Shifting Darkness

by Kate Wendley

  A mental image of a horror movie starring him and a bunch of hungry vampires made a chill wash over him and goosebumps covered his arms. He was seriously rethinking being here tonight, but just when he’d decided to bail out, the music changed and Anthony and Kaia came in at last.

  All eyes were on them now, or maybe just on Kaia. She looked beautiful in a long, sheer sleeved, deep blue and black paisley patterned dress. With her hair pinned up and the low, wide neckline of the dress, the unobstructed access to her neck had to be tempting to every vampire here. Her heart beat loud enough for him to hear it across the room, and he could almost taste her nervousness as she followed Anthony’s lead, her hand placed delicately on his arm.

  Anthony was dressed to match Kaia. His long hair was tied back and he wore a button down blue and black shirt in the same pattern as Kaia’s dress. The neckline was one of those grandfather collars with the top button undone. Along with the harsh scar on his cheek and both his and Kaia’s pale complexions, they looked like a stunning beauty and the beast.

  They stopped several feet from the bed where Ethan, the other Master vampire in town, waited for them. Ethan reached out and gave Kaia a big hug, and the tension in the room relaxed some.

  Anthony addressed the gathering. “My family, and Ethan’s family. I bring you Kaia. She belongs to both of our families and will be the link between them.”

  He looked at Ethan, then at Isaiah, and got a nod from each of them. A quick, tense glance between Isaiah and Ethan suggested there might be some bad blood between them… It was probably family gossip he hadn’t heard yet.

  Anthony continued, “Tonight I’ll make Kaia mine by turning her vampire.” He looked squarely into her eyes then, and it finally hit home for Vince how big of a sacrifice she was making for the man she loved. She was going to literally give herself over to Anthony and trust that he’d not only keep her alive through this, but turn her into a different creature. And if it didn’t work? She’d be screwed, just like Vince was right now. She’d either be some half-creature, or she’d be dead.

  He shook his head at his thoughts. He couldn’t trust someone that much. He already knew the feeling of having no control over himself every month at full moon as his body tortured him through the night, there was no way he could just pass out and let others try their hand at remaking him. Kudos to her if it worked, though.

  **

  Anthony and Kaia settled in front of the crowd, beside the bed, and Isaiah stood behind them as if he were officiating their wedding.

  “Kaia McKay. My son, Anthony Foster, has declared his undying love for you and wishes to turn you vampire to be with him now and forever more. Will you accept life as a vampire, living only in the night and subsisting only on blood? Will you accept and relinquish your fealty to the human world and agree to be ruled by your Master? To be loyal to your family, no matter what? And lastly, do you accept that it is Anthony that will take your human life from you and turn you into his bride, till final death do you part?”

  She looked Anthony squarely in the eyes and said, “I do.”

  “Anthony Foster, my son, do you promise that you intend in good faith, love, and commitment to take Kaia’s human life from her and turn her vampire in order to make her your bride, for now and evermore? That you are going to be her Master and Maker because you love her and intend to cherish her till final death do you part?”

  Anthony stood near motionless as he said, “I do.”

  Isaiah looked like a proud father as he commanded, “Once Anthony begins drinking Kaia’s blood, there will be no turning back. No matter what happens, no matter Kaia’s emotional state, the turning will continue. It has been agreed, and both our family and Ethan’s family have given their blessing.” He took Anthony by the shoulders and said, “I have given my blessing.” He gave Anthony a hug, then did the same to Kaia.

  Murmurs started throughout the crowd as Anthony directed Kaia to the lavish bed at the center of the room. Once she sat down, Vince felt bad for thinking so dismissively about her situation. He was now terrified for her. She could actually die, right here, right now, and he had a brief inclination to go grab her and pull her the hell out of here. They might all be supernaturals and have to keep hidden from humans, but most of them had no choice in the matter. Kaia was human and they were about to tinker with her life. If it went horribly wrong…

  His gut turned and he had a flashback of meeting Anthony for the first time. He’d threatened Vince over Kaia. Yeah, Anthony loved her. He wouldn’t be doing this if he thought he could lose her. Would he?

