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  This book is for sale to ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It contains substantial sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which may be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

  All sexually active characters in this work are 18 years of age or older.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover Photo Credit: Sirawat Nak-intanond

  Used with the permission of Natnalin Publishing

  Cover Design: Leighann Phoenix

  Mira © 2008 Leighann Phoenix

  eXcessica publishing

  All rights reserved

  Mira

  By Leighann Phoenix

  Dedication

  To Meegs,

  Thanks for your critical eye, your honest commentary, and your encouragement.

  But most of all, thank you for your friendship.

  Chapter 1

  Trembling in the warm light of the setting sun, Mira stared into the icy darkness of the cave, her white shift blowing slightly in the breeze. Her mind raced endlessly, trying to remind her of why she chose this, attempting to dull the fear in the pit of her stomach, and reminding her of the importance of what she was about to do.

  Average in all ways, Mira had average brown hair, average brown eyes, average weight, average height, average intelligence, and average bravery. She was just average. So it was no surprise, even with her education and knowledge of the decision being her own, that she had been dreading this moment since she watched the first of her sisters commit to the path. Mira couldn’t believe it was finally her turn, as the last of this generation.

  Stop thinking! I’m only making it worse, she told herself. I’m sure it won’t be nearly as bad as I’m imagining. Perhaps going first and dying young would have been better than living a longer life in fearful anticipation of this moment. To think, if the last girl had lived only a month or so longer, I would have been too old and one of the newest generations would be standing here now. I would become a teacher and spend the rest of a long, normal life, in the sunshine.

  Her heart raced, as she peered into each shadow. He could be here already, watching, waiting. I would never know it. Mira pictured him as some kind of vicious, desperate creature. The druids had kept him around for centuries, hiding him in the recesses of the mountain caverns. Mira often contemplated what type of man could live like that. She could hear the lessons running through her head. She considered what may have been left out of the teaching. Mira had even helped to teach the new generation of girls about him.

  Stop thinking so hard, Mira told herself again. Her hands fidgeted at her sides. Feet shuffled. I’m only making it worse. I’m sure my imagination is more frightening than this will actually be. Somehow that’s little reassurance, her brain argued. Mira took several deep breaths. The voice of the high priestess, Lilith, droned out over the audience. Mira had long since stopped listening to the words, but she almost felt ever syllable, like grains of sand raining on her skin as they sifted through the hourglass she felt trapped in.

  “Rillan ap Tiernay,” Lilith intoned over the crowd, “was created to protect and serve the Circle. Our guardian. Each generation a group of girls is chosen as companions in darkness. This is the price of his loyalty.”

  Mira didn’t hear Lilith’s speech. Not that it mattered. She knew the speech by heart. It was the same for each of the girls who entered the vampire’s cave. Mira’s mind was more concerned with the parts of the story that were left out of the flowery farewell.

  Each girl given to the vampire was there to feed him until she died or asked him to kill her. Then she was replaced by another. Once she was sent into the caves, she would not emerge again until her death. Rillan left only when there was an assignment from the druids, by his own choice. Every girl who entered the cave believed that maybe she would be different. Maybe I won’t want to die. Most survived several months. The longest lived ten years or so. The girl before Mira lasted three weeks.

  When Mira collected that girl’s body from the stone altar just outside the cave entrance, it had been a sobering experience. The other times that Mira performed the duty, there was a feeling of detachment. She rarely even looked at the girls’ faces, let alone the rest of their bodies. She had never been next in line before.

  Mira remembered staring at the pasty white skin pulled tight over skeletal features for a long time. She had examined the numerous vicious bite marks that riddled the shoulders and neck of the dead girl. Mira had bathed the body for burial and found the bruises on the girl’s arms showing how she was held down. Mira found the blood along the inside of her thighs. Her body itself was shriveled, drained of blood and starved of food. Mira had no idea what exactly the girl suffered over the three weeks that she was inside the cave. She tried to tell herself that anything imagined would be worse than what actually had happened, but was having little success in reassuring herself. He is a good man. Our guardian. The other girls simply weren’t strong enough, she told herself.

  Mira looked up from her thoughts to find that the high priestess had stopped speaking. Everyone was waiting for Mira to finish the ceremony. They were patient and stood quietly. Mira didn’t know how long they waited for her to realize it was her turn. Now as she looked around, she was more afraid of what was to happen to her than she thought she would be. The lessons were all so cut and dried, so matter of fact. This is what we do to survive. If not for Rillan their Circle would have been found, their secret knowledge would have been stolen, and they would have been destroyed long ago. The sacrifices are all voluntary. The girls go to him as a service to their people. I volunteered for this duty without prompting from anyone. Still, she couldn’t stop her mind from churning.

