Another one tore off her shirt, exposing her bruised skin to the icy undercurrent. One of their talons made one long slit along the other side of her neck, tears mixed with blood seeped to the center of her chest.
One of the creatures leaned in, too close to her face and whispered so low she struggled to hear.
“Please know, Charlotte, we were never this gruesome. But if we are to be punished…then we might as well deserve it.” He turned only his head to look at the rest of them. “Drain it. All of it.”
Charlotte’s scream fused with their animal cries as they lunged at her, tearing her skin open, spilling her life. Their cold lips fixed all over her body. She opened her mouth in wretched suffering, unable to tell if she was even relinquishing a sound.
***
Valek sat, alone with his wild thoughts, in a separate cell all the way down the cold, stony corridor. The only thing he could see in his mind was Charlotte’s face as the guards carried her away, her big eyes fixated on him as they dragged her through the dirt. It was the same way she had first looked up at him the night they met in Prague. Alone. Afraid. He touched the side of his face, scarred, like cracked marble.
Sounds from what seemed like kilometers away bounced off the quartz protruding from the moss-encrusted brick and echoed through his ears. A bloodletting. He heard the hissing, smelled the fear and the blood. It was all too familiar. He sighed with his face in his hands. Poor, sad individual, whoever it was.
That was when he heard something that was also too familiar. Sickeningly familiar. His organs crawled up his esophagus when he heard it.
Her scream echoed down the stone hall and shattered him. Her thoughts bounced off the stalagmites into his mind, and he saw his own face reflected back to him. Her blood was the smell wafting through the thick air. Blood that was hers and only hers. Life that was hers and only hers.
Valek sprung to the edge of his cell and wrapped his hands around the frosted bars. He ripped at them, pleading with all his might for them to bend. He pulled and stretched, to no avail.
Then, he heard his name called out down the lonely passage. She wailed for him. He mirrored the action.
“Charlotte! ” He howled as painfully loud as he could—a lion’s roar back down the interminable corridor to where she was.
Her scream was his only response as he clutched the bars made of something heavier than iron. An overwhelming and unfamiliar feeling of helplessness bowled him over as big, red teardrops plummeted to the floor in front of him. He called out her name again. He pulled and pulled at those bars, suddenly remembering all too well what it was like to be so human, so weak.
Their painful screams and roars blended in an agonizing orchestration. The horror of his helplessness. His little Lottie was alone, pleading for him, yet he could do nothing inside this loathsome cage.
“Lottie,” he bellowed. “Lottie! My sweet Lottie! Please!” Valek slumped to the floor, hand outstretched between the bars. The palm of his hand stained scarlet as it ran over his cheek. A sharp sob escaped his throat as he bellowed for her again.
Silence answered him.
“Lottie….” He took a deep breath and could barely hear the voice from her thoughts anymore. So, this was how they would torture him. The silence from her mind grew louder. “I love you, Charlotte!”
***
Charlotte heard these last words, despite the rushing death, like a flashflood through a hollow tunnel she was submerging under quickly. She fought to keep above the surface, for if she allowed herself to sink, life would be over.
“I love you,” rang out so saliently. The rest of her dark world seemed to evanesce into hell. The hissing, the screaming, the pain—and, “I love you”. She kept hearing it over and over again, until she realized she was speaking the words. Too weak to yell it, it came out in a whisper.
“I love you.” She hoped he could hear the thing she wanted to scream to the world. “I love you,” she said for the last time, before she could not hold on any longer, melting into oblivion.
***
Metal bars at the front of her cell crashed inward. Thunder guards came stomping in, sending currents of electricity flying through the air. Yellow streaming bolts struck the bodies of the living dead. The Vampires immediately recoiled from Charlotte and went dashing into the back corners of the cell like rats in bright light.
“Come on, foul creatures. We have somewhere for you to be,” one guard ordered as he joyfully watched them all squirm and growl as the electricity continued to fly.
