This story is set after DARK SLAYER, I have NOT read DARK PERIL yet, I didn't want to read it until this story was finished, I don't know what is going to happen in DARK PERIL, although I have been told a few details that I did snip into this fic piece - so WARNING there may a hint of a spoiler in this piece.
Adriana is my Character - her name googled in Romanian was Darkness, so I thought it apropos for this story. I DO NOT own Christine Feehan's DARK CARPATHIANS novels or anything to do with them. This story was written purely for pleasure, and my over-active imagination.
I am posting one chapter a month, as my muse has tendencies to up and fly on occasion, so I am trying to be fair and just. I have incorporated a 'Quote' into each chapter written on the DARK SOULS side of this piece, every character will make an appearance either in the story or the 'Quotes' I have written. The Quotes are not from any of Christine Feehan's books, they are purely mine and made up.
CHAPTER: 1/?
WORDS: 3341
GENRE: Paranormal Romance
POSTED: November 2010
Today is a most unusual day,
Because we have never lived it before;
We will never live it again;
It is the only day we have - Francesca Del Ponce
Darkness, it was everywhere.
No matter where you looked it blanketed everything in its colourless depravity. Sitting in the cold drafty corner of the small cell was a soul long forgotten by light and integrity. A soul left to rot in the confines of loneliness and hate. Wrists manacled her to the walls of her prison, coated in the blood of Vampires, burning her flesh. Burns scarred her from previous wounds to her wrists, legs, and body, her once porcelain skin now bruised and mottled from centuries of abuse. Xavier the Master Mage had kept her against her will, forced her to remain a prisoner of his distorted satisfaction.
Many occasions he had almost drained her of her lifeblood, torn into her flesh with teeth and gnarled nails that had yellowed over the years, only to leave her to suffer the pain of living through it, so he may misuse her once again. Adriana wanted to die. Adriana Manilov was a young child when she was told her mother was torn to shreds some seven hundred years ago. She was underfed, mistreated and tortured by the one whom held her soul prisoner. She remembered very little of her father, her life and her childhood, all she recalled was the pain, the loneliness and sorrow of not being permitted the embrace of death.
Xavier used her for his experiments, serums to pollute the blood, serums to poison her soul, throw her mind into chaos, anticoagulants that made the blood in her veins pulse at such a desperately slow rhythm that her heart stuttered under its onslaught. Nine-hundred and forty-eight breaths ago he injected her body with his latest serum, one to incapacitate the mind and body, one to stop her mental screams for mercy. Her body was numb, unable to move unable to feel, she felt like a cold slab of granite, unmoveable, unemotional, unseeing of anything but bleak blackness. Time moved differently for Adriana, there was no day nor night as darkness was darkness. Instead time was passed by breaths, heartbeats and blinking.
Her eyes once a bright golden colour, were now dull, all light sucked from her heart and soul. Adriana welcomed the call of death, the scent of it, the taste. They settled on her manacles holding her left side still and heavy, watching with sick fascination as she no longer felt the sting of the vampire blood they were covered with, but the skin still peeled away blackened and dead almost to the bone. Adriana inhaled the scent of her body, dying around her and thought about the softness the world should be outside her cold damp prison. She had not seen the light of day since Xavier lost control of her mind some centuries ago during the hunt, never seen anything other than the four stone walls since that day. Adriana wanted to see trees, grass, animals, anything; the idea thrilled her and terrified her equally at the possibilities beyond.
She lay there, slumped in her chains in a mass of body parts unable to sustain movement, she heard the sound of her heart beating, her own screams of torment echoing in her mind, pleadings for death, the sound of her breath stirring the dust motes in the air around her, then footsteps. Her skin began to itch, hair follicles rising in fear and hostility, as her Master and tormentor was approaching. More footsteps dragged behind; signalling the ghouls, the puppets that were lucky enough to loose all thought processes and feeling to be empty dead husks of themselves. A state Adriana wanted to be, if only to cease the pain and suffering.
