Before the Moonrise

by Dawn Gray

  He looked around the courtyard and shook his head. “Take me upstairs. Take me home.”

  Lily nodded, stood slowly, and took his hand. Gently, she led him up to the top of the stairs and into the darkness of the apartment. Once inside the room, she pushed him down on the bed and covered him with the blanket, before taking off the robe and sliding in beside him. Lily wrapped her arms around Jared, feeling him shiver against her as she pressed her warm flesh against his back. Gradually, she felt him fall asleep.

  

  Jean slowly opened the door, checking in on Lily and stopped dead in his tracks as he saw the second body that lay in bed, tucked warmly in the blankets with the dark head of hair resting comfortably on his chest. Jean touched Jared’s shoulder softly, making sure he was real, and watched as the young man before him shifted in his sleep, placing his hand on Lily’s back. Shaking his head, Jean stepped out and closed the door behind him, not understanding why he was home. He walked over to the couch, to where Kylie lay sleeping, and gently touched her cheek.

  “I think we have a plan, my sweet, to save both of our friends.” Kylie stretched and turned over.

  “This isn’t she, is it?” Morna spoke quietly as she entered the room.

  “No, Lily is in the bedroom with Jared,” he replied and watched the wonder cross her face. “He shouldn’t even be here tonight, yet he lies there as human as ever.”

  “Maybe her light, for him, works in a different way than your light did for you.” She smiled and looked about. “All seems well here, shall we continue our stroll?”

  “Indeed,” he answered, shrugging at the oddities around him. The two of them walked softly out of the house, closing the door behind them as they went.

  

  The sound of pots clashing together stirred Lily from her sleep. She glanced at the empty bed beside her, before grabbing a robe and rushing out into the kitchen. There she found Jared, in shorts, quickly opening and closing cabinet doors.

  “Are you always this noisy first thing in the morning?” she questioned loudly, which got him to swing around, a big smile on his face.

  “Not usually.” He grinned, with an apologetic voice. “I usually don’t have company. In fact, I’ve never had company.” She watched him move swiftly around the room, once again, and a smile crossed her face. “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse, or a moose!”

  “Please tell me you don’t have them here.” She laughed as she sat down at the bar. Jared shook his head.

  “No, but I do have steak!” he replied, and grabbed the frying pan from the counter. “And, I have eggs.”

  “Could you make me some coffee?” a voice spoke from the living room. “Or shut the hell up because I’m still trying to sleep!”

  Lily laughed at Kylie, who flipped over on the couch and covered her head with the pillow. Then she looked back over at Jared, who was making a face as if he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

  “Coffee it is,” he answered and watched her wave from the couch. The door opened slowly and Jean walked in, glancing back and forth between the two in the kitchen. Then he smiled, setting the bag of freshly made beignets on the table. “Ooh, you brought sweet stuff.”

  “Are you feeling well?” Jean inquired, looking at the overly perky man behind the counter.

  “I feel like a million bucks,” Jared answered, handing two cups of coffee to Lily. She walked into the living room, kicking Kylie on the bottom as she stepped past to put the cup down on the table. Jared looked at Jean and smiled. “I love her!”

  “That I could tell! My other question though, would be what were you doing home less than two hours after the moon reached its high point?”

  “I have no idea what happened, but it was amazing. I feel amazing.” Jared grinned. “I was out on the plantations, the change had already taken place, and I could smell her. Her scent brought me home. She met me in the courtyard, and the moment she touched me, the change reversed. We made love out under the moon and by the time it was over, I was human again.”

  “Very odd indeed,” Jean replied and shook his head. “Do you think it’s a good idea to go out today?”

  “I do,” Lily spoke up. “I want to go to Lafayette, I want to see the Garden District, and I want you two to bring us. Like tour guides that I don’t have to pay.”

  “I haven’t been to Lafayette in years,” Jared said, leaning on his elbow as he reached into the warm bag of French doughnuts. “Sounds like a plan to me.”

