Lunar Vampire Chronicles

H.S. Darke

Description

In Dark Courtesan, book one of the Lunar Vampire Chronicles, Fallen vampire James was the antagonist. As an enemy of the Order, a collective of vampires living in service to the lunar goddess Lue’lla, he was the subject of justifiable derision and loathing. The Fall of James rewinds the centuries to the time of America’s founding, revealing the circumstances and dimensions of one of the most complex figures in the Lunar Vampire universe, and peeling back the layers on the Order of vampires to expose a world that is seldom merely black and white. Within his time in the Order, James would find himself unwittingly assaulted by fate—but fate alone could not describe his fall from grace.
Follow the Order vampires in their travels around the globe. Witness their knowledge and motivations, secrets and missions, and discover their place in the historical fabric of the world, as the dark and hidden counterparts to Russian soldiers, American politicians, and English royalty. Afterward, trace their stories even further back in time, to the very origin of the Order itself, in book three, Ancient Wars.

Sujets

• Science Fiction
• Lunar
• Fall
• Chronicles
• James
• Fiction
• Vampire

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 05 août 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781524531751
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Lunar Vampire Chronicles
THE FALL OF JAMES
 
BOOK 2

H.S. Darke

Copyright © 2016 by H.S. Darke.
ISBN:
Softcover
978-1-5245-3174-4

eBook
978-1-5245-3175-1
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 03/31/2023
 
