Work In Progress:

To Die Alone
Rena Marks

Chapter One

* * * * *
Another posh nightclub. This time in a new city. No one knew where I was, no one knew what I had left.

I was showing a lot of leg tonight while dressed in my usual garb of skin-tight black. I had been fighting the urge to return to the nightlife, but it was all I knew. However, I should be safe. As I said, it was a new city.

A new life. In which I'd left my traitorous lover behind.

Yet, I couldn't get far. I'd already danced quite a bit and was hot and bothered when I slipped off to a darkened corner for a reprieve. Alone time, a chance to study the dancing bodies writhing around me.

I should have been startled at the rush of cool air slightly behind me. At the very least, surprised, for it had been a year. Somehow I wasn't. Time melted away, as though it had just been yesterday.

A whisper of sweet breath curled beneath my ear. "You cannot get away from me. You'll always be mine."

"I own myself," I whispered back. "I refused you already."

"It's not that easy. For even now, you can't deny me."

His finger trailed down my shoulder, along my bare skin, danced down my arm. Lightly skimming, reminding me of the touch I missed.

He was right, but I wouldn't acknowledge it. For the burning edge of desire struck me tenfold. It was a drug, an addiction I still fought.

Sometimes it was one I didn't want to fight.

His smile was sardonic, but he let me go. I wouldn't be able to suppress the urge for long, the awaited anticipation would make my failure sweeter.

He knew this.

"You run, Afton. But you unknowingly head for my own jurisdictions. There's a reason. You are mine."

"No, I'm not," I said clearly. The bastard was way too cocky. And why shouldn't he be? Dark hair contrasted with hazel eyes against creamy skin. The distinction of his lighter eyes stood out even more when he wore carefree stubble darkening the line of his jaw. He was tall, broad shouldered and exuded sex appeal like nobody's business.

But I belonged to no one and never would.

Instead I sighed. "How did you find me, Ethan?"

"It doesn't matter," he whispered, and wrapped strong arms around me. For the briefest moment, I leaned into his strength. Felt it envelop me like a cloud of comfort on a cold day.

I could close my eyes and easily go with it. Give up my independence, my humanity. Everything that made me…me.

I stepped away. "Stop it," I chided. "Keep your tricks to yourself."

"Tricks?" he murmured unconvincingly.

"I mean it."

He knew what I was talking about. He had been imposing his will upon me, mockery to make me believe I was willing to surrender.

"Play nice or I'll run again," I warned. And then I allowed him to step close to me, close enough that I smelled the aftershave that wafted from his skin. He leaned his lips toward mine, silently begging, yet also daring me to take the chance. It was the tiniest chance and I couldn't resist, for it had been too long.

I tilted my head back and parted my moistened lips. He touched.

And all hell broke loose.


Wants, needs, feelings. Emotions ran rampant throughout my soul, yearnings and cravings of a body that had been too long without. I gasped for sweetened air and his tongue touched mine. It stroked lovingly, and yet demanded my full surrender. Only one person could be this loving and challenging all at once.

Ethan.

I felt his hunger, always carefully controlled but now ready to break uncontrollably through. It bubbled to the surface before it was tamped back down when he broke the kiss.

He strung heated kisses along my jaw before returning to my lips.

The music blared and the bodies around us quickened, movements becoming jerky, like mindless zombies with limbs in the throes of rigormortis.

Lights flickered off and on.

Our tongues entwined, smoothly touching and dancing, sensuously sliding together.

Tables crashed, noises growing louder as chairs were overturned.

Our lips meshed thoroughly, hands roaming each other's bodies. He gripped my hips, pulling me into his. A shiver of need shot through my midsection.

Yelling ensued all around us, angrily raised voices screaming with frustrated rage.

We broke apart, breathing heavily. Hearts racing. He lowered his forehead to press against mine as he kissed the tip of my nose.

Chaos encircled us. Shattering glass, liquid spilling.

"You've upset the balance," he murmured. "Come with me."

"Never," I said gently.

Glass tinkled as a bottle was crushed over a person's skull in the ensuing scuffle just a few feet away. The victim collapsed like a tree, leaving the scent of blood behind.

"Foolish," he murmured and was gone.

As usual, he left me to clean up the mess we made.

Cleanup wasn't easy. Normally easygoing patrons of the club were stunned as to what might have happened to cause such unheard of behavior. An uproar they were involved in. How did one explain they felt the bloodlust of my lover?

The vampire who couldn't have me.


