Out of Darkness: Cirenthian Chronicles (Erotic Fantasy) Book 1 Read online

  Out of Darkness

  Cirenthian Chronicles (Erotic Fantasy) Book 1

  Author: D. R. Rosier

  Copyright 2015. This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.

  Table of Contents

  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

  Afterword:

  About the Author

  Description

  Chapter 1

  I awoke as the sun slipped below the horizon. I could feel as the darkness stole over the crypt. A crypt, I snorted to myself. It was like a bad joke. I lifted the stone tablet above me, as cautiously and quietly as I could. I took a deep breath and categorized all the scents around me. Anger stirred in me, despite my age and control, as I smelled witch blood and felt the magic crawling against my skin.

  “Shit,” I muttered softly.

  Witches didn’t like vampires very much, they considered us unnatural. It was quite hypocritical actually, considering witchcraft was both unnatural and what created the first of the vampires. Dislike might be understating the truth a little. A long time ago we were once allies, but now, vampires were hunted. As far as I knew, there weren’t that many left.

  A part of me couldn’t really blame them. Vampires, for the most part, were not strong enough to suppress the urge to hunt and kill. It wasn’t out of evil, or a twisted morality, it was simply how it was, much like a starving lion taking out an antelope. Instinct drives us. Even with over a millennium of experience I would lose control if I allowed the hunger to grow too strong between feedings.

  I moved the stone to the side and let it back down, leaving myself enough room to get out. I slid out and stood, sending my senses around the crypt. The crypt was a fairly nice family one, well kept. The interior was all white marble. I gave a silent apology for disturbing their rest and extended my senses beyond the walls. I couldn’t see, or smell through walls, but I could sense life if I concentrated hard enough, and magic felt like soft brushes against my skin.

  I frowned; there was a full coven of thirteen outside, as if waiting for me. Why they wouldn’t take care of me during the daytime hours I was unsure. Vampires weren’t completely helpless while asleep, and could defend themselves subconsciously, but surely that was less risky than facing a vampire that was conscious.

  It was absurd of course, to complain internally that I wasn’t dead yet, but it worried me, because I had no idea what their plans could be.

  I had always left the witches in peace, letting them pick off the killers, the ones too young to control themselves. But they had not followed my lead. I was attacked at my home two weeks ago, and had been on the run ever since. I wasn’t sure how they were tracking me down, perhaps some spell. I was careful about such things, but chances are there was more than one strand of my hair in my own home.

  I opened the crypt door slowly and saw a woman in front of me. She was in her mid fifties, partially graying hair and had a fierce scowl on her face. I went to run right past her, still reluctant to kill. At my age I could run quite fast for a long time, even grow wings and fly, but as I tried to run out of the crypt I bounced back as if running into a wall. Now I was annoyed and glared right back.

  “What have you done witch?” the question left my mouth in a growl.

  She smiled cruelly and said, “I’d be more worried about what comes next.”

  I tried to get out again, but was repelled. Despite the foolish popular fiction out there, I couldn’t compel her, nor could I turn into mist or any of those other foolish superstitions. On the good side, crosses and even wooden stakes wouldn’t kill me, just decapitation and fire. Well, magic too unfortunately. The sun would kill a younger vampire, but if I was dragged into the sun, even asleep, I would merely wake up with severe sunburn.

  Vampires do get stronger as they age, and all my senses were enhanced. About the only other gift was the magical sense, to detect life and magic from a distance. I spun, picked up the slab of stone and threw it with all my might at the back wall. The crash was tremendous as the wall cracked and broke apart. I tried running through the new back door, but much like the front, I was thrown back.

  She laughed without humor. “You are hemmed in, encircled with our magic and cannot escape.”

  And they say vampires are evil? She was enjoying this way too much.

  “So, what now witch?”

  I didn’t bother trying to explain I hadn’t killed a human in over fifty years, and that was in self defense. I hadn’t drained a human dry for over a thousand. I was far from a good man, but I had myself under the iron control of my will. Besides being distasteful, it is also a horrible way to hunt. Better to drink a little from the unwary, than to allow the humans to discover there was a predator among them.

  I knew it wouldn’t matter, they wouldn’t care about that. It was almost religious with them. No logical argument would suffice. I considered picking up a block of stone and braining her from a distance, but still hadn’t given up escaping without bloodshed. Perhaps I was stupid, but I had a lot of years that said it was possible.

  She replied, her voice smug, “You’ll find out at midnight, enjoy the last few hours of your life.”

  I froze. A full coven waiting for the witching hour could only mean a very powerful spell.

  “Banishment?” I growled in anger at how week my voice sounded.

  Banishment meant more than death. I would be literally ejected from existence on this plane. It was an incredibly dangerous spell, even for the coven. It required summoning the goddess of magic herself, or at least, her power. Why would they even bother? When I asked that out loud I got an answer.

  “You are too old and powerful to kill any other way. Our seer indicated we would all die if we tried to take your head.”

