Daughters of the Moon Pt. 08

Sophia smiled. Carla slowly, almost despite herself, smiled back.

...

Elaine was sitting in Carla's lap, her legs around Carla's waist and her arms were around her neck. Carla ran her hands over her naked, sweaty back as Elaine pressed against her. Carla had her tongue deep in Elaine's mouth, running it over her teeth, the inside of her cheeks. She soaked in the heat, the smell, the radiance of Elaine's body.

Elaine broke the kiss.

"Do it, Carla."

"Are you sure? Its..."

"Fucking do it!"

Carla sank her fangs into Elaine's throat. Elaine went stiff and pressed against her as Carla's fangs sent pleasure coursing through her body.

The blood poured down her throat, carrying Elaine's essence with it. The more Carla fed from Elaine the more she could sense from her blood, like Elaine was a wine that could only be appreciated with multiple tastings. Carla could taste the tragedy of her lean years, the joy she felt from creating music, the gratification she got from the crowd's adoration, the contentment and happiness Carla and Gwen brought her. She drank down Elaine hungrily and so knew her and loved what she knew.

She only drank a little, just a couple minutes of slow sipping. And then she pulled out and licked the wound, closing it. The blood hummed in her gut, drowning the anxiety and uncertainty that had blossomed from her tea with Sophia.

Carla threw herself backwards on the bed and Elaine laid down next to her.

"Feel better?"

"Much better, thanks."

She and Elaine were lounging in the inn where they had first been together. After her tea with Sophia, she needed to get away. Away from the palace, away from the whole solid mess of the court and the lab. every corridor reminded her of time she had spent with Gwen. She felt overwhelmed by what she had learned, about Gwen's tragic past, that Sophia had reasons beyond simple whim for what she had done. She needed to process and the only place she felt comfortable doing that was with Elaine by her side.

They laid together silently, staring at the pattern painted on the ceiling, for a long time.

"So, that's some shit, huh?"

"Yeah."

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. I guess this doesn't change anything right now. When Gwen gets back I guess we can all talk and... figure something out."

"Sorry, I shouldn't have even asked that. This was supposed to be about taking your mind off things."

"You've done a pretty good job of that."

"There's still room for improvement."

Elaine leaned over and kissed her. Their lips lingered on each other, Elaine ran her hands down Carla's body. Carla could feel the affection in her lips, in the stroke of her hand.

Elaine broke the kiss.

"Tell you what. I have a new song I'm working on. Are you in the mood to offer some constructive criticism?"

Carla smiled, "That sounds wonderful."

"I'll even perform it naked."

"This is getting better by the second."

There was a knock on the door. They both looked at each other.

"Were you expecting anyone?"

"Obviously not. You think I'd interrupt this?" asked Elaine.

"Oh God, what if it's Sophia again? Hold on a minute!" called Carla.

They both hastily dressed. It took Carla way too long to find her underwear.

There was another knock on the door, Loud and impatient.

"Just a second!"

Caral opened the door and Sebastian was standing in the hall.

Carla gasped and backed up, "Sebastian? What... What are you doing here?"

Sebastian walked in the room, "I came to rescue you but... Carla what did you do?"

Sebastian's face was full of disgust. He was looking at her pale skin, her too bright eyes and recoiled with loathing at the monster he saw. She felt the walls closing in around her. Everything felt slow and thick, like she was moving through water.

"No no, I didn't want this. They did this to me. I..."

Sebastian shook his head and took another step in the room, "No, you can't be turned against your will. Everyone knows that. You have to give in to them."

"No, I couldn't. I would have died."

"That would have been better. So much better than the horrible thing you are now."

Sebastian moved into the room farther and Lucy was behind him. She was crying, "Oh no Carla, oh no what did you do?"

Carla fell to her knees. She was breathing in tortured gasps. It felt like the air itself was squeezing the life out of her.

"What the fuck is this?" asked Elaine.

Lucy looked at Elaine and glared and Carla heard Elaine making a choking noise.

"I'm sorry," said Carla, "I fought so hard."

Sebastian loomed over her, looking down at her with pity. He shook his head.

"No you didn't. You barely fought at all."

Carla didn't see the stake driven into her heart. She only felt the burning lance of agony as it entered her breast. Her whole body shook with the impact. Then she went completely numb and flopped bonelessly to the ground. The last thing she heard before consciousness fled was Elaine screaming.