  Anthony sat next to her on the bed, seeming more solid and sure next to her, and no one made a move to stop what was coming next.

  He unbuttoned his sleeves and rolled them up, then motioned for Kaia to move fully to the middle of the bed. He crawled up behind her and sat on his knees, running his fingers over her bare neck as the music quieted down. He leaned around her far enough that he could see her face, and the room was so eerily still that Vince didn’t have to strain to hear Anthony tell her, “I love you.”

  She blinked quickly, looking like she was fighting back tears. “I love you, too. No matter what happens.”

  Anthony frowned and wiped at a single tear tracing down her cheek. “You can still change your mind.”

  The room felt like it was holding its breath when she stilled, then shook her head and said, “Make me like you.”

  Anthony nodded, then settled in behind her and wrapped an arm around her waist, trapping her arms to her side. He used his other hand to tilt her head, giving him clear access to her neck.

  Kaia’s eyes roamed the crowd and settled on Vince for an instant, making a jolt race through him. Was she asking him for help? Was she changing her mind? No. It was only moments ago that she agreed to this, and her eyes weren’t frantic and desperate. They were determined so he tried to give her a smile, but settled for a thumbs up. She smiled weakly back, and then Ethan sat on the bed in front of her, taking her attention away from Vince.

  Ethan said, “You ready?”

  She closed her eyes for a brief moment, took a deep breath, then opened them and nodded.

  Vince had never actually watched a vampire feed before, and he was glad he hadn’t. Anthony’s eyes were suddenly glowing, and when he opened his mouth to expose fangs that were longer and sharper than anyone’s teeth should be, the expression on his face was not at all human. His attention fixated on Kaia’s bare throat, and Vince was once again terrified for her. Anthony the man might love her, but what if the vampire part of him couldn’t stop himself in time to actually turn her?

  She flinched and tensed when Anthony bit her, her eyes wide but her face stoic. That quickly changed as Anthony worked determinedly at her throat. He didn’t look like he was being brutal or vicious with her, but Kaia was getting scared anyway. Her face paled and she clung tightly to his arm around her torso, leaning forward more and more as if she was trying to pull away from him. Anthony didn’t let go as he leaned forward with her, then simply pulled them both back as he continued to drink her blood.

  She gasped and was soon frantically trying to twist out of his hold.

  Ethan grabbed her by the forearms. “Kaia, it’s ok. It’ll be ok. Look at me. You’re going to be ok.”

  She let out a sob and blinked droopy eyes, her shoulders eventually slumping as her cries turned into quiet whimpers.

  And then she just fell silent. All fight went out of her and Vince caught himself as he almost lunged from his chair to help her.

  He shouldn’t have worried. Anthony was already letting her go and settling her in his lap as Isaiah shouted, “Anthony! Give her your blood! Now!”

  Zach wasted no time slicing Anthony’s wrist for him while Ethan used one hand to press on Kaia’s cheeks in order to hold her mouth open.

  Zach said, “Anthony, try to use your power to keep the wound from closing.”

  Anthony looked desperate as he pressed his wrist against her mouth.

&nbs
p; “How is she? Someone tell me! Is she still alive?”

  Dr. Williams was by her side in an instant, his fingers held to her neck. “She has a pulse. It’s weak though. She needs more blood!”

  Anthony pulled his wrist away and Zach sliced it again. He hissed at pain, but promptly pressed the bloody gash to Kaia’s mouth.

  “It’s no good! I’m healing too fast!”

  Zach grabbed his hand. “This is going to hurt, buddy. Hold on.” He jabbed the tip of his knife straight into Anthony’s wrist and kept it there as Anthony grunted through clenched teeth. Sebastian stood behind the bed and moved Kaia’s head to better catch the blood while Ethan continued to hold her mouth open. It was a freaking mess as Anthony howled and Zach kept twisting the knife in order to keep the wound open.

  That went on for what felt like an eternity, and soon nearly everyone was out of their seats and crowded around the bed. Dr. Williams gave them updates on Kaia’s heartbeat as Zach continued to impale Anthony to force his blood out of him.

