Moonlit Surrender

by Kitty Wilder

  Lerexus drank greedily at the wound he had ripped open at her neck on the very spot John had once suckled at as they had made love. His slurps and gulps were sickening and the longer they drew on, the weaker she grew as he raped her of her humanity, forcing this dark change on her unwillingly. Beyond his frantic feeding, she could hear John’s heartbreaking weeping and protests. He was held back helplessly, still weakened by the silver around his wrists and the brute that kept him in place. She turned her head to focus on his face, as broken and pitiful as it was with bloody streams of tears staining his pale cheeks and gray speckled stubble.

  “You are a monument to life, Lucy. You are the daylight in my darkness. You bring warmth and life into the cold shadows in which I reside.”

  His words rang sweetly in her mind, distracting her from the gruesome act befalling her. Her eyes drifted closed, thinking on better times in which she had stared up into those otherworldly gray eyes, feeling the seduction of his invitation to surrender, reveling in the warmth and safety she felt under their gaze, losing herself in the heat they could so easily stir in her. It was a strange time to realize she had perhaps never truly loved until him. She wanted to tell him it would all be okay, she understood now the peace he had come to when he thought he had lost her to his sire, the completeness he had felt at the two of them having simply loved one another despite how short their time together may have been. It was enough to know she had never loved one so deeply as she loved him and to know he had loved her back. Whatever would come next, whatever horrors she might face, she could wrap herself in that truth like a warm blanket, like a beautiful dream of home when the world grew too cold. He had given her more than surrender or passion, he had given her a memory.

  The room around her sounded like it was plunged into water, muffled and far away, but suddenly she heard voices. There was shouting, screaming, and the faint smell of smoke. Panic filled the air so thick even Lucy in her dazed state could sense it. Lerexus’ mouth pulled away suddenly, leaving his job unfinished. Lucy strained to open her eyes, but they felt impossibly heavy and what she saw came in incoherent flashes of lucidity.

  Lerexus was over her, shouting. Dark figures repelled in on long ropes through the gaps in the ceiling high above his white hair. Shadows moved about her periphery holding glittering longswords that sparkled like the silver of John’s broken handcuffs.

  Other shouts joined the dancing shadows, the vampires of the castle joining together to stave off the sudden attack.

  “Someone get these damned handcuffs off me!” John shouted beyond her vision, hidden in the throng of violence that was unfolding below the dais.

  Lerexus screamed angrily above her still, this time his words cutting through the chaos so even she could make them out. “I swear to all the gods living and dead, the next time I see you, Johnathan Wright, I will kill you!” Then he was gone, lost in the clash below as he fought his way past the darkly clad figures.

  John stood over her suddenly and she was propped up in his arms and cradled to his chest. “We have to go now, sweetheart,” he informed her as calmly as he could given the cacophony of fighting behind him. “Everything is okay now,” he reassured, “but we need to hurry.” He scooped her up in his arms, in command of his full strength now that he was no longer trapped in silver. They moved in a flash, ducking and dodging the nightmarish scene filling the cathedral.

  Lucy was sure she was dreaming, watching strange beasts with leathery wings taller than any man fighting off these foreign shadows with thick yellow talons and mouths full of frightening fangs. Some of the sword-wielding invaders fought off great black wolves that howled eerily and growled with a viciousness she had never witnessed before in any animal. The rest were well dressed vampires and vampiresses hissing as they were cut down by the shiny silver blades. As John carried her quickly back to the doorway along the perimeter of the fighting, she saw Lerexus hissing violently as one of the shadows kicked over an iron brazier and set him aflame. The albino vampire lord screeched horribly and lunged at his attacker, tackling him into the fray where she lost sight of him once he had extinguished himself.

  John was stopped just outside the massive decorated doors of the cathedral by one of the shadows. It pulled away its hood to reveal a beautiful woman with golden hair tied back in a tight bun and eyes as blue and clear as the summer sky. “I’ve cleared a path to the west ballroom,” she informed John. “You’re to rendezvous there. You’ll find my second waiting for you.” She pointed down the hallway behind her, “It’s that way. Make no delays.”

