He dropped on one knee beside me, whispering in my ear. “Run. If you really want to get away from me, little human, run. Now.”
I scrambled to my feet, cradling the arm against my chest as I ran for a second time. I didn't know which way to go – there was no safety in the woods, nobody to hear me scream for help, nowhere to run that would get me away from this— this creature. Anxiety screamed through every nerve ending and my head refused to co-operate. It seemed all I could focus on was the excruciating pain in my arm and the disbelief of seeing those fangs extend in his mouth. It had to be a joke, an elaborate ruse. I searched from one side of the path to the other for an escape route, making a split-second decision to head off the path and through the trees, in the hope of finding somewhere to hide. The thought of him kept me moving, lurching through the heavily wooded forest searching for salvation, glancing backwards every few seconds to see where he was. Not fast enough, not fast enough! Go faster! The words ran repeatedly in my mind as I twisted and turned between the trees, the only sound the ragged staccato beat of my breathing and my heart. I caught my foot on a tree root and fell to the ground, wrenching my ankle so badly I feared it was broken. I lay on the snowy ground, gasping for air, my lungs on fire and panic filling my chest to the point where I could hardly draw breath.
“You aren't making much sport out of this.”
He stood a few feet away, leaning casually against a tree with his arms crossed over his chest. The look in his eyes was terrifying – he was enjoying this – much the way I imagined a lion enjoyed chasing a deer. This was entertainment to him, and the knowledge had bile rushing up my throat. Dragging myself up onto my hands and knees, I retched against the snowy ground, seeing black spots in my field of vision as my oxygen-starved body fought against losing consciousness.
He appeared beside me abruptly, pulling me from the ground with my undamaged arm and dropping me onto my feet before him. Disorientated and faint, I tried to balance one-legged in the heavy snow. I gingerly placed my other foot down, but the stabbing pain that shot through my leg seemed to be confirmation that I'd broken my ankle.
“I'm wasting my time, you're not making this pleasurable at all,” he growled furiously, glancing with distaste at the spot where I'd emptied the meager contents of my stomach. In a blur, his arm swung forwards, smashing into my chest with incredible force. I flew backwards through the air and landed some twenty feet away, hitting my head heavily against a fallen tree. Battling to stay conscious and struggling against crippling pain, I tried to formulate a plan, something that would let me escape from this— I shuddered as the word penetrated my throbbing head— vampire. I understood too late, what Lucas had been warning me about when he'd told me to stay out of the woods.
He stood over me, disappointment clear in his dark eyes. “Too easy. I must find prey that can put up a fight. This was ridiculously simple.” He paused, his eyes narrowing. “Of course, there are other ways I can amuse myself…”
He bent over my crumpled form, grabbing the waistband of my jeans with both hands. In one savage movement, he tore them from my body as if they were made of tissue paper. I knew what he intended and was helpless to do anything to stop it. My head was spinning, the pain throughout my body overwhelming and the knowledge there was no escaping from this animal hit me with a finality that was horrifying. Every breath was torture, the pain emanating from my ribs felt as if daggers were being plunged into my lungs.
He shrugged off the long coat, throwing it to the ground. “If I enjoy this, I might let you live. Or perhaps fucking you will bore me, and I'll kill you anyway.” He pinched my jaw between his thumb and forefinger in an acutely painful grip, forcing me to look into his eyes. “Which would you prefer?” He straightened up and I sobbed as he reached for the button on his jeans.
A monstrous growl echoed through the woods and I thought it came from him. Through the hazy fog of pain, I forced myself to look up into his cruel face. If this was how I was going to die, I wished it were over.
His expression changed and he looked almost… scared? No, he was more than scared – he seemed terrified.
I couldn't imagine what caused his fear, until something sprang from the trees and slammed into the creature. The sound of the bodies hitting together reverberated like a heavy clap of thunder and I cringed away from the noise. They battled together – their movements so abnormally swift, so rapid – they appeared to be shimmering. I grasped what it was that had come to my rescue with stunning clarity. Or rather, who had come to my rescue.
