On the Far Side of Darkness
Page 26
Jim interrupts. “It wouldn’t have been good if we weren’t convinced, would it, Georges?”
“What makes you say that?” I ask in return.
“I keep an eye on the world, Georges. I’ve lived a long time and I’ve heard not even a rumor of thi…people like you. You must work hard to keep your existence from the world, and I’ll bet that the methods you use aren’t always kind.”
“You have the right of it. But your daughter and I don’t like to use those methods. We value human life. Furthermore, your daughter trusts you. Which is why we revealed ourselves.”
“Thank you, Georges.” he says. Jim ponders for a moment. “So what really happened?” is the question he asks next. “To you and my daughter?”
Diane and I start talking, leaving nothing out. I stop when it’s her turn to speak, she picks up the thread, hands it back to me when she’s done. It’s a single story we tell, not the same story from different perspectives.
We tell how we met, how we grew closer, how we fell in love. How what I am drew her into my world and how the conflict that came to me almost destroyed her.
Lilly’s features blank with horror as I talk of that, her eyes tear and she grabs her husband’s hand tightly. “A mage?” asks Jim, astonishment and fear in his voice. “There are actually people who use magic?”
“Yes,” I reply. “They are very rare. Even rarer than our kind. It’s hard to tell, though. They, from what I’ve learned, are as careful to hide as we are.” I go on telling of how my conflict finished, but I leave out some of the darker parts. I don’t want to create a new breach between my love and her parents.
“Thank you, Georges,” says Lilly as I finish. “Our daughter as a slave would have been too much for us.”
“Don’t. It was my fault, the reason I left her.”
“Why do you say that, Georges?” Jim queries.
My love and I start talking of what happened after. I fled to Paris, she fled into herself. We both became empty people wandering through our lives. I tell of how I realized I needed her, how I had people find her and how I sent for her. Diane speaks of her journey to where I was, of us meeting again and of the conflict that once more befell us. We speak of me rescuing her and how it revealed what I am to her. She tells of the break this disclosure caused, her struggle to accept her discovery, and her eventual reconciliation with me. I speak of my offer and her agreement to it.
“I see,” remarks Jim. “It seems you’re often in trouble, Georges. You were afraid of my daughter being hurt by it.”
“Oui. Even here, we had a small conflict.”
“Oh?”
“Georges and I encountered Dwayne on the way here,” my love informs them. “They picked the wrong people to start a fight with.” Her mouth shapes into a satisfied smile.
Jim and Lilly blink at us for a second. “I guess I’m not going to be grounding you any more am I, young lady?” her dad remarks. His eyes twinkle with humor.
“No, Dad,” Diane grins back, “you’re not.”
We all chuckle for a moment.
I pick up our tale. “That shows one of the reasons I asked Diane to join me. If we had encountered Dwayne and his cronies while she was still human it might not have turned out well. I might not have been able to protect her. I had been lucky the other times. Now she can protect herself.” I smile and lift her hand to mine to kiss, “and she did very well at it too.”
Diane squeezes my hand lovingly.
“The other reason, Georges?” is Jim’s next question.
“How would you feel, Jim, if you were immortal and Lilly was not? What would your feelings be knowing she was going to fade from your life and there was no hope of her returning?”
He swallows and grimaces in pain. Lilly brings her other hand up, Jim also, and they grip each other tightly. “I’m not sure I could stand it,” he says, his voice thin and bleak.
“Nor could I. Now Diane and I will never be apart.”
“And Dad,” Diane interjects, “Georges told me everything before he changed me. I knew just what I was getting into. It was scary, but not half as scary as the thought of losing him.” She leans towards me, wraps her free arm around my stomach and huddles close.
“Have you…?” Lilly starts to ask. Her face is fearful of the answer she’ll receive.
“Fed on people?” my lady replies. “Yes I have, Mom. But I haven’t killed anybody. I only need to feed. I don’t need to kill.”
I do nothing to give away the fact that my Diane is lying. Her parents need to know, but they don’t need to know everything.
Her mother’s expression lightens a little. “Are you happy, honey?” is her next question.
“More than I’ve ever been, Mom.”
“Moi aussi,” I add.
Both her parents form a content smile at that statement. “Then we’re happy for you, honey,” her dad says. “That’s all we’ve ever wanted for you.”
We sit quietly for a while, each of us wrapped around the person we love. This is a time when being with the most important person in your existence is a great comfort.
Jim yawns, Lilly a second later. I check the clock, it’s only a couple of hours until dawn. Our stories have filled the night.
“You’d better get to bed,” Diane tells them. “Sorry we kept you up so late.”
“No, honey,” Lilly returns. “We should have asked. We should have trusted you. But you had changed so much we were frightened. We’re sorry for that.”
“Then consider that our mistakes cancel each other out,” I say. “We’re even and start with a clean slate.” They smile and incline their heads in agreement.
We stand and they escort us to the door. Lilly hugs her daughter and myself in turn. Jim shakes my hand and then embraces my love. “You’re always surprising us, honey,” he says.
