1 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
The Dying Light
By: Dyana Lunaris
2 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
A Silk’s Vault Electronic Publication, in arrangement with author Dyana Lunaris.
Copyright ゥ 2005 by Dyana Lunaris
Cover Design and Art by Dyana Lunaris, ゥ Copyright 2005
Edited by Rene Walden
Silk’s Vault Publishing
www.silksvault.com
3 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
Chapter One
Marcos slid the last of Project Storm Shadow into the paper shredder. Unlike
many of his vampiric counterparts, he liked technology. He liked the shiny cars, powerful
computers, things that hummed and beeped. He was a connoisseur of electronics, so it
was his pleasure to eradicate every last bit of evidence regarding the fiasco that was
Project Storm Shadow.
The Order of the Dragon, an ancient group that represented vampires all over the
world, had started Project Storm Shadow as a way to prove that they could feed from
humans without the repercussions of a world-wide vampire hunt. He chuckled to
himself. Unfortunately, their subjects had been a headstrong vampire and a ‘take no
bullshit’ werewolf. The only thing the project had accomplished was the creation of the
first true female vampire. His best friend Mikhail and his new werewolf girlfriend,
Lauryn, were in Italy, ostensibly to find Chloe, the new female vampire, but he knew they
were also taking time away from The Order to enjoy each other’s company.
He took the torn pieces from the basket underneath the shredder and dumped it
into the low burning fire he had going. It flared quietly without spark, pop, or ceremony
and withered fluidly, turning finally to ash. He sat, watching it melt, thinking about
failure and thousands of lonely lifetimes. Not unlike a man who, in the rapidly
approaching dusk of life, realizes he’s accomplished nothing. He wondered why he let
The Order of the Dragon rule his life. He gazed down at the heavy amber ring on his
finger and was tempted to hurl it into the fire with the files.
His attention was drawn from the fire when a flash of white on one of the security
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monitors caught his eye. With the Storm Shadow fiasco looming, the Order had asked
him to take over the huge estate house while they spread to the four corners of the world.
They were cowards, but it had scored him a huge mansion to haunt. The estate was in
the country and, while it bordered farmland on one side, there was a state run institute on
the other. No one should be skulking around the property.
He dropped into the comfortable leather chair he’d ordered with the Order’s
money and swiveled it to follow the quick, slightly blurred figure, as it darted from
camera location to location. He could discern very little other than the figure was small,
and very likely a woman. She didn’t run all out like someone who was just cutting across
the property, rather she stayed close to the house, running in short bursts, punctuated by
paranoid looks behind her.
When she reached the corner of the house nearest the room he sat in, she stepped
into the light and he saw, very clearly, that she wore hospital scrubs. Her feet were bare.
He stood and walked to the door. Opening it only a breath, he waited until he knew she
was right in front of it and stepped out. His black silk suit shimmered in the moonlight,
and his pale skin stood out like bare, bleached bone.
The woman skidded to a halt, her bare feet ripping up patches of grass. Her eyes
went wide and she fell back, the terror evident in her face.
鼎an I help you.� Marcos asked, arching an eyebrow at her.
The voices in Cybele Montgomery’s head told her she’d made a terrible mistake.
They told her that the creature in front of her was a monster, born of evil and darkness.
They whispered urgently that she should run the other way. Run for her life, back to her
little metal bunk where the orderlies took her meds and sold them on the street.
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The part of Cybele’s head that didn’t really believe she was a paranoid
schizophrenic scoffed at the idea of monsters lurking in the night. The happy, straight A,
cheerleading Prom Queen knew there was no such thing as ghosts, goblins, and demons.
The broken girl who huddled on the cold tile floor of Northern State Mental Hospital
knew there were things in the dark you should be afraid of.
釘aby Killer,�the voices in her head hissed.
鉄tay away from me,�Cybele’s voice trembled. The man that stood before her
was more handsome than any human could be. From the dark, mahogany hair that
melded with the night behind him to the bottomless golden eyes, this man dripped with
seduction. He used passion as bait for a prey too civilized for most monsters. 的 know
what you are.�
Marcos’ face showed his shock before he had a chance to moderate his features.
He moved invisibly, with the vampire grace he’d gain for centuries of being alive, and
snatched her from the ground. Her brassy red hair shone dimly in the dark, and her eyes
were drowned to dark pinpoints by terror.
He held her upper arm tightly, and her body swung from his grasp as if she were a
full sized rag doll. Pulling her into the little room with him, he used his other hand to
grab one of the metal folding chairs he kept in there. Snapping it open single handedly,
he sat it on the floor in front of him and shoved her into it, refraining from being gentle.
His thoughts and activities this night had put him in no mood to be gentle with this little
trespasser. With the echo of the metal chair still echoing off the cement walls of the
security station, he leaned over her and looked right in her eyes. 展hat do you mean you
know what I am.� He asked quietly, his mood darkened even further by the fear in her
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eyes.
In spite of her fear, she opened her mouth to answer him, but was interrupted by a
hollow chiming sound that didn’t sound quite real to Cybele’s ears. She wondered if it
was a secret signal from Hell to let the demon know he wasn’t to waste time talking to
her, but rather to kill her quickly.
Marcos started toward the bank of monitors, but turned back to her and pointed
one long, pale finger at her, 添ou stay right there. Don’t move a muscle.� He started to
add that he would feed on her flesh if she didn’t listen, but restrained himself. Some
people didn’t appreciate his dark humor, and he was pretty sure this little insane asylum
runaway was one of them.
Light flashed on the security monitor in blinding black and white. There was
some kind of authority figure at his front gate, most likely to collect the little runaway.
He tapped his finger on the steel control panel, trying to get his thoughts together. He
would be remiss to let the little woman go without finding out exactly what she knew, or
thought she knew, about him. He could deliver her into the capable hands of these fine
security guards and no one would believe her if she spouted about vampires all night
long. She was crazy, after all.
On the other hand, he thought, looking up at her, maybe she was only crazy when
she hadn’t been given her medication. If she was given her anti-crazy candy and still told
them their neighbors were vampires, were they likely to believe her. He pressed the
button that opened the gates and went back to his little Houdini.
添our escorts are here, little one,�he said smiling gently, using the same voice he
used when talking to the Order. 摘verything will be alright now, yes. You will go to
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your home and get your medicine, and then you will feel all better. Then I won’t be what
you think I am anymore.�
Cybele glanced at the unseen monitors, then back at the dark man before her. The
voices told her it was a gamble she shouldn’t take. The voices told her that her cold cell
was so much safer than dealing with the Eater of Flesh, Drinker of Blood. She held her
hands over her ears, drawing her feet up onto the cold metal of the folding chair. 鉄hut
up! Just stop talking!�
Marcos stepped back, even vampires were fallible to sudden attacks and this girl
was nuts. He froze when she suddenly stopped and looked at him, her eyes clear and
calculating, not the eyes of a madwoman at all. 鄭 deal. You tell them you never saw
me and I’ll leave. You’ll never see me again, and I’ll never tell anyone what you are. I
won’t tell a soul.� She rubbed a spot in her forehead as if it ached, but Marcos knew it
was most likely a compulsion brought on by her illness.
釘lood sucker, feasts upon the bones of children, ancient evil.� The voices in
Cybele’s head screamed, and she doubled over in agony. She fell from the chair and
curled in the fetal position on the cold, concrete floor. She fisted her hand and hit the
same spot on her forehead violently. 鄭ncient Evil!�she cried over and over again.
The doorbell rang, but Marcos paused. This type of dementia didn’t develop from
a couple of hours of missed medicine. He was no psychiatrist, but he’d seen enough
madness to know that this particular case was not being treated. He hesitated again,
wondering why he always got himself in these situations, before scooping her up and
taking her to the kitchen. In seconds, he had the redheaded mad woman tucked into the
cabinet beneath the huge butcher’s block that served as an island in the middle of the
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huge kitchen. He shook his head, muttering to himself all the way to the door before
smoothing back his hair, wiping the blood sweat from his palms, and opening the door.
添es, officer, can I help you.�he said, cordially. His black silk suit was
impeccable, even though it was well past three am. He was a handsome man with
shoulder length hair and strange, flashing eyes; a respectable figure that commanded
attention where ever he went.
添es sir. I’m sorry to disturb you so late at night, but we’ve had a break out next
door at Northern State. I would feel better about your safety if we could search your
grounds.� They security guards were like every set of security guards he’d ever seen on
television, one fat, old and pushy with a perpetually disgruntled look on his face and a
thin, pimply-faced kid who didn’t look like he was old enough to drive.
Marcos forced his face into a mask of the proper emotion. 的’m sure she isn’t on
my property, gentleman. The security system would have caught her,�he answered, not
mentioning that he had been sitting in front of the security monitors like a paranoid
human. 撤lus, the dogs don’t let much past them. Your escaped patient wasn’t a ghost
was she.�he laughed.
