The Vampire Gift 4: Darkness Rising

by E. M. Knight

  “Tell me how you got those marks.”

  “I don’t owe you an explanation. I’m not talking about this anymore.”

  “Fine.” I give a casual shrug and stand up. “I guess I’ll just ask Phillip then. Like you said—I’m a vampire lover. He won’t hesitate to tell me the truth.”

  Just as I’m about to go out the door, Cassandra gives a very audible sigh. “All right,” she says.

  I stop on the threshold. “All right, what?”

  “All right, I’ll tell you. You’re going to find out sooner or later, anyway.” Another sigh. “Everybody will.”

  My eyes narrow in suspicion. “And why do you say that?”

  “Because it’s the truth. One that I’m too much of a coward to face.”

  I blink, taken aback by the sudden honesty.

  “But you have to understand something, April. Vampires took everything from me. I had a husband. We had a son.” Her voice becomes stronger and stronger as she speaks, but her eyes start to moisten. “He was born before you were brought here. There were… complications… during labor. He was premature.

  “The vampires deemed him too sickly to live. But I knew he would. I knew that my son was a fighter, that he wouldn’t just give up. So when he was born I hid him. It’s an unspoken rule in the village that we take care of our own. Whatever cruelty the vampires subject us to, we resist, and if we can do anything to lessen the suffering of any other—we do.

  “So other mothers and fathers in the village helped. They helped me hide my son. They snuck us food so he wouldn’t go hungry. They pitched in on the chores I was missing to cover up for me. Everything, they did everything to help me and my son thrive.

  “But the vampires—they were watching. They know everything we do. Before that point, I thought they mostly ignored us… how wrong I was.

  “The Queen does not want sickly humans among the population. She wants—she needs—only those who are robust, healthy, strong. Ones that provide the best tasting blood. That is why they run The Hunt. It’s a way of pruning the human population so that any who might weaken the stock are killed.”

  I don’t know what’s worse: how awful that sounds, or how absolutely immune I am to feeling even the tiniest shred of sympathy for what she describes. I’ve lived it myself, I know it first-hand… and I’ve always kind of just accepted it as par for the course.

  “My son was none of those things. Maybe—if he’d been given a chance to grow—he could have thrived and become a great man. But—“ her voice hitches, “—he never got the chance.

  “One night, three weeks in, a vampire came to me. He was of the Elite. He didn’t give me his name—why would he? But I remember his features perfectly. Grey hair. A pointed, trimmed goatee. Cruelly sadistic eyes.”

  “Carter,” I say. I rack my brain for any other vampire who might match the description and come up null. “His name is Carter.”

  “And now I know,” she says. “Anyway. It doesn’t matter. Carter came to me in the dark. He saw the child. He claimed to see my love for him. He said that my boy didn’t need to die, that if he were just given a bit of vampiric blood, all his afflictions would be cured.

  “I so desperately wanted to believe. And what choice did I have? I was discovered. I knew the trick was up.

  “So I reached out and handed this vampire my precious baby boy. He’d been crying in my arms, but went quiet as soon as the vampire held him. Carter stroked his cheek. He ran a finger along his little body. ‘Yes’, he’d said. ‘Yes, this child can live.’

  “And then he took him by the skull and wrung his neck.”

  I take a sharp breath. “What?”

  Cassandra looks at me with no emotion in her eyes. “That’s right. And then the vampire laughed, and threw my baby’s ruined body at my feet. ‘He can live,’ he said. ‘But he will not.’”

  “And then, just like that, he turned around and left.”

  “That’s… that’s horrible,” I breathe.

  Cassandra nods. “That is the way of the vampire.”

  “No,” I say. “No, you’re wrong. That was cruel. Sadistic. They aren’t like that—not at all!”

  “How I wish I could believe you,” she sighs. “But I cannot, April. I know better.”

  A silence grows before I ask, “And your husband? What happened to him?”

