The Cathedral of Cliffdale Read online

  Finding the small village teeming with vampires, Drake had been all for spiriting Charlotte away – as far from the creatures who would prey on her sweet innocent blood as possible – but Charlotte had wilted at the thought of going any further, desperate for rest, and so he had consented to staying for just one night. He had tried to shake off the ominous feeling that had settled over him, for Charlotte’s sake.

  It was only after they had settled into their room that Drake discovered the cause for the vampires’ celebration - they had murdered a Guardian, and, even more exciting, they had secured her crystal. The revelation sent a thrill of exhilaration through him – he had long supported the Quest and this was a great victory. Never before had a vampire possessed one of the twelve stones, and the prized possession had been displayed by a particularly striking, raven-haired vampire, worn proudly around her neck before she placed it in an ornate iron box. The fallen Guardian would be replaced, but the stone was irreplaceable, and, without it, the Guardians were one step closer to their demise. Drake had itched to join in the celebration and drink to the fall of one of the twelve, but he could not bring himself to leave Charlotte and he dared not tell her about the Quest, knowing she would never approve. He had left that life behind when he met her, and he would not go back to it.

  He had been watching from the small porch of their sleeping quarters, determined not to sleep and leave Charlotte vulnerable while there were so many frenzied vampires about, when the Slayer had come.

  Drake had never known fear in all his years until that night. The Slayer tore through the small village like a God, killing more vampires than Drake could count. He wielded a sword as opposed to stakes, but somehow the weapon was all the more frightening for the havoc it wreaked. The few who tried to sink their fangs into the Slayer dropped dead at his feet. Drake had grabbed Charlotte and tried to flee, but more Guardians blocked his path and carrying his precious Charlotte did not allow him to fight back.

  One Guardian in particular caught Drake’s eye. A broad–shouldered, bare-chested warrior with battle lust in his eyes and a palpable thirst for vengeance. His arms were covered in intricate circular tattoos, stretching from his shoulders down to his wrists.

  Drake could not have known the reason for Daniel’s black rage; that the vampires had murdered his mate, Emily, and stolen her crystal. Daniel and Emily, along with Isaiah, were the only three remaining original Guardians. They had been together for almost half a century, and now she was gone.

  Seeing the human girl in the vampire’s arms, Daniel had used Drake’s limited ability against him and charged, an unearthly battle cry sounding from deep in his chest. With his lightning reflexes, Drake deposited Charlotte gently on the ground beside him and then stood to face this formidable opponent. Drake was not a new vampire, and he had no doubt that, as impressive as this Guardian seemed, he would be no match for Drake’s vampiric strength. Sadly, he would never know the outcome, because in the instant before Daniel was upon him, his silver stake raised to strike, Charlotte leapt between them, and the ornamental silver stake buried itself below her collarbone, cutting through her like butter, until only the hilt protruded from her chest.

  “Noooooooooo!” Drake’s bellow of anguish reverberated through the cobbled walkways. He dropped to his knees cradling Charlotte’s limp, warm body in his arms, feeling the point of the stake protruding through her back, all thoughts of the Guardian forgotten. “Charlotte, Charlotte,” he murmured, stroking her hair and pleading with her to stay with him.

  Above them, Daniel paused, and Drake watched as the realisation dawned on him. He had believed the girl to be a victim of the vampire, but the palpable grief he was now witnessing made it clear that that was not the case. The young girl, her breathing laboured, had the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen, and a pain so severe it doubled him over, washed over him as he realised he had taken her life. A human life – an innocent soul. Daniel hesitated, unsure of how to proceed. The Guardians around him, too, made no move towards the weeping vampire. They had never seen anything like it – a vampire protecting a human was unheard of. Bending over, Daniel reached for the hilt of his stake and pulled, the gurgling sound it made as it came free of the girl’s chest making him feel faint. Despite the tragic unfolding of events, Daniel’s Hunter instinct was too strong to ignore, and he lifted the stake above his head, his eyes fixed on the back of the vampire’s neck.