The security guard laughed nervously, and put his hand on his side arm. 的 don’t
believe I mentioned it was a woman we were searching for, sir.�
Marcos furrowed his brow and pursed his lips, putting a hand upon his head.
展ell, that looks suspicious, now doesn’t it.�He took his hand from his head and slid it
in his pocket. The nervous security guard slid the pistol from its holster, but didn’t cock
it. That, in itself, worried Marcos more than if he had. A nervous security guard with a
Double Action Only pistol meant innocent vampires like Marcos might get shot. He
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knew that if the pistol was Single Action it had to be cocked and he’d have time to move
out of the way, but if the pistol was Double Action Only, the squirrelly security guard had
only to pull the trigger to get the thing to work.
Yes, Marcos loved technology. He loved the mechanics of things, the cause and
effect that made the insides of the Ruger P345 work. He would happily take it apart and
put it back together. He would love to hold it and fire it. He did not, however, want to be
on the receiving end of its fiery kiss. The security guard was less than two feet away, and
if the gun was indeed a double action only, Marcos very well could be in a heap of
trouble.
添es, well,�he said, sliding his empty hand from his pocket slowly. 擢eel free to
search the grounds, gentleman. I’ll go put some coffee on for us, shall I.� The nervous
man slid the gun back in its holster, and wiped the sweat from his forehead. 添eah,
coffee might be nice, Mr. ...�
鼎all me Marcos,�he said, pleased he had defused the situation without losing his
temper. Many vampires he knew would have broken the man’s neck, and then killed his
partner just because he was a witness. 添ou may walk around the outside of the house
while I go disarm the security device and make coffee. Then, if you wish, you may search
the inside of the house.� He laughed, 展e wouldn’t want to get the police involved or
wake a judge up to get a search warrant.�
The two security guards started to look nervous again, so Marcos shut the door
firmly in their faces.
10 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
Chapter Two
Marcos moved quickly and quietly, furious with himself for making such a stupid
and, frankly, human error. As soon as he got into the kitchen, he grabbed the girl’s arm
roughly and dragged her out of the cupboard. He didn’t know if she was too scared or too
smart, but she didn’t scream or fight him. She didn’t try to escape when he unlocked the
basement door, and she didn’t even gasp when he shoved her violently down the stairs.
The basement was huge, stretching the entire length of the manor house. It had several
entrances and a few secret exits. Marcos avoided these however, and instead pushed her
silently toward the back wall of the basement. They wove flawlessly in and out of the
spare furniture and junk that was stored there, as if Marcos could see in the dark. He was
sweating and his breath was coming quickly, his heart a marathon runner in late August
heat. He hadn’t been this excited since the night he and Mikhail had been attacked by a
werewolf. He swiped the sweat from his forehead and ran the tip of his tongue over his
elongating fangs. If he were a weaker vampire, the woman would have been dinner by
now. The image he had of her offering up her neck to him was so vivid he stumbled. As
if sensing his need, the stranger pulled away from him, crying out.
He let her go, and stood like a man starved, eyes drinking her in. It was only the
rush, the vampire equivalent to adrenaline. He started through the darkness again, but she
cried out again, 泥on’t leave me in the dark.� Her voice was fused with terror, and it
made his pulse race. He wanted to chase her through the darkness until she was panting
on her knees.
That need was the essence of Project Storm Shadow. Even after decades of
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feeding on animals and stealing cold, human blood from hospitals, he was still, and
always would be, a predator. Vampirism had made him such, and no matter how much
control he had, he would always lust after the chase.
添ou had better keep up,�he gasped, starting to jog toward the back wall. Hidden
in the wall was a small crawlspace. It had been long ago sealed off from the outside, but
enough room was left for her to cower until he came to get her. He grabbed her and
shoved her inside the tight space, knowing that his time was almost up. Any second now,
Quick-Draw and Too-Young-To- Drive would be rounding the final corner of the huge
manor. In seconds, they would find the security room with the cheerily burning fire, the
unlocked door, and the metal folding chair set up, as if for interrogation.
添ou have to stay in here until they’ve gone, then I’ll feed you and you can leave,
but you have to stay hidden and quiet while I deal with them.�
泥on’t leave me in the dark with the voices,�she whimpered, clutching at him
like a drowning woman.
He froze, doubt clouding his thought. She really was mad. Maybe the hospital
was the best place for her, medicine or not, she was still in a secure environment instead
of roaming the streets where she could harm herself and others. 典he security will
wonder where I’ve gone, they’ll call the police.�
She seemed to see the logic in that and let go of him whispering frantically,
泥on’t be long. Please.� He could hear the tears in her voice.
的 promise I’ll hurry.�Then the darkness closed around her as he replaced the fake
portion of wall.
She could hear her own heartbeat and the gasp of her own breath. It was so much
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better than hearing the voices, she almost calmed down when she heard the first one, as if
the person speaking were laying right beside her in the tiny crawlspace, 擢oolish girl,
you’ve put yourself in his trap. There is no police, no security. He merely used that
excuse to lure you into the basement so he could drain the blood from your body. He’ll
tear you apart.�
Cybele squeezed her eyes shut, knowing exactly what she would see if she opened
them
-- nothing. So much worse than a moldering old corpse or a skull, or decomposing flesh
squirming with maggots, because it proved that she truly was mad. There was no greater
proof that the voices she heard came from her head.
鄭nd when you’ve been used up, when you’re dead he’ll...�She covered her ears
and swallowed the scream that rose up in her. She didn’t want to hear what the voices
thought, but they continued. 滴e’ll trap your soul inside your body, and you’ll never get
to Heaven. You’ll be trapped on earth forever.�
Marcos used vampiric speed again. He used it more times today than he’d used it
in the last century. When he got to the control room, he stirred the fire to make sure all
the paperwork was burned to ash, locked the filing cabinet, slid it back into its slot in the
wall, and folded up the metal chair. He would have to make the coffee while the security
guards searched the upper levels of the house. He had nothing to hide up there. All the
rooms were fully furnished and kept clean by a maid that came once a week. They would
never know he slept in a crypt in the adjacent family cemetery. Clich�as it might be, it
was safer than staying in the basement.
He was just glancing at the new mechanical watch on his wrist when the guards
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knocked on the security room door. He liked the watch, it was heavy and pleasing to look
at, plus it was powered by the simple movement of his wrist. He’d never have to replace
the battery or wind it.
敵entlemen, I trust you found nothing of interest in the yard.�he asked
innocently, smoothing his ruffled hair with a steady hand.
哲o dogs.� The one who had drawn down on him answered.
Marcos looked at him blankly for the space of a breath before pulling a
handkerchief from his pocket and wiping the fine sheen of sweat from his forehead. He
tucked it back away before they could see the white cloth was now stained pink. 的
brought them in when you started to circle around so they wouldn’t mistake you two for
intruders. They’re here in the house. Somewhere.� He lied smoothly.
展arm in here, Marcos.�Quick Draw sneered.
哲ot really, I must be coming down with something; indeed I’m feeling sick to
my stomach as we speak.� He wanted to kill this fat, greasy human. He wanted to break
him open like a bone and suck out his insides like he would marrow. He was rarely, if
ever filled with such a violent hate against a human, but this weak piece of trash deserved
death. Marcos, unable to control himself any further, turned slightly so the man was
between himself and the younger guard. He flashed the aging sack of bones a toothy grin.
溺ust have been something I ate.� The terror that screamed through the man left his
mind open for the split second it took Marcos to climb inside. He scraped a psychic claw
against the man’s brain and hissed, 敵et out.�
When Marcos pulled from his mind and sank back into his own, he needed a
shower. He felt covered in the man’s evil. His glowing, golden eyes faded back to
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normal and he took a deep breath, 鉄hall we tour the manor, gentlemen.�
The old man seemed to wake from a deep dream. He clamped his mouth shut and
rubbed his eyes. 哲o, she’s not here. We’re sorry to have taken up so much of your time,
sir.�
The younger security guard looked from Marcos to Quick Draw, confused, 釘ut I
thought...�
哲o questions, boy,�the older security guard barked. He reached out to shake
Marcos’ hand, but seemed to change his mind midway and turned abruptly to leave.
Cybele exploded from the tiny space when Marcos finally moved the fake stone
out of the way. She’d been weeping, and she was babbling about voices in her head. He
grabbed her, putting a hand on either side of her face, touching her body -- touching her
mind. Marcos sank into her terror, feeding from it, filling up with it until he thought he
would spew forth the black sludge that was her fear. As he fed, she quieted. Marcos
pushed her away suddenly and stumbled against the wall, so filled and yet so empty. He
shivered when she touched him, a deep aching shudder that reverberated through him.
She turned his face toward hers and he found her eyes were clear of fear for the first time
since they’d met.
滴ow did you do that. How did you take away the fear.�she asked softly, tears
flowing freely from her eyes.