  Now Cassandra’s eyes take on a new light, a light of determination and cold, hard anger. “Edmund was picked as one of the sacrifices for the next Hunt. As punishment, to me, for having hidden our son. The vampires let me live, I believe, only so that I would linger on in my misery. The human existence here is already like being in prison. How could they make me suffer more?

  “By taking away everything that I held dear.”

  “Wow,” I murmur. “Wow. I’m… I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

  “Of course not,” she says. “And now you understand my feelings toward them.”

  “But… what about the mark?” I ask. I gesture to her wrist. “Who fed on you?”

  “Raul,” she tells me. “But not before giving me his blood, and starting the process that will turn me into a vampire.”

  Chapter Two

  RAUL

  OUTSIDE THE HAVEN

  I stop at the crest of a hill and look down on the empty kingdom that used to be mine.

  There’s nothing. No movement, no vampires. No humans.

  All are cowering inside, under the earth, while Father grows his strength, grows his armies, and our Queen lies comatose.

  Once, I would have looked down on this land with no small bit of pride. Not anymore. Since the wards were destroyed, it’s turned into a graveyard. Eerie. Quiet.

  Dead.

  I hear movement in the bush behind me and turn around to see Eleira scaling the last bit of distance to the top.

  She gives a tight smile, and my heart blossoms with love. We’ve taken our time making the return journey through these woods, using none of our vampire speed. We both know, though we haven’t spoken the fears out loud, that these precious few moments might very well be our last peaceful, uninterrupted time with each other for some time.

  As soon as we get back to the stronghold we’ll be thrown in the midst of things. The Royal Court will want explanations for my sudden disappearance, if they haven’t put the pieces together yet, which I doubt. They’re not stupid.

  But as soon as the place of my travel is confirmed, a great debate will start about what to do next. My hope is to avoid those politics. In a time of obvious crisis, command should fall to a single leader, designated to speak for all her subjects.

  I look at Eleira again. That leader, for better or for worse, if she’s ready or not, will be her. It will be her, unless we can break Mother from the coma that she’s in.

  And again, the brunt of the effort will depend on Eleira. After the Narwhark stole the vial of blood Father gave me, our only chance of reviving Morgan is to give her Eleira’s blood.

  Eleira’s blood… because it is now fully fused with that of The Ancient.

  “It’s quiet, isn’t it?” the girl I love says as she steps up to me. “I can almost imagine it being peaceful.”

  I scoff, not rudely, but because I can’t help it. “Yeah. I wish.”

  “How do you think the vampires are holding up?” she asks. “And what about Phillip?”

  “We’ll find out soon enough.” I take her hand. “Come. We’re nearly there.”

  We start walking down the hill, making our way easily over the uneven dirt, when suddenly Eleira stops. She goes rigid as a statue.

  “What is that smell?” she asks.

  I frown and take a deep breath. “I don’t smell anything.”

  “No, it’s definitely there… it’s definitely something,” she says. She wrinkles her nose. “It’s rank. It smells… evil.”

  Immediately my body goes on high alert. I stand beside her and face the way she is looking. “The Narwhark?” I ask.

  She shakes her head
. “No, it’s like… like burnt flesh.” She grabs my hand. “Come on!”

  Quickly we race in the direction she leads me. As we approach, I start to pick up the lingering smell, too.

  She was right. It smells horrid, like an awful mix of charred meat and rotting trash.

  I tug on her hand and slow her down. “Hold on,” I say. “Let’s not run into this head-first. It could be dangerous.”

  She nods. “It’s coming from just around that bend.”

  I look at the forest surrounding us. “We’re on the outskirts of The Haven again,” I say. I expand my mind, testing for the presence of others. “And we’re alone. There should be… there should be animals here. Predators, at the least. Remember the wolf?”

  She looks at me. “Wolf?”

  “I didn’t tell you about it?”

  “No.”

  “I guess I didn’t have reason to bring it up. But when you were stolen by James, and I went after you, I found the mangled body of a great silver wolf just past the boundaries of the wards. I suspected, at the time, that James was responsible.” I grunt. “My older brother never showed anything but disdain for wild animals.”

