Sundown & Serena

by Tara Fox Hall

  “Thanks again, Sundown,” Kev said, looking over at me with a last savoring glance. “You were fantastic.” Then he left.

  “He’s right, my dear. You were perfect, right down to your tears,” the blond said, giving me an approving smile. He kissed my hand gently, then took me in his arms, positioning me on my back. “Rest now and I’ll have your wounds tended to. I promise you, there’ll be no scars or pain.” He took my hand in his, then rubbed it against his cheek briefly before letting it go and standing. “I’ll be around to visit you again soon, Sundown. Very soon. Adieu.”

  He caressed my cheek once gently, and I shuddered under his touch. Then I slipped into unconsciousness.

  Chapter Six

  I awoke in my own bed.

  God, had I dreamed all that weird stuff? I went to move, and whimpered in pain. Then I pulled back the sheets, afraid of what I’d find.

  Oh God. I had no visible bruises, but my entire body ached. There was a little blood crusted on my pubic hair and on my thighs. There were wounds at my sides, bandaged, but still seeping blood. Those are the wounds from his nails...it wasn’t a dream. It had all been real. Everything he did to me was real!

  “Are you too hurt to move by yourself?” a hissing voice asked. “You shouldn’t be feeling any pain.”

  I looked over with horror to see the dark man from last night. What had the blond called him? Whip? Blade?

  The whole night came back in a rush. That blond asshole! “You’re saying I gave consent? I didn’t! Not for that! Not for any of it!”

  His eyes were very flat, and unreadable. Scary eyes, almost like an animal’s. I didn’t feel particularly scared of him, though his face had a cruel cast to it.

  “If you didn’t want rough sex, why the hell were you at Davy’s?” he said pointedly. “When you agree to a threesome with two men, oral or anal is part of the package. What did you think was going to happen?”

  “He date-raped me,” I whispered. “He let his man—”

  “You thought you knew what you were doing last night in that bar,” the dark man said scathingly. “You thought you’d find a man to bed, maybe some rough trade to make you forget whatever it was you wanted to forget. But this time, you got in over your head, girl. Because some men want more than sex for a night. Some want everything that you are.”

  “He’s a vampire! An honest to God vampire! A monster out of a movie!”

  “He is vampire,” the dark man stated in a correcting tone. “So what? It changes nothing about last night, Sun.”

  I began to cry again.

  He hugged me tighter. “Don’t think about it, any of it,” the dark man whispered. “Forget it like a nightmare. You’ll need to stay in bed this next day or so, but you’ll be okay after that. You don’t have an STD, vampires never get them. Your wounds won’t scar, and should be healed by tonight.”

  “How would you know?” I cried piteously. “He hurt me.”

  “Because I am the one that dressed them, and cleaned you up,” the dark man said. “I used a salve that took most of the pain away, and won’t leave a scar. They were bloody, but not deep, or life threatening. This is not the first time he’s done this to a woman. Or the first time I’ve sat with one after.” He studied me. “Why do you females always consent when he asks if you’re up for anything?”

  “How can you stay with him?” I whispered, appalled and angry. “He’s evil.”

  “He can be,” the dark man admitted. “I’ve seen it, what he’s capable of. But monsters aren’t born, they are made. He’s not always like this. He’s been worse these past two months, since he was hurt badly. His brother took his power, with the help of a half demon and—”

  Terian. I swooned and collapsed. The dark man caught me, and eased me back to the bed, looking worried.

  “Devlin,” I whispered, shaking. “The blond man’s name was Devlin.”

  “Yes?” the dark man asked curiously. “But how did you know that? He didn’t tell you his name. He said you didn’t want to know it, he was so pissed about that.”

  “Terian was my lover at the time you’re talking about,” I said, starting to cry again. “He told me about saving Sarelle that night he came to see me when he returned from the west.”

  “Christ on a crutch,” the dark man swore. “That’s all I need, Terian coming after Dev now.”

  “Terian saved Sarelle from a man named Devlin. He’s loved her since he met her.”