  He nodded and she pushed her way into the thick of the fighting, leaving the two of them to find their way.

  His vampire hunter contact. That must be Despina.

  He really did have a plan.

  John turned and went the opposite direction as instructed.

  Her head lolled back as his pace quickened to a speed that made her feel sick, lying like a limp rag doll in his arms. He adjusted and held her close against his body as he dodged the panicked vampires that seemed to have manifested out of thin air to fight Lerexus’ battle. They darted past them in disorganized terror to find escape as it was becoming clearer that the whole castle was overtaken by the Venatores and burning.

  “They promised me you would not be harmed,” he muttered to her as he took her through the maze of connecting hallways and antechambers. “She swore it to me. It was the only reason I promised them my full cooperation. They have failed to hold up their end of the bargain.” He huffed as he flattened himself against a wall to let another shrieking fledgling of Lerexus fly past them. “So I will not honor my end of the bargain. I told them I’d surrender myself freely to their order, for study and spying. They wish to use me against the rest of my kind.”

  He turned through a doorway and Lucy recognized the dining hall. He was taking them to the front gate.

  “She promised they would ensure your safe departure from this place. She fucking swore it,” he lamented over and again to himself.

  Lucy recognized the marble floor of the foyer she had so diligently scrubbed, now caked in dirt and mud from so many boots trampling it in the chaos. John stopped at the rounded doors of the entryway, unwatched now by the guard who was probably already dead. With no opposition, he boldly pushed the heavy doors open and took them into the warm night air. She almost laughed as she realized the castle was built on a cliff, fully connected to the earth that surrounded the great lake that lapped at the rocks below. There was no bridge. There was a portcullis, but it was rusted in place only a third of the way closed, well above their heads for easy clearance. Beyond, though worn and faded, there was a clear driveway that circled a broken fountain, its dirt path disappearing through the forest beyond. If she had made her way out, she could have followed it easily.

  “It was quite a drive. He did a good job stealing you away to this forgotten place. That’s the other reason it took me so long to get here,” he told her. “I wanted a plan B to fall back on instead of relying on those damned hunters for transport. I hid my car just down the road.” He paused and looked down at her, his brow lowering worriedly. “Stay with me, dear. It’s all going to be okay.”

  It’s going to be okay.

  We’re out.

  It’s okay now.

  Okay.

  She opened her eyes and found herself resting in his back seat, covered in an old blanket that had seen better days, probably taken from his trunk where it was stowed for emergencies.

  “Lucy,” John called gently from the driver’s seat, his arm twisted back between the seats to rest on her hip. “Sweetheart, I don’t think we’re going to make it to a hospital.” The crunch of dirt and rock under the car’s tires slowed as he pulled aside into the trees and shut off the ignition so they were hidden in the night. The driver’s door slammed closed, and then the passenger one at her head opened and he gingerly removed her from the backseat and set her in the cool grass to rest on her back.

  Her tired eyes focused on t
he star speckled sky hidden behind the black veil of the treetop stretching impossibly high up into the heavens. The moon was obstructed and the world around her all the darker for it, but she could feel John sitting down beside her and pulling her into his lap. He held her close, pressing soft kisses to her forehead and brushing her hair back from her face. “Forgive me,” he whispered hoarsely, his voice cracking beneath his sorrow. “Forgive me for being too weak to let you go.” He pressed his forehead to hers and spilled one last bloody tear that splashed onto her cheek.