  Drake turned to gaze hollowly at the Guardian wielding the stake above him, his green eyes glimmering with anguished tears. He did not fear death because it would be preferable to a life without Charlotte, but as long as her heart still beat, he would not accept defeat. Daniel stared into those green eyes and an eerie sensation trickled over his body. He could not do it. He could not kill this vampire. Lowering the stake, he backed away, leaving the nightwalker to mourn the loss of his loved one.

  Everything else faded away. Drake could no longer hear the torturous cries of the vampires being slaughtered by the Slayer, or the raging roar of the fires as their bodies burned. All he could hear was the faint, fading beating of Charlotte’s heart as she slowly bled to death. Casting around for help, he was faintly surprised that the Guardians had moved away, engaging in battle with the remaining vampires.

  A woman skidded to a halt beside him, collapsing on her knees. Drake recognised her as a gypsy, her long dark hair slung in a heavy braid over her shoulder. The unwashed scent of her body assailed his senses, but her words, when they came, were spoken with kindness.

  “Press down here,” she instructed, seemingly oblivious of the carnage raging around them. Drake did as he was told, pressing his hand down over the entry wound in Charlotte’s chest.

  “Please,” he murmured, his voice thick with emotion, “you have to help her.” The woman didn’t reply, but another voice yelled over the sound of fighting, “Jasmine!”

  Drake heard the sound of footsteps approaching, but the gypsy woman was gently lifting Charlotte to assess the damage to her back.

  “Jasmine!” The gypsy man reached them, grabbing the woman’s shoulders, trying to wrest her to her feet. Jasmine pushed him away, leaning in close to assess the wound. Charlotte’s breathing was rasping, a death rattle in her chest as blood filled her lungs and made it impossible for her to breathe. “Jasmine,” the man tried again, “we have to get out of here!”

  Slowly Jasmine lowered Charlotte’s body back to the ground, the sadness in her brown eyes conveying all Drake needed to know.

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered, shaking her head. She finally scrambled to her feet and was dragged away by the gypsy man as they fled the massacre.

  Drake clutched Charlotte to him, sobbing into her hair. The Guardian who had struck her was now fighting alongside the Slayer himself, seeming to have forgotten about Drake. Seizing the opportunity he scooped Charlotte up and fled, racing into the night away from the carnage. The Slayer had single-handedly destroyed almost forty vampires in the space of five minutes and Drake needed to get away from him so that he could attend to Charlotte.

  He had done the unthinkable in his desperate attempt to save her: he had turned her; turned the beautiful, kind, loving girl into a vampire. She was reborn that night, her senses heightened, her enhanced strength and speed terrifyingly beautiful in comparison to her sweet youthful beauty. But with her transition came the bloodlust. Unable to resist, she fed, as often and as much as she wanted. Denying the thirst was pointless, and although he expected she would feel guilty, she never did. Charlotte’s compassion had died along with her soul.

  “Drake? Drake!” Genevieve’s frantic voice pulled him back to the present, away from the memories of Charlotte, but the destructive power of the Slayer was burned into his consciousness, a stabbing pain behind his eyes.

  “The Quest is important to me,” Genevieve murmured pleadingly and Drake breathed deeply, trying to remember his own fervour for the Quest before he had met Charlotte... before he had ever seen the Slayer. He did not blame Genevieve; h
e had experienced the same single-minded determination. Losing Charlotte had changed everything. He did not want to lose Genevieve too, although he would never feel for her the way he had felt for his first love, but Genevieve and her brother Sebastian had been seeking the City for centuries. Keeping his voice low, he chose his next words carefully, not wanting to be cruel, but needing to be very clear.

  “Genevieve, in a millennium our kind has never come close to finding the City. I am through with the Quest – I have told you this too many times to count. You have chosen to stay with me, to put it behind us. Or perhaps you have changed your mind?” Unable to resist the temptation any longer, he dipped his dark head and plunged his fangs into the soft skin at the young woman’s wrist, drinking deeply and feeling the faint pulse in her arm slowing down with every passing second until it ceased entirely. By the time he lifted his head, Genevieve was beside him, her eyes wide with lust, and he didn’t object as she bent her head to drink the vestige of blood from his mouth.

  Chapter 8

  Quinn tossed the pizza boxes onto the kitchen counter as Sarah came down the passage. Todd rose from the couch, opening the top box and selecting a large slice, piled high with cheese and pepperoni.

