I MOST DEFINITELY NEED TO EXPLAIN MYSELF FOR THIS ONE. I LOOKED AT KARL URBAN'S FILMOGRAPHY ON WIKIPEDIA, AND WAS INTRIGUED BY A MOVIE TITLED 'PRIEST' AND WAS PROMPTLY LED ON A POST-APOCALYPTIC WILD-WEST ADVENTURE THAT ALMOST SEEMS STEAMPUNK, AS WELL. IT HAD VAMPIRES AGAINST HUMANS, BUT THESE VAMPS ARE NASTY, DEFORMED CREATURES. ANYWAY, KARL PLAYS THE ONLY HUMAN VAMPIRE AND SELF-TITLED 'GOD OF VAMPIRES', BLACK HAT! LITERALLY, THAT'S THE ONLY THING WE'RE GIVEN AS A NAME FOR HIM, SO I NAMED HIM LUKE, CUS IT FITS WITH A HEADCANNON I HAVE THAT THE CLERGY CHOOSE PEOPLE WITH BIBLE NAMES, THE APOSTLES IN PARTICULAR, AS PRIESTS AND PRIESTESSES.
FAIR WARNING: THIS IS A LITTLE DARK, BUT NOTHING TOO GRAPHIC, I THINK. HOPE YOU LIKE IT! NOW, LAST THING: REVIEWS!
GOD BLESS AND GOOD DAY!
~THE LUPINE SOJOURNER
I was on my way home. It had been a simple trip to the market to nab a few things for dinner. That was it. No big deal. Sure, it was at night, but I'd done this route a hundred times with no incidents.
This time, however...I could tell something was...off. I couldn't put a finger on just what was off, but I knew something was different, and not in a good way. I felt watched, hunted, stalked by something decidedly malevolent. I'd tried to hitch up my courage and walk normally, but my nerves got the better of me and I began to speed my way down to the small house I lived alone in.
That is, until I ran- -literally- -into a man I'd swear I knew from somewhere standing there like he wanted me to bump into him. I was grabbed by the waist, and brought back to a standing position, groceries spilling everywhere, to see only practically glowing warm golden eyes like honey that I sank far too deep in, my eyelids suddenly becoming heavy and slowly falling. Darkness swept over me and I was aware of nothing more.
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When I awoke, I was instantly aware that I was tied down sprawled on my back on something elevated and made of stone. Upon waking further, I noted that I was underground, by the musky, earthy smell.
Danggit, Luke! So many years later, and you still haunt me...make me more observant than I'd ever been. "I just don't want you hurt, darlin'." He'd told me when I protested the lessons and tips he'd been relentlessly giving me. "I've heard rumors...nasty folk abroad, even talk of vamps out there, just outside the gates."
"We're teenagers, Luke." I'd retorted. "We must trust the church and the Priests to protect us." I explained softly, caressing his cheek. It was true; he was barely fourteen, and I was just a month behind him. He'd scoffed and pushed my hand away.
"What good's the church doing other than keeping us 'safe' behind walls of stone, feeding us paranoia? Huh?" I'd never found an answer I was comfortable admitting to myself and the young man I was seriously considering dating, so I dropped the issue. Then Orelas came for him.
He came back hardened and haunted by the war and we'd hardly talked anymore, but then he slipped away again...killed in action.
Or so I'd been told by the Priests' leader, Peter, four years ago.
Then, as if my thoughts had summoned him, I hear Luke's voice.
"Well, well, well. Been quite some time, angel." That was a petname he'd use when he was sweet-talking me, even as a Priest. I crane my neck as he approaches my head, confused as to why he wasn't already leaving with me if he were here to rescue me. His voice was different, more silky and smooth, but with those alluring edges to it I'd come to cherish in memory...til now. I swallow thickly, but manage a smile.
"L-Luke?" I whisper, shocked to see the handsome face I'd lost once more, wearing a black gambler's hat and overcoat, giving him a downright alluring outlaw, casanova appearance. "Peter told me you were gone! He told me- -"
"I'm here now, Lizzie. Let's simply accept that, shall we?" He asks with an almost dangerous tone, and as he approaches, I notice beneath the rim of his hat...those golden eyes I'd been lost in just before losing consciousness. For some reason, asking if he was the one who kidnapped me seemed a bad move, so I choose another of my multiple questions.
"What's with your eyes?" I mumble without thinking. "They're, uh, different." The laughter I've only heard in my dreams for nearly five years fills my ears, even if it seems almost sinister and echo-y in...wherever we are. One odd thing I note is that he is careful to keep his teeth hidden behind his lips. Weird. Normally, he just laughs and lets his teeth show without a care.
