Rise of the Dark Sun (The Blood Lust Plague Trilogy Book 1) (4 page)

Although, if he were to release her from their love, Micah would have no other reason to live, but if it meant saving Samantha
—from others or from himself—then that was a sacrifice Micah would make without a second thought.

Micah found goodness in himself when he found Samantha. Truly his guiding light, he would do anything for her. Samantha not only gave him love
; she also gave him the drive to better himself and to be happy. In this moment, Micah’s yesterday of failing to commit suicide seemed so far away, and yet, if he could not save Samantha, Micah knew that yesterday would once again be right there in front of him.

H
e could not bear the thought of losing Samantha. He could not. If he was following her heartbeat—and he believed he was because it got stronger with every passing moment—then she was alright and he could save her. As long as that heartbeat did not lessen, Micah knew that there was hope.

In the rocks,
which seemed to almost overgrow the beach, he could see many caverns etched into the stone. Micah realized that the man could be hiding in any one of these holes, like a rat.
Was he waiting for me?
Micah thought, fearful that it was in fact her relationship with Micah that had brought this upon her. The possibilities caused Micah to feel ill. Micah clenched his fists and focused on the heartbeat, which continued to grow stronger with every step.

Samantha had to be in one of these caverns. In the distance, he noticed a small boat shed.
Amongst all of these rocks, Micah thought it was a strange place for a shed boat shed, but on second glance, he noticed it was very dilapidated, so it probably had not been used in some time.

Then, suddenly, the heartbeat Micah was focusing on quickened to a fearful speed. Micah ran closer to it and it continued to strengthen and beat rapidly. Then, Micah heard a muffled scream coming out of one of the caverns. Micah peered inside and sa
w a man struggling with Samantha. Standing over her, the man had tied Samantha’s hands behind her and he had his hand over her mouth, forcing her to expose her throat. Try as she might, Samantha could not escape from underneath him.

“Y
ou smell so good,” the man said, his voice filled with malicious longing. As the man took in her scent, Micah knew and greatly feared that he sought to take her forcefully.

Samantha screamed again
just as Micah was close enough to strike. He ripped the man backwards, throwing him against the cavern wall.

The man, seemingly unharmed by the rock
, landed on his feet and fully exposed his fangs to Micah. He was an older vampire, probably Constance’s age, judging by the development of his fangs and the stamina he had against rocks and Micah’s own strength.

Micah didn’t care though; he showed the older vampire his teeth as he plowed toward him. The two met in the middle
, and Micah wasted no time. He grabbed the other vampire with both hands and bit hard, ripping out a chunk of his throat. Spitting it out, Micah moved in again, but the older vampire forced Micah backwards and sliced at his chest.

At the same
moment the wound paralyzed Micah, the older vampire grabbed Samantha, forcing her to her feet in front of him.  As Micah recovered from the blow, certainly not anticipating the older vampire’s strength, he stopped short as the vampire yanked Samantha’s head to the side and put his fangs to her throat.

“No!” Micah called, his blood boiling, but he knew he had to remain where he was.

The older vampire laughed. “So, you are Micah, the vampire who can walk in the sun.” Forcing Samantha to take a step forward, he urged Micah backwards as well.

Micah put his hands up in surrender
. “I don’t know how. Please, she has nothing to do with this. You want me; you want my blood, fine.”

The older vampire once again let out a hearty laugh
. “So, that’s it. You think you are special. No, you puny little vampire pup, the insolence! You are nothing special. Did you think you were the only one? I have searched my whole life for this secret, but I can assure you that you are not it. You are just the luck of the draw. However, I am the one who recognizes an opportunity when I see one. You are worthless. I want her.”

“No,” Micah growled. “There must be something
else you want!”

The older vampire shook his head and released his fangs so that he could bite Samantha. She screamed and fought him while Micah rushed in. In one fluid motion, he grabbed the older vampire’s head and slammed it back into the rock. Through the shock of the blow that Micah knew had to hurt even a strong, old vampire, he was able to dislodge the grip he kept on Samantha.

“Run!” he growled and then moved back to fight the other vampire. Thankfully, Samantha did as she was asked, so now there was no holding back. Micah allowed the anger to come forth and consume him. Micah slammed the vampire’s head against the rock again and then bit at his throat again, hoping to bite his head clean off.

The older vampire lashed out again at Micah, swiping at his throat as Micah held his head down and then
, again, slammed his skull into the rock. A chunk of the older vampire’s skull chipped away, leaving a hole through which part of his brain protruded. Picking him up off the ground, Micah slammed him back into the wall of the cavern.

