Midnight Sun, page 20
part #1 of Mortal Heat Series
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Once again, thank you so much! Two years ago I had a dream of publishing my own stories, and it just means the world to me that people find, read, and (hopefully) enjoy them.
Now, please enjoy this taste of the second book in the Mortal Heat series, Purity War.
Just when things seem settled with their blood-drinking boyfriends, Lucy and Emily discover there’s still much they don’t know about the Vimpiri.
Now that Emily and Todd are paired, Lucy is ready to lose herself in that first euphoric bite from Mick. She offered herself to him, and his surprising rejection stung. Could there be more going on than she knows?
Emily develops impressive new powers, and suddenly her relationship with Todd has more consequences than she knew. Another trip to the alien enclave in Austria reveals there’s far more at stake than anyone could have imagined.
Mortal Heat is a fresh take on the legend of vampires with a sci-fi twist. Dive in and discover a world rich in adventure and romance.
PURITY WAR SNEAK PEEK
PROLOGUE
Mick
A CELL PHONE IS such a frustrating means to receive unpleasant news. In the past I could have crumpled a paper and thrown it in the fire, where it would have shriveled and turned into ash with a satisfying flare of light. I didn’t dare do that with the small device, although it was tempting. I could certainly afford another one, if I wanted. Unfortunately the hassle of setting up a new phone was just not worth the satisfaction I would get from watching it burn.
Instead I tossed it lightly on the couch beside me and stared into the flames. The fireplace was gas, so it didn’t crackle and pop as a log fire would have. Safety glass protected me from the flames, but I could have opened the doors if I chose to. At least that is one choice I could make.
The situation drew a sigh from my lips, and my fingers ran roughly through my shoulder-length hair. It seemed as if, no matter how many times I tried, I couldn’t get around what I was. Why did I have to be born into this cursed family? Todd was free to do as he pleased, chase the happiness he wanted, and I was always the one that had to follow the rules. Rules that didn’t exist until ten minutes ago, but now made my life infinitely more complicated. Was it so much to ask, to be happy? Before Todd met Emily we were doomed to live our lives, interminably long by Earth standards, completely alone. Now there was a chance for happiness and I wasn’t allowed to take it. Its as if I was being tested, by whom or what I haven’t figured out yet.
But I will.
CHAPTER ONE
Lucy
“I’M ALMOST DONE, EM! Sheesh,” I grumbled. “If you’re in that big of a hurry just go without me, I’ll get my own Uber.”
Emily’s voice grew louder as her footsteps approached my doorway from the living room. “You know that’s not the point, Lulu. You’ve been in here for hours. I could have done my hair and makeup AND yours by now.” Her perfectly-styled blonde curls and shining blue eyes popped into the mirror above my reflection.
I was in the delicate process of applying mascara, my eyes opened wide and jaw dropped while I attempted to avoid stabbing myself in the eye with the spiky wand. Her sudden appearance made me blink, pressing the still-wet mascara to the skin below my eyes and leaving black marks when I opened them. “Dammit, Em! Now I’m going to have to wipe it all off and start again.” I jammed the wand back into the tube of mascara and twisted it, then tossed it angrily on the bathroom counter.
Emily just laughed. “Easy, it’s not as bad as all that. Here, let me help you. Then maybe we can get out of here before midnight.”
I sat on the toilet lid gratefully and closed my eyes. Em hummed to herself as she dabbed at my face, and a few moments later she trilled, “All done!”
Shaking my head in wonder, I examined my now-flawless face in the mirror. No traces of mascara remained on my skin, and she fixed the crooked eyeliner I had agonized over for half an hour. “I’ll never get the hang of this. How did you DO that so fast?”
Em giggled again. “It’s all in the wrist! But seriously, you’re doing great! It just takes practice.”
“Yeah, a lot of practice,” I grumbled again.
“Okay, Grumpy Bear, it’s time to go. We don’t want to be late!”
Ordinarily I would resist more, but I was just as eager to leave as she was. “Okay,” I grinned. “Let’s get out of here!”
