When Darkness Falls

“You obviously didn’t read my mind during your killing,” I said.

“No I didn’t, I was too busy feeding.”

“Well I wish you would have. Then you would know you have nothing to fear. I don’t think any less of you, in fact I don’t think that’s ever possible. I want you to feed because it’s what keeps you here with me.”

Anastasia put her arms around me and pulled me to her.

“I love you,” she whispered.

“I love you,” I whispered back and we kissed.

We fell asleep with Anastasia lying on her back and me on my side with my head next to her beautiful breasts.

The next week was the best in my life. We spent every minute together making love, talking, laughing, just having a great time, but always being careful, expecting Ambrose. The only problem that existed between us was our sleeping differences. The only solution was for each of us to sleep fewer hours. While I slept four or five hours, Anastasia would go hunt and feed. While she slept six or seven hours during the day, I read or wrote stories and poems. One morning, before Anastasia went to sleep, I told her I was going to go out. She immediately said, “No.”

“I have to,” I said.

“Why?”

“I need some stuff. Some clothes and a few more books.”

“We’ll go when it’s dark, but before the shops close.”

“No, I have to go.”

“Absolutely not.”

“I can’t stay here all day, everyday. I have to go out every once in awhile.”

“What about Ambrose or Cadmar? I need to be there to protect you.”

“Walking around with you all the time makes me an easier target. They won’t expect me to go out by myself, so they won’t be ready. Besides, don’t they need to sleep as well. I highly doubt they’ll come chasing me down in broad daylight.”

Anastasia was silent and staring a hole through me. After awhile I said, “I can’t stay cooped up here all the time.”

Anastasia stood up and walked over to me.

“I know,” she answered.

She hugged me, “It’s just I can’t lose you.”

“You won’t, I’ll be back in a few hours.”

Anastasia leaned in and kissed me. As our tongues danced, she pushed her body into me signaling for me to lie down on the mattress. We moved to the mattress and lied down together still kissing. Anastasia was on top. Once again, we were beautiful together. We moved slowly and explored every crevice of each other not knowing this would be our last time physically together as one.

I watched Anastasia as she slept for an hour. She was so beautiful and peaceful looking. I felt sorry for her, not ever being able to go out under the sun.

“Well I need to get going,” I thought.

I kissed Anastasia’s forehead gently and whispered ever so softly, “I love you.”

It was a bright sunny day. I was grateful for two reasons. The first and most obvious reason, no vampires. The other reason was I was glad to see the day again. I walked to the nearest shopping center. I spent two straight hours shopping which is unusual for me. Afterwards, I grabbed a bite to eat. I decided to head back to the warehouse because I knew Anastasia would rise soon if she hadn’t already.

“She worries too much,” I thought. “That shows she cares though.”

It took me about forty-five minutes to return. I slowly opened the door to the warehouse. I didn’t want sunlight pouring in. I opened the big door a little past halfway. Sure enough, there was Anastasia sitting on the mattress waiting for me. She smiled at me and I could hear her sigh with relief. I stepped inside and started closing the door when someone grabbed a handful of my hair.

“Owww,” I yelled. I saw Anastasia running towards me with her hand out. I reached my right arm out as far I could. Anastasia was only a few feet away, but I was forced backwards and into the day. The big door was halfway open, and sunlight invaded the warehouse. The sunlight reached almost five feet into the warehouse.

I spun around, my hair being pulled from my head, and threw a punch. I missed. I got ready to throw another punch, but the person yelled, “Stop or I’ll blow your head off.”

I realized there was a man standing there with a gun. He came behind me, put his left arm around my neck and put the gun to my head. He turned, and I with him, so we were looking into the warehouse. Standing on the edge of darkness, less than one step away from sunlight was Anastasia.

She was all vampire. Her eyes were the color of dried blood, her canine teeth out and ready, and her whole body was shaking with anger and frustration.

“But it’s daytime,” I shouted.

“Very good, you sure are smart,” he said while laughing.

When he was done laughing, he continued.

“I’m not a vampire like your bitch girlfriend.”

“Fuck you!” I screamed and started fighting to get free. The man hit me in the head with the butt of his gun. The blow didn’t knock me out, but it did make me see stars. I heard a loud, threatening growl. I heard the man yell, “Shut the fuck up.”

