Song of the Vampire (Vanderlind Realm Book 3) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Song of the Vampire

  Vanderlind Realm: Book 3

  DEDICATION

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Epilogue

  The End

  Song of the Vampire

  Vanderlind Realm: Book 3

  GAYLA TWIST

  Copyright © 2017 Gayla Twist

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 1499647484

  ISBN-13: 978-1499647488

  DEDICATION

  As always, to my darling Q

  Chapter 1

  Haley

  “I’ve got you,” Dorian said, tugging gently on my hand. “Come on; I won’t let you fall.”

  That was easy for him to say. He wasn’t the one blindfolded and teetering about on icy steps in a pair of three inch heels. Some vampiresses had mastered the technique of levitating just a fraction of an inch above the ground while in stiletto shoes, but I was nowhere near to accomplishing that little trick.

  “What is it?” I asked for the hundredth time, trying to pull at the silk tie that he’d used as a blindfold.

  Dorian took my hand firmly in his and said, “It’s a puppy. I got you a puppy.”

  “What?” I dug in my heels. Dorian had me dress in a floor-length gown and put up my hair so that he could give me a puppy? That didn’t make any sense. “Are you kidding?”

  I heard his warm chuckle. “Yes, I am teasing you,” he told me. “But you keep asking, so I thought I’d tell you something.”

  “Okay, fine,” I said, laughing a little, in spite of myself. “Lead on. I won’t ask again.”

  Dorian and I had left Tiburon, Ohio a little more than six weeks ago and I was just starting to adjust to my new life. In that short amount of time, I’d seen some spectacularly beautiful things and I’d seen some truly terrifying spectacles.

  Dorian hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d said that there was a lot more to the vampire world than I had ever imagined. But in a weird way, being a member of the undead was easier to adjust to than going from being very poor to extremely rich. I wasn’t accustomed to the life of wealth that the Vanderlinds’ family money provided. I was more accustomed to either living with a mentally unstable mother who couldn’t hold down a job, or being bounced from foster home to foster home. I’d been living with my mother’s half-brother when an unfortunate situation where I was texting while driving ended my mortal life. Fortunately, Dorian had seen the crash and decided to make me his progeny. At first it didn’t go smoothly; I thought Dorian was a freak — a super-hot freak, but still a freak — and he was seriously considering staking me because I wasn’t obeying him like he believed a good little progeny should. But somehow, in the midst of all of our fighting, we fell madly in love. He offered to educate me in the ways of being a vampire while showing me the wonders of the undead world, and I’d accepted. We left Tiburon the very next night.

  First we went to Cleveland, where Dorian’s generosity supplied me with a fabulous new wardrobe. I had never thought I could own so many clothes, not to mention shoes, jewelry and accessories. But that was just my “starter-wardrobe”, as Dorian put it. After that we flew to New York, where he bought even more, and then Paris. French designers actually made gowns especially for me.

  I haven’t even begun to describe the jewelry; Dorian somehow found a reason to make me a present of jewels for every little occasion. He gave me ornate antique pieces that had been in his family for two hundred years, and he gave me sleek modern pieces, some of which he’d designed himself and had a master jeweler execute. My favorite was the first piece he’d ever given me, a diamond bracelet that I was sure cost more than a luxury sedan. But its price tag wasn’t the reason why I cherished it; I wore the bracelet almost constantly because it was from him. And I couldn’t help but smile every time I saw the stones sparkling and winking at me.

  But it wasn’t just the luxury goods that made me feel adored by Dorian Vanderlind; he wasn’t simply buying my affections. It was also the way he behaved toward me. There were bouquets of red roses in my room and dancing on rooftops till minutes before dawn. There were moonlit flights around the skyscrapers of New York and an intimate picnic on the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. I think Dorian even surprised himself with how romantic he could be. It was as if he’d had all these feelings of romance pent up inside of him for the last hundred years and now he was bestowing them all on me.

  It wasn’t as if he hadn’t been with other women in the last hundred years he’d been on the planet. In fact he’d admitted to me that he’d always been a bit girl crazy. Even as a teenage mortal he’d chased girls. He’d had more romances than it was healthy for me to think about. But in every gesture, every look, and every touch Dorian tried to let me know that I was special.

  To be honest, I wasn’t used to being thought of as special. Not by anyone. My mom loved me, but she was also completely nuts most of the time, so that didn’t really count. I’d had one or two short lived friendships over the years, but nothing long lasting. I’d also had a secret relationship with a boy back in Tiburon that ended very badly. Like me crashing through the windshield of my car and smashing into a tree badly. But if it wasn’t for Tommy Sherman de-virginizing me, then I would be an immortal virgin and I guess that was a pretty awkward situation. But then again, if Tommy hadn’t lied to me, and used me, and humiliated me, then I would still be alive. But I was miserable as a mortal and being with Dorian made me unbelievably happy. But giving my heart to someone was difficult for me; that meant there was a chance that my heart could be broken.

