Vamp

By Grace Hill

Gretchen is an almost century old vampire who has been on the run for decades from her maker and his clan. When she moves to Alaska she meets Aden, a handsome fisherman, Gretchen breaks her number one rule, don't get attached to anyone, or anything. As Gretchen and Aden grow closer, her past is quietly sneaking up behind her. Soon Gretchen realizes that she has put Aden in terrible danger and she knows she must risk herself to save him. Everything comes down to one moment, and one decision, that will forever change Gretchen and Aden's lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Grace Hill
• Release date: Jan 20, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301773121

Grace Hill

Hello! My name is Grace Hill and my true passion is writing. I've always loved writing, I have had notebooks since I was about 5 years old, and I filled up almost all of them with hopes, dreams, wishes and stories. One of my goals in life was to write a novel. I happily accomplished that goal last December (2011), and I still can't get over the feeling of accomplishment I've gained from achieving that goal. I've been having a hard time with the whole publishing aspect. I've wanted to publish my book, Vamp, for quite a while now, but with my limited college budget, it just hasn't been possible with most self-publishing companies wanting $$ up front. I'm hoping that Smashwords can help me out and that they live up to the reviews I've read about online. My next goal is to have my Vamp uploaded by August! Good luck to all the other authors out there!

Book preview

Vamp

By Grace Hill

Published by: Grace Hill at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Grace Hill

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Set goals for yourself. Then smash them. Be your own hero.

Prologue

I’m not unhappy with my life. I have to admit that it does get a little lonely. Sometimes I feel stuck, like I’m frozen in time while everything and everyone moves freely around me. The whole process of people growing old, having kids, and dying, the whole circle of life stuff, I’m slightly jealous that I’ll never get to experience that. But, I don’t want to say that I have regrets, because everything I have done in my life was exactly what I wanted at one point. Everything that is, until the last day I was human.

There’s always a moment in your life when you realize you have gone too far. That point where you tell yourself you should have stopped while you were ahead. I still find it ironic that the one thing I searched so long to find, the one thing that held my interest for years, was the thing that killed me in the end.

My name is Gretchen VanMarken. I’m a small girl, about 5 foot 1. I don’t look like I weigh more than 110 pounds, however, if you ever felt the power of my punch you would think my body is made of cold granite. I had bright green eyes, but after my death they turned to a cold gray that is devoid of any life. They repulse me every time I look in a mirror. I also have long, wavy, auburn hair, and my skin is pale white.

The skin color was another thing that irritated me. I had always had a natural bronze color to my skin, now I’m white. One thing I had found to battle this annoyance was the Mystic Tan. Tanning keeps me looking human, and allows me to go out into the sunlight without looking different from other humans.

See, if I step out into the sun, I won’t die, I won’t burn, and I don’t sparkle. I just look dead. The sunlight makes me look extremely gaunt, my skin looks paper thin, and you can see what used to be my veins throughout my body. The tan helps to cover the lines and the ugliness, but there is nothing I can do to hide the coldness of my skin. One touch and I would send goose bumps up your arm.

The circumstances that led me to be in the position I’m in today were caused by my obsession with vampires. Books, articles, short stories, I had everything that pertained to the topic. My father was the one who got me interested in the first place. I was convinced that humans could not be the only thing on this planet, in this world none the less. My mother thought we were both insane, but loved us no less despite our passion.

I was very close to my family. My cousin, Adeline, was my best friend. She grew up with me after her family had died. We were like two peas in a pod to say the least. My mother, Cordelia, was my friend, but first and foremost a mom.

My father, Carter, was a handsome man, tall, strong, and endearing. He was a myths and legends professor at the university in town. His students adored him, and you knew not to take his class unless you had a sneaking suspicion that those tall tales were more than just stories.

My father and I followed those tales all the way to Romania over 70 years ago. My father had been following a bunch of tips about vampires living in the tunnels under Romania. He was determined to find one, and I was just as excited.

We found what we had been searching for, but unfortunately it left my father dead, and myself stuck in limbo. I was cursed with having to live in this world the rest of its days.

I wasn’t drained of my blood and then forced to drink from the vampire who was trying to turn me. All it took was one bite. We can produce venom when we want to turn someone and the venom is painful to say the least.

We are also left with a scar from our bite. And while the rest of our body feels like ice, our scar is the only place that remains an average temperature of 98.6 degrees. I’ll catch myself rubbing my thumb over the scar on the bottom of my ribs just to feel the warmth every now and then.

