Dark Love
(A Short Vampire Story dedicated to Stephanie Meyer – Author of the
‘Twilight’ Series)
By
Daniel Thomas Andrew Daly
http://noahidebooks.angelfire.com
© 6174 SC
Kardos. A most unusual vampire. Young, naïve, but full of spunk.
His trial should be interesting.
* * *
The Hunt was on. Kardos ran through the mansion’s extensive grounds,
his senses keenly aware of the fresh blood. The blood which was
pouring forth from a neck, a beautiful neck, of a specially chosen
virgin maiden. He would feed well soon enough.
He came to a clearing, and sniffed the air. The child was close, and
suddenly, just over by a thicket, she betrayed herself. Time for his
meal.
She looked up at him, the fear on her face suddenly frozen in his
mind, and suddenly he noticed her. Her dark, raven hair. He bloodred
lips. Her shockingly beautiful face and physique. And the terror in
her eyes – eyes gleaming at being confronted by the horror of a
vampire. She was still clutching her neck in a vain attempt to
prevent the bleeding his master had seen to. A small cut, but enough
to bleed for the moment’s necessary enough for the chase. Kardos knew
his master was watching. He knew it, every time he was. Every time.
Was this a trial? Was this a test? Did his master know what this
girl would do to him?
He looked at her, and his new DNA, genes which had changed and
metamorphasized since becoming Vampiric, had their desired impact and
a resonance came forth from his bloodsoul connecting to the young
virgin. She was of a human clan which carried the bloodtype necessary
for mating. Perfect mating. Yet, not of Vampire. For if she became
Vampire she would die. Nay, while the offspring would indeed be
Vampiric, she herself could only remain human.
He was thirsty. He needed to feed. But the beauty and temptation was
too much. He looked silently around him, gathered her in his arms,
and fled the mansion grounds.
Escaping to Validya’s abode, just across the meadow, he spoke with her
and she gave him the keys to her wagon.
And he left the valley of ‘Darkthorn’, leaving it for he knew not how
long, leaving it with his new bride and his new love. And if
Darkthorn tried to claim his soul again, well he would allow, but
would not suffer the capture of his bride. For he would have seed,
once denied him, but now miraculously available once more. And
Darkthorn would see hell before Kardos would give this child back to
him.
* * *
Darkthorn smiled, seated on his throne. Kardos had acted
predictably. But he was young, naïve, taking a mate simply because it
was available. Naturally, he would not have denied the young lord’s
desires for this bride, but running from his master taught him much.
Still, he could retrieve Kardos when he needed to. He knew his
scent. Best to let him have his fun and family with his new woman.
Best to let him have that for now. He would retrieve him soon enough,
and continue with his dark, deadly, agenda.
THE END
Dark Love II: A Death at Twilight
By
Daniel Thomas Andrew Daly
(Dedicated to Stephanie Meyer – Fiction Inspired by the Twilight
Phenomenon)
© 6174 SC
‘Kristen. My name is Kristen.’
Kardos nodded. She was awake now, having recovered from her
fainting. They were miles away now, from Darkthorn. Lost in the
wilderness, just as the day had ended. The Hunt had begun as soon as
the sun had set, and the Twilight hour had been born. And now, 30
minutes into Twilight, darkness was gradually encroaching upon the
land.
Suddenly a car jerked out in front of them, and a figure climbed out
the driver’s window of the car. He was dressed in black, laughing
madly and began shooting at them.
‘Fuck,’ said Kardos. ‘Myantea is having games.’
‘Who is Myantea?’ asked Kristen, now hiding down out of sight.
‘Someone you don’t want to know. Helgard is with him, driving by the
looks of it. It looks as if Darkthorn sent him.’
Kristen nodded. She knew who Darkthorn was. She knew that one too
well.
‘Hold on,’ yelled Kardos.
The wagon swerved out, and Kardos pushed the lever to the maximum. It
burned power and quickly overtook the sedan. As they passed them,
Myantea grinned madly and pointed the gun right at Kardos. ‘Are you
ready to die?’ he yelled at Kardos. Kardos wasn’t. He pulled out a
gun from his overcoat, pointed it at Myantea, and pulled the trigger.
The silver bullet hit Myantea in the eye, and penetrated the brain,
blood spurting all over the window of the pursuing sedan as it stopped
its chase.
200 yards down the road they pulled up and looked behind them.
