Darkness Comes This Way

by Pixie Lynn Whitfield

  She swallowed the lump forming in her throat quickly, and regained her composure as she stood up straighter.

  “There’s not much to tell, Draven. He attacked me. He bit me. He left me. That is all.” She tried to say it roughly but her voice cracked.

  “Now, goodnight.”

  How could she be standing in front of him, acting so emotional, and expect him to care anyway?

  As she started to close the door, he stopped her again.

  “That’s all? I hardly believe that is all there is to it…” he tried to argue.

  Zarah narrowed her eyes and leaned forward. As she did so, she shoved his hand away from her door so that she would be able to close it.

  “Thomas took a piece of my soul that night as he smiled and walked away. I don’t think I can forgive that so easily,” she said as she began to shut the door. Draven was left standing out in the hallway, stunned at her words.

  Fourteen

  Draven stood at Zarah’s closed door. Leaning his forehead against the cool steel, he shut his eyes and took a deep breath. He could smell her on the other side; her scent was intoxicating as always. She smelled of a sweet mixture of fresh lilies, honeysuckle, and a hint of pineapple.

  As thoughts began to race through his mind of how hurt she had looked when recounting her memories with Thomas and the night he had turned her Rogue, the fury started to build within him.

  Draven opened his eyes and glanced down at his watch.

  Three A. M.

  He had plenty of time.

  Listening at Zarah’s door another moment longer, he heard that she was in the shower. Then, he pushed away and headed back toward the elevator to leave the Compound.

  *********

  Zarah stepped out of the shower and walked into her room to grab sleeping clothes. That was when she noticed Draven had left from her door at last, and it made her let out a sigh of relief. The lump formed at the back of her throat was hard to swallow as her emotions ran rampant. His scent still lingered and she inhaled deeply, closing her eyes as she did. She couldn’t allow herself to think, to get attached, like that. But, perhaps it was already too late.

  “Such a fool,” she chastised herself out loud with a shake of her head as she walked toward her little kitchen and grabbed a fresh bottle of blood. She was angry and embarrassed with herself for having opened up so much to Draven.

  Draven…

  Who had once annoyed and pissed her off so much…

  Now, it seemed as if he genuinely cared. Even if he still liked to push her buttons to the boiling point. To top it off, she actually trusted him. More than anyone could even begin to imagine.

  While she drank slowly from the amber-colored bottle, a small thought crossed her mind that nearly made her drop it.

  It was possible she could be falling for him.

  ***********

  Driving, Draven looked around to see the streets mostly deserted at the late hour. It would have been peaceful if the anger in him hadn’t been so much in control. He jerked the wheel to turn a corner, making the tires squeal. The radio blasted, heavy drums and blaring electric guitar riffs filling the space of the interior.

  Zarah’s voice edged into his thoughts.

  “Thomas took a piece of my soul that night as he smiled and walked away.”

  He had remained silent throughout it all, and secretly had read her memories while she dredged them up. Draven knew she wouldn’t tell the whole story…but he saw what exactly happened through her eyes as she stood there before him. There was something unusual there. Rogues were gaining intelligence long before he was aware of it, before this mission. Zarah knew it though. She had known the night Thomas was turned, and then again when he came back for her…

  But it was that statement, the sorrow in her eyes, the pain in her voice, that’d struck him. When she closed the door in his face, he was floored beyond words. He didn’t know how to comfort her.

  He wanted to comfort her.

  The rage grew as his drive came to an end and he slammed on his brakes, throwing the car into park violently. He climbed out of the car and stalked up to the door, and pounded on it.

  After beating loudly, non-stop, for a few long seconds, the door in front of him finally opened.

  “What?” Thomas asked in confusion, swinging the door open with a frown. He smirked when seeing Draven.

  “Oh, Guardian, it’s you,” he began, looking around, frowning again at the odd situation.

  “Is everything okay?”

  Without a word and a sudden loud crack, Draven had brought his fist up and connected it against Thomas’ jaw. It sent him flying backwards into the apartment, hitting a nearby bookshelf and landing hard onto the floor.

  Thomas shot back up quickly, growling and baring his fangs. Draven, already inside the apartment, closed the door to the rest of the complex to keep the noise level down to a minimum as best as he could, but knew it wouldn’t do any good if they were going to fight anyway. At that point, he didn’t really care. His anger was winning out with his emotions, even if it was a little out of character for him.

  The Rogue charged at the Guardian and slammed him against the wall. Draven swung again, trying to get another punch in, but missed when Thomas ducked. His hand went into a picture frame instead. Glass shattered onto the floor.

  It was in that moment, Alyssa walked into the room from the back to see what the commotion was about and gasped, getting both of their attention.

  “What is going on here?” she yelled at them.

  “I don’t know, ask him!” Thomas started shouting back.

  “He’s the one that came knocking, and then punched me when I opened the door.”

  Draven stopped fighting against Thomas and took a few steps back, clenching his teeth.

  “What is your problem?” Thomas turned to ask Draven furiously, holding his jaw and shooing Alyssa’s hands away when she rushed over to try and check on him.

