Immortal Suffering

by Shana J Caldwell

  “You’re sure? Allison would never feed from a human, we both know that. Not voluntarily.” I say, trying to figure it out. Why would she now? Was she attacked and left with no option? Was she forced?

  “Yes, I’m sure,” Nardia snaps.

  “I was just clarifying. Can you find out how far away she is for me please? We still have a few things to deal with while she’s gone.” I finish my glass off and set it down; there was always something on top of the other. I never got a damn break.

  “What do you need to deal with?” she asks, following me out of the dining room.

  “The creatures on that rock wall, where they’ve gone and how we can get rid of them. They endanger both humans and vampires,” I say calmly.

  “What about Ali?” she asks.

  “I can’t do anything for her until she’s here, can I? So until then I need to focus on one problem at a time. I’m not invincible Nardia, I’m just one man,” I growl. I’d need to get a hold of Zeke, Zuriel and Cassidy and get them to meet me at the same spot we left yesterday.

  “I understand that, I’m sorry. I’m just really worried about her,” she says softly. We reach the front of the castle.

  “Just focus on getting in contact and seeing how much time we have. Can you get a hold of the others and get them to meet me at the same spot we left yesterday? Come once you receive word from Allison.” she nods once and disappears in the forest, heading towards the city.

  I follow the path around the castle and head into the forest opposite the garden where Ali had first discovered the beauty of those plants. Life wasn’t all bad in the darkness.

  I run along, being cautious of my surroundings and listen for any of the creatures. The last thing I’d need today is to be ambushed by those monsters, although a fight could help with the turmoil I was currently feeling inside.

  Does Ali know the consequences of drinking human blood with vampire blood in her veins? Does she know how hard it will be for her to come back to her human side if being a vampire isn’t what she wants?

  I let out a frustrated growl, I had to have trust in her and trust in the fact that she knew what she was doing. I had to hope she hadn’t snapped and caved in to the craving. I know she’d be considering how human blood would taste; I know the vampire in her would now want it more than ever.

  I reach the clearing near the rock cliff and wait for the others. In no time they arrive; no Nardia. No luck so far then.

  “Alright, what’s the plan?” Cassidy asks, flipping her blonde ponytail over her shoulder. Zeke and Zuriel look towards the wall.

  “First, Zuriel report. We can wait a few more moments.” I turn to Zuriel.

  “I went to my check up this morning and the blood isn’t stable, it had begun to break down my organs and nervous system. Whatever is in it isn’t good for us, the doc said I was lucky I didn’t exceed the time frame I was given as it would have killed me. So yeah, no the blood is bad. BAD.” He wipes sweat from his forehead.

  “When do you get back to full health?” Cassidy asks, watching him carefully.

  “A few days since I’ve stopped and I’m only to drink human blood until my vitals are stable again. I have to go see the doc again in the next few days.” I nod as I listen, this was bad.

  “Alright, thank you. I’m glad you’re okay. Let’s focus on the task at hand.” we all turn back to the rock wall.

  “All we can do is scale it and hope we don’t get bombarded with them, look for any sort of hole or gap they could have squeezed through. We end this today,” I say. I nod once and they follow me to the wall. I jump to the spot the creatures disappeared into the wall, breaking the lose rocks and making a groove to hold onto. The others follow. Zuriel moves to the exact spot and begins to poke and prod at the rocks. So far I see nothing but rock wall above us.

  “This is no use.” Cassidy grumbles from beside me.

  “That’s not the right attitude to have,” Zeke calls, slightly above us as he tests the resistance of the rocks. Cassidy huffs out a breath as she continues to try and find a clue.

  “Uh guys, I found something,” Zuriel calls to our right. We slowly make our way over beside him, slightly caved into the wall is a small black hole; the smell of decay wafts out. I hear someone gagging behind me.

  “Good job, I’ll go first and call once it’s safe to enter.” Zuriel moves over for me as I align myself with the hole. I’d just squeeze through.

  “You can’t be serious right? I don’t want to go in there, it smells bad.” Cassidy’s whining voice echoes around the small space as I begin to crawl. Slowly the hole begins to open more, the stale air is stagnant as my eyes adjust to the darkness; the light no longer reaches in this far.