“I surprise myself, Dad,” she replies with a warm smile.
“I guess we’ll see you tomorrow night?” Lilly asks. Her face is a rich melange of emotions. Happiness and love are mixed with confusion and sorrow. She blinks tears free from her eyes.
“You will, Mom. Good night.”
“Bon nuit,” I add.
“Night, folks,” Jim finishes. “See you tomorrow.” Diane and I step out and her father closes the door behind us.
We walk to our vehicle and enter. As I close the door, Diane lets me go and heads towards the living area at the back. I follow a step behind.
She stops and whirls to face me, with her mask down. The being she really is shows. There is an expression shaping her features I never expected to see when the monster is revealed. It’s there, the sharp angles, the unreal beauty, the sinister eyes. But her face contains a cold bleakness. “Love me, Georges,” she demands, her voice reedy and trembling.
I let my facade fade, and I smile. The smile I’ll always give her regardless of the aspect I display. The one that shows how much she means to me.
The corners of her mouth lift ever so little. She spreads her arms.
Stepping into them I wrap her in my embrace, bend my head and take her sweet lips. I kiss her hard, the passion that fills me heating my soul. I draw her tight, pull in a breath and moan.
Diane reciprocates. Her tongue sweeps along the slit of my mouth. I open and let her in. She teases, pokes, plays with my fangs. Pushing back I run into her mouth. We bounce our tongues back and forth faster and harder.
I grab her lovely ass in my hands, lift her up so we’re eye to eye. She crosses her legs behind me to press herself into my stomach. Our bodies can’t react, but our souls feel the lust this action creates. We dig our fingers into each other.
She pulls back and I see a wonder. Her features are those of the vampire, but her eyes are human, sea green and warm with the lustful sparkle I know so well. “Get naked, love,” Diane demands. “I want to feel your skin against mine.” She lets me go, steps back and begins removing her clothes.
I pull desperately at my own. At this moment, I can’t bear to be
away from her. My body needs the touch of her as well.
Diane stands now, naked, and so beautiful. Slim, firm, white skinned and so nicely shaped. She lies on her back, spreads open. “Love me, Georges. I need you more than ever now.”
As always, I answer her call. I kneel between her legs, drape myself over her. My kiss is passionate.My hands roam overhear skin as I rub myself against her labia. My equipment may not work but I don’t care. The feel of her fills me, makes my mind burn. It’s a joy, a pleasure, an addiction. I feel like I had never touched a woman before I had touched her.
She sucks at my tongue, plays her digits across my back, pumps her hips. Diane makes little squeaks, an occasional moan. Her lust is apparent in her frantic actions.
We play, stroke, tease. For many minutes we show how much we want each other.
“Now Georges,” she gasps, “now.” She leans her head to the right exposing herself.
I place my mouth on her neck and my fangs penetrate. I don’t suck, just let the thin trickle of her blood run over my tongue. The taste of it tells me so much.
Her fangs penetrate my shoulder and my passion, my love, blanks any perception save that communicated through my love’s blood.
At first, her flavor is almost flat, the emptiness of despair the strongest component. It’s mixed with the delicious foulness of her basic nature. Little bursts of ecstasy, joy and love dance through the fluid.
Diane fills her lungs, releases it with a languorous noise that I know is my name. Her limbs pull me tight and she shivers against me.
Her savor changes slowly. The bursts fade less rapidly, spread out, fill the vacuum of her melancholy. Step by step, her emptiness vanishes, her darkness is pressed back. Finally I can taste little more than the sweet delight of her love.
It makes me clutch at her hard. I feel a peace I have never known in my dark existence.
It takes some will power but I manage to pull myself from her throat. Diane withdraws her fangs, relaxes and gives a happy sigh. We lie there for a while. We don’t sweat or pant as humans do after they make love. Our feelings are the same. We’re filled with the tranquil bliss of lovers, a delicate and strong emotion drawn forth by the other’s happiness.
“J’taime, Georges,” she whispers in my ear.
“I love you, Diane,” I return.
Dawn approaches. Without a word we stand and shutter our vehicle’s windows. We close up our sleeping area, spoon on our bed.
“I think we should go tomorrow,” my beautiful lady tells me.
“As you wish.”
* * * *
Her parents take the news well.
As soon as we give it, Diane and I turn to exit her childhood home. Her parents follow and the four of us pause on the porch to face each other.
Jim’s face is nearly blank, his mouth is a straight, thin line. The ends twitch at moments, up then down. His eyes glisten at the corners. Lilly’s face is drawn tight, her eyes shine and her lips quiver.
She lets go of her husband’s hand, steps forward to embrace her daughter. Diane returns the tight hug. Lilly loosens her arms, moves to me and repeats her gesture. I hug her back. It’s very rare to receive such an honest gesture from a human.
Diane’s mother releases me and steps back. “I’m very pleased to have met you, Georges,” she says. Lilly reaches out to take her daughter’s hands. “You’ll keep in touch?”
