Thomas Read online

  Northridge Vampires

  Thomas

  By

  Amy Robyn

  Copyright © 2017

  www.facebook.com/AmyRobyn1author

  Thomas

  I am in Kansas for one purpose, to seduce the General’s daughter. I need to stop the him before he sends even more men out to be slaughtered. I will sacrifice anything to protect my friends even sacrifice my own happiness. I only hope it doesn’t come to that.

  I don’t believe in love. It’s just a chemical reaction that happens when two people meet and are attracted to each other. I especially don’t believe in love at first sight. That’s something fabricated for television and movies. It doesn’t happen in real life.

  The vampires are concerned that a war is brewing, and they worry it might be too late to stop it. Their only recourse is to stop the General from training more men to be sent to kill them. It’s not just themselves they’re protecting but the lives of so many innocents.

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Legal Notes

  Chapter 1. Thomas

  Chapter 2. Thomas

  Chapter 3. Ava

  Chapter 4. Thomas

  Chapter 5. Ava

  Chapter 6. Thomas

  Chapter 7. Ava

  Chapter 8. Thomas

  Chapter 9. Ava

  Chapter 10. Thomas

  Chapter 11. Ava

  Chapter 12. Thomas

  Chapter 13. Ava

  Chapter 14. Thomas

  Epilogue

  About Amy Robyn

  Other Books by Amy Robyn

  Legal Notes

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

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with.

  Copyright © 2017 Amy Robyn. All rights reserved. Including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof, in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the author.

  Version 2017.04.22

  Chapter 1. Thomas

  I’m standing in the doorway of a large cement building that houses the most deranged humans on the planet. Even now they’re running around half clothed and drinking enough alcohol to kill a small army. I have had the whole college experience yet seeing these young kids running around acting as though they’re still children makes me shake my head. I will admit that I was two years younger than most of the other students and I didn’t socialize much but I did go to a party or two. Of course, I wasn’t invited to one until I was a senior and even then, I was younger than a lot of the freshman.

  My mother always said I was older than my time. She once said I was fifteen going on thirty. While other teens were off acting out I was working part-time to help my mother pay the bills after my father died. We didn’t have much and I knew my mother needed all the help she could get. I was happy to help where I could. My father was a wonderful man and worked very hard to support us. He doted on my mother and she never worked outside of the home until he passed. Then she was thrust into an environment she wasn’t secure in. She went through jobs like a child with a cold would tissue.

  I have missed my father every day since he died. Some of my happiest memories were helping him rebuild old cars. I wasn’t good at it but just sitting in there with him, handing him tools as he asked for them was some of the sweetest days of my life. I would wake up in the morning and eat cereal with him at the table. Then we would walk the block to the shop he co-owned with his friend Walter. He would put on his overalls and so would I. He gave me a pair of them for me to use when I was working with him. I have no idea how he got such a small size. I never did ask him. I just felt good putting them on. I miss the feel of them and the smell of old motor oil.

  Now, all I need to do is smell old motor oil to remember my youth and how happy I had been in those days. It brings me back to the days of such sweet innocence where my only worry was the score I got on an exam or whether or not I would sit next to Polly on the school bus. Polly was Walter’s daughter and we often spent time together as our fathers worked. The only difference is, she hated coming and I didn’t want to be anywhere else. Polly was the closest friend I had until my father died. Then, it was a hard to even look at her. She reminded me of the days with my father that I would never get back.

  After dad died, I got a job operating the bumper cars at the local indoor amusement park in the small town we lived in. I loved working there even though it cut into my homework time. I still graduated two years early and with the highest honors. My mother was so proud of me, but I worried about what would happen to her when I went away to college. It turns out, I had nothing to worry about. She married Walter and moved into his home. She was able to sell our house at a large profit and even bought me my first car.

  A couple of years later Polly showed up at the same school and we started dating. I’m not sure how it happened exactly. One minute we were friends and the next we were more. It happened so fluidly just like the rest of our relationship. I think that’s the reason why it didn’t hurt so badly when I left so suddenly four years later. It was almost as though we had never really changed from just being friends. Though at the time, I thought I loved her. I had even asked her to marry me. She had agreed and for a while, I felt happy. It was just too easy. After watching the couples pairing off in Northridge it’s become apparent that we didn’t have any passion. We never argued, and we certainly weren’t tearing each other’s clothes off.

  The night Phillipe changed me was an awakening in a way. It’s difficult to explain why, so let me start at the beginning. I was working late in the civic youth center where I was working as a counselor. They hired me right out of college. I had been working with a teenager who had been selling crack to support his mother. I related to the boy even though I would never have stooped so low as to sell drugs. I will admit that we were from different circumstances and who knows what I would have been like had I been raised on the same streets as he was. I could still relate to him in a way that other counselors had failed. I helped him find a job where he could make money legitimately and we were discussing what he needed to do.

