Blood Rose Ch. 07

She broke off the kiss to reach down and unfasten his pants. With her legs she began sliding his pants down, and her fingers wrapped themselves around the thick member that stood ready. Their eyes locked together, and the longer they gazed at each other's eyes the more she saw his nervousness melting away, being steadily replaced with nothing but pure desire that matched her own. As many guys as she'd been with since meeting Annabelle, and as much as she'd enjoyed each of those encounters, she'd never wanted anyone so much as she wanted Tyler right now. He rolled her miniskirt up around her waist, and slowly she guided him down to her very moist opening.

She nearly had an orgasm right away just from sheer joy. Her arms and legs wrapped around him as he filled her almost completely. The long, soft gasp that came from her throat was probably the happiest noise she had ever made. Right there, lying on her back, fully engulfed in Tyler's warm embrace, with his penis making slow, loving strokes inside of her... she never wanted this moment to end.

"I love you, Tyler," she whispered in his ear.

Time ceased to exist. Sometimes mouth-to-mouth, sometimes cheek-to-cheek, they continued making the best love Elizabeth had ever known. She found herself half wishing all her previous sex encounters had never happened; that Tyler could have been her first. Eventually she began to feel the climax to this perfect moment approaching. She not only felt her own orgasm building, but by the sudden heating of his blood and the swelling of his cock she knew his was approaching too. She could smell the mounting excitement in his blood. And when it came...

For a split second, everything in her body felt numb. She honestly thought she had died from sheer pleasure. But her body had in fact never been more alive. Their two bodies were one in this moment of ultimate release. All of him was a part of her: his seed pumping into her; his flesh in her arms; his blood...

His blood...

His blood!

It wasn't until her orgasm subsided that she realized the taste of Tyler's blood was in her mouth. She pulled her lips away from the neck she hadn't even realized she'd bitten...no... that didn't happen... but the bloody marks in his neck were there.

No!

She instantly shoved him away. "Oh my god... oh my god, what've I... No!"

"Elizabeth?"

She began hurriedly grabbing up her clothes and pulling them back on. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry... I have to go!"

"What? Not again! What's wrong? What is it?"

"I can't talk about it, I just... I just can't, I..." She left her sentence unfinished, simply opening the door and taking off running. She heard him calling after her. She felt tears on her face; whether those were residual happy tears from her moment of ecstasy or tears from the pain of what she'd just done to him, she couldn't tell. She had known when she first met him that she shouldn't get involved with him, but she'd allowed herself to forget that, and now this had happened.

All of her sudden her run came to an abrupt halt as she bumped into the strong, hard body of another person. When she looked up, she was gazing into the gruff, dark face of a man of about thirty-five in a brown leather jacket, holding a small beeping device in his hand, who took a good, long look at her face—and Elizabeth realized the man was seeing Tyler's blood still on her lips. Her breath seized when the man reached into his jacket and produced an iron stake which he raised, preparing to bring down on her.

"Elizabeth!"

Tyler's call drew both their attentions, but she only balked for a moment before taking off again. Now she had even more reason to run. She bolted through the trees and the brush, running back for the road and the way... where was she going to go anyway?

She was still contemplating this question when she began slowing down, suddenly surrounded by an eerie fog, similar to the fog that appeared the night she first met Annabelle. But this was different. This fog was doing more than just impeding her vision; the additional senses Annabelle had taught her to use, which by now she had come to use with no more conscious thought than breathing, were also being clouded. And the fog seemed like it was actively moving, as if it were alive; in fact it was closing in on her like a trap.

As it thickened around her, she began feeling faint. Was the ground moving under her feet, or was she the one moving? By now the fog was actually starting to turn black, and it seemed like it was even beginning to take a shape, but her vision was blurring too much to determine what shape that was—until a hand took hold of her, and she looked up into a face she had come to believe she would never see again, which spoke two simple words to her:

"Hi sis."

Then everything went black.

***

Dorian had followed the signal for almost an hour before he finally caught up with it. For a while it had seemed like he was gaining on Kaeli, who was evidently moving on foot. But after stopping briefly in what his map indicated as a residential area, she apparently had started moving by car, which was going to prolong this pursuit for a while.