The heavy wooden door to her cold cell had the magic spell removed, she watched with unblinking eyes as the shapes and patterns moved in varying shades of grey and silver into amazing patterns of beauty. Patterns she knew expertly, the patterns that were her existence, her imprisonment, the feel of the magic that burned her skin, the enchantments that warned her of impending malice. She was Xavier's undoing as well as his experimental toy, knowing him intimately, through his use of power. Adriana was no Mage, however her blood was mixed with Mage upon her captivity, she knew spells only from Xavier, and the minds she once connected with long ago before they too left her. Only a hundred years ago she had thought Lara was her companion, one that would never had left her to Xavier's cruelty, but she was wrong, as Lara disappeared so did the last shred of hope Adriana held onto. It was likely that Lara was one of Xavier's ghouls if she wasn't already dead.
The ghouls that were behind Xavier dragged their bodies towards her, Adriana inwardly cringed at the thought of them tearing into her flesh once again, their lips sucking at her blood in a frenzy. Instead they slithered past her, another body clutched in their possession being dragged mercilessly along the stone ground, a male with long hair, and a face drawn tightly in pain. She listened as his wrists were shackled much like her own, his hiss as the vampire blood covered metal touched his skin. "You were a fool to underestimate me Carpathian. I shall enjoy destroying your soul until you become one of my followers" he taunted in his beautiful voice, one that enthralled Adriana on many occasions. "You will become like her, my slave to my every whim" Adriana knew when Xavier had sealed the promise when the scent of blood filled the moist atmosphere, her chest heaved and shuddered at the scent. Her mouth salivated wanting to taste the hot blood that was spilling into her Masters mouth.
Five months this mission against Xavier had taken, the mission to locate his hideaway. Xavier had found a small cave in the Alpine Ridge Mountains, close to the main community of Carpathians in Romania. Hunters had banded together to bring Carpathian justice to the people that had felt Xavier's touch. The women were unable to conceive female children, their race was on the verge of extinction. It was by sheer chance, though too late for most of their males, that human women and those of Dragonseeker and Jaguar descent were laced throughout the world, and compatible with Carpathian males through psychic ability. However the news was too elusive for some who turned their backs on honour and integrity, on their people but most of all their Prince.
Zacarias De La Cruz, offered his services as his last mission to destroy the Dark Mage Xavier. The thought was frowned upon by his four other brothers, as well as most of the already mated males of his race. Zacarias had truly lost all hope, and had decided on a suicide mission to regain his sense of honour before he walked into the dawn and allowed God to take his soul to a place he would call heaven; a place of colour and emotion. With his iron will he put his campaign fourth to Mikhail, and awaited the permission much to his siblings dismay.
Mikhail as well as Gregori were displeased with his decision, but at two-thousand three hundred years Zacarias had held onto life for as long as he could. The beast was too close to the surface, one more kill would send him to become the very being he abhorred; the Vampire. It wasn't decided on the number of kills that made a Carpathian lose his soul to the undead, it was the desperation of wanting to feel once more, and it appeared the more they killed the more they began to feel, even if it was the momentary rush it caused. The taste of adrenaline soaked blood that flooded their mouths. Yes Zacarias was far too close to turning.
It had been difficult, tracing the Dark Mage as he made very little movement of his own. It was by sheer chance that a ghoul had wandered into a cave bringing with it an urn filled with Carpathian soil. Zacarias knew in his heart that the Dark Mage was brewing more hell for his people. It was unsettling to think that Xavier was so close to the Carpathian people and none of the hunters knew of his proximity. Searching into himself he made his body small, pulling his bones inwards smaller and tighter, shrinking to the size of a rodent. Taking the form of a rat was the easiest form to use in Xavier's domain, as rats were in abundance throughout the caves. Zacarias moved slowly forward, testing the atmosphere before venturing inch by painstaking inch towards his goal.
