Darkness Comes This Way

by Pixie Lynn Whitfield

  “I can take it, I think.”

  “Draven’s wound has been stitched up, though, it won’t take long for him to heal—a matter of two days at most—so the stitches will just dissolve as he heals,” Cathy started.

  “Okay…and? What’s the bad news?”

  “He needs blood.”

  “So? Give him some. There’s plenty of it bottled around here,” she frowned.

  “If that’s the bad news, then you have to do better than that to set my nerves on edge, lady, because I just faced about sixty or more Rogues back there. And more kept coming in.”

  “Not that kind of blood, Zarah.” Cathy stopped her, gripping her arm and pulling her back toward the examination room.

  Zarah had been about to walk out once she was sure Draven was alright, ready to go to her room, and collapse from exhaustion. Upon hearing what the nurse just told her, she froze and stared wide-eyed at her.

  “Wait, what?”

  “A Vampire’s blood. He needs it. Soon. Or he will die,” Cathy explained, enunciating slowly.

  “Then give him yours! I can’t do that!”

  “No, I can’t. I’m on duty, Zarah. It’s not permitted. You have to do it. You’re here now. And there’s no one else to do it.”

  “You don’t understand. He won’t take from me. I’m tainted. That’s what he said. I believe him, too. It’s not safe. I can’t let him feed from me.” Zarah was rushing her words, panic rising in her chest. The nurse began dragging her to the examination room.

  “Well, you have to try.”

  Before further protest, she was shoved in the room with the door closed behind her.

  Twenty-One

  Draven was laying in front of her. The room was very small, and suddenly Zarah felt claustrophobic as she stood at the foot of his bed. She knew what she had to do, but the thought of it terrified her.

  The walls that held together her inner strength and courage came crumbling down. Her hands shook violently. Slowly, she approached him from the side. His eyes were closed and his breathing steady. She looked at the IV in his arm and saw that he was already receiving human blood in one thin tube, along with some type of clear medication in another. His ink-black shaggy hair hung loosely and framed his rugged, beautiful face.

  With caution, she sat down beside him and stared ahead at the too-white wall. Despite the shakiness that went all the way through to her bones, she could still feel every slight movement he made behind her. Every small breath and little twitch of his hands.

  After less than a minute, Zarah knew he was awake without even turning around to look at him. She could sense it in the change of his breathing. He was indeed in pain. The poison was healing with the medication and human blood, but not fast enough.

  “A Vampire’s blood. He needs it. Soon. Or he will die.”

  Cathy’s voice rang through her thoughts and Zarah clenched her eyes shut, trying to drown out the noise.

  She was tainted. Something was wrong with her. Draven feeding from her would be too risky. The glowing thing that happened earlier reminded her that she was different—a freak. What if she fed him and it went terribly wrong? She couldn’t just let him die though. Fear continued to boil in her, causing her heart to race.

  “You keep shaking my bed like that, and I might vomit on you.”

  Draven’s voice came out in a harsh, breathy rasp, barely above a whisper, but Zarah turned and forced a smile.

  “Sorry.”

  He started to shrug, deciding against it when the pain wracked his body at the movement, wincing instead.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked when he saw her worried, cautious expression. A second later, the poison sent a sharp, stabbing convulsion through his body that sent him in a torturous buckling, groaning and crying out against the agony of it until the fit subsided. He was taking deep breaths and whispering hoarsely in curses when it was done. Zarah knew that was only the beginning, and she had to act quickly.

  She shifted her eyes as tears began to form, struggling to get out the words.

  Finally, after a moment’s hesitation, Zarah thrust her wrist at Draven.

  “You have to feed.”

  His eyes widened briefly, and then he rapidly shook his head.

  “Hell no. I will not.”

  He tried to move away but was too weak and in too much pain.

  “You have to,” she repeated, pleading with her eyes.

  “Not from you, I don’t. If it’s necessary for me to have vampire blood, then I’ll wait.” He turned his eyes away from her and closed them.

  She was stung by his words, but shouldn’t have been surprised. Dropping her arm back to her lap with a sigh, she turned and faced the wall again. Zarah guessed it was maybe for the best anyway that he didn’t feed from her. The fears of whatever was going on still consumed her mind. She’d burned a Rogue to death with her bare hand that had glowed. Whatever that was about still baffled her.

  “I figured,” she whispered, the hurt almost clear in her words despite trying to mask it.

  Another fifteen minutes passed and Zarah could hear Draven struggling more against the pain. He was going in and out of consciousness. His convulsions from the poison, the torture and stabbing aches that caused the agony were becoming more frequent. Whenever he’d buck and writhe within the sheets, howling, the beads of cold sweat traveling down his face, she’d turn and grip his upper shoulders to try and keep him as still as possible.

  She didn’t know how much longer she could sit idly by and watch the horror of his suffering. The other Guardians or Nathanial hadn’t returned yet. He didn’t really have the time to wait on them, either.

  As his body shook again, her slender, shaking arms continued to try holding him down. She’d made her final decision then while watching his mouth twist in pain. That was it.