添ou don’t want to know.� His voice was that of a desperate man. He’d used
himself up, and now he needed to feed. She was so close, so warm, her blood so near the
surface. His teeth grew long and his body was wracked by spasms of hunger. He cried
out, hands curling into claws and body contorting into a bow of lust and need. 鏑eave,�
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he ground out.
She was on her feet and across the room, bare feet beating a tattoo that matched
the beat of his racing heart. Her hair flew like a living flame behind her. She reached the
stairs, climbing them on her hands and feet. The voices had been right for once. He was
a monster.
A monster that had sucked up the violent blackness from her soul. She stopped at
the top of the stairs in a short hallway, her breath coming in ragged gasps, her heart
rattling against her rib cage. He’d taken all the ugly things out of her and pulled them
into himself.
She turned around to go back and he slammed into her like a rabid animal. She
was pinned between his body and the wall, his face shoved into hers. His eyes glowed
orange like a flame and his teeth lengthened into viper-like fangs. She could feel that
every muscle in his body was rigid and hard with the strange need that filled him. She
could feel his heart thundering against her chest. A lock of his autumn brown hair fell
over his eyes, as they traced the line of her jaw, following it all the way to her neck where
her pulse beat like a trapped animal against her skin. Dark, wet heat coiled in her and she
pressed her lips desperately against his, oblivious to his teeth nipping at her full lower lip.
The voices told her he wanted blood, but her mind, now clear from the horror and
pain that had haunted her so long, knew instinctively that one need would do as well as
another and, if she was honest, she was filled with just as much need as he was. She
lifted her leg and wrapped it around his waist, pulling him to her. His hands found her
waist and his grip was like iron, lifting her from her feet and pinning her more securely to
the wall. His tongue slid inside her mouth tasting the blood his teeth had eased from her
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lips and she heard him groan. She dragged her lower lip against the sharp points of his
teeth, releasing even more blood, and was surprised to feel him go hard against her. The
bulge between his legs pressed against her through the thin material of their pants. She
rocked her hips against him and he cried out.
He put her down with shuddering hands. Pushing her firmly against the wall, he
held her at arm’s length. He pushed the lock of hair from his eyes and stumbled away
from her. 添ou can’t do things like that.� He’d had human blood before, packets stolen
from blood banks, but never warm. The rush it caused made him wonder if he’d taken
her madness. He felt completely out of control. 添ou are putting yourself in danger.
Please... you’ve got to leave.�
She licked the blood as it dribbled from her lower lip and it took all his control to
stay on his side of the hallway. 天ampire, I owe you,�she said with taunting eyes.
添ou’re mad,�he said, knowing it was more true about him than her.
Cybele sat on the butcher’s block while Marcos puttered around the kitchen fixing
her something to eat. He kept murmuring over and over again the words 杜ad�and
田razy� She smiled and touched him whenever he came near to her. He always jumped
as if she’d shocked him, causing her to laugh.
When he handed her the bowl of soup he’d microwaved, she scooped up a
spoonful and let it dribble back into the bowl. 添ou know you’re supposed to add a can
of water to this before you cook it, right.� He stopped and looked at her with a blank
look on his face before snatching the bowl, causing her to laugh out loud. The sound
startled her. She hadn’t laughed for as long as she could remember.
He poured some water into the bowl and shoved it back in the microwave, then he
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stood in front of it, loosening his tie and unbuttoning his top button. It revealed an
attractive peek of pale, smooth skin. Cybele squirmed a little in her chair. If he made her
feel like this in a three piece suit, how was she going to feel when she finally got him
naked. The voices whispered the same nasty, awful things they always said to her, but
she ignored them. They weren’t telling her anything she didn’t know. This man was a
vampire and he’d somehow, someway, released her from a terror so strong it had held her
in its grasp for ten years. Maybe that’s what was wrong with her, she’d been fifteen the
last time she’d been thinking clearly enough to lust after anything. Ten years of bottled
up lust could overwhelm a girl.
的 don’t want soup,�she said, following him with her eyes.
的t’s all I have, unless you want canned chili that probably has horse meat in it,�
he said, looking tragic.
哲o, that’s not what I meant. I don’t want anything to eat. Look, can we talk. I
want to know how you did that. How you made the fear go away. I mean, I’d rather you
had taken the madness away, but taking the fear of the madness is the next best thing.�
添ou aren’t mad.�he said simply. 典hose voices you hear aren’t because you are
insane.� He crossed his arms and leaned against the refrigerator. He’d been inside her
head. He’d heard the voices that haunted her and the things they told her weren’t merely
paranoia. The voices conveyed facts. They did it in an ugly, perverted sort of way, but
everything they had told her was the truth.
哲orthern State Institute for the Mentally Insane would disagree with you on
that,�she scoffed. 的f I’m not insane, then why am I teaching a vampire how to make
condensed soup.�
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笛ust in the right place at the right time, I guess,�he said sarcastically. He took
the bowl from the microwave and set it in the sink. 鏑ook, you being here is a bad idea.�
展hat. Vampires don’t have one night stands.�she said hopping down from the
butcher’s block.
哲o, we tend to keep our mates forever.� His words fell heavily into silence.
典hat was supposed to be a threat, wasn’t it.� The voices hissed a warning that
she was treading on thin ice.
Chapter Three
添es it was. Why, didn’t it work.� He emptied the bowl into the garbage
disposal, then set it down loudly on the counter, 展hat happened in the hall was a rare
occurrence. I would usually need a ... donation before being able to...react.� He traversed
the kitchen in an agitated pace. 的t should be obvious, even for someone with a mental
deficiency. I have no heart beat, no blood pressure -- unless I’ve fed.�
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She was quiet for several minutes, suddenly hurt that he would bring up her
madness, and wondering if this whole fiasco wasn’t just some drug deprived dementia.
徹h sure, now I’m crazy,�was all she could think to say.
He huffed just like a child, 泥on’t you see. Anything you feel for me, or any
feelings I return, we cannot act on. We are not a good match,�he continued, oblivious to
the hurt he’d caused at his casual reference to her illness.
鏑ook, I understand what you’re trying to do, but you’ve got to understand
something. Being near you, touching you, kissing you, it does something to me. This is
the first day since I was a child that I wasn’t too terrified to move. These voices --
delusions, paranoia, whatever they are, they have ruled my life. They’ve dictated my
words and actions; fear of them molded who I am. Whatever you did to me down in the
basement took away the pain. It took away the power they had over me, and now they are
just voices again. You did, in one second, what years of drugs, psychotherapy and
electroshock treatment couldn’t do.� She paused, her heart feeling light. This was her
decision, and she was going to make it. 哲ow, I don’t even know if you are real or just
another voice in my head, but you have done so much for me that I’m not willing to walk
out of your life right now. Call me greedy or reckless, but I’m flying on this high for as
long as I can.� Another thought hit her, 殿nd if that means donating some blood to get
things moving, then so be it. It wouldn’t be the first dozen pints I’ve donated, by far.�
He shuddered at the thought of swimming in the warm, fresh blood from her
throat. He wanted to feel revolted at the thought of feeding from her, but instead it was
so incredibly sexual, he grew hard for the second time that night. 的 don’t feed from
humans,�he cried out, eyes wild with lust and hunger. She was mad. She had just
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offered herself to him. He’d never met anyone like her, and he never wanted to, ever
again. She took his carefully composed control and crumbled it to dust. Her flame
colored hair and stained glass eyes made his hard won battle against baser instincts
suddenly unobtainable. He was afraid that cold cattle blood would never again be
enough.
展hat do you mean, you don’t feed from humans.�she asked, trying to bring him
back from that faraway place he was in.
的 only drink the blood taken from blood banks or if I’m in the country, I feed
from animals.� His throat was suddenly parched; he was so thirsty.
鼎old blood and animals, that doesn’t seem very palatable.�The sympathy was
clear in her eyes as she placed a hand on his chest. Oh she was beautiful -- beautiful and
conniving.
鏑ittle martyr, giving yourself to me won’t make your life easier. I have a
suspicion it will only make your life end.�
She stepped back as if she’d been slapped. She opened her mouth and then closed
it, turning away from him. 展hore,�the voices whispered, and they were right. She’d
been willing so give herself to a vampire, delusion or otherwise, for food, shelter, and the
security of being without fear. She’d just tried to prostitute herself for basic needs. That
made her sad and desperate.
展e are both tired; it is almost dawn. We must eat and rest. We can discuss this
more tonight when we aren’t so easily upset.