He passed no charms, no spell-weavings, nothing. It was at this moment Zacarias thought he was wrong about the location of Xavier's hole. He wandered deeper and deeper into the cave, making no sound against the reverberating rocks. The tunnel split into two long deep furrows one was a deep pit of shadowed darkness, the other held a dim glow of a candles flame. in the body of a rat Zacarias moved down the tunnel with the candles glow, his first mistake. He stepped upon a shadows spell, one that pulled the darkness from the opposite tunnel and wrapped his small body in its inky depths. Zacarias felt the pulling against his body as his bones and sinew began to reshape and reform, forming the male Carpathian, the dispenser of justice to be where the small rodent once stood.
The ground beneath him shook, the soil groaning and screaming in pain. Zacarias allowed his eyes to sweep the ground looking for a sign that an attack from below was imminent. However it was from above that the viper vines dropped and injected the venom into his body. It appeared to Zacarias that he had underestimated Xavier immensely, the entire cave was nothing more than a trap. Wrapping hands around the thick chunky viper-vines Zacarias pulled them off, their fangs ripping viciously at his body, he stood there phased as his body was becoming numb, as sensations of pulsing blood was running from his arms and legs. The feeling of his feet disappeared, his kneecaps throbbing against the sensation. Zacarias followed the path to his brothers, and all Carpathians he had shared blood with, only to find that the pathways in his mind were slowly fading away, being erased 'Hear me, I have wandered into Xavier's trap, I warn all hunters to avoid this area' the ice-cold chill that flowed into his mind told him all he needed. The connection to the Carpathians, to his brothers and their lifemates, their children, to the healer but most of all to the Prince was severed. Much akin to Jacques and Byron when they were betrayed by the Vampire.
Zacarias' body fell to the ground in an undignified heap, he could not shift his form to the winged Owl, to the bat, could not scurry like the rodent, nor lope like the wolf. Not even mist could form in his mind, Zacarias was grounded in his own body, and unable to call any form of his people to assist him. "You were foolish to believe that you, a single hunter could defeat me" Xavier appeared from the tunnel mouth at his back. "I have long ago favoured the darkness, knowing that light from candles flame draws you all to believe that is my location. Fool!" the ground shook and rolled as Xavier walked towards him, but Zacarias could move nothing but his eyes, so he stared deep into the silvered eyes of his target.
He pushed the thought of strangulation, of his hands wrapping around Xavier's throat and squeezing tight. Only hands wrapped around Zacarias' throat and began to choke him of his own air, cutting its path from his lungs. "Your Carpathian mind tricks will not work on me, I have immunity, anything you try to do to me, will only turn and attack you" Xavier crouched down in front of Zacarias looking into his empty black eyes "You're on the verge of losing your soul. How fortuitous for me. You shall belong to me, and I shall use you against your brethren" Zacarias wanted to rip his throat out with his bare hands, bathe in the blood of the Dark Mage that held his mind and body captive.
He felt as hands grabbed his body and dragged him through the darkness, down the other tunnel he had decided not to go through. Xavier walked ahead, sneering and muttering to himself, occasionally looking back upon him with a malice that could only be associated with taking out on every other Carpathian in the world, starting with the Prince. They stopped before a huge wooden door, Xavier's hands danced in patterns unlocking the safeguards that held the door locked. Was there someone else inside, another hunter lost to the evil of the Dark Mage?
Zacarias heard the stutter of another heart, another soul trapped by the Mage laying in the oppressive darkness that was a tomb. He felt the rage within him begin to consume his rational mind, how many hunters had been tortured here by this evil Mage? The scent of death lingered in the coldness, decay and rotting flesh were tangible, Zacarias felt the sting of Vampire blood coated manacles as they were affixed to his wrists, a sign that the numbness was waning. "You were a fool to underestimate me Carpathian. I shall enjoy destroying your soul until you become one of my followers" he taunted in his malicious tones, Zacarias believed that he was destined to be tortured until the beast within consumed his soul before he could greet the dawn "You will become like her, my slave to my every whim" Zacarias tried to see through the darkness, to see that the one whom he shared this crypt with was a woman. He felt when Xavier had sealed the evil promise when he felt a sharp rip at his throat, the feel of Xavier dragging his lifeblood from his veins. The scent of blood filled the moist atmosphere, Zacarias heard her chest heave and shudder, heard her sharp intake at the scent of his blood.
