The huge man lifted him off his feet by his throat and glared at him with his red eyes. Robby wanted to gag at the smell of his putrid flesh. It seemed as though it were melting in places. When the rotting fangs distended, Robby’s bladder let go. “Yes, I guess I am a disturbing sight. The past several centuries have been unkind to me,” the creature laughed insanely.
Turning Leaves watched impassively as the creature scored a deep gash in Robby’s chest. He continued to hold him by the neck allowing the blood to pour into his open mouth until Robby’s eyes glazed over. The creature tossed the corpse away.
Turning Leaves walked over and hugged him. “You’re my Protector. I waited for you to come.”
The creature’s hand stroked the long black hair and looked into the woods toward the settlement. “Do you think Constance will be here soon?”
Constance stormed into Robby’s cabin, convincing herself the man was selfishly keeping Turning Leaves to himself for amusement. She had already talked to Patrick about taking the Indian from him. No one in the settlement would say anything about relieving the girl of at least some of her problems.
When she found the cabin unoccupied, she turned toward the woods and inhaled. She’d had to retrieve the girl from walks before. She quickly caught the girl’s scent. The distinct smell of blood also filled her nostrils. Maybe she killed him and will save me the trouble of negotiating for her. The thought excited her.
Her younger senses didn‘t pick up the stench of the other Vampire. Fresh blood and the girl were all she considered when she bounded through the trees. She stopped short when she saw Turning Leaves, again sitting on the log. She was staring at Robby’s crumpled form.
Constance walked over to him. “You did this?” What was left of the man … it didn’t look possible the girl could have destroyed him so badly. Constance was confused. Other than the few bloodstains transferred to her shift when she hugged her Protector, the young woman was clean. The blond Vampire looked back at Robby, and sickening dread hit her stomach about the same time a fist slammed into her jaw.
The creature quickly reached into her mouth and ripped out her fangs before she had time to heal herself. Constance shrieked in agony. Turning Leaves smiled. “Hello, Constance. Meet my Protector.”
Constance stared into the steady red gaze of insanity. The inhumanly strong creature was completely revived with his feeding and he crushed into Constance’s windpipe. “You are Patrick’s mate?” Terror stilled her as she tried to figure out what to do. She used all her mental push and it bounced away from the creature’s muddled mind.
Her strong leg swept back to kick him. Before it connected he caught it in his free hand and easily snapped her knee. The sound seemed to please him and he snapped the other one. Constance knew it would take time to heal. She hadn’t fed this week. The rogue Vampire dropped her to the ground and she struggled to breathe while dragging herself away.
The Vampire took a two foot branch and broke it in half. He grabbed the crawling woman by the ankle and dragged her back to the clearing. She screamed as her slowly knitting limb separated again. The creature turned her over. “Let’s wait for your mate to join us,” he leered.
He held her arm over her head and drove the sharp point of the spear through her hand and buried it a foot deep into the ground. Constance screamed, unable to kick with her useless legs. Her hair whipped around picking up pine needles and dirt. She almost fainted when he pinned her other arm. Dazed, she felt her dress ripped off her body and she lay broken, bloody and naked, pinned to the forest floor. Turning Leaves stared down at her and laughed.
Patrick was searching the village for Constance when he heard her screams. He ran through the trees toward the sound of his mate in pain, scenting but not heeding the smell of blood and the stench of a rotting being. When he broke into the clearing he came to an abrupt halt. The creature straddled his mate with a dirty extended claw tracing her throat.
“Edmond?” Patrick asked in disbelief.
“I worried you might have forgotten me, Patrick. It’s been such a long time since you abandoned me.”
“Edmond, she is my mate.” Patrick sensed the hate from his friend.
“I know who it is,” the creature spat.
“Edmond, we didn’t abandon you. We thought you were dead. The monastery they imprisoned you in, burned to the ground. We searched the ashes for days.”
The creature made a small bleeding puncture in Constance’s neck. “Well, it appears you missed a few places.”
