Futile Flame (26 page)

I feel my life slipping away as blackness squeezes my chest, emptying my lungs of air. He throws my weakened body off him, then stands and shouts in rage and lunacy at the passing crowd. But they cannot see his horrible, deformed face, twisted in pain and anger. The traffic and the people move steadily by. Some stop to browse in shop windows, helplessly unaware this crazed monster stands so near, ready to steal life from them. Caesare grabs a passing businessman and throws him into the road as a car drives full pelt through a red light. I watch through my blood-filled gaze as his body hits the front fender and is thrown several feet into the air. I turn away, staggering to my feet and I hear the body reacting to gravity as it smacks down onto the road. A dull crack echoes through the air as his back is broken in two places.

Caesare reaches for a woman but Lucrezia and Lilly are holding him back, though neither touches him. Lilly’s commands keep him at bay, but he is a snarling, feral animal and seems incapable of rational thought.

‘You’re slowly being swallowed by the darkness,’ Lucrezia tells him, her hands held up in a placating gesture and I wonder if she has dealt with the insane in her long medical career. ‘Caesare! You have stayed away from your natural time path too long.’

But the monster doesn’t understand.

‘Listen to her,’ Lilly says. ‘Perhaps we can help you.’

‘Mother. I brought you gifts,’ Caesare gurgles through his teeth and blood. ‘Why didn’t you take my offerings?’ His roar is one of the deepest agony and pain.

So, he was never trying to goad us. His reference to bringing us gifts reminds me of the behaviour of cats, who often bring their owners mice and birds to show their appreciation of the food and home they had been given. With his slack jaw, fierce teeth and lunatic expression, Caesare is the most unlikely pet I have ever seen.

Lucrezia crushes her hand to her mouth, tears welling in her eyes as she gazes at the brother she briefly loved. He has outwardly become the vile creature he was always inside. The darkness is eating him away. I can see the decay through my hazy vision.

‘I thank you for the gifts,’ Lilly tells him, clearly playing along. ‘But now you must stop this. This is not our way, Caesare. You have exposed us all to the world with your reckless behaviour.’

I recognise the authority of a mother in her reasonable voice. Caesare falls to his knees in remorse.

‘I never meant... I only wanted... I need your love, Mother, to make me better.’

‘No, brother,’ Lucrezia says. ‘You need the light. It’s the only way that darkness can be truly banished.’

With tears in her eyes she approaches the prone figure. He raises his humped form and stares at her, his eyes crazed and rolling.

‘I love you,’ she tells him. Then, in one fluid movement, she punches her hand hard at his chest, thrusting right inside through the rotting skin and bone and grasping his heart in her hand. She pauses, looking into his eyes for a moment, before pulling it out of his body. For a moment we watch it beat in her small hand.

Caesare stares at his vital organ in shock. She says her word of power, only this time it is the name of her first child.

‘Antonio.’

The heart bursts into blue flames. At the same time a sapphire inferno ignites inside Caesare’s chest. He falls back, beating at the flames. But his swatting does no good, as cold blue flame rapidly eats him from the inside out. His body thrashes wildly, feet and arms smashing down on the concrete slabs, cracking the stones, black ichor dripping over the pavement. His body melts. The face, hideous though it was already, disintegrates into a black oily pulp and his entire body collapses in on itself, leaking onto the road in a growing puddle of darkness. Caesare is now nothing more than a hideous stain on the street.

Lucrezia still stands, hand outstretched, holding his heart. As we watch, the organ turns to powder in her hand, slowly slipping away like the sands of time through her pale fingers, to scatter in the wind. As the last of his presence dissolves, breaking down further into black dust, I feel the power returning fully to my limbs.

I stumble forward, taking the sobbing Lucrezia into my arms and stretching out a hand to my darling Lilly. We stagger away from the scene of the crime. Our enemy is dead but it still feels like we have more questions than answers. As we reach the doorway to the department store once again, I glance back at the street and see the body of the pregnant woman fading away from this reality. It will end up in another place, hiding the crime, but I have no idea where that will be.