  She opened her mouth to speak, to reassure him, to tell him she loved him and harbored no anger or bitterness towards him anymore. She knew it was his mess she had been dragged into. She knew she suffered because of the sins of his past, and she knew she feared immortality almost as much as she feared death, but resting in his arms, cradled close to his silent chest, she knew without a doubt it had all been worth it. An undying life was daunting, frightful even, but suddenly didn’t seem so scary if she was to face it next to him. She longed to give her permission, her encouragement, to welcome his decision, but her mouth and throat were dry and her words were stuffed down beneath what felt like a pillow of dry cotton on her tongue.

  John held her steady and his mouth moved to her neck. He apologized once more for the pain as he reopened the raw wound Lerexus had been suckling at, then latched his own mouth to it to drain her of what was left of her lifeblood. Where Lerexus had taken and demanded, John was given freely, gladly by her. He moved gently and with great care, cradling her through the pain that deepened the closer she drew to death. The moment was excruciating, but intimate, and she felt herself enter into a whole new realm of surrender as she offered up her life to him.

  As she dwindled on the cusp of oblivion, he pulled away and ripped open his wrist to bleed back into her, pressing it to her cold lips. “Drink,” he urged softly.

  She cringed as the metallic stuff filled her mouth. It spilled over her tongue in warm gushes and as she forced herself to swallow it. Its bitter taste began to sweeten gradually and she could not pinpoint the moment, but suddenly she wasn’t forcing herself to drink any longer. She found the strength to grab hold of his downy forearm and sucked at the wound eagerly, a growing thirst burgeoning in her belly that she was unable to deny. With her strength slowly returning, she thought the process would leave her feeling rejuvenated, but as John tugged his wrist away with a soft wince and a weak smile, the blood she had swallowed felt like it was catching fire inside her.

  She screamed.

  John held her close and rocked her. “I know, sweetheart. I know it hurts, but it will pass.”

  She felt his tainted blood boiling through her veins, spreading through her every artery and down each limb like the slow path of lava, burning out whatever humanity was left inside her. He pulled her face into his chest to muffle her screams of agony. She quaked violently and clawed at his wrinkled and singed shirt. Her own voice strangely foreign to her as she yelled for him to make it stop. Finally, the pain took her, and she was swallowed up in darkness.

  Like their escape from the castle, the rest of the night came in brief flashes of lucidity. She found herself resting in the back of John’s car again, could hear his reassurances, but this time there was no crunch of dirt beneath the car, but the low hum of paved highway. It felt like the whole night was driving, just her lying confused in his backseat as his gentle voice floated periodically to her over the white noise of the wind thundering outside the car, assuring her that everything would be all right and she would feel better soon.

  Chapter 30

  Lucy felt as if she were coming out of a very vivid dream as she slowly regained consciousness. She found herself in a windowless basement, surrounded by steel shelves stocked in bulk with various food items, the musty smell of wet cardboard filling her nostrils from the pile of broken down boxes to the far side of the room where a leak had sneaked its way in to soil the neat stack. For a moment, she feared she woke from a dream of the hasty escape John had made with her and she would soon find herself still hopelessly trapped within the suffocating stone walls of Lerexus’ despicable castle. A quick scan of the rest of the room quickly debunked that nightmare as she saw her once-professor digging through the contents of a duffel bag on the concrete floor.

  He caught the slight movement as soon as she sat up. “How are you feeling?” he asked with a warm, but troubled smile.

  Flesh tearing. Blood boiling. Screams echoing in the forest.

  It really did happen.

  She looked down at her hands for some sign of the difficult transformation she had suffered through but found only the usual sight of her chipped black nails. Confused, she answered, “Better.”

  He pulled out a heap of folded clothing and left the bag to kneel down next to her. “I know you’ve had more than a shock to your system, but we are pressed for time. Here is a change of clothes and a few amenities to freshen up as best you can given the circumstances.”

  “Where are we?” she asked through the haze of questions bouncing around in her head.

  “Dress, dear, and I’ll explain.”

  She looked over to him and saw he had already slipped into a fresh suit and straightened his tousled locks. She grabbed the clothes from his hands and slipped on the black maxi dress. “Actual clothes?” she smiled. “But how will I ever get by without my nipples exposed?” She laughed as she did a happy twirl and slipped on the matching platform sandals he set at her feet.

