I had no idea where Gaar meant to run or hide, but I offered no protest or suggestions as he held my hand tightly and dragged me through the house with him.
We soon reached a door leading outside, and Gaar pulled me through, and we started to run across the grounds until I looked up, and I saw the full moon rising into the night sky, and I couldn't help stopping dead in my tracks. I stopped so dead, in fact, that Gaar was jerked back to my side.
"What are you doing?" he cried. "We've got to get out of this place!"
"No," I murmured. "No, we can't. We can't leave here…"
"Keep moving, girl!" he yelled, tugging at me. But I wouldn't budge.
"We can't leave, Gaar! We can't… We can't go out into the night!"
"What are you talking about, girl? We can't just sit here! Come on!" Gaar cried, pulling me toward the open air.
"No! This way!" I yelled, and yanked him toward our new direction—back into the house. I couldn't explain why I had felt the way I had; I only knew that the night would be even less safe for us.
I led the way this time, dragging Gaar up and down the halls, turning corner after dark corner. Then one of the creatures spotted us, and we spotted it, and it pointed and shrieked at us before lumbering its way after us. Then there were more of them. One appeared just ahead of us as we rounded a corner, and I screamed once and dove back the other way, Gaar still in tow.
We reached the kitchen at one point, and some of the servants in there pointed and made as if to chase us, only they decided otherwise once they saw the creatures bounding in after us. Let them do the dirty work, they no doubt surmised. Gaar let go of my hand once and yanked a knife from a wall and continued on with me, never stopping or slowing down at any point along the way.
We were running for our lives, but what didn't quite register at the time was that, if Agyar was so powerful, and this was his own house, and everyone in it was after us, men why were we not caught during all of our running? Any of those creatures could have caught us quite easily, I figured out much later, only they seemed to be holding back. I believe we were only being toyed with then. It was his way.
We ran for hours, it seemed. In and out of every room, every hallway, sometimes chased by human and non-human alike, sometimes chased by nothing more than our fear. We were exhausted, but still we had to keep going. We found stairs going to a lower floor, under the normal one, and decided to take our chances there.
The hallways were lit, surprisingly—with barely flickering flames, but light, nonetheless. I expected to find dungeons, or old cells with rotting corpses stashed away, or I don't remember what else I expected to see, but in fact we found only old storerooms—wine stores, meat stores, wood and brick and weapon stores. We picked a room and flung the door open and threw ourselves inside. And it was pitch-black in there, so Gaar was forced to creep back outside and swipe a few lanterns from the hallway and rush back inside, shutting the door quickly but quietly behind him.
It was a room like the others, really. This one was for furniture, evidently. Old chairs and tables and dressers were piled one on top of each other all along the walls and in the corners. Even a small bed was positioned by the wall before us, and I wanted so much to lie in that bed, but Gaar suddenly thrust the lanterns into my hands and began pushing a large dresser toward the door. He placed it directly in front of the door, and then went back to get more furniture. I understood his intentions immediately and placed the lanterns onto the bed and helped him with a large table.
We continued piling furniture in front of the door as quietly as we could, sometimes rearranging what was already there to make room for heavier or larger things. Finally we had done our best, and we both lumbered over to the bed and placed the lanterns off to the side on the floor and let ourselves fall backward onto the bedding.
"They're going to find us, Gaar," I breathed. "It's just a matter of time."
"Maybe. Maybe not," he said. "But if they do, they'll have quite a time trying to get in here."
"And what if they don't?" I asked. "What if they just walk right in?"
"How could they? They have to go through all this," he said, waving toward our blockade.
"I just…" I said. "I don't know. You saw Agyar; you saw those… slaves of his. They're not human, none of them are. You can't kill them with steel. Who knows what else they can do?"
Gaar reached over to me and brushed the hair from my eyes.
"I don't know, Mara," he murmured. "I just don't know. These creatures… these 'vampire' things. I've never seen anything like them. I wish I knew what to do…"
"I'm afraid, Gaar…"
"So am I, love. So am I. But there's nothing we can do right now. We can only sit here, and wait…"
"You—you mean, just wait for them to get us? That's all we can do?"
