The Young Vampire Mate: The Airendell Chronicler Diaries - Book 1.5

Airendell Chronicler – The Young Vampire Mate

By Audra Hart

Copyright © 2014 Jenny Bailey

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No portion of this work may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the author, with the exception of brief excerpts for the purpose of review. 

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

ISBN: 9781310256578

Title: The Airendell Chronicler – The Young Vampire Mate

Author: Jen Bailey

Publisher: Smashwords, Inc.

AUTHOR’S NOTE:  Breena Glynn is the Chronicler of Airendell and she writes about the adventures of Spell Weavers and other preternatural beings. Her sister, Morna, was cursed into a cycle of death and repeated reincarnation by an evil witch almost seven hundred years ago. Breena, in her role as Clan Chronicler, documented those adventures in three books of the Airendell Chronicles, the first of which is Lost Wanderer Awakened. Breena also documented her own exploits during this same time period in the book The Airendell Chronicler. Breena begins the series as an 800 hundred year old virgin who is not only a powerful Spell Weaver, supernatural enforcer and the keeper of her people’s history… she’s also looking for love. But not any love will do. She’s been waiting for her one true mate. The man that fate has made just for her. The adventures truly begin for Breena when she meets her mate, Damian. He’s a very young Stone Cold vampire with a dark past and even darker appetites. The vicissitudes of Breena, her lover, friends and family make for daring adventures and hot steamy romances, often with a dark twist. The Airendell Chronicles are definitely for adult readers.

I hope that you enjoy this story and if you do, please leave a review.  I am eager for feedback and reviews help other readers find a writer’s efforts. 

Be sure to watch for The First Spell Weaver of Airendell – Book Two of the Airendell Chronicles which will be published soon.

Happy Reading!

Jen Bailey

PROLOGUE – CHRONICLER OF AIRENDELL             

Morna’s grief filled recollections are shattered as something rips into her chest and she hears the screams of her family, the screech of smashing metal, and the crash of shattering glass.  A giant semi-truck has crashed into the family’s minivan.  Slamming the hapless auto and its riders through the intersection and into the concrete and steel of the overpass column.  Morna’s last thought before everything goes black, is; “Please, not my family!  Not my family!”

The silver-haired witch smiles maliciously as she watches from her vantage point at the top of the overpass.  When the witch feels Morna’s life force leaving her body Kyera panics!  “If she dies, I will be called to judgment and lose my immortality,” she hisses fearfully.  But more importantly, the witch wants her enemy to suffer, to endure the loss of those she loves.  The silver haired witch floats down from the overpass and runs over to find her enemy’s body in the carnage.  She touches Morna’s brow just in time to weave a brief spell. 

Kyera has successfully stopped the life force from leaving the wrecked body of her hated enemy.  The silver haired witch spits in her victim’s face and then she looks around with a wicked smile on her face and then stands back to admire her handiwork.  The husband and children’s broken and lifeless bodies are trapped in the demolished minivan.  The vehicle is on fire and will soon explode.  Kyera reaches down to yank a jagged piece of mangled steel out of her enemy’s chest before grabbing the woman by the hair, and dragging her away from the carnage.  Her ancient enemy will survive to mourn the loss of her children and husband.

The witch sees the semi driver approaching on foot.  He is coming out from under the influence of her spell.  He’s watching her in terror.  Kyera laughs thunderously and then weaves an invisibility spell before the rescuers arrive.  The semi driver has seen it all.  He’s terrified and confused.  He just can’t understand why his truck accelerated against the red light and into the minivan.  The tall woman with wild silver hair terrifies him.  Somehow he knows she is responsible for the carnage he sees before him. 

He falls to knees screaming in horror because he knows that his truck has taken the lives of all in the van.  He knows that no one will ever believe that he wasn’t controlling his truck.  Nor will they believe him if he tells them about the silver haired woman.  He has no family, no one who will stand with him.  Now, he knows he never will.  He knows his life is over just as surely as the lives of those in the burning vehicle.

