I recalled a hidden door her servants had dashed me through the night Juniper died and I headed right for that because I guessed it would still be there and still be the same—an entrance hidden and not manned.
I was right.
At the very base of the castle walls, dozens of feet below where the pinnacle of that fortress reached high into the sky, I pulled back the bars of what seemed like a prison window and slid inside a dank and dirty tunnel that would lead me further into the bowels of hell.
Surrounded entirely by darkness, I crept carefully and reached behind me into the side pocket of my backpack, pulling out a torch.
All seemed quiet and I wondered if the fables were true—that these creatures slept by day. If it were true, I was running out of luck because it would soon be night.
IT seemed to take me forever to navigate my way through the extravagantly furnished, candlelit halls of the castle and it felt as though I was going around in circles. All the candelabra the same, the black damask walls no different down one corridor or another, all the heavy doors the same with no markings—nothing to signify the way. I heard a bell ring as I snuck around and wondered if it wasn’t the call to rise seeing as though dusk seemed to be falling outside, from what I could tell. Most windows were barricaded and only allowed the tiniest of sight outside, though it was easy to see light was dimming.
When I eventually found a room, I found only one occupant—Leticia—sat on her marble throne.
“Enter, little one,” she beckoned and I crept in tentatively, my eyes drawn to her long fingers clutching the armrests of her cold pedestal.
As I looked up above me at a room which seemed to be so impossibly high you couldn’t see the ceiling’s pinnacle, I remembered this place. It was where I died.
Her head bowed, she looked up at me beneath thick lashes and pencil-thin eyebrows never drawn on, but never plucked either. She was physically perfect in every way and her beauty and power reminded me I was extremely vulnerable. Her hair was so long it covered her bare feet, her throat so white and elegant, her bone structure perfection. I forgot I was there to threaten her and realised this was how she worked—she seduced and conjured for nobody’s benefit but her own.
A tiny part of me, however, wondered how Fabien ever got bored. She was magical. I’d not seen her in the flesh for hundreds of years but she’d not changed at all and I was as awestruck as I was the first time we met. I had to remember she had the power to kill me and I had to look beyond her allure.
Why does he want me?
“I’ve made a decision,” she said in English, “and I think you will be pleased.”
“Yes, what is it?”
Something about her collected manner told me she wasn’t entirely shocked I’d made my way here, all by myself. Perhaps she had even facilitated my entry to the castle.
I grew suspicious.
“I have decided you can live.”
I laughed and when I did, she scowled and a low growl ricocheted around the room, reminding me who was in charge. Even as I faced death for the second time, I realised this woman was more tortured than I—by Fabien’s refusal to love her.
So, she had a reason to let me live?
An underhanded motive, no doubt.
“What do you want me to do in exchange?” I said, guessing.
“I want,” she said pausing, “to relinquish this life and for you to take my place. You’ve proven yourself worthy in gaining entry here, moreover, in seducing Fabien in ways even I have never been able to. You have proven yourself competent. So… I surrender. I give up.”
I looked around me, wondering where my assailants were hiding. This was all too easy!
“I don’t understand,” I replied, and it was then I felt faint, felt my skin grow cold even as a bitter-smelling sweat suddenly reared from my skin. She eyed me perceptibly and crossed the room in a heartbeat to smell my skin. Her nostrils flaring, a wicked glint gleamed in her bright, red eyes. A part of me thought I saw a black cat struggling within her skin, the hairs on her head pricked and her shoulders wriggling within her royal dress and hooded cloak.
A cold creature, who hated the cold, she seemed a contradiction.
“My guard outside the castle walls bit you hard. Unless you feed soon, you’ll die. You must feed from me, take my place and rule our kind. My reign has been fruitless and now, I must go, and return to my sisters.”
My vision blurred and my mind was a haze of blobby images. I had no energy to remain standing so I stumbled to the floor, my hand halting my impact as I fell inelegantly to the ground.
“Where’s Fabien?” I asked weakly, now on my knees.
“Upstairs, chained to a bed. I had him earlier and now he’s done with, he’s yours. I give him up to you.”
She wafted her wrist beneath my nose and I couldn’t help the pleasure her scent evoked in me. She smelt of wild berries and yoghurt and I didn’t know how it was possible. My nose twitched and bled; I had to dab at my nostrils.
“You need to feed and the need grows, does it not? Especially when you can smell the essence of the victims I’ve recently taken. I never age because people never leave this castle. Not once they’ve tasted what is on offer. It’ll taste better than anything you’ve ever had before and you’ll want more… and more… and more,” she goaded me, so that I almost fell to her feet and began chewing her there, nibbling at her ankle.
I never knew I had such a strong sense of smell, or maybe I didn’t before then!
Thoughts of Fabien took over my mind and I remembered how he didn’t want me to change, to become one of them, and I shook my head at myself. I can’t do this!
Yes you can, a voice replied, and I knew it was her—inside my head.
“Get out of my mind, you witch!”
“Feed, you know it’s all you want… you know it.”
