The Vampire Apocalypse: Revelations

218 Pages·2002·1.11 MB·English

by  Katriena Knights

Vampire Apocalypse Book One: Revelations 1
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2 Katriena Knights
For the first time in more centuries than he could
remember, he desired a woman...
He sat next to her and set the wineglass on the table by the
couch. The warmth of her body reached his skin, and another
deep convulsion of need shuddered through him. He held very
still. He should smoke. But he wanted to feel. This desire was
the deepest emotion left to him, and he’d kept it at bay for so
long. He wanted to let it take him over just for a time. Long
enough to experience it, but not to act upon it.
She turned to look at him. He blinked as her eyes measured
his. She sensed his desire—somehow he knew that. More, she
shared it—he saw it in the darkening of her blue-blue eyes.
Her body shifted toward him, her breath brushed his lips even
as his fangs slid into place behind them.
Feel it, he thought as his body became a flame of hunger.
Feel it, because it’s the only thing you can feel, because it’s
the closest you’ll ever get to love—
The smell again, brittle and invasive, as if a knife had cut
through the air made soft by the scent of her skin. The smell of
bloodied breath. Then a sharp, violent pain at the base of his
skull, and then nothing.
Vampire Apocalypse Book One: Revelations 3
To Mom and Dad, for endless support and encouragement.
I couldn’t have done it without you.
Other Books by Katriena Knights
Time and Time Again
The Haunting of Rory Campbell
The Vampire Apocalypse Book Two: Apotheosis
(Coming in 2003)
4 Katriena Knights
The Vampire Apocalypse

BOOK ONE: REVELATIONS

***

Katriena Knights
Vampire Apocalypse Book One: Revelations 5
The Vampire Apocalypse
Book One: Revelations
Published by ImaJinn Books, a division of ImaJinn
Copyright ©2002 by Katriena Knights
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or
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in a review. For information, address: ImaJinn Books, a division of ImaJinn,
P.O. Box 545, Canon City, CO 81212-0545; or call toll free 1-877-625-3592.
Trade Size Paperback ISBN: 1-893896-09-9
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are
products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance
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Cover design by Rickey Mallory
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6 Katriena Knights
JULIAN
Apocalypse: Gr. apokalypsis, an uncovering, revelation.
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also
afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of
men and had children by them.
—Genesis 6:4
The Creatures of Dark Light came among the Children of
Men. Thus was born Ruha and Belial, Ialdaboth and Samis,
and they moved upon the Earth and showed unto the
Children of Men the Ways of the Blood Gods.
—The Book of Changing Blood
Vampire Apocalypse Book One: Revelations 7
PRELUDE
Beautiful. It had been a long time since he had seen such
beauty.
She lay sleeping on a small bed where she was supposed
to be safe, her black hair spread over a pink flowered pillowcase,
black lashes against ivory cheeks. Six years old, he thought.
She might remember. He wished he could have found her earlier,
so all that happened tonight would be forgotten.
He knelt beside the bed. She’d dropped her teddy bear
onto the pink carpet. He picked it up and held it a moment,
looking into the empty gaze of its plastic eyes. Gently, he laid it
aside.
His fingers touched her throat, just below her ear, feeling
her pulse. It pattered beneath his touch, a child’s heartbeat. If
there had been any doubt she was the one, it disappeared as
her blood moved beneath his fingers. A soft tingle passed over
his skin.
Three, perhaps four humans out of nearly six billion, and
he’d found one. He couldn’t help smiling at the wonder of it.
She opened her eyes. His smile faded as fear touched her
face.
“Shh,” he said. “It’s all right.” The compulsion in his voice
quieted her, and she lay still, looking at him in wonderment.
“Don’t be afraid.”
He touched her face, then bent to her, and put his teeth in
her throat.
8 Katriena Knights
ONE
Lorelei Fletcher was in over her head. She should have
followed her instincts from the beginning. Too late for that
now—she just hoped she could get the hell out of here somehow.
On any other night but Halloween she never would have
followed Dina east of Tompkins Square Park, dance club or no
dance club. But Halloween and her vampire costume made
her feel invincible, so she’d agreed.
They’d never made it to the dance club. Instead, following
directions given Dina by her latest boyfriend, they’d ended up
here, in a bizarre tenement building where all the rooms seemed
to be connected, and where no hallway seemed to be the same
shape from moment to moment. Lorelei was beginning to wonder
if the weird smell in the place was some kind of hallucinogen.
It would, at least, be a logical explanation for why everyone
was so weird.
Everybody in the place was dressed like a vampire. It hadn’t
seemed strange at first. It was Halloween, after all. Lorelei
herself made a stunning vampiress, or so she thought, with her
black hair and naturally milky complexion. But, unlike the
weirdoes at this party, she only played vampire one day a year.
She had to admit the image of the vampire intrigued her,
sometimes to the point of obsession. She could spend days
watching every vampire movie she could find, tracing dim,
elusive memories. In twenty years, she hadn’t found a mirror
to the scene she remembered from childhood.
But compared to these nuts, she was a paragon of sanity.
She’d been accosted half a dozen times by guys with razor
blades, and, looking for the bathroom, she’d stumbled into a
couple of leather-clad women sucking each other’s wrists with
an enthusiasm Lorelei reserved for sex or good chocolate. She’d
heard about things like this, but she’d never really believed people
could be so freaky. So much for unbridled optimism.
She wished she knew where Dina was. Lorelei had lost
track of her about an hour ago, when they’d split up to find the
Vampire Apocalypse Book One: Revelations 9
front door. They were supposed to meet at a designated bathroom
fifteen minutes later, but Lorelei hadn’t seen Dina since. Nor
had she seen the front door.
Somewhere a clock began to strike. Lorelei looked at her
watch. Midnight. A woman in a bright red cape brushed by her,
a coppery smell of blood drifting in her wake.
“Excuse me,” Lorelei said, but the woman only cast a grin
over her shoulder and kept walking.
“Thank you so much.” Lorelei came to a halt and crossed
her arms. This was ridiculous. She could swear she’d been
down this stretch of hallway at least twice. Where the hell had
the front door gone? She thought a minute. If she went this
way, she should end up back at the bathroom...
“No!”
The voice, faint but frantic, seemed to come from around a
bend in the hall. Lorelei froze. Had it been—?
“No! Stop it, Nicky!”
“Dina!” Lorelei broke into a run.
“Get your hands off me, you bastard!”
“Dina!” Lorelei ran full-tilt into the closed door. She was
certain it was the bathroom—or a bathroom—and behind it
Dina’s voice rose, frantic.
“No! Nicky, no!” The voice sobbed now in terror.
Lorelei slammed herself into the door. “Dina! Dina, hang
on!”
Hang on to what? Lorelei had no idea what was going on.
Her breath tore in her throat, heaving toward panic. Visions of
razor blades and blood swam in her mind. She smashed herself
again and again into the door until she thought her shoulder
would shatter. Suddenly the door came open with the sickening
sound of splintering wood.
There was Dina. There were no razor blades, but there
was blood.
A big, dark-haired man had her pinned against the wall,
face buried in the bend of her throat. Of course, Lorelei thought
fleetingly. If they thought they were vampires, of course they’d
go for the throat. Shallow cuts, probably, like the wrist cuts.
“Get away from her, you freak!” Lorelei grabbed the man