The Darkness Beyond Ch. 01

It had been a most uneventful night, Cian noted. He was sitting on the windowsill, his back leaning against the sturdy wall. He was safely hidden somewhere between the curtains waving lazily in the slight breeze and the solitary candle casting confusing, dancing shadows on the walls.

Besides, if Cian didn't want to be seen, he wouldn't be. Not that it mattered.

He cast his eyes down at the couple fucking on the bed by the far wall. His friend Briar, who knew perfectly well that Cian was here. And the girl he had picked up, who would soon be dead.

The girl's hands wormed themselves tightly into Briar's ash blond hair and she pulled him down for a kiss. Briar groaned as he thrust hard inside her, continuing the assault on her cunt that had begun quite a while before. Cian turned up the corners of his mouth; who would have thought Briar was in such a good shape? No wonder Meraja fucked him so much.

Cian felt a small twinge of regret as he thought of his former lover, her angelic face flushed and head thrown back in ecstasy. The way she had looked when he had first caught them in bed together, a few years ago. The way she had so often looked when Cian had bedded her. He wasn't a sore loser by any means, but he still missed fucking her sometimes. Like right now.

The girl's moan brought him back to reality. Briar was still riding her hard; he had brought his hand down to her clit and was stroking it furiously. His other hand was busy pinching her breast and keeping her still. She was actually quite pretty, Cian realized, with creamy white skin and long silky black hair. Her long legs were wrapped around Briar's waist, and the red flush on her skin was turned into a soft glow by the candlelight. One of her nipples was an angry red because Briar had bitten it just moments ago, but now it was merrily bouncing up and down with its partner.

Cian watched it with fascination for a moment, taking in her shapely curves. He liked her breasts, definitely more than a handful there. Her curvy ass was planted firmly on the bedsheet now, but Cian had seen it earlier when she had knelt in front of Briar, incidentally giving Cian a perfect view of the area between her legs. It was a pity, really, that Briar wouldn't let her live to see the morning.

Cian could see that the girl was close now, and by Briar's moans, he could tell that his friend was as well. He leaned forward in anticipation as Briar tried his best to time their orgasms perfectly, a trick Cian had actually taught him a long time ago. The girl finally started to shake frantically, head tossed back and eyes squeezed shut. Her nails clawed into Briar's back, marking the blemish-free skin. She moaned again and Cian could see the orgasm ripple through her like a tidal wave. Now, he thought. Now.

And as if he had said it aloud, Briar groaned and started to pour his release inside her while his hand pushed aside her head to give him access to her neck. She spasmed right when he started to sink his teeth into her and he didn't meet his mark, but it didn't matter, it was close enough. Cian licked his lips unconsciously as he imagined how her blood must taste right now, freshly after her orgasm. He had tasted this sort so many times but it was still different each time, each girl had her own unique flavor of endorphin-enriched blood. But each was delicious and unmatched.

The girl screamed now, not in pleasure but in pain and panic. Her arms flayed to the side and she thrashed wildly, not that it would have bothered Briar. He was too busy sucking in the essence of her life, his hands with years of practice keeping her still enough to continue his drink undisturbed.

There was a flash of silver and orange, and suddenly a sound Cian couldn't identify. It took him a few seconds to figure out what had just happened, and his eyes widened in surprise.

The girl had managed to grasp the steak knife that had fallen from the table earlier and had landed right by the bed. Now, it was lodged firmly in Briar's back, her shaking hand still clasped around the handle as his body convulsed on top of her. Cian tried to estimate the angle and to figure out if it had hit his heart, but he couldn't be sure. Ironically, it had been Briar that had made the knife fall by pushing her against the table earlier, after they had eaten, too busy bending her over and sliding his cock inside her to care about fallen silverware. The irony seemed to be lost on both participants of the act though, since the girl was still shaking with shock, and Briar had a knife sticking in his back and wasn't moving any more. The girl's hand finally came off the handle, and she struggled to lift Briar's head away from her throat, an act made difficult by the fact that his fangs were still firmly lodged inside her. Once she accomplished it though, the girl managed to push the large man off her body, turning him over in the process, and when Cian saw Briar's face, it became obvious to him that his friend was dead. His eyes were wide and his mouth open, grimacing in pain, though frozen in its motion. Blood was splattered all over Briar's face, making him look all the more demonic in death.

