Forever Friends Teaser Copyright 2014
Alec
ordered another shot of Scotch and chased it with a beer before looking at his
watch. He was becoming impatient with the wasted minutes he used up at Backtrax.
Hunting for Raine and his bitch was becoming rather annoying. He needed to find
them, and now. The time to claim revenge for his lover was fast approaching. He
needed to know quickly where they were so he could put his plans in place.
Raine’s
scent was becoming harder and harder for Alec to track. There was little doubt
in Alec’s mind that Raine had become more versed in the craft and probably came
up with a detracting spell. Raine’s cunning was becoming quite aggravating. The
planetary alignment would happen soon and if he could not find Raine and Skye
by that time, his spell to vanquish them would never work. He hoped he could
pick up their scent by asking for help from an old friend. Alec knew of a
medicine man around the New England area that specialized in hunting down witches.
Medicine
men played an integral role in finding the witches who performed the dark arts
during The Were Rebellion. One witch that was tracked was Obsidian and it was
unfortunate because her spell was not considered dark arts to the gods. If it
were, they would not have allowed her to be with child. She, of course,
suffered death, but many witches were not as lucky. They were turned during the
rebellion. And since they became either part werewolf or vampire, it became
harder to track a hybrid. Tracking a pure blooded witch was much easier.
Raine
and Skye were pure blooded, but Raine must have found a way to mask himself
from Alec with the blood binding they had both performed centuries ago. He must
have figured out some way to use that spell against Alec. It was an unfortunate
mistake on his part, but Alec now knew better. Raine’s cloaking couldn’t last
long, Alec would see to that.
Alec
befriended a particular medicine man and sorcerer named Zhan Li. He helped Zhan
during the rebellion by vanquishing as many werewolves and witches he could
find. Zhan was not particularly fond of vanquishing witches because they were
as close as kin. He remained a neutral sorcerer and favored no side in the
rebellion. He felt that each magical and supernatural race had a hand in trying
to overthrow the world. But it was the werewolves that Zhan had the most
disdain for during the rebellion. They allowed their emotions to get the best
of them in battle. Zhan was not fond of their lack of focus.
Many,
though, did look up to the werewolves in the magical community. They were one
of the few creatures that could defeat a vampire that turned rouge. That
respect alone should have been reason enough for them not to start the fight. Instead,
they tried to enlist the help of unknowing witches. These witches, who always
fought for the greater good, were tricked by the werewolves into performing the
dark arts against their own kind. They then turned these unknowing witches for
their own selfish mating purposes.
Vampires
were not innocent in any of this either. They too, turned witches for their own
selfish reasons. Though, it was worse when a witch turned vampire. Their power
was far greater than a Werewitches because they had magic on their side. There
were legends of Lilith-Vampires trying to come to power during the rebellion,
creating an army out of witch fledglings. It was, however, a myth in Alec’s
eyes. He knew first hand, not to believe these legends, Lilith’s only protégé
was himself at the time.
Once
Obsidian had died in The Were Rebellion, Alec had no intentions of fighting for
the greater good, nor was he doing anything for the races out of the kindness
of his own cold, dead heart. His only intention was to hope that Zhan would
eventually track down the werewolf of Strega descent that killed his beloved
Obsidian. Despite the ulterior motive, Zhan, felt he owed Alec a favor for
defeating as many rouge witches and werewolves as he did. Therefore, Zhan never
protested Alec’s motives.
Alec
took the last swig of his beer and motioned the bartender to give him another. He
snickered at the thought of being able to pound as many beers as he could in an
evening. It was something most mortals could not do, let alone a vampire. It
wasn’t hard to hide the fact that a vampire did not eat or drink. A vampire
merely used their dark arts to persuade a mortal into thinking they saw the undead
engage in food and drink. But for Alec, it was an annoyance to constantly have
to keep up appearances, especially for what was considered prey.
Alec
wasn’t into this kind of pallor trick. Magic like this wasted time, which is
why he had little need for hiding. Another annoying trait Alec had little patience
with was The Dark Sleep. He knew that if he had any hopes of hunting Raine,
Alec had to be considered part of the living. The king of the Vlad Vampire clan
needed a way to blend into the human society if he wanted to kill Raine. And
though he hated pallor tricks, he used them to persuade a Dynion Mwyn Witch to
cast a glimmer spell that would allow him to eat, drink, and walk among the
living freely. He detested the fact that he needed a witch to do it and
redeemed himself by breaking her neck. Sucking her dry would have made his
stomach turn.
Despite
losing Raine’s scent for about a week, Alec knew Raine liked bars. It was one
of Raine’s downfalls. Raine always seemed to like the night life. And even
though Alec could walk in daylight, the bar scene made things much easier on him
when it came to prey. He needed to feed, and unsuspecting, drunk humans suited
him just fine.
Alec,
in his fledgling days, used to be of discerning tastes. He relished the blood
of a virgin over anything vilely tainted. But since the sexual revolution of
the 1960’s, many of the humans lacked any sense of restraint. Drunkards were more
common than any other prey in these times. He still tried to relish taste and preferred
the wine drinking women over the beer guzzling men. The women tasted much
sweeter, but beggars could not be choosers, and either one was fine just as
long as he kept his eye on the real prize.
