Redemption: My Vampire Lover Part #2 (A Dark Realm Novella Series) (9 page)

“You hear that, Wolf,” she announced.

I laughed out loud, then wondered if she
meant something by that.

“I’ve met a vampire warrior who wants to save
me,” she whispered as she gently ran her finger down the cleft in
my chin. “I think your mother would be very proud. What happened to
her? Did she leave your father?”

Taking her hand in mind, I lightly kissed her
palm. “Parting from you will certainly drive me insane.”

“I don’t want to leave you,” Caroline
replied. Her eyes brimmed with fresh tears. “Couldn’t you go with
me?”

“If it was that simple, I would. Yes.” I
stood up to put a little distance between the two of us. I
struggled to think as a sense of foreboding lodged in my stomach.
Being next to Caroline overloaded every nerve in my body. I wanted
to make love to her beneath the palm trees. Immediately I
redirected my thoughts. With the dragons missing, something was
certainly wrong. I decided to continue my story. “Are you cold?” I
asked.

“A little. Did you want to start a fire?”

“It’s almost sunset. I’ll make a small one,
so we can watch the sun go down and I’ll finish my story.
Okay?”

She nodded. “If you promise to sit with me.”
Caroline rubbed a place on the bench next to her a time or two with
her hand.”

“You drive a hard bargain, my princess.”

I heard the soft chuckle of laughter float
along the breeze towards me. The sound was that of an angel.

“When my mother learned what my father had
done, what he had allowed to have happen, she demanded that he
apologize to me. I had managed to find my way home after being gone
for several months and my mother thought I was dead. My father had
refused to apologize to me or even act like anything had happened,
and this made my mother very angry. She cast a spell on him and
turned his skin red. She said he should be the color of blood to
remind him of the blood he almost spilled, his son’s blood. For her
defiance, my father banished her to the Beyond.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Some two or three decades now. I haven’t
seen her in a very long time. I’m not even sure if she’s still
alive.”

“Do you think we will see our loved ones
again?” Caroline asked.

Realizing I had brought up a sad subject
again, I scolded myself. From the pile of wood she had gathered, I
took a few arm loads and tossed them in front of the bench she sat
on. The grief she knew because of my father’s actions outweighed
mine. I arranged the logs in a stack on the sand. “I hope so,” I
insisted. “There’s a lot out there we still don’t understand. Like
the river. I never knew that was a portal. There could be more and
we just don’t know about them. You could be right. If we can find
the door, we may be able to see our loved ones again.”

“I’d like that. Doors to other worlds. What
if it is like that? We could ask your mother when you find
her.”

I paused and glanced over at her as I got
ready to light the fire. Her comment caught me off guard. “I’ve
never thought of that.”

“What?”

“To search for her. I always hoped she’d come
back to find me.”

“But what if she can’t?” Caroline joined me
in front of the stack of wood. A need of urgency suddenly made her
move toward me. “My aunt always said sorceresses are very powerful
people. What if she calls to you, but you don’t hear her because
you don’t know how to listen? You should try calling to her
instead.”

“Voices from the Beyond you mean? I never
thought that was possible. I’d love to hear her voice again.” The
thought saddened me for a moment until I heard Caroline speak.

“How are you going to light that by the way?”
She grinned at me as a fire in her eyes already burned.

I winked at her because she knew without
asking what I was going to do. “It’s one reason I want to join the
Order of the Dragon.” I aimed my hands just under the stack of wood
and sent a fireball from the center of my palm, hitting the wood
dead-on and igniting the logs.

“You cease to amaze me.”

“Like I told you, I do have a few tricks up
my sleeve. Help me move the bench a little closer so we’ll stay
warm.”

***

As Caroline and I watched the fire, I felt
the flames burning in my loins. I wanted to make love to her. I
wanted to taste every part of her before it was too late. I pulled
her tighter into my arms. When a gust of wind drifted by, her
golden hair wildly whipped around her face and shoulders,
lacerating me a time or two on the chin. Occasionally, I sent
another shot of flames at the fire to keep it going. I wrestled
with my thoughts. Was it the right time? I decided to take a chance
and tell her what I was feeling.