“Edmond, please, release my mate. We can celebrate your return.” Patrick was frantically trying to think of some way to get Constance safe. He knew he’d kill Edmond.
“I’m orchestrating my own celebration, Patrick. Indian girl, I need you to get something for me.”
Turning Leaves rose. “Yes?”
“My pack is behind the tree. You’ll find some heavy manacles. Bring them to me.”
The girl calmly did as he asked. “Give them to Patrick.”
She tossed them by his feet.
“Patrick, remove your boots and secure your ankles.”
“Edmond, you know we wouldn’t leave you if we thought there was a chance you were alive.”
Edmond scraped a deeper gash along Constance’s neck. “Did I forget to say please?”
Patrick looked at his mate’s pained face and silently locked his ankles in the chains. “Edmond, do what you must with me, but, please, release my mate,” he begged.
“Girl, see that the cuffs are tight.”
Turning Leaves checked the cuffs and turned to the creature. “They’re tight. Would you like me to chain his wrists?”
The creature smiled. “I think I like you, little Indian. Yes, if you don’t mind.”
“No, I don’t mind at all.” Turning Leaves thought of the times Patrick had bound her to the bed post, whipping her while Constance fed off her breasts.
The cuffs had a short chain linking the ankle and wrist manacles together. “Do you remember those, Patrick? They were the only effective means to restrain us back then. Girl, there’s a spring latch on each cuff. Turn them.”
Patrick’s eyes widened in terror, “Edmond, you can’t mean to do this to me.” They were the manacles the inquisitors used. When the latch was turned, inch long metal spikes shot out of the inside of the cuff and imbedded into the bone. There was no way to remove them to heal and the Vampire slowly bled out their strength.
Patrick shrieked as the Indian turned the first latch on his wrist. She patted his blonde head. “That’s the sound we’ve been waiting to hear.” She parodied his replies to her screams of terror and pain with every one of his shrieks to the turning latches. Blood seeped from the six wounds in each cuff.
Edmond returned his attention to Constance while Patrick’s strength dripped onto the forest floor. “While your mate left me to rot in that prison, he built himself a new life, even finding a mate. What is it that intrigued him so with you? Was it that blonde halo?” He yanked her hair and she whimpered. Turning Leaves sat back on the log and folded her hands in her lap as she watched.
Patrick cried, turning his useless hands. “Turning Leaves, please. I’ll send you home to your tribe.”
“My journey is corrupt, because of you. They will never accept me. I could not accept their pity.” She turned back to Edmond.
“She hates you almost as much as I do, Patrick.” Edmond went back to Constance. “Perhaps it was these full ripe breasts.” He scored deep gashes with his talons and she moaned. He inhaled. “The cunt, I think that’s what it always comes down to.” He ran a talon down her slit.
“Make her cum. Make her cum for you even though she doesn’t want to. Can you do that?” Turning Leaves asked excitedly.
“Of course,” he casually replied. “Constance, pay attention to me. For every minute you delay your climax, I will have our little Indian friend score down Patrick’s back with my knife. He’s already bleeding out pretty well. Don’t you agree?”
“That’s a very good idea. Why don’t you cut off all his clothes?”
She shrugged. “Okay.” She had to cut through the arms and legs to get the buckskins off without removing the manacles. She flicked Patrick’s flaccid penis with the blade, thinking about the times he used it in her pussy, ass and mouth.
“I believe she’d like to remove your cock. What nasty games did you play with the sweet girl?” Edmond didn’t expect an answer. “Now, then, think hard about this Constance. Your mate’s health is in your cunt,” he laughed.
She felt his finger travel her cleft and wailed. Patrick had been the only man to ever touch her. Her humiliated tear-filled eyes looked at her mate once then she closed them. She tried to think of his smiling blue eyes as the beast drew her juices. Constance flinched when he said, “That’s one.”
Turning Leaves drew a long gash down Patrick’s back. He gritted his teeth and groaned. Constance cried harder.
