A Pull of Moonlight: A Darkness Bites Paranormal Romance Novel

by Nicole Marie

  “Please, Erik, tell me what I can do to help.”

  He didn’t. I stood there in the room, running my hands up and down my arms in an attempt to stay warm in the cold and dampness that surrounded me. I waited for him to speak, willing to give him all the time in the world it took for him to be able to say something. Anything.

  I waited for what felt like an hour before the light patter of footsteps down the hall pulled me out of my trance.

  I listened as the footsteps grew louder, and I could hear Erik groan in my mind. I pressed my lips together to prevent myself from laughing, a more nervous reaction than anything. I could tell Erik didn’t want to see whoever it was that was coming, and I wondered who it could be.

  When the footsteps stopped outside of our door, I stepped to the side and turned to see who would come through.

  A small, frail-looking young woman stepped through. She had long tangled blonde hair, and her skin glowed pale from the light that came in from the small window above. Her eyes appeared panicked and she looked surprised to see me. But after she took me in, analysing from head to foot, she frowned deeply and crossed her arms. “I see you are the one that’s doing this to him,” she spat to me. Her eyes grew angry and she stared daggers at me. I took a step back and looked at her confused.

  “Me? I’m not doing any of this. I don’t even understand what is happening.”

  “Look at him,” she said as she moved her arm towards the dark shadows of the room. My eyes glanced towards what she was pointing at, but I still couldn’t see Erik in the darkness. I looked back to her and held my arms out in confusion. “Please, can you explain what’s going on?”

  The small girl shook her head and walked towards the shadow, ignoring me. “Master, please. You must feed.”

  I heard a faint rustle of fabric, and my mind flared angrily. My body clenched and I could feel Erik ’s agony and anger mixed in one.

  “Just take one drink from me, Master. You’re not only killing yourself, but you’ll sacrifice the rest of us, too, in this stupidity. You must feed.”

  An anger so strong coursed through my body and mind that I fell to my knees on the floor. “He doesn’t want to feed,” I said angrily. “Stop forcing him to do something he doesn’t want to do.”

  The girl stepped towards me into the light above, a look so angry spread across her face I couldn’t help but smirk. “What the hell do you know? You have absolutely no idea what this means for us. What this means to any of us. You’ll be responsible for killing the most powerful vampire in this country, hell, maybe even the world. The implications of that are far beyond anything that you can possibly comprehend, you stupid girl.”

  I raised my eyebrow and shook my head. She was right. I had no idea what was going on or what the implications of any of it were. If only someone would explain to me what the fuck was going on. “Girl?” I finally managed to say. “You look younger than I am. Who the hell are you, anyways?”

  The girl crossed her arms and stared angrily down at me. Her eyes had wisdom beyond her years and I suspected just then that she wasn’t as young as she looked. “I was born in 1912, and my name is Alexandra,” she finally said, her voice as sharp as a knife. She took a deep breath and exhaled before continuing. “I’ve been with Erik and his coven since I was a teenager. They’ve taken care of me, and, in turn, I take care of them.”

  I knew vampires fed on humans, and I’d even heard that some took humans as pets, or that, at least, was the way I saw it. It’s been written in literature for centuries, of course, these human concubines that lived eternally along with them, somehow sustained through the vampire’s bite in exchange for providing blood and loyal service. The idea disgusted me.

  I looked the girl over and couldn’t help but feel sad for her. Her life had been taken away from her, and she was forced to live forever with the vampires, a servant that had to give her own blood to sustain her Masters. “Why?” I finally managed to say. I knew it wasn’t fair to judge her for her choices, but the idea of spending my life as food repulsed me. I couldn’t understand how anyone would devote their life to such a thing.

  “Why bother explaining when you wouldn’t understand. I can see how you look at me with judgmental eyes. All you need to know is that you are standing in the way of one of the greatest, most powerful beings this world has seen. You alone will be responsible for his downfall, and you alone will be hunted to pay for what you have done.”

