Dark Love (10 page)

The sensation
was building in her groin as she clung to him, kissing him between
gasps of pleasure, running her hands through his silky dark hair
and feeling his rough jaw. That was it, he had hit the spot, and
she came as he did, timing it perfectly.

He slumped his
weight onto her, holding her, caressing her.

She smiled, her
heart ignited with happiness, as a warm sleepiness possessed her
and she felt truly relaxed.

‘I guess we
better collect up those papers,’ she half joked, not really
intending to move.

‘Soon,’ he said
as he kissed her again, sliding his hand under her top and stroking
her tummy. ‘I just want to look at you for a bit. . . .’

Sarah rested
her arms on his skin, cool from the spring breeze, and closed her
eyes, enjoying the moment of content.

She groaned
when Daniel finally moved, and forced herself to sit. Her clothes
were damp from the wet grass and she brushed off some pollen that
was staining her jeans, then she shrugged off her jacket and laid
it amongst the flowers for somewhere to sit. Daniel was scurrying
around picking up the papers that had blown further afield, so she
gathered the ones in the area of flattened flowers and sat back on
her coat with them in hand.

Daniel returned
and she smiled at him dreamily as he took a leaf out of her book
and laid his jacket out on the ground opposite her. He put the pile
of papers in between them and flicked the first one open. Sarah saw
his eyes move over the words at an impossible speed, and looked
down at her paper, unsure if she would manage to compete.

She had picked
up a national paper. It was large and difficult to lay out straight
so she put it on the grass in front of her, and then her main
obstacle was making sure the wind did not blow the pages she was
reading.

For a moment
she basked in the serenity of their situation; the vibrant colors,
sweet smells and gentle spring sounds. Birds were singing in the
hedgerows and bees settling on flowers. It was a different world
from where she had lived in Canada, where there were the evergreen
forests that stretched for miles.

She smiled
ruefully to herself and focused on the paper before her, as Daniel
was still immersed in his. Once she got into the rhythm she found
it was easy to scan over the words at speed, as she had seen Daniel
do, she just had to focus on incidents of death and destruction.
Most of the paper was filled by politics and she skimmed over those
articles, not even bothering to peruse them. There were a few knife
crimes reported, but they did not have a supernatural feel to them,
and she was soon scanning sporting pages at the back. No luck
there.

She put the
paper in a side pile that Daniel had started to create. He was
already on his third newspaper.

‘Anything
interesting?’ she asked him.

‘Not the kind
of thing I had in mind,’ he said.

He sounded as
if he were getting exasperated.

‘Don’t worry,
there’s plenty more to look through here,’ she said, patting the
still thick pile of newspapers.

Daniel
discarded the one he was looking through and picked up a smaller
local paper.

Sarah picked up
another herself, one that was smaller and easier to control. She
was immediately interested to see it contained regional reports
from different counties in England, and her hope of finding
possibly paranormal incidents increased.

Five minutes
later she discarded it and got to her feet, restless herself. She
paced about a bit to let off steam, getting the odd raised eyebrow
from Daniel on the ground. She returned to him and settled her coat
next to his so she could read by his side, and picked up the next
paper from the pile which was quickly diminishing in size.

She opened it
and started to scan the pages when something caught her eye. There
was a picture of a large prison on the edge of a moorland town.
Tingles went up her spine as she stared at the image, and she
looked down to see what story accompanied it.

Four people
were missing in Princetown, which was in the southwest of
England.

‘Have a look at
this Daniel, what do you think?’ she asked him, pushing the paper
onto his lap.

She watched as
he read the story, looking at it again over his shoulder. Daniel’s
brow was creased in concentration. Interest sparked in his eyes and
he glanced up at her.

‘It does look
like a possibility,’ he said.

‘I just noticed
it says it happened two weeks ago, strange it wasn’t reported
sooner,’ Sarah said.

‘Yes it is,
maybe they were just hoping the people would turn up. I don’t think
the missing people in your town had been reported at the point we
left – I think it was covered up,’ Daniel said.

‘Yeah, maybe,’
Sarah said. ‘Do you think we should go?’

‘Four people
missing, hmmm. If it’s a case of vampires running a mock it should
be something we could handle,’ he said.

‘You could
handle anything,’ Sarah said playfully, nudging him in the arm.

‘I’m worried
about you though, I don’t want to put you in too challenging a
situation,’ he said seriously.

‘Don’t worry
about me Daniel,’ she said. ‘I can protect myself now.’

She felt sad at
the reasons for that, but nevertheless she was strong. She knew she
could fight, and she was ready. More to the point she wanted to
fight. She had all this restless energy that she needed something
to do with. It would help her to cope without Megan and Bea.

‘Well, anyway,
if only four people are missing it might just be one vampire, but
we’ll have no idea how strong he might be, so we will need to
prepare, to strengthen ourselves. It wouldn’t hurt if I were to
teach you to transform into an animal too, gives a good way of
escaping when need be.’

‘Ooo, that
sounds fun! Can I choose what animal to change into?’

‘To some
extent,’ he said, smiling now. ‘Usually there’s one that just feels
right and is easy to learn, others can be a little more
tricky.’

‘Shall we have
a look at the rest of the newspapers, then we can decide if this is
our destination or not?’ Sarah asked.

‘Yeah, let’s do
it,’ Daniel replied tucking the paper with the article about
missing people under his knee.

He continued to
scan the paper he had been looking at before Sarah discovered the
missing people, while Sarah reached for another. It was soon
evident she was not going to find anything else so she tossed it
aside and turned over onto her tummy. She fiddled with the blades
of grass while Daniel finished up with the final paper.

As he discarded
it she sat, ‘What do you think, Dartmoor?’ she asked, for that was
where Princetown was.

