Lord of Eternal Night by Ben Alderson

7

The wolf threw itself towards the girl, body melting in wisps of shadows made solid as it blurred through the air. In the brief moment I had fully glanced at her, she must have been no more than thirteen. A small, wiry frame but a face of determined fire.

There was no time for her to scream. That or she did not fear the unbelievable creature that attacked her.

In moments she was devoured in shadows as the wolf landed above her. Only then did she make a noise as her body hit the ground with a hefty crack. The wolf hardly flinched as her shriek split the sky.

Help her.The words were so clear in my mind. An urgent plea. I was frozen to the spot, watching as the wolf lowered its bared teeth, huffing its deathly stench across her face.

The creature slammed a paw upon her chest. The guttural breathless sound that followed sickened me as the beast slammed all air from her lungs. Her hands slapped at the dark paw, both no match for its size. Then she simply stopped as the shattering of bones sang into the night.

Now!

The thought was no longer a plea, but a command.

And my magic answered without further reluctance.

The wind went from still to screaming. A storm of powerful gusts that brewed around the gardens, whistling through trees and broken statues. My air was fearful of the stalking creatures — I sensed it as I willed for it to attack. The mighty force of conjured wind nearly ripped me from the ground as it barrelled into the wolf’s sides. I gritted my teeth, jaw clenched as I forced my energy into the element. My heart jolted with relief as the yelp of the whimpering beast sang a song to my very soul. Ripped from its prey, the cloud of shadow and fur was thrown into the night. A useless doll in the grasps of my power.

I wasted no time in moving for where the girl lay across the ground, the wind dwindling to the natural breeze it had been as I relaxed the leash on my power.

“Are you alright?” I said, breathless. I leaned over her, head snapping back towards the dark where the beast still cried and whimpered. My neck threatened to break as I looked from the shadows back to the girl. She was unresponsive, eyes closed and lips parted. I held a finger beneath her nose and felt the tickle of breath against it. She was breathing, but weakly. Her youthful skin as white as snow. I could not deny the small pulse that sounded beneath my touch of her wrist. Even in the dark my eyes adjusted enough to see the small rise and fall of her chest.

A string of profanities spilled across my mind as the whimpering turned into a growl and grew closer once again.

I faced the dark and the hidden creature that lurked within it. A scowl pinched across my face.

Hands readied at my side, I willed the wolf to strike.

“Come on!” I shouted, body tensed, a wall of flesh and bone between the beast and the girl. “Give it another try. I dare you.”

Deep, guttural growls responded and more wolves of shadow stepped into view. Each lowered their bodies close to the ground. Ready to strike.

Wind raced around me. Fire warmed beneath my skin. “At last, a fight.”

One of the larger beasts shook its mane of shadow and snapped its jaws. It seemed to be a signal as the pack of wolves split and raced for where I kept crouched above the young girl.

My skin burned as the fire beneath my skin itched for release. But as my scream tore out of my throat, yet another shadow joined the chaos. It landed between me and the racing beasts. Pure white hair glowed among the night, body broad and arms wide as though he would simply catch them as they pounced.

Marius.

I could not see his face, not as he screamed towards the pack of wolves. He was bent low, hands curved in a claw-like motion as he gave a single, never-ending screech. I let go of the elements, clapping my hands over my ears to block out the horrific sound.

The very night seemed to shake around us.

I watched in… awe as the wolves dispersed into the night. Each whimpering as they ran, tails between their legs.

Their fear mixed with my own as Marius snapped around to us. His eyes glowed the same red as the beasts he had frightened away. His mouth was split, unnaturally, exposing the lines of spittle connected to his white, pointed teeth.

I could not catch a breath as I looked up at him.

“What have you done?” he growled from the pits of his stomach.

“I didn’t — I was…”

“She knows not to leave the path!” he snapped, gaze flaring with anger. “What have you done!?”

Refusing to look away, no matter how I wished to, I seethed my response, “I was not to know.”

