Dark Moors (THE TWO VAMPIRES, #4)

by M. D. Bowden

  ‘I would - but I think we should go to the stone circle now - the moon is rising and we don’t want to miss our opportunity to stop this thing,’ she said, all smugness gone from her voice.

  ‘Yes, alright,’ Daniel said.

  He saw that Sarah had sprinted back into the house and was pulling on her knee high brown boots. He grabbed his leather jacket off the back of a chair and shrugged it over his shoulders, before donning his own boots and stepping out into the night with two Sarah’s to keep him company in this fight.

  His Sarah took his hand and said, ‘We’ll probably get there and nothing will happen, it’s probably some kind of ruse and we’ll all be laughing at ourselves.’

  Daniel squeezed her hand as the witch replied, ‘I’d wonder the same if it weren’t for the fact you two were trapped in that house by a very strong spell – I take it it wasn’t self-inflicted?’ she said raising her eyebrows questioningly.

  Sarah shook her head and giggled nervously. Daniel suspected she knew in her heart what they were in for, and wondered if she felt the same horrible sense of foreboding that was playing with his spine. He suppressed a shiver, not wanting to betray his weakness.

  The three of them strode onto the moor. The sky was clear and the night was brightly illuminated by the full moon which was glowing largely above them. They walked, still in their human forms, for Daniel did not know if the witch was able to transform, and still thought it was best to be careful and not reveal all of their capabilities at once. The witch had already outshone him in the magic stakes; she was obviously a powerful ally, if not an enemy.

  Their path wound around, avoiding stone and marsh, scented by tiny flowers on the prickly gorse that they traversed, until they were reaching the top of the tor that preceded their route to the circle where they suspected the ritual would be occurring this night.

  Daniel slowed, his heart thudding in his chest, and pulled Sarah behind the stones that topped the tor so they would not be seen if there was anyone in the stone circle below. The witch stayed close to Sarah’s side and all three of them peered around the side of the stone, to see what they could see.

  Nothing. The stone circle was empty. The night was silent.

  Daniel’s heart rate slowed and he took a deep breath – what had he expected – to go storming down there and stop the ritual right that second?

  ‘I guess we wait,’ muttered the witch, and made herself comfy on a slab of granite, hidden from view from the stone circle, and sheltered from the wind.

  He and Sarah moved in close and sat down too. Sarah held onto his hand tightly, and he swiveled it around her back so he could hold her to him while they waited.

  ‘I wonder how long…’ Sarah began, but then fell silent, listening out for any sounds that would propel them into action.

  Daniel felt uneasy; something about this did not feel right. He let Sarah go and peered around the stones again, studying the stone circle from a distance.

  He saw a ripple go across his field of vision.

  ‘Hey,’ he beckoned to the Sarah’s to approach, ‘I think there’s something there.’

  When the witch was by his side he said, ‘I saw some kind of disturbance – I think it may be a spell,’ then he caught sight of a dark figure approaching the stone circle from the valley it was by.

  His Sarah gasped, betraying the fact she had seen him too.

  ‘Wait a sec,’ said the witch.

  Daniel felt she was doing something; the air was full of magic, and then his vision dissolved and in the center of the stone circle he spotted four bound men. They were struggling against their bonds. The bright moonlight revealed the faces of two; red from the cold night air that whipped their faces.

  Daniel saw the sorcerer getting closer, faster; he had obviously sensed the witch’s magic disturbing his own.

  ‘We need to be quick – let’s fly,’ Daniel said.

  He saw Sarah nod. She transformed into a small white bird and took off with him, leaving the witch running behind.

  The wind pummeled his feathers as he swooped towards the stone circle. He felt magic all around him as he and Sarah came up against a barrier on the outside of the circle, and shifted back into themselves. The sorcerer had already stepped through and withdrawn a knife from his belt. Flames sprung up around the circle, but Daniel could not break through. Sarah was struggling too, she could not find a way past the barrier that was created by the sorcerer.

