title: Nightshade: The Nightshade Saga: Book One (Volume 1)
author:  Evelyn Lederman 
description: <span>Prologue</span><br /> <span></span><br /> <span></span><br /> <span>The Nightshade Universe</span><br /> <span></span><br /> <span>He was older than dirt, Drake thought after the lovely blonde who stood before him asked his age. How do you explain the unexplainable? Drake's existence defied nature. </span><br /> <span>This was one of the rare occasions he wished he was something other than what he was. His kind was a blight on any world they inhabited. A mistake, never intended to exist in this or any other universe.</span><br /> <span>At the beginning of time, as worlds fractured across dimensions, a division went terribly wrong. A sentient energy was forged rather than coming to life organically. The oddity traveled between worlds, leaving holes of negative matter in its wake. These frequency pathways between universes were never intended to exist.</span><br /> <span>As the energy mass traveled, it drew on the life-force of living particles. When it came across man, it claimed its first victim as a shell to occupy. </span><br /> <span>After settling into the primitive brain and physiology, it evolved from draining a being's life-force to drinking the fluid carrying the elements needed to regenerate the fragile biological cells, allowing the body to physically continue.</span><br /> <span>Thus, the first vampire came to be.</span><br /> <span>Drake had been one of the first men the vampire converted. For eons Drake traveled with this creature, living off the blood of others. Over time they converted worthy victims to join their family. Since women had the ability to reproduce, they only changed the male of the species. As a sense of ennui set in, more of the sacrificed were changed into vampires. The newly made helped to relieve the boredom of immortality.</span><br /> <span>The vampires grew weary of being intergalactic nomads. Eventually they settled in the Nightshade universe. Satisfied within their own world, the knowledge to manipulate matter to travel between universes was lost. Thus, only the original retained the ability.</span><br /> <span>There had been so many world divisions since his making, Drake had no idea which world had been his birthplace. It was best not to think along those lines. The ones he left behind had long been in their graves. Their progeny would no longer have known he ever existed. His life was now tied to his creator. The entity seemed content to stay in the Nightshade universe, while Drake had nowhere else to go.</span><br /> <span>The numerous portals leading to the Nightshade universe provided enough unfortunate beings pulled into their world to offer ample sustenance. Blood was plentiful in those early days. The maker was comfortable living off the unlimited supply of blood, until a woman came through one of the portals and life as they knew it changed.</span><br /> <span>She had a type of power over his creator Drake had never witnessed before. Her presence seemed to relieve the constant hunger the entity suffered. The master referred to her as his soul mate.</span><br /> <span>Through their bonding, the master thought he would transform into whatever nature had originally planned. They would venture off together, sometimes disappearing for weeks. Finally, one day the master left through a portal with the woman, never to be seen or heard from again. </span><br /> <span>After his departure, various legends related to their destined pairing began to be told. Over time, most vampires chose to ignore and ultimately forgot those stories. However, in Drake's darkest times, the thought of one day finding his own soul mate made him persevere.</span><br /> <span>Over several millennia the numerous portals started to close, until only three were active in the Nightshade universe. The vampire population had become so large, and the blood sources so scarce, most were shadows of what they once were. </span><br /> <span>Now blood frenzied creatures, they slowly wasted away. No amount of blood could regenerate those beings back into what they once were. Only the vampires who had been created by the master, had been spared the horrible thirst. Their bodies were as they were when they were first transformed. Drake held on to what little humanity he had left, waiting for his soul mate to become reality. Through her, Drake could finally transform from the parasite he was.</span>
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  # Drake’s Nightshade
  
  
  ### Nightshade Saga: Book 5
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Evelyn Lederman
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Contents
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Internal Title Page](part0002.html#1T140-6ba3dd7b0b2341d992e128901c3fe0d4)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Titles by Evelyn
  Lederman](part0004.html#3Q280-6ba3dd7b0b2341d992e128901c3fe0d4)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 1](part0006.html#5N3C0-6ba3dd7b0b2341d992e128901c3fe0d4)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 2](part0007.html#6LJU0-6ba3dd7b0b2341d992e128901c3fe0d4)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 3](part0008.html#7K4G0-6ba3dd7b0b2341d992e128901c3fe0d4)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 4](part0009.html#8IL20-6ba3dd7b0b2341d992e128901c3fe0d4)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 5](part0010.html#9H5K0-6ba3dd7b0b2341d992e128901c3fe0d4)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 6](part0011.html#AFM60-6ba3dd7b0b2341d992e128901c3fe0d4)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 7](part0012.html#BE6O0-6ba3dd7b0b2341d992e128901c3fe0d4)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 8](part0013.html#CCNA0-6ba3dd7b0b2341d992e128901c3fe0d4)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 9](part0014.html#DB7S0-6ba3dd7b0b2341d992e128901c3fe0d4)
  
  