***
Lucy
Walking up to Midnight Sun after tipping our Uber driver gave me the strangest sense of Deja Vu. It was here, just a few months ago, that we had met Mick and Todd, and all of Mortal Heat, for the first time. That first meeting had been the catalyst for some crazy adventures, leading us all the way to Austria in a race to save Emily’s life. Now she was healthy and glowing, and it was as if we’d come full circle to end up having our tickets checked in front of the bar again.
This time, however, we had VIP passes in hand, with ‘Mortal Heat - special guest’ printed on them. There wasn’t much of a crowd yet, we were here pretty early for the concert. In fact, it was barely an hour after sundown when we walked through doors.
We flashed our passes at the bouncer by the stage entrance and he rapped on the door behind him in response, his face impassive. And, just like the first time, the door opened and a blonde head popped out to answer the summons.
Mick’s brilliant green eyes lit up with recognition. “Ladies, great timing. Follow me.” He held the door open for us and led us down the abused hallway to the green room where the band waited. Always the professional at work, Mick didn’t like to be affectionate with me in front of his coworkers. However once we were safely in the room reserved for the band he wrapped me in his warm embrace and kissed me. The press of his lips to mine sent tingles running down to my toes and I leaned into him for balance.
“Hi,” he smiled warmly, his expression open and relaxed. His blonde hair was tied at the nape of his neck tonight, and he was in his typical outfit of black button down shirt and black jeans. I wondered if he felt the same way I did, like my lungs could never quite fill unless he was around. Now I breathed in deeply, my chest expanding gratefully in his presence.
“Hi,” I answered. “How was your day?”
This was our little joke. Due to his limitations with sun exposure, he slept all day. I had a job to hold down, but that was life. Human life, anyway.
“It was very productive,” he grinned. “And yours?”
“Pointless,” I grimaced. “I spent four hours researching an article that my editor Fred ended up telling me to scrap. Other than that…”
“Well, you’re here now,” he pressed me to his chest again, and his warm breath ruffled my hair. “That’s what matters.”
Yep, this was about as close to my happy place as I got. My eyes closed in contentment, I soaked in his comforting presence and all but ignored the rest of the people around me.
Eventually, however, all good things must end. The band pulled out a bottle of Vishut, the special vimpiri liquor they always drank during concerts, and began passing around shot glasses. The sweet vanilla aftertaste tempered the burn of the alcohol, and it was one of very few liquors I didn’t mind drinking straight. Mick and I broke apart from our embrace and joined the party. I noticed that Mick didn’t take a shot while the drink was being passed around, but he probably just wanted to be a professional at work.
The fact that he was working at all was pretty ironic. His status as a vimpiri ‘Lost Bachelor’ afforded him plenty of money to live on, so he didn’t need to work. Mick explained to me that a lot of our modern technology had been developed by vimpiri scientists and introduced seamlessly into our culture… at great profit for them. We were still far behind their society in technology; consequently, they could plan on an endless revenue stream for years to come, which was important. Their lifespan was ten times as long as ours.
It still surprised me how easily I’d adapted to the idea that we weren’t alone on our planet, let alone the universe. The Vimpiri had abandoned their planet four hundred years ago when their star died, and they traveled here and assimilated into our population. Their ability to transform themselves, biologically, into any other being definitely helped with their disguise as humans. I haven’t even seen Mick in his Vimpiri form—although I have seen Todd. The image of him—mottled, turtle-like face with large, glowing eyes and rough, dry skin, popped up in my dreams every now and then. They weren’t nightmares, per se—it’s more like such a startling image that my brain keeps bringing it up to make sense of it while I sleep. When I wake from those dreams I feel confusion and excitement, but not fear.
