Darkest Hours

by S. K. Yule

  “Ebony, I’m sorry.” He held his hands out and then dropped them at his sides in surrender. She spun on him and crossed the room so fast he took a small step back. She poked her finger in his chest making sure he knew she was angry.

  “Exactly what are you sorry for, Ashe? Let’s see.” She held her hand up and began counting each thing off, one finger at a time. “Could it be for taking me from my home against my will? Or, maybe for only telling me what you think is appropriate for me to know? How about mauling me one minute and then acting as though you can’t stand the sight of me the next?” Snapping her fingers in the air, she continued. “Oh, I know. You must be sorry for scaring the hell out of me downstairs.”

  She paced back and forth, an irritating habit she had picked up many years ago when she was agitated or nervous. “Did you even stop to think for one second about how it might make me feel if you bit me?”

  Ebony shook with a mixture of anger and frustration. Sure, he had scared the hell out of her, but a little voice in her head whispered, “Hypocrite,” because it had also been the most erotic, mind-blowing thing she had ever experienced. After the initial shock of his teeth sliding into her flesh, complete bliss had washed through her, sparking desire once again. Her blood had fired hot, and she would have done anything he asked at that moment. It had been her plan to seduce him for information, and she shouldn’t be so angry that it had backfired on her.

  “Look. I’m sorry I scared you. It was not my intention to do so. I didn’t mean to let things go so far, I lost control, and I shouldn’t have. I know this is a lot for you to take in, but I’m really just trying to keep you safe, Ebony. I swear I would never intentionally do anything to hurt you.”

  “I just don’t know what to say. I’m so confused over this whole mess.” She began rubbing the back of her neck, trying to massage away some of the building tension before her head took up a pounding that would put orchestral drums to shame.

  “Do you have a headache?” He stepped up behind her, removed her hands from her neck and replaced them with his, massaging the tight muscles gently.

  She knew deep down that Ashe would never hurt her. Her body had known it from the start. It had just taken longer for her mind to catch up. “I’m okay. Just a little stressed is all.”

  God, his hands felt good. She could feel the tension receding with every magical rub of his long, warm fingers. His touch once again heated her blood, sending small shivers of pleasure deep into her belly. It took all her willpower to step away from him, but she had questions she wanted answered.

  “I really am sorry. I can only hope you believe me and maybe even forgive me?”

  She was beginning to feel a little guilty letting him take all the blame. After all, it wouldn’t have happened if not for her hair-brained scheme. “Look, it was mostly my fault anyway. It was a huge mistake, and it should have never happened. I just wanted to be involved in finding who attacked me.”

  “Hell, it wasn’t your fault, Ebony. I’m the one who let things get out of hand, but I still refuse to let you be a part of it. It’s just too dangerous.” She knew he’d never budge on the topic. “Although I have to admit, after my initial anger was over at figuring out what you were up to, I did find your methods very interesting.” The corner of his mouth turned up, almost in a smile at her wide-eyed expression.

  “Ashe! You are incorrigible! All I did was make a complete fool of myself. I’m surprised you didn’t laugh at me.”

  He shook his head in disagreement. “If you only knew how far off you are with that statement. I’d have to say you did a pretty good job of catching my interest.” His eyes darkened. “In fact, I’d have to say, the furthest thing from my mind was laughter.”

  He took a step toward her, and she took a step back. This kind of talk was going to lead her right back into the fire, and she was too smart to get burnt twice, or at least too smart to get burnt twice in one day. She had questions she wanted answered and knew now was her chance. He was feeling guilty and would probably, no hopefully, be more open to her questions. Maybe her plan hadn’t completely backfired after all. She wasn’t ashamed to take advantage of the opportunity if it was the only way to get answers. This was her life, after all.

  “Ashe, how did you become a vampire?”

  He sighed and then pushed his fingers through his hair. “My father was born a human. He met my mother, who is a vampire, and she turned him. I was born a vampire about seven hundred years ago to them in a small town called Sighisoara. It was near Romania and Transylvania and no longer exists. I am the oldest of my siblings. My father was burned to death when I was around two hundred years old by vampire hunters. My mother, Marilena, took it extremely hard and has not been the same since. She travels and visits us on occasion. She’s a remarkable woman, but she’s never fully recovered from the loss of my father.”

  “You said you are seven hundred years old?” Holy mother of God, was he kidding her? “Can you die?”

  “Yes, I can die. But, only from excessive blood loss, decapitation or burning. If vampires are fortunate enough to avoid those situations we can live indefinitely.”

  Biting her lower lip, Ebony turned to face him. She mentally filed away the information he was providing her with so she could think on it further later. However, at the moment she wanted to get in as many questions as possible. She had the feeling if she asked him to elaborate too much on one particular subject he would get weary of the discussion before she could get all the answers she wanted.

