Free Encounters (The Elder Origins #3) by Bre Faucheux Page B

to quicken the process by feeding them.” Madison looked at him through the dim light. “It worked for me, did it not?” he continued. “Your feeding me blood from the Vam-pyr-ei-ak was the only thing that helped to quicken my change into a vampyr.”
    “I do not understand. Have you not thought on it, Jamie,” she asked softly. She had not voiced this concern before, but it seemed appropriate now. “Caspar had said that the reason he was not successful in making more was because he did not realize that his victims needed human blood to feed on whilst the sickness took over.”
    “What do you mean?” he asked.
    “You and I took blood when we attacked that Vam-pyr-ei-ak man in the woods. Lyndon and I attacked Caspar, and once Jayden healed, he fed Caspar. Jayden continued to feed us all to quicken the process.”
    Jamison nodded. He moved around the room, gently stepping through the gaps left on the floor between the gravely weakened people who had now fallen into their deep state of sleep. He turned to face Madison when the realization came to him.
    “Then who fed Jayden?” he looked about at the bodies before him.
    “He said he attacked one of the Vam-pyr-ei-ak when he awoke. But someone must have fed him while he slept.”
    This new information filtered through each of them. Madison looked to Akecheta. He shook his head, as baffled as she.
    “How did Caspar survive for days before Jayden started feeding him no less?” said Akecheta.
    “These are all questions I will have answered,” said Jamison. “There is still a great deal that we do not understand.”
    “Caspar is already here then,” she said. “He was trying to get these sick to change as quickly as he could because he knew we were coming.”
    “Yes. Our leading those people to a new home gave him time to prepare for our approach,” said Jamison.
    A voice came from behind them. “He created more than you know.”
    Lyndon stood just feet away, blood soaking his newly acquired tunic and belt. He advanced silently through the cavern.
    It was then that Madison noticed that Akecheta and Nayati were not beside her, but had moved in behind Lyndon.
    “There are others in nearly every small village from here to the far regions of Spain,” he said.
    “I take it that this is how the pestilence spread so rapidly from one region to the other,” said Jamison.
    “Yes, he was determined. He grew bored with trying to change one group of people and moved onto the next within only a matter of days. But the damage was done.”
    “I see,” said Jamison, his voice creeping with disgust. “Do you have the slightest comprehension of what you have done?”
    “It was not for lack of trying to stop it.”
    Jamison inched closer to him. Lyndon did not falter. Every emotion within the small room was heightened to its full extent. Madison could feel the tension ascending from within everyone. Their senses clashed with one another nearly to the point of violence.
    “You helped cause it!” he yelled. Madison could feel Jamison’s anger surging into everyone, especially her being so close to him. She was stunned that he still managed to control it as he did. She would have struck Lyndon by this point of her frustration.
    “Not intentionally, despite what you have heard.”
    “Caspar told me everything,” said Madison. “You conspired with the worst of evils, Lyndon.”
    “I did not intend such. Had I known there was another option,” he cried. His desperation began clouding the room. Madison could n’t think what would have possessed him to show himself so carelessly.
    “There were other options, Lyndon. You should have known better than to return to a land full of innocent people without any control of your thirst for their blood,” said Madison.
    “I followed Caspar only to keep watch of him. He left me no other choice but to follow in his stead as he pillaged.  I could only tamper the havoc he created a few days or weeks behind him.”
    Jamison grabbed