鉄top talking to me like the doctors do. I’m not going to slit your throat because
you said something I don’t like. I’ve just been�aken care of for so long. I don’t know
21 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
how normal people react in situations such as these.�
Marcos laughed for the first time since she’d met him and it was beautiful. It
touched her soul in so many ways. 鄭 vampire and an escaped insane woman. Normal
people don’t get themselves into situations like this.� He tucked a lock of hair behind her
ear, his fingers tracing lines of shivers down her neck. She’d been through so much that
he wasn’t sure if she was ready for his opinion. He didn’t know, on top of everything
else, how she would react to the news that he thought the voices that haunted her weren’t
that of madness, but were the voices of the dead. .添ou don’t have to worry about
anything for now, Cybele. Stay here. You’ll have food and shelter from the elements. I
won’t touch you.�
She smiled bitterly at him, 典hat’s what I’m afraid of.� She had meant it to be a
joke, but she knew her voice was cold and hard when she said it. This insanity was
driving her crazy. 滴ow did you know my name.�
的t doesn’t matter, a little vampire trick. Did you know in Greek mythology, the
Sybils were women given the gift of prophecy.�he said, hoping he wasn’t being too
subtle.
She wondered briefly why he was trying to romanticize her illness. How old and
genteel his time must have been, where everything from mental illness to drug abuse was
made into something more beautiful. If you were an opium addict you were considered a
creative soul, and if you heard voices, maybe you were just an oracle to the gods. 的
couldn’t predict my way out of a paper bag,�she said, for the first time seeing him as he
was, instead of how the voices portrayed him. He was polite, gentle, and so anachronistic
that it made her want to dress in a hoop skirt and put her hair in an up do. 添ou’re a nice
22 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
guy.�
哲ot the monster your voices told you I was.� His eyebrows rose to meet his
severe widows peak and he smiled, seemingly having the same thoughts as she.
鉄top doing that,�she whispered darkly, actually angry for the first time since the
drugs had worn off. 泥on’t go in my head. Don’t you think I’ve had enough of that over
the years. I don’t need anyone else trying to pick me apart. No one asked for your help.�
He grew solemn. 添ou are correct, I had no right.� He turned suddenly and
disappeared from the room. When he returned he had a stack of clothes and some clean
towels. 典he sheets on the bed should be clean, if they aren’t let me know and I will
change them for you. If you get hungry, I only have soup and canned fruits and
vegetables. They are the only things that don’t go bad.�
The statement made her suddenly curious. 滴ow long have you lived here.�
He was standing in front of her, holding out the clothes and linens. When she
didn’t take them, he laid them on the counter. 的’ve lived here less than a month. In fact,
I’m only, how do you say, house sitting.�
滴ow long have you been alive.�she asked before he could leave. Her words
were abrupt, and she knew instantly that it was not a question one asked in genteel
company. She chewed nervously on her lower lip, not sure she wanted to know the
answer.
添ou like your privacy, I like mine, Ms. Conner.�
鏑ess than an hour ago we were ready to screw like bunnies in the hallway, now
all of the sudden I’m Ms. Conner. Besides, asking how old you are and reading my
thoughts like a grocery list aren’t the same at all.�
23 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
徹h, believe me Ms...Cybele, your thoughts are a much better read than a grocery
list,�he said to hurt her, but the words brought memories and the memories remembered
the lust.
She could feel her mouth water at the look in his eyes and before she could stop
herself, before the voices obscured true thought, she was on him, her lips savaging his.
The voices rose up like a wave, hammering her with disapproval, but she shoved them
aside until she felt only his hands sliding over her waist and heard only the pounding of
her heart and the gasp of her breath. It was like floating under water, her world shrinking
down to the taste of his kiss, the slight coppery tang of blood, and the roar of her breath in
her own ears.
Then her world exploded on a groan and she was pressed against the refrigerator,
his hands in her hair and on her ass, stoking the fire in her belly. The heat and smoke slid
down to the juncture of her thighs, slowly at first, but then quickening like wild fire. She
heard him groan again and clung to him like a drowning woman. 溺arcos,�she breathed,
and knew subconsciously they had been one for that split second. She knew exactly what
he wanted and how much control he was using to keep himself from taking it. 溺arcos.�
He slid his hand from her hair, down her neck to linger on her pulse before
cupping her breast gently. He brought the other hand up from her ass and slid it
underneath the loose top of the scrubs. She wore no bra and her nipples were hard and
ready for his hands, ready for his tongue. He moved down her body, pushing the top up
until finally his mouth could capture her pert bud. She gasped, 添es.� He swore softly
before devouring the nipple with his lips and tongue. The rough, pebbly feel of her skin
was something he hadn’t felt in hundreds of years.
24 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
She couldn’t think clearly, almost as if she were drunk, and the heat coiled around
her body like a giant snake. She rocked her hips back and forth, grinding her thighs
together to try and counteract the passion. Knowing instinctively what she needed, he
slid his left hand between her legs and let her rub against him. Her cries grew louder and
louder until they were wild and free. It made him need her so much more. He lifted her
and swung her around, setting her on the counter. She tried to take his mouth in hers
again, but he pushed her away, 鄭re you sure you want this.�
添es, oh god, yes.�
He spun around before she’d even finished and pulled a plastic IV bag filled with
blood from the fridge. He bit into it, breaking the thick plastic with his fangs, his eyes
never leaving her while he fed. She quickly undid the simple tie on the front of the scrub
pants and pulled them off. She threw them on the floor and her shirt followed.
Marcos had the blood halfway done when she snatched it out of his hand and
squeezed it, dibbling two lines of blood down her bare breasts. It slid down her pale body
and pooled between her thighs. His eyes started to glow, and he felt himself grow harder
than he had ever been since he’d been mortal. He went to her and licked the thick fluid
from her breasts, carefully cleaning her flawless skin. He traced the scarlet rivers down
her flat belly to the v her legs formed. She writhed and moaned as he drank the blood
from her cupped legs. He licked her clit gently at first, but harder and harder until she
was gripping the edge of the counter with white knuckled passion. He put his hands on
her ass and buried his tongue inside her, licking deeply. She tasted so sweet, sweeter than
blood and her screams were more beautiful than any sonata.
Marcos replaced his face with his fingers and instead of again assaulting her clit,
25 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
he rubbed the skin right above it.
徹h my god, where did you learn that.�she gasped, throwing her head back.
He flashed her a smile and the power in his eyes made her wild. 鏑ots of
practice.� At that moment she froze, and he could feel her twitching around his fingers.
He moved quickly, wanting to get in her right at the beginning of her orgasm before she
grew too tight for him. He pushed himself into her slowly. She had said she’d been in
the hospital since she’d been a kid and while he wasn’t naive enough to believe he was
the first, he knew she probably had sex rarely. She gasped, the orgasms crashing over her
as he entered her.
He slid inside of her, but froze. What if vampirism was transmittable through
sex. The Order had told its members that female vampirism wasn’t even possible. Surely
he wasn’t the first vampire to find an accommodating mortal. Mikhail had bedded
Lauryn, but she’d been a werewolf, and therefore, presumably immune.
展hat’s wrong.�Cybele asked, still vibrating from her orgasm.
He pushed away from her, sliding out carefully. 泥id I scratch you when I put my
fingers inside of you.� He grabbed her shoulders and shook her.
She pushed him away. 滴ow the hell am I supposed to know. Why, what’s
wrong.�
He pushed a hand through his hair, trying to think -- trying to remember. Hell, he
didn’t even remember taking his pants off. He looked down at himself; he was covered
in blood. Was any of it hers. The Order didn’t talk about how vampirism was spread,
lest the world be crawling with bloodsuckers, but he had been alive long enough to know
it had something to do with bites. The virus lived in a vampire’s blood, constantly killing
26 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
off old blood cells, forcing the vampire to endlessly renew his blood supply. But a
vampire’s body only processed blood, the sweat, tears, cum and saliva were all blood. A
vampire’s bite was infectious because its saliva was blood. He rubbed his fingers
together. They were slick with blood. His palms were filmed with it. If his palms had
been sweaty could he have transmitted the disease to her from his fingers. His kiss.
徹h, dear god. I’m so sorry,�he told her, his eyes filling with remorse.
The look in his eyes scared her. 展hat. Marcos, what. Why are you sorry.�
The passion was gone from the room and in its absence the voices came rushing
back. 展e told you so.�they whispered.
27 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
Chapter Four
展hat is it, Marcos.� She had a sick feeling in her stomach and it had nothing to
do with not eating. She looked down to find herself covered in blood. She remembered
emptying the bag of blood onto her chest, but was it possible that some of this blood was
hers. Had he hurt her and she didn’t even know it. She wiped at the blood with her
hand, some of it had begun to dry and fell away in flakes. 泥id you hurt me.�
He shook his head, his sunflower golden eyes wild. 的 don’t know. Go take a
shower. I have to think and the sun is rising. I will return tonight and then...then we’ll
discuss it.�
哲o, wait. You can’t just stand there looking as if you killed me and then tell me
I have to wait all day to find out what’s the matter,�she said grabbing his arm.