Relief flooded through my battered body when I knew it was Lucas. Which seemed a strange emotion, considering I'd been told he was a vampire. I watched the two creatures grappling together, spinning, and soaring through the woods as they clashed repeatedly. My eyes wanted to close so badly, but I needed to be certain Lucas was safe, that the creature didn't harm him…
“Charlotte? Can you hear me?”
With difficulty, I turned my head and looked at the man kneeling beside me, recognized him as Lucas's friend, Ben. His dark brown eyes narrowed when he caught my face between his hands. Icy cold hands. Which struck me as odd – why did he have such cold hands? I guessed it was freezing out here and I couldn't feel my own feet or legs, but it seemed strange that his hands were so icy. Didn't he have gloves? Ben wrenched off his jacket and threw it over my torso and when I looked at his eyes again, I shrank back in fear. The brown of his eyes had morphed, they were still a rich chocolate brown, but as I stared, I saw the flicker of golden streaks through them. Maybe this was a nightmare – it couldn't be real. I closed my eyes, wanting to drift into sleep, to forget the pain that was superseding everything else.
“Charlotte, look at me! Keep your eyes open. Charlotte!” I forced my eyelids open, discovering Ben had been joined by someone else. A petite woman, perhaps my age or a little older. With pale skin and hazel eyes which sparkled with silver streaks. I almost smiled, despite everything that was happening. Another vampire? Good grief – I was surrounded by them – that must be what they all were. This one was striking, her silky dark hair piled into a ponytail high on her head. Ben spoke to her, in words so low and rapid; I couldn't understand what he said. The woman leapt to her feet and disappeared in the blink of an eye, as if she'd never been by my side in the first place.
Lucas. Try to locate Lucas. I wanted to see him once more before I died, and that was, undoubtedly, what was going to happen. I lolled my head to the right, watching through half open eyelids and struggling to stay conscious. Lucas stood behind the creature, which was being held between two other men, their grip tight on his arms. One of the men was heavily built, a mountain of muscle with long blonde hair and rippling biceps. The second man had closely cropped dark hair, and he was slender and tall. More vampires, if I was buying into the preposterous story I'd heard.
Lucas nodded to the two men and they forced the creature that'd attacked me onto his knees, pressuring him until he was bent forward from the waist. Lucas stepped in front of him and I saw he was carrying a sword, a huge, heavy bladed weapon, which appeared to be something that had come from a medieval movie set. In a quick movement, he raised it high over his head and a deep growl erupted from low in his chest as he slashed it downwards towards the vampire's neck. Blood spurted across Lucas's face and shirt as the vampire's head was removed from its shoulders, rolling across the snowy ground until it stopped a few feet away, the glassy eyes staring directly at me, the mouth open in a deathly yaw, the fangs still readily visible. As I watched in horrified fascination, a drop of saliva ran down one of the glistening fangs, dropping onto the blood soaked ground beneath the head.
I heard screaming – loud, primal screaming, and realized with shock that it was my own voice. I couldn't seem to stop the noise issuing from my throat and I continued to scream until I sank into a blessed darkness where the pain and terror faded away.
Chapter 6: Dreams, or Nightmares?
“Are you sure she will wake up?” I recognized Lucas's voi
ce, heard anxiety in his worried tone.
“Yes, she will wake up. She has very grave injuries and she's suffering severe shock.” This was Ben's voice, soothing and reassuring. “Jerome has her sedated with a significant amount of morphine; he says she'll wake when she's ready.”
“We should have taken her to hospital.” Lucas's voice again.
“Lucas, you know it's better to keep her here with us. We don't know what Ambrose told her, how much she knows. It would be dangerous for us all, if she's aware of everything and speaks to hospital staff. What if she tells them our secret? We would have to run immediately and none of us is ready to leave yet. Besides, Jerome can access all the medical equipment we need and bring it here.” This was a woman's voice, light and lilting.