The bite hurt, but the venom was horrible. I thought for sure if my maker didn’t drain my blood, the venom would be what killed me. It felt like a fire scorching through my body. My maker, Vladimir, bit me right below my bottom left rib so that my scar would not show on my neck like so many others. I guess he was trying to do me a favor. He did many ‘favors’ for me over the next few years until I was able to break free, which is very uncommon to most vampires. Usually your maker has to release you, but there were a few times I was able to block Vladimir’s commands. They say it’s impossible and I’ve never met another vampire who could do it, so maybe it was just a fluke.

After I was turned, I was faced with a huge moral dilemma. I didn’t want to kill anyone so that I could be strong, but if I didn’t eat I would starve and die. It’s very hard to restrain yourself when you’re young. You always give in because the taste is so good. I don’t like to feed off humans. I try to feed off stray animals, but nothing compares to human blood.

Blood to me, is like a glass of ice cold water to a human on an extremely hot day. It’s the only thing that can truly quench my thirst. Different blood types taste different, and I can smell any disease, or infections in people’s bodies. However, even if I drank from someone who had Hepatitis C, or HIV, it would do absolutely nothing to me. One way to kill a vampire is to shove something sharp through their heart. Then we bleed out through our ears, eyes, nose, and mouth. It’s really a horrible sight. We also die if we are decapitated, but it’s not a very easy task to accomplish.

So here I am, running around the world. I run as fast as I can in hopes to stay one step ahead of my enemies. I don’t get attached to people, and I try not to draw attention to myself. I have everything under control because I’m scared to know what would happen if I let my world unravel.

Chapter one

I sat there staring at the large world map hanging on my living room wall, fiddling with the dart I had in my hand. My rule is to never stay in a city or state longer than a year, but that was starting to go by too fast. I couldn’t risk having a permanent residence for much longer than that. I know that I could be found very easily, and it’s best to just keep moving. It was best not to plant any permanent roots.

I closed my eyes and spun around three times, stopped, and threw the dart at the map on the wall. Alaska was the place the dart had chosen. I had never been there before so at least it would be someplace new. I walked up to the map looked at the closest surrounding cities by the dart and decided to travel to Goodnews Bay. It was a city right on the edge of Alaska and the Bearing Sea. I pulled out the dart and peeled the map off the wall, folded it up, and put it in my knapsack.

Packing wasn’t really a problem. I didn’t have very many valuable items. More or less the only thing I truly cared about was the locket that constantly hung around my neck. It still contained a message from my cousin from over 70 years ago. She had been my best friend. My cousin also carried a locket with a note from me. Other than the necklace I only have a few pairs of clothes, shoes, my extra bottles of blood, and some knick knacks, which I already threw in my suit case.

I brought everything to my Jeep and threw it in the trunk. I made sure I had my iPod in my pocket and hopped in the driver’s seat. I put the key in the ignition and turned it, I was off to Alaska. The highway and scenery that I had grown accustomed to slowly fell into the distance, and before I knew it nothing looked familiar.

Everything around me starts to fade away on long drives. Before I know it my low fuel bell is ringing and it’s then that I’m snapped back into reality. Generally when I drive I tend to think back in time to that first month as my new self. I remember how I didn’t know my own strength and would wind up breaking glasses in my hand because I didn’t grasp my increase in strength. It took me a while to get everything under control. What was even stranger was not breathing anymore. I don’t need air, yet I still breathe, not only to make me look human, but just out of pure habit.

All in all I can’t complain about my life. Or what you could call a life. I am technically 98 years old, but stuck in the body of a 23 year old. I have more money than I know what to do with. I don’t dabble in illegal affairs and mafia’s to earn my money, I buy houses that need to be fixed up and sell them for about three times what I paid for them. When people make comments about the amount of work I could accomplish in such a short span of time, I would just laugh and thank them. People have no idea how much work you can get done when you don’t have to sleep and don’t need help. I can take down a wall with my bare hands and lift things five times my own weight.

Even though driving relaxes me in a way, it also gives me too much time to think. The majority of the time I think about my Mother, Father, Adeline, and all of the great times we all had. As I think back on these memories I feel a tear roll down my cheek.

It killed me to not be by my mother’s bedside when she took her last breath. My mother thought I had died on that fateful trip to Romania, following my stupid passion. She never saw me again and neither did my cousin Adeline. I still don’t even know if she is living, I never heard anything about her passing from any of my contacts or investigators, but it’s too risky to look.

Adeline’s parents had died in an accident when she was little so my parents took her in. We were born a few weeks apart, and we had quite a few things in common, almost everything except my interest in the myths and legends department.

