Dark Knights 1: Eternity of Darkness

by Shana Nichols

  “I understand. Stefan is asking about Claude. I told him I’d find out--”

  “Reynard damn near destroyed him.” He paused, met Julie’s gaze, smiled. “And to think we all figured we could take him. Damn, but he has the strength of ten ordinary vampires.”

  Guilt slammed into Julie. “If it hadn’t been for me, none of this would have happened. Oh, God, I’m sorry.” She reached across the table, used a napkin to wipe away a drop of fresh blood from Alex’s forearm.

  “You are not the cause. Our queen dispatched her best vampire hunters across the globe long before he singled you out as a victim. She charged us with protecting people like you and destroying Reynard himself. So far, we’ve racked up a pathetic record. You are the only one of his victims so far to survive, and the bastard -- pardon my language -- still lives. We’d best go report to Stefan.”

  “All right.”

  In the bedroom, Alex looked down at Stefan’s deathly pale body, his expression hard and resolute. “That murderer will not survive for long. I swear it. I will chase Reynard to the ends of the earth, if need be, make him sorry he did this.”

  Stefan stirred, and his eyelids fluttered as though opening them was almost too much of a task. “Alex. Let Reynard go for now. We’ve found him before, we can find him again. He’s broken his pattern. Might come back for Julie. Hot. I’m so damn hot.” He slumped against the pillows they’d stuffed behind his head and injured shoulder.

  If only Julie could do something. Anything. Anything to help her vampire lover heal from the grievous wounds Reynard had inflicted. She itched to attack that sick, demented killer, hurt him as he’d hurt her lover. Claude. Those nameless, faceless women.

  But she could not. All she could do now was love Stefan, tend his wounds and pray he’d heal.

  “Is there anything I can do to help him?” she asked Alex.

  “He’ll sleep for hours, and when he wakes he’ll need to feed. You might call Guy at the bar we went to last night, and ask him to send over a few pints of O negative.”

  “All right.”

  “Claude will need some, too -- if he comes to, that is.”

  Julie looked toward her open bedroom door. Claude hadn’t made a sound since she and Alex had walked out. They’d made him as comfortable as they could, cleansed his wounds as they’d done for Stefan. “Are you certain a doctor can’t help?”

  “No. All we can do is wait. And see that they both get as much blood as they can tolerate.”

  Julie glanced at Stefan. “I’d gladly give him my blood.”

  Alex undoubtedly knew of Stefan’s determination not to turn a mortal lover -- but surely now, when Stefan lay wounded and needed blood... Julie reached out and stroked his fevered brow. Alex stilled her hand, held it between his own scarred, bloody palms. “He won’t turn you. Has he told you why?”

  “He told me he tried to turn a lover, and she died. He’s said nothing else about her, not what she meant to him, or why it haunts him so after all this time.”

  When Alex stroked her palm with his thumb, he reminded her of Stefan more, for they shared the ability to project their emotions with a touch, even a frankly assessing gaze of nearly identical, striking green eyes. “It’s not up to me to tell the tale.”

  Julie focused on his face, his expressive eyes. “I know her name was Tina, and that Stefan feels it’s his fault that she died. Fill in the blanks for me. Please.”

  “All I know is hearsay, for when it happened, I was a child -- still very much tied to my mother’s side.” Alex looked at Stefan, as if silently getting his permission to go on. “Stefan was younger than I am now, not even two fifty hundred years old at the time. Napoleon had returned from exile in Elba and led the French Army to a resounding defeat at Waterloo. Louis XVIII held the throne. The year was 1815, and Stefan had led a cavalry division against the Duke of Wellington. Many soldiers died in the battle, and more were gravely wounded.

  “After the battle ended, Stefan returned an injured captain to his home in the Beaujolais district and accepted the hospitality of the family, whose greatest asset was said to be Christina, the captain’s lovely daughter. Stefan fell under her spell, seduced her, and fell deeply in love; enough to pledge himself to her, even knowing he’d outlive her by centuries. Her father refused Stefan’s proposal, having made what he considered a more profitable match for her.

