Dark Moors (THE TWO VAMPIRES, #4)
Read Dark Moors (THE TWO VAMPIRES, #4) Online
Authors: M.D. Bowden
The Two Vampires
Dark Moors
By M.D. BOWDEN
able in THE TWO VAMPIRES series
Book 1: Dark Wine
Book 2:
Dark Blood
Book 3:
Dark Love
Book 4:
Dark Moors
What’s It
Really
Like? Pregnancy & Birth
THE TWO VAMPIRES
Dark Moors
Published by M.D. Bowden
Copyrigh
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© M.D. Bowden 2013
M.D. Bowden has asserted her moral rights to be identified as author of this work.
No part of this work may be reproduced without prior permission in writing from the author.
All characters in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
To my partner and children for putting up with hours spent writing!
Also to all the writers who have inspired me.
Contents
Titles available in THE TWO VAMPIRES series
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THE TWO VAMPIRES
The sorcerer concentrated hard on the graveyard before him. To raise the dead he needed to spark strength of will and purpose into the bodies buried under the earth. The graveyard was old and most of the bodies lying there were beyond decomposition, their muscle and skin disintegrating with time. More recent burials had taken place in a far corner of the graveyard, and the sorcerer willed the dead there the power to move, to break free from beneath the ground.
The scent of decomposition struck him as the earth broke and the first rotting body clambered into the night.
A sense of sickness possessed him and he strengthened the wards that would protect him from the dead.
As
more bodies broke free the sorcerer used his magic, reaching for its essence within him, and instilled the one piece of knowledge that was needed in their minds: They would find and kill the two vampires that were sleeping in that cottage over the hill.
If the vampir
es escaped they would hunt them and they would not stop until the vampires were dead, or their own bodies were too broken to act.
As more dead
broke free of the earth the sorcerer glanced up at the crescent moon. It was low in the sky and shining a dull red, as if it were reminding him of the sacrifice he would soon perform, when he would raise the old vampire - Nathaniel - from beneath the nearby stone circle.
Nathaniel
was not dead in the same way as these mindless bodies that were fighting free before him. Nathaniel was weak; drained of power by the witches that had entombed him, to prevent him from killing the people of their town.
It was no
t a desire for death that made the sorcerer want to bring Nathaniel back – it was a desire for life. A desire to be immortal. Not as a vampire, for that would bring with it the constant craving for blood; he could lose his mind to it, and would need to rely on others for sustenance. No, he did not want that. On raising Nathaniel, the sorcerer would demand his price for bringing him back to life; a sample of his blood. He would use it in a spell that would give him eternal life. He would live forever, while still remaining a sorcerer, and keeping his magic and his mind.
The b
lood of any vampire would not be powerful enough for the immortality spell. It needed to be the blood of an old vampire, and old vampires were rare. Nathaniel was the only one he had discovered. It was convenient he had been buried with a ritual and needed a powerful spell to bring him back to life, for that was something the sorcerer was capable of helping with.
The first part of the ritual was already complete.
The smell of death was nauseating, and the sorcerer wanted this task complete. He wanted those vampires to die. He had watched as they had discovered the site of his first sacrifice. He suspected they did not know that there was an old vampire entombed beneath the stone circle, but that they had been attracted by the presence of the remaining blood. The sorcerer had killed four people at the site, and at the next full moon he needed to kill four more. He could not risk that those vampires would get in the way when it was time for the next sacrifice, for if they did he would need to start the ritual from scratch.
He focused
on the movement of the dead; the skeletons and half decomposed bodies, and willed them to walk over the hill. He willed them speed and strength far beyond their previous humanity. Magical strength. He imbued the bodies and their former minds with the need for violence and the power to fight.
The sorcerer
pulled up his hood and lowered the boundaries of his body so that he would blend into the night, and followed after the dead as a wrath in the darkness.
‘Daniel – Wake up – Wake up – NOW!’ Sarah said, shaking him roughly.
Daniel jerked awake, ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked, looking around.
Sarah was about to try and explain the terrible stench of rotting flesh as she stumbled from beneath the covers of their bed
and started to grab her clothes that she had tossed onto the wooden floorboards before climbing under the blankets, the horrible sense of foreboding that was griping her, the sound of feet dragging along the ground that was quickly getting closer, but in the instant that she was trying to find the words the expression on Daniel’s face changed: his light-hearted sleepy look turned instantly serious and he too was out of bed.