"Or perhaps… until they go away. Give up on us."
"You're not—giving up, are you?" I asked.
Gaar sighed and patted my arm. "No," he whispered. "No, I'm not giving up. We'll keep on fighting, even if they do somehow get past the door. And if we're to die tonight—I'm going to make sure it hurts him."
"I don't want to die."
"Neither do I, love. But it's something that will happen eventually, regardless."
"But I don't want to die now."
Gaar offered no comfort or advice to my lamentation, but silently sat up onto the edge of the bed. I watched him quietly pat his knees in a particular rhythm, and I wondered if he had a song going through his mind at that moment.
"Gaar?" I called softly. He turned an ear toward me.
"I think… I think, if we can stay in here all night, then we'll be safe in the daytime."
"We can stay here all night," he said. "They won't find us."
"We can leave after sunrise, and they won't follow us," I continued. "I… I just know that. I'm not sure why."
Gaar gave me no answer for a while, but first patted my knee gently.
"Go to sleep now," he said. "I'll keep watch."
"But you need to sleep, too," I protested, sitting up to join him.
"Later," he insisted. "Right now, I want you to be rested."
"But—"
"No buts, Mara. That swine has cast some sort of spell over you, I think, and you've been weakened for it. Now go to sleep," he ordered, simultaneously trying to close my eyes with his hands. I pushed his hands away from me but then lay back onto the bed.
"You'll be my lookout later," he whispered. "But until then, just rest. That's an order," he added, and bent over to kiss me.
But I couldn't sleep. Oh, I was exhausted, all right, but I was also terrified, not to mention a little hungry and thirsty. I tried my best to calm down and lie quietly, but too many thoughts and feelings were cascading through my mind.
"Gaar?" I said after an extremely long silence.
"Shh," he said. "You're supposed to be asleep."
"Sorry," I whispered. "I can't sleep. I'm too frightened."
"Well… at least try and rest, then," he whispered back. Don't think about all this. You'll have nightmares."
"I won't have any kind of dream, Gaar! I can't sleep!"
"So what do you want to do, then?" he asked, only I gave him no answer.
"Ohh, very well…" he grumbled, and took my hand and pulled me into a sitting position. I put my arms around him and buried my face into his chest and just sat there, holding him. He put his powerful but gentle arms around me and quietly rubbed my head with one of them.
"It makes no sense," he whispered. "It just makes no sense…"
"To think I was such a fool as to come here," he continued. "To think that—that I could be tricked like this!"
"It's not your fault, Gaar," I mumbled. "Nothing that's happened here is your fault. It's mine."
"Noooo," he said. "I'm the one who accepted the invitation. I'm the one who—"
"But it's me he wants," I interrupted. "It's me he's wanted all along. He never cared about you. He never cared about any tra
de. He just wants me. And I don't know why!"
"Hush now, love," he whispered. "Keep your voice low."
"I didn't know what was happening when he kissed me, Gaar! I swear to you by my mother's grave I—"
"Keep your voice down!"
"—By my mother's grave I would never ever be unfaithful to you of my own free will," I finished in a whisper. "Ever!"
"I know that," he said. "I know that now, love. Even I felt some of his power—his influence—in that room. It was almost overwhelming!"
"He uses his eyes to do it, Gaar," I said. "That's how he did it to me, I remember now. His eyes glowed, and I couldn't stop looking at him, and I swear I might have done anything for him, anything at all that he asked. And it's not because I love him, Gaar, you must understand that!"
"I understand," he whispered. "You never lied to me about that night, I can see that now…"
Tears were clouding my eyes, but I did not bother to wipe them away.
