by Zara Novak
It felt so good to look into the eyes of the man she loved so dearly. He was dead. Gone. She would never see him again. Before her there was a copy, not perfect by any means, but still a reminder of the love she’d had for him. Crushing guilt enveloped that feeling. This thing might have looked like Jack, but he was also the reason he was gone.
“P-Please leave me,” she stammered, no longer bearing the strength to look up at him. He cradled a finger under her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze.
“We mate tonight,” he said. It was almost as if he thought the words would bring her reassurance. “I’m not the vampire you loved, but I am something so much better. Don’t you see that? I can be anything, I can be anyone. He stepped back and stood up, taking on the forms of many different men as he spoke.
Ellie felt a rage consuming her. Who was this bastard? Who was he to kill Jack and take his love away from her? Her mind came to the dagger at her side again. How easily it had cut him. How dangerous even a small prick seemed to be. She would use it to kill him. She would use it to avenge her love.
She wiped her sleeves against her face and forced back her grief. This was all a game to him, so she would play along. She knew the vampire was too fast and strong to take one on one, so she would have to take him by surprise. Ellie straightened up, forced herself to sound upbeat and addressed him. “Y-You can be anyone?”
His eyes flared at her false interest. “That’s right. Can’t you see how that’s better? A different man whenever you want. All sexual fantasies satisfied at the drop of a hat… I can take you to heavens you never knew existed… we can bare a thousand children together and raise an army the likes of which have never been seen!”
The greed and contempt in his voice only disgusted her further, but she nodded along, acting like his words were turning her around. “You’re right… I didn’t see it before, but I understand now…”
“You do?” he asked, hope stirring in his voice.
“I do. You are a far cry above the man I once thought was a lover. He is nothing next to a… supreme specimen like you. Together we can achieve the unachievable. Together we can… rule the world.”
Greed flashed in those flat red eyes. Ellie found herself repulsed by the words but did her best to force a smile.
“My real name is Kaleb,” he said as he stepped forward. “We will mate tonight. I will fill your womb with my seed.”
It was hard to fight back the urge to retch, but she managed it somehow. A plan had come to her mind now. There was one way she could make the creature vulnerable. One way she could kill him. “I’m afraid tonight is just too far away my dear. I can’t wait any longer. We must go now.”
Surprise took hold of him. “N-Now?!”
“That’s right, but I want you to drink this first.” Ellie pulled the roots from her pockets that she had taken earlier, hoping the strange vampire didn’t recognize them.
“What is that?” he asked, looking down at the roots in her hand.
“Eternal lust,” she lied. “It is a wild root that grows around these parts. I found it outside before. It dissolves in water or blood. When consumed it helps with… stamina.”
“Stamina? I can assure you I’ve already got plenty of that, the roots won’t be necessary.” Jack moved to snatch the roots from her hand, but Ellie pulled it back quickly.
“No. I require this of you Kaleb. If you want to touch me, you must first drink this. My libido is very high, and you won’t satisfy me without this.”
The imposter’s gaze flicked between Ellie’s eyes and the roots in her hand several times. For a few seconds she was worried her brazen demand would raise his suspicions, but he nodded slightly and snatched the roots from her hands. “Very well!” Kaleb said as he jogged back to the other end of the table. He filled his glass of blood once more, ripped up the roots and dropped them into the dark liquid. The glass fizzed momentarily, and the blood turned a cloudy red. “If this is what my mate wants, then it is what I will do!”
Kaleb knocked the Draught back in two long gulps before dropping his glass down onto the table. He took a deep breath, wiped his arm across his mouth and walked back to Ellie, swaying slightly as he grabbed her by the waist. “Damn. I can feel that working already. Phenomenal!”
She stared back at the man in silence, not sure what effect it would have on him. Hopefully the small dose would be enough. Hopefully it would give her the strength to fight back at some point. Ellie took his hand in her own and gave a false smile. “I’m very impressed Kaleb, let us go. Come with me to the master bedroom my love. There we will start out dynasty. There we will reach heights of pleasure unknown by others.”
She walked ahead of him in silence along the stone corridor, keeping his hand held tightly in hers. The dagger lay in hiding beneath her clothes, its weight pressing against her body, its edge waiting for the taste of blood.
37
He entered the castle using an old wooden side-door at the bottom of a vast wall of frozen rock. It led through to a maze of old pantries and store cupboards. A set of stairs led up to the ground floor, emerging in a small hallway of broken vases.
The beauty of the place took his breath from the moment he first saw it. The great castle was like a living piece of art, a giant beast of stone and snow, forgotten in the shadows of the mountains, lurking here in a cold slumber for the last few decades.
As he walked the halls and crept around doorways he swore he could feel the castle waking up. Rooms filled with light. Stones reclaimed the warmth of fires that had lay dormant for too many years. Visions of a future life danced down the ghostly hallways. He could just imagine how much Ellie would love this place. It brought a smile to his face just thinking about it.
So, where was she? And where was the bastard that had took her?
