Of Light and Darkness (11 page)

Her pulse leapt into her throat, but nothing grabbed her. She bent down next to whatever it was, placing her small hand on what she figured out was his back. Thankfully, it did not move. She sighed. “It’s okay now, Valek. We will be safe,” she promised, resting her cheek on his shoulder blade. Grabbing onto his arm, she turned him face-up and pulled his upper half into her lap like a giant doll, holding him there, stroking his hair.

Abruptly, the door shot open, streaks of deadly yellow light blazing in across the floor. She screamed at the vision of the tall, solid silhouettes at the threshold and the sight of the blazing corpse, howling on the floor next to her.

Charlotte raced to the bed and tore off the thick, black, velvet comforter. “Close the door!” She hurled it over Valek's melting body. “Close the door!” Her own voice sounded distant, echoing in her head like she was screaming through a tunnel. Her vision clouded. She turned again to the figures at the entryway. “I said, close the—”

Something hard slammed over the top of her head.

And then there was nothing.

Chapter Eleven

Nightmare

The sun scorched high over Prague, setting the city spires aflame in the early October morning. The High Wizards sat in tented booths with the finest black robes hugging their backs. Thick-rimmed sunglasses masked their faces, which were so sullen it was impossible to see the amount of joy built up behind the façade they created while they watched the most hated creatures slaughtered in front of a million curious eyes. The Regime had sent out invitations to Elves and lesser creatures from all over the Czech Republic to come watch the first taste of justice be served.

Before sunrise, the first group of apprehended “criminals” had been dragged deep into the dungeons of the Regime palace to be drawn and quartered, washed clean of the blood they had so unrighteously absconded from the unknowing human race.

The repented blood dyed the stony floors red, filled the small, dingy rooms with the stench of rust. It was the Wizards’ way of making sure every drop the Vampires had taken was paid back before their dismantled pieces were burned to ashes by the bright morning light.

Now the Regime leaders watched with placid faces while the large chunks of lavender flesh turned orange and then brown as thick, gunmetal smoke billowed up to a slated, marble sky. Horrible heart-wrenching screams could be heard from the pieces that still contained whole heads, which provided the distant satisfaction to one—Vladislov—who sat more stoic than the rest atop the amphitheatre against the strange misting, silver rain.

The smell that wafted through the audience of creatures was foul, like the burning flesh of a thousand bodies, fused with brimstone. It caused the audience to distort their otherwise satisfied visages.

Once the chunks of monsters had been reduced to ash and soot and everyone had left back to their various Occults, faces stained with air-born residuum, Vladislov ordered the courtyard to be swept and shined before the next group was captured that night.

As the High Wizards skulked back to their quarters, Kazimir came up to congratulate his elder brother.

“Vladislov, that truly was a vision today!” His voice rang out through the winding, obelisk halls. “I’m so happy to see justice finally being served, and we can forever rid ourselves from the lowest of all lowly creatures that ever did escape the gates of Hell.”

The two brothers chortled as their heavy voices bounced off the cold walls, though Vladislov’s laughter was just a bit more hollow.

“Did you know in the Americas, the legend of the Vampire is actually revered among the humans? It is...
entertaining
to them!” He scoffed.

“They are a jaded type of people, brother. But don’t worry. Soon that will all end.” Kazimir put his hand on his brother’s jagged shoulder as the two disappeared down the corridor.

Tomorrow, it would be another group of these sub-creatures too unfit to walk the mortal Earth. It would be another pillar of smoke. Another thousand screams. And the next day, the same thing was to follow. And the next. And the next.

***

Something hard snapped in Charlotte’s jaw as she finally began to drift from the hazy blackness that had taken her consciousness captive. She was not sure where she was, how long she had been there, or even how she got there. But when her eyes fluttered open, she was struck with confusion about the unfamiliar, dismal room with stony walls and crooked pipes hanging raggedly from the ceiling.

The tops of the walls dripped with a deathly sort of fuming condensation. Thick smoke filtered in through barred windows—merely carved holes in the East walls. But it didn’t matter. What mattered was Valek.

Gingerly, she turned over so her belly was on the crypt floor; she realized the agonizing pain that jolted from her ribs to her head. She whimpered, sucking in the thick, polluted air, just to cough it back up again. She heaved against the cold dirty ground, when something warm and slick oozed down one side of her face. The gash on her head throbbed when she touched it.