This time, the older vampire slumped down the wall and
remained there. Micah cautiously went toward him, keeping his fangs protruded, though the nearer Micah got to the older vampire, the more he looked like he was either dead or unconscious. Lying there with his own blood pooling around him, dripping like a fountain off of the side of his head, his brain exposed and only one eye opened, he looked more like a zombie than a vampire.

As Micah
got close to the older vampire’s body, the vampire rose quickly and slammed Micah back against the other wall, biting Micah’s neck rabidly. Micah yelled out and tried to defend himself, but the old vampire had a passion that was now threatened. The older vampire slammed Micah’s head against the rock, causing Micah to daze.

When he could see straight again, he realized that the older vampire was forcing him out of the cavern. Already, he could feel the approaching of the day. “All I wanted was to see the day! For a century I have waited for this moment
, and I am not going to let you take it from me!”

When they got out onto the beach, Samantha was
pacing and had freed her hands from the ropes. “Micah!” she gasped, running towards him.

“Run!” Micah screamed.

The older vampire’s voice boomed above them both. “Give me your blood or he will die with me!”

“No! Samantha, run!” Micah yelled again. Seeing Samantha hesitate gave Micah a reason to have an energy surge. He built up a blow inside his body
, and when he knew he could not get any more power behind it, Micah turned and was able to beat the older vampire down. Once he was sure the vampire was dazed, with his head now fully smashed in, Micah pulled the body out of the sand and dragged it behind him to the old boat shed. As they got closer, Micah noticed that the shed had Eastern exposure.
Perfect!
He thought.

“I need your blood, please!” Micah
requested as he pounded the lifeless body of the older vampire to the cabin floor.

Without hesitation or question, Samantha gave Micah her wrist and he drank, just as the warmth was getting to be too much for his body to sustain. Immediately, he began to cool.

Suddenly, smelling the blood, the older vampire once again came alive, reaching out for Samantha’s hand. As Samantha took her hand back, Micah slammed him back to the ground. “You wanted to see the sun.” Micah smiled and continued to hold him down as he began to fail and smoke.

When Micah was sure his flails were out of desperation and there was no way that he could control himself anymore, Micah threw him towards the rising sun
, and even as the older vampire burst into flames before them, Micah held Samantha for support and to protect her, happy he had her back.

“Are you okay?”
he asked when, finally, the vampire was nothing but ash.

“Yes, but why…” A glance down at the vampire and back at Micah asked her question for her.

Micah smiled. “I think I know, but I just want to ask another opinion to make sure.”

As they returned to the group, Micah still holding on to Samantha with every essence of his being, their friends came to greet them.
They all were curious, asking a million questions at once. The girls came to hug and welcome Samantha back while everyone stared cautiously at Micah’s head which, though continuously healing, still looked grotesque.

“I’m okay, thanks to Micah,” Samantha said, smiling and inching up to kiss him.

Everyone laughed and cheered, thankful that they had both come back alive.

“So, did you catch him?” Julie asked.

Samantha looked up at Micah, and Micah shook his head. “No. I fought him, but he eventually ran away.”

“The coward!”
somebody yelled, and the rest of the crowd agreed.

Micah shrugged
. “It’s okay. I think he’s gone, but just to be sure, we should probably cut our week short and go home.”

There were mumbles of agreement among them. “Should we call the police?”

“We already did. We didn’t want to involve you all, so we just said that he mugged us. I’ll take care of everything,” Micah answered. “What I think is important now is for Samantha to get some rest, and for us to leave as soon as possible.”

After a moment of consideration, the crowd agree
d and moved away to their respective rooms to pack.

That evening, the group left to return to their homes. Samantha remained with Micah at his house, since she was still supposed to be on the trip for the rest of the week. The following day, the couple slept in, partly because Micah did not want to drain Samantha until she could recover, and partly because there was no need, since the only business they had was with the people of the night.

“Constance!” Micah called pleasantly as he and Samantha enter
ed the convenience store where Constance worked the night shift. The last time they had been together, they had not parted on the best of terms, but since Micah had already forgiven Constance, he could only hope that she would show him the same courtesy.

Constance looked up
, and after a moment, she smiled. “I knew you would come,” she replied, stepping forward and opening her arms to him.

Relieved that they could still be friends, Micah welcomed her warmly. “I missed you,”
he said honestly.

Constance pulled back and stared at him, more as a mother would stare at her child th
an a past lover. “I missed you too, my love.” Constance smiled, her voice keeping in her motherly aura. Looking over to Samantha, Constance smiled. “Hello, Samantha.”