Finally the signal had stopped moving in a wooded area just outside of town. When he reached the area, he stopped the car about half a mile from the signal, and gathered up his weapons and carefully got out of the car.

He stopped walking and looked down at the tracker when he saw the signal suddenly moving, at a pace that indicated someone running, and right towards him, too. He looked up just in time to see the girl the signal was coming from bump into him. When she looked at his face, Dorian instantly assessed that this raven-haired, golden-eyed girl—strikingly similar in appearance to the young man with Electra from last night—definitely wasn't Kaeli, but judging by the blood on her lips she was definitely a vampire. He'd just grabbed his iron stake and was getting ready to take her out when they heard the boy's voice calling her. "Elizabeth!"

The girl seized the moment to take off running, and Dorian was about to grab his crossbow and follow her, but the boy who came running up after her with the very evident bite marks on his throat quickly became a more urgent matter. "Elizabeth! Wait... Where're you..." Dorian saw the kid growing faint while running, and he didn't even seem to see Dorian standing in front of him when his blood loss caused him to pass out at Dorian's feet.

Dorian hesitated briefly, looking back behind him and seeing the vampire girl already long gone. Obviously the kid needed to be treated with an antidote as fast as possible, and luckily Dorian had some in the car. He picked up the kid's limp body and carried him back to his vehicle, wondering how Kaeli's transmitter had ended up on that girl; and more importantly, where was Kaeli now?

***

God didn't strike her down when Kaeli walked through the church doors. When she dipped her fingers in the sacred water and crossed herself, she didn't burn. Somehow she was still welcome in the Lord's house. At this hour the church was empty, and she found some comfort in that; she could say what she had to say to God without drawing any looks. She took a seat in an empty pew in the front, and leaned forward, hugging her arms with her elbows resting on her knees, and looked up at the sculpture of Jesus on the cross.

"I know I don't have any right to talk to you," she began. "Not now. Because I'm not one of your children anymore. I've let myself become tainted. I've tasted blood... I... I killed someone tonight. He was innocent... and now I have his blood on my conscience. I know I have no right to ask anything of you... I know I have no right to even live anymore, but I..." Tears tickled her face, and she fought back her sobs to continue speaking. "I still want to live! I know what I'm supposed to do now, but... I can't do it! I can't kill myself! I want to live, but how can I live like this? Please help me! Please tell me what to do!"

For a long while, perhaps nearly an hour, she continued to sit there, the only sound being that of her quiet sobs muffled by her hands that her face was buried in. Then she raised her head and looked behind her as another sound began echoing through the church: footsteps. And she began shedding a new kind of tears when the figure making them stepped into view.

"Andy," she breathed, standing up.

"I thought I'd find you here," he said.

She hesitated for a moment, some part of her brain telling her she shouldn't get close to him now, before she cast that part aside and flew into his arms. There wasn't anyone she would've rather seen right then. She just needed to hold him.

But he didn't hug her back. He shoved her away. "Andy?"

"I need to know something," he said. With that he produced one of his knives, rolled up his coat sleeve and made a cut on his arm, and extended it to her.

She shrunk back from it. "What are you doing?"

He didn't answer; he only took a step closer. She tried to look away, but once a single drop of blood had fallen from his arm and dripped on the floor, she no longer could. She drew nearer to the blood that came from that wound, and her breath started coming in hard gasps. Her teeth tingled the same way they did when Annabelle offered her that bowl. She took hold of his harm and brought her face closer to the wound—

He grabbed her face by the bottom of her chin and pulled it to look at. He lifted her upper lip with his thumb, and in his face she saw the infinite heartbreak and horror as he saw how those two teeth had changed. "No! Not you!"

Her tears returned, and she turned away from him. "I'm sorry," she sobbed.

After a lengthy pause, she heard him say, "So am I." She turned around again when she heard the sound of his blades being drawn. "I'm so sorry, Kaeli," he said, holding his knives ready to throw.

"Andy, don't!"