  “Convinced that the honorable thing was to leave and nurse his wounded heart, Stefan bade his sweetheart farewell. But she followed him, begged him to turn her so she wouldn’t be forced to marry the man her father had chosen. Stefan gave in, in spite of his youth and the fact he’d never turned a mortal -- never even witnessed it being done -- and took her to his castle on the coast of Normandy.”

  Julie looked at Stefan, prayed silently for his survival, his return to vibrant health and vitality. “So they married?”

  “No. At least I never heard that they did. The way the story goes, Stefan took her to his bedroom, made love to her, and...”

  “Go on. Please.”

  “...at the moment of her climax, he bit her throat and lost control in the heat of passion, draining her blood and her life. The next morning he wakened from a sated slumber to find her lying beside him, not turned but killed. Cold and dead beyond redemption.”

  Julie shuddered. It was a heavy burden of guilt she must peel away if she was to gain what she most wanted -- Stefan. She looked at his pale face, imagined that once he’d been as carefree as Alex. The faint lines at the corners of his eyes and mouth must have been evidence of bottled-up pain, not age as she’d first thought.

  “He’s one of the strongest of us, but this guilt he carries is a great weakness in his soul. He has stayed in his castle for so many years...” Alex glanced at Stefan, then continued. “Alina regretted pulling him into this battle with Reynard, but I think it relieved her to have an excuse to pull him into the world again, bring him back to a full and vibrant life. He’s a very good man, Julie. The d’Argents need him. We don’t have any elders but for our mothers -- dhampirs, not vampires born. In their stead we need cool heads and brilliant minds. Stefan has both.”

  “Alex, how can I make him know I’d prefer death to life without him?”

  “I could change you. I know he loves you.”

  Stefan’s eyelids snapped open, as though he’d been resting, not hovering in that no-man’s-land between life and death. “If anybody changes the woman I love, it will be me. Go on, my reckless friend, now that you’ve satisfied yourself that I’ll survive. Return Claude to Paris so he may heal.”

  Julie met Stefan’s gaze. “Do you think Reynard will come back?”

  Stefan closed his eyes, lay silent for a moment before opening them again and meeting Julie’s gaze. “No. He’s gone to ground to nurse his wounds, somewhere in the mountains, whether the Rockies or the Alps, I can’t discern. Alex, we must have managed to inflict some serious wounds on him.”

  “I’d consider a stake driven into the chest a serious wound, if it were my chest.” Alex spoke casually, as though he staked another vampire practically every day. “I don’t think Claude will be up to traveling for a few days. His wounds are more than what I’d describe as serious.”

  If Claude had been mortal, he’d have been dead by now. Julie recalled the pool of blood she’d noticed beneath Claude’s unconscious body. “Speaking of Claude, doesn’t he need to be fed?”

  “I’ll go and try to feed him. Then, if he’s up for the trip, we’ll wing our way home. Julie, you can care for Stefan’s wounds.”

  * * * * *

  Late that night, Stefan woke, his injuries no longer paining him as much. He still felt weak, but he also was ravenously hungry. Julie lay beside him, sharing her body heat with him. The curve of her hip cushioned his bandaged arm, tempted him to slide his hand up and cup her generous breast. He inhaled, taking in the fruity scent of her shampoo. Amazingly, since he felt too weak to move, his cock began to harden in response to her stimulus.

>   “Julie?”

  She woke instantly, turned to face him. Though it was dark, he saw her clearly, read the concern in her expression. “What do you need?”

  You. The words Alex had spoken to Julie when he thought Stefan unconscious would not leave him. “The strongest of us, but a weakness in his soul.”

  Alex’s voice filled Stefan’s mind. “Take what you deserve. What she deserves.”

  He was older, wiser. He knew now how to turn a mortal without losing control. What had happened with Tina had been a tragedy -- but one born of an ill-fated love. He’d tangled that loss with the earlier loss of his father, creating one deep wound that had kept him in aching loneliness for centuries. He hadn’t been able to see it, until Julie had pried open his heart. Until she’d offered everything she was -- past, present and future -- to love him, stand by him. To turn away from her would not only break her heart, it would be an insult to the gift of her love. And thanks to his mother’s influence during his childhood, Stefan d’Argent was a gentleman .

