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Vampyre Productions:
THE VALKYRIE
by
Mandy M. Roth
© copyright May 2004, Mandy M. Roth
Cover art by Eliza Black, © copyright May 2004
New Concepts Publishing
5202 Humphreys Rd.
Lake Park, GA 31636
www.newconceptspublishing.com
Dedication
To my husband Shane:
You've never once questioned what I do, and you've answered my questions about vampires with a smile on your face. There aren't enough words to thank you for overwhelming show of support. I love you will have to suffice. Thank for all that you do, and for three beautiful little boys.
Chapter 1
"What do you want to eat tonight?" my roommate, Molly, yelled from the other side of the bathroom door. Her voice was so soft that getting it loud enough for me to hear over the blow dryer took some skill. I clicked it off and flipped my head back up. Black hair fell down my back, over my shoulders, and covered my face. I had to run my fingers through it all to be able to see. It was long now and in need of a cut, but it had been longer once. Five years ago, my hair had hung to the back of my knees, or so I'd been told.
"Pizza or Chinese?" Molly pounded harder this time.
"Pizza sounds good," I yelled back.
I finished running the brush through my hair and gave one last quick check. I had debated putting on some light eye makeup, because after the last time Molly and I went out dancing I looked like I'd been through a war, or about to say "I do" to Frankenstein. Either way, eye makeup and dancing didn't mix in my world.
I don't care what the manufacturers say, no mascara is run proof. I didn't feel like playing tarantula eyes again tonight, so I opted for just lip gloss. Besides, I'd been blessed with turquoise eyes and thick dark black lashes. Most people who saw me asked where I purchased my contacts. I finally gave up trying to convince them that my eyes were really this color and just started making up names of fictitious contact manufactures. My favorite to date was still the Stickitinure Iris Company, or pronounced slower, stick it in your iris company.
Molly pounded on the door again. "Valerie, I called down to Joey's, he's refusing to deliver to us," she said, on the verge of panic. She fell into her best impersonation of Joe, the Pizza shop guy's, voice. "You wanna eat, you come on down here and kiss the cook, or if you're feelin' frisky you could do a little somethin' else." I laughed. Molly had managed to get Joey down pretty good. "I can't believe the nerve of that guy."
I buttoned up my jeans and pulled the fitted cotton shirt over my head. "When are you going to stop trying to order from him?" I didn't need to hear her answer, I knew why. She loved the attention Joey gave her. The two of them had been flirting with each other since I'd known her.
Joey was a great single guy who'd gone so far as to send flowers to the hospital where Molly works, as a nurse, to apologize for her food being late once. In fact, the first time I'd ever met Molly she'd been carrying flowers for me from Joey. I didn't know who the hell Joey was, but he'd heard Molly talking about me and wanted to pass along his well wishes. Since, apparently, nobody else did. It didn't bother me any. My first few weeks in the hospital were a complete blur. It wasn't until my third month that I caught on that the only people who visited me were hospital employees. No friends or family ever showed up to see me.
The only information I had to go on came from Molly. She'd been in the emergency room when the ambulance brought me in. She told me about the terrible shape I'd been in when I'd arrived. To this day, my doctors tell me that it's a miracle that I not only survived my injuries, but also show no signs of having ever sustained them.
Nearly every bone in my body had been broken, and everyone thought for sure that brain damage was inevitable. After all, the police report said I was assaulted, left for dead in the center of the highway, and then struck by a car. The driver of the car had been convinced that he'd killed me, but I pulled through. It only took me four months to heal. Molly said it was impossible. She said that no one could heal from injuries like that. I guess she was wrong.
Molly was bothered by my lack of visitors while in the hospital. The newspapers had splashed my story all over the headlines, but no one came forth with knowledge of my identity. I was little help. I couldn't even remember how I'd gotten to the hospital.
Molly was my only link to the events of the night I arrived in her care. She could only tell me that I'd been wearing a short skirt and a leather bra that was so soaked with blood she couldn't be sure what color it had originally been.
