I Vampire

Julien Gregg's The Vampire Jessup 4: The Vampire Saga

The Vampire Jessup: The Vampire Saga
by [Julien Gregg](mailto:juliengregg85@gmail.com?subject = The Vampire Jessup on Nifty)

You've read the tales of Eric Maxwell, Darias and Ren now hear from the 700 year old Vampire Jessup. This is not the tale of how he was turned, though that tale may come later. This is the tale of what came after the events of Neverland: I Vampire 2. Told from Jessup's perspective, follow him on a journey of protection and love. This story contains scenes depicting murder, violence, bloodletting, homosexual sex, rape and has a strong adult theme. If you are offended by this type of material or it is not legal for you to read this type of material in your place of residence, please leave the site now.

This story is a work of fiction its characters do not exist outside the story. Any resemblance to living people or places is strictly coincidence. This story is Copyright © 2015 Julien Gregg. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This story contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. 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 express written permission from the author.

Four

"What the Hell is going on in here?" I demanded. I turned to Miguel and narrowed my eyes. "Change back to normal before Noah wakes up and finds you like this. Do you want to terrify the child?"

"What is it?" he demanded in that enhanced voice. He sounded so much like the females of his species that my blood ran cold at the sound of his voice. "Why does it smell so good?"

"Miguel, you will change back to the form you usually use," I snapped. "If you can smell him, then you can also smell innocent blood in his veins."

That gave them all pause. Darian looked amused, damn him. Perrin was looking at him with shame filled eyes, though he still hadn't let go of him. Miguel was shrinking before my eyes. The webbing slowly receded until I was looking at his naked body. The fangs receded and his eyes stopped glowing. Then he looked at me with his human eyes and sighed. He apologized and then yanked his arms out of the Forsaken's grasp and left the room. Jax followed him a moment later. Then I was simply standing there with Perrin holding Darian by the throat, Blaze and Seamus looking at him with a strange look in their eyes.

"What is it, Blaze?" I demanded.

"He smells good to us, too," he replied. "He smells like one of us."

That didn't make any sense to me at all. How could he smell like a Forsaken to the Forsaken, but smell so mouthwateringly appealing to the vampires? Forsaken were appealing to the vampires, but not nearly as appealing as Darian Lane had turned out to be to all of the vampires he'd encountered so far. Their reactions had varied from sexual appeal to malice and murder. Perrin held him by the throat as if he were a threat. Miguel had morphed into his hideous countenance because his hunting instinct had taken him over. Blaze, Jax and Seamus had reacted like he was one of them. None of it made any sense to me.

"Innocent blood," Perrin gasped and let go of Darian. He stumbled backward a few steps, staring at the man in the doorway with unbelieving eyes. "Forgive me, Brother."

"Perrin!" I hissed. What had Darian done to him? Was it some sort of spell? I was furious at the thought.

"No, Jessup," said Blaze, putting a hand on my shoulder. Until that moment I hadn't even realized he'd moved across the room. For him to have moved across the room without my knowledge meant that I was so distracted by what was happening that I had ignored the bond between us. "Feel it, Jessup. He's one of us, not just a Forsaken. He's part of all of us. He's one of us all."

"What are you doing to them?" I demanded, turning to face Darian. "What magick is this?"

"This isn't magick," he said. "I told you I'm not a Moreau. I don't have their kind of magick. I could put a fixing on them, but it would take time, articles of their clothing and they'd have to have some sort of desire for me already. They didn't know me before today, Jessup. This is not magick. I don't understand this any more than you do."

"He smells like one of us," Blaze repeated.

"And what about you?" I asked, turning to Seamus. He'd remained rigid and quiet this whole time. He wasn't a born Forsaken. He'd been bitten. So what did he think of Darian?

"He smells like family," Seamus replied. "I love him."

I stared at him for a long moment. He'd said he smelled like family. Then I looked at Darian. The man looked as confused as I felt, so I knew in that instant that he hadn't done this. This was something strange all right, but it wasn't magick. But Seamus loved him? That I didn't believe. Did he mean that he loved Darian like he loved his family? That I could believe faster than the scent of a man could make him loveable. Yet wasn't that how it had started for me? His scent had drawn me, his revelation that he knew what I was had scared me and still the scent had drawn me in. I'd pursued him because of the way he smelled. So how could I say that I couldn't believe that Seamus could love him just because of the way he smelled?