I put my hand up to my head. When I removed my hand from my wound my fingers were covered in a warm substance. “Blood,” I thought. The man started shoving me in the other direction away from the warehouse and away from Anastasia. I heard Anastasia scream, “You’ll be dead in a few hours. When darkness falls, I’ll kill you!”

The man pulled me along so quickly, that I kept tripping. Everything around me was blurry. At least I wasn’t still seeing stars. I kept touching the wound on my head. I was coating my fingers with my blood and flicking my fingers, so my blood spilled onto the ground. I was hoping Anastasia could track me easier with the help of my blood. It seemed as if we walked forever when we finally arrived at a warehouse. This warehouse was smaller than the one Anastasia was staying at. I was worried Anastasia wouldn’t be able to find me because the man had finally figured out what I was doing, so he tore his sleeve off and put it against my head and applied pressure to stop the bleeding.

Once inside, he tied me to a chair with rope and left me with two vampires who were on guard. A short while later, Ambrose walked into the room. He smiled an evil smile and said, “I want to talk to you, but I’m not sure if this is a good time because I can see you’re all tied up.” Ambrose, along with the other two vampires, laughed wildly at his stupid joke.

“Anastasia will find me,” I said staring at Ambrose. Ambrose walked up to the chair and leaned in so his face was inches from my own.

“I’m counting on it,” he said rather calmly.

“She’ll kill you before your canine teeth are even exposed.”

“See that’s where you are wrong. I have no doubt she’ll come to rescue you because she is a fool and what’s worse is she is a fool in love, but what she doesn’t know is I have a trap set for her. A trap that will once and for all kill that bitch.”

I tried holding them back, but tears came streaming down my face.

“You know…” Ambrose said slowly. “I see now why Anastasia fell for you. You’re so beautiful when you are vulnerable and upset.”

“Fuck you!” I screamed and spat in his face.

Ambrose’s face immediately changed into vampire form.

“That was stupid little girl.”

I spat in his face again. He smacked me across the face hard. He untied the rope and picked me up. He smiled and threw me. I went flying across the room and hit the wall on the other side. I fell on the floor and lied still. I was hoping he thought I was knocked out. In reality, I was just in a great deal of pain. Ambrose took his time walking to the other side of the room. When he was standing next to my body, he kicked me hard enough causing my body to roll, so I was lying on my back.

“You think the worst thing I could do to you would be to kill you. That’s the number one thing that would tear Anastasia apart. Well you are wrong on both accounts.”

I opened my eyes and looked up at Ambrose with blood running out of my nose.

“There’s one thing I can do to you that’s worse than death.”

Ambrose moved so my body was between his legs. He knelt down, his butt inches above my stomach.

“I’m going to turn you into a vampire.”

With that, Ambrose leaned down towards his target, my neck.

The first sense that came back was my sense of smell oddly enough. I could smell dried blood and sweat. I slowly opened my eyes not knowing what to expect. I was looking at the floor which meant I was on my stomach. The next thing I knew, I was getting kicked in the side. When the kicking subsided, I rolled onto my back. I looked up at the ceiling of the warehouse. The ceiling was thirty or forty feet high. Way up there, on the side of the building was a window. There was black tape covering it, so no sunlight could penetrate into the building. While I was still staring up at the window, the two vampires who were on guard from earlier looked down at me.

One of them sneered at the other and said, “Look what we have here, a weak and pathetic looking vampire.”

The other vampire sneered at me as well and said, “Ambrose only gave you enough blood to change you, it’s up to you to get blood sufficient enough to build your strength and keep yourself alive.”

“Why are you still here?” I asked weakly.

“Our orders were quite clear. To toughen you up.”

“Yeah,” the other one said.

“Beat you until you drop, or feed on one of us.”

“What if I kill you both?”

“That won’t happen.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure you spineless sissy.”

I knew I wouldn’t be able to defeat them, I’d be lucky to leave a scratch on one of them I was so weak. That guy wasn’t kidding when he said Ambrose only gave me enough blood to change me into a vampire. One of them picked me up and I braced myself for the flight. Before he threw me he said, “I wonder who’s going to be easier to hurt, you or your dumb girlfriend.”

With that said, he threw me. I smacked into the wall. I landed onto the all too familiar floor. My whole body ached, but my mind kept repeating what the one vampire had just said. I was pissed! I rolled onto my back and the other vampire was towering over me. He was sneering at me and licking his lips.