I can't say that I was no help to the doctors. I knew my name, but that was it. They said that was common for someone who had sustained injuries as bad as mine. I had no choice but to accept their word.
Molly and I had hit it off right from the start. She was shorter than me, which made her damn near microscopic. Being five foot five inches had me on the short end of the stick. Molly was at least two inches shorter. She was also very dainty. The most she'd ever weighed in her life had been one hundred pounds, which made my one hundred and fifteen pounds seem like a lot. Molly seemed to think my breasts alone weighed at least ten pounds. I couldn't argue there. They were rather on the large side. Borrowing clothes was definitely out of the question. That may be why being roommates worked out so well.
I had nowhere to go upon my release from the hospital, and Molly was desperate to get a bigger place. On one salary, she couldn't afford to move out of the tiny apartment that she'd been sharing with six other nurses for over a year. I had no job, but money never seemed to be a problem for me. An anonymous donor, who read about me in the paper, set up a trust fund, so to speak, for me. It more than covered my hospital bills. The donor was very specific that this money was to be used to help me 'start a new life'.
"You about done in there?" Molly shouted.
I slid my black sandals on and opened the bathroom door. Molly stood there wearing one of the shortest shirts known to man. If she bent over, I was sure that everyone around her would get a free peep show. Her top wasn't much better. She had on a tiny white shirt that was unbuttoned. Her very black and lacy bra showed through. I shot her a look. She buttoned two buttons and stuck out her tongue. Away from work she dressed like a hooker and seemed proud of it.
"You look easy," I said, smiling at her as I walked past. She gave a little snort and walked into the bathroom.
"Yeah, and you look like you need to get laid." I heard her rumbling through my makeup bag. I didn't care. She could have whatever she wanted. "Speaking of getting laid, have you talked to Dr. Sullivan lately?" She knew damn well that I had. She'd been the one to call me at work to tell me that I'd missed my appointment with him.
"Grow up," I said, and headed out to the kitchen to grab some cash out of my cookie jar. I know, not very original, but it looked good in the movies. Molly came out of the bathroom with more cleavage than she'd gone in with. I had no doubt that two-ply tissue was her new best friend.
"I'll grow up, if you tell me what's going on with you two," she yelled back. She seemed intent on making Dr. Sullivan and me an item. He was in his early thirties and handsome as hell, I'd give him that. But, he had seen me broken and bruised. He'd been one of the doctors who'd saved my life. I never felt comfortable enough around him to accept his offers of coffee or dinner. He and Molly were good friends so avoiding him was an issue.
"Nothing is going on with us, and yeah I talked to him today. His receptionist sent me back to him as soon as I called. He read me the riot act about not coming in and then he had to go." I was shocked that he'd let me off the hook that easily. It wasn't like Dr. Sullivan to let things go. "You know, he's normally got a mouthful to say to me."
Molly's light blue eyes lit up. "Well, hmm, maybe he'll get a chance to talk with you more tonight." I glared at her. Blond and cute could get her far with the guys, but it wasn't going to save her from me.
"What the hell are you up to?"
She gave me her best 'who me?' look, and I threw my hands in the air and gave up. There was no use fighting it. I was sure she'd arranged to meet with him later. At least she'd given me a heads up.
Vampyre Productions:
VALHALLA
The Valkyrie Beginnings
Mandy M. Roth
© copyright July 2004, Mandy M. Roth
Cover art by Eliza Black, © copyright July 2004
New Concepts Publishing
5202 Humphreys Rd.
Lake Park, GA 31636
www.newconceptspublishing.com
Dedication:
To the 'manuscript crisis management group' consisting of Michelle, Jaycee, Ellen, Andrea, Jaide, and Cyndy, thank you for your quick responses to my frantic emails and for listening to me babble on the phone endlessly. I bet you're sorry you gave me your numbers now. I can't thank you all enough. I'm enjoying every minute of our wild ride.
To Pennie and Angie for all they do to help behind the scenes and for not laughing at my silly mistakes. And to the readers who I hope enjoy this installment of Valerie's story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thank you all so much!