Then Miguel came back to the room, thankfully he was dressed. He smiled apologetically at first Darian and then at me. I wanted to tear his head off! He walked up to Darian and I stiffed, but he only held out his hand and waited patiently while Darian decided what he thought of the gesture. His eyes were still blazing yellow, so I knew that he was still reacting to Darian's scent in a way that was completely different than the rest of us.

"Forgive me," he said, smiling. "I behaved rudely."

Well that was the understatement of the century! Darian got that smirk on his face that I'd seen so many times in my dreams. I thought I knew what it meant, too. I thought it meant that he was considering Miguel and trying to decide if forgiveness was the path to take with him. I found myself hoping he'd take issue with him so I could do something about it. That of course made me think for a minute. Who was I to take up for Darian? Was I his lover? That we'd been at each other like two hormonal humans was one thing, but was he mine to protect after one tryst?

"You're forgiven, Miguel," Darian said. Then I found issue with the way he'd said his name. I was really in trouble.

"You took us all by surprise coming here," Miguel said, stepping back to allow Darian to come into the house.

"First of all, I came to see Jessup," he said, smiling at me. "Then, of course I wanted to see if I could come here and not have to fight with everyone. You gave me a scare, Miguel."

"Please forgive me," he said, looking chastened.

"Why don't you tell us about yourself, Darian?" Perrin asked as he sat down on the sofa next to Jax.

Then it was as if I were in another world where the witch I was trying to protect from my little vampire/Forsaken family was sitting among them telling them about his life. He talked about his childhood, moving from place to place so that his parents weren't discovered. I found myself feeling sorry for him as he told us that he had never made many friends growing up. Then he was talking about coming into his powers and discovering Darias. He said again that Darias was the God of Knowledge and they all gave him a funny look when he said it. No one corrected him though. His story went on. He told them about how he learned the limit of his power and discovering the Moreau family. He talked about a Moreau who scared him named Quinn. None of us had ever heard of him, but Darian said that Quinn was the most powerful of the Moreau witches with the power to kill or heal you with his mind.

He talked a great deal about Quinn Moreau. He told us about Quinn's son Phillipe and his brothers, Pierre and Revanche. He even explained that Revanche was French for revenge. We all looked at each other when he let us know that. Who would name their child Revenge? He wasn't finished though. He told us about the Moreau family all the way to Marcus Moreau and then he was talking about the witches in Las Vegas coming after his family for encroaching on their territory. They'd been relentless. He told us that his grandmother was killed by a pair of these witches and the family had called on the Moreau's for the first time in a hundred years. Marcus came to their aid and the witches in Las Vegas left them alone. They moved to Alberta then and they were the only witches in the area.

By the time he'd made it to moving to Kale and joining the teaching staff at the school I'd learned more about him than I'd ever thought possible in such a short time. Then he got to the night I had taken Noah to meet his teacher and we were caught up. Everyone was silent after that. I suppose they were all processing all he'd said. I knew I definitely had things to think about. That's what I was doing when Miguel opened his mouth and made me want to murder him again. He told of his own history first, telling them how he'd been ripped from his home and turned against his will by Bashir. I learned that night that Miguel had been young but married with a son of his own when Bashir had taken him. I found myself feeling sorry for him for a moment until he told us that his son Javier was now one of his fledglings. His wife had died just two years ago.

Then he started to tell Darian all about the vampires and Forsaken. He told him about Eric fighting Bashir in the streets of San Juan and finally how he'd killed Bashir and then went to sleep for an indefinite amount of time. He even told him that Eric now slept in a crypt below House Maxwell in San Jaun. That revelation got him sour looks from everyone in the room but Darian. He told him what he knew of mine and Perrin's attack on Noah's mortal father and how we'd angered The Vampire Silas and were now on the run, hiding out to keep Noah safe from the vampire. I wanted to murder him there and then.

"Well I know nothing about any vampires named Silas," Darian said into the growing silence. "But I do know how to magically protect Noah from this vampire. There's a way to hide him with magick. It requires herbs and a special bath for him, but he'll like it. I think all children secretly love playing in the bath tub."

"You can do this for him?" Blaze asked excitedly. I sighed in frustration at the thoughts I could hear through the bond.

"With Jessup's permission," he said, eyeing me.

