The Blood Will Run Read online

  The Blood Will Run

  By E. A. Abel

  For Mackenzie, Makia, and Peighton,

  dreams really can come true

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  TEXT COPYRIGHT © 2014 ELIZABETH ABEL

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  ISBN-13: 978-1505860948 (CreateSpace-Assigned)

  ISBN-10: 1505860946

  BISAC: Fiction / Romance / Fantasy

  Free book cover image provided by Createspace and Amazon.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

  The characters, names, places and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Dedicated to my family and friends for their encouragement during the creation of this novel.

  I also would like to give a very special thanks to Britney Bourassa and Kimberly Brodeur for their commitment through the editing process and to my daughter, Melissa Abel, for her positive feedback.

  Parental Guidance advisory:

  Some scenes contain unsuitable language and extreme violence.

  PROLOGUE

  “Your skin,it feels exactly the same as it did before, there's really no difference,” Evelina said, tracing her hand up along Devins’ translucent arm to his shoulder.

  Devin stared at her in surprise. "You're not afraid of me?"

  Evelina shook her head. "I’ll admit that when I first saw your skeleton bones glowing, it frightened me a little.” Evelina raised her hand to touch his face lightly. “But once I really thought about it, I realized that you’re still just Devin. The handsome man that I fell in love with in the Casa De Luca garden, many months ago."

  Devins’ eyes lit up with joy. He couldn't believe it.

  He had thought for sure she would run away from him screaming, frightened by his true moonlight form. But she hadn’t.

  He reached for her, pulled her closer to him, and pressed his lips to hers gently. He felt the man awaken inside of him and he deepened his kiss. Her soft mouth covered his and he heard her low moan as he lifted her up into his arms.

  Slowly he walked toward the bed and lowered her down. He felt her kiss him, felt her move against him as he eased his hand under her dress. Her thigh was warm under his fingers. He closed his other palm over the soft curls of her blonde hair, and brushed his lips against her chest, moving up slowly toward her lips.

  But suddenly he stopped. Without realizing what he was doing, he sank his fangs deep into the vein of her neck.

  That's when a strange burning sensation began to rage throughout his body, but he paid no attention to it, his focus was solely on devouring the sweet taste of her blood.

  What happened next was like a terrifying nightmare.

  Evelina began to twist beneath him. She was pounding her fists hard against his chest.

  When a horrible scream escaped from her throat, he snapped back to reality and leaped off her.

  For a moment, he was disoriented.

  When he saw Evelina rolling back and forth screaming hysterically as a smoldering heat drifted up from her body, he froze.

  Within a matter of seconds, her body burst into roaring flames. When she suddenly stopped screaming, he knew she was dead.

  Devin closed his eyes. He killed someone. No, he thought, he killed the only woman who had ever loved him.

  He opened his eyes, stared at Evelinas’ ashes on his bed and shifted his gaze to the full-length mirror.

  The monster stared back at him and smiled wickedly.

  CHAPTER ONE

  ChaceDeLuca stepped out through the double doors of his bedroom and onto the wraparound porch. He felt an eerie stillness in the night air and shivered. He tilted his head up and glanced at the full moon before he sped across the yard and through the woods.

  Mercy English was waiting for him just in front of the ancient tomb, unchaining the iron-gate.

  "Hi, handsome, are you ready for this?" Mercy asked.

  "As ready as I'll ever be, I guess," he said.

  When she started to push the gate open, Chace stepped up to help her.

  He walked behind her as she led him through the stone archway and down a flight of stairs.

  Mercy stopped just in front of one of the heavy steel doors to the right of the tomb.

  He waited for her to open the door to the chamber. When she walked inside, he followed her.

  To his amazement, the structure was intact. Symbols in Latin were hand painted on the walls and golden statues were scattered about, some on shelves, others neatly placed along the stone floor.

  Slowly, he shifted his gaze from the symbols to the coffin.

  He turned to face Mercy as he raised his brow. “Anybody you know in this coffin?”

  Mercy lit a thick black candle that was sitting on the long wooden table before she answered, “My ancestors wrote in the Witchittin Grimoire about an immortal called lamia de sol. The lamia de sol was so powerful that no known weapon or spell could destroy it. My ancestors discovered that this lamia de sol received the ability to walk in the sunlight and in the moonlight after shifting into an eagle. The man inside of that coffin,” Mercy pointed to the coffin behind Chace, “is in an eternal slumber and staked through the heart with a powerful weapon created by Artemis, the Goddess of the moon. It was sometime in the sixteen hundreds, when my ancestors decided to seal the coffin with a powerful holding spell. They were afraid that he would somehow manage to escape. No one but the English family can undo the spell.”

  Chace turned and stared at the coffin as he traced his finger along it.

  Before he realized what he was doing, his hands were gripping the handles. He tried to lift it up, but it was no use, it wouldn’t budge.