“I know our time together has been short and
we don’t have much time left before you go home, so I want to tell
you something.”

“Raphael, I don’t…”

“Please let me finish. I’ve never done this
before. It’s not like me to voice my feelings. Okay?”

She nodded.

“I don’t need a century to figure this out. I
knew from the minute I saw those wolf eyes staring at me from that
cage that I wanted to claim your heart. I won’t deny it and I won’t
spend my life being some macho shit. I don’t have time for it. Life
is now. Here and now and I want my life with you, Caroline. If it
means, it’s only a few hours more or millenniums, I want you beside
me always.”

Unexpectedly she pushed her hands into my
chest. “No,” she whispered hoarsely. “They’ll kill you. I can’t do
this. I can’t do this anymore.”

“Do what?” I asked, growing alarmed at her
actions. I pulled her again into my arms.

“My father sent me to kill you, the son of
the lord demon. That’s why I’m here, Raphael. To kill you.”

“No.”

She nodded as tears rolled down her cheeks.
In her agitated state, she pounded her fists repeatedly into my
chest. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to mislead you.”

“What were you instructed to do,” I asked her
through clenched teeth, struggling to maintain my anger.

“Papa had said to stand out in the meadow, to
help any strangers who passed by on the road at the bottom of the
hill. I didn’t know I’d end up in the Dark realm. But when I did,
you were there and I thought you could help me. I thought maybe I
could escape and maybe I’d find this demon along the way. Then that
transformation happened after I drank your blood and…”

“Your father, King Lycaon told you to go to
the meadow?”

“Yes,” she replied. Her eyes wide and alert.
“Why?”

“That’s where my father found you. In the
meadow?”

“Yes. I don’t understand what that
means.”

“It was a trap. You’ve read stories of demons
roaming meadows looking for the innocent, haven’t you?”

She shook her head as she wiped away her
tears. “No, that can’t be right. If Papa told your father then that
means he led us all to be slaughtered.”

I sighed. “I can’t say for sure, but I’d
suspect your father has gone dark. I’m sorry, Caroline. He’s
probably been in league with my father for some time.”

“Then I have no home to return to,” she
muttered in between sniffles. “I was too late to save him and my
mother. Oh Raphael, this can’t be. My family is lost.” She fell
into my arms overwhelmed again by grief. I let her cry it out as
she rested her head on my shoulder.

***

When Caroline finally fell asleep on the
bench I had made for her, I looked for more wood which was scarce.
The fire was low and only a soft glow of coals remained. Now and
then Caroline mumbled in her sleep and I’d check on her. Her
angelic features radiated in the dying firelight. She was the most
gorgeous creature I’d ever seen. My heart jerked and I felt a dull
ache of foreboding. Did I want to send her home, back to the Golden
realm now? What if my hunch was right? As I took my shirt off and
draped it over Caroline’s shoulders, I decided I should try to
contact my mother. The suggestion Caroline had made that I should
call to her from the Beyond was a smart idea. Why had I not thought
of it before?

I dug a six inch wide trench in the shape of
a circle around Caroline and where the previous fire had been. I
lit the sand on fire and watched the flames chase around the dug
trench, each forming a circle that stacked on top of the other
until it created a dome above us. As I retrieved my sword and
stabbed it into the ground in the most center point of the circle,
I called upon the Moon Goddess, the one entity I knew who could
find my mother.

“
Al di là, al di là, la dea della Luna,
fatemelo sapere di mia madre. Al di là, al di là, la dea della
Luna, fatemelo sapere di mia madre.
”

I called out with all my might, stabbing the
sword again and again into the ground. Leaving the tip in the sand,
I whirled the blade in a circle left, and then right. “To the
beyond, to the beyond,” I said again, “Moon goddess, bring me word
of my mother.”