In a blink he was before me, teeth mere inches from my eyes. “Get out of my way. Now.”

I could not move fast enough, flinching as Marius lifted a tensed arm to push me himself.

As he hovered over the girl, his entire demeanour shifted. His body softened and his shoulders lowered. With a long sigh, he scooped her small frame into his arms without much of a thought.

“If she dies…” Marius did not face me as he spoke. But I heard as his voice hitched. “You will soon follow her.”

Helplessly I watched as Marius carried the young girl back towards the castle, her pale face resting against his chest. I could hear him whisper to her, but only a muttered sound. I made out not a single word he said.

Did he see my magic?The thought sickened me, but soon melted away as I caught sight of the limp arm of the girl he carried. Guilt fuelled me to get off the floor and follow after him. Slow, sloppy. Mother’s voice filled the darkness of my mind.My pace only urged to quicken from the fear that the strange creatures would return for me.

Marius did not complain that I trailed after him. He knew I was behind him from the subtle glances over his shoulder. I half expected him to scream at me to leave. But he didn’t.

I stayed on the stone path through the gardens, not deviating from it, heeding the warning the young girl had said to me before the creature had hurt her.

I was soon thankful to be back in the castle with the door shut behind me, leaving the reaching mists and moving shadows behind lock and key.

Marius took her to his room. The one I had woken in this morning. I kept my distance as he entered, laying her across the freshly made bed.

A bed I did not make upon leaving the room earlier.

“Will she be okay?” I asked from the corner of the room as Marius ran his hands across her. He did not reply. He carefully pulled at the cords of the dark corset she wore, revealing the top of her chest.

Even from my distance, I could see the dark bruise that had already bloomed across her skin.

He released a breath, one that whistled through gritted teeth. “Broken ribs. She will survive and you… you may live to see tomorrow, Jak.”

“Can I help?” I stepped forward cautiously. “It is my fault.”

I said it because it was true, and it would have been what he wanted to hear. In truth I did not care for his reaction, but it was clear she meant something to him. And such things become weapons in the right hands.

“Pray tell, what can you do to relieve the pressure her broken ribs are currently causing as they press on her lungs? Do you harbour such power to heal her?”

I harboured power, just not the kind that could heal. Bowing my head, I kept quiet, watching from the corner of the room as Marius moved into action.

He rolled the loose sleeve of his shirt up to his elbow, brought his own wrist to his mouth and bit into his pale skin. My stomach twisted as I watched on. Beneath his lips blood spread, dripping down his chin as he lowered his hand towards the girl’s parted mouth, not caring about the drips of ruby that splashed across the white sheets.

He cupped a gentle hand beneath the head of the young girl, lifted her up ever so slightly and held his bleeding wrist over her mouth. My stomach coiled in revulsion. To watch on as his life force fell like fat drops of rain across her paling lips. As if she registered it, her mouth parted, and her tongue slowly unfurled outward to catch the blood.

It was an innocent action, one a child would make during the first rains of spring. Catching the fresh drops of water and drinking from the clouds themselves. But this, this was wrong.

“I smell your disgust,” Marius muttered, lowering the girl back onto the pillow. He pulled a laced cloth from his breast pocket and wiped at the blood across his wrist. “Remember it would not have been required if you had not caused this. Be thankful I have the means to help her heal. For your sake.”

I closed my gaping mouth shut and tried to clear the revulsion from my expression. “How was I to know that those… things would attack us? It would not seem a handbook is provided upon arrival to this haunting place.”

“Blood hounds,” Marius said, ignoring my jibe. “Creatures of shadow that hunger for the same thing as I. Now you know, so keep away.”

“Noted,” I snapped, glancing at his now clean wrist to see not a single mark upon his skin.

He followed my gaze and lifted his wrist up. “Miraculous, isn’t it? How a curse can hold such… beauty. My blood has healing properties and keeps me sustained for years but can also heal others if ingested.”

I could not answer. It was far from miraculous, but also far from anything Mother or the coven had warned me about.