Helgard had dragged Myantea’s body out of the sedan to the side of the
road and was frantically attending to him. But it was too late. As
they looked on Helgard gave a howl and they both knew Myantea was
dead. And then Helgard looked at them, stood and started running
towards them, but they got back into the wagon and sped away.
Kristen looked back, and then turned to Kardos. ‘You killed him,
didn’t you?’
‘For a while only. Only for a while. You don’t kill a vampire that
easily. But he will be dead for a few months as his body recovers.’
‘And then?’ she said.
‘He will probably be pissed off. So we will have to hide well.’
She nodded.
‘Back at the mansion. Why didn’t you take my blood. I thought that
is what you were going to do.’
He looked at her, looked at her beautiful looks, and responded. ‘I
have my reasons.’
Again she nodded, turned behind her to see if the sedan was following,
and, her energy having been on high for so long, asked if she could
get in the back of the wagon to sleep. Kardos nodded.
As they drove Kardos knew the brothers would find them, eventually.
Helgard and Myantea were like that – they had a demented sense of
humour. But they were Darkthorn’s pawns, and he was only intending to
keep tabs on Kardos. He knew that. His father had known that. And
his mother too. But that was what it was like serving Darkthorn. He
had you were he wanted you, and no matter were you ran, the world was
no hiding place.
But he was free for now, and thinking about the bride he had claimed,
he was happy enough.
He had his plans, Darkthorn had his own evil agenda, and hopefully the
two could be reconciled. Or, just perhaps, he would die trying. Only
time would tell.
The End
Dark Love III: Magician’s Gambit
‘Dear Beleriand. Dear, dear Beleriand. Whatever shall we do? I do
believe the game looks well beyond even the most cunning Gambit’s of
the master of Magicians.’
Beleriand, dressed in crimson robes, decorated with demons and angels
at war with each other, smiled fondly at Darkthorn’s oh so familiar
charm.
‘Kardos. He has taken the virgin, has he not?’
Darkthorn nodded.
‘They are compatible, Darkthorn. I presume you knew this.’
Darkthorn smiled at Beleriand, yet did not comment.
‘Then this is my cunning Gambit, if you will dear Darkthorn. Let us
enter a wager. And I will place ‘Goldenhorn’ as the prize versus your
delightful ‘Brightfire’.
‘What, my magnificent mansion against your hovel of an abode.’
Beleriand smiled. ‘Yet, that is my offering for the wager.’
Darkthorn nodded. In truth, Goldenhorn was a magnificent abode.
‘And the wager, dear Beleriand?’
‘A testing. An ancient testing. The oldest in fact, sealed in the
bloodlines of all of Adam and Eve’s children. The one which is the
making of them.’
‘Mmmm. Love,’ said Darkthorn.
‘Yet, Dark Love, dear friend,’ replied Beleriand. ‘Of good and evil,
light and shadow.
‘And how shall we know of the outcome?’
‘You provide the vixen, Darkthorn. And she shall tell of the love
which comes forth between the two of them. And I, well I know of an
old angel. Still fallen in many ways, but he will preserve the love
between the two of them. Should he prove successful, and their love
triumph on that day, then Brightfire is mine.’
Darkthorn nodded, and returned his gaze to the chess set.
‘It is an interesting Gambit, dear Beleriand. You will lose.’
‘We shall see, dear friend. We shall see.’
The End
Dark Love IV: Jovius’ Wicked Sense of Humour
‘Sure Beleriand, I can take the assignment. Hey, what do you get if
you run over a duck? Blood and Feathers.’ Beleriand nodded. That
was Jovius. Full of dark humour. But he was an angel, in then end,
on the dark side of the light side. There was no changing that.
‘Love must triumph, Jovius. My abode is on the line.’
’12 Golden Sovereigns. You know, the type the Leprechaun keeps. That
is my fee.’
Beleriand nodded. Jovius liked those particular Sovereigns. ‘You
will have your sovereigns. But remember, Darkthorn will likely
unleash Jezebel on the two of them. And that old witch has a thing
for young flesh like Kardos. She will devour him if she can.’
‘Jezebel has always been like that. A queen after as much lusty flesh
as she can get.’
‘But remember, she has her charms. She always has. Kardos doesn’t
know of her, I would imagine. She has been reclusive for centuries
now, since the death of Stalrod. She loved him much, and mourns him
still. But she has numerous life debts to Darkthorn, and I doubt he
will choose another vixen.’
‘Don’t sweat it. Hey, what do you get if you give cigarettes to a
teenager? Friends for life.’
