Haven’t read Chapter One yet? Click here to read it!
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen

Sarah sat in the dimly lit room and kept watch as Adalaide and Gervis slept. Gervis had awoken only briefly, eating a small amount of food and drinking some water, before falling back to sleep. He still seemed to be quite weak, but was slowly improving. What had surprised Sarah most, however, was that he had seemed very concerned about Christine. He didn’t even seem to consider her at fault for nearly killing him. He seemed only to be concerned with her well-being. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that he had spent the last fifteen years living with a vampire. Maybe he expected to have his blood taken like that. Sarah shook her head. She still didn’t understand the complexities of living in this world.

Suddenly, she heard footsteps outside. She shook Adalaide awake and they both kept their eyes glued to the door, Sarah holding her knife and Adalaide holding a sword at the ready. They both fervently hoped that it was nothing more than Hillard and Christine returning from their trip to warn Gervis’ parents.

The door opened. The face that peaked in was one unknown to Sarah, but Adalaide smiled widely. “Conrad! What are you doing here?”

Giselle followed Conrad into the small room. They looked grim.

“It is a terrible thing,” began Conrad. “After you left, Lord Radek flew into a terrible rage. He killed all of his guard staff.” He turned a stern look to Giselle. “I have told my wife more than a dozen times not to mess with the Lord when he is angry.”

Giselle turned an indignant look to her husband. “Well, I never thought he would do me any harm!” Her look softened in chagrin. “At least not until now.”

Adalaide looked in shock at the pair. “Tell me what happened.”

“Well,” explained Giselle, “I went down to the guard house this morning to see why none of the boys had come to breakfast.” Her face turned white at the memory. “They were all dead. Every one of them. Pale and cold in their beds, their throats torn and empty of blood. It was a horror! I ran straight out of the castle to Conrad.”

Sarah and Adalaide just stared at Giselle in horror. They could not believe that Lord Radek had begun killing his own men.

Conrad spoke. “It just gets worse. Just after Giselle told me what she had found, I looked out the window and saw Lord Radek, going door to door, leading the villagers towards the castle. I tell you, I knew he was up to no good, so I grabbed Giselle and we ran out of the village and straight here.”

“The villagers? Has anyone gone to warn my parents?” a weak voice asked from the bed.

“Oh, you dear boy!” Giselle ran to Gervis’ side. “Well, you’re looking much better! You had me worried you know. I don’t know what I would have done if she had …” Giselle left the final words unspoken, but the ‘killed you’ echoed off the walls of Sarah’s mind.

Sarah rested a reassuring hand upon Gervis’ head. “Hillard and Christine went. I’m sure they got there in time.”

Gervis’ eyes lit up at Christine’s name and he tried to get up. “Are they back yet? I want to talk to her – I have to tell her that I don’t blame her.”

Giselle looked like she was about to speak, but Sarah cut her off before she could say anything negative about Christine. “She isn’t back yet, but I promise I’ll tell her. You just get some rest, okay?  If you want her to feel better, show her how much better you’re feeling.”

Gervis nodded weakly and fell back against the pillow. In only a few seconds, he was asleep again.

Giselle looked angrily at Sarah. “I know she is your sister, but she almost killed that boy! There is no way she should be getting anywhere near him again!”

“I understand how you feel, Giselle. It’s obvious to me that he’s like a son to you. But you have to let him make the choice. I’m having a hard enough time accepting what happened to my sister. I want to wait and see what happens. From what Adalaide told me, there is no reason that Christine should suddenly become evil. Hillard is a wonderful person.” As the words left her mouth, Sarah realized that she believed them. She liked Hillard as a person, even when he wasn’t in the room. She smiled at Giselle, who remained angry.

“I know that Hillard is nice enough. But how do we know that he is not the exception. The only other vampire I have seen before him was Lord Radek, and look what he’s doing now!”

Sarah wished that Christine and Hillard would return quickly. As if in answer to her prayers, footsteps sounded outside and the door opened again. Hillard and Christine came into the overcrowded room. Christine looked much calmer than she had when they had left several hours earlier.  Sarah decided to take that as a good sign.

Hillard walked over to Conrad and shook his hand. They nodded at each other in greeting.

“Let me introduce everyone,” Adalaide offered, “I think everyone knows Hillard.” Everyone smiled. “This is Conrad, Giselle’s husband and the village blacksmith. He has made all of the fine weaponry you find on the wall behind me. Conrad was a good friend of my father and he and Giselle have been watching out for me since my parents died.” She smiled warmly at Conrad. “Conrad tried to talk me out of taking on Lord Radek when I first told him my plan, but when he discovered that he could not talk me out of it, he decided to properly outfit me instead.” The two hugged warmly.