“Marianne, you think she's better here with us. Gwynn has made her attitude about Charlotte very clear.” Lucas's voice again and I detected a note of annoyance in his tone.
“You know what Gwynn is like. She'll come around.” The calm and reassuring voice said. She must be Marianne. “William will calm her down, he always does.”
“I don't believe Gwynn is our primary concern at present.” Ben again, his voice low, composed. They all spoke so swiftly, I had to concentrate carefully to pick up everything that was said. “Charlotte may or may not know what we are and we must ascertain how much she knows before we can make further decisions.” I felt the sheets being drawn up over my chest, and the weight of a blanket being adjusted. “Right now, I'm more concerned with her injuries and Jerome says further damage could be done if we attempt to move her.”
Holy shit, I think I'm still alive. How strange. I was certain I should be in pain, but there was nothing tangible, only the sensation of being both warm and comfortable. Perhaps I was dead, I mused. Maybe I was dead and this was all some bizarre hallucination, some final quest before I entered the afterlife.
No. Not possible. No hallucination could possibly be this bizarre.
There should at least be some discomfort, after the injuries I'd received at the hands of that… thing. There was no physical suggestion of any pain, however, only the softness of the bed and the weight of warm blankets lying across my torso. Why was it so dark? As my senses returned in increments, I figured out my eyes were still closed and I decided I rather liked it that way. For the moment, I would lay here with my eyes shut, keep still, and silent. I still had no idea what I was really dealing with. If these people were vampires – keeping in mind that it was a completely preposterous idea – why hadn't they killed me? A sudden, chilling thought entered my mind. Was this another sick game, did they want to nurse me back to health, so they could chase me as the other one had?
“I warned her to stay out of the forest, I told her not to go back in there. I thought they had moved on. I would never have stopped trailing her, if I'd known there was still danger from Ambrose and his Kiss.”
“We're fortunate Marianne had the vision and we got there in time. Acenith and Ripley have investigated the surrounding forest and it seems the other three had moved on, only Ambrose stayed behind.” Ben spoke again, and his voice was composed and gentle. “They are still searching for the body of his last victim. It must be close by; he'd fed very recently to bleed out as he did.”
“Can you see anything, Marianne? Can you see what her future holds now?” This was Lucas again, his tone pleading.
“I've told you, this isn't an exact science, and I'm not brilliant at it in the first place. You know I don't see exactly what will happen, only glimpses of possible future events, which I have to try to decipher. She's extremely difficult to read and what I'm getting seems to be centered on events that will happen soon, not occurrences that are often months away, as I see with members of our Kiss. Quite often, she plunges into blackness, as if she has no future. It makes my head ache.” It was the lilting voice again. She didn't sound evil, although I heard frustration in her voice when she answered Lucas. I couldn't comprehend what she was talking about, but in my peaceful state of mind, I dismissed it as part of the strange dream I was experiencing.
“I wish we knew how much she knows. It would help if we could get some insight into these…” I heard Ben's voice and he grasped my wrist gently, running his thumb across the skin. I knew what he was seeing – the scars from my previous suicide attempts, the most recent only a week or so ago. They were tentative cuts and although I'd opened the skin, I'd failed to cut deeply enough to complete the job. The scars left behind were still red and angry.
“I wish I knew why she is so desperately unhappy and I wish I hadn't been the cause of her melancholy increasing.” Lucas's voice was edgy, and I was stunned by the intensity of his words. What did he mean?
“You did what you thought best, Lucas. Nobody is blaming you for the decisions you've made.” I felt a cool hand against my forehead. “She's deeply conflicted. There's a great deal of pain in her thoughts, her emotions.” This was another woman speaking, her voice holding a trace of an accent, perhaps Irish or Scots, though I couldn't figure out which. By the proximity of her voice, I figured she was the one touching me, her fingertips brushing my hair away from my face gently. It took every ounce of willpower not to cringe away from her touch, but I was determined to keep my return to consciousness a secret.
