B006XVUCOY EBOK

by Dawn Gray

  Jason pulled away and sighed. He wiped the blood quickly from his mouth and closed his eyes, then opened them, a dull red color and looked over my face. I looked to his neck, my body feeling weak and almost unable to move, but he noticed my glance and touched his neck with his fingertip, drawing a line across his skin, I watched the blood bubble from that point.

  He put his hands under me, one under my neck the other under my back and he brought me to him, with seemingly no problem at all, like I had weighed only a feather. He pressed my head down towards his neck and I felt almost like a leech when I latched on to the wound on his neck. I felt his muscles tense under his clothing as I pulled at him to bring him closer, but soon he began to moan and sigh as if this were like having sex to him.

  The red liquid ran down my throat, and everything seemed fine to me until, it seemed, to hit my heart. Images flashed through my mine and I'm not sure that I let go of Jason at that point or if he tried to pry me off. I could see the past two hundred years come flying at me, every life that I had ever lived, every person, or creature that I had ever been flashed at me in sequence, birth, life, and death. I watched how I was born, how I lived my life, sometimes a poor child, sometimes a rich lord, but always the same ending. I died a horrible, violent death, by the hands of others like me sometimes, but by laws of nature the next.

  My breath quickened as the last twenty years came into play and I watched my life flash before me. All the people that I had lost, all the things that I had done to others, and all that I regretted ever being a part of, haunted me. I tried to stop it, tried to find a way out of the nightmare, but it seemed the only escape was through my own eyes.

  I stared at myself as the image drew closer, seeing the bright glowing blue of their color and I was beginning to drown in it. I shook violently trying to overcome the urge to just let it take me, when I heard voices. They seemed far away at the time, but moved closer and closer, until, along with my vision, the voices were right there in front of me.

  I opened my eyes, or at least I believe I did, and looked around the room, as people scurried about. I looked over at Jason, who lay on the floor beside me, fully aware of the voice in my ear asking me if I was okay. I saw Quinn leaning over him, holding something to his neck, blood coming from his mouth.

  Oh, God, what did I do to him?

  I crawled closer, on my hands and knees and looked at Jason's blank eyes, then at the violent gash in his neck. It looked as though an animal had ripped at him. I stood up, looking from one face to the other, all full of worry and fright. What had I done?

  I saw the faces one at a time, coming into view, Cleo, Michael, Julian, Quinn, Lauren, who looked the most frightened, Cecilia and Isaac, but it was the face in the back of the room that seemed to frighten me the most.

  He stood there, a casual observer to the goings on around him, dressed all in black, his long light brown hair was pulled away from his face and his hands were folded neatly in front of him. I looked at him, as he smiled slyly at me and then he turned and walked closer, the others totally unaware of his presence at all.

  "I told you that the energy was too much." He told me and stepped up to me, standing only a few feet away. "What are you going to do now? You ripped his throat out, Angel. You couldn't control it and you almost killed him. What if it happens again, what if it happens to Isaac, or Cecilia, you could kill them."

  "No!" I said and started to back away from him. "No! It wasn't my fault. I didn't mean it."

  "We know it wasn't your fault." Quinn said stepping closer, but I wasn't looking at him, I was looking at this guy in front of me, whoever the hell he was. "He'll be fine; he just needs time to heal."

  "But, he'll be afraid of you, Angel." The man told me, his hands still folded in front of him. "Tell me, Angel, can you live knowing that this man is afraid of you? Could you live here, knowing that every time you have a tantrum they think that you're going to kill one of them."

  "No! Leave me alone!" I yelled at Him.

  "Its okay, Angel." Isaac said and stepped closer. "No one's going to hurt you."

  "Tell'um, Angel." This man provoked. "Tell them that you feel the blood lust in your veins that you can feel the power of your ancestors in you. Tell them that you're the one that they need to be afraid of, for you are the vampire of the old myths."

  "Who the hell are you?" I asked him, backing away as he stepped closer. "Don't come any closer."