Although Samantha smiled and said politely, “Hello,” both vampires felt her surprise in Constance knowing her name. 

Constance smiled. “You do look your name. I am very good at reading people.” Looking deep into Samantha’s eyes for only a minute, Constance added, “And you know exactly what I am, don’t you?”

With a twinge of fear, Samantha cautiously nodded.

“Please do not fear me. I am with no worse intentions then Micah,” Constance said, then after thinking a minute, added, “But maybe better, though, because I have no intention of sleeping with you.”

A little bit embarrassed, Micah felt as though he should step in, though Samantha genuinely laughed
. “Well, that’s enough idle girl-talk. We have business to attend to.”

Constance shook her head
. “And you have not changed.” Taking a deep breath, Constance said to Samantha, “May I see your hand?”

Samantha willingly showed her the hand that Micah did not bite.

“The other one, please,” Constance said. “This is the most efficient way for me to know why you are here. Plus, the less we have to listen to Micah’s idle chatter the better,” she teased as Samantha gave up the hand that was bitten. Samantha slowly ran her hand over the wound. “Micah’s teeth marks…Only Micah has taken from you. Is that correct?”

Although they answered, Constance’s eyes were closed and their answer did not
appear to matter much to her; it seemed as though she already knew. Then, Constance smiled. “Yes, I was correct. I could smell it from a mile away…sorry, Samantha, it’s a good scent…Oh, my!” Constance’s eyes snapped opened and there was fire behind them. “The insolence! What is wrong with…how could he? I am so sorry that this happened to you. No wonder you were frightened of me.” Constance sighed angrily, visibly fuming, and then she looked over at Micah. “You did the right thing. Any vampire who inflicts permanent harm on a Quencher is put to death by the Vampire Government. If there were ever to be any kind of investigation, you would be entirely justified.”

Samantha tilted her head to the side and leaned in, nearer to Constance. “Excuse me, inflicts permanent harm on a…Quencher?” Samantha asked.

Constance smiled. “Yes. You are…very special to vampires. Your blood is laced with something wonderful for our kind. The sweet aroma not only smells delicious, like a strong, beautiful flower, it also provides the gift of the sun.”

Samantha and Micah looked at one another.

“So, Samantha is the reason that I can now walk in the day?”

Constance nodded
. “At one time, Quenchers were abundant. It was a trait to humans, such as blond hair or brown eyes. Most of them gave their blood willingly to vampire friends and lovers, so there were many day-walking vampires roaming around, never far from their source of sunshine. However, large groups became angry with the idea that these humans should be free to delegate their special gift at their own accord.

They figured they were vampires after all
, and since they were more powerful than humans, they plotted to become supreme. So as the age-old story goes, with one group thinking they were more entitled than another, this group of vampires began enslaving Quenchers. They began to use them for experiments, awful experiments, attempting to capture the essence of their gift to replicate and immortalize the process so that they no longer specifically needed the blood of a Quencher. Of course, much like the gift of life, this did not work without a warm, privileged body. This angered the vampires, so they began a purge, eradicating all Quenchers. It was not a large group that did this. Actually many more vampires hid Quenchers away, but the small group, so malicious in their hunt, did so much damage so quickly.

There was so much unjust and unnecessary bloodshed that eventually, despite the efforts of the many
, Quenchers were thinning by the hour. Homes of vampires who were known to keep company with Quenchers were ransacked and burned. It was a hellish time. So, finally, the Vampire Government was born and vowed to stop this senseless pursuit. Unfortunately, their actions came too late for most.” Constance stopped to sigh and put her hands on Samantha’s shoulders. “In fact, I fear you are one of the last. Quenchers have been nothing but stories for me, passed down from the elders until now.”

“Well, what if a Quencher was to be changed, you know, into a vampire?” Micah asked, realizing that as a true human, there was so much more danger surrounding Samantha then he could have ever imagined.

Constance shook her head. “If a Quencher is turned, they lose all of their powers. They are no less a vampire, but they also are no more human. When a vampire is turned, they forfeit the ability to walk in the day, as well as to provide that gift to others.”

Samantha looked back at Micah and Micah shrugged
. “Samantha, anything that you choose to do is your own choice. I just want to be with you. If you feel safer as a vampire, a vampire you shall become, but if you wish to remain a human, a human you shall remain.”

Samantha smiled
. “Thank you.”

