Captured Sun (11 page)

"I cannot lose you, my son," Alfred said. He turned to Serina. "I am your servant, my queen."

Serina's smile was stunning. "Then rise, Alfred, and take your place among the witnesses."

Alfred rose stiffly, as though his movements were not under his sole control. He stood beside the olive-skinned vampire from my dream and waited. His eyes locked onto the thin tendrils of sunlight cast into the room from the arrow slits high on the walls. He did not look at me.

"Now, what to do with the human," Serina mused. "Shall we let her perish with Mathias? The flames will be so lovely."

"You gave me your word, Serina," Mathias snarled.

"I lied," she said, smiling. "I think I will let her watch you die, Mathias. Once you are gone, I believe her suffering will be wonderful to behold. And her blood will be so sweet."

Alfred tensed. I could see his struggle as understanding dawned in him. Serina was still going to take Mathias' life. He had handed Serina his free will for nothing. He had bound himself to this evil creature and she rejoiced in his suffering.

Despite knowing it would be fruitless, I held my hands out to Alfred, begging him to see me. "Alfred, you have to do something," I cried.

"Alfred will do nothing, human," Serina said, caressing Alfred's cheek. "I made him. He has returned his allegiance to me and so he cannot disobey. Can you, darling?"

Alfred's jaw clenched. The sound of him grinding his iron-hard teeth was loud in the stone chamber. "I cannot."

Light filtered slowly into the room. The rising sun cast long, thin tendrils of itself along the floor from the high arrow slits. Every moment we delayed brought those tendrils closer to Mathias' unprotected flesh. My heart thundered in my chest. I had to find a way to help Alfred break the chains of servitude Serina had cast upon him.

"He is your immortal son, Alfred. Isn't that a stronger bond that the one Serina holds over you? You were willing to betray me and my family to save his life. You were willing to let him go if it meant he lived. How can you let her take his life now?"

Serina laughed. The sound sent chills down my spine. "Only a human would believe the bond of affection between two immortals would be stronger than the bond of a maker to her child. Nothing you say can break my hold on Alfred, or stop the sun." She glanced at the lengthening strips of sunlight stretching farther across the floor. "Best you say your goodbyes now, human."

Mathias strained against the chains which held him to the stone table in the center of the tower room. His feet were bare, something I realized I had never before seen. Without his heels on home soil, the sun would devour him as it had so many times in my nightmares. Of course, that was Serina's intention. At the peak of the tower a trapdoor had been thrown open to allow the mid-day sun to stream in uninterrupted when the sun reached its zenith. The tendrils of sun from the arrow slits would burn him, but not devour him. Only the mid day sun's strength would take him from me now. The silver chains binding his arms and legs to the table had sunk deep into his flesh, leaving raw edges. Even now I could see where his flesh had attempted to heal over the chains. Removing them would tear the flesh from his bones and leave horrific scars, but scars would mean he lived.

Mathias met my eyes, pulling against the chains, driving them deeper into his flesh. "Mairin, please, let me go." he implored. "I have lived far longer than God ever intended. I have had the gift of your love and I can happily leave this world. Flee while Serina will let you."

I stepped into the center of the circle of vampires who surrounded Mathias. None moved. They knew I wasn't strong enough to free him and that I was no threat to them or their mistress. I was nothing but a fragile and weak human. What could I do to stop the progress of the sun or the plans of their mistress?

"You are not going anywhere, Mathias. I need you." I said, caressing the twisted scar that encircled his neck. I wondered if it were as permanent as the one Alfred had shown me on his own neck. Would it be an eternal reminder of this time, of his servitude given in exchange for my life. Would he ever forgive me for that scar? For the others he was sure to have when we left this horrible tower? I prayed that he would one day forgive me for everything I was about to do.

"How touching," Serina sneered. "I shall be certain to preserve a bit of ash for you to take home, human. If I allow you to leave, of course."

Mathias screamed in frustration. He knew begging for my life would be more likely to end it than if he remained silent, but he seemed unable to stop himself.