  Basically, I was kind of a bag of insecurities because no one had ever bothered to love me before, or look out for me, or even notice me, most of the time. I was just that kid who showed up at some random school for a few months. At first everyone would be nice to me, or at least curious about me. But then rumors of how I was a foster kid that nobody cared about, and that I had a crazy mom in a mental institution, would somehow filter into the knowledge base of the student population. Within a week I would be ignored, or treated with disdain, even by people who had been friendly to me a few days earlier. I’d seen the dark side of the human race long before I’d been transformed into a vampire.

  But death had brought a new life for me, however weird that sounded. And although I marveled at the undead world and I greatly enjoyed the luxury goods that came with being the progeny of a Vanderlind, what I most cherished about my life after death was Dorian’s affections. And a lot of the time that scared the hell out of me.

  Dorian’s past and my past caused a lot of friction between us at first. Gorgeous vampiresses were constantly flinging themselves at him or reminding him of passions that they’d previously shared. I’m not going to lie, that was hard to take. But Dorian had never given me any cause for concern; he only had eyes for me.

  Well, there was maybe one thing that bothered me. Even with all the romantic walks and passionate kisses — just his h
and grazing against mine was enough to send shivers racing up my spine — but Dorian and I still hadn’t been intimate. And that was after six weeks of constantly being together. He would kiss me in my private quarters until I thought I was going to burst into flames, ignited by lust. But whenever I thought that we should move from the couch to a more horizontal position, he would always pull away, saying something awkwardly formal like, “You’ll have to pardon me for getting carried away.”

  Then I would protest, saying something borderline-desperate like, “No, its fine. No reason to apologize. Why don’t we get a little more comfortable? Like on the bed.”

  This would always make him become even more formal, saying stuff like, “It’s getting late; it’ll be dawn soon. I shall leave you to your toilette. I’m sure you’ve been wishing me gone.”

  And then I would I start babbling, trying to get him to stay. “No, I haven’t been wishing you gone at all. In fact, I’ve been wishing the exact opposite.”

  If a vampire could appear pink under the collar, then that’s how I would describe Dorian’s reaction to my humiliating requests for more intimacy. He would clear his throat and say, “Well, that’s nice to hear but... I really should turn in.” Then he would plant a chaste kiss on my forehead and try to leave the room.

  “But can’t you just stay and hold me?” I would always plead.

  Sometimes, if Dorian wasn’t acting too stiff and formal, he would agree and I would be in ecstasy, with our bodies pressed together for the hours when the sun was bright in the sky. But if I had a secret agenda to try to seduce him, then as soon as he got wind of it, he would leap out of bed like the sheets were woven out of silver. And then he would head straight for the door. Before departing Dorian usually added something hilariously old-fashioned like, “I’ll wish you good day for now, and thank you not to try to tempt me in the future.”

  “But Dorian, don’t you want me?” I finally asked him, after it had happened several times and I was feeling hurt and confused.

  His face totally fell, as if he couldn’t believe I was asking him such a question. “Of course I want you,” he insisted, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Oh, my darling,” he said, returning to the bed to sweep me up in his arms. “I want you with the white hot intensity that is the core of the sun.”

  “Then why can’t we be together?” I asked in a small voice.

  Dorian released a deep sigh. “You know that I’ve been with a lot of women,” he finally said. “And I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the vampiresses that I’ve known, in the biblical sense, over the years.” I tried to struggle out of his arms, but he held me fast. “But with you, it’s different,” he insisted. “Before… those women I was with… it was all surface level attraction. It was a way to divert myself for an evening, or a few weeks, or maybe even a few months. But it was never anything more than that.” At that point he must have realized that he sounded like a womanizing jerk because he quickly added, “I’m not saying that I didn’t feel tenderness toward my female companions, I’m just saying...” He thought things over. “I’m just saying that there was never any intent between us, beyond what was in the moment. That is the case with many members of the undead, as you’ve probably surmised. ”

  “Okay…” I said. “I’m sure there are plenty of teenage boys that would think of you as a hero, but it all sounds pretty hollow to me.” And really unhygienic, I refrained from adding.

  “It was hollow,” he said, agreeing with me rather forcefully. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I thought I was… I don’t even know what I thought I was doing. I was just attracted to ladies, and they were usually attracted to me, and that seemed pretty good for a while. But then…” He shook his head. “I don’t know. I began to see myself as this ridiculous archetype of the male cad and I realized I wasn’t happy.”

  “Why not?” I asked. He looked so forlorn that I wanted to kiss him, but I forced myself to listen instead.

  “Because there has to be more to life,” he told me. “Even eternal life has to have some meaning. I realized that when I was watching my cousin, Jessie, and his little mortal. He’d been lost for so many years, yet she somehow gave him meaning.”

  “And that’s why you decided to become a maker,” I said, filling in the part of the story that I already knew. “That’s why you turned me.”