  “You said your mother turned your father? So, you can turn humans into vampires?” Her head was spinning from the abundance of questions rolling around inside.

  “No, we can’t turn just any human. Only our viata amant, or life love.”

  “What do you mean life love?”

  He sighed once again and began the long explanation. “Every vampire has someone who is destined to be their life love or soul mate as you might call it. Those are the only humans who can be turned vampire. Unfortunately, most humans have a problem coping with the reality of vampires and an even bigger problem contemplating becoming one. Finding a life love doesn’t always end in a happily ever after.” Don’t I know it.

  She couldn’t pinpoint what made her think so—maybe the near discernible way his body tensed—but she got the feeling that he was extremely uncomfortable talking about this particular subject. She wanted to know more about viata amants, but thought it might be best to go on to a different question, at least for the time being. “So, how did the first vampire come into existence?”

  “There are legends that say there is a father of all vampires. His name is Ragnar, and he is supposedly born of two Gods. It is said that Ragnar’s father was cursed by a jilted lover. Supposedly any children fathered by him would require blood to survive and be forever doomed to walk in the night. While Ragnar’s father sought a way to reverse the curse, he never found any way to completely lift it. He was able to alter it in such a matter to allow Ragnar to walk in the daylight and eat normal food, but he could never find a way to lift the part of the curse where Ragnar must drink blood to survive.

  Being the offspring of Gods, vampires inherited extra perceptive abilities such as hearing, sight, taste, smell and even immense strength, speed and of course, immortality. Since Gods have different powers, many vampires are unique in certain ways. Such as some have the ability to shape shift while others are able to command the weather, fire, or animals. There is speculation that there are even those who can shift time and travel to the past or future, but I have never met such a vampire in my existence. I, myself, have the ability to do several things on a smaller scale. Though, I have to admit, no one has ever seen Ragnar, or at least no one has said so if they have. Nonetheless, it is the only explanation I have for how we came to exist.”

  “Are you telling me that you can shape shift and command fire and weather?”

  “Ebony, I can shape shift and control several things on a small scale with my mind, but you
have to understand that these things take much of my energy and make me weak. Unless there is dire need to do one of these things for survival, I do not do them. I am a warrior and prefer to fight.”

  He could shape shift, and there were others who excelled in such things? While all these things scared her, they were also fascinating. She could not imagine in her wildest dreams being capable of doing any of these things and respected him so much more knowing the power he had at his fingertips and the honorable man he undoubtedly was to control it and not take advantage of those who were weaker, which pretty much consisted of the entire human population.

  She found the whole shimmering thing a little difficult to understand. It seemed complex and had conditions on when it could and could not be achieved. If a vampire were a guest in another vampire’s home, he could not shimmer within the walls unless invited to do so. If invited, from that moment on, shimmering could be accomplished anywhere in the house unless a new vampire took possession, and then one would have to be invited again to do so. If a vampire tried to shimmer inside another vampire’s home without being invited, shimmering would fail, and the vampire would become weak for a short time.

  Most vampires did not allow other vampires to shimmer inside there homes for protective reasons. One never knew when a best friend might turn shadow drifter. There were no other contingencies on shimmering in and out of any other home or building as long as it was not owned by another vampire. Ashe explained to her that no one understood why there were such constraints or how they were enforced. The legend was that Ragnar had supposedly placed such rules upon his children to protect them.

  She knew about his telepathic ability, but seemed surprised to find out he could read her thoughts and control her if he desired. Unless her safety was threatened and there was no other option, he assured her that he would do neither. She was extremely happy about that and knew he must have told the truth or he’d know of her illness. She looked a little skeptical when he told her he, among most other vampires, tried to respect the privacy of others and stay out of their minds as much as possible. Most vampires shielded their minds from other vampires. However, if a vampire was weak, distracted or young, their minds were easily breached.

  He also explained that most of the time human minds were read accidentally because, by nature, humans let emotions control them and didn’t even realize that they were advertising them so loudly. Anger, love and jealousy among other stronger emotions tended to come off humans in waves, penetrating vampire senses rather easily. These stronger emotions made it difficult for younger vampires to ignore. As a vampire aged, the noise—what they called human emotions—was easier to block or turn down. The same went for hearing. Younger vampires had to adjust themselves to all their new abilities and learn to deal with and control them.

  She was very intrigued when he told her that his saliva contained a healing agent, and that was why he had licked the puncture wounds where he bit her. She confirmed it when she looked in the mirror to find that the skin was no longer open, but closed and already turning pink. Wow, what could modern medicine do with such an agent? She could only imagine, yet she could understand why vampires were never likely to share such a thing with science. They would be picked apart, dissected and any other grueling thing possible until they were most likely wiped off the face of the earth. It would end in an all out war. Humans were so typical in that way. It was really sad.