“She’s a juicy one, Patrick. I believe I’ll sample her myself to get an even better understanding why you knew she was the one.” Constance’s eyes flew open at the sound of his laces pulling through the holes on his pants.
“No, oh please, no. Patrick, do something,” she begged.
“Kill me, Edmond,” Patrick screamed. “Do it now. I can’t watch you take her like this.”
“But you will, Patrick. I had centuries to dream of the mate I’d never have as I waited for you to return.” Even in his shattered state, he knew taking Patrick’s mate in front of him was worse than his final death. He plunged into her moistness with one thrust and she sobbed.
“Turning Leaves, plunge that knife through my neck, through my heart. If I ever get free, our previous games will seem like nothing,” he threatened as he tried to enrage her enough to kill him. Patrick wondered when the vacant look had appeared in the Indian’s eyes. Other than his nights with her, he never paid her any attention. He reached out with his mind to influence her, and found nothing to grab onto.
“No, Patrick, I think I like Edmond’s games better. Are we at two, yet?” she asked the monster.
Edmond continued to thrust and nodded. Turning Leaves made another cut.
Constance’s shocked mind registered her mate’s pain and once again, she tried to imagine it was Patrick between her thighs. The beast rolled her clit and finally she summoned a remote spark of passion. Just after the third cut, she managed a small shuddering climax.
“Well, not the passionate bitch I would have thought you would tame.” Edmond thrust twice and roared his expelled seed into her. She lay shocked and silent on the ground.
Darkness had fallen hours ago, with an almost full moon lighting the clearing. Turning Leaves curled up by Edmond and he stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head while he held her. Turning Leaves was finally at peace and spent the first night in a long time with no fear as she relaxed in the creature’s arms and silently watched the Vampires.
Patrick managed to move closer to Constance and rolled on his side, kissing her cheeks and crying silent tears as he tried to heal her torn gums with his tongue.
Blood seeped from the wounds in the cuffs and cuts down his back. Constance was seeping from her speared hands and what energy she had was being forced into trying to repair her legs. When the sun came up and shone into the clearing, they were pale and could barely whisper to each other.
Patrick watched her eyes glaze over as the sun drained her remaining strength. “I love you Constance.” He willed his heart to stop.
Edmond studied them with a bemused expression. He hugged the girl curled up in his arms and pretended she was his. She had been for a little while. The insane creature had shown the girl more tenderness than she had ever experienced at the hands of the people strewn around the small clearing. Even as he drained her, she thanked him for his kindness to her. He laid the Indian on a soft carpet of moss and curled her small fist around her treasure. “Sleep now, little Indian. Your ghosts are gone.” She’d died with a peaceful smile on her lips.
He collected his manacles and knife and gazed dispassionately on the dead Vampires. The joy he expected to feel was missing, and he grumbled insane curses of disappointment. A breeze carried a familiar scent to him, and he smiled and trembled with excitement.
He threw his head back and the black matted tuffs of hair whipped against his back as he inhaled. What’s this? Damon and Nathan are here, too? He danced in a circle and scented deeper. There were two younger, fresher beings and the faint traces of some others. “Mates,” he whispered. He looked back at Patrick and Constance and planned how he‘d make the rest of them pay. Grabbing his pack, he traveled quickly away from the approaching Vampire.
When Lucien reached the settlement, the village was on edge. They told him they hadn’t seen Robby, Turning Leaves or the Vampires since yesterday evening. Sidelong glances at each other confused him. “What is it you’re not telling me?”
“Lucien, sir,” the Slave-master began, “things have changed. We want to move to your settlement.”
“What? Why? I thought you were happy here?” He so did not need this revolt right now.
“It’s the Indian girl. Lucien, Robby and the Vampires beat her. They’re so cruel to the poor girl.” Gertie, the elder woman, began crying. “We’ve been trying to figure out what to do. We think they have her tied up in the woods someplace, torturing her. We heard screaming after dinner lasting well into the night. She may already be dead. We’re afraid to try and stop them, but we can’t stand to see the light fading from her eyes. She doesn’t even speak anymore.”