I sat there, looking back at them as they stared at me. That they'd finally decided to get my permission for anything was shocking to me. They'd just told everything without consulting me. Why should they think they needed my permission for anything else? Then I shook myself. I was being petty. Yes, dear reader even I, The Vampire Jessup can be petty when my anger is piqued. I thought about what Darian had said about helping to keep Noah safe with magick. He'd said he wasn't the spell casting kind of witch, so I didn't really see what herbs in a bath would do for my mortal son. I decided to let them try however. Noah needed all the protection he could get.

"You have my permission," I finally replied.

He left shortly after that with promises to return with the herbs for the bath. I looked at Blaze and let him feel my disappointment through the bond. He had the presence of mind to look abashed at least. I was at my wit's end with Miguel however. I just glared at him until he went off to talk to Jax. I simply sat there to think about all he had said. Even though I was angry I still loved Darian. I think I loved him more because of the life he'd lead. It was frustrating but I chose to just accept that I was in love with this semi mortal witch and move on. Noah was supposed to be my focus anyway.

I got up and went to check on my sleeping son. Beth was sitting in his desk watching him sleep. I looked at her for a long moment, trying to figure out what was so different about her. Her skin looked more alive than normal. Her hair had grown, and I swear I could literally hear her heart from across the room. Then I stopped still. It wasn't her heart I was hearing. It was the child inside of her that I could hear. His heart was so strong because of the vampire blood mixed with Forsaken blood. She was pregnant!

"Jessup," she said, smiling as she turned and saw me. "I trust whatever was going on in the living room has been taken care of."

"It has," I assured her. "How far along are you?"

"Not quite three months," she said, smiling. "Blaze didn't know how to tell you with all that's going on."

"This is joyous news," I said, smiling at her. "Have you thought of a name?"

"Blaze has a name in mind," she said, looking guilty for some reason.

"Well?" I asked, trying to put my most agreeable face forward so as not to scare her. What did she have to feel guilty about?

"Luca," she said, looking at me with a pleading expression. She flinched when I sighed and leaned back against the door frame.

"How does he know about Luca?" I asked in a voice just above a whisper.

"The bond," she said. "Talk to him about this, Jessup. If you don't want us to use the name just tell him."

"Thank you for watching over him," I said, glancing at Noah before I walked out of the room.

I went to the dining room table and sat down with another sigh. Perrin was there and he looked at me expectantly but I shook my head. I needed to think and what I had to think about was in no way pleasant. Luca had been my brother's name. I couldn't think of my brother without dwelling on the fact that I had been the one to end his life. Sure I'd been starved and trapped in a cell by Alexander, and he'd put my brother in my cell with me specifically because he knew I would drain him dry as soon as I smelled the blood in his veins. He'd even cut his arms to make him bleed before putting him in the cell with me. I shook my head to try and shake off the memories, but they wouldn't be shaken off.

I remembered how small Luca was for his age. He'd been two years younger than me but looked no older than ten years old when we were taken by Alexander. I remembered him playing instead of doing his chores, and I remembered him calling out my name as he ran from me when our father had sent me to wrangle him. Then I remembered how frail and weak he'd been while we were on the ship, headed for the savage land where Alexander had made his home. We were kept in a holding cell below decks with no food or water for days and days. How he'd clung to me for warmth on those cold nights at sea. I wept at the thought of it.

Oh that his memory could come back to haunt me after seven hundred years! The blood in my tears dripped onto my sleeve and then I buried my face in my hands and just wept. I felt Perrin's hand on my shoulder before I sensed that he'd moved from his chair across the table from my own. He could not comfort me. No one could comfort me. All I could think of was my brother's dead eyes as they'd seemed to look back at me from his lifeless face after I'd drained him dry, killing him.

Then I felt Blaze moving toward me through the bond. I don't know exactly how I timed it just right but I stood up and turned and was suddenly engulfed in his arms. He held me tight as I soaked his black t-shirt with my bloody tears. Oh the agony of it! I knew that he and Beth had not meant to hurt me by wanting to name their son after my brother, but neither of them knew the full story about how Luca had died. No one did. The only other vampires who knew about what had happened to him were long dead.

"Shh," he soothed as he held me. "Jessup, I'm so sorry. I didn't know that it would hurt you so much. We'll choose another name."