的 fucked up. Ok.�he said, the modern colloquialism sounding foreign on his
tongue. 的 fucked up and I need some time to think, to decide how badly I fucked up.�
She realized he had a faint Russian accent and wondered how old he really was. He went
to the sink and washed his hands, using the small bar of soap as a pumice stone to scrape
away the blood. As the lather turned pink, he scrubbed harder and harder. She grabbed
his hands and stopped their frantic movements, making him turn toward her. He’d
splashed himself in the face and twin rivulets of blood streamed down his cheeks. She
wiped them away, but realized they weren’t from the packet. They were his tears. She
sighed, feeling like she was a part of something so big she could never really understand
it.
的’ll wait. Go get some sleep and we’ll work out whatever it is.�
28 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
He nodded and turned to the door where he paused with his hand on the doorknob.
His head was down and his voice was like that of a lost child. 的 never meant...�
展hatever it is can wait,�she said, now convinced she didn’t want to hear about
the terrible thing he’d done to her. The voices crowed and shouted in her head. She
grabbed the towels and went to find the shower.
***
Marcos remembered wrapping his soft sash around the rougher cloth of his
rubakha, or long shirt, on that last day, remembered concentrating on the intricate ties of
the onuchi that tied the flowing legs of his pants tight. He did everything with ceremony
and concentration to detail. It was rumored that Ivan had lost his mind. He was
removing all the Boyars from their estates, forcing them to serve in the Cavalry and
Marcos knew his father would never voluntarily fill such a position. Today, Ivan’s men
would either kill his father or force him into servitude.
As a full grown man of twenty, Marcos should have been married with an estate
of his own, but his father coddled him and allowed him to wile away his days in solitude
with only his inventions and creative thoughts for company. He knew with certainty that
his life as an eligible bachelor was over. He and his parents would be removed from their
estate and thrust into poverty.
He remembered the smell of the leather bound books as he packed them. The feel
of the slightly oiled astrolabe was heavy and comforting in his hand. He placed it back on
the shelf. While it was made of gold and might make a nice fortune, he knew it was too
29 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
heavy to take. He added some gems and a jeweled dagger to the bag, along with one
perfectly selfish, unreasonable item. A wooden carving of a dragon his mother had
commissioned for him. The winged beast eternally looked over his shoulder, his wise
mother’s way of reminding him to trust no one. She had been right. Even Ivan Grozny,
in the end, could not be trusted to support the Boyars.
***
He stood at the foot of the stairs that, only seconds ago, Cybele had alighted and
caressed the very same wooden plaque. He had learned the hard way not to trust his Czar,
had learned even harder not to trust his parents, but now, 400 years later, he was just
realizing he couldn’t even trust himself.
Four centuries ago, at the foot of a different set of stairs, he’d listened to the
silence of a completely empty house. He could recall perfectly the sick feeling in his
stomach as he stood in the barren front hall. His parents and their servants were gone.
They’d gone in the night and the only thing they’d left him with was a paid carriage. The
driver had been ordered to take him to the edge of the Caspian Sea.
He’d been sold into slavery. A slavery so diabolical and sick he’d blocked it out.
A handsome, young, Russian lord, he fell prey to the older gentleman his parents had sold
him to. The resulting vampirism was just another scar he’d learned to conceal. Now,
when it was more important to remember the abuse than to lock it away, the key was
suddenly out of reach. The memory of his rebirth was as shrouded in mist as the house by
the Caspian Sea had been.
30 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
Marcos touched the wooden carving of the dragon again before withdrawing to
the crypt in the cemetery. He knew from his conversations with Mikhail about their time
in Dimitri’s tender care, his friend didn’t remember much more than he did about their
time there, but he thought maybe it might be worth it to call them. Settling down on the
cool stone and pulling the heavy metal crypt door shut behind him, he cursed himself,
remembering belatedly that his friends were in Rome. There was no one else he could
trust.
The Order of the Dragon would have him tried and convicted if they found out he
had created another female vampire. Even though it was forbidden to feed from humans,
he couldn’t believe he was the first vampire, through the ages, that had gotten intimate
with a mortal woman. The Order knew how to make vampires, how the infection
worked. The elders had to know. The information was there, hidden from the rest of the
Order by the shroud of antiquity and a board of elders who knew how to keep secrets. A
board whose home he now resided in.
The information he needed had been under his nose the whole time. There was
surely a dusty tome of ancient lore somewhere in the vast library that held the key to
answering Marcos’ problems. He wondered how long it would take the symptoms to
manifest if she had been infected. It would take time to dig through the endless shelves
of volumes the library held. If only they had let him catalog the library on a computer
two years ago when he had asked. Paranoid old fools that they were, however, feared
someone would hack into the Order’s database and discover the age-old vampires hiding
right out in plain sight. He would have to begin the search in the morning and pray to a
god that had long ago forsaken him that they had enough time.
31 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
***
Cybele was too upset to sleep. She’d taken a shower and, even though the sun
had risen and it was a bright, sunny day, the house felt as if it were watching her. She
bathed and dressed quickly, then went downstairs and lay on the couch rather than on the
huge bed he’d insisted she sleep in. She was used to a tiny metal cot with a two-inch
mattress. A huge, king sized pillow top made her feel insecure. The look on his face
when he’d drawn away from her made her feel insecure.
When she bathed, she searched every inch of her skin to make sure he hadn’t
bitten her, but no bites marred her pale skin, not even in the fleshy folds of her vagina.
She didn’t know what had upset him so much, but the anticipation of finding out made
her so nervous she couldn’t sleep.
There was a gigantic grandfather clock that stood in one corner of the library she
now rested in, and it counted down the minutes like an eerie, evil metronome or some
diabolical heartbeat featured in Edgar Allen Poe’s stories.
The shower and clean clothes should feel good considering she couldn’t
remember that last time she’d received either at the hospital, but the stress she was under
made her edgy and in no mood to enjoy such things. The voices in her head told her she
should run away while he slept. It had been long enough and anyone who lived in a
house this large had to have a collection of fast cars to escape with. This guy was just
your stereotypical rich eccentric who drank blood and kidnapped young girls.
She knew that wasn’t true. She’d seen his eyes change, seen his teeth grow long
32 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
and wickedly sharp. This was no ordinary weirdo. She’d stumbled, with her infinite bad
luck, upon an honest, real, live vampire.
摘ven more reason to run,�the voices cried.
鉄cary or not. Sexy or not, I’ve got to find out what scared him so badly that it
made him cry. Before I go anywhere I have to find out what he thinks he’s done to me.�
She rolled over and tried to concentrate on the noise of the clock, but when she finally felt
like she could sleep, the loud chimes marking the hour would have her bolting for the
door.
She eventually gave up and went to fix herself something to eat. Marcos had been
right, there wasn’t much in the way of food in the huge house, but she found a can of
soup and some hot chocolate. They made her belly feel full and warm. When she finally
lay down on the couch and pulled a burgundy and yellow afghan over her, it was noon.
The blanket was warm and reminded her of a home she’d never had. It was
comforting, and as she cuddled underneath it, she began to dream. She dreamed of a
Faberge egg done in gold and wine, exquisitely crafted and encrusted with rubies and
garnets. She dreamed the egg rested gently in her hand and as she caressed one of the
priceless gems, the treasure sprang open in her hand. A tiny painted figure fell out of the
egg into her hand, a little cassock man with red pants and thick black hair. As she peered
down at the little toy, she could almost see Marcos’ face painted onto the tin.
She woke to Marcos leaning over her, staring worriedly at her. She tried to smile
reassuringly at him, but she knew it didn’t reach her eyes.
He wore a pair of dark oatmeal cargo khakis and a black cable knit sweater. It
accentuated his slim dark form and brought out the gold in his eyes. They reminded
33 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
Cybele of some predatory cat, yet at the same time, they were clouded by fear and an
agony she hoped she would never know.
展e need to talk,�he started, but she stifled his words with her mouth. After a
long, deep kiss she pulled away.
典he look in your eyes breaks my heart. I don’t know what you are going to say,
but I know it isn’t good. Give me one more night before you completely tear my world
apart.� She didn’t let him answer, but instead buried her tongue deeply into his mouth,
pulling him down on top of her. She was wild to erase the look in his eyes, to make him
forget what he intended to tell her. He’d fed, she could taste the blood on his lips and it
brought to mind the insane passion they had shared the night before. Remembering the
feel of his tongue on her nipples, they hardened again against the thin cotton of the
borrowed shirt. The slightly rough material chaffed at the sensitive peaks of her breast
and she cried out, a wordless cry of need and frustration.
He tried to push her away, but her unyielding need and the heady aroma of sex
between her thighs made his control slip. He braced himself over her, one knee between
her thighs, a hand on the back of the couch, and a hand on the arm of it. If he could
pleasure her without touching her then he would gladly do it. He pressed his knee against
the juncture of her thighs, and almost took her violently when he felt her little cunt clench
against him in need. Her thighs tightened around his knee.
