Crimson River by Wulfshard (bts books to read txt) 📕

“So you keep to yourself?”
Sighing, she nodded. “No need to worry about a coven here, though the man who changed me keeps a powerful one neighboring me. Unless I do something to pressure the laws or move onto something he considers his we don’t see one another – keeping away helps us get along.”
She’s lived a while…

“Stop watching me like that, please.” Aria snapped out of nowhere. “If you wanted me to visit your room, was there any reason?”
Suddenly his mother was at the door, looking in. “Have you washed for supper Vince?”
“No. I have a guest.”
She gave a weak smiled. “I think she won’t mind being left be a moment while you wash and eat.” The woman turned and hurried down the hall.
“Why does she hate me? What the hell did I do wrong?!” Aria rose from the bed, the distress in her eyes as clear as the anger in her voice.
Completely alarmed, Vince scooted unconsciously away. She looked at him with pure hate. “I-I don’t know why she doesn’t like vampires.” He tried to sooth her, but had no answer. “I was told she fed them frequently, but something happened and she became a hunter.”
The vampire shook her head. “Not even telling her own son…”
“Aria? Are you alright?”
“No. I have to leave; I’m unwelcome here. Wash and eat; you need every meal. I’ll see you Monday.”
“Um…” He looked around, an idea popping into his head. “Instead, I’ll go over to your place. You’ve not moved, right?”
"You want to over to my place? Are you insane?" Aria exploded, looking furious and terrified at the same time. "Do you know how much trouble that can cause?"
Vince glanced at the bite marks on his wrist. The memory of the agony from the bite made a shiver travel down his spine - which wasn't missed by his sharp-eyed guest. "Well, you vampires seem to have a new problem from our laws..."
I shouldn't even be saying this! My mother will kill me! And I would never get my official license. But maybe I can get to know her, understand what plagues her and why my mother wakes crying in the night. Maybe it will tell me why sometimes she cuts herself and just stares at the blood.

"Hunters not killing us, you mean?" She asked snidely, breaking the child from his thoughts.
"No. The fact that you guys are feared so much that nobody will feed you. I mean, it's dangerous and all since some vampires won't stop..."
"Which is what makes them terrified of us - with good reason. Look, Vince, no matter how much humans attempt it, vampires aren't their friends, equals or slaves; we're your predators. Humans are the rabbit, we are the hawk. The only difference is that we only take your blood. Even hunters, with their solar guns and crosses, are still prey - they're just something that fights back, but are just as human."
Her words were almost too quiet for him to hear, but were unnerving either way. Vince just went back to examining the scars that probably wouldn't heal for a couple months.
The two were quiet for a time. "Okay...why would you come over, Vince? I can't figure it out. Is this a challenge? Because I'll give you damn fight for your life. Or is this some kind of home visit to see what a vampire who doesn't have to hide anymore lives like? I really don't think I'd let you in just to gape at my home and pet my werewolf."
He didn't answer for a time. "I thought maybe I could come and give you blood once a week...so nobody else really got hurt."
Aria slipped into a deep, brooding quiet. What she said when she answered was utterly chilling.
"There is a problem with you coming over to my place to feed weekly. It would affect not only us, but your friends, your family...their friends and family. It seems simple, boy, but it's like the ripples caused by tossing a pebble into a large pound. Eventually the ripple will die, sure, but only after somebody kills me." She came over and sat beside Vince, making him tense.
"What kind of problems? Like arguments and stuff?"
She laughed - a cruel, coldly amused sound. "Yes, I'm sure even your father wouldn't understand that. He'd be ready to kill me the moment he found out. And I'm positive you'd no longer be considered a real hunter. But that's not what I'm talking about. Human-level problems like that don't concern me."
Aria came a little closer to him, cat-like in her graceful steps. "What I'm talking about are the other problems.For both of us, the main concern would be that you would need

to be there the same day every week. I mean it. Feeding only from you once a week means I only feed when I'm desperate. But that would lead to another problem."
The vampire began to kiss his neck, making him tense and uneasy.
"The more I feed from you the more I risk becoming addicted - literally - to your blood. I'll want more, and that means control slowly becomes impossible. This could kill the human very easily."
Aria nipped at his neck.
"You're blood...I already like it. It wouldn't take long for me to want only