The girl weakly pulled herself up, grasping a napkin from the table and pressing it against her bleeding neck. She started to crawl towards the door, dragging the blanket with her and moaning in obvious pain, but halfway there managed to pull herself up on a chair and walked the rest of the way, doubled over, blanket wrapped around her.

Cian simply sat there until she was gone. He was still somewhat stunned by the events that had just passed, surprised that she had even mustered the force to stab him, and even more so that she seemed to have managed to hit his heart quite by luck. He considered mourning for his friend for a moment, but then decided against it with a chuckle. Briar's betrayal had been too recent to waste any thought on him in death. Cian would have to tell the others and collect the essence, that was the only thing of importance right now.

Maybe not such an uneventful night after all, he decided, and leaped out the window.

"It's impossible!" Satne screeched, for the eighth time, while she paced up and down in front of the basin and ripped out small bunches of her own filthy brown hair. Cian was sitting next to one of the torches that he had hurriedly lighted, and he rolled his eyes at her. He really disliked the screeching, and he winced every time it assaulted his ear again. Meraja was sitting in a corner huddled up in her cloak, weeping quietly, with just a small patch of red hair sticking out of her hood, and seeing her like this gave him an odd sense of satisfaction. He wondered faintly how long it would take before she came crawling back to him. Not that he wouldn't take her.

K'meer seemed to suffer from no such feelings. He throned atop one of the fallen stone pillars, his long black hair, olive skin, and cloak hiding almost all of him in darkness. He cast disgusted glances at Satne and Meraja from time to time, fed up with their behavior, and Cian recalled at once that K'meer had never been able to stand Briar. No sentiments lost there. Noor were they on Aurai, who was cowering in the corner, observing the room a bit shyly. She was the newest addition to the group, and thus had never gone through the ordeal that happened every time one of them died. She also hadn't known Briar all that well, and so all she did was to show a faint interest at everybody else's reactions and brush her unruly hair back behind her ears from time to time.

Otherwise, they all just waited. Three other group members had yet to show up before Briar's essence could be retrieved, and then there would be nine long months of waiting before their power as a group would be back at a normal level. It was a most unpleasant thing every time one of them died.

A slamming door announced Adrian's arrival, and Cian had cause for one more eye roll. Adrian was older only than Aurai, and his youth was probably the explanation for his over-eagerness and grandstanding. It was not an excuse, however, and Cian added a new point to his mental to-do list -- to teach the little bastard some well-needed humility and wipe that arrogant smile off his face. It wouldn't be hard to accomplish since Adrian was so inexperienced, but it would be a welcome diversion for Cian.

Adrian purposefully strode into the middle of the room and leaned against the basin, looking at all the other group members in turn. His silver hair took on a light sheen in the torchlight, and Cian couldn't resist giving the boy a dirty look when his gray eyes met Cian's piercing green ones. Adrian held the gaze for a moment, then shrunk back a bit.

"So who will be the next breeder?" he asked instead.

There was silence before K'meer finally answered. "That's what we're here to find out, now, isn't it?"

Cian loved the condescending tone his friend was using when talking to Adrian, and he broke into an amused smile. He did find it an interesting question though, and he glanced around the room and considered the different girls. Aurai was still too young, and Satne was definitely unstable. There'd be a good chance of her stabbing her own womb before she gave birth. That left Meraja. Cian was quite hoping that she would be chosen, simply because the thought of forcing Meraja to carry the new host for her departed lover's essence amused him to no end. He quite liked to see her suffer these days, he noticed.

Finally, Coran and Lizanne arrived, worried looks on their faces as they made it down the stairs and arrived at the basin. They were the unofficial patriarch and matriarch, respectively, of the group, the oldest and also the ones with the most power. They had also been lovers as far as Cian could think back, and by the reports of Meraja, who was his senior by quite a few decades, a lot longer than that.

"Something's wrong," Lizanne announced, a strange look on her face, and everyone turned to face her. Meraja's sobbing stopped, and Aurai's mouth dropped open slightly. There was a tense silence.