Having taken his fill of the rich blood of the Dark Hunter, Xavier turned to his other prisoner "I trust you shall get to know one another well, see he learns the rules, else you know the consequences" with that Adriana and Zacarias watched as the Dark Mage left. Sealing the door with the safeguards once more. Adriana remained still, slowing her heart and lungs to conserve her energies, she hadn't shared a cell in hundreds of years, the last was killed in a horrific fashion after disobeying the rules Xavier had instilled. Trina was a young girl from the village, one that was placed to sustain Adriana's life, when Trina attempted to escape Adriana had no other choice but to kill the girl before Xavier did. Adriana remembered punching her fist through the girls chest and extracted the still quivering heart. Before crushing the heart in her hand with no more force than a handshake.
"Do you have a name, so I might ensure your tombstone is engraved?" Zacarias heard her voice cutting through the darkness like a knife, thick with Romanian accent, throaty from lack of use; a bedroom voice. It made his insides heat at the thought, a feeling he had not experienced in too many barren centuries. "Zacarias" he answered. He wondered idly how long she had been here "Your name?" he questioned "You needn't know. I shall not be so foolish as to allow myself to be killed by your arrogance. I will kill you long before you have the chance to cause me trouble to my Master".
Zacarias heard her chains move along the stone floor, heard soft footsteps, like the soft sighs of a lost lover as she padded towards him "Let me see the wound you received, I do not like sharing my prison with a corpse." she snapped through the darkness. Coming closer to him. "It is nothing" Zacarias heard her growl in the shadows "you arrogant fool, it is not the taking of blood that will kill you. It is what Xavier places in your blood that is the ultimate suffering".
"You speak as though from experience" Zacarias answered interested in this woman. "You are Carpathian are you not? Have you not experienced numbness and immobility. The pathways to your people severed with an icy-chilled bleakness that leaves you empty and alone?"
He felt her hands on his skin, touching his biceps with gentleness her voice belied, the feel of her fingers on his skin sent curls of heat rushing through his body in answer. "You are Carpathian?" he asked needing to know how she knew of these damning feelings of mind and body. And if she were Carpathian Xavier would meet his death far more stringently than Zacarias had first thought to deal him on his escape.
"Flames of life, that encompass death
I call thee fourth with thine breath
Light this place of eternal tomb
Like spiders that crawl from mothers womb"
Small spiders flowed from the cracks of the walls lighting the crypt, flowing down the walls like living fiery blood. Zacarias watched with intrigue as they manifested themselves to the females voice and command, lighting the shadows to a mere dim glow, enough to see by. "Xavier has left parasites within you, they will burn you into madness" Zacarias heard her voice, but not the words, his heart stuttered on the woman before him. She was small and frail looking, covered in scars and bruises all over her body. She was manacled much like he was, the manacles chained to the wall behind her. Her skin was like soft porcelain underneath all the pain. Her eyes were golden in the firespiders glow, dulled through pain but nonetheless golden like the early mornings sun. her hair was dark like the night with a soft red glow from the firespiders, like a Carpathian woman, but there was a tattoo that sat upon the left side of her neck, that flowed to her collarbones and further down to her ribs; one of Mage creation, interweaving patterns that shone blue in the dimness as she called Mage powers to her bidding.
She wore bare rags, covering hardly anything of her lithe and small frame, her hands held more marks, like that of the tattoo at her throat, more designs, however were crimson in colour, like fiery flames licking at her skin, symbols of the Dragonseeker lineage on the backs of her hands. But prominently upon her waist from right hip to left were a pack of running wolves, each wolf black with a set of ruby eyes and blood red footprints promising retribution from the female that bore them. "What are you?" Zacarias asked, amazed. He could feel his emotions riding him, anger at her apparent lack of care, astonishment at the multitude of markings that covered her body, and a deep respect that she was the one to restore colour to his mind. "I am death to all races. I am the punishment to Mage, executioner to Carpathians, killer of Dragonseekers and soul destroyer of Lycans; My name is Adriana Manilov"