by Avin Vang
“What’s wrong with you?” Raven walked over to Matthias and helped him move his shirt out of the way. The surface of his pale skin was turning black. “Will that heal?”
“As soon as the sun comes up,” Matthias shrugged, “if I can make it that long. The wolves know that I am hurt. They will try to finish me off tonight, before my body can repair itself. The humans who saw the fight will try as well.”
“I would think humans would be afraid of you.”
“One human, yes, but this will be a mob.” The vampire had dealt with mobs before, but he needed to be at full strength before he could take on that challenge. “I need to find a way to sleep in secret. If I go back to the hotel, I will be killed tomorrow.”
Chapter 9
Raven
“I can’t believe we’re doing this.” Raven had never even been inside a mausoleum. Now she was pulling a body out of a coffin. “Are you sure you can’t do this?”
“I can’t be the one to throw the body out of the coffin,” Matthias explained with a shrug. Raven couldn’t believe this was happening. She was a grave robber. “Make sure you throw that body inside a coffin. Look for an older coffin, there will be more room if the body inside is decomposed.”
“How many times have you done this before?” Raven could tell just from the expression on his face that the number was high. She didn’t really need to know the actual number.
“Do you have your wand on you?” Matthias asked. Raven hadn’t walked out of her room without the wand since she started dating a vampire. She never knew when she was going to need it. She was very annoyed that Carrie and Ali hadn’t taught her any spells yet. She pulled out the wand. “Okay, now cast a confusion spell so people won’t recognize you.”
“Great idea!” Raven shouted and did a little jump as her excitement erupted. “How do I do that?”
“I don’t know, aren’t you the witch?”
“I don’t know how to be a witch,” Raven whined. “No one will show me how.” She raised her wand and thought about what she wanted it to do. Her wand seemed to move on its own and a smile spread across Matthias’s face.
“They won’t recognize you.”
“How does it look?” Raven asked, but Matthias’s face was already giving away the answer. His scrunched-up expression and shrugging shoulder wasn’t saying that it looked good. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s just…um, not you, you don’t look like you.” Matthias lay down inside the coffin.
Raven started looking for a place to put the dead body. It was heavy, but the building was literally filled with coffins. Raven looked for the oldest one. She dragged the body over to a low shelf with a coffin that was barely more than a pine box.
Lifting the lid carefully, Raven slid the body into the nearly empty box. Closing the lid, Raven couldn’t move fast enough as she exited the mausoleum. She didn’t stop running until she was back on a street that she remembered.
As she approached the hotel, she could see a large fire burning to the side of the building. Matthias’s coffin was burning, with Jenna and Martin tied up beside the fire. She didn’t know if they were going to be burned alive, or what was going to happen to them.
“Raven?” Ali asked as she pulled her friend out of the crowd. Raven nodded. “You need to get inside.” Ali seemed very impressed by the confusion spell. “I can’t believe that this is your first time. I only really recognized you by your clothes. No one else in the world would wear sneakers with that dress.”
Raven followed Ali back to their hotel room but stopped abruptly as she entered. “What are they doing here?” she asked, seeing Martin and Jenna no longer tied up and instead standing in the room.
“We gave them decoys,” Carrie explained as she watched the fire raging out the window. “They’re mannequins that we enchanted. Hopefully the spell holds up to the fire. Sometimes flames can get hot enough that they break the magical bonds. The villagers will come looking for us next.”
“That sounds like fun,” Raven thought that the sarcasm was clear, but it was evident from the stern looks that it was evading some people. “I was kidding.”
The rest of the night passed with the same sort of tension. Everyone was on edge, even after the mannequins were roasted. Their screams filled the night air, and the mob seemed to be satisfied. The crowd gradually thinned and cleared out.
“We need to get these guys out on the first train,” Carrie whispered loudly as she paced around the room. She was in a great deal of distress, and the whisper-screaming was a clear sign that she was right on the edge. “Anyone sees these guys and we are sunk.”
