The last thing I remember was running with Tristian down a hilly green landscape, spinning in his arms and running towards him as if he was the last person on earth. That's when everything went black. I was sucked into an eternal darkness and I didn't know how to escape it.
Open your eyes, I told myself.
Once I did, I didn't see light, well, not the bright, harsh light of a light bulb, but the low dimmer of a fire that was about to be burnt out. The rest of the area around me was pitch as night and it took a few moments for me to adjust my sight. Without moving and only looking around my immediate area I noticed I wasn't where I thought I was. This was some sort of hut. A wooden ceiling and hay that was stuffed into the cracks of the walls. The warmth of the soft fur on my chest that kept me warm. My hands pulled the animal blanket off me to revel I was dressed in nothing more than a plain white shift. My hair was longer, darker and braided high up on my head. Where was I?
The cot creeked as I turned and placed my feet on the cold baren floor. The fire that was dying was situated in the center of the room and several people were crowded close to it sleeping. A few young children and an older woman slumbered underneath a large plat of fur. I sat and stared at them all realizing that there was no sound other than the crackle of the wood in the hearth or the breathing of the young woman that lay next to me. I turned and tucked her in underneath the blanket as she tossed and turned on her side before settling back to sleep. There was a wrap hung on the wall above us so I grabbed it and pulled it around my shoulders.
To the right was the exit though there was no door, just an open flap of cloth that waved in the breeze. I quietly tip toed past the slew of people sleeping on the ground until I was out of the threshold and into the wilderness. At least, that's what it looked like. All around me were huts of similar size, there must have been about ten of them, all in a circle next to one another. A small village perhaps. A large fire roared in the center of the village and each hut had a long torch that burned outside. Just across from me was endless rolling hills and trees as far as you could see. Behind me was a long and winding river that snaked along the countryside. I looked up to see millions of bright specks that filled the sky. I had never seen so many stars in my life. You could see the Milky Way and it's rich colors of blue and purple that streaked the sky.
The air was crisp and fresh. A breeze lightly blew and sent chills up her legs. I looked down to see that I was still barefoot with no shoes. Where was I? What time was this? I didn't feel like myself so I turned and headed towards the river. I could see the shimmer and glisten from it's peaks and wakes from the breeze in the night sky. I could hear the sound of it rushing as I got closer to it's banks. That's when I saw him. On his knees looking up to a woman with long, wavy, scarlet hair, so long that she almost appeared to be naked in his presence. He grasped her thighs as he bent over with his head almost touching the ground.
"Silas, do you take this gift that I give you?" she asked.
"I do, I would give anything to protect my family," he answered looking up into her eyes. He was still the beautiful man I knew today.
"Then take this, drink and you shall be renewed with new strengths and no weaknesses," she stroked his face gently.
"I can protect my people?" he asked her as I continued to watch on.
"Oh most certainly," she smiled back at him as she turned, looked directly at me, winked and then faded out of existence. Silas sat there on his knees, confused with a bottle in his hands. He wasn't sure what happened to the woman or what to do with what he was given. He stood and started to walk, fumbling the bottle back and forth in his hands until he looked up the hill at me standing there.
"Sura?" he asked as he strode towards me.
"Sura?" I asked looking around seeing if anyone else was up and walking about. Seems I was the only one. "No, it's Anabelle."
He smiled, even chuckled a bit as he ran to me and pulled me into his embrace. He was warm and inviting. He was human. Obviously not for long. "Whatever name you call yourself tonight, you are my wife and I have just the thing now that will protect us all."
I looked at the bottle. It was made of a hard, red clay and the smell was strong of iron. Blood. It had to have been. Though I saw no cuts of where the woman would have drained herself, she still gave him a bottle of blood. This must have been how he changed. Or how I imagined it.
"Protect us?" I asked. "What do we need protection from?"
Silas touched my face gently, "Silly, Sura. Why, the great beasts that reside in the forest beyond. They have attempted to attack our village many nights now. We have eluded them so far, but we are not strong enough forever. This will help me in defeating them." He kissed me hard and then pulled away, pulled the cork out of the bottle and drank before I even had time to stop him. He smiled as he finished thinking he had won over whatever evil he was about to combat until he fell over.
Silas was coughing up blood and shaking profusely. I caught him as he fell and touching my hand his head, he was feverish and his skin began to burn. "Help!" I yelled hoping that anyone would come around, though the help that came was not what I would have expected.
I turned to see a large man, long flowing and very messy blond hair step out of a near by hut. He was wearing nothing more than deer leggings and barefoot. His chest was massive and muscular sparsely covered in light colored hair. Those emerald green eyes that I could never forget came towards us at an accelerated speed as he saw what I was holding in my arms.