  He could feel the power coming from the man inside as he tried to persuade Chace to release him.

  Suddenly, he was jolted out of the trance like state when he heard Mercy speak. “Come on Chace. The sun will be up soon, we have to begin the spell.”

  Chace shook his head and walked over to the table. “What do you want me to do, gorgeous?”

  “Where’s your birthmark?” Mercy asked.

  Chace stared at her, puzzled by her question. “My birthmark?”

  Her nod was abrupt. “Yes, the mark you were born with.”

  He cleared his throat, “Just above my left buttock.”

  Mercy burst into laughter.

  He raised his brow as the darkness entered his eyes.

  Mercy bit down on her lip nervously. “Okay, pull down your pants, hot stuff.”

  He stared at Mercy seductively as he unfastened the button, slid the zipper to the end and edged his black jeans down.

  “Turn around and let's have a look at that sexy butt of yours,” Mercy said and winked.

  Chace turned, bent over and leaned against the wooden table.

  He could feel her finger circle over his birthmark as she b
egan to chant in Latin. Chace translated in his mind as she chanted.

  “I call upon the power of the sun and the power of the moon to join together and shield this immortal from the light.”

  An excruciating burning sensation penetrated deep into his skin. Chace clenched his teeth together until the pain faded moments later.

  “Okay sweet cheeks, you can pull up your pants now,” she said.

  Chace pulled up his jeans, guided the zipper to the top and fastened the button.

  He flashed Mercy a nervous smile and said, “I hope this works, gorgeous.”

  Mercy looked worried and said, “Good luck.”

  Chace turned and walked out of the chamber.

  Here goes, he thought.

  He climbed the stairs and walked out into the sunlight.

  ☼

  Alivia Marks stared at the clock on the wall.

  Two minutes, she thought. Two more minutes and she would be free. Free from having to write essays, free from the annoying teachers, who thought they knew it all, and free to get lost in a good book to avoid everyone and everything in her life.

  Alivia glanced around the class and rested her gaze on her best friend Erica. Erica was sitting at the desk right next to her.

  If she were going to sneak out of class and avoid Erica, she would have to make a run for it.

  She turned back and stared at the clock.

  Five… four… three… two… and one. Alivia leaped out of her seat and bolted out of the classroom without a backward glance.

  In an instant, the halls were full of excited teenage juniors and seniors. Everybody was talking about the end of the year school bash that night down at the creek. Who was going, who wasn’t going.

  What they were going to wear and what they weren’t going to wear.

  Alivia rolled her eyes at them and hurried down the hall. She pushed the door open and stepped outside.

  Alivia practically ran to her red Honda in the school parking lot.

  She pressed the automatic unlock button on her key chain, pulled the door open and slid into the driver seat.

  She glanced around nervously one last time making sure that Erica hadn’t followed her through the doors of Tarantino High.

  When she saw no sign of Erica, she smiled. She pushed the key into the ignition, started the car and pulled out of the school parking lot.

  Finally, summer vacation was here, she thought. Now, she could put the painful memories of what happened in the last few months behind her.

  She shook her head. Who did she really think she was fooling? She couldn’t just forget about what happened to her brother and mother. These last few months have been a complete nightmare. If it wasn’t for her sister Jules, she wouldn’t even get out of bed.

  She felt the tears sting her eyes again. She drew in a deep breath and counted to ten as she forced them back.

  She switched on the radio and turned the volume up loud. She drove through the small town of Newgrave, passed the coffee shop, and passed the Sheriffs’ department.

  She continued to drive along highway nine. She decided to stop at the Bookmart just a few blocks from the border of Coven Creek. She wanted to pick up her preordered copy of Jane Eyre and Gone with the wind for the last several days, but she never remembered to do it.

  Tonight, after picking up the books, she would curl up in her bed, in the four-bedroom loft above the Grand Coffin Cafe and escape her miserable life.

  ☼

  Devin was standing at the end of the long counter in the Bookmart. He was waiting for his preordered hard cover edition of The Lord of the Rings, when the girl entered the store.

  “Hey Jen, those books that I ordered a week ago, did they come in yet?” The girl asked leaning on the counter.

  “Yes, just hang on a second. I’ll get them for you.” Jen walked to the back of the store. Devin stared at the girl wearing the fitted grey jogging suit that hugged her slender curves.

  When she turned to look in his direction, Devin stopped breathing.

  He’d seen plenty of beautiful girls in his time, but not one of them had ever taken his breath away. This girl was gorgeous. Her deep sparkling emerald-green-eyes with long thick lashes stared past him and were full of sadness. Her auburn hair shimmered in the light and it reminded him of the flames that danced above a lit candle.

  Moments later, Jen returned with a bag and slid it in front of her. “Here you go,” Jen said.

  “Thanks Jen,” said the girl as she grabbed the bag off the counter.