...

Carla awoke with a gasp, her body pressing against restraints that tied her to a chair. A spurt of blood came out of the wound in her chest before it started closing up. As it sealed hunger began to rage in her gut. She had lost a lot healing the hole in her chest.

"Here, drink"

A bottle was stuck in her mouth and tilted back. She choked on the blood and spit some back up before she opened her throat and let it pour into her, warming her insides and banishing her hunger.

When she was done the bottle was pulled out of her mouth and she saw Sebastian standing in front of her. Behind him there was a bed, a much rougher and dirtier bed that the one she had just been on, and Lucy was kneeling behind Elaine, smirking at her.

"Sebastian, what is this?"

Sebastian shook his head, "You're even stupider than you look."

A shimmer surrounded him and when it cleared a large, blunt faced man with beefy arms and a close shaved head was staring down at her.

"Matej."

Matej nodded, "I don't think you can really understand how angry you make me."

"Matej, you can't do this. Nikola will..."

Matej slapped her so hard her chair was knocked sideways onto the ground. Pain lit up her head like all the world's migraines and her brain rattled in her skull. The floor was rough and full of splinters and she choked on the dust her impact kicked.

Matej squatted next to her, "I was talking."

Then he grabbed the chair and pulled it upright with one hand.

He continued as if nothing had happened, "Andrej was a good boy. A credit to the family. He joined Nikola's crusade, this ridiculous alliance with the other houses. He said it was the path to the future."

Matekj shook his head.

"Such youthful optimism. And then you killed him. Centuries of life burned away by your filthy magic. And what do the Mircallas do? They exalt you. They give you immortality. You kill one of ours and they raise you up for murder,"

His face twisted in disgust.

"For murder!"

Carla opened her mouth but snapped it shut when Matej raised his hand again.

"Andrej sacrificed his life for their war and they treated his death as if it was nothing. Like he was trash. They're laughing through those painted lips. Always laughing."

He leaned in. Vampires normally didn't have a strong smell but he smelled of rotten meat and old bones.

"We'll see who's laughing when this is done. Once you get what's coming to you."

"I'm sorry," said Carla. "I'm so sorry."

Matej backed up and chuckled.

"Of course you are. You are now. Now that you're facing the consequences for your crime. But last night you weren't sorry at all. You were laughing along with the rest of them."

Matej walked away from her and towards the bed. Carla saw that Lucy had become an older woman with a shock of long curly black hair going to gray. She was a skeletal thing, with the skin pulled tight across her pinched face, with a scowl that had etched lines into her eyes and mouth. She was holding Elaine's arm in one hand but that grip had apparently frozen her in place."

"Leave her alone!"

"No. You whore is going to suffer along with you. That's what you get for bringing her into your life," said Matej.

"Just kill me, Matej," said Carla.

Both Savons stopped and looked at her.

"When I killed Andrej I was trying to protect my sister. You have your whole family, your whole house, but she was all I had. I thought I was going to die then and there. I sacrificed myself willingly just so she could live. Surely you can understand that. Please, if you need your revenge that's fine. I thought I was dead the moment I killed your nephew. Everything after was just an accident. Family comes first, but leave Elaine alone. No one else should have to suffer for what I did."

Doubt crossed Matej's face for a moment. And he actually hesitated. He looked at Elaine uncertainly, then at the woman, who just looked back with a blank expression.

Then he shook his head, "We've come too far. We need to send a message. We need the other houses to respect us as they build this new world. And the only way to do that is for your suffering to be legendary. To be whispered about for decades."

And with that he turned back to Elaine. The woman released her grip and Elaine could move again.

"I don't regret anything Carla. All this is worth it just to be with you."

"Elaine, oh god,'' Carla flexed in the chair burning some of the blood Matej had given her to increase her strength, but the chair must have had spells woven into it because it held when a normal chair would have been torn apart.

The woman pushed Elaine down on the bed and knelt next to her, Matej knelt on Elaine's other side.

"Don't look, Carla. Don't give them the satisfaction. Close your goddamn eyes Carla, please!"

Carla scrunched her eyes shut and looked down.

Elaine made a muffled cry of pain. She sounded like she was pressing her lips together to keep the noise inside her. For the next ten minutes Carla was in darkness, the only sounds she heard were the wet noises of the Savons feeding and Elaine's muffled cries and whimpers.