  He saw the sorcerer meet Sarah’s eye, and sneer at her as he approached his first victim. Sarah was panicking, trying to get in to stop him, but she was not succeeding.

  Daniel looked back to the witch who was running down the hillside. He could again see her lips moving as she ran towards them and felt her magic extending to the barrier they could not penetrate.

  He focused on the barrier himself, trying to aid her, but before he could help the barrier disappeared and he and Sarah staggered through. Flames were before him and they both leapt high into the air, avoiding the burn, and landed in the circle next to the sorcerer as his knife sliced open the throat he was holding, cutting off the whimper that was escaping the trapped man. Sarah screamed and rammed into the sorcerer, knocking him to the ground. The flames flickered and faded as the witch arrived and stepped into the circle. Daniel felt a surge of magic and watched, horrified as Sarah flew back through the air, out of the circle.

  He ignored the tied men and focused on the sorcerer – he drew on his power within and channeled it to his hands from which he projected fire towards the sorcerer. Blue flames touched another boundary that the sorcerer had created to protect himself. He felt the witch’s magic trying to work against the sorcerer’s powers, but her face was tense with concentration and he did not know if she would succeed. He pummeled the sorcerer’s boundary with his own flames, hoping it would weaken. The sorcerer raised his narrowed eyes to Daniel’s; they glinted red in the moonlight, sending chills to Daniel’s heart. He tried to sharpen his focus, to penetrate just one small bit of the boundary, enough to give the witch a way to destroy it. He saw a glint of movement as Sarah was back and flying through the air towards the sorcerer. Something must have worked for she went straight through where the boundary had been and kicked the sorcerer in the head at the same time as Daniel’s flames hit him in the heart.

  A wave of power knocked him to the ground and for a second his vision was obscured. Everything was black. He opened his eyes in time to see Sarah scrambling to her feet and the blade of the sorcerer go straight into the heart of the witch - her eyes open wide as she crumpled to her knees and her life was taken away.

  Sarah pounced, screaming, at the sorcerer’s head as he was just starting to remove his blade, and sunk her fangs into his neck. The sorcerer wreathed in her grip, and sent out a fresh blast of power that knocked Daniel back again, but he struggled against it, fighting, and saw that Sarah had maintained her grip on the man who was weakening in her arms as she drained him of his blood, taking the power that was in his veins.

  Daniel ran to the witch’s side and checked her stats, but her heart was still. He brushed her curly dark hair away from her open eyes and ran his hand over her eyelids, closing them before Sarah would see the horror that was still evident there.

  The heartbeat of the sorcerer was becoming weakened, he was using the last of his power to try and thrust off Sarah, but her grip was strong, and she was full of power; full of the life force of all the blood she had consumed during the previous couple of weeks, full of the magical energy that was in the sorcerer’s blood. She drank the last few sips and staggered back, letting his limp, unseeing body fall heavily to the ground.

  Daniel sped to Sarah’s side and held onto her as she herself crumpled to her knees. Daniel went down with her as sobs wracked her body, ‘She’s dead, she died – he killed her Daniel. Daniel – I killed him!’ she wailed.

  ‘You stopped the ritual Sarah, you did it,’ he said.

  ‘But we failed – he killed Sarah – he killed a
man!’ she sobbed, holding her heart as Daniel held her.

  ‘We didn’t fail – we saved three men – and the vampire hasn’t risen – we don’t know how many hundreds of lives we might have saved,’ he said, passionately, for he truly believed this – what Sarah had done had been necessary – he was just sorry that it had had to be her.

  ‘But she’s dead Daniel,’ Sarah said pointing back towards the circle, towards the witch.

  Daniel could hear the three men were now still. He could hear their ragged breaths, their pain, and he could smell their fear, the suspense was killing them.

  ‘Sarah – I need to go and release those men,’ he said.

  He rose, leaving her outside the circle on the soft spongy ground, sobbing hard.