“Of course, Mom.”
Lilly turns to me once more. “Loo… Loo…” she stammers, her voice strangled with emotion. Then her face scrunches and she flees into her house.
Jim looks after her, his face pensive and hurting. He faces me and extends his hand. I take it to share a firm handshake.
“Look after my daughter,” he asks, finishing his wife’s request.
“With my own existence if need be,” I tell him with all honesty.
He smiles a quirky expression of acceptance, wonder and loss. Shaking his head Jim says, “It’s so strange. To learn this late in life about people like you and my daughter, to pass her to a place I never knew existed.” He looks into my eyes and his own are full of respect. “To ask a person from that dark place to care for her and know that he will.”
I smile, nod my head and we open our hands.
Jim goes to his daughter and gives her a warm squeeze. “We love you, sweetie. Never doubt that.”
“I know, Dad.”
They step away from each other. Diane reaches for my hand and I accept it.
“Good bye, Dad.”
“Adieu,” I add.
“Good bye,” is his reply. A single tear trickles from his left eye. Head erect, shoulders square, he turns and goes into his home.
Diane and I head for our RV, hearing the quiet click of the door shutting behind us as we go.
“I think you should drive, Georges,” Diane tells me as she climbs into the passenger’s seat.
That raises an eyebrow. But I do as she requests, go to the driver’s door and start us up.
Carefully, I drive the RV to the end of the lane leading to the road. Mentally flipping a coin, I turn left and head west. For ten minutes I concentrate on driving while snatching an occasional glance at my love.
She simply stares out the window, not moving.
“Stop!” comes the sudden demand from her. I pull to the shoulder and turn off the engine. Darkness surrounds us as the headlight beams vanish.
Diane crosses to me, sits on my lap and hugs me hard. I pull her close, lay my cheek against her head. We hold there for a minute.
“I was wrong, Georges,” she tells me then.
“About what?” I query.
“I didn’t come back to re-connect. I came back to say goodbye.”
I squeeze her tight at that statement.
She pulls back, her mask gone. “I’m a vampire now, Georges. I no longer have a place in the human world. I know that now.
“And I’m glad,” she finishes.
A “Hmm?” of curiosity comes from me.
“I hadn’t realized until last night. Remember I said Carol wasn’t what I was looking for?”
“Oui.”
“It’s been that way all my life. Some part of me knew the world wasn’t for me. I think that’s why my sex life was with women. I knew men weren’t for me. But I was never happy with women either.
“When I met you that changed, you became part of my life so quickly. I was so drawn to you. I fell in love without even trying.”
I grin a wide happy smile at that. We lean forward and give our special kiss.
Diane pulls back again. Her face may be that of our kind but an entirely human joy fills it.
“When you made your offer to me, when you made me what I am, I had little doubt. It was frightening, but it was right. There’s been moments when I wasn’t sure.” She makes her wry smile. “Well, a little longer as the last couple of months showed, but I didn’t want to go back. I was where I belonged. Where it counts, in my heart, I was the person I was meant to be, and with the person I was meant to be with.”
Our mouths reconnect. It feels like the first time we kissed. We cuddle, rejoicing in our triumph.
“I love you, Georges,” she says finally.
“J’taime, Diane,” I tell her.
She climbs from my lap, jerks her thumb over her shoulder. “Out of the seat, buddy. You drive like an old man.” Her mask is back. Her eyes twinkle with humor and her mouth grins.
I grin back, put up my facade and rise to my feet. “Children these days,” I grumble playfully, “no respect for their elders.” We change seats and Diane starts the engine.
“Where to?” she asks.
Leaning over I place my left hand over her right. “Where ever you want. The world is yours now, my beautiful lady.”
She smiles. “Las Vegas. It should be fun.”
I nod my agreement, she steps on the gas and we head into our future.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
F
irst of all, as always, I wish to thank my lovely wife, Deanna Graham. She keeps me grounded and gives me the nudges I need to keep working. She is the crutch I lean on.
I’d like to thank Suzan Butler for the absolutely gorgeous cover. She did a great job of bringing Georges and Diane into life. As it were.
And finally, thanks so much to all the proof readers who helped me polish this work until it shone.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Foreword
Abyss
Black
Embrace
Setting Out
First Hunt
Prey
You Can’t Go Home
Acknowledgements
My Places on The Web
R. C. Graham’s Biography
Where to find R. C. Graham on The Web
Website
Facebook
Goodreads
R. C. Graham’s Biography
R. C. Graham likes creating things. Whether it was building sand castles as a child, playing Dungeon Master as a teenager, programming computers as a young adult and now writing in middle age bringing new, beautiful and exciting things into existence is R. C.’s greatest joy.
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Table of Contents
Copyright
Kindle Edition, License Notes
Foreword
Abyss
Black
Embrace
Setting Out
First Hunt
Prey
You Can’t Go Home
Acknowledgements
Where to find R. C. Graham on The Web
R. C. Graham’s Biography