  I remember looking at the clock and thinking how I just might have my first fight with Polly because I was running so late. Jerome asked if I could walk with him to the bus stop, he was still scared of someone though he never did tell me who. He just said it was the guy he bought his supply from. I guess it works in a chain of command in a sort of pyramid and I have no idea who was at the top. It was easy for me to agree with walking with him since I would be going in that direction anyway with my car being parked in the garage across the street.

  He talked excitedly as we walked, and I even hung out with him until his bus arrived. It wasn’t until I was in the parking garage that I realized I was being followed. It wasn’t as though I could hear the footsteps, it was more that feeling of being watched. You know what I mean. The tiny hairs on the back of your neck stand up and you keep looking over your shoulder because you're sure there’s someone there, just behind, waiting to reach out and grab you. Yeah, that’s how I felt. I remember thinking running was a bad idea even as my feet picked up speed.

  I was told it was Phillipe even though I never really saw his face. I was grabbed from behind, yanked hard into an unyielding body and my neck was torn into as though I was nothing more than a piece of meat. I remember screaming and a hand slamming down over my mouth as a
voice projected in my head.

  Shut up or I’ll make this so painful you’ll wish for death. I couldn’t imagine anything being more painful, but I knew better than to voice my opinion. I came close to blacking out at one point. Who knows maybe I did for a moment. It was only when the nastiest taste of blood was filling my mouth that I started to protest again. It was god awful. He held me steady as though I was no more than an insect to him. I probably was or more like a succulent pig. The strangest thing was when the blood stopped tasting bad and started tasting good. I remember latching on to the wrist as if it could save my life, as if I needed that fluid more than I had ever needed anything.

  I panicked when I realized what I was doing but I passed out before I could move a muscle. I still wonder if he made me sleep or if that was part of the conversion. I’ll probably never know. When I woke up I was alone in the parking garage near my car. I crawled to it on my hands and knees. My mouth so completely dry and the hunger was nearly more than I could bear. I leaned against my car for a few moments as the dizziness subsided and when I was able to I did so, I searched my pockets for my keys. I nearly panicked when I didn’t find them immediately, then I felt the keys cold against the ends of my fingers and I grasped them, letting out a sigh of relief. My wallet was still in my back pocket. Strange, this was obviously not a robbery.

  I climbed into my car and drove home. I even started to convince myself that I had imagined the whole thing, that I had passed out due to lack of food. I didn’t eat lunch that day. I had been so busy that I had forgotten all together until then. I was thirsty too and I don’t mean the normal thirst after a long day’s work. I mean so thirsty that I could drink just about anything. I consoled myself with thoughts of all that water I could get at home just by pressing my glass against the refrigerator door. It was one of the things Polly insisted on when we moved in together. She always wanted a fancy refrigerator. I didn’t care one way or the other.

  I didn’t drive erratic as you would have thought given the situation, even with my mind consumed with the needs of my body. I made it home as if my life didn’t completely change just minutes before. I didn’t stop to think about the fact that I could feel cool dampness on my shirt and that I would scare the shit out of Polly. All I knew was that I needed to quench the fire growing in my belly.

  I parked my car in the designated parking area and was grateful that I didn’t run into anyone on the way to my apartment. Now, I realize how strange it was that I didn’t see anyone. There were always people outside that time of year and they would stay outside until it was pitch black outside. I don’t ever remember coming home and not saying hi to someone who lived in the building. I guess I should be thankful but then again, they might have saved me from what happened and the guilt that still eats away at me.

  I remember being able to hear and smell things I had never been able to before. I could smell the garbage from the large dumpster on the side of the building. I could hear everyone in their apartments and I could even smell what they had for dinner. I could hear their every whispered word as though I was in the room with them. The smells of food made my stomach turn even though I was starving. My vision was clearer than it had ever been but I didn’t notice it as much as the others because my vision had always been pretty good.

  I made it through my door without any difficulty and the first thing I did was walk into the kitchen. I grabbed a glass from the cabinet and went over to the fancy refrigerator and filled the glass full of crystal clear water. I started drinking it to dull the ache in my stomach. I had hoped it would put out the raging inferno, but it didn’t seem to have any effect. It wasn’t until I was half-way finished that my stomach decided to rebel. I barely made it to the sink before the contents of my stomach was spewing into the pristine sink. I looked down at the sink and saw mostly blood.

  My brain didn’t like what it was seeing. I could see the blood starkly in the sink, but I didn’t want to see it because that would mean what had happened earlier really did happen. I didn’t want it to be true. I wanted to live in my fairytale world where such things just didn’t happen or in this case, exist. Did I really drink the blood of someone who I had been attacked by? I couldn’t wrap my head around it even with the evidence glaring at me from the sink.