 
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
710790
Contents
Chapter 1Beggars in the Night
Chapter 2At the Shrine of the Temple to the Moon
Chapter 3James Goes to London
Chapter 4More of James’ Education
Chapter 5Darella in the Sacred Lands
Chapter 6Of Things That Were, Are, and Will Be
Chapter 7James Returns to London
Chapter 8James Leaves for the Colonies
Chapter 9The Order Finds Another
Chapter 10Making Friends
Chapter 11Things to Do
Appendix AShamans: A Brief History
Appendix BBarons Baltimore
Appendix CVane’s Prayer
Vampires
Dictionary of the Dark Tongue
Note from the author
Chapter 1
Beggars in the Night
The year was 1670 AD. As a young child, James was always drawn to the abandoned well deep in his back yard.
He’d wonder to himself, What’s at the bottom? If I dove in, would I die? Would I be jumping into a magical world?
Now, at six years old, he wondered if there was something magical at the bottom of the well that could make his mother better. He would throw pebbles into it to see if he could hear them hit the bottom, also thinking that he was somehow adding to its power. Sometimes he did hear something, and sometimes he didn’t hear anything at all. Later, he would begin to throw in small dead birds he would find.
No one knew about his fascination with the well but himself, because he felt strangely compelled to keep the well and the things he did there a secret. Sometimes when he stood next to the well, it sang to him; it was a song with no analogue in the world that he knew of with which to compare it to. The well was a magical place for him, a place where things that were wished for were possible. It was certainly beautiful to him, and it seemed to call to him when it sang. It was most certainly a friendly feeling that he perceived from the well, and he never feared it.
His father, Jacob, was a good man. He was very much loved and trusted in their burgeoning community. An accomplished lawyer, he was given a lot of autonomy to run the day-to-day operations of the local governor, despite the fact that he was Jewish. He was educated in Europe and was a master of English Common Law, and he was recognized by the Crown, as a matter of fact. Though Jacob was Jewish, he was not a particularly pious man, and neither was James. James’ mother, however, was somewhat.
One morning, after awakening from a strange dream, James went outside and began to walk along the path into the woods. While he was walking, his father saw him, went to him, put his hand on his shoulder to stop him for a moment, waited for James to turn around to look at him, and told him that his mother had died the night before. At first, James didn’t react.
Despite being dead, his mother’s body still lay in the bed where she passed away, a common practice of the time. James went to her and laid his head upon her breast, and he wept. He loved his mother, and he knew she had been sick. Later, his father would tell him that she died of influenza.
There was a period of mourning, as was to be expected. It wasn’t long after, however, that James saw strange men coming to visit his father. They always came at night. Every time after they left, his father always seemed despondent. James loved his father greatly, and since his mother was now dead, he loved his father even more. James asked his father who the men were.
“Father, who were they that came upon the door to speak with you?”
“This is none of your concern, for you shall be apprised of the situation when I deem the time to be appropriate.”
“But, Father, they came all hooded and cloaked. Is it not said that we should be wary of such persons?”
“Worry not about such things. The time may come when you must play the part of a man and supplant my jurisdiction upon your life, but that time has not yet arrived.”
It was a small community where Jacob and James lived. Everyone knew everyone. There was the local school, church, and several stores. This was a new town: New York. Despite the fact that Jacob lived outside the main town, James had many friends. He played all the games that the other kids played. He loved most of all playing hide and go seek. All the little girls and boys would play. James was a master at hiding. He hid so well that he would begin to grow bored waiting to be found. He started to develop a strange habit of finding just the right place where he could observe the others while still remaining hidden. His attentions were mostly focused on a little girl of his same age named Miriel. She was quite pretty.
In his eyes, there was no one prettier than Miriel, but he was also very shy. He would talk to her during the normal course of social interactions that all the children had with one another (in groups), but he never dared to approach her when she would eventually walk away, alone, heading toward her home. But whenever possible, he followed her with his eyes, absorbing her image. This was the compensation that he learned to make do with in place of his inability to actually talk to her.
Miriel had no brothers or sisters. Her parents were quite religious. As could be expected for the time, Miriel’s parents were a little wary of James and his father, since they did not attend church regularly, but of course, there were no local synagogues yet. Nonetheless, everyone was quite sociable otherwise.
News traveled fast in the area, so when an older lady of fifty- four was found dead, two weeks after she went missing, everyone knew of it shortly after her discovery. She was not robbed, and no wounds were visible on her body. It was assumed that she died of natural causes. The fact that her body was quite pale did not seem strange; dead bodies are often pale. This older woman’s name was Mary. She was a widow and had no family.
When she was buried, only her neighbors showed up to pay their last respects. The local sheriff, Brandeis, went around asking questions, but they had more to do with Mary’s surviving relatives, who they were and where they lived, than with the circumstances surrounding her death. Since it was ultimately discovered that she had no relatives, her home and property were absorbed by the local government, commanded, of course, by the Crown.
Everything in the community seemed to go on normally afterward, and several months passed. It had been some time since James had seen these strange people. Then another body was found outside the town. This body was like the first, Mary’s, in that there was no visible sign of foul play or struggle. The victim was simply rather pale and fully clothed, like the first victim was. She had been dead for only a few days. Her name was Bethany. Like Mary before, she was not robbed and was found near the side of the road. For the sheriff, this was rather odd.
He went to question the locals, but most hadn’t seen anything. However, one man claimed to have seen several people fleeing in haste from the area into the woods during the presumed time of Bethany’s death. The sheriff investigated the area and did notice that the tall grass appeared tamped down, as if several people had recently run through it. He was not sure of the number, but it definitely seemed to be more than one. It appeared that they ran toward the trees, away from the open road. That seemed counterintuitive, because the forest was typically more dangerous than the open road. Since a storm was moving in, however, he decided to investigate further when the weather cleared up, and the ground would not be so muddy.
Some days after Bethany’s body was found, Jacob got another visit. It was from the same cloaked and hooded men who had visited previously, but this time a woman was with them. When they came, as he had previously done, Jacob told James to go to his room, and shut the door. James went to his room, closed the door, and pressed his ear to it to better hear what he could. As before, the men seemed to speak to his father as if they were somewhat acquainted and friendly with him. In any case, Jacob did not fear for his or his son’s safety. For that matter, James also never felt threatened when he saw these men. Jacob talked with the men.
Ephisiostecles, the leader and the oldest, spoke.
“Thank you for letting us into your home once again, though we come as beggars in the night.”
Jacob responded, “I knew from the moment we first met that you were not as you appeared, and yet I never feared for my life.”
Menster said, “And that was wisdom indeed, for you are only confirming the esteem which we have for you.”
Jacob glanced at the female with them, and it was noticed and reciprocated.