  "Angel, please." Cecilia said crying. I felt the doorknob behind me and I grabbed it, not turning my back on any of them, and opened the door slowly. I concentrated on time, feeling Jason's blood surge through me, I brought time to a standstill and ran out the door, out into the woods, into the darkness of the forest and I ran, never stopping, never looking back.

  Could I ever go back?

  11

  The leaves crackled under my bare feet as I made my way through the dreary woods that lead me away from the mansion that the others were currently living in. I wrapped my arms around me, trying to shield myself from the cold that night, but with the lightweight shirt that I had on, it was hard to do.

  I wandered for what seemed like hours, before my legs decided that they wouldn't carry me anymore. I lay down in a pile of leaves that seemed soft and closed my eyes. What had I done that night? What happened to me to do such a terrible thing to Jason? What were the visions that I had seen in my head? Were they all my past lives or just a dream that my mind had dreamed up.

  The sun was just coming up over the horizon when I opened my eyes and looked out at the forest. My feet wanted to move so I got up and started walking through the woods, unaware of my own direction. I knew that I was heading towards the rising sun and that helped a little bit, but what was in that direction. I didn't know where the town was from the mansion, the road took too many corners and curves to be absolutely positive on the direction.

  I walked slowly, stopping at a creek that I happened upon, and was sitting there when I felt a sudden pain in my arm. I looked down and pulled the strange looking dart out of my arm. I tossed it aside and then shook my head as I began to feel lightheaded. My only thought was to lie down and close my eyes, maybe it would help the dizziness go away.

  I lay back on the moss and closed my eyes, covering them with one of my arms, thinking that this was a rotten time for a migraine. I let the drowsiness take over, maybe the way I fell asleep in the woods had aggravated my muscles and this was their way of getting me back. It didn't matter, as the darkness set in, there was no way back from that point on. I wasn't in control anymore.

  After my eyes opened and had adjusted to the lighting, I found that I wasn't in the woods anymore. I was lying, curled up in a ball, on a small but comfortable cot in a room made out of stone, with a heavy wooden door that had a small barred window. I was covered with a small blanket, how considerate of my captors to make sure that I was warm, but other than that, I was still wearing the light gown that I had been wearing all day, or night, whichever the case maybe.

  I stood and looked around the room more carefully, with the light from a small lantern as my only means of seeing, but as it became apparent to me that I needed almost no light at all to see, I shut off this lantern and stood in the darkness.

  "You might hurt your eyes like that." A man's voice told me. I looked in the direction that it came from and noticed a small hole in the wall to the back of my "room".

  "And, what do you care?" I asked him.

  "Well, if you don't want to talk to me, I'll leave you alone." He replied.

  "No wait." I said and walked up to the wall. "Who are you?"

  "It's Isaac." He replied. "Don't you recognize my voice?"

  I thought about it then, and realized that it was indeed him and, scary enough, I did recognize him.

  "How did you get here?" I asked him. "And where exactly are we?"

  "I followed you down through the woods, trying to figure out where you might have gone this morning and before I knew what hit me, I was lying on the gro
und almost totally blacked out and this is where I woke up. I felt you when you woke up, like your power surged right then." He said and I heard him bang against the wall with his fist. "I knew I shouldn't have gone home with you."

  "Why not?" I asked him and leaned against the wall, trying to picture what he looked like on the other side. "I thought it was a great idea, you coming home with me."

  "You really don't know where you are, do you?" He asked me. I thought for a moment and then shrugged, not that he could see me. "I'll save you the trouble of thinking about it." He said sarcastically. "We're at Jacob's ‘Castle’."

  "He owns a castle?" I asked him. I heard him sigh.

  "No, silly, it's what he calls this place. It's almost five stories high, with at least one basement, one sub-basement and a maze of underground passages. Right now, were in the sub- basement. It's where he keeps all his prisoners." He replied and I shook my head.

  "Beautiful." I said and sighed.

