Vampire Vengeance Bites Back

Chapter 1

TOBIAS

Blood was essential to Tobias Osian’s survival, but that didn’t mean he had to enjoy the idea of drinking it.

Usually, it wasn’t until his teeth sank into his victim’s flesh and he got the first taste of blood that his guilt and self-disgust started to fade.

The second taste would quell the monstrous hunger inside of him.

By the third, there would be no room for any thoughts besides one – he craved more.

Tonight’s unfortunate victim wouldn’t be having the celebratory night out that he’d planned, given that Tobias was currently in the process of draining enough of his blood that he’d be incapacitated for weeks while he recovered.

Tobias told himself that there was nothing to be done if he intended to stick to his plan, hundreds of years in the making, since the man had been offered the job of archive librarian at the Bodleian Library over Tobias.

And Tobias needed that job if he was going to get revenge on the family that had ruined his life.

Come morning, after this man turned up on death’s door at the John Radcliff Hospital tonight, there was no doubt Tobias’ phone would ring with the offer. It would be his ticket into his target’s orbit, after plan A and B had both failed spectacularly.

Third time’s the charm, and all that jazz.

Tobias had his arms around his victim, embracing the man like a lover.

If anyone stumbled past, it would look like nothing more than a standard couple doing something intimate in a back alley.

It wasn’t exactly an uncommon scene for a Friday night in Oxford, when students drank their woes away in the local pubs or gloated about their recent exam results over food.

No one had to know, or even suspect, that this coupling wouldn’t end in sex.

Only when the man was nearly drained, his cheeks starkly pale and his moans silenced, did Tobias finally pull away.

There was still a heartbeat that he could hear, thumping slowly in the man’s chest, but he’d done enough that recovery would be a long time coming, which was exactly what Tobias needed.

He grabbed the man under the arms and slid him down the wall, until he was slumped over on the cobblestones.

Tobias cleared the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, lapped the remnants off his teeth with his tongue, and allowed himself a moment to breathe as the electricity of human blood fizzed through his very dead veins, warming his usually icy skin.

Any satisfaction from being full wore off quickly.

However, the warmth in his chest was replaced by a cavernous self-loathing.

The post-feed clean-up had become part of his routine, and still he dreaded it, no matter how many humans he’d drained over the years.

Tobias grabbed his phone, dialling the three-digit emergency number.

“Ambulance,” Tobias said into the device, eyes trained down on the limp body at his feet.

He’d found, from practice, that the trick to an anonymous report was not to let the person on the other end of the call ask too many questions. Keep the conversation under a minute. Block his number so it couldn’t be traced. Be calm and collected.

“I think there’s been an attack on Jowett Walk,” Tobias said quickly, leaving no room for interruption. “It’s a man, mid-forties maybe. There’s still a pulse, but it’s faint. He really doesn’t look good. The ambulance needs to hurry.”

Tobias cut off the call and slunk into the shadows of a nearby residential building to wait. He’d grown used to being patient over his many years of existence, but that didn’t stop his skin from crawling the more time passed without the flashing blue lights of an ambulance appearing.

He’d leave when he knew the ambulance had arrived. Until then, Tobias watched his victim cling to life, the heat of the man’s blood still raging through him like an inferno.

By the time Tobias reached Turf Tavern, he was almost in tears. Regret after a meal wasn’t new, and yet every time it reared its head, it threatened to crush him.

Tobias drank from humans because he’d die if he didn’t.

Hundreds of years, and the need for sustenance still haunted him.

He needed to eat to live, such as it were.

Tobias had made a promise to himself on the fatal night his humanity was stolen – that he would kill the monster who’d turned him into this.

He’d survive as long as it took to get his revenge.

But as those years faded to distant memories, the promise did nothing to assuage his guilt.

All the lives affected, all the blood drunk and the countless limp, barely alive bodies left as husks on floors for others to find – Tobias knew he’d find peace only once he’d completed the one and only task of his long, immortal life.

Hunt down and destroy Vladimir Damianos, the vampire who’d turned him.

The Turf Tavern was as busy as Tobias expected.

Students, locals, and tourists sat huddled around communal tables, conversing beneath heated lights with drinks in hand.