Warning: This story contains mature situations, graphic violence, strong language, explicit sex, the loss of child, and a woman's love for multiple men. It is not intended for the faint of heart.
Chapter 1
"Linnea, really now, do you have to carry on like that? I'm not asking you to end world hunger. I'm asking you to up your quota."
I looked over at my mother sitting by the window dressed in only a two-piece brown suede bikini and wondered how long it had been since she'd been out in the field. She didn't look a day over thirty-five, and had a body that any woman would kill for, but she'd long since given up leaving Valhalla. The elders tell me that once my mother had been their greatest warrior princess, she'd retrieved more souls than any other Valkyrie ever had, but gave that all up when she became pregnant with me. I used to ask her why she gave up the way of our people, but she never answered me.
"Linnea, these are desperate times. The Apocalypse is fast approaching and we need to be prepared to fight evil." She looked at me with eyes so blue that I often wondered how I was hers. My turquoise eyes were a far cry from her deep navy blue. "You know that you have the gift that is needed in this battle. Use it and bring forth more warriors for our cause."
"I've told you before that it's not right to steal men away from the battle fields only to make them fight for our cause. Most are there fighting for their own reasons, families, land-freedom!"
She gave me a look that told me that she was beyond sick of arguing with me about this. "Our cause is the cause of all men. If the Apocalypse is allowed to come then all mankind shall perish. So you see our fight is their fight too."
I gave in, as I usually did. She was right, but I'd never admit that. Instead I turned my attentions elsewhere. I looked over her shoulder, out onto the grassy knoll where many of the men I'd been collecting over the last two years stood training. I'd broken one of the rules that Valkyrie women were supposed to follow, I had become their friend. I took an interest in their day to day lives and training. I even joined in and sparred with them when time allowed.
I seemed to make angering the elders an art and I didn't care. The elders couldn't continue on their mission without me. Their ways were becoming obsolete and their new targets were too much for any of them to handle. Evil had decided to start playing with the big boys and were rumored to be recruiting the worst of the worst from the supernatural gene pool. We were still pulling brave mortal men off the battlefields. We could offer them immortality, but that was all. We could not make them any stronger than they already were. We could train them to fight better and faster, but that was it.
"Mother, why are we not allowed to share a bed with the men that we bring back?" I asked, with one man in particular on my mind, again.
"Linnea, you know why. We cannot allow a man that resides here to have that much power. Should you become pregnant then they would be eligible to sit upon the board of elders and that can never be."
I looked out at Beau, one of the commanders I'd brought back from the Middle East conflict, as he honed his sword wielding abilities. He'd been working hard and was now sweating enough for me to see it from here. The sun hit his tanned back and seemed to reflect off his skin. I wanted to know what it was like to run my fingers over his muscles, and to lick the sweat from his tight body. I had yet to know the touch of a man, and Beau made me feel like I was missing out on something spectacular.
My mother touched my hand and smiled. "Do not lie with any of these men. Go among the mortals and find a man that catches your fancy, bed him, and leave him. Never look back, because if you do you will see how fragile human lives are. Never get attached to only one male, just keep moving, trust me on this."
"I know, Mother, you're right."
She brought my hand to her lips. "Are you ready for this?"
"Am I ready to go in search of men who possess supernatural gifts? Yes. Am I ready to battle the evil that will try to beat me to them? Not really, but I don't have much of a choice do I? The battles are harder to win now, our men are skilled, but they can't compete against demons of the vampire caliber."
She shook her head. "No, they can't compete, I agree. It was a wise decision you made to go in search of gifted warriors. I still don't understand how you sense them, but it's good that you do. Where are you headed first?"
"First stop is Scotland, the Highlands to be exact. My dreams whispered to me and I checked into them. There are rumors about a man there that possesses enormous strength and the gift to read minds. He's also a warrior. I can't go wrong with that."
"Sounds promising but be careful. I still think you should take a team with you."
"I can't risk any more men. We've lost enough already. Besides, the dark ones will be watching for large groups moving through the portals. They won't be alarmed if it's just one person, and I need all the advantage I can get."
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