Thea (Book 2): A Vampire Story Read online

  THEA II: A VAMPIRE STORY

  BOOK 2

  STEVEN JENKINS

  “For Pete.”

  CONTENTS

  Free Books

  I. The Road

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  II. Dead Man’s Blood

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  III. Red-Gold

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  IV. Junkie

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  V. Closer To Home

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Free Books

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  Also Available - Spine: A Collection of Twisted Tales

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  About the Author

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  PART I

  THE ROAD

  1

  A teenage girl is sitting next to me on a bench. She has blonde hair and is dressed in cream shorts and a tight-grey vest. The sun is glaring down on us, so I shield my eyes with my hand. Did I bring my sunglasses? I pat my jeans down and find them hanging from my pocket. The girl is wearing a pair of white-rimmed ones. They look so much cooler than my red ones.

  A brown-haired woman walks over to us, smiling proudly as she hands me a tub of popcorn. “Here you go.”

  “Where’s mine?” the girl asks.

  “You can share with your sister,” the woman replies. “I’m not made of money.”

  “Aren’t you having any?” I ask, stuffing a handful into my mouth.

  The woman smiles and shakes her head. “Not for me, Thea. I’m watching my figure.”

  The girl lets out a little snigger. “So you don’t want any of ours then?”

  The woman reaches over and skims a few off the top. “Well, maybe just a couple.”

  We laugh.

  “Come on then, girls,” the woman says. “The fairground will be closing in an hour and we still haven’t gone on the rollercoaster.”

  “What about the popcorn?” I ask, following the girl up from the bench.

  The girl takes my hand and steers me towards the ride. “Don’t worry about it, Thea. We can eat it in the queue. It’ll be at least a twenty-minute wait.”

  “Okay,” I reply with enthusiasm.

  Joining the long queue, I look up at the giant red tracks of the rollercoaster. My stomach suddenly feels all knotted, and my hand is damp with sweat. I try to pull it out from her grip, but she won’t let go. “What are you doing?” I ask with a scowl.

  “Keeping you safe,” she replies as she removes her sunglasses.

  “What’s wrong with your eyes?” I ask her, noticing how bloodshot they are.

  “Nothing’s wrong with them,” she says, squeezing my hand even tighter.

  I pull as hard as I can, but it won’t budge. “Tell her!” I yell at the woman.

  “Stop telling tales, Thea,” she says, uninterested; busy playing on her phone. “You’re ruining our day out.”

  “But she’s hurting me!”

  The woman shakes her head in annoyance as she scoops out another handful of popcorn. I look down at the half-empty tub and notice something red on the surface. It looks like blood.

  Then I see the woman’s forearm. There’s a deep cut across the skin; and there’s blood trickling down her fingers, dripping on the ground.

  The girl’s grip is getting tighter, cutting off the feeling in my hand. As I yank as hard as I can, I notice her wrist. It’s been sliced as well. Blood is pouring out all over her hand and onto mine. Frantically, I manage to free myself from her hold.

  “Look what you did, Thea,” the girl snaps; her blue eyes now pale, grey almost. “You killed them.”

  “What are you talking about?” I ask, backing away from the two strangers. “I didn’t kill anyone.”

  But then I look down at my hands; they’re covered in blood. To the left of me is an ice cream van, and in the window I catch a glimpse of my reflection. My mouth, lips, chin, even my neck is dripping red.

  There’s something in my mouth; it’s soft and squidgy against the crunchy popcorn.

  I spit it out onto the floor.

  What is it?

  I retch when I realise that it’s a piece of flesh, soaked in blood.

  Where the hell did that come from?

  The teenage girl has vanished. So has the rollercoaster and the sun. The only thing that hasn’t disappeared is the woman—because I’ve pinned her to the carpet, both my hands on her wrists. There’s a burning hunger in my belly, beyond anything that I’ve ever felt before. It’s crippling me, twisting my insides, compelling me to feed. She screams when I bite down on her neck. She struggles under my weight, but she’s too weak to move me. I swallow the blood. It tastes bitter, but I can’t stop myself. I need it.

  The woman slips a hand from my grip and grabs a clump of my hair, prising my head from her neck.

  “Get off me, Thea!” she shouts. “You’re hurting Mummy!”

  I yank her hand from my head and angrily slam it back down to the floor.

  “No, Thea!” she yells as I lock my jaws around her neck again and suck.

  I don’t want to stop.

  “Help me!” she shouts.

  Struggling to breathe, I lift my head, take a quick breath, and then drop back down to her neck.

  I can’t stop.

  Suddenly I’m thrown onto my side. The woman starts to crawl through a doorway, so I pounce on her back, and bite down on the side of her neck as she tows me along the carpet.

  Swallowing what seems like an ocean of blood, I close my eyes tightly and block out the sound all around me.

  But then I hear a voice. It’s not coming from the woman. The tone is different, softer.

