Nightfall - 4. The Darkest Night
By the time the sun had set and it was time to begin the night, we'd made it back to my bed - our bed.
Arael had agreed to make arrangements to move in with me, as my size and blood red eyes make me
incapable of living among mortals. I awakened and looked up at the mirror above the bed. My
narcissism had extended to include him. We looked amazing together. My arm was around him and he
was turn into me with his head resting on my chest.
My eyes fell upon the bite marks I'd put on the soft spot where his neck met his shoulder. I ran my
paw gently across them. Arael's blood was sweet. I almost couldn't stop once I'd begun feeding on
him. How would he feel about letting me taste him more frequently, I wondered.
"I wouldn't mind." I turned my attention to his face. He hadn't opened his eyes, but he'd most
definitely spoken.
"You're awake." I said before the more interesting point hit me. "You can read my thoughts? Since
when?" I asked, running a paw through his hair.
"I always could, I just didn't start listening until last night." He said, pulling himself up in the bed to kiss
me. "It's how I found you. Your scent is gone from the woods." He sat up and turned to look at me.
"I'm not very knowledgeable about Strigoii. Do you eat? I can make you something if you have food in
the house."
I chuckled and shook my head. "No, I do not. Once you die, only blood satisfies."
He nodded. "Then..." The fox pulled his hair back behind his shoulders.
"Why are you so fixated on me eating you?" I laughed. He batted a paw at me. "No worries. It hasn't
been long since my last." The dark room lightened in my glowing eyes. "I'm still sated. Thank you, by
the way. I felt worse than I looked."
Arael grinned and fell back into my arms. "I'm glad to." He said, running a paw through my hair. A look
of worry flashed in his eyes.
"What is it, Arael?" I ask, sitting up on my elbow.
He chuckled. "I just remembered that I left Maxwell at Ebon last night. I wonder if he got home
alright."
"If you like, we can go to find out." I paused. "Well, you can actually talk to him. He won't want to talk
to me."
The fox tilted his head a little. "And why is that?"
"Well, you see... when I tricked you into coming here before, I sorta threatened his life. I don't know if
he told you." He smacked me on the arm, but I couldn't help laughing at him. "I didn't hurt him! I just
threatened to kill him if he called you. In fact, I gave him a wad of cash to go drinking."
He smacked me again. "Well, I'll patch things up between the two of you. I can't have my best friend
and my mate hating each other." He put a paw over his mouth. "If... that's what we are..."
I laughed at his uncertainty and moved the paw to kiss him. "I'd like to think so."
He grinned and sat up again. "Well if we're going to catch him, we need to get moving. Max reversed
his days and nights to be my driver, so he's probably on the move by now." The next instant, he was
standing on the other side of the room. I loved to watch him move. When he used his speed, he
flickered in and out of view. The fox looked at himself, then at me. "I don't suppose you have anything
here that'd fit me."
I nodded and stood up. "My Sire was a man of about your size. He lived with me until I was killed, then
disappeared. He had a suit you may be able to fit." I smirked. "But why do you have to dress? You're
rather beautiful naked, you know." I watched the confusion on his face when I disappeared from his
sight to be behind him. He didn't flinch when I wrapped my arms around him. He was getting used to
my speed.
"Well, for you, I'd happily remain as I am, but I'm sure I'd get arrested for running around nude in the
city. Time may be out greatest quantity, but I'd rather not spend any of mine in jail for indecent
exposure."
I chuckled and nodded. "I suppose you're right. Let me get the suit for you." I released him and by the
time he turned around, I was back with the suit in hand. I held it for him as he looked it over then
looked up to me.
"I love it, but I think I'll just take the vest and pants." He said, taking the hanger from me. "I think it'd
draw attention if I were to appear anywhere in full 18th century dress." As he put on the clothes, I
moved to my dresser and took out a pair of tattered, green denim shorts. I heard a chuckle as I put
them on.
Arael already had the suit on. The red silk vest and slacks were a size too small for him, but they looked
great on him. "Tell me, do you only own torn up green shorts?" he asked.
"Well, when you only appear every once in a while to feed, you don't really need more." I said with a
smirk. "Boots are in the closet." I jerked my head toward the doors on the other side of the room on
the wall adjacent to the balcony. He nodded and walked over. When I looked back at him, he had on a
pair of shiny black leather boots with silver buckles on them.
"I'm taking you shopping. You've no choice." He said, sitting on my dresser before he'd finished the
sentence. "And I don't think it'll really be shopping. Being a model has its perks, you know." He
laughed. "My designer friends will have fun dressing a big thing like you."
"Well until such a time, I'm all set." I said, throwing my hair back over my shoulder.
"Then let's get going." He said, moving to the balcony doors. He looked back to me with a sly grin.
"Race you." The fox chuckled as he opened the doors.
The next instant, he was on the pinned to the wall opposite the balcony by a black arrow through his
chest.
"ARAEL!" Before I could move to him, a feline flickered into view kneeling before him.
"You're going to watch this, traitor." He said. "Then I'm going to kill you as well."
It was the tracker he'd warned me about. How could we have forgotten? The tracker, a lynx, pressed
his ornate recurve to the floor, using it to get to his feet. "Do me a favor, abomination." He took an
arrow from the quiver strapped to his back. "Draw your last breath for me." he said as he took aim.
The next half-second, I was behind him. I grabbed him by the long silver hair pouring down his back
and slung him out the balcony doors before turning to remove the arrow holding Arael down. I
couldn't bear hearing his screams, but at least I knew the tracker had missed his heart. He was still
alive.
As I grabbed the arrow, I looked up to the painting above where he'd been pinned. In the glass's
reflection, I saw the lynx catch the balcony railing as he went backward and launch himself back at me.
