Night Feast (4 page)

“I wouldn’t normally ask Jay, it’s just that I’m doing a favour for my friend over there.”

The boys looked over at the girls table who quickly averted their eyes with a fit of giggles.

“Libby wants to go with Kevin and she thought that the four of us could go together.”

Kevin’s jaw dropped to the floor.  He was absolutely delighted.  Libby was really cute, she was small and pretty with long dark hair that she usually wore in a ponytail.  She didn’t strut around college like the other girls, she was much more bookish.  Kevin had no idea that she liked him.

“Sure we can do that” he said before Jay had recovered from Amberlee’s ambush.

“That’s settled then, it’s a date” she said triumphantly, looking Jay in the eye like a cat who had got the cream.  Jay was cornered now, he knew it and she knew it.  She silently congratulated herself for playing the ‘doing a favour for a friend’ card. He knew that he had to accept her invitation, and she knew that he would because he wouldn’t want to let Kevin down, he was his best friend.  He had also looked so pleadingly at him, there was no way that he could say no.  He was just going to have to put up with her, for one night, like it or not.  Jay also knew that the ‘Libby wants to go to the dance with Kevin’ thing was an outright lie.  He had seen how Amberlee had worked out her little plan in her head to trap him.  It really didn’t matter now, he couldn’t do anything about it, besides Kevin was happy.

“See you later then.”  Jay turned back to the pinball machine.

“Looking forward to it,” she responded smugly and walked back over to her friends.

The three college students watched as Amberlee walked slowly towards their table, her rounded hips swinging from side to side.  The self satisfied expression on her face told them that their queen had totally got what she wanted.  She was going to be even more insufferable, now that she had a date with the great Jay Patterson.  She sat down at the table and stretched her legs under the table, while her small audience waited for her to speak.

“He practically begged me to go to the dance with him.”  Lie number two had been well prepared, and she was enjoying the girls’ reaction to it.

“Really?” said Tori with a very doubtful look in her eyes, Jay Patterson didn’t look like the type of guy to beg for anything from anyone.  Judi was seething with jealousy.  She had been so sure that he would reject her friend ,and that she would have come crawling back to their table with some feeble excuse,  like, he already had a date for the dance and she didn’t really like him that much anyway.  All three girls listened intently, while Amberlee concocted a little tale about how he had asked her out.

“Well when I went over to him he was too shy to turn around at first, it was so cute.  I think he was shocked that I was actually approaching him.  He told me that I always look so beautiful, and that my hair looked really nice.  Oh, he was so adorable, you should have heard him. He said he had noticed me in college, but just hadn’t been able to pluck up the courage to talk to me, especially as I am always surrounded by so many other guys.”

She paused for effect, and was a little irritated by the stunned silence and the acute look of disbelief on her friends’ faces.  However, that did not stop her from continuing with her tale.

“He didn’t seem to be able to take his eyes off me, I felt a little bit self conscious. I’m so glad that I chose this skirt today, and had my hair done.  I can’t wait for the dance, we can all go shopping together to find something for me to wear, I want to look really hot.  We can go to that new shop, you know the one that opened two weeks ago?  I’ll have to get some new shoes too and perhaps some jewellery.”

Libby who hadn’t said anything yet was the first to congratulate her.

“I’m really pleased for you Amberlee” she said sweetly.  “I know how much you like him.”

Then Amberlee suddenly remembered how she had really got her date.  She had chosen Libby, because she was new to their little group, and she was the one that she thought that she could  manipulate.  There was never any problem getting little Libs to do as she was told.  Tori was an even easier little puppet, she had her strings wrapped right round her little finger but for this occasion, Amberlee felt that Libby was the most suitable.  So she replied bluntly by saying,

“By the way Libby, you’re going to the dance as Kevin's date, we are all going together.”

