Lorne (The Dark League 1) Read online

  “No idea. Going to some entertainment club, perhaps gamble a little or go to one of those shows, you know...“

  Phil grinned.

  “Ahhhh, thooose shows. Definitely, I’m in!“

  “Great! Let’s get out of here then. I can’t bear the sight of this whole mob here any more. And most definitely not the damn slit-eyes.“

  “Yeah!“

  “You, too?“ I asked with interest.

  Phil nodded and smiled miserably.

  “I suspect that they’re not abiding by the rules. When I needed to go for a piss this morning I tripped over three of those blokes in the corridor. They had a girl with them that they had brought with them and I tell you, if she still had blood left in her body then I’m the emperor of China. I think the ass-holes completely emptied her and then got rid of her somewhere. Since that incident they’ve been looking at me so suspiciously, as if they suspect that I know something and am going to betray them. The way they look at me makes me feel very uneasy, I can tell you. Especially the woman. She’s ice-cold. I’ve never met a colder slut than her, I tell you. Man, I’d never get it up with her. My cock would probably disappear inside me in panic.“ Phil laughed, but there was a hint of fear in his laughter.

  I nodded in agreement.

  “Yes, I had a feeling straight away that something wasn’t right about them.“

  A commotion suddenly broke out and Phil and I looked round at the others present in the large hall. Everyone was staring in shock at Kendra, one of Victor’s female bodyguards. She was covered in blood, standing in the entrance, her eyes wide with shock.

  “An assassination attempt!“ she cried. “There was an attempted assassination on Victor. He’s survived, but the perpetrators have fled. It’s the Japanese!“

  “Bastards!“ uttered Phil next to me. “I knew it!“

  There was a state of agitation in the hall, as all of the vampires set about hunting down the Japanese.

  Trisha

  The two Renegades were lying on dirty mattresses in a warehouse, completely out of it. Five dead women lay around them. I shook my head in horror. Two of the hunters were taking the three injured women to a hospital whilst we others had followed the prisoner here. The injured women had been hypnotised to make them forget the Renegades. Instead, they had been fed a story about a few drunks. For the poor women here, though, help had come too late. According to the Renegade they must have been lying here for three days and were already starting to smell. I wrinkled my nose in disgust.

  “Revolting, isn’t it?“ said Charleene next to me.

  “Yes!“ I replied, in a nasal voice, as I was holding my nose closed with two fingers.

  “This is something that I’ll never get used to,“ said Charleene, disgusted. “Unfortunately we get to see shit like this quite often. Often maggots are already crawling over the corpses because the Renegades are out of it for days or weeks.“

  “Urrrgh! Be quiet!“

  I felt my stomach beginning to turn.

  “Wait outside!“ said Angelo sympathetically next to me. “You’ll harden up, but as Charleene said, you never fully get used to it.“

  I nodded and, relieved, got out of there. Outside the hall I breathed in deeply, then froze. It was not only fresh air that I was inhaling into my lungs. I quickly turned and ran back into the hall.

  “Renegades!“ I cried, and the brothers were immediately on alert.

  “Did you see how many?“ asked Milton.

  “No! I only smelt them and came straight back. Sorry, I should have waited and ...“

  “No!“ Milton contradicted her. “You did everything correctly. Good girl. At least we’ve been warned. What’s more, we’re also sitting in the trap here. I hope they don’t come up with the idea of heating things up for us. Normally Renegades are not particularly clever but there are a few of them that are not constantly doped up and they could be a danger to us.“

  Milton turned to the other brothers.

  “Follow me, perhaps we can deal with them outside. They might have already cleared off, scared in case there were too few of them.“ He grabbed the captive Renegade by the arm. “Hey! What did you keep from us, huh? How many belonging in this nest are still somewhere out there?“

  “No one. I swear. If they’re Renegades, then they’re not my people. It could be those from the sixty fourth. That’s a small group of two women and five blokes. They sometimes come by.“

  “Good!“ said Milton, then he turned to the vampires who were guarding the prisoner. “Kill him and make it quick!“

  The Renegade whimpered. One of the brothers took his head in his hands whilst the remaining three held the guy tightly.

