Moonlit Surrender
Chapter Twenty-Two

Lucy startled herself awake from terrible dreams of blood and violence and a never-ending screaming that split her skull even once it had ceased and she was staring into the black of her tiny room in the bowels of Castle Sheol. Her eyes squinted, trying to make out any shapes in the dark, but she couldn't see worth a damn. She looked over to where she was pretty sure the hearth should be to replace it totally devoid of light and warmth, not a single ember still glowing. Its fire had died out some time ago, but not long enough for the ever-present chill of the fortress to retake the room. She hoped that meant she hadn't slept through the day yet and somewhere outside the unforgiving stone walls the sun was still glittering off of the lake.

She rubbed her eyes, replaceing them sore and puffy from tears that had streaked her cheeks in her sleep, and swung her feet over the edge of the cot to touch the rough stone floor. Her hand reached into her knot of wavy hair and found the paperclip she had stolen still tucked away. Carefully she pulled it free and turned it over in her fingers a few times.

You're going crazy in this fucking place. Get out. While you still want to. To hell with both of them, just get out to survive.

Blindly, she made her way to the front of the room, clumsily feeling her way along the rock walls until her palms touched the smooth wood of the door. She straightened out the paperclip, bending a ninety-degree angle into it, then knelt down and felt her way to the lock. She had never picked anything before and found the process a lot harder than any books or shows made it out to be. She was not sure how long she knelt there trying to feel the right spot to spring the inner mechanism free, but by the time she felt the lock give with a loud click, her forehead was covered in a thick dew of nervous sweat.

Lucy touched the handle and was shocked to be able to push it open without resistance.

It couldn't be real. Was she actually going to be free of this foul place? Anticipation sent an anxious vibration through her as she stepped into the drafty, pitch black hallway. With no candle or torch to illuminate her way, she followed the roughly hewn rock of the walls in the direction of the abandoned staircase Doris had mentioned.

Soon the walls began to curve until she about stepped off a sudden ledge, replaceing the first step of the stairs. She hugged the wall tightly, unsure of the width or safety of the winding staircase as they led her deeper and deeper in a long spiral. There was a dampness in the air which gave her hope of soon replaceing the lake below, but the further she descended, the darker it seemed to grow.

The stairs ended, but there was no opening into fresh air or the comforting light of the sun to show her the way to the pier, only more darkness.

She stumbled over something and cut her palm along the jagged wall as she went tumbling down to the dirt floor and heard a hollow rattling of whatever had caused her to stumble.

She felt around in the dark to try to pull herself up and felt something smooth and hard, too light to be a rock. As she held it up and felt around the strange orb, she found two holes side by side, then two smaller ones, then a bumpy ridge with a second row on a loose hinge.

Lucy let out a blood curdling shriek of terror as she realized she held a human skull in her hands. She scrambled away on her back, rattling through the pile of bones she had fallen into, imagining the rest of the poor soul's skeleton. With her heart racing, she huddled up against the wall, positive now that this was not the staircase that led out to the pier. She had to replace her way back and regroup.

In her panic she had gotten impossibly turned around. The only thing worse was not being able to see even her own hand in front of her face. She was lost in the impenetrable black of whatever pit she had fallen into, unable to retrace her way back to the stairs. Fear was beginning to take over her rational mind, panic settling in and clouding her ability to stay calm and form a plan. All she could focus on was her blindness and the bones surrounding her.

Malevolent chuckles started low, then rose until they filled the dark chamber with an eerie chorus of echoes.

She shook with a primal terror she had never felt before, robbed of sight and direction, she was stuck helpless in her own paralysis of fright and cowering into her knees with piteous sobs. No words could form on her lips, no pleas for mercy or even a curse. She had never felt so defenseless.

The laughter at last stopped, the chilling refrain backing it dying away in a slow fade, leaving only a pregnant silence, a deceptive quiet hiding an unnamed evil in its darkness. Danger vibrated through the air and Lucy waited expectantly, shaking in her huddled ball.

"Well, hello, sweet-blood," Lerexus' deceptively honeyed voice grinned in the dark, the hem of his robes tickling her toes as he halted just in front of her. "Were you lonely?"

His hand came out of the black and curled around her upper arm and yanked her to her feet. She felt her knees turn to jelly and her legs wobble uselessly. She felt certain she was only moments away from fainting. His hand did not leave her though, instead his other joined it and pressed her backwards into the cold wall. She felt the bite of the rough edges of the rock digging into her shoulder blades and her head begin to spin as he held her firmly pinned. Unable to pierce the black to watch the albino vampire's attack, she squinted her eyes closed in a useless attempt to replace refuge.