His footfall didn’t make a sound as he crept about the manor, sliding along walls, moving through shadows, tasting the air for any sign of her scent. There was no denying that she had been here recently. Her aroma lingered on the air, making him dizzy with excitement to see her again. Beneath that excitement there was the greater threat of caution. He couldn’t let the imposter know he was here. The other vampire was far too strong. His only hope was to strike first and use the element of surprise.
He just hoped it wasn’t too late.
Wraith followed a broad staircase up to the first floor and stalked down a long corridor. A faint trace of warmth lingered in the air, suggesting to him that someone had been here recently. With his silver dagger held up in the air before him, he padded silently across the castle, following the warmth. It brought him to an open doorway. He paused at it momentarily to listen for any source of sound, found none and peered around to see an empty dining room.
The room was surely a marvel in its day but had fallen into disrepair along with the rest of the castle. The many decades of neglect had clearly been hard to the marvelous stone walls, but it was nothing a little love and care couldn’t fix. He stopped at the end of the long table that was closest to him to pick up a wooden chair from of the floor. It was still warm. Ellie?
At the far end of the table lay a pile of dead rats and a half-full glass of blood. His suitor had clearly had his fill but looking around he saw no food for Ellie. What kind of despicable creature would tend to his own needs before that of his mate? He sneered at the scene and turned to see a large portrait above the dying fire. The image gave him cause to stop for a moment. He found himself lost in the faces of the two proud vampires that looked back down on him.
“Mother…” he whispered, recognizing the face of the apparition he had seen only a short while before. Next to her stood a tall and broad man with sharp red eyes and bright silver hair. The face looked familiar to him, but not as clear as his mother’s face. He knew it to be his father.
Up here…
He turned at the whisper, looking around in panic to source it. There was no one else there, but the whisper came again, travelling on a breeze, coming from the doorway he
had used to enter the room. Up here… hurry.
He stopped at the end of the table and saw four black stalks on the table top. Was that Widow’s Draught? He picked up a stalk and rolled it between his finger and thumb, picking up the faint scent of the root. Interesting. Had Ellie somehow convinced his imposter to take some? It might give Wraith an upper hand. Clever girl.
This way…
Wraith rallied back to the hallway. Turning into it, he found the distant scent of Ellie lifting through the air. She was near. His hand clenched around the silver dagger in his hand and his breath rumbled in a low growl. “Ellie.”
He ascended another set of sleepy stone stairs and found himself on the landing above. Her scent was even stronger up here, and with it came the distant sound of voices. His eyes flushed with black, he pressed himself against a wall and slipped alongside it quietly toward the source, listening all the while. He locked his focus on the room up ahead.
“Why, yes,” his imposter’s voice said. “I am incredibly strong. Stronger than most. Certainly, stronger than that boy you called a lover. I can show you… look.”
Wraith stopped by the open door and peered through the crack to see his imposter bending an iron spear into a loop. The metal bent in his hands with ease, but he stumbled, as if slightly drunk. Was the root taking effect?
Ellie sat on the bed before him, with mock amazement on her face. She clapped excitedly, spurring him on to do more. “Just amazing!” she said. Her voice might have sounded genuine to the imposter, but Wraith could tell it was put on. She was distracting him. Clever. “What else can you do? I want to see it all!”
His imposter’s body language sagged a little. “More? Can’t we just get to the mating already? I’ve already displayed my strength to you. What more could you want?!”
Wraith crept through the open door, his breath held, daring not to make a sound. Ellie’s eyes widened upon seeing him, and all the color left her face. She looked as if she’d seen a ghost, but she didn’t betray his position at all.
“Well you could—” She paused, desperately trying to think of another distraction. “Show me more of that body! It’s so unique.” Wraith’s eyes looked upon the topless clone. His face was currently in the image of Wraith’s, but the body was a patchwork of body parts that were held together with ugly scars.
“That’s because it is. The Vistor made me into a beast, but a unique one at that. There is no other like me… I will flex for you,” he said, his voice slurring some. “But after that we definitely must mate.” The imposter threw his arms forward, tensing his biceps and spreading his chest.
Wraith saw his chance and surged forward with his dagger held high. He brought the dagger down through the air just as the creature turned around to see him. The imposter managed to knock the blow off course, sending the point into its shoulder, stopping Wraith from delivering his killing blow. A violent torrent of red sprung up from the cut and bubbled down the patchwork skin. The creature looked down at the wound. One hand gripped Wraith’s wrist, the other seized his throat. He brought his eyes up to look at Wraith. Fury filled his expression.
“You! How?!”
“You forgot you stole my mind you fucker! Now release Ellie!” He struggled against the creature’s freakish strength, and they twisted and shuffled back across the stone, vying to gain the upper hand. The imposter was still much stronger, but Wraith’s wayward blow with the silver dagger had weakened him, levelling the field a bit.
“Never!” It roared, blood flying through the air from its snarling mouth. It thrust Wraith back against the wall, ripped the dagger from its shoulder and threw it to the floor. Wraith hit the stone and crumpled to the floor immediately. His blow might have weakened his imposter, but he still wasn’t strong enough, even with the Widow’s Draught.
“Jack!” Ellie screamed from the bed, jumped to her feet and ran across the floor.
