A Moonlit Night - The Complete Saga (14 page)

“My apologies,” Steven said with a look of
shame, “I didn’t intent to say goodbye like this.”

“No,” Samuel replied, “It would appear you
had little thoughts towards a goodbye, at all.”

“It’s not like that,” Steven said.

“Then tell me, boy. What
is
it
like?”

“I… I don’t know how to say it,” Steven
answered after a moment’s pause.

Samuel moved to intercept, his eyes fixed
upon the closed wooden doors directly in front of his student.
“Well you better find your tongue, boy; because the road out of
here passes through me and if you think I’m going to hold the
punches… you’re in for a rude awakening—.”

“This letter is three months late!” Steven
shouted as he grabbed the note out of his old letterman jacket’s
pocket. “I thought the guild’s carrier pigeons were supposed to be
good at this kind of thing? Why the delay, huh? What are you hiding
from me?”

Samuel looked back with curious eyes, unable
to give Steven the answers he desired. “I don’t have any clue,
Steven. Is this why you leave? …Over something as trivial as a
delayed message from your sister? I’ve written her several times,
myself, and I can assure you that’s she fine.”

“You don’t understand,” Steven said.

“No,
you
don’t understand,” Samuel
restated, “I understand survivor’s guilt better than most men, and
I know the pain you’re going through. Your sister needs you, I’ve
no doubt about that, but you’re no good to her without proper
training.”

“You take me for a fool,” Steven said with
clenched fists. “She’s in a goddamn palace swarming with vamps and
you don’t think it’s a big deal?”

“I never said that,” Samuel replied as he
stood his ground, “But running off in the middle of the night is
only going to get you killed… and that accomplishes nothing.”

“I’m not some fresh recruit!” Steven barked,
“I’ve no doubt there is much for you to teach me, but my strength
comes from within and I’ll see any obstacle in my way knocked
down.”

“Does that include me?”

“I hope that it doesn’t,” Steven replied.

“Tell me, boy, what’s the real reason you’re
running away?”

“I don’t wish to speak of it,” Steven said,
“This burden is mine to carry. I’ll not involve another.”

“Wrong answer.”

Samuel rushed forward and caught Steven
unprepared with a right hook. Samuel wasn’t trying to hurt the
errant young man, but he
did
need to knock some sense into
his student’s thick skull.

“You’re going to be staying here!” Samuel
yelled, “Whether you like it, or not, you’ve made a commitment… and
I’m going to see that you follow it through!”

Unfazed by the blow, Steven was quick to pick
himself up and resume the fight that his instructor had initiated.
Steven grit his teeth, and with his fists clenched, he lunged at
Samuel with surprising agility. “You’ve no idea what we’ve gone
through! She’s all that I have left!”

Steven struck him with a blow so powerful
that it was enough to send him crashing against the wooden gate
with a deafening thud. The attack dropped Samuel and he found
himself on his knees, bent over in agony. Something wasn’t right
here. Steven was strong—
too
strong.

“She needs me!” Steven bellowed. He took a
step closer, unwilling to stand down now that Samuel had initiated
the fight. Much like his instructor, Steven wasn’t trying to hurt
his friend, but needed him to listen to reason; his reason.

“Your sister doesn’t need a quitter,” Samuel
mumbled as he slowly picked himself up, “She needs a brother… one
who won’t back away from his responsibilities.”

Samuel’s words only seemed to infuriate
Steven further, and he rushed towards his mentor with venomous
ferocity. He clipped Samuel in the side of the head and shoved his
face down into the dirt. “Screw you, Samuel! You don’t have a
damned clue!”

“Are you going to turn to the bottle now,
too?” Samuel asked with his face covered in mud, “You’re no better
than when I first laid eyes upon you. I saw a glimmer of hope in
you then… and I still see it now… covered under a thick mess of a
man. You need to temper that anger, boy. Use it in your training…
let the anger work for you, instead of against you. Only then will
your sister find use for you.”

Steven howled to the stars above, letting his
animosity be known to all the gods and goddesses that might’ve been
listening. He grabbed Samuel by the collar and dragged his battered
body away from the doors, one step closer to the freedom he so
desperately wanted.