After ten minutes and an eternity the noises stopped. Carla opened her eyes and screamed. Elaine's dead eyes were staring directly into hers. More screams poured out of Carla before she trailed off into muffled sobbing. Her despair was all encompassing. There was only dead eyes in front of her and her total failure and the knowledge that the worst was yet to come

The thin woman gave her a bloody toothed smile, "Your whore was very strong not to scream. She was in so much pain. The whole time."

"I'm going to kill you for this. I swear to fucking god."

Matej wiped Elaine's blood from his chin, "No you're not. You've killed more than enough of us already. We'll be back tomorrow night and we can continue with the lesson."

And with that Matej and the woman walked past her chair, she heard a heavy iron door open and clang shut, and she was left alone with Elaine's corpse staring at her accusingly.

For an hour Carla wept, faced with the terrible loss in front of her. She begged the gods to take it back, to trade her life for Elaine's, she cursed them for punishing Elaine for a crime she never intended and a fate she never asked for. She wondered what she had done to deserve this much suffering, for every good turn in her life, every opportunity for happiness to be undone as soon as there was the slightest bit of hope over the horizon. And finally she just wept for the loss of Elaine. For a world made darker and colder without her in it.

Then Elaine blinked.

Carla stared, sure that her grief was making her hallucinate. Then Elaine's arm twitched and she started to writhe on the bed. Before Carla could say anything Elaine threw herself up with a gasp. There was a clink as a manacle that chained Elaine's wrist to the bed frame was pulled taught and Elaine snapped back, she looked down at the manacle and yanked wildly but it held firm. She panted hard, looking around in a panic until her eyes came to rest on Carla and she blinked.

"Carla?"

"Elaine. Elaine, oh my god," said Carla. Her voice sounded like she had swallowed glass.

"What happened?"

Carla closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Even after all this time she still found it calming.

She opened her eyes and Elaine was staring at her, tense and afraid.

"Elaine, they...they killed you. You died. You died but... I guess they gave you their blood because you came back."

Elaine closed her eyes, "I remember. That fucker shoved his wrist in my mouth while he was biting me and ... god it hurt so much but the blood..." she shuddered, "...I hated how good it was. I would have drunk it forever."

Elaine opened her eyes and they were full of excitement, "Oh my god did they turn me? Do I get to be a vampire?"

"No, you have to drink more blood if you want to turn completely."

"That's okay I mean you're right here, I can..." she looked down at her wrist then at Carla chained to the chair. Carla couldn't see what held her but she had a feeling it wouldn't be easy to break.

"Oh...what happens if I don't drink any more blood?"

Carla swallowed, "Gwen said you die."

"Why would they kill me and bring me back just to die again?"

"I think... I think maybe Gwen wasn't telling me the whole story."

"Oh." Elaine paused as she considered the possible implications of that, "Okay, Okay. We better get you to me then. Can you move the chair over here?"

"I'll try."

Carla jerked forwards, trying to move the chair towards the bed. It moved a couple inches with each heave. She started jerking forward at a steady pace. As she worked she saw Elaine shiver.

"You okay?" asked Carla.

"Just a little cold."

Carla remembered that was how it started. She tried to pick up the pace, banging the chair forward with renewed strength, but then she pushed too hard and the chair caught on a divot in the uneven floor. Carla felt the world lurch as the tipped and crashed to the ground. Her shoulder flared with pain as she slammed into the floor.

"Fuck!"

"It's okay. You're halfway here. Keep trying and maybe I can slip the manacle. You can do that right? I think I read about that in an adventure book."

Carla flailed on the floor but the chair was made of heavy wood and whatever tied her hands and feet didn't move even an inch. Calra couldn't see anything on the floor. She had a great view of under the bed and the ceiling, but she could only hear Elaine as she strained against the manacle.

"How's it going?" asked Elaine. Carla thought her voice sounded strained.

"I'm... not making much progress."

"Yeah me neither. I guess slipping a manacle is harder than in the books."

There was a moment of silence. Carla tried desperately to think of something to do. Then she heard Elaine make a small pained sound, like she had a stomach ache.

"You alright?"

"I'm fine. Doing okay for now."

Eliane's voice was steady but Carla didn't believe it.

"I meant what I said before, you know. No matter how this turns out, I don't have any regrets."