  ‘Stop’, the voice from my head whispers.

  I can’t.

  ‘Yes you can.’

  It’s too hard.

  ‘Trust me. You can do it. I’ll help you.’

  Who are you?

  ‘My name is Kate…

  2

  So confused. Delirious. My thoughts are just a mess of incoherent flashes, like a half-doze, on the verge of drifting off to sleep.

  I don’t even remember getting into this car, or how long we’ve been driving. All I see is a long, dark road with hardly a car in sight.

  The sky is a gloomy shade of orange. The sun is coming up.

  I look down at myself. I’m wearing pink pyjamas. Where the hell are my normal clothes?

  What are my normal clothes?

  My eyes are straining; I’m battling to keep them open. I glance at the woman next to me—Kate. Her eyes are watering heavily and bloodshot. She rubs them with the sleeve of her blue t
-shirt and she accelerates the car even more.

  I can barely focus on anything. The road is the only thing that truly makes sense. Kate is a stranger, yet I feel more connected to her than to anything. She talks to me, tells me to stay calm, but her lips never move. It’s coming from my head. It could be my own thoughts, but somehow I know it’s her, speaking to me.

  Who is she? What is she?

  Is she like me?

  What am I?

  Kate looks early-twenties and has long brown hair. She has a huge tattoo running down her right arm and neck. She seems anxious; the knuckles around the steering wheel have turned white.

  Kate glances at her watch. “Shit!” she says. My head flies back as the car accelerates even more.

  My eyes are on fire, stinging like they’ve been engulfed in shampoo. After a few miles, the flat road becomes a massive hill, obscuring the sunlight. The relief is wonderful. But when the car gets to the top and the road descends, everything changes. The sunlight fills the car, burning my skin. I scream in agony. Kate winces, but doesn’t make a sound. She pulls the steering wheel hard to the right, tyres screeching, and the car tears off the road onto the grass. My sizzling body catapults towards Kate, then it flies back over to my side, and I hit my head against the window. It doesn’t hurt, though; the only pain I feel is the blistering along my arms and face. Holding onto the door handle, I watch as Kate drives the car through a wooded area, dodging trees and mounds of grass. The sun starts to disappear, with just a few beams of light creeping through the overhanging trees.

  After a few minutes the car comes to a sudden halt. Kate removes the key from the ignition and then races out.

  ‘You need to move, Thea!’ Kate telepathically orders me .

  The passenger door opens and she grabs hold of my arm and wrenches me out of the car. I fall to the ground, but then I’m dragged to the rear of the car. The boot is wide open.

  ‘Get inside. Now!’

  As I start to climb, Kate shoves me and I roll in, hitting my head on a metal carjack. It should hurt like hell, but I’m too dazed to react. She follows me inside and then pulls the door shut.

  It’s pitch black—but I can see every detail in blue. How?

  I must be dreaming.

  Lying on my side, I feel Kate’s arm draped over my body. She takes me by the hand, and I close my eyes. The burning pain around my body has vanished, so I close my eyes tightly. Just as I start to doze off, the woman from the fairground pops into my head. She seems familiar, but I can’t lock onto the memory. There’s a thick, stone wall blocking it.

  ‘Sleep, Thea,’ Kate tells my head.

  I listen to her and the woman’s face starts to fade.

  I see her face again.

  ‘She’s no one, Thea. Forget about her. She’s just a stranger. Now get some sleep.’

  I’m moments away from passing out. It feels good, like I’ve been up for days.

  ‘Sleep, Thea…’

  3

  It’s night again, and we’re back on the road. I can’t remember much about yesterday apart from being stuffed in the boot with Kate.

  Why?

  That’s right, I remember now! We had to get out of the sun. Glancing down at my arms, I notice that the blisters have healed already. How the hell is that possible?

  Did I dream it?

  My stomach aches in hunger, as though I haven’t eaten in a year.

  ‘Not long now,’ Kate tells my head. ‘Just a few more miles, I promise.’

  The road is getting narrower, with thick, wild bushes and branches on the either side. Kate hasn’t slowed down once, even though there’s only room for one car at a time.

  A short while later, she cuts off down an even narrower dirt track. It goes on for about fifteen minutes before we come to a rusty old farm gate, with a faded sign fixed to the centre that reads: Hylands Farm. Kate gets out of the car and races over to the gate.

  ‘Don’t move, Thea.’

  I don’t plan to. Where would I go anyway?

  The gate is padlocked. She grabs it with both hands, twists it, and then pulls on it. There’s a snapping noise as the lock shatters.

  So hungry.

  Kate pushes the gate; the bottom bar scraping against the ground as it swings open. She climbs back into the car, and we’re off again, along another dirt road, surrounded by even thicker, unkempt bushes, heading into more darkness.