  As they lay together in the dark, the risk of turning her seemed bearable. “I need to feed.” He whispered it.

  “Take me. Please. I trust you.”

  It would destroy him if he destroyed her -- yet going on without her, spending centuries regretting his lack of courage was too much to bear. Especially now, when she’d shown him real courage by facing down her would-be killer, risking her life to protect Claude with her own frail body. When she faced him with fierce determination to change her life and embrace his world, he couldn’t turn her down.

  He must find his own courage, face the demons he’d dodged for so long. Overcome the tragedy of his past and embrace who he was now. Perhaps this was the transition all the d’Argent clan must make. Maybe they must all embrace their beliefs with confidence...believe in their maturity and experience, their understanding of right and wrong.

  Loving Julie was right. “I know you trust me, love, but I must find the courage to trust myself.” He slipped his free hand between her legs, found her wet and swollen. “Ride me. Please.”

  Not having full mobility should have frustrated Stefan, but it did not. Julie straddled him, poised to impale herself on his erection, moistening the crown of his cock with her slick, warm juices. He reached up, traced the curve of her hip, her outer thigh, his gaze locked with hers in solemn promise...total commitment. He coaxed her to take him inch by inch, until she held his cock fully within her sweet, hot cavern. Though he wanted to rush to the release she promised with each caress of her inner muscles on his cock, he wanted more to draw it out. Have her take him, deplete him, so when their climaxes came...

  Fuck. He couldn’t wait. When she stroked his chest, pinched the small nubs of his nipples, he had to move. Had to have her take him fully. Ride him hard and fast. Satisfy his lust and his hunger, become his vampire mate. “You like this, don’t you?”

  Julie gasped for breath as she moved on him. Her face was flushed with passion, her body took on a light sheen of perspiration -- for the last time, he thought, trying to concentrate on the pulsating vein in her throat but being distracted by the delicious sensations in his cock...the slapping of her slippery flesh against his testicles.

  “Let go, my darling. Give me your vampire child tonight.”

  “I can but try. Chances are it will take many months of diligent effort before I succeed.” Grasping her hips, he coaxed her to move faster yet, and he arched his back to deepen his penetration. Her soft moans of pleasure took his arousal to a fever pitch.

  “Yes. I love how you make me feel inside. Don’t stop. You feel so good...” Her words trailed off into a series of delighted whimpers as she bent over him. Offering the pale column of her throat. Offering herself.

  Despite his injuries, the clan leader in him burst forth. She gasped as he changed their positions, flipped them so she was beneath him. Her thighs spread to accommodate his thrusts, and she entwined their calves. Taking him as he took her. He slid his hands under her neck, arching it.

  His release was coming, drawing his testicles up tight against his body, making him flush with unfamiliar heat. His heartbeat accelerated, made speech difficult. He raised his head, laid his fangs against the tender skin of her throat. “Is this what you want, my darling? Be very sure, for once I’ve turned you, you can never go back to being a mortal.”

  “I’m sure,” she murmured, taking his head in her hands and cradling it. “Come in me, bite me. Make me your mate.”

  “I’ll love you forever. For all the time to come. For an eternity.” Stefan whispered the words against Julie’s throat as his hot semen began to spurt deep within her body. Then, fighting down the terror that still rode him hard, he sank his fangs into her jugular vein and drank his fill.

  “My God, Stefan. I’m coming. Oh, yes.” She clenched his cock, her inner muscles milking him. “I love you.”

  Julie had never come so intensely. Never felt so intensely each scorching burst of his seed within her womb. Never before experienced the ecstasy -- the sense of being taken, transformed.

  She belonged to him. Totally, completely. Passion coursed from him through her to every cell of her body. Violent pleasure, unlike any she’d ever known. “Don’t stop.” As though her hands could hold him, she tunneled her fingers through his hair, clutching him to her throat while he sipped her lifeblood.

  Indescribable. The heightened sensations slowed, but were no less pleasurable. A warm feeling of completion began where his fangs pierced her throat, in the depths of her womb. It spread, the sense of satiated lethargy, staying with her even when he lifted his head, met her gaze with eyes that glowed with emerald fire.