The Elves ripped some of them from the ground, throwing them over their shoulders, some plucked from the aluminum piping. One officer had to use a stake for one that tried to fight, though it only stunned him for a few seconds.
The struggle continued as Charlotte’s life pooled down in between the cracks into the marble floor. One of the guards noticed her.
“What about that one?” he asked his comrade.
“Eh, just leave her there. Maybe we can feed the leftovers to the next batch that comes in,” he said, as they finally walked out with the gaggle of screeching soul-feeders.
And as he was being dragged away, the head of the condemned clan looked back to the dungeon cell. The Vampire stopped walking, the vision of his figure blurry in Charlotte’s ebbing consciousness.
“What are you doing, leach? Keep going!” one officer prodded.
The Vampire angled his gray ear toward Charlotte. “No. No…she’s alive. You have to kill her! She is still alive!” the Vampire screeched to the air.
The guards only glanced in Charlotte’s direction to see a lifeless, bloody mess.
“This fool is out of his blasted mind,” the guard grumbled as they continued to lead him away, screaming something incoherent all the way out the heavy dungeon door.
***
Valek, who had been silently listening through the bars all the while, now forced himself to stand, his knees quaking beneath his weight. He had never felt so mortal. He pictured his Lottie’s eyes, wide with fear, now slowly closing. He saw the menacing creatures ripping at her soft skin. He thought about how he was one of them, responsible for the demise of so many people just like her. He hated himself and everything he was, as more garnet tears rolled down his pallid face. But he also decided that as long as he was a monster, he would not rest until every other monster responsible for this was dead. The only way Charlotte could still be alive was if by some divine magic, and Valek hardly held his breath.
He gripped the bars tighter, a mournful cry ripping from his core as he forced them apart. Larger drops of blood spilled from his eyes as he pulled the gap wider and wider, crying out again, surprised at his sudden strength. He would not chalk it up to God. That was something he stopped believing in a long time ago.
Valek, liberated from his cage, didn’t take but half a second to rush into the cell several yards down the hall. Thankfully, the door to her cell had been carelessly left open.
He knelt beside her, listening intently to her faint heartbeat. She was a mess on the ground, her eyes only slightly open. Her breathing was shallow; most of her wounds already healed from the saliva of her predators, while leftover blood stayed drying on her skin. If he ever came face to face with those creatures that called themselves Vampires, he swore to himself he would kill them faster than the sun could scorch their skin.
Valek was afraid to touch her for fear she might shatter into a million pieces. His hands wavered over her body for a few seconds longer before he pulled her into his lap to cradle her head against his arm.
“Valek,” she murmured, a sound of affirmation.
He gave a bittersweet smile; his throat burning with the smell of the room, though feeding was the furthest thing from his mind. He caressed her perfect cheek with his fingertips. “I am here now, Lottie.” He took her hand gently in his, brought it to the hollow under his cheekbone, and hummed. “Little Lottie. I am here. And I’m so sorry I wasn’t before.” His eyes started to well up again as he watched o
ne corner of her mouth pull up into a faint smile.
Her fingers moved softly against his cool skin. The two huddled together in the center of the dismal chamber. The moon outside the barred window created an easing, silver pool around them as he cradled the girl in the quiet light.
I love you, she mentally murmured to him.
He leaned down and kissed one unhealed slash across her face until he felt it disappear under his lips. He kissed the side of her neck until it healed as well. She would pull through, he decided. She had to—for him.
“Me, too,” he whispered.
Her eyebrows furrowed slightly at him, and she shut her eyes. “You—you were s-supposed to stay out of m-my head.” Her head rolled to one side.
His dark gaze locked on her face again as he saw she was resting now. He smoothed her hair with one long hand while he listened to her breathing.
“Sleep now, Lottie.” Looking around the cell, he wracked his brain for a way to get them out alive. Or, at the very least, get her out.
