Dark Love (4 page)

She glanced
back at Daniel and he gave her a delicious smile. God he was hot,
and he was so good to her. He was patient and understanding, so
interesting and captivating – didn’t he have any flaws? She
pondered his personality. In reality she did not know him that
well. He had come into her life in a whirlwind and transformed her
world. If it was not for him she did not know what state she would
be in now, whether she would even be alive. She thought of
Sebastian, the ancient vampire who had turned Daniel some forty
years ago. He had come to her town intent on destroying it for his
pleasure, for his whim and for something to do to occupy his
eternity on Earth.

Sebastian had
turned her husband, Jo, into a vampire. From that point on
everything had been crazy; her life had turned upside down. Daniel
had come to her, and she had completely fallen for him, immediately
succumbing to his utter attractiveness, and eventually falling in
love with him.

She looked at
him and smiled, knowing she was coming across as doe-eyed, but she
didn’t care. He had put up with a lot and now she could let her
emotions show. She did not need to hide from him.

She thought of
Jo again, how he had brutally attacked her, and how gutting it had
been to see him as a feral vampire. She wondered how things would
be if the situation had been reversed – if it was her who Sebastian
had turned into a vampire, whether Daniel would have ever fallen
for her? He probably wouldn’t have. If he had not known her as a
human first, he would have probably killed her; for Daniel had
killed Jo. It had been to protect her, she knew that. If he had not
done it Jo would have killed her. As it was he had bitten her neck.
It had been horribly painful as he had drunk her blood against her
will. It was totally different when Daniel had done it – when they
had been making love – that had barely hurt at all. It had been
heavenly connecting with him in such a manner. She had drunk his
blood too and if she had not she would not be alive now. She would
not be a vampire, she would be dead, as Sebastian had killed her,
with Megan watching.

Megan! She had
not thought of her for ages – what was wrong with her? And Bea, her
youngest girl, oh she longed to hug her. As she thought of holding
Bea tight she started to see visions of her blood pumping around
her body, a rising desire for blood, and her teeth started to
extend. She jumped out of Daniel’s arms in panic, and saw, through
the sudden blood lust that was engulfing her, that Daniel was on
his feet too.

She clamped her
hand over her mouth and wailed – ‘Bea! Megan!’

She saw blood –
blood everywhere – oh she wanted blood – she wanted
their
blood.

Tears welled in
her eyes and overflowed. How could she want her children’s blood?
How could she hurt them? She could kill them! What was she going to
do? She could not see them as she could not risk killing them. Her
heart broke and she crumpled to her knees, pain tearing through her
heart.

‘Daniel! My
kids! Oh, I can’t see them! What’s going to happen to them? I can’t
be there for them!’

‘Sarah, shush –
shhh – look at me.’

Sarah could
hear Daniel talking to her but she could barely think to do what he
said as her heart was hurting so bad.

‘Sarah! Look
into my eyes.’

She blinked her
tears away, yet they fell faster, but she looked up regardless as
she was filled with a compulsion to do as he said. Was he
influencing her? As her eyes met his she knew he was. She felt his
influence deepen and let his words roll over her, seep in . . .

‘Sarah, don’t
you worry. You don’t need to feel pain – STOP feeling pain. Your
kids will be fine. Your parents will look after them and they will
do a good job, they brought up you after all. You are strong. You
will
be able to see them again. But you won’t be able to
live with them for a while – maybe a few years – until you can
master thorough control. We will have to go away – far from here,
so you are not discovered while you are mastering this. But you
can
see your kids before we go. I will go with you and I
will influence you to remain in control – and you will.’

Sarah nodded,
she knew he had influenced her, and she was feeling better – her
pain had faded. She was not angry at him for influencing her, even
though a part of her, deep inside, wondered if she should be. But
she wasn’t, she was thankful, she could not handle feeling that
pain. Daniel had not lied. She knew he was telling the truth, she
nodded again, still processing what he had told her. They would
need to go away, somewhere far from here. Not just so she would not
be discovered, but so she would not have to face the constant
temptation to see her children – what if Daniel left her alone? He
could not constantly be by her side after all, and what if she got
lost to the blood lust while it was mixed with her love for Megan
and Bea, and she just could not help but see them? What if she did
see them and she lost control?

