Lucien reversed from the day room, crunching over prone corpses, and skidded on the damp lawn. He switched off the headlights and buried his foot to the floor. The massive car charged off at breakneck speed, killing all in its path.
He stopped on the driveway to see approaching headlights. A police car raced past the entrance. He gave a worried look to Jacques.
Lucien drove like a maniac, ramming the pedal to the floor, lurching the car away from a ditch and raced for the Moreau Chateau. He had an overwhelming need for home and that was where he would become Eternal.
Chapter 55
Eternal dodged needle-sharp thorns and spear-like branches with a grace befitting a gazelle. Her otherworldly vampiric senses allowed her to navigate every obstacle with inhuman agility. Creaking, gnarled wooden demons with spindly fingers grasped at her hair. Brambles failed to scratch away her milky-white skin with long talons. She skipped aside all obstacles in her path but many times she had to pause for Edouard to catch up.
Eternal stopped and listened at the edge of the familiar leafy lane. She turned to her true love and relayed imminent danger with her music. The familiar growling sound of Lucien’s approaching car grew louder with each second they paused at the clearing by the roadside. She grabbed Edouard’s hand and dragged him from the woods.
They were transfixed by powerful twin headlamps. Eternal put her hands to her eyes and screamed like a Banshee. The Count’s hatred froze her to the spot. She turned to Edouard but it was too late. The massive grill with body parts protruding from it seemed to open its steel maw to swallow them whole.
Edouard shoved Eternal to safety. He dived but was clipped by the car’s bumper and thrown into the water-logged ditch with a terrible force.
The screech of tires spurred Eternal on. Terror drove at her heels but her love reached out for Edouard. She groaned with his agony.
Edouard staggered to his feet, holding his side in extreme pain. Winded and coughing to clear his lungs, he stumbled up the embankment and stretched out his arm for her. He gave her a terrible look of defeat, slipping back into the ditch.
Eternal refused to accept defeat and slid down the embankment to grip Edouard’s hand. She tugged her true love from the ditch and dragged him up the bank. She watched Lucien advancing with his bloodthirsty sword.
“There you are!” Lucien laughed.
Eternal dared to look into the hatred glowing from his eyes. She saw the sword swishing through the air. She pulled Edouard up the bank with a mighty heave.
She screamed, “No!”
Eternal felt the intense pain sucking everything from Edouard’s lungs.
Edouard stared down at the sword piercing his side. A numbing weakness overcame him. Oh how much he wanted to rest for a while, just a brief moment to regain his strength. Shock kicked in but he felt no pain when Lucien removed the sword.
“You are going to beg me for a quick death, lover boy!” Lucien sneered.
Eternal growled with an inhuman rage. She pounced on Lucien, knocking him backwards. She forced his head under the filthy ditch water. Her hate held him down with his legs kicking. She grimaced with pleasure when his hands tried to release her grip but she was so much stronger now. His damned sword rose from the water, flailing in the air. With a snarl, she looked up to see the dark one leap from the car to save his master. An explosion of thunder puffed the hair at the back of her head.
Eternal snarled, leapt from the ditch and dragged Edouard up the embankment. She wept with fear to see him so weak. Gripping his cold hand, she dragged him, limping and stumbling across a magnificent lawn.
Lucien screamed orders to his evil minion. “Come on ... we’ll cut them off at the chateau.”
Eternal cried with distant memories of the familiar chateau looming before her. She saw herself collecting eggs. A golden comb ploughed her lustrous hair. An overpowering sense of home filled her mind, melting her heart with its promise of sublime comfort. The image of the cold turret room shattered those childhood memories.
Several times Eternal had to heave Edouard from the damp grass. He was losing so much blood she feared she wouldn’t have time to save him. All this suffering would be for nothing. Don’t think that!
“Please Edouard ... help me,” she urged, dragging his injured body towards the chateau. She heard the demonic car racing up the long driveway, hissing steam, spitting gravel and growling from its tooth-like grill.
“What the hell’s going on?”
Eternal whirled around to see a man dressed in black running towards her with a gun in his hand. A boom of thunder sent the man flying for a brief moment with his face exploding into bloody fragments.
