Embrace of the Lycan - Chapter 15

Chapter 15
So terrible was Lucian’s anguish that he felt unable to breath. He held her to him, and felt her flesh was cold and hard. The woman he loved had been taken from him again. He struggled to take in one long breath and then let out such a howl that every living thing within ear shot would have sensed his loss.

The anger swelled and so did his Lycan. Within a heartbeat his beast was released and it was looking for revenge. It first turned on the cause of the distress. The Lycan growled, and prepared to attack. The Vampire had the decency to look terrified and leapt through a window. Lucian was a second behind and caught him easily. With one swipe of a massive clawed hand, the Vampire froze mid step. Boris teetered backwards a step before his head lolled at a peculiar angle. He dropped down onto his knees gurgling up a mouth full of blood. He then fell, face first, into the dirt of the courtyard. His head was almost separated from his body.

Lucian leapt onto his back and with his huge fangs, gripped the Vampire’s cranium and pulled it clean away with a sickening squelch. He continued to rend with his claws and teeth until all that remained of Boris was a bloody pulp.

Lucian hadn’t finished. He looked about him and found a few remaining guards that were not quite dead, although were suffering terminal injuries. He repeated the process of destruction, desperately trying to ease the pain of his loss. Once again, the beast stood on his two legs, filled the massive chest with air and let out another mournful howl.

The rest of the courtyard lay still now. The guards all dispatched, his men stood and saw their leader slowly revert back to his human form. He continued to stand there naked, tears still running down his face. Even the moon hid from his grief, hiding her face behind the clouds. Someone handed him a pair of trousers, no doubt liberated from one of the guards.

Lucian looked for his Lieutenant. He saw Raze walking towards him. ‘Put someone on watch. When the Vampires hear of what we have done – they will be looking for retribution.’

He climbed into the trousers, and added, ‘Get this place tidied up. We are taking over. This is my castle now.’

Lucian thought about Krisztina’s body and refused to leave it in the same room as Tibor, so he headed back up to her apartment. When he got in the room, he saw Tibor’s body where it had been left, with the throat and shoulder chewed nearly all the way through. Krisztina’s body however, had disappeared.

For a second, he was confused. Then it dawned on him the possibility of what could have happened. There was a noise of someone moving behind him. He turned – it was Krisztina. His heart swelled with joy for one glorious moment, and then he noticed the beautiful mellow brown eyes were now icy blue. She had successfully been turned into a Vampire.

‘Krisztina... I ...,’ he was unsure what to say, so he wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her to him. She stood there for a second unresponsive, then lifted her arms to hold him in return. He pulled back slightly and then moved in to kiss her lips, but she pulled away from the embrace.

‘No Lucian. The time for kisses has passed.’

‘What? Krisztina! Please don’t be like this. I came here for you... for us.’

‘There is no us! You came too late. Oh Lucian,’ she sobbed. ‘Why didn’t you come sooner?’ She relaxed once again into his arms, and he held her as she wept. When her tears stopped he let her go.

‘I am a Vampire. I don’t know what to do now.’

‘You stay with me. We will be together now – is that not what you wanted?

Krisztina shook her head. ‘I wanted a life with you, or death without you. What you are offering me now is an undeath with you? I cannot live life like that. I cannot live my life in darkness.’

Lucian had no idea how to console her. He too felt that the light had now left his life. Her warmth, empathy and vitality had all left her. She was a shell of the woman he knew, yet it still tore at his insides to see her in pain.

‘Lucian – will you grant me one favour.’

He placed his hands on her arms and looked her straight in her eyes. It disconcerted him slightly to see the that the blue ice had disappeared and the brown had returned, but it was not the warm brown he remembered but a cold dark void.

‘What would you have me do Krisztina?’

‘I want to die – but I only know one way to kill this body. Let us leave here, find a nice romantic spot, and we can make love until the sun comes up.’

‘No, no, no.’ He shook his head as soon as she started talking. ‘I can’t do that Krisztina. Please do not ask me to watch another lover burn in the sun.’

‘If you ever loved me, you would do this,’ she pleaded.

‘I did love you, I love you still Krisztina, but I cannot concede to this demand.’

‘So you reject me once again,’ she said bitterly, her tears now gone.

‘No, I do not.’ Lucian was at a loss. ‘I love you. I want to live a long life with you. You have the immortality you desired. Let us end this cycle of misery between us.’

‘I cannot live like this Lucian, if you could only accept that. I do not feel about my Vampire nature as you do about your Lycan. I do not see this as a gift, but as a curse. If you will not be with me, I will do this alone.’

Before he was able to argue, she was gone. There was a blur of red silk as she flew out of the shattered window and was gone into the night.

Lucian could do nothing but stand looking in the direction she had travelled but all he could see was blackness. Even with the full moon and his excellent vision, she was already too far for him to see.

Raze and Sabas came into the room, and waited for him to acknowledge them. He looked at them then, and Raze asked where Krisztina was.

‘She is dead,’ he replied.