by Darci Darson
“You may say ‘no’,” he said in her ear, but sounded like he did not expected her refusal.
Yet she did not say anything. She was not sure which was more in her, the weakness of her body and mind, or the desire for Imre. His hand smoothed the skin of her inner thigh and his lips moved down to her neck. She did not want him to stop even though his kisses were more impatient and his touch fierce and braver, his fingers tasting the whole of her skin. He stopped for a moment to stroke the side of her face and say, “I’m not a gentleman, but you are everything to me, everything that I desire in this world or another. I will make you happy.” He closed her mouth with his, stealing her breath and free will and when his lips separated from hers, she wanted to plead for more. “Tell me to stop, Cherry,” he said with his tormented voice.
Cherry lifted her hand to cup his cheek for an instant, before her fingers slid down back on the pillow. Imre caught the back of her hand and pressed the palm against his face.
“I don’t want you to stop, Imre,” she whispered.”I want you,” she added and elevated on her elbows to kiss him, but her body was stubborn and heavy and she just managed to brush his lips with hers, before falling back on the pillow.
“I will take that as ‘yes’,” he said and lowered his head to brush the area of her collarbones with his lips.
She chuckled and said, “You can take it as ‘yes’.” A doubt coursed through her mind whether Imre would like her small breasts, but he touched them with tenderness; his strokes were simple and yet so full of love, light, caressing that she felt truly attractive.
So she let him take her all and he loved her with his crude and greedy touch. Cherry saw his hesitation for an instant on the realisation that he would be her first man, when she stiffened for a second and let out a quiet groan of pain. She glided her hand over his cheek then. And he was tender and careful, gifting her with soft and unhurried kisses. But when she wrapped her legs around his hips, capturing his neck with her both hands, he possessed her with dark passion. This intensity she wanted from him.
It was affected by the blurriness of her fatigue, but she felt loved and desired in every moment.
When he held her in his arms after, kissing the back of her neck as she rested in the angle of his body, he asked gently, “Don’t forget this, Cherry. You are very forgetful, my sweet little angel.”
“I’m burning when you are around me,” she said her voice barely audible. “This like a constant fever and falling into a void each time I let myself have feelings for you. How much have I forgotten?”
“Not much, I’m not very open. But this, you must remember. Promise, Birdie.”
Cherry just closed her eyes and Imre whispered in her ear, “I will rest in my... bedroom now. I don’t want to scare you. I look like a corpse when I sleep, but I will wait for you in the kitchen in the evening.”
“Stay,” she asked with her last effort.
“I thought that you wouldn’t ask, Birdie,” Imre said with excitement and relief and closed her in the safety of his arms. She could sense his happiness. This embrace of his was strong like he was afraid that she would escape from him and like he wanted to hide her from the whole world.
“Your skin is so hot, Birdie,” he hissed and kicked the duvet so that it could slide down on the floor with a quiet puff.”You will burn me,” he added with a trace of humour in his voice but did not released his embrace which was even tighter now.
She took a sharp breath and thought that he had loved her but not fed on her. Everything was even more blurry and desensitised for her. Imre was still kissing her face when the surroundings fell apart. She desperately wanted to preserve this night in her memory. She did not want to lose even a second of their happiness.
And then there was an absolute blank.
CHAPTER 9
CHERRY WOKE UP at 6.34 pm. She rushed to the bathroom and drank two glasses of water one after the other as her mouth felt so dry. A dull pain pulsated in her head and her back felt uncomfortable and achy. Underneath her nails were tiny run lines, as if a pipe had burst under the cuticles, which was odd as her skin was boiling hot. Her tummy felt uncomfortable and painful as well. Whilst Cherry brushed her teeth she recalled the dream she’d had. It had been an eerie and delicate image. She was standing on the grass, touching the scar replacing her right eye. Imre was gently stroking her hair. Her silky white dress had waved along to a joyful breeze. She had felt peaceful happiness between them. It had all seemed very realistic and beautiful. Cherry quivered, feeling ashamed. Why did even her dreams circle around Imre? He had been present in her life, in her thoughts and now in her dreams, as well. As she took a shower, her eyes scanned the tiny scratches all over her skin, on her arms and legs. This was weird, too. When she was wiping her body with a towel, she fixed her eyes on her night gown that she had worn during her sleep. It must have belonged to Felicia. Strange.