"No," I said into his chest. "You have to name your son after my brother. It isn't the name that hurts, Blaze. It's the memories. After so long the memories are washing over me like a tidal wave of torture. You must name him Luca."

"Shh," he soothed again. "We will. I promise you. I just wish I could take this pain from you."

When I regained most of my composure I was sitting at the table with all of them. Noah was still asleep, a fact I thanked all of the Gods in existence for. Blaze, Seamus, Beth, Perrin, Jax and Miguel were all seated around me. They each looked worried. The look in their eyes made me sigh again. Oh how it hurt to remember. A vampire's curse is surely that no matter how long he lives his memories never fade. Sometimes I envy the humans and their old age that can sometimes take away memories of such painful pasts.

"It was thirteen eighty four," I sighed as the words ran through my head. I knew I had to explain it to them. I just hoped they would all understand. "We lived in London then. My father was an advisor to King Richard II. When I say that he was an important man, I mean he was very important. What we didn't know at the time was that the man who had King Richard's ear was a vampire. His name was Alexander Kull. None of you are old enough to remember Alexander, but let me tell you that he was the most ruthless vampire I've ever met.

"I don't know when it was decided that teen aged males were the only suitable candidates for turning," I continued. "Alexander must have decided that on his own unless it came from his sire. He paid the King so much gold for the pair of us. I like to think that my father didn't know that we were sold to the Greek Nobleman. He placed us in a cell under the decks of a ship and set sail for what he called The Savage Lands. He starved us for weeks. We had no food or water and grew weaker and weaker the longer we were at sea. Finally we were fed and I was beaten for giving half of my food to my brother. Luca was small for his age. At twelve years old he looked more like a ten year old. He got sick from the starvation, or maybe it was the lack of water. Anyway, I ate only half of the food that Alexander put in front of me. Then I fed the rest to Luca. I didn't know it but what I had done was the key to breaking me later on.

"Alexander stripped me naked and lashed me with a whip from my head to my toes," I said with a sigh. "He made Luca watch. The louder Luca cried for me the more he whipped me. Finally I passed out. When I woke up we were back in the cell, but the ship had reached land. The sun had come up so I didn't see Alexander, but his drones kept a tight hold on the two weak children their Master had captive. We were fed every day, and I even ate all of the food they gave me. It took weeks for the wagons to reach Alexander's house in what is now Oklahoma. There were no comforts for us there though.

"He raped me the night we arrived and then turned me," I told them. "I slept for seven days before I woke up to the most incredible thirst I'd ever known. He took me hunting, but that first time I couldn't do it. I'd only just stopped being human and did not yet know the strength my vampire blood allowed me. I was scared of the savages. He berated me for my cowardice, but he held a young savage by the throat so I could feed. Then he put me in a cell under his house for weeks. I was starved again.

"I can't tell you what it means to a vampire to starve," I said, looking at my folded hands in front of me on the table. "First there's the agonizing sucking feeling in your stomach while your body feeds on the blood left in your tissues. Then your veins collapse and your eyes dry out. Defecation begins. I was almost in that coma we're all so familiar with when he opened the cell and tossed someone in. I thought it was another savage. I could smell fresh blood, so I knew that he was wounded. I latched on to him and sank my fangs into his neck and let the life affirming blood rush over my tongue. I drained him dry that night but just as the sun came up I saw that it was no savage. It was Luca. I screamed and screamed. I bit my wrist and held it to his lips and begged him to drink. It was no use. I'd killed my own brother."

They were all staring at me after I stopped talking. My tears were still falling and my heart was still heavy, but now I was afraid of what they thought of me. I didn't want them to think ill of me. I decided that before they said anything I had to continue the tale of my life. I had to tell them how it was after that. They had to know not just that I was devastated over Luca but that I was constantly trying to undermine Alexander. They had to know that I took my own revenge for what he'd done. Oh I'd suffered for it but I had taken it none the less.

"He let me out of the cell the next evening after leaving my dead brother in the cell with me all day," I said, clearing my throat. "Then he made me watch as his corpse was burnt to ash. He expected that this would drive the point home to me, and he wasn't wrong. What he was wrong about was the exact point that it drove home for me. My life after that was about revenge for my brother's death. I had killed him, but he had put him in front of me knowing what would happen. So I set about thwarting his every goal after that. It was easy at first because he completely ignored me. I wasn't his only fledgling after all.