"Sura, what' wrong?" he said as he looked down at his cousin.
"My name isn't...never mind. It's Silas. He drank something, possibly poison. He is coughing blood, shaking horribly and he's got a raging fever!" I explained as our eyes locked on one another. Even Julius's face was confused by our encounter as he looked at me with narrowed eyes.
"We must get him to the healer, quickly," he said as he took Silas in his arms, turning to look at me again and nodding for me to follow.
That's when everything started to dim again. My dream was changing. Of course I had to have been dreaming considering that I didn't know the full story of what happened to Silas when he was turned, I suppose that was just my imagination. Now, my nightmare really started.
I was blinded by the lights that were screaming towards me. Two large, round lights that came barreling towards my face and the sounds of screeching as they impacted. Rolling over and over, items flying in the air, screams filling the interior and white dust spraying everywhere. The first tree broke through the right side window as the vehicle turned over on-top of itself, crushing and braking the limbs into the driver's head. The second tree and a shrub broke through the passenger side, impaling on impact, my mother. The book that I had been reading flew up and hit me in the head as the car turned over once more and landed on it's roof and I was unconscious. The darkness swelled around me as all was quite, save for the footsteps that hurried down the bank.
"No, no, no," the voice mumbled as the door was being ripped from the car.
"Shit!" the voice said again as the car tilted a bit as if someone was climbing in.
I felt the force of the door closest to me being ripped open and a cold hand touched my face. "Oh, thank the heavens," the deep baritone voice said.
I felt one arm cradled under my head as I was wrenched from my seat, falling into my rescuers arms. I started to stir and I blinked a few times, not seeing who was the person who pulled me from the car that night. His tall features, the sharp angles of his face was all I was able to make out, except for the eyes. The beautiful emerald green of his eyes is what I remember the most.
"It will be all right young one, I have you," the soothing and calming voice told me.
I reached my hand up to touch his face, the smoothness of his skin while tears streamed down my face. "Jul.." I started to say.
"Shh, young one. Don't speak. You are injured. Let me help you before the police come," he said as he took his hand, bit into it and held it to my mouth.
I sucked down his blood and he moaned. "Good, good," he said as he held me in the tall grasses rocking me back and forth, watching my wounds heal.
"Now, open your eyes," Julius said, but it wasn't Julius's voice that I heard. It was a woman's voice. A seething and deep womanly voice coaxing me to wake.
I knew I was coming out of my dream when I opened my eyes to see fuzzy colors all around me. The crimson blob in my face with a darkness that surrounded it and a soft orange glow in the background.
"I think she is coming around," a hushed whisper said.
I tried to move my arms, but I couldn't, "Where am I?"
"Yes, she is coming to. Good, go get Tristian," the voice said. I recognized that voice. It was a voice I had not heard in months.
I paniced. I started to thrash and wiggle but it was no use. My legs and my arms had been bound out away from my body. I closed my eyes hoping that this was still just part of a bad dream until a cold, hard, slap hit my face.
"You will wake!" the voice of my enemy said as her sharp nails dragged across my face.
I opened my eyes to see no one other than Morrigan, staring down at me with her cold and calculating eyes that let me know I was in for some trouble.
"Miss me?" she asked.
I kept my lips tight and I refused to answer. The bed or table that I was laying on was lifted as if I was on a seesaw. I was lifted so I could see the room. It looked like a chiseled out cave with a roaring fire in the wall with a kettle burning over top bubbling with smoke and rancid smells. A body lay not far from the fire in a blanket from head to toe. Most likely a corpse of some sort. Now I was afraid. She was going to kill me this time and there was no saving me. I didn't know where I was and I certainly wasn't at home.
A woman I recognized, she was from the bar, the one that lashed out at me for practically killing her with lemon in her tea. She was dragging Tristian with her whose eyes averted mine. Guilty eyes. He didn't walk with struggle to follow her though she dragged him in front of me. He was reluctant. I knew why, because he was working with Morrigan and probably working with her the entire time. Now I felt fully betrayed. I looked up into his face to show him how hurt I was, that's when I saw that he was just as much a victim as I. I knew that Morrigan held sway over him, but that wasn't his fault. He had tried to fight against her. The bite marks on his arms, his legs and the scuff marks all over his face. He was in a brutal fight not long ago. Blood flowed down from his brow. "I'm so sorry, Ani," he said in a hushed whisper.
Tears leaked from my eyes as Morrigan began to laugh. Soon, she would have what she wanted and I'll be lost. Goodbye Silas, goodbye Julius, Portia and Ruben, the only other people that ever mattered in my life. I hoped that whatever Morrigan wanted to use me for that they would leave and be safe before the world came to an abrupt end.