Kyera remains at the scene of the carnage gloating until the mortals load the bitch into the ambulance and drive away.  She is reluctant to leave, she is reveling in her victory.  In this incarnation, she has again found Morna before he could.  She feels gleefully triumphant over this small victory, yet still fearful, because she never knows when Lucian will arrive.  Once the Spell Weaver turned vampire catches up with his mate, Kyera is reluctant to engage him because he is very powerful and full of rage for Kyera.  She knows that he would gladly risk forfeiting his immortality to take her life because of what she has done to his beloved mate, this day and in the past as well.

CHAPTER ONE

I am the Chronicler of the Airendell Spell Weavers.  That means I have visions about my friends and family and write them down for our Clan’s historical records.  Our Guild has been practicing magic, healing the ill and injured, and protecting the mortal world for several millennia.  I am the latest Chronicler in a very long line.  It’s supposed to be an honor, but it can be a burden as well.  Too bad I never receive a vision until something happens.  My job is to record our history, not interfere with it.  Therefore, I never get a vision early enough to avoid a catastrophe.

This latest vision fills me with so much pain that it is nearly unbearable.  My younger sister, Morna, has just been gravely injured in a car crash and I have no idea where she is.  I cannot even go to her!  I still didn’t see her face in my vision but I know the witch, Kyera was there.  I know she caused the accident.  I am powerless to intervene.  Without knowing what my sister looks like in this incarnation my magic is useless.  I cannot track her scent and her psychic signature like my brother in law, the vampire, can.  I am overcome with feelings of helplessness that quickly give way to impotent rage.

My cell phone is ringing.  I shake my head in a vain attempt to clear it so I can speak.  I know who is calling, Rinda Fine, my childhood friend.  She was coming for a visit and should be near my home by now.  Rinda is an empathic, not as powerful as me, but strong enough to pick up on my extreme torment within a few miles radius.  I answer the phone and quickly tell Rinda what I saw. 

“Shit! Poor, Morna,” my friend whispers breathlessly.  I know this news is just as painful for Rinda as it is for me.  Rinda grew up with us in Airendell.  We were all very close.  In fact, Morna and Rinda were especially close… I think Rinda still harbors love, beyond what one would feel for a sister or a friend, in her heart for my sister.  “I am only a mile away,” Rinda says softly.  “I’ll be there in a minute and we will see if we can find Morna.  She’ll be alright, Breena, she’s tough.  She always has been.”

“Yes, but she’s mortal because of the damned curse and if she dies we will have to wait for her to be reborn into another life,” Breena sobs into her phone.

“I know, Bree, I know.  I’ll be there in a minute.”  Rinda hangs up and I snap my phone off and toss it on the table.  I wipe my eyes before going to the kitchen to fill the tea kettle.  While I am watching the flames underneath the kettle my dear friend comes up behind me and wraps her arms around me.  “Breena, we will figure out how to find her so that we can go help her heal.  Luca said a few weeks ago that he was close… but I tried his cell after I hung up from you and he’s not answering.  I hope he’s not off in some realm where his phone is useless.”

“We have let Luca carry this burden by himself for too long,” I snap.    “Or at least I have.  I know you have helped him over the years.”  Rinda nods.  “But he won’t even come to see me.  He checked on me during the aftermath of Katrina.  I felt his presence, but he never came to me.  I don’t think he will ever forgive me for hurting Morna in Verona,” I say sadly.

“Nonsense, neither one of you had any way of knowing that just telling Morna about her history would cause her that kind of physical pain.  You didn’t know she has to remember on her own.  The pain Morna endured was part of the curse the witch used after Morna killed her mate,” Rinda reminds me.

We are thoughtfully silent for a few moments until I says; “I still think someone was helping that vampire that attacked Luca.  He was too powerful for a vamp to get the drop on him, and yet the witch’s mate did just that and would have killed him if Morna had not come along when she did.”  I pour the boiling water into my ancient tea pot and get two mugs from the cabinet.  “But enough about what ifs and how comes.  We need to focus on the here and now and figure out how to find Morna.”