  “You did it. You attacked Zarah and turned her Rogue. You’re her brother. Damn it, you’re supposed to protect her, not ruin her.” Draven’s tone was ice.

  Thomas raised an eyebrow, staring at him with interest. There wasn’t any remorse in her brother’s features, and that fueled his temper further. He began to ready his fist again and step toward him.

  Holding up his hands up in defense, Thomas shook his head and pointed at the couch.

  “Sit. There’s probably more to the story you should know.”

  Draven froze and suddenly looked at him in confusion. More to the story? How could there be more to something like that?

  Thomas glanced at him curiously as he sat in a chair.

  “Trust me, Draven.”

  It was probably the first time the Rogue had addressed him by his name, and that was when he decided to sit and listen to whatever it was he had to say.

  “I didn’t want this. I knew she’d cure, and I knew it was only her that I’d want to end it for me. My sister wouldn’t have unless I took extreme measures, so yes, I turned her Rogue,” Thomas explained calmly.

  “Do not think that I don’t feel guilty about it. There’s not a single day that goes by that I don’t think of the pain I caused her. But, I know at the same time I protected her while causing my own end that should be done.”

  Draven inhaled sharply and looked at him in shock.

  “You knew she’d cure? How?”

  Thomas smiled then.

  “A little family secret. Not even Zarah herself knows. It’s rare, and if I tell you, you have to keep your mouth shut. Our father didn’t want her knowing until the time was right, whenever I felt like it was good to tell her.”

  “Wait, wait. I’m confused now. Everyone has been trying to figure out how she’s cured, but you’re saying you’ve known all along?” Draven asked.

  He frowned and shook his head, continuing his explanation.

  “I wasn’t there when she cured, remember? And I can’t tell her right now. At this time, the main focus is
to keep the Rogues away from the secret, and from getting to her blood for experimenting. It’s to my understanding, they’re already trying some unusual experiments.”

  “Yes, Mitchell was something unlike I’ve ever seen,” Draven remarked as Thomas nodded thoughtfully.

  A few minutes of awkward silence passed between them then as Thomas stared at Draven, lost in thought, concentrating and contemplating on what he was about to reveal to the Guardian. Finally, he sighed and uncrossed his legs.

  “Unlike the lot of vampires, Zarah and I weren’t born fully human or half-human first,” he said at last.

  “As I said, we are extremely rare cases, probably the only two on the planet, and this is highly secret.”

  The normal life and turning of a vampire is that a male vampire can get a human woman pregnant, bearing a half-human, half-vampire child. The only vampire traits they show during childhood most times is faster-than-average-human speed, telepathy, burns from sunlight, and raw meat cravings. Then when the child reaches a certain age, usually the average around twenty, the father fully turns them by feeding him or her his blood. This stops the aging process, they never eat food again, and rely on the sustenance of blood to survive.

  If a child is born to parents that are both human, and is thus a fully human child as well, the process is a bit different. Those vampires were turned later when they were older by another vampire in most cases because they became a part of the world, either through a mate, or because they were caught up in a fight. Some cases, like Draven, are a slight mystery. He woke up in a back alley late one night craving blood. Nathanial found him some hours later, and told him what he was. He had no memory of what had happened right before his turning, but he did remember small memories of his mother. Sometimes he missed her…but it had been decades, and there were a lot of blank spots.

  “Okay, you have my attention.” Draven sat up with interest.

  “Our mother wasn’t human. She was a Fallen Angel.”

  Fifteen

  “What?” Draven stared in shock at Thomas, his eyes unbelievably wide.

  “Are you being serious?”

  “Do I look like I’m joking?” Thomas asked. He reached behind him and pulled a photo album from a nearby bookshelf. He reached across the table to hand it to Draven as Alyssa sat down in Thomas’ lap.

  There on the first page of the album was a family photo. Zarah must have been around the age of thirteen when the picture had been taken. Thomas was about sixteen or seventeen. They were still in their half-human states, not fully fledged. It was easy to tell by the markings on his and hers faces; they’d once had a sprinkle of freckles across their noses and cheeks. The change took them away later.

  Behind them stood their parents and they were all dressed in rich, finely groomed clothes. Draven swallowed a hard lump forming in the back of his throat as his eyes landed on the woman that had to have been their mother. She looked human…but it was her eyes that held something strange in them. Her eyes were like Zarah’s—a swirling mixture of two unusual colors. They were turquoise, almost the same bright shade as Zarah’s, with swirls of intense gold. Her hair was short and black, but other features were certainly similar with Zarah: the full pouty lips, big doe eyes, and short, petite frame.

  “How much has Zarah told you about our past?” Thomas split the silence, breaking through Draven’s thoughts.

  He pulled his gaze away from the photo and shook his head.

  “Nothing, really. I struggled with her just to get a little information out about you and her going Rogue. Even then, I had to search through her memories to get more to the story.”

  Thomas raised his eyebrows with interest.

  “Okay, apparently it’s true that she’s fighting against herself from warming up to you,” he joked. Draven frowned instead, and handed the album back after one last long look at the picture.