“Raven casts a mean confusion spell.” Ali took a shot as she finished speaking and then slammed the glass hard on the table. This was not the celebratory drinking that Ali was known for; she was clearly in distress as well. Raven felt like this was her fault, at least in part. She was the girl from the prophecy after all.
“I have to kill him,” Raven said the words quietly to herself. She was not ready to say them too loudly. She wasn’t even sure that she could do it. She just didn’t want to see anyone get hurt.
The first trains were leaving at 6 am, and Raven cast the spells. Jenna and Martin looked nothing like they had the moment before, and nothing like the figures that had burned the night before. As they left to catch their train, Raven started to get ready for the dig.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Carrie said as she put a hand on Raven’s shoulder. “You didn’t hear the wolves last night. They know that you’re a weak point for Matthias. They won’t hesitate to use you against him.”
“So what do I do?”
* * *
Raven stayed alone in the hotel room until the sun started to go down. Then she cast a spell on her face and put on clothes that she hadn’t worn yet on the trip. There was only one outfit, a fancier black dress that she had packed just in case.
The streets were fairly empty, but Raven moved quickly. She didn’t want to leave anything to chance. Things had gotten serious. She was trying to make it to the cemetery before the sun went down completely. If she could plunge the stake into Matthias while he was sleeping it would be better for everyone.
“I can do this,” Raven said as she pulled the lid off the coffin. “One quick motion, like a Band-Aid. This is a monster. You are saving lives.” Matthias’s eyes were closed and he looked so handsome. Raven tried to stab him, but couldn’t force her arms to lift the stake. Leaning down, she quickly kissed him on the lips one last time. “Okay.”
She closed her eyes, holding the stake in both hands. She figured this was her last chance. The sun had to be nearly down by now. She took a deep breath, the seconds ticking by, and then abruptly tossed the stake to the floor with an anguished moan. “I can’t do it.”
“And believe me there is no one more grateful than I.” Matthias’s eyes flicked open, the relief clear in them as he crawled out of the coffin. It was a tight fit on the small shelf. It hadn’t been designed with easy access in mind. He got to the ground and pulled Raven close to him.
“I have to kill you.” Tears trickled slowly down her face.
“I know.”
Matthias used his finger to lift Raven’s chin and bring her lips to his. They kissed deeply and passionately. Raven hadn’t stopped crying, but the nerves and emotions all knotted together and burst out of her in the form of passion. She grabbed the back of Matthias’s neck as they kissed, and let her fingers run freely through his hair.
Matthias pulled the dress over Raven’s head and tossed it onto the ground. Raven got to her knees and pulled on his pants, tugging them to the ground. Raven needed Matthias and she needed him immediately.
Gripping him firmly, Raven drove his cock to the back of her throat. She worked her way down as far as she could go. The strong hand on the back of her head drove Raven crazy with desire. Matthias’s moans were the only reward she needed. She wanted to please his weary soul.
Matthias bent down and lifted
her in his arms. Then he raised her up onto his shoulders and dug his tongue inside her. Raven grabbed Matthias’s head, but her energy became too frantic as his tongue moved faster and faster. The witch’s body twitched and convulsed in pleasure as the vampire held her firmly in place.
Lowering Raven from his shoulders, Matthias held the young woman in place as she guided his large shaft inside of her. Working her hips, enjoying the feeling of slowly enveloping the wide shaft, Raven wrapped her arms around Matthias’s shoulders and kissed him again.
Their tongues danced together as their bodies writhed and gyrated. Raven had never experienced anything like this in her life. There were so many things that she should be worried about, and so many reasons for her to never go near Matthias again. Raven knew she couldn’t kill the vampire. She wasn’t sure that she could ever live without him again.
Raven could feel her orgasm ripping through her body. Pulsing and throbbing, she cried out. Matthias stuffed three fingers into her mouth to try and stifle the noise. Raven sucked hungrily on the fingers and she could feel Matthias lose control as his cock started to throb inside of her.