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Moscow, Russia 1412

For the last two years Valentin Malenkov had been feeding himself with the blood from the veins and arteries of human beings.  For the first time in his life he had experienced a joy that he had never known existed.  He had never seen his rescuer, the young woman who had bitten him, again.  As far as he knew he was the only vampire in Moscow.  The more he fed the stronger he became, and he could tell, even though he could no longer see his reflection in a mirror, that his physical appearance had drastically improved.  The misery and loneliness that had resided in his eyes for so long, had disappeared completely.  His thin wiry body was now lean and hard, and his stunted height, caused by lack of food and nurture had increased by seven inches, taking him from five feet seven inches to six feet two inches tall. He stole money from his male victims, and bought himself a house situated in the remotest part of Moscow.  However there was a part of him that still felt human, and he sometimes yearned for female company.  Valentin felt that he couldn’t take the chance of approaching any of the girls he often saw standing on the street corners.  He knew he would lose control and either kill them, or turn them into vampires, and it was his moral code that kept him from doing so.  He felt that they were suffering enough at the hands of the men in the town, his personal preference for food.  There had also been a rise in vigilante hunters, and he was not sure if the girls, even as vampires would be able to escape them.

The vigilante hunters were now well aware of his activities, because there had been so many deaths.  Valentin had killed and drank the blood of all the men who had verbally abused and harassed him, when he had worked in the inn. Yakov’s body had never been found,  he had spared the man’s family of that experience.  But he had not been so considerate with his other victims, and had left them where he found them in the street, down the alleyways, at the side of the road.

When the town dwellers had finally accepted that it was no ordinary animal that was killing their men folk, they started to hold meetings in each others’ houses, and decided to set a trap for the vicious serial killer of unknown species.  They had been searching the surrounding area for weeks, trudging around in large groups at night, carrying burning wooden torches, in the vain hope of catching and destroying whoever or whatever it was that was taking the lives of their fellow inhabitants. When their searching proved to be futile they decided to use a man of  low mental intellect as bait, much to the distress of his family.  They placed the unfortunate man in an alleyway, a place where the monster had been many times before and waited.

Valentin sniffed the cold air, and picked up the scent of the bait immediately.  It was past midnight and bitterly cold and he was surprised that anyone would be in the streets at that time, given the temperature, and the blood curdling fear that had swept through the town because of all the killings.  He was not particularly hungry, because his recent killing spree had left him feeling full and satisfied, but he could make some room for a little snack.  He followed the scent and made his way to the alleyway and he saw the man sitting on the ground with his back against a wall.  The now much wanted blood belonged to a man that he did not recognise, but he would do.  The prey was vulnerable, and therefore strong in odour, it was the only smell that the vampire picked up, because of its pungency. So thinking that there was no one else around, Valentin moved at top speed towards the man, who should have been aware of his presence, but in his low mental state he didn’t look up.  With his teeth barred Valentin bent towards his next victim, ready to take the blood from his body.  He could see the skin on his neck ,next to his shabby grey clothes, and he relished the thought of the taste and the feeling of his blood on his tongue.  He was suddenly aware of shouts and screams, and he realised that he was surrounded by the majority of the men, who lived in the town.  As their arms lunged to grab him he hissed and snarled at them, making them jump back from the sight of his sharp pointed teeth.  Shocked recognition appeared on some of the faces of the vigilantes, who saw who he was.  At that very moment he took his chance to escape from them, and shot up in the air and flew away, leaving the hunters in a daze of confusion and disbelief.  He knew that once they had composed themselves, they would come and find him.  It was time to leave. 

Valentin left that very same night.  It didn’t take him very long to get to nearby Alaska.  He delighted in the freezing cold air, after congratulating himself on making an escape to a new life in a new country.  He landed in a wood of trees with leaf bare branches and snow on the ground.  Valentin lay down on the icy surface and fell into a deep sleep.

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Surrey, England.

Arabella Beauchamp had been born into a wealthy aristocratic English family, during the year 1791.  She lived in their large estate in surrey and was an only child.  There were plenty of servants and a nanny but no mother, as she had died giving birth to her daughter.  Her nanny had been a plump, amenable woman, who had treated Arabella with great kindness, to compensate for the fact that her father had ignored her since the day she was born.  His indifference was his way of showing her that he held her entirely responsible for her mother’s death.