  “What does that have to do with us now?”

  “Before the wards were erected,” I explain, “we had to have some way to discourage escape by the humans we brought in. Of course, it’s not like they could get past vampires, not if they were being constantly watched, but not even the Incolam would accept being relegated to such a duty. Needless to say none of the Elite would look favorably upon it, either.

  “So whenever we brought new humans in, it was inevitable that some of them would try to escape. Going after them, chasing them down, became a nuisance—especially because Morgan forbade them from being killed. You can imagine, having the hunter’s instincts flare, taking advantage of them to chase your prey, and then having to refuse yourself the final feast, the culminating victory?” I shake my head. “Few vampires liked that. So, Mother cast some sort of charm that attracts all the wild beasts to The Haven, the most rabid and hungriest ones. They made these woods their home.

  “From there, the humans knew that staying provided their best chance of survival. Vampires would not feed on them, except on the night of The Hunt. But the animal predators? They wouldn’t hesitate to rip a person to shreds. It was a rudimentary system, admittedly, but it worked to deter runaways.”

  Eleira looks around her. “I don’t sense any predators here now.”

  I nod grimly. “Exactly. Neither do I.” I sniff the air again, testing for that scent. I catch it and grimace. “Something scared them away. We have to be careful.”

  Eleira nods. “Okay.”

  We proceed the rest of the way to our destination very quietly, very slowly, keeping all our senses on high alert. I see a clearing, up ahead, through the last row of trees. That burnt, rotten smell gets even stronger.

  I stop and pull Eleira back. “You stay here,” I say. “I’ll go first. If anything happens—”

  “I’m not going to abandon you!” she hisses.

  “It’s not that. I know you’re capable. Hell, I’ve seen your strength. But approaching this together, as a pair, affords us small advantage. Better one of us go first, while the other watches, ready to jump in as backup.”

  “All right,” Eleira says. “Then I’ll go.

  “No. Absolutely not.”

  She glares at me. “I’m stronger than you, and you know it.”

  I grunt. “Yes, but you don’t have my experience. Raw strength isn’t what’s needed here. Subtlety is. You stay, I go—I’m not about to argue.”

  “Fine,” she mutters, crossing her arms. “But I don’t like it.”

  “Better get used to it, babe,” I say with a quick wink, darting in to give her a kiss before she can react. And then I’m off, smirking to myself.

  I can just imagine her glowering at my back.

  My momentary good humor dies the moment I step past the trees into the clearing.

  “Dear God,” I whisper. “What is this?”

  There is a circle of bodies spread out on the ground. They are all equidistant from each other—aside from one noticeable gap. Fifteen bodies in all, though I see the impression the sixteenth made on the ground before it was removed.

  Their skin has turned black and bruised, like the area around my wound had been before I was healed. I don’t know what these creatures are. Human? No, surely not, because then I’d be able to smell them. But they are not vampires, either—if they were, I’d be able to sense them.

  I come up closer, slowly, carefully. Suddenly, one of them coughs. I gasp. They’re alive!

  I race over to him and drop to the ground. That decomposing, burning smell still lingers. This is the source. I look over my shoulder and see a great pit of ash on the ground. A massive fire burnt there recently.

  Why?

  I turn my attention back to the man. He has a strange mark on his shoulder—and that is where the corruption is stemming from. I bring a hand over his bare chest and wince. I don’t need to touch him to feel the immense heat that his body is giving off.

  So he’s still alive, in a sense, though without any true humanity. And his entire organism is burning! What could have possibly happened to him to get him in this wretched state?

  In the deep recesses of my mind, a dark suspicion forms… one that I am not yet ready to acknowledge.

  I hear movement behind me and whip around. I see Eleira looking at me from between the trees.

  I sigh and beckon her over. She comes, though by the look of utter horror—or disgust—painted on her face, I know she’s none-too-eager.

  “Are they...”