  “Thomas, are you okay.” I hear Polly as she walks into the room. Of course, I heard her, just like I could hear everything else. I turned on the water to wash away the blood and water my body had expelled. She didn’t need to see that kind of gore.

  “Yeah, sorry. I guess I ate something that upset my stomach. I turn toward her as she draws closer and I can smell her. She smells like the finest wine only more. She smells like ambrosia, complete nirvana. If that hadn’t been strange alone, then the beat of her heart clearly visible in her neck drawing me closer to her, should have been a clue. I felt compelled to get closer to her as though I were merely a puppet on a string. I couldn’t have stopped myself even though I had convinced myself several times since that I could. I was never strong enough to fight it.

  “Thomas, you’re so pale. Perhaps you should see a doctor.” She said as she came closer to me even as my feet were moving toward her as well. My brain was screaming for me to stop, to leave this place and never return but my body wasn’t my own. I was suddenly there, inches from the sweetest scent I have ever smelled. I tip her head back as I watch the vein pulse in front of me and I’m so spellbound that I don’t even notice the slide of my teeth lengthening. I pressed my nose against the most decadent scent and it grew stronger, making my stomach cramp painfully. My tongue darted out and I groaned at the taste of her flesh. There was nothing sexual about it even though her body was pressed to mine.

  “Thomas.” She moaned, and I could smell the scent of her arousal and for some reason, I didn’t like that scent interfering with the one under my nose. I nipped the flesh softly before biting down. The flavors that burst into my mouth was like none I have ever known before. It was so good that I rolled it around on my tongue before swallowing it down. I still to this day can’t describe the taste of human blood. There was nothing comparable from my human years. All I knew at the time was that it was exactly what I needed. The pains in my stomach abated and the fires were put out nearly instantly. I gulped greedily.

  It wasn’t until I pulled away, that I realized what I had done. I back away slightly and I see one lone droplet of blood spill from the holes I left behind as though it were a teardrop. The teardrop I will always remember as a symbolic way of telling me that what we had was over and that all I could do was cause her pain. I remember watching the teardrop as it slid down to her collarbone. I had panicked and quickly caught it with my tongue, licking away the evidence of my deceit. I watched mesmerized as the holes closed and disappeared before my eyes.

  I can’t remember the exact words I had said to her as I stared down at the woman who had once meant so much to me. A woman that had until hours prior had been the most desirable woman to me. It was in that moment that I realized that in my current state if I stayed she would have only been something to use and I couldn’t do that to her.

  I walked out the door without looking back. The only thing I took with me was the clothes on my back. I knew that I would never return because I couldn’t be the man I had once been even if there was a way to change me back. I knew I had been living in a whole other world with her. She had been so many things to me but the very thing I needed her to be. Why it took that moment to see it, I have no idea.

  I shake my head to bring me back to the present and the situation I find myself. I’m here for one reason and one reason only, to seduce the General’s daughter. This should be interesting.

  Chapter 2. Thomas

  I find myself in a room full of writhing bodies. They sway their hips and grind against their partner. It smells of sweat and arousal so thickly that it’s cloying the air. Drinks are spilled and forgotten as they kick the litter around the floor. I’m surprised someone hasn’t tripped over the many empty
cups I see littering the ground. I shouldn’t be surprised to find them behaving in such a manner, after all, we are in Kansas. Kansas University is in Lawrence Kansas about six miles from where the General is currently in residence. It’s a thriving college town with a population of nearly a hundred thousand people. I could care less about the people except for the one I am here to find.

  Ava Bendix is the General’s daughter and will be graduating from this college in just a few weeks. Terrance followed her from her dorm room to this party before reporting back to me. I should have waited until tomorrow and met her at a coffee house or wherever she goes while she’s studying, but the others think this is the best way to meet her. I hate crowds and the smells are nearly making me sick. You can practically smell the bad decisions being made here along with the smell of cheap beer and lust.

  Terrance says the girl is beautiful with light blonde hair and blue eyes. I could care less as long as I can charm an invite to her father’s house. I’m not here to make emotional connections, I’m here to take out a threat to all of us. A man who would send his own people to die for a cause that he doesn’t even fully understand nor will he ever. He’s a zealot and the only good zealot is a dead zealot. I only hope we can stop the massacres from happening any more. We also need to find out if anyone else knows about us and who before we’re surrounded by enemies.

  I catch the scent of something completely different from the current atmosphere and I feel drawn to it like a moth to the flame. I find myself pushing through the crowd of bodies practically dry humping their partners until I see the woman whose scent has my brain short-circuiting. Her long blond hair is in a long-plated braid down her slim back and her overly large blue eyes seem so innocent when compared to her surroundings. I feel something happen in my chest that I’m unaccustomed to. I place my hand on it, but nothing happens. I shrug it off as I get closer to her. She says something that isn’t discernable over the crowd of noises, yet the cadence reaches me as though it has reached into my chest to squeeze my unused heart. It beats again.