Knight Of Coins (Work In Progress)

Hi Everyone,

I am in talks with a publisher over The Organ Grinder so I can't post anymore chapters.  In the meantime I am going to post chapters of Knight Of Coins.  It's a modern twist on my romantic victorian vampire novel, Knight Of Swords that is being published by Hellfire Publishing in april this year.  Hope you like it.

Best wishes.

Sara.


Chapter One

It was late morning, Halloween when I decided to kidnap Sabrina Collins. I had never kidnapped a woman before and I did not intend to make a habit of it and I confess the task made me more than apprehensive. But there was no other option. I had been patient long enough. Sabrina Collins would not come to me of her own free will and accept her destiny by my side so I had no choice but to take matters in hand and force her surrender.


The wind was picking up into a bluster in the dull grey sky as I followed her into the wood. It swirled colours of red and gold as it lifted the fallen autumn leaves from the floor and moved them in a vortex around me. Thankfully, she did not detect my presence as I watched her attractive mop of short blond curls bob in between the trees a small distance away.

I couldn't help but frown on her with disapproval at the careless way she took liberties with her safety when the change was now upon her. Turning from human to hybrid Taleian vampire was fraught with danger. It brought death to the human body in the first stage and then forced the agonising birth of the hybrid on awakening. If blood was not administered before and during the transition she would die a second painful death. As her fated Taleian mate I could not endure losing her. I had waited more than a century for her birth. She could not deny her identity as the child of a human and vampire union or dismiss my warnings any longer.

I brushed her consciousness with my mind rejoicing at how easy it felt to make telepathic contact with her through our natural Taleian bond. I winced when I felt the strength of the headache that pounded in her temples and the building of the fever that accompanied the start of her metamorphosis. Yet still she walked in the middle of the lonely woods unaccompanied on her way home from lecturing at the university. She was a stubborn woman just like the rest in the royal line and the Queen herself. She would learn in time that I would not tolerate it in matters of her protection.

I was about to make my move when I suddenly sensed the presence of two other Taleian's in the wood close by, stalking Sabrina like prey. I whirled around seeking them out. Slavers! The sound of a mobile echoed noisily around the small but crowded wood snapping my attention back to Sabrina. I shook my head cursing under my breath as she answered her phone granting the slavers the perfect distraction to make their ambush easy. One of them stood aiming a gun at her back as she slowed her brisk walk to concentrate on her phone call.

Their plan was a simple one. Shoot her down to bring on her quick death and the change faster so that by the time tomorrow morning came she would be fully transformed and hidden in a slave camp. Her body would then be rich in the healing properties bestowed upon the females in the hybrid race and they would callously rip the organs from her body to give to humans for a profit. For if an ill human could find no cure for his disease he could consume the flesh of a Taleian hybrid woman and keep himself in remission, if not cured. It made the price upon a female hybrid's head worth fighting over. And as her body healed the process would be repeated over and over again for an eternity.

Anger and determination that they would not possess my innocent mate fuelled my quick movement and I was in perfect time to knock her to the ground with the simple push of my hand and take the bullet square in my chest. I stood guard in front of my charge widening my mouth to bare the sharpness of my incisors and hiss my warning that I would kill any who attempted to take my her from me.

I glanced down at the bullet wound in my chest without a care, only glad that Sabrina was safe behind me now although a quick look told me I had pushed her so hard she had passed out cold. I had to hurry. The two Taleian slavers came out of the trees to face me at speed but I was ready landing a heavy punishing kick to the stomach of the first to reach me. He flew backwards to land between two trees on his back as I raised the back of my arm and knocked it into the face of the other.

I unsheathed the sword at my side and twisted it with natural ease in my hand as the first came to tackle me once more. I swung neatly to one side and sliced the ancient blade cleanly through his neck to sever his head in one satisfying moment.

I felt exhilarated as I moved to face the second man. There had not been many opportunities to test my strength and bravery as a Taleian knight for a long time. My energy and that of the other royal knights had been spent more in concealing our identity amongst the humans than in respecting our true nature in recent times. I moved to strike my sword at my enemy but he was giving up the fight and retreating like the coward he was. I lowered my weapon sensing no other apparent danger in the wood and dropped to my knees to tend to Sabrina.

Calling her name I gently turned her over and swept my fingers over her face. She was a beautiful woman. Small, curvaceous and coupled with a tempestuous temperament that would prove an inviting challenge in our relationship, she was all I could have asked for. I probed my fingers across the large purple bruise gathering on her feverish forehead. She was going to be unconscious for a while longer. At least it would make the execution of my crime of kidnap now an easy one. I slipped my arm under her legs and lifted her up into my arms to carry her to the car.

Sabrina didn't wake up until she was lying on the sofa in my study. I could have put her to bed but I was reluctant to leave her alone. I wanted her where I could keep my eye on her. The fever was getting worse and soon it would be time to give my charge her first taste of blood. I stood up from my desk and approached her stirring form watching her long black lashes flutter open only to briefly close and open again. This time her eyes widened and there was panic in them as she took in her unfamiliar surroundings. I felt her fear sting sharp and hot in my mind as she sat up with a start.

She winced and her hand flew to her head. I knelt down in front of her and took hold of her shoulders gently guiding her back down onto the pillow I had placed under her head.

'What am I doing here? Oh no it's you. I thought I told you last night at the party to leave me alone. Did you bring me here? What have you done? Kidnapped me? I don't believe this.' She closed her eyes with impatience.