He had heard the footsteps that were approaching, and from the look on his face he had smelt the sickening scent of death.
Daniel dressed at lightning speed and was just shrugging on his leather jacket when there was thudding at the door, he quickly looked at Sarah and she nodded to show she was ready – her heart was pounding hard in her chest and she felt that she might vomit. Again.
Sarah followed Daniel as he approached their small window and yanked it open.
‘After you,’ he said.
Sarah moved as quickly as she was able, which was mightily fast now she was a vampire, and was squeezing herself through the window in a flash. She jumped to the ground, bending her knees as she landed. She looked up and saw a sea of rotting bodies and skeletons jerk their faces so they were fixed
directly on her. In that moment she was glad of the darkness that obscured the details of their form.
Tears welled in her eyes as they started to approach, and she jolted as Daniel landed lightly at her side.
‘Let’s find somewhere more defensible to fight,’ Daniel said, already moving away from the dead.
Sarah nodded and started to move with him, but her mind was going into slow motion. A part of her knew it was the panic, the horror, and
the revolting smell. She did not know what to do, and in her moment of hesitation the closest member of the pack jumped towards her.
Before she
realized what was happening she was knocked to the side, and she knew Daniel had stopped it getting her, and he was trying to pull her up and away, but something had hold of her foot.
She let out a wail that she could he
ar travelling into the night, over the sound of muscle-less bones crunching and grating, as they swarmed closer.
An image flicked into her mind of something grabbing her foot before, and she had a brief moment of déjà vu – had something like this happened in a dream?
She kicked hard,
determined to be free, at the same time as Daniel kicked whatever horrible thing it was that was holding her in the head, and it released her foot as Daniel managed to pull her to her feet. He took her hand and she welcomed it, feeling reassured by his presence. Adrenaline was clearing her thoughts, and the closeness of death was spurring her into action. Sarah sped with Daniel, away from those bodies; the dead, holding onto Daniel’s hand for her life.
They ran up the hillside, Sarah grat
eful for her quick vamp reflexes that were kicking in, making it easy to avoid the lumps of granite stone scattered randomly over the moor. Sarah could hear that the dead were following them, and they were fast, but not as fast as she and Daniel. Relief swelled inside her as she realized that, as vampires, they were definitely faster than the dead, and she and Daniel were gaining ground by the second.
They reached the crest of the hill and stood for a moment on the large granite protrusion at its top, looking down on the horrible bodies that were after them.
‘What
are
they Daniel?’ Sarah asked, ‘They better not be zombies,’ she muttered, her voice only just audible over the sound of the wind that was pummeling her body.
She had seen one too many zombie movies and the idea of viruses infecting people and making them behave like they had rabies repelled her.
Sarah glanced at Daniel’s face. He was looking closely at the approaching dead; studying them.
‘I can sense magic… I think something, or someone
, must be controlling them, animating them,’ Daniel said, gritting his teeth.
‘The crow,’ Sarah said.
She knew something had not been right about the crow that had been watching them yesterday, it must have been another vampire, or a witch, or something – but what did it have against them?
There was not time to dwell on
it, the dead were quickly getting closer.
‘What shall we do – can we fight them? The one that grabbed me was strong,’ Sarah pointed out.
‘Yes, we can fight them, and we have to, but let’s go further from here. We should find somewhere where they can’t surround us – we will have a better chance if they can’t all attack at once.’
Sarah looked down as the dead
approached, and estimated there were about fifty of them. Fifty to fight – were they really going to manage?
But Daniel was strong, and she would have to trust him. She just wished her first fighting experience as a vampire wasn’t going to be quite so disgusting.
Sarah clutched onto Daniel’s hand as he started to race from the dead once more. This time she managed to react in time so they would not touch her again. Not yet.
‘Make sure we don’t go near any other houses,’ Sarah projected straight into Daniel’s mind, through the connection that was provided by their linking hands.
She did not want their pursuit of the safest place to fight putting people in danger.
‘Don’t worry Sarah,’ Daniel reassured
straight into her mind, as they continued to run.
Sarah nearly tripped on a rock as she was listening to him and resolved to pay all her attention to what she was doing. They were descending the hill into a valley
and the ground was becoming marshy under her feet. The wind was blowing in her face, blowing away the scent of decay, and filling her nostrils with the smell of damp earth. She spotted a narrow stream glistening under the dim light of the narrow moon and jumped as they approached, smoothly landing on the other side.