She wrapped her fingers through his hair and pulled him toward her kiss. She
wanted to forget everything, the voices, his look, even the fact that he didn’t seem to want
to touch her. She knew the instant he grew hard, because his fangs grew long and one of
them sliced into her lip. The blood slid silkily to pool on her tongue. His body went
34 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
rigid. There was a breathless, afraid-to-move moment while his tongue sucked hungrily
at her blood, then he was on her like an animal.
His hand slid inside her oversized borrowed pants, and her wet and ready for him.
His mind emptied except for thoughts of her, and how she’d feel clenching around him.
He slid two fingers inside and she moaned, arching her back and pressing herself against
him. 撤lease don’t make me do this to you,�he pleaded, knowing this may be his last
chance at salvation. Ignoring his breathless prayers, she grasped his hard length through
his pants, driving him past all reasonable thought. For so long, the predator in him had
been locked away. For decades he had been the gentleman vampire who neither preyed
on, nor approached humans, but she, with her stained glass eyes and fiery hair, had finally
turned his Doctor Jekyll into a Mr. Hyde.
She couldn’t remember being lifted from the couch or carried up the stairs. All
she remembered was slamming against the wall with his cock buried deeply inside her. It
took her a minute to catch her breath, but when she could see straight, she noticed that the
man that fucked her was not Marcos any longer. He’d become a hungry, bestial version
of himself, licking and biting at her skin, and burying himself deep inside of her. He
drove her relentlessly toward passionate heights she had never visited before. The
orgasms came crashing, one right after another, and still he rode her, pinning her to the
wall until they were slick with sweat and blood. It wasn’t until he cupped her breast in
his palm that she realized somewhere along the way she’d been undressed and so had he.
They were suddenly, as if by magick, nude and upstairs.
溺arcos, god it feels so good! Please don’t stop. �
的 won’t ever stop,�he pledged. 哲ot until we are both dead.�His words hung
35 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
ominously in the air. He grunted, as she clenched around him in orgasm. 泥on’t,�was
all he could manage. 撤lease.�He couldn’t breath. His world was shrinking to a pinpoint
and he couldn’t stop what he knew was about to happen. He was about the change her
life forever and she would hate him for it. She clenched again and he whimpered. He
stopped pumping, holding very still, hoping the need to finish would pass, but she rocked
her hips against his pelvis violently and it was too much for him.
With a roar he went rigid and, burying himself inside her one more time, he
orgasmed, emptying his entire blood supply within her. She collapsed on the bed, sighing
contentedly and filled with the knowledge she could take on the world. The voices were
quiet. No one in her head dared to say anything.
鄭fter sex like that, nothing could ruin my mood,�she said smugly, propping her
head on her arms and laying back to look at him. His back was still to her, one arm
braced against the wall and his head bent. 溺arcos.�
He didn’t have the strength to face her. 的 should never have touched you. Before,
there was always a chance, but now... now I’ve most likely sentenced you to death.�
She froze. She hadn’t even heard what he’d said, but the tense line of his back
and the tone of his voice said it all. 的t’s bad isn’t it.�she asked, wanting him to turn
toward her, but at the same time, not wanting to see his face. 展hat have we done.�
天ampirism isn’t a curse, Cybele,�he said, finally facing her, his eye barely
visible between the locks of his hair as they fell over his face. 的t’s a virus.�
Cybele froze, the words sending vicious little icicles down her spine. 添ou
bastard. You knew this last night didn’t you.� She flew at him, pummeling his chest
with her fists. 添ou knew last night and you didn’t tell me. You didn’t stop me just now.
36 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
You knew and you didn’t do a damn thing to stop me!�
Chapter Five
He grabbed her arm, knowing that watching her walk out of his life would hurt
more than knowing his parents had sold him for a quick getaway. Her accusations made
him want to lash out at her and defend himself.
添ou’re right, I was wrong to do that to you, but I will help you deal with any
repercussions,�he said between clenched teeth.
的 don’t want to deal with any repercussions!�she said, her voice shrill. 的 don’t
want any of this. You made me a vampire!�
展e don’t know that. We won’t know for a long time,�he said, his anger rising.
He refused to let her go, no matter how hard she tugged.
37 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
泥on’t know. Look at this!� She gestured to her blood covered thighs, swiped at
them with her fingers, and shoved the red tinged fingers into his face. 典his is all
infected blood! Let go! You’re hurting me!�
添ou don’t understand, the infection lays dormant until...until you die. You could
live very happily for years...�He stopped at the horrified look on her face.
添ou’re telling me that if I die as an old lady, I’ll be an old lady vampire.� The
thought was repulsive.
He shook his head, realizing she wasn’t going to like what he said any more than
she liked what he’d already said. 溺ost old people who are infected with the virus can’t
tolerate the change that occurs when the virus come out of remission. It’s...painful.�
She laughed bitterly. 的 should have stayed in Northern State. At least there I was
safe from immortality. This is some gift you’ve given me, Marcos.�
的 didn’t know. I mean I...was never told,�he finished lamely.
徹h, don’t give me that bullshit! You are an old man, a learned man. You didn’t
have the common sense to realize your blood was infectious.� She froze, her face
contorting in fury. 添ou did know. You knew last night. That’s why you pulled out. It
was why you stopped. What did you think you would find out today that would make it
any easier for you to tell me. What knowledge could you have possibly gleaned today
that would make this blow any softer.�
的 wasn’t even sure I’d infected you last night. I hadn’t cum and I was pretty sure
I hadn’t scratched you. I was only concerned that the sweat from my hands may have
somehow given it to you.�
鉄weat from your hands.� She wrenched away from him and this time he let her
38 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
go. 鉄o you’re telling me this might be contracted through a handshake.�
哲o, not a handshake. Not unless you have an open wound on your hand. I have
some suspicions about kissing, and I’m almost positive about sex. They never taught us
that it could be contracted at all. We were told female vampires weren’t even possible.
We didn’t even know it was possible until last fall when it happened. We don’t feed on
humans, so the chances for infection are very small.�
的’ll be the second female vampire in history. Forgive me if I’m not honored by
this title. Where is the woman that was changed last fall. I have some questions for her.�
鉄he’s a rogue,�he said, running his hands through his hair. 的’m not happy
about this either. I didn’t think...�
典hat’s right, you didn’t think!� She put her head in her hands. 展hat have I
gotten myself into.�
典here’s more. I know you’ve heard enough, but this is something you need to
know.�
She gestured for him to continue, wishing she could just close her eyes and realize
this was all some demented delusion.
典he voices will get worse when and if you decide to make the change.�
展hat. How do you know that.�she asked. She became still like a child who
knew if he drew attention to himself, he would be beaten.
添ou aren’t delusional. You aren’t schizophrenic. You’re a Necropath. Those
voices you hear are the voices of the dead, reaching out to you. That is why I brought up
the subject of Sybils. If you decide to take the step, your Necropathic abilities will grow.
You would be doubly advantaged.�
39 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
添ou’ve got to be joking. You think I can hear dead people in my head, and if I
jump off a cliff and kill myself tomorrow this 鍍alent�will get stronger. Then will I have
dead people screaming in my head instead of just shouting.�
天ampirism will give you the ability to control the voices. You will be able to
just turn them off and on like a switch.�
She froze. He’d said the one thing that could get her to actually consider doing
this crazy shit. 鄭nd they say I’m the one who belongs in an institute. You, my friend,
are certifiable. You really expect me to just kill myself because you, a man I’ve known
for two days, says I will live forever.�
泥on’t you believe in fate, Cybele.�he pleaded, going down on his knees in front
of her. 泥on’t you see that you were sent to me for a reason. I was meant to help you
develop the powers you were given.�
徹h believe me, buddy, you’ve helped enough as it is. You’ve done plenty.� She
stood up and he echoed her movements, but then he took her in his arms and kissed her
deeply. The fire ignited in her loins and she pushed him away.
添ou can’t tell me that you didn’t feel that. You’ve become a part of me. Maybe
it wasn’t a threat when I told you vampires mate for life.�
滴ave you ever heard of a woman and a vampire living ‘Happily ever after’.
Even Mina hacked off ole Dracula’s head at the end. I don’t even know why I’m talking
to you. You are now, more obviously than ever, just another one of my delusions. I’ll
admit I even tricked myself that time.�
撤lease, don’t. I need you in my life. Never before have I felt so whole. My
devotion is truly undying.� He didn’t move toward her, didn’t even look up at her. Her
40 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
words had sliced him like a razor. He was begging her, something he had never done in
400 years of solitude. Even when the old Russian vampire tortured him, he’d merely
stared straight ahead -- saying nothing, hearing nothing, seeing nothing. The rage rose up
in him suddenly and he brought a swift arm down on a desk. It crumpled into two halves,
interconnected like an accordion. 的 must have you!�
Cybele backed away, the hurt and violent anger she saw in his eyes more
terrifying than any of the voices she heard. She realized, most gradually, that she hadn’t
heard the voices in some time. She stood there caught in indecision. For the first time in
her life, she needed the voices and they weren’t there for her. She knew this was a path
she would have to choose for herself. For once, she wouldn’t be driven like a sheep, and
that thought scared her more than anything else. She would have to make this choice
herself because there was no one there to force her to choose.
