Family Blood | Chapter 1

     The nightmare was always the same.
     He stood in a large cave at night with soldiers around him.  He gripped his sword in his meaty hand as orders were issued and men started fighting.  The creatures rallied against them, coming out of the darkness of the cave with a force and vigor that both frightened and awed him.  All that naked power, now unleashed, was both beautiful and frightening.
     They crawled out of stone and from the roof, from the corners of hard packed earth and from the structures they lived in with deadly efficiency.  They hissed and moved closer ready for battle, eager to spill blood with fangs and claws.
     The vampires were massing.
     She was there.
     Her slender face was framed by long blond hair and her dark eyes looked out in terror as she hunted for a place to run, someplace to hide away from the battle that waged all around her, someplace where she could forget about the dangers that circled her on all sides.
     "Christina!" he shouted.
     She turned toward his voice eagerly searching for it when a river of flame coughed and spewed forth, cascading between them.  The winding inferno cut a wide swath of heat, smoke, and noxious fumes that drove them apart.  The river of flames snaked across the cave dividing them.  He and the soldiers were on one side.  Standing with her hands pressed together on the other side, in her white dress, all alone, her face a portrait of fear, stood Christina rooted to the spot.
     Alone with the vampires.
     More shouts.  
     She turned toward him, her eyes searching for his voice.    He saw the brooch pinned to her white dress.  His heart thumped inside his chest and then she locked eyes with him.
     She stopped moving, her eyes pleading for help.
     "Christina!"
     Something hard and metallic struck him in the head and he went down, a sharp pain exploding over and over again with each movement, with each breath, as he hit the ground.  His head felt on fire and his eyes stung from the smoke.  He pushed away the pain, tears coming to his eyes, streaming down his face.  He grunted.  He pushed back from the ground and climbed slowly to his feet.  He took several ragged breaths and steadied himself on the back of his heels, his boots firmly planted in the earth,  his fists balled up as he did so.