Love and Bloodlust: The Sacred Objects

by Melinda Clark

  “We were told on that day that God would choose the bounty that was most worthy. Well not God specifically but that he would guide the village leader’s hand, who happened to be my father. Initially, I had my suspicions that my father would lean toward his personal preference rather than wherever God’s hand would lead him, but I had brushed my doubts aside, knowing that God and everyone else would see the hard work it took all season to reap the harvest. This year, in particular, my lovely wife had helped me until her fair skin nearly burned each day. She wanted to help me feel the pride that would come with being chosen. She never really did anything for herself.”

  “On a side note, unlike that disgusting backwoods bible version, I did not marry my sister. The Earth was not as sparse at the time as they made it out to be. Aayla was a daughter of a chieftain from a neighboring settlement. She was very stubborn, but supportive. She radiated goodness. She would do anything for me, and I adored her so. She was the kind of strong-willed woman you would want by your side.”

  “When you said I reminded you of her…” Avery interrupted.

  “Yes, I meant my long-departed wife,” Cain moved to sit on the bed across from the fireplace and made himself comfortable. “On that fateful day, late into the evening, the moon rose orange. My beautiful Aayla helped me bring a handful of each crop to the base of the mountain where the ritual was to take place. I remember she gave me great words of encouragement. My siblings brought their goods and foragings. The last one to show up was, of course, my brother Abel. He had waited until the last moment to kill and clean one of the lambs he herded; supposedly his favorite one.”

  “Anyway, I couldn’t believe he spent his year lazing in the shade just to bring one measly little lamb to the offering. It’s like he didn’t even care to be chosen. My father approached the altars and fell into a trance, channeling the hand of God. He mumbled in words we couldn’t understand and started laying his hands upon the offerings as we all watched in anticipation. His shaking limbs settled on my crop. I felt overwhelmed. I would be chosen and finally, be seen in his eyes as worthy. But no sooner did I think this, those hands mercilessly shoved my offerings to the dirt below. Father’s hand came to settle on the freshly killed lamb, and he announced it was most worthy in God’s eyes. It was a low blow to my ego, but my wife was there with a gentle hand on my crushed heart.”

  “As was tradition, that lamb was the center of the great feast in the village that night. Little did I know that the contest we had meant more than just the chosen favorite by God that year, but the winner was to take my father’s place as leader. It was a position of importance and power, and back then things did not automatically go to the eldest son.”

  Avery was beginning to grow impatient the longer she listened to this. She knew where it was heading, but it was like he had a hold on her attention. As if she couldn’t look away from those dark, entrancing eyes. “Let me guess, you didn’t kill him over jealousy but for power,” she casually remarked.

  “Hold on now, I am getting to the justifiable homicide part. Are you growing weary of my story? Or is it your lady hormones I’m sensing?”

  “What the hell are you….” Avery fumed, unable to finish as Cain placed the bitter-tasting gag back in her mouth.

  He smiled pleasantly, “Now where was I…Ah, yes. So my brother was to be village leader in my father’s stead when old age finally took him over. But that didn’t bother me so much as certain powers that came with being leader. One of which being that he could take whomever he wanted as his wife. And I knew for a fact he fancied mine.” Cain gauged her reaction comically. “Shocking, right? Can he do that? Why yes, back then he could. Was I going to let him? Hell no.”

  Avery miffed a response through her gag.

  “I agree. So after the feast that night, I confronted my arrogant brother about it. He refused to back down from his choice. I was seething. He didn’t deserve her, nor his new position. I mean, what was so much better about killing an animal as opposed to the time and backbreaking effort I did to have a fruitful crop? Then it came to me as the color I saw before my eyes; blood. Blood was the difference. I’d give him blood. All that he could handle and more…”

  Cain trailed off a moment. His eyes seeming bottomless as he was lost in thought, no doubt recalling how he killed his own brother. It kind of frightened her. He snapped back to his fake, cheery demeanor. “So yes, as that biblical mumbo jumbo as you so nicely called it stated, I did end up using a stone to finally finish him. Yes, it was a crime of passion. But my brother was not so pure as depicted; it was not so black and white. Was it the first murder? Goodness no. We killed animals to eat and killed people to protect others. But what I did was special, as it was forbidden to kill one’s own kin.”

