Page 18 of Dark Souls

Reckless

“Lukas. Fetch your sister, please. The sarma will be ruined by the time she comes in from the snow and all my hard work will be for waste.” Mama wiped her hands on her apron before putting the plate of sour cabbage leaves filled with mincemeat down on the rickety table.

“Nonsense, Мо?а ?убав. Your sarma could never be ruined. It is impossible.” My father wrapped his arms around her waist, nuzzling into her neck as she melted against him.

“Sure, mama.” I said, standing from my position hunched over the open fire, poking the coal to keep it alight and stop the winter chill spreading through the cold stone walls of our home. “And отац is right. You make the best sarma in all of Serbia. Even the cold could not ruin it for us.”

She lifted her hand to my cheek with an adoring smile as I grabbed my jacket from the hook by the door, preparing for the freezing temperature.

“Such a good boy to your mama. But I know when you are lying, my son.”

I chuckled, closing the door behind me and rubbing my hands together when the bitter wind whipped at my face. It was the coldest winter we’d seen in years but that would never deter my little sister from playing outside.

“Hana!” I called, my feet disappearing beneath the powdery snow with every footfall as I walked through the overgrown hedge pathway to her favourite playing spot. “Hana, supper is ready. Come now.”

A small giggle floated in the wind. I turned, narrowing my eyes as my lips stretched into a wicked smile. Hiding was her favourite game. Unfortunately for her, she was never any good at it, especially not with those wild, untameable red curls that stood out against the white backdrop.

“Haaaaana?” I played along, calling for her as I slowly made my way towards the mound of snow one of her red curls was poking out from. “Where could she possibly have gone? Perhaps the wind has taken her.” I stopped right beside the moving mountain of snow as she tried to stifle more giggles. “Oh well, more sarma for me.”

“No!” A flurry of white blew up like a hurricane as her little body jumped onto my back. I laughed, spinning in circles with my vampire speed as her tiny hands clawed at my neck to hold on for dear life. When I felt her grip slip, I caught her in my arms and tickled her tummy as she squealed and roared with laughter. My favourite sound in the world.

“Stop! Lulu! S-stop!” Her five-year-old body thrashed like a fish in my arms but I never let her fall. Easing up on the tickling, I peered down into those green eyes and smiled.

“Do you surrender?”

A block of ice slammed into my back, causing me to spin around and find my older brother, Zoran, staring at us from the treeline where our hidden home connected with the thick forest. Hana stiffened in my arms as we both took in the blood covering his coat and running down his chin.

“Never surrender, Hana,” he said with a chilling warning that was colder than the snow seeping into my boots. His eyes locked with mine in knowing. “Never.”

He marched into the house and closed the door behind him as I shifted Hana to my hip.

“I don’t want to kill people, Luka. But why don’t they like us?” Her little voice, full of sadness about her future, tugged at my heart. I lifted her chin to look into my eyes.

“Then you never will. There are ways around our fate, little one. Sometimes the world is not kind but that does not mean you don’t have to be.”

“Will you always protect me? Forever?”

“Never doubt it, Hana. Never doubt it.”

I bolted upright, sweat covering my body as I shuddered in the aftermath of that memory. Those were always the worst. Memories of her. A reminder of my biggest failures.

Fucking sleep. Sleeping was my trigger. It was the only time my subconscious could push through the concrete walls I’d built around my past to keep the crippling guilt and pain at bay. Those impenetrable walls trapped the boy from those memories inside so he could hide himself away, where I could keep him protected from the pain. But the cracks were forming. The memories and nightmares were becoming more persistent every time I closed my fucking eyes.