They lay down on the dress, the only part of the floor that wasn’t covered in dirt. Raven looked into Matthias’s eyes and she could see that he was going to say something noble. She wasn’t ready to hear it. She put her finger over his mouth.
“I know, but not yet.”
The floor was dirty and covered in dead leaves and dust. It was like something out of a nightmare, but Raven couldn’t care less. The moment was too perfect to let little details ruin it. Raven laid her head on Matthias’s chest, trying to hold onto the moment for as long as she could. She didn’t know how many of these moments she had left.
“I thought you were going to stab me for a second there,” Matthias said as he sat up. Raven moaned as he pushed her up with him. She couldn’t believe that it was over. Real life was starting all over again.
“How much of that did you see?” Raven teared up as she pressed herself firmly against Matthias’s chest.
“From about the kiss, but I could hear your pep talk,” Matthias murmured. Raven’s eyes dropped to the ground. “No, it was fair. I assume my assistant and our student friend were murdered in the night.”
“My friends saved them.” Raven told Matthias about the fire and the mannequins. She told him about the trouble that he had caused in the town. Raven could see that it was weighing heavily on Matthias.
“I will leave,” Matthias sighed as Raven finished the story. It was exactly what Raven had expected to hear, but she wasn’t ready to hear it. Matthias was going to do the right thing, but Raven wasn’t sure if she could handle that.
“But you can’t, what about the prophecy?” Raven asked. “Won’t that mess everything up?”
“So you want to kill me?” Matthias was teasing Raven, but she couldn’t joke about anything. She didn’t understand how prophecies worked. She hadn’t believed in them, but once she found out there was magic in the world they suddenly seemed more real.
“Okay, so you can just ignore one part of the prophecy, why can’t you just take the castle back?” Raven paused, seeing it was a sore spot for the vampire. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that you couldn’t…I…”
“I can’t,” Matthias shrugged. “I walked in there once. It was a very long time ago now, but it was one of the most horrible experiences of my life.”
“Why?” Raven knew this was hard for Matthias to talk about, but she felt like she needed to understand. She was so new to the whole magical realm, and she just wanted to understand.
“If I have the ring my seat of power will charge my powers,” Matthias answered, and then he took a deep breath. It was as if it hurt him even to talk about this moment in his life. “When I walked in there without the ring, it had the opposite effect. I could feel my powers draining from me. It took me months to recover from the strain of making it out alive.”
“So, can we just walk away from all of this?” Raven wondered.
“The prophecy just says that you stop me, and you have stopped me,” Matthias leaned back against the wall of coffins. “I have thought about nothing else for so long, but I don’t care about my seat of power anymore.”
“Well, great, that’s that I guess,” Raven spoke softly. She was a little disappointed that he was willing to leave so easily. She wanted him to do the right thing, but she wanted him to fight for their relationship. Raven was kicking herself for getting so attached so quickly. They had barely known each other for a few days; what was she expecting? “Everything is settled.”
“Not really,” Matthias said as he wrapped his long fingers around Raven’s hand. “I am willing to leave, but I need you to come with me.”
“Of course!” Raven cried the words. The tears were flowing faster than she could wipe them. “Are we leaving right now?”
“We need to leave as soon as possible.”
Raven agreed. “I need to tell the others where I’m going.” She looked out at the town beyond the cemetery. She knew that it wasn’t safe, but she knew that she couldn’t just run out on Carrie and Ali.
Chapter 10
Matthias
“We’ll fly to the hotel, and then leave right from there,” Matthias decided, but he could see the look on Raven’s face. “Right, the villagers see us and they kill everyone.”
“I think we need to walk until we get out of town,” Raven shrugged as if to apologize for making sense. Matthias nodded his agreement, but he felt like it was a terrible idea to even try to go near the hotel. However, Raven needed to know that her friends were okay.