  “Oh yum,” Sarah grabbed the boxes and carried them through to the living-room while Quinn got herself a beer from the fridge.

  “What took you so long?” Todd asked, through a mouth crammed with pizza.

  “The order took a while. Oh, and I met someone at Phil’s tonight,” Quinn mentioned casually. Sarah’s head jerked up.

  “A male someone?” she asked, a huge grin on her face. Quinn knew that Sarah wanted nothing more than for her to meet a local man and settle down in Brookfield permanently.

  “It was nothing like that; he has a girlfriend,” Quinn insisted and Sarah’s face fell. “His name is Drake.” Sarah’s knowing smile was met by a dark scowl from Todd.

  “He’s gorgeous, right?” she quipped, oblivious to Todd’s reaction. There was no point in denying it, but mindful of Todd’s irritation, Quinn kept her opinion to herself.

  “He’s weird,” Todd interjected.

  “Weird how?” Quinn asked.

  “Well, for starters, I only ever see him at night. It’s like he’s on some nocturnal schedule or something. My parents say he’s lived here what – five years...?”

  “Six,” Quinn corrected automatically and Sarah looked suitably impressed.

  “Six,” Todd conceded, “and I don’t know anyone who knows him any further than as a casual acquaintance. He doesn’t have a single friend. If you ask me, he thinks he’s better than everyone else.”

  “Maybe he’s just shy?” said Quinn, and even Sarah laughed.

  “Nobody is that shy, Quinn. Not even you,” she winked, reminding Quinn of their first encounter. Quinn had passed off her rudeness as shyness. “He is pretty antisocial,” Sarah conceded, earning herself a satisfied look from Todd, “but his girlfriend’s even worse. She creeps me out.”

  “How so?”

  “I don’t know, she’s just weird.”

  “Hot though,” Todd got his revenge and Quinn couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Hey, what’s this?” Quinn asked, wiping her greasy hands on her jeans and leaning forward too study a brightly coloured board on the table.

  “It’s a display I’m working on,” Sarah replied, leaning forward and pulling it out from under the empty pizza boxes.

  “Is it a boat?” Quinn asked, as Sarah held it up proudly for display. Sarah’s face fell, but Todd let out a snort of laughter.

  “It’s Noah’s Ark,” Sarah sounded hurt.

  “Of course it is!” Todd teased, but Quinn felt a wave of nostalgia wash over her. The Ark. This was how the original Guardians referred to Summerfeld. They called it the Ark.

  King Eldon had created the City of Summerfeld as a safe haven for the last ten surviving supernatural species. Its exact location was unknown, but it existed at the very edge of the known Earth, accessible only through the Guardian’s Gateway. Like a second Ark, King Eldon had personally shepherded the mystical creatures and his own people into the City before magically barricading it from the outside.

  “Quinn?” Sarah called, and Quinn realised it was not the first time her friend had tried to get her attention.

  “Oh, sorry, I was just... admiring your artwork,” she finished lamely.

  “It’s not finished.” Sarah sounded embarrassed and Quinn hastened to reassure her.

  ‘It’s fantastic. The kids are going to love it.”

  She excused herself not long after, sensing that Todd wanted to be alone with Sarah, and the second she left the light, jovial atmosphere of Sarah’s house, her thoughts returned automatically to the task at hand. In light of her blossoming friendship, it was easy to forget the real reason she was here in Brookfield. She had decided to wait at least a few months before visiting Cliffdale, as difficult as it was for her to go about her life not knowing where Jack and Ava were. A Guardian at heart, she couldn’t shake the uneasiness that she was living in a town that harboured vampires, but she had decided that the best way to size up the opposition was to get as close to them as possible – which was proving difficult. Todd had not been exaggerating – Drake and Genevieve were intensely private, although they did frequent Phil’s a couple of nights a week. Quinn had taken to venturing over there herself, more often than not, in the hope of learning more about them. On the odd occasion when she did find them, she always greeted them politely, but neither invited her to join them at their table, and Genevieve’s obvious and instant dislike did nothing to further her cause.