  “Noooo!“ screamed the Renegade, but the scream silenced as his head was torn from his body and landed in the dirt. The others let go of the body and it fell with a crash onto the concrete. I felt sick again. Man! I really did need to harden up if I ever wanted to contribute to the League. At the moment I was just a useless, tiresome appendage. I wanted to earn my place!

  “OK then!“ said Milton calmly. “Let’s go! After me!“

  We moved slowly and quietly towards the door, Milton in front. I took up the rear with Charleene. Once at the gateway, Milton stopped and opened the door, which was still slightly open, a little more, then he left the hall and, one by one, all of the hunters stepped outside.

  “You were right, Trisha, Renegades were indeed here. They’ve gone now, but I can still just about make out their scent,“ said Milton. “I very much doubt that we have any chance of catching them tonight. It’s going to be light soon. We should withdraw. We have a considerable success to enter in the book. Almost a dozen Renegades. We should celebrate that. There’s one on me back at the headquarters!“

  Cheers of approval were heard and the group of hunters set off back to the headquarters. I allowed myself to be infected by the euphoric atmosphere. I had my first mission behind me and even though I could not really help very much, it filled me with pride and it was a pleasant feeling belonging somewhere.

  Lorne

  The Japanese had a pretty horrible ending ahead of them. Yet none of them showed any emotion as we pulled them into the hall where the still slightly weakened Victor would pass judgement. The Japanese had tried to burn him. People had been able to extinguish the flames and the immediate donation of blood from a few voluntary donors had already set the healing process in motion. Yet the head of the League still looked quite washed out. It was easy to tell that he had seen better days.

  The atmosphere in the hall was highly charged. Even though, out of respect for Victor, conversations were only conducted in a hushed tone, the tension and the desire for revenge was all too clearly noticeable.

  Victor rose and immediately everyone fell silent.

  “Long live Hayato!“ yelled the woman amongst the Japanese and one of the guards brought her to silence with a brutal blow. She would definitely have been brought to her knees by the blow if she had not been forcibly held up straight by four men.

  “So it’s Hayato, hm?“ asked Victor, ominously quietly. “That’s what this is about, isn’t it? You want to replace me with your chancellor?“

  “The League needs new leadership!“ said the Japanese woman scornfully. “One that isn’t so damn human-friendly!“

  “I’d say that you’ve slightly misunderstood the point of the League. With your attitude you’d have had more success with the Renegades than here. But now it’s too late anyway! You will die. I herewith condemn you to death by the sun. You will await your death bound with silver chain. I declare herewith that all vampires of the League here present will witness the execution from the stands as a warning for all who bear the wish to betray in their hearts. Everyone is to see what happens to traitors! And now take them away. Everyone is to assemble on the stands in one hour!“

  The Japanese were bound with silver chains on the floor of the huge inner courtyard, naked. The stands extended around the inner courtyard in a semi-circl
e and were covered. They were positioned like this so that only the afternoon sun would reach the seats, so that the witnesses of the execution could sit on the benches, unharmed, without coming into contact with the rising sun. The Japanese traitors were no longer as unemotional as at the trial. They were whimpering and screaming because of the burning caused by the silver chains that stretched across their naked skin. The sun was slowly rising. As vampires did not die immediately in the sunlight, death could take a while to happen, depending upon the age of the unfortunate person. I would have preferred to go to bed because I was now getting really dog-tired, but the witnessing of the execution was compulsory and no matter how long it lasted, I had to sit here and wait. I hoped that it would be over quickly. Not because I felt sorry for the traitors, but because I wanted to go to sleep at last.