  He wasn’t sure how long it’d been when Vince realized Anthony looked ashen. Dr. Williams’ update didn’t help the frantic tension in the room, either. “Her heartbeat’s still weak. She needs more Mr. Foster!”

  “I’m giving her everything I have! Why isn’t this working?”

  Torin caught Anthony as he started to slump, and Vince blurted out, “If it’s not working, then where’s all the blood going?”

  There was a heartbeat of silence as all eyes turned to him, then quickly flicked back to Kaia. She had blood all over her face and neck, but really, if Anthony was draining himself for her, shouldn’t the bed be soaked in blood, too? It didn’t really look like it was.

  Isaiah exclaimed, “Your bite on her neck! It’s healed! Her heart be damned, vampires don’t need their hearts to beat. She’s taking your blood, son. She’s taking it!”

  Anthony let out something close to a sob. “But is she turning? Will she actually turn?”

  Zach said, “She’s not swallowing on her own. The blood might be soaking into her by its own magic, but she’s not gaining strength from it.”

  Ethan harshly said, “Yet. Hell, I barely gave Isaiah any blood and he still survived.”

  Whoa. Those two shared a tense look before Ethan snapped, “Give her more. She’ll make it.”

  Zach called out, “Torin, hold him up. Anthony, I know this hurts, but you’ll heal.” He put more force into digging his blade into Anthony’s wrist, though all he did now was weakly grunt.

  He weakly mumbled, “Give her everything. Please. Drain me for her.”

  Everyone spared a glance at Anthony at that point, but his pained, weary eyes were focused on Kaia.

  Ethan startled. “She’s moving.”

  Her hands twitched and her head moved, so Zach pressed Anthony’s wrist closer, but with the knife sticking out of it they couldn’t clamp it down tight. It didn’t matter. The blood kept flowing and disappearing without her having to actually swallow it.

  **

  Anthony finally fell limp and no matter how hard Torin tried to keep him upright, he was spent. Blood was only trickling in slow drops from his wrist by now, though Kaia was moving with a little more oomph.

  Dr. Williams looked perplexed. “I don’t understand. Her pulse is barely stronger than it was when she was drained.”

  Isaiah motioned for Torin to let Anthony lay down. “She’s turning, doctor. She’s becoming vampire.”

  Everyone began returning to their chairs while Dr. Williams nodded absently and stared in wonder at her. “You must let me study her. Please. I may never get this chance again.” He pulled a stethoscope out of his pocket as Isaiah frowned in dismay.

  He sounded more than a little offended when he said, “Have some decency, doctor.”

  Ethan didn’t look as upset. “Go ahead Richard. She’s not going anywhere.”

  The doctor was undeterred by Isaiah’s scowl as he listened to Kaia’s heart, then pulled out a thermometer from another pocket. He stuck it in her mouth, then waited until it beeped. He pulled it out, then wrote something in a small notebook. “In another hour I’d like to test her again.”

  Isaiah scoffed while Ethan nodded. They exchanged another look, but neither said anything to each other.

  Isaiah turned his contempt on someone else instead. “My son needs to feed. Now.”

  A commotion started outside the room, loud voices which quickly sounded like a fight. Everyone’s attention was on the ruckus, so Zach left to investigate.

  It was that fraction of a second where people weren’t sure whether they were more interested in the noise outside or the event in this room that Vince felt a surge of angry, determined energy in the air. Without thinking, he raced forward and grabbed at the vampire that was racing towards the bed, a wooden stake gripped tightly in her hand. She jerked out of his grasp, but it put a hiccup in her stride, enough that it gave Ethan time to turn and intercept her before she reached Anthony and Kaia… though it looked like Anthony was the intended target.

  Ethan tackled the woman while many in the smallish audience scattered or outright froze where they were. Vince didn’t know the vampires well enough to know if there were more in the room that would try to kill Anthony, but if there were, they weren’t making a move.

  A garbled scream turned his attention back to Anthony and Kaia. Isaiah stood breathing heavily over the woman Ethan had tackled, a bloody mass of something in his hand.