  He stood up from the bed and paced over to the fireplace, peering into the licking flames. “The worst part was when my father found me out, he couldn’t even act angry with me. No, the pure sadness and pity in his eyes were much worse than any anger he could conjure. It disgusted me. As my other brothers held me down to burn marks on my chest and brand me a murderer, I told my father I wished it was him instead. Being branded showed the world not only what I had done, but that I was damned, never to be forgiven. I was thusly exiled from my homeland. In great surprise, I reached the edge of the forest to find my wife there; packed and ready to come with me. I tried to make her stay, to save herself from the coming hardships, but she hadn’t cared what I had done and proclaimed she would stay by my side forever. We were now true wanderers upon the earth; fugitives with nowhere to go. It was a tough existence, even more so when I found out my wife was pregnant with our firstborn.”

  “That was when my thoughts became most desperate. Once the words ‘I would sell my soul for’ spilled openly from my mouth, he was there; a pale, but beautiful man in dark robes. Little did I know at the time that this was the Morningstar himself. We made a deal: my soul for the means to build a city and rule it myself. I always wondered if I was damned to hell anyway, why did he want to make the agreement? I was told there was no redemption for my soul after killing my brother. So at the time, it seemed like I was getting the better end of the deal; ‘joke’s on this guy,’ kind of thing.”

  Cain walked in front of her and opened his shirt, revealing his pale, chiseled form and the scrolls on the side of his chest. “My burns of shame had been replaced with these tattoos as a mark of the covenant I made. We came upon a land called Nod where resources were plentiful and started construction of the city. Not long before completion, my wife bore me a son; I called him Enoch. I had never felt so much pride and love before seeing his little face. He was my greatest treasure at the time, and I decided to name my city after him.”

  “All was well for years. More children came. Soon enough, my first son had finally left the nest. I thought it was to be this way for the rest of my life; I would grow old and be a grandparent, enjoying my life before I expired and my soul was collected by Lucifer. That was not to be.”

  Avery rolled her eyes. Now he’s getting annoying. Like someone who likes to listen to themselves talk. Or maybe because he had been silent for a couple hundred years now. Either way, she calmed herself, hoping to gain some insight. Hoping he would let slip something she could use against him.

  “My first death came just before the age of forty. I was stabbed by a coward who wanted all I possessed. But I did not wake in hell. Instead, I woke on the floor of my chambers to find the coward still rummaging through my goods. Strangely, the pain was gone though my blood still freshly pooled around me. I saw red once again: not only seeing blood but hearing it, feeling it and having a craving to spill his. He hadn’t noticed me getting off the floor until it was too late. I ripped his throat out with my teeth. Aayla had come in to see what all the sound was about and gasped when she saw the blood. She looked from the man’s corpse to me, noticing the wound in my gut. She ran to me, and I froze in horror as she studied my skin, which was now mostly healed over. Did she see the blood dripp
ing from my mouth? What would she think happened here? But surely if my love could stand by a killer of their own kin, she could stay this time too, as I was clearly…something else.”

  “And I was right. My darling Aayla was so happy I was alright that nothing else mattered. She embraced me, and I soothed her for a moment before that same feeling returned; the seeing of red, hearing her heart beat wildly for me. I tried to control my new hunger, but her delicate skin pressed against me called out to be ravaged. I loved her so much that I wanted to show it by devouring her,” Cain paused a moment, his eyes clouded over as he remembered. “I was deaf to her screams and unable to process what I had done until after it was already too late. Because of what I became, I killed Aayla. To save my family, I left the city to wander once again, only able to travel at night. I can only imagine the scene my children had to come upon; their mother and some unknown man dead, their father missing. Word of a monster spread and I was hunted. My son took over my place as Chief Elder, but the city was taken by those who claimed righteousness. I tried to keep track of my grandchildren and their children, but the bloodline was cut off not far down the line by the plague. So that’s my story. Any questions?” Cain urged her once again.