  “There was more nuance to it than that,” Dorian assured me, “but that is a big part of it,” he admitted. “Plus, I saw something in you that I don’t see in many mortals. And I hated the thought of the light inside of you being snuffed out.”

  “But you weren’t attracted to me,” I said. He didn’t have to spell it out for me; it was obvious that Dorian cared for me, but not in a passionate way.

  “You were attractive enough as a mortal,” he mused, rubbing his chin. “But I think I was attracted to you as a being, more than your physical appearance.”

  “Oh.” I wasn’t sure what that meant. Was he trying to tell me that I was the girl with the good personality? I had to ask, “Are you saying that you just want to be friends?” If he was, then it was definitely a weird friendship. Most friends that I knew didn’t kiss passionately and paw at each other’s clothing.

  “Haley,” he said, clasping me to his chest and kissing me with so much passion that I felt my toes starting to curl. “I want you too much to think of you as friend.”

  “Then why aren’t we…?” I began.

  Dorian cut me off with, “Haley Scott, we have an eternity to be together. And I want to savor each and every second of that eternity. So please stop trying to lure me into bed.”

  He was so indignant that I had to laugh. “Okay, I understand,” I assured him. “But you have to remember that I’ve only ever been with one person. And that wasn’t a very positive experience. So forgive me if I’m eager to explore a few of the wonders of physical pleasure with the man that I...” I choked on the final word, unwilling to say it.

  But Dorian understood me well enough and it was his turn to laugh. “I’m afraid that your lack of experience is too bad, Miss Scott. I insist that I be able to court you properly,” he said, untangling himself from my arms and getting to his feet. “For once in my life I am determined to behave like a gentleman.

  “Oh, great,” I groused as he headed for the door. “You’ve been a scoundrel with every vampiress on the planet for the last century, but with me you want to be a gentleman.”

  Dorian paused at the door, turning to look at me. His gray eyes were glowing like two embers in a fire. “Just so you know, when I decide to not be a gentleman, it will be a night you will remember for the rest of your death.”

  With that, he left. And I spent the day twisting the bedsheets around my legs. He could be such a damn tease.

  “Come on, Haley,” Dorian said, jolting me out of my reverie. Guiding me down the remaining steps, he whispered in a low, sultry voice that sent a shiver up my spine, “We’re almost there.”

  I parted my lips to ask him, “What is it?” again, but I knew I’d just receive another smart remark about how he’d bought me a kitten — as if he could even find a kitten in the middle of Antarctica — so I shut my lips and reached for him, instead. “Help me,” I said. “I feel so awkward. I don’t even know where we are.”

  Chapter 2

  Dorian

  I have been happier in the last six weeks than I have been in the last sixty years. Even just saying that to myself makes me wildly uncomfortable, but it’s true. Finding Haley somehow centered me; she gave my life purpose. Just being near her makes me feel content, and yet like I can take on the world.

  Getting my darling progeny to accept that she had the Vanderlind fortune at her disposal was challenging. She was so grateful for every evening gown and every paltry pair of shoes; it was almost tragic. If she only knew how much pleasure buying her things gave me. When I presented with her the first little bauble, a diamond bracelet set in platinum, her eyes glowed so brightly that I felt like I wa
s walking in daylight again. And she’s worn that bracelet every day since. Sometimes I even catch her sleeping with the trinket still clasped around her wrist.

  I’ve never known a life of want. I was born into wealth, and the Vanderlinds have only amassed a greater fortune since then. But the more I’ve learned about Haley’s life before death, the more my heart breaks for her. The only thing I can think to do is to spend eternity making up for what a miserable time she had of it while she was still a mortal.

  After I finally convinced her to leave Tiburon, things started off great. I took her on a whirlwind shopping tour of the world, and I must say, it was delightful. The girl was handsome enough as a mortal, I admit. But her transformation into a member of the undead was beyond compare. I was probably bias, seeing that she was my progeny, but I would swear on a stack of bibles that I have never seen Haley’s equal. Other men’s opinions may have differed, but I knew it to be the truth.

  After seeing to Haley’s starter wardrobe and then filling in any gaps that remained, as far as evening gowns, accessories, jewelry, shoes, and other essentials, I thought it would be fun to show her some of the true wonders of the undead world. Before we’d left Ohio, I had asked her to list fire, ice, water, air, and earth in order of interest without giving her further details. She’d picked fire first, so I decided to take her to one of the more exclusive undead playgrounds. I chartered a small, private yacht to sail us to a remote island in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

  “What does this Andamah… Andamant… Adamant Island have to do with fire?” Haley asked, as we reclined in lounge chairs one evening, gazing at a sky crowded with stars.

  “Andaman,” I told her. “The Andaman Islands. It’s actually an island chain. We’re going to the smallest island, Little Berapi.”

  “Won’t it be a challenge to disguise the fact that we’re undead on an island?” Haley wanted to know.