Beleriand nodded. It was typical Jovius sarcasm, and usually quite
bad at that.
As Beleriand left purgatory, Jovius took another hit of gin from the
bottle he was drinking. He looked at the bartender, Marni Bonniker,
who he had been trying to get into the pants of for several decades,
thought over a pickup line, but thought better of it. He had several
Sovereigns now, and was anxious to work on his collection. Time to
find this Kardos. Time to earn his keep.
The End
Dark Love V: ‘Celestevere’
‘What is this place?’ asked Kristen. ‘It is so. So……..’
‘I know,’ responded Kardos. ‘It’s ancient, ok. From a world before
Christ. From a time of the ancients, when dragon’s roamed the earth.
My grandfather says there dwells a dragon still, down in the depths of
the cavern beneath this place. I doubted him for many years, but the
things I have seen in this life now. It might be there. This place
is called ‘Celestevere’. It is a haunting place. A place of darkness
and dark magic. A place known to us of the underworld. These upper
levels are uninhabited, which is why all the cobwebs. But we will
find life further down. Down in the depths, were other vampires and
werewolves and zombies and ghouls all dwell. We don’t use this upper
entrance here that much. There are – other – ways of getting into
Celestevere. But I have no choice with a human.’
Kristen looked at him, seriously. ‘Why am I with you, Kardos? What
do you want from me?’
He looked at her, thought on answering, but remained silent.
‘Come on. Follow me. Lower down we will book into an inn, and hide
there for now. I have enough finances with me to give us shelter for
a while. And then I will decide what we will do.’
‘You could, you know, just let me go. I mean, if you don’t want me as
a vampire, why bother holding me?’ He looked at her, looked at her
beautiful face, and smiled.
‘Perhaps I have – other reasons, Kristen. I might tell you some
time.’
He led them onwards, down into the strange ancient world abode, of
walls covered in mosaics from ancient cultures, of statues of old
world legends, and of carvings and designs from times forgotten to
modern man.
The End
Dark Love VI: ‘An Intimate Encounter’
As they descended down seemingly endless stairwells, Kristen suddenly
noticed they were not alone. Suddenly walking along behind them was a
fowl looking creature, all ghostlike and deathly looking. The
creature nodded at Kardos as it passed by them and continued on its
way downwards.
‘That is a ghoul,’ said Kardos. There are many down below.’\
As they continued onwards, more and more dark creatures seemed to
suddenly be alive in the place, and Kristen held back her fear,
knowing that Kardos would protect her.
Soon they came into a very large hallway which opened up into an
enormous room, full of all sorts of activity and what appeared
ghoulish businesses.
‘Celestevere is a city – a city of the dark, Kristen. Typical things
for our kind take place here, and we can find shelter. But, be
careful. They don’t hate humans, but humans are useful, for many
reasons, if you know what I mean,’ he said, putting his mouth to his
wrist to indicate the kinds of use humans would be in such a place.
Kristen shuddered, and drew closer to Kardos.
They passed all sorts of fireplaces with ghastly creatures gathered
together, and the businesses seemed similar in many ways to human
types, but always with a darker edge.
‘I suppose we are just like you, in the end,’ said Kardos. ‘When you
fall into the dark, some things still remain the same. Those things
which unite good with evil. We still eat. We still sleep. We still
do stupid things like read books and watch television. We still have
many of the same cravings.’
‘But usually with a darker bent, I take it,’ she responded, as they
passed a fireplace with two ghoulish creatures engaged in a dice game.
‘Generally, yes. We Vampires like to claim a degree of civility
amongst our kind. The werewolves generally assume they are the
superior of the underworld, and we contest with them. Ghouls,
goblins, zombies and the other kinds don’t really care. I think many
of them are beyond caring.’
‘And how, how do they get that way?’
‘Dark choices in life. They were all human, once. But not everyone
chooses the light, Kristen. Not all of us.’
‘And you? Did you choose the dark?’
‘No,’ but he said no more.
Soon they came to a large building which looked like an inn of sorts.
Following Kardos, they came to the reception area and a female ghoul
greeted them.
‘Is this enough?’ asked Kardos, placing a silver coin on the desk.
The ghoul nodded, handed them a key, and he motioned for Kristen to
follow him. As they climbed the creaking stairs, Kristen felt as if
the hand of death was upon her in many ways. They were all like that
– undead. Creatures fallen from grace, creatures of the dark.
They came to their room, and Kardos motioned for her to take the bed.
