Vam'parian

PROLOGUE

     Fresh blood soaked into the fetid soil giving nourishment to a grotesque tree in the darkness of a stone cavern. The clansmen stood in silence as their leader scored a branch with a knife, collected the poisonous sap in his ha and proceeded to lick his fingers clean.

     “My power is nearly to peak,” said the leader. “Soon I will be invincible and I will rule as I was meant to. Those powerful enough to oppose me are now dead.”  

     "The stones tell of a great warrior coming to stop us, with power to destroy us all," said a voice.

     The leader turned to the speaker and stepped within reach and whispered, "I am that warrior. The stones speak of my power and my control over the clans."

     "But the stories..."

     "…are as old as these forgotten battlements. Our victory is at hand. I will reign as I was meant to. Nothing or no one will stop me now." And to make his point, he sank his teeth into the doubter’s neck and drank deeply before tearing the flesh and allowing the body to drop to his feet. The roots greedily absorbed the seeping blood.

Part One – Moving On

CHAPTER ONE

     Sandra Cole stared down at the purple thong panties on the beige tile entry of her boyfriend’s apartment. She didn’t think his sister was there doing her laundry and purple wasn’t Sandra’s color.

     A woman’s laughter floated down the hall. After this morning’s fight with her parents over her career change, she was in no mood to walk away. She marched down the hall and shoved the door open until it banged against the wall. Groans came from the couple in the bed.

     “Oh, my God!” shrieked the woman before she pulled the covers up over her head. 

     Robert lazily rolled to the side not bothering to cover up. “Hello, Sandra.”

     “You’re a slimy bastard, Robert,” said Sandra. She’d driven three hours to Fresno through one-hundred-five degree heat with no air conditioning.

     “What’s your problem? We’re not engaged so you have no say on how I live my life,” he patted the rump in the bed, “or who’s in it. Besides, I got tired of waiting for you to put out more and study less.” He stood and smiled.

     “You’re disgusting. Now I know what kind of man you are.” Tears burned the back of Sandra’s throat at her gullibility. She thought back on their last phone conversation and how he said their lives were too unsettled to make a firm commitment. No commitment was more like it. How could she been so blind? Blood pounded in her ears. Sandra walked over to the dresser and took the eight by ten framed photograph of them and smashed it hard against the corner scattering shards of glass onto the carpet and tore the picture into tiny pieces.  

     She choked out words to the lump in the bed. “Just remember, sweetheart, if he cheated on me, he’ll cheat on you.”

     There was a squeak from under the covers and Robert just laughed.

     Sandra darted from the room tugging the apartment key from her key ring and tossed it over her head. The pain in her chest was like having heart surgery without anesthetic.

     Wood splintered when Sandra slammed the front door. The windows rattle as well. She held her head high and walked to her car. Cole’s never showed outward signs of emotion, but her ripping the picture made her feel better. Her mother, however, wouldn’t have approved of the outburst. 

     Sandra slid into her Civic. She pressed her nails into the steering wheel padding to keep from shrieking. She wanted to take comfort in Roberts’s arms after the quarrel she had with her parents. They disapproved of her choice of a medical career. They wanted her to follow them into the world of academia: her mother was a professor of British literature; her father was a professor of British history. She wanted more out of life than old books so she’d changed her major in her senior year of college to medicine. She thought they would be happy once she was accepted into medical school, but they weren’t. They believed a profession working with the public depicted poor breeding and she was raised better than that. Nothing she could say would change their minds.

     “You’re not trusting a man with your heart for ten years, till you’re thirty-five at least.” Sandra thumped the steering wheel then clenched her teeth. “I’ll show them all.”

     With new determination she put the key into the ignition and started the car She pulled out into the street dropping Robert from her thoughts and concentrating on the upcoming months of medical school. A car pulled into traffic behind her, the same car had followed her from San Luis Obispo. Sandra moved into the left turn lane.

