A Vision in Crimson

Book 1: Frostbite

by Kathryn Troy

Genres: Fantasy action & adventure; Dark Fantasy; Paranormal; Romantic Fantasy; Vampires

Synopsis

Katelyn knows her magic is risky, but Icaryan light is fading fast and she is desperate. Her narrowing path leads her to Luca, a vampire hybrid living on the outskirts of humanity. Mutual attraction ignites their weary hearts. The rogue hunter follows Katelyn into a world teeming with wonder and danger, forsaking his own quest to root out his father.

But his father has not forgotten him.

A Vision in Crimson is the first book of a dark epic fantasy fraught with passion, peril, and magic.

Release date: May 1, 2017

Print pages: 329

Sample

A VISION IN CRIMSON – FROSTBITE BOOK ONE 
Chapter 1
The unforgiving sun bore down on the desolate valley below, focusing its energy on the only 
thing moving as it slowly sank into the horizon. A tall, slim figure, clad all in black, cast a long 
shadow in the grass as he approached the remnants of a crumbling castle. His shadow was faint. 
He pulled his wide-brimmed hat low on his head, protecting his pale face from the last vestiges 
of the sun’s rays.
Just a few more minutes, he thought, anxiously awaiting the setting of the sun. Being 
half-human, he could bear the daylight, but on especially hot days like this one, it made his skin 
feel as if it were being peeled away from his flesh; the night brought a sweet release from 
constant torture. But the pain never registered on his face. Emotions rarely did. As a dhampir, a 
human-vampire hybrid, he had experienced it all, and had learned to endure all manner of pain.
 But the sunset brought with it added complications to his occupation. He hadn’t planned 
on pursuing the vampire that was his prey during the night, but his horse was being shod at the 
town that had hired him, and it had taken longer than he expected to reach the ruins on foot. The 
young man combed through the rubble, breathing a sigh of relief as the sun disappeared and he 
searched for a concealed entrance to the vampire’s lair. Abandoned for thousands of years, only 
a few heavy stones half-sunken in the dirt belied the layout of what was once a grand complex. 
But the hunter had tracked down enough vampires to know that the one he now sought was 
nearby. Being ancient themselves, vampires were attracted to ruins, preferring to live in the myriad shells of castles that dotted the countryside rather than make their homes in more 
industrial and durable structures.
 After a few minutes, the hunter spied an entrance to a subterranean passage, obscured by 
dense undergrowth. Before entering, he paused.
 Why am I doing this again?
Against his better judgment, he had taken this job on the premise that he would be paid 
after he had completed his mission. Over half a dozen women had disappeared from the 
neighboring village, and he had been hired as he was passing through. He normally never took a 
job without being paid in advance, not trusting people to honor a bargain struck with a dhampir. 
The townsfolk had disliked the idea of hiring him even less. Humans loathed mixed-blood 
vampires, and were reluctant to do business with them at all. His inhuman pallor, combined with 
his ability to walk around in the daytime, alerted them immediately to his dual nature. The 
majority of the town had wanted to wait for another hunter to come along, but one young man 
was desperate to get back his bride of only a few days, pleading with the village men to hire the 
dhampir. 
 They had balked at the price the hunter had quoted them. It was steep, given the 
vampire’s reputation as being particularly formidable, and the fact that there were several 
hostages. But the newlywed had assured the hunter that the town would be able to pay him the 
minute he returned, that they just needed some time to collect the money.
 The personal circumstances of his employers didn’t matter to the hunter. But he had 
envied the look in the young man’s eyes, full of worry and love for his beloved. In all his years, 
he had never been fortunate enough to have loved someone, or to be loved. There was no reason 
for both of them to be miserable, the dhampir reasoned, if he could help it. Plus, he still hadn’t found the one vampire he really wanted to kill. With every job he 
took, he hoped finally to encounter the monster who had caused his wretched existence, and 
destroy him. But he was always disappointed. Still, there was nothing else for him to do but keep 
trying. The hunter took a deep breath, and reached with his right hand for the long, thin blade at 
his back. He walked stalwartly into the hidden crypt.
 The hunter descended a narrow, winding staircase that led to underground catacombs. 
When he reached the bottom of the stone stairway, he entered a long hallway lined with dead 
bodies set into the wall. His eyes shone in the darkness as he sought out the vampire’s lair. His 
determined footsteps were completely silent, creating no echo that would give away his 
presence. In a few minutes’ time, his ears picked up the sound of women crying. Their wails 
emanated from an offshoot corridor to his right. He noted its location, and continued forward 
into a broad, open space with a low curved ceiling.
 The unpaved ground was littered with wooden boxes. He inspected them, ripping the top 
off of each. He left a sole grave undisturbed, because a rotted slat on the side of the box revealed 
a decaying arm in tattered clothing partially encased in dirt. He didn't expect to find his enemy 
asleep at this hour, but he was undefeated because he was thorough, having outwitted even the 
most cunning vampires. He pried open all the coffins, finding nothing but ordinary human 
remains. He returned to the unopened grave, prying the lid off with his left hand, uncovering 
another ordinary corpse.