“Don’t listen to him, we wouldn’t dream of hurting Anastasia. She’s too damn hot. We’ll fuck her and kill her quickly. Stake through the heart. No pain I promise.”

He started kicking me all over again. Swift, hard kicks repeatedly. The thing was, I wasn’t feeling his kicks. Everything he had just said pushed me over the edge. I was literally boiling with rage. I wanted to rip their heads off for all the crude things they had just spoken of. All of a sudden, I experienced a strange feeling inside my mouth. If felt as if something was growing. I ran my tongue across my teeth only to discover my canine teeth were longer and pointy at the ends. “Wow,” I thought. “My anger caused me to change.”

I became aware of the vampire kicking me and I reached my hand out and seized his right leg. I let out a low growl and forced him backwards and onto his butt. I knew it wasn’t as impressive as them throwing me across the room, but I was terribly weak. My body was crying out for blood. While the one vampire was getting up, the other grabbed me from behind. I knew I wouldn’t be able to break free. Once the one was up, he came over to me and punched me right in the stomach. Then he proceeded to punch me in the face left and right. My face stung so bad, it was as if it was on fire.

I heard the sound of glass breaking, but I didn’t give it a second thought because I thought I was going to pass out from the abuse and lack of blood. Seconds after I heard the sound of breaking glass, the arms holding me hostage were torn loose from me. I heard the guy cry out in surprise and then a shrill cry as if he was in pain. The vampire who had been punching me started past me and I cried out and tackled him to the floor. We wrestled for a few seconds. I was on top and getting ready to punch him when altogether I stopped. I was too weak and tired to even raise my arm to throw a punch. He laughed when he realized this and then punched me across the face and pushed me off him. I rolled onto my stomach and inhaled deeply trying for some air. I felt him grab me, but before he picked me up, he let go of me abruptly. I heard a loud growl and the sound of something breaking. A few seconds later, I heard the sound of a vampire feeding. I wasn’t sure whether Anastasia was the one feeding, or the one being fed on. I tried to say her name, but I was only able to croak out, “Ana.”

I felt soft, familiar hands touch me.

“Roll over, so I can see if you’re hurt badly.”

As I moaned a soft “No,” I felt my canine teeth with my tongue. I was still a vampire. I absolutely did not want Anastasia to see me like this. She wasn’t aware of the change yet because she had been too busy fighting to notice.

“Please rollover so I can take a look at you. I was terrified I wouldn’t ever be able to look at you again. The blood trail helped a lot, but once that ended I had to stop and somewhat relax and try to read your mind. I couldn’t as well as if I was directly looking at you, but I caught enough to find the warehouse with a high ceiling window. Our love is so strong, I was able to read your mind from afar. Now, I finally find you and you won’t even look at me?”

I knew I had no other choice. I couldn’t get up and run from her, and I knew she would read my mind if I didn’t roll over and look at her soon. I slowly rolled over. When I was on my back, I opened my eyes and looked up at Anastasia. Her eyes were wide with alarm and her mouth hung slightly open.

“Oh god,” was all she said.

“Help me,” I whispered slowly.

“I’m so sorry. I can’t believe this happened, it’s all my fault.”

“No,” I said my voice a little stronger.

Anastasia bent down and picked me up in her arms. She hugged me and kept whispering, “I’m sorry” repeatedly in my ear.

“It’s not your fault,” I said.

“You need blood, blood from a vampire. Human blood isn’t powerful enough for you in this condition. Anastasia picked me up all the way and carried me to where the first vampire was lying.

“He’s not dead, just knocked out.”

“Why?”

“I was going to ask him what Ambrose was planning and how we could get out of here alive.”

She helped me squat down above the body. I looked at the vampire’s neck. The thought of all the blood I could drink from him made my mind run absolutely wild!

“Feed,” Anastasia directed.

I let out a growl, opened my mouth wide and sank my teeth into his neck. The next minute happened so fast I had trouble processing the events. The vampire I was going to feed from woke up and grabbed me before I even had a chance to taste his blood, much less drink any of it. Anastasia must have been carrying a stake on her because she drove it through his heart in a flash. Then I heard her shout, “No” and she pushed me to the ground. I heard two shots of gunfire.

I sat up as quickly as possible considering the shape I was in. Anastasia had been hit with both bullets. She was down on her knees. Her face was betraying her, showing she was in pain. Ambrose was standing only a few feet away holding a gun. He looked at me and said, “A few bullets won’t kill a vampire, but they sure do hurt like a bitch.”