She was wrong; she recognized as Marcos advanced on her, someone was there to
make her choose. 的 only want to love you.�
She realized she was crying; heavy, salty tears, but still clear, still normal. At the
sight of her tears, a ragged cry was torn from Marcos’ lips. An animalistic aura
surrounded him. His hair flowed as if made of water and his eyes gave off a brief cat-like
shine. There was a split second where Cybele had to battle her body, lest it lunge into his
arms. 的 can’t...love you. You’ve destroyed my life.�
的’ve given you a new life! I’ve given you immortality. I’ve released you from
your mortal torment!�he said, still advancing.
哲o.� She shook her head, still backing away. 添ou’ve given yourself a
playmate. Driven by loneliness and greed, you made me into this THING so you wouldn’t
41 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
be alone anymore!� Her back hit the wall.
He froze, and licked his lips. She was so close. He could be on her before the
movement of light would even register in her retina. He knew it, yet he couldn’t do it.
He couldn’t move. Her accusations had acted like a kick to the stomach. He doubled
over, clutching his abdomen. This pain was familiar to him. He’d felt it the day his
parents had disappeared. It was his heart.
He drifted for a second, thinking how it was strange when your heart broke; it
always hurt in your stomach or throat, never really in your chest. Marcos knew he would
let her go, and he felt like he was watching his last sunset all over again. He was saying
goodbye forever to something that was so vital to him, it removed a chunk of his
humanity, and he knew when they returned, The Order of the Dragon would have to vote
on whether or not he was a danger to them.
敵et out,�he growled out, his voice low and
guttural. 敵et out! GET OUT!�His voice rose to a desperate scream. He knew he
wouldn’t be able to control himself very long. 敵et out, or so help me God, I will feast
from your flesh.�
The voices came back then all at once, urging her to fly. Pushing her down the
hall and around the corner. He sprang after her like a jungle cat. She ran into the kitchen
first, but slid to a halt when she saw that he was already there.
溺arcos. Please,�her voice quivered and she gulped down the terror. If he
answered her, she didn’t hear him over the chanting of the voices in her head. She only
saw the vicious grin that curled over his lips and she was off again. She skittered down
the hallway, knocking over a shelf of Faberge eggs as she went. She began to cry, the
tears blurring her vision and making it hard to know where he was.
42 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
She saw him in front of her, a tall, blurred shape and switched direction, clipping
her hip on a small hall table. She glanced back; it had only been the old hall clock. She
turned to resume her flight and he was in front of her, panting through the passion and
excitement of the hunt. She took off in the other direction and slammed into the wall at
the foot of the stairs, making the paintings on the wall rattle. The wooden dragon plaque
slid from its nail and fell with crushing accuracy to her head.
The dark wood tones of Marcos’ house and Marcos’ life faded, lightening at the
edges to a harsh white. 典hat should teach you not to try and run, Cybele,�the voices
jeered. Her name seemed to echo in her head, as the world bled to white. She blinked
her eyes, the bright white making her eyes water.
***
鼎ybele. Welcome back, Cybele,�the voice said. Cybele opened her eyes and
found herself back in the same little room she’s spent the last 15 years in.
滴ow did I get back here. Where is Marcos.�Cybele asked, taking in her little
cot and the drab blue scrubs she was in.
釘ack. What do you mean. You’ve been here all along. The doctor got your
meds a little mixed up and we had to fix your levels, but you haven’t gone anywhere,�the
young black nurse answered. She was the only person in Northern State Hellhole that
Cybele liked.
哲o, I escaped last night. I went and hid in that huge house over there and I met a
man. His name is Marcos,�Cybele insisted, feeling ill.
43 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
The young woman frowned and went to Cybele’s chart. She stared down at it for
a second before shaking her head. 典here is a sign off here by the night nurse. You
didn’t go anywhere.�
哲o,�Cybele started to cry. 哲o, it was real. It was real.�
The woman rushed over, 徹h hun, it’s ok. Sometimes those nasty old meds can
play with your mind, especially if they get too low.�
Chapter Six
Cybele violently threw her food tray across the room. It had been a week and she
was still sick; sick that Marcos had never been real, sick that she was back in the hospital,
and sick that all they could serve was wet scramble eggs and burnt bacon. Her clothes
felt strange against her skin and every time she walked she felt strange electrical shocks
run up and down her body.
44 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
When she’d been forced to take a shower that morning the shocks had left her wet
and quivering, as if Marcos’ hands still touched her. She slid two fingers deep inside of
herself, sliding them in and out while the water caressed her like hands. She leaned
against the cool white tile of the shower, her ass pressed firmly against its slick surface.
She brought one hand up to cup her breast, pinching the nipple gently and rolling it
between her finger and thumb. The water streamed over it and made her moan. With the
other hand, she stroked her clit with her thumb in between long, luxurious glides of her
fingers.
When she closed her eyes, she could see his face close to hers, elongated fang
biting gently into his lip as he looked at her with those cat eyes. She moved the hand
from her tit to her ass, gliding lightly over the skin with her nails. Cupping her own ass
firmly, she quickened the motions of her fingers. She moaned again. She could feel his
lips on her neck, teeth pressed dangerously against her throat and it made her cunt clench
in need. She added a third finger and cupped her tit again. The combination of her nails
raking against her breast and her fingers slipping wetly in and out brought her, at last, to a
precipice. She came with a lingering moan, her body tightening violently against her
fingers.
When she had finished she was trembling, her breath coming in gasps and the
taste of blood on her tongue. It tasted like Marcos’ mouth. She finished her shower with
shaking hands.
So now, as she stared at the gelatinous mess that slid down the institutional green
wall, she nibbled her lip, hoping she could rekindle the memory of him by tasting blood
once again. In the end she’d been running for her life, sure he was going to suck the
45 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
marrow from her bones and now all she wanted was to go back to him--back into the
delusion.
The voices whispered that it had never been a hallucination. They told her she
could get back to him, but she couldn’t trust them. They had been telling her to stay away
from him the entire time. Why would they now be encouraging her to return to him if it
hadn’t been a delusion.
She slid out of the robe she’d worn from the shower room, pulling on her panties,
plain white briefs with Northern State Psychiatric Unit emblazoned on the rear and started
to pull the scrub bottoms on over them, when she notice an huge bruise on her hip. It was
the color of a ripe eggplant and was larger than her hand. A vision, of her colliding with
the hall table, skittered across her memory. She pressed on it and shivers of pain threaded
their way down her leg. She finished pulling on the pants and threw on the top quickly.
The communal bathroom was kept mirror less, so she bent down and tried to catch a
glimpse of her reflection in the polished steel of the paper towel dispenser. Gently
probing the top of her head, she felt a line of crusty scabs across her head hidden by her
hair -- The Dragon Plaque.
She wished, for the first time, that Marcos had marked her. Then she would have
the definite proof she needed. Could these injuries be coincidence. Self inflicted.
Cybele threw on a pair of the plain navy blue deck shoes they assigned everyone and cut
across the day room to the exercise yard. The exercise yard was little more than a dirt and
concrete yard where the highly medicated were herded around like cattle.
There was no exercise equipment or anything else to keep the mentally insane
busy. Some of them paced, some walked slowly in circles, and some just sat on the few
46 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
provided benches and rocked back and forth, staring into space or gibbering to
themselves about invisible fiends that visited them at night.
She grasped the edge of the tall brick wall that separated the exercise yard from
the huge manor’s infinite expanse of grass and pulled herself up. The house held its
secrets like a deaf-mute. No smoke rose from the massive chimney as there had been
before. It was just a normal house. She squinted toward the windows, trying to discern if
anyone was watching from them, but gave up and slid back down the wall when she
realized it was daytime and, if he was real, he wouldn’t be out and about for several
hours.
She slid down the wall, her stomach heavy with defeat. A Sybil. Who was she
kidding. She was just an old-fashioned nut job. 鏑ook now.�the voices whispered just
as she heard the slam of a car door. Spinning around, she hefted herself up quickly and
was just in time to spot a dark car parked in the driveway. She jumped down from the
wall and looked around to make sure none of the orderlies was watching before vaulting
fluidly over the stone wall. As she landed, she stumbled, falling to her knees, but
regained her feet quickly and sprinted toward the house. Instead of skirting the house as
before, she ran straight to the little security room off the left side of the house. It was just
as she remembered; even the metal folding chair was right where she remembered it.
She pushed through the door and into the kitchen calling out as she went.