She ignored the violent death, continuing to drag Edouard closer to safety. Almost there now! Another thunderclap resounded through the heavy atmosphere. The death screams of some poor unfortunate were cut short by another gunshot.
“Eternal!”
She faltered at The Count’s scream piercing the membrane of her soul, or what once was her soul for something else resided there now. Eternal smashed through the thin wooden boards blocking the shattered French doors with unnatural ease.
Edouard followed under his own steam, although staggering more than walking. He held his side with a bloody hand and gave Eternal a forlorn look that said everything she didn’t want to hear.
Eternal entered the grand hallway and made for an under-stairs door. She opened it and beckoned Edouard into the sheer blackness of the cellar. Oblivion!
She waited for Edouard to enter the dark place. He closed the door behind him and stumbled into her arms at the foot of the stairs.
Eternal froze in terror when a dull yellow light from above banished the darkness.
~~~~
Standing at top of the stairwell, Lucien called out in a teasing voice, “I know you’re down there, my Sweet Rose.” He chuckled with anticipation of the hunt. “You can’t hide from me, my beloved.” He turned to Jacques. “Do what you want to the other one but leave her to me ... got that!”
Jacques looked angry. “I need her blood just as much as you, man.” He looked at his ruined hand and could barely manage to hold the heavy revolver. With effort he cocked the trigger.
“Don’t fret my friend ... there’s plenty to go around.” Lucien grinned at Jacques. A noise alerted Lucien, forcing his legs to rush down the rickety stairs two at a time, jumping to the dusty floor. He hovered, listening, scanning for that noise to dare repeat itself. Please do!
Jacques stood behind him, brandishing the pistol. He had to use both trembling hands to cock the trigger all the way.
Lucien sensed his companion’s discomfort, patting Jacques on the shoulder. “It will all be over soon, my friend.”
Before them was a staggering array of barrels and bottles of wine stacked to the ceiling. The cavern like cellar was an immense maze full of a connoisseur’s delight. Disappearing into the gloom was a tunnel, its walls beaded with bare light bulbs and its floor laid with a rail track.
Lucien nodded to Jacques. The vengeful pair of vampires separated.
~~~~
Eternal pushed the flat end of a massive barrel. The end swiveled inwards to reveal a cozy niche, explained to her by a teenage Lucien that this was used to hide the Aristocrats from the Rebels. She urged Edouard into the barrel with great difficulty. Closing the barrel, she jolted at Lucien’s black soul entering her mind with its powerful stench of corruption.
Her inner sense almost gagged on the revulsion emanating from The Count. The other suckling was less discernible but had an odor unmistakably vampiric and desperate. Eternal let out a girlish giggle, sensing their discomfort. More fool them for taking her blood.
Lucien turned to stone when he heard his beloved’s laughter. He rushed around a stack of barrels with his sword ready and willing. There she was cowering beside a barrel stamped 1921. A distant memory jolted Lucien back to his childhood where he and Rose watched the sun set over a field of grapevines all neatly picked.
> The Count screamed, “Take her blood now!”
The image quickly evaporated. He advanced on Eternal.
Eternal chuckled, scampering away as if a child once more. She playfully called out, “I’m over here, Lucien.”
Lucien looked behind him in bewilderment. That was impossible. She could not have moved so fast. He turned and listened, hating her all the more for toying with him. Were her powers so great she had the confidence to amuse herself in this game of death? He was unsure of the situation now. The Suckling whirled around to more childish taunts from another direction and another until he’d had enough.
He screamed at the top of his lungs, “Eternal!” He gasped in panic when he sensed Jacques’ intentions. He rushed across the cellar. “No!”
Jacques cautiously approached the tunnel where her sniggering emanated from. He aimed the pistol down the tunnel. The gunshot was deafening in the damp confines. Ancient dust drifted down from the ceiling.
Lucien screamed. “Stop shooting you fucking idiot. I want her alive.”
