Death of Night

by Krissy Reynolds

  Thanes had backed off, only to be replaced by the other man. His sick grin made me lose it.

  "That is it!" I yelled, sitting up. It hurt beyond words, but the adrenaline rush from anger helped me to ignore it.

  The man laughed. I slowly steadied myself on my feet, and faced him. I walked towards him this time, and he looked mildly taken aback. His eyes darted down to my one, unbroken hand on my wound, and his nostrils flared. I halted, not wanting to go any further.

  Rhiannon, the other woman, Thanes, and the leader flanked the man's sides. Their eyes focused on my bloody hand.

  I saw them coming this time. Their actions were slowed, but still impossibly fast. All of them leaped on me, but I didn't feel the ground this time. They pulled me to them, and all I saw was blackness. A stab of pain vibrated through my left, undamaged wrist. I shrieked, but a cold hand wrapped itself around my mouth.

  My left hand was yanked out in front of me, and I saw red dripping from it. I could see four faces now, staring at it like it was a huge, juicy burger. The leader licked his lips, and caught a drop on one long finger. The blood glimmered against his pale skin. He raised it to his mouth and licked it off. He groaned in ecstasy, and I fought not to throw up.

  "I haven't tasted blood like this in three centuries," he whispered to no one in particular.

  Thanes, Rhiannon, and the other woman looked at him, surprised, then to my bleeding wrist, hungry. They bent, one by one, and flicked out a tongue to lap up some blood. I jerked my hand away when their cold tongues touched me. I mumbled, but the hand was still clasped around my mouth. It had to be the second man pressed up against my back, and I stifled a shudder.

  "Oh," Rhiannon breathed.

  Their eyes were shut, savoring the taste.

  "I want to turn her," the leader said softly, looking into my eyes.

  Their eyes flew open.

  "What?" Thanes asked, glancing at him.

  "You heard me," he replied, not even looking at them. He held onto my gaze. The thoughts in his head were a mystery to me.

  "Damien…" Rhiannon murmured, persuading.

  "Why not?" he growled, eyes traveling to my wrist.

  The other woman said, "We decided to kill her, not make her one of us."

  "Oh, but imagine," Damien breathed, "Imagine the possibilities."

  His hand stroked my tear-stained cheek. I recoiled at his touch, but he continued anyway.

  "She is destined to destroy us," a low growl said behind me.

  "But if she was one of us, would she? Would she turn against her own kind?" Damien countered.

  Thanes considered it, but said, "Do you want to risk it?"

  "Oh, yes," he murmured.

  Damien took my wrist and closed his mouth on the torn flesh. His black gaze met mine, and I didn't look away. I felt nauseated as he sucked, pulling my blood out of me and into him. I struggled against their hold, trying to break free. Damien eyes grew darker, if that was possible, with the more of my blood he took in. The others were packed in tight against us, wanting their share as well.

  I felt weak. The blood loss, the injuries, and the stress of the past week soaked in. I also felt sick, scared, and most of all, confused. I couldn't make up my mind if this was a dream, a nightmare, or real life. I was leaning towards real life.

  I looked at the four of them. This was pathetic. Once again, when I was about to die, I felt pathetic. I was letting these…things…drain my blood out of me, and I wasn't doing anything to stop it. I probably wouldn't be able to if I tried, but I had just given up.

  Damien's head rose up. His mouth was red with blood. Seeing my eyes drawn to it, he licked his lips. The others eagerly latched on to my wrist with fervor. Fury burned its way through me as my eyes fluttered closed. I was dying, and I was mad as hell about it.

  A feeling of power came from the anger. My body was trembling with it. What was it? It wasn't courage. It couldn't be hope. It was as raw and primitive as Rhiannon's snarl. It was indescribable. It turned me warm where I was cold. It filled the dark holes in my mind with light. It ran through my blood, reaching every part of me at once. It took over my senses, overflowing into my mind. It felt deliciously dangerous, deadly to everyone but me. My fingers tingled with the power, ready to be used.

