Lure of the Night Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  LURE OF THE NIGHT

  (BOOK 1, VAMPIRE WINTER SAGA)

  by Bethany Knox

  Swordworks Books

  Copyright © 2011 by Bethany Knox

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Chapter 1

  ‘Weirdo’. Their shouts and catcalls echoed in my ears as I made my way home. I had half a mile to walk and every step was heavy, leaden, it seemed like I was walking a gauntlet of misery. For I was not alone, never alone. My tormentors wouldn’t just leave me, oh no. Around the corner by McAlister’s Hardware, the old store festooned with pots and pans, tools and pieces of odd shaped machinery, along the short row of decaying businesses, a couple of empty shops, the diner, the hairdressers and then past Nathan’s Wood, named after some bloody Civil War battle. They said that the souls of the dead walked the wood at night, but I doubted it, dead was dead. Every Monday afternoon when Mom was doing her Yoga class, or whatever silly trend she and her cronies were into these days, I had to walk home. There was no bus, we lived on a quiet country lane that was well away from the bus routes. ‘They’ knew the score, had latched on very early, knew which day I would be easy meat for them. ‘They’ made sure that they were ready for me, for the ‘weirdo’. Trouble was, I did feel different, knew I was different. But how? I’d spent my whole life trying to work that one out.

  “Hello, Claire.”

  ‘They’ were here.

  Stella Ryan stepped out in front of me, her pale blue eyes flashed with angry spite. “Where’re you going, Claire?”

  I sighed. Jesus, not again, not every week! “I’m going home, Stella.”

  “Yeah? That’s nice, ain’t it, James?”

  James McCreedy stepped out from behind her and confronted me. “Aren’t you coming with us then, Claire, have some fun? I can think of lots of things we can do in the woods across the road.”

  “No.”

  “Shit, that’s just too bad, isn’t it, Stella?”

  The other girl nodded, her face screwed up in malicious enjoyment. That was the problem, of course. I didn’t want anything to do with them, or anybody else for that matter. Ever since my Pa went away with another woman, Megan Waterhouse who used to live in the big house at the other end of town, I’d been hit with a double whammy. The folks from that end of town harbored even more of a grudge against me and my family from that day on, as if I had been crazy enough to persuade my father to run off with another woman. And ever since he did leave, I found I didn’t want to know anyone, I was content to work things out for myself. Mom kept trying to persuade me to pick up with some of the girls from school, but I wasn’t interested. I knew I could rely on myself, no one else. Until I worked things out differently, that’s the way it would be. But they still couldn’t leave me alone.

  James lunged forward and grabbed hold of my schoolbag. “What are you carrying in there, Claire?”

  “Leave it, James, you know it’s only my school stuff.”

  He tipped it all out onto the sidewalk. I mean, like, everything, all of my books, cosmetics, money, personal things, all of it, strewn over the sidewalk. Then he threw the bag down on top of it.

  “I’m checking you haven’t got anything in there like photos of other people’s wives or husbands.”

  I ignored the stupid remark and started to pick up my stuff and cram it back into my pack. Stella walked past me and caught me with her leg and knocked me off balance, I fell on top of my books.

  “Hey, you’ve been drinking,” she sneered. “Look, she can’t even keep her balance.”

  I had made up my mind a long time ago never to give in to them, they were never going to see me cry. But it was hard holding it in. I got to my knees and started picking up my things, finally I got my bag back together and stood up. “Can’t you just leave me alone, I just want to go home?”

  They laughed. “No, I don’t think so,” Stella said. “Where’s your dad taken Mrs. Waterhouse? Has he kidnapped her, has he murdered her?”

  I said nothing. They were starting to really heat up, I needed a quick way to get out of this.

  “I don’t see my father very often and as for Megan Waterhouse, I have no idea. Why don’t you ask them?”

  “Cos I’m asking you, Claire. What’s happened to her?”

  “Nothing, you know nothing has happened to her.”

