A Thousand Years (A Vampire Love Story) - 11

Chapter 11

Zane disappeared into the anti-room then returned to the balcony as the sky began to lighten ever so slightly. He had put on another jacket, a plain black light leather jacket that zipped up the front. He had replaced his boots with all black converse.

After several minutes, Bree followed him. She watched his back as he looked out to the sky. The stars were slowly fading. He had his head turned up to the heavens. His ebony hair moved slightly in the breeze and his shoulders looked small because of the spiked height of it. She couldn’t see him now as the same vampire that she saw him as only days before. Right now, watching him, he seemed so fragile. She knew he still had deadly power, but she no longer feared it as much as before. Somehow she trusted him when he told her that he would hurt her no more. Everything made sense to her now… Why he hated her. Why he didn’t kill her. Plus, he had told her everything, the secrets that only his family knew.

“Zane?” He didn’t answer her. She called his name again and once again he did not reply. She felt fear rising in her, maybe he regretted telling her his deepest secrets and was going to kill her now to silence her? She knew now the truth about his future, he would become ever weaker. If she told the humans, they would come in and kill him to keep him from ever having a child. There would be another war.

“Zane? Are you ok?” She walked up to the balcony’s edge close to where Zane stood. “Something’s wrong.”

Zane spun around on Bree. “Of course something’s wrong! Everything is wrong! You’re the only human I no longer hate and your blood is the most strengthening to me. I don’t want to have to feed from you over and over, it won’t be good for you. As I become stronger, you will become weaker. And then, one fine day, I will also begin to weaken without hope of ever renewing my strength, if only for a few minutes, and it is all over from there.”

“But until then, there is still hope.”

“Bree, please.” Zane looked exhausted. “Please don’t give me false hope. You could never love me. Look at what I have done to your friend. Look at what I have done to you! I’ve hunted you, tortured you, and injected my venom into you at a dose I had never used before. It is a wonder you are still alive.”

“Zane-.”

“Please, Bree. I need to rest so I can be ready for that damned birthday party my parents are putting on for me this evening. I have a smaller bedroom, I’ll sleep there and you can have my master bed. You can’t lie to me and tell me you aren’t tired.”

“I am tired. Tired of crying and hoping and then hurting when those hopes get shattered. I’m tired of everything, tired of life. I’m only one insignificant slave.”

Zane walked over to where Bree stood. He could see that her face glistened with new tears. When he faced her, he commanded her to kneel before him. She did, her face turned up to his. He reached out and put his fingers through her hair, caressing the softness of it. He cupped his hands around her face and beheld her innocent beauty. With his thumbs he brushed the tears from her smooth cheeks. “You are not insignificant. In this short time you have become more to me than you could ever know.”

Then he took her hand and held it in front of him. “But how can anyone human love me. How can anyone love this!” He then put her hand to his mouth and opened his lips, holding her fingers to his fangs so that she could feel them. His eyes became dark. Bree gasped as her fingertips felt the points of Zane’s razor sharp fangs. She looked at them fearfully, her mouth open. She tried to speak but nothing came out.

When Zane spoke again, his voice was dark and slightly angry. “Do you realize how many people died by me in the last thousand years? How many men, women, and children? Do you have any idea how much blood has passed through my lips, how much blood of others has coursed through my veins to give me life by their death?” Bree remained silent. “Do you have any idea, Bree?”

“It doesn’t matter now.” She tried to pull away but he held fast to her hand.

“I can still drain you. You could still become just another life that I destroy, just so that I can continue to move on through time.” Bree began to grow weak under his touch, his glare. “I ate mortal after mortal and never cared once about the effect it had on the lives of those that loved them. I drained each and every one, I heard their cries and pleas but chose to ignore them to the point where they meant nothing anymore. I didn’t have to live that way. I could have eaten and not killed. But not only did I kill, I made them suffer, and I enjoyed it! Why do you think I am the most feared vampire in this empire? Because I don’t care. I never was human so I have no feelings for humans. Other vampires can be mean, but they do acknowledge the pleas of their mortals. They take from them without killing them. Do you have any idea what I do with my blood slaves?”

“I – I don’t – know…”

“I chain them to a cold cell wall in the dungeon, cut out their tongues, and feed from them until I decide to drain them or they just die from the pain I inflict.” Bree flinched. “I am a terrible vampire, Bree. I am very powerful and extremely violent. Even if I could grow to love a human, there is no way one could ever love me!”

Zane dropped Bree’s hand and hissed at his own spoken truth. Bree did not move. Zane walked away once again and stood at the edge of the balcony. She watched him, the wind blowing his hair, his leather clad form leaning in defeat against the rail, his pale hands clearly visible in the light of the low moon. After several minutes she walked up behind him, hesitated with her hand raised, then rested it gently on his shoulder. He turned to face her and all traces of anger were gone from his face. His silvery eyes glistened in the light from the windows. Bree reached up and touched his face, her hand came away wet.

“I didn’t think vampires could cry.”

“They can’t. But I am half human.”

Bree knelt before him once again and took his hands in hers. She tilted her face back so that she could see him plainly. “Zane?”

“Yes?” He looked down at her.

“I know you can feed from me and not hurt me.”

“I don’t know if I can. What you are asking is a huge risk. I could end up hurting you again. I don’t want that to happen.”

“I trust you. I want you to try.”

“No.”

“You said yourself you need my blood. You will have to bite me again eventually. Why not now?”

Zane dropped her hands and commanded her to get to her feet. He walked around her so that he was standing behind her and he wrapped his arms around her, his hands holding her at the base of her neck. She put her head back, resting it on his shