“Don’t worry. We will win. I know it.” The girl smiled again. Andela still was not happy, and she withdrew her hand quickly.
Valek rushed up behind Lottie and pulled her back against him. “Not right now,” he whispered, keeping his eyes locked on Andela’s strained face.
Valek could tell that the realization clicked in Charlotte’s mind then, as she slowly backed away from Andela and closer to him again.
“Charlotte?” Francis spoke carefully. “Do you think you might like to stay upstairs for now, with Sarah?”
“Who?” Charlotte lifted an eyebrow.
“I will take her,” Valek lamented, avoiding all the thirsty, angry stares in the room. “I would rather be the one to talk to her about this, anyway.” He shot an acidic glare toward Francis, who only grinned in reply.
Valek put his arm around Charlotte’s waist and led her to where the ceiling opened up to the tunnel. He watched as Charlotte peered into the dusty, dark tunnel, reluctance playing on her face.
“It will be all right, love. Sarah is Francis’ house Witch. It’s just for now.” He glanced back at the testy coven. “You’ll like her. She is…nice.”
Charlotte frowned. “I’m bothering them, right?”
“It’s just because it’s early,” he admitted, and kissed her head.
Sasha, the tall, dark Vampire, snorted in disgust.
Valek scowled at him before hugging Charlotte so tightly to his chest that her feet lifted off the ground. “Hold on.” He leapt up through the black hole, leaving the rest glaring after the two of them.
They shot ferociously through the trap door, sending clods of dust flying everywhere about the narrow, lavender hallway. The Witch, Sarah, who had clearly just finished sweeping, frowned at the mess, still clutching the broom in her hand as she watched Valek land gracefully on the floorboards.
Valek smiled apologetically at her. “I’m just going to need a few moments with her, then she’s all yours.”
Sarah smiled brightly, but didn’t say a word. She flitted off to some other part of the house. Charlotte frowned, and Valek noticed how she strained to sift through her memory of this house or of the little Witch from the night before.
He answered her thoughts. “You wouldn’t remember, Lottie.”
Valek led Charlotte up the stairs across from the Witch’s study, down another, shorter, lavender hallway, and into an empty bedroom.
He noticed it had already been dressed to welcome someone, with clean sheets placed neatly on the bed, fresh-cut lilacs on top of the nightstand, and pressed dresses hanging neatly in a row in an armoire left open. He knew all of these accommodations were specifically for Charlotte. This was the place Francis would house her during their stay. Something rolled in his center. In his peripheral vision, he noticed Charlotte glance up at him, and he attempted to calm his strained face.
“Valek?”
“Sit down.”
She sat on the edge of the bed, not tearing her focus from him. Her unyielding stare made it impossible for him to look directly at her. He inhaled, trying to steady the warbling he knew would appear the instant he started to speak.
“Let me preface by saying, no matter what, you are completely safe here. I am constantly at arms length away from you.”
“Okay….”
“Lottie, there were several…provisions which needed to be agreed upon for Francis to let you stay here with me.”
Charlotte frowned at this.
“Please. I don’t want you to be frightened, but if I hadn’t agreed to this, he would have killed you. I saw it in his mind. He wouldn’t even let me search for another place to hide without backing me into this proverbial corner.”
“Valek, what is going on?”
He got to his knees in front of her and took her hands in his. “Sometimes, in our world, there are human beings, like yourself, whom we develop relationships with.”
Charlotte smiled at this.
“No. When I use the word ‘relationship,’ that isn’t what I mean. They are used as a sort of pet we keep.” Valek searched her expression to see if she understood what he was getting at. “We do not kill these humans, but we feed from them nightly. The sort of nickname we call these types of people are ‘blood dolls’. They are like…personal donors.” He stopped, searching her face again.
Her eyes grew wide and watery as she gaped at him, inching backward on the bed, grabbing onto the bedclothes for support. “You’re whoring me out? ” she hollered.