She read my every thought and I knew I had no chance of denying her. I wanted to taste her, so badly! Even as I felt like this, I hated that this very night—she had used my dear Fabien. I sensed it from the thoughts she was sending me and as her thoughts grew more powerful, I could see images of them making love, like it was a porn film being streamed into my mind!
“Stop it, oh no, stop it!” I cried and she cackled so that the acoustics of the room multiplied her evil cries of amusement.
“No use in denying me, Jodie. No use at all. I will change you tonight and you will rule in my place and enjoy all the splendid things I enjoyed before you. It’s time for me to leave… I choose you, fair maiden, to take this land and make it fertile once more!”
Her screams of laughter peeled out all around me and the claustrophobia of being captured, coupled with such a fever working through my veins, made me manic.
“Where are your guards and your people! The castle is empty now!”
“They’ve spread out and will continue to do so now I am no longer ruler of this kingdom. The vampires will spread… and grow in numbers… now the world as we know it will hunger for only blood!”
“No! What are you doing? Why?”
“I have my reasons,” she sang and she offered me her wrist yet again.
This time, I took it. I nibbled at first but then the hunger grew and I began feasting as I had never feasted on a meal before. I didn’t know when to stop and I kept going, drinking all of her into me.
“Yes, yes,” she sang, “you’ll earn all my power and more, my love. All my powers. Take it all!”
I took it all and when I got to the main course, to the thicker more potent mixture of her life force, I also drank in her blood the memories she had of Fabien and all the sex they had enjoyed together.
Orgies and banquets of humans.
Threesomes.
Foursomes.
Fabien had even had men.
Leticia had encouraged everything, some of the acts so lewd and vile, it made me love him a little less because he’d allowed himself to be so easily controlled.
As I feasted, I grew more hateful of
them both.
I saw life through her eyes and evermore, I grew bitter and angry and lost.
When the feed became thin, and the blood tasted bitter, I pulled away, somehow knowing I’d had my fill. She dropped to the floor, empty, and said to me with her black eyes shining, “Now, you will know what it is like to have all the power in the world but no man worthy enough. You’ll never have FABIEN now! It means nothing without him! Take my curse! Take it!”
“What?” I said, but as my tongue refused to let go of that word entirely, she became the dust as well.
Overcome with fever still, despite my feed, I passed out.
FABIEN
I STUMBLED AROUND a black void, lost and listless, nowhere to go. Just a spirit of no substance. There was no air, no light or sound, just a vacuum of nothing. I knew I was dying, heading for the in-between. I only knew I was still alive because I felt my skin scorching against the sun, since Leticia had thrown the windows open after she left me high and virtually dry. Too weak to move, I laid there unable to escape the early-morning rays of a new day.
Even as my skin singed, I hung on for dear life but I was ready to give up and throw myself into the full glare of the sun to end the agony of being neither alive nor dead nor purposeful.
Then, a shadow came to visit me in the black void.
Its voice I did not recognise nor could I see its face. I couldn’t describe the being, I just knew they were there. Female or male, I knew not. It spoke as if it knew me.
“Fabien, do not give up.”
“I have nothing left.”
“We’ve been watching… we’ve been listening. Our order stands to counteract Leticia and her sisterhood and we have decided, you are needed… you are an exception to the rule. Do you know how long you waited for Juniper?”
I felt weary and jaded, my body on the other end of the line still suffering, even as my mind faded and headed toward the in-between.
“Three hundred and twenty-one years,” I told the shadow.
“Yes, so long without love.”
“So long,” I repeated, my soul tired. For the first time in centuries, I allowed myself to admit I still had a soul. It had just been ripped at the seams so long ago.
“The wives who almost gave up on their husbands because their sex lives had dwindled… still don’t know they have you to thank. However, we’ve seen the unintended help you have given so many people. Sucking a little blood and in exchange, pouring lust into their veins, rekindling lost loves, sometimes even renewing lives and creating new ones. For this reason, we’ve decided to give you a little more time. Just a little more… so you can help Juniper be the leader she’s destined to be. You must go back now.”
“What… only a little more? And what do you mean, leader? What are you talking about? I don’t understand.”
“You have the choice to go back now if you wish but your time with Juniper will be limited. It won’t last forever. However, you can make the most of it. In time, you will understand the task laid before you. You see, your lovely lady is not the same.”
I felt very confused and I still yearned for death, for nothing. I wanted my suffering to end because having Juniper, or Jodie, seemed impossible.
“What do you mean she is not the same?”
“See for yourself,” the shadow told me, and an image entered my mind of my angel laid on the floor, panting through the fever of The Change, an unmistakable set of fangs protruding from her ruby-red lips.
“No. I never wanted this!”
“Inevitable, though?” the indifferent, all-seeing shadow replied.
The image of Juniper evaporated from my mind and all I was left with was a deep, raw gouge in the centre of my black heart, weeping toxic filth. I’d never wanted her to become one of us. It was the last thing I’d wanted.
The shadow continued its delivery of facts… “To be together, something had to give, didn’t it? It never would have been possible otherwise. You remained alive for her, and when she reincarnated and saw you again, you wanted one another so badly. You want to be together so much, you’ll do anything for her, and she’ll do anything for you.”
