The Darker Side Of Me (A Ravana Moon Novel Book 1) Read online

  “Don’t move, love,” I growled under my breath and she moaned once more in reply.

  I moved the fabric again, stuck the tip of my finger in my mouth and slide it along her lips. She moved side to side, but didn’t try to force it. So, I repeated the action. My moist finger traced along where her mound ended, and the light pink of her insides began. She moved to push up and thought better of it. I let my finger separate her lips, and moved in with my mouth. My tongue touched her, and she cried out.

  I plunged inside her and played there for a while moving her into a wicked frenzy. When I finished, I ripped the silk material from around her body and moved to lean over the top of her. She laid there naked but for an open blouse and a black bra. Her heels remained on her feet, something that made me smile. A slight pain prodded at my shoulder and I shook the notion off. She’d come here willingly. There wouldn’t be a repeat of the last time, still, I reached down and pulled each of her heels from her, allowing them to drop to the floor with a thud.

  “Massimo.”

  “Yes, love?” I moved so I was between her legs.

  “Take me, before I come to my senses.” Her eyes flew open and they were red.

  I backed away. Never had I seen red eyes on her. Something was wrong. She sat up as I scrambled backward. Too fast she grabbed me by the back of my neck and drew my mouth to hers. Before I could push her down our mouths collided. It was nothing like when I’d tasted her earlier. It was hard, and I could feel the sharp teeth she let fall. She bit my lip and I could taste the iron in my blood. Then I felt as she sucked on me, drinking from me. She threw her head back and laughed and I sat straight up in bed.

  The room was dark. The sun had gone down. A dream. It was just a bloody dream. It felt so real. I reached up to touch my lip. When I drew my hand away I saw the blood coating my fingers.

  “No, that was not a dream. That was a nightmare.”

  Delia was waiting in the common room of the shared apartment. She wore a similar outfit to the one she had on that morning, except less rumpled; a short beige pencil skirt, white blouse, and blazer. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She sat nervously biting her nails, while her knee bounced at an alarming rate.

  “Are you sure you’re human?” I laughed but stopped when her eyes grew twice their size.

  “I heard you snoring.” She pointed to the door.

  “Yeah, funny thing, Ravana never gave me a key for my new place.”

  “Yes, well here you go.” She placed a large plastic keychain on the glass coffee table. It said Harvey Auto Sales are #1 and a single key was attached.

  “Thanks.” I picked it up as she continued to eye me. “Is that it then?”

  “Oh,” she stood, her hands starting to wring themselves, “I put a call into the Order. Your Keeper will be relocating today. She should be here by morning. Her name is Kelly, and she will be in number one, across the hall from you. She’ll be using one of the rooms there. That will have to be secured with locks, and won’t be able to be a common apartment anymore. I may just move in as well. To give the other apartment up to those who need the space. We really shouldn’t be split up. Anyway, I’m going to see Ravana. I hope you’re nicer to your Keeper. Ravana’s a bitch, but oh, please don’t tell her I said that.” She stopped talking in super speed and covered her mouth like she was a child who’d spoken very badly of her parents.

  “Delia, love, breathe.”

  She did and looked up at me. “I’m sorry. I get overly excited sometimes. I get very nervous around unknowns. That’s what you are, you know. An unknown.” She covered her mouth again. I had a feeling this girl had a very hard time not saying everything that popped into her mind.

  “I see. Why might that be?” I sat down on the couch opposite her, so she might calm down. It worked. Her shoulders sagged a bit and her hands moved flat against her skirt, no doubt to wipe the sweat accumulated from them.

  “We haven’t had a chance to study you. Besides the fact that you very rarely drink from humans, we know nothing about you.”

  “Well, love, I’m an open book. All you need do is ask.” I sat back and crossed my knee over the other extending my arms down the back of the sofa on either side of me. My dark hair fell down to cover one of my eyes. I didn’t mind. I didn’t want to move and throw her into a tizzy again, so I left it be.