"You forgive me, then?" I asked. 'It's you I love, not him. I never loved that… that… I don't even know what he is! I love you, Gaar…"
"I forgive you," he whispered. "And I swear to you that he will not have you. We'll make it through this; I promise you that…"
Chapter 12
I woke up in Gaar's arms, and I could see that he, too, had fallen asleep in my arms. I had no idea how long we had been asleep. It could have been morning already, for all we knew, when it would be safe to leave…
I felt my name. Just the merest faint whisper of my name, but it came crystal clear to me. I felt my eyes widening a little, and my arms pulled themselves away from Gaar, who began to fall behind me before he woke up. I was rising from the bed and couldn't stop myself, and I clutched its edge in a desperate attempt to keep myself from walking to the door and leaving.
I was resisting with all my might, and I still felt my name being called in my mind over and over again, getting louder and stronger each time. It was now becoming painful to resist, and I had to cry out.
"Gaar, help me!"
"What—?" he gasped, still trying to wake up. "What is it? What's wrong?"
"Hold me! Hold me tightly!"
Without hesitation he threw his arms around me and held on. But then—against my will—I began struggling with him.
"I have you, Mara," he said. "But why are you fighting me?"
"I can't help it!" I cried. "It's—it's him! He's making me try to leave! Hold me!"
"I'm holding you; I'm here," he said. "What is he doing to you?"
"I'm not sure! I'm being… I'm being called! He's calling me to him, and I can't fight it! It hurts!"
"Keep fighting it, Mara!" he cried. "Ignore the pain! He has no power over you! Just keep thinking that!"
One of the unfortunate effects of the calling was to increase my strength. Gaar is strong, but in that moment I became far stronger, and soon I was onto my feet from the bed and inching my way toward the door.
"For someone who doesn't want to leave, you're certainly doing a good job of it!" huffed Gaar, trying to hold me back with all his might.
"I can't help it! I'm being… pulled! Don't let go, Gaar! No matter how much I scream!"
But just then Gaar released me, and I stumbled forward again, pulling at the furniture in my way. I had pushed away a large dresser when I felt Gaar again, this time grabbing one of my arms and tying a rope to it. He yanked me back and tied the other end to the bed, and struggled to catch hold of my other arm and tie that up, too. I did my best to help him, but in this case it was the vampire's strength we were fighting against, not mine.
Soon I was completely tied to the bed, which fortunately was too heavy for me to drag along the floor. And I was still being called. The pain was becoming unbearable, and I threw my head back and screamed and screamed while Gaar desperately tried covering my mouth. Eventually he resorted to tearing off a portion of my dress, wadding it up, and shoving it into my mouth. I could no longer scream, but the pain was making my eyes blind with tears, and I was certain I could take no more of it unless I passed out or died.
And then it stopped. I shut my eyes tightly and let my head slowly drop. It wasn't easy breathing with that wad in my mouth, and I raised my head to face Gaar and begged him with my eyes to untie me. He understood that I was no longer being called, and pulled the wad out. I let out several loud, long breaths as Gaar hugged me, but he did not untie me.
'It's stopped," I whispered. "He's stopped calling me."
"Thank the gods," he whispered back.
"I'll thank them if we survive this," I said. "Please let me go, Gaar…"
"What if he tries again?"
"He won't. I'm sure of it. He knows where we are now, Gaar. He's going to come here…"
"How do you know that?" he asked.
"I felt him…" I whispered. "In my thoughts. He was everywhere in my mind. He's coming here now, Gaar, I'm sure of it! We have to get out of here!"
Gaar let go of me and reluctantly began untying me—slowly at first, just to make certain, no doubt.
"We're not going to make it, Gaar," I continued. "He's going to kill us both."
"Kill me, you mean," he corrected. "You're supposed to live forever."
"But I don't want to! Not without you! If I must live forever while you lie in the ground forever, then I don't want it! I don't want him!"
"He won't have you, my love. I promise you that."
Brave words from a brave man.
"We can't stay here!" I said.
"I don't think we could get out in time," he said matter-of-factly. "We'd need to move all this junk first."
"So what do we do?? Just sit here?"
"No," he said. "We'll fight him to the end. And we can even win."