  Zarah brought her wrist up to her mouth and took a sharp bite to open her vein. She placed it tenderly against Draven’s lips, allowing the blood to drip past and onto his tongue. He was unconscious again, and she had to use her other hand to tilt his head up as she coaxed him.

  “Come on,” she whispered.

  By instinct, seconds later, his fangs gripped her and he began to drink in gulps. Zarah gasped at the unexpected pain and excitement.

  ***********

  Draven could smell a mixture of pineapples and sweet lily flowers as he slowly came back into consciousness sometime later. A delicious liquid flowed over his tongue and he took deep drinks, savoring the flavors with a moan. Seconds passed and the fog began to lift from his mind, causing him to remember the night’s events and where he was.

  Popping his eyes open, he saw Zarah leaning over him. The scents were hers, and the taste that gloriously filled him flowed from the vein in her wrist, which she was still holding at his lips.

  Zarah saw that he was awake, but didn’t pull back. She waited for him to make the move, even though she knew that he’d taken enough, and she was exhausted. Her eyes were weary and she nearly slumped over him.

  “What did you do?” He yanked himself away when he was fully aware. His voice was almost a shout, rough and laced with hints of growing agitation. He was definitely feeling better already.

  She sluggishly moved off the bed and to the chair beside him. Without even a glance, Zarah shrugged and closed her eyes.

  “I saved your ass. You can thank me later.”

  “No. I told you no earlier, and you still did it anyway!”

  Opening her eyes and narrowing them in frustration, she turned her head toward him.

  “You would have died, Draven. No one else has arrived back in time, and you wouldn’t have made it waiting around. I’m not tainted, damn it. Don’t worry, you’re not going Rogue. You said yourself that you believed I was cured, remember?”

  He glared at her and gritted his teeth. She saw his fists clench at his sides beneath the thin blanket, the muscles tensed in his shoulders.

  Draven remained silent. Zarah’s argument was not the reason
why he was angry at her but he didn’t want to tell her the truth. In a matter of minutes, the healing was taking place. His body felt warm, rich, and relaxed, causing a calm tiredness to fall over him. The convulsions and pain stopped. He could feel the silver poison being destroyed through the help of the medicine and her blood.

  When he looked back at Zarah, she was on the verge of falling asleep, her eyelids still heavy and staring at him.

  “What happened? I mean, uh, what happened back there with you? And how did we get out exactly?”

  She barely lifted a shoulder in response. In truth, Zarah was in a bit of pain herself and wouldn’t admit it. Her movements were stiff and exhaustion consumed her. The injuries she sustained were mild and could be slept off. They would also heal more once she fed.

  “I don’t know what happened—or how I burned that Rogue. That’s just more questions to my already growing list, I guess. We got out with the help of Thomas. He gave me a chemical silver release bomb,” she said in a whisper.

  Draven tried to sit up from shock. Quickly refraining when he realized it was a bad idea as his head spun, he just shook his head.

  “We haven’t had those weapons in our possession in—” he started.

  “In about two years. And that’s because Thomas was the Guardian that created them. When he went Rogue, they went with him,” Zarah finished with a tired sigh.

  “You’re hurt.” He observed. He stared up at the ceiling, avoiding eye contact. Her breathing was slow, shallow, and fatigued.

  “I’ll be fine.”

  Before long, she was asleep, curled into a tight ball on the plush, high-backed black fabric chair that sat beside Draven’s bed. He fell back into unconsciousness shortly afterward as well, and there they both slept in peace next to each other—for once, neither being plagued by any dreams.

  Twenty-Two

  “What happened?” Nathanial asked, striding into the hospital room. His eyes were frenzied, mouth set in a grim line.

  “We were ambushed.”

  Draven sat up slowly, the thin paper blankets rustling and his mind still fuzzy. They both looked at Zarah, who still lay sleeping in the chair.

  “You’re both okay?” Nathanial asked. Draven nodded in response.

  “Yeah, it was a tough fight. I’m surprised we even made it out alive. I don’t even remember making it out. I think…I think she saved me, Sir,” he stammered slowly. As the healing continued coursing through his veins, he knew he had just said the truth. Zarah had saved him.

  “What do you mean?” His boss narrowed his eyes, suddenly looking dangerous.

  The men didn’t realize that beside them, Zarah was slowly coming awake to the sounds of their voices. Keeping her eyes closed and movements minimal, she listened to their hushed conversation.

  “She fed me. No one else was here but her, and she saved me by giving me the blood I needed to cure the silver poisoning.”

  “She what?!” Nathanial froze at the foot of the bed with a shout. Anger was prevalent in his eyes and it startled Draven. His superior quickly composed himself and squared his shoulders back, running a shaky hand through his white hair.

  “I’m sorry. I’m just concerned. I don’t know if that was a good idea or not on her behalf to have done that.”

  Draven was silent for a moment before letting out a long breath and speaking with a slight stammer.

  “I trust her. I don’t believe any harm will come from it.”

