Rise of the Day Walker----- Book 3 in the Consort in Blood Trilogy.

 

Chapter One

 

 

Sophie rolled over and gazed at the face of the man she shared her life with. Ethan was beautiful in the way only a truly handsome man can be. She loved to watch him sleep. But, as much as she would love to wake him and screw the fuck out of him, she had another more urgent need. A need that surpassed all others. She was hungry. Not hungry for food as such but hungry, for a man. Not for sex but to fulfil another baser need that Ethan could not fulfil. Actually, he could but she didn’t want to use him for this need. He was not for that purpose but for her other needs.

She had to find a man who was alone and vulnerable for tonight’s feed. Normally she would take her time and visit the clubs until she found one that appealed to her but, tonight she just needed to eat. She had been warned about the side effects of her power and its tendency to become addictive but, with training, she had managed to control it. Still, to maintain that control, she needed to assuage that addiction like an addict on methadone. She was careful to only imbibe in lesser amounts for fear that her control would weaken and someone innocent would pay the ultimate price. She had not fed for days and now needed to retain that control.

 She would begin her search where it would not be hard to find someone, in the darker parts of the city’s streets and alleyways. Any man would be sufficient to calm her hunger and get her mind back on track if he was clean and willing. It had to be a man because she needed the strength that was inherent in the masculine sex. She had found that feeding on women left her feeling unfulfilled and more likely to need more. This would be a problem in that more people could become aware that there was something out there feeding on them. Her feeding left the donor weak and sick even in tiny amounts and some even ended up seeking medical treatment. If this were to occur too often eventually someone would notice the pattern. She could not allow this to happen.

Grabbing a coat, she headed out of her apartment and on to the streets. She had never had a problem getting men into dark corners. With the way she looked they were practically begging her to let them go with her. She had skin like alabaster so pale it shone in the moonlight. Couple this with eyes as blue as ice and hair as red as flames and then add to this the body of a Goddess and you can see the attraction and the easy access, she had to fulfil her needs. So, tonight was not going to be a problem. In fact, even as she entered one of the darker areas, she found herself looking at a very promising sight. A man was standing in the glow of a streetlight not far from her. She couldn’t see his face because his head was down but, by the look of his body, he was fit and healthy. She headed over to him and, as she neared, he lifted his head up. Oh, fuck, she thought, he was not the vulnerable person she thought he was at all. In fact, he was the last man she wanted to see right now. He looked at her intently and she almost turned and ran but, she knew it would be useless and that she would never get away.

“Well, Sophie, fancy meeting you here!” he said in his smooth as silk voice.

She knew he was not happy when she went on these night searches but, in the depth of her need she cared not.

“Yes, Ethan, fancy that. Are you following me?”

“If I say yes, will you stop trying to give me the slip?”

Sophie screwed up her beautiful face and said,

“No, it is in my nature to be elusive. You know this, but you still complain when I manage to elude you. And I thought that I had crept out so quietly” her voice held a certain tone of playfulness to which he responded,

“This is not a joking matter, Sophie. I will continue to seek you out until you agree to stop doing what you are doing and come with me”.

“Ethan, I assume, there is a reason you have sought me out!”

“Yes, there is a reason. I can’t explain right now but, I have received a message from home and there is someone who wants to meet with you, and it must be tonight”.

She sensed that something was going on from the way his voice sounded. After all these years she could read him like a book, most of the time, and right now she heard urgency in his voice.

“What’s going on Ethan? And what do you mean a message from ‘home’?” she said confused by his talk of home.

“I will explain on the way” he said as he began to walk towards her then past her.

As she watched his long, lean body move in her direction her hunger grew in intensity but then it always did around Ethan. Her body took on a life of its own and she began to feel the magnetic pull his presence always caused. She almost gave in to this pull but, just as he stopped right in front of her, she managed to regain control. The last thing she needed to do was give in to this feeling he engendered in her which was as much about sexual attraction as it was about her need to feed. She needed to remain detached from him or, and this was her dread, she would fall forever under his spell and be lost. And a spell it was. One of his powers was to control people’s emotions though with her he could not make the spell stick. Tempt her, yes, but get her fully under, no. It was this power to control emotions that had saved her on many occasions.

Another reason for her to keep a certain distance from him was the fear that any relationship that developed, beyond that which they already had, could be dangerous. She could not let her feelings for him develop into love. It could prove to be an emotional distraction in times where they needed to focus on having each other’s backs in a fight Neither could afford to let the fact that they cared for the other beyond comradeship interfere in their ability to fight back when the need arose. It proved difficult, at times, to retain this emotional detachment but necessary for their survival. They had always worked on ways to protect themselves. Especially since she had realized that she was different to the humans that she observed and amongst which they lived. When her ‘needs, had awoken she had, at first, been scared shitless but, thanks to Ethan’s care and support, she had become used to them. Even, sometimes, reveled in them. She still did not understand why she was different and though she had asked him many times, in the beginning, he had always told her that when the time was right, all would be explained to her. She had learned quickly that no amount of asking would change the answer.

Now, she turned and followed him. Catching up to him she, again, asked him to explain here they were going and who they were going to meet. Maybe, she thought, she would now learn all that she needed to know. She would indeed but it was to prove much more difficult to understand and accept that explanation she had so desperately wanted.