  I forced my eyelids open. Rhiannon, Thanes, and the woman were attached to my arm, mouths dripping with blood. They were taking so much. Too much. I was shivering with the loss of my blood.

  "Let go of me," I said into the man's hand.

  Damien heard me, and his head whipped around to look at my face. He put a finger to his mouth, telling me to be quiet.

  "Let me go!" I yelled, and when they didn't, I bit down on the fingers that were covering my mouth.

  A snarl sounded from behind me, and the man let me go. I lost my footing, landing on my back. The others merely followed me down, not slowing in their blood-letting.

  "Stop," I whispered, drained, "Stop it."

  Damien knelt at my side, leaning over me to touch his lips to the base of my throat. They were cold, but I hardly noticed. He moved his mouth upwards, slowly, tantalizingly.

  "Sorry," he breathed, lips brushing my neck with each syllable, "I can't."

  The unknown power surged through me with more force this time. He was sorry?

  The second man was at my feet, and he gasped, "Damien. Damien!"

  Damien lifted his head from my neck, and gave the man a vicious glare. "What, Dario?"

  Dario nodded his head towards me. Damien turned to look at my face with impatience. His irritation quickly turned into shock.

  "Stop," he said seriously to the ones on my left arm.

  They either didn't hear him, or were ignoring him. They kept pulling my blood out, making me weaker with each draw. My heart beat was slowing.

  "Let go," I said on a slow intake of breath.

  They didn't. I began to cry, sobs tearing out of my chest and tears streaming down the sides of my face. I tugged my left hand, but it hardly moved. Emotions of all kinds washed through me. Pain, sadness, hurt, hopelessness, confusion, but most of all, anger. The primal power kept on coursing through me, growing more and more ferocious.

  "Her eyes," the man at my feet whispered in disbelief.

  "Like ours," Damien responded, standing next to him. The two of them stared at me, doing nothing.

  "Let. Go." I hadn't even known I'd spoken until the sound of my voice echoed back to me.

  The power swelled even more, and I had to do something about it. It had taken my mind over, and I couldn't think for myself.

  A booming, reverberating crack came from above me. Bright light entered my vision. It was all I saw. Screams and shouts were heard amid the resounding sound. The power flowed out of me in one swift action. It left me exhausted and fragile, but a deep sense of satisfaction remained. The blinding light had faded, and I looked up at the sky. It was covered in storm clouds that hadn't been there earlier. They swarmed around angrily, threatening to dispel more lightening and thunder over us. I tore my eyes from the sky, and sent them around the now dim parking lot. The ground beside me was singed; a black crater.

  I gulped when I saw my left arm lying unmoving on the ground. It was bleeding profusely. Not one bit of skin was clear of blood. I went to hold it with my other hand, but I remembered I had a broken wrist. My previous stab wound was trickling blood, and I couldn't do anything about it. I rolled my body into the fetal position, to keep warm and to help stop the bleeding. Five pairs of feet stood about ten feet away from me. I turned my head to look up.

  Damien, Thanes, Rhiannon, the other woman, and Dario were watching me with wide eyes. Their expressions almost made me laugh, but I couldn't muster the strength to. Rhiannon sent a pale hand to wipe away my blood from her mouth. Thanes was looking at me almost fearfully as he rubbed an arm that was scorched. I could see his blackened skin through the tear in his shirt. The other woman held a hand to her head where a deep gash lay. Damien and Dario's lips were parted in disbel
ief.

  Damien cursed in a foreign language. It was unrecognizable to my ears, but the four others seemed to understand. Thanes murmured something inaudible to me. They nodded in agreement and walked towards me with wary steps.

  Dario crouched next to me. He ducked his head to look into my eyes, and breathed a sigh.

  "Gray," he said, "Back to gray."

  "No black?" Thanes asked quietly.

  "No," Dario replied, standing again.

  The woman with the cut on her face asked, "What was that?"

  Damien's lips twitched, and he looked down at me. "That," he said, "Was the Letalis Flora."

  "She made me bleed, Damien," she said, wonder and curiosity present in her voice. She took her hand off her cut and peered at the blood that came from it. It looked black, even in the glare of the security lights.

