The Vampire's Love (17 page)

“Tavien? 
What dark magic is this?”  He whined.

There was
no reply and he looked around in surprise.  Tavien had fled to the far end
of the arena and Darius turned back to the orb and stared into its depths.

“Faren,
move!”  Val suddenly roared.

Faren shook
his head.  “No way, count me out.  I’m not going anywhere near that
thing.  I – “

He shouted
in surprise when Val gave him a hard shove toward the orb.  He was sucked
into the orb’s light and he scrabbled madly for a moment before the orb lifted
him off his feet and sucked him into its relentless glowing light.  He
disappeared and Abby took Val’s hand. 

“Let’s
go!”  She shouted.

He cupped
her face and pressed his mouth against her ear.  “I love you, little
dove.”  He kissed her hard and shoved her toward the orb before turning
and moving in a blur of speed to Darius.

He swung
his sword and a small smile of satisfaction crossed his face when Darius’ head
slid from his body and fell into the wet dirt.  As the vampire’s body
exploded, Abigail screamed his name.  She had fallen on her stomach but
was rising into the air as she was dragged into the orb.  She stretched
her arms out and screamed his name again as her hands reached for him.

He dropped
his sword and dove for Abigail and the light, his hands stretching for
hers.  As her fingers closed around his wrists and gripped tightly, he
closed his eyes and felt his body being flung forward.  There was a
stomach-dropping sensation of falling and a brief moment of pain before
everything went black.

* * *

“Val? 
Val, open your eyes.”  Her soft voice dragged him from the dark and he
opened his eyes and blinked blearily at her.

She was
lying on top of him, her face only inches from his, and without speaking he
kissed her firmly.  She returned his kiss, her hands stroking his hair and
face before she pulled back.

“I love
you.”  He said hoarsely.  “I love you.”

“I love you
too.”  She said immediately before kissing him again.

“I hate to
interrupt this beautiful moment,” Faren’s voice drawled above them, “but maybe
one of you could tell me what the fuck just happened.”

They
staggered to their feet and a look of fear crossed Abigail’s face as she
reached into her hair.  “Violet!  Violet, where are you!”

The pixie
appeared in front of her, hovering in the air, and grinned widely at her.

Abby
breathed a sigh of relief.  “Thank God.  Don’t do that to me, little
one.”

Violet
landed on Val’s shoulder and kissed his cheek lightly before clinging to his
dark hair.

“What the
fuck just happened?”  Faren suddenly shouted.  “Where the fuck are
we?”

Abigail
looked around.  They were in the middle of a forest and although it was
dark, the moon was large and bright and provided enough light for her to
see.  “We’re on another world, Faren.”

“Oh
great.”  Faren raked his hand through his wet hair.  “That’s just
fucking great.  How the hell do we get back?”

“We
don’t.”  Abby said simply.

She walked
toward Maria and Neil and squeezed their hands.  Sienna was clinging to
Neil’s waist, and he kept one arm firmly around her.  “Are you two
alright?”

“Yes.” 
Maria shivered delicately.  “Freezing but glad to be alive.”

“We’ll
build a fire.”  Abby said encouragingly.  “It will be okay, Maria.”

She turned
toward Michael and Sara.  “Are either of you – “

She
stuttered to a stop.  Michael was sitting under a tree, his back resting
against its rough bark, and staring at his hands.

“Michael? 
Where is Sara?”  Abby glanced around wildly.  “Sara!  Sara,
answer me!”

“She let go
of my hand.”  Michael said hoarsely.  “We were being sucked into the
orb and she let go of my hand.  I tried to grab her again, I swear it, but
she wasn’t there.”

“Oh
no.”  Abby moaned.  She gave Val a frantic look.  “We have to
find her!  She can’t be far.  We need to start searching for her and
– “

“We’ll find
her, little dove.”  Val said soothingly.  “I promise you.  But
we need to – “

He suddenly
stiffened and stared into the dark trees around them.  “Someone is
coming.”