It was dusk when I saw him again. The sun was no longer bright, but had cast a brilliant reddish pink glow over the horizon. The grass was green and the weather still warm, sweet smelling and clean with recent rain. I sat on a park bench, ironically waiting for the dark in the midst of all this beauty from nature.

The air was still, frozen and locked in place. That should have been the first clue.

And then he was there, standing immediately before me. A darkened shadow to block the faint glow of the sun. I'd missed him this past year, though I'd never let him know.

For all in all, he was still an evil bastard that cared nothing for humanity. And human, I was.

"I left you for a reason," I said.

"But you missed me. As much as I missed you. Last night proved it."

"Thank you for leaving me the mess," I said dryly.

"You did not need to stay with the humans. Your place is beside me."

"You decided my place was there. I decide otherwise, Ethan."

Suddenly he was down on his knees before me, pushing my legs apart to kneel between them. An intimate act, but one I viewed as a sign of possession. In spite of that, it made my heart race and my thighs quiver.

"You're allowed way too many liberties," I snapped.

He clasped my waist and pulled me to him. I tightened my legs around him, but while the movement served to keep the core of my body from touching him intimately, it also caused me to grip him with my thighs forcefully, as if I'd never let him go.

A small movement that pleasured him.

"Why can't you just let me be?" I sighed.

His smile was sardonic. "You can't be. Not without me."

I had been going about this the wrong way. I couldn't run from the man, he'd proven that much. It was time to turn the tables.

I relaxed my legs, allowing him closer access. His eyes gleamed with the intimacy, and he dropped them to my parted lips when I wet them with the tip of my tongue. "You're right. I did miss you, Ethan," I said softly. I ran a finger over his jaw, over his sensual lips. I barely touched the bottom lip with the pad of my finger.

His nostrils flared ever so slightly.

"I hunger," I whispered. "For you." I slid my fingertip into his mouth and he sucked it, pulling yearnings from deep within me. Leaning forward, I tasted his lips again. I could feel my heart pulsating as the blood pounded in my veins. His touch was exquisite and tender, loving even on days when I didn't want the love.

For some days a girl just wanted wild, wanton sex. Sex without commitments, sex to walk away from.

Without pain.

I would have had Ethan that day, that summer. A year of running away meant nothing, it melted. Faded away, along with the August sunlight. What stopped me was the sudden interruption of an Extinguisher.

Ethan sensed him as soon as I did. Whether it was the look on my face or a sharpening of his senses, I'll never know. He was whirling around even as I dematerialized.

When I re-appeared behind the Extinguisher, the armored man faded to nothing, replaced by exploding dust. Leaving me standing behind him with a nine-inch silver blade that had been plunged into the center of his heart.

It was too late for Ethan to stop his charge at the Extinguisher. It wasn't too late for him to stop the deadly strike of his fist to my own heart.

We tumbled onto the green grass behind us, him landing directly on top of me with a whoosh. Pressed groin to groin and staring into each other's eyes.

It wasn't the first time I'd saved Ethan's life. It was the first time he'd nearly staked me.

"I almost got you," he muttered, his face paper-white.

"But you didn't."

"It was close."

I smoothed a worried crease in his forehead with the light touch of a finger. "You didn't used to charge Extinguishers. It's risky. You should have run," I chided.

"I don't need to run," he said arrogantly. "I was trained by the best."

That had been me. I was the Queen of the Extinguishers one year previous.


I had been the best of the best when I met the vampire of my dreams. Ethan was my biggest challenge. The strongest vampire I'd ever been up against.

Extinguishers are humans deliberately infected with the vampire virus. Children from all social levels were regularly screened for exceptional athletic abilities, speed and strength. Bravery.

Females are especially rare for Extinguishers, since the female body is not prone to muscle mass. Not like a man's.

Humans thought it appalling that children were fed the blood of a captured vampire in order to improve their performance. But they looked the other way for the greater good of destroying the growing race of evil creatures. After all, someone had to police the stronger, more beautiful race of peoples. It was beginning to look like plain old vanilla humans were low man on the food chain, and that inspired fear. Like all prejudices, after the fear came hatred.

In any case, I, along with all cadets of that year, were taken from our homes to be fostered in a government training camp and stricken, the term for infection. Not all children survived the virus infestation; just as not all children lived to even fight their first vampire. Some succumbed to accidents within the training camp - pushed too far for our human endurance.

Too often, it was forgotten that we were human.

The lucky ones lived. Survived. Fought. I was the best - one of the originals. I served my time and now I was free.

No Extinguisher ever reached retirement. And retirement was set at a quarter of a century.