  “Just ask?”

  “Yup.”

  “Where do you get your blood?”

  “The blood banks your Order have stocked around town. I know a few of the guys that work there, and please don’t try asking which ones. I won’t rat out a friend.”

  “Loyalty. I admire that. I won’t ask.” She moved to her pocket and pulled out a small notepad and a pen. “How many humans have you killed?”

  “One.”

  “One?” She looked confused.

  They all did when I told them. I was freshly changed. I had no idea who I was, where I’d come from, or what I was. Emerick had a girl nearby for me to feed on when I woke. “I was an overzealous newborn vampire. I had no idea what I was doing. When I came to my senses and I realized I had killed her, I insisted on burying her myself. I located her family and wrote to them telling them she’d been in an accident and that she’d left them a considerable amount of money. It had been given to me by Emerick. To do as I wished. I wished not to have it.”

  “Is that why you live in an abandoned building? You don’t want what being alive for over a hundred years can afford you?”

  “You’re very astute.” I laughed and finally pushed the hair from my eye. She didn’t flinch at my movement, but merely sat and stared at me. “Yes. I don’t deserve the money. It was earned, but I shouldn’t be able to accumulate so much. One person does not need so much.”

  “And yet here you are, in the lap of my luxury.”

  The blonde rose from her seat and her hands started to squeeze themselves once again. “Ravana, good morning. I, um…”

  “You were just about to go out and bring me my coffee?”

  “Yes. Yes, I was.” The girl grabbed her notebook and placed it back in her pocket. Then looked back at me. “You can continue this with Kelly. Remember to return early this evening. She will want to speak with you. Oh, and all your belongings have been brought here to your apartment.” She glanced at Red, for only a split second and left.

  “Why do you continue to torture that lovely girl?” I laid my arms on the back of the sofa again, resuming my comfortable position.

  “She’s the help,” she said turning away from me. “You should sleep in your own apartment. We never know what time of day or night we may get visitors. They have access to the building. Some aren’t as nice as I am.”

  “You didn’t give me a key when you rushed me from your room. Or did you forget?”

  “That I shoved a door in your face, again? No, I remember.”

  “The last time hardly counts. The door belonged to a toilet.”

  “Still a door.” She turned on a heel and headed out to the hall. She stopped and turned to see me unmoved. “Are you coming? We have work to do.”

  “I just woke up. Please allow me the courtesy to run to the loo.”

  “Fine. Meet me in the elevator. You can’t gain access to the top floor without Delia or myself.”

  “Care to join me? You can close the door for me.” I stood from the sofa and headed for a small white room. Another room to the side opened up and a petite girl stepped out dressed in jeans and a Grateful Dead t-shirt. “You could join me.”

  The little thing hissed at me and stared at Ravana. Red just shrugged her shoulders and abandoned me. Instead of tangling with someone new I decided to take my chances with the master of the place.

  Ravana barely waited for me to get in the elevator. The door tried to close as I was entering. Apparently, they weren’t the ones that popped back open when something got in-between the doors. Probably a safeguard for the occupants. Or from them.

  “So,” I said trying to catch
my breath. “What kind of visitors do you get anyway?”

  “The usual kind. Vampire, demons, humans with nasty attitudes. Anyone the Oder deems valuable enough to employ.”

  “I thought their sole existence was to take out the demons and creatures, so why hire them as mercenaries?”

  “Have you seen many vamps killed by a simple human?” She looked at me as I considered it. “Yeah, me either, and Hunters are in short supply.”

  “So, they hire the bad guys to get the worse guys. What does that make us?”

  “The worst.”

  With that, the scanner popped out of the panel and the green light moved across her face. The doors chimed and opened in her hallway. I noticed then there was one more door in her lobby.

  “What’s that go to?”