"Oh, sweetheart, you ain't changed a bit." His hand gently strokes my cheek, down my jawline, before he bops my nose as he says 'bit'. "You grew even more radiant since I've been gone." I smile at the compliment. I can't help it. He had that effect on me.
"You've grown more handsome, too." I reply carefully. There was something odd about him, something...very different. He leans on his elbows to get closer and he breaths me in for a moment.
"Aw, hell, woman. I've missed you...so much." He breaths, still taking the sight of me in.
"I've missed you, too. Let's get out of here." I reply, leaning up to lay a sweet, chaste kiss on his lips. Something's wrong, though. He kisses back, yes, but carefully, as if he were hiding something in his mouth. Which is odd.
"Not just yet, angel." He replies smoothly. I frown, my gut squirming in unease at the hungry smirk he now wears. "First, you must taste something." I raise a brow.
"Can I do that without being tied to a stone table?" He laughs.
"Wit's just as sharp as ever, I see." He muses, shaking his head fondly as he continues to chuckle. "No, darling. You gotta be tied down for this. Oh, and here's something to bite down on, too." I open my mouth to protest, but Luke merely stuffs a wide strip of leather into my mouth, cutting off any protest I might have had. I grew steadily more frightened when the man I love leaned in, his mouth inches from my neck as his fingers softly, tenderly moved hair aside. Then, he put a hand on my shoulder. "This'll hurt, Lizzie." He whispers in my ear, with that unsettlingly hungry smirk still in place. He then makes a series of clicks and then I hear several somethings- -Vampires, I realize a horrible moment later- -hastening to answer the call as Luke closes the distance to my neck and bites- -yes, bites- -my neck! Then, all is agony and tearing flesh and more bodies than I can count, to the music of my muffled screams for what seems an eternity before- -"Enough!" Luke snaps. "We are not to kill her before she tastes the queen's gift." He soothes, wiping the tears, grime, and blood from my face and removing the leather from my mouth. I flinch away in fear.
"Wh-why are you doing this?" I sob, panting as the agony continues. "It hurts, so much!" He looks stricken, like he had expected a different reaction as he strokes my cheek affectionately.
"Oh, Elizabeth, every god needs a goddess."
"I don't understand, Luke." I retort, sobbing in agony again, tugging weakly against the bonds and away from his hand. "Luke, I...I can't breath, it hurts so bad!" He shushes me gently, smoothing the hair away from my face tenderly.
"It's alright, angel. All will be clear in a moment." He replies in a hushed, gentle tone one might take with a distraught child or a wounded cornered animal, removing my fresh tears. "Soon as the queen bestows her gift on you," He smiles, this time a true, toothy smile, grinning and gazing in wonder at something beyond my line of sight. I gasp in shock when I see inside Luke's mouth.
"Y-you're teeth!" I shriek. "Th-they're…" I can't bring myself to verbalize and confirm what my eyes are seeing. He continues to display them for a moment, proud of them.
They were pointed. Like a vampire.
"Yes, they are. Now here is the Angel of Mercy herself. My saving grace. Soon, she'll be yours, too." Before I can look or ask what is going on, Luke grabs my mouth and keeps it open that way, and I squirm in protest before something thick, warm, and coppery tasting falls into my mouth, dripping on down to my wounds, and I feel it starting to burn against the open wounds. Luke then forces my mouth shut and I squirm even harder as the stuff burns in my mouth.
Was it...blood? Had the man I loved just fed me blood?! Eventually, I have to swallow and I gag at the way it burns down my throat. Then, as my mouth is freed, I feel the burning go through my entire body. I grimace and cough up as much of it as possible.
"Luke, what was- -Agh!" There was another wave of utter agony and I scream again. In a moment, as if snapped back to reality from a bad dream, I was in no pain and I sat up, ready to laugh in elation for some reason. I felt...powerful, dangerous, and capable. More so than ever before. And I understood everything with a certain clarity.
Vampires were not to be hated and destroyed. No, no, no! You do not destroy such a pure art form as this, surely! No, it is to be protected, encouraged, spread. Everyone should feel this way. I want everyone to feel this way. I know now...I know why Luke had to do this to me. I'd have never agreed before this peace and clarity came to me from Her Majesty herself. I bow to Her Excellency humbly in thanks for her gift. She truly was an angel of mercy as Luke had said. Pity I resisted.
"Thank you, your majesty." I intone in utmost gratitude before she bids me rise without needing words. Our mission is clear.
Spread our gospel to the entire world. Become the tidal wave that cleanses the world. I look to Luke and he smiles.
"Good to see you again, my love." And I smile back as he hands me a change of clothes to fit my change in...everything.
I had now discovered my purpose in life; faithful service to my queen, the Angel of Mercy.
Nothing would stop me fulfilling that purpose. Nothing.