My Love Forever (The Night Movers Vampire Series Book 1) (32 page)

Mel retrieved some ammunition from the bottom of the cabinet and took out a handgun, a shotgun and the rifle. She loaded each one quickly and with great ease, handing them to me as she went. When she was finished she turned to face me and said, “I just need you to tell me how to kill him Josh and we are good to go.”

The weapons were impressive but I wasn’t going to put Mel in harm’s way.

“Mel, a vampire needs some sort of stake through the heart, then you have to remove the head and burn the body. Just shooting him will not kill him like it would a human.”

“I’m keeping the rifle and hand gun Josh. You can take the machete and whichever sword you want.”

“Mel I can’t risk you getting hurt. The speed a vampire can move is like a bullet being shot from this handgun. Before you know it you a laying on the floor with a broken neck. I can’t let anything happen to you.”

“Not your choice bug guy. I swore that I would never let another man hurt me again and this fucker knocked me out. I will let you do your thing but if I get a chance to kill him I will.”

I just nodded my acceptance and walked back towards the steps. She said she wouldn’t let another man hurt her. I never asked Mel too many questions about her past before but after this was over I think we were due a long conversation.

The vampire kept asking Julia how she knew his name was Brandr.

So Alex was right. This was the guy he thought was his father. This made him a really powerful vampire and I didn’t think he had come by for a nice catch up.

Julia had a steely determination to her voice and I couldn’t help but admire her resolve in the face of what could be her death.

She told him that Alex often spoke of him and thought he had died in battle.

I felt Alex’s presence behind me and felt a little better knowing he was there. I started to whisper what I had heard but he put his fingers to his lips and whispered “Our bond is open. Julia has told me everything he’s said. She says that he is next to the dart board at the moment so that places him around ten feet away from her. I am going to open the trap door and speak to him. You can follow me up but stay behind the bar.”

Alex noticed Mel walk up to the steps with the rifle in her hands and shook his head. He took my phone from my back pocket and gestured to Mel.

“Flick through the contacts and call Nik. Tell him what’s going on.”
She nodded and took the phone but didn’t let go of the rifle.

“On the count of three,” Alex whispered.

After counting down silently, Alex opened the trap door into the bar.

The squeaking noise wasn’t that loud but it was noticeable even to human ears, and as soon as he heard it we heard a scuffle as Brandr hurried to Julia.

Alex stood up straight and I quickly rose up the steps behind him.

“Brandr I assume you have come for me and not my woman?” Alex said calmly.

I was anything but calm at that moment. Through a slight gap of the wood in the bar I could see that Brandr was holding Julia, his chest to her back and his hand in her hair pulling her head over to the side. His fangs were bared and it looked like his eyes had turned red.”

I crouched in readiness as I placed the large machete by my knee.

Mel came up the steps behind me as Alex spoke.

“Why did you hide yourself from me all this time? You should have let me know you were alive, that you were now a vampire like me. I mourned you Father and all this time you hid yourself from me.”

“I am not your father Aðalbrandr, you know this. Sebbi fathered you and Freya with my beautiful Brisafreya. He took my woman from me and made me into this.”

“Why did he make you immortal? And when did he do this?”

“It was on the night we were due to sail back to Norway. Our settlement was established and we were leaving good warriors behind to protect it. I took a walk in the woods every night we were there and that particular night I set off later than usual. After I had been walking about five minutes I heard a noise behind me. Sebbi came up to me as I drew my sword. He held me in a tight grip and forced me to drop my weapon. I could not believe his strength. It was far greater than mine and when he wrestled me to the ground and bit into my neck I knew why.”

“I had heard the legend of vampires from the village elders but did not believe them to be true. I thought they were made up stories to frighten little children.

I don’t know how long he drank from me but I could feel myself growing weaker. When I started to see black spots before my eyes he stopped drinking and that was when I saw the monster in him for the first time. His eyes had red rims around his normal colour and he had fangs that were now covered in my blood. I thought he would end my life but instead he decided to tell me a story. He said that he met my wife a week after we were married when Gamall introduced them at a feast we had given, the night before I was due to sail to Bretland for the first time. He said he was able to control my mind and convince me that I didn’t want to sleep with my wife. Instead I took one of the willing wenches that had been flirting with me all night. That was the first night Sebbi took your mother and may have been the night she conceived you.”

I kind of felt sorry for this guy. This Sebbi was real bastard and deserved everything that Freya did to him. Brandr carried on speaking.

“Sebbi told me that when I came back from Bretland he used mind control on me every night thereafter to prevent me from sleeping with my wife, although I was convinced I had lain with her. He was there to see you born but let everyone believe that you were mine. I was proud of my son. You were growing strong and handsome with your mothers grey eyes and blond hair. Then when Freya came along I knew that she wasn’t mine. She had her mother’s hair and eyes and was a really beautiful child but something inside me told me that she came from another mans seed.”

Alex sighed and looked towards Brandr with sympathy. “You really hurt her with your indifference towards her, she tried so hard for you to love her. She was a lovely little girl.”

“But I could not love her Aðalbrandr. I loved you though and that love was misplaced because you did not belong to me either.”

“What else happened that night that Sebbi drank from you?” asked Julia?

.

“He explained what it would take to make me a vampire. He said that he would drink from me once more and then give me his blood. Then he would tie me to the trees and leave me so that when the sun came up I would burn from the inside out.”

That was harsh. Even if this Brandr guy hadn’t been father of the year there was no need to punish him. And especially making him face that kind of death.

Brandr carried on talking but released Julia from his grip and instead he sat her down on his lap. His arm around her waist.