  I shook my head and sat down. No one knew what happened to someone banished, except perhaps the goddess. Would I be taken to hell, or some other horrible fate? Or would I simply cease to exist?

  “Have you considered simply leaving me alone?”

  She just snorted and walked away, leaving me to make peace with my fate.

  It was both entirely too long a wait, and incredibly short. I heard the chanting start outside, and I considered using the rubble around me as projectiles. I could throw them hard enough to easily kill, ripping apart their fragile mortal bodies. I was tired of the killing though, perhaps it was better this way. I had led many lifetimes, and I was content for it all to end. Immortality could be just as much a curse as anything else.

  I had done my best to avoid the fighting and killing between our two races, but this felt too much like giving up. I was fifteen centuries old and I had the right to defend my existence. They tracked me down and started this fight. They were hunting me, not the other way around. I picked up a chunk of marble and moved toward the entrance. I whipped the stone at the old lady, figured she would die sooner than the others anywa
y. If I was lucky, killing just one would be enough to break all the spells and stop the one in progress.

  I muttered a string of words that shouldn’t be said in polite company when the stone bounced back before reaching their circle. Apparently they had thought this through rather well, I was truly trapped. I had underestimated them, I should have chosen a public place, somewhere I could hide without being disturbed, but had enough normal mortals walking around that they couldn’t cast spells and draw circles without risking exposure.

  Crap, I pulled out my cell phone and powered it up, giving serious thought to calling nine one one. That would have forced them to leave when a cop came to check out the cemetery, too bad I didn’t think of it two hours ago. It was too late now. I felt rather foolish, but after twenty five centuries it was hard to remember about technology that had only been around less than one.

  I could feel the magic prickling my skin, like thousands of needles. Then a soft white glow grew, slowly getting brighter until I had to shut my eyes. It was agony, my skin felt aflame and then I started to lose consciousness, falling into darkness.

  Chapter 2

  Thump thump, thump thump. That is the sound I woke up to. I am a little ashamed to admit I opened my eyes very slowly as dread circled my heart. There was someone very close to me. I could hear their heart, a few feet away at most. I was freaking out a bit, my imagination painted pictures of hellish landscapes and torturers. I was… in a bedroom, lying on a bed. There was also no one else in the room. I heard the heartbeat pick up as my breathing increased. I also realized I could feel it thrumming in my chest.

  Disbelieving my own ears I did something I hadn’t done in a very long time. I checked the pulse point in my neck. The heartbeat was mine. My hand started shaking when I noticed a small shaft of sunlight coming through the covered window. I wasn’t nervous about the sun, just the fact that I was even awake. Did I mention my heart was beating?

  I stood and walked over to window, opening the shutter. I flinched as the light hit my skin, but the expected painful sting never happened. In fact, it felt quite good, warm. I took a deep breath and looked out the window. It appeared I was in a farmhouse. I could see planted fields and forest on the other side of them. The air smelled fresh, clean, like I went back in time a few hundred years before air pollution.

  I turned and walked over to the dresser and looked in the mirror. I appeared to be a man in my mid twenties, gone were the red eyes I had grown accustomed to over the centuries, the gray eyes I was born with looked both familiar and exceedingly strange.

  I opened my mouth, no more fangs. It was… weird. I closed my eyes and sent out my senses. I could sense two heartbeats in the house, and four in the fields. I could also hear the two humans walking around the house and judged them to be a woman and a child based on how heavy their steps were.

  I also wasn’t thirsty, or I should say, I was not thirsty for blood.

  How did that work? I still had my enhanced senses, but apparently I was alive and no longer a vampire. My eyes narrowed and I dropped and started doing pushups. It was too easy, I still had enhanced strength and based on how fast I was doing them, I had my speed as well. My heartbeat increased a little, but I wasn’t sure if that was from the pushups, or my increasing nerves.

  How was this possible, where the hell was I? I frowned and wondered suspiciously, what had the goddess of magic done to me and where the hell had she sent me… and why?

  My stomach gurgled. I laughed a bit hysterically. After all, it wasn’t my fault I was hungry, I hadn’t eaten food in twenty five centuries. I opened the door and let my nose lead me toward the humans. Hmm, I’d have to stop thinking that way if I was human again too. Thinking about my abilities I amended that to mostly human. It didn’t seem to be a large house; I walked down the hall and made a left into the kitchen.

  There was a simmering pot on a wood burning stove. There was also no sign of electricity or any kind of refrigeration. There was a sink, and it had a hand pump attached to it. There was also a woman that appeared to be around twenty and a four year old boy. Wherever I was they got started early on families apparently.

  “Hello?” I said tentatively.

  The woman smiled and said, “I’m Sandra, good to see you awake.”

  “Do you know how I got here? Oh, I’m Marcus.”

  She shrugged and looked at me curiously, “My husband found you passed out in the field early this morning, as to how you got there I’ve no idea.”