The
planetary alignment would soon be upon him, leaving little room for error when
it came to locating Raine and Skye. Alec hoped he not only could destroy the heads
of the Kersh Gypsy clan, but he also wanted the added bonus of neutering the werewolves.
It
was a known fact that werewolves were the only supernatural being that could
defeat a vampire. Whether they were a young fledgling, or older, did not
matter, they could defeat a vampire. He wasn’t really into preserving himself
or his own race, but neutering them would be pleasurable because it would
punish the race for killing Obsidian. Sticking around a bit to revel in the
fact that he avenged his lover’s death through defeating the entire werewolf
race was just a pure bonus in his book.
There
was talk of the werewolves trying to start another revolt, but it seemed it was
just talk at this point. Not every pack wanted to get involved, especially since
there was no pious reason to. Those pups were loyal to a fault and needed some
sort of greater purpose to fight. It was rather vexatious to listen to them
since a vampire didn’t care for anyone’s greater purpose but their own.
Zhan,
whom Alec had met during the Ming Dynasty, didn’t want to work with the
vampires after The Were Rebellion. He was firm in remaining neutral, and siding
with a selfish vampire made that task tough. The bond still remained, though,
because he not only had a shared interest in magic amongst the Vlad Vampires
and witches, Zhan also knew it was possible for the werewolves to revolt again.
He had seen a vision after The Were Rebellion. Since the hatred for the
werewolves was great, and Zhan knew the pups needed to be silenced for the greater
good of all the races, Zhan agreed to resurface before this alignment of the
planets and help as best as he could. All Alec needed to do was find him.
There
was a particular spell that was in Zhan’s possession that would eliminate the
threat of werewolves all together. It would transform them into harmless watch
dogs. The werewolf’s human half would disappear, leaving only their wolf side
intact. Their bruit strength and power to tear human or vampire flesh would be
gone, though. They’d be nothing more than a house dog, still loyal to the
humans they’ve so desperately wanted to protect from vampires throughout time,
but they’d be rendered helpless and hopeless to the human race.
Alec
had to hope that Zhan would keep his word about helping to defeat the werewolves,
but he could only hope. He did not feel Zhan would live up to this promise
since that spell could backfire and shift the balance of good and evil. Zhan obviously
wasn’t predictable, or biased, something Alec was not used to.
Human
prey always was biased, however. And usually to what suited them and their
likes, something Alec could admire. On occasion, though, Alec would run across
human prey that was righteous. He wouldn’t touch them with a ten-foot pole. Their
blood was awful, tasted like Holy Water. Holy Water had no effect on him due to
the Dynion Mwyn glimmer spell, it didn’t kill him, or burn him, but the taste was
vile.
Unlike
many humans, Zhan was not biased due to his likes, preferences, or even needs. He
truly was a purely neutral sorcerer. From time to time he’d switch his stance,
but he wasn’t a flake, he was just firm on neutrality. His stance would only
change if destiny did. If someone were to change their course of action, they’d
change the course of destiny, and that’s why Alec could not be so sure that Zhan
would aid the vampires in neutering the werewolves.
The
lights in his most recent bar hop called Backtrax, started to brighten. Alec
knew that was the signal to exit for the evening. He had usually had a piece of arm candy to
feed off of by this point, but his deep thoughts had prohibited this. Hungry, Alec
scanned the bar for prey. His eyes settled upon a rather young woman in her
early to mid-thirties with ebony hair. She smelled like peonies. It was a
delightful scent.
Alec
hadn’t seen such a tasty number lately, and this one intrigued him. She appeared
to be alone, a good sign for him. He took another swig of his drink, placed it
on the bar rail, and proceeded to walk over to her.
“Hello.”
He said plainly and directly.
Alec
learned in the early 80’s that mortal women didn’t take kindly to the one-liners
of the 60’s or 70’s. After they got jobs and felt liberated, they seemed to
demand sophistication. The 60’s and 70’s were filled with woman that had to be
wined and dined. It felt like it took forever to hunt woman prey during those
decades. But these Millennials were different. They were direct and knew what
they wanted. That suited Alec just fine. He liked being direct, it saved him
time. A smile came across the woman’s face as she said hello back.
“The
name is Alec, Alec Cirino, and you are?” he stated.
Alec
took in a deep breath hoping to partake in the smell of peonies once more, but
what he wound up taking in interested him even more. He could smell the faint
scent of Skye on this one. A rather interesting find, indeed. If he were still
walking among the living, his body might have tingled with excited rage. Right
now though, he was just intrigued in knowing that this one might be worth more
to him alive, rather than dead.
“I’m
Morgan Walker.” She said with a smile. “Is this your first time here?”
Author Bio:
Amanda Kimberley has been writing for three decades and is a no
nonsense nonfiction writer named Kimberley Linstruth-Beckom by day, who
focuses mostly on the health condition known as Fibromyalgia, due to her own
diagnosis in late 2005.
By night, she dons her bathrobe and enjoys typing out paranormal romances at
her white marble desk. She likes to nibble on chocolate, nuts, and potato chips
while drawing out her characters with music from her iPhone in the background.
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