your blood. I would start getting sick off others, or even drain them dry trying to get the same thing I get from yours - which won't be possible, because you're a hunter."
"So I'd refuse you if you got rough or tell you to stop. Then you'd stop...right?"
She laughed, obviously completely amused by that. "I'm a damn vampire, Vince. You think that because you ask nice I'll just back off? You're my meal. I would try to stop, just because it's who I am. It just becomes difficult. And...I'm not the only one who could become an addict."
Shocked and not sure he believed her, Vince just stared at her.
"Okay, Vince. Let's say we agree to meet. We start now. It's the beginning of the school year, so we'd agree on weekends most likely. Just for the hell of it, we'll say Saturday evening. You'd say you were going to stay the night at your friends, or something of that effect. For most of the year, if you don't come on Saturday you can warn me ahead of time during the week, so it would work out."
She pushed him down - even though he resisted,there was no way to stop her.
"It wouldn't be long before I would be taking the blood on the promise, even if you said no once I would tell you we had a deal. There would be no backing out. The hunters would be unwilling to help you, because they'd see it as a betrayal, so it's likely you won't tell them, and they'll never even know - the wounds heal faster the more I bite you, and stop scarring very quickly. Your parents wouldn't like it - if they knew already, which I doubt because they're both busy and easily lied to. Believe me; I know them well." Vince started to squirm a little under her cold, tight grasp. "The problem would occur around summer. This is when you start training seriously to slay the beasties that the government realizes won't work with them - banshies, poltergeists, necromancers and such. Even the real witches. You don't get weekends, and when you do it's because you're hunting. So you miss a week - we have no way to reach one another, and you come over to my place.
I have an easy way of keeping track of humans I've bitten more than once. There's a bond formed that allows us to hear each others' thoughts and feel emotions and physical pain. I will

do that - no matter how painful it is for you when other vampires say high, or how much different the sun is on your skin next to me. The promise is made, so you're going to keep it.
This connection is more for me than you. I will enter your mind the night you don't come. That night you will dream about me. It will be a terrifying dream, but to you it may just be a nightmare. It's not easy for me to go that long without blood, Vince. Imagine not eating for a week. Then the food you rely on doesn't come - it isn't there. You have only a few choices. I will kill druggies or other people who won't be missed that night, but you will know what you did."
"I-I would come the next day."
"I would welcome that, but would have fed the night before on several low lives. See? You missed the day. I would expect you there, and depending on my mood, even punish you somehow."
Vince noticed how big her fangs looked suddenly.
"You come every week for a while. Then your parents find out. So you can't go. They tell you that if you did they'd remove you from the Association and disown you. I know you have a life other than feeding me, but an agreement is an agreement. When you don't show up, the dreams grow more and more frequent and painful, until you're waking up screaming in agony every night. The new starts showing deaths from a vampire in your area, but your parents - or your friends and their hunting families - can't find me. The only one who can is you, and you won't tell them."
"Why not?"
Now she sounded impatient. "Because by now the only thing that will stop the pain and nightmares is me biting you. You know it. You'll be in agony if I die - for the rest of your life. We have to break the bond a special way. So one day I just show up. You're glad to see me - and afraid. If you refuse I'll drain you dry without your permission. I'm too hungry, and you broke the deal. I may even decide to change you, to make you realize how much it hurts.
You don't want that, though. Because you couldn't come to me without leading your family there, all you could do was wait. So you embrace me. I bite you and take more than usual. This time would be different, though. It wouldn't be agonizingly painful to give the blood."
"Why?"
"Because you need

it. Your body has fought the nightmares and changed while I was biting you. This time, when I bite you it'd be better than sex. You wouldn't want it to stop, and keep begging for more." Her voice became deep and lustful. "I love that bond. I used to do it all the time, before these damn laws..."
"What the hell is going on in here?" It was Vince's father. The vampire jumped up with a hiss of surprise, releasing the diplomatic hunter. "Was she going to bite you again?"
"N-no. We were talking." Vince stuttered. "I was asking her about feeding before the laws."
The stern look on the man's face told it all.
"I think I should leave now." Aria said with a half-growl. "Memories can be painfully delicious." She looked at Vince with her crimson eyes. "I want you to remember my words, boy. Think them over carefully. Just maybe you can learn something."
Then there was a gust of wind and she was gone. The window slammed shut as the vampire fled.