Before Sunrise Ch. 06

Another growl slipped from Ras' lips as he picked up his pace in Anna's cleft. He squeezed her throat tighter so that the main artery became prominent and pulsed on the side of her neck. He could smell the trickle of blood that seeped from Anna's vagina after he broke her barrier and his eyes burned with a demon's fire. He felt his eye teeth begin to elongate and yearned to feast on the helpless woman. Ras applied more pressure on Anna's throat and her eyes, squeezed shut from pain and fright, suddenly popped open.

It was at that moment that she realized what her fiancé, her love, her future, had become. She saw Ras' contorted face, a monstrosity, a spawn of Satan himself. His eyes burning red, his fangs pointed and long. She tried to scream once more but the pressure from his grip on her throat would allow no sound to escape. Rasmussen, silent through the encounter thus far, finally spoke in a tone not human but nearly animal in timbre and tone.

"You... Are... Mine..." Ras' voice rumbled throughout the cabin as his ejaculate shot from his pistoning phallus and his fangs found their target in Anna's neck. He drank of her as the ravished redhead convulsed underneath him. He removed his sharp teeth from her carotid as the last of his semen jetted inside of his fluttering fiancé. Ras removed himself from inside of Anna then stood from the bed. Anna's pallor, pale by nature, was nearly sheet-white and as he came to his senses, he realized what he had done to her.

Ras reached down and shook her lifeless body, but no reaction came from the young woman. Tears began to fall from Ras' eyes, and he held Anna's body, cold and lifeless, as he wept. He had taken her life in a fit of lust and hunger. He had wanted to make her like him, to transform her so that they could be together for eternity. But he had not known his newly enhanced strength and power. The entire encounter had lasted less than twenty minutes and now his Anna, his love forever, was gone by his hands.

He knew he had to leave at once. Anna's screams might have attracted the attention of her nearer neighbors. He did not want to kill again. He also knew that he must find shelter before the sun peeked over the eastern horizon. Ras dressed in his raggedy pants, took one last look at the corpse that was the only woman he had ever loved, then forever left the home that he had built for his Anna, for a family that would never be.

Twelve minutes later, the nude lifeless body on the bed arched her back, gasped, then screamed as her fangs grew to twice their normal length and her eyes flashed open, red as a blazing July sunset. She felt hunger as she stood from the bed she had hoped to share with her husband. She felt hunger and rage as she attempted to look at herself in the mirror over the dressing table. Another scream shot out of her as she realized the mirror replied no reflection for her. She began to pray but found no solace in the holy words. She would never pray again.

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Present Day

"I remember..." Rasmussen said softly, looking at the creature at his feet on the dirt floor of the cell. "I remember now... Everything... I wish I could take it back, Anna. 'Sorry' will not make up for what I did to you that night. I will not ask for your forgiveness because it was unforgivable. Please know that my recollection of that night has just now returned to me. I cannot say it has haunted me all these years. But it haunts me now and will for as long as I li... continue to exist."

"Y-ou d-did this t-to me!" Anna shouted as she looked up from the dungeon floor and stared coldly into Ras' eyes. "Y-you t-turned me into a v-v-v...

"A vampire..." Ras said finishing her stuttering sentence for her. "Yes, I did. I thought I had killed you, but I did much worse to you. And then Solomon did even worse to you by imprisoning you here in this pit. You're free now, Anna. Free to leave here and go wherever you want. Free to stay if you want. You're even free to destroy me if that's what you feel you need to do. I won't try to stop you..."

Anna rose shakily from the hardscrabble floor and stood on wobbly legs. Her hair, matted with filth, showed little trace of the shining red that Ras had adored so long ago. her body, slight before, was emaciated from malnutrition as she fed only on the bottom dwellers that scurried in and out of the cell. Hesitant steps took her closer to her ex-fiancé and creator and she stopped in front of him near the barred door.

"What's the point?" was all Anna said to Ras as she pushed by him and exited the cell. Ras watched her stumble down the hall then use her hands on the stairs to climb out of the hell where she existed for unknown decades. Ras looked at the other inhabitants in the dungeon and contemplated their fate. He left the cell door that had caged Anna for years open then opened the rest of the cells with the key from the wall. "You are all free now. You have no more fear of Solomon or any other master. Stay or go, the choice is yours. But if you go, you must stay hidden. The world has many eyes these days and we cannot reveal ourselves to the humans."