  I shook my head and pushed myself back up to my feet. “I don’t understand any of this. I don’t even really know who he is, apart from someone I was sent here to investigate. I don’t understand. Please, explain it to me.”

  The pull in my mind towards Erik grew stronger the longer I stayed in the room, and I tried so hard to listen and to feel his thoughts.

  “Erik, please. Tell me what’s going on,” I whispered silently, hoping that the girl couldn’t hear. I waited to see if Erik’s mind would pick it up. No answer came, and the girl frowned.

  “So long as Erik is here, we have been instructed not to harm you. The others, they vowed not to harm you so long as Erik lives. But when he’s gone, you must know that you will be the most hated and the most hunted human on this earth.”

  “I don’t understand. Why is he killing himself for me?”

  The girl sighed and crossed her arms. “You really don’t know, do you?” she spat.

  I shook my head. “I don’t, I really don’t. I don’t understand how this has anything to do with me.”

  The girl frowned again and then reached into her bag that hung on her shoulder. She brought out a long knife and held it out in front of her. I gasped and stepped back away from her. I knew I didn’t have anything to defend myself. But before I could come up with a plan, she sliced the knife down her left arm and blood welled up and flowed freely, deep crimson liquid dripping down her arm. She walked towards where Erik lay in the shadows, and I knew instantly why he had refrained from feeding.

  My body collapsed in a heap on the floor and I screamed. The smell of blood and the taste of its beautiful, coppery flavor coursed through my entire body, sending convulsions from my head down to my toes. I clenched my muscles and let them loose again, only to clench them one last time. The pain was so severe that I couldn’t help but scream, long piercing screams that didn’t relieve the pain, but it was all I could do to let out the excruciating energy. I rolled on the floor, from my back and onto my stomach again. The only relief was the feel of the cold stone on my clammy skin.

  The girl finally walked away from Erik and towards me, tearing fabric from the bottom of her dress and wrapping it around her arm. I lay panting on the ground and looking up at her with tears streaming down my face.

  “And that’s just with blood near him,” she whispered to me. “Imagine if he fed.”

  I shook my head in disbelief. He must’ve known the effects that feeding would have on me, and he starved himself to protect me. He did it for me, and I now understood exactly what he was doing. But why he felt the need to protect me, I still didn’t understand.

  “You must be some special bitch for him to sacrifice himself for.” The girl tightened the fabric on her arm and tied a snug knot.

  “I don’t want him to die,” I finally whispered. I couldn’t stop shaking as tears continued to pour down my cheek. I lay cold and limp on the ground, looking up into the girl’s angry eyes with desperation. “I don’t want him to die,” I repeated.

  “For my sake and for yours, you better hope that doesn’t happen.” The girl turned on her heels and stormed out of the room. I listened to her footsteps echo as she disappeared down the hall.

  Finally, when I couldn’t hear her footsteps anymore and I knew she was out of earshot, I slowly crawled to the wall and used the projecting stone to pull myself up. It took a moment to steady myself enough to stand properly, but eventually, I managed. I shakily stepped into the shadows to be closer to Erik.

  My mind flashed again and I knew he didn’t want me
to get closer.

  “I can’t see you,” I whispered, my voice shaking uncontrollably. I narrowed my eyes to try and see through the shadows, but it was no use. I knew I had to see him, to understand what was happening to him. It was one thing to feel his body dying through my own mind, but until I saw him, I didn’t think I would really understand.

  “Erik,” I whispered. “Please. I need to see you.”

  A moment of silence passed and I sighed loudly. I then realized I did have a light and I pulled my phone from my jacket pocket and held it up to see. It illuminated the nearby walls, but not deep enough for me to see the vampire in the shadows.

  I flicked the screen and unlocked and opened the camera. I pressed the flash button and snapped a quick photo. The room illuminated like a flash of lightning and his agony roared to my mind. But it worked. It was enough for me to see for a flash of a second into the depths of the room where he lay. I took a small step forward and snapped another photo, and another, and another. I forced myself to ignore the screaming in my mind, his response to the bright light. I knew how much the light burned his skin, but I needed to see. I needed to understand what was happening.