Lucien was shocked. What had been happening here? Robby seemed so gentle. He’d known Constance and Patrick for centuries. Lucien became unsettled. He’d come to warn them about the rogue. Could it be his friends who were doing this? It didn’t explain the insane hatred or stench. Lucien would judge when he saw his friends. He decided to physically remove Turning Leaves if he had to. When he lifted his head he immediately smelled the blood.
Confusion passed his features. He didn’t scent Patrick or Constance. Lucien hurried into the woods and abruptly stopped in the clearing. Robby’s battered body was to one side, Turning Leaves had been obviously carefully placed as if merely sleeping. He stared in disbelief at the tortured remains of Patrick and Constance, lips almost kissing, laying at his feet. Lucien’s roar of anguish forced birds to light off branches within a mile.
He studied poor Constance’s tortured body and his heart ached. It must have been agony for Patrick to watch. Lucien’s face fell and his stomach dropped out. “Ariel,” he whispered. He ran toward the settlement.
The settlers moved quickly aside as Lucien burst from the woods, eyes red with anger. He mounted his horse and was galloping before his foot grabbed the other stirrup. Whipping the horse to top speed with his reins, he flew out onto the prairie. “Who are you?” he screamed into the wind.
CHAPTER 10
EDMOND
The hall was dark and the settlers turned in their sleep, trying to get comfortable on the beds they’d laid out on the tables and floor. Ariel restlessly turned over again. Nathan placed her on the floor of the hall by the fireplace. The chill from the floor was seeping through her bones.
She missed Lucien’s warmth and her enhanced hearing picked up the sounds of the other Vampires whispering or quietly expressing their passion. It filled her with despair.
Ariel finally gave up on sleep. She rose and wrapped the blanket around her shoulders, deciding to check the garden. It wasn’t far from the hall and her night vision was as acute as Lucien promised her it would be. She quietly left the hall and made her way down the fence line.
The beginning sprouts of the spring crop were coming in nicely she noted, as she walked the neat rows. He
r long auburn hair flowed around her in the cool night breeze. The light from the moon even afforded the plants a little color. She turned to walk down another row and a man stepped in front of her. He’s as tall as Lucien.
The moon was at his back and Ariel studied his dark silhouette, trying to place him. He didn’t dress like an Indian and she didn’t remember him from Patrick’s Clan. Something about him made the hair rise on her nape. “I’ve come to see Lucien,” the deep voice said.
The protective instinct for her mate was something unrecognizable and new to her. Still, she knew it wouldn’t be a good idea to tell him Lucien was gone. “He’s sleeping,” she lied.
Edmond scanned the pretty woman. She reeked of Lucien’s scent and he forced himself not to rip her throat out for trying to protect the Vampire, at least, not until Lucien could watch. He forced himself to be calm. “Perhaps I can sleep in your stable and meet with him in the morning,” the man suggested.
Ariel bit her lip as she decided what to do. She figured this would give her the chance to ask the other Clansmen about the stranger. If her unease was just her imagination, the man could be hurt. There was a dangerous bear on the loose. She finally admitted it might be best to let him use one of the stalls. “Okay. That would be alright.”
“Can you help me with my packs? I’ve been walking for hours and my back is killing me,” he rolled a shoulder.
Ariel didn’t understand her agitation. Inside her head she was screaming to run back to the hall. She rubbed her temples. “Um, sure, where are they?”
“Just over here.” He led her toward the tree line and turned to make sure she followed. When she bent over to pick up the smaller pack, he grabbed her hair and covered her mouth with his hand. Ariel started kicking and flailing her arms.
“You’re such a young thing for Lucien to claim. You hardly have any strength at all.” Edmond smelled her neck. “Why, you’re just a few months old, a mere infant. It’s a shame you won’t get to enjoy your new transformation much longer.” He threw her over his shoulder and bolted for the trees. Her screams didn’t bother him. He wanted Lucien to know she was gone.
Dark Journey [Ariel's Desire 2] Page 19
