“They were right,” she whimpered. “He was bitten by something. I’ll bet it lives right here. What if it finds us?”
David was already backing away from Ben’s sleeping form. He was scared, but he did not want to upset Beth any further.
“Don’t worry,” he said, “no one will find—” David stopped mid-sentence.
He and Beth had turned around to walk out and saw a young man standing in front of them. David assumed he had come out of the room that they had passed when they entered.
He was in his twenties by David’s reckoning with wild hair and eyes that looked like he had been living in the wilderness for years. His clothes were commonplace and looked much like what David and everyone else wore: the same shades of off-white and brown. The stranger also held a sword and scabbard at his side, as if protecting it, but unlike someone surprised by strangers in his house, he held a smirk on his face as if he found this strangely amusing.
The color drained from their faces as they looked upon this person whose house they had invaded and who, despite his smaller build than Ben’s, had apparently gotten the better of Ben last night. “I found you,” was all the stranger said before David and Beth screamed and ran as fast as they could out of the cave.
* * * * * * * * * *
Rufus watched with rapt amusement as the young couple ran out of his cave. He knew they had come looking for the one he had taken last night, but also wondered why they were out so late. It was his understanding that the town had declared an after dark lockdown. He chuckled.
Ben rolled over with a drunken loll to him and looked at Rufus. Rufus rolled his eyes. Somehow, this man still had enough alcohol in his system to be hung over, and he wondered if the old man would even be worth taking back to his superiors.
“What’s going on?” Ben asked, trying to prop himself up.
“Oh, shut up, you old fool,” Rufus scowled. Ben lay down and rolled back over.
Rufus looked back after the couple that had just run away. The sun had gone down, and he was free to go out again. There was a chance he could catch one of them before they disappeared inside for the night.
* * * * * * * * * *
David and Beth ran steadily all the way back into town until they reached Beth’s house, a simple white two story house shaped much like a box with a roof. They stood on the porch panting and looked behind them.
“Do you think he followed us?” Beth asked.
David scanned the town behind them. Beth’s house was set back behind a row of houses on the southwest side of town that could look directly into the town square, but from that vantage point, nothing had stirred behind them.
The door slammed open behind them. The pair screamed and jumped back. They looked up into the face of a large balding man with a frown on his no-nonsense face and a huge build to back it up. He glared angrily at both of them, and they shrank back accordingly.
“Outside at night alone with a young man? Young lady, you’d better have an explanation,” the man shouted. Beth’s father, Patrick Carpenter, was one of the largest men in town with a legendary temper, and tonight, his temper was more than justified. David feared him, which was another reason he had delayed requesting Beth’s hand, but tonight, he needed to tell what he had seen.
“Sir, we found Ben Thurman,” he said frantically. “He had marks on his neck.” David placed two fingers on his neck in the approximate location of Ben’s puncture wounds. David looked into Patrick’s face and found that Patrick’s expression had not changed. In fact, he seemed to be rather unsympathetic to the entire ordeal.
“David,” Patrick began cynically, “while this discovery is a commendable feat, there is currently a law against being outside at night!” Patrick’s voice had risen to a shout while he spoke.
“But,” Beth began, but her father cut her off. David’s mind searched for something to say.
“Not another word,” Patrick continued, his voice continuing to boil over in anger. “This situation is highly improper, and I’ve half a mind to—”
“Sir, I’d like to marry your daughter,” David spouted. Maybe that was not the phrase he intended, but Patrick’s angry tirade stopped dead in its tracks.
Patrick’s eyes and mouth opened very wide as his gaze centered on David’s face. Beth stared at David, her own expression a mixture of shock and pleasure through the dirt that still rested on her face. David wondered blankly if Patrick would just kill him now and never tell anyone about the incident at all.
Patrick’s mouth closed and his eyes narrowed. David was frozen. Patrick nodded, and maybe some of that anger had melted away, but David could not be sure. Patrick’s moods were a little hard to decipher.
“Beth,” Patrick said with an eerie calmness, “go inside the house and wash. We’ll discuss your part in this in a moment.”
Beth lowered her head in a nod and complied without another word to either one of them. David watched her go but then noticed Patrick’s glare had returned. David’s eyes were locked like a victim to a serpent. Patrick appeared to be gathering his thoughts, and likely, they would be much more under control than David’s random outburst of desire for his daughter. Not the best sort of thing to say after being out alone with her illegally at night, he thought.
“Your declaration changes little,” Patrick finally said. “I will be discussing all of this with your father tomorrow, and I would recommend he find out from you before he finds out from me.”
David nodded. “Yes, sir,” he said. He expected that he would do well just to walk in through the front door when he returned instead of crawling back through the window as he usually did.
“And if you expect me to allow you to marry my daughter, Mr. Taylor,” Patrick began.
Oh no, David thought, here it comes. Had he completely ruined his chances with Beth? Would Patrick use this situation to take all hope of Beth’s hand from him forever?
“I expect you to follow the rules,” Patrick continued. “I will not have a son-in-law who breaks the law.” Patrick softened. “Now go home. It sounds like you’ve already learned how dangerous it can be.”