I lay my hand upon his chest, tracing the pale scars Serina's nails had left behind. He stilled beneath my hand, his eyes burning with emotion and desire. I'd never had such freedom to touch him before and despite the situation at hand, I reveled in the opportunity to demonstrate my love for him through touch. A tiny smile lifted my lips before I brushed them over Mathias' forehead, lips and neck. "I love you," I whispered.

"As I do you, my sun," he said. His voice held the tone I had hated from the first moment I'd heard it in his home when he'd told me he was a vampire. The joyful, loving tone I lived for had been replaced with the resignation I knew meant he had lost his hope. Rather than attempt to give it back to him, I turned my back to the man who held my heart and faced death with all the strength I possessed.

"Take me instead," I said, ignoring the cry of anguish from Mathias. "Think of the exquisite torture that would be, Serina. I won't live long without Mathias. I can't. Even if I lived my entire life, it would still be only the blink of an eye for you. Mathias' suffering would be eternal."

"Mairin, no!" Mathias screamed. "I forbid it. You will not do this."

I glanced over my shoulder. "Shut up," I said, smiling. I turned back to Serina. "I will lay down for you. Give you my life without struggle. I will offer you the blood I could not...would not give to Mathias. You will conquer us both and have the rest of eternity to watch him suffer."

Serina's smile was chilling and I suppressed a shudder. "Your human pet is most devious, Mathias. Are you sure she loves you? It would seem she is willing to let you live an eternity in pain so she does not have to suffer your loss."

I refused to turn to see Mathias' expression. He would forgive me when this was over. I had to believe that. "A world in which Mathias doesn't exist is a world in which I cannot live. I do this for his life, and mine."

"Intriguing," Serina said, circling me slowly. "You would bend to me. Give to me the blood you withhold from Mathias. Do all this where he can see, just so he can live?"

"Yes."

She laughed, a cold, brittle sound that made the hair on my neck stand up. "I accept." she said, pointing to the floor in front of her. "Kneel."

"I ask only one thing from you before I keep my word," I said, bowing my head modestly.

"What?" Serina's tone was suspicious.

"I wish only one kiss to say my goodbyes," I begged.

Serina considered my request. "A little sweetener to the blood is always wonderful," she mused. "The goodbye should be amusing and agony is always so sweet." She gestured dismissively toward Mathias. "You may kiss your lover."

"Mairin, I won't let you do this," Mathias protested. "Just go. Let me go." He continued to struggle against the chains. I could see the frustration and anger in the set of his jaw. He wasn't used to being helpless.

I lay my index finger on his lips, silencing him. "I love you," I said. I grasped his face between my palms and kissed his forehead and both eyes. "You are my heart, my life, my mourning sun." I lay my lips against his as I had countless times before, softly, pliantly and his were soft beneath mine. There was a sweetness to this bare touching of lips that had never been there before. Always before I had longed for more. This time I knew I would simply take it. Before I could change my mind, I plunged my tongue into his mouth, purposefully sweeping it along his razor-sharp teeth. Hot, coppery blood slipped down my tongue and onto his. I swallowed convulsively to keep from filling his mouth with my blood. Mathias' eyes flew wide and I saw the hunger, the thirst rise in them. He pulled against the chains, desperate to undo what I had done. The silver smoked and dug deeper into his flesh. I lay my hand over his wrists, stilling his frantic movements.

"My first kiss is my last kiss. I love you," I whispered before turning away. I could still hear Mathias' frantic struggling, but I blocked it out, focusing only on what lay before me. I knelt in front of Serina, pulling my hair away from my neck.

"How sweet," she said, leaning forward to grasp my chin and push it to the right. She ran her nose along my neck before choosing the space between my neck and shoulder where Mathias had always kissed me. Fear and regret swirled in my gut. I whispered one last word of love for Mathias before Serina's teeth swept away my breath. The pain was bright, sharp, immediate. In my dreams when I had felt this pain, the darkness had felt like a caress. In life, the sun inched across the floor, ever closer to Mathias. I prayed for a miracle.

I heard Mathias' scream of anguish. I licked my lips and saw Alfred's eyes widen with sudden understanding. I heard my life thundering through my veins and into the mouth of the monster who held me almost lovingly. When the darkness came to claim me I went into it gladly, Mathias' name upon my lips.

***

The antiseptic smell of a hospital assaulted me, burning my nose. I opened my eyes slowly, squinting against the bright sunlight streaming through the window beside my bed.

