Vampire Nation 1: Titan's Story Read online

  Titan’s Story

  by

  Joe Fowler

  Also by this author:

  The Josh Thorne Trilogy

  The Demon Heritage of Josh Thorne (1st book)

  Vampire Outbreak (2nd book)

  Witch Problems (3rd book)

  Losers vs. Zombies

  Having Fun With Side Effects

  Guarding the Door

  Vampire Nation Series

  Titan Rising (2nd book)

  Titan Rules (3rd book)

  Titan’s Story

  Copyright© 2015 Joe Fowler

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not

  be used or reproduced in any manner without the express written

  permission of the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity to real persons, living or

  dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Epilogue

  About this Book

  Chapter 1

  I sat on the edge of my bed. As tired as I was, I knew I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep. Two hours wasn’t enough rest but it was the way my life had gotten. I was broke. My job was crappy. No social life to speak of anymore. Now, for the past two months, I had trouble sleeping more than a few hours at a time. I stood up to get started on another shitty day in my life. I wished for things to change.

  I plopped down on my couch with a sandwich in hand. The regular morning debate of TV or not TV, began in my head. Not TV won. I ate my sandwich in peace.

  My neighbors interrupted my peaceful interlude when they rose to start their day. The walls were paper thin in my apartment building. I could hear their normal conversations from my couch. Since my neighbors were always cheerful, I turned the TV on.

  How could you be cheerful all the time the way they were? It didn’t make sense to me. Their life couldn’t be that good. They lived in one of these rundown apartments for one thing. Just knowing you would hear each of your neighbor’s farts should dampen your spirits. I shook my head in wonder as I flipped through the channels.

  The clock on the cable box showed 7:15AM. I wouldn’t need to be at work until 3:00PM. I went through the possibilities for wasting the time in between.

  The problem was money, or more to the point, the lack of money. I was stuck washing dishes for a roadside diner. It was the only available job in this town that I was qualified for. I looked for something new on a regular basis. I applied for any job that looked like I might have a chance at getting. Still, for over a year now, I had a shift of washing dishes ahead of me.

  With no money to waste, the TV was my only option. Some days I went for a walk to kill some time. I wasn’t in the mood today.

  I scratched my three days growth of beard. I would have to shave. My boss loved to yell at me for anything he could find fault with. What a jerk. He was miserable and loved making sure everyone else was miserable as well.

  So this was how my day went. This was the way most of my days went. This was the last time my day would go this way.

  “Hey, Ethan. Welcome back to hell.” Cindy said. She was a kindred spirit. She hated this place as much as I did. At least as a waitress, she got tips.

  “Hey, Cindy. How’s Tommy?” I asked. She had a great four year old kid. I always enjoyed it when I got to see him. He called me Uncle Ethan.

  “Energetic. I spent all day trying to get him to sit down for a few minutes so I could rest. He gets into everything making me run from place to place to stop him from breaking stuff. I don’t know how my mom does it. She takes care of him with no problem.” Cindy was smiling the whole time. She was tired but she really loved her son.

  “She has more experience. You were probably the same way when you were that age.” I reminded her.

  “I don’t remember ever being tha--” She was cut off by our boss.

  “I don’t pay you two to stand around and talk. Now get to work!” He shouted before going into his little office and slamming the door. Sharon, the other waitress, walked between Cindy and me to clock herself in. Carl, the cook, was already busy but stopped to have a laugh at us. He was a mean old bastard who got a kick out of the rest of us getting yelled at.

  With ‘what can you do?’ smiles for each other, Cindy and I went to work.

  By the time the shift was nearing its end, at 10:40, my back was killing me and I was exhausted from lack of sleep. I listened out as best I could for the bell over the door to the diner. If it didn’t signal the entrance of new customers, then I might get to leave on time. I was usually at least fifteen minutes late each night finishing up the dishes. Of course, I never got paid for the extra time.

  At seemingly the last moment, the bell went off. I closed my eyes and hoped it would only be one or two people at most. I turned and looked out at the dining area to see the four of them taking a seat.

  Two men and two women were giving Cindy their drink orders as they were handed their menus. They were all very pale and extremely well dressed. I got a chill for some reason I couldn’t explain. I shrugged and went back to the dishes.

  I was just finishing with the dishes I had in front of me when I heard a plate break in the dining area. I winced knowing Cindy would be charged for the cost of the plate. I was just putting the now clean dishes where they belonged when I heard the first shout.

  “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” My boss’s voice grated on my nerves even when he wasn’t yelling at me. His yell was quickly followed by a grunt and a thud. I thought briefly of seeing what was going on but decided against it.

  I was about to return to my station for another load of clean dishes to put away, when I was grabbed from behind. She was a few inches shorter than my 5’11 frame. I became momentarily confused by how strong this woman was that she could overpower me the way she did. I didn’t have long to figure it out since she was biting my throat in the next breath.