  “Let me get cleaned up and we’ll go after breakfast. You girls need a change of clothing. I believe the Quarter House sent your bags to the church. Let me get them and I’ll be back in a little while.” Lily watched as he got up, winked at Kylie, and walked out the door. Jared threw the steak onto the frying pan.

  “I can’t believe you’re having steak for breakfast.” Kylie laughed as she walked past them, heading into the bathroom.

  “Are you kidding? This is lunch! I had breakfast at about two o’clock this morning.” Jared laughed as Lily hit him gently on the way by.

  “Too much information!” Kylie yelled, closing the door behind her.

  Lily smiled, grabbing the juice out of the refrigerator as Jared danced happily to the tune in his head while he flipped his morning breakfast over in the pan.

  

  The walk through the scenic Garden District was quiet as the two couples viewed the sights together. Jared, who had seen the houses more often than he cared to remember, was busying himself by studying the way that he held Lily’s hand and delicacies of her fingers. Meanwhile, she marveled at the magnificent architecture of the buildings around them. Her favorite places seemed to be the ones with a fleur-de-lis on the fence posts or integrated into the design somehow.

  Up ahead, Jean babbled on to a fascinated Kylie as she walked by his side, her hand tucked in the crook of his arm. Lily smiled as Jean’s hand moved in the typical French fashion, anywhere and everywhere, to describe what he was speaking of. They followed First Street up to Washington where they turned left and made their way along the quiet street to the outside of the white cemetery walls.

  Lily stopped to look at the tree, whose crooked growth made for an eerie look, as its branches reached over into the graveyard. She smiled as Jared stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

  “Almost looks as though it’s going to pull the bodies out of their tombs doesn’t it,” Jared whispered.

  “Well, that’s really morbid!” Kylie replied as the other two approached. Jean laughed at his joke and gestured down Sixth Street.

  “Come, the entrance is this way.” The four of them walked into the cemetery together, but soon separated as Kylie spotted certain photographic opportunities to her left.

  Lily smiled at Jared as they moved up and down the crooked rows. “Have you ever noticed how quiet it seems to be inside the walls even with such rushing traffic just outside?”

  “It was always too quiet for me inside the gates,” he answered, glancing over at some of the older vaults. “Do you know why they did this?”

  “Buried them this way?” Lily whispered. “Because New Orleans is below sea-level.”

  “Exactly, but they would put a body up on the shelf above,” he explained, showing her the inside of an open tomb. “Then, when the next one would die, they would slip the mummified corpse down to the bottom. See the rods? And the one on the bottom would turn to ash and fall through.”

  “What did they do before transferring them to the family vaults?” Lily asked, reaching out to touch the concrete tomb.

  “They would put them in the wall tombs for about fourteen months and then transfer them over,” Jared replied, shrugging as if the discussion of death was not a topic to worry about, and Lily let it slide. Death to someone who was over two-centuries old was probably the least stressful topic. “Can I make love to you?”

  “Here? Jared, you are insatiable. I wouldn’t do it in a cemetery. That would be wa
y too creepy for me.”

  Jared laughed and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Come, there is something I want you to see. If I can still find it.”

  He led her around the tombs, whispering to himself as if trying to remember directions. Then he stopped in front of a small tomb, one that almost resembled his family vault in St. Louis number One, and smiled. It was unkempt, for the moss had begun to grow over it and the gate around it sagged, but you could see the design of the wheel at the bottom of each iron pole. The name had weathered away, yet there was a design just under the tip of the roof that Lily recognized.

  “He was a freemason?” she questioned.

  Jared smiled, glad that she knew the sign, and nodded. “His name was Alexander Cardinal. He was my best friend growing up. We did some interesting things together … we also got into a lot of trouble.”

  “You? I couldn’t have imagined. What happened to him?”

  “He grew up, and after I ‘died’ he found a wife, with whom he had a lovely bunch of children. Some of which still live in New Orleans, while others have branched off to parts unknown. But the lovely thing is, every year, they come back here,” Jared said.