"What is it?" Cian finally asked, finding all this drama utterly ridiculous. K'meer gave him a thankful look.

"His essence," Lizanne said, shrugging her shoulders. "It's... not coming to us. It's as if it was still with him. Are you sure he's dead?"

Cian didn't answer, but he didn't have to, since Lizanne cast her eyes towards the pool and answered her own question. The crimson color of the water had faded a bit by now, but it was still painfully obvious that one of them had died not too long ago. And everybody else was here now.

"Tell me again," Lizanne asked him.

Cian sighed. "I can't add anything new. He was fucking her. He bit her. She stabbed him. He died. End of story."

"How the hell did she manage to do that anyway?" Adrian asked. "It takes a lot of strength to stab someone in the back. Don't even talk about hitting the heart and avoiding the ribs! That's a ridiculous coincidence."

"Well, why don't you go and ask her to demonstrate how she did it?" Cian sneered. "If we're lucky she'll be able to do it again, and we'll have one less annoying kid to hold us up."

Adrian closed his mouth.

"Maybe... maybe it's with the girl," Aurai offered. Everyone turned to face her, and she shrank back, expecting to be reprimanded. But Lizanne just looked at Cian.

"Were they still joined when she stabbed him?"

"Yes."

"And he was biting her?"

"Yes." Cian was getting tired of this.

"Then maybe she's right." Lizanne rubbed her slender, slightly wrinkled neck in thought.

"But how would that work?" asked Adrian. Cian rolled his eyes at the obvious question and gave Adrian a look that quite clearly stated If you say one more word, I will fucking punch you.

Lizanne shrugged her shoulders and looked a bit helpless, but it was Coran who opened his mouth and spoke for the first time.

"Cian. You've seen her. I want you to hunt her down."

Cian straightened up from his sitting position, a bit surprised at the turn of events, but intrigued. "Sure. It may take me a few days."

"And if you can, don't kill her yet. It might be interesting to take her alive."

Cian's estimate turned out to be slightly off. It took him the better part of two hours to figure out where she lived, due to the fact that there weren't too many people these days who went to the emergency room bleeding from two puncture wounds in the neck. He made his way to the apartment complex whose address he had forced the nurse on duty to tell him before killing her. It was a run-down building, dirty and fairly dark, and he stood there for a moment considering how to enter the girl's apartment. He glanced up at the sky which was beginning to lighten just the slightest bit. She would be asleep by now. No need for unnecessary noises.

About ten minutes later, he quietly turned the key he had just acquired in the lock, having decided that nothing spoke against traditional way of entering. The apartment manager had been most forthcoming before he had killed her. When he pushed the door open, he heard a clicking noise and realized slightly too late what it was.

The girl was sitting in an armchair that was facing the door. Cian could see from the doorway that she now had a white bandage covering the bite marks on her neck, and that she was still quite pale. She was wearing her pajamas but wasn't asleep by any means. Instead, she had a gun in her hands that was pointing directly at Cian. He didn't like it at all.

For a few seconds, they were both frozen. She unerringly pointed the gun at him, and he stood there wondering if she was going to shoot him. There was a pretty good chance that she'd hit a non-lethal area if he attacked her, but he wasn't going to risk it. Considering what had happened to Briar, this girl seemed to be enjoying quite a lot of luck in killing his kind. She did look afraid, but was by no means panicking.

Finally, he couldn't stand it any more.

"Are you going to shoot me or not?" he asked.

"I want to know some things," she said. "Come in and close the door."

"Okay." He slid over right next to the wall, closing the door with his right hand while still facing her. Now that he knew that no shooting was going to happen any time soon, he crossed his arms in front of his chest and leaned back against the wall, looking at her expectantly.

"What's your name?" she asked. There was no harm in telling her the truth, he figured.

"Cian."

"Last name?"

"I don't have one."

She sniffed. "Why does that not surprise me?"

He shrugged. "Will you tell me your name?"

She cocked her head slightly and raised her eyebrows. "If you found me here, you already know it."

There was a short pause, then --

"Hannah," he stated. "Hannah Simmons."