  “What happened with your family?”

  Thomas’ eyes narrowed and he gently nudged Alyssa up from his lap.

  “Sweetheart, can you leave us to talk alone for a while please?”

  She nodded, leaning down and placing a soft kiss on his cheek, before walking out of the room. Draven watched her disappear into one of the back bedrooms until he turned his attention to Thomas again.

  “Didn’t she used to be a Guardian as well?” Draven asked with a frown. He thought he faintly remembered her. He had somewhat known Thomas from before, though not very well.

  Thomas nodded as he stood and went to the kitchen across the room. He reached into the refrigerator and pulled out two bottles, holding one up to Draven as an offer. He looked a little hesitant, and it must have been clear in his face, because Thomas chuckled.

  “It’s safe. From the blood banks, I assure you.”

  “Alright, then,” he said, and took a bottle from Thomas. As he swallowed down the rich, metallic flavors, he noted that Thomas could be trusted, and they sat down across from each other again. Thomas was hesitant to tell, but he started anyway, not meeting Draven’s eyes. He stared out a nearby window as he spoke, distant, obviously getting lost in the memories.

  “Our mother was a Fallen Angel. Our father was a vampire. That simple really, I guess. But she was so rare…such an unusual being. They agreed it would be best to just let everyone believe she was human and leave it at that. Very few knew her for what she really was. I only found out after her death.”

  “How’d she die?” The curiosity was building in Draven’s core the more he was hearing. He even caught himself leaning forward with interest. His hands rested on his knees, fingers curling in eager fists.

  “Zarah was sixteen, not fully turned yet, and I was twenty. My father was out hunting; he was a Guardian at the time. My mother had to go shopping. She could walk in sunlight during early morning hours when it wasn’t too hot out, or early evening hours, but it was already after sunset. The store was only a five-minute walk away, and she was a fighter herself thanks to a lot of training from Dad. That night though, there were just too many rabids. She couldn’t fight them all. They ripped her apart. I found her body. It’d been left on our front lawn. My father said that must’ve been where she was when they got her.”

  Silence stretched between Draven and Thomas. He had turned back to face him then, waiting.

  “She was almost home. Right there in our yard, but we never heard her.”

  Draven could see the darkness in Thomas’ eyes…the anger and sorrow over what had happened to his mother, his family, and he suddenly felt sympathetic.

  “I’m sorry,” was all he could stutter out.

  Thomas waved a hand of dismissal. It was clear he wanted to quickly get rid of the images that still lived with him. His waving hand was probably not only shaking away Draven’s sympathies, but the memory of his mother’s mangled body splayed out on the damp morning grass.

  “My father went crazy when he found out. He went on a suicide mission, leaving me and Zarah behind as he took off after the Rogues to hunt them down. He didn’t know the exact monsters that’d done it, but he was determined to kill every rabid monster in a fifteen mile radius until he felt he’d had his revenge. Instead, it cost him his own life in the end. He was bitten and went rabid. Zarah and I had to hunt and kill him three years later after she was fully turned. We burned him inside our old family home,” he continued.

  “Were you fully turned at twenty then?” Draven asked.

  Thomas nodded.

  “Yes, luckily, my father had done that before he left on his damn mission to avenge my mother. Told me that if he didn’t make it back, I had to be Zarah’s protector, and that’s what I’ve always done. I was the one that fully turned her when I felt she was of age and ready, the day after her nineteenth birthday. Yes, I also turned her Rogue, but that was because I knew it would protect her in the end.”

  “I still don’t understand how you turning her Rogue protected her.” Draven was still confused, the frown pulling down his mouth. He clenched his jaw to suppress the a
nger.

  “As I told you, I knew she’d cure. After my mother’s death, my father told me about her. There is a special gene that a Fallen Angel carries and passes onto their offspring that provides them protection from the poison. It’s an immunity, so to speak. My father told me that it’s only passed onto the females, so he was certain that Zarah had it. In order for it to take any kind of effect, she’d have to be turned Rogue first. The gene would then attack and kill the rabid cells over a short time until the cure is fully in place and the Vampire becomes normal again. After that, permanent immunity is in place and no matter how many bites she gets, Zarah can never be turned Rogue again,” Thomas explained. He was getting annoyed having to talk so much, but had to admit that the Guardian wasn’t so bad after all.

  “It also activated the Fallen power. I’m not sure what yet, but something is different about her. Only time will tell, I guess,” he added.

  “So, what? Is she going through like a special growth? Developing over time? New emotions, special powers…that sort of thing?”

  “I guess you could say that.”

  “What are Fallens exactly anyway? I’m not sure I understand that species. Where did they come from?” Draven continued to ask.

  “Are we talking actual angels here?”

  “You’ll have to ask a Fallen that, which is difficult for us since they hate our kind. I couldn’t explain it to you. I think that’s almost like asking where we came from. Does one of us ever truly know the proper answer to that question? There are so many different legends and stories through history, it’s hard to give one,” Thomas explained.