  She sensed in his voice that perhaps he was trying to still convince himself of that idea. Her fingers twitched at her sides. One thing was certain, whether or not he hated her for doing it, she didn’t have any regrets.

  “Any harm? Draven, just last year she was Rogue…and she cured. There’s something unusual about her, something otherworldly even for our kind. Now I can’t help but have some concerns over whether or not she did something stupid by feeding you. In fact, I know she was stupid for it. She shouldn’t have—” Nathanial prattled on through clenched teeth until Draven interrupted.

  “Why the sudden change in opinion, Sir? If I remember correctly, it wasn’t long ago when you first paired us up, that you told me I should never be concerned with her? Now you stand before me sounding like a hypocrite.”

  Zarah could hear the anger laced in her partner’s voice, and the sound of Nathanial’s gasp a mere foot from her chair told her that he had just been extremely offended as well. She didn’t care. Draven was right in a way. Something was unusual in whatever it was that her boss was trying to say.

  Silence passed for several heartbeats before Nathanial spoke again.

  “So tell me then, did anything strange happen, or has happened, with her?”

  “What do you mean?” Draven asked cautiously.

  “For starters, there’s something you should know. She’s not entirely Vampire, Draven. Her mother was a Fallen Angel. And that can have some…effects. Of what exactly, I’m not entirely sure. She’s the only half-breed of such in existence because Fallens and Vampires aren’t exactly on good terms.”

  Zarah froze entirely in the chair. She held her breath and kept her eyes tightly shut, too stunned at everything she was hearing. Half-breed? Fallen Angels?

  What the hell?

  Draven swallowed.

  “No, I didn’t know that, Sir.” She could hear the lie in his trembling voice.

  Apparently, Nathanial didn’t though, because he continued on, pacing around the bed.

  “Of course, only a very few people know this. Myself, her brother, and her father. Now you. Her father is dead. Thomas is Rogue and somewhere out there on the streets. I’m not stupid enough to believe that Thomas was destroyed. I suspect Zarah still secretly hunts for him, but there’s nothing I can do to stop her from that. So, my question to you since you’re around her most at this time is have you witnessed any strange occurrences from our unique Guardian? For example, unusual gifts that no other may possess?” Nathanial questioned flatly. He sounded now as if he were interrogating, rather than kindly checking up on them as he’d acted when he entered the room. It made her uncomfortable and she assumed that it was the same for her partner.

  Another long silence passed and Zarah heard Draven shift again in the bed. This time it sounded as if he had sat completely up and was moving to get out.

  “Perhaps, Nathanial. However, that isn’t my business to discuss nor is this conversation one for me to be having with you. I think it’s time for you to go. I’m beginning to feel better, thank you, but I believe Zarah still needs rest. She was under some extreme exhaustion already when we made it back.” Draven was smooth, trying to cut the fury out of his voice as much as possible.

  “Fine. But when you’re both feeling better, I would like to have a meeting in my office. There’s many things to discuss.”

  Nathanial swept from the room, the door closing softly behind him with an airtight seal.

  Zarah remained silent with her eyes closed for several heartbeats as she let the conversation sink in. When she heard Draven let out a long sigh and the bed rustle while he stood, she blinked her eyes open slowly and stared at him.

  He was slipping on his boots at the foot of the bed, not paying any attention to her. She noticed he still moved very cautiously while his body was trying to heal the wounds, but was recovering at an amazing speed. The bruises and cuts across his arms were faded, and the gash that had been in his side from the silver blade looked like nothing more than a large scratch. The stitches had already dissolved. Zarah was stunned at how fast he had healed from the poison. Was it because of her?

  She caught herself staring at him. Her eyes roamed over his bare chest as he bent forward and tied his laces. His back stretched and she caught herself admiring his form.

  “How much of that conversation did you hear?”

  His voice startled her and she jumped, the soreness in her muscles screaming at her momentarily as she sat up in the chair with a sigh. He straightened up and looked at her through his intense blue e
yes.

  “Enough,” she replied.

  “Why did you lie about not knowing about my mother?”

  Draven shrugged.

  “He would have wanted to know how I knew, and I wouldn’t have been able to explain.”

  “How did you know? I didn’t even…” she started, stuttering, as she tried to force the tears back. Everything was just too much for her mind to comprehend at the moment, but she was trying. She was a half-breed. Fallen and Vampire. That’s why she was so different. So what exactly did it all mean for her? Zarah still had many questions.

  “Thomas told me.”

  Zarah met his eyes and saw the sympathy. No anger. No disgust. Her heart began to pound wildly in her chest as she went back to the thoughts of how emotionally-driven she became to save him earlier. There was a new bond between them.

  “She was Fallen…” Zarah whispered. Leaning forward in the chair, she put her head in her hands and let the tears flow then. Draven rushed forward and knelt down, his hand brushing her back.

  “That’s why I’m wanted. That’s what happened back there at the warehouse. I’m a new kind of species.”

  “You won’t be alone for long, Zarah,” Draven tried to soothe.

  She looked up at him in confusion, her eyes red from the tears.