As the self-torture lingered for a few more seconds like a nasty infection, I slammed my hand to my chest, wanting to rip out my own fucking heart as I squeezed my eyes tightly. And then it ended just as abruptly. It was as if someone had wiped my system clean. Pressed the reboot button on my mind and my soul. It was gone. The memory and the guilt that came with it. I felt empty. Awful, rotting emptiness. But that was the price you paid for switching off your connection to your human side, a cruel pit of darkness inside you that only grows and infects itself down to your bones. I was slowly rotting from the inside out and the longer I suppressed, the worse it was getting. But I made that decision a long time ago. It was a matter of survival. The mistakes and horrors of my past and the ruthless crimes of my present didn’t matter when I felt nothing. I could keep going. And I had to keep going. I had no other choice.

Glancing over at the motel’s clock, I cursed loudly when I realised I’d been passed out for most of the day and the sun had already set. The witches’ ritual last night must have gone on longer than I expected it to and there was only so much my body could physically take with no sleep until it just gave out and forced me to rest.

Scrambling across the hard bed, I grabbed my top from the chair and threw it on over my head. I’d fallen asleep in my ripped jeans and there was no time to shower if I wanted to make sure I caught sight of the princess before the night was over. It wasn’t like I planned on letting her see me, anyway.

Grabbing the keys for the rental car, I slammed the motel door behind me and made my way across the car park. Two elderly men were sitting silently on worn, rusty chairs out on their front porches, watching the world moving around them. A single bulb swayed in the breeze above their heads, casting a glow across their stoic faces as they watched me suspiciously. They clearly had nothing better to do. The thought of making them my next meal crossed my mind. They were just sitting there like gormless statues, waiting for death to take them from this hellhole. I could do them a solid and be their grim reaper. Maybe later. I had a more important place to be.

The car alarm beeped as the headlights flashed and I glanced up to meet their stares, pulling the map I’d printed off for directions to Elk Lake Resort.

“What’s with your eyes, boy?” one shouted across the parking lot. “Ain’t Halloween for another week or two.”

I smirked, allowing my red eyes to blaze like a furnace. “It’s always Halloween where I come from.”

“And where’s that?” the other shouted.

“Hell.”

I climbed into the driver’s seat, leaving them shaking their heads and muttering about the younger youth and their quirks. Little did they know, I’d lived at least triple their lifetime and my eyes were the natural colour of a blood-thirsting vampire who no longer gave a shit about hiding that fact, even in front of humans. It was almost comical that even when they were staring evil directly in the face; they refused to believe it to be true. They put my red eyes down to contacts to go with my edgy, punk look instead of accepting the possibility that I was someone who shouldn’t exist in their world.

That agitation and strange restlessness that had been following me around all week clawed at me painfully as I stepped on the gas and drove like a fucking maniac towards the resort. I didn’t know why I felt the obsessive need to see this girl with my own eyes. I knew she was alive so Heathen hadn’t harmed her. The royals all seemed to continue with whatever the fuck they did with no suspicion about Heathen or The Underground. She was still out there, living her life according to her social media. Not that I had been compulsively checking what she was up to at every opportunity or anything. So, I shouldn’t be doing this but I couldn’t stop myself either.

I huffed, my fingers gripping the steering wheel so firmly the leather squeaked. This girl was driving me crazy, and I didn’t like it one bit. I knew the sensible thing was to turn this car around and forget she existed. But the problem was, I wasn’t a sensible person. I was impulsive. Reckless. And forgetting she existed felt near impossible. So maybe I needed to see her. Needed to get whatever the fuck this was out of my system, so I could go back to not giving a shit about anything or anyone. It was safer that way.

The sign for the resort came into view and I turned into the car park. I frowned at the silence and darkness that greeted me. All the lights were off in the reception and there were only two parked cars. This felt wrong. A place like this should overflow with vacationers on a weekend.

Climbing out of the car, I approached the locked reception building, rotating my keys around my finger. I stopped in front of a large poster that was stuck in the window.

Closed for the weekend. Private event. Sorry for any inconvenience.