The others
scrambled to join them and they stared in the direction that Val was looking
in.

“Who is
it?”  Abby whispered as Violet disappeared into Val’s hair.

Val shook
his head.  “I don’t know.  I can’t see them yet.  I can hear
them though and they – “

There was a
low growling behind them and the group swung around.  Abby’s eyes
widened.  A wolf, the biggest one she’d ever seen, was standing only ten
feet away.  His eyes were a bright, glowing green, and his grey fur was
rippling in the breeze.

There was
more soft growling as two other wolves appeared out of the darkness. 

“Does
anyone have a weapon?”  Abby whispered quietly.  She had lost her
sword as the orb had sucked her in and she could see the sheath around Val’s
waist hanging empty.

Michael
gave a soft grunt and held up the dagger that Faren had given him.  “I
have this.”

“We don’t
need weapons.”  Maria said softly.  “We have Val.”

Val hissed
at the wolves, and they chuffed in surprise when they saw the fangs protruding
from his mouth.

“Val,
wait.”  Abby grabbed his arm.  “Just wait and – “

The largest
wolf suddenly began to ripple and they watched as the fur receded and the wolf
became a man.  He was a giant of a man and he studied them quietly as the
other two wolves shifted and joined him. 

“Shifters.” 
Faren breathed.  “Perhaps we are still on our world, after all.”

One of the
men frowned and glanced up at the larger man.  “What manner of creature
has teeth like that, Kane?  And why do they smell so,” he wrinkled his
nose, “dreadful.”

“I do not
know, Hanif.”  The man named Kane replied. 

Faren
sighed loudly.  “Fuck.  Not our world.  Stupid fucking ball of
light sending us who the fuck knows where.”

Kane
stiffened and frowned at him.  “What did you say, creature?”

“Creature? 
I have a name.”  Faren snapped.

Kane
growled loudly and Faren hissed at him as Abby held her hands up hurriedly.

“Okay, um,
before we get off on the wrong foot, let’s just everyone take a deep
breath.  My name’s Abby and these are my friends, and we’re not from
around here.  So we’re just going to head on out and um, it was really
great to meet you.  Take care, okay?”

Kane
growled again and took a step toward her.  Val pushed Abby behind him and
bared his fangs at the large, naked man.  “Take one more step toward her
and I’ll have your head.”

“I would
like to see you try.”  Kane said softly.  “I don’t know what you are
but you do not frighten me.”

Val glared
at him.  “You would be wise to be frightened of me, shifter.”

“Val,
stop!”  Abigail squeezed his arm and gave Kane a friendly smile. 
“We’re friendly, honestly.  And if you would just step aside, we’ll be on
our way.”

“You are on
my lands.”  Kane said quietly.  “Tell me, and do not lie about this,
if what the creature said about the ball of light is true.”

Abigail
hesitated and then nodded.  “Yes, it’s true.”

The
smallest of the three men squeezed Kane’s arm before inhaling deeply in
Abigail’s direction.  “She smells like Reese.”

“Yes,
Theran.  I am aware of that.”  Kane said quietly.

He studied
them for a moment before coming to a quick decision.  “You will come with
us.”

“I don’t
think so.”  Val said sharply.

“You have
no choice.”  Kane said simply. 

“There are
only three of you and six of us.”  Val replied softly.  “You do not
stand a chance.”

Kane
surprised them by laughing loudly.  “You are a brave one.  Foolish,
but brave.”

He lifted
his head and barked roughly.  Abby gripped Val’s arm when a chorus of
barking responded and the trees around them were lit with dozens of glowing
eyes.

Sienna gave
a soft whimper of fear and Neil hugged her close.  “Do not worry.” 
He gave her an encouraging smile but his face was pale and he swallowed thickly
as more eyes appeared in the darkness.

