Free Blood Descendants (St. Clair Vampires Book 1) by Beverly Toney

slowly
continued toward the ladder believing that help would be on deck. Our
feet slipped on the first rung and we fell to the floor splitting our
lip open. We heard a groan from the shadows and looked in the
direction of the sound. Squinting against the darkness, we could
almost make out a silhouette of something…something crouched
in the corner.
    We looked for something
to arm ourselves with and found an old mop handle. We lay on the
floor gripping the mop handle and praying that someone would come to
our rescue.
    I opened the eyes that
I had not remembered closing and stared at Efia as if she were a
ghost. Her eyes and nose and mouth were exactly the same as the girl
in the ship. The same as the girl in every single one of my dreams;
my nightmares. I was shocked that I had never noticed that before.
Even more, I was shocked that I was having dreams about Efia being on
a slave ship.
    I took a deep breath
while Efia continued to wait for me to tell her of my most vivid
dream and began to recount the last dream in the series. It felt as
if I were living the dream rather than retelling it and, as soon as
my eyes closed, I was running as fast as I could…as fast as
the skirts I was wearing would allow. They were never made for
running; Victorian walking dresses were apparently made just for
walking. If it weren’t for the forest canopy, I would have seen
the fullness of the moon as it lit my path, but the darkness
overwhelmed me threatening to hinder my flight to safety. And, I had
to get to safety, after what I had just witnessed, because the
monsters were on my trail.
    The fact that I had
lost a shoe and was 7 months pregnant had not slowed my stride,
however the low tree branches were slicing into my skin and drawing
blood; sweet, life preserving blood that flowed down my cheeks and
arms. If I could just make it to the river I believed I could hide.
The monsters were said to fear the water, but I knew better. I met
them on the water during the long cruise from my home to this
dreadful place. Those monsters showed no signs of fear the entire six
month trip. Never showed the kind of fear that I experienced at that
moment. I needed to concentrate and get away.
    The sound of my
heartbeat was as loud as the stomping of my feet along the forest
floor. Desperately trying to quiet myself without slowing my pace, I
stumbled as I came across a fallen tree and lay there as still as a
doe caught in the sites of a rifle. For what felt like a fortnight,
nothing happened. No monster jumped out of the shadows. No monster
descended from the forest ceiling.
    Slowly I sat up,
gathered my skirts around my calves and took a deep, nerve calming
breath. I looked around even though I knew it was useless. The only
thing I knew for sure is that I was running away from the burning
plantation and the horrors that occurred there. My stomach threatened
to empty its contents and I was forced to place my head between my
knees. That was when I heard it. Just the smallest of noises like a
foot stepping on a twig, perhaps. I hoped for a rabbit or even a
skunk, but I had no disillusions that I had been found.
    I struggled to stand
just as I heard another sound behind me and felt someone grasp me
around the waist before pulling me into a bush. The moment I tried to
scream a smelly rag was stuffed into my mouth and I found myself
wrapped in a wet, warm cloak of some sort. The stench was horrendous
but my fear was overwhelming the rest of my senses.
    Within moments, I was
completely covered with the smelling cloak, branches and dirt from
the forest floor. Something was burying me alive and there was
nothing I could do about it. Fear paralyzed my entire body and I
prayed to my God to deliver my spirit back to my homeland. I prayed
so hard that I swore my God was going to come right out of the sky
and delivery me from this evil. But, either evil was stronger than I
thought or my God simply did not wish to hear me, for at that moment,
I turned to look in the face