I gave a laugh.

'Don't you ever shut up? I did what I had to. You wouldn't listen to me. I had no choice but to act. Besides you should be grateful, I took a bullet for you today,' I joked.

I stood up and undid the button on my suit jacket and with playful eyes I opened it so she could see the blood stain on my white shirt. Her mouth opened in shock and I knelt down to tilt her chin upwards to close it with great amusement.

'So, now will you believe everything that I have told you about your heritage and the dangers you face?'

Sabrina was suitably silent but it was not to last.

'I have to get out of here. You are mad if you think for one moment I am going to believe that I am a vampire in waiting. I am a scientist. I don't believe in things like that.'

I stood with a sigh and walked to the front of my desk, picking up the glass of cognac I had poured myself earlier and leant against it watching her throw off the blanket I had put around her. I took a sip of the fiery golden brown liquid and then looked up at her again as she continued her annoying rant.

'Wait until the media gets a hold of this,' she challenged using her hands and wide gleeful eyes for emphasis. 'I can just see what they'll print in the newspapers,' she said with venom. 'Hot rich playboy, Victor James, kidnaps lone woman in wood and tries to convince her he is a vampire when she rejected him. I mean, really. All this because I didn't fall at your feet like every other woman when you asked her out. I mean how many women do you want? You came to the party with two of them on your arm last night as it was.'

'So you think I'm hot?' I mocked.

'I get it. You don't take rejection very well. Tough. Don't you think your stunt has gone far enough?'

You never stop do you?' I said sarcastically. She was beginning to push my patience with her constant denial.

I was in her mind, I knew all of her thoughts. She desired me as much as I desired her whether either of us liked it or not. The bond between us was growing strong since I'd found her but she continued to fight it afraid of its strength. Others would come to challenge my right to her and do all in their power to break our link to take her for their own as per Taleian law. Some of them would ignore the challenge and simply rape her and make her their own and I would never be able to retrieve her. For once the mating ritual had taken place she would be lost. If I did not succeed in my quest to protect her from their violence she would be taken from me.

She swung her legs down on the floor and stood up, gripping the end of the sofa to steady her swaying form. It was an effort not to go to her but I stayed casually leaning against the desk watching her intently. It seemed to frighten her and unfortunately that was what I needed to do to force her to accept the truth. But still she persisted as though trying to test the boundaries that I had set upon her freedom.

'I am out of here before you go too far and do something you will regret, Mr James,' she told me fiercely and began to move. I took another sip of cognac and let her get as far as the door.

'You are not going anywhere,' I told her with a dark menace to my tone.

She stopped her movement and turned to look at me with fearful eyes . Good I was beginning to get through. Whatever it took to make her surrender to her new existence and to myself I would do it and damn the human part of my conscience.

'I have to leave, Victor, this is ridiculous . . .'

'Doctor Collins, I said you are not going anywhere. Now sit down and rest before I make you.'

My tone was deeper, more threatening this time and I meant that I would carry out my threat. I was fast discovering that the way to master Sabrina's temper was with a firm hand.

Fearful she made a sudden break for the door. I flicked my eyes ever so slightly towards it as she took hold of the handle and prised it from her fingers with my mental strength. I slammed it closed and locked it.

'Sit down, Sabrina,' I commanded making her jump as she stared at the door.

'How did you do that?

Her anxiety was at full tilt raising her blood pressure and pumping adrenaline around her body and too fast a rate for her sickening body. I grew concerned.

'I closed it with my mind.'

'No, ordinary people can't do that.'

'I can and so can you. I know from your mind you have been able to move objects before and you've kept it secret. We are not ordinary people,' I told her calmly. 'I said sit down.'

Sabrina put her hand to her head and staggered. I put down my drink and began to move towards her.

'Ok, ok, I will sit down before I fall down,' she told me putting her hand out.

I kept my distance as she struggled to sit back down.

'I will sit for a while and then I am leaving. You can't just keep me here. I've got flu or something.'

'Why do you continue to deny what you are?' I demanded with frustration.

'Because it can't be real. It just can't . . . I can't be something like that it's impossible and neither was my father one. My mother wouldn't have married a monster . . . What is that?'

I followed the direction of Sabrina's pointed finger to my sword as it lay propped against the wall. I walked towards it and picked it up, running my fingers along the blade as I held it lengthways and pressed the top of my index finger at its tip. Sabrina was both transfixed and unnerved by the weapon. I moved towards her and she pressed herself back in the sofa as I sat down next to her and brought the blade to her soft vulnerable throat, forcing her to strain upwards.

She spluttered her breath with fear. I felt no remorse. She need to be controlled or she would die. I lowered my voice darkly.

'This is what I am going to use to protect you from the slavers and the challengers who are going to come knocking on my door to take you from me the moment you are reborn as a hybrid. The slavers want your flesh and the challengers want to take you as their mate. As a female Taleian hybrid you should consider yourself an endangered species. Too many of you have been taken from us by the slavers and I am not about to let either of them have you because you are mine. But if you do not obey me I may decide to use it upon you instead. Do I make myself clear?'

She nodded furiously when I pressed the blade just a little closer. Satisfied at her capitulation I leaned over and brushed her lips with a kiss yearning for the time when there would be more to our intimate contact. I lifted the back of my hand to test the progress of the fever on her brow. It was nearly time for her death.

'Now, I think it is time you took your first taste of blood, Sabrina.'