Corr's Forgiveness (Chaetdorian Mates Book 1) Read online

  Corr’s

  Forgiveness

  By E.M Reders

  Copyright

  All rights reserved by author

  Copyright©2016 by E.M Reders

  Cover Art by E.M Reders

  Published by E.M. Reders

  This is a work of fiction

  Corr’s Forgiveness is a work of fiction and all characters, events and dialogue found within this story are of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to real persons, living or deceased, is purely coincidental.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Prologue

  Vampires are a myth, right? A story told to scare children - and the occasional adult - at night?

  Well, not exactly.

  Vampires are real, though they are not exactly what you think they are. Do they drink blood? Yes. Are they allergic to sunlight? Yes. Do they live forever? Well, no actually. But they do live for a very long time. But the reasons for these are not because they are the undead. They are, in fact, very much alive. They’re just not from this planet.

  You see many centuries ago, the planet Chaetdor was destroyed and the survivors of that planet set out on a mission to find themselves a new home. Earth was never part of the plan. A primitive world with little technology and a sun that was harmful to the Chaetdorian body. When there was a fault with the ship they had no choice but to land on the foreign planet and hope that they could fix the problem quickly, so they could continue on their journey. That did not happen. The fault was worse than they had first thought and had caused them to crash during landing, seriously damaging their vessel. With the lack of technology on earth at that time, they were stuck. They hid their craft and adapted with their new world in order to survive.

  There were just two problems. One, they were highly sensitive to the earth's sun, meaning that they could only venture out at night. And two, in order to maintain a humanoid appearance they needed to consume human blood. Stories of large, handsome, pale men with fangs soon spread, and the myth of the vampire was born.

  But now, it is time for them to leave…

  Chapter 1

  Corr was having the most wonderful dream. He was back on his home world, the blue moon beating down upon his back, the ocean breeze caressing his flesh, as he placed the last tile upon the roof of the house he had spent moons building. Climbing up onto the roof, he cast his gaze out over the world he loved so much, excited that now his home was complete, he could set out to the stars and find his true half and bring her back to the loving home he had built for her. The ship was ready. He and his brothers would be setting off within the next moon cycle.

  Everything was perfect... If only it was real.

  The ringing of his phone pulled him from the dream, dragging him back to a reality where his home world was nothing but dust far out in space and all hope of ever finding his true half had been lost long ago.

  Grabbing the annoying device from the table beside the bed, he snapped, "What?" It was still daylight outside. He could feel the sun’s terrible rays even deep underground.

  "We have it," Hex shouted over the noise of machinery in the background. The young Techno was more than likely in his workshop building some strange contraction. Corr wasn’t sure what half of the stuff Hex built was, but the young Chaetdor insisted that everything he built had a very important purpose and would no doubt save all their lives in the future. And maybe they would… if they ever got of this rock.

  "Have what? Listen, I'm really not in the mood for this today. Call me back when it’s-"

  "Will you just shut up a minute and listen. We have the last component needed to fix the ship!"

  Diving out of bed, Corr rushed around grabbing clothes and any other item he did not want to leave behind. He may hate earth with a passion but he had picked up a few items over the centuries that he was quite fond of and didn’t want to lose.

  “You better not be lying to me.” In the early days they had all pulled that trick, laughing their heads off as their brothers rushed around. After a while, when they realised they would be stuck upon the planet for much longer than they had hoped, all jokes had stopped, and depression had sunk in. If it wasn’t for their beliefs, Corr was sure that a few of them would have taken their own lives during the wait.

  “I promise you, this is no joke. Get your arse down here now.”

  It didn’t take long to sneak through the underground tunnels and make his way to the secret location that had held their ship for the past eight centuries. The large underground bunker and the secret tunnels that led to it, had taken them almost a full century to complete before they'd stashed their broken ship within it. So in total, they had been stuck on earth for almost nine whole centuries! Why out of all the planets to crash land on they had to pick this one, he didn’t know, but there was nothing he could do to change the past.

  Walking out of the tunnel entrance and into the wide open space that surrounded the ship, Corr smiled. The place was a buzz of activity, all of his brothers having been contacted and ordered back to the ship. This was it. It really was time to go home… Okay, so not home exactly. Their home had been lost so long ago now that Corr only remembered it in his dreams. And even then he wasn’t sure he remembered it correctly.

  Nodding in greeting to those that crossed his path, Corr made his way up into the ship and headed straight to the control deck. He was in no doubt that he would find Teks, his friend and commander there, nose deep in star charts.

  “How long we talking?” he asked the second the doorway opened to him.

  He had been right. Teks was stood at the large navigation panel flicking through star charts so fast that Corr wasn’t sure if his friend was taking any of it in.