He grabbed her hand and licked over the cut on her palm. "I do so enjoy a midnight snack," he rasped low in her ear, his words sending chills of dread down her spine as he leaned in closer. His nose pushed aside the hair clinging to her sweaty cheek and his lips grazed sensually down her jaw to her neck. His mouth hovered over the fluttering artery for only a moment before he roughly sank his fangs into her without warning.

She whimpered, still too weak and terrified to speak or scream, trembling like a leaf in his vicelike grip. His ruthless bite shocked her out of her daze and she was unable to ignore the piercing pain in her neck and the nauseating sounds of him drinking from the wound. His nails dug into her as he held her fast, then one hand dragged down from her shoulder to tear her dress open at the neck. The sheer fabric fell apart effortlessly, slipping away from one shoulder down to her waist. Lucy whimpered again in protest but could not replace the strength to scream or fight him off, her body already so weak from the previous feedings she had endured.

His long nails scraped over her warm skin, still securely latched to the flowing red river spilling from her throat and cupped her exposed breast in his palm with a firm squeeze and a revolting groan. He forced her back into the wall harder, pressing his erection against her thigh as he drank with a feverish abandon, continuing his slurping and moaning in her ear.

Her stomach did flips and she swore she was only moments away from retching, but before she could vomit in disgust from the intimate violation happening, her head gave way to its spinning and she felt herself fade away as if slipping under a deep body of water.

***

Lucy woke slowly, struggling to pull herself out of sleep's hold. A fatigue like none she had ever known held her down into the cushions of whatever she was sprawled out on and she felt a cold seizing her she wasn't sure she'd ever be able to shake. Opening her eyes took great effort and she had to blink them into focus before she could observe her surroundings by the comforting light of a candelabrum on the floor in front of her.

She found herself on a tattered chaise lounge, its wooden frame chipped and scratched from decades of use and its deep purple upholstery faded and torn. Her head rested on a cylinder pillow with golden tassels on either side that were fraying at the ends and she saw she was still wearing the ripped chiffon dress she had fainted in, her shoulder, left breast, and the beginnings of her tummy exposed to the chilly air around her. Beyond the dancing light of the tall candles, she could see only darkness, no ceiling, no walls, nothing but the dirt floor beneath her and the endless chasm of black surrounding her.

She rose up onto her elbow and attempted to pull the dress back together as she searched the shadows for the ancient vampire she was sure was lurking in the shadows. She weakly propped herself up on the armrest of the lounge and tried to hide her fear behind a confident accusation, "I know you're here. Show yourself."

A smooth voice, low and deceptively pleasing to the ear answered from beyond her fragile sanctuary of light. "How she makes such demands, here in my castle, in my private abode."

His crypt. I'm in his crypt. Oh god.

"I could tell you were up to something," Lerexus continued. "So agreeable and well behaved, and how dutifully you scrubbed my study's floor. Did you take me for a fool, girl?"

She chose not to answer, instead glaring into the dark from where his voice echoed.

"Abandoned staircase?" he laughed cruelly. "How eagerly you took the bait I had Doris dangle. I'm a little disappointed, to be honest. I thought we had such a lovely chat."

"I don't care what you have to say about John. I just want to get away from you and this fucking castle," she snapped, her voice straining up a couple octaves as hysteria threatened to overtake her.

"Is this about earlier?" he asked with an exasperated sigh as he stepped into the light. "You stumbled into my sanctum, woke me with your dreadful screaming over a few dried and withered bones, shaking in that little slip of a dress. What did you expect to happen? I was thirsty."

The memory of his hand clawing open the neck of her clothes and his palm enclosing on her breast brought back the nausea she had felt in the moment and she leaned over the chaise lounge and spilled what meager contents were left in her stomach.

She gagged again, but there was nothing left to come up.

Lerexus withdrew with a disgusted sneer. "Oh be still. I let you rest here unmolested until you woke. I have no desire to insert my cock into something so unclean as a mortal. What happened was an act of passion in the moment of sating my hunger, a physical response, nothing more."

She watched the dismissive roll of his eyes with a skepticism that kept her stomach churning uneasily. Maybe it was something baser, such as jealousy for what his old protégé possessed, rather than true attraction, but it was clear even to Lucy that his thoughts veered towards the carnal when it came to her. The torn dress was more likely a slip in self-control. She remembered how wild John had looked drinking from her and what a struggle it had been for him to contain himself. Maybe Lerexus just didn't want to admit a moment of weakness.