“Charlotte, no. It isn’t exactly like that—”
“Yes, it is! It is exactly like that!” She fought and buried her face into the pillow.
“Lottie, the point is, I had to give in to Francis, lest he kill you. I am never going to let anything happen to you.”
She sat up and looked at him, her eyes red. “What do I have to do exactly?”
Valek glanced to one side. “Nothing really. You just sort of…sit there.”
“You mean they take it straight from me? You can’t just prick my arm with a syringe or something?”
Valek shook his head. “I promise it’s just for now. I meant what I said about leaving, just the two of us.” He struggled to find the right words. “Charlotte, I love you.”
She stayed quiet. When he noticed how tightly she clenched her jaw, he tuned in to her mind. He needed to know what she was thinking. Her mind was spinning as the disgusting visualization of what he was asking of her played over and over again. He was going to let them feed off her. Use her. How could he love her and still do this?
Valek silently agreed with her on that one. Suddenly, she began relating herself to the frozen corpses that rested in Valek’s freezer back in their home in the Occult.
“Lottie, I have no other choice. Don’t you see? Francis was never going to let me leave once I entered this house with you in my arms. He articulated one thing to me, but his mind was saying something altogether different. The moment I would have crossed the threshold back out into the city would have been the moment he came after me to kill you. It wasn’t a threat. It was a promise. There is not a single living or un-living thing on this planet that means more to me. When you were dying in the dungeons of the Regime, so was I. I will make sure every time you are called upon you will be safe. I promise you. You have to believe me. I love you.”
Charlotte’s frightened gaze stayed locked on his face. Valek grabbed her clammy hands in his and tuned in again. She was considering all of this, fighting two different impulses in her mind, one of them wanting to hate Valek and the other, wanting to love him. The hollow feeling swelled in his chest again as he listened. Would he ever escape from his role as “the monster?” Finally, Lottie’s mind rested on one thought; there was no other way for now. She had to give in if she wanted to stay alive and stay with him.
“I love you, Valek,” she said meekly. “But I’m afraid.”
“I know you are. As am I.” He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her against him.
Holding her was the most comforting thing he could think of, though he understood it was not enough.
“I want you to be first, though.”
He pulled away to look at her, gaping. “I don’t know if I am entirely comfortable with that.”
“Valek, I’m so afraid to do this. You owe it to me.” Tears streamed in silvery ribbons down her pale face.
He breathed in slowly through his nose and just stared at her. He glanced at the floor. “Lottie—”
“Please?” Her voice wavered as he anticipated more of her warm tears to come.
He sighed. “I want you to know you won’t have to do this forever. This will not be the rest of your life, Charlotte.”
Grasping both sides of his face, she pulled him forward and pressed her lips firmly to his. She released a hot breath that sent a trail of fire down the back of his throat. Wrapping her arms around his neck, he felt her tongue brush over his fangs. She was impossible to let go of, as lingering and intoxicating as red wine.
They rolled back together so he loomed over her on the bed. He whispered her name in her ear, slid his lips along the soft contours of her jaw. She sighed. He opened his mouth, letting his cool breath prickle the tiny hairs on her skin. She exhaled again, a happy sound. It sent a jolt of electricity through his center. Her fingers knotted in his hair as he skimmed only the tips of his fangs down one side of her neck.
“Do it,” she whispered.
He swiftly pulled away and looked at her, his breathing still heavy and staggered in his chest.
“You’re thirsty.” She grazed her fingertips across his purple lids. This newfound daringness in her was completely foreign to him. He had never thought Lottie would be this way—passionate, sensual.
His hand trailed up her arm until he found her palm, mouth open, tasting the scent she left in the air.
“Do it,” she challenged again. She met him with a corrupt simper. “I trust you,” she whispered, kissing him deeply again.
He breathed her in, but it was too much this time. He turned his face away. “I'm not perfect, Lottie. I couldn’t live with myself if I ever—” But she didn’t let him finish.