Low hissing wafted through the haze from the back of the dungeon. The sound was soft, but it soon grew layers of various tendrils that altered in pitch, reaching out like claws that tore at her attention.

Charlotte blinked feverishly to stop the place from spinning. Several shadowy figures, glaring eyes that reflected off the light like a cat’s, began to creep from their hiding places against the dank bricks. Their hands distorted into claws as they started to slink toward her, their silhouettes human-shaped.

Hiss
.

The noise spiraled again through the blinding smog and made it impossible for her to breathe. She struggled to see the figures approaching her through the clouds. She heard the sound coming from over her then, and could see even more of the dark things crouching on the steel piping above her; their faces slightly illuminated by the waning daylight.

“Good evening,” one hissed at her, as the setting sun twinkled off something within its devilish mouth. A fang.

“Vampires,” Charlotte mused, almost too silent to hear.

“There is nothing left to feed on.” A female sighed from the back of the room.

Charlotte’s heart slammed against her chest. The wound on her head pounded as the room started to gain focus.

There were seven. No. At least ten—all advancing toward her. She searched the faces, but to her gut-wrenching dismay, none of them belonged to him.

“Valek.” The word slipped from behind her lips. She meant to call it. She meant to scream out for him, but the sound came out a whimper.

One mocked her and the rest started to laugh as she scuffled backward against one of the walls. She was a caged mouse with a family of snakes.

The hissing grew louder as the shadows pursued.

“Don’t you know what’s going on, stupid girl?” the first one snapped from a pipe above her. “Don’t you know why you’re here?”

Charlotte gaped at him. Her nerves were like live electric wires, jolting her body into numbness.

“Us?” he hissed again. “We are here for our sins. And you? You’re our last supper.” He grinned and let out a maniacal laugh as he and two others leapt like felines from the rafters to join the group on the floor.

“I don’t understand,” Charlotte cried. “Where am I?”

But they only laughed at the putrid smell of her fear. The moon had crept into the sky, glinted off each and every silvery fang as they grinned at her.

She shielded herself with her arms. One lifted his claw to the silver night before striking her with it, staining one white cheek with pulsing red that dripped to the floor. She cried out in agony as her hair fell in her face, clinging to the wound. It ran like hot water down frosted glass, and the hissing grew louder.

Another one tore off her shirt, exposing her bruised skin to the icy undercurrent. One of their talons made one long slit along the other side of her neck, tears mixed with blood seeped to the center of her chest.

One of the creatures leaned in, too close to her face and whispered so low she struggled to hear.

“Please know, Charlotte, we were never this gruesome. But if we are to be punished…then we might as well deserve it.” He turned only his head to look at the rest of them. “Drain it. All of it.”

Charlotte’s scream fused with their animal cries as they lunged at her, tearing her skin open, spilling her life. Their cold lips fixed all over her body. She opened her mouth in wretched suffering, unable to tell if she was even relinquishing a sound.

***

Valek sat, alone with his wild thoughts, in a separate cell all the way down the cold, stony corridor. The only thing he could see in his mind was Charlotte’s face as the guards carried her away, her big eyes fixated on him as they dragged her through the dirt. It was the same way she had first looked up at him the night they met in Prague. Alone. Afraid. He touched the side of his face, scarred, like cracked marble.

Sounds from what seemed like kilometers away bounced off the quartz protruding from the moss-encrusted brick and echoed through his ears. A bloodletting. He heard the hissing, smelled the fear and the blood. It was all too familiar. He sighed with his face in his hands.
Poor, sad individual, whoever it was
.

That was when he heard something that was also too familiar.
Sickeningly
familiar. His organs crawled up his esophagus when he heard it.

Her
scream echoed down the stone hall and shattered him.
Her
thoughts bounced off the stalagmites into his mind, and he saw his own face reflected back to him.
Her
blood was the smell wafting through the thick air. Blood that was hers and only hers. Life that was hers and only hers.

Valek sprung to the edge of his cell and wrapped his hands around the frosted bars. He ripped at them, pleading with all his might for them to bend. He pulled and stretched, to no avail.

Then, he heard his name called out down the lonely passage. She wailed for him. He mirrored the action.

“
Charlotte!
” He howled as painfully loud as he could—a lion’s roar back down the interminable corridor to where she was.