“This doesn’t make any sense!” Samuel
growled, “She doesn’t want this life for you… not until you show
that you’re ready for it; and believe me,
boy
, you’re far
from ready.”

“Is that so?” Steven asked, “Because all I
can see is an instructor that failed to stop his own student.”

A slow and melodramatic rumble came from
Samuel, as he sprawled his wounded frame up against the cold stone
wall and ran his hand through his long mud covered black hair.
“Real strength comes from within. You may wield power unlike any of
hunter I’ve seen before, but no battle can be won alone. And right
now, you don’t have a friend in the world… not if you walk through
those doors.”

“Then I guess I’m truly alone.”

“Don’t do this, Steven,” said a somber Samuel
as he reached out to his wayward friend, “What’s happened to you?
Why are you acting this way? Please… talk to me. Tell me what’s
going on—.”

“I saw my mother!” Steven fired back, his
eyes bursting with unbridled rage, “She came to me tonight, in my
dreams, and told me that my sister was in grave danger! And
you
… you ask me to stand by your side and not lift a goddamn
finger? Tell me, where’s the honor in that?”

“Please don’t do this…”

Steven turned sharply and drove his fist into
the wooden doors. He turned lumber to splinters as he took a
massive divot out of the door, bloodying up his hand in the
process. That was just fine with him though, the pain dulled his
other, more thin-skinned, senses. “And when I awoke, a letter from
my sister was waiting for me, right on the foot of my bed. It was a
gift… from someone that cared enough to show me what was truly
going on.”

“Steven… you don’t understand the
implications of your actions.”

“I trusted you, Samuel!” barked Steven, with
a hand on the door leading to his damnation, “And you let me down!
You’re all the same… vampires, werewolves and hunters alike. You’re
using me for your own personal gain, and I won’t stand idly by and
be a pawn in the game my sister’s playing with her life.”

“You’re making a mistake. Please… let us
discuss this like the friends we once were.”

“I can’t do that,
friend
,” said Steven
as he opened the massive doors and let the moonlight seep into his
soul. He felt like a wounded animal, unsure where the loyalties of
his friends truly lay. “Like you said… I’ve got no one.”

And with those words, Steven disappeared into
the night.

The events weighed heavy on Samuel’s soul,
burdened by the fear of losing the person closest to his heart. He
was never the social type, preferring to keep those he cared about
far away, out of harm’s reach. Samuel could understand the pain his
friend was in, even if it was misplaced. It was a pain he knew all
too well.

It was the vision of Steven’s mother that
concerned him the most— a vision that never should’ve happened.

Something sinister was afoot. He could feel
it in the cold wind upon his skin. The worst part of it all was the
overcoming apprehension that he unknowingly played his part to
perfection.

Chapter Two

The cold breeze washed against Emily as she
looked out the balcony of her mountainous castle bedroom. She
clutched at her azure cardigan and wrapped it against her body for
warmth, yet it provided none of the sort. It wasn’t the wind that
chilled her to the bone; it was the dreary circumstances of her
life, or what it had now become. She was alone here, in this castle
of vampires, and there wasn’t a thing that could change that.

House Franson, as the cold-hearted denizens
of his maddening place called it. It was out of respect that she
came here, but it was out of necessity that she stayed. A common
enemy, as Xander would often call Lady Amata; but she was no enemy
of Emily’s. An enemy is one that you can confront, not one that
lurks in the shadows and threatens your very existence. This was
about survival, nothing more and certainly nothing less. And Emily
was a survivor.

So she stayed here, in this godforsaken
place, with Xander and his bloodsucking cohorts. She cared for him;
at least she thought she did. It was trust that kept her heart at
bay. Whether it was her mother’s dire warning, or the jadedness of
her own fractured self-image, she couldn’t give herself to him. Not
until she learned the truth. The real reason he had invited her
back to his fortress.

Tap. Tap. Tap.
The sound was coming
from the other side of her bedroom door. Someone wanted her
attention, and they were being much too polite about it.

“Emily? Are you decent?”