He pointed the gun at Anastasia.

“Right babe?”

He shot Anastasia again. She didn’t shout, hardly made a sound at all. She didn’t want to give Ambrose the pleasure of seeing her hurting. I couldn’t take anymore. I crawled to Anastasia, who was less than three feet away from me, put my arms around her, and used my body to protect her.

“Well isn’t that cute?” Ambrose said glaring at me.

“Want to take the bullet, be my guest.”

He raised the gun and I braced myself for the impact. Anastasia pushed me away again and I screamed “No,” meaning both don’t push me away and don’t risk getting shot again. I heard the gun fire and Anastasia growl ferociously. It took me a second to realize Anastasia hadn’t been the one who got shot, it was me. I looked down and when I saw the hole in my thigh, I looked over at Anastasia eyes wide, mouth open.

“You look like the deer caught in the headlights,” Ambrose said and shot me in the chest. I went down hard and fast. Everything around me was going black.

“Oh shit,” I thought. “I’m going to black out.”

I heard Anastasia scream and then I heard Ambrose and her fighting. The final thing I heard was gunfire. I blacked out after counting five shots fired.

When I opened my eyes, Ambrose was lying next to me, eyes meeting with mine. I finally realized he was dead. I was overjoyed that he was dead, but I was also disappointed. I needed blood, badly! Ambrose’s blood would have been perfect because he was so strong and powerful.

“I need to find Anastasia,” I thought. I looked around the room. Deserted except for me. I looked up at the broken window. Only a couple of hours until sunrise. “Shit,” I thought and crawled over to the wall. I needed to find three things before dawn: Anastasia, blood, and shelter.

As I used the wall for support and slowly rose to my feet, I noticed a blood trail to the door and beyond. I hobbled to the door and inhaled. It was Anastasia’s blood. I peeked past the door to see what lied beyond. There was a hallway. There were three more doors to other rooms and the main door to exit the warehouse. I leaned against the wall and listened. Absolute silence. Then I heard a sound like a chain rattling. I just knew it was Anastasia. I hobbled down the hall to the second door. I was just about to peek inside when Anastasia said, “It’s just me, everyone’s gone.”

Her voice didn’t sound good at all. She spoke in quick, shallow breaths and her voice was scratchy. To me though, her voice was still beautiful. I entered the small room. I immediately locked eyes with Anastasia. As soon as I reached her, I fell to my knees in front of her. She was sitting on the floor, back against the wall. She drew her legs up and I rested my head just below her knees.

“Did anyone tell you, you’d make great money from reading people’s minds?”

“Ambrose is dead. The others took off.”

“How did he die?”

“I shot him numerous times, overpowered him and drove a stake through his black heart.”

“Why did the others leave while we were still alive?”

“If you weren’t dead, they knew you would be soon.”

“But you’re alive?”

Anastasia took a deep breath and said four little words that tore my world apart.

“Not for much longer.”

My head jerked up and I stared at Anastasia, eyes full of terror.

“My hands are handcuffed and tied by rope to a spike nailed into this brick wall.”

I moved and looked behind Anastasia. Sure enough, her hands were handcuffed and she was tied to a spike that had been driven into the wall by a hammer or something. I looked back at Anastasia. “Can’t you just pull the spike out of the wall.”

Anastasia shook her head.

“If I was a hundred percent then that would be a possibility, but not now. I’ve been shot about twelve times, burned with holy water, not to mention the way they spiked me. I’m not standing up with my hands above my head. They spiked me with me sitting down, arms behind my back, and my palms facing up. If I tried to pull the spike out, my hands would just collide into my back, but I can’t even move my hands or wrists because of the handcuffs.”

“What if I tried?”

“You can’t. You’re too weak. I don’t think you could even as a vampire and at a hundred percent.”

“I’ll go to a hardware store, there’s something there to pull the spike out, there has to be.”

“There’s not enough time.”

“What do you mean?”

“The sun will rise in under two hours. You need to feed on a vampire and find shelter.”

“What? And leave you?”

“You have no choice.”

“This is a warehouse. Stay here and I’ll go find something to get the spike out.”

“Listen to me.”

“No.”

“Look up.”

I did and was horrified. There were two windows and they were busted, so sunlight could pour in.