Page 1 of Of Fate & Forbidden Desire

Chapter One

Night is my favourite time, peaceful and safe. Until I cross her scent and it’s like I’m hit by a truck. She’s like a drug and I’m hooked. - Dina

“Be careful of the night Adrina, monsters thrive in the darkness.” My long since dead mother’s voice fills my head, as I leant over the roof edge. She had given me and my sister those words of warning, every night as she tucked us into our nice warm beds. However, my problem was that I’d always been fascinated by the dark. The stars each evening had called to me, even now they seemed to call my name as they watched from above.Well I guess that makes me a monster now,I think sarcastically, banishing her words back to where they belonged, in the far recesses of my memory and turning my concentration back to the street below.

Human and Supernatural folk alike fill the streets below, queuing up to gain entrance to one of York’s most popular nightclubs. My eyes scan over the ever growing line, searching each face, looking for one that didn’t quite belong with the others and coming up blank. Ignoring the infernal chatter, I inhale the cool October air that blows my dark hair away from my face. I know that the wind is cold, it only takes a moment of watching the humans shivering in its chilled fingers to remind me. Thanks to being turned, I no longer shiver in the cold or sweat in the heat; I hadn't felt the changes in the seasons for quite some time now. I mean there had to be some advantages to sacrificing your soul after all.

Yep, that's right, according to human lore and history, I was a soulless, blood-sucking monster. A vampire. One who stalks the night feasting on the necks of young maidens. Yet in my three hundred plus years of being one I could certainly say that most of the time vampires were the last things a human shouldbe worried about. I might be a surly bitch most of the time, but monster was a bit of a stretch.

Smiling—ok grimacing a little less than usual— I turn my focus back to the street below, searching for our current prey.

“What's got your attention Adrina?” Tilly's sunshine and roses voice almost had me jumping from my rooftop perch, as she materialised next to me. Luckily my quick reflexes allowed me to steal my spine, so that my finger didn’t so much as twitch in response.

“Nothing yet,” I say, glaring across at my old mentor. She knows how much I hate my given name, and therefore used it often enough to let me know that she knew. Her devilish smirk almost had my own lips twitching in response but then I remembered our task at hand.

In our society we have four laws that all Vampires were expected to live by and they were simple enough. One: Do not draw human attention. I mean come on, that’s a no brainer, we didn’t want human’s studying us. Two: No unsanctioned killings, we’re civilised after all. Three: No interspecies relationships, that one makes no sense to me, but who am I to judge the laws? And our fourth and final law makes so much sense: No turning of children. After all, who wants to repeat school for eternity?

If a vampire, like the one we'd been hunting for months, broke any of these rules, the Elders sent hunters and huntresses, like ourselves, to either bring them to the Council for judgement or to execute them. Our unlucky mark had been placed under a kill order, for breaking not one rule but two of them. The bastard had already drawn far too much attention from the human population, being branded the ‘Dracula Murderer’ in the papers. His kills spanned from Scotland all the way down to where we were now in the city of York, with its old buildings and dense population. I could see one set of the Roman walls and the top of an archway from my perch.

“He's clever,” Tilly mutters, her attention now fixed on the street below.

“How so?” I grumbled back, not wanting to admit this particular vamp was intelligent enough to have evaded us thus far. We were the best hunters the London coven had in its arsenal and we were still chasing our tails.

“The cities he's targeted all have a high population of supernaturals as well as humans.”

I think through her words, realising that they're true, butwhy would that matter to a sadistic vampire on a feeding spree?I wondered.

“It's clever because they can use the multitude of scents to mask their own.” Tilly continued explaining, forcing me to consider her reasoning.

Vampire's smelt more strongly of iron compared to humans, whereas witches smelt more like lightning during a storm thanks to their magic’s affiliation with the earthly elements. Then there were the ancient creatures who smelled of things long gone.

If our prey was indeed using other Supernaturals to hide, then what was the point of their killing spree? None of what they did made much sense to me, it was like they’re following a set of rules we didn’t understand. From the locations, to the amount of bodies they left behind… even their victim's had all been different.

The sun had set hours ago but the moon was hiding behind the thick clouds and York was bustling. Warm-bloods and cold-blooded alike flocked here in their hundreds, drawn by the two universities, the picturesque city or—in the case of the supernaturals— the ley-line that ran right through the ancient city.

Twelve droll bell tones rang out over the city as the Minister bells tolled midnight and I adjusted myself on the roof edge, not that I needed to—being almost dead and all— but the human habit of shuffling was hard to lose. Moving my bent knees from side to side I found myself on edge. Normally I loved this time of night; in the countryside it was peaceful and safe, with nothing more than god’s own creatures out hunting.

But in the cities, I’d found it was when life was at its messiest and most chaotic. In the country witches held moonlit rituals, whilst the leftover demons and Fae from ages past came out to play. However here in the city even the humans reacteddifferently in the dark; everything fun seemed to happen under the blanket of night.

Smirking, I looked down at the club opposite wondering what other creatures mingled inside with the unsuspecting humans. Leaning forward a little more whilst still keeping myself cloaked in the shadows, I watched as another small group of friends joined the line, shivering in the early October air.

We'd tracked this particular rogue down from Scotland, following the bodies they’d left behind. Always finding ourselves one fucking step behind. Not even knowing if the rogue was male or female. They'd been here in York for the last couple of days and had already left at least one student's body floating in the river and had abducted another.

Luckily the human police believed she’d simply fallen in the river and broken her neck while drowning, not looking any deeper. The police also hadn’t yet connected her death to the others that had been plaguing the North of the UK. We had no clue how long this particular vampire had been running riot, but recently they’d grown messier. Leaving the corpses without attempting to cover up their attacks, meaning that they’d succumbed to bloodlust, an affliction all Vampires tread carefully to avoid. It was when the taste of blood or the thrill of the hunt and kill over-ruled all rational thoughts.

"How long have you been watching?" Tilly asks, breaking into my dark thoughts, nodding towards the club.

Glancing over I noticed she'd once again dressed to impress with a low cut barely there black top, skin tight black jeans and soft suede heeled ankle boots. How she walked in them, let alone was able to fight, was beyond me but she managed. Her make-up was flawless; dark smokey eyes that drew you in, deep purple lipstick that would no doubt match her razor sharp nails. Tilly was one of the best, needing only her speed and fingernails to kill those of us that broke the laws.

I'd been lucky enough to meet Tilly almost three hundred years ago when she’d found me stumbling around Edinburgh trying not to starve or break any of thelaws. My maker had abandoned me, a newly turned vampire, with the excuse that I'd disappointed him somehow. No other explanation, the fucking wanker. If it hadn't been for her I would probably be dead, well I mean really dead by now.

Tilly had found me and taken me into her coven for safety and training. However that didn't mean I trusted her completely. I'd learnt that lesson over and over and now I trusted no one but myself.

"About an hour now." I replied.

"Why?"

"It's the busiest club in the city, if he's going to hunt anywhere it'll be here." I said with determination, which was one thing she never questioned about me. I knew how to hunt the most depraved of our kind, her coven had made sure of that. Turning me from a stumbling newborn into a fierce killing machine.

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