Kiss of the Vampire Read online

  Table of Contents

  Kiss of the Vampire

  PUBLISHED BY:

  Synopsis:

  Also Available by Terry Spear:

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Kiss of the Vampire

  (Blood Moon Series)

  Book 1

  Terry Spear

  PUBLISHED BY:

  Terry Spear

  The Kiss of the Vampire

  (Blood Moon Series)

  Book 1

  Copyright © 2011 by Terry Spear

  Cover by Am Design Studios k12

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

  Discover more about Terry Spear at:

  http://www.terryspear.com/

  Synopsis:

  The motto of the vampires is that humans have to deal with problems on their own. But when Levka and his friends risk all to save human girls, he is injured and so the adventure begins. A cruise. A human girl who is terrified of water. And a vampire who has targeted her for his mate. But she has some secrets of her own. Forced to take a cruise ship to babysit her foster sister,

  Caitlin has to face her own demons. But add to that her foster sister's and her friend's antics and Caitlin's inability to use her witch's magic over water and she has little hope to enjoy this trip. Until she meets a wheelchair-bound teen and wants to make friends with him in the worst way. Levka and his friends make a hasty retreat from Dallas before the vampire elders stake them for getting involved in human affairs--again. But when he meets Caitlin on the cruise ship, hating that he's so weak after being injured so severely that he has to use a wheelchair, he finds their troubles have just begun.

  Also Available by Terry Spear:

  The World of Fae:

  The Dark Fae

  The Deadly Fae

  The Winged Fae

  The Ancient Fae

  Dragon Fae

  Hawk Fae

  Phantom Fae, 2015

  The World of Elf:

  The Shadow Elf

  The Darkland Elf (TBA)

  Blood Moon Series:

  Kiss of the Vampire

  Bite of the Vampire, 2015

  Vampire Chronicles Series:

  The Vampire…In My Dreams

  The Vampire…In My Nightmares (TBA)

  Demon Guardian Series:

  The Trouble with Demons

  Demon Trouble, Too

  Demon Hunter (TBA)

  Non-Series for Now:

  Ghostly Liaisons

  The Beast Within

  Courtly Masquerade

  Deidre's Secret

  The Magic of Inherian:

  The Scepter of Salvation

  The Mage of Monrovia

  Emerald Isle of Mists (TBA)

  Dedication

  To those who love sexy and hot blooded vampires like the one I saw on the Brevard Community College stage when I was a teen and fell in love with them forever.

  Chapter 1

  Two horrified girls’ screams penetrated the thick fog that cloaked Dallas early that spring morning, catching Levka's attention. His blood hot with anger, he wanted to right a wrong in the worst way. In the distance, the faint sound of beating drums resonated from one of the local bars in the otherwise deserted warehouse district.

  In warning, Arman touched Levka’s shoulder. “The elders forbid us to interfere in the mortals’ affairs.”

  Levka glared at his lifelong friend. “Since when have we gone strictly by the league’s rules?”

  “The last time we got involved, they said they’d punish us severely—maybe even banish us from the city—despite our royal ties. There has even been talk of terminating those of us who cause any more trouble.”

  “Then we won’t let them know, will we?”

  Arman scanned the dimly lit brick factories shrouded in the ghostly wet mist like a fuzzy gray blanket. “Stasio says they’re keeping a closer eye on us now.”

  “Let the league watch and do nothing to help these people then. Punish me if they have to, but after my sister and parents were murdered, and I did nothing to prevent it—”

  “You couldn’t have prevented it, as young as you were. Besides, that was over nine-hundred years ago.”

  “I have a good memory.”

  “And you hassle Stasio for living in the past.”

  Levka ignored his friend’s jibe. He knew the girls had gotten themselves into the predicament all on their own without any help from anyone else. Like the league said, mortals had to deal with their own difficulties if they were to grow and flourish. Still, the girls’ sobs tore at his soul, the same mournful wailing he couldn’t vanquish from his mind when his mother and older sister had pleaded for their lives so many centuries ago. Yet the girls screaming made it seem like yesterday.

  The league be damned.

  Levka vanished and reappeared in the vicinity of the screams, where more factory warehouses stood idle at two in the morning, except for a dingy club hidden from sight, two blocks away.

  Four male teens dressed in jeans and grungy jackets—all appearing about the same age as Levka—threatened two girls with knives. “Take off your clothes or we’ll cut them off,” the heaviest-set of the boys growled, his fat cheeks flaming red, and his beady eyes narrowed.

  Teary-eyed, one of the girls unzipped her jacket while the other unbuttoned her coat, their fingers shaking.

  “Please…,” the girl in the zippered jacket said, her mascara dripping down her face in black rivulets, her gaudy crimson lips quivering.

  Levka stepped out of the fog, appearing just a few feet away from the thugs. “Can I join the party?”

  Instantly, all eyes were upon him.

  “Where did you come from?” a lanky kid with curly black hair asked, waving a ten-inch blade in Levka’s direction.

  “It’s a private party,” the biggest guy said, threatening Levka with his knife. “Get lost unless you want us to carve you a new face.”