  I snapped one more photo, and finally his voice sounded in my mind. “Please, stop. Charlie, you must leave, now.” Sadness flooded through my body and my heart ached for him.

  “Okay, I’m sorry. I won’t do that again.”

  I stepped back into the beam of light that came in above me as I looked down at my phone to flip through the pictures. I zoomed in on the last one to look at the form that lay flat on a stone ledge on the far side of the room.

  I nearly dropped my phone as I registered what I saw. The body, or what looked like it was perhaps once a body, lay frozen on its back, face pointing up towards the ceiling. The skin had pulled back so firmly against his bones that he looked like a skeleton, and his skin was so white, so pale, that I could nearly see through to his bones. His eyes were closed and his hands were curled up in fists. His whole body looked clenched in agony as he wasted away into nothing. My heart froze and my skin grew clammy. Then I looked up into the shadows towards the remnants of what once was one of the most powerful vampires in the world.

  He was dying and it was because of me. I didn’t understand it. I didn’t understand why he wanted to protect me from the pain of his feeding, but the pathetic and pained broken remnants of what once was a powerful being laying there in agony was too much for me to handle.

  A new excruciating guilt coursed through my body and I recognized it as my own. I shook my head to rid my mind of the image I just saw, but I couldn’t. Panic then overcame me and I knew I couldn’t be there any longer.

  “I’m so sorry,” I cried. I then turned and ran.

  3

  I ran for what felt like hours down the narrow streets of Oxford. I had no idea where he was, but I didn’t care. The warm autumn sun burned against my skin, even though it is quite cool out. Heart racing, I pushed myself forward, running down each random block to the next, going in no particular direction. My mind raced, and I tried so desperately to push the image of Erik’s wasting body from my mind. Sweat trickled down my brow and stung my eyes, but still I pushed forward.

  When I finally felt like my body was going to collapse, I stopped at the end of an intersection and leaned against my legs for support. I panted and tried to calm my breath, and waved down the first cab that drove by and got inside. “To London, please. Camden.” The cab driver looked at me puzzled, but then nodded when he saw how desperate I looked.

  I leaned back against the headrest in the back seat and slowly waited for my breath to slow to its normal rate. My heart continued to beat quickly in my chest, and I held my hand against my chest to feel it racing. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to meditate as I had learned to do these past two months.

  I never was good at meditation, or yoga, or any of those slow relaxing sort of exercises. But I was desperate, just as desperate as I was two months ago to break my mind from his link. I was now desperate to rid the image of him completely from my mind. I focused on my breathing, inhaling and exhaling deeply as the cab rolled forward, bumping occasionally through the odd pothole and over speed bumps.

  It felt like no time at all before we got to the Market and he asked my address. I looked out the window and sighed as I realized I didn’t want to be alone just then.

  “Actually, sorry. I need you to take me somewhere else.” I gave him James’ address and he took off again down the winding streets. Fifteen minutes later, he pulled over and I handed him the last wad of cash that I had on me. I really had to stop taking taxis as I was going to run out of my savings that were supposed to last until the end of the year.

  My body was shaking and I hadn’t even noticed until I got out of the taxi. I ran up to James’ apartment door and knocked loudly. I heard him inside, and when the door opened, I flung my arms around him desperately as I jumped up into his embrace.

  He wrapped his arms around me tightly and pulled me close and smelled my hair as I nuzzled my head in his neck. I couldn’t help it as I began to cry into him and my body convulsed as I sobbed. I shook in his arms and he held me close, and it wasn’t until a few minutes later that he pulled me inside and asked me what was wrong.

  I sniffed and rubbed my eyes and felt like a complete child. I shook my head at the stupidity, and calmed my breathing again. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t want you to see me like this.”