  A minute or two later, a farmhouse comes into view. Kate drives straight into the large barn, positioned to the right of the house. We climb out of the car and I follow her like a sleepwalker along the overgrown, concrete path towards the house. At the door, she pulls out a key from her jeans pocket and pushes it into the lock. Before she even turns it, the door swings open. Kate frowns, pauses for a moment, and then shushes me before we enter. That volcano, bubbling up inside my stomach suddenly gets much worse as something in the air catches my nose. A strange smell, like an old jar of pennies, but much sharper. What is that?

  ‘It’s blood,’ Kate tells my head. ‘Stay close.’

  The ground floor of the house is just one large, decrepit room, with no hallway or porch. There is an old staircase in the centre, directly facing the front door. I follow her up it, towards a faint light coming from the landing.

  What is this place?

  ‘Home.’

  At the top, I can see that the light is coming from a door that is slightly ajar. Kate creeps towards it and then slowly prods it open.

  That scent is getting stronger, invading my nostrils, causing my muscles to tighten, my fists to clench together.

  Just past the door, I notice a thick candle burning brightly, half-lighting the room. And there are feet. Two sets. One belonging to a man, mid-twenties, wearing a pair of thick boots, stained and ripped jeans and a brown hoodie, with the hood hanging over his head. The other set of feet belongs to a girl, late-teens, wearing a black coat and woolly hat stretched over her head. Their bodies are propped up against the wall; her arm resting on his chest. There’s a loud drum beating; it’s coming from their chests. And there’s a sound of rushing water.

  Is that blood?

  Kate slithers like a snake towards the couple, but the floorboards creak under her feet. The girl opens her eyes and springs to life. Her sudden movement causes the man to do the same. In a heartbeat, Kate is on top of the man, slamming his head against the floor. The girl screams and tries to scurry away, but Kate leaps off the unconscious man and swoops on top of her instead, pinning her to the floor. The girl’s screams become a gurgling sound as Kate bites down on her throat. After a few seconds, Kate lifts her blood-soaked mouth and turns to me. But this time I don’t need instruction. I know exactly what to do. I race over and sink my teeth into the girl’s neck and start to suck, closing my eyes tightly as the blood drizzles down my throat, instantly easing the pain as it reaches my stomach.

  In the madness, the candle has blown out. But it doesn’t matter.

  I see better without it.

  PART II

  DEAD MAN’S BLOOD

  4

  He’s awake.

  His eyes are wide open, staring into complete darkness. Does he know that Kate and I are standing right in front of him?

  “Is someone there?” the man asks, his voice strained, shaky; his face dirty, his lips cracked and sore.

  “You shouldn’t have come here,” Kate hisses. “This is my house!”

  “I’m sorry,” he says, tugging on the rope that Kate tied around his wrists. “We just needed a place to sleep.”

  “Keep your mouth shut!” she snaps, slamming her foot down hard in front of him.

  The man jolts and then cowers in fright. “Just let us go.”

  “I told you to shut the fuck up!” Kate says.

  He starts to pull frantically on the rope, but its fixed tightly to the radiator behind him. “Where’s my sister?” he asks, his eyes darting blindly around the dark room.

  “She’s gone.”

  “What d
o you mean ‘she’s gone’? Where?”

  “She ran.”

  The man shakes his head. “Rachel would never run out on me! What the fuck have you done to her?”

  “I told you—she’s fine.”

  “She’s dead, isn’t she?” he sobs. “You killed her, did you?

  Kate doesn’t answer.

  “You fucking bitch! That was my sister! She was just a kid!”

  “Keep your mouth shut!” Kate snaps. “Or do I have to rip out your fucking tongue?”

  His tongue? For a split second the image disturbs me.

  “What do you want from me?” the man asks, his eyes streaming with tears.

  “I just need you to stay quiet until morning—and then I’ll let you go.”

  “No! Tell me what you want!”

  Kate kneels down in front of him, grabbing a handful of his hair.

  “Please, just let me go,” the man begs, wincing as she pulls his head towards the floor.

  “I fucking warned you to keep your mouth shut!” she says, pushing his chest down with her knee.

  The man covers his mouth with his hands, but Kate yanks them away.

  My body starts to tighten, but I don’t know why. Am I hungry again?

  Kate mounts him, her legs resting on his arms, locking them in place. She starts to squeeze the man’s cheeks, forcing his mouth to open.

  I glance at my hands; they’re shaking.

  The man struggles savagely, trying to move his wide-open mouth from her fingers.

  My heart starts to race.

  She reaches inside his mouth.

  I feel sick.

  She takes hold of his tongue.

  I don’t want to see this.

  The man closes his eyes tightly, bracing, crying.

  It’s too much.

  She starts to pull his tongue past his rotten teeth.

  And then—

  “Stop!” I scream as loud as I can.

  Kate turns to me, eyes wide with shock.

  “We can gag him instead,” I say with desperation, as I tear off the sleeve from my pyjama top with a single tug. I rush over to her with it, but she ignores me.