  Oh God. Vince’s stomach lurched. Isaiah was holding the vampire’s heart in his hand. The woman was dead… er. Deader than she’d already been living life as a vampire, anyway.

  Isaiah glared around the room and sharply commanded to no one in particular, “Feed my son. Now.”

  Torin stepped forward and held his wrist out for Sebastian. After only a moment’s hesitation, Sebastian sliced it, deep and hard. Torin hissed, but quickly pressed it against Anthony’s mouth.

  One second Anthony was lying there looking nearly unconscious, the next he had a firm grip on Torin’s arm, feeding on him like it was his first meal in days. His eyes were unfocused and heavy lidded, and Vince got the spooky feeling that this was vampire-Anthony feeding and that no one was home right now except for his creature. His movements were too ferocious, too animalistic. It was a stark contrast to the careful control he used when he fed from Kaia just minutes ago. It made a chill go down his spine to see it, and with a quick glance at the other vampires in the room, his worrisome unease only deepened. All vampire eyes were watching Anthony as if they wished they could descend on shifters in the same exact, ferocious way.

  Torin held himself up for a while, but soon he was slumping from Anthony taking so much. Suzanne stayed by his side, helping him stay upright, but Anthony just kept feeding.

  She sounded like she was trying for light hearted when she said, “Hey big guy. You’re going to get a stomach ache if you don’t slow down.” He’d never heard Suzanne try to make a joke before, and from the awkward tone in her voice, it sounded like she didn’t do it often enough to be any good at it.

  Isaiah must have been doing the statue thing for a while, because it startled Vince when he suddenly moved. He’d been watching Anthony, then looked like he wasn’t sure what to do with the bloody heart in his hand. He simply tossed it away from himself, the dead woman still on the ground at his feet. He looked at her in irritation as he stepped over her and sat on the edge of the bed.

  He ran a bloody hand over his son’s face, smoothing his hair out of his eyes. “Son. Anthony. Stop feeding. There are others here if you’re still hungry. Let the shifter go.”

  Anthony startled and snapped his eyes open wide, immediately pushing Torin’s wrist away. He lay there for a moment looking like he wasn’t sure what was going on, but when Kaia twitched, he fixated on her. “Kaia.” He rose up above her, faltering at first as his arm shook and threatened to cave beneath him. He sat up more fully then, and for all the world looked like the same in control, scary vampire he a
lways did, except for being a little bloody around the edges.

  He grabbed Kaia by the shoulders and lightly shook her. “My sweet. Can you hear me? Are you there?”

  Vince got a sinking feeling in his stomach, or maybe it was Anthony’s stress he was feeling. Either way, seconds ticked by where Kaia didn’t move again, which only upset Anthony even more.

  “Kaia!”

  She weakly opened her eyes and Anthony smiled in overwhelming relief. Vince wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Anthony smile before, and watching him get so choked up over Kaia made feel-good goosebumps race down his spine.

  He caressed her face and said with worry in his eyes, “My sweet. How do you feel?”

  “Anthony?”

  “Yes. I’m here.”

  She grimaced, then gasped, and then her night went to hell.

  **

  As Vince watched Kaia writhe and groan in pain, he marveled at how strange his life had become. Did he really want to trade all this in to go back to a normal, quiet, boring life where he didn’t feel as out of place as he did here?

  He wasn’t sure of anything anymore, only that this world was crazier than he’d ever imagined. And just as dangerous, though in a different way than he’d always been led to believe by his mom. Or maybe not.

  Zach, Sebastian, Benicio and a few other vampires took turns monitoring outside the room, and Vince even saw Benicio fly by the windows a couple times. They were on the second floor so any new attackers would also have to have the ability to fly, or else be really good at climbing to get in that way. Crazier things had happened here in Brookhaven, though, so he supposed it was better to be safe than sorry.

  A long time went by as Kaia trembled and shook and grunted in agony. She cried, and it was obvious that pain was wracking her body in a relentless way. “Help me. Please.”

  Anthony’s attention was half on her, half on his surroundings, fully aware now that there’d been an attempt on his life tonight. What a crappy thing to have to worry about during your wedding.