  “No problem,” Jen said and nodded her head.

  As fast as the girl walked through the door, was as fast as she walked back out.

  Devin walked over to the large window. He stared at the girl as she climbed in the driver seat of her red Honda.

  No, he thought, this girl wasn’t just gorgeous, she was perfect.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Alivia drove down the alley to the back of the Grand Coffin Cafe. She stiffened up when she saw her friends.

  Erica was sitting on the front stairs with Bex.

  She narrowed her bright blue eyes in Alivias’ direction. Alivia slid out of the car, slammed the door and walked toward them.

  “You thought that you could escape us that easily, Livy?” Erica asked.

  “Right, like you honestly believed you weren’t going to the party with us tonight. You thought we weren’t going to come here and force you to go,” Bex said. "Well, I have news for you Livy, we're here, so you're going." She snatched up Alivias’ free hand and practically dragged her through the front door, up the winding staircase and down the narrow hallway to her bedroom.

  Alivia plopped down on her bed and leaned her back against the headboard.

  Her eyes darted from Erica to Bex.

  Erica smiled and said, “Oh come on, Livy. Seriously, you’ll have fun. I promise.”

  Erica flung her slender athletic body down on Alivias’ bed. She grabbed the Bookmart bag off the red quilt and slid out the books.

  “Besides,” Erica began, “now that you own the books you could read them anytime, right?”

  At that very second, Alivia wished that she were invisible. She shook her head and frowned. She didn’t stand a chance in hell against them. She knew that they would not leave her alone until she gave in and went to this party.

  “Perfect,” Bex grinned. “Then it’s settled we’re all going to the party together.”

  Bex jumped up from the armchair in the corner of Alivias’ room and began ransacking through her closet.

  ☼

  Chace wasn’t human. He realized that. But for some reason, he felt cheated. He never used to think that way. He was quite content in feeding off his prey and luring woman to satisfy his never-ending thirst and his uncontrollable sex craving.

  But somehow, he managed to fill the empty hole in his heart for centuries by just existing this way.

  Then everything changed when he gazed into the sad emerald green eyes of Alivia Marks.

  His heart started to beat. He didn’t know why it started beating.

  It just did. He could’ve used his powers to seduce her and find out, but he didn’t.

  Instead, he started having his dinner at the Grand Coffin Cafe.

  He ordered the same vampire chili special and ate it even though he knew that he would have to empty the contents of his stomach hours later.

  He’d sit at coffin booth number nine and stare at Alivia while she served customers or when she cleaned the espresso machine, the milk shake machine or the machine used for iced coffee.

  Chace knew Alivias’ nightly routine as well as she did.

  He knew Erica Wells was her best friend and that the bond they shared was stronger than that of actual sisters. Erica and Alivia seemed much closer than Alivia was to her real sister Jules. He wondered why, but when he saw how Jules treated her, he began to realize that Jules was the sort of person who was bossy.

  He watched Alivia while she laughed and joked around with Tuc
ker Pierce, Bentley Donnelly and Bex Donnelly. Alivia and her group of friends seemed to have a lot of fun together. He even sensed the tension between Alivia and Bex, but it didn’t seem to bother Alivia as much as it did Bex.

  Bex seemed to be more of a friend to Erica actually, than she was to Alivia and that suited him just fine. Chace knew Bex from many of the creek parties and she wasn’t the type of girl that you would consider bringing home to meet your family.

  But Alivia was, she was the reason he went to see Mercy in the first place. He wanted to be a part of Alivias’ life. He wanted to be as close to her as her friends were. What he wished for more than anything was to be able to love Alivia. He longed to hold her close to his chest and comfort her. He wanted to stroke her auburn hair that he imagined would feel like silk. He dreamt of kissing her full luscious lips that she would bite down on when she was nervous.

  He had many women in his life, but he never felt as drawn to them as he did to Alivia.

  Everything about her was magical. The sound of her voice was as pleasing to the ear as listening to a beautiful concerto at the opera. He couldn’t help but want every inch of her.

  She was perfect. That’s when he decided he would wait to seduce her. And when he did, he would wait for the right moment to kiss her and hold her in his arms.

  Then when he had her right where he wanted her, he would make her fall in love with him. She would have no choice. He smiled.

  ☼

  After Erica and Bex touched up their make-up and did their hair, they turned and stared at her.

  Erica shook her head when she saw that she was wearing her black jogging suit.

  "Is that what you're wearing?" Erica asked.

  Alivia nodded.

  "Well," Bex said, staring at Alivia, "Really, we don't have time to wait for you to change, the boys are waiting downstairs. Let's go." Bex walked to her bedroom door and opened it.

  As the girls raced down the stairs one right after the other, Jules shot them a dirty look.

  “Wow,” Tucker said and then whistled as he grabbed Erica and pulled her to his chest.