“I am,” Emily replied as she turned to face
her guest, “Please come in, Esther.”

Esther was her only real friend in this
entire mountain stronghold, if she could even be called a friend,
at all. Still, she was kind, and in Emily’s newfound paranormal
life, the kindness of others came few and far between.

She opened the door and walked into Emily’s
secluded bedroom with her radiant auburn hair flowing around her
outfit— a maroon Victorian formal dress that she was known around
the castle for. It was made from the finest silk and stitched with
the most intricate patterns of flora, all the way down to the
frilled lace that swept across the floor as she walked. Unlike the
rest of the vampires walking the halls, she wore the clothes that
gave her the most comfort— the clothes that belonged to her a
lifetime ago, when her humanity was still intact.

“Xander approaches,” Esther said, “Would you
care to accompany me to the front entrance?”

“I would,” Emily replied. She picked herself
up from her chair overlooking the valley below and meandered over
to the dresser beside her bed. “Just give me one moment.”

The smooth edge of a small dagger glistened
under the moonlight and caught Esther’s attention. The handle was
made of bone, carved at the end in the shape of a dragon, roaring
to the Heavens above.

Emily noticed Esther’s lingering gaze as she
tucked the blade into the front of her jeans. It was a look of
shock, but also that of understanding and compassion; a look that
Emily saw often when her parents passed from this life.

“May I inquire about the blade?”

“It’s for protection,” Emily said as she
turned around, a look of shame painted on her disheartened face.
“Trust is very hard to come by these days… I’m only interested in
making sure each night isn’t my last.”

“No, it would appear not,” Esther said with a
diminutive smile, “You do know that steel blade wouldn’t even kill
the youngest of us, right?”

“No, the blade isn’t meant to kill,” Emily
replied, “It’s only meant as a distraction. I’m the one that does
the killing.”

Emily was confident in her embryonic powers,
more so than ever before. That’s what a life of supreme power will
do to someone, fester until it erupts in a fiery ball of anger and
frustration. She was tired of all the looks she received as she
walked the halls of this lifeless castle. They were looks of
contempt and abhorrence, the kind born from thousands of years of
fear and mistrust between their people. The only difference was
that their people were still around, while Emily walked this plane
alone.

A look of shock once again crossed Esther’s
face, only this time there was less understanding in her eyes.
Emily had never been this bold before, at least the ageless vampire
never took notice of anything remotely similar.

“I’m sorry,” Emily said as she walked over to
Esther and took her palm in hand, “I didn’t mean it like that… it’s
just that I see how the others look at me, barely able to retract
their fangs before I make it into the room. Then there’s you,
someone who’s been nothing but kind to me when I needed it most.
You might be the closest thing to a friend that I still have
left.”

“I’m honored,” Esther said with a blush,
unable to redden her cheeks from a lack of circulating blood.

“You shouldn’t be,” Emily answered as she
walked towards her bedroom door, “All my friends have the
unfortunate fate of dying well before their time.”

They walked down the halls of Xander’s
castle, the depressed grays and pale browns clashing violently
against the vibrant colors of their chosen garbs. Perhaps that was
their reason for dressing as they did, to stand out from the rest
of the pack.

“I know that the rest of them can be a little
rough around the edges,” Esther confessed, “But Xander’s given his
expressed command that you not be touched… and I promise that none
of them would dare go against his word.”

“That’s exactly the problem,” Emily said with
a shake of her head, “Without Xander, they would see me as nothing
more than a threat that needed to be eliminated. To them, I’m a
plague upon this earth that needs to be removed… likely by the most
gruesome means available.”

“It’s not like that.”

“No?” Emily asked, “Then what is it
like—?”

The sound of several women laughing caught
Emily’s ear and she stopped in mid speech. They were voices Emily
recognized well, and they were no friends of hers.

“What’s the matter?”

“Shh,” Emily replied with a finger pressed to
her lips, “My hearing isn’t quite up to your level.”

Emily stood at the top of the winding
staircase with ears perked forward. She held her mouth closed and
made sure to breathe only from her nose. Like Emily had told her
friend
before, a vampires hearing was much more acute than
that of a summoners.