  “No.” She opened her door and left me standing gawking at the only other door in the small room. The elevator chimed again, and I stepped into vaguely familiar territory. To be quite honest I didn’t get a good look the day before. The carpeting was plush underfoot, but I preferred the white porcelain tile in the kitchen area. The two rooms were only distinguishable by where one started and the other end based on the floor. I followed the floor with my eyes until I stopped at the bright red underside of Ravana’s heels. I hadn’t even noticed she was wearing another pair of tight leather pants. This time the crisscross of fabric laid across her chest. I could see the top of her bra behind the thick fabric. The only color on her besides black was the gold holes her shirt laces were pulled through. They moved from the middle of her breasts to her throat, extending shoulder to shoulder. Maybe she was trying to tell me something.

  I stopped walking, even when the perky Delia stepped into the apartment with something that smelt heavenly. The aroma of coffee and Danish wasn’t even enough to spring the dream I had from my mind. I could still smell the red-haired beauty. I wished I could have had her under me at that very moment if it weren’t for the Keeper in the room I might have tried…again. Until the sight of Ravana with blazing red eyes resurfaced. I shuddered.

  “Coffee?” The little blonde girl stepped up to me with a cup in hand and without thinking I took it.

  “Delia, we’ve been over this. He’s a vampire. Vampire’s don’t drink coffee.” Ravana seemed determined to break the girl’s spirits, so I took a large swig of the steamy hot substance. It was just like I remembered. A dark roast, rich and creamy with a hint of sugar.

  “How’d you know how I like my coffee?”

  “It’s our job.” She put the bag of pastries on the counter and moved to the back of the office area. Presumably, she was heading to get the books she’d been studying the previous night.

  “Since when do vamps drink coffee?”

  “Since I’m more like you than you think. Food and drinks may not give me nutrition, but the flavor is still damn satisfying. Just like alcohol, love. I can consume it. There is just something lacking in the effect.”

  She raised an eyebrow and opened the bag of pastries studying a cream cheese Danish before taking a bite, then settled her gaze on me. She seemed to be stumped. I could tell by the way she looked at me that she was going to say something. The fact that she did not tell me she had many questions.

  “Who’s the teacher now?” I turned and headed to find her bathroom.

  Since the only room, I’d been in besides the library and transfusion room was her bedroom, I knew there was a bathroom connected. I remembered the smell of peppermint coming from its direction. I followed it and found myself in a large master bath. Tiled shower, large jet tub, and on the shelf between the two was her peppermint shampoo. That was one mystery solved.

  When I finished and stepped back into her room I noticed something else I hadn’t seen the night before. There wasn’t a single picture on any of her walls. The rest of the apartment was the same. Not of people or even random art.

  “When are we leaving?”

  “Why, you in a hurry to get this over with as much as I am?”

  “No, Red. I’m just getting started. It’s this place…all the bright white, powder blue and depressing.”

  “Depressing?”

  “Yes. At least I lived in a somewhat relative place that matched who I am. This is not even close to who you are. How did you end up loaning out your building to the Order anyway?”

  “Easy, I fund it.” She turned to finish her Danish.

  My jaw hit the floor. Of all the things I’d thought I’d learn about her by working closely, I’d never imagined that. “How is that even possible?”

  “A tale for another day. Delia, we’re ready.”

  “Ready, for what?” I asked.

  The blonde stepped back into view carrying a large leather-bound book. I half expected every book that old to have a couple hundred layers of dust on them, but there wouldn’t be a speck on any of Ravana’s books. It was clear her Keeper was there to make sure of it.

  The blonde moved over to us, her mouth started moving and I could scarcely keep up. “Emerick. You gave me a name and I’m giving you what I found. He’s all over the history books, but I think what you want it is in this one. He was born August 19th in the year 1408 BC, during a total moon eclipse in a small village in Turkey. He was the first child born who exhibited great strength and extreme speeds. He was fast healing, and his senses were different depending on the phases of the moon.