  What happened next was a confusing mix of images. It was like I was in and out of consciousness. One moment I was falling but blacked out before I hit the floor. The next moment had her wrist at my mouth. That was followed by the feel of floating which turned out to be getting carried by this woman. The last image I had of that night was the trunk of a car being closed on me.

  Chapter 2

  I woke to a dark room. Amazingly, I could still see everything. I could see things even better. How was this possible?

  I thought to go to the door, and I was there. I had the sensation of moving but it wasn’t like moving should be. You shouldn’t be able to cover twelve feet of distance in a split second. I grabbed the doorknob and tried to turn it but it was locked. I turned a bit harder and the knob broke off in my hand.

  Anger and confusion filled me. The anger was from being confined. I had always hated that. The confusion was growing by leaps and bounds. I slammed my hand against the steel door and watched in stunned disbelief as the door fl
ew off its hinges into the wall on the other side of the hallway outside my room.

  I heard footsteps approaching at an incredible rate of speed. Two men appeared in front of me. I heard their footsteps so I knew they had run but the sudden appearance still shocked me. I watched their super-fast movements in disbelief even though I had just done the same when I left the bed to go to the door.

  “Good, you are awake. Looks like you will have strength. That might be good enough for a few rounds anyway.” The speaker was a tall, well built, black man. His voice was incredibly deep and a little menacing.

  “That depends on how much speed he will have to go with it. Strength is good, speed is better.” The other man said. He was my size. Around 5’11 and between one hundred eighty and one hundred ninety pounds.

  “What’s your name, Newbie?” The black man asked.

  “Ethan. Where am I and who are you people?” I asked. I looked from one to the other and saw their smirks.

  “Well, Ethan, I am Trog and this is Speedy. You can stop referring to us as people though. You are no longer among the living. Congratulations, you have become an immortal.” The black man was laughing as he told me these things. Speedy was laughing with him.

  “You will be immortal until you lose one of your fights anyway. Vampires don’t have the glamorous life the movies think we do. Come, Arria will want to speak with you.” Speedy said as he stepped to the side indicating I should walk with them.

  “Do I have a choice?”

  “Nope.” Trog said with a smile.

  Trog led the way with Speedy following behind me. We followed the dimly lit hallway we were in to where it met up with a series of other corridors. Trog led us through several turns to a stairwell. I was having trouble identifying what kind of place this was. The walls were a dull green color. The floor was old scuffed hardwood. This couldn’t be a hotel or house by the industrial feel but it didn’t make sense to be a warehouse or business with hallways leading to rooms like you would see in a hotel. My confusion grew.

  We went up the stairs for two flights where the stairwell ended. There were two doors on opposite sides of the landing. The same dull green walls were without windows or decoration of any kind. When Trog opened one of the doors, light flooded in. Again, there was a hotel feel as the huge room on the other side of the door brought to mind the lobby of one of those expensive hotels. At least that’s the way it seemed to me. There were several couches and chairs, all looked pricey. The chandeliers must have cost a fortune. Thick red carpet covered the floor.

  At the center point of the room, a group of people sat around in what looked to be amiable conversation. Some were smiling as the woman in the center talked. I was amazed to find that I could hear them! We were fifty feet away and it was obvious that the woman was speaking in a conversational tone.

  “…He never messed with us again.” Her final statement brought polite laughter from her audience. She turned to watch us approach. The people with her turned to watch as well. I felt my first prickling of fear then. For all the confusion since I woke up, this was the first time I felt like I was in real danger.

  “Arria, this is Ethan, your new fighter.” Trog said as he motioned me forward. I moved forward to stand where she could see me better. “He knocked his door into the wall across the hallway so I would think it safe to say that strength will be his gift.”

  Arria stood and approached me. She was looking me over like I was a new car she was thinking about buying. Her appraising stare was making me uncomfortable. She walked a full circle around me without saying anything.

  I couldn’t help but be taken by her beauty. She had long black hair and perfect features. I realized that she was the one who had bitten me at the diner. My jaw clenched when this memory hit me. This woman was the cause of my being here.

  “You sure are nice to look at. It seems a shame that you probably won’t last in the fights. Strength is good, but it doesn’t help when you are against some of the gifts of others. We will see.” Arria finished her inspection and dismissed us with a wave of her hand. “Take him to the donor room and get him something to eat. His fight starts in two hours.”

  Speedy grabbed my arm and led me away from Arria. Trog followed along. We went back down the hallways to a ‘dining’ area. There were a dozen people strapped to chairs with vampires drinking from their wrists. I was led to a woman in her mid to late twenties who was terrified. Her eyes grew larger when she realized she was about to be fed upon like the other humans in the room. Speedy urged me into a chair beside the woman.