  “Vampires,” I finish for her. “Fledglings, caught in the process of being made. But who would lay them out like this, and why?” I look up at the night sky. “By day, they would be fully exposed to the sun.”

  “Maybe that is the point,” Eleira says softly.

  I nod grimly, thinking back to Beatrice’s twisted creations.

  “But they’re not all the way there,” I say. “The human essence is gone, but it hasn’t been replaced by the vampire one. Not as it should.”

  “They look so sick,” Eleira says.

  “And they’re suffering,” I say, standing up. “Whatever happened to them, the corruption is taking hold. I don’t think they will live out the night. The best thing we can do—” I meet her eyes. “—Is to put them out of their misery.”

  “What are you saying?” Eleira asks.

  “We burn them,” I reply. “Look at the flesh. No vampire is supposed to be so afflicted. Yet, something happened—”

  Abruptly the man coughs again. Then he opens his eyes and moans.

  “James,” he calls, unseeing. “James, is that you?”

  I go absolutely still. He can’t mean my brother…

  “James,” the man continues. “James, save me. James, pull me from this hell. It burns, oh, James, it burns!”

  And then his eyes drift shut, and he dissolves into a continuous series of incoherent murmurs.

  Eleira exchanges a look with me. As one, we both open our minds to search for the presence of others.

  Nothing. The forest is completely empty and still.

  “We can’t just kill them,” Eleira says. “Not while they’re alive!”

  “Are they, though?” I ask. “Are they, really? I don’t think—” I look around the group, “—that any of them will make it.”

  “But to just destroy them, without even trying to help?” Eleira asks.

  “I don’t like it. But what choice do we have?”

  “We bring them with us. Into the stronghold, into The Haven. I can run there and get Phillip. He’d order the guards. They would help carry these people in, and there, maybe they can heal.”

  I look at her with a mix of wonder and awe. “For one so fully a vampire,” I say. “You sure have a lot of your humanity remaining.”

  I shake my head. “But these beings
are dammed. Look at the blotches on their skin, all over their bodies! They won’t survive. If we do anything but burn them, we are condemning each one to a slow, horrid death.”

  “Yet they’re already dead,” Eleira says. “Aren’t they?”

  “Dead as all vampires are,” I begin. “But—”

  “Dead,” a voice announces, “as all Nocturna Animalia should be.”

  Eleira and I both spin on our heels.

  There, walking out from the woods behind us, is my older brother James.

  A spasm of confusion takes me. I open my mind and search for his presence.

  Nothing.

  James laughs as he walks toward us. He spreads his hands. “Surprised to see me, brother?” He turns on Eleira. “And you, sweetest. How have you been?”

  Eleira’s lips curl back, and her fangs show. I feel the quivering rage in her body. “You did this to them!” she accuses.

  James gives a grand and elaborate bow. “Guilty,” he says, “as charged.”

  And then, he bolts to us, faster than I would have thought possible, and stops just before Eleira and brings his nose to her neck to breathe in deep.

  She reacts even faster, slamming both hands into his chest to shove him back. She does it with so much force that he flies through the air, landing and skidding in the dirt before quickly and nimbly jumping back to his feet.

  “Oh, how fun,” he chortles. “She really is strong, isn’t she?”

  “Why can’t I sense you?” I growl, stepping between Eleira and James. The muscles of my back tense up. “What did you do to these humans?”

  “So many demands,” James murmurs. “And not a single word of greeting. No acknowledgment of the joy you must feel for having discovered me alive.”

  “Don’t mock me,” I warn. “Answer the questions!”

  “Or what? You’ll send your precious girl after me?” Again James laughs. “She is strong, brother, but I’ve been feasting. I am stronger.”

  “You lie,” I hiss.

  “Oh?” He cocks an eyebrow up. “Would you be willing to test that? A battle, perhaps, right here, one-on-one? Winner take all?”

  He starts toward me again, walking with an exaggerated, casual grace. “I’m joking, of course. This is a grand reunion of Soren—” he points to me, “—Soren—” to himself, “and witch.”