"Mathias?" My voice was harsh and my throat burned. I could feel a large bandage on my neck and my whole body ached. How long had it been since I'd spoken? How long had I been in the hospital?

My mom came to stand by my bed, grasping my hand. "He's sleeping, honey," she said. "He's stayed here the whole week once the doctors...well, he hasn't left." I heard something in her voice I hadn't heard before when she'd spoken of Mathias. She spoke as though Mathias were something more than a boy her daughter dated. He had become a man in her estimation. I wondered what he'd done to make her change how she saw him. I was afraid to find out what else might have changed.

"Mom? What are you doing here?" My last memory was of the stone tower in England. Of teeth, pain, and blood.

"Mathias' guardian, Alfred, he brought me and Kerry and Tawnya here to take you home, Mairin. He's been so kind. He paid for the plane tickets and won't let us do anything about the hospital bills. He seems so distraught about the car accident, so guilty, and he won't let us do anything."

"I don't...what happened?" Alfred had brought my family to England? That made no sense. Wouldn't it be safer for my family to have stayed in Highland Home? Had Serina agreed to leave my family alone? Nothing was meshing in my mind. There were big gaps in my memory and I was losing patience. I couldn't seem to put the words together to ask the right questions and my mother wasn't helping.

"You don't remember?" Mom shook her head. "The doctors thought you might not. We've been so worried, honey. You've been in a coma for a week. It was a car accident. You hit the windshield and cut your neck. You lost so much blood and they didn't know if you were going to...going to live." Tears slipped silently down my mother's cheeks. "Tawnya has been praying for days. Kerry is frantic. What were you thinking? You left without any explanation and the next thing I hear is that I have to cross the ocean to see you because you might not live."

"I'm sorry, Mom," I said. Car accident? Even my mother, who was notorious for letting weird go, couldn't possibly believe the injuries I must have came from a car accident.

"It doesn't matter now," she said. "I'll go get Tawnya and Kerry. They'll want to see you." She kissed me. "We'll go home soon, baby. I promise. Now that you're back with us, we'll be able to go home."

She was gone before I could say anything else or ask any of the dozens of questions rolling in my confused brain.

"Welcome back," Mathias' rough silk voice startled me. He rose from the chair he'd been pretending to sleep in. "You gave us all quite a scare, Mairin." There was something disturbingly distant in his voice. My brain was too fuzzy for me to nail it down, but my heart began to race as my anxiety shot up. The distance in him was familiar in a way that made me want to cling to him and beg him to stay, but I didn't know why.

I reached for him and he tentatively took my hand. "It worked, didn't it?" I asked.

"It did," Mathias said sadly. "Serina's death was spectacular in it's horror. Having never witnessed the death of another vampire by our own blood, I must say that even my worst human nightmares would not have devised such a death for any creature. How did you know ingestion of vampire blood was the only way to kill her?"

"I didn't know," I said. "I only hoped."

"Always you risk too much for me, Mairin. If you had been wrong, or if Serina hadn't taken so much of your blood so quickly..." Mathias shook his head. "You will never put yourself in that kind of danger again," he said. "I forbid it. If it hadn't been for the chains..." Mathias closed his eyes. His throat worked as he swallowed hard. I could only imagine his thoughts and I was terrified he was being too hard on himself.

"You can forbid all you want, Mathias," I said. "But when I weighed a lifetime without you against eternity with you, it was more than a fair trade. I would do it again, even if I didn't expect it to work."

"That's what I'm afraid of," he said. He cupped my face with his palm and I saw the scars the silver chains had left. I grasped his wrist, shuddering at the cold feel of the raised scars. Mathias smiled, brushing his lips across mine before nestling his lips and nose into the soft juncture between my neck and chin. The bandage blocked his usual favorite place to kiss me. He breathed deeply before kissing me and stepping back. Something about that kiss brought tears to my eyes and I reached out for him. Mathias shook his head and sat down as far from me as he could get.

Kerry, Tawnya and Mom came through the door, each talking over the other. The noise was too much for me to process. I was still struggling to make sense of what Mathias was doing and couldn't get past the drugs fogging my brain.