“However, to put your mind at ease, Samantha, you possess a great gift. In the world we live in, you should be respected as a Quencher, more than you should be hunted. I am actually appalled and disgusted that vampire even showed his face to you, especially after Micah laid his claim to you
.” Noticing Samantha’s interest, Constance explained, “It is not a claim as in ownership of you. It is more of a sense of protection: insurance, if you will. True humans will not be any the wiser, but a vampire will sense that you are taken. This evolutionary adaptation is useful to vampires when they are involved with true humans and not the other way around because, let’s face it, there are very few true humans that draw blood. This claim is really to protect you, and if any vampire were to violate this claim, as he did…a lot…then under vampire law, it is said that punishment is to be decided by the vampire who laid the claim and dealt with as he or she sees fit. In this case, Micah was more than justified to do what he did, under more laws than one, in your case.”

Samantha smiled sheepishly
, and Micah could tell that she did not like the fact that she was the reason. Micah got the feeling that it would have been easier for Samantha to come to terms with the situation if it had been because of Micah. He was, after all, a vampire, so it seemed natural to her that the actions of the crazed vampire would be an offence to Micah and his claim to her. Samantha thought the reasons behind her abduction would turn out to reveal something like that. If Constance had told them that ownership of the human was the root of what had happened to her, then she could accept that. That would be a risk that, as a vampire’s girlfriend, Samantha agreed to take the moment she allowed Micah to take her as a vampire out on that beach. At least, with an answer of ownership, Samantha would feel as though she knew what she was getting into.

However, to think that her plight was due to something that has flowed through
all of this time was even more frightening to Samantha than she could comprehend. If it was because of her blood that the crazed vampire wanted Samantha for himself, than there was no escaping her fate. If this was true, the possibility of being attacked and either enslaved or killed by a vampire was a reality that has been hidden in the shadows of her life since her birth. If a vampire wishing to do her harm, or simply wishing to feel the sun, had come across her any other night, their fates would have collided, and Samantha knew that the outcome of that situation would have been very different.

Samantha put her hand on her head, suddenly feeling ill. Micah surrounded her
, helping her to stand.

“Are you alright?” Micah asked.

Samantha hesitated a moment. “I think I need to lie down,” she replied, beginning to feel the world spinning around her.

“She has yet to regain all of her blood and strength, in addition to all of the excitement,” Constance said
. “Come this way.”

Constance led them back to an employee break-room with a couch,
a storage locker, a table and a couple of folding chairs. “You can lie down over there. It’s surprisingly comfortable for a convenience store,” Constance said, motioning towards the couch quickly while digging around in her pocket. Finding what she was looking for, she ran out of the room and was back, very quickly, with some cookies and apple juice. She gave them to Samantha. “You need sleep, but before you do, you need this.”

“Thank you,” Samantha said, smiling sadly. Samantha felt so overwhelmed
, and the last thing she wanted to do was eat or drink anything, but she realized that it was necessary. So, she unscrewed the cap of the juice and began to drink. Once the liquid hit her lips, she suddenly felt both hungry and thirsty. It was as though her natural needs had been denied for so long that once they began to be answered, they screamed out with a vengeance. Samantha finished the cookies and juice almost as quickly as Constance brought the items to her.

After eating, she did feel better, but of course her heart was still heavy
, and as she looked around the room at her two allies, she had a realization which made her even further disheartened. Looking at Constance and Micah, Samantha realized that the hunger and thirst that had just roared throughout her body was a feeling that they had to live with every moment of every day. Quenching their thirst, even with someone who possesses Samantha’s apparent skills, meant nothing. Even when they were full, Samantha could tell in their eyes that they still felt that parched and starving emptiness that accompanies extreme hunger.

That must be a terrible way to live,
Samantha thought, peering at them and finding a new perspective. Samantha knew, although they were both smiling and greeting her with warm faces, it must be killing them that neither Constance nor Micah would be able to drink from her tonight. Instead, after taking care of Samantha all night, they would have to hide away in the morning, escaping the rays of sunlight that they yearn to feel so painfully.

“You need to rest,” Constance said to Samantha in a caring, motherly tone.

Suddenly feeling very tired, Samantha nodded and closed her eyes. Sleep came almost instantly.

Once she was asleep, Constance looked at Micah and smiled knowingly
. “So, when did this happen…you two?”

“It was the weirdest thing, Constance. I went to the beach with a bunch of true humans that I used to know
, and Samantha was one of them. I don’t know. From the moment I heard her name again, I was drawn to her. I love her, Constance. How can that be?”

Constance shrugged, going into the storage locker in the corner to retrieve a blanket
. “Love comes when you least expect it, Micah. Everything is connected. Generally, when you least expect it is when you need it the most. Your heart knows that, even if you do not.”