Suddenly a large gust of wind from the South
blew out the flaming dome of fire. My vision adjusted as I noted
how completely dark the night had become. Caroline whimpered in her
sleep. I went to her and placed my fingertips on her wrist. She
still had a pulse and breathing evenly.
She’s fine,
I
thought. I looked out across the water to where the strong wind had
surfaced. The waters were calm like all life in the sea had
stopped. Something was wrong. I glanced out at the end of the pier,
thinking I wouldn’t see anyone, but I did. The moonlight appeared,
bathing the figure in light. The person retreated and sat down in
the hammock, looking my way beckoning me to join him or her, then
reclining in the hammock, rocking back and forth, whistling. I
remained frozen, closing my eyes temporarily, so I could focus on
the sound. Did I know the tune? I could hear the song floating over
the breeze.
Hush, little baby, don't say a word, Mama's gonna
buy you a mockingbird.

My throat tightened and my legs lurched
forward. Could it be? My mother had sung that lullaby to me when I
was a child. Could it be her? Cautiously I made my way out along
the pier, hoping against hope it was my mother. When I approached
the figure, I realized she was a woman. She wore a white chiffon
dress that hovered and moved around her. The dress sparkled with
gems that had been woven throughout the sleeves and upper
bodice.

Taking a moment to stand, the woman tossed
her gray hair away from her face and over her shoulder, just the
way my mother did. I recognized the gesture immediately. Her face,
I did not recognize. But her eyes. Her eyes I recognized. Tranquil
pools of blue love gazing up at me.

“Raphael, my son.”

“Mother?” I ventured. It had to be her.

“Yes, my son,” she said. “Don’t let my
appearance concern you. It is me.”

“What happened?” I asked as I took her feeble
hand in mine and guided her along the pier towards the beach. I
wanted to hug her, but I was afraid I’d break her in half. She was
so gaunt and frail.

“The last token of love from your father
before he banished me. He took my looks. Since then, I’ve aged more
learning my magic. The previous Moon Goddess retired and handed
things over to me. I have some big shoes to fill.”

I halted in my tracks, glancing down at my
black boots, and then at her. “
You
are the Moon
Goddess?”

She simply winked at me, a hint of
calculating knowledge crossing her features.

“This is wonderful!” I exclaimed.

In response, a grin beamed on her face. “You
were always such a good student. You understand, yes?”

“I think so.”

“Let me look at you,” she stated, again
changing the subject. “You are so tall, so well-defined, Raphael.
My goodness. So unlike your father.” She stifled a thin giggle. “Do
I look that old to you, my son? Too old to hug? Oh what am I
saying? That doesn’t matter, let me look at you. You sent for me.
That IS what matters! I’m so happy to see you!”

It was indeed my mother! Her constant
chatter. Her changing subjects often. It was indeed her. When we
made it to the end of the wooden pier, she whirled me around and
fastened both her hands on my elbows like clamps. There was no
mistaking. She may look old, but her grip was strong and firm. Her
strength had increased, not diminished. Her magic probably had as
well. It would have to if she was now the Moon Goddess. Her nails
dug into my flesh and I quietly cringed, pretending I felt no
pain.

“It’s been so long,” I said, wrapping my arms
around her waist as I hugged her. Delicately, I cradled her bony
frame in my hands and foregoing the formalities, I planted a huge
kiss on each of her wrinkled cheeks, which seemed to delight
her.

It seemed Father had drained the very life
source from her. I felt enraged. A wave of anger flashed across my
face and I was sure my mother had seen it.
I’ll kill him for
this.

Immediately, she turned my attention to the
beach. “Are you alone?”

“No,” I replied, patting her hand like she
was a hundred years old and I was but a boy. “I want to meet this
woman I saved.” I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the
moonlight seemed to follow us, shining a spotlight on us.

“She is close to your heart, yes? I feel this
radiance permeating from you.”

“Yes, Mother. I think I…” I paused, not
daring to utter the words my heart already knew. “I think I love
her,” I finally admitted. Feeling ashamed, I quickly shut down and
blurted out. “I saved her from Father’s clutches and that’s all
that matters.”

She contemplated me, never once believing my
hesitation. My mother could always see through any of my charades.
She ran her fingers slowly over her lips in a circle, listening
intensely to me, but thinking at the same time as she carefully
composed her next statement. It was a habit that drove my father
nuts. However it was a habit that served her well in the Dark realm
until that one day she couldn’t hold her tongue anymore. “Have you
told her, Raphael?”