Page 21 of The Darkness

Something struck her then. “Regan told me you would one day take my life. Could this be what she saw?” She was finding it hard to take in. “My mother suggested this?”

He nodded.

“Will it be enough? Will the price be paid?”

“She said so, but you must know the consequences. You will lose your soul, never see the sun again.”

It didn’t matter. A wild surge of hope was building inside her, and she knew then that she would rather have the night with Darius than the daytime alone. “I’m willing.”

He closed his eyes. When he opened them, she saw the same hope reflected in his face. He reached out for her, and she slipped her hand in his and allowed him to lead her to the altar.

“What must I do?” she asked.

“Your body must die. I’ll drink from you until your heart stops beating, then you must take my blood to be reborn. Will you accept my blood?”

She nodded once.

He pulled her into his arms and sank down onto the soft grass, leaning his back against the altar stone. She lay across his lap, and for a minute, he held her close. She’d thought she would never be in his arms again, and it was almost enough, but not quite.

Raising her head, she bared her throat, and heard his sharp intake of breath. Then his mouth was on her, his fangs piercing her skin, sinking deep into the vein.

He drank. There was no pain, only pleasure and a relentless tugging that drew on places deep within her body. As he drank, she could feel his thoughts and emotions growing stronger. His fear that he would not succeed and she would truly die. His love.

Her life was ebbing away, and she needed to tell him something before it was too late.

I love you. I’ve always loved you.

He paused as he heard her words in his head. She clutched his shoulders, squeezing to urge him on, and he continued drinking. Her mind was clouding, his thoughts fading, then blackness.

∞∞∞

Retracting his fangs, Darius pressed his lips to her throat. He could detect no pulse. She was dead, her heartbeat silent. Standing up, still holding her in his arms, he laid her gently on the altar. He looked up, and found the lightning was gone, and the sky was at peace. It was done.

Gina’s hair was silver in the moonlight, her face serene. He leaned over and kissed her cold lips.

Ignoring the fear that squeezed the air from his lungs, he drew the dagger from the sheath at her waist, tore open his shirt and sliced the blade across his chest, above his heart. As the crimson blood welled up, he gritted his teeth and prayed it would revive her. He scooped Gina up against him and pressed her mouth across the open wound.

For endless minutes, she lay still in his arms, and his panic flared. Desperation filled him, and he knew in that moment that if she did not recover, then the rising sun would find him here still cradling her body. But it wouldn’t happen. He pressed her tighter still. “Come back to me, Gina,” he whispered. “I love you.”

A convulsion shuddered through her body. She swallowed, weakly at first, then more strongly, as each beat of his heart forced his blood from the wound.

I love you.

The words whispered through his mind, and suddenly he needed to hear them for real. He tilted her head with the hand in her hair. “Say it out loud,” he growled.

She licked the crimson blood from her lips. Her mouth opened, and he saw the flash of small, white fangs.

“I love you,” she said.

Elation filled him, and the Darkness was gone forever, banished by her love.

The End