"How?" I cried. "Stab him to the death? Your sword did noth—"
"We'll use something else, then," he said. "Something like—" Then Gaar reached down and snatched up one of the lanterns from the floor and smiled triumphantly. "Fire!"
We sat on the edge of the bed and waited. Gaar had hastily smashed up an old chair and set fire to some of the legs to make torches. I held one while Gaar armed himself with his sword and another torch. I also had the knife that Gaar had swiped from the kitchen, but if the fire didn't work, I knew the knife would be useless, too.
I couldn't take much more of the tension as we waited. I began rubbing my neck in anticipation, and it made me think of Agyar again and what he'd done to me there. I didn't understand; was that part of his "secret"? Making me bleed like that? Out of habit I slipped my arm into Gaar's, and he looked at me with an expression of helplessness that shattered what little hope I had left. Eight years of happiness…
I heard nothing, but Gaar suddenly stood up and brought his torch into a ready position. I rose up and stood close to him, and he glanced at me long enough to motion for silence.
There was an unbearably loud smashing against the door before us, and our entire blockade was moved forward at least one foot. Then another smash, and the door shattered into a thousand pieces, followed by a horrible gust of wind that blew dust, splinters, and other pieces of wood into our faces. It also blew our torches out.
We were barely recovering from that attack when horrible, inhuman shrieks filled our ears, and I felt seemingly hundreds of cold, dry hands and arms grabbing, pulling, clawing at me, and I fell backward and screamed.
I heard cries from Gaar, too, and I think I also heard some of the creatures shrieking in pain; perhaps his sword was doing something to them. Meanwhile I could only swing wildly at the creatures in the blackness, hoping to dislodge them from me.
I clutched the end of the bed and pulled myself up, ignoring the hands ripping at my hair and skin. I stabbed directly ahead of me over and over, sometimes hearing a shriek of pain, sometimes striking nothing. I wanted to help Gaar so much—I couldn't bear to hear him crying out so—but there was nothing I could do.
I felt a hand grip my face, and I raised the knife to strike at it, but I
was shoved backward, the back of my head smashing into the wall behind me. I was dazed… dizzy… disoriented, but I would not let myself fall unconscious. I meant to try to strike again, but more hands and arms gripped my arms and pressed them firmly against the wall. They had immobilized me.
"Enough!" a voice roared from the darkness, and the creatures parted from me enough to let me see the doorway, but none of them dared release its hold on me. I heard Gaar struggling still, and a creature occasionally cried out in pain as he stabbed them, no doubt.
"I said enough!" Agyar roared, and all sound ceased. He stepped slowly over the threshold, his face partly lit by the lantern he carried. He let his gaze pass slowly over the total chaos in the room until his eyes met mine, and I meant to look away, but then they began to burn again.
No; it wasn't Agyar in the doorway; it was Gaar. It had to be. It didn't matter that he was being held onto the bed next to me by hellish things, he was right in front of me, waiting for me to go to him. I felt the creatures release my face and arms, and we faced each other silently, neither wanting to destroy the moment.
"Fight him, Mara!" I heard somebody say just behind me, but I couldn't quite place the voice. "Look away from him!"
"Come to me, Mara," he said. 'It's all over now. You don't need to be afraid anymore…"
"Don't listen to him, Mara!" that person said again. I wanted to listen to Gaar, though.
"She can't hear you, 'Lord Magistrate,'" he said. "And if she can, she isn't listening." That's right. Gaar was the only one who mattered then. I was halfway across the room to him, and he opened his arms to greet me. The knife dropped from my hand, and I raised my arms in anticipation of meeting him.
"It's over now," he repeated. "You're safe now."
"No! Fight him, Mara! He's lying to you!" That annoying voice again.
"Silence him!" he called, and the person made some noises in protest, but then was silent.
I reached my wonderful, beloved husband and sank into his arms. Now I was safe; it was all over, he said. I was safe now.
The Vampire Memoirs Page 13