溺arcos!�
A tall woman with short, curly blonde hair looked up from the bag of groceries
she was unloading, startled by her appearance. She stared at Cybele for a moment and
Cybele’s heart sank. She knew, with a certainty akin to death, that Marcos was not real.
47 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
This woman was the real owner of the manor house and she had merely made Marcos up.
She started to back from the room, babbling her apologies and knowing she sounded like
the mad woman she was.
添ou’re Cybele,�the woman said, stopping all of Cybele’s frenetic movement.
添es,�she replied, feeling herself go very still inside. She pressed the bruise on
her hip viciously to prove she wasn’t dreaming.
The woman smiled tiredly, 添ou’ve caused a great deal of trouble here. She held
out her hand, 的’m Lauryn, Marcos’ friend.�
Cybele shuddered and slid to the floor. 徹h, thank God, he’s real. I’m not crazy.�
Lauryn laughed at that, 徹h, he’s real all right; whether or not you’re crazy is
another story. What went on here. When we got back from Rome he had locked himself
in the crypt, he was a madman. What did you do to him.�
Cybele shook her head, confused, 泥o to him. I didn’t do anything...�
Lauryn cut her off, 展e’ve had him in restraints for a week. You did something
that drove him over the edge. The first couple of days he raved that he had killed you.
We tried to find out where he had put your body. We almost had to call the Order. When
he finally came around on Thursday, he told us he had taken you back to the asylum. We
still thought, at that point, you were dead. I thought he’d just dumped your body over the
wall.�
鄭fter all this, your first question was still, 展hat have YOU done to HIM.�
After thinking he’d killed some innocent woman and dumped her body, you still want to
know what I did to provoke him.�
Lauryn nodded. 的’ve seen a murderous vampire, an animal who only lives for the
48 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
kill. Marcos is not a murderer. He and my husband have been friends since they were
infected. He’s no killer; he’s mad with grief and guilt. Now I ask you again, what have
you done to him.�
Cybele choked on her agony, 的 made him love me.�
展ait, what are you saying. Are you saying you slept with him.� She couldn’t
believe what she was hearing.
Cybele just nodded. She couldn’t get the words past the knot in her throat. She
wanted to tell Lauryn that she loved Marcos, that she would do anything to be with him,
but everything was so surreal she couldn’t tell if any of this was real or a hallucination.
She couldn’t trust her own mind to tell her the truth.
鄭re you infected.� Lauryn couldn’t believe the little woman’s appearance had
actually raised more questions than it had answered. 泥id he cum inside you.� They’d
been searching for her friend, Chloe who had been turned into a vampire by accident. If
she could learn more about Cybele, maybe it would give her some clue where to find
Chloe.
Cybele didn’t know where to start. 的 need to see Marcos. I need to know that all
of this wasn’t just some delusion.�
徹h, it was real. I’ve been dealing with the backlash of it for a week.� She went
back to the groceries to finish unloading them. One bag was filled with blood packets.
的 need to see him. I need to tell...�she said, knowing she sounded desperate, but
she didn’t care, she felt desperate.
滴e’s in the basement,�Lauryn answered, shrugging. 添ou aren’t going to like
what you see,�she warned.
49 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
的t doesn’t matter, I need to see him,�she snapped, getting aggravated at the
woman.
Lauryn looked at her for a minute, searching her eyes for any hesitation before
nodding. 滴e’s in the crypt. It’s in the old cemetery. You aren’t going to find what you
expect. He might not even know who you are.�
滴e’ll know me,�she replied definitively.
敵ood luck,�she heard the other woman call out, as she headed toward the
cemetery.
When Cybele got to the huge stone crypt that stood as the centerpiece of the
private cemetery, Marcos was asleep. The crypt door had opened onto a set of stairs that
lead down several floors to a huge stone room, buried deep beneath the earth. Marcos
was entombed in a massive slab of cement with only his head and one wrist exposed. His
wrist was attached to an IV feed of blood. There were dark circles under his eyes, but he
looked so young and innocent, head cocked to one side, face smooth with sleep.
的 had wondered if you would get past Lauryn. She can be a tough customer when
she wants to be,�a voice said from behind her. She turned to find a man that very well
could be Marcos’ twin, sitting in a chair in the corner. His hair was shorter than Marcos’
and his eyes lighter.
展hat’s wrong with him.�she asked, knowing this was Lauryn’s husband and
Marcos’ lifelong friend.
滴e’s just sleeping. He’ll be fine...eventually. He’s been through this before.�
滴e’s been in cement before.�she asked. For lifelong friends, she didn’t think
they were treating him very well.
50 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
釘ack then it wasn’t cement, but yes, he’s been restrained. After he was
changed... infected.� The man had an accent like Marcos did. 的’m Mikhail.�
She didn’t bother to tell him who she was; he knew well enough who she was.
She went to Marcos and put a hand on his cheek. He was so cold. Mikhail started to
speak again, but Cybele turned on him. 哲O! This is bullshit.� Then she did something
she’d never done, something she’d never even thought of doing. She called upon the
power of the dead. She called the spirits to her and when she felt them crouched around
her like a stifling cloud, she sent them toward the cement slab that encased Marcos. It
cracked down the center, releasing him.
She lifted him from the crypt floor and pulled his head onto her lap. She leaned
down and kissed him deeply. 鼎ome back to me, Marcos.� Biting her lip she kissed him
again, hoping he would recognize her blood and return from where ever he was. She was
tired of living a hollow, empty life. She didn’t want the voices to rule her life anymore,
and the only one who could fill that void in her was Marcos.
He’d been a light in the darkness from the second he stepped out of that door. He
had told her he needed her in his life, but that had not been true. He had survived a long
time without her. The truth was, she needed him. She needed his voice, the feel of his
lips on hers. She needed his eyes on her body, the damp feel of his breath on her skin
and, even though he was dead, he made her feel more alive than anyone on earth. She
couldn’t live another minute without the feel of his body pressed against hers.
She lifted his head and cradled it against her neck. She wanted him to take her,
wanted him to pull her down into the wonderful darkness that was his embrace. He
awoke with a shudder and his fangs were instantly in her. She felt a piercing pain that
51 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
lasted for a heartbeat before the passion and longing flooded through her. She was
paralyzed by the feeling of him pulling the blood from her veins. He rose to his feet and
it seemed as if she dangled from his lips. There were his lips, his fangs, her blood and
nothing else.
溺arcos, you’re going to kill her!�she heard Mikhail’s voice as if it were far
away. She found enough power to turn her eyes toward Marcos and he looked down at
her, the golden eyes of a tiger burning into her soul and still he drank.
She tried to tell him, 添es, take it all, take my life,�but her lips would not move,
only a single voice screamed out in her head, her own. In the end, that was enough,
because he nodded once, gathered her in his arms, and began to drain her. She heard
violins playing her funeral dirge and felt a fine mist upon her face. It was his tears as they
poured from his eyes. He took her into himself and the violins swelled into a symphony
of color and emotion. The power in her swelled as the life drained away.
溺y love,�he seemed to say, but she could not hear him above the sound of
violins flooding her head. Her body felt like it was covered in rose petals and her vision
began to close in on itself. She knew she was dying. There was no sound of a lessening
heartbeat or a bright light that drew her nearer, only the sound of violins, the feel of rose
petals, and the dying light.
The dying light spread through her heart and soul until everything was dark and
there was only silence. She felt as if she were floating on dark waters, weightless and
blind with no sense of direction. The last sound she heard was the hollow sound of her
own breathing, labored at first, then easier and quieter until there was nothing left.
And then she fell.
52 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
Chapter Seven
Lauryn tried to look grim. She thought of sad things and tried to remain
mournful. 的 have paperwork to file.� She passed several papers to the lady behind the
desk at the Department of Vital Statistics. The woman looked at her suspiciously and
Lauryn wondered if they looked at everyone like that, or if she wasn’t pulling off the
mourner’s mask as well as she thought. The old woman took the papers and disappeared
into another room.
Lauryn stood there and tapped her pencil on the desk, a little giddy from the
adrenaline rush she was getting. The woman peeked out of the office several times and
Lauryn wished she’d hurry up before she was tempted to dance a jig on the office’s wide
counter top. Finally, the old biddy returned.
The secretary passed the papers back to her, signed, stamped and notarized. She
tucked her pocketbook under her arm, clutching the death certificate and estate papers in
her hand. It was handy The Order had doctors and lawyers working for them that were
willing and able to forge the necessary documentation. She slid behind the wheel of her
car, turning only briefly to place the paperwork and her purse in the back seat. When she
was buckled, she turned to the woman beside her and smiled. The woman had a worried
look on her face, half doubtful, half grim. It would have been a good look for Lauryn to
wear in the office.
展ell. How did it go.�the woman asked nervously.
Lauryn smiled at Cybele. 摘verything went as planned, of course. You really
have to learn to listen to those voices of yours,�she said, hitting the gas pedal and
53 The Dying Light Dyana Lunaris
speeding away.