"He held great parties for other vampires," I went on. "I had very little to do with them. Count Duku took a special interest in me for a while but grew bored when I refused to hunt with him. I spent my nights alone for the most part. I hunted. Oh believe me I hunted. I didn't want to go back to the cells again. Then the opportunity to do some damage arrived. It arrived in a harem of young savage men. Alexander had his favorite and he toyed with him every night while he killed his brothers. I snuck into the holding cell, trying very hard not to think about the face that he'd placed him the very cell I'd been in when I'd killed my brother. This time I knew exactly what I was doing. I drained that savage boy dry and left him there for Alexander to find when he came for him. The sun was coming up so I had to move quickly to my coffin.

"I could hear his screaming when the sun went down," I told them. I had their rapt attention. "He had gone down to the cells as soon as he awoke to turn his little savage. He found him dead. Now he was screaming. Of course he knew that it was me. I was thrown back into the cells again and starved once again. This time I screamed out that I hated him and that I would kill him if given the chance. This went on for over a hundred years. I made his life miserable but everywhere I looked I saw my brother's dead eyes.

"The whole household of vampires traveled to what is now New York," I said. "Agents for Alexander had told him that a ship was coming toward land there. We met Columbus when his ship landed. That's a story that isn't in the history books. What's more, the history books don't mention the French slaves he had on his ships either. Alexander was taken with a number of them and those mysteriously died from blood poisoning. I found one that I wanted so desperately. He had blond hair instead of dark hair like Luca's but his eyes were the same. I begged Alexander to turn him, because at that time I didn't know how to do it.

"He would smirk at me and ignore my plea every night," I sighed. "Then I met his other fledgling, Matthias. I forgot all about the blond boy with Luca's eyes when I ment Matthias. I wanted only to be by his side for I loved him on sight. Alexander had another idea though. I was back in the cells to be starved to the brink again. Upstairs he lavished affection and attention on Matthias. Matthias needed no instruction on how to hunt. He reveled in the hunt almost as much as Alexander. He'd planned to put a gulf between us while I starved. He told him that I was a disappointing vampire that didn't deserve his sacred blood.

"It backfired on him though," I said with a smile as I remembered my first night out of the cells. "Matthias wasn't turned off by what he'd told him about me. He was intrigued instead. When I was let out of the cells that night he stared at me while I fed. Then he smiled at me when I was fully restored just hours before sunrise. He told me that he'd been waiting for me. He called me the bad vampire and said that he wanted to be my friend.

"And much to Alexander's anger we made quite the pair of friends," I said, smiling again. "Matthias and I were adventurous little vampires. He wasn't a day over thirteen when he'd been turned, so we were almost the same age. I had a hundred years in the blood over his mere months but that didn't matter. We found all sorts of trouble to get into. Then a family moved to the land on the other side of Alexander's. It didn't take long for us to realize they weren't a normal family. There were seven men and two women in the family. They rounded up cattle really quickly. They also had a boy just about twelve. We followed him one night into the forest. He'd been acting strange for many nights. Then his father sent him out into the woods and told him to come back when it was over.

"We had no idea what that was about," I continued. "We followed him but kept a safe distance. By the time the moon was full in the sky we found out what was going to happen. The change took him violently and quickly. We buried ourselves in the dirt when the sun came up the next morning. Then by night we tracked him. He killed many of the forest animals on his five nights as a wolf. When he changed back just as suddenly as he'd changed to begin with we watched as his father and two uncles came for him with clothing and water. We learned his name when they came. His name was Tyron."

They were all looking at me with another look in their eyes now. Instead of pity it was excitement. This part of the story they'd heard in various forms over their lives. No one knew the full story, for I'd never told anyone and all of the vampires and Forsaken that knew the truth of what had happened back then were dead now. As I write this now I don't know if I knew what they would say that night or not, but after a while I knew what had to be done. Look for the further volume of this tale eventually. A vampire is easily distracted after all.

"He was beautiful both as a boy and as a wolf," I went on. "Tyron had flaxen hair and amber colored eyes. Even at twelve years old he had a toned body, a shadow of what he would have later in life as one of the Forsaken. Alexander was incensed by what we'd been doing, but we didn't care. We watched the family every night, hunting just before we go to spy on them. This went on for two years. On the night of Tyron's fourteenth birthday he found us.