  “Really?”

  “Yes, the whole family, for the most part. They all march down here and pay their respects to Alexander before moving over to the family home not three blocks from here.” She watched the smile fade from Jared’s face as he looked at the tomb, and he drew in a deep breath. Lily leaned over and kissed him on the head, rubbing his back as she did so, and he sighed. “What I wouldn’t have given to have lived normally, to have children and a wife, and not outlive one of the only friends I’ve ever had.”

  “But you have done so much more,” Lily whispered, “you have seen so much more. And you get to watch your friend live on … in his children.”

  “You’re right,” he replied and stood, brushing the dead leaves from his pants.

  He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes as he took her hand and they moved on. After a short hour, the four of them met back up at the entrance and the girls exchanged cameras to look at pictures. Jared and Jean walked steps behind, quiet in each other’s presence.

  “Cemeteries always make me think of mortality, and how it seems to have passed me by,” Jean said as he looked up at the trees that hung over them. Jared nodded and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “What is bothering you, my friend?”

  “Tonight,” he whispered. “I can’t lose her, Jean.”

  “Have faith, Jared,” he said, patting him on the shoulder. “Trust in me, my friend, I will not let you down.”

  “Of that I have no doubt.” Jared smiled.

  

  Lily stood in front of the mirror, the heat in her chest seemed to radiate through her entire body, and her hands felt as if they were ten times larger than they were. Her heartbeat thumped against her ribs, filling her with pain, and she gripped the counter until her fingers turned white. Her eyes, staring back at her in the mirror, changed from the hazel they were to a silver blue, almost exactly like Jared’s.

  Suddenly, the door flew open and Jared marched into the room. He grasped Lily by the shoulders, turned her as her body went limp in his arms, lifted her up and rushed to the bedroom.

  “JEAN!” he hollered, holding Lily’s face in his hands as she struggled to breathe. The brightness of her eyes locked on his and she shook under his touch. “Stay with me, Lily, stay with me!”

  He looked up at the door as it flung open and Jean stood in the doorway. A woman with pale skin stood behind him and Jean looked down at her body on the bed. Lily was completely awake, shaking uncontrollably in Jared’s grasp, but she turned and looked at Jean. The tingling was already starting, down at the tips of her ice cold feet. She knew when it came, it accompanied the darkness.

  “It’s the moonrise,” Jean exclaimed and walked in, looking up at the woman who accompanied him. “Why is it starting so soon, it’s only five?”

  “We must get her away from here.” The woman’s soothing voice flowed over Lily, easing her pulse, but it became harder to breathe as the tingle reached her knees.

  Jared, her mind whispered, and watched as his eyes darted back towards hers, locking her into his stare. What’s happening to me?

  The moonrise, he replied quietly, shaking his head, but he could see that she didn’t understand. The light, Lily, the light within you is released when the moonrise is upon you.

  I’m scared, she admitted, and glanced over at the woman again, her brows frowning inward. She’s a vampire.

  “Yes, I am, Lily,” the woman said, answering the unspoken thought. “My name is Morna, and I am Jean-Luc’s sire.”

  “She is mine,” Jared growled, getting defensive. He stood and placed himself between Lily and the woman.

  “Jared!” Jean said suddenly, but Morna raised a hand to him.

  “Be still, my wolf, I mean neither you nor your mate harm. I am here to help you.” She smiled and Jean watched as Jared slowly calmed down, sitting beside Lily once again. Morna leaned over the shivering woman on the bed and smiled down at her. “Lily, I’ve seen many moonrises, but none quite like yours. You are unique in every way possible, and though I don’t know how you will fare, I will be by your side every step of the way.”

  Damon, Lily whispered, and watched as Morna nodded.

  “Don’t worry about Damon, Cherie. We will save your vampire friend,” she stated softly. Jared moved closer as Lily’s eyes rolled back into her head, dragging her down into the darkness.