In the distance, I could hear faint laughter. Women. A bunch of them. She was here. I could sense it. Falling into the shadows of the forest, I walked the perimeter of the electric fencing until I could find the perfect spot to jump it without causing any alarm to the private party happening beyond. I kept to the thick woodland, hidden by the veil of darkness until I reached the lake at the centre of the resort. Leaning against a tree, I spotted the group on the other side of the large oval reservoir, sitting around a campfire. The dancing amber flames were the only lick of light around them, apart from the iridescent moon above. They were too far away to register any of their faces, but judging by their shapely figures, they were all female and all supernatural. Shit. I knew I couldn’t risk going any closer without one of them sensing me. But I couldn’t see her from here. And I needed to see her like I needed my next breath. Fuck knows why, because it was starting to piss me off.

Suddenly, the shortest and most petite figure in the group moved away from them, marching with purpose towards the lake. I narrowed my eyes. White hair and pale skin shone like a precious pearl in a sea of coral under the moon’s reflection. I stood taller. It was her. Without a doubt. And she was heading this way.

Before I had time to react, her body blurred as she used her vampire speed to race up to the wooden jetty only a short distance away from me. She had her back to me, her long, silky hair cascading down her exposed spine all the way to a perfect, round ass. She was completely naked apart from a black lace thong. I held my breath as my cock reacted to the sight of her. When she pulled the tiny material down her legs and stepped out of it, I had to fight back a groan. Shit. This was not good. I was getting to see a lot more of her than I intended and it was making it harder and harder to stick to my plan.

“Bunch of perverts!” she shouted with laughter in her voice. Her tone was feminine but laced with so much feistiness that it awoke some raw, primal want inside me. The sound of a splash caused me to lose the inner war I was having to stick to the shadows, and I instinctively took a step forward because she was out of my sight. A fact that bothered me more than it should have. When she broke the surface and informed the group that she was fine and they should leave her to it, the uncomfortable sensation in my chest eased a little. I watched, mesmerised as she glided on her back through the water gracefully, her eyes closed and small, perky tits visible on the surface. Ah fuck, were those little silver bars through her nipples? My kryptonite.

She. Was. Fucking. Unbelievable.

I knew she was beautiful from her pictures online but they didn’t do justice to the real thing.

Suddenly, she dived into the blackness and my nostrils flared when she didn’t come back up straight away. I waited impatiently. Time became my enemy. And when she still hadn’t resurfaced, I glanced over at the group of women who had gone back to the campfire and continued their celebrations, instant rage manifesting that no one was checking on her. Was she in trouble?

Even though I shouldn’t have cared, I zoomed up to the edge of the jetty and crouched down. My eyes scanned the stillness of the inky water. Fuck’s sake. I really, really didn’t want to dive in there. But the itch crawling across my skin suggested that I just might if she didn’t appear soon.

The water parted for the most hypnotising face I had ever seen. With her white hair slicked back, full lips parted and the smoothest, most porcelain skin pebbled with water droplets, she looked like a fallen angel. But there was no innocence about her whatsoever. Her black mascara was smudged beneath unique pink eyes, giving her a dark, smouldering look that only made her more appealing. And the way her lustful gaze was drinking in every inch of me had my mind racing with unholy thoughts.

When our eyes finally crashed together, explosions happened deep inside my chest. I felt something. Want. Desire. Aching. Maybe I should get in there with her after all. No. She was a royal. And I’ve already fucked up big time by letting her see me.

“Who are—”

I quickly held my finger to my lips to silence her. The narrowed glare I got in return only sent more excitement coursing through me. She was feisty. Most people couldn’t look me in the eye without quivering. But she didn’t fear me. Even as vulnerable as she was right now, she didn’t even flinch. And it was turning me on.

Remembering her discarded thong, I lifted it to my nose, inhaling the sweet, forbidden scent of her. Fuck, even just her scent was addictive. A deep, primal groan erupted from my chest as I imagined tasting it with my tongue. I was about to snap. The merciless beast within wanted out. Wanted to ravage her until there was nothing left.