  It took a few moments, but finally, Teks acknowledged his arrival and turned to face him. Instantly his heart plummeted at the look upon Teks' face. He wasn’t excited and smiling like everyone else that Corr had passed on the way here. If anything, Teks was more stressed out than Corr had ever seen him before. What was wrong?

  “Another day or two, at least.”

  Well, he guessed it was better than nothing. It would have only taken them a few earth days to repair the ship had the planet been more evolved with its technology. Instead, they had spent centuries waiting for the components and materials they needed to fix the ship to be invented. They helped to give the human race a little push every now and again but Teks had decided that it would be far too risky for them to outright help to humans. Too many questions would be asked. So they had waited and waited… and waited. What was another day or two?

  “Then what's wrong?”

  Shaking his head, his friend smiled, but Corr could tell that it was forced. “It's nothing, I'm sure.”

  Corr didn’t buy it but let it drop, for now. “So what’s the plan?”

  “We prepare. Hex is making the final repairs as we speak. While he is busy doing that I have given every tribe a different task to complete.”

  “Like what?”

  “Gathering supplies mostly. Making sure we have everything we could possibly need in case this should ever happen again.”

  If it did Corr doubted any of them would remain sane enough to survive the centuries of waiting a second time. They were lucky as it was that they had a vastly longer lifespan than humans. The eldest Chaetdorian on record, before their home world had been destroyed, had been over seven thousand moons. One moo
n was the same as five earth years.

  “I have the Technos gathering equipment and materials that may come in useful in the future. The Warriors are to patrol the surrounding area and keep all human life away from the area should they see anything we do not want them to. And Torq and his tribe are working on the special dietary supplies we need for the journey. What I want you to do, before you join the rest of the Warriors, is to arrange our regular food supplies.”

  “That won’t be a problem.” He and a few of his fellow warriors had taken up horticulture in a bid to keep active and could probably fill the entire ship with supplies by the end of the day. There was just one thing that Teks had said that bothered him.

  “You said Torq was working on special dietary supplies?” There was only one thing in their current diet that he would ever consider special, something that had become a necessity since their arrival on earth. It had allowed them to blend in, to adapt their own DNA to mimic that of another being. In this case, humans.

  “Blood.”

  “Is that really necessary? It’s not as if we need to mimic these damn humans anymore in order to fit in once we leave.”

  “You are right. We won’t. But in the past few decades I have been worrying about what the side effects of our long term use would be. I had a few of our guys try – what do the humans call it? Oh right. Going cold turkey – and the results were not pretty. We've found that if weaned off the blood by slowly reducing the amount ingested it is possible to return to our former selves. Though, the chances are slim.”

  “Slim! Meaning that we could be stuck in his horrible form forever?”

  Corr had dreamed for centuries of returning to his previous form. Raven hair so long that it had to be braided in order to keep it out of his way. Blending in with humans had meant that he had had to cut it. Dark eyes that sparkled so bright it were as if they contained the stars of a thousand galaxies. And then there were his markings. They were what he missed the most.

  Every Chaetdorian had markings, lines and swirls of pigment that covered the majority of their upper bodies. Kind of like the tribal tattoos that numerous humans got inked onto their flesh. The Chaetdorian race was broken up into three subgroups. Warriors, whose marking were black. Technos, whose were silver. And Slayers, whose were red. Corr was a warrior and had loved his black markings, had been proud of them. The darker and more elaborate the markings, the strong a warrior and mate that Chaetdorian was said to become. Corr’s markings had been as black as night and had covered his entire arms and back. He longed to see them again. Hearing that might never happen was his worst nightmare come to life.

  “Don’t panic, my brother. I am sure you will return to your former self. So far it only seems to be those with lighter markings that have struggled to return their DNA to that of a full-breed Chaetdorian.”

  Maybe he would be okay then. But it still didn’t rid him of the sadness that some of his brothers might not rid themselves of the dreaded human facade they had kept upon themselves for so long.

  “So we need blood to take with us?”

  “Yes. But as you know, blood already out of the human body does nothing for us. Meaning that we will need live subjects for our voyage.”

  Live subjects? Humans aboard the ship?

  “So let me get this straight. You have sent Torq and his team out to kidnap humans to take with us? And then what? What happens once we no longer need their blood and are left with a bunch of useless humans upon our ship?”

  Sighing, Teks shrugged. “I honestly have no clue. Hopefully a solution will come to us upon the journey. Though we are not kidnapping anyone. We actually have willing volunteers, a few humans that know of us and have agreed to help. Hopefully it will be enough. It will have to be.”

  Corr didn’t like, not one bit. “I hope you plan to keep them locked up, separated from our men except for feeding. You know I will kill any human I come across unexpectedly.” While Corr had dealt with the fact that he needed to be around humans occasionally to keep up the human facade they had all needed to pull off out in the human world, he had not forgotten the fact that it was humans that had seen and killed his brother of blood, Darr, in their early days upon the planet before they'd decided to feed from human blood to hide their true selves. He could not, and would not, ever forget that fact.