Matthias had never experienced anything like friendship or caring. This was his first experience caring for another. He didn’t know all the rules, but he wanted to make sure that Raven had everything she needed. If this was something that she needed then it was something that he had to do.
The spell made his face tingle. Raven seemed more confident in the use of her wand, and Matthias was happy that she was getting to use her powers. He was going to do everything that he could to help her grow into the powers she was destined to possess.
“Are you okay?” Raven asked as they prepared to leave the mausoleum.
“I’m just thinking,” Matthias said. “I think I’m ready.” He led the way as they headed out into the night. Raven took hold of his hand and they moved swiftly through the aisles of stone.
“That’s good.” Matthias knew the voice. “She should do parties and stuff. I didn’t even recognize my own brother at first.”
“Zdeno.”
“Did you think I would fall for that?” Zdeno laughed. “I was there in the crowd. I know you’re dating a witch. How did you think that was going to work?”
Matthias needed to know that Raven was safe. He took a quick scan of the area. Zdeno had all of the exits covered. They were going to have to fly. Matthias knew that Zdeno would be ready for that, so he had to make the move as fluid as possible. Grabbing for Raven too early would tip the wolves off and the whole plan would be over.
“Raven, put your hands up, we’re caught,” Matthias said as he put his arms up over his head. “We are not going to fight back.”
“What? You’re giving up?” Zdeno started to laugh. “You are really a huge disappointment. I was ready for a fight and here you are giving yourself up. I think I should just kill you anyway.”
“Just don’t kill Raven.” It was the look on Zdeno’s face that let Matthias know he had said the wrong thing. Zdeno was going to kill Raven and that was something that Matthias was not willing to allow. Matthias glared at Zdeno, and then whipped Raven up into the air.
Raven’s shoulder was nearly dislocated with the speed of his movement. The cracking sound made the vampire sick to his stomach. He had broken thousands of bones, but Raven’s discomfort was too much for him to bear. The wolves were taken by surprise, giving them time to flee the cemetery. Matthias set Raven down in an alleyway near the hotel.
“Meet me on
the roof of the hotel in an hour.”
“Where are you going?” Raven asked with terror in her eyes. “You can’t go after him.”
“He threatened you,” Matthias couldn’t stand for that. He knew that some day Zdeno would try to take Raven’s life and that was something that the vampire could not allow. The adoptive brothers had always made good on their promises and threats. Zdeno didn’t even need to say the words for Matthias to know what he meant. “I have to kill him now. We won’t truly be free unless he is gone.”
“I can’t lose you,” Raven pleaded. Matthias kissed the top of her head gently.
“One hour, and if I am not back, you leave without me,” Matthias almost choked on those words. “He will still go after you even if I am dead. I need you to tell me that you’re going to leave without me after one hour.”
Raven was crying, but she managed to get the words out. She was shaking her head ‘no’ but Matthias believed that she would keep her word. He just had to know she would be safe before leaving her. The vampire flew off high in the sky, but he kept his eyes on the alley as he rose, waving gently to Raven before turning and heading to the graveyard.
The wolves had split off. Zdeno was talking to Roman when Matthias landed in the cemetery’s tallest tree. The rustling of leaves was covered by a steady breeze blowing through. As soon as Roman ran off to join the others Matthias dropped down from the trees.
“Are you ready to finish this?”
“Just the two of us,” Zdeno laughed. “Let’s do it, brother.” Matthias knew that his wolf brother would be only too happy to oblige. Zdeno knew that he was at a disadvantage, but the wolf was never one to back down from a fight.
He was smiling as the fur and claws took over. Zdeno was an alpha wolf. Ten feet tall and covered in white fur, he made an imposing figure in the dim moonlight. Matthias was not going to be intimidated by that, but it had been a while since he had fought Zdeno. Before his rise to power he was a strong wolf, and now Matthias could only imagine the strength behind the massive paws.