Her scream was his only response as he clutched the bars made of something heavier than iron. An overwhelming and unfamiliar feeling of helplessness bowled him over as big, red teardrops plummeted to the floor in front of him. He called out her name again. He pulled and pulled at those bars, suddenly remembering all too well what it was like to be so human, so weak.

Their painful screams and roars blended in an agonizing orchestration. The horror of his helplessness. His little Lottie was alone, pleading for him, yet he could do nothing inside this loathsome cage.

“Lottie,” he bellowed. “Lottie! My sweet Lottie! Please!” Valek slumped to the floor, hand outstretched between the bars. The palm of his hand stained scarlet as it ran over his cheek. A sharp sob escaped his throat as he bellowed for her again.

Silence answered him.

“Lottie….” He took a deep breath and could barely hear the voice from her thoughts anymore. So, this was how they would torture him. The silence from her mind grew louder. “
I love you, Charlotte!
”

***

Charlotte heard these last words, despite the rushing death, like a flashflood through a hollow tunnel she was submerging under quickly. She fought to keep above the surface, for if she allowed herself to sink, life would be over.

“I love you,” rang out so saliently. The rest of her dark world seemed to evanesce into hell. The hissing, the screaming, the pain—and, “I love you”. She kept hearing it over and over again, until she realized she was speaking the words. Too weak to yell it, it came out in a whisper.

“I love you.” She hoped he could hear the thing she wanted to scream to the world. “I love you,” she said for the last time, before she could not hold on any longer, melting into oblivion.

***

Metal bars at the front of her cell crashed inward. Thunder guards came stomping in, sending currents of electricity flying through the air. Yellow streaming bolts struck the bodies of the living dead. The Vampires immediately recoiled from Charlotte and went dashing into the back corners of the cell like rats in bright light.

“Come on, foul creatures. We have somewhere for you to be,” one guard ordered as he joyfully watched them all squirm and growl as the electricity continued to fly.

The Elves ripped some of them from the ground, throwing them over their shoulders, some plucked from the aluminum piping. One officer had to use a stake for one that tried to fight, though it only stunned him for a few seconds.

The struggle continued as Charlotte’s life pooled down in between the cracks into the marble floor. One of the guards noticed her.

“What about that one?” he asked his comrade.

“Eh, just leave her there. Maybe we can feed the leftovers to the next batch that comes in,” he said, as they finally walked out with the gaggle of screeching soul-feeders.

And as he was being dragged away, the head of the condemned clan looked back to the dungeon cell. The Vampire stopped walking, the vision of his figure blurry in Charlotte’s ebbing consciousness.

“What are you doing, leach? Keep going!” one officer prodded.

The Vampire angled his gray ear toward Charlotte. “No. No…she’s alive. You have to kill her! She is still alive!” the Vampire screeched to the air.

The guards only glanced in Charlotte’s direction to see a lifeless, bloody mess.

“This fool is out of his blasted mind,” the guard grumbled as they continued to lead him away, screaming something incoherent all the way out the heavy dungeon door.

***

Valek, who had been silently listening through the bars all the while, now forced himself to stand, his knees quaking beneath his weight. He had never felt so mortal. He pictured his Lottie’s eyes, wide with fear, now slowly closing. He saw the menacing creatures ripping at her soft skin. He thought about how he was one of them, responsible for the demise of so many people just like her. He hated himself and everything he was, as more garnet tears rolled down his pallid face. But he also decided that as long as he was a monster, he would not rest until every other monster responsible for this was dead. The only way Charlotte could still be alive was if by some divine magic, and Valek hardly held his breath.

He gripped the bars tighter, a mournful cry ripping from his core as he forced them apart. Larger drops of blood spilled from his eyes as he pulled the gap wider and wider, crying out again, surprised at his sudden strength. He would not chalk it up to God. That was something he stopped believing in a long time ago.

Valek, liberated from his cage, didn’t take but half a second to rush into the cell several yards down the hall. Thankfully, the door to her cell had been carelessly left open.

He knelt beside her, listening intently to her faint heartbeat. She was a mess on the ground, her eyes only slightly open. Her breathing was shallow; most of her wounds already healed from the saliva of her predators, while leftover blood stayed drying on her skin. If he ever came face to face with those creatures that called themselves Vampires, he swore to himself he would kill them faster than the sun could scorch their skin.