  Mira stepped shakily forward. The moon, high in the sky now, cast a blood red sheen over the clearing and an eerie light beyond the gate. She passed through the tall, rusted iron gateway, and it creaked, swinging shut behind her. The clanking gate lock sent a jolt though Mira. The last of her courage was locked on the other side. She looked into the darkness beyond the mouth of the cave, trying to see if he was watching. She couldn’t see anything. The little light that touched the hungry cave mouth was swallowed into the black, offering no hint of what lie within. In all the times she had delivered food or other supplies here, it never seemed this ominous.

  The unkempt clearing in front of the cave was unlike the other gardens kept by the druids. The plants and trees along the perimeter were rotting and overgrowing the gate, breaking it down in places. There was the carved stone altar at the center of the clearing. That was where he would leave her body after her death, so that the druids would know that it was time for a new sacrifice. There was the table where they would leave food for her and any supplies that she requested. There was the stone basin where letters could be left. She was never to speak to anyone except Rillan from now until her death. It was as though she was taking inventory of her new life as she looked at each cold thing in the clearing in turn. She could almost feel loneliness creeping up on her, like a demon in the dark.

  Mira turned around to see if the others were still watching. No one was there. The gate was locked and she was standing alone. All that was left for her was to enter the cave and find him. Her eyes traveled the twisted
metal archway that she studied so many times in the past. Now it was backward as she stood on the wrong side. Finally.

  Liam ap Arnauk watched Mira from the darkness beneath the trees at the edge of the clearing around the gates that guarded the cave entrance. He always thought it ironic that they bothered to “guard” the thing inside the cave. A single tear formed in the corner of his eye, as he waited. In all their time together Mira rarely acknowledged him. They both knew her fate. He wondered if she had any idea how he felt for her at all.

  How could I have fallen in love with one of the chosen cursed? Liam turned away from the scene. He couldn’t bring himself to watch her so willingly go to her own death. He had done his best to keep her from this, subtly making sure that she wouldn’t be picked until the last wasn’t an easy task. His father, Arnauk, had been one of the elders until his recent death. That position gave Liam some small influence over minor affairs. If the girl who preceded Mira had survived only a little longer, then Mira would have been too old, and the next generation of girls would have come of age.

  I suppose I’ll not be the last man to lose someone to the vampire, he thought and shambled back to town.

  Resolutely, Mira took a deep breath and walked toward the cave mouth. Best to get this over with. The breeze blew her shift around her legs. There were rumors that he would insist that she walk about naked after he took her. That was why the sacrifices didn’t bring clothes with them into his home. The dirt floor was packed hard, and her bare feet made a soft padding sound as she entered the darkness. Mira lifted the front of her shift so that she wouldn’t step on it as she stooped under a low ceiling in the tunnel and continued farther into the darkness.

  Rillan must live like an animal in here, she thought. The stone wall was cold and damp under her hand, as she used it to guide her way. I wonder if he’ll come get me or if I’ll wander in here for hours before finding my way. The least he could do is provide some light. Mira was beginning to become frustrated and more frightened. She couldn’t see in the black and she was tripping on either her shift or loose stone. Suddenly there was a swishing noise, like something flying. Screaming, she fell to her knees, scraping them hard on the ground. Stone bit into the palm of her hand.

  Mira held her wrist and turned to sit on the floor with her back against the wall. What if I took a wrong turn or missed some sign. The tunnels were rumored to be endless so that no one could find Rillan should he choose to not be found. It was a test of the new sacrifices. The girls were supposed to find him to prove that they were worthy. Some test, stumbling around in pitch black, down caves with no end, looking for something that I don’t want to find and doesn’t want to be found.

  Mira began to cry. She knew that she had only been here a few minutes, five maybe fifteen, but it felt like forever. So she waited. I’ll not be fool enough to wander around in her. If he wants me, he can come get me, she thought fearfully defiant. Without being able to see the moon or sky, Mira couldn’t tell how much time passed. Eventually, she fell asleep leaning against the wall.

  When she opened her eyes, Mira could see daylight streaming in from the entrance. It was only about a hundred feet away. I was certain I had gone a little farther than this, she thought, feeling stupid and a little guilty. She couldn’t see any deeper into the cave than maybe fifty more feet ahead of her. Mira stood up. She didn’t know why he hadn’t come looking for her. He must know that the sacrifice was last night.

  Daylight chased away the fear, but now she was worried that he would be angry at her for taking so long to come to him. Now she could see there was only one way to go. The cave went on into the mountainside in a straight line, from what she could tell.

  Gathering her courage, she stood up, brushed herself off, and marched into the darkness again. This time she kept one hand on the wall and one above her head, in front of her, in case the ceiling dropped again. It wasn’t long before the hall curved, and the packed dirt beneath her bare feet changed to stone. Mira bent down to touch the ground and found that it felt like stonework; like the floor had been carved. It certainly didn’t feel like natural stone. Fascinated, she traced one pavestone with her fingers. What fear she had left was replaced with curiosity, as she stood up and continued to follow the wall through the darkness.