Arabella had dreamed that one day she would meet a lover,  someone like the princes who nanny spoke about when she had told her bedtime stories, when she was a child.  She dreamed that this wonderful young man would come to their country estate, and steal her away forever.  Her father’s cruel rejection had caused her so much pain, and she would make her escape to her fantasy, in an attempt to add warmth to her miserable existence.  She knew that her father wanted to get rid of her.  When she had reached eighteen he had tried to marry her off to the sons of the other wealthy families in the county.  Although Arabella was very beautiful and graceful, the parents of these young suitors had been against such a union, because there was a rumour about mental illness in the family and because of her father’s misdeeds, and bad reputation.  Edward Beauchamp was a well known drunk and womaniser.  He had only too often raised the eyebrows of his neighbours with his bawdy behaviour, while in their respectable homes.  When the wives of his friends had rejected his clumsy advances he would turn his attentions to any young, female servant who happened to be in close proximity.  When the social invitations ceased, he continued to drink and had a string of mistresses that he felt nothing for.  Then one day he meets Cecilia, a woman of little background and wealth, and to everyone's surprise, and the fact that he was getting older, he marries her.

Cecilia had very little time for her beautiful young stepdaughter.  The middle-aged woman had married Edward Beauchamp for his wealth and position.  She had no desire to become a mother to her new husband’s unwanted offspring.  Cecilia had been a spinster for many years.  After a string of unsuccessful attempts to marry  into wealth, she had finally got her wish.  She was well aware that if Edward Beauchamp had been sober, he would never have looked in her direction.  She was a faded beauty in her early forties, who has charmed her way into her husband’s affections by telling him everything that he wanted to hear.  Her eyes had lit up in triumph, when they had arrived at the Beauchamp country mansion, in a coach pulled by four beautiful black horses.  Edward had taken her there, straight after their wedding ceremony, eager to begin married life with his like-minded new spouse.  Cecilia had known that he had a daughter, but assumed that she had married long ago and left the family home, especially as her father never mentioned her name.

Life  had become a thousand fold more difficult for Arabella when her stepmother moved in.  Cecilia had taken an instant dislike to her.  The girl’s beauty had only served to magnify the obvious flaws in her own physical appearance, so it was with great relief to discover that her father couldn’t stand the sight of her.  Cecilia was also abrupt and ungracious towards the servants.  She had no idea of how to deal with a household of staff, and made unreasonable requests and unwarranted complaints at every opportunity.  She removed the beautiful painting of Edward’s late wife, that had been hung above the fireplace in the drawing room, for almost thirty years.  She spent vast amounts of money, changing the house as if she was trying to exorcise the spiritual presence of the former Mrs Beauchamp.  She succeeded in putting her own gaudy stamp on the mansion, and ignored the covert expressions of disapproval from the servants.  When the changes were completed to her tastes, the lady of the house decided that she and her husband would hold parties.  Arabella’s home became a place where unsuitable people came to eat and drink and be merry, while she stayed locked in her bedroom.  It was not long before Edward and Cecilia  had completely squandered the family the family fortune, leaving her with no inheritance.  Her Father knew that the house would have to be sold if he didn’t come up with a plan.

Hubert John Carrington had regularly attended the parties at Beauchamp mansion.  He was sixty five years old and in very good health for his years.  Hubert, the only surviving son of  the English  Industrialist  John Carrington, was from Boston and extremely wealthy.  He loved to travel to the UK,  his Father’s homeland, and he loved to see how people lived.  Edward and Cecilia Beauchamp were his kind of people, they liked to play hard, and were nothing like some of the stuff shirts he had met in London.  Hubert was now ready to return to the United States.  Although he had a fine constitution he was getting older, and felt that he should do less travelling and perhaps settle down.  He was unprepared but delighted with  Beauchamp’s proposition.