  “Such bravado from ones so young.” Levka clapped his hands together slowly in mock appreciation.

  The big guy’s face turned redder. “Let’s teach this bastard a lesson.”

  Levka gave him a small smile and a slight bow of his head. “Teach me all you know.”

  Before anyone moved, Levka’s three friends strolled out of the mist like Gothic specters, all dressed in black jeans, all wearing black ankle-length coats, and demonic smiles. Ruric, the curly redhead of the bunch, who Levka swore looked like a Viking warrior, waved his arms in a martial arts-like dance, pretending to yield two light sabers and said, “Let the force be with you, my friends.”

  Arman shook his head, his dark brown hair sweeping across his shoulders, his brown eyes nearly black. “We really shouldn’t get involved, Levka. I feel it in my blood. We’ll be in the worst kind of trouble this time.”

  Stasio pulled his long sandy blond hair into a tail. “I don’t like the odds. Fighting the Marcher Barons along our borders in Wales was much more to my liking.”

&nb
sp; Levka gave him a warning look, not that it ever did any good. Stasio never seemed able to keep up with the changing centuries.

  “How scary. A bunch of long-haired Goths, who don’t know when to mind their own business!” the leader of the bullies shouted. “Let me add a little blood to your costumes to make you really look creepy.”

  “Certainly,” Stasio said, his voice dark and menacing, his stockier build readied for a fight. “We could always use a little extra blood.”

  The girls trembled in their heels, and they looked as scared of Levka and his friends as they were of the thugs. Levka tried to diffuse the situation without bloodshed because he knew if it came to that, the league would come down harder on them. “Go. Leave. There are four of us now, and you’re well out-matched.”

  “Ha! Well, you won’t be any match for this!” The big guy yanked out a gun hidden in his denim jacket.

  “That’s the way to show him, Joey!” the lanky boy said, and lunged at Ruric with his knife.

  Ruric smiled, the look pure evil, and swung his ghostly light sabers at the guy. He moved quicker than the mortal’s eye could see, grabbed the boy’s arm, and twisted hard. Snap.

  Screaming in pain, the teen dropped the knife. He grabbed his arm and ran several paces backward. “He…he broke my damned arm!”

  “Better that than your scrawny neck, eh, cockroach?” Ruric asked, the humor sparkling in his green eyes.

  One of the other thugs stalked toward Arman, probably figuring he was a wimp because he didn’t want to fight.

  Stasio slipped in closer to the blond. “Hey, he looks kinda like Johanne Von Kruger, eh? German Nazi, killer extraordinaire? Even has the butch that looks like his, only the blue streak down the middle kinda destroys the tough guy image.”

  Levka rolled his eyes. Everywhere he went, Stasio had to give a living history lesson.

  Ignoring Stasio and concentrating on Arman, the Nazi-looking kid waved a blade inches from his face.

  Arman straightened his back and towered over all of them by a couple of inches, his willowy appearance deceiving others into believing he had little strength. “No good will come of this, I say.”

  “Afraid?” the boy asked, baring his yellowed teeth.

  “Yes, of what I might do to you.”

  The guy leapt at Arman, thrusting with his knife into the misty gloom. From behind the creep with the curly black hair, Arman said, “What about you? Want to fight?”

  The guy let out a frightened cry and bolted down the deserted street.

  “Don’t run with a knife,” Arman said under his breath. “My mother always told me that.”

  The boy tripped on his own two feet. He fell to the asphalt, jabbing the knife into his chest.

  “Guess my mother was right.”

  The big teen shoved the gun in one of the girl’s faces. “I’m going to kill her, if you don’t leave, now!”

  With his finger squeezing the trigger, he was shaking so hard, it was only a matter of seconds before he fired the bullet. At this close range, he couldn’t miss, and the girl could very well die.

  Without hesitation, Levka faded into nothingness, then reappeared between the gun and the girl. The bulky guy fired the gun, though whether it was because he wanted to or because Levka’s sudden action scared him, Levka would never know. The bullet ripped into Levka’s chest, tearing a hole through his shirt, skin, and blood vessels. The pain traveled through his nerve endings, clouding his mind, blurring his vision. Even the girls’ screams behind him quickly faded.

  His movement sluggish, Levka leapt toward the gun-toting teen. A second bullet shattered one of Levka’s ribs, and a third lodged in his liver, or at least he thought it had. The fourth and fifth went heavenward when Stasio grabbed the guy’s neck and yanked his gun arm upward.

  The gloom closed in on Levka. The pain filled his entire chest, burning, sharp, excruciating. For a second, he wondered why he had taken another bullet for a mortal. Every time hurt as much as the first.

  The gray mist faded to black, and he was semi-aware of falling hard on his knees.

  “Get the girls to somewhere safe, Arman,” Ruric ordered.

  “What about Levka?”

  “Levka? He’ll live, if the league members don’t have us staked. And remember to wipe the mortals’ minds.”

  Stasio snorted. “It would serve them right to remember.”

  Levka felt his body lift off the ground. Opening his eyes, he saw Stasio holding him and tried to give an order.

  Arman did instead. “Wipe only enough of the experience to make them remember what is safe for us. Maybe they’ll learn.”