  "So, do you think the others know where we are?"

  "Quinn does." Isaac replied.

  "Great, now we can get out of here. I'm sure he'll bring the cavalry. How do you know that he knows where we are?" I asked, full of what Isaac took as stupid questions.

  "Would you believe that he's sitting right across from me?" Isaac asked. My body let go and I slumped against the wall.

  "We're not going to live through this, are we?" I asked him.

  "You might, but I probably won't." Isaac said, I think he was trying to reassure me. "Jacob's going to kill me when he finds out I even spoke to you, let alone protected you for the last six years.”

  "Ah, tell him to kiss my butt." I told him and sighed. "Is Jason all right?"

  "Yeah, he's fine." Isaac said, a little annoyed that I had even asked him about Jason. "The last time I saw him, he was swearing up and down that if you were hurt, someone was going to catch hell for it."

  "I have to get out of here." I said and walked over towards the door. I was just about to it, when it opened and two large men stepped in, bringing a lot of light in with them. I stepped back and watched as some small man walked through the doorway. "Oh, God."

  "Oh, your Gods won't save you now, my small friend." The small man said in a slight English accent. "Come, Jacob would like to speak with you." He said and waved his hand. The two large men grabbed me by the arms as I struggled to get away.

  "No!" I protested and then closed my eyes as they brought me out into the hallway. Isaac, what’s going to happen to me?

  I don’t know, Angel. His mental voice whispered to me as if he had been standing next to my ear.

  I let these men drag me into a large hall, where all the windows were covered with large black drapes and every wall had about six large candles lit, with a mirror behind it to bring out the light.

  I was chained to the furthest back wall, for it seemed we had entered from the middle of the room. The two large men were very harsh with their strength and I felt joints pop, but nothing broke as they chained my wrists against the wall.

  I sneered at them as they backed away, laughing and probably feeling pretty mighty because they had hurt a woman. I decided just to stand there and look at the ground for the time that it took for someone else to step into the room.

  I felt his presence the moment he stepped into the doorway. He was a perfect combination of the three men that I knew, all of whom were related to him. I looked up as Jacob walked closer to me. His dark green eyes seemed to resemble his father's in more ways than one. I could see Quinn's darkness in them, the evil side of him that he tried to hide from me, and he held himself much like Julian, tall and proud. Jacob smiled as he stepped close enough to be able to touch me. He touched my cheek, his hand was hot and sweaty and he smiled as I tried to shrink back.

  "Angel Browne." He whispered. "How I've longed to see you just like you are now, chained helplessly to the wall, cringing from my power."

  "You have no power." I replied to him; know this only because of what Isaac had told us.

  "Ah, but I do. It may not be the kind that you posses, but I have my own way of making things happen." He snapped his fingers and the doorway opened. I watched as Quinn, Isaac and Jason walked in, followed by several large men with guns. They all stopped and looked around the room as Jacob stood aside and let me look at them. "You see, I have whatever I need to make things happen. Either you cooperate, or I kill them, and for every day that you do not do as I wish, one of them dies."

  "I can't help you with anything, Jacob." I replied and looked at the others. "I'm not what you think I am."

  "Oh, but you're just what I was looking for in a woman." Jacob smiled and unlocked the chains around my wrist. He grabbed me by the back of my hair and pulled me close to him. "Do you remember the night of the Council meeting?"

  "Yes." I said softly as he turned me around to face the wall. He clamped the chains on my wrist so that I had nothing to look at besides the stone wall in front of me. I felt the cold steel blade as it touched the back of my neck, then listened as it sliced the back of my shirt and Jacob ripped it opened the rest of the way. "What are you going to do to me?"

  "You've healed quite nicely." He said and ran his hand down the center of my back, along my spine. He stepped up close behind me, reaching around the front of shirt with his hand. "What should I do with you?"

  "Please, don't hurt me." I asked quietly.

  "Oh, it won't be anything permanent; at least I don't believe so." He smiled and blew gently into my ear.

