Page 2 of Bound By Blood

The blood and skin sizzled beneath the hot iron. Peter screamed and struggled against his bindings, trying to escape the pain that the hot iron brought him. The stench of burning flesh hit Landon’s nose, and seeing Peter writhe in agony made him groan. He thrived off the pain of others; he got off on it. It brought him great joy.

After a few moments, the pain got to be too much for Peter, and he finally lost consciousness, leaving the room quiet once more apart from the crackling fire. Landon stepped back and took another moment to admire his handy work. The wound on Peter’s chest would scar, leaving a reminder of the kind of pain that Landon was capable of inflicting on him should he cross them again.

Once he gathered up his tools and put them back in the bag, Landon went into the bathroom. It was a tiny room, not even big enough for a bathtub. The small sink sat directly across from the toilet, and the walls were lined with a disgusting pink tile. The lightbulb flickered as he washed off his hands and his apron while looking at his reflection in the dirty mirror.

His pupils were dilated to the point where his eyes appeared to be completely blacked out. His gums ached as his fangs pressed against them in hunger. The jobs his father sent him on always left him famished. There was something about the infliction of pain and the sight of all that blood that really got the monster inside of him going. It always took a while for him to come down from that high, and he always needed to feed.

Exiting the bathroom, Landon grabbed his bag, shoved the apron inside, and left the house, making sure to close the door behind him. He was sure someone would find Peter at some point; there had to be someone that would miss the guy. He then climbed into his rather expensive sports car, tossed the bag into the backseat, and peeled away from the curb. His mind quickly turned to the best place for him to go out and hunt.

Angry horns blared in his direction as he wove recklessly between cars, but he ignored them as he dialed his father’s number to give him an update on Peter’s situation. Drayton answered on the second ring, but there was no kindness or greeting in his voice. They didn’t do that as they found it tedious and unnecessary.

“Is it done?”

“I believe he got the message,” Landon responded. “He should be paid up by the end of the month.”

“Good. I knew I could count on you. Did you run into any problems?”

Landon knew his father was asking whether or not it was possible that Peter’s screams had drawn any attention from the neighbors. His father knew all about his particular techniques and what he did to get the job done. While they weren’t worried about the police or any government officials, they didn’t want to draw any unnecessary attention from anyone else.

Landon shook his head. “No. We are in the clear.”

“Good. I have another job for you. I’ll send you the details now, have it done by morning.” Drayton didn’t even wait for him to respond before he hung up. He knew that Landon would get it done.

Two jobs in one night was like Christmas to him. He found himself grinning as he swerved around another car. Though, it looked like feeding was going to have to wait. He almost felt bad for whoever his victim turned out to be. He was going to drain them dry after all this, and he wasn’t going to be nice about it.

This was what he was good at, what he excelled at. Dishing out pain and fear. He was always coming up with new ways to play with his victims that both sent the message he was trying to convey and helped to feed his bloodlust as well. He had discovered his love of torture not long after he had been turned. He found it funny how the sight of blood changed once he became a vampire. He was now fascinated by it, drawn to it even. The color, the smell, the texture, it all appealed to his senses in different ways. To him, there was nothing better, and he lived solely for the next kill.

Truth be told, he hadn’t always been this messed up. In fact, he had started out as a regular human with regular human feelings and thoughts. He used to want everything they did; love, a family, happiness. His current level of insanity came only after he had gone through the change.

Drayton had been the one to change him too, dooming him to this life of torture and murder. After Landon’s mother had died of Yersinia Pestis, or as it was more commonly known as the bubonic plague, his father began searching high and low to find a way for the two of them to survive. He didn’t want either one of them to suffer the way his mother had. He wanted them to live forever and had been convinced that there was a way for them to do so.

Landon later discovered that his father ended up going to a witch, who told him where he could find someone who could help. While he didn’t have all the details about what had transpired between his father and this person, his father had been vastly different when he finally returned, and he promised to make Landon different as well. Landon just didn’t know what that meant until it was too late.

Everyone knew that there was no way to reverse the change. Once someone became a vampire, there was no going back. They would forever be bloodthirsty immortals always searching for ways to pass the never-ending cycle of time. So instead of fighting or hating what he had become, Landon embraced it. He accepted the monster inside of him and fed his bloodlust as often as possible in order to keep him at bay. But as the years went on, that was becoming more and more difficult as the monster inside of him never seemed to be satiated anymore.

The coven had arrived in Gravesdale just as the town was starting out. Drayton had taken a position of power then and had helped to build the town from the ground up. Because of this, the Creeds’ name was very well known, and just the sound of it struck fear in people’s hearts. They were always associated with money, power, and death. Just the way they liked it.

Now, Drayton had his hands in everything. Nothing that went on in Gravesdale happened without his say-so or approval. The police and government officials were in the coven’s pockets, and the mayor even considered Drayton his most trusted advisor. The only reason his father didn’t take over as Mayor himself was because, despite craving that power, they still needed to keep the existence of vampires away from the humans so that they didn’t start banding together against them. Only a select few knew the truth about what they were, and they were determined to keep it that way.

As Landon was speeding down the highway, his cell phone pinged on the dash with the incoming information he had been anxiously waiting for. An eerie grin spread across his face when he immediately recognized the name. This was the guy’s second offense against them, which meant he wasn’t going to survive this next encounter.

Landon read the details quickly and noted that his victim was currently away from his home. They seemed to like making it easy for him. Once again, all he had to do was let himself in and set up. Then he’d be waiting for him when he arrived home.

Without bothering to check the oncoming traffic, Landon yanked hard on the wheel and spun the car around in the opposite direction. Gilbert’s house was on the other side of town, but if he hurried, he could get there before Gilbert finished up his date with his expensive escort.

As he drove, Landon’s mind began running through all the ways he was going to play with this guy. It wasn’t going to be a quick or painless death. He was going to make it hurt because no one fucked with the coven. No one.

Chapter 2

Carly Harris

Carly Harris took a swig from her beer and glanced around at everyone surrounding her. She and her friends were at Roscoe’s Bar, a little dive place in the heart of Gravesdale, the big city they all called home.

She laughed at something Zach said. His coffee-colored skin was a beautiful contrast to his straight white teeth, and his dark brown eyes glittered with mischief. He was always getting into trouble, but then again, so was she.

Lily, Amber, and Alex laughed along with them. Carly looked at her friends, all beautiful in their own way. Lily had short red hair that she straightened every day to keep the unruly waves at bay. She was shorter than Carly, somewhere around five-foot-four, whereas Carly was five-foot-six.

Carly looked to Amber. Her hair was bright blue, and she was the skinniest one of them all. If she wasn’t eating the cheesy fries before them, consuming them at a faster rate than the rest of them, Carly would assume she hardly ate.