Dark Journey [Ariel's Desire 2] (26 page)

“It’s possible that is the cause.
 
It’s hard for me to come up with anything else that would turn him into such a vile being.
 
We need to close down the settlement.
 
I think everyone should stay together in the hall.
 
Damon, you and Nathan will sense first if he’s near.
 
I’m trusting you with Ariel’s safe keeping.
 
I have to warn Patrick,” Lucien said.

“Will it be safe for you to travel alone?” Justin asked.

Lucien shook his head.
 
“I don’t know his abilities.
 
It’s more important to leave enough of us here to protect the Clan.
 
I’ll be back as quickly as I can.”

While Lucien rode across the grasslands to Patrick‘s settlement, Turning Leaves sat quietly kneading bread dough.
 
Her mind was a swirling mass of dreams.
 
She rarely thought of her real world anymore.
 
Her eyes stared blankly as she worked in the kitchen, reaching for juice out of habit.

Robby was getting annoyed with her constant whimpering as soon as she saw him.
 
With the ingenious methods he devised to enhance her pain, she would hardly scream or fight anymore.
 
He brought her meals to their cabin because the other settlers were looking at him with disgust over how he’d abused the girl.
 
There was also unease with the Vampires for allowing it to continue.
 
No one dared approach them about it.
 
Constance and Patrick seemed unaffected by the change in their settlement.

Over the past months, Robby knew his Indian had stopped thinking about escape.
 
He let her take walks in the woods close to home and he’d fetch her at sunset to join him or the Vampires.
 
She’d silently follow him back to the settlement.

When Gertie touched her shoulder and said she could leave, she wandered towards the trees, once again lost in the dream world of her time with the tribe. Someone stepped in front of her and she absently turned to walk around him. “You’re far from home, Indian girl.”

If she had any concept of fear left, she probably would have screamed. Instead, she looked at the creature and whispered softly, “This is my home.”

The creature grimaced a smile as it cocked its head.
 
The girl hated almost as deeply as he did.
 
He inhaled.
 
“You feed the Vampires.”

“They make me,” she answered absently.

The creature inhaled again.
 
“You know my friend, Patrick.
 
There is another scent close to his.”

“It’s his mate, Constance.”

“You don’t like them?”

She looked at him, seeming to see him for the first time.
 
“You said he was your friend.
 
You’re trying to trick me.”

“No, Patrick was my friend a long time ago.
 
He left me to die.”

“You’ve come to hurt him?”

The Vampire was amused by the hope in her eyes.
 
“I’ve come to kill him.
 
I think I’ll kill his mate first, so he knows my hate.”

“If I help you, will you kill someone else for me?”

The creature studied her face.
 
“How could you help me?’

“Robby will come for me soon.
 
If he doesn’t return with me, Constance or Patrick will come searching the woods.”

“Robby is the one you want me to kill?”

“I want all of them killed.
 
I walk in a world of ghosts.
 
I don’t think I can find my way out until their gone.”

“What will you give me if I do this for you?”

“I have nothing to give.
 
You’ll take whatever you want anyway.”

The creature hid near her as she sat on a log, waiting for Robby.
 
“There you are, dammit.
 
I’ve been climbing through the woods for an hour.
 
I told you not to go so far.”
 
He grabbed roughly for her hand.
 
“Get your ass back to the settlement.
 
Constance has already called for you once and you know how much worse it is when she’s angry.”

“This is Robby?”

The man spun to the unexpected voice, ready to challenge whoever it was.
 
A fist slammed into his stomach, whooshing the air from his lungs.
 
He stared in horror, trying to gather enough air to scream.

The huge man lifted him off his feet by his throat and glared at him with his red eyes.
 
Robby wanted to gag at the smell of his putrid flesh.
 
It seemed as though it were melting in places.
 
When the rotting fangs distended, Robby’s bladder let go.
 
“Yes, I guess I am a disturbing sight.
 
The past several centuries have been unkind to me,” the creature laughed insanely.

Turning Leaves watched impassively as the creature scored a deep gash in Robby’s chest.
 
He continued to hold him by the neck allowing the blood to pour into his open mouth until Robby’s eyes glazed over.
 
The creature tossed the corpse away.

Turning Leaves walked over and hugged him.
 
“You’re my Protector.
 
I waited for you to come.”

The creature’s hand stroked the long black hair and looked into the woods toward the settlement.
 
“Do you think Constance will be here soon?”

Constance stormed into Robby’s cabin, convincing herself the man was selfishly keeping Turning Leaves to himself for amusement.
 
She had already talked to Patrick about taking the Indian from him.
 
No one in the settlement would say anything about relieving the girl of at least some of her problems.

When she found the cabin unoccupied, she turned toward the woods and inhaled.
 
She’d had to retrieve the girl from walks before.
 
She quickly caught the girl’s scent.
 
The distinct smell of blood also filled her nostrils.
Maybe she killed him and will save me the trouble of negotiating for her.
The
thought excited her.

Her younger senses didn‘t pick up the stench of the other Vampire.
 