“Who is she?” I asked, happy to change the topic.

Marius took his time rolling down his sleeve and buttoning the cuff.

“And you believe you deserve an answer… as if she concerns you?”

My face warmed. “It is a simple question. I know you have people living in this castle. I spoke with one. Is she your… servant?”

“She is no servant of mine.”

“Then what?”

The corner of Marius’s ashen lips curved into a smile, one of intrigue. “I have never been fond of questions.” His sudden laugh bounced across the stone walls of the chamber. “And I have never known a Claim to be so… intrusive. Let me assure you, Jak, there is no living soul inside this castle. She —” he waved to the girl on the bed behind him “—simply visits as did her mother and her mother before that. How else am I supposed to keep in touch with the ever-changing world?”

A shiver spread down my arms. He had an informant from Darkmourn. I looked back to the girl, the traitor, unsure why I did not recognise her.

“And what is it you care to know?” My question escaped me before I could think. “Why do you care what happens beyond this place when you know you can never leave?”

Unless I fail.

Marius silver brow lifted, arched above one eye. “Do not mistake my want for knowledge as caring, Jak. I simply need to know what changes. Because one day, long after you have been drained upon your final night, I will find a way out of this forsaken cage. And when I do, I will be ready for what waits beyond.”

“You are confident I will let you feed on me?” The hairs on my arms rose. That part of his curse I knew well. How he would fall into a bloodlust rage — not satisfied until every drop had been devoured from his Claim. Mother told me a story of the first year the curse was laid upon him. It was the one and only time he ever left the body on the boundary of the estate.

Hollow and empty.

He never again gave back the bodies of those he had drank from after that.

“I do not need confidence, Jak. It is inevitable.” He traced a finger down my cheek, the nail a hairbreadth away from scratching my skin. “You are the Claim. It is your duty.”

Before I could speak, the girl on the bed spluttered a cough. With his unnatural speed he left me, hovering over the girl as her fit of hacking coughs dissolved the heavy tension.

“Steady, Katharine, slowly,” Marius cooed. “I have got you.”

She pressed a hand to her chest and her coughing soon settled. And I noticed the lack of bruising that had not long covered her skin beneath her fingers.

“What happened… what? I did not leave the path.” She spoke fast, her panicked words broken and rushed.

“I know… you did not.” Marius cupped a hand to her check. “That was the fault of another.”

Her head snapped to me. I expected a growl, but her chestnut eyes only widened. There was a part of me that recognised her, now that I saw her beneath the firelight of the burning candles in the room. And that unnerved me.

I readied myself for her to tell Marius that I was a witch. That I had magic and that was how I helped her. An ancestor to the very woman that laid the curse upon him. Upon us.

But Katharine’s words shocked me. “Do not be angry with him.” Her voice was small, but full of strength for someone of her young age. “Since I am still breathing, he must have saved me. The last thing I remember is the blood hound atop me.”

Marius stared at me, eyes squinting. “He did?”

I looked to my feet, clenching my shaking hands into fists. “It was nothing.”

“Do not be shy now, it does not become of you.”

“I pushed it off her,” I forced out the lie.

“You pushed a blood hound?”

I nodded, fearful that another lie would only make it obvious. “It was crushing her so I did what I could.” I caught the gaze of Katharine who, unblinkingly, stared back at me. I did not drop her stare as I spoke on. “It was my fault she left the path after all.”

“Then I must apologise for my reaction,” Marius drawled. “Katharine is very dear to me. I merely acted in a manner I saw fit. Please give me and Katharine a moment. I fear we have much to discuss and would prefer you not to be involved.” He smiled, slyly.

I bowed my head, stepping backwards towards the door.

“Jak,” the small voice called out. Raising my chin, I regarded the young girl. Katharine. “Do not stray from the path. If you enter their domain again the blood hounds will have a vendetta against you.”

“Why?” I questioned, hand hovering over the door handle.

“Because you prevented them from a meal,” Marius answered. “One never forgets that.”