Present

We return to the café. Our drinks are where we left them. We sit down and look at each other in silence as though we never left the table in the first place.

‘It’s over,’ says Lilly.

Lucrezia and I, however, are still uneasy. Something is still wrong and we can both feel it.

A sense of unreality slowly seeps into my shocked brain as I look around the cafe. I feel as though I am out of step with time. It is like I am a visitor in my own dimension.

The sound in the coffee bar decreases. Until now, the distant chatter of an old couple on the table near us has steadied and levelled the normality of the day. I look around. In the corner of the room a mother feeding her child in a highchair melts into the tacky Monet print behind her. They become painted pastel figures and part of the beach scene. The waitress walks through a wall that wasn’t there moments before. A teenage girl is sucked into her coke glass, the glass into the table and finally the table into the floor. The room is fading around us. I reach for Lilly and Luci as I rise to my feet seconds before my chair melts into the flowery carpet. Around us the world has changed and the walls have faded to become the shadow of countless doors and the remaining furnishings fade into the rock that is suddenly established beneath our feet.

All three of us are standing looking down an immense corridor. Doors of all makes, all styles and eras, and made of different materials, line both sides. Just as Lucrezia described in her story. This is the remains of the Allucian nursery.

I try to hold Lilly’s hand but her body seems insubstantial and my fingers grasp only air.

‘The corridor of time,’ Lilly murmurs. ‘I remember...’

‘What’s happening?’ I say.

Lucrezia looks at me and then stares down the corridor at ten pairs of shining gold irises. But the babies come no farther towards us. They merely look benignly back as though waiting for us to choose our new pathway. I wonder if they are the keepers of the corridor now.

‘That’s the door,’ Lucrezia points to the wall, but all I see is a rocky space between two other doors.

‘How on earth did we get here?’ I ask.

‘Yes, the door,’ Lilly says walking forward.

Lilly examines the rock and I can see and feel an immense power emanating from the wards. The triskele glows as though cut from blue light. Lucrezia is shivering as she stares at her handiwork.

‘It seems secure,’ she murmurs.

‘Then how did he get out? And more importantly how did we get here?’ I ask. For I know without a doubt that something else is about to happen.

‘Have we travelled back in time?’ Lilly asks.

‘I don’t think so.’ Lucrezia turns and looks both ways. ‘There’s no pull to any door. This is clearly an illusion.’

Her tears have dried but her eyes are sad. I reach for her, find her as solid as myself. We both turn to see Lilly moving down the corridor with intent. I try to move after her, but I’m thrown back. My darling lover gets farther away. I see her halt in front of a door. Her hand reaches out.

‘No!’ Lucrezia yells. ‘Don’t touch it!’

The door springs open as though it has a life of its own. Lilly face is ecstatic as she is drawn through. She looks like she is going home.

I drag myself forward, pulling hard against the force. As I reach Lilly she steps through the door and I fall at the foot of it. It’s made of carved rock and ornate marble, like the doorways to temples and holy places portrayed in renaissance art.

‘Lilly!’ I cry.

The doorway is a howling gale. I cannot reach it. Lilly is on the other side and remains unaffected by the wind. She steps deeper in and now I can see a beautiful garden on the other side. I touch the frame of the door. It burns the skin from my fingers. I yelp in pain but my hand still flies out before me. But I am too late. The door slams shut. I see one fleeting glimpse of Lilly, looking up into the sky, an expression of happiness and wonder colouring her face as the sun bursts through the clouds and beams down on her like a holy light.

‘Lilly!’

Lucrezia is holding me. We are back in the café. I open my eyes and look around. People are looking at us strangely and I realise I have had some form of hallucination.

‘What happened?’

‘We’re back,’ she says.

‘I had this strange experience.’

‘I know.’

