Though this is an action adventure, fun YA story, it contains trace horror elements of a dangerous world. I thought I might give an excerpt from one of the few chapters that bring home the dangers of the vampire world.
Vampire Babies Are Deadly
While the girls
slept, trouble brewed during the nightly feedings in the nursery.
Mira, a thirty-five year old woman, was alone with the three babies.
She was an expert at feeding, and often fed two at once with no
issues. Tonight she fed the first two simultaneously in their cribs
while singing to them. When they finished their bottles she picked
them up and put them back into their incubators one at a time.
Mira went to the
last baby, Jessie, who needed changing first. She changed her diaper
and sang to her as she sat her in the crib. Jessie was a bit gassy so
Mira put her over her shoulder quickly and patted her on her small
back. Jessie threw up a little bit on her shoulder so Mira put her
back down. Mira took off her jacket and laid it over a chair so she
could check her blouse to see if it needed changing. Satisfied there
was no problem with her blouse, she went back to playing with Jessie
before giving her a bottle. Jessie took half the bottle before
turning her head and throwing up, requiring another pat on her back.
Jessie saw the jacket and the crest and cooed as she was being rocked
by her caregiver. Without thinking, Mira lifted her and kissed her
and put her over her left shoulder. From this position Jessie could
no longer see the jacket or the crest. Being next to Mira’s neck
she felt her pulse and smelled her warm blood.
As Jessie listened
to Mira’s pounding pulse and smelled her blood, her once-green eyes
darkened to a reddish-brown. As Mira rocked and sang to her, Jessie’s
little arms began stretching and wrapping around the woman’s neck.
When her hands reached each other, the baby’s fingers interlocked
and fused. This fusing made an unbreakable wrap around Mira’s neck.
Jessie opened her mouth, shifted to get a better focus – and closed
gently on the woman’s neck, sealing Jessie’s lips tight upon her.
Her suckers protruded, moved carefully and gently to the woman’s
skin, and extended a tiny black needle. With a gentle prick, they
pierced Mira’s skin.
It happened with
little resistance from Mira because she barely felt the punctures.
Jessie’s body worked on instinct and began first pumping a
hallucinogenic toxin into Mira’s system that gave her feelings of
joy and happiness. She continued to sing and rock the baby with no
warning that her life was about to be drained from her body. Nor did
she notice as Jessie began sucking the blood from her neck and the
arms of the little baby tightening their grip.
Like a tic or a
leech, a small stream of blood flowed into Jessie’s mouth, down her
esophagus to her stomach, which became darker and redder as it
filled. After a couple pints her round belly expanded so it could
take in more blood. Now
Mira
began to feel the effects.
Mira’s euphoria
suddenly vanished. It was replaced by dizziness. Fighting confusion,
Mira gathered her wits, and realized – too late – what had
happened. She tried to push the baby away from her chest but it was
locked around her neck and would not move. She panicked, started
screaming – but she was alone. She hit at the baby and tried
desperately, fruitlessly, to pry it off. Each time she pulled the
baby, it came back to her, tightening its grip like a constrictor.
With her strength
draining and her breathing being choked off, she collapsed to the
floor and passed out after a few more minutes of futile struggling.
Once she slipped into an unconscious state, the baby released her
stranglehold and fed from her neck freely. The baby’s belly grew
bigger and resembled that of a pregnant woman in her ninth month.
Slowly her legs started expanding and growing longer; they turned
darker as blood spread from her stomach into her limbs. Mira’s body
seemed to deflate and crumble as the engorged infant continued to
feed. By the time Mira’s heart gave its last beat, Jessie had
doubled in size.
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