“Fuck you too, man,” Jacques whispered. He had just enough time to squeeze off another shot before turning to stone with shock. He went rigid with pain spreading from his chest to his groin. He stared down at the blade protruding from his chest and giggled.
“You’re so fucking stupid to think I’d let you become a made vampire.” Lucien forced the blade downwards, slicing Jacques’ body in two from his heart to his groin. “You dance with the Devil ... you sleep with the Devil.”
Jacques staggered forwards and fell into his pile of steaming guts. He squeezed off an involuntary shot.
A rumbling noise grew louder. Lucien wiped his blade on Jacques’ back and whirled around to see a massive trolley hurtling along the rail track towards him.
The heavy, rusting trolley crushed the remains of Jacques’ body and pinned Lucien with its momentum. With all the air knocked from his lungs, he gripped the rim of the trolley but slipped. His legs were splayed either side, trapping him. He could not let go. He desperately tried to haul his weakened body into the trolley and with a final flip he managed to slither face down into the trolley. It smashed through a stack of barrels all marked during the Great War. It continued through row after row of barrels causing thousands of gallons of blood-red Chateau Dupont to cascade across the cellar floor like a river of gore. The trolley obliterated the stone-built central arch support which collapsed on top of Lucien and came to a rest inside a fifty gallon barrel. The ceiling started to groan. Fractured lead pipes gushed water.
~~~~
Eternal stood at the mouth of the tunnel, her head cocked to one side, listening for further danger. Satisfied, she grabbed a lever protruding from a wall and tugged down. A heavy steel door crashed to the floor, blocking off the tunnel and sealing the cellar. She dashed over to the barrel where she had hidden Edouard and dragged him out.
Her true love was so weak with loss of blood he fell into the growing pool of wine. Eternal snatched him up as though weightless and ran up the creaking stairs.
She gently placed Edouard onto the wooden floor of the hallway and dragged a heavy oak armoire blocking the cellar door.
Finally safe, she fell to the floor in sheer exhilaration. Her keen senses could not detect Lucien’s beating heart. The Count was defeated. The game was finally over!
Chapter 56
There wasn’t any time for rejoicing. A moan from Edouard spurred her on. She grasped his trembling hand and sensed he was at death’s doorstep. She must hurry!
His arm fell limply to the floor and his eyes rolled up. He lost consciousness with blood oozing from his side.
“No Edouard!”
With her immortal strength she heaved him to his feet and hefted him over her shoulder. She stormed up the massive right-hand staircase to the next floor.
Eternal kicked a bedroom door wide open and entered. A brilliant flash of light escaped the eternal gloom, slicing through swirling clouds of dust, followed by a resounding boom of thunder. She gently placed Edouard onto a four-poster bed. She wanted to stroke his forehead with deep affection but her senses told her she had no time. First she rushed to the source of light and expelled it with a swish of velvety darkness.
Eternal climbed onto the bed next to Edouard. First she licked his wounds until they closed shut then gleamed her fangs. She bit deeply into her own arm, shuddering at the sight of two holes, red and yet bloodless. She needed oxygenated blood to revive her heart. There was no choice. She placed the dry wound over Edouard’s mouth and bit into his carotid artery. The blood fire raged through her. Oxygen revitalized all her organs. Her brain swam in fresh blood and her heart thumped once more.
“Drink my eternal essence my beloved ... drink and we shall become eternal.” She proceeded with the mutual vampiric transfusion.
Edouard’s eyes flew open, gagging on the ice-cold blood filling his body with invigorating life. His legs trembled. Sweat erupted across his brow. His once emerald green eyes became darker with each drop of eternal life. He gripped Eternal’s wound to his bloody lips with a new vitality.
Eternal sighed with such exquisite pain. His sweet offering blended with her dead blood. She shuddered with divine tenderness, sensing her beloved’s strength returning and much more. Her music diminished in intensity with the euphoria of the blending. Not yet. He must have his fill. We must be as one. Eternal blood must flow with equal strength.
Eternal’s eyes grew heavy with fatigue and joy. Her instincts told her it was time. She shuddered with completion. Her blood had blended to a perfect cocktail with her true love’s essence. Gently removing her arm from Edouard’s lips, she licked his neck wound until it sealed.