“Our pack
is large.”  Kane said with a hint of pride in his voice.  “You are
returning to our home and you will neither fight nor try to escape.  Do
you understand?”

Val opened
his mouth to argue and Abigail gripped his arm and gave him a warning look before
smiling at Kane.  “Of course.  Thank you for the hospitality.”

Kane
grunted in reply and shifted to his wolf form before turning and loping into
the trees.  The other wolves surrounded them in a tight circle and Maria
cleared her throat nervously.  “What do we do now?”

“We go with
them.”  Abigail replied.  “He’s right - we don’t have much choice.”

She took
Val’s hand and gave him a faint smile as they began to follow Kane and the
others through the trees.  “Everything will work out.  We will find
Sara, and you and I will make a new life together on this world.  I love
you, Val.”

He raised
her hand to his mouth and pressed a soft kiss to her knuckles.  “I love
you too, little dove.”

END

Please enjoy an excerpt from the next book in Ramona Gray’s
“Other World” series.

THE
SHIFTER’S MATE

(Other
World Series Book 3)

Copyright Ramona Gray 2015

All things
considered, it hadn’t been the worse three months of Reese Warren’s life. 
That top honour still went to the months following her parents’ deaths, but the
last three months certainly had been the weirdest.

As she
paced restlessly back and forth in the room she had begun to think of as the
‘waiting room’, she wished for the hundredth time that she had never gone
outside to investigate the round ball of light hovering in the back yard.

She almost
hadn’t.  She had almost chalked it up to some weird surge of electricity
from the massive thunder and lightning storm and gone to bed, but in the end
her natural curiosity couldn’t be contained.

She snorted
bitterly.  Her mother had always told her that curiosity killed the cat
and although it hadn’t killed her, it hadn’t prepared her to be sucked into
some alternate universe like a woman in a bad science fiction movie.

Not an
alternate universe, Reese.  An alternate world.  God, pay attention
would you?

She could
almost hear Louisa’s disapproving tone in her head.  She sighed and sank
to the floor beside the barred window.  She missed the old woman, missed
her more than she would admit.  She had been the only link to her world,
to
her
earth, and with her gone, she was terribly lonely.

It’s your
own fault, she scolded herself fiercely.  Louisa tried to warn you to keep
your mouth shut about your earth but you didn’t listen, did you?  You just
had to try and convince them that electricity and cars, and airplanes and
stores that served nothing but coffee, existed.  Tried to convince them
that a giant globe of light had sucked you in and threw you down into this
strange world.

The men who
had captured her only hours after she had walked out of the woods, dirty and
bruised, had laughed and called her “barto”.  She had found out later that
barto was the word for crazy in this world. 

Perhaps
because she was still numb from the deaths of her parents, perhaps because she
half-believed she was in some strange never-ending dream, she hadn’t really
freaked out when the men had chained her and taken her to a large, gated
complex.  She had been left in a room full of other women.  They had
been nice enough to her at first, at least until she had started babbling about
her own world, and after that they had avoided her. 

Only Louisa
had gone near her and that was only because she was from the same world as
Reese.  She had taken Reese’s arm in a firm grip and dragged her away as
Reese was trying, very patiently she thought, to explain to a young woman named
Rhea about cell phones and the internet.

It had
taken Reese a few days to understand exactly what Louisa had explained to
her.  Even now, three months later, she wasn’t sure she still entirely
believed that there was no way back home for her ever again.

She sighed
and stared out the window.  Louisa had been taken to auction two weeks
ago, and Reese missed her more than she thought possible.   She hoped
the old woman was okay, hoped that someone kind had bought her and was treating
her well.  She sighed again.  She would never see Louisa again and
now, it was her turn to go to auction.

The door to
the room opened and Reese watched with a numb disinterest as the man she
secretly called the “warden” walked through.  He was followed by three of
the biggest men she had ever seen in her life.  All three of them had dark
hair and dark eyes and they were all pulling and tugging on their clothing with
obvious discomfort.