She put on a pair of dark skinny jeans and a long-sleeved, printed t-shirt and hurried downstairs. Imre and Felicia talked in the kitchen, the echoes of their raised voices reached her half way up the stairs. The darkness ruled outside the window decorated with heather flowers that she passed. Cherry heard the scraps of their conversation as she was getting closer.
“... you and her naked,” this was Felicia’s furious voice. “How could you, Imre? She’s just an unhappy girl craving for honest love. You did it under my roof!”she yelled.
“Be quiet, Woman,” Imre growled. “I did not hurt her. I would never hurt her. This will teach you not to enter our bedroom without knocking.”
“’Your bedroom’? Don’t make me laugh, Imre. You took advantage of her. Be quiet now. I promised something. For God’s sake I have the right not to have a heart attack in my own house.”
Imre barked like an outraged, angry troll.
“I will make her happy,” he hissed.
Cherry slowed down just before entering the kitchen.
“People don’t start a relationship like this,” Felicia said and moaned with frustration.
“She doesn’t need a relationship,” Imre growled. “She will be my wife soon.”
“For God’s sake! You are mad, Imre,” Felicia yelled. “Stick to the plan and don’t do anything stupid. Don’t assume that you know what is good for her.”
Cherry froze. She felt as if something strangled her neck and a sudden dizziness blinded her eyes. With her hand pressing against the wall for the support, she moved towards the kitchen door. Echoes of Felicia’s moans and reprimands still hitting her ears but the meaning concealed by the fog in her head. She did not understand anything. She could only feel this heaviness pressing against her chest and the cry that forced its way through her tightened throat. A dreadful thought that Imre had just found the love of his life rang in her head like she was in a bell tower. She was devastated and heartbroken on the realisation that he would never be hers.
“Birdie, I can hear you,” Imre said loudly. “It’s not nice to eavesdrop on other people.”
“You see, Imre,” Felicia yelled once more. “Just be quiet.”
They fell silent when she came in, looking like they wanted to hide something from her, false smiles stuck to their embarrassed faces. Felicia was wiping the kitchen worktop and shot a murderous glance towards Imre. Cherry took a few deep breaths and glanced at Imre, composing herself a bit and wiping her face with the back of her hand. To her great surprise, he wore a plain, grey t-shirt and she had to admit to herself that the garment was really nice. He stood close to Felicia, combing his damp hair with his fingers.
When Imre gazed at Cherry, his expression softened. He looked surprisingly happy, his face bright and human but his jaw muscles twitched as if he was nervous. In fact, he seemed anxious and scared-but at the same time he was beaming, yet frozen, as if in anticipation.
Cherry dropped her eyes, trying to resist the urge to bite all her nails. Something was wrong. Imre had not growled at her yet. He looked like he wanted to hug her. Maybe he was so happy with
meeting a woman of his dreams that he decided to be nice to Cherry at last. This was the only explanation that she could think of in her hazy head.
“How are you feeling, Child?” Felicia interrupted the lull.
“Tired, have you got any painkillers?”Cherry started. When she was under pressure, or distressed, she tended to complain a lot. And this whole conversation she had eavesdropped disturbed her so much that she could not clear her thoughts. “My headache is horrible. Something is wrong with my nails. Maybe I should take some supplements, too,” Cherry sat at the table and hid her face in her hands. “Did we drink alcohol last night? I don’t remember how we got back to Westfad Manor. The last thing I can recall is Drasa coming near. Was everything ok? I’m sorry for anything stupid I did,” she glanced at Felicia and Imre, confounded, wondering what their feverish conversation had been really about. Maybe Imre had bed and fed on somebody, on a young woman and Felicia had the right to tell him off for bringing young women to her house. The idea of him marrying his prey made her feel sick. This thought of him making another girl happy was also so painful for her that she sank lower into her seat, with the urge of escaping from Wesfad Manor at once drilled her tortured brain.