  “Terian loves her?” the dark man hissed. “Why? They were never anything to one another save friends, to my knowledge.”

  “I don’t know. He said she was kind to him, and no one had been kind to him before.”

  “Bullshit,” the dark man said flatly, hissing. “She must be a good lay. But when did she find the time to fuck him? She was busy enough with Theo and Danial.”

  “He was never with her like that,” I said, grimacing. “They never did anything.”

  “I don’t understand these romantics,” the dark man hissed disdainfully. “How can you love a woman you’ve never lain with that much?”

  “Who are you?”

  “Lash,” he said, focusing again on me. “My name’s Lash. And you are Sundown, Dev said.”

  I began to cry again. After I sobbed for another few minutes, I managed to pull myself together again. “Thank you, for taping me back together,” I said, wiping my eyes with a tissue. “I’ll be okay. I’ll take a few days off from work. And I won’t go to Davy’s again.”

  “I’ve never said this before,” Lash hissed, gripping my arm hard. “But you are right. I am tired of seeing this happen. It’s a waste, and it’s evil.” He cupped my face in his hands and looked at me, his flat eyes revealing no emotion. “Get out of town. Leave tomorrow, or the next day. As soon as you are able to move, and drive.”

  “I can’t. I don’t have my car, it’s at Davy’s.”

  “It’s not,” Lash hissed. “I brought it back here last night, on Dev’s orders.”

  That was a relief. Lash’s next words were not.

  “But you need to sell it anyway, and rent one instead. Because plates can be traced.”

  “I can’t rent a car, my credit’s too bad. I don’t even have a credit card.”

  “Take a bus then. I’ll even buy you a ticket.”

  “Where? Why?” I asked, confused.

  “Anywhere at least a state away. Because you would already be dead, like that other woman Cassy, if he didn’t want to draw it out.”

  Foreboding filled me. “Draw what out?”

  “Your death,” he hissed softly. “You remind him very strongly of someone he can’t touch, can’t hurt at all, someone who he hates and yet is obsessed with completely.”

  “Sar,” I breathed.

  He nodded. “He’ll send me back to bring you to him in a few days, when he thinks you’re healed. He knows where you live and where you work. So leave, and don’t forward your mail. Don’t forward your calls. Disappear.”

  “Why?” I stammered.

  “Because if you aren’t here, if I can’t find you easily, he’ll be angry, but he’ll forget you soon enough. There are a lot of women with long dirty blonde hair. There are a lot of women with hair like hers that won’t be missed.”

  “He can fuck off,” I said hotly. “I’m not going to consent again.”

  “Dye your hair for the first six months at least,” Lash interrupted. “Any color but the one it is. Cut it shorter too, to your shoulders or above. A large part of the attraction for him is your hair, because it resembles hers. You can’t do anything about your face, but I don’t know how closely you look like her.”

  “You speak like you don’t know her.”

  “I’ve never seen her, or met her,” Lash said with a shrug. “But I’ve heard of her and nothing else for months now, ever since the night he first got a taste of her blood. He’s obsessed with her blood. He says it tastes of summer, and he won’t let it go. It reminds him of another woman’s blood, a woman he knew lon
g, long ago.”

  I shivered, thanking God I wasn’t Sar. I’d envied her for so many months, but I pitied her now. After what he did to me, what will he do to her, given half a chance?

  “Your blood isn’t like hers, Sun. Yours is normal human blood, or he would not have let you leave Hayden,” Lash continued. “So there is no reason he would pursue you cross-country. If you get away, and you don’t look like you do now for a while, you’ll be safe.”

  “Why don’t you come with me?” I offered. “We can both get away.”

  Lash looked at me in surprise.

  “He’s evil. You stay with him long enough and you’ll become the monster he is. And you seem to be a good man.”

  “I’m not a good man,” Lash said, narrowing his flat eyes. “Don’t think that of me, because I dressed your wounds. You thought that of Devlin when you saw his pretty face, and that’s why you’re in this mess, because you were stupid, and trusting. I’m neither good, nor even human.”