  “Where’s Talon?”

  His face reverted from his feigned emotion back to indifference. “Here I thought since you had visions of me, that we shared a special connection. And all you want to know is where your boy toy is. I should have expected it though.”

  “What do you want with me?” Avery sneered.

  “As I understand it, you are the last survivor of my curse on your family. I would harbor no greater joy than to fulfill it once and for all,” Cain stroked the side of her face. “It’s a shame. It’s been many years since I felt a woman’s touch. A warmth like your cheek.”

  Avery struggled and cursed at him. Cain snapped his fingers. Two vampires immediately stomped into the room and grabbed her by her arms. She struggled once more until they stabilized her with their icy grip.

  CHAPTER 22

  The vampires held her arms so tightly, she was feeling her hands start to tingle. They pushed her along behind Cain until they reached a large wood and steel plated door. As she tried not to trip down dark stairs, her eyes adjusted to the dim light until she could see a heaving, shirtless figure chained to the wall, sweat glistening in the candlelight on his body.

  “Talon!”

  Cain turned to Avery and ripped the collar of her shirt down to the top of her chest. “What the hell,” Avery belted out, trying to resist. Cain steadied her movement by grasping the back of her neck before using his nail to cut her skin from her left collarbone down to the top of her breast.

  Talon’s eyes shot open, a wild red. His fangs came out, and he growled low in his throat, thrashing at his confines. Avery felt a tinge of anxiousness crawl up her spine, seeing Talon in a way she had never before, “What have you done to him?!”

  Cain smirked at the fear he sensed in her, “Vampires need blood every night, or they become more and more beastly and savage until they get it; a survival instinct, if you will. We weakened him with vervain to speed up the process.”

  “Why?” Avery almost choked on her words. It killed her to see him this way.

  “He will kill you as I killed my wife. Then his true self can be born; what he was meant to be.”

  Avery watched breathlessly as Talon’s crazed expression slowly transformed into a pained and pitiful one.

  “Avery?” he questioned, coming to his better senses, his vision and consciousness returning to his own.

  Talon had overheard from the earlier bitching of Gunner that she had killed quite a few of his guys and the demon sent after her. He wished she hadn’t been caught that somehow she would have gotten away and his sacrifice would be enough to sate these bastards. He wished the wonderful woman in front of him was just another hallucination.

  That bastard Cain spoke to him, “How long has it been since you last fed my boy? A couple of days now at least…”

  “I’d suffer starvation, until I’m a dried-up husk, before I’d even think about hurting her,” Talon spat, determined to not give Cain the sick and twisted dramatic ending he was orchestrating.

  “Oh, you’re a hard one to crack. Let’s see what you think given another day of starvation. I think you’ll be easier to sway into action then.”

  Avery was chained up to the wall across from Talon so that they faced each other.

  “Goodbye Miss Langdon.”

  Avery and Talon were left in the darkness, no sound but for the heavy breathing between them.

  “Hey Talon,” he heard her whisper, but she sounded miles away. His consciousness was fading away again. Flashes of his family and the last time he saw them, his best friend when times were good, his turn, his fiancé…He must have only had quick seconds of sanity in his present reality, listening to Avery breathe and smelling her scent in-between. The growing awareness of the fire in his throat burned him as it seared to his core. When he found he was able to stay alert and sane for more than a minute, he wondered if she was still there. He couldn’t see her, as his eyes couldn’t pick up an ounce of light to use; his hearing diminished with lack of sustenance, the vervain making it all the worse.

  “Avery,” he called out.

  She groggily answered, “Yeah.”