  The entryway opens up to reveal a large cave; I stand and brush my hands against my pants. No creatures are in sight. I crouch back down and look towards the entry.

  “Come in, coast is clear,” I call out. I move back as I hear them begin to climb in. I suss out the cave, seeing that it continues to go deeper into the mountain. How on earth had I missed this? Ripped pieces of clothing and dead animals, what I could hope is animals, litter the floor of the cave.

  “Oh god it smells even worse in here.” Cassidy gags as she stands up, Zeke ad Zuriel climb in behind her; covering their nose as they go. I pull my shirt up over my nose as well.

  “It goes deeper, be ready to fight.” my voice is muffled from my shirt but we begin to delve deeper into the cave.

  “I hope this is the last time we have to come in here,” Cassidy groans beside me, kicking a few stray bones out of her path. Zuriel snorts behind us.

  “That’s what every guy must think when they’re inside of you,” Zuriel calls. I hear him and Zeke snicker as she turns and glares daggers at them. I shiver inwardly, although the sex was good with her I’d never once finished inside of her. I push the thoughts of us from my mind as I focus ahead; there was no need to reminisce.

  “Go fuck yourself,” she growls, flipping the middle finger at him. I grin under my shirt, I was glad Zuriel kept her on her toes. Ahead of us the cave ends and in the centre of the cave a cluster of the creatures are sleeping. I spot my shirt in the middle of the pile in the hands of one of the creatures.

  “What the hell?” Cassidy hisses, as they all come to a stop beside me. Bones litter the floor, which are stained a dark red from the animals they had been bringing back to feed on. From this angle, the creatures almost looked human.

  “Alright, let’s make this quick and easy. I’ll suffocate them with my shadows and then we can examine the bodies,” I say softly. They agree, as Zuriel puts his shield around us. I send out my shadows, they fill the small area in front of us. I take a deep breath and blow it out of my mouth. The darkness in front of us changes as it’s sucked into the creature’s air ways.

  It moves and puffs out as the creatures die one by one; this was the most humane way to kill them that I could think of while keeping us safe. I pull my shadows back to me while Zuriel brings the shield down.

  “Let’s have a look.” we step towards the creatures; now lying unmoving. I bend down to the closest one and roll it on its back, its black tongue falls out of its mouth and exposes its dark yellow stained teeth.

  “You know, they almost look human,” Zeke says quietly as he looks over one. I grab one of their arms and feel how the joints connect at each spot, definitely close to our skeleton.

  “Kal, look at their necks,” Zuriel says, getting closer to the neck of one of the creatures. I lean down and do the same; I stretch the skin on the right side of its neck and see two small scarred holes. It couldn’t be.

  “Is that…?” Cassidy trails off, the others stay quiet.

  “Someone is trying to turn humans and is failing, clearly. Which is creating these…things. Zeke can you carry one back into our lab? Take Cassidy with you. We need every scientist we can to help see if our assumption is correct. Don’t let anyone see it, stop by the castle and wrap it in a blanket as well as the othe
rs you killed. The more we have the better. We don’t want whoever is doing this to know we’re onto them.” I stand up and scan the room, no other sign of a vampire. I take the lead as we head out of the cave. I crawl through becoming desperate for fresh air.

  Without thinking, I free fall to the ground, twisting to land on my feet at the last minute. I hear a small feminine gasp in front of me. I rise to my feet, surprised to see Nardia and Allison standing there.

  Only Allison is covered in blood and her fangs are shining in the moonlight.

  Chapter 27

  Allison

  “I didn’t have a choice, I freaked out. How could I not? She was dying in my arms!” I throw my hands up in the air as I pace back and forth in Kal’s bedroom; the two candles on the bedside table illuminate the blood still caked on my arms. No doubt whatever I missed around my mouth as well.

  “It’s okay Allison, you did your best.” Kal says calmly, he’s sitting at the end of the bed wearing a loose white shirt and loose black pants.