  “I know you eat, but you also said you drink blood. How do you do it without hurting people?” Ebony wasn’t sure she wanted to know this just yet, but she asked before she lost her nerve. After all, she knew he bit people, didn’t she? Surely he didn’t just go up and grab someone and start sucking on their neck when he was hungry, did he?

  “As I told you before, I only have to feed once or twice a week, unless I’m injured. Then I need more to repair my wounds. I use compulsion on my sources to make it as comfortable as possible for them. I only take what I need, and they leave unharmed with a pleasant memory of walking in the park or such.”

  Ashe sat down on the side of the bed, and Ebony continued on with a barrage of questions. “So when you use compulsion on someone, do they know it is happening during or even after?

  “No. Not unless one is toying with a human, intentionally trying to scare them which is usually only done by shadow drifters. Sometimes after, you might have a feeling as if you were dreaming but can’t quite remember what you were dreaming. That is about all though.”

  “Compel me to do something.” She didn’t know why she had said it and wished she could take the words back as soon as they left her mouth. However, her cursed curiosity got the better of her yet again before she could stop her lips from uttering the request.

  “Ebony, I really don’t want to do that.”

  “Just something small so I can see what it feels like.” The fact that he didn’t want to do it gave her comfort.

  “Come to me now, Ebony.” He reached out his hand toward her and watched as her expression blanked, and she began walking to him without hesitation, without emotion. When she reached him he commanded her to remember what had just happened.

  One minute she was across the room, the next minute she was standing in front of him. She remembered him telling her to come to him. She remembered doing it, but it was like a dream just as he had said. As if she had done it, but not really.

  “Wow, that is really weird.”

  “No, it is very normal to us.” A slight quirk of his lips played at the corners of his mouth. “It’s just very weird to you.”

  The thought that he was not the only one that existed capable of controlling someone with such ease was rather frightening. It disturbed her to think about the power wielded by vampires.

  “You know, what you’re telling me doesn’t fit in with anything I know about vampires. I mean, what about stakes through the heart and being a blood-thirsty fiend? You know you would never find Bella Lugosi walking around in the daylight or eating normal food?”

  Ebony was puzzled over Ashe’s conflicting information about vampires. Yet it was kind of silly to compare these things to what he was telling her because until a short time ago, everything she knew about vampires came from horror movies and novels. It was even sillier when she realized she didn’t actually know anything about vampires since what she did recall was information that had been passed down tale after tale through generations and generations of people then enhanced by Hollywood.

  “We aren’t blood-thirsty fiends, Ebony. Well, I guess shadow drifters are. Why don’t you view it as vampires are physically enhanced humans that require a certain substance to survive, being blood? And, by the way, we can be killed by a stake to the heart. After all, that falls under excessive blood loss. There have been several vampires who have been staked over the years by vampire hunters and survived to tell about it just because someone happened to be near enough to replenish their blood fast enough. There have also been many who were not as fortunate.”

  Ashe explained to Ebony that he’d seen every vampire movie out there, and while proving to be great entertainment, the huge inaccuracy of information amazed him. He explained that the tales of vampires and shadow drifters had become intermingled throughout the years. Vampires had gotten labeled with many of the drifters’ ghoulish characteristics.

  “Well, I find it very hard to consider anything about you normal.” Seeing a look cross his face that she thought resembled hurt, she hurried on to her next questions. “You said your mother was your father’s life love. Do you have a life love, Ashe? And, how do you know who this person is?”

  She sat down next to him and immediately knew she hadn’t been imagining his discomfort over this subject earlier since his muscles visibly tensed once again. She wondered what, or more likely who, made this an uncomfortable subject for him. He pulled away from her every time feelings came into the equation. She knew he wanted her, but wanting sex and feeling an emotional attachment were entirely two different things, especially w
here men were concerned.

  He raked a hand over his face. “We know by several things. Only our viata amant can see us in our shielded state. And, only our viata amant can speak with us minti conversatie or mind talk. I had a viata amant. She’s dead.”

  His life love was dead? How horrible. Now she was beginning to understand why he withheld emotion. Had his life love not been able to accept he was a vampire? She couldn’t imagine having the love of a man such as Ashe and throwing it away. Yes, he was a vampire, he was stubborn and had faults just like everyone else, but he was strong, drop-dead gorgeous and honest. She decided it would be best to back off from the subject once again when she noticed the slight tick of his jaw muscle.

  “What is a shielded state? Can vampires mind talk to one another and see each other in shielded state? If so, couldn’t any of them be your viata amant? Ebony hoped Ashe was patient a little longer. Her brain buzzed, and the fascinating and strange things she was trying to comprehend were intriguing to her.

  “Yes, we can communicate with each other mind speak and see each other shielded, but our viata amants are usually human. It is very rare for two vampires to be viata amants. Therefore, it does make it difficult in those instances to realize that they are life loves.