  “Drink. You will know when you’ve had enough.” Speedy stated coldly.

  “What if she dies? Where did these people come from? Are they willing or were they made to be here?” These questions and more went through my mind.

  “They are the people that won’t be missed. Some of Arria’s vampires go round up a bunch of humans that won’t cause a fuss when they turn up missing. All the old ones do this.” Trog told me.

  “That is horrible! What if I kill her?” I hated the idea of what I was being forced into.

  “What about it? She is food. If she lives, we will feed on her tomorrow night. If she dies, we will dump her body into the incinerator and find a new donor.”

  When she heard this, the woman went into a state of shock. Her eyes glazed over and she sat motionless. I hesitated even though I felt the overwhelming need for blood. I sat warring with myself for a few moments before Trog interrupted my inner turmoil.

  “If you don’t feed, you will be weaker during your fight and will probably die. You may die anyway but you should give yourself a fighting chance.” Trog lifted the woman’s wrist to my mouth and the smell of the blood in her veins made my teeth shift in my mouth. I knew it was my fangs dropping so I could use them for the bite.

  I could see her memories with every mouthful of blood I drank. It was breaking my heart. From her childhood to her own children, I saw it all as I drank. The need within me forced me to continue even though I hated the taste. I could feel her breaking point coming. Something in me knew when it would be too much blood loss for her to recover from. I made myself stop before I killed her. I felt like I needed more blood but I wouldn’t kill her like this.

  “Oh Lord, it looks like we have another bleeding heart on our hands.” Speedy was laughing at me. Surprisingly, Trog looked a little sad.

  “Well, he drank enough anyway. Come on Ethan, we need to get you ready for your fight now. You need to know what you’ve become a part of.” Trog said, as he led me away from the dining area.

  We followed a series of hallways in this maze. All of the halls were just like the ones we had been through before. Same dull green paint with scuffed hardwood floors. I realized I hadn’t seen a window since I woke up. Being a vampire, I figured it was night but I hadn’t seen a clock either. I followed along still struggling with what I was turned into when the hallway opened up into a large room.

  The walls here were bright red. The room itself was huge, even bigger than the lobby type room where Arria sat with her friends.

  There were more vampires than I could easily count in this room. This seemed to be a training area. There were vampires sparring with each other. When we entered the room, quite a few turned to see the newcomer. They stared at me as if they were sizing me up.

  I was trying to avoid their gazes as much as I could when I met a set of familiar eyes. Cindy was here. She gave me a slight nod which earned her a shove from her trainer. I took a step in her direction but Trog grabbed me and held me back.

  “You can’t help her. She is like you now. She will have her own fight tonight. The two of you will not be allowed to talk amongst yourselves unless you both live through your first three fights. By then you will see the futility in trying to run and you will be granted more freedom. Even then it is unlikely. She is not one of Arria’s.” Trog explained.

  “Why are we being made to fight? If you already have all of these vampires, why aren’t they the one
s fighting?” I asked.

  “The old ones like to wager. They came up with this system centuries ago. There are ten fights you will potentially have before you earn your freedom. You will face someone equal in each round. Your first fight will be against another first timer, your second fight against a second for someone else, and so on. I am on the sixth level now. Speedy has his ninth fight tonight.” He spoke with no emotion up to that point. The next was almost spit out. “The old ones don’t really care about the first or second level fights at all. They only hold them so they will continue to have the main fights afterwards. Sometimes they don’t have a second rounder or a fifth rounder because their own lost in an earlier level. Arria has all but a fourth rounder at the moment. She has been very lucky lately. We’ll have to see how you will do.”

  “How many old ones are there that take part in these fights?” It seemed like there were at least sixty vampires in this room.

  “Who knows? There could be hundreds, even thousands of them that put these teams together. I do know that tonight is going to be a big night. There will be seven old ones here. I’m getting excited just thinking about it.” Speedy earned a sneer from Trog since Speedy’s back was turned. The sneer was gone when Speedy turned back to us. “Now, we have to see a little of what you can do. From your door, we know you have tremendous strength. Let’s see if you have any other skills.”

  Speedy and Trog led me to an empty mat. Each mat was approximately twenty feet by twenty feet. Speedy was squaring off against me when Trog stepped in between.

  “I need to explain it more before he starts.” Trog began. Speedy’s impatience showed with a grunt and a shake of the head. Trog turned to me and continued, “Each new vampire is gifted in one way. Whether it is strength, speed, flying, mind reading, invisibility, illusions, or something completely different. You will never know until you face off with your opponent what his abilities are. You need to learn to prepare yourself for anything. Being aggressive can help. If you attack well enough early on, you can nullify many of your opponent’s gifts. Now Speedy will attack you and you need to defend yourself as best you can.”