  “I may be a monster, but no matter how hungry I may get, I would never drink of you.”

  There was a deep pause. “I know.”

  “I should probably tell you… while I have a chance…”

  Avery held her breath. He continued, despite her reaction, “When I saw you for the first time, something switched on in me. Like a light.”

  “At the bar? You sure that wasn’t the alcohol?” she half-heartedly joked.

  “No. Not then. Before that, in the alley…”

  Another bout of silence before her response, “You were the one who saved me?”

  “Yes. I watched you fight them. There was something about you, beside your beauty; I could see dark and light battling within, but the light always won. You had hope. It was amazing to behold. I have come to know you since then, in such a way…through the good and the bad…I fell in love with you. Avery, I love you.” Talon waited a moment to continue, “It’s okay if you don’t feel that way too. I’m just happy to be near you, especially when you shine and light up my darkness.”

  Avery responded, leaving little room for thought in-between. “I worried about you when you disappeared. I was desperate to find you. I hated to admit it to myself before, but it seems stupid to hide it now. You aren’t a monster Talon, you’re the man I love.”

  Talon was overwhelmed with emotion just before he heard her groan in pain. That emotion quickly changed to anger. “What did they do to you?” he growled.

  “Nothing too bad. They’re a bunch of bitches anyway,” she laughed. Oh, what a beautiful sound in an ugly situation. Her laughter trailed off into a sniffle.

  “Then what’s wrong?” he inquired.

  “I’m just so tired.”

  “Sleep for a while.”

  “No. I’m tired of fighting.”

  Frustration peaked at his own thoughts as well, “Don’t talk like you’ve given up. Stay focused on the next move. On getting out of here.”

  “Oh, I plan on getting out of here. And when I do, I’m going to kill that egotistical son of a bitch. But….” she trailed off for too many moments.

  “Keep talking. Your voice is keeping me sane right now,” Talon urged.

  “When we’re done here…doing what we need to do…I think I’m ready for a little peace.”

  Talon smiled widely, “One vacation to paradise; got it.”

  She continued her thoughts out loud, “No matter what happens here…if I fall… remember you promised me you would let me go.”

  “I remember,” he acknowledged, though he wasn’t passionate about the idea. They both had had everyone taken from them. Why couldn’t they at least hav
e each other? A selfish wave washed over him. He would try to save her. Every time. Even if it meant changing her. He knew it was wrong to take away her choice. She would hate him forever. But he could live with that for all his eternity if she never had to feel pain again. He thought back briefly to what happened the first and last time he had tried to turn someone, convinced that trying and failing in a certain situation was better than not trying at all. “So what’s the plan for getting out?” he asked before bloodlust could reclaim his critical thinking.

  “I’m pondering. Just don’t eat me in the meantime,” she joked.

  “Not funny,” Talon managed to spit out before he slipped back into the burning ache all over again, the fever of it produced so much sweat it dripped from him. He ultimately passed out from the agony.

  Avery could hear Talon muttering incoherently, meaning he was lost to her again. She needed to get them out of there and find the asshole who took her dagger. Some idiot vampire out there didn’t know what he was carrying around, but a certain immortal would know soon enough. She hung her head and sunk down to sit in the damp dirt, the chains around her wrists growing tighter. She leaned her head against the cold, stone wall and let herself rest.

  A faint glow disturbed her and Avery could feel small hands unshackling her wrists.

  “Who?” she managed to peep before a small voice hushed her. Avery was almost brought to tears as goosebumps formed on her arms where she was being touched, though the contact was warm. All the pain that ailed her disappeared as if it had never been.

  “Kyrie…is that really you?”

  The chains fell to the ground in a heap. Avery stared at her little sister. “Am I crazy? Are my delusions going to be a regular thing?” Avery panicked though still in shock.

  Her sister just smiled that toothy grin of hers, the green eyes that mirrored Avery’s alit with humor. “Have faith. He will be with you tonight. He’s been with you all along.”