I sit up and look for Lilly. Her seat is empty.

‘No...’

‘I’m sorry,’ Lucrezia says. ‘I don’t know what happened.’

‘You did this! It’s witchcraft!’

‘No! I swear it wasn’t me.’ Lucrezia drops her head into her hands. ‘At least, I don’t think it was me.’

‘Where is she?’ I demand.

Lucrezia shakes her head. Her face is deathly pale and the strength and vitality she always possesses seems sucked from her.

‘You have some explaining to do.’

‘I think talking about the corridor summoned it. But I don’t understand why. Lilly went through a door of her own free will,’ Lucrezia explains.

‘No, she seemed drawn.’

‘Then she was meant to go through it.’

No. The last person we knew of to go through a door came back a hideous and twisted being. I couldn’t bear to lose Lilly, but it would be so much worse if she returned insane and we had to destroy her. My head falls into my hands. Nausea pulls at my insides. I feel as though I am on the brink of finally losing my mind. After all the losses of the centuries, my son and daughter, every woman I had loved, none of them hit me as hard as this moment.

My mobile phone rings in my pocket. I feel the vibration, hear the musical tone of Sam Sparro, but don’t respond. I’m in shock. I’ve lost the love of my life and have no way of knowing how to find her. She may be anywhere in time.

‘Aren’t you going to answer that?’ the waitress asks as she clears our table.

I put my hand in my pocket; fumble around like a blind man and eventually I grip the phone, pulling it free and out into the restaurant. Around us the other customers dart furtive glances our way.

‘For goodness sake,’ mutters the old woman on the next table. ‘Young people never know when to turn those things off.’

I glance down at the number that’s calling. It’s an international call and I don’t recognise the number. My fingers are numb as I press the receive button and place the handset to my ear but find I am incapable of speech.

‘Gabi! It’s Lilly. I know this is really strange after so long, but I need you. I’m in Stockholm.’

I listen, not quite believing it’s her.

‘Darling! Lilly? How can that be? You’ve only just vanished!’

‘What?’

‘Just ten minutes ago... Darling, I’m so relieved to hear your voice.’

‘Ah,’ Lilly responds. ‘I have so much to tell you.’

The story continues in
Demon Dance
, Book Three of
The Vampire Gene

KILLING KISS:

Silver Award Winner in
ForeWord
Magazine’s Book of the Year Awards 2007

• ‘A deceptively readable date with darkness watch your step! This book is lit for the much more discerning chick (and cock) who likes to walk in the shadows. Relax with it, but be prepared for sudden jewels and little masterpieces and the rug to be pulled from under your feet.’ Tanith Lee
  
• ‘Read this book and change the way you feel about vampires for the rest of your so short life.’ Geoff Nelder
  
• ‘Having been told great things about this book I was looking forward to reading it, however I did not count on the fact it would drag me in, captivate me and then leave me begging for more.’ Review on Amazon.co.uk
  
• ‘Worth getting your fangs into.’ Peter Mark May
  
• ‘Very impressed with this first book!’ Review on Amazon.co.uk
  
• ‘Vampire fans who are drawn to the mysterious sexual lure that the immortals have over their “common” peers will love Stone’s seductive prose. She captures the passion and lust perfectly, without going overboard and making it a tawdry romance novel.’ Eddie Gresham
  
• ‘I cannot get this story out of my head and it will have you hooked and want more!!’ Review on Amazon.com
  
• ‘I was floored by Sam’s work. Really flat-out delighted to see such a level of style combined with narrative drive. I suppose one could use those terms in an overly technical sense, but Sam is at a level that simply shines. Soaking in her story even while seeing her powerful ability to make me feel and see what the narrator is experiencing – she’s not only got a gift, she clearly knows how to employ it to powerful effect.’ Gard Goldsmith
  