That's right. I am twenty six years old. But through experience, you can add a hundred years to that.


"Get off me," I hissed. "Or next time I'll let them stake you."

He made no move to shift except for the tiniest movement of a well formed brow. "Stake me? I am the best of the vampires. And I have battled the best of the Extinguishers. Where are we now, bella?"

I knew the point he made. Yes, I was prone under him, stretched out the way a woman should lay underneath a man. And my hackles rose when I realized it. But not for long. My leg reached out, easily flipping the dead weight on his back as I rose, straddling him.

My face was in his when I countered with, "I said get off."

He smiled. I was a fool as I realized this was his primary purpose all along. Me, straddling him, as though I intended to ride him through the night.

He reached out with a fingertip to stroke my exposed throat, trailing down to the bared skin between my breasts, and moving further to where my shortened top exposed the unnaturally tight abs from a lifetime of hard work. He skimmed the top of my waistband and his smile died as he stared at my lips.

His voice was a whisper. "This is my favorite position."

I gave up and looked deeply into his beautiful eyes. "Mine too," I admitted, and lifted myself gracefully from his firmly muscled body. Still, I fought the allure of the predator. I may not be able to kill him yet, but…give me time.

"And it should be yours," I said sweetly. "After all, that's how you once lay. Six feet under."

As I was an original Extinguisher, Ethan was an original vampire. He was older than dirt, and had originated from the dead. Dug his way from his coffin, like the old vampire fairytales. It was unheard of now-a-days, of course. Now they were just infected by each other. A virus.


But cocky doesn't become me. For it wasn't long before another mishap occurred. This time my life was saved.

By Ethan. The tables were turned.

I'd decided it was time to leave again. I'd made it an entire year without him and I wasn't sure if I wanted to go back to where I was the previous year. But until then, it was off to another nightclub.

Although with paranoia this time. Ethan's words kept popping into my head, "You unknowingly head for my own jurisdictions. There's a reason. You are mine."

But what choice did I have? I could just cross my fingers and hope I managed to miss one of his. Luck wasn't on my side.

He was there. I sighed when he snuck up on me. He reached for a lock of hair, twining it between his thumb and forefinger. It was long enough to bring to his nose to inhale the fragrance of my shampoo.

"You smell exactly the same, bella," he murmured.

"I am exactly the same."

I slowly turned around. He had on a short sleeved shirt that exposed muscular arms. His left arm was covered in tattoos, the same tattoos I knew well. A few new ones adorned his right, though it wasn't yet a sleeve.

Although there was something different about him and I'd have to study to figure out what it was. But I refused to give him the satisfaction of me staring, lusting after his body.

And lust I did, it was as uncontrollable as breathing. I resented my lack of control more than I resented his knowledge of my desires.

Yet how could I not? His chest was amazing, broad and masculine. I loved when he pulled me up against it, his hardness to my softness. My heart beat faster as I thought of it. Of how I wanted to trace each cut of muscle with my tongue, softening the harsh lines and tasting the warmth of his skin.

Somehow I craved him, like a vampire craved human blood. Yet it was opposite in my case, for he was the vampire, not I.

The air around us grew warm. Realization dawned, almost instinctual. Neither of us had to voice a warning at the intrusion. We looked directly at each other before we simultaneously ducked in perfect synchronization.

Extinguishers materialized, not ten feet away. They couldn't attack, not with human patrons in the club. But we couldn't risk it. As they made their way toward us, Ethan and I elbowed our way out the back.

We burst through the door to face the entrapment of an alleyway. A heavy metal dumpster of open trash wasn't ten feet away. We made our way to it, intending to use it as a shield.

And waited.

This was an odd skirmish. The first two burst through the door. We took them out with well-aimed knives to the chest. It was standard, trained procedure from an Extinguisher course.

Naturally, the rest of them knew those two would be taken out. They willingly sacrificed two of their own for the chance to get at us.

Extinguishers were rare. That they were willing to lose two showed their desperation. Could it be they'd banded together to take Ethan out? He'd be considered quite a prize catch. I'd always worked alone and never managed the takedown.

Of course, there was the tiny bit in me I'd never acknowledged that wasn't sure she wanted to destroy him.

Maybe they wanted the status of being the best now that I was retired. It just so happened I was with Ethan both times they attacked him and forced me to pick sides. Defend or die.

I was a little surly over my forced choice.

A foolish man morphed behind me. I broke his neck before he fully materialized, and the rest looked surprised. Apparently that was a skill of only the Originals. I'd have to keep it in mind. They retreated to various spots, but continued full frontal with the attack.