“Please.”
Valek looked down at her underneath him, both of his marble arms keeping his upper half perfectly steady on the mattress. He thought for a moment, thankful she was unable to hear exactly what he was thinking. He smiled. “You’re going to be very tired later,” he warned.
“I don’t care.” She bit her lower lip. It was enough to send a slight tremor down his middle.
He smiled and lifted away from her slowly, something malicious curling the ends of his mouth. He moved out of the light, letting the shadows play tricks on the cracks in his skin, before disappearing completely.
He heard Charlotte’s pulse leap into her throat, though she laughed despite her fear. She looked behind her. “Valek?” Her voice cracked a little.
A soft, inhuman hissing rumbled deep within Valek. But unlike the minatory hissing that had woken Charlotte in the dungeon of the Regime palace, Valek didn’t mean for this sound to be threatening at all. It came out calm. He knew it allured her, and just as she sat up on the bed, he dashed through the darkness, grabbing her arms, pinning them to her sides.
“Don’t move,” he whispered, his mouth pressed to her ear once more. The soft throbbing of her heart quickened in his ears. He measured it every time he inhaled. When her pulse quickened, so did his breathing. It was driving him mad. He reached around, gently pulling a dark, red ringlet away from her pallid throat.
“Valek?” Her voice came out trembling.
He replied with another inhuman sound. His hands traveled down her arms to her wrists and forcefully pulled her back to the mattress. Her heart thumped in her chest as his cool breath heated over her collarbone.
He saw himself, reflected back to him from her mind then; eyes, shrouded underneath his hair, glinted dimly at her. His entire face seemed to be one, large shadow, with only his fangs glistening at her in a devastating smile. She watched him with wide eyes, finding suddenly she really was afraid. But she was so numb, a body caught in a rip current, that she failed to move now, even if she wanted to.
He carefully lowered himself again, letting his face hover directly over hers. A sound, like thunder, quaked low in his chest as he listened to her breathing accelerate. He moved his mouth down until it was directly underneath her ear and searched her throat until he felt the pulse living under the bed of ivory skin. His lips parted the same time her eyelids did.
She inhaled, grasping his arms for support.
Then, with one hot breath, he pushed downward. Warm, thick wine exploded over his gums and slammed against the back of his throat, swimming into the concrete veins.
He heard Charlotte gasp. Her heart fluttered wildly, like the sound of African war drums pummeling in his ears, so loud it drowned out the sound of her screaming. The rhythms grew louder and more rapid with each second that passed, his sanity slipping further away.
“Valek!” She pushed with all of her strength. “Stop! Valek!”
But it was too much. The rhythm raged on as the focus of the room washed over with deep red. Light melded together with darkness and his consciousness slipped to the current of some stormy sea, tugging him in different directions. The warmth of her pooled over his lips and it was as though her pulse had somehow become his. Hypnotic. Sinking him into a trance that would keep him locked to her until it stopped. But something else began to grow in his mind. A distantly different sound that pulled him back from a roaring typhoon to shore.
“Valek! ”
Finally hearing her, he pushed away, the rushing in his ears lulled, and he could feel his eyes shifting back to normalcy. Humanity took control of animal instinct, as he looked down at green, fearful watery eyes. She lay there, still as she could, mouth open, barely breathing. Her blood pooled in a puddle of red in the white sheets beneath her.
“Lottie?” He choked. “Oh God.” He quickly moved away from her, yanking her into his lap. “I got carried away.” He brushed the hair out of her face.
“It’s not your fault,” she said, still shaken. It was too soon after her experience in the dungeon. “It wasn’t a good idea.”
“No. I should have known better.”
The two sat there in silence for a few moments longer, now staring at each other, reeling from the experience. Valek was the one to speak first.
“Did I hurt you?”
“A little. I was just scared, mostly.” She nuzzled underneath his chin. “I’m okay.”