For a second, a thought coursed through her mind that the only girl in the house was her, but the idea was abandoned at once. No boy ever was interested in spending a night with her and Imre just seemed irritated each time she was around him. He wouldn’t have wanted to spend a night with her, for sure.
She felt breathless and, for an instant, wanted to fly away and leave all her difficult emotions behind. She gasped for freedom and molecules in her body started to boil. A rush of an eerie energy went through her body, like a jolt of the freedom that she desired in this moment.
Gazing at Imre, she saw that his face clouded with anger and disappointment. The muscles in his arms tightened up. The desperation filled his eyes and they flared like he wanted to kill somebody. Maybe he wanted to kill her at last. She was the reason that he was stuck with Felicia now. He had the right to hate her-she had disturbed his normal life.
“Drasa said that you were important. We came back and you had too much wine,” he said. His voice was cold, but polite. ”I had a weird dream about you, Birdie. You had only one eye. And we were so...It was weird,” he added in a softer voice.
Cherry blushed, her heartbeat accelerated. She was not sure whether his revelation shook her more than the inability to recall the last evening's details, or Imre’s recent revelations. What was more, she suspected that her memory had other holes as well; each time she had thought about the events of last few days, it appeared to be the period of time filled her fever and sickness with moments of emptiness as well as Imre’s uncontrollable and weird behaviour. In fact, when she thought about her time in Westfad Manor, there was only one urge seizing the whole of her mind: her burning desire for this wild vampire.
“Yeah…You have really weird dreams,” she murmured. “Are your wounds better? I’ve heard that burns heal faster if you keep them uncovered. My mum had such a good ointment for burns I just need to recover its name... ”
“I don’t need your care! Birdie, you are not my mother,” Imre replied, annoyed.
Cherry shivered. She felt as if he had slapped her face once more, exposed her deep shameful secret. She had not learnt to nurture and love other people. She had learnt to be caring and useful. She had to be like this for her mum. Imre knew where to hit her where it hurt. She did not know, though, why he wanted to hurt her. Her chin trembled as her eyes filled with tears once more. She wept.
"Why are you crying," asked Imre, confounded by Cherry's outburst.
"You've been rude to her," Felicia said. “She is trying to be nice to you. What is wrong with you, Imre? It’s not her fault. She is a bit forgetful. Be gentle with her,” she warned sharply. “You owe this to her. This is a good opportunity for you to show how you can make her happy.”
"I'm sorry," he muttered. “Let Felicia and I look after you for a change. You just... eat something now. Drink some water. This will help.”
Cherry felt a wave of warmth surging through her chest. Imre looked almost funny trying his best to be polite. She reached for the spoon and started eating her tomato soup. It was not hot but still tasty. She took a few spoonfuls and bit into a piece of fresh baguette. She was about to ask Felicia what the meaning of the healer’s last odd statement was... However, something strange diverted her attention. There was an alarming yet extraordinary sensation, almost like a warning and she felt like she was losing control of her own body. This urge of escaping and freeing herself from all constraints and emotions grew bigger and bigger and it took over her will.
She put down her spoon and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. She looked closer and noticed a trace of blood on her skin. Thick fluid then dripped from her nostrils. Her pulse and breathing slowed. She stood up and walked mechanically towards the door facing the garden. Felicia and Imre watched her in silence. Imre’s vampirism overwhelmed him, distorting his face. He looked like an animal hunting, but she just passed him. In this moment, he did not exist.
“It’s here. Felicia…it’s here,” Cherry said and went outside. She knelt and put her palms on the soil; she tasted the ground, fingers digging deeply in the cold, wet turf, her mouth blowing out a vapor, whilst her body shivered. “It’s everywhere...” She was not herself. An instinct was erupting from the buried parts of her soul.
Felicia and Imre followed after her.
“What is happening, Child?”