  “This book was written by a protestant priest. He said when the child was baptized something strange happened. He came out of the water and his body was smoking like he had been set on fire.”

  “Delia, slow down, please. Does it say why he had these powers? Or if they had nightwalkers?” Red started to pace the room. Her heels clicking against the tile.

  “No. It doesn’t say anything about vampires per se. It does talk about demons and angels, black and white, good and evil. You know, the usual. It says he was born Emerick Bellator, which means warrior. Then on his twenty-fourth year of birth, he was attacked by a crazy person. A man believed to have been affected by the plague. They thought he would die, and they thought he had until they found his body missing. Some said he got up and walked away, while others speculated his body was stolen. They never found out.”

  She put the book down abruptly and left the room. Red and I exchanged looks and waited quietly until the Keeper returned. She held three more large books like the first. She tried to put them down on the island, but missed the edge. Ravana moved using her speed to grab hold of the books with just one hand, while still holding her coffee in the other. Delia looked positively frightened by the movements. It was nice to know I wasn’t the only one who made the girl nervous.

  “I got them.” Red placed them on the counter and having realized how she reacted Delia smoothed out her jacket and picked the book from the top of the pile.

  “This one tells his story by a monk in the 1600s. He traveled to Bethlehem posing as a trades’ merchant. He brought with him all types of things; silk, cotton, tobacco. You name it, he had it.

  “The monk said Emerick complained of an illness. He had a cough and fever. When he dropped from exhaustion, the monk took him to the monastery. That’s when they found out he was who they’d been waiting for. A hunter, brought to them to rid the world of the evils of the night. Though the fever threatened to kill him.”

  “How did he get sick if he was a vampire?”

  “Technically, the Ancient One was a prophesized being. Some religious books state he was immortal, to be the protector of the people for all time. Others say he’d been attacked by a nightwalker, or demon since vampires didn’t have a name back then. There is also talk of an angel sent to heal him.” She moved to another book without taking much of a breath. “This one says he was employed by the monks to chase down a familiar name.”

  “Let me guess…Dracula,” I said teasing, and the Keeper just looked up at me as if I was mocking her research. “Sorry.”

  “Well, he was called Vladimir Dracul, but yes. Emerick walked in churches,
anointed himself with holy water and still had the same features of Dracula. A man the people say ate the villagers. So, the people started to fear him as well.”

  Ravana resumed her pacing of the kitchen, though I hadn’t heard her because she’d left her shoes to lay on the carpet. I watched her as Delia spoke, grabbing the last book.

  “This one is the most interesting.”

  Red turned and locked eyes with the girl. “Please tell me it’s something useful.”

  “Yes…yes, I. I mean I believe it is.”

  “Okay, let’s have it.”

  “This one discusses his experiments. He drained Dracul of his blood and stored it after finding out he was the vampire that had turned him in the 1400s. With more hunters being born he wanted to sire a mate.”

  “A mate? What the fuck?”

  “Red, don’t kill the messenger,” I said and took a step back into the other room.

  “You know what she’s about to tell us, don’t you?”

  “No, I couldn’t possibly know. I just don’t want you to scare the poor girl half to death, again. You seem to have that effect on people.”

  “Delia?” Her green eyes glowed as she glared at me.

  “He took men and women to try his formula’s on. He wanted an equal. It says a hundred years ago he found an exact combination.”

  Ravana looked over to Delia. “Does it say what that combination was? The formula?”

  “No, it just says it had more to do with the blood of the hunter mixing with the blood from Dracul. He tried alchemy compounds to duplicate his results. Then when he was down to the last of Dracul’s blood, he decided to mix his blood and Dracul’s with his hosts. He had two candidates. When the first one appeared to have worked, he repeated the process with the second. In the case of the male, he reverted slightly. More monster than hunter, or human. The second host was an exact match. He would have made more, but he was out of Dracul’s blood.” Delia stopped talking and looked at her boss. Then to me. “He decided he wanted an army of his kind.