Valek inhaled the smoke left over by the morning’s execution, breathing in the dust of his own kind as he cradled his little love. He traced the outline of her soft lips. Once a ruddy sort of pink, they were now pale with the blood loss and matched the rest of her perfectly placid skin. He noticed a trace of one silvery little tear, still left on one side of her face, and he caught it on his finger. He held it up to the moonlight and watched it sparkle.
He stroked her face again and suddenly heard heavy footsteps echoing, resonating off the stones like alarms. He had to think fast, but what could he do? He looked down at the little, half-dead mortal.
The footsteps continued to advance. They were coming for him. A soft sound lifted out of the small opening between Charlotte’s lips, something Valek took to mean she heard them, too. “Do not worry, love.”
He needed to get her out of there.
He shot up from where he sat, carefully slinging her over his shoulder in one, fluid motion. He made sure she was secure to him, before deciding he was going to run.
But it was too late. He looked to see two officers, though this time, they were the familiar fire Elves that had greeted Valek at his house in the Occult. Fire. The one element which was the most difficult for Vampires to fight off. If Valek had a heart, he imagined it would have dropped down into his lower bowels.
The first laughed. “Hello, Pane Ruzik. Going somewhere?”
The sound made Valek’s flesh crawl. Why did doing what he was about to do feel a lot like suicide?
The other guard reeled his hand back, and then slung a giant fireball toward Valek’s head. But he successfully dodged it, running under the fire, his fangs bared and claws out. He squinted through the light and aimed for his combatant’s body.
He collided into the Elf; knocked him into the bars of steel with such force they broke in half and collapsed into the water piping that ran above them. Water rained down, soaking Valek and extinguishing the Elven fire.
Angry, the guard propelled his fist toward the side of Valek’s head, though he dodged it, before it could catch the edge of his jaw.
Valek recovered quickly, jamming one claw into the guard’s face. With a gruesome snap, the officer dropped to the floor.
Another roar ripped out of the back of Valek’s throat. His dark eyes fixated on the other then, as the Elf lunged for him, more fire exploding from both hands. But Valek only went through the attack, grabbing the Elf’s forearms, and turned the fire to the guard’s own face.
The officer withdrew, screaming as he tried to extinguish the flames, which were now melting the flesh from his skull. Valek pressed the burning man against the bricks and leaned into his ear, careful the flames did not catch Charlotte or him.
“Tell the Regime, we will win this war,” Valek valiantly whispered. “Tell them, we are the only thing they will never defeat.”
He was off, darting through the dark corridors like a spirit who had successfully escaped through the gates of the underworld. He moved so fast, the guards he passed would not have seen him if they blinked. He plummeted down between flights of stairs, dashed through the building as tapestries, lights, grand hallways, and doors whizzed past. Charlotte held tight to him. He could hear her waning in and out of consciousness.
Valek ran until he came to a pair of immense double doors at the end of a grand foyer. Bolted shut. He looked above to see a gargantuan, garnet chandelier dangling from four ornate buttresses in the center of the ceiling. One buttress was carved in the shape of a sea serpent, to the left, a dragon. Across the way, a gryphon, and finally, a Fairy. There were dead ends to Valek’s left and right, marked literally by the large, scathing torches and guards proceeding around him. He searched desperately for a different exit to the capital city, but was sure these doors were the only way out.
“Stop!” A gaggle of officers shouted after them as they clumsily stomped down the resonating floors of the large foyer.
Valek only quickly glanced back before running for the doors. He would break his way through.
One of the pursuing guards sent a ball of flames from the palm of his hand. It spun past Valek, into the doors before him and ignited the wood. The only escape was completely engulfed now, and Valek was trapped.
His breath was stagnant in his chest, mostly for fear. Exhaustion was never an issue. If that were not the way to escape, they would not have blockaded it that way. He was sure of that. But if he pushed through it, both of them would most certainly disintegrate. The fire in front of him burned more violently. It seemed like the only choice.