  Chapter Eight

  She opened her eyes to darkness, wanting nothing more than to see the light, but there seemed to be nothing except black surrounding her. It started like a small star, and grew in intensity until the room lit up like a 75-watt bulb. She closed her eyes against the brightness. Jared slipped over from where he stood in the corner and sat down on the bed beside her.

  She felt the fire rage through her, like a passion that she had never known before, and nonchalantly she reached out for him. Jared watched her eyes as she drew him near, unsure of what power lay behind them, but all he felt was the woman he loved in his arms as her mouth pressed down against his.

  She was fire to him, a light against the darkness of the ages that filled him, and he wanted to feel her around him. Her lips played sensually against his, touching and caressing as only a woman could, until he could take no more and held the back of her neck so that she couldn’t move. His mouth ravaged hers, taking everything she had to offer him, but the game of dominance had only just begun as she pushed at his chest.

  Jared smiled up at her as she straddled his waist, grinning down at him as she pulled the shirt from his pants. He closed his eyes as she leaned down and kissed along the thin line of hair that traveled over his navel, and up to his chest. He wanted to make her stop, to take over, but she held him prisoner by her touch and he wanted nothing more than to feel her close to him.

  The banging on the door shook them both from their desire and Jared sat up, hugging Lily to him by wrapping his arms around her waist. The noise continued as shouts began to accompany the racket. Down the hallway, screams could be heard as the two of them were searched for. Both looked over as the wooden door came crashing down upon the hard cement floor.

  Collin stood in the doorway, smiling maniacally at the two of them, as four vampires entered the room. Two were the twins, who went right for Jared, and the other two seemed to be minor players. They grabbed Lily around the waist, pulling her from his arms. Jared howled, baring teeth as the twins, and as strong as he was they managed to hold him in place as the others brought Lily to Collin.

  “My, my, I seem to have caught the love birds in the middle of something,” he said, glancing down at the knee-length gown that Lily wore, and then shrugged. “Oh, well. It’ll save us from having puppies running loose in a few months.”

  Collin looked straight into Jared’s eyes and grinned. “Make sure to have those shackles nice and tight. We wouldn’t want
him to get to his mate before we have a chance to drain the light from her precious eyes.”

  “Jared!” Lily yelled, looking back at him as Collin dragged her along, pulling her by the hair. Jared, I love you!

  “LILY!” She heard him bellow as she was forced up the stairs and out into the rising light of the moon.

  When the beams of moonlight hit her skin, she could feel the burn in her chest begin. Her breath grew heavy against her ribs, making it hard to concentrate on anything except that. She understood then what the panic attacks meant, why there seemed to be no medicine out there that was able to control them, and her hands started to shake. This was what she was born for, who she was made for. She knew then what she had to do to survive, to make it back to Jared, and to her family.

  

  Jean and Morna walked onto the scene just as the world seemed to erupt in noise and chaos. His eyes grew wide as he saw the fires that burned through the cemetery and Morna held his hand, holding him back as he watched Lily stop in the middle of a clearing and look up at the moon. He could see the glow in her eyes from where he stood, but it seemed that no one else noticed.

  “My God! The moonrise!” he exclaimed and brought Morna close to him, holding her as the group of vampires moved out into the night. “We need to follow them.”

  “No, Jean-Luc, we know where they are going and we must bring reinforcements with us if we are to succeed in getting her back from them,” Morna insisted, stepping back into the dark behind them. She tugged on his arm, pulling him with her. It was then that they heard Jared’s mournful howl, as the twin vampires brought him out into the moonlight, and she pulled harder. “They have the wolf now, too. Jean, we must hurry.”

  Jean turned, moving away from his friend as they sped swiftly through the streets of the city, heading back to the church where Kylie was safely guarded. He stopped, closing his eyes as he tilted his head backwards towards the light. He had heard the noise Jared had made, and tonight was the full moon, the night of his change. Jean could feel the pain in his chest as he thought of the lovers parted because of a curse.