  Daniel stepped back into the circle. Instead he approached the men, and one at a time, he struggled with the knots until they were free. Then he influenced each of them to forget all that had happened and to return to their homes.

  As they left Daniel saw Sarah stand. Her eyes looked dead. Haunted. She walked slowly back to the stone circle and she too stepped inside. She knelt at the witch’s side and touched the dagger that was still wedged in her heart. Fresh sobs engulfed her.

  Daniel let her cry, for it was a necessary step to grieve. He could have interfered – used his influence to stop her feeling the pain, but if he did that the pain would just resurface later. No, it was best to let her be. She would be ok soon, he hoped.

  Daniel picked up the body of the man the sorcerer had slain. His blood had spilled into the earth; Daniel just hoped it was not enough to have any effect of the old vampire who lay entombed below.

  Daniel left Sarah with the body of Sarah the witch, and he carried the body of the man across the moor to the place where the bodies from the previous ritual had been discarded. Daniel pushed the body of the man beneath the stone, to join the other bodies which were now in an advanced state of decay. It smelt putrid.

  He returned to Sarah’s side.

  ‘We can’t leave her there Daniel, not with the other bodies, let’s leave her body on a tor, like an altar, in respect,’ Sarah said, lowering her eyes as fresh tears escaped them.

  Daniel nodded, ‘Do you want to do it?’ he asked her.

  She nodded this time. He watched, saddened as Sarah lifted the body of the witch and placed it over her shoulder, then she sped up the hill to the nearest tor and placed her right at the top; on the highest rock. She stood up there for some time, but Daniel did not join her, he assumed she would have said if she wanted his company. And now the sorcerer was dead, he did not think she was in any danger.

  Daniel walked over to the body of the sorcerer. He looked down on him disdainfully, his face was puckered, and his hood had fallen back revealing his balding head. The sorcerer’s neck was ripped where Sarah had bitten him. He looked pale and ghostly in death. He looked weak and pathetic. He truly was.

  He should get rid of the body before Sarah returned, Daniel thought. Now this worthless man did not deserve an altar. Daniel picked him up and walked to where the sorcerer had discarded the other bodies. He pushed him under the stone where he would join his victims, where hopefully they would destroy him in death, in hell, if such a place existed.

  Daniel retreated from the trench, holding his breath so as not to have to inhale the smell of death, and he returned to the stone circle. He looked up to the tor where Sarah had taken the witch and saw that she was no-longer there, she was returning, ever so slowly, mournfully, down the hillside. She was returning to his side.

  At least his Sarah was ok - she was still alive, even if her eyes did look dead. He would make sure she recovered. This had been his idea - he had put her through all of this. It was his fault and he would make it up to her. They would have a break from fighting, from all this fear and suspense. He would make sure they had time for some fun, and time to just be themselves.

  Sarah was close now, and he looked to her face, but she kept her eyes lowered. He was at her side in an instant and his arms were around her.

  ‘Let’s go home,’ she said.

  Daniel nodded, ‘Ok,’ he said, ‘we can do whatever you want to.’

  He picked her up in his arms, inspecting the stone circle one more time. There was still some blood there, but he thought he had removed most of the evidence that would make anyone suspect a ritual had occurred, that would make anyone think of trying to complete it.

  Daniel did not know what Sarah meant by home – whether she meant the cottage, or whether she meant Canada, and he did not ask. It was too soon. He would take her home now and tuck her up in bed. He would bring her hot drinks and wine, and kiss her and love her, and he would make sure that she was herself again - however long it took.

  He looked down at her haunted, saddened eyes as he carried her over the moor in the moonlit darkness. She was his Sarah and he loved her. He had not done a good enough job before, but he would now; he would take care of her, he would cherish her forever and always; he would protect her from further harm. He would heal her soul.

  THE END

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  AUTHOR BIO

  M.D. BOWDEN lives in England with her partner and two young children. She enjoys spending time with her family, in the sea, on the cliffs, and reading as much fantasy as she can get her hands on.