  James led me into the living room and sat me on the couch, and then went into the kitchen. He came back a few minutes later with a mug of steaming hot black coffee, and I accepted it graciously. I took a deep sip of the hot liquid as it burned my throat, but it felt so good.

  “Americans drink coffee, not tea, right?”

  I nodded and couldn’t help but laugh. “Yes, coffee. Not like the crazy tea shit you weirdos drink.”

  After I drank the coffee and we sat together on the couch in silence, he took the empty mug from me and wrapped his arm around me. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  I took a deep breath and shrugged. I didn’t even know how to begin to explain what was going on with me, but I really wanted to share. I wanted him to understand, and I didn’t want to lie to him. I looked up into his beautiful warm brown eyes as another tear fell down my cheek. He wiped it away as I shook my head again. “It’s so stupid.” I sniffed and rubbed my hands over my face and then through my hair, and couldn’t even imagine how completely disheveled and disgusting I must’ve looked.

  “Nothing you could say would be stupid to me,” he said as he wiped the tear from my cheek, then tilting my chin up, he kissed me on the lips. I smiled into his mouth and kissed him back, and wrapped my arms around his shoulders and pulled him close. He was so warm, unlike the cold damp room where I had been with Erik. I let his warmth consume me as I kissed him passionately. His lips felt so good against mine and I pulled myself on top of him as I began kissing him furiously.

  He kissed me back, but then pushed me away and sat me back down on the couch. “I really think you’ll feel better if we talk about this,” he said as he ran his hands through my hair.

  I bit my lip and nodded. “I think you’re right.” I took a deep, shuddering breath and exhaled slowly. “It’s just, a friend of mine is sick. He’s sick and it’s partially my fault, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

  James’ eyes grew concerned but he didn’t answer. After another long moment of silence, I continued. “I went to see him and the sight of him scared me. I’ve never seen someone look so… deathly, before. “

  James smiled warmly at me. “In your line of work, I’m sure you must’ve seen your fair share of bad things, no?”

  I laughed and shrugged back at him. “Yeah, all the time. I’ve seen bodies and the results of gruesome murders, but, for some reason, they never hit me as hard as this did. It’s one thing to see a dead body; it’s another to see a dying one when there’s nothing you can do about it.”

  James
pulled me close and wrapped his arms around me, and I leaned into him, shivering. His body was so warm against mine, but I still felt so cold. It felt like nothing I could do would warm me, and I just shivered as I leaned against him in silence with my head pressed against his chest.

  I listened to his heartbeat and it calmed me. He stroked my hair as he held me close and we sat on the couch together, quietly for a long time.

  Finally, when my body stopped shaking, I pulled away from him and smiled. “Thank you for letting me blubber all grossly on you,” I laughed as I wiped my face with my sleeve.

  He shook his head and laughed back at me and as he pulled me in tight again. “I’m here for you, always. You can blubber as much and as grossly as you need to. I’ll be here.” He kissed my forehead, and I pushed myself up to kiss him back. I then pulled my body onto his as I straddled him on the couch and wrapped my arms around his neck.

  “Have I told you how much you mean to me?” I asked him. I kissed him on the nose and then quickly on the mouth. “I’ve been alone for so long that I forgot what it was like to have someone to rely on. It means a lot that you’re here for me, even though we’ve only known each other a short time.”

  James pulled me in and kissed me and moaned against my skin. “It just feels natural with you, you know? I feel like I’ve known you my whole life,” he said back to me.

  I smiled into his mouth as I kissed him deeply and ran my hands up through his hair as I pulled myself closer. “I know exactly what you mean.”

  As we kissed, I could feel him grow hard beneath me and my desperate need for him ignited deep in my body. I pressed my hips forward as I grinded against him, and he moaned loudly into my mouth. He then lifted me up and lay me flat on the couch as he lay on top of me, pinning me down onto the cushions. I pulled him down closer and kissed him, as his hands worked furiously to unbutton my pants.