It was exactly the type of place one needed to frequent, especially after draining a body of its blood.

Lots of witnesses, and yet the perfect place to become anonymous and hide within the crowd.

Nestled beside the city’s old wall, down a narrow passage, the pub was older than Tobias – and that was saying something.

He remembered it had been a hub for illegal gambling in the eighteen hundreds, when it was known by a different name.

What was then The Spotted Cow had been a favourite of Tobias’, and that hadn’t changed with time.

What had changed were those who frequented the pub, the faces behind the bar, and the many humans Tobias had used as shields over the years.

“Tobias!” Sally called from behind the bar. She was already pulling a pint of golden ale, his usual. “I was close to calling the police if my number one customer didn’t turn up.”

He raised his arms, mocked a Shakespearean pose, and bowed. “Alas, my good lady. I have arrived. Call off the cavalry, for there is no need on this night.”

Sally rolled her eyes and smirked. “Ever considered acting, Tobie? I’d say you’d do a cracking job in a play.”

Tobias’ entire life was an act, but he couldn’t pull back the curtain and reveal that to her. “I don’t have the face for Hollywood.”

She looked him up and down. “For amateur dramatics, you would do just fine.”

“Stop flirting with me,” Tobias said with a wink. He leaned over the bar, his knitted jumper sticking to the beer-soaked wood. “You’re not my type.”

“And you’re not mine. Just because I appreciate a pretty face doesn’t mean anything.”

Tobias focused on not dropping his eye contact, or his smile. “What, and leave you without the pleasure of serving your most loyal customer? I’m unreliable, not a monster.”

One truth, one lie – Tobias would allow Sally to work out which was which.

He’d been coming here most nights for months to establish a routine, to become familiar, so that the pub staff would recognise him and remember him as being around enough that they could serve as alibis for tonight’s attack – and all of the others that Tobias had committed over the last several months.

“Half-pint like usual, or would Mr Unreliable fancy something a little different?”

Tobias didn’t exactly enjoy drinking or eating human foods, but doing so helped curb the aftertaste of the meals that kept him… animated.

Not alive. Life had been stolen from him too long ago.

“Surprise me,” Tobias replied, fingers fiddling with the credit card in his pocket.

Sally rolled her eyes. “I don’t do surprises. You’re not going to tip well if you don’t like what I serve. Half-pint it is.”

“I’ll tip well. I’m celebrating.” Tobias dropped his card – registered under a fake surname, of course – onto the bar so that Sally could open his tab for the night. “Let’s just say you may not be seeing me as frequently.”

Sally’s expression brightened. “You got the job, didn’t you?”

“You bet I did.” Tobias made jazz hands, hoping it distracted Sally from the way he cleared his throat. He still could taste the sharp but sweet remnants of blood at the back of his mouth.

“Well, congratulations really are in order then, I think,” Sally said. “I don’t know what a librarian does, but that’s fucking prestigious, working for Oxford University.”

Tobias swallowed the guilt rising in this throat, nodded his thanks, then lifted the half-pint in a toast and downed half of it in one go. “You’re the best, Sally.”

“Tonight, the drink is on me.” Sally winked and pushed his card back towards him, preparing to turn to the next customer. “Next time, you pay like the rest of them.”

Laughter erupted across the pub, and Tobias whipped his head around like the commotion was aimed at him. Which of course it wasn’t. That was just his paranoia playing its usual irritating game.

Tobias took his drink and wove through the narrow passage out to the back, with its low ceilings and walls that leaned this way and that like the bricks were drunk.

Inhaling, he tasted the scent of cigarette smoke and charred logs on the fire, trying to rid his senses of his latest victim’s aftertaste.

He found a seat in the pub’s garden. The table offered a perfect view of the old wall of Oxford.

It brought back memories – including some he wished would stay buried.

It suited him just fine, though, because discomfort was the only feeling he truly deserved.

After asking the gaggle of students at the table beside him for a cigarette so that even more people noted him being there, he lit it and took a long drag.

Sharp smoke and smooth beer worked in tandem to dampen his ever-growing guilt.

But it flooded back right as the sounds of police sirens echoed down the passageway from the main street.