With that, Ras walked down the hallway and strode up the steps to his new home. He had less than two hours before sunrise and there were many messes to clean before he rested. Not the least of which was figuring out what to do with Dana's corpse.

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Ras returned to the parlor where the battle was to have happened but was snuffed by Elizabeth's sacrifice and destruction of Solomon. Those corpses took care of themselves as the former masters of the mansion dissolved into dust. But Dana's body still laid where it had landed after Solomon had murdered her and thrown her through the partition window. Ras knelt in front of Dana and took her cold hand in his.

"I'm sorry, my love," Ras said to the lifeless beauty. "I wasn't strong enough to stop this. Just know this will be my last day on this world also. Maybe we'll meet again somewhere..." He moved to pick up Dana's body then heard a warful scream from the other side of the parlor. Ras stood and whirled around to see Anna, her strength newly found, was running toward him, a chunk of lathe matted with plaster was in her hand and raised over her head poised to plunge the makeshift stake into his heart.

Ras stood straight and steeled himself for the pierce to his heart. He inwardly hoped that Anna's blow would find its mark cleanly. Anna leapt into the air and swung her arm down to impale her former betrothed. Inches from his chest, the stake exploded into a million slivers. Anna fell to the left side of the stoic Ras and hit the marble floor hard. She scrambled to her hands and knees and searched the room for another implement to drive into Ras' heart. Ras held his position as Anna tried to find another stake. He resolved himself to his fate and waited for the inevitable.

A flash of light, brighter than the sun that Ras had not seen for a century and a half, emanated throughout the room and threatened to white out the world. Ras stumbled and lost his bearings in the intense glow and fell to the ground near Dana's unmoving form. A pinhole of darkness emerged and grew quickly into a swirling vortex before Ras' squinting eyes. Shielding his eyes with his hand, Ras saw a small form emerge from the black hole. A frail figure hobbled toward Ras, and he finally recognized the old woman from decades ago: Dorothea, the woman who had helped save his life years ago. The High Priestess of the Dark Midnight Coven. Dana's grandmother.

"How?" Ras shouted through the swirling mass to the powerful old crone. "You can't be..."

"Isnuye bahato riznykh form zhyttya, istot (There are many different forms of life, creature)" the ancient witch spoke in the old language that somehow Ras understood after Elizabeth had helped save him. Dorothea then pointed to the lifeless body of her granddaughter. "Shche ne nastav yiyi chas (It is not her time yet.)" The old spellcaster closed her eyes and raised a craggly finger toward her dead relative. Dana's body began to rise off the ground and levitated before Ras. With another sudden flash of light, Ras saw Dana's eyes flutter open suddenly and she gasped for a breath. Dorothea pointed her finger to the ground and placed Dana's feet to the marble floor where she stood in front of Ras, not a mark or scratch on her to show the injuries that had killed her less than two hours before.

"Ras?" Dana said as she moved to him and embraced her undead lover. "What... What happened? What's going on?" She pointed at the old witch. "Who is that?"

Ras embraced Dana and kissed her softly. "A friend, my love... A friend. I'll explain later."

"Potribna zhertva (A sacrifice is required.)" The old woman stated plainly through the vortex's commotion. "YA prynis vam deshcho, teper my vymahayemo vid vas toho zh (We have brought something back to you, now we require something in return.)"

Ras stepped forward and spoke to the old woman, "Me. I'll go if it means Dana lives."

"NO!" Dana cried. "You can't! I won't let you!"

"Dana," Ras said softly as he held her trembling body, "You have your whole life ahead of you. I have been on this world far longer than I should have been. I can make the sacrifice."

He kissed Dana then released her from his grip. Tears flowed from Dana's eyes as he took a step forward to where the witch stood in the middle of the churning vortex. As Ras began to take another step, he felt a hand on his arm pull him back. It was Anna.

"I'll go, Rasmussen," Anna said. "You need to stay here." She pointed at Dana. "For her. For your people. You are their leader now and you need to make sure the things that happened before never happen again."

"Anna, are you sure?" Ras questioned his old fiancé. "There must be some other way!"

"No, Rasmussen," Anna replied through the din. "It's my time. I want this. I want all this to end. On my terms."

