Dance with Darkness (8 page)
Within that darkness, a world of someone else’s memories filled her vision until she became that person. She was a little boy trying to save his mother from a too big man who turned his fists on Brianna instead. She was a teenager who scavenged through trash cans day and night to try and assuage the never ending hunger that clawed at her stomach like the rats that surrounded her in the alleyways. The vision quickly changed again, and she was a young man now who thought of himself as Kilo, strong, tough, never to be anyone’s punching bag again. Then a dark shadow appeared from nowhere like a black dust cloud, surrounding her, taking all light with it as pain exploded in the side of her neck.
The pain receded with the darkness, and finally she found herself prowling unfamiliar city streets for food. But in the memories she no longer searched the trash cans for her sustenance. Now she fed upon the weak, the poor, and the rich alike. Young, old, male, female, none of it mattered. They were no longer humans. They were cattle, fruit on the vine waiting to be plucked, their bodies filled with a dark juice sweeter than any wine. She could feel Kilo’s unquenchable craving for it.
The visions of Kilo’s life faded away, bringing Brianna back to the reality of where and who she was. Kilo’s life had been so hard, so relentlessly filled with sorrow, anger and hurt. But even as a small part of her pitied the harsh life he had been forced to live, her hatred grew almost too large to hold inside her. He had raped her and then, just like his maker, he had taken her life and forced her to make a choice no one should ever have to make...die, or become a vampire who fed off humans.
Out of a desperate will to live, she’d chosen to become a vampire like him. And probably damned her soul to Hell.
Over the next two days, she realized how wrong that choice had been as Kilo forced her to learn the rules of her new existence. Contrary to her first belief, his fangs were all too real. So was the brand new pair she discovered hidden within her own upper gums, which extended whenever she willed them to or at Kilo’s command.
Vampires were real, and she’d become one.
But unlike the vampires of legend, they were not affected by garlic or sunlight. Kilo told her she would be impervious to disease, aging, or any wounds except being stabbed through the heart, decapitation, or being set on fire. Human food could still be consumed, but it would no longer give her any energy. Instead, she would have to drink a full human body’s worth of blood once a month in order to keep her immortal strength equal to ten or fifteen men. Or she could have sex with a human once a week and exchange some of her immortal energy for their sustaining human energy. Kilo also told her she would develop the ability to communicate telepathically with humans within a few months. Her spell
like vampire charm, however, would be immediately effective on any human near her within a few short weeks.
And with every new development of her vampire powers, Brianna knew a little more of her humanity would be lost forever.
Though she pretended to be the meek student to his arrogant teachings, planning to lull him into relaxing around her, Brianna’s heart churned with the desire to escape. But every time thoughts like that tried to rise to the forefront of her mind, she pushed them away. What if he could still read her mind despite her new immortality?
Her hatred for him, however, couldn’t be stored away. It was burned into her very being, eating away at her from within. She made no effort to hide it when she looked at him, either. But he only laughed at her as if he viewed her searing looks as twisted expressions of endearment.
On the second day of her captivity, Kilo announced it was time for her to learn how to hunt. He carried her out the French doors and down to the ground below the balcony to a nearby park. In the weak winter rays of sunshine, he pulled her over the rain-soaked grounds towards a woman sitting on a bench with a small, golden Cocker spaniel. The brunette was young, perhaps only in her early thirties, content to sit wrapped up in her raincoat and read a book while her dog slept.
I want to do a little experiment,
his voice whispered through Brianna’s mind as they watched the woman idly stroke her dog before turning another page in her book
. I want to know how soon a new vampire can pick up the memories of their victims.
Their...victims?
Her mind stumbled over the word. She didn’t want to have any victims! There was no need for it. He’d told her she could have sex with a human instead for her survival.
His smile darkened into a sneer.
Sneaking up behind the woman on the bench, Kilo reached out and broke her neck with a quick twist of her head. Then he killed her barking dog the same way.
“Bite her throat and drink her blood,” Kilo commanded, his voice harsh and grating.
No, please, no.
Brianna tried to back away in horror, her hands to her mouth, sickened further as small fangs slid down out of her gums above her regular incisors and pierced her lower lip.
“Drink now, before someone sees!” he demanded.
Then the hunger hit her in rolling waves, cramping her stomach like a giant fist squeezing her internal organs to the point where she wondered how she still lived. A red film seemed to wash over the scene before her. Her body once again rebelled against her mind, moving her closer to the dead woman in its crazed need for human blood.
And Lord help her, but she drank that woman’s blood and was quickly filled with that woman’s innocent, lonely memories. And again Brianna’s soul begged for the true death even as she gulped down entire mouthfuls of the woman’s rich, hot blood…
* * * * *
Brianna woke up crying and already sitting up in bed, her upper body rocking in the dark of her tiny apartment with some childhood remnant of an effort to soothe her ravaged mind. It wasn’t just a dream. It had all happened. She had really drank...
“Don’t think about it. You’re alive, Bri,” she whispered out loud so she would know she was truly awake, so the memories and the guilt couldn’t suck her down into insanity. “You did what you had to in order to survive. She was already dead. Kilo killed her. You stayed alive, and you escaped down that drain pipe from the balcony. You’re
free
.”
She grabbed the blankets up from her lap and held them to the pounding pulse in her chest. Her hair fell forward, sticking to her cheeks as she continued to rock.
“He’s gone. You’re here, you’re okay. You’re in control now, and you’re strong. You’ll never drink blood again. You can be normal again if you try.”
A small voice inside whispered,
Ah, but what about that man you caught trying to rape the woman in the parking lot? Didn’t you enjoy draining him dry?
“No,” Brianna whispered, knowing it was a lie even as she said it. “He was trying to hurt that woman. I saved her. He was evil. I didn’t like it at all. I’ll never do it again. I swear it.”
She repeated these thoughts silently like a mantra until eventually her breathing slowed, her tears stopped flowing, and the urge to throw up passed.
She
was in control of herself, both her mind and her body, not Kilo, and definitely not her vamp needs or instincts. She would never lose control like that again, never take another human’s blood, innocent or otherwise. She would always be in control from now on, she promised herself.
She
had
to, for the sake of her very sanity.
Find this full story and all the other stories in the
Series at
About the Author
Melissa Darnell is the author of a growing list of adult, New Adult, and YA fiction and nonfiction books. Born in
California
, this former award-winning dancer grew up in
East Texas
, and as an adult has also called the following states home since then:
Utah
,
West Virginia
,
Louisiana
,
Alabama
,
Kentucky
,
Iowa
, and
South Dakota
. She currently lives in northeastern
Nebraska
with her husband Tim and two children, Hunter and Alexander, where she enjoys watching TV shows as diverse as Whale Wars, Newsroom, Being Human,
Defiance
, Game of Thrones, and True Blood, and of course writing her next book. Visit her website at
www.MelissaDarnell.com
for news about her upcoming books, author’s notes about some of her novels, online playlists for each of her books, and more!