She scolded herself. No more flirting with him or bending over for him to try to manipulate my way out of here with my body. That was dumb. It's too dangerous now.

"How did you know this would happen?" she asked weakly.

"Do you think you are the first to try to escape from my dungeon? To see the lone rowboat beckoning you to safety? It was obvious you were attempting to devise a plan to get down to that pier. And it was obvious you would seek out the nearest set of stairs, so eager to accept the lowest hanging fruit as the answer to all your troubles. Mortals are all so predictable. I expected more from you, Lucy."

She was too worn out to fight back or come up with a snarky retort. She fell back against the pillow, unable to hold herself up any longer.

He vanished into the shadows, then returned with a chair and set it down perpendicular to the lounge. "Let's have us another heart to heart and we shall speak a little more candidly this time." He dusted off his heavy velvet robes and crossed one knee over the other. "I'm weary of trying to win you over the old-fashioned way. I've shown you the utmost hospitality within my halls, offered you my finest, tried to reason with your limited little human mind, and at every turn you spit on my graciousness. I have tolerated your persistent disrespect long enough, I think."

Lucy raged within at his words but felt as though she were melting into the tattered cushions and becoming one with the antique. To say the psychological torture she endured in his keep was hospitality was an affront to decency itself. "I know what you're thinking, girl. You feel a dungeon is no proper dwelling, the humble spread I offer for your meals is no feast, and the work demanded in exchange for this room and board is anything but fair. Why else would you rage ceaselessly at every turn? Listen now, and I will show you the truth you are so blind to, the foundation of your needless rebellion." He leaned in and his violet gaze locked with hers. "Here is how things really are: John used you, sugar. There is no way around it. You were a poor substitute for the relationship he lost centuries ago yet remains so fixated on. This grand romance you tell yourself you're in is a lie. You were a beloved toy and nothing more. He will indeed attempt a rescue, because he is too blinded to see it himself, and it is true that this is what I'm counting on in order to lure him back into the brood, but there will be no tearful reunion or riding off into the sunset. There is no more John. That's over. So, what you need to ask yourself is what now?"

She closed her eyes in an attempt to conserve energy so she could focus. "I don't believe you."

"It isn't a matter of belief, sugar."

"Stop calling me that," she hissed.

"Your sweet blood knows nothing of the world or how vampires work. It is not a pet name, but a reminder of your naivety and whom you should listen to for wisdom and advice. There is no issue of belief, sugar. I speak the truth to you. These are facts you need to accept in order to survive. What you had with John is over. It's for the best anyway. He was not the strong leader a spirited little thing such as yourself requires. You need a stronger hand, less freedom, a clearer direction." She rolled her eyes behind her closed lids. "And I suppose that's you?"

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"It can be, if you wish. Do you remember what I said about making you a queen?"

"Yes."

"That could be what is next for you. Or, you can slip away after all this is done and vanish into the background of the land of the living beneath sunny skies to live out the rest of your numbered days living an unremarkable life in anonymity and remember all that has transpired in the past year as nothing but a distant dream. Perhaps it's not too late to patch things up with that other fellow and you can go on to live a perfectly human existence. Or you can refuse to heed my words and slowly slip into madness fighting an unwinnable battle for something that no longer exists until you make your way into an early grave."

Lucy had trouble following his different conclusions for her life with her head spinning and heart pounding double time in her ears. "No. I want to leave," she muttered hoarsely. "No."

Lerexus let out a disappointed tsk. "You need to recover some. I understand. You should know, though, the clock is ticking."

She felt herself slipping in and out of consciousness again, exhaustion and the overpowering urge to give in to sleep blurring her concentration. "Where is John?" she asked confused. "Let me talk to John." "You've lost a lot of blood, sugar. You're no good to anyone right now."

Fading in and out of awareness, she felt his arms slip under her knees and behind her back to lift her up with her head lolling behind his elbow. Revulsion stung her belly again and she wanted to resist, but when she looked up it was suddenly John who cradled her and he was carrying her down the stairs of his apartment building to take her home. He was buckling her into the passenger seat of his car and she reached forward to kiss the gray streaked stubble of his cheek and neck, then felt his lips touch hers and force her back into the headrest with the force of his mouth.

Our first kiss. I remember.

The taste of his moan in my mouth.

The way I melted into that faux leather seat, desperate for more.

More.

Always more with him. He saw the need in me before I did.

She wasn't sure where she lay, but the pillows were soft and the blankets pulled up to her chin warmed the ever-present chill of Castle Sheol out of her bones at last, and she relaxed into the luxurious embrace of whatever bed she was tucked into.