Fresh blood and the girl were all she considered when she bounded through the trees. She stopped short when she saw Turning Leaves, again sitting on the log.
 
She was staring at Robby’s crumpled form.

Constance walked over to him.
 
“You did this?” What was left of the man … it didn’t look possible the girl could have destroyed him so badly. Constance was confused.
 
Other than the few bloodstains transferred to her shift when she hugged her Protector, the young woman was clean.
 
The blond Vampire looked back at Robby, and sickening dread hit her stomach about the same time a fist slammed into her jaw.

The creature quickly reached into her mouth and ripped out her fangs before she had time to heal herself.
 
Constance shrieked in agony.
 
Turning Leaves smiled.
 
“Hello, Constance.
 
Meet my Protector.”

Constance stared into the steady red gaze of insanity.
 
The inhumanly strong creature was completely revived with his feeding and he crushed into Constance’s windpipe.
 
“You are Patrick’s mate?”
 
Terror stilled her as she tried to figure out what to do.
 
She used all her mental push and it bounced away from the creature’s muddled mind.

Her strong leg swept back to kick him.
 
Before it connected he caught it in his free hand and easily snapped her knee.
 
The sound seemed to please him and he snapped the other one.
 
Constance knew it would take time to heal. She hadn’t fed this week.
 
The rogue Vampire dropped her to the ground and she struggled to breathe while dragging herself away.

The Vampire took a two foot branch and broke it in half.
 
He grabbed the crawling woman by the ankle and dragged her back to the clearing.
 
She screamed as her slowly knitting limb separated again.
 
The creature turned her over.
 
“Let’s wait for your mate to join us,” he leered.

He held her arm over her head and drove the sharp point of the spear through her hand and buried it a foot deep into the ground. Constance screamed, unable to kick with her useless legs.
 
Her hair whipped around picking up pine needles and dirt.
 
She almost fainted when he pinned her other arm.
 
Dazed, she felt her dress ripped off her body and she lay broken, bloody and naked, pinned to the forest floor.
 
Turning Leaves stared down at her and laughed.

Patrick was searching the village for Constance when he heard her screams. He ran through the trees toward the sound of his mate in pain, scenting but not heeding the smell of blood and the stench of a rotting being.
 
When he broke into the clearing he came to an abrupt halt.
 
The creature straddled his mate with a dirty extended claw tracing her throat.

“Edmond?” Patrick asked in disbelief.

“I worried you might have forgotten me, Patrick.
 
It’s been such a long time since you abandoned me.”

“Edmond, she is my mate.” Patrick sensed the hate from his friend.

“I know who it is,” the creature spat.

“Edmond, we didn’t abandon you.
 
We thought you were dead. The monastery they imprisoned you in, burned to the ground.
 
We searched the ashes for days.”

The creature made a small bleeding puncture in Constance’s neck.
 
“Well, it appears you missed a few places.”

“Edmond, please, release my mate.
 
We can celebrate your return.”
 
Patrick was frantically trying to think of some way to get Constance safe.
 
He knew he’d kill Edmond.

“I’m orchestrating my own celebration, Patrick.
 
Indian girl, I need you to get something for me.”

Turning Leaves rose.
 
“Yes?”

“My pack is behind the tree.
 
You’ll find some heavy manacles.
 
Bring them to me.”

The girl calmly did as he asked.
 
“Give them to Patrick.”

She tossed them by his feet.

“Patrick, remove your boots and secure your ankles.”

“Edmond, you know we wouldn’t leave you if we thought there was a chance you were alive.”

Edmond scraped a deeper gash along Constance’s neck.
 
“Did I forget to say please?”

Patrick looked at his mate’s pained face and silently locked his ankles in the chains.
 
“Edmond, do what you must with me, but, please, release my mate,” he begged.

“Girl, see that the cuffs are tight.”

Turning Leaves checked the cuffs and turned to the creature.
 
“They’re tight. Would you like me to chain his wrists?”

The creature smiled.
 
“I think I like you, little Indian.
 
Yes, if you don’t mind.”

“No, I don’t mind at all.”
 
Turning Leaves thought of the times Patrick had bound her to the bed post, whipping her while Constance fed off her breasts.

The cuffs had a short chain linking the ankle and wrist manacles together. “Do you remember those, Patrick?
 
They were the only effective means to restrain us back then.
 
Girl, there’s a spring latch on each cuff.
 
Turn them.”

Patrick’s eyes widened in terror, “Edmond, you can’t mean to do this to me.”
 
They were the manacles the inquisitors used.
 
When the latch was turned, inch long metal spikes shot out of the inside of the cuff and imbedded into the bone.
 
There was no way to remove them to heal and the Vampire slowly bled out their strength.

Patrick shrieked as the Indian turned the first latch on his wrist.
 
She patted his blonde head.
 
“That’s the sound we’ve been waiting to hear.”
 
She parodied his replies to her screams of terror and pain with every one of his shrieks to the turning latches.
 
Blood seeped from the six wounds in each cuff.