Thinking it now
did not cause her the pain it had a moment ago. She knew she had
Daniel to thank for that, but she could still think it through,
reason it out. She knew they had to leave soon – as soon as was
possible.

Sarah looked at
Daniel. She realized he was kneeling on the ground in front of her
and watching as she thought things through and adjusted to what
they would have to do. Star light reflected gently off his dark
hair, which looked raven black in the darkness, and off his cheek
bones, defining his handsome face. She looked into his eyes.
Turning into a vampire had not affected how it felt to look into
those. They were so dark, and she still felt like she could see to
eternity as she looked. It was so easy to lose herself in them. She
smiled softly at him, and he moved in closer. She watched as he
raised his hand and wiped the streaks of tears from her cheeks with
his fingers. They felt cool and refreshing, and they helped to wake
her from her consuming thoughts.

‘Sarah, we will
need to go and see your family soon, because there are things you
need to take away with you. We must get your passport,’ Daniel
hesitated, ‘– do you have one?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ Sarah
replied softly, waiting to find out his plans.

She was still
desperate to see her kids, yet trying to repress the blood lust
that also rose when she thought of them.

‘We also will
need some clothes for you, and all the everyday basics you may want
to bring. As I said before – I will influence you to keep control,
enough so you can see your family for a short while, and so you can
pack your own things. You can choose what you want to bring – I’d
probably choose the wrong things if I packed for you.’

Sarah smiled,
relieved. She did want to pack herself, that way she could take
some photos of Megan and Bea. At least if she could not see them in
person, if she could not risk that, she could remember them. An
idea occurred to her –

‘Daniel?’ she
asked, ‘Could you influence Megan so that she doesn’t remember that
she saw me fight, and be killed? And my parents – please could you
make sure they forget what Megan may have told them?’

‘Yes, I was
planning on it,’ Daniel reassured her.

‘And can you,
can we, think up a reason for me going away? For us going away
together?’ Her heart sank and a moment of panic kicked in, ‘You are
coming with me, aren’t you?’ she asked.

Daniel actually
laughed, and Sarah felt silly for doubting it.

‘Of course! I
couldn’t let you go by yourself. I couldn’t bear the thought of
being away from you,’ Daniel said.

Sarah sighed as
he stroked her face and then pulled her into an embrace.

‘I love you
Daniel,’ Sarah said and her voice muffled against his leather
jacket.

‘I love you so
much Sarah,’ he said back.

Sarah still
could not believe she was hearing it, that it could be true. She
felt he was too good for her. She would not let herself dwell on
that though, there was no point, he was here and his actions proved
his words. She smiled to herself as she snuggled into him, and felt
safe held tightly in his arms.

She lifted her
head to look into his eyes and to see his face as they talked
more.

‘What can we
say to my family? What are we going to tell them?’ Sarah asked him
pleadingly.

She thought it
was not long ago she had asked him a similar question. That was
after she had been taken by Sebastian, and had been missing for a
couple of days. She was human then, and had thought she was
returning to her family for good. She had had such a short amount
of time with them before this had happened, before she had been
killed and had awakened as a vampire.

This time she
would hardly get to see her children at all. Still, at least she
would
see them, and maybe – a hopeful thought occurred to
her, if they could leave on good terms, well – under good influence
– she would be able to keep in touch. She could talk to her parents
and children on the phone, maybe via Skype. Then she could see them
grow up and they would still recognize her when she returned. She
swore to herself that she would. She would develop enough control
that she could be with them again – she had to – she could not miss
their lives and she didn’t want them growing up with no parents at
all. After all, Jo was dead now too. Their life was going to be so
different.