  “These are volunteers, Corr. I cannot keep them locked up like the criminals you think they all are. But they will be separated, yes. Deck seven has been remodelled for the humans use. They will be not be permitted anywhere else upon the ship without special consent.”

  “Just keep them away from me. I will feed in order to return to my true self, but do not expect me to play nice with the human scum.”

  “I hope one day you can forgive them the sins of their races past.”

  That was never going to happen.

  Chapter 2

  Nora wasn't sure she really felt up to going out with the girls tonight. Eric, her ex, had found out her number again and had been harassing her all day, bombarding her with call after call, text after text. She had a restraining order against him but that didn't seem to bother him one bit, and the police didn't seem to care either. "Change your number and forget about it." That is all the officer on the other end of the phone had said to her when she’d told him that Eric had contacted her again.

  What was it with her and the constant stream of unsuitable, crazy, insane men she seemed to date? And not just her for that matter. All her friends seemed to have the exact same problem.

  That was actually why they were going out, to celebrate the end of another bad relationship. Katie had finally gotten rid of Anthony, a controlling bastard that had done his very best to keep Nora and the others as far away from her as possible.

  No, she couldn't back out. Tonight was about Katie and she needed to be there for her friend. No matter how tired and jumpy she was.

  Walking into the bar an hour later, Nora was glad to see that Katie seemed in high spirits, no doubt helped put there by the numerous empty shot glasses lining up on the bar in front of her.

  "Hey, you’re here!" The short blonde squealed, diving up from her stool at the bar and pulling Nora into a crushing hug.

  "Wouldn't miss tonight for the world."

  Pulling back Katie studied her, her brow creasing. "You okay?"

  "I'm fine," she lied. She would tell her friends about Eric, but not tonight. When Katie opened her mouth - no doubt to question her further - she cut her off. "How much have you had? Please tell me some of those are from the other girls." She pointed to the empty glasses. On a quick count Nora estimated that there was around twelve.

  "Of course. As if I could drink all that by myself and still be standing," Katie said, laughing. "Hannah and Jessie are in the toilets, but Alice isn't here yet."

  "Do you think she will turn up?"

  Out of all of the girls, Alice had had the worst experience with men. Her last boyfriend, Gary, had been verbally abusive for months, slowly battering the once confident woman down, before finally turning physical and putting her in the hospital. She hadn't been the same since and had missed numerous meet ups. Hopefully she would turn up this time. If any of them needed to relax and be cheered up, it was Alice.

  “Well look whose here.”

  Turning, Nora smiled as she met and hugged her two oldest friends. She had gone to school with both Jessie and Hannah, living just around the corner from them most of her childhood before her parents had died in a car accident and she'd gone to live with her grandmother a few towns away. Now, as adults, even after many years part, they were still as close as ever.

  “Didn’t think you’d turn up,” Jessie said, taking a seat at the bar and ordering another round of shots.

  “And why wouldn’t I?” Nora actually felt a little insulted that they had thought that, even though she had been contemplating cancelling for a moment or two.

  “I was talking to Alice this morning and she said she had a feeling that you wouldn’t be comin
g.”

  Alice and her feelings. She was always having feelings, though strangely, they were spot on most of the time. “Well I'm here, aren’t I? So she was wrong… this time. And what about her? Is she coming tonight?”

  “Yes, I am,” a small voice whispered behind them.

  “Alice!” Katie screeched, repeating the quick dive and hug that she had performed upon Nora just a minute ago. “I am so happy to see you.”

  “I thought I better show my face, at least for one drink.”

  By the looks of it even one drink would be too much for her friend. Alice’s face was shallower than ever. Dark circles ringed her once sparkling blue eyes. When was the last time she'd had a good night’s sleep? Nora wanted to question her friend but knew that it would do no good; Alice would tell them what the matter was in her own time. It wasn’t as if Nora was being forthcoming with her own worries and problems at that moment, anyway.

  “Well now that everyone his here,” Katie announced, downing a shot and grabbing her jacket from the stool. “I think it’s time to hit the clubs.”

  So maybe that second round of shots, followed by a jug of some weirdly named cocktail that none of them knew the ingredients of, hadn’t been such a great idea after all. But Katie was having fun, which had been the whole point of the night. In fact, all the girls were having a blast, even Alice. They were a little drunk - okay, maybe very drunk – but they were happy and still steady on their feet. Though for Nora, the room did seem to be spinning a little faster than before.

  “I think Nora might need a little air,” Alice said, laughing as Nora made a grab for the table in order to try and stop herself from her impending descent to the floor. “Maybe a lot of air.”

  “I'm fine. It’s you guys that won’t stop moving.”

  Jessie grabbed her by the arm to steady her, a smile stretched across her face. “I think it's safe to say that Nora is well and truly pissed.”