  Dario hissed, "How is that possible?"

  A small, knowing smile crossed Damien. "Like you said, she is destined to destroy us. It's not a surprise that she can make us bleed."

  Rhiannon sniffed, and said, "A human prophesied to kill us. It's degrading. I bet she doesn't even know what she just did."

  How right she was. I was still running through tonight's events in slow motion to figure everything out. So far, I had…not much.

  "Don't underestimate her," Damien said, "She just changed the weather without even realizing it."

  He moved closer to me. I saw his shiny shoes come to a stop in front of me. He knelt gracefully on the ground, and took my chin between his fingers. He was debating internally as he hooked his gaze to mine.

  "What is it, Damien?" the bleeding one asked.

  We all waited in silence for his answer. Their leader turned to look at them behind him, but said nothing.

  "No," Dario said sharply.

  "Think of the power we could harness," Damien responded, looking back at me with thoughtful eyes.

  "What?" The woman wasn't catching on.

  "He still wants to turn her!" Dario exclaimed angrily.

  Rhiannon sneered, "Why don't you ask the human what she wants?"

  Damien said, "I don't have to. Look at her. She wishes to change her life for reasons she will never understand. She would suffer, she would fight, and compromise for what she believes in. This would be the answer to her prayers."

  The other woman said, "Why do you want to jeopardize everything for a human?"

  "It's not for her, Camille, but for me. Her blood is something I've been craving for centuries. You tasted it. It was sacred, delicious. I haven't had anything like it since Masata," Damien's voice filled with a deep sadness at the name.

  The others exchanged looks.

  Thanes spoke first. "I came here to kill her."

  Dario nodded. "Yes, not to make her one of us."

  Damien shook his head. "With her power, her strength, her will…"

  "But we don't know what would happen, Damien. The transition could go badly, and who knows what she would be like if it worked. Her innate instinct is to kill us. We would just be helping by giving her more power," Camille said, "She made me bleed. I haven't bled in years."

  Damien chuckled. "All the more to her."

  A disdainful look flashed across Camille's face.

  "Personally, I don't want her around forever," Rhiannon contributed.

  "You were an ignorant human once, as well, Rhiannon," Thanes laughed. She shot him a venomous glare.

  I was slipping into unconsciousness while they argued and discussed my death. I wasn't following, and my eyes closed, accepting the coming darkness. My body lost all remains of warmth, and my injuries hardly bothered me because the cold numbed them. Rain kept falling on my face, washing the tears away.

  "She's going. We need to do something." Damien slapped my cheek to pull me out of my slumber.

  "Wakey, wakey, little human," Rhiannon said, amused as she kicked my stomach.

  I curled up even more, and mumbled, "Go to hell."

  Laughs came from all around me.

  Dario chuckled, "She's so delightful when she's dying."

  Rhiannon shoved her foot into my stomach again. I spluttered and coughed as pain found its way back. She bent down and yanked my head back by my hair.

  I squinted my eyes open, shocked by the brilliance of the floodlights. The five forms shadowed over my feeble body. Damien was kneeling next to my head. Rhiannon was next to him, reaching over to pull my hair. When she saw me open my eyes, she immediately let it go and stood.

  "Oh," Thanes breathed.

  "Holy crucifixes," Camille let out.

  Damien stood up quickly, and took his place in the middle of their half circle. They stared down at me with wonder and hesitation. I felt like a dog that had just done a trick. I tried to sit, but my muscles weren't working right.

  "Her eyes are black like ours," Dario said, "How is that possible?"

  That was my question.

  "Last time she looked at us like that she-" Camille began, but couldn't go on.

  "-she struck us with lightening," Thanes finished.

  Rhiannon tested Damien by saying, "Turn her, Damien. Turn her now, and see what happens."

  Damien pressed his lips together. His eyes flashed completely black. They had been turning to a less threatening dull black colour, but the intimidating black was back. He crouched down beside me, and reached out a long finger to touch my neck. I jerked at his touch, but he trailed his finger down the length of my throat. The power mounted in me once again.