Daniel spoke,
startling her; she had been so absorbed in her thoughts.

‘Let’s think it
over for a bit. There are some other things we need to do before
going to see your family,’ he said.

‘What things?’
Sarah asked.

‘Well, two
things really. Before you, errr, woke up, I took a spade from your
house to bury the bodies Sebastian had possessed,’ Daniel said.

Sarah looked at
him intently as he spoke. She was shocked that she had forgotten
about the bodies, the life she had taken when fighting Sebastian.
Sebastian had come back from the dead as some kind of spirit after
Daniel had staked him. He had taken possession of a teenage boy who
had then attacked Sarah while Daniel was away trying to learn
enough magic to make sure Sebastian could never come back.
Sebastian attacking her had triggered the enhanced strength that
she had developed from Daniel’s blood, after he had saved her the
first time Sebastian had hurt her. God – all she had been through –
it was mind boggling. Sarah shook her head to clear it.

She thought of
the boy she had killed instead. Daniel had told her there was
nothing she could have done differently, that once someone had been
possessed in that way there was no saving them. That really the boy
had been dead already. Sarah could not help but feel guilty though
as she had never hurt anyone before, not seriously, and now she had
killed someone. She had nearly killed someone again tonight, she
thought, becoming distracted by the thought of blood. . . .

‘Sarah!’

‘Sorry . . .’
Sarah said, snapping out of it, forcing herself to concentrate
again, ‘. . . carry on please.’

‘That’s why I
wasn’t with you when you awoke – I was burying them.’

‘Them?’ Sarah
interrupted, thinking there was so much she had missed out on while
she had been out of it, and adjusting, ‘The second body – you mean
you killed the woman who had been possessed by Sebastian too?’

Daniel
nodded.

‘What about
Sebastian? God, sorry I didn’t ask sooner, what happened? And also
– thank you Daniel – thank you for burying the body for me,’ Sarah
said, feeling her eyes well up at the thought of him dead. She was
glad Daniel had buried the body and that she did not have to face
what she had done.

‘Sarah, don’t
worry, I was glad to do it for you. I wasn’t going to put you
through that.’

Daniel leant in
and kissed her softly on the lips and once on each cheek, and Sarah
let herself enjoy it, feeling instantly warm and fuzzy at his
touch.

Daniel leant
back, making himself comfortable against a tree that had been
close. Sarah moved closer and leant against his side. She reached
up and stroked his gorgeous dark, messy hair. It was so silky, and
to her enhanced vamp vision she could see all sorts of colors
reflected in it, making him look utterly beautiful. She kissed his
firm jaw, before smiling ruefully and making it clear she
was
concentrating.

Daniel
continued and Sarah listened, not just to his words, but to the
sound of his voice as his southern drawl sent tingles through her
body right to her core.

‘I’m not sure
what you remember . . . ?’ he said.

‘The last thing
I remember is you shouting for me to run and then a sudden pain
wrenching through my neck,’ Sarah answered.

‘Yes well, that
would have been when Sebastian snapped it. Then you fell, you
died,’ Daniel said.

Sarah’s heart
ached as he said this, not so much because it was her death he was
speaking of, but because of the pain evident on his face, in his
clenched jaw and in his eyes. She placed her hand on his chest as
he carried on.

‘I was so
angry, and my heart, well – I retaliated. I killed the body he was
in. Dark energy materialized from it and it took on the shape of
Sebastian. I attacked him using the magic Heather had taught
me.’

Sarah
remembered Daniel talking about Heather before; she was the witch
Daniel had gone to see recently. That had been when Sebastian had
attacked her. Daniel had known Heather for years and she had taught
him magic before. That was how he had killed Sebastian’s real body
the first time round.

‘I fired energy
at Sebastian, weakening him, and then I did a binding spell. I
bound him into an urn, which I left next to you while I was burying
the bodies. It must still be there now, or I hope it is, as that’s
the most important thing we need to do. We need to go back and find
it and bury it. That’s what Heather told me.’