“Yes, sir,” David said. Patrick closed the door behind him.
David stood alone for a moment on the front porch of the Carpenter house. He heaved a sigh of relief. For the moment, it seemed that he might still have a chance with Beth, and her father would undoubtedly bring all this up when he spoke with his father tomorrow. They would be in a heap of trouble for being out late together, and probably just as much for keeping their apparent courtship a secret since that was bound to come up at some point. But it no longer mattered. It was out in the open … finally.
With a spring in his step, David jumped off the porch and walked across the town square towards his house on the west side of town. He gazed at the stars overhead looking down upon him. He loved the night. Everything was so peaceful and quiet – not like the insanity of the daytime. He breathed in the cool night air. With an exhale, he looked forward again and then stopped dead in his tracks.
The wild young man stood directly in front of him watching him with that same amused expression he had had earlier.
“Who…” David stuttered. “Who are you?”
“You are a curious little chap, aren’t you?” the man said. “First, you invade my home, then I get questions. Who are you?”
“David … Taylor” David stammered.
“Well, David Taylor, I’m Rufus, a special emissary to Hauginstown from the Order of Tepish,” Rufus finished with a flourish.
David only stared. The order of what? He felt rooted to the ground. Rufus approached him until he was standing very close to David. He leaned down as if to tell David something very special.
“I’m here to reward your curiosity with eternal servitude to the Elrod Malnak of the Order of Tepish in order to combat the Rastem insurrectionists.” Rufus continued.
David looked at him, thoroughly confused. He had no idea what most of what Rufus had just told him meant, much les
s the words he used. He barely had any time to process this when Rufus knocked him to the ground.
Rufus pulled something out of a satchel on his belt. Moonlight glinted off its shiny surface. David had never seen anything like it before, and he could not even begin to imagine what it did. Then Rufus stabbed its dual prongs into David’s neck, and David realized numbly that this was what created the wounds on Ben.
Rufus leaned down close to him. “Welcome to the family,” he said.
Burning.
The fire spread from the puncture wounds in David’s neck rapidly through his body. It was as if the very blood in his veins had been set on fire from the inside out. Tears welled up in David’s eyes uncontrollably as the sensation spread down his arms and legs right out to his fingers and toes. He hyperventilated. The burning reached his head, and he convulsed on the ground.
Was that laughing? David struggled to open his eyes and look through the tears. Rufus, the maniac who had done this to him, was laughing. He was enjoying what he had done. David’s eyes snapped shut as the searing pain traveled into the center of his body. He felt like flames would break free of his skin at any moment. The pain was intense.
Was this the end of him? Was his life going to end now on the verge of what was going to be the beginning of his life with Beth? His body would not be able to endure this much longer. He regretted going out tonight. He was sorry he had gone into the cave. And he was going to pay for his sins with his life.
He searched for any sound. Any cry that could escape his mouth to plead for the help that he knew would not come.
This is what had happened to Ben, and this Rufus was the demon that had leaned over him. Ben had experienced this last night, and no one came to help him. It would not matter what David did. No help would come. Everyone would abandon him as they had Ben. Was old Whitt watching now? What would become of him? Ben had not died. Where would Rufus take him?
The questions raced through his head in seconds as the flames took hold of his heart. The pain felt like it had suddenly exploded beyond reason and beyond comprehension. David found his voice. He breathed in two lungs full of air in more of a gasp as the pain held him firm in its grasp. The last thing David heard was a scream like he had never heard from him or anyone else in his life. It broke free from his lungs and echoed across the night. Tears streamed as he heard it and still knew that he was lost.
Then everything went black. The pain was gone.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Underground
David’s joints ached. He groaned as he tried to move his limbs. Everything was sore like he had fallen asleep in an unnatural position. He did not feel like opening his eyes yet. The nightmare remained so vivid that he just needed to sleep it off. No, wait. He never got back home. Maybe he never left. Maybe he did go to bed last night and dreamt the whole thing. That was it. After all, none of it was possible anyway.
That would mean he would have to apologize to Beth for leaving her all alone last night. He wondered how long she must have waited for him to show up, but he never did. She would be upset. David groaned and rolled over, pulling the covers up around him.
Wait a minute, he thought. The bed didn’t feel right. The bedclothes didn’t feel right either. He thought hard, still refusing to open his eyes, fearing that everything he had seen… He tried to sort out what would prove this to him one way or another before he opened his eyes to face whatever was out there.
He remembered going with Beth to the old mill. She had fallen through the floor. They were in a cave where they found Ben. He did not smell dirt right now, so he figured he probably was not in the cave. They ran home where he made an idiot of himself in front of her father. He was not afraid to admit that. He walked across the square when…
It occurred to him. He knew that there was something tangible he could use to prove to himself that it really happened. He hoped— No, he knew that what he would be looking for would not be there. He bent his arm and touched his collarbone. Slowly, he ran his hand back along his neck to feel for…
His heart dropped. There they were. It was impossible but also undeniable. He could feel them. Two scabbed wounds.