“She will need to feed soon or she will die,” I said, knowing from experience the thirst she was going to experience could kill her as swiftly as the stake if she didn’t get blood. With not enough strength to hunt, someone else would have to provide.
“Yes, so you must go to her.”
“I can’t. I have no fight left!”
“Fabien, quiet yourself. Listen to me. What is it you are afraid of?”
I looked out into the dark, endless abyss for some familiar face, for some comfort, but there was nothing but me and this voice inside the vacuum. “You said we have limited time, how is that? How have we made all these sacrifices and still, we are given LIMITED TIME!”
“I have no answers… only advice. Take what time you’re given or spend the rest of eternity in the in-between, where only nothing lives… where only death resides.”
“What will happen? When I go back? Tell me why we have limited time? Tell me. I need to know.”
“It’s not in my power to tell you. Only know, you have one summer to love her… one summer to make right Leticia’s wrongs… and then, you must die. Our leniency only extends to that.”
“I refuse!” I shouted at the top of my voice, but the sound didn’t travel and only reverberated around my head.
“Then here you shall remain, and Juniper will die too, existing in her own hell separate to this. She shall not join you here and you shall never again see her. For this is the fate of non-souls.”
I didn’t know what to trust. Was I in a dream? Was this real? Was this some other conjured trick of Leticia’s? How could I go on? How could I go back knowing our eventual separation was the only certainty? Drained of all energies, I almost welcomed the abyss and the promise of nothingness forever more.
However, I felt Juniper calling to me. I sensed her murmuring my name from the other side, our almighty connection drawing me back to her. I wanted so badly to reach out and stroke her hair.
“One summer?”
“One summer,” the shadow repeated.
“Deal.”
In the blink of an eye, I was back in my body and told myself it didn’t matter what the shadow said, because Juniper and I would find a way to be together for all eternity. I didn’t care what it would take, because even if I had to sell my soul a thousand times, I would never let her go.
I threw myself off the bed and onto the floor, where I rolled beneath the four-poster to protect my weary body from the blazing sun.
I’m here waiting for you Juniper, but I’m just so weak. Come to me. Come to me.
JODIE/JUNIPER
AFTER FEEDING FROM Leticia, having drank her soul and everything she owned into me, I passed out and a fever took hold. Some hours later as the sun began to rise, the world became lighter outside and I grew irritable. No light reached me inside the sealed sanctuary of the Throne Room but I instinctively knew it was day and that it was time to take even more rest. So I continued panting through my fever all day long as I lay on the cold, stone floor, with not a thing to console me.
When night fell once more, I realised I had been suffering with The Change for almost 24 hours and something told me I needed to feed heartily or I would die.
All the while I suffered, I thought I heard Fabien calling for me. Maybe it was because I had so much of his blood inside me—blood Leticia had stolen, then given to me.
I knew it was unlikely he was still alive because when I bit Leticia, her memories included images of her draining Fabien and I knew she’d left him for dead. There was little chance he had survived and since I had been in the Throne Room for so long, alone and almost dead, I knew he wasn’t coming to save me. I knew I had to save myself.
I need to feed, I groaned inwardly as I stood and wobbled out of the Throne Room, steadying myself against the walls of the corridor as I made it outside that hateful chamber
.
Juniper, I’m upstairs. Listen to me. Come to me. Please, come.
“This isn’t real,” I said to myself and kept walking. Perhaps I could tumble down the mountainside and roll my way to a feast in a neighbouring village.
I knew I was as good as dead.
Listen to me. Come to me. I’m here. Follow my voice. Come to me.
“Fabien?” I said out loud, and he spoke to me through my thoughts again. Yes, follow my voice. I’m here… come to me. I need to feed so I can feed you.
I stumbled dazedly through corridors I didn’t recognise and kept following the call of his voice. The hunger was so strong, I knew if I didn’t act, I would die. I crept on my hands and knees up a spiral staircase so narrow I thought it was endless and impossible.
Eventually I found myself outside a heavy, wooden door and I turned the metal latch to find an empty room. On the bed in the centre laid an outline of ash which I was certain resembled the shape of my love, Fabien.
“NO!!!” I cried. “NO!!!”
He was dead, and now, I was a creature too and I was going to die if I didn’t quench my thirst.
Come to me, come to me, his voice cruelly repeated, and I dropped to my knees on the cold floor and wailed with sadness.
She’d killed him! The treacherous, deceitful, malevolent bitch only let me into her realm so she could steal everything I ever cared for. My heart, now my soul, were both lost.
And for what?
The thirst was so strong I had no time to waste, my physical urges so much stronger than before. I stood and turned my back to the room and walked down the corridor to get back to the spiral staircase.
“JUNIPER!!!!!!!!!!!” a voice growled from the pits of despair, and I turned back to find from where this noise had come. Again, it rang, “JUNIPER!!!!!!!!!!!!”
I returned to the room where the noise seemed to be coming from and found Fabien had crawled halfway out from beneath the bed, his body almost ash, his skin covered in soot and blood.
“I need to bite you. Just a bit. A small amount will revive me enough to fly out and capture some dinner. Now, Juniper, now, fetch me your wrist before I die and then you die! NOW!”
Fabien Page 11