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  Eternal Sun: Prequel to the Highland Home Series

  by Shari Richardson

  Follow Shari Richardson on Facebook

  Table of Contents

  1. Edition Notes

  2. Additional Titles by Shari Richardson

  3. About the Author

  4. Eternal Sun

  1. Edition Notes

  Eternal Sun

  Mathias' Tale of Transformation

  by

  Shari Richardson

  eBOOK EDITION

  * * * * *

  PUBLISHED BY:

  Astral Plane Publishing and Shari Richardson

  Eternal Sun

  Copyright © 2011 by Shari Richardson

  License Notes

  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 person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to your favorite online bookseller and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

  Astral Plane Publishing Books are published by

  Astral Plane Publishing

  120 Oak Road

  York, PA 17402

  Copyright © 2011 by Shari Richardson

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  All Astral Plane Publishing titles, imprints and distributed lines are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, educational or institutional use.

  Special book excerpts or customized printings can also be created to fit specific needs. For details, write the office of the Astral Plane Publishing Special Sales Manager, Astral Plane Publishing, 120 Oak Road, York, PA, 17402, Attn: Special Sales Department.

  ISBN: 9781458042057

  2. Additional Titles by Shari Richardson

  The Highland Home Series

  Mourning Sun

  Captured Sun

  Seven Days

  Banished Sun

  Nine Lives

  Feuding Hearts

  3. About the Author

  Shari Richardson holds a master's degree in English Education and has spent much of her life teaching students the joy of reading and writing. Her love of writing began when she was in elementary school and has carried through her entire adult life. Shari lives in Pennsylvania with her two Chihuahuas.

  4. Eternal Sun

  "Daddy says the cousins from downstate will be here in the morning," Kathryn said. Her hand was warm and soft in mine and I lifted it to my lips. "Mathias," she scolded, "you know how I feel about that kind of behavior."

  I smiled at her. "Can you truly blame me for wanting to be near you, my love?" I asked. "We're to be married in only a few days. Surely a kiss on your hand will not doom us to an eternity of sin."

  Kathryn laughed. The sound was musical and soft and echoed off the buildings which rose on either side of the alley down which we walked. I was looking at Kathryn when I saw a slight movement behind her left shoulder. As the man charged out of the shadows, teeth bared and snarling, I shoved Kathryn toward the open end of the alley and screamed, "Kathryn, run. Don't look back, just go!"

  I had just enough time to see Kathryn's skirts held high as she ran for the end of the alley and to hear her screaming for the watch when the man grabbed me about the shoulders and sank his teeth into my neck. The shock of this action froze my mind and body and I lay compliant in his arms, praying for Kathryn's safe escape and feeling my life flowing into the man's mouth as he pulled strongly on the wound his teeth had created.

  The world was suddenly focused down to that single point of contact between me and the man who drank my blood. I could see nothing, hear nothing more than the sound of my life slipping down the other man's throat, until I heard the thunder of feet as the watch charged down the alley.

  "Oiy there!" a man shouted. "Release that man and stand down."

  From the single point of contact between me and the man who wanted to drink away my life, I suddenly heard, saw and felt every fiber of my being as my body slammed down on the cobblestones. I could feel each stone upon which I lay, smell every scent in layers which lay upon the street. Pain spread through my entire body like the the ocean crashing down on the shore and I heard Kathryn screaming my name over and over. I blinked, turning my head toward her voice, and saw her precious face just once before the darkness swept me away.

  I knew that time passed, but I couldn't tell how much time or explain how I knew. I knew only that my life was now pain. Every moment that passed brought with it pain. Every breath I took intensified the pain. Every tiny movement of my body strengthened the pain until I prayed to God to end this pain and take my life. But as I prayed for death, my Kathryn prayed for me to live. God has a sense of humor sometimes.

  "Mathias?" I heard Kathryn's beloved voice call my name. I had been walking toward the end of my life and the sound of my name upon her lips drew me back from the place where darkness stole my soul. If only my soul had not already passed beyond the veil, perhaps my eternity would have been different, but as I turned and made my way back to the beautiful voice I heard, my soul had already departed to wherever the damned go. Would than I had died rather than brought death back with me from my journey.

  "No, Mathias, I cannot live without you," I heard a lovely voice say. The voice was familiar, but I had no memory of who spoke or why I smiled at the sound of her voice.

  I felt the warm weight of a body where it lay across my own. The burning heat of thirst parched my throat, baking it into something dark and dry. Instinctively I knew what would cool the baked desert of my throat and I could smell my salvation running hot and sweet beneath the thin skin of the woman who lay across my body. I reached for and lifted her arm, caressing the soft skin with the tips of my fingers and running my nose along the inside of the bend of her elbow. The scent of the blood was so strong, so inviting that it seemed the most natural thing to do to sink my teeth into the soft flesh at the bend of her elbow.

  Her blood rushed hot and sweet into my mouth and my existence narrowed until it was consumed with the blood. Its taste, its texture, its ability to calm the fire that raged in my throat. Only those things mattered. The tiny gasp from the woman who offered me the gift of the blood mattered little. I only knew that with the blood, the pain receded. When the arm I held had cooled and the blood no longer flowed, I looked more closely at the woman who had given me the first taste of my eternity and memory rushed back to fill my consciousness. I looked upon my darling Kathryn's cold, dead face and I screamed.

  "Kathryn, my heart, my sun. What have I done?" I wanted to wail with my pain, to rock and sob until I found a way to join her in death, but I heard footsteps in the hall and knew that someone was coming. Someone would soon know what I had done and I would have to kill them or flee. I lifted Kathryn's body and lay her on the bed from which I had risen. I kissed her lips, something I had so rarely done in life, and whispered of my love. "I will mourn you for eternity," I told her before I threw myself from the window.

  During the eternity in which I fell from the window, I prayed for death to take me and leave me as a broken, huddled mess when I landed on the lawn below my bedroom window, but God no longer heard my prayers. Without conscious thought, my body turned and landed lightly and carefully. I looked up at the window where I could now hear both Kathryn's mother and my own crying for us both. I watched for only a moment more before I ran for the darkness and any solace it could offer.

  As I walked the
darkened streets of Highland Home, I heard others around me, whispering. I searched for the source of the voices, but saw no one.

  "It's a newborn," one voice said.

  "And so lovely," another said.

  "Let's go play."

  I ran, taking each turn I came upon until I found myself cornered in a blind alley. When I turned back to the opening of the alley, I saw three young women, all quite lovely, and all as deadly as I now knew myself to be. My new instincts and senses told me they were blood drinkers like me. I could smell their changed bodies and the blood they had consumed that night.

  "Who made you, little boy," the red-haired woman asked.

  "Made me?" I asked. "God made me, as he has made all creatures upon this earth."

  The women laughed and I cringed. "God may have made your body, but someone else has given you immortality," the blond woman said. "Who was it? Where is your maker? A vampire as young as you should have supervision."

  "Vampire?" I said. "Is that what I am now?"

  "He doesn't even know," said the brunette woman. "How sad. Maybe we should take him in and let him serve us."

  I trembled as I pressed myself against the brick building at my back. "I have no desire to serve you," I said.

  "I think your desires mean little, young one," the red-haired woman said. "What will you do when the sun rises? Will you let it take your eternal life? Only with us will you know how to survive."

  I shook my head. "You lie," I said. "There must be another way." But as I said the words, I knew