 As he stared at the human husk, contemplating his next move, he observed that the box 
was unusually tall. Twice as tall, in fact, as the other coffins. He bisected the box lengthwise 
with his sword, and kicked at the top half with his foot. The box and its contents toppled over, revealing a second coffin underneath, lined with a pristine fabric dyed a luxurious shade of red. It 
was empty.
 “Very clever,” a deep voice echoed from behind him. The hunter turned to face his 
opponent. Through the absolute darkness, the dhampir noted the vampire’s subtle similarity to 
his own facial features. He had lost count over the years of how many of his victims, both male 
and female, had reflected what he assumed was a family resemblance. The vampire recognized it 
as well, but also sensed that his intruder was not entirely of the same nature as himself.
 “So, you’re one of his mongrels, are you?” the vampire continued, seeming unfazed by 
the hunter’s swift discovery of his hideout. “I guess even the greatest vampires get bored some of 
the time.” To full-blooded vampires, dhampirs were nothing but the products of vampires’ 
attempts to entertain themselves in their eternal existence. They raped human women for the 
psychological thrill of it. It delighted them to instill fear, and it allowed them to exert lifelong 
control over their hapless victims, for endless hours of amusement.
 The hunter lunged at his opponent. The vampire was unarmed, dodging the dhampir’s 
blade with incredible speed and unsuccessfully clawing at the hunter's throat. The vampire 
drastically underestimated his attacker, seeing all dhampirs as being physically and mentally 
inferior to vampires, despite the occasional dhampir whose mixed nature exhibited advantages 
over both humans and vampires. He unknowingly faced such a dhampir now. The vampire let his 
defenses down, prodding the hunter continually.
 “Although my mother was no human worm, I too am related to—Augh!”
 In his carelessness, the monster left himself open to attack, and in less than a second the 
skilled hunter had pierced him through the shoulder, pinning him to the wall. The vampire 
grabbed hold of the blade, intending to yank it free, but couldn’t. The sword was lodged firmly in the wall. The physical and supernatural power the dhampir had employed in delivering the blow 
was far superior to the vampire’s.
 “Where is he?!” the dhampir demanded.
 The vampire flashed him a cruel grin in response. “If you haven’t figured that out yet, 
then you never will.”
 The young man sighed as he pulled a wooden stake from inside his coat. The vampire’s 
voice became more serious, taking on a fearful tone as he saw the determination in his distant 
cousin’s eyes.
 “Now wait a minute. I said wait. Please! Don’t!”
 The vampire’s pleas fell on deaf ears. The hunter’s face remained blank as he impaled the 
vampire through the heart. In the same moment, the vampire drew a hidden blade, stabbing the 
dhampir in the chest. He saw it in enough time to twist his torso and avoid being pierced in the 
heart, but just barely.
 “Why?” the vampire sputtered as his flesh slowly dried up and fell away. All that was left 
was a dusty skeleton, hoisted to the wall by the wooden stake lodged between its ribs.
I don’t know.
 The slim figure retrieved his sword from the expired vampire’s shoulder blade and 
returned it to its sheath. He was bleeding profusely. His wound refused to heal as quickly as he 
expected it to. It continued to agitate him as he retraced his steps, coming quickly upon the 
hallway where the late vampire’s victims were being kept.
 He found all eight women trapped in an alcove that had been outfitted with heavy metal 
bars. They were huddled around a small fire they had made with some of the straw and grass strewn over the floor of their tiny prison. The group screamed as they saw the dhampir approach. 
His face glowed eerily in the flames.
 “Don’t be afraid,” he explained. “My name is Luca. Your husbands sent me.”
 “Bullshit!” an elderly woman cried. “Why would they send one monster to rescue us 
from another?!”
 “I’m not a vampire,” Luca answered as he grabbed two of the bars, bending them open 
with minimal effort to create an opening big enough for the women to walk through.
 “Half a vampire is still a vampire!” the crone snapped back as she walked through the 
opening.
 Luca held out his hand to help the others through the bars, only to have each one of them 
ignore him in turn. When they were all gathered in the hallway, he asked, “Is everyone here?”
 “Yes,” a young woman answered meekly. She was being supported by two other women. 
Though Luca had already determined that none of the women had been bitten, this one had 
suffered a serious injury to her leg. He walked over to her, and asked the two women assisting 
her to help her to a sitting position.
 “Why?” she asked suspiciously, refusing to budge. “What are you going to do?”
 “I’m going to heal your leg, if you’ll just sit down.”
 “Oh no you’re not!” she shouted indignantly, her voice echoing through the passage. “It’s 
bad enough we’ve been manhandled by a vampire. I’m not about to let a dhampir put his paws 
on me too!”
 He just stared, contemplating the depths of her stubbornness.
I’m not contagious, he thought sourly.
 “It’ll only take a minute,” he replied quietly. She said nothing.
 “You’ll be permanently crippled otherwise.”
 She shrugged. She didn’t care. Hobbling around for life was preferable to being touched 
by a dhampir.
 Luca sighed. “Suit yourself. The exit is that way.” He pointed down the hallway, 
allowing the group to walk ahead of him. Some sneered at him as they passed by, while the 
younger ones shrank away, scurrying quickly by him as if at any moment he might snap at them.
 “You’re welcome,” he muttered under his breath as he turned to follow them out. He 
shook his head and put his hand to his still bleeding side.
They had better pay up.