NEVER FALL FOR THE FORBIDDEN (NEVER FALL SERIES) (2 page)

             
Nala felt the death of his humanness and the new creation took over. Turning him most intense nirvana she had ever experienced.

             
“Drink more,” she begged as he gorged on her blood. She could feel the newly sprouted teeth tearing her veins. Nala pressed against him trying to break the bond; he drained her too much and she feared he would take all of her blood.

             
With all her might, she tore her arm from his mouth, “Enough!”

             
As they broke apart, Nala crashed to ground next to him. Both were exhausted and panted heavily.

             
Triton writhed; the fierce pain of the transformation from human to immortal made him feel as if every muscle crystallized as undead curse consumed him. As every cell hardened, he cried out from the agonizing internal torture.

             
Nala watched over him. Remembering her own body suffering the same fate when she was turned; the wrenching and twisting, the body jerking and shuttering. He body stiffened in sympathy.

             
As the pain subsided, Triton eyes blinked as if awakening from a hundred year coma.

             
“What happened?” Triton stumbled to his feet, his legs wobbly legs as a newborn calf. He leaned against the tree to steady himself. His head dizzy, he closed his eyes to steady his bearings. After a brief moment, he opened his yes and examined his skin. Triton stared in disbelief, his hands gave off the most luminous brilliant glow.

             
“I feel hard all over, as if I am made of stone.”

             
He looked up to her in terror, his voice quivering as he spoke, “What have you done to me?”

             
“I did what you asked for… I gave you the eternal life. Immortality.”

             
Nala got to her feet. Triton viewed the more powerful glow she emulated as she closed her corset.

             
“We will have to find shelter soon as the sun is our only and most feared enemy.” She instructed her new fledgling.

             
“Change this, do it now!” Triton shouted, grabbed her roughly and shook her as she laughed. Her complete strength restored, she took hold of his arm, her strength twenty times superior to his, “There is no changing it, you are and always will be what you are now, vampire. My vampire.”

Chapter Two

             
“I will not betray your confidence but I will have to judge you according to the laws we have scripted.” Nala spoke guarded to Triton.

             
“I never intentionally…” he sputtered but stopped as Nala raised her hand to him.

             
“Save your apologies for the council,” she told him barely touching his arm. They looked into each other’s eyes for a second too long. Triton nodded in a rehearsed reverence to her, cueing her departure.             

             
Alone a rumbling stomach broke the silence as Triton’s gut wrenched. Not out of guilt but hunger. Never had he gone this long without feeding. Nearly a week had past, his body weakened; his head swum as he stumbled to the table here Nala left the substance he required. He tilted back allowing the thick blood to coat his tongue and drank the glass down in one long gulp. The substantial liquid restored his strength and calmed his fervor. Running is finger around the inside of the glass; he licked off the last remnants of blood. Never had he felt revived and renewed, then dizzy and drunk. The blood, powerfully strong, intensifying his already heightened senses, from had came Nala’s own wrist. Three hundred years had passed since he tasted her.
Damn.
He forgot how good an elder’s blood tasted. He sat a few minutes to gather his thoughts. He knew what he must do, and hurried to the task.

              “Servant, why you are before us?” The second oldest elder leaned forward peering at Triton.

             
“I asked for the council, my lords.”

             
“Begin.” Another elder demanded.

             
Triton drew a breath as if it was his last, “I walked alone that night, just admiring the art-filled windows of the shops downtown.”

             
Triton recalled seeing the whole scene as if it was a movie. Alone he walked though the darkness of quiet night. The downtown deserted even though it was a growing metropolis. Steam poured from the sewers and vents as if they were giant fog machines. Concrete and marble buildings stood silent as he strolled among them. Through archways and alleys, he searched for what he needed to fulfill his thirst. Triton loathed that he had to do the chore, he forged on in the cool night air. Normally he preferred to drink from the stockpile he kept in the small fridge aside his desk, but cursed himself for forgetting to replenish his supply.