  “You’ll sleep, my love. When you wake--”

  “I’ll be a vampire, too.” Her eyelids felt heavy. Terribly heavy, but she kept them open, gave him a loving smile. “Your dhampir mate.”

  “Forever.” Stefan braced himself above her, watched over her as she drifted away, unconscious from the ultimate vampire ecstasy. She looked so pale. So fragile. “Please,” he whispered to her God and whatever deities might listen to a vampire’s plea, “let me have created my mate rather than having destroyed the mortal I love.”

  Through the night he held her, a loving, silent vigil while she lay unmoving, her flesh cooling, her heartbeat slowing... Stefan dared not move for fear he’d miss that next heartbeat. His own heart pumped faster with each passing moment as her breathing slowed, then stopped.

  She’d waken. She had to. But what if she did not? No. Stefan wouldn’t allow...wouldn’t even think he might lose her. He laid a hand on her throat, over his marks of possession. The taste of her blood lingered on his tongue and his fangs, taunting him with the knowledge he’d taken it from her. Taken her, for better or worse. His eyelids drooped, yet he did not sleep. If he slept, he might lose her.

  Then, as dawn was breaking, she fluttered her eyelids and smiled up at him. “I’m yours now, for all eternity.” He’d never welcomed a smile so much, never wanted so much to get on his knees and thank the fates for bringing him his golden angel. His Julie.

  When she lifted her head and kissed him, she grazed his lower lip with her small fangs. “Oh no,” she exclaimed, looking with horror at the marks he imagined she’d left on him. She looked bewildered for a moment, then bent and licked away the tiny drops of blood. Then she smiled and applied a bit of suction to the wound, licking her lips when she raised her head and met his gaze. “It tastes good.”

  “You can drink my blood anytime, my darling. As you are mine, I’m yours.” He felt surprisingly strong to have so recently been grievously injured. Her blood had healed him, as his would now heal hers if she ever suffered a wound.

  Stefan loved the timid way she smiled, as though worried that her fangs would show. “I imagine they’ll take a bit of getting used to. They look cute, though.”

  “Thanks. At least I won’t be seeing them for myself.” As though experimenting, Julie ran her tongue across her fangs. “They seem awfully sm
all to have hurt your lip like that.”

  Grinning widely, Stefan bared his own fangs, extending them for her to see, then retracting them. “Once you’ve learned to control the movement, they’ll stay retracted like this unless you consciously extend them to feed. You’ll get used to the feeling, learn to control the movement.” The fangs were only one small, visible change that had taken place while she slept. Stefan imagined they’d take less getting accustomed to than feeding exclusively on blood, becoming mostly nocturnal, or learning to propel herself through time and space. “I’ll help you, my love,” he told her when she reached up and ran a finger over her straight, white teeth, a bemused look on her face when she felt the longer incisors. Stefan looked forward to showing her all the qualities that set them apart from humans.

  “I don’t want...” Her gaze dropped below his waist, and her pale cheeks turned a bright, well-fed-vampire shade of pink. “...to hurt you...”

  “You won’t. When vampires bite, it’s a voluntary thing. When you love me the way you’re thinking about doing, your fangs will remain retracted. Just as mine always do unless I choose to feed.” Stefan would risk getting puncture wounds until Julie learned to control the action of her fangs, rather than forego the pleasure of her caressing his genitals with her lips and tongue. He slipped one hand over her plump ivory mound, found her clit swollen, protruding impudently from her damp, satin-smooth labia, then spread her legs wide and bent to sample her honey. “I’ll take pleasure demonstrating how we use our mouths to love each other, in perfect safety.” Delicately, he caught her clit between his teeth and flailed it with his tongue.

  Her inner thighs caressed his cheeks while he stimulated her. This was the Julie who’d stolen his heart -- yet she was not the same Julie she’d been last night. Instead of deep rose, her sex glowed shell pink against the alabaster paleness of her newly-made vampire body. Every vestige of her body hair had disappeared, as he’d known it would, leaving her smooth. Like him, yet even softer. Stefan drank his fill, not stopping until she whimpered and shifted her body, offering him more. Giving of herself this morning as she had last night, with full trust, with perfect love.