With a gasp, David sat up. He looked around the room. It was plain with a combination of wooden and dirt walls, a bed, a nightstand with a lamp, a single door, and no windows. David looked back at the lamp. He leaned in close to find that the light within it was just like the light in the lamp he had seen in the cave with Beth. He hyperventilated as the fear and realization of the situation came upon him. Where was he? What was he doing here?
The door opened and an old man stood in the doorway. He was dressed all in black in a style that David had never seen. The fabric was well worn but made extremely well so that whatever its age, it looked good. Looking to the man’s face, David could see some years lay on him, but despite the man’s apparent age, he looked like someone who could not be reckoned with. David panicked and moved away from him, falling off the bed. Not missing a beat, David stood and moved into a corner of the room.
“Who are you? Where am I? What do you want with me?” David said still shrinking into the corner away from the man in the doorway.
The man did not move towards him but only put up his hands. “My name is Zechariah,” he said. “Just relax; I’m here to help you.”
“What did you do to me?” David demanded, still not moving from his corner.
“Last night, you were injected with a serum that altered your physiology,” Zechariah explained. “You are now a Fempiror.”
“A what?” David had never heard this word before either. It sounded like “vampire,” but after the slew of words thrown at him last night by the other person, this Zechariah was spewing strange words as well. How would he make sense of it all? Would he even need to? This seemed about as unlikely as Barliman Whitt’s demon story.
“Vampire?” David asked with his best guess.
“Fempiror,” Zechariah said again. “One word descended from the other. The serum does give us characteristics similar to the vampire of mythology, but you will find the Fempiror quite different from the myth you know.”
“I’ll die before I drink anyone’s blood,” David said. He still had trouble believing it, but he had to say it.
“And no one expects you to drink anyone’s blood,” Zechariah assured him.
David relaxed a little. “Oh,” was all he managed. He felt a little foolish jumping to such a conclusion.
“I think you’ll find that a lot of mythology is simply that,” Zechariah continued. “As of now, you are no longer human, so you will have to adjust to a new style of life.”
Wait. What? This made no sense. How could he be no longer human? He felt the same as he had before. Despite the burning sensation he experienced last night, he felt no different today. If he was different somehow, he would figure it out and deal with it later.
“When can I go home?” he asked.
“You can’t,” Zechariah replied curtly.
David was confused. “Why not?” he asked.
“It’s a violation of the Rastem Code,” Zechariah replied. “Also, the human world lives in the sunlight, and that will kill you.”
David just stared at Zechariah. It was one thing for him to wake up in a strange place with a strange person who tells him he is no longer human. But this stranger not allowing him to go home was a little too much. If something happened to him, he needed to tell his family what happened. And even if this code will not allow him to stay, this man should at least allow him to say good-bye. None of this made any sense to him.
“I don’t…” he began to say, “understand,” but the words failed him. He sighed and looked at the floor, his mind continuing to reel from all this.
“What is your name?” Zechariah asked. David just realized the question never came up, but then, he had been controlling the conversation and he had not given Zechariah the chance to ask.
“David Taylor,” he answered.
“I know this is ha
rd, David,” Zechariah said, sounding very reassuring again.
David scoffed. If he knew, then he should allow David to go home.
Zechariah continued, “You won’t like me for this part, but I am a Rastem, and the Code commands that I protect you. I will not allow you to hurt yourself or anyone else, so don’t try to leave. Trust me on this.”
David shrugged. He wants me to trust him, David thought sarcastically. David felt kidnapped, and this old man wants his trust. If he went home, he would not hurt anyone.
“Get some rest,” Zechariah said. “We have a long night ahead of us.” With that, Zechariah left the room and David to his thoughts.
David wondered what he meant by having a long night ahead of them. Of course, he was supposedly a night dweller at this point, or so the old man said, but how does he know?
His family and friends should be safe for him, right? He was suddenly uncertain. After all, nobody came to protect him last night. Rufus attacked him, David even screamed, and yet, this old man was able to take him away from town. And unless Zechariah fought his way out, no one stopped him at all.
David realized he was alone. He was missing just like Ben was, but wherever this was, it was not the cave where he had found Ben. Was this old man Rufus’ associate? Was this where Rufus took his victims eventually?
He had to get out of here, but he knew he had to wait until the old man would not be watching. But would that time come? He had no idea where he was, nor would he know the way out once he got past the door. He did not even know if the townspeople would accept him once he got there. Were they even worried? He did not know.
He sat back down on the bed and considered all of these things over and over. Could he get out? Was it worth going home? What if the old man was right? He stared at the floor and closed his eyes. A tear crept out and fell to the floor.
* * * * * * * * * *
David was not sure how much time had passed before he tried to leave. He quietly opened the door to his room and looked out. Outside his room appeared to be the heart of the house. A large, modestly furnished, single room served as a living area with the kitchen and dining areas on the far side of it. Along the walls on one side were two more doors and a hallway that led away from him near the dining area.
The Awakening (The Fempiror Chronicles Book 1) Page 6