Fighting it, I stood up, stuffing her underwear in my back pocket and smirked at her shocked face. Something told me it took a lot to shock this woman and the fact I had made me grin with pride. I gave her an arrogant wink just as one woman shouted for her and I used my speed to vanish into the woodland before she could look back.

The cabin was one large open-plan room. A small living area next to an open fireplace on one side, a kitchen on the other and a large king-sized bed at the far end. The room smelled of pine and oak, but the faintest flowery aroma mixed with spicy pepper sent my body spiralling once again as I walked towards her suitcase. The stickers of heavy metal and punk rock bands and the sketch of a skull with flowers around it, carved into the metal case with a knife, made me smirk.

Unzipping her suitcase, I looked through her belongings, finding more of that sexy underwear, a hoodie, fishnet tights, skirts and tops and a bag of make-up. At the very bottom, I found a leather rucksack that had seen better days. Clearly, she took it everywhere with her. Unbuckling the flap, I turned it upside down, spilling its contents onto the bed. Phone charger. Lipstick. A set of keys. A journal. Knuckle dusters. Silver daggers. Wood-tipped blades . Kinky. My kind of girl.

I shoved the thought far from my mind. I didn’t have the right to think of anyone as my kind of girl, let alone a royal vampire princess. She was too good for me in every fucking way possible.

Grabbing the black leather-bound journal, which had a similar skull design on the front as the suitcase, I started flicking through pages of handwritten musings and sketches. I walked over to the armchair by the fire, unable to put the thing down.

So this was a glimpse inside the brain of Ilaria Romano-Black. Darker than I imagined. Funny too.

I stopped on one page which had a drawing of a short comic strip. A cartoon goblin stood on a desk with lightning bolts and thunder coming out of his head. It had a little speech bubble next to it which read, ‘Miss Romano-Black, how dare you sit in this class painting your nails and doodling in that journal! You act like you don’t care about the origin of toadstools.’ Underneath, a drawing of her and the words ‘Professor Spellmed, I am not acting. I really do prefer watching my nails dry.’ The capitalised graffitied word DETENTION was in the last box with a ‘yippee!’ and a drawing of her skipping away in clumpy boots, a short skirt and a corset. I caught myself smiling. I only recognised it because my cheeks felt weird. Higher. When was the last time I had genuinely smiled? Not a smirk or sneer, but a smile. I couldn’t remember.

I flicked through more pages, nearing the most recent entries and froze. There was an illustration of Heathen. Horns, wings, black eyes, vines and magical tattoos. The whole shebang. What the fuck was this? How did she know his true form? Surely, he wouldn’t be so fucking stupid as to reveal himself to her. But it would appear the demon had lost his mind. What the hell was going on between them?

I considered ripping the page out to destroy the evidence of his existence, but what would be the point? She could just draw him again. Has she told anyone about him? I clenched my fist and threw the journal on the small table beside me. What was Heathen thinking? Did he expose himself to a royal? Why? Why the fuck would he do something so insane and risk everything? Fuck, if The Devil got wind of this… He just put that girl’s life in so much danger by getting her involved in this shit. Leaning forwards, I dropped my head in my hands, tugging at my burgundy hair in frustration and pure rage.

The cabin door flew open with so much power that it nearly came off its hinges. My head snapped up to see that little firecracker in the doorway, looking like pure temptation. Her hair was still damp, which made it look almost silver in the dim lighting. She still had makeup smeared under those enchanting eyes, which were narrowed into a cock-twitching glare. Her fangs hung over her plump lips, and my rage instantly vanished. She was now dressed in a short skirt, fishnet under top and a ripped crop top, with a pink feather boa that matched the same shade as her eyes wrapped around her neck.

“You little shit! You smashed the fucking door in, He—Oh, it’s you,” she breathed, and I swear I heard excitement in her voice. The last thing she should be feeling was excitement in my presence. She found a stranger had broken into her cabin and was sitting in the dark waiting for her like a crazed maniac, and she looked at me like that? With longing. Like she’s… happy I’m here. Who did she think had broken in before she realised it was me? Heathen?