Her trained hunter's reflexes instantly commanded her to dodge when the blades flew from his hand, and she new she could never have evaded them as perfectly as she did if she were still human. She heard the blades embed themselves in wood from the altar or pews behind her. "Andy please," she started to say, this time barely avoiding his lunge with another knife.

"You're not Kaeli anymore," he said. "You're the thing that took her from me."

"No, Andy, it's still me," she pleaded, shrinking away and shielding her face with her hands—which she instinctively blocked with when he suddenly threw the knife in his hand. A sharp grunt punctuated the shock of pain when the blade impaled her hand. He was already drawing more of them; there was nothing to do now but run. She turned and bolted for the doors, cradling her hand, hearing another blade plunge into the door behind her.

***

Annabelle turned away from the door after seeing Charlotte off for the night. It wouldn't be long until sunrise now, and most of the girls had retired already. Annabelle was just getting ready to retire herself, when an object lain on the stairs stopped her. Seeing what she saw laying in front of her was usually not a good sign: a single red rose. And it was only then that she sensed the one who planted it standing at the bottom of the stairs behind her. Electra's ability to hide even from Annabelle's senses was one of many things she did not miss about her.

"I must admit," Electra said once Annabelle turned around, "when I left you I never thought I'd set foot in this house again, let alone two nights in a row. Isn't this world just full of little ironies?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I merely came by to deliver a simple courtesy notice," Electra smiled, slowly climbing the steps to meet Annabelle's eyes. "Elizabeth will not be your pupil anymore. In fact, I doubt you shall be seeing her anytime soon."

"What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean. I've taken her under my wing. Isn't that why you brought her to my attention?"

"Our business deal was that I would continue to train these girls and you would judge whether they were worthy of working for you."

"Precisely," Electra grinned. "And that is exactly what I did. After all these years, you finally found one I judged worthy. Blood of the Chosen. Now she has no more need for you."

Annabelle's blood froze and boiled at the same time. How could she have been so stupid... or so greedy? She was desperate enough for some simple cash that she put her favorite pupil under the nose of the person she hated most in the world. "This isn't what I agreed to—"

Electra's hand on her throat silenced her instantly. "I'll not have you forget that you know nothing...nothing... but what I taught you! You will fill that prodigy's head with your rubbish no more! She will learn the ways of Blood Rose from me, she will fight alongside me, and her brother, and when I am queen again she will be a princess! She will sit on her rightful throne of power by my side, and her brother's side, and lesser maggot vampires like you will squirm beneath our feet!"

"...She's... not a warrior..." Annabelle managed to gasp through Electra's vice-like grip. "She won't help you."

Electra snarled, and shoved Annabelle hard, sending her flying across the lobby and landing hard on her back on the polished floor. By the time she opened her eyes, Electra was already leaning over her from above her head, holding a sword to her throat, her violet eyes flaring.

"Elizabeth... is ...MINE!"

"Get away from her!" they heard someone scream. They both looked up to see Rosanna, Katrina, Noemi and Miko charging down the stairs with panic all over their faces.

"Stay back!" Electra barked, brandishing her sword at them, bringing all the girls to an instant halt. Then Electra began to laugh. "Look at them. Taught them everything you know, did you? Everything you learn from me? And yet there they cower. I tried to teach you how to use Blood Rose in ways that might help you—or them, for that matter—in a situation like this. Had you listened with more than half an ear, you might be fighting me back now. You'd be on your feet with your own sword in hand. But you didn't. And now just look at you."

Electra grabbed Annabelle's collar and hoisted her to her feet, holding her from behind facing the other girls on the stairs. Annabelle screamed in pain, as the other girls screamed in horror, as she felt the cold steel plunge into her back, and when she looked down she saw the bloody steel jutting out of her gut. "Look, all of you!" Electra commanded. "This is all that your beloved teacher amounts to! Watch and learn who the true master of Blood Rose is!"

She yanked out the sword, causing Annabelle to scream again and drop to her knees. Wearily she turned her head around, getting a brief moment to see Electra swing the sword down at her neck before darkness came.

To Be Concluded...