Free The Halloween Collection by Indie Eclective Page A

I
exerted over mankind often had me giddy with delight. Even a
vampire of my age and status could be giddy. There was no shame in
joy.
    “Alex, what year is it?”
    “Two thousand eleven.”
    The date hit me like thousand rays of
sunshine. I had been under for nearly four hundred years. And with
the King’s Mage most certainly gone, my revenge would have to take
on a different form.
    Not realizing my grip had tightened, bones
began to snap in Alex’s neck.
    “What is this Nightfall ?”
    “Vampire movie. Sequel to Dawn’s Breaking .”
    “Alex, I am going to feed on you now. I want
you to begin counting out loud as I do. When I am done with you,
you will take me to this Nightfall . Is that clear?”
    “Yes.”
    Alex’s voice was soft, transfixed on some
point in time that either never had or ever would exist. He was
lost and would remain so until I broke the tether to his mortal
life.
    I twisted the young man’s neck to reveal his
pulsing artery. It had been so long, this feast would be like none
I ever had. When my fangs dropped and broke the sweaty skin of his
neck, the rush of a thousand joys washed over me. My body spasmed
as the flood poured into me, giving me life.
    “1, 2, 3, 4…” Alex’s voice was a distant
drone, but the numbers were clear enough for me to know. To avoid
disaster I had until the count of sixty. Beyond that, I would die
the final death as the drunkenness of too much first blood rendered
me unconscious, ready for sun to have its holy way with my
flesh.
    “…15, 16, 17…”
    Alex’s memories overcame me in glimpses. A
fragment of his first awkward sexual encounter, the death of his
younger sister, our fateful meeting…everything from his short,
insignificant life came to me in bits and pieces.
    “…39, 40, 41…”
    Souls began to intermingle, I was getting
lost in Alex, he in me; where I ended and he began was becoming
ever more indistinguishable.
    “…45, 46, 47…”
    There was no need to tempt the fates any
longer, so I pulled out of the embrace. Alex’s head fell forward,
his body temporarily without the will to continue on. He would
survive.
    “Now, my friend, take me to the premier of Nightfall .”
    “Yes…master.”
    Ah the endearing Master . The word carried such
loyalty, spoke of power and ownership. Over the years I had
possessed many whose servitude was always repaid in kind with a
life longer than their humanity would normally allow. Granted this
life was spent serving me and my whims…whims often leaning toward
the sadistic.
    “We have arrived.” My ward’s voice brought
me back into the moment.
    I had been so lost in memories of my various
servants I hadn’t realized the mechanized beast had carried us to
our destination. Four hundred years had certainly brought man into
a new age. I wasn’t sure I cared for their progress.
    “Alex, you are to remain here until I
return. Do not move, do not speak.”
    When the night air hit me this time, it was
not the air of death but the air of life. My strength had returned,
my senses were alive, my name remembered.
    I am Vlad Kurval, progeny of Vlad Dracul. I
am the ruiner of land. I am a plague. I am a pestilence on
mankind.
    I had returned to sow the seeds of sorrow
and waste among the firmament of Earth.
    “Kneel before me weak and powerless vermin.
You are but cattle to me and I will taste of your…”
    “Woo! Team Tyler! Go Vamp or go home!”
    The young female dared cross my path and not
revere me or kneel in abject terror. Instead she held her hand
aloft, bearing a haughty pagan gesture with her finger and
laughed.
    “Trick or mother fuckin’ treat, Count
Chocula.”
    The male escort accompanying the wench
shouted over his shoulder.
    Somehow I had missed the crowd of people
around me, standing in line. Were they waiting for slaughter?
Judging from their light colored auras, if they were being lead to
the slaughter, they were completely unaware. Such a shame to waste
fear and horror with ignorance.
    Above