  “I don’t believe you,” she snarled. Then she went to punch me, not an especially powerful punch but all of her nasty, vicious spite was starting to pour out of her. I twisted away and she lost her balance and fell over.

  “Hey, James, she pushed me, the bloody cow hit me, go get her.”

  Her eyes flared again with that harsh, crazy light. No matter what I said or did they’d really got it in for me today, worse than usual, I’d no idea why. The school had its fair share of bullies and Stella and James were by no means the worst, but for some reason they’d decided to get their kicks by having a go at me. Maybe it was because my route home was so remote, that almost as soon as I passed the row of old storefronts on the way back I was on my own. It was just opportunity I guessed, that and a blazing hatred because my dad had gone off with a woman from their side of town. It was crazy, like they were some kind of different tribe. But then again, bullies never needed a reason, they just liked to cause pain. I ran for it, straight for the trees.

  Maybe I was following the route of Nathan, the cavalryman who had given the wood its name a hundred and fifty years ago. Clutching my pack I sprinted across the road and into the trees. They were behind me, I could hear them shouting and cursing, so I pressed on fast, thorns pricked at my clothes, tearing, ripping into my school uniform. Mom would go crazy, when she saw the damage but it didn’t matter, she wasn’t here and I was. She’d blame me of course, blame me for running away, not the kids who were chasing me to give me a hiding. No, that’s the way life was for Claire Winter, it was always my fault. The wood was dark and getting darker as I ran deeper into it, I could still hear them so I kept going, further, deeper, darker. I must have run for an hour, eventually I stopped. I couldn’t hear them anymore and I was tired so I sat down on a fallen tree to take a rest. I was exhausted, really beat, I slid off the tree trunk and sat on the ground and put my pack behind me so that I could rest my head against it. I was safe here, I would just wait for an hour or so and then go back the way I’d come. Oh God, I was tired. What was wrong with Stella, she was a bully, yeah, but she seemed to be hitting on me lately, as if there was something really personal there? I couldn’t work it out, it didn’t make much sense.

  I awoke to find it was dark. I was cold and stiff, very cold, and I got up and picked up my pack, it was time to head back. I tried to retrace my steps for what must have been another hour, but somehow I neve
r seemed to get back to the road. It was like the wood was an endless world of creaking trees, sighing leaves in the gentle breeze, the hoot of an owl and screech of a small animal. I should have been frightened but I wasn’t. I felt at peace, cocooned in the gentle darkness, as if I had awoken into a magical world that was all mine, a world where I could do what I wanted, go where I wanted. A world where nobody kept bullying me, misunderstanding every single thing I said.

  I mean, were they all stupid? I’d ask someone a simple, innocent question and they’d say ‘why, what do you want to know for?’ No easy answers, not ever, it was if they wanted to dissect my life, to deliberately send me in directions I didn’t want to go in. It was strange. I felt, like, ‘are you all crazy? Why can’t you just chill out, understand that I’m not a complicated person at all?’ But they never did. I guess that’s why the bullying carried on endlessly, I mean, what was the point, you complain you’re in the wrong. You don’t complain, you’re in the wrong. Tell me what you want and I’ll just roll with it. But they never did tell me what they wanted. I guess they all had an agenda, they did their own thing and didn’t understand that I might to want to do my own thing. I was a rope in a tug of war competition, people trying to pull me hard in opposite directions. Jeez, it hurt, guys.

  I sat down again, I was so tired. Ok, maybe I was a little frightened too, I mean, I was hungry. Somewhere during the dash through the trees I’d lost my watch. I’d forgotten to recharge my cell last night, when I looked at it the battery was dead, so I couldn’t call anyone. So what do I do? I’m on my own in the middle of a dark, cold wood, totally lost. Do I go around and around in circles until I drop dead from exhaustion? I shivered, was my young life going to end here, in this dark place? But I had to try, I got up and started walking again. Hours later I gave up, it was hopeless. I guessed it must be near midnight, I was even colder, starving hungry and utterly exhausted. It was only stubborn pride that stopped me from crying, Claire Winter didn’t cry, if a horde of bullies couldn’t make me cry a damned bunch of trees wasn’t going to either. But I was still wracked with dry sobs, misery and tiredness and eventually I just slumped down and allowed myself to drop off to sleep again. If I was going to die, I may as well get some sleep first. As I was dozing I thought again about Stella. What was her problem? I’d noticed she had that strange look in her eyes more often lately, whenever she came across me, she’d sure singled me out for her nastiest treatment.