             
He wasn’t unaccustomed to pulling a human into the dark alley to gorge himself; he had done it for centuries. However, as of late, when he had to hunt, Triton preferred to find a transient, someone he believed to be less important to society, already as forgotten to the mortal world, as he felt.

             
An odd painting caught his eye and he stared through the window a closed gallery. As the night wind blew, he inhaled deeply. Suddenly, he sensed a human. No, two humans. Near. They were in close range; one female followed by a lone male. Triton backed into the shadows. His acute hearing, ten fold of a human’s detected patterned steps. The woman’s were short quick steps, in heels…
stilettos
. Triton perked up his interest.

             
The males steps, heavy but quiet in soft-soled boots followed. The female’s paced quicken as the male’s gait increased speed. Now in a sprint, the man caught up to the woman.

             
As the humans passed the entrance to the alley, the male grabbed her from behind, one gloves hand over her mouth, another around her waist. He drug her back deep into the dark where Triton stood shadowed. Her heels scrapped wildly against the pavement. Muffled screams went unnoticed by an entire city except the one was listening to it all.

             
Why would a human chose to attack a human
, Triton thought and watched for a few seconds. He found himself oddly, curiously stunned by the man’s behavior. Of course, Triton had done this type of thing hundreds of times before to feeding his thirst, but reading the human males thoughts, the man’s motives intrigued him. The attacker was not driven by wanting to exert power over the female, someone chosen her days ago, paid the man money to hurt her, but he had not had opportunity to get her so alone until now. Stalking her like prey, he wanted to hurt her, to punish her like the other victims he violated before.

             
Before Triton could read anymore of the man’s mind, the rip fabric filled his ears. The woman’s pleading turned into a soft whimper as the attacker spoke. Brandishing a knife to her face, the struggling stopped abruptly as she froze her body as instructed.

             
“Make a move and I’ll slice you open.” The man said in a low hurried tone.

             
“Please, I don’t have any money.”

             
“You think its money I want?” he said, then laughed with sinister intent.

             
“No, please, no!”

             
Triton could hear the woman’s tears falling to the ground in large thundering soggy drops. The vampire remembered a time when he himself shed tears like hers. Triton had enough, rushing the man so swiftly the attacker had no idea what pulled him back further into the alley. The neck bones crunched loudly as Triton internally decapitated the man. With easy, Triton threw aside the corpse. For a second he looked at the lifeless body. Shocked by his own behavior, he killed the human intentionally and not for food, Triton sighed,
a first time for everything
.

             
The rustle of fabric filled his hearing. In a second, he was back to the victim, finding her on the ground trying to catch her breath and shaking as she got to her feet. Seeing Triton, she scrambled back and propped up against the wall. Fear filled her eyes as Triton stood before her, his towering six-three frame looming over, her five-two. The moment was opportune…he could feed from her, drain her dry and no one would ever know.

             
The vampirism rose inside of him like a fever, his green eyes started to glow; his heart pumped twice as fast, his mouth salivated, and canines grew. Her sweet blood called to him, he could smell it, hear it pumping through her veins in rapid bursts. The rise and fall of her breasts as she took quick shallow breaths mesmerized him. His gaze scanned from her chest to her neck, up to her eyes, he locked onto them. Then something happened, for the first time in all of his unmortal existence, instantly the hunger stopped, he stumbled back. The resemblance uncanny, he blinked to clear his vision. The face of his young dead bride stared back to him.

Chapter Three

             
Centuries ago, before he was turned, nearly a month after their wedding vows Triton returned home to find his young bride attacked and killed by rouge Celtic clans’ men who came across her gathering water from the shallow stream outside their hut.

             
Triton had been out hunting their evening meal and found his wife dead, the moonlight reflecting in her eyes staring lifeless at him.

             
Now, the eyes of the woman in the alley bore deeply into him. Brown- green eyes, sparkling with fearful tears, looked terrified and shocked.

             
Triton was compelled to speak, but did so with great difficulty, “I will not hurt you.”