***

     Lucinda fidgeted in her rented car as she drove behind Sandra. The stone necklace in a box on the passenger seat started to vibrate. The stones were upset, and therefore so was Sandra. Lucinda needed Sandra to stop somewhere where they could talk. She didn’t know whether Sandra would be open to the news she had to provide: Sandra’s soul was special; she had the ability to heal. And most important, her soul was needed on another planet. And like it or not when Lucinda left Earth, she was taking Sandra with her. All Lucinda could do now was to follow her and wait for an opportune moment for them to talk.

     When the left turn arrow changed to green, Sandra pulled into the intersection. Lucinda watched in horror when an eighteen-wheeler plowed into Sandra’s car.

     Lucinda slammed on her brakes and pulled around the accident. “No! No! No!” She grabbed the necklace from the box and a hypodermic of nano-serum from her purse. Running to the crushed car she prayed she wasn’t too late.

***

     Sandra opened her eyes to blurred surroundings. Her breathing labored. Ice picks scrambled her brain and her left shoulder. Garbled voices shifted from beyond her door and she could hear the blare of sirens in the distance. Cold crept from her extremities into her chest. She was dying and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.

     Sandra watched a woman chip away the glass from her window and weakly said, “Please. Tell my parents I’m sorry I couldn’t be what they wanted.”

The strange woman swore under her breath as she looked on. “You’re going to be fine. Just hold on.” She plunged the needle and injected the serum into Sandra’s neck before filling the syringe with blood. “I’m taking you away from here. To a better place. Hold the stones and absorb their power. Choose to live, Sandra.” The woman lifted Sandra’s left hand and wrapped the necklace around her wrist and fingers.

     Sandra’s thought an angel had come to take her to heaven and how she didn’t want to go.

***

     Lucinda stepped away from the car and opened her phone and spoke when the line was answered, “She’s been in a dreadful accident. I was in time. The stones are with her. Prepare a bio-replacement-unit. I’ve got a sample of her blood.” She flipped the phone shut and drove away.

***

     It was after midnight when Lucinda slipped into the hospital emergency room unnoticed thankful of the multiple traumas keeping observant eyes elsewhere. She was accompanied by a bio-replacement-unit, the same height and coloring as Sandra. The unit was dressed in hooded sweats. She found Sandra’s curtained off room.

     Lucinda hurried to place three crystals in the doorway. The stones would deter anyone from entering the room. The staff would temporarily forget Sandra was there. Another crystal was placed on the life support machines to prevent alarms sounding when Lucinda disconnected Sandra’s IV and heart monitor.

     She removed a sixty cc syringe with more nano-serum. Choosing the vein on top of Sandra’s hand, Lucinda injected the liquid. When the tube was empty, she filled the syringe with blood. This she injected into the bio-unit.

      “Sandra, open your eyes.” Lucinda glanced at her watch. She wasn’t good at waiting and shook Sandra’s shoulders. “Open your eyes.”

     Lucinda almost danced for joy when Sandra finally looked at her.

     Lucinda hurriedly removed the clothing from the bio-unit.

     “Sandra,” said Lucinda firmly looking over her shoulder, “I want you to sit up. You have the strength to do this.”

     Although Sandra looked awake, she wasn’t, her brain was functioning on a minimum level. Lucinda dressed Sandra and placed the stones around her neck. She helped her out of bed. Sandra stood as rigid as a statue. Lucinda assisted the bio-unit onto the bed and replaced the IV and heart monitor.

     The staff wouldn’t be able to notice the difference and it would give Sandra’s parents something to bury. Lucinda listened to the sounds beyond the curtain. She picked up the stones.

     Lucinda gripped Sandra’s arm and led her from the hospital. The crystals Lucinda carried forced the staff and patients to look away. It would only be a matter of time before the monitors in Sandra’s room told of her ‘death’.

     Once in the parking lot Lucinda made a call. “Pick us up at the rendezvous point.” She looked toward the stars. “Time to get out of here.”