Cursed by Rebecca Trynes Page A

impact as he crashed to the ground, his bones miraculously intact. Instead, he focused all of his energy in dragging his sorry self towards the closest doorway. The dirt beneath his fingers was dry and fragrant, sparking a distant memory about his childhood of playing on the ground and drawing circles in the powdery stuff with his fingers. The hope that he might once again be that carefree and capable enabled him to continue to inch himself forward, even though he felt as if for every inch he gained he had to rest five minutes just to make it one more. His lack of strength would have been utterly humiliating if any of the humans had been able to see him. He had never had the opportunity to test out his invisibility with the human race before, but his sister had assured him that it existed. For the moment, it seemed she was right.
    He had no idea how long it took him to claw his way through the dirt to the relative safety of someone’s home, but it must have been a decent passage of time, as he had only just made it into the darkness of the abode when he heard his brother’s voice, the male muttering something about their mother taking so long with the humans. As he lay panting with total exhaustion, he had only energy enough to make sure his brother could not see him before passing out cold.
    When next he woke it was dark and his body ached from top to toe from all the knocks it had taken since he had left home. He wondered, as he lay on the cold stone, how Katarina was faring back there, deflecting his family from going to see him—not that they regularly did. It may well be a week or more before any of them realised he was missing, especially if Katarina brought him his meals and professed his exhaustion to them.
    Movement to his right caused him to jerk in surprise, his head twitching violently towards the source of the motion. It was a human male, mid-thirties, with dark brown hair and a muscular body. The man was squatting before a fireplace, tossing a few thin pieces of timber onto the softly glowing coals. After a moment of watching the sticks alight, he tossed a few thicker pieces on and then sat back on a stool to wait.
    Greyvian’s eyes never wavered from the man as he stoked the fire and brought it roaring to life, filling the room with a warm amber glow and a slow heat that nevertheless drifted straight out of the open door in front of which he lay. He wondered if the man had given any thought to closing the door but had dismissed it due to vampire Awareness tampering. He was surprised that it worked while he was unconscious. So far, everything Katarina had told him seemed true. After a while, Greyvian realised that whilst the man may not have been consciously Aware of him, subconsciously he knew he was there as he kept frowning and looking towards the open door as if he couldn’t quite understand why he wasn’t closing it. If he could have, Greyvian would have dragged himself out of the doorway and saved them both the draft, but he could no more lift his head than roll his body from the door.
    Had he the energy to make the human Aware? Did he dare?
    Minutes ticked by as he debated with himself over the matter. Finally, he decided to give it a try. Alas, raising Awareness was beyond him at the moment. No matter how much energy he put into wishing himself visible to the man, nothing happened.
    Sinking back against the cold stone, he felt numb. Numb in body, numb in mind. He had come to the village to test a theory that human blood could be his cure, but if he hadn’t the energy to move from a doorway, how was he supposed to see it through? All he could do was long for the sweet embrace of death, to finally have his pitiful existence relegated to the pages of history, no longer a reality, only a sad tale that the others of his kind could frighten their children with when they misbehaved.
    When would it happen? How long would it take?
    Depressed beyond measure, he closed his eyes and drifted for what seemed