  I awoke suddenly, what was that, a sound? A rescuer? No, they would be calling out my name. Someone was moving through the trees, or something, it had to be a dog. Or something else, a wolf, a bear. Did we have wolves and bears in this area? There was a low howl followed by a gentle bark, almost a yip, as if the dog didn’t want to make too much noise. Then I heard a person, a human, sniffing, as if they were, what? I couldn’t work it out, it was like a dog sniffing a scent, but this was no dog. I felt something brush against my leg and I screamed. I looked down and there were two eyes looking at me, intense, luminous, then there were another two eyes and another creature touched me. Two dogs. They were friendly, licking my hand, panting in that odd, reassuring way that dogs do when they’ve been for a long walk and they’re happy. Their eyes looked around as a twig cracked underfoot, someone was there. Oh, my God, was this where the bear jumped out and attacked me? Would the dogs defend me?

  “Scylla, Charybdis? What have you found over there? Oh, it’s you. What are you doing here?”

  I looked at the source of the voice but I couldn’t see anything. Wait a moment, yes, it was the eyes, like the dogs’ eyes, bright, luminous like glistening jewels. Did my eyes shine like that in the blackness of the night? I wondered.

  “I could ask you the same thing,” I said as firmly as I could. “What exactly are you doing in the woods at this hour of the night, harassing a young girl who’s just out for an innocent walk?”

  “Do you know what time it is?”

  “Of course I do, do you think I’m stupid?”

  “No, I don’t,” he replied in a friendly sort of way, not put off by my scathing tones.

  “What time is it then?”

  “Er, well, it’s just after midnight.”

  “It’s three in the morning, Claire.”

  Oh, my God, he knew my name. What was he, a mad axe murderer, trailing me into the woods, waiting to molest me and then hack off my head? I said nothing, just waited. Then a thought came to me. How did he know my name, did I know him?

  “Who are you?”

  “I’m Ethan, Ethan Andros. And you’re Claire Winter.”

  “How did you know my name?”

  “We go to the same school, I often see you around, haven’t you noticed me?”

  “I don’t think so, but as I can’t see you I wouldn’t know, would I? But how do you know it’s me, I mean, how can you see me?”

  There was a silence for a few moments. Then he said, “I could smell you, besides, I’ve got good night vision.”

  “And your dogs as well, they seem to be able to see me.”

  “I guess they can smell you as well.”

  I began to feel angry, he was implying that I stank, that I needed a bath. Had the run through the woods caused me to sweat that much?

  “Well, next time I go for a walk in the woods, I’ll have a shower first and put on some fragrance, ok?” I said angrily.

  I could hear the smile in his voice. “I didn’t mean an unpleasant smell, everyone like you has an odor, it’s just natural.”

  Like me, what the hell did that mean? I didn’t want to ask, I guess I didn’t want an unpleasant answer.

  We waited in silence. Then, “Would you like to come to my folks’ place? It’s only a few hundred yards through the trees and we can see about getting you a lift home.

  I only waited for a few heartbeats. Not that it was his business where I was going, but I was tired and hungry. “Ok, we’ll do that. But how will I see where we’re going?”