  “Did I though? I should have made her wait until sunrise, god I was so stupid.” I grab my hair and pull at it, if she doesn’t live I don’t know if I’d be able to forgive myself.

  “You weren’t stupid, she lost her child. No mother would want to be anywhere near the killer,” he says softly. I glance over at him; his eyes seem far away. I clear my throat, he snaps back to reality.

  “She’ll be fine, a week at most and she’ll be back on her feet.” I stop pacing and sigh. A week, except she wouldn’t be the same Yolanda.

  When I bit her and fed from her it unlocked something dark inside of me. I wasn’t sure what I was doing, but I came to know I could inject something with my fangs. I don’t know if it’s poisonous or would help her but I had no option. When we reached the city I’d met with Nardia and we’d taken her to their medical ward.

  I also hadn’t realised that the building belonged to Kal and his business side of things. Another secret he might have not wanted me to know about. Once Yolanda was settled we left to find Kal. I’d hid the vial of liquid in my room before we’d gone there.

  “She won’t be the same though, will she?” I ask, finally coming to a stop. Immediately my nerves begin to creep higher again. He sighs as he stands up, running a hand through his hair.

  “No, she won’t. Not exactly. It will still be her though. It’s the only thing that could save her, and I’m sure Zuriel wouldn’t have just let her die. Even if it isn’t what she wants.”

  “Will she be angry at me?” I ask softly, I hadn’t even considered that she might have rather die than to be a vampire. He comes to me and wraps his arms around me. I rest my head on his chest and sigh; I leave my arms at his side; not wanting to stain his shirt.

  “No I don’t think so, we’ll find out once she rises. You won’t be able to go near her until she has her hunger under control.” The breath from his words tickle my neck. I take a deep breath; frowning when I detect a hint of decay under his usual vanilla and pine scent.

  “What was in the cave?” I pull back, looking up to his face. His eyes search mine as he struggles to find the right words.

  “I didn’t want to worry you with it.” his voice is soft as he tucks my hair behind my ear. He licks his thumb and scrubs gently at a small spot on my cheek.

  “You don’t get to make that decision, I want to know. What happened while I was gone?” I demand, stepping out of his arms. He rolls his eyes at me.

  “You’re so stubborn, do you know that?” he moves around the bed, grabbing a black jumper from the floor. Since when did he leave his clothes on the floor?

  “Yes, I do and you still haven’t answered my question,” I chime, raising an eyebrow. He pulls the jumper on and grabs my hand, pulling me towards the door.

  “Where are we going?” I ask, reluctantly following him but not letting go of his hand.

  “To the sitting room, I’ll start the fire. It’s starting to get colder.” He walks at a human pace which I’m thankful for, my legs still burn from the run back. I hadn’t stopped, no matter how many times I wanted to or felt like my legs were going to break. I just hoped it was worth it.

  “Mmm.” I hum; his mention of fire momentarily takes me back to the fire in the woods, the large black cat hunting Yolanda like she was a small rodent in the forest. I shiver; it could have easily been me in her place. Instead I would most likely be dead by now.

  “Are you thirsty or hungry?” as we reach the sitting room, he drops my hand and flashes over to the fire. I walk over and sit on the couch, I groan as I look down at my arms. I still hadn’t had a shower.

  “What?” he turns from the fire, which was slowly growing and already beginning to heat the small room.

  “I still haven’t washed myself, I must stink.” I pout, having no energy to even move. He comes and squats in front of me, putting his hands on my knees.

  “You stink no more than usual.” he smiles, I swat at his shoulder and fail to hide my smile.

  “Ha ha. You’re funny aren’t you?” I say, sitting back into the couch and crossing my arms over my chest.

  “When I want to be. Why don’t you go and have a shower? I’ll make you a hot chocolate and we can get comfortable on the couch and we can talk.” he rubs his hands up and down my thighs, relaxing me.

  “I have no energy to walk there, better yet scrub all this blood off of me.” I sigh, leaning my head back and looking towards the ceiling. It would be good to have the hot water beating down on my broke body though, more than anything right now.

  “Alright, come on.” he says softly, I look back at him in time to see him stand; wrapping his arms under my legs and back. He lifts me into the air effortlessly, I wrap my arms around his neck without thinking.