Of course Todd didn’t look like that now, and couldn’t even if he wanted to. His unprecedented connection to Emily led us on a crazy adventure a few months ago. The vimpiri males mate by biting the female’s neck and mixing their bodily fluids together, and vimpiri mate for life. Most of their females didn’t make it when they escaped from their dying planet, which gave the un-paired males the designation ‘Lost Bachelors’ and led them to pursue comfort and companionship however they could find it. Accidental exsanguination during this process has happened before, and is responsible for all the legends we have of vampires. After first fearing that he would kill her, it turned out that their psychic connection and Emily’s blood actually changed him into a human. Todd was still adapting to the idea that radiation from our sun wouldn’t poison and kill him, but his rockstar lifestyle was naturally averse to daytime anyway, so they were taking it slowly.
So now the Vimpiri were facing an exciting new possibility: Those that were without mates could potentially find one in a human. This was great for me, since I was head-over-heels in love with Mick. Now that we knew his nature wouldn’t necessarily kill me and could end with us ‘mated’ for life, I was excited to get the ball rolling. We’d danced around our mutual attraction long enough.
However, Mick didn’t seem nearly as eager. He was affectionate and sweet, and when we made out it always left me breathless… and unsatisfied. Mick seemed to be exercising some sort of super restraint by not biting my neck despite how willingly I’d offered it to him. I remembered how Emily had been after she and Todd ‘mated’ the Vimpiri way… buoyant and glowing. I was dying to find out how that felt. I wanted Mick to attach himself more seriously to me, and when I offered myself to him, he turned me down.
So I was left wondering where we stood. It was cringe-worthy, this state of ‘are we or aren’t we’. I wanted to ask him directly but I was almost afraid of the answer. Instead, I kept hoping he’d just cross that bridge and bite me, and then I’d know. Even if he just ripped off the proverbial bandaid and admitted he didn’t want to keep me around forever, it would be better than wondering. But I was still too much of a coward to ask, so our current status remained ‘it’s complicated’.
When the concert began, Emily and I stood in the wings and watched like before. And, like before, Mick stood with us, hidden in the shadows with the exception of his luminous green eyes. He explained to me that it was part of being vimpiri, they lived underground on their planet and some traits didn’t change despite what form they took (like the glands somewhere in their mouths that facilitated the biting/mating/fluid exchange part). I’d seen Todd’s eyes glow like that, although his were a brilliant shade of blue. Now, as I watched the band, I realized none of the other band members eyes appeared to glow the same way. Making a mental note to ask Mick about it later, I promptly forgot that detail.
The evening followed a predictable pattern: The band took a break between sets, we partied in the green room after the concert, the other three band members hooked up with some groupies they’d never see again, and Emily and Todd were so painfully cute together it pinched my stomach to watch them. Despite the work being over, I noted that Mick didn’t partake in the Vishut, not even one shot. He had told me it was a sort of aphrodisiac, and now I suspected there was a reason he avoided it. Rejection tainted my enjoyment of the party, despite Mick’s arm securely around my shoulder on the couch. If he didn’t want to drink the Vishut around me, he was clearly being careful to avoid losing control. Why would that be, except that he didn’t want me?
I was abruptly tired. The alcohol was making my thoughts fuzzy and my emotions were in turmoil. I knew I needed to ask Mick for an answer, but I was terrified of what that answer would be.
Emily ordered us an Uber, and naturally Todd came with us. He was at our house now more than his own, I was fairly sure. The band had scheduled a lot of gigs in Philly, I assumed just so he could be close to Emily. Mick walked me out to the car when it arrived, and despite his overt affection I still struggled with strong feelings of rejection. He hugged me tightly and kissed me goodbye, but now the actions felt forced and awkward, as if he were playing a role instead of really feeling it. Biting back the tears that pressed painfully on my eyes, I climbed into the car with a muttered ‘goodbye’ and turned away so he couldn’t see the tears as they fell. Todd and Emily were completely wrapped in their personal bubble of love and contentment, and even though it was painful to witness at this specific moment, I was grateful that they were too distracted to notice my tears.
What I needed to find out was: what happened to make Mick suddenly so careful?
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Laurel Night, Midnight Sun