She gave a short nod. Cian found her demeanor surprisingly calm overall, given what had happened to her towards the beginning of the night.

"What's your association to Brian?" she asked.

"Briar," he corrected her. "His name is... was Briar."

"Whatever. I want to know what the hell is going on." Her hands were shaking only the slightest bit, giving away her nervousness.

He tilted his head and looked around the room, contemplating how much -- and what -- to tell her.

"Briar was my friend," he stated. "You killed him. It was only natural for me to come find you."

"Well, he tried to kill me first," she said, leaning back in the chair but never taking her eyes off him. "Doesn't that count for something?"

Cian shrugged. "I suppose. I thought you were done for," he added. "You surprised me."

Her face paled considerably and the shiny mound of the gun shook for a moment before it settled again.

"What?" she asked blankly.

"What do you mean, 'What'?"

"You saw me do it?"

"Oh. Oh, yes." Now that he knew what was on her mind, a wide grin spread across his face and he started to enjoy himself again. "Quite fun to watch, the whole thing. Up to the stabbing. I really love your ass, by the way."

She shot him.

The bullet went cleanly through his left shoulder and left a tiny hole which started to mend at once. Hannah stared at it while Cian was leaning against the wall gasping, his face contorted in pain.

"So you can heal."

"Yes," he said simply, hands balled into fists, and took a couple of deep breaths to fight the nausea.

"Why didn't Brian... Briar heal himself then?"

He gave a short laugh and pressed his fists against the wall, wincing. "Honey, you hit his fucking heart. He didn't have the time to heal anything before he died."

"Oh."

There was another moment of silence during which Cian managed to calm down again. Then she said, "But you're still in pain."

"That would still be a side effect, yes," he replied grimacing. "It's also the reason why I haven't lunged at you yet, because I was hoping you might consider coming with me voluntarily."

"Go somewhere unknown with a vampire? You must think I'm pretty dense."

He laughed again, this one as humorless as the last. "What would you call letting Briar take you home?"

"I didn't know what he was," she reminded him, a bit irritated. „Now I do, and I'm not letting you touch me."

"Fine. But if you really want an explanation of why I want you to come with me, I'll give it to you."

Cian paused for a moment and awaited her nod. It didn't come, but she was looking at him expectantly.

"Whenever one of us dies, they leave something behind. It's... I suppose it's the part that makes us what we are. We call it an essence."

"A soul?" she asked, and he shook his head.

"No. A soul is something personal. Briar's is probably in hell by now. His essence gave him the abilities he has that make him one of us. Like the healing."

"I thought you just had to be bitten to..."

"Myths," Cian cut her off, rolling his eyes at her bringing up the old stereotypes. "There are only nine of us left in this world. We bite to feed, and to kill, never to have someone else ascend into our ranks." He sounded almost disgusted at the thought.

Hannah's eyes narrowed. "So basically, you're a bunch of snobs."

"Even if I wanted to, I couldn't 'turn' anyone, or whatever you'd like to call it. Only whoever has the essence is one of us. Usually, once an essence has been released, we can trap it and give it to the next one to join the group. But Briar's essence isn't coming back to us to pass on to another, like it's supposed to, so we figured, since he was biting and fucking you when he died, you might have it. Or be able to help us find it."

Hannah seemed slightly disgusted. "So if I have it," she said, "which I don't know, by the way, are you going to have me join the group, or kill me, or what?"

"You can't join," he replied. "We are born, not made."

"But you just said..."

"I said that the essence was given to the next in line," he cut her off. "We select a female to carry out a ritualistic pregnancy. The child will inherit it."

"So I'll have to die?"

"Yes," shrugged Cian.

He could see her eyes squint and the slight adjustment of her aim, and he was able to throw himself aside just before a bullet hit the wall on which he had leaned only a moment before. He hit the floor with a thud and came up cursing, just when he heard another shot and felt a searing pain in his thigh. He ignored it and threw himself at her before she could get in a third shot, wrapping his arms around her legs and bringing her down. She gasped as they both hit the floor and tried to bring her arm up again to fire, but he pinned it down and scrambled to put his knee on her chest. After a short struggle, he was able to get a hold of the gun and promptly pointed it at her.