  “What are you doing?” I squeak, watching his face. His eyes flicker to me before focusing in front of him. The dark shadows don’t go unnoticed; I wasn’t naïve to think it was because I hadn’t been here.

  “I’m carrying you to the bathroom, I’ll run it for you and get it ready and once you’re finished I’ll come and carry you back to the sitting room.” we turn down the hall for the bathroom and my heart picks up in my chest. The last time I’d had someone this close to me and water was Xavier.

  He unlocks the door and glides in, shutting it behind him. He stands in front of the mirror that covers the wall from floor to roof and catches my eyes. I let my eyes roam freely over us; he looks like a protector with me in his arms. His hair sticks out wildly from his low bun, his black jumper and black pants are bright against the grey cobblestone wall.

  He slowly sets me down, his hands lingering on my waist before he turns around. He walks over to the basin and pulls a small cream block out.

  “What’s that?” I ask, wrapping my arms around myself. I’m not sure what to do, do I start to undress? Do I wait until he leaves? He walks towards the shower.

  “Honey and coconut soap, your favourite,” he says as he sits it in a crevice on the back wall before turning back to me.

  “How’d you know?” I ask, raising an eyebrow at him. He gives me a mischievous smile.

  “Well when my soap starts to diminish faster than it usually does it’s a dead giveaway.” my cheeks go red at his words; I roll my eyes and smile weakly. Even that was taking effort. He comes over to me and places his hands on my cheeks, raising my face to his.

  “Get undressed; I’ll get the water running for you. Only if you’re comfortable, if not I’ll leave the room.” he plants a small kiss on my forehead and turns around to press the button. I ignore my race car heart and begin to undress, pulling my tights off first and then my shirt.

  I unclasp my bra with shaky hands then pull my underwear off. I gather the dirty blood stained clothes and toss them towards the small bench. I cover my breasts with my hands, tuning to look in the mirror.

  I let my eyes roam over my naked body; they linger on the bare skin of my slim stomach where I know Nardia first bit me. I follow the curve of my hip down my le
gs, currently covered in small cuts from the run back. I suck my bottom lip as my eyes go back upwards; in the mirror I catch Kal’s eyes. He watches me silently, as still as that black cat was. A predator.

  I gulp.

  He’d never seen me this exposed before.

  He walks towards me slowly, stopping behind me. A large hand comes to my hip while the other pulls my hair to one side; exposing the soft skin of my neck. I involuntarily turn my head for him. His eyes flicker to the skin before returning to me.

  “You’re so beautiful Allison.” he whispers, sending a chill down my spine.

  “Thank you.” I say softly, my lips damp. He kisses the skin against the pulse in my throat. I know my heart is beating a million miles a minute. A new rush of adrenaline now finding me.

  His kiss lingers as he feels the pulse.

  “Do you want to know a secret?” I whisper, his eyes search my face. He waits silently.

  “It does that whenever I’m around you. I can’t seem to get a hold of my heart,” I say softly, finally admitting it out loud for the first time. His lips graze the skin as he peppers kisses across the top of my shoulder. Here I was fully naked, with the vampire King kissing me. I never would have thought I’d ever be this lucky.

  I watch him intently in the mirror as his kisses fill me with electricity, he is so beautiful and unearthly and my blood sings to his. This is what I wanted forever; this is the one thing I would always fight for.

  He straightens himself and I let out a small whimper, missing the contact. He breathes heavy behind me, his chest pressing against my back. He rests his chin on top of my head.

  “If you keep looking at me like that I’m afraid I might lose control.” he says; his free hand skims my arms. I’m extremely aware of how close he is to my breast. I squeeze my legs together.

  “Will you help me shower?” I ask. His eyes widen at my offer. A few moments of silence pass and I begin to regret asking. Oh god I was a fool-

  “Yes.” his voice is deep as he lets go of me, I watch through the mirror as he pulls the jumper and shirt over his head; the muscles along his shoulder and chest ripple, his defined abs moving as he lowers his arms back down. I’d see him shirtless before, but this time it felt more intimate.