That didn’t stop us from being the best of friends though. We cared about each other more than anything, no one messed with either one of us. I remember a specific time when a boy had been picking on me when we were younger, Adeline walked right up to him and kneed him in the junk and told him to never bother me again. She was always bigger than I was even though she was younger, but she got her point across and the boy never bothered me again. It was just one of the many times she stood up for me.

I was just about six hours into my drive when I saw a small diner off to the side of the road and pulled into it. A burger and fries sounded terrific. I can eat, I don’t need to eat food to survive, but I enjoy a few certain dishes for example, Eggs Benedict, Crab, Chocolate, Burgers, and Pastas have always been on the top of my list. I pulled into the diner’s parking lot and turned off my jeep and made sure I locked my bottles of blood in the center console next to me before heading into the restaurant.

After my burger I hopped back in the car and started the long trek I had left to Alaska. Since I don’t have to sleep and I also don’t have to use the bathroom I can cut a lot of time from driving. I’ve found it’s nice not to have a set schedule. I can do everything at my own pace. I don’t have anyone to please but myself. I don’t have any expectations to live up to, just me and my freedom.

The drive was long and boring. I had a lot of things on my mind though. I knew I couldn’t stay hidden from my maker forever. Surely one of his hunters would find me eventually. I just had to try to stay one step ahead of them. I never used my real name when I purchased anything like houses, cars, plane tickets, and other things that could lead them to me. I had kept all my old license plates from all the states I had lived in and all my drivers’ licenses as well. I also have people who can make me a new identity on the drop of a hat, and I pay them good money to do it with no questions asked.

I found myself thinking about memories from the first few years I was a vampire. Vladimir had forced me to stay with him after my father had died. He threatened that if I ever left him he’d come after me and the family that I had left. I was too scared to disobey him so I followed his orders.

I was forced into a lot of things by him like sex, killing, and torture. I didn’t find him attractive in any way, shape, or form. He was short with these big gray eyes, which all vampires have. He had the longest and most pointed nose I’d ever seen in my life, a thick mustache above his thin red lips, and long curly black hair. He however, found me to be the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on, which I found to be quite comical. Once he realized I was planning on trying to escape, he commanded me to stay with him. When your maker commands you to do something, you must obey. It took me years and years to finally be able to defy one of his commands. I would get headaches from trying to defy him, and then one day I felt a warm sensation and I was able to escape.

There was something different about me compared to other vampires. I can’t specifically figure out what it is and I still don’t know what happened to this day, but I didn’t want to stick around and try to figure it out. I wanted to be free.

Even though I was happy to be free of Vladimir, I was upset that I had lost everyone I had ever known. I thought it best that my family go on with their lives and just believe that my father and I had passed away.

I forced myself back into the present and made myself concentrate on the road in front of me. I flipped my iPod on and let the music flow around me. I’d be in Alaska soon enough and I’d have to start a whole new life once again.

Once I got to Goodnews I used my GPS to find a real estate office. Turns out there was one right on the main street in town, and I could have found it on my own. It wasn’t one of the nationally known companies. It was just a small independently owned company called Dream Homes. I parked my jeep on the side of the road and went in. The door made a bell noise when it opened and there was a tall, slender woman standing over the front desk talking to her secretary.

Why hello! My name is Jill. Can I help you with anything? She asked

Yes I’m looking at purchasing a house here in town. My name is Gretchen. I just arrived here from Baton Rouge. I said shaking her hand.

Well, I can help you with that if you’d follow me over this way, she said leading me to the far wall of the office that was covered with pictures of houses for sale. Unfortunately there’s not a huge selection to choose from around here. What’s your price range? Jill asked.

I don’t want to spend more than two million. I said flatly.

Jill had to balance herself by putting her hand on the desk next to her. She got ahold of herself rather quickly and said I’m positive we’ll be able to find something in town for you. So, what kind of house are you looking for? asked Jill. I knew my bold statement would probably throw her for a small loop. A small business like this doesn’t see money like that every day.

I’m looking for a fixer-upper house, one that needs some work. My job is to flip houses. I replied.

Well Gretchen, we don’t have any run down houses, and the last abandoned house was torn down a few months ago.

Oh. I was slightly disappointed I didn’t know how I would keep myself occupied by buying an ‘okay’ house. Well, you know what, it might be good for me to just buy a decent house for once and take some time off. What do you have that you could show me today?

Jill and I scanned wall of the building holding all the pictures of the houses that were for sale. I looked up and down and found a few pictures that interested me. She wrote down the numbers and we found three that we could go look at today.

The first house we went to was a 2 bedroom, 1 bath, and was built in 1955. The lot was incredibly small, and the garage was even smaller. It was a beige two story house with an unfinished basement. There was nothing seriously