Ras said nothing, only nodded in agreement to Anna's request. He embraced her and lightly kissed her cold lips.

"Make sure this never happens again..." Anna said as she walked toward Dorothea. "And try to be happy and love one another..." She hurriedly walked into the vortex and immediately vanished.

"Zhertva pryynyata (The sacrifice is accepted.)" Dorothea said and then walked to the center of the swirl. "Teper mizh nashymy lyud'my panuye myr (There is now peace between our people.)" she exclaimed as her form dissipated into the blackness and the vortex shrunk quickly to the pinhole that Ras saw before then disappeared leaving Ras and Dana alone in the mansion.

Dana once again hugged Ras and kissed his lips vigorously. "Please let me know what happened here tonight, but not until tomorrow evening. We only have about thirty minutes until the sun comes up."

Ras smiled at Dana and kissed her once again. He picked her up off her feet and cradled her in his arms. "Let's go see how dark the master bedroom gets in this place. We could both use some rest." He began to walk to the staircase that led to the large bedroom then felt his feet leave the ground and levitated up the steps to the second floor where he and Dana would live and hold court over both of their respective clans in a new era of peace and understanding between their peoples.

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Epilogue

Detective Joe Abramson had been sitting in the apartment complex's parking garage for nearly ninety minutes when he saw the red Japanese sports car barrel through the lane and stop quickly in a spot near the elevator. He saw the redhead Dana Evans exit the passenger side door then spied a large man step out of the driver's side. He deduced that must be Delevan and he exited his undercover vehicle, shutting the door loud enough to cause the couple to turn their heads.

"Mr. Delevan?" the middle-aged cop spoke loudly as he strode up to the duo. He had his badge out in one hand and his other on the butt of his revolver.

"Yes?" Ras said as he and Dana stopped ten feet from the elevator door.

"Detective Joseph Abramson, GCPD," Joe said matter-of-factly. "I spoke with Miss Evans a while back about a case I'm working on, and I'd like to ask you a couple of questions about it, if you have a few minutes?"

"I'll try to help you, Detective," Ras said with a half-smile. "What's this all about?"

"I'm investigating the disappearance of a young woman named Jennifer Sutherland." Abramson stated. "Are you acquainted with her?"

"Yes, I know her," Ras said truthfully. "We dated a couple times, but I haven't seen her since our last date," he finished, again, not lying.

"She was seen in your company the night she disappeared and..." the detective suddenly stopped his questioning and felt a buzzing in his head. He couldn't remember what he was going to say next or even where he was at the moment.

Ras peered into Joe's eyes and manipulated his mind. "Detective, can you hear me?"

"Yes..." Abramson said softly, his mind a blank slate.

"Detective," Ras continued, "Miss Sutherland left town to live with her grandmother in Maryland. As far as you're concerned, the case is closed, along with the other missing persons cases you've been researching. Understand?"

"Yes... I understand..." Joe said plainly.

Dana then spoke up to add something to Ras' hypnotism, "And it's high time you retired from the police force and made a life for you and that woman you've been sleeping with. Divorce your cheating wife and marry Denise and forget all about police work. Be happy."

"Yes... Denise... happy..." Joe repeated.

"Now get in your car and go home, Detective," Ras concluded. "And don't forget, the case is closed."

Abramson said nothing, only turned around and went back to his car. He sped out of the enclosure and off into the night. A week later, he announced his retirement from the Gravel City Police department after twenty-six years of loyal service.

"That was a nice thing you added, dear," Ras said to Dana as they walked the few remaining feet to the elevator. "But how did you know about his cheating wife and his own... indiscretion?"

"You're not the only one with supernatural powers, y'know," Dana replied with a wink. "And a woman just knows these things, so remember that, Mister!"

"Yes, ma'am," Ras jokingly responded.

"By the way," Dana added as she lifted her shoulder length hair from her neck exposing the two small pinhole scars, "how long until these heal? Makeup only covers so much."

"Well," Ras answered, "a guy's gotta eat. And you're the sweetest thing I've ever tasted. Let's go get the rest of my things then go home. I feel like a snack!"

Dana crackled a small arc of electricity from between her index finger and thumb. "Just be gentle, big guy. Don't make me use this!" She smiled and stood on her tiptoes to kiss her man as the elevator doors closed and the car glided to the top floor penthouse.