She curled up beside her beloved and used her mind to placate him. “We must sleep now. Sleep as we have never before.” She dozed off with her head on his chest listening to his beautiful heartbeat slowing until it stopped. Eternal bliss!
Eternal drifted into a deep sleep where she finally said farewell to Rose. She awoke within her dream to find little Rose standing at the foot of the bed holding a single red rose. There were tears of joy in her eyes. Rose skipped up to Eternal and kissed her on the mouth. She placed the rose across Eternal’s chest where her heart remained motionless. The rose dissolved into her chest and became Eternal’s heart. Rose smiled sadly and vanished.
An imaginary fire crackled in the stone fireplace. Eternal kissed her lover gently on the lips to rouse him from his slumber.
Edouard looked with sleepy eyes into Eternal’s deep black pools of darkness and smiled. They caressed each other, kissed, entwining their tongues in eternal ecstasy.
~~~~
An exhausted Eternal sighed with exquisite rapture. Every part of her body tingled with passion and desire. Her inner blood fire radiated a sensation of numbing cold to her skin. This she knew would facilitate instant healing properties and instill great strength.
She lifted her head from Edouard’s silent chest. His heart was still and would not beat until the blood fire raged. Eternal looked around the bedroom, drifting back to his face. His eyes opened. Oh how much she adored that boyish smile and that fervent gleam from his black eyes. The faint hint of jade caused her to squeal with joy.
But most of all she loved the bulge of his raging erection. She tore his stinking clothes from his rampant body then her power sucked them both into a dream world of past desires.
Beneath the mother moon, Eternal frantically helped Lancelot remove his cumbersome armor. Her long fingernails ripped his tunic to shreds. Her hands caressed his rippling muscles, tense with the heat of his passion. His strong hands unstrapped her gown which slid to the ground, revealing her glory.
With incredible force she pushed him to the mossy ground and savored him with her rampant mouth. He tasted of battle and bravery, honor and devotion, all combined with his everlasting love. She kissed his beautiful tears and traced his firm muscles with her tongue.
Eternal laughed with heightened arousal, kissing
the place where Lucien’s sword had pierced. She gleamed her fangs and nipped his skin, leaving two punctures. She giggled when Edouard jolted with pleasure.
She sensed his urgent need to bite her. “Not yet my true love.” Those sweet words made her inner fire burn with joy.
She sighed to see no sign of a wound or scar from her love-bite. Her tongue lapped his cool skin, tasting stale wine. His passion sent waves of tingling orgasms through her, heightening her desire. His fingers combed her hair, softer than strands of silk, caressing the nape of her neck. She arched her back when his lips stroked her earlobes, nuzzling her shoulders. Trembles of joy rippled through her. Oh how long she had waited for this moment.
Her power infused them with her sweet memories. The cool desert moon bathed the desperate lovers with its beloved radiance. Helen’s cold, white skin quivered to Paris’ gentle touch. His green eyes melted into the night, her lips clasped with his, their tongues embraced, confirming their destiny. She licked the salt from his skin, tasting its intensity, loving the sensation of urgency from his inner fire. She drowned in his lust, lost in a moment of eternity.
This is what she had yearned for. So many centuries of misery now washed away. Eternal kissed Edouard’s writhing body, licking every trembling inch of skin. Her tongue loved him. Her lips adored him. She bit into his flesh, swimming in a sea of passion, seasoned with his flavor. Her eager mouth sucked his nipples, teasing his need for immediate release. His sweet pain was her desire. Her joy blended with her true love’s ecstasy to create a heady blend of lust that drove her over the edge.
She lost herself in his rampant heat centered in his loins. Her hungry mouth nibbled, her teeth plucked his skin until she found his erection. She used her tongue to tease his twitching penis, slithering over his head now oozing with imminent release. Her hungry mouth engulfed him. She took him to the hilt as he thrust his hips and trembled with their first mutual orgasm.
Voracious Vixens, 13 Novels of Sexy Horror and Hot Paranormal Romance Page 43