wincing. “I kicked his knee and it was like he didn't even notice.”

“He
noticed. He was just too far gone to care,” Jasper said.

“Too far
gone?” What was he talking about? Sienna found her eyes straying over the man's
body again. He was just so … big. She couldn't help it. And she didn't get the
weird vibe from him she often got from guys. He felt comforting, which was
total bullshit. Why would a perfect stranger feel so attractive to her?

“He was
obviously high on something. When I grabbed him by the arm, I pulled him off
balance. The pain of broken bones seemed to snap him out of it.” Jasper didn't
seem too concerned with the attacker's well being, not that Sienna blamed him.

“Which
way did he go?” Ted asked, reaching for his radio.

“West.”
Jasper pointed in the direction he had been facing.
“Away
from the rising sun.”

Three
hours later Sienna finally stepped into her shower. She sighed, exhausted, and
let the hot water pound over her skin. She'd had her long hair scraped back
into a ponytail for so long her head ached. It felt good to let it out. She
massaged her scalp, thinking about the man who'd saved Linda.
Jasper
.
She liked
his name. It suited him. She turned around and soaped up a
cloth,
briskly washed, for once not grimacing over the thousands of freckles dotting
her skin and how unfair it was that she even had freckles since she wasn't even
a redhead. She was too tired to care.

When she
finished, she dried off and put on her robe. She didn't want to get dressed,
didn't want to call anyone. She'd just finished explaining everything that had
happened to her mother. That was a phone call she didn't ever want to repeat.
When she'd described Jasper, her mom had gone curiously silent for a moment.
When she finally spoke, she said something that spooked her.