"He told us that he'd suspected that someone was watching him and his family for months," I said, smiling. "He was so brave, but then at the time he had no idea what he had to be afraid of. We talked with him for many nights after that. Finally it was Matthias who decided to bite him. We seduced him and had sex with him one at a time. Both of us bit him that night, and we quickly learned what Forsaken blood does for a vampire. We could walk in the sun! His father found out about us and a small feud broke out between Alexander and the Par family. I decided that to end that feud I'd turn Tyron. Of course I didn't know that turning him would be the first step toward the biggest war in our history.

"The feud raged on," I told them. "We discovered that if one of them bit us in their wolf form it would kill any who had not drank the blood of one of them. Three of Alexander's vampires were dying from Forsaken bites. Then Tyron got the idea to bond his family. Of course he didn't know how to do it properly. He killed his father and his brother in the attempt. Then he got it right with his uncles. One of those uncles was Bashir.

"Tyron was different from the rest of us in many ways," I said, fully aware that my tale was jumping from place to place and back again but I was caught up in the telling. "He could walk in the sun, and he didn't require as much sleep as the rest of us. The sun didn't slam him into slumber the way it did us either. He could bend the human mind to his will and read anyone's mind. He got it in his head that we should bond all of the Forsaken. Of course that ignited a war between vampires and Forsaken that raged for another hundred years.

"Count Duku returned to what was now America," I went on. "This time he brought another's fledgling along with him. Sloan Farr was an arrogant fledgling only twenty years in the blood. He was smart, however and he found us in our hiding place. He drugged Tyron with a plant that grew near the White Oak Trees. Then he drank from him, stealing his gifts. I was drugged as well, and I had to watch as he took Tyron's head. Then he trapped me in a mind trap. I had to relive that moment over and over again until Eric broke the mind trap and fed me his blood to make me into the vampire I am today."

They were all staring at me, and I saw that Darian had returned while I was telling my tale. Perrin was staring at me with his mouth open. Miguel looked haunted, and I assumed it was the reminder of Bashir. The Forsaken looked shocked and a little angry. This I could understand. Darian and Beth had tears in their eyes as they looked at me. Pity wasn't the emotion I wanted from them. Understanding was what I wanted. This was worse than the misery I was feeling.

"Oh, Jessup," Beth breathed as the tears fell from her eyes. "The things you've been through."

"Jessup," Darian said, but I wouldn't look into his brown eyes. "I'm so sorry for assuming things about your mates. I didn't know. Please forgive me."

"You're forgiven, Darian," I said, amazed that he'd think of that argument after hearing my tale.

"Jessup, we won't use his name," Beth said, crying so much that her words were almost too muffled.

"Of course you will, Beth," I said, taking her hands in mine only realizing they were bloody too late. "You have to name him Luca. I won't be able to rest if you don't. I'm so sorry for falling apart on all of you. It was just the memories that came to me after the news."

"What news?" Jax asked, looking from us to Blaze and back.

"We're expecting," Blaze said and tried to smile.

"That's great!" said Jax with a real smile. "You're going to name the baby Luca?"

"It's what Jessup wants," Beth said, squeezing my cold dead hands.

"My brother meant so much to me," I said with a sigh. There was a part of the story that I'd left out. Now I had decided to tell them all about it. "I never forgave Alexander for putting him in the cell with me when he'd starved me so far that he knew I would kill him. I haven't forgiven myself for it either, but Alexander was the one who put it all in action. So this is the part of the story of my life that I have already told you but I left it out. Now I've decided that you all need to know about it.

"It was about fifty years after the war started," I began. "Tyron, Matthias and I were hiding out with our six Forsaken drones. Bashir gave us battle training. What better teacher of battle is there than a Forsaken? Well he taught us well. We also learned during that time that the venom of a Forsaken can be harvested. We did that with all six of our Forsaken and used the bottled venom to soak the tips of spears and also to booby trap our camp while we slept during the day. Of course the Forsaken were all awake and alert. We weren't worried about the effects of our booby traps on our Forsaken because of course they were immune to the venom.

"There were many Forsaken in the country by then," I informed them. "Vampires were all over the place and the savages weren't fairing well. History has left out so much that it's laughable. We forced the savages who would later be known as the American Indians off their lands, not because we wanted their land but because they were afraid of us. We were killing them after all. The Forsaken were biting people as well. Our ranks grew exponentially over that fifty years. Of course Tyron wouldn't hear of bonding any of the bitten Forsaken. They were merely more protection for the three vampires when they slept.