  Chapter 4

  Trisha

  I was walking up and down my room, agitated. He was back. The delegation that had travelled to Las Vegas had returned half an hour ago – Charleene had told me. My heart was aching. I knew that the delegation was sitting in the hall, being bombarded with questions by the others, and there was nothing I would rather do than sit there, too, staring at Lorne, but I knew that this was not a good idea, so I chose to pace my room and hated myself for the feelings that I could not suppress.

  An eternity seemed to pass and I felt as if I was going mad. A sudden knock at the door made me stop. I frowned. That was not Charleene’s scent coming at me from the door. It was a different, all too familiar scent, that made my pulse race and my pussy tingle. Lorne! What did he want?

  “Open, Trisha!“

  “What do you want?“ I called, my voice trembling.

  “Open the damn door or I’ll kick it down!“

  “Go away! I want to be alone!“

  “Last warning! Open! The! Damn! DOOR!“

  I knew that he would carry out his threat. Whatever he wanted from me, I could not stop him. With weak knees I went to the door and reached out to the handle.

  “Let me in!“ came Lorne’s voice again, this time more gently, almost begging.

  I took the handle and pushed it down. Slowly! And, still more slowly, I opened the door. Lorne was standing there and for a moment time seemed to stand still. We looked at one another. Then he suddenly moved forward, pushed me backwards, closed the door behind us and pulled me into his arms. His mouth stifled my cry of shock and he kissed me with a hunger that took the floor from beneath me. I hung weakly in his arms, then he lifted me and carried me to my bed to lie me down. My heart was pounding wildly. I watched Lorne quickly pull the clothes from his body. Then he was already over me and dealt speedily with my clothing. He tore my trousers, my shirt, throwing everything carelessly aside. There was a wild expression in his eyes and my heart beat even more quickly.

  “Trisha!“ he snarled huskily, then he slid into me with one thrust.

  I cried out, sobbing, completely overwhelmed by my emotions. My legs wrapped around his middle whilst I dug my nails deep into his flesh. He groaned again and began to fuck me with hard thrusts. I felt myself heading for a powerful climax. My blood seemed to be on fire. I was screaming and groaning, crying and laughing. Then he sunk his teeth into my neck and drank from me. I came so violently that I almost lost consciousness. Lorne pulled his head back, my blood on his lips and roared as he climaxed, shooting his seed into me.

  I woke a little disorientated. Had I only dreamt that? Or had Lorne really come to me and made passionate love to me? I glanced next to me and to my disappointment found the other side of the bed empty, but then I saw my torn clothes on the floor. So I had not dreamt it. But he had not stayed. I must have fallen asleep and the son of a bitch had just gone. The disappointment weighed more heavily than the elation over him coming to me. It was clear that he was still attracted to me, at least physically. The sex had been explosive. Better and more intense than any sex that we had had before. Yet it had not been enough to move Lorne to stay, not enough for him to want more from me than sex. Bitterly, I swore to myself that I would not allow him near me again. Not as long as he did not want me completely. I either wanted to be his mate or nothing. I was most definitely not a whore!

  Lorne

  Agitated, I thrashed about on my bed that was far too big and far too lonely. I missed having Trisha near me. It had taken me all my strength to leave her bed. It had been wrong to go to her at all and shag her. What had I been thinking?

  ‘You weren’t thinking at all!‘ my inner voice interrupted. ’At least, not with your head. You were thinking with your cock, you damn son of a bitch!‘

  Everything inside me was screaming at me to rush back into Trisha’s room and fall upon her again. Why was it only too damned hard to come away from her? This had not happened to me with any woman before. It must be because I was her creator. My damn hormones were still in a mess because of the whole process. But at some point that must settle, surely? It must! What could I do to at last get her out of my head? Going away had not helped. I had nearly gone mad in Las Vegas and on my return I had had nothing more urgent to do that run to her and fuck her! Damn it! What was I to do?

  I needed advice. I considered hard who I could most trust with my problem.