"Elaine, please, not now"

"No, I need you to know. Before I met you I was always on the edge of losing it. I had my music but that was it. And I don't know how much longer it was going to keep me going. But I couldn't give it up because then what would I have?"

"You're still going to have it. We're going to get out of here and you need to play me your new song. Naked. I insist."

Elaine chuckled weakly, "It's a date. And god I had such shitty taste in guys. Just an endless procession of assholes who tore me down. And when Keith sprained my wrist... god I don't know what I was thinking. I was waiting my whole life to find you. Even though you were right in front of me the whole time."

"That's... that's really sweet. Maybe you can tear apart the bedframe?"

"Its a pretty solid bed. I don't have super strength, remember?"

"There has to be something."

Elaine blew out a sharp breath.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm fine, just a little hungry. Please don't blame yourself for this. None of this is your fault. Those Savons are like every asshole I've dated. They always want you to blame yourself for their own shortcomings. Don't give them the satisfaction."

"I'm not going to blame myself for anything because I'm going to get us out of here and you'll be thanking me for the rest of your life."

"I'm going to thank you for the rest of my life whether we get out of here or not."

"Stop it."

Carla started thrashing around wildly, the chair actually creaked from the force of her struggle but it still wouldnt break. Whatever sorcery was woven into it was just too much for her.

Calra heard Elaine whimper slightly.

"Oh god Elaine, oh no."

"It's fine. It's really not that bad. I know, let me sing you my new song. Those assholes tore my shirt so I'm pretty much naked right now, though I've looked better."

"Elaine," Calra whispered. She felt her eyes tearing up.

Elaine started to sing softly. It was a song about an immortal goddess and a simple woman who loved her from afar. She journeyed endlessly to be by her side, but no matter how far she traveled her love remained forever out of reach. Carla listened silently, horror growing as she realized this might be the last time she ever heard Elaine sing.

As the last notes faded away Elaine tried to laugh, it sounded forced. "Maybe not the best song, given the circumstances. It's a work in progress."

"It's already beautiful. I can't wait to hear the final version."

Elaine was quiet after that as Carla desperately tried to think of something to say.

"Whatever happened to Connie?"

"What?" Elaine sounded confused, distracted.

"Connie, the horn player you teamed up with."

"Oh umm...she got a job as a milliner."

"What?"

"Yeah it was kind of a sudden career shift. I keep meaning to check out her shop. I hear... that..."

"Elaine?"

Elaine started crying quietly.

"Elaine, talk to me."

"I'm sorry Carla," Elaine was talking through her tears, "I don't want you to feel bad, but it hurts so much. I don't want you to blame yourself for this but it hurts so, so bad. I'm so hungry. I've been hungry before but it's like my stomach is tearing itself apart and I feel sick. I feel like I'm dying of...god, the plague or something."

"Oh God, Elaine."

"And I feel like my brain is coming apart. I can feel my mind going. Like the hunger is eating it. I'm coming apart and it hurts, it fucking hurts. You have to do something Carla, you have to help me. Help me please please PLEASE!"

Carla screamed. She screamed at herself for failing again, she screamed to the gods to save them even though she knew she was damned in their eyes. She screamed for Gwen through the unbreakable bond they shared. She screamed for anyone, anything to help her.

And her magic answered.

It came roaring out of her. It was a savage monster, a fierce wild thing of the deep woods that feasted on the flesh of men, but it was still her fierce protector, her lifelong companion. It was just older and scarred and all the stronger for it. She didn't tell it what to do but it knew anyway. It tore the chair to splinters, reduced the chains binding her to rust and ruin.

She was up in an instant and threw herself toward the bed. The sight of Elaine made her scream again. Elaine was as pale as a dead fish. Gasping in long desperate pulls. Her eyes were slightly cloudy and her lips were pulled back in a rictus. Carla raced up to her and without hesitating brought her wrist to her mouth and tore a chunk out with her fangs. She ignored the burning pain on her wrist as she willed her blood to geyser up as she shoved her wrist into Elaine's mouth.

Elaine reacted instantly. She opened her mouth wide, grabbed the back of Carla's wrist with both her hands, pressed her face hard into it and started drinking Carla's blood with huge, hungry gulps. Relief deluged over Carla, vanquishing her sorrow, her despair in a thrill of victory so great and so pure she felt like she was going to float off the bed. She brought Elaine to her and hugged her close as she drank.