"Now we were tracking Alexander and his vampires but we were easily distracted by other prey and foes," I said. "As you all know by now vampires and Forsaken are not the only creature out there to fight with. But that's not what I was telling you about. We tracked Alexander all the way to the colonies. He was camped outside Jamestown in sixteen ten. I drank from a Forsaken so that I could join Tyron on his daytime hunts. What I really went after was Alexander. I found where he slept and I dragged him to the square and nailed his burning body to the pole there where they celebrated festivals. There, on that square the people got to see their first vampire burn in the sunlight.

"I killed him for Luca," I said after a short pause. "I killed him for all of the torture and starvation he inflicted on his fledglings."

They were all looking at me again; some with understanding, some with horror. I wasn't finished though. There was more to the story that they didn't know. I had gone this far. I knew I had to take them all the way. They had to know why Tyron was killed and I was placed in that mind trap. It wasn't just for starting a war between vampires and Forsaken. There was more to it than that. I had told them what I'd done. Tyron had not been a part of killing Alexander, but he suffered for it anyway. I suppose it didn't matter. He was already facing a death sentence for starting the war.

"Count Duku and Sloan began to hunt us," I said into their silence. "You see, Alexander was his fledgling and I killed him. That's why he set Sloan on my trail. Sloan put me in that mind trap on Duku's orders, but they killed Tyron for Alexander's death as well. Now don't think he was killed for nothing. He had nothing to do with Alexander's death. He didn't stop me, but he didn't participate. He was already sentenced to death for starting the war between the vampires and Forsaken. There was no getting around that. They just added a crime he hadn't committed to the others.

"You all know what happened to Sloan," I went on. "Eric killed Sloan. Duku went into the sun about two hundred years after the war ended. Matthias told me about it while I was in the mind trap. I had started to have lucid moments where I knew where I was and what was going on around me. I was just too starved to do anything about it. Matthias had only just figured out how to feed me.

"But now you know it all," I said with a sigh. "I have no more secrets from any of you now."

I got up and walked away from them after that. The sun was coming up soon and I'd had a very long night. I was completely hollowed out by the telling of my life, and I wasn't interested in being there when they each finally came to a decision on whether to pat me on the back or condemn me. To be truthful I think I was a little afraid of the condemnation I was sure I'd see in some of their eyes. I went down to my room without a word. Then I stripped naked and got in the shower in my little bathroom. I wept some more while the hot water cascaded over my cold skin. I wept for Tyron and for Luca. I wept for myself and for Alexander. I had often wondered what had made Alexander so cruel.

He'd told us all that he'd been around since the fall of Atlantis. None of us believed anything he said about Atlantis. To us Atlantis was a myth, and Alexander was a liar. But what if he wasn't? Could it have been the centuries of the long dark night that drove him to become a sadistic lunatic? If so, would it happen to the rest of us? I had just about seven hundred, fifty years as a vampire and I was still capable of love. I loved Darian and I loved Noah. Would that change in a hundred more years? Would it wait until two hundred years from now, or three?

I turned off the water and dried my body. All I could think about was the cruelty of Alexander and the fear that the years, the centuries would make of me what he had been. I wasn't thinking about anything but that as I walked out of my little bathroom. I hadn't even bothered to dress. I looked up and found Darian Lane in my bed. He was just as naked as I was. I wasn't sure what he was doing there. I mean I'd just told him intimate details about how I'd plotted against and killed my sire.

"Are you just going to stand there and stare at me?" he asked with that little smirk on his face.

"What are you doing in my bed?" I asked stupidly.

"Well I was hoping that you and I could sleep together today," he said. "It's Sunday, so I have nowhere to be. You have to sleep all day, so I thought I'd sleep next to you."

"You want to sleep with me?" I asked as I walked over to the bed.

They'd really done a good job on this room. It showed how well they actually knew me. They knew me well enough to know that I would appreciate a Mahogany bed frame with a deep stain on the wood. They knew me well enough to know that I love the feel of velvet and satin, for the sheets were black satin and the bed cover was deep red velvet. My pillows were fluffy with Goose down. The mattress of the bed itself was filled with that same soft down. They knew me well enough to know that I wanted nothing to do with the standard bed of this time. No, I wanted a bed like the ones of the old times filled with Goose feathers.