“If you had listened to me in the first place, none of this would have happened.” The one called Marianne spoke, her voice smug. “I told you Charlotte was coming into your life. What I don't understand, is why you fought against it so vehemently.”
Lucas swore. “There is the tiny complication of her being human. There is also the fact that you said I would meet her – you never mentioned anything about me nearly killing her.” I could hear amusement in his voice when he spoke again. “And Marianne, as much as I adore you – we all know your ability is haphazard, to say the least.”
“Well, thank you for that vote of confidence! I happened to be remarkably accurate this time, but if I'd told you the meeting would take place when you hit her with your car, you would never have driven anywhere again,” Marianne responded sweetly.
“You're possibly right, but I wouldn't necessarily have believed you,” Lucas admitted, his voice rueful and I could imagine him smiling when he spoke. “I nearly killed her. Thank God there wasn't any traffic around; I could never have pulled off that maneuver on a busy road.” There was no trace of bragging, his voice was calm, filled with quiet confidence. “I knew when I spun the car ninety degrees that it would be her. I thought I had missed her, but that tiny nudge was enough to give her a serious concussion and stitches.” He sighed heavily. “Humans are so fragile.”
They lapsed into silence and I contemplated his last sentence, turning it over in my mind endlessly. 'Humans are so fragile'. That meant there was undeniably something curious about him. There seemed to be much I didn't understand, about what was occurring here and my mind sought to dismiss the whole vampire story as ludicrous. Yet what other explanation did I have? At least I had answers to a couple of questions – Lucas had known my name before I told him, and he had definitely been driving more than twenty miles an hour when he hit me. Despite this, I seemed to have even more unanswered questions now, than before.
“We aren't going to get any answers yet. We should leave her to sleep.” Ben's voice was calm, his tone filled with authority. “Lucas, you must go and feed.”
“I don't want to leave her.”
“You need to go. You don't want to lose control.” The as-yet unidentified woman spoke. “I'm sure Striker would love to keep you company.”
Lucas sighed. “Alright. I'm not going far and I'll be back as soon as I've fed. I want to be here when she wakes up.”
“We'll look after her. I promise you,” Ben said sincerely.
There was the sound of a door opening and closing quietly, then the room fell into silence and I mulled over what they'd said. I didn't have a clue what it meant, but my heart fluttered at the idea of Lucas not wanting to leave me. It was flattering, even if he wa
s a vampire. The insanity of it crossed my mind again and I still wasn't entirely convinced as to whether I was alive or dead. The question was – what did I want the answer to be? My whole world had tilted on its axis and I didn't know which way was up, or what the hell was going on.
I considered opening my eyes now that I was apparently alone. If I opened them, I could conclusively answer the question of if I was alive or dead. Possibly. Dependent on what I saw, of course.
I pondered for a few minutes, trying to make a decision. I was honestly terrified about both options and wasn't confident I truly wanted to know. At this moment, I felt safe and secure, exactly the way I was. While they thought I was asleep, it appeared I was safe. What happened when I opened my eyes? If they did have a secret, if they really were vampires… I dismissed the thought instantly. Vampires were a myth, a legend. Yet what other explanation did I have for what I'd witnessed in the woods? And so many questions remained unanswered about Lucas and his friends.
Without a doubt, opening my eyes would be a very bad thing. I didn't know what the situation would be when I did, and I found it remarkable to discover that after weeks of almost continuous insomnia, I actually did feel rather sleepy…
≈†◊◊†◊◊†◊◊†≈
The second time I drifted into consciousness, I decided immediately that I was still alive – being dead couldn't possibly be this excruciating. Every nerve ending throbbed with agony and I knew from experience that I'd been alive when I'd woken from a serious injury with severe throbbing pain. I couldn't decide what hurt most – my arm ached, my foot pounded and my ribs – they felt as if they'd been smashed into a thousand pieces. To add insult to injury, my head was hammering. Nope, I decided glumly – definitely not dead.
Knowledge Revealed (The Nememiah Chronicles Book 1) Page 6