  "Jacob!" Isaac yelled to him. I felt Jacob back away, and then heard the sounds of shuffling feet coming closer. I assumed that Jacob had waved him closer and two guards were holding him while he faced his grandfather. "Don't do this."

  "Ah, Isaac, my favorite grandchild." Jacob replied to him. I heard him pat Isaac on the skin, probably his face, and then I heard Isaac choke softly, more than likely because of Jacob's hand on his throat. "You, who I have trusted to do my will for the last six years, you believe that because you ask, then it shall be?"

  "She had nothing to offer you, Jacob." Isaac told him and inhaled quickly. "She's not one of them. She can't change you any, she's just a mortal."

  "That can be changed without any problem." Jacob replied and I heard Isaac gasping for air, and assumed that Jacob let him go. "I have others that can make her into one; the exchange won't be a problem."

  "They'll kill her, Jacob." Isaac pleaded. "I've seen what those men can do when they embrace someone, especially women. If she survives the rape and constant beatings, she'll be nothing but a shell, there won't be anything mental left to help you. If she survives at all."

  "Oh, she'll survive." Jacob said and grabbed my hair, pulling my head all the way back. "She's got a strong will about her."

  "Let me do it." Isaac said. This shocked the two in the background. I heard Jason start to yell things, calling him a traitor and a bastard.

  "Why should I trust you?" Jacob asked, letting go of my hair. "Given the opportunity, you would have led them here to kill me."

  "She knows me, she trusts me and it might just turn out to be better than you think." He replied and stepped up close to me. I could feel Isaac's hands on my hips as he pushed himself closer to me, rubbing his groin against me. "Besides, I've been waiting a long time for an opportunity like this. It's not every day you get to take someone else's woman right in front of them."

  "Fine!" Jacob yelled and then, as he repetitively said the same word, his voice trailed off, as if he were walking away. Suddenly, he was closer to us, and his voice seemed to boom in my ear. "Take her, but, heed my warning, Isaac, if you turn on me; I will kill you and her."

  "Bring her to my room." I heard Isaac order them. I felt the chains release and I was being dragged away, despite my efforts to struggle.

  The small man who had escorted me before was right behind me when they pushed me into a large three-room suite and I turned and looked at him.

  "You have one request that you can make. If it's
reasonable, I will grant it." He said and looked at me. I looked at the clothes that I was wearing and then looked at him. He smiled, cruelly, and stepped back out of the room, closing and locking the door behind him. Though I knew that it was locked, I tried to turn the handle anyway, it wouldn't budge.

  I walked into this room and looked over the whole thing. The first room was a small sitting room, with a table for eating meals and a bar for entertaining. The next room was the bedroom, complete with the king-sized four-posted bed, decorated with mounds of matching pillows in matching pillowcases. The dressers were a beautiful dark cherry color and it seemed too inviting to jump on the middle of that bed.

  I walked into the bathroom and looked around. This room seemed to be as big as the others, furnished with the usual bathroom furniture, plus a spa and a sauna. It must feel good to Jacob to get rich off the lives of other people. I walked over to the glassed in shower and turned it on. I slipped of the ripped and tattered clothing that seemed barely to cover my body and I stepped into the steam of the shower, letting the hot water pour over me.

  I washed every inch of my body, scrubbed away the dirt and the day, and tried to relax before my nature caught up with me and I exploded. I washed my hair and then leaned against the wall, with my arms stretched out in front of me, supporting my weight, with my back to the door and I closed my eyes. I stood there until the water ran cold and I had to get out before my body froze. On the bench, just outside the door to the bathroom, I found a pair of men's white pajamas. I could only assume that it meant there were no other women in this house, but at least it was decent enough to cover all of my body and not just some of it.

  I brushed out my hair and sat down in the corner, just on the other side of the bed, hidden from anyone’s view if they should happen to walk into the room looking for me. It seemed like hours before I heard the door open and two men ordering people around. I heard the door close and then again there was silence.