Claim the Night

by Rachel Lee

  He drew a large circle with chalk. Inside it, he drew a pentagram, ensuring that the corners touched the edges of the circle. “Depending on direction,” he said, “this can be protective or demonic.”

  “How’s that?”

  “Upside-down it can be interpreted at a horned goat. Right side up it signifies the crucifixion.”

  “How do you know which is which?”

  “North is considered up.”

  She watched uneasily as he drew it upside-down. “Why are you making the goat then?”

  “Because it’s hell I want to open a gate to.”

  Her skin began to crawl, and the room seemed to be growing colder. Just her imagination, she told herself. Nothing but imagination.

  At each point of the star, he placed a thick, tall candle and lit it. Outside, he arranged the incense sticks in small holders and started them all burning. Then just outside the circle, he lay some bound, dried herbs.

  “Sage,” he said. “With a few other powerful herbs mixed in. I don’t know why, but demons tend to find sage smoke utterly repellant. If I get possessed, light it and wave it everywhere, but stay outside the circle.” Then he held up the wand lighter and struck it, adjusting it so that a large flame shot from its tip. “Use this against me if you have to, to force me inside the circle, and don’t be afraid to set my clothes afire. That demon won’t want me immolated any more than I do.”

  “Jude…”

  “Promise me.”

  She swallowed, hard to do when her mouth was so dry, and nodded. “I promise.”

  “Remember, if it doesn’t kill me, I’ll recover. If it does kill me, the world will be safe regardless. So just do it, Terri.”

  “I promised.”

  He came toward her, brushing a cool kiss on her lips. “Don’t hesitate. All it needs is hesitation.”

  Then he stepped, walked back to the circle and set some folded papers on a nearby box. “Those are the incantations. You don’t have to understand them, just mean them.”

  “How can I do that if I don’t understand?”

  “All you need to know is that they are meant to drive a demon back to hell, so mean them with your whole heart.”

  “Okay.” She was shivering now, from both fear and cold. How had it grown so cold?

  “When you close the circle,” he said, pointing to an area he hadn’t chalked in, “use blood.” He lifted a plastic bottle from the bag he’d brought. “This blood contains chrism, holy oil.”

  She watched as he trailed it carefully around the entire circle he had drawn. And with every drop of blood hitting the chalk line, she felt the room grow colder. That feeling of being watched began to overwhelm her.

  Then she felt nothing at all.

  She woke suddenly, unbound and found herself standing outside the circle. Had the exorcism succeeded? God, she felt as if she had been beaten, as if her insides had been turned to ice.

  Jude, where was Jude?

  She turned and saw him standing to one side, smiling. “It worked?”

  “Oh, definitely,” he said, looking quite pleased with himself. “It’s gone.”

  But just as instant relief started to wash through her, she felt it again. Scared beyond words, she took a tentative step toward Jude and the feeling grew stronger.

  It was still here.

  “Jude?”

  “I told you everything’s fine.”

  Then why couldn’t she believe him? She hesitated, even though she had been warned not to. “Then we can go home?”

  “Of course. It’s gone.”

  “I guess I should gather everything up.”

  “Don’t bother. We don’t need it anymore.”

  And something was very definitely not right. The Jude she knew should seem happier if the exorcism had succeeded, and less self-satisfied. If there was one thing she knew about Jude, he was never self-satisfied. But right now he reeked of it.

  “I just hate to leave a mess.” Shaking, but hoping it didn’t show, she walked over and picked up the papers. Then the lighter.

  “Really,” he said. “We don’t need that.”

  That was when she realized he was right behind her. She struck the lighter, causing flame to shoot from it, and turned to face him. “Don’t come near me.”

  “You wouldn’t hurt me, love.”

  And he’d never called her that. God, it was Jude yet not Jude. For an instant her mind froze, then all the directions came hurtling back. “Then get inside the circle.”

  “Why would I do that?”

  “To prove yourself.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Terri. It’s me.”

  She drew a deep steadying breath, aware that she had to act, and act now. Jude had told her what to do.

  With the eight-inch flame still shooting from the tip of the wand lighter, she waved it close to him.

  “Fire kills you,” she said. “And I’m not opposed to killing a vampire. Get in that circle.”

  He laughed. “Oh, all right.”

  She watched him pass through the open part of the arc then turn to face her.

  “See?” he said. Then he started to walk toward her again.

  “Stop!”

  “Terri, don’t be silly.”

  Jude. She had to save Jude from this thing somehow. And that thought brought fury to her rescue. A woman had nearly been killed by this thing. It wanted free reign to murder and terrorize. No, this was not Jude she was looking at right now, and that realization gave her strength.