  One Thursday evening Quinn walked over to the tavern without much optimism, but, to her surprise, Drake was seated alone at the bar. Ignoring the queasiness in her stomach, fighting to subdue her Guardian instinct, she took a seat right beside him.

  “Hi,” she smiled, ordering a beer from Phil who was just filling another order.

  “Hello,” Drake gave her a perfunctory once-over and then stared moodily back into his drink.

  “Where is Genevieve tonight?” Quinn persevered.

  “She’s out of town.”

  “On business?” He didn’t say it, but the look that he gave her made it clear that it was none of hers. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be nosey – I just don’t have many friends, you know – new to town and all.”

  “It’s not the worst place to live,” he pointed out, catching her eye, and Quinn thought she detected a hint of a smile on his face. She was almost certain he thought she was flirting with him.

  Quinn didn’t have the time to be offended. Without warning, a fight broke out on the other side of the bar. Phil yelled and a young woman shrieked as she was knocked to the ground in the scuffle. Quinn didn’t even see Drake move, but the next moment he was upon them, his face hard and furious. He pulled the brawling men apart, holding them by the scruffs of their shirts and frogmarched them to the door before tossing them outside in a heap. Returning to the bar, Quinn noticed his eyes slide over to where the woman was being helped to her feet by a friend. Seemingly satisfied, he dropped a few notes on the counter and nodded at Phil, before turning on his heel and stalking out into the night.

  “He’s a good man,” Phil remarked, catching Quinn’s eye. “I don’t care what the others say about him – he’s a good man. It’s not the first time he’s had my back.”

  Quinn recovered quickly, tossing her own money down on the counter and hastening after Drake before he had even made it halfway down the street.

  “Are you okay?” she asked as she fell into step beside him. He didn’t reply. “That was a very nice thing you did back there – for Phil.” At that he stopped dead in his tracks, turning to face her, a wary look on his face.

  “I am committed to Genevieve.”

  “What?” Quinn didn’t follow.

  “I am not sure exactly why you think I would be interested in you – although granted, you are exceptionally beautiful - but I am not.�
� The fact that he would think that she was romantically interested in him was so outrageous that Quinn broke into peals of laughter. Drake regarded her quizzically, as though wondering if she might be slightly mad.

  “I’m sorry,” Quinn gasped, “but seriously? What on earth makes you think I would be interested in you? Granted, you are exceptionally good-looking, but really... I’m not.” Her echoing of his earlier words relaxed him, and this time there was no mistaking it – a reluctant smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

  “In that case, I’ll walk you home.”

  They walked on in preoccupied silence. Drake escorted Quinn right up the front steps, but, as she opened the door, she stood directly in the doorway, praying that he wouldn’t realise that she was barring his entry.

  “Thank you for walking me,” she smiled. Drake cocked his head to one side, his eyes narrowing. Quinn leaned casually against the doorframe and an unnerving silence followed as Drake tried to make out if there was more to her than met the eye. Eventually, nodding a farewell, he left, as abruptly as before.

  Walking along the darkened street Drake reflected once again on events that had taken place over five hundred years ago. He had stayed with Charlotte for five years despite the fact that she was no longer interested – her thirst for blood had completely overshadowed her love for him. He had stayed as a penance for what he had done to her, accepting it as his punishment for turning her into the monster she had become. Charlotte had morphed into the most sadistic and dangerous of vampires - capable of unspeakable acts of cruelty. She toyed with other vampires in front of him, male and female alike, her sexual appetite almost as insatiable as her thirst for human blood. It didn’t take long before she learned of the Quest for Summerfeld, and she embraced the idea as yet another way to inflict pain on others. Drake had no desire to take up the Quest again, not after seeing the power of the Slayer and how easily he had taken back the crystal. He had also reconciled the Quest with the loss of Charlotte, in his mind. Had the vampires in the village not murdered a Guardian, had they never taken the stone, neither the Slayer nor the Guardians would have been there that night and Charlotte would never have been turned. He would have loved her all the days of her life, and then, when she had passed from this world to the next, he would have joined her in the afterlife. The Quest had taken her from him, taken away the part of her that loved him and everything he had loved about her.