“After Sebbi told me what he was going to do to me, he then said he would bring you and Freya over to Bretland, to the settlement we had made in what is now known as North Yorkshire. He said that because you were from his seed you were known as a born immortal. Sebbi said that when a born immortal drinks human blood, they would get all the strength of a vampire but would be able to walk in the sun. That is how I know you were not my child Aðalbrandr.

When Sebbi finally decided to take my mortal life and give me his blood to make me a vampire. I felt real fear for the first time.

Sebbi laughed when he left me tied up, weak and in the change from human to vampire. And the sound of that laugh has stayed with me for over nine hundred an seventy years. But unbeknown to Sebbi my friend kafe, a warrior who had fought at my side in many battles, had witnessed what Sebbi had done to me. He untied me and carried me to a cave in the far side of the woods. He made a small cut to his wrist and dripped blood into my mouth. Kafe stayed with me until the sun rose high in the sky, then he went back to the village. He came back every day and gave me his blood until I was no longer weak.

Then I left that place and moved around other areas of Bretland at night. Taking human blood and keeping myself strong. I swore I was going to go back and finish Sebbi when he returned with you and your mother from Norway. But I wasn’t as strong as him and couldn’t walk in the sun, so I knew I could not beat him. I returned instead to take your mother from him. But I found out from Kafe that your mother had drowned during the journey over here. I watched you and Freya go about your days, oblivious to the fact that I was watching you.

I came back to find you some twenty years later and discovered that Sebbi and Gamall had both passed away. I was told that Freya’s family had perished and she was living with that grief. You had not yet taken a wife and was caring for your sister. A great nobleman of your settlement.

It was then that I decided to wait until you took a wife. Then I would take that woman from you and you would know my pain.”

Bastard. Just when I felt sorry for the guy he had to come out with something like that. I couldn’t see Julia’s face from where I was but Alex had started to shake with anger.

“Brandr why would you want to do this? Have you not yet taken a wife yourself?” He said trying but failing to control the anger in his voice.

“I was like you Aðalbrandr, I used women for my pleasure when I felt the need, but did not want one enough to take a wife. I knew I would prefer yours,” he said and I saw Julia try to wriggle away from him.

“I travelled all over Europe, coming back to Yorkshire to find you at different intervals. About twenty four years ago I did take a woman from this village. She too was recently married and I used mind control to make her bond with me. Her husband was working away from the village and I was able to have her every night for weeks. I discovered she was having my child two weeks into our bond. She cried because she knew the child wasn’t from her husband’s seed. I just kept using mind control to make her forget and keep me satisfied in bed. She was a beautiful woman with long blond hair and light blue eyes. She reminded me of your mother in a way, and I thought about taking her back to where I had made my home in France and forgetting all about you.”

“You raped her,” said Julia in disgust. “You used mind control to force her to sleep with you. I had started to feel sorry for you earlier. But you are a true monster who needs to be stopped.”

He just laughed. I saw Mel tense up beside me and lift her rifle. I also felt the presence of two more vampires, so I knew Nik and Sergei had arrived.

“Why did you not stay with her and raise your child? I thought you would have welcomed a son or daughter with this woman.”

“I had to leave the village. I was nearly discovered by you and that Russian vampire that you associate with. So I had to head back to Germany to see the witches for a stronger brew of their herbs. When I came back the woman had moved. Because she did not want the bond she was able to shut me out and I could not locate her. I felt her death years later through our bond. I still do not know whether I have a son or daughter still on this earth,” he sighed sadly.

I wondered who the woman was, glad that she had escaped him and that her child would never know this evil man.

“Do not try to get away from me Julia, I promise you will find me to be a good lover,” said the evil bastard as Julia tried to pull away from him.

I saw her hand reach into the large patterned bag that she wore and Alex shook his fist where I crouched, then gave a command with his hand: 3, 2, 1.

I couldn’t see exactly what Julia pulled out of her bag but whatever it was she hit him in the face with it and I heard glass smash then a roar of pain from Brandr.

Alex jumped over the bar and I followed but it was too late, Brandr had his hands around Julia’s neck.

“I will kill her if you come any nearer Aðalbrandr, you know this to be true. So if you want to keep her alive you will let me leave with her.”

Within seconds I heard a loud crack/hiss sound.

Brandr’s head snapped back and I saw blood splatter on the wall behind him. His hands dropped from around Julia’s neck as soon as the bullet Mel fired had hit him, and quick as a flash Julia reached into her bag and pulled out a long metal object, which she shoved into his chest on the left side. As I saw Brandr drop to the floor I knew she had hit her mark.

Alex pulled Julia into his arms to comfort her, but she pushed him away.

“Alex we have to finish him, we can’t let him come back. You need to chop off his head and burn him. Where can we burn the body?”

Alex just picked her up and moved her away from Brandr.

“I will take care of this Julia. You can go with Mel and calm down. I can’t let you see this next bit love. I can’t let you have the nightmares that have plagued me for years.”

As soon as she turned away Alex went over to Brandr’s body, took hold of his head and placed his foot on vampire’s chest.

Oh fuck no, he was going to pull Brandr’s head off.

Quick as a flash I leapt over to Alex and knocked him over onto his back.

I put my hand on Alex’s arm and showed him the machete I carried.

“Let me take care of this brother. This isn’t something you have to see either.”

“Josh, he came for me, he was going to take Julia. It’s my mess and I will see it done.”

I stood and offered him my hand. Pulling him up onto his feet, I then looked him in the eyes.

“Let me do it Alex, consider it payment for saving my life. Then we will be equal…..up here anyway,” I tapped a finger on my temple and saw Alex flinch.

He stepped towards me and sighed before he spoke.

“Joshua, we have always been equal here,” he tapped his temple, “and here,” he said as he tapped his chest where his heart lay. Then he hugged me close and said quietly, “Never think otherwise my brother, now let this day be an end to it.”