The Vampire's Rival

When she collides with your past

We were close enough to Trisca's camp to see tents in the distance and people running up to us. Hadley and the rest of the humans were received like royalty, swept up in a wave of drunk, stoned, surprisingly well dressed, and made up, gorgeous people. Everyone was talking all at once. Laughing. Some were screaming, giddy and hysterical. Even though they dressed and acted the same, it was easy for me to tell who was human and who wasn't. This mix of mortals and immortals was a little more than surprising. I hadn't seen a crowd like this since before the Human Error.

Interestingly, even as they pried Hadley from me, they gave Josal and I a wide berth. I felt it again. That instinctual warning that ate through me, down to the marrow. Something wasn't right here. But this time, I kept it to myself as much as I could.

"That's a lot of New Ager vampires," I said to Josal, as we followed the crowd to several of the tents.

"Lujeo's way of living isn't the only way," Josal replied. "Every Enclave gets to choose, remember?"

"How much do you want to bet that some of them aren't registered?" I said.

That was against the main rules and Accords. Every new Turn had to be registered. Trisca has never been a fan of the Enclave Rules we established after the Human Error, but this was taking it too far. This wasn't just skirting the rules. It wasn't even bending them, which was Trisca's usual M.O., even before the Human Error, when the only rule was to keep the secret of our kind's existence hidden. This was a total break. Trisca got off on playing with fire. Sometimes literally. I knew a few vampires who did. They were all too volatile. Unpredictable. Dangerous. Trisca had never been as bad as most, but what Josal had said before was right, whether I wanted to believe it or not. Several centuries could change a lot in a person.

"This is a party, Ruq. Would you please just... chill?" Josal said as we took in the chaotic scene around us.

Hadley and the other humans had disappeared into tents to "freshen up" for the party. The camp was dotted with tents. Many were small, made for one or two people, but most were medium sized, and a few were large, easily able to hold a dozen people or more. There was one gigantic marquee tent at the centre of it all that could easily hold a hundred people. This was where the party was. And from the state of the place, this party had been going on for several days. As the sun set, everything got even louder and rowdier, drawing everyone from the surrounding tents to the giant party tent, like ants to a carcass.

"Rules are there for a reason," I continued, mentally noting all the dangerous activities that were being allowed to go on here. If this was something that happened every year, it was a wonder they hadn't burned the whole forest down. "You break one rule and get away with it and soon all the rules start to seem like fair game."

"Are you going to be like this the whole time?" Josal moaned.

If I was going to leave Hadley's friends and the Progenies in Trisca's care, I wanted to be sure that no harm would come to them. Hadley would never forgive me otherwise. So, yes, I was going to be like this the whole time. Before I could answer, I felt a telepathic brush against my mind. I'd know that signature feeling anywhere. Trisca. I was the more powerful vampire. She couldn't get through even if she wanted to. Not without me letting her in. I did. And in doing so, I felt feelings of absolute endearment and excitement and turned to face where it was coming from. I stopped in my tracks and watched her. Beside me, Josal's jaw was, understandably, on the forest floor.

As if in slow motion, Trisca walked towards us, her hips swaying slow and suggestive. A classic beauty, she had a voluminous mane of red hair that fell down her shoulders, a dusting of freckles on her button nose and soft angle cheeks, sensuous soft pink lips and a look in her eye that spelled trouble. Eyes that were blazing red and framed with the most perfectly long eyelashes that I've ever seen. She looked regal in a deep black robe and bare feet. Mesmerising. Ethereal. Maybe a little too good? The robe was mostly open, leaving the space between her breasts bare, down to just below her navel.