  As he approached, she jabbed the lighter across the circle, catching the sleeve of his linen jacket. The linen ignited immediately, and she saw his eyes widen. He started patting out the flame, but it was spreading faster than he could put it out.

  With her other hand, she grabbed the bottle of blood and chrism, and barely daring to take her eyes from Jude, she closed the circle.

  “Ah, you shouldn’t have done that,” the demon said.

  She stepped back, quickly checking for any other breaks in the circle. She could see none.

  She grabbed the sage bundles and lit them, watching thick smoke start to rise.

  “Terri, you’re burning me.”

  That cry sounded so much like a human in pain that her heart stuttered and she almost, almost gave in. But when she looked at the demon again, she saw that he’d nearly put the fire out. Nearly.

  “Why are you treating me this way?” he demanded. “I thought we had something special.”

  Any lingering doubt vanished with that. Jude would have known exactly why she was doing this. He’d even been willing to be immolated, burned alive, rather than let that thing free.

  Standing there holding a bundle of smoking sage and a lighter that could go out at any minute, she began to feel desperate. She needed to read those incantations, but her hands were full.

  “Terri, you’re a doctor,” he said. “You took an oath not to do harm.”

  “There are levels of harm.”

  “And you think I’m worse? You know me. You know how hard I try to be decent.”

  Jude never would have said that, either. Conviction grew as hard as cement.

  Something moved her then, though she knew not what. Maybe there were guardian angels, perhaps at some level she knew something unconsciously. Bending, she placed the smoking sage so that it just touched the circle of blood and chrism. Blood wouldn’t burn well, but there was no telling how much oil Jude had put in it.

  Then she stepped back, the lit electric match still in hand and watched. And little by little a flame began to flicker and slowly follow the outline of the circle.

  “Terri, are you mad?”

  “Maybe so.” Then she snatch
ed up the papers and unfolded them. Nonsense syllables tracked across the printed page, or at least they seemed like nonsense to her. She started to read them aloud, remembering what Jude had told her, remembering how he had said she had to mean them.

  And all she knew how to mean was that she wanted to send a demon back to hell.

  As she read, fire leaped higher around the circle. Impossible fire, there was not enough there to burn like that, but higher it grew.

  She heard Jude bellow something, but couldn’t make it out. Glancing up from the incantation she was reading, she saw tongues of flame leaping toward him.

  “Terri, break the circle! I’ll burn to death.”

  Feeling as if her heart were cracking, she ignored the plea, and kept reading. More loudly. More determinedly.

  Then a howl of sheer anger and pain filled the warehouse, almost deafening in its intensity. She looked up again, and fire was now speeding across the pentagram, as if it were not chalk at all, and flames crawled higher. Jude stood in the very heart of the pentagram, and dear God, she could see his skin starting to blacken.

  Tears began to pour down her face, making it almost impossible to read, but she kept on, chanting the meaningless syllables as loudly as she could. And when she came to the end of them, she added the St. Michael prayer, praying it with more fervor than ever before in her life.

  A deafening crack sundered the air, the ground seemed to shake, and then all of a sudden, the flames were gone.

  And Jude lay collapsed in the middle of the circle, clearly badly burned.

  She dropped everything then and put her face in her hands, weeping as if her soul had been shredded.

  Worst of all, she didn’t know if she dared go to his aid, didn’t know if he was still possessed. And she was terrified he might be dead. Ah, God, she wished she had died, too.

  “Terri.” A hoarse, parched-sounding voice.

  She looked up, her face wet with tears, and saw Jude had arisen and was walking toward her. Oh, God, the burns. Oh, God, how could she have done that to anyone?

  “Terri,” he said again.

  “How do I know it’s you?” she sobbed. “How do I know?”

  “Because I can cross the circle.”

  He did so, staggering, and then collapsed on the floor beside her. “It’s gone.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Sweet one, it’s gone. And if I don’t get back and get some blood soon, I’ll be gone, too. Take me home.”

  She sniffled, dashing away tears. “Don’t be silly, damn it. I’m here. Drink. As much as you need.” Beyond any thought of anything other than to help him, she yanked her blouse open, baring her throat. “Take it. Please.”

  “Not because you feel guilty.”

  “No. Because you need it. Because I want you to have it. Because…” She trailed off just before she said, I love you. But the words seemed to hang in the air, even unspoken.

  Maybe he heard them, maybe he didn’t. But he lay back and pulled her toward him, until her neck rested against his mouth. She felt the cool lick of his tongue, and moments later a shadow of the passion she had felt the first time she fed him. He was weak, injured, horribly burned. Perhaps he couldn’t give her what he had given her that first time.