I turned to knock him away, but I was a hair too late. As I swung my paw at him, he ducked under it
and struck two pressure points in my arm, paralyzing it from the shoulder down before he elbowed
me in the ribs so hard that I hit the wall and cracked it.
The lynx jumped back and took aim again, but before he could fire, I was in front of him. I grabbed the
bow and snatched it from him, then turned around sharply, striking him across the face with the
recurve's end. He reached under his coat and drew a .44 magnum. The lynx fired off four rounds. I
dodged three easily and held flicked a finger on my good hand at the fourth, sending it back at him.
"Get this thing out of me!" I heard Arael scream. The sound enraged me. How dare he harm my
precious fox? I was in front of him again before he could come at me. I grabbed him by the throat and
threw him into the fireplace, hitting his head on the iron back of it. Too bad it wasn't lit. As he
staggered to his feet, I was next to him again. I grabbed his hair once more and swung him over my
head, slamming him on the floor on the other side of me. He swept his legs under me, knocking me off
my feet, but I put a paw down, using it to spring back to my feet.
Unfortunately, it was the paw I was holding his bow with. He jumped away from me in a blurred
motion and took aim. I looked to Arael quickly to make sure he was still breathing. He was gone. Not
dead, but not in the spot where he'd been pinned. The bloody arrow was lying on the floor. There was
a scream. I looked back to the tracker to see the last thing I ever wanted to see. The lynx had dropped
his recurve, but not for a good reason. Arael was on the tracker's back with his legs locked around his
arms so he couldn't move. He was removing his fangs from the lynx's neck and now draining him of his
blood.
I remembered in my education as a Moroii that we were to stop before the heart stopped. The lynx
was definitely on the verge of death but Arael showed no sign of stopping. He looked up to me as his
victim sank to his knees.
"Get out of here before more come. I love you." He said before biting into the lynx again.
"No!" I moved behind him to pull him off the dead lynx, but it was too late. He'd drain every last drop
from the tracker. Arael stood and looked up to me. His eyes burned bright and he smiled at me as they
began to fade. He wrapped his arms around me one last time before he drew his last breath and went
limp against me.
The rule was that if we drank beyond the stopping of the heard, we died with the victim. I tried my
hardest to believe that Arael had stopped.
No amount of believing changed it. My Arael was gone. I looked into his far-too-blue eyes to see the
color fade from them. I shook him, still not ready to believe he was gone. "Arael? Arael, answer me..."
He was silent. My eyes began to sting. "Arael, say something... please?" I shook him again before I
could no longer hold the truth at bay with disbelief.
It hit me so hard that I fell to my knees, still clinging to him so tightly that I'd be cutting off his
circulation. I put my head to his chest and heard no heartbeat and no blood rushing through him. The
pain burned so badly that when I opened my mouth to scream, for a moment I couldn't. My screams
shook the walls, causing the paintings to fall from it. I dared to look at his face again and let out another
horrible scream as I raised a shaking paw to close his eyes. I rocked back and forth on the floor, holding
his body in my arms as if holding on would bring him back to me.
It hurt when I thought he hated me, but I'd take that pain any day over this. I lifted us from the floor
and carried him to our bed where I laid him before falling to my knees again. I couldn't look at him, so I
looked up; forgetting that above the bed was a mirror. Seeing it sent another shock through me and
another scream ripped from my throat.
As I wept at his side, his last words began to echo in my mind. Get out of here before more come. I
wasn't ready, but I needed to move. By now I was certain someone was aware that the tracker sent to
kill me was dead. There would definitely be more of them converging on this location to find me.
I couldn't let them kill me.
I wanted to die without my Arael, but I couldn't. Not yet. Something in me snapped and I felt
different. It wasn't until just then that I realized being with Arael had greatly mollified me. I'd been
calm and gentle for the first time in nineteen-hundred years, but now I could feel my old fury burning
white hot inside me, searing all that away and bringing with it madness. One word took my thoughts
now.
Revenge.
I would have vengeance. Arael would be avenged and then I could die peacefully and join him. Or die
in the process, it didn't matter now. I had to avenge him. That was all that was important. My
newfound fury made it possible for me to move now. First, I would take care of Arael's body. I stood
and lifted him over my shoulder, then walked over to the fireplace. I yanked the lever, opening the
bottom of it and jumped down, kicking off the wall and landing out of the flames that burned in the
furnace deep beneath the ground.
I'd disposed of many corpses down here, but I'd not handle his in the same manner. A long time ago,
when I first built the cabin, I'd set up a machine in the furnace. It was a casket on a set of rails. The idea
was that if I ever felt remorse for the things I'd done in death, I'd take my own life by resting in the
casket and activating the machine and sending it into the flames. For a moment, I thought of climbing
in myself, but I shook it off. I would return later to be with him. Now I had something to do. I lifted him
into the casket and folded his arms over his chest.
"I'll come to be with you later. First I'm going to make they pay." I said before leaning in to kiss Arael
once more before I closed the lid on him. There was a button inside the casket that activated the
machine, but I could not press it yet. I'd come back when I was done. I'd get in with him and send us
both off together. It was made to fit me, so he didn't take up much space. There'd be room for us
both if I held him.
I took one last look before scaling the wall and getting out of the fireplace. Autonomously, I walked to
the bathroom and picked up the jeans I'd torn off him, then opened the drawer beneath the sink,
taking a cigarette lighter from it left by one of my previous meals. I went back into the bedroom and
picked up the tracker's bow before leaping out of the balcony doors. I landed on a branch in a tree a
few meters away and tied a scrap of the fabric to the arrow and lit it.
I wanted nothing but him to come back to. I took aim and fired. I heard it stick in my bedroom wall and
turned away. The house would be gone when I came back. I had work to do now.
It did not end here.