  He drew back with a hiss. I blinked up at him, seeing his dark eyes fixed on me in an amazed expression.

  "She burned me," he stated.

  The four others stared at me.

  Dario said, "We need to kill her, right now."

  "No!" Damien shouted when Dario leapt on me.

  I threw up my left arm on impulse, realizing too late that it was unusable. Dario snarled, and sent his teeth into it. I gasped at the pain. Not knowing what to do, I gave myself back to the power rushing inside me.

  Dario was flung off of me in a red blur. I saw him roll into Camille, who steadied him with the fastest reflexes I had ever seen. He turned to look at me, more than surprised.

  Rhiannon growled and jumped to stand above me, foot on either side of me. She reached down and pulled me up so her perfect face was inches from mine. The soles of my feet found the ground, and pushed up. I stood, stumbling. I would have fallen down if Rhiannon hadn't been holding me up by my jacket front.

  Her teeth glimmered in the light as she softly said, "Well, now, that just won't do, human."

  I lifted my eyes to hers with an effort. I was tired of this. I was so tired.

  "I'm going to hurt you until you beg me to finish you off. I'm going to reach deep down inside you and pull out your worst memories and make you relive them," she said, boring her black eyes into mine.

  "Why don't you just kill me now?" I whispered.

  "That just wouldn't be much fun, now, would it?" she replied, and sent a hand out to hit me.

  My left hand grabbed her flying fist automatically. I wasn't even thinking. The power was thinking for me. Rhiannon shrieked as I pushed her away from me. She flew back about ten feet. My mouth fell open with astonishment at what I had done.

  Rhiannon got to her feet and joined the others. As a group, strategically spread out, they advanced towards me. They danced to me with cruel smiles and heavy eyes. They got off on the hunt, the challenge. I couldn't fight five of them at once, even with this mind-boggling power that was driving me to stay alive.

  They were so close now, only a few feet away. It was really over now. I was floating on water, and was about to be dragged under.

  I was deciding whether to give up or not when a dark shadow emerged from the trees and stood in front of me protectively.

  They all stopped in their tracks. Even my breath caught in my throat. The man's back was turned to me, facing the others. He was tall, with familiar black hair and a cropped leather jacket. I blinked in quick su
ccession to clear my fading vision. I couldn't stay standing much longer. Warm blood escaped my stab wound, and my left arm was constantly dripping blood.

  Damien dared to take a step towards the new man. He swept his gaze over him in an evaluating motion. His eyes stopped at the man's face, and Damien's thin eyebrows arched in incredulity. Camille gasped when she, too, recognized the man.

  Damien bowed his head. The others followed suit. It was a simple gesture that evidently meant something to them. The man standing in front of me bent his head as well. His dark hair brushed against his collar when his head came back up. It looked soft, glimmering black as coal in the light.

  "Are you here to join the fun?" Damien asked pleasantly.

  Thanes laughed from behind his leader, "Yes, she's trying to make it hard for us."

  The man said nothing, and I couldn't see his face to judge his expression.

  With a smile on his face, Damien gestured toward me. "Would you like to play with her first? We've already had our turn."

  Camille came forward to stand by Damien. "You must be quick, though. She won't last much longer."

  Almost in slow motion, the man turned to face me. I couldn't stop my knees from buckling under me. I was falling down when a pair of strong arms wrapped around me from behind. They held me firmly against a hard chest, keeping me steady. It all happened so quick I didn't catch it until a few moments later. I blinked up, and saw the man in front of me was gone. I had recognized him, too.

  I turned my head to look at who was holding me. My eyes met brilliant green, and if I had been standing on my own accord, I would be down on the wet gravel again.

  "Mr. Knightley?" I whispered.

  His chest rumbled with laughter. It felt so good. It felt safe. "I thought I told you to call me Callum."

  I didn't look away from his perfect, flawless face when Damien approached us slowly, suspicion in his face. Callum's emerald eyes never left mine, either, even when the leader came to a stop directly next to us.