Bitten by Darkness Read Free

handkerchief. Linda took it from her and scrubbed at her
hands. “When we got there, a man had a girl bent over the rock. I thought they
were having sex but when he lifted his head, his mouth was all red. I tried to
scream, but something blocked my voice. It was like being in a dream and trying
to yell and you can't make a sound. How is that possible?” She was sobbing now, hiccuping and panting. Sienna hugged her.
    “ Shhh , it's okay. You're safe now. Is John still up there?”
    Linda
nodded. “He's calling the cops. Dillon stayed with him.” She shoved her face
into Sienna's shoulder. “The girl … she's dead. I know she's dead.”
    Sienna
closed her eyes, frustration bubbling up inside her. She wanted to go see, to
help, do something, but Linda was in no shape to move. “Did you get a good look
at the man?”
    Linda
shook her head. “All I could see was his white face. His mouth was so red. He
wore black all over. I don't know where he went or how. The girl, her head kind
of flopped over and there was blood on her neck.” Linda clutched at her. “The
stories, they're all true. Oh my God, Sienna.”
    She
tucked Linda's face back down. “ Shhh . Don't think about it now. I'm going to call your dad and the cops
will be here soon, too.” Linda nodded.
    “Let's
sit.” Sienna eased her down in front of the embers, all that were left of last night's fire. Linda trembled and shook and Sienna kept an arm
around her as she stared into the dark. She knew what had happened. Her mother
told her, years ago, about the vampires. Warned her. Explained how they fed on humans and why most people had no idea they existed.
When Sienna was little, she didn't believe her, but as she grew older, she'd
seen things in her mother’s face that told her it was true, but no one talked
about it out loud. No one dared.
    Sienna
started roaming the woods alone when she was sixteen. At first, her mother forbid her to go, but after Sienna had sneaked out a
dozen times, she gave in, knowing that her daughter had something wild inside
her that needed the solitude. She understood. She was the same. The first time
Sienna came home injured, after a man attacked her in the park, she stopped
worrying. Sienna remembered the way the man's bones felt when she crushed his
arms with her bare hands. She was different. She could take care of herself.
Except … she'd never encountered a vampire, never seen a kill. She never wanted
to. She liked to pretend that her world was safe. That she was safe.
    She knew
better.
    She
always had.
     
     

 
    Chapter Five
     
    The
star-skimmer woke him up at the appointed time. Jasper checked the controls,
satisfied when he saw that he was in Earth's orbit. He knew the technology on
Earth had grown at a breakneck pace since he'd last been here, two hundred some
years ago, and he'd adjusted the ship's systems accordingly when he built it.
It should be invisible to all but the most sophisticated sensors. If anyone did
happen to see it, they would think it one of the small asteroids that passed
close to the planet. Harmless. Inert.
    It had
only been two days since he'd left Dekcol . Two days
to cross nearly twenty-one light years. His research had paid off, the grav-lensor functioning perfectly. No one else could travel
the stars so fast. No one else would, especially not those vermin he'd left
behind. It took them at least a few weeks' travel, still, to journey from star
to star. He knew they’d catch up with him eventually, but he had enough time to
complete his plans. To perfect the vengeance he’d hidden so carefully for so
long. Everything would happen perfectly in its time. No one would ever suspect
his hand when they all died. They would have administered the poison to
themselves. He smiled grimly, feeling a sense of peace for the first time in
centuries.
    He
adjusted the thrusters and prepared to enter the atmosphere, first hacking into
the planet's information networks. His computer quickly assimilated the