The guards advanced closer and closer, his chance of escape becoming slimmer and slimmer, until one more pair of footsteps clamored stealthily down the corridor to Valek’s right. He turned to see Aiden running toward him, his face glistening with beads of sweat off the firelight. A new lump formed in Valek’s throat. For a moment, he was sure this would be the end, but then he tuned in to Aiden’s mind, though Elves were more difficult to tap into than human beings.
The Elf watched Valek with fevered eyes, seeming to be devising some sort of plan. For a moment, Valek knew Aiden thought about destroying him. He saw Aiden’s idea about sending a new ball of flames hurtling right for his face. He knew the young Elf felt the same way about Vampires as his father and the rest of the Regime did, but there was a different sort of energy building inside him now.
***
Aiden saw Charlotte slung across Valek’s shoulder and stopped short. He wouldn’t destroy Valek now, not with Charlotte’s life at risk. A surge of energy burst through Aiden’s arms, pulsating to his wrists. The Elf relinquished a cry and bent the air around him as he lifted his hands to where the fire roared behind Charlotte’s unresponsive body. He would do this now, but he would be sure to hunt Valek later.
A strong air current bolted from his fists, sending a wild wind rushing toward the fire. But that only made the flames billow higher to the ceiling. A wooden beam from above collapsed, almost crushing Valek where he stood.
Another wave of energy rushed through Aiden, one that felt more frightened, because what he had just done had almost killed Charlotte.
***
Valek grabbed more tightly to his Lottie. The heat started to singe the cracks in his face. The smell of the burning wood and the crackling sound reflected down the marble halls. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion then. Sweat trickled from Aiden’s forehead. He lifted his hands again to the raging fire as a thick stream of water burst forth this time, successfully extinguishing the flames.
The group of palace guards stopped, gaping at Aiden as Valek wasted no time and rushed through the disintegrated doors, out into the dark streets of Prague.
Valek closed his eyes as he ran, not looking back. He could only feel the heat from what was left of the burning doors fade behind him. Thanks to Aiden, Charlotte would be safe, for now. But Valek knew, the moment the sun climbed back to its place in the morning sky, Aiden’s hunt for Charlotte would begin again.
Chapter Twelve
Safe Haven
Valek careened through the night with such accuracy that the only thing the mortals noticed on the street was a slight breeze ruffling their clothes as he sped past.
Streetlights flickered on the shiny pavement as thunder rolled above them. He reveled in the coolness and clarity of the air as he ran, but was still painfully aware his clock was ticking. He adjusted Charlotte draped motionlessly over his shoulder, his concern growing with each step he took. He knew exactly where he would go. It was their only chance of survival, and he was sure there was no other choice. The Occult would surely be on some sort of a lockdown, guards on high alert for the fugitive that impossibly managed to escape the inescapable. He just prayed the spired house with the indigo rooftops and the lavender walls still stood where he remembered it. Francis had a habit of moving every decade or so, Valek recalled.
“Valek…” Charlotte moaned.
“I know, Lottie. You’re safe.” His crystalline eyes shifted through the night like a jungle cat’s, scanning the street for the white porch steps he used to know so well.
Finally, he found what he was looking for at the end of the long, narrow street in Lesser Town near the banks of the glimmering Vltava. The familiar home loomed over him. Being in the city instantly resurfaced several hundred memories. Valek couldn’t suppress the emerging smile when he thought back to the night he found Charlotte, tucked in those pathetic rags. Those wondrous, curious eyes. She hadn’t changed. Even though she was capable of aging, she would never change.
Valek flew up the polished steps, burst through the front door, and stopped dead in the foyer. The place was dark and forsaken with pealing, lavender wallpaper. A mirror to his right had been smashed, the shiny remnants on the floor. A collapsed, wooden beam blockaded the entryway to the kitchen. Desperation overcame him. He sucked in air through his nose, trying to sense if there were anyone left here. To his solace, the scent he was looking for was very much present.
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