             
“That man…he…” her voice shaky. Her words echoed in his ears like church bells. He only wished he had been sooner to hear them from his then newly betrothed.

             
“Are you injured?” Triton asked cautiously.

             
“I’m, he…no,” she clamored, trying to hold together her torn shirt. Triton stepped forward not once taking his eyes from hers. Quickly peeling off his jacket, he threw the coat around her shoulders. She allowed him to put a caring arm around her and gently led her out of the alley back to the main street.

             
Triton was not sure what was happening. This was the first time in three centuries he had felt something other than thirst, anger, or complacency. He felt warmth and purpose, as he had when he was mortal. It scared the hell out of him.

             
“Shall I call the police for you?” he said.

             
“I just want to go home.” She said in a shaky and quiet voice.

             
“Of course. Please-my car is right here.” Triton opened the passenger door to his sleek black Mercedes sedan and waited as she hesitated.

             
She thought twice but slipped inside. Her thoughts were easy to read, for some strange reason she trusted him…was attracted to him. Triton shut the door and rounded the car.

              Triton checked the rear view mirror as he drove the car away. Leaving a dead body like that could get a vampire in deep shit. Triton was not one to take chances of been caught in the mortal world. Vampires and humans existed together but only a handful of trusted human’s knew of their existence. Triton certainly did not want to get involved with the authorities. They would find the body and ask too many questions. Vampires stayed the hell away from the police, kept low profiles, and most certainly never fell for humans.

             
The two rode in silence for a few minutes. He couldn’t help but to read her thoughts again. A rare and finely crafted skill he obtained over centuries, she was confused, scared and re-thinking of calling the police, but she did not want to get this stranger involved anymore than he was. Not knowing or caring what he did to the man in the alley, she then thought he was kind and she should thank him.

             
“No need to thank me.” He said giving her a slight reassuring smile. He could tell it pained her to give him one back. “No, I do, truly I do appreciate what you did.”

             
Then it happened again, the warm feeling buzzed quickly around his body. He nearly shuttered but resisted the urge to shake physically. “Are you sure you do not want to report what just happened?”

             
“No, I should have been more careful; I was taking a short cut through the alley to get to the bus stop, I heard footsteps and then…” She began to tear up again.

             
“Here,” he produced a handkerchief quickly.

             
She dabbed her eyes, “Thank you. It’s the next right. Second brownstone on the left.” She told him but he had already read her mind. The car came to soft stop as he put the shifter in park.

             
Digging into her purse, she pulled out the key ring and went back into it for something else. Triton watched curiously until she produced a small white card.

             
“If you would be willing, could I buy you dinner to thank you?”

             
He paused. He did not how to respond. She was human and she was asking him out on a date? He had never experienced this one thing all his hundreds of years of existence. Taking the card, he smiled. “I would like that very much. Are you sure you are alright?”             

             
“Yes, thank you again.” She said handing his jacket back to him. Then, leaning over, she ever so gently kissed his cheek before slipping gracefully out of the car. Triton never took his eyes from her as she quickly padded to the door. With a final wave out the window, she closed the curtains and was gone.              

             
He sat stunned at what just transpired. Instinctively, his hand went to his cheek. The warmth from her lips still resonating on his skin as he sat dumfounded. Her scent filled his car; he inhaled deeply to savor the lingering aroma. The heightened sense of smell he acquired from being a vampire was as strong as a bloodhound. Rose lotion and apple shampoo permeated the air. He took another deep breath in as he pulled the car away from the curb.

             
Driving for nearly two hours, the night and her scent being his comfort, he could only think of the human, of the stranger’s face, how her eyes shone as the woman once betrothed to him had. As if, his young dead bride stared up at him in the alley. How his wife’s killers quivered in fear when he onslaught his revenge upon them. Confusion and guilty plagued his brain as he tried to process why and how he had these feelings, especially for a human, a human who looked exactly like his dead wife.
Coincidence
? He was not sure of that, but what he was sure of was that he felt good, nearly alive, and slightly human inside. Triton reveled in the feeling, he wanted to know it again.