  “The Gypsy!“ I said quietly. Of course! Why had I not thought of that before? I needed to go to the Gypsy.

  ***

  The Gypsy was an old witch who lived in one of the worst areas of New York. But a vampire did not need to fear even such an awful area, so I walked relatively calmly down the dark alley. The scoundrels there seemed to instinctively sense that it was best to leave me alone, because none of them tried to approach me, despite the fact that I was completely alone. Suspicious looks followed me when I stopped at house number 156. Madame Lija lived on the third floor. I opened the front door and walked up the dirty steps of the run-down stairwell. The old floorboards creaked at every step. A musty smell hung in the air, seasoned with the sour hint of urine and the somewhat sweet smell of marijuana. Clearly someone had smoked a joint a short time before. I grimaced in disgust at this odour cocktail, but I had no other choice if I wanted to have my answer, so I continued. On the third floor I knocked on the middle of the two doors. It took a while before I heard shuffling footsteps. Then the door was opened. Madame Lija blinked at me through her thick lenses. A butt hung from the corner of her mouth. In her grey hair hung rollers that looked as if she had already had the things in for several days and forgotten – a few hung down as far as her boney shoulders, caught in straggly hair. She was wearing a garish, flowery dress that had clearly not seen the inside of a washing machine for some time and purple furry slippers whose once time white pompoms had turned grey.

  “There you are!“ she muttered unclearly because she still had the butt in her mouth. “Come in, lad!“

  I followed her into her flat, closing the entrance door. I had only been here once and that was at least ten years earlier. Yet everything looked exactly as it had done on my first visit. I sat down, somewhat reluctantly, on one of the two chairs that stood next to a small, round table at which Madame Lija read from her cards or the pendulum or questioned the runes. Everything in this flat was dirty but I needed my answer, so I made the best of a bad situation and waited patiently until the witch had sat down awkwardly on the other chair.

  “So you haven’t had much sleep recently, have you, lad?“ asked the old woman, who had by now put her cigarette butt into an overflowing ashtray. Unfortunately the filter was glowing and was giving off an unpleasant, pungent stench of smoke.

  I just nodded in answer to her question. I knew that she would work out my problem herself. It was not necessary for me to ask my question.

  “So your fleeing from love?“ said Madame Lija, shaking her head disapprovingly. “So don’t you know that you can’t run away from it? Didn’t you realise that fleeing didn’t change your feelings when you went away to that would-be king? You did not need to come here to get your answer because you know it yourself! You just do
n’t want to see what is directly before your eyes, vampire! YOU have made her into what she now is and it is YOU who is now responsible for her! Stop digging your feet into the ground like a stubborn boy and make her your mate destiny intends!“

  Anger and frustration made me leap up and grab the old witch by the neck.

  “Stop your damned mouth, you miserable old witch!“ I bellowed angrily. “What do you know about mates?“

  The small, intelligent eyes of the witch looked at me calmly as if I was not on the point of cutting off her air. Damn it! What was I doing? How could I have got so out of control? I let go of the old woman and took a few steps back, horrified.

  With trembling fingers I dug two hundred dollars from my pocket and threw the money onto the table, then I turned abruptly and set off.

  “You can’t run away from it!“ Madame Lija called behind me. “Love will catch up with you again and again!“

  I tore open the door and marched out of the flat, staggering down the steps and almost knocking over an old man on the ground floor. I hurriedly murmured an apology and frantically fled from the house.

  Trisha

  Lorne came every day, made love to me and left me. I found myself in an emotional chaos and believed that I would soon lose my senses. I had to put an end to this! I simply should not give into him any more. Lorne had to stop treating me as his personal whore. As he clearly had no interest in having a mate, the matter had to end with us. Today! I knew that he would return at any moment but this time I would not give in! I just had to see to it that I put something on before he came. I had just showered and only wanted to do one thing: go to sleep and forget!