‘I’ll sleep on the couch. The shower probably works, but don’t rely
on the water being the cleanest.’
‘I’ll pass then,’ she responded.
She sat down on the bed and he stared at her.
She looked back at him, noticing the way he stared at her figure, and
suddenly became acutely aware of what it seemed he was after. He
wanted her – physically.
‘It’s sex, is it? Is that all? You just want to fuck me?’
He looked at her, and his blood rose in him. And he came over, tore
at her dress, and soon had her naked. She gazed at him, knowing him
for what he was. A savage creature of the dark.
‘Then fuck me,’ she said.
And he did.
Later on, as she put her undergarments back on, she noticed he had
fallen asleep on the bed. ‘Was this it? She thought to herself. 24,
just out of university, just started a new job, and she was the bride
of a Vampire. And her virginity, now gone to the one who had claimed
her as his own. She could only hope to God that she wasn’t pregnant.
The End
Dark Love VII: A Friend from Heaven
‘Hey sweetie. Was he any good then?’
Kristen jerked up from her near slumber, alarmed at a voice which had
spoken from the shadows. And then, coming out of the shadow, a man.
A man with wings. And while she had told herself just earlier that
she had seen everything, now she really had. It was an angel.
‘Are you. Are you my guardian angel?’
‘God no,’ responded Jovius. ‘Too much work in those bloody
assignments. Let’s just say I am here to help for a while. You’ll
get used to me. The name’s Jovius. Servant of God the Most High,
Lord of Glory and all that yada yada yada.’
‘What. What do you want from me?’ she asked nervously.
‘Relax, sweetie. It appears as if Kardos has taken that particular
commodity of yours now anyway. I am just a friend, on assignment from
a certain agent who has your best interests at heart.’
‘God sent you? Like the Blues Brothers?’
Jovius took a seat, lit a cigarette, and smiled. ‘The Blues
Brothers. Now that brings back memories. You know, I knew this old
nun once. Just like the lady from that movie. Anyway,’ but he
paused, looking at Kristen’s perplexed look, and thought better of it.
‘Anyway, sweetie. Kardos is an ambitious young Vampire. Probably bit
off more than he could chew in kidnapping you. But Darkthorn doesn’t
mind that much. As long as you don’t go off and get killed his young
protégé.’
‘Kardos? Darkthorn’s protégé? I don’t understand.’
‘It is a long complicated story. But suffice to say Darkthorn is now
sterile after an earlier encounter with some dark fellas. His seed
has all been killed and he has had to look to an old friend’s
offspring to build up his house.’
‘So Kardos is to inherit Darkthorn’s wealth.’
‘And more than that, sweetie. His power, and believe me Darkthorn has
a lot of power. Probably the most influential of the Vampire Lord’s
in North America, still. They are caught up with old world values,
sweetie. Ancient ways. Family honour. Family power. Clans of
wealth and privilege, ruling seats on the council of the dark.’
‘The council of the dark?’ she queried.
‘I don’t think you want to know too much about that. The agenda of
hell to cut it short. Sending the world to damnation to put it
simply. Still, you got to admire their determination. 17,000 years
at war with Archangel Phanuel, and Satan is still at it, determined to
destroy heaven if he at all can.’
‘Phanuel?’
‘Head of the 7 Archangels. Firstborn. God’s main son.’
‘Wasn’t that Jesus?’
‘Now that is a hell of a story, but we will leave theology to another
time. Anyway, my job here is to protect you and Kardos until a
certain point in your destiny when a certain choice will be made.
These things come up all the time for children of Adam and Eve. When
you make this choice, either one way or the other, a certain wager
results, and either I get paid or not. My job is to see to it you
make the right choice?’
‘And what choice is that?’ asked Kristen.
‘That is the thing. I can’t tell you that. We never have been able
to tell any of our clients about the choice they should make on the
big ones. If it isn’t one of your choices, it never pleases HIM
anyway. So that much you will have to work out for yourself. But I
will be here, and I have faith in you sweetie. You’ll do the right
thing.’
She nodded. Whatever else, despite all the drama he was filling her
head with, she had seen so much already that an Angel with a Mission
from God could not really surprise her.
‘Shall I wake him?’
‘Best let him sleep, sweetie. I’ll be going now. But I’ll be
watching. And remember, as corny as it may sound, keep the faith
sweetie. Somebody has to.’ And then he was gone, back to the
shadows, and she was alone again with her sleeping Vampire lord.
The End