• ‘
  If Dracula and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s Count Saint-Germain mixed you’d have Gabriele, the lead in Sam Stone’s throwback vampire novel,
  Killing Kiss
  ... Vampire fans, especially those feeling left behind by romance’s siege on the genre, will find
  Killing Kiss
  (the first in a trilogy) has a lot to offer and shouldn’t be missed.’ Michele Lee –
  Booklove
  
• ‘The thing that really stands out when reading
  Killing Kiss
  is Sam Stone’s fantastic writing and thorough characterisation. I haven’t seen writing this good for a while, and as for the characters, they’re so deep and layered they could almost be real.’ Jenny Davies –
  Wondrous Reads
  
• ‘Sam’s writing is as hypnotic as a vampire’s stare, and the intelligence she uses to set the scene – not dictating, but merely suggesting what images your mind will conjure up – lets me, as the reader, feel part of the narrative.’ Trudy Messingham –
  The Art of Randomology
  
• ‘Loving the lusty lines and serial killer intentions of the protagonists... thinking @SamStoneAuthor
  Killing Kiss
  is very Chick Slash.’ Nicholas Butler (@Loudmouthman) on Twitter
  
• ‘This is what happens when Jackie Collins writes
  Twilight
  . Makes Edward seem so Disney.’ Nicholas Butler (@Loudmouthman) on Twitter
  
• ‘The first author I have read for whom vampires are essentially time travellers.’ Nicholas Butler (@Loudmouthman) on Twitter
  

FUTILE FLAME:

Finalist in
ForeWord
Magazine’s Book of the Year Awards 2009; Shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel 2009

• ‘This book has it all, sibling incest, lesbianism, male on male rape, and people getting their hearts ripped out of their chests.’ J R LeMar
  
• ‘Vibrant and colourful.’ Peter Mark May
  
• ‘When you have a vampire, as sexually charged as Lucrezia, survive burning at the stake and living among the whores of an Italian dockland, you don’t want your reading flame to go out. The sensual show is rich, the characters three-dimensional, and the terror is real. The witch-burner’s flames were futile but the fire between the pages rages on.’ Geoff Nelder
  
• ‘[Lucrezia’s] shocking tale: from the obsessions of a brother; her fall as his prey; her longing for freedom and normality; the strength of will she develops through mere survival... [all] creates a power beyond the usual tale of vampire meets girl, vampire falls in love with girl, vampire loses girl... or whatever the formula is for such things. You become a part of Lucrezia’s discoveries, much as you learn with Gabriele of the life he was thrust into, yet with the fresh eyes of a female, seeing the world of the late 1500s and early 1600s male domination being twisted and used to such great advantage. With the revelations of her story, the whole book opens up into a new, greater dimension, leaving me in total awe of the new world created in my mind. Yes I want, no, NEED more!’ Trudy Messingham –
  The Art of Randomology
  
• ‘With all the style and charisma of Anne Rice, but less indulgence and crazy,
  Futile Flame
  is a sensual, deadly tale of immortals, sins and the unknown wrapped up in a vivid take on the past... Rich, enticing and utterly charming Stone’s vampires are ambrosia to horror fans hungry for the good old monstrous vampires who look, walk and sound like us, but hold our deaths in their gaze.’ Michele Lee –
  Booklove
  

DEMON DANCE:

• ‘Enticing, shocking and delightful... A fast-moving story that’s spell-binding, as thrilling as it is intelligent and thought-provoking... Sam Stone writes with stylish panache.’ Simon Clark
  
• ‘Sam Stone has done it again, her immersion into the vampire world is so extraordinarily well-crafted that I am wondering if she is really Lilly, the protagonist vampire with a heart. And Lilly is more than a vampire, she has learnt witchcraft and – rare in vampire literature – can manipulate ley lines, using them as a power. Unusual too in that this vampiric feast travels the corridors of Time, quite literally and in both directions... If
  Futile Flame
  was a
  flambé
  of vampiric lust,
  Demon Dance
  is its
  force majeure
  .’ Geoff Nelder