  “Lerexus was a fool,” he commented, then looked up at her with a twinkle in his eye as he buckled the straps around each of her delicate ankles. “I’d have had you in nothing but your beautiful soft skin were you my prisoner.”

  She laughed, the strange weight she had barely noticed settled on her soul all at once lifting and the fatigue she had been living with for weeks nowhere to be found.

  You survived. You’re here. And with him.

  As soon as he was back on his feet, she grabbed each of his stubbly cheeks in her palms and stretched up to steal an excited and impassioned kiss. His arms snaked around her waist and pulled her tightly into him. When she pulled away and regained her footing, she asked, “Are we going somewhere?”

  “I’m afraid so,” he sighed heavily. “As I told you in the car, I’ve broken my arrangement with the Venatores. I agreed to return with them to their headquarters in exchange for your rescue. They promised to intervene before you could be harmed, but broke their end of the agreement, so I am breaking mine.”

  “Are they going to be okay with that?”

  “I doubt they will see it the same. I’ve incurred their wrath now, my existence only tolerated this long in an attempt to locate Lerexus. They’ve wanted him for a long time. Now that he’s gone, I’m sure it is I who has reached the top of their list as the oldest and therefore most powerful of his direct progeny.”

  “So he’s really gone?” she asked, part of her still dreading his dark presence lurking somewhere out in the shadows. Flashes of the battle she had witnessed in a drained and foggy stupor flashed back to her, the sight of him fending off one of the deadly fast vampire hunters on the raised dais of the crumbling cathedral where he had suffered the fire of a kicked over brazier.

  He was quiet a moment. “They set the whole castle in flames, cleansing it by fire – such is their way.”

  “But he escaped the last time.”

  John shook his head skeptically, his brow low. “He had an informant then, someone who warned him of the impending attack. He had no such warning this time. It would’ve been a great miracle – if that is even the right word – for him to have survived this time. They have advanced and become more coordinated since last I saw them perform a strike.” She wasn’t sure if he was trying to convince her or himself, but he settled his heavy hands on her shoulders. “Rest easy, dear. This will all soon be far behind us. He is gone.” He returned to the duffel bag and retrieved a small pouch of toiletries for her.

  Lucy felt almost gi
ddy at having a proper hairbrush and makeup to restore herself to her former glory. As she drew on the long wings of her eyeliner like old steps to a dance buried deep in her muscle memory, she asked, “What exactly are they? The vampire hunters? Lerexus didn’t seem to know much. Do you? You’ve worked with them?”

  “Barely. Most of my correspondence was by letter, simple and untraceable once burned. They are a very secretive organization, perhaps because they must inhabit the same shadows as their quarry and cannot risk us learning their tactics. The Venatrix I worked with seemed more a mercenary than a soldier of a well-organized army. It’s rumored they use some secret ritual to fuel their unnatural longevity, but beyond that I truly do not know how she has lived so long. They seem to operate as a guild with several safe houses hidden through various territories. There is one such place somewhere here in town, which is why I was placed here and also why we need to leave as soon as possible and never return.”

  “I see,” she nodded.

  “I’m sorry. I know this is sudden, to lose your life and now your home all at once.”

  She finished drawing the careful lines of her deep red lipstick across her plump lips, tucked the makeup back into the zipper pouch and looked over at him with a smile. “You’re my home now.”

  He nodded, as if proud of her quick adjustment, and planted a firm kiss on the top of her hand affectionately. “Good girl.” He paused and pushed back his sleeve to check his watch.

  “Is it time?”

  “Soon. Now, as for your new... condition.” He looked her over. He chuckled softly with a shake of his head. “Un-death becomes you, my dear. Damn if you don’t make a stunning vampire.”

  “Really?” she grinned excitedly and dropped her eyes to the floor bashfully.