  After a suitably awkward pause my mind caught up, “Well thank you for taking me in, I am not entirely sure how I got there to be honest.” Outside of the goddess dropping me there, but I was sure saying that would have made her nervous. I knew it made me feel that way.

  “Do you have anything to eat? I don’t want to be a bother, is there something I can do around here to help out?”

  My mind was still catching up to all of this, I was expecting hell, or just to cease being. This place, wherever I’d ended up, plus all the changes to my body just didn’t make sense. Especially the alive with a beating heart part.

  She shook her head, “Thanks for the offer, but we aren’t looking for hands. I’ll get you some of this stew, my husband is heading for town in the morning, I’m sure he’d be happy to take you…”

  She trailed off, and I translated that to polite, kind to strangers, but ready for me to leave as soon as possible.

  “Thank you, I’ll surely take that ride in the morning and thank you for it.”

  My mind was on autopilot, it didn’t hurt anything to be polite. I had no idea what to tell her either, I didn’t know where I was or how I got there, and I had a feeling where I was from would just scare these people. I smiled and shook my head. I was alien to this place…

  She brought me over a bowl and set it down, “Enjoy it, and call me Sandra.”

  I couldn’t stop the moan of pleasure as I ate my first spoonful. Flavors burst in my mouth, meat, spices, vegetables, all the things I hadn’t had, and couldn’t have, for so long. I even closed my eyes, as if to focus all of my attention on my sense of taste, not willing to allow sight to steal from the sensations of it. Sandra handed me a chunk of bread to dip with a smile that finally reached her eyes. I guessed I had won her over with my reaction.

  “Glad you’re enjoying it Marcus.”

  I just smiled back and dipped my spoon back in the bowl.

  The rest of the day passed slowly as I went over the possibilities. The only thing that struck me as obvious, is the goddess of magic moved me here when I was banished from Earth’s dimension. She also changed me, or something about this world did. The only reason for that I could think of was that she wanted something from me, why else would she bother doing any of that?

  I couldn’t really think of what that might be, and I wasn’t going to worry much about it either. She didn’t leave instructions, and truthfully although I was enjoying this dive back into the living, her followers had just tried to end my existence. Even if she had I wasn’t sure how inclined I would be to take orders.

  Sandra’s husband was named Steve, he was young too, just over twenty. There were a few farmhands, all teenagers that apparently lived in another building, but joined the family for dinner.

  I stayed rather vague about my origins. I didn’t think telling them that last night I was an ancient blood drinking monster that was technically dead and would have seen them as food would go over that well. Not to mention the whole alien to this world, dimension, universe, whatever it was thing.

  One good thing about being a vampire was when the sun came out, I went to sleep. No choice, lights out. That night I was reintroduced to tossing and turning as my mind wouldn’t shut off. It was quite annoying actually.

  Chapter 3

  In the morning after breakfast I helped load produce into carts before we set off for town. I still had no idea what the name of this world was, or the kingdom or country I was in. I was afraid to ask, it would bring up too many questions I wasn�
��t prepared to answer. The name of the town we were heading for was called cliff’s edge. Creatively named after the fact the town was right up against the bottom of a cliff.

  There were mountains to the north, to the south rolling hills. The dirt road took a winding course east through the valleys between the low hills. Probably the most disturbing thing was I recognized the plants and trees, if I hadn’t known better I would have sworn I was somewhere on Earth in the past. But it had been clear enough I was somewhere else.

  I wondered if I would start aging now, or if I was still ageless. I also wondered where this place was. Another universe? Dimension? I wasn’t sure if I would ever find out.

  “Steve, can you tell me a little of this place? As I have said I come from afar. Any information you can give me on local politics and customs would be appreciated.”

  He grunted and looked over at me, “Nothing much to tell really. You’re in the country of Cirenthia, as far west as you can be, and still be in it. The mountains to the north aren’t a place you’d be wanting to visit, monsters you see. Out west is the Arinith forest kingdom. You don’t want to go there either, Elves would sooner kill ya than anything else.

  “Most of Cirenthia is plains, runs to the south a ways until the great sea. East of course it runs for quite a ways. Maybe six weeks travel by horseback. Cirenthia be a big country.”

  I asked, “That seems quite large, what kind of governing do you have, that can secure such a large country?”

  He looked over like I was daft, “Mages of course. They run things. They do an okay job, but it’s best for a man to avoid their notice if you know what I mean. They all be in constant contact, every town has at least one mage to do the governing, then you got your royal mages who rode around the kingdom making sure everything is good. There are also healer mages that travel from town to town. Those last folks come in handy on occasion. The rest of em just suck up taxes.”

  I coughed as I debated the next question. Steve was a bit touchy and I didn’t want to shut him down, or have him going around telling stories about the ignorant man he found passed out on his farm. Mages? I considered asking more, but something caught my eye as we turned into a new valley. There were flashes of light in the trees, as if reflected off metal.