“No Ellie! Get out of here while you can!” Wraith wailed back at her, but his warning came too late. The creature spun around and caught Ellie with a violent blow, knocking her all the way across the room into the window on the far side. The glass cracked, but she fell to the floor on all fours, gasping for air.
“Stay there, whore!” the creature roared. “I’ll deal with you in a minute!” The beast’s fiery red eyes looked back at Wraith just as he sprang up from the floor to attack again.
“Never! Touch! Her! Again!” With each word he brought his fists down into the creature’s face, knocking him back with each blow, causing skin to burst with blood and bone. The beast roared out in pain, clutched Wraith and hit him back, sending him across the room and through an old bookcase on the opposite wall.
Wood and dust crumbled around Wraith as he pushed his weight up onto his elbows. The mutant creature walked across the room toward him, the silver dagger held in his hands. Ellie screamed from behind him.
“No Kaleb! Don’t do it!”
The beast bent over Wraith and pulled his chest to the point of the silver dagger. “You fight commendably for a vampire. I understand you only compete for the love of the one I have already won. I cannot grudge you that.” Blood trickled down the beast, its face twisted and shifted momentarily, appearing before Wraith as other men. “I’m afraid she has made her choice though, and that one was me.” He pulled the dagger back and pointed it at Wraith’s heart. “I’m sorry friend. You lost.”
“No! Kaleb! Stop!”
The beast turned back to see Ellie standing behind him, holding her broken arm against her chest. Tears welled down her face. “Please don’t kill him. Do what you must with me, but don’t kill him. I love you Kaleb, but I will never accept your love if you harm him.”
“But he…”
“No!” she shouted, limping toward the creature and pulling him away from Wraith with her remaining arm. She stepped forward on tip-toes and kissed the creature briefly, looking as if she wanted to throw up afterward. “Can’t you see I love you? I know you hate this place. I confess that I hate it too. Let us leave at once. We’ll find a real home we can take. A real place where we can follow our prophecy.”
The imposter looked back at Wraith once more, but Ellie pulled his gaze away. “You really mean that?” he asked.
“Of course,” she stammered. “But we have to leave now. Now!”
Seconds of silence passed, but they felt like an eternity to Wraith. His breath felt heavy there on the floor. The creature finally spoke, nodding slightly to itself. “Very well.” It turned back to look at Wraith. “Know this vampire, your woman has chosen me. Make no attempt to follow us. It will only end badly for you.”
Wraith trembled with rage. He wanted to jump forward and sink his teeth into the throat of the creature, but it moved before he could even try. It swept Ellie up in its arms, bolted for the window and burst through the glass.
“Ellie!” Wraith scream was hoarse and desperate. He climbed to his feet, limped across the blood-covered stone and looked out the window at the snow below. The beast ran across the white towards a river up ahead, leaving a trail of red behind him. Wraith climbed onto the open window and looked down at the dizzying fall.
“That drop will kill you in your current state you know.”
He looked over at the ghostly apparition of his dead mother. She stood inside the window, arms crossed, peering down at the drop.
“I have no choice,” he said, looking back to the drop below. “She’ll die with him.”
“And she’ll die without you,” her soft voice said. “You can make it, but you must remember who you are first. Remember the things the curse took away on that fateful day, all those years ago. Remember the Belmont secret. The secret you and your brother bare.”
His eyes searched across the endless white below. Blood-stained snow, the sound of the river thrashing in the distance. The snow-capped forest on the other side. The beast limped across the white toward the water, getting further away with every passing second.
“Secret?” he said, his eyes
tracing across to a Jackdaw perched on a roof just by the window. It fluttered up into the air, it’s black wings silhouetted brilliantly against the white sky.
“That’s right,” she said. “How else could you have survived the fall from the castle roof that night? Don’t you remember?”
The memory of that night came back to him. The night he helped Eric to save Claire. A brilliant flash of white echoed through his mind, accompanied by the sensation of cold air rushing against his face as he tumbled through the night towards sure death. He figured it out and broke from the reverie, eyes focusing on the white before him once more. “My wings.”
“Your wings,” she said. “Go. Get her.”
He stood in the open window, clutched the stone and fell forward, his body perfectly still as he plummeted toward the ground. Wind rushed over his ears, the white approached him, threatening to crush—
The broad black wings burst from his back with an explosion of might. Air thrust underneath them, pulling him up from the ground and swooping him forward like a speeding bullet. Wraith soared up into the air and tensed his wings. They pulled against the fall with tremendous strokes that radiated power, he closed in on the creature and knocked him down, crashing him into the snow.
Ellie flung from the beast’s arms and rolled across the white. The monster turned around, roaring fury as it drove forward at Wraith. Its blows came down hard and heavy. “I! Told! You! Not! To! Follow!”
The mighty blows knocked Wraith back into the snow. Blood streamed down his face, the creature knelt over him, pinning him to the ground. One fist rallied down against his body, while the other held the silver dagger high in the air. He clutched Wraith by the throat and stared into his eyes with madness.
“I’m sorry darling, but there’s no sparing your vampire now. He’s proved himself too much of a nuisance.” The beast spit up blood, brought the dagger back and flared his eyes. “Goodnight Jack. You lose.”