A surprise tactic, for we had been taught to retreat at losing. When it came down to it, vampires always had the upper hand on strength. Our skills were speed, cunning, and agility. The element of surprise. Yet, these Extinguishers weren't retreating. They were losing and would have no one left to morph out of here at this rate.

"Why the hell do they continue to attack?" I whispered harshly.

"You're still fighting, are you not?" Ethan asked dryly.

"They're forcing me to kill."

"Not the first time you've killed," he reasoned.

"I don't normally go after humans," I scorned.

His voice grew cold. "I never understood the reasoning. You have a license to extinguish my race with silver to the heart, but take that same blade to one of your colleagues and it's considered killing."

It was the same old argument he and I always had. The one I had no answer for.

The assassins were either better trained in the last year, or I had grown soft. A blade missed my heart, but plunged into my shoulder as I shifted a split second too late.

The Extinguisher had materialized right beside me, way too quick for me to sense him. An unheard of event, for I always sensed them first. It was what made me the best.

Ethan roared and charged, but he vanished before Ethan reached him. Instead, my lover grabbed me and morphed us both out of there even as the light dimmed from my eyes.


Chapter Two

It was a cave I awoke in. A darkened cave, good for improved night vision for those more than plain human. Hushed whispers all around me. Not a lot of body heat.

A vampire nest.

"It's awake," said a childlike voice. A tiny, fanged creature no more than six or seven, pointed at me. His father grabbed him, moving him from my reach. As if I'd harm an innocent.

I did a double take. An innocent? Surely blood loss was to blame for my brain loss.

"What are you?" the blond boy asked. "You smell like us. But you look human."

The cave was so silent, you could hear a pin drop. Until the voice of my lover rang strong. "She's an Extinguisher."

There was hissing from the shadowed corners. "You brought one here? You should have let her die."

"You will not harm her," Ethan said.

"How dare you bring an Extinguisher into our midst?"

"You forget who rules?" Ethan's voice was deadly. Silence was his answer.

"I'm an ex-Extinguisher," I said soothingly. To justify Ethan's actions. For if I were one of the vampires, I'd take me out in a heartbeat.

"She's a female. Is she the one?" I heard from the corner.

The same child inched toward me. His father reached to pull him away, but Ethan interrupted. "Let him. Trust must begin."

The boy came tentatively toward me. "You don't have fangs," he said.

"You do."

He looked at me like I was an idiot. "How else would I eat? Hey," he continued as it dawned on him. "What do you eat?"

"Food."

"Like a human?" he asked, eyes wide.

I simply nodded.

"But you can morph, like we do. Right?"

To this child, I was a scary urban legend. A nightmare parents whispered about in the dark. "Yes," I said.

"Where's your mommy and daddy?" he asked suddenly.

I shifted uncomfortably. "I don't know anymore."

"Why not?"

Ethan answered. "Because Extinguishers are taken from their parents before they are even eight years of age."

The looks on the faces of the evil creatures around me were incredulous. As if we, the humans, were the monsters.

"We are trained daily in order to have the strength to extinguish," I warranted.

"I thought you gained strength by drinking the blood of a captured vampire. One of us," one said, the bitterness evident in his voice.

I had no answer.

"At what age were you stricken, Afton?" Ethan asked quietly. He was smart. Had he demanded an answer, I would have clammed.

"Three."

"Why so young? If they are taken at eight?" another of the voices asked.

"I was one of the originals."

"Originals?"

"An experiment," Ethan countered. "You were an experiment."

"One that worked well," I reminded curtly.

"Yet one that has not been able to be re-created. They don't know what happened differently with you."

"Apparently they figured it out. I'm lying here wounded, aren't I?"

"They knew exactly how to wound you. Don't you find it curious?"

"Oh, share with me, Ethan. I'm too tired for games."

"They have your blood. They must have infected the assassin with your blood, instead of blood from a vampire. You are not used to sensing your own blood morphing in and out. Vampires are, our blood runs rampant throughout our lines. This has been planned for years, Afton. The Extinguisher in the park? He wasn't sent for me. He was there for you."

A shiver ran down my spine, icy cold and making my fingers and toes tingle. Here I thought I had been saving Ethan. Here I thought they'd let me retire.

Instead, I was being hunted like an animal.

I guess it was beneficial that I'd spent the last year underground hiding from my lover. It kept the government from finding me also.

I should have known. I should have known they had no intention of allowing my departure. Not after all the years of training. The inhumane conditions. But I'd earned retirement, dammit.

I was one of the lucky few that stayed alive.