“I agree.  Tell me everything you saw in the vision and every impression you received from Morna’s mind,” Rinda urges as we sit at the table and begin to drink our tea.

“For one thing, she was coming from burying her child when the semi crashed into them.”  Rinda gasps at that news and I can only nod sadly.  After a few moments I continue; “And it was icy… that may help us narrow down where the crash happened.” I am hopeful that this might lead us to my little sister.

Rinda digs her laptop out of her oversized bag and fires it up to check the weather maps while I continue to try to recall details from the vision.  “She thinks of herself as ‘Dee’ and she wants to die…” I whisper.  “But I am pretty sure that’s not actually her name.”

“Crap!” Rinda says softly as she finds a report of a freak ice storm going on right now in southern Oklahoma and north Texas.  “Was this an after the fact vision or in the moment?”

“In the moment, I think.  At first I thought it was an old event because of the ice storm, I mean I wouldn’t expect an ice storm in mid-April,” I tell my friend.  “But it soon became obvious that it was happening as I was seeing it, because it was so vague.  If we can hurry and track her down we might be able to help her.”

Rinda turns her laptop so that I can see the screen and then sighs, “It’s a really big storm… we will have to wait for news reports.”  Rinda rubs her face hard and cusses bitterly.  She then fishes her phone out of her bag and tries Luca’s cell again.  No answer.  “I can’t leave this news on his voicemail, we have to keep trying to find her on our own until we can reach him.”

We spend the rest of the day kicking ideas around and searching the web for news reports.  I try to recall the vision and focus on faces of other people, signs, or anything else that might help us, but visions of Morna are always fuzzy and difficult to recall because of the curse on her life.  Rinda even tries weaving a finding spell on Luca so that he can help them find Morna.  But the spell weaver turned vampire is very powerful and always protects himself from his enemies, and unfortunately his friends as well.  We finally decide to call it a night and go to bed, hoping to get a fresh start in the morning.

The next day is spent calling friends and allies asking them to help with the search.  But a woman who may be named Dee involved in a crash is difficult to track down, even with all of their powers.  They have to rely on research.  Thank God for the internet!

Rinda whoops loudly midafternoon.  “Breena, I found her!”  I rush to my friend’s side at the table and read the newspaper article that Rinda found online.  I stare at the photo published with the article and my blood runs cold.  “That’s the van!  And that’s the semi!  You found her!”  I look at the banner of the online copy of the newspaper.  “So she’s in Oklahoma?  Ada, Oklahoma?  Have you ever heard of that place?  Is it near a Gateway?”

Rinda nods.  “There are three Gateways in Oklahoma that I know of for sure.  I suspect there are also other portals because the barrier between the dimensions is so thin there.  There actually seems to be a convergence of several realms hovering near Oklahoma and north Texas.  But anyway, there’s one at a place called Byrd’s Mill, it’s probably the closest to Ada.  There is one at Robber’s Cave and the sealed Dragon Gateway at Black Mesa.  Oklahoma definitely has a strong connection to the other realms.  There are tons of immortals living there.  I am not surprised that Morna was drawn to that location.”

Rinda scrolls down and finds photos of Morna’s family that died in the crash and a photo of Morna in her latest incarnation.  “She’s beautiful.”  Rinda touches the screen with her fingertips lovingly.  “But she looks so much older than she should,” Rinda says sadly.  I agree, but honestly I’m just grateful we have found her and hope she still lives.

Tears fill my eyes and I say; “She looks so different, and yet the same.  Look at those eyes.  Same color, same shape, same love and compassion shining through them.” 

Rinda hugs me gently before she whispers; “It’s her, I am sure of it.”  All I can do is nod and we quickly gather our things they will need before trying to call Luca again.

We still weren’t able to reach Luca, but I am not surprised.  When Lucian is looking for Morna he is single-minded in the extreme and completely shuts his friends out.  Then we focus on the image of the woman in the newspaper that we believe is our Morna and weave the finding spell.