Even the name
of the town seemed appealing, reminiscent of fairy tales. She
shuddered again at the thought of that prison, and brushed the
feeling aside, looking up at Daniel with hope. As soon as she had
seen the picture, before she had even read the story, she knew that
was where they should go.

‘I can see you
want to. Why not, I’ve never been to the southwest, and have always
wanted to see some wild moors,’ Daniel said.

‘Yay! How long
do you think it will take to get there?’ she asked him.

‘A few hours –
maybe six.’

‘Ugh – more
traveling. Oh well, gotta be done. Shall we get it over with?’ she
asked jumping up and extending her hand to Daniel.

He laughed and
nodded. He took her hand and let her pull him up. Sarah giggled
again as she pulled him close and closed her eyes, feeling tingles
sweep all over her as he stroked her cheeks with his free hand.

‘I love you,’
he said.

Warmth spread
out from her heart.

‘I love you,’
she answered, and kissed him softly, lingering in their
embrace.

Daniel broke
away to gather up the newspapers as they were quickly scattering in
the wind. It looked as though it was about to rain as the sky was
getting darker and clouds were moving speedily across the sky.

They ran to the
gate together and leapt over it, returning to the protection of
their car.

Daniel was
growing
bored. He accelerated down the motorway; eager to reach
their destination. It was late and the road was deserted, and
sensible people had retreated to their homes to sleep.

Sarah was also
asleep.

He had nothing
to distract himself from wondering what dangers they would soon be
facing. Had he made the right decision to get Sarah into this so
quickly?

However many
times he asked himself that question the answer could never be
clear; it would all depend on what they faced. This case of missing
people might be nothing of interest anyway, no paranormal
involvement at all. Even so, maybe they could help? It would be
better than doing nothing, and he would still be using his
abilities to help people. What were the chances they really were
going to be facing something supernatural?

Since he had
become a vampire his whole world had revolved around paranormal
phenomena, but how common was that really?

He rolled his
eyes at himself again, and forced himself to concentrate on his
journey. He had stopped off at a garage on route and purchased a
map, which informed him there should soon be a turning off onto a
smaller road. He needed to keep his eyes peeled so he would not
miss it.

He thought
longingly of sleep. He had not slept at all since his brief kip in
the forest after burying Sebastian’s ashes and bound spirit. It was
a good job he was a vampire, or he would be way beyond functioning
right now. As it was, his reflexes were slowing, although he was
still capable of reacting faster than any human.

He spotted a
sign ahead and slowed just enough to read it. As he saw the sign
read ‘Exeter’ he smiled with relief as their journey was nearly
over. He sped through the night onto the dual carriageway; a
smaller road that could still handle his pace. He was really
pushing the car to its limits, for it was not designed for this
type of driving. He had already had to refill the tank twice. The
car would excel at moorland tracks and he wondered if he would get
a chance to test it out.

Sarah turned in
her sleep by his side and he wondered if she was having a
nightmare. She often stirred in her sleep, but whenever he asked
her what she had dreamt she always claimed not to remember. He
wondered if her dreams might be prophetic, and if she could only
tap into them, it may give them a clue to help them decide what to
do. He had heard that some vampires, especially women, were known
to have prophetic dreams, although he did not know if that was
true. He had never had any himself. He thought maybe he could try
connecting with her mind when she was dreaming and see if he could
sense anything, but would she object? What if her dreams are
personal? She might be remembering her husband and children. They
may be about me, he thought with hope.

He decided he
would ask her permission, rather than violating her trust. He
supposed reading her dreams might be akin to reading someone’s
diary.

Lost in thought
he nearly missed the next turning. He quickly swung the car to the
side and took the exit just in time. He was getting closer!

He navigated a
couple of roundabouts then found himself on a windy road towards
Moretonhamstead, a town he supposed was the gateway to the
moors.

The road was
completely deserted and it was dark. There was no street lighting,
and even though the sky was clear and he could see the stars, the
moon was dark. He had an eerie feeling and wondered if it was a
premonition, or only a fear of the unknown.

He laughed
quietly to himself and raised his eyebrows – a
vampire
afraid of the unknown?

When he reached
the town of Moretonhamstead he checked out the signs and took a
right at the square. The streets were narrow and the old brick
houses close on either side. The deserted streets there were lit by
streetlamps, but the windows of homes were dark. A sense of
oppression gripped him as he drove through the town, what had they
done coming here? What was going to happen?

But as he left
the town behind and reached the moor his feelings changed. An
expanse of open valleys, and rolling hills scattered with granite,
were lit by starlight. It was beautiful.

He considered
shaking Sarah awake right then so she could see it, but he had
second thoughts and decided to let her sleep. She was exhausted,
and he was too. He saw a car park ahead and slowly drove in,
pulling on the handbrake gently so as not to disturb Sarah.

She looked
serine now, her dreaming had stopped and her eyes were still. He
laid his hand on her lap so he could feel a connection with her,
and reclined his seat. He briefly looked at the clear night sky,
appreciating the beauty of the stars glowing above, before giving
in to his fatigue and letting his eyes fall shut.

Sarah’s eyes
rolled
in her sleep; she tossed and turned trying to find
comfort in her seat. Dreams and images flicked through her mind,
never holding her attention for long. She stood in a stone circle
surrounded by death. She ran across the moors trying to escape.
Things reached for her, grabbed at her. She repeatedly fought for
her life.

She awoke as
the sun was rising over the horizon. She stretched and just in
time, she saw Daniel’s hand fall from her leg. Warm appreciation
flooded her. She had an odd sense of having dreamt something
unpleasant, and shook it away – not wanting to recall it. There was
no point getting immersed in darkness when she was surrounded by
such beauty.