  Not human? I felt a shiver, but pressed on. “You’re no monster, not like he is.”

  “I am a monster,” Lash hissed angrily. “You have no idea of the things I’ve done. I’ve killed more people in my life than he has killed in his, and he’s four hundred years old. Hundreds of people, thousands. I don’t even remember their faces, none of them. They don’t haunt my dreams. I don’t think about them at all, or care that I killed them. And maybe that’s the surest sign I am evil.”

  He let out a breath. “It’s way too late for me. I’m sorry for you, but he’s my friend, my only one left. He was there when I needed him. He’s done more for me than anyone ever has, ever. I’m not going to abandon him now, no matter what he’s done, not when he needs me most of all.”

  “I’ll go,” I ventured. “Thanks for warning me. But why do you care what happens to me?”

  “I don’t,” Lash said casually, standing up, and adjusting his whip. “But I want him to forget her, and get back to what he’s good at, which is Ruling. He is nothing now, he who was Ruler for over two hundred years. It is my reputation alone that is keeping Hayden from being burned to the ground, but that won’t last much longer. We need to be in power again, because we aren’t getting any respect, and some of his best fighting men have left. Soon, other younger vampires or hunters will find out that Devlin’s much weaker now than he was, and come for him. He’s got a lot of enemies. I’m good, but not good enough to fight off crowds looking to kill him by myself. And if he dies, I’ll—”

  Lash abruptly stopped talking, then went to the door and opened it. “I’m a killer, Sun. I’m going to Hell when I die,” he hissed sadly. “Maybe saving your life will take away one less beating I’m scheduled for.”

  Then he was gone.

  * * * *

  The next few days passed in a haze. I got better almost immediately, the wounds healing without leaving scars by nightfall, as Lash said they would. But the memories remained. I had dreams every night of what had happened to me, and the worst was that I remembered how good it had felt, being with him, and part of me wanted it again, wanted that pure euphoric rush. I knew it must be the drug he’d given me, and worried it was addictive. Had Devlin been counting on that, planning on my wanting him so much I’d let him do anything to me he wanted?

  Frightened of that possibility, I packed my bags that night, paid up all my outstanding bills, and told my boss I was quitting Hotcakes. I got a ride from a stranger to the bus terminal, and went to the counter. Sure enough, there was a ticket waiting for me in my name, paid for, that would take me anywhere in the United States. I cashed it in, grateful but uneasy at my debt to Lash. Without his help, I wouldn’t have had enough money to get away, as I’d had to forfeit not only my apartment’s deposit but also fork over an additional few months rent for canceling the lease almost a full year early. While I could have just left in the night without paying anything, that was too shitty. My landlord had watched out for me for years, made sure I was never robbed or bothered, and I couldn’t do that to him. I’d had to sign my beater car over to him to cover that bill, though. In return, he’d said he’d make sure all the other bills that came addressed to me were paid, until the value of the car was used up. That was fair enough for me.

  After years of staying in one place, I was suddenly adrift with almost no money, the only certainty that I needed to leave town. All my carefree loner idealism was reduced to the fact that I had no family and no real friends to turn to, no one I could call to come and get me, no one I could hide with, or even spend a night on their couch.

  I have no one. My life isn’t carefree, it’s empty.

  That cold truth messed me up, to put it mildly. In my highly emotional state, I decided to go back to Montana. I knew it was a mistake, almost before the destination left my mouth at the ticket center. But I wanted to be near my mother, even if only to have the comfort of being near her final resting place. Besides, how much worse could my father be, now that I’d met the devil himself?

  Chapter Seven

  The bus ride was long, hot, and dusty, like I’d dreaded. About halfway there, I reconsidered, but I had no money for changing my mind. So I kept going. Finally, I found myself in Janesville.

  I got off the bus, and went first to the cemetery. My mother’s grave was overgrown with weeds. Saddened, I spent a few hours pulling them out, scratching my hands on briars, and cursing my father, who couldn’t be bothered to come here once in a while to honor her after all he’d done to her. But he’d never respected her in life. Why should I expect him to do it when she was dead?