  Ruric bowed his head. “Done.” He ran toward the kid with the knife wound, passed out in the street.

  “Meet you at our club house,” Stasio told them.

  “Club house,” Levka moaned.

  “Yeah, buddy. I’m afraid the league will want our heads for this. The club house is the only safe place for us until you get strong enough, and we can figure out where to go until things cool down.”

  “The girls—”

  “Safe. Arman will get them to someone safe.”

  “Their memories—”

  Stasio shook his head. “You know, even when you’re half dead, you are so bossy just like General Patton was on the battlefield. Let me be in charge for the moment, all right?”

  Levka attempted a smile, but the pain in his chest intensified.

  “We’ll get you better in no time, Levka. Just keep giving me those evil smirks of yours, and I’ll know you’re going to live.”

  “Someone’s coming! And he’s not mortal!” Arman warned.

  ***

  Alicia Howard stalked into Caitlin MacEvin’s bedroom, folded her arms, and glowered at her. “I can’t believe my parents would send you along with me on the cruise.”

  Stunned, Caitlin stared at Alicia. Caitlin’s foster parents had no clue she was a witch, although Alicia suspected she could do things she shouldn’t be able to.

  But Caitlin couldn’t conjure up her magic over a great body of water. Not that that was the reason she abhorred the notion of going with Alicia on the cruise. She glanced at the new short story she was penning for Teen Writer’s Magazine, that she’d hoped to get done during spring break while her foster sister was away on her cruise.

  Alicia’s scowl turned into a mean-hearted smile. “They know how much you’re afraid of the water.” Her smile faded, and she motioned to the door. “Go on. My parents want to give you the good news.” She turned so hard on her stilettos, Caitlin was surprised she didn’t twist them right off.

  Then, though she knew she shouldn’t, but once she was on the water, she would have no powers whatsoever, Caitlin silently spoke an incantation, the carpet rippled, and Alicia tripped. A heel snapped off and she went down, landing hard on her hands and knees and cursed a blue streak.

  Alicia glanced over her shoulder, glowering, knowing in some deeper way that Caitlin was different, that she’d made her fall, but she could never prove it.

  Caitlin frowned with feigned concern. “Oh my. Those were your favorite shoes, weren’t they?”

  Then with every intention of swaying her foster parents to allow her to stay home instead, Caitlin hurried past her and headed downstairs, her heart pounding with pent-up worry. They couldn’t mean to make her take a trip on the ocean. Not after what had happened to her and her family.

  Smiling at her as if he knew she was thrilled to have the opportunity to go on a cruise, her foster dad, Thomas, motioned for her to take a seat on the sofa in the living room with a wave of his hand, her foster mother, Mildred sitting on a chair, all smiles also.

  “Listen,” he said, in his most convincing fatherly voice, the one he always used on Caitlin when he wanted her to see something his way. “You’ve been a good influence on Alicia for the past year, and I know you didn’t want to go on the cruise. But because she stayed out until four in the morning with that Daryl kid last night, I don’t want her goin
g on the cruise unless you keep an eye on her.”

  Alicia despised having a foster sister on the best of days, but this would definitely be the worst. Why didn’t they just ground the brat and say she couldn’t go? But no, that would be too much punishment for the princess.

  Caitlin was sure Alicia was the reason both Alicia’s parents had turned prematurely gray.

  “She doesn’t listen to me, really,” Caitlin tried to explain for the hundredth time. What did they think she could do about a girl who would do whatever she wanted no matter what they said? How did they think Caitlin could get her to mind when she wouldn’t even mind her own parents? Especially when Alicia acted like she hated Caitlin.

  “We want you to give us progress reports. We’ve told her that you’ll be with her at all times, so to behave herself. No sex with boys, no drinking, and no using drugs. If she doesn’t agree, she can’t go.”

  “What if she doesn’t listen to me?”

  “I want you to inform me, and when you reach the first of the Caribbean Islands, I’ll meet you there and take you both home. If she doesn’t behave, she won’t be going on her trip to Hawaii this summer,” Thomas said.

  Like that would happen. Another horrible thought occurred to her. Inwardly, she groaned. Please don’t make me chaperone her this summer, too.

  “Caitlin,” Mildred said, “you are so responsible and well-mannered. She’ll listen to you. Besides, dear, you need to have some fun. You shouldn’t be sitting around this big old house with nowhere to go. It’s your vacation time, too.”

  Right, which was why Caitlin wanted to do what she wanted to do with her free time. “But I—”

  “I insist,” Thomas said. “Alicia has a suite, so the two of you girls should have plenty of room. It has a balcony, too.”

  “But—”

  “We know you’re not fond of water, honey, but we talked to your psychiatrist, and he says this is an excellent way for you to overcome your anxiety about it. You know, he says facing your fear is the only way for you to get rid of it,” Mildred said.

  And that was settled, as far as they were concerned.

  Caitlin stared out at the palm fronds blowing in the hot Florida breeze. Two days to prepare for the worst spring break ever, a tiny ship traversing miles of open sea, and one stuck-up foster sister who was sure to make her life miserable, along with dozens of others, just like her.