He looked at her lovingly and placed a stray piece of hair behind her ear. He kissed the wound at the side of her neck closed.
Is that what I am to endure, Valek heard her think. He didn’t respond, knowing that was supposed to be a private thought.
“It was not the right time for us,” he whispered, and kissed her forehead.
A rapping came abruptly from outside the bedroom door. It was followed by Sarah swinging the door open, her expression sad and apologetic, as Francis moved in after her. A web of long, feathered eyelashes cradled thirsty black eyes. His pallid complexion was even more ashen than normal, the sides of his face seemingly able to cut glass.
“Excuse us, Valek.”
Valek turned, helpless, to his friend. “No. Not now. Francis, please.”
“I apologize in advance.” Francis swiftly moved forward, his gaze fixed at the base of Charlotte’s throat where blood still dried. The normally dazzling white hair, neatly combed to his mid back was now sheenless and erratic about his shoulders.
“Valek!” Charlotte yelped when Francis grabbed her by the shoulder.
Valek stood before them, his features strained into a forsaken grimace. He couldn’t stop this from happening as much as he wanted to. “I know you’re scared, Lottie. You need to remember what I said. You are safe, no matter what. I will be here.” He glared at Francis, who only sneered.
“Do what you please, Valek. Watch. If that is what contents you.” Francis gave a final smile toward his comrade and turned to see his reflection in the girl’s glassy eyes. “Ahoj, my little doll.” He flashed his large incisors and tore deep into the top of Charlotte’s shoulder.
Charlotte gasped, her jaw falling open but no sound escaped. Her hands flew to clutch Francis’ back, balling up in the white satin as Valek watched her red warmth ooze down the middle of her spine.
Valek flinched away from the sight of it, his eyes overflowing with red again. It pained him so much he shielded his face. He wanted to stay strong, to be there for her, but the pain smeared clear across her face caused him to stumble desperately out of the room. He noticed Sarah, leaned up against the wall in the hallway, listening. He could see she was upset as well.
She looked at him, shaking her head, and covered her mouth with her hands, crying, too.
Valek straightened up, his hands fisting tight at his sides. “It is not your place to regard me in this way. How could you possibly empat
hize?” He growled and began to plummet down the stairs to the first floor.
The horde of Vampires that only the night before remained submerged and hidden in the depths of the basement were now beginning to ascend, bursting through the trap door, gathering together on the landing. All of their stares locked on his face at once.
“No,” Valek said through his grit. “This cannot happen this way!”
Andela was the first to approach him. Her features were not beautiful as they were the night before. “I promised you last evening that Charlotte would be kept alive. None of us wish to kill her, Valek.”
“Don’t you realize this is harmful to her?” He brought his knuckle up to his teeth and twisted to peer back up the stairway. Francis had finished. Charlotte was petrified. Valek continued to cry.
“There is no other way.” She placed her hand on his shoulder but he immediately shrugged it off. “Sarah is caring for her now. That’s what she’s for. She knows how to keep Charlotte sustained between feedings until the time we’re finished. Then she will be able to heal her completely.”
Valek looked at Andela and gave up. He covered his face in his hands and knelt to the floor as the tall Vampire silently moved past him up the stairs.
Before he could follow her, Sasha and Jorge appeared on either side of him.
“Valek, we apologize in advance for this, but we cannot risk you interfering. If you do not allow us this, it could throw the weaker Vampires into a frenzy,” Jorge quickly explained, before nodding to Sasha.
The two gripped Valek around the tops of his arms, and though he screamed and protested to try and get away, he could not fight off the strength of the two of them as they dragged him back toward the trap door.
“Please!” he begged. “I need to be with her!”
“Sorry, friend.” Sasha smirked as Jorge opened the trap door. They pushed Valek in and sent him plummeting through the darkness to the basement below. He landed stealthily, like a cat, on his feet. From above, he heard something click shut, like a padlock being fastened and he knew the coven was not about to let him escape.
Of Light and Darkness Page 17