  But she didn’t care. Right now all that mattered was that she was giving him life and healing. Never had she more wanted to give anything.

  She felt her heart race and knew he was in danger of taking too much. But she didn’t care. If he sucked her dry and turned her, that would be okay, too.

  But just an instant after her heart began racing, he pulled his head away, growling, “Enough!”

  Slowly, reluctantly, she drew back. And blinked in amazement. His burns were already healing, turning red instead of black. The eyes that looked up at her were golden even in this dim light.

  “Let’s go home,” he said.

  The next evening, as the sun set below the horizon, even though he could not see it in his vault, Jude jerked awake with that first painful breath. When he opened his eyes he saw Terri propped on an elbow, watching him in the dim light from a lamp across the room.

  “How do you feel?” she asked.

  “Better than this morning.”

  “You look a lot better.” Reaching out, she touched his cheek, his chest, his arm. “I can hardly tell you were burned.”

  “I told you I’d heal.”

  “Yes, you did.” She smiled, a beautiful smile that made him truly glad to be awaking to another night.

  “But what about you?” he asked. “Did I take too much?”

  “No. I’m fine, and by morning I’ll be pretty much back up to normal blood volume.”

  He reached out and touched the two small scabs on her neck. “I shouldn’t have.”

  “Why ever not? You needed it and I could spare it.”

  “Because.” He closed his eyes, feeling the weight of it in his heart, in the depths of his being. It might be good, or it might turn out to be the worst thing he’d ever done.

  “Because what?”

  He opened his eyes and looked at her. “I have claimed you.”

  “Really?” She sat up, crossing her legs.

  He wasn’t really sure what he expected—distress, perhaps?—but she astonished him. All at once a huge smile spread over her face and she looked absolutely radiant.

  “Really. It knew it was a danger, I even suspected it might have already happened, but last night…when I fed from you I knew. I claimed you. My heart will always sing with yours. My thoughts will forever follow you. If you move to an igloo in Antarctica I’ll move in right next door. I’m sorry.”

  “Sorry? Don’t you want me?”

  “God, Terri, that was never the problem. But now you’re stuck with me for the rest of your days, like it or not. Short of me committing suicide, anyway.”

  “I kinda like that idea.”

  “Of me committing suicide?”

  “No, of being stuck with you forever.”

  He could hardly believe his ears. “Terri, you’ve seen how I live. You can’t possibly have a normal life with me.”

  “Normal is overrated. All I want is you, Jude. So make me like you.”

  “No.”

  “No?” Now she frowned. “Why the heck not? I want to be with you every minute of every day, and that’s going to be difficult if you don’t change me.”

  “Difficult or not, I will not do it. I won’t put you through this. If you want to be with me, you’re going to have to remain a human.”

  He watched expressions play over her face, some happy, some not so, and he waited for her verdict.

  “Well.” She sighed after a minute and lay down again, placing her head on his shoulder. “There are advantages to that.”

  “What advantages?”

  “I can still feed you.”

  He couldn’t help it. He laughed. It was probably the happiest sound he had made in a couple of centuries. “There is that,” he agreed.

  Then she touched his heart deeply by asking tentatively, “Forever? You promise?”

  “A claiming is forever, sweet one. You’re mine now. Forever.”

  She sighed and turned her head to kiss his chin. “I am so happy! I love you, Jude.”

  “I love you, Terri.”

  She raised up again suddenly to look at him. “You really won’t change me? Ever?”

  “Well, certainly not now.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I want to know that you’re as sure as I am. Because there’s no point now in turning you into what I am.”

  “So you might change your mind?”

  He laughed and rolled over, pinning her beneath him. “My
sweet love, it’s always possible. But for now I’m just going to enjoy arguing with you about it for a long time to come.”

  That seemed to satisfy her. Probably for a week or a month, but no longer. He’d come to recognize her quiet stubbornness and appreciate it.

  But there were so many other things to appreciate as well. When he entered her with his body, he felt the synchrony of feeling begin, their hearts beating as one.

  This time, he didn’t bite the pillow. He bit her, adding that extra fillip to his pleasure and evidently to hers. He felt her rise against him, shuddering with the same hunger and longing.

  He took no more than a teaspoon from her; it was too soon.

  But that teaspoon sealed the bond even more deeply, as it would forever.

  He had claimed her, indeed. But she had claimed him as well.

  * * * * *

  ISBN: 9781459219595

  Copyright © 2012 by Susan Civil Brown

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