Cherry closed her eyes and an explosion of laser-blue light engulfed everything.
***
The three of them remained motionless until the blinding light faded and their eyes were able to see again. The dark, granite rock hurt Cherry’s knees. As sensation fully returned, a warm, pleasant breeze brushed Cherry’s skin with its gentle tickle. A bright, rosy expanse of light seemed to burn infinitely. In the far distance three volcanoes erupted in blue, shimmering flames that almost threatened with their beauty and power. It was as if giants had exhaled the contents of their endless lungs, their breathing making the very air vibrate. Streaks of glowing, laser-blue mist moved slowly, illuminating the spectators’ legs like an aura. The atmosphere was clear and fresh, as if charged, it smelt like ozone. The Sun, somehow more pink and blurry than normal, radiated the wide streams of light, the rays dancing with glistening particles all around.
“What is this place?” Cherry asked, rising to her feet.
“It looks like heaven,” Imre said. His voice was full of sarcasm. “Birdie, you killed us and took us to heaven.”
Cherry turned back and looked at him with morbid fear. She opened her mouth. At first her voice stuck in her throat. She repeated the attempt.
“The light, Imre! The light!” she shouted and froze with her arms half elevated, the gesture showing the bright sky. Then her eyes started searching the rocks in the hope of finding a shelter big enough for Imre.
He did not move, his face turned up, his amazed eyes swallowing the brightness of the sky.
“Hide! For God’s sake, hide somewhere!” Felicia cried out and spun around, desperate.
“Silence, Women!” Imre growled. “I am fine. I’m just fine, an undead standing in the sunlight. This is something.” He grinned widely and cursed. He looked happy and very human.
Felicia wrinkled her face in disapproval and embraced him. She laughed happily with the realisation that Imre was ok. Cherry herself felt such relief that she nearly fainted, but a moment later a dull pain crushed her chest.
“I can’t find the way back,” she said in panic. “I was able to do this before, but I can’t do it now. I just don’t remember how. It’s as if I’ve had a blackout or something. Is this what happened to me last night, the reason why I can’t recall half of the evening?”
“I have no idea,” Felicia answered. “But I think we shouldn’t go back. There is a reason why you’ve brought us here, I’m sure. Look around,
Children, the mist is the actual manifestation of positive, psychic energy. And this is tangible energy. Amazing!” The woman folded her hands as if praying. ”It’s so strong. I’m surprised that I’m still alive. But you both do not fear...You are...Never mind. Enjoy the view.”
Cherry did not know what to think about Felicia’s revelation. A hand of gloom gripped her heart. She would know about it later.
A minute later, they inspected the surroundings. The place was, in fact, a steep terrace falling with an uneven edge down one side, and offering a great view over the valley. The lowland extended below like a sea of vibrant vegetation. Most of them were trees crowned with sparkling white and silver leaves. In the opposite direction, the cliff opened into a flat and monotonous desert, carpeted by dark, red dust.
Felicia sat on a big, dark stone and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She looked tired, her skin tinged with grey.
Cherry and Imre bustled around, meandering among black rocks. Cherry kept herself as far as possible from the edge of the terrace as she felt uneasy with the realisation of how high they were. This crude, primeval landscape scared her with its eerie and disturbing appearance. She caught Felicia’s concerned and kind glance and then met Imre’s gaze who now stood and watched her circling with no purpose around her two companions. He was tense and amazed at the same time and Felicia now observed them both with suspicion.
Cherry looked up at the sky and warm drops of refreshing rain fell down on her face. There was not a single cloud in the sky and it felt like the water travelled in the air to be released when found its destination. The rain turned into a shower. Cherry elevated her hands and washed the blood stains, wiping her nose and bending her neck back. The streams of water poured down, but caused a pleasant sensation, forcing her to giggle. It was cleansing, uplifting, soothing.
She shivered when she saw Imre right in front of her; his speed had been beyond her abilities to perceive. And she sighed when he wiped the last traces of blood from underneath her nose with the piece of his sleeve.