“Conrad,” she continued, “this is Sarah and her sister Christine. I am sure you have heard an earful about Christine from Giselle,” she winked at Giselle’s sour expression upon hearing Christine’s name, “but I have heard a lot about her from her sister, and a little from Gervis too, so I do not think she is all bad.” Adalaide smiled warmly at Christine to show her that she was welcome.

Giselle sniffed and looked over at Christine. “We’ll see how you turn out,” she said suspiciously. Everyone chuckled a bit, and even Christine smiled faintly at the brusque words.

“I understand how you feel, Giselle. I’m the reason that Gervis is lying there.” A pleading look entered Christine’s now emerald eyes, “but I promise that I will spend the rest of my life trying to make it up to him.” Giselle nodded tersely, satisfied for the moment.

Adalaide moved on to business. “Hillard, Lord Radek is rounding up the villagers. I think he means to kill them all.”

Hillard nodded. He had been afraid of something like this. If Radek drained all of the villagers, his strength would increase ten-fold. It would take the entire Vampire Council to take him down.  There had to be a way to stop him. He sent a silent mental inquiry to the Council, hoping that they would have an idea, but all they could suggest was having he and Christine go after Radek together, after making sure that they were at their full power.

He closed his eyes for a moment. He didn’t know how to broach this subject.

“The Vampire Council has said that Christine and I need to go after Radek alone. We are the only ones who even come close to his strength.”

“I am coming with you,” insisted Adelaide. “This is my fight too.”

Hillard smiled at her. “I doubt I could stop you.”

“I’m coming too,” said Sarah. Everyone turned to her.

Christine took her aside. “You can’t help me this time, Sarah. I’d spend all of my time watching out for you. It would put us both in much more danger.”

Sarah stepped back and looked at her little sister, as if only now seeing her for the first time. Usually it was Sarah who did the protecting, but Christine had a new maturity in her eyes. “Okay,” she admitted, “but I want to help.”

“How?” asked Christine.

“I want you to take my blood. You need to have more strength to fight Lord Radek.”

Christine looked horrified, but Hillard nodded. “It’s what the Vampire Council said we should do, but I didn’t know how to ask.”

Conrad and Giselle quickly offered to have them drink a Geschenk from each of them as well, but Christine flatly refused. “I can’t do it. I can’t risk that I might lose control and drain you.”

Hillard tried to explain that, because Christine had nearly drained Gervis earlier (she turned ashen and winced when she was reminded of that) and had drunk from so many forest animals, there was no chance of the thirst taking over. She would have full control. Even so, she refused to go near her sister, finally agreeing after much arguing to take a small amount from Conrad. It was an astonishing sight for Sarah to watch, Christine taking Conrad’s wrist in her hands and lowering her mouth to it. Sarah didn’t see any wound and Conrad didn’t even wince as Christine drank. It seemed like a painless procedure. She looked over at Hillard, who had just finished drinking from Giselle.

“If Christine won’t drink from me, I want you to,” Sarah insisted, feeling that it was the right thing to do and wanting to be of some help to the trio.

Hillard stared deeply into her eyes for a moment. There were so many emotions whirling around in his emerald orbs that, for a moment, Sarah felt herself get lost in his gaze.

Finally, Hillard nodded. Sarah held her wrist out to him and he took it gently in his hands. He lifted it to his mouth and first kissed the inside of her wrist and palm gently, looking into her eyes. It was the only way he knew to tell her how grateful he was for this gift, how much he cared about her, and how much he wished that things could be different between them. Then he lowered his mouth to the vein and drank.

Sarah had expected to feel a twinge of pain as he opened her vein, but she felt nothing. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the feeling of his lips on her skin. It was something she had been subconsciously thinking about for days, but she had never expected it to happen like this. With her eyes closed, she concentrated on her inner emotions, wondering if he was using his influence to change the way she was feeling.  She was shocked to find instead that she could feel what he was feeling. There was tenderness towards her, a deep gratitude, and … he had so many deep feelings for her, wonderful feelings, real feelings. For a moment she let herself go and allowed herself to feel truly loved for the first time in her life. She felt warm and safe and truly happy, and she knew that those were her own emotions, not those planted within her.

When she finally opened her eyes, Hillard, Christine and Adalaide were gone.

Read the final chapter next Wednesday, January 11th, 2012 . . .

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