The walls were paneled with the same Mahogany wood stained the same deep red with striped rows of tiny black diamonds carved into the wood. The floor was covered with deep red carpet that my feet sank into. The room fit me completely. It was still shocking to me that they knew me so very well when I knew almost nothing about most of them. Blaze I knew on an intimate level. I'm not just talking about the sex we'd had during the bonding either. The bond gave us such a connection that we knew each other like no two others knew each other. The others could only know me as well as I let them, and I was shocked to find that I was expressive about who I was and what I liked. Of course all of this was just another distraction to keep me from thinking of the naked man lying in my bed with that sexy smirk on his beautiful lips and those smoldering brown eyes staring up at me.

"Well," he said, drawing out the word as he climbed out of the bed and stood before me in his beautiful nakedness. "I wanted to do a little more than sleep."

"I'm sure you did," I said, smiling in spite of myself. I really did love his little games after all.

"I wanted to do a little touching," he said as he reached out his hands and placed them on my chest just over my nipples. "I wanted to do a little kissing, too."

I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him close so I could cover his mouth with my own and shut him up. His arms snaked around my neck, his hands working their way up the back of my head and gripping my hair. I deepened the kiss as he began to tug slightly on my hair. I was instantly hard when he started pulling my hair. Darian Lane knew exactly how to drive me crazy. He ground his pelvis against mine, bringing our throbbing erections into contact and moaning into the kiss. I pushed against him and walked him backward to the bed. Then I leaned forward until we fell upon the bed with me on top of him.

"How's this for touching and kissing?" I asked with my nose against his.

"Well, Jessup," he said with a smile. "I think you're getting the picture."

"I'll give you a picture," I said, trying not to chuckle. It wouldn't do to chuckle at a time like this after all.

"I'd rather that you give me this," he said reaching down to grip my erection.

"I'll give it to you," I told him. "I'll give it to you a few times."

"But the sun will rise in nearly two hours," he said, grinning again.

"Oh you're gonna get it bad," I said as I rolled us over so that he was on top of me. "Get me wet, lover."

He crawled all over me until he was completely turned round with his face in my crotch and his ass in my face. I got the gist of what he wanted. I put my hands on the cheeks of his ass and pulled them apart to reveal the prize between them. I raised my head and licked around his hole for a few laps before I dove my tongue home. He moaned around my dick when I did it. So there I was with my tongue in his ass and his mouth enveloping my dick and giving me delicious sensations.

I pushed my tongue deeper into his body and he went all the way down on my dick, trapping it in his throat and swallowing around me. I quickly decided I had enough of this treatment. I grabbed him by his hips and turned him around, demonstrated my vampire strength. I moved him around until he was straddling my pelvis with my saliva slicked dick pointing at the hole my tongue had just vacated. He needed no instruction. He slid his body down until I was inside him again. He moaned as he brought his ass cheeks down to meet the tops of my thighs, embedding my dick in his ass.

"Now this was what I had in mind," he said with one of his sexy smirks as he rode me.

"I've got a better idea," I said, grinning at him just before I grabbed hold and rolled us once again. I was careful not to slip out of his ass while I positioned us until he was lying under me with his heels on my shoulders. I pushed a bit further into him and grinned again. "This is what I had in mind."

"Make it better for both of us," he said, closing his eyes as I pushed my way into him completely. "Bite me."

"No," I said and gave him a hard thrust to drive my point home.

"Come on, Jessup," he said. "You won't kill me. You said it yourself, I'm innocent blood."

"All the more reason not to bite you," I replied.

"Yeah, but if I'm going to be your lover you need to know all of me," he said, trying to wear down my defenses.

"What is it so important to you that I bite you?" I asked as I moved in and out of his ass.

"I want you to bite me so there's no need between us that's been unmet," he said and then moaned again.

Then I did what he wanted. I sank my fangs into his neck over his carotid artery. When that blood hit my tongue it was like nothing I'd ever ingested before. My eyes flew open and I could see everything. I could feel his life force in that blood, the beautiful, clean and innocent life force. It lasted for all of a minute before I was repelled out of his neck and his ass at the same time. Then everything went dark and I couldn't even hear him anymore.

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