  I heard him moving nearer to me, then I realized that I could actually smell him too. It was a rich, spicy scent, like nothing I’d smelt before. It was kind of like an exotic animal. Strange. I jumped as he touched my hand, but it was only to guide me. He put it on my shoulder and started walking through the woods. How he could really see his way I had no idea, it was totally pitch black, but he strode along as if it was broad daylight. The dogs romped around us, they didn’t have any problems either. Did these people eat lots of carrots, I’d always heard that carrots were good for night vision? Then we came through a final clump of trees and pushed our way into a clearing, a house stood there, a porch light was on that illuminated the whole place with a ghostly glow.

  “Will your folks be up at this time of night?” I asked him.

  I heard it again, a kind of smile in his voice. “Yeah, they’ll be up.”

  The dogs ran ahead and whined at the door. It opened and a woman stood there, dimly illuminated by the lamp. “Ethan, you’ve brought a visitor,” she called out.

  “It’s Claire Winter, from my school, I found her in the woods.”

  We reached the house and she looked at me. “Claire, of course, I wondered when you’d come to visit us. Do you usually walk through the woods in the middle of the night?”

  “Well, not really, I was lost, well, I mean, I was running away.”

  She looked worried. “From home?”

  “No, nothing like that. From a couple of bullies is all.”

  Her face creased in concern. “Ethan, bring the young lady in and I’ll fix up some drinks, would you like a hot drink?”

  I nodded. “Good, then we can telephone your folks.”

  “It’s my mom, I haven’t got a dad,” I lied. Well, not any more I hadn’t. I wasn’t sure, but I could swear that her eyes twinkled with amusement, as if she knew exactly where my parents were and a whole lot more about me as well. How the hell could that be? We walked into the house and I now saw it was dimly lit with candles. Very atmospheric, I thought, or maybe they ha
dn’t paid the electric company. Then I remembered the porch light, no, they obviously chose to have the candles. Ethan came in behind me and I turned to thank him, and I nearly fell over. He was truly beautiful, almost otherworldly. I realized that I’d noticed him in school on several occasions, but he always wore very thick plastic rimmed glasses that made him look geeky and hid most of his face. He wasn’t a geek. His skin was pale, flawless, his eyes huge and strangely liquid, otherwise he looked Mediterranean with his long, dark almost jet black hair. But they were always darker skinned, weren’t they, people from that area, not light skinned like him? And there was something else indefinable about him, a kind of fragility. He didn’t look that strong, not at all, if anything he was skinny looking, tall as well. I suddenly realized I was still looking and I turned away in embarrassment. But at least I didn’t feel cold anymore, my temperature had gone up about twenty degrees when I first saw my rescuer.

  His mother came back into the room with a cup of some strange steaming hot drink and I thanked her and gratefully drank it down.

  “Now, let’s call your mother, dear. She’ll be worried.”

  She asked me for the number and dialed it on the cordless handset. Mom answered.

  “My God, Claire, I was worried sick, where are you?”

  I told her I was in the Andros house, that Ethan had found me in the woods. She was silent for almost a minute. Then she said, “The Andros house, I see. What were you doing there at this hour, Claire, we’ve had everybody out looking for you?”

  I hesitated, but no way was I going to whine about the bullying. “I got lost,” was all I said. Well, it was true.

  “I’ll come and get you, stay where you are, I’ll be there in twenty minutes or so.”

  “Ok, Mom.”

  I hung up the phone and gave it back to Mrs. Andros, who gave me another gentle, twinkling smile, her eyes crinkling a tiny bit as if she found pleasant humor in everything I said. The similarity between her and Ethan was amazing, same pale, flawless skin, luminous eyes and rich, dark hair. She was also very tall, very willowy, elegant, I guess most people would call it. My mom was all so contrived, this woman had a kind of inbuilt classiness, not something that she’d worked on everyday in the gym and beauty salon to achieve. She invited me to sit down in their living room. It was all dark, rich, with odors unlike anything I’d known before, the candles I guessed. Ethan sat down opposite me and for a minute we said nothing, but I enjoyed the silence. I was waiting for the questions to start, like they had all my life. ‘Where were you, what were you doing, what were you thinking of?’ stuff like that. But I wasn’t ready to answer any of them and they seemed to understand that.