  When I was done, I stole a small bouquet off a new grave five rows over that had a ton of other flowers. Fuck them. No one would miss this one. God damn it, I had no money for flowers, but I wasn’t leaving there until I’d given some to my mother. It was late summer here, so all the scraggly wild ones were long since withered in the blistering heat.

  I kneeled down before her stone. My father had been cheap in that, too. It said only Geraldine V. Law, and the dates of her birth, and death. No “Beloved Wife.”

  No “Beloved Mother.”

  I’d taken crayons once, and written “Beloved Mother” on the stone. But when I’d come back the next day, it had been scrubbed clean. Later my father had spanked me. Groundskeepers couldn’t fucking weed a grave, but God forbid a stone had “graffiti” on it.

  I took a Sharpie from my pocket, and wrote “Beloved Mother” on the headstone. “It’s the best I can do,” I whispered. “I’m sorry it’s not more, Mom.”

  I sat there for a while, and gathered my courage. Then, I went off to see my father.

  The trailer looked even smaller than it had the last time. To my surprise, it was also abandoned. There were some cracked picture frames, some beer bottles, and enough condom wrappers to make me realize high school kids were using this as a pad to fuck. But no Dad.

  I headed to the local bar. His local bartender would know where he was, even if no one else did.

  I asked around. By seven, the night bartender came on, and pointed me in the right direction. I hitched a ride with a decent guy, who took me to where my father was living now.

  Jesus, that man is lucky. I walked up a long stone paved driveway to a house so new I could almost smell the cedar planking on the wraparound deck. There, lying next to an Olympic sized swimming pool, sipping a Bud Light, was my father.

  He looked at me, and did a double take. “Sunny?”

  “It’s me, Dad,” I said, forcing a smile. “You win the lottery?”

  “Yeah! Well, kind of,” he said, giving me his most affable and heart-melting smile. “I met Sheryl, and she’s rich!”

  She must be in a coma, or a hundred. Or both.

  My father got to his feet. He’d kind of gone to pot in the years I hadn’t visited. Sure, his face was still good, and his body wasn’t bad, for a man in his late fifties. But he was overweight, and he didn’t wear it well. “Come and meet her, Baby Girl,” he said, putting his arm around me. “I want
you to meet her.”

  He brought me inside, and to say the place was opulent was doing it a disservice. It was so over the top that it almost looked fake. There were chandeliers, polished wood, and paintings on the light-hued walls that had to be originals. And mirrors; there were fancy mirrors everywhere, on every wall, and of every imaginable size.

  “Do you like it?” a sensuous voice asked politely.

  I turned to see a small woman in her late forties, heavily made up. She was fully dressed, and the clothing was expensive. To my surprise, she wasn’t ugly; she was very pretty, even with all that thick makeup.

  “This is my daughter,” my father explained. “Sunny, this is Sheryl.”

  “A pleasure,” the woman said, offering an insincere smile.

  I detected right off she was either pissed I was here, or ill at ease. “It’s good to meet you.”

  “Are you staying?” she asked politely.

  “Would you mind?” my father asked her, before I could say anything. “Usually when she visits, she stayed at my place. It won’t be long.”

  The latter was true. But the first part was a lie; I’d never stayed with him, ever. Why is he lying?

  “A few days aren’t a problem,” Sheryl said, after a pause. “But I’ll need you exclusively for the weekend, darling.”

  “Then I’m there, babe!” my father said enthusiastically.

  “I’m going to bed,” she said, her eyes flicking to me and then away. “You probably want some time with Sun tonight.”

  “Nah,” my father said, predictably. “We’ll catch up tomorrow, or the next day. I’ve been waiting all day for you to leave your office, hon.” He put his arm around her waist. “I need some loving.”

  Sheryl smiled, and after they showed me to a guest room, they quickly left.

  I lay in bed for a while, wondering about this odd turn of events, which were just as strange as the ones that had prompted my return. How had my father gotten this woman? I guess I’d find out in the morning.