  Farther into the cave, the wall changed to the touch. The stone went from roughly hewn to carved like a castle wall. Just like the floor, she thought. Mira moved more quickly down the hall. She wasn’t afraid of the ceiling dropping again, so she put her hand out in front of her like a blind man feeling for obstacles in his path.

  When her hand on the wall ran across wood, she stopped. Mira’s breath increased as she felt the wooden slats under her hand, held together by ironwork and bolts. Sliding over the surface, her hand found the doorknob. Heart pounding in her chest, Mira wondered if she found him. That wasn’t so hard, she thought with a strange, smug sense of accomplishment. She turned the knob, and the door opened onto more blackness. “Hello,” she called, but there was nothing.

  Mira stepped slowly, blindly into the room, hands held out in front of her. She almost fell over, when her foot hit something with a loud thud that echoed out the door and down the hallway. She knelt down and felt some kind of crate. On her hands and knees Mira reached out around herself and found that there were a number of crates scattered around the floor.

  She was about to leave the crate where it was and try to move around it, when the thought occurred to her that she may have found a store room. Mira pushed the lid off the crate and found it full of fabric of some kind. She crawled around on the floor groping about until she found another crate and pushed the lid off that one. This crate contained jars. It is a store room, her thoughts raced excitedly. When she ran into a wall, she felt her way up and found shelves. One at a time she carefully felt her way along the shelves. There were books, small boxes, small jars, more fabric, paper, scrolls. Finally she found what she was looking for, a lantern. There were several lanterns on that part of the shelf.

  She pulled down one of the lanterns and felt the weight of it. She guessed it already held oil in it. Now all I need are matches. She felt her way along the shelves until she found some bags that would fit in the palm of her hand. Running her fingers over the soft material she prodded each bag to guess at the contents, trying to find what she needed. The first one held something small and round, the next something square. She didn’t know what the things were but they weren’t matches, so she moved on. She was about to give up, when she found a small light bag that held what felt like numerous tiny sticks. The matches were on the shelf almost directly under the lanterns. She smiled and shook her head. as she took one of the thin wooden sticks out of the bag.

  Mira paused, holding the match in her hand. The lantern was ready. She would finally be able to see where she was going. It was strange, but a funny kind of fear pulled at her stomach again. She had been so obsessed with what she was doing that she almost forgot why she was in this dark place. Suddenly it felt as if she was being watched. He could be right next to her, and she wouldn’t know it. Her mind raced irrationally. She imagined striking the match and having an evil face appear in the light staring at her.

  “Hello,” she called meekly into the dark. Maybe I don’t want to see, she thought.

  “Get a hold of yourself,” she scolded herself. The sound of her voice was comforting. Mira struck the match on the floor and lit the lantern. To her relief, when light flooded the room, all she found were opened crates and shelves of stored goods. If she didn’t know better she would have thought that she was in some domus store room. Not in a cave, deep in a mountain, looking for a vampire who would inevitably drain the life out of her. Not that the idea of being in a castle wasn’t strange either. Hell, where else would a vampire live?

  Mira took another deep breath, held the lantern out and left the room. It was much easier going now. The light gave her confidence. It turned out that the rumors were correct. There were quite a few halls that criss
-crossed, now that she was in the manmade section of the tunnels. How am I going to find him, she asked herself, as she looked down several hallways. She couldn’t see any more doors and all the halls looked basically the same.

  She tried listening carefully down the halls for some noise, but didn’t hear anything. “Hello,” she called down one of the halls, her voice stronger than before. The only sound she heard was her own “hello” echoing back at her. She called down one of the other halls. Again her voice echoed back. When she called down the third hall it was different. “Hello,” she called again. “No echo. There’s something different down there, stopping the echo.”

  Mira rallied her courage and strode down the hallway. After a short distance and a couple turns, she found doors. Staying herself to face the worst, she opened the first door and held up the lantern. The room appeared to be a library of sorts. Books lined shelves against the walls, and several shelves were freestanding in the middle of the room. A well used chair and a table stood on a threadbare rug. A large assortment of papers and writing things lay scattered across a small desk, and a pile of crumpled papers heaped up against the wall in one corner. Mira stepped back into the hall. “What kind of vampire assassin collects books,” she whispered. “And writes poetry,” she added in confusion, looking at what was written on the papers.

  Leaving, she closed the door behind herself and continued down the hallway. Tapestries hung on the walls between the doors. Most of them were battle scenes, elaborately woven and well kept. Mira started to open another door, when a sound caught her attention.

  At first she thought she may be losing her mind. Metal ringing? Sword fighting clanging? She followed the sound of metal crashing against metal. It was all so strange. This was never covered in the lessons, she thought. The clashing noises became louder, as she walked down the hall. When she came to the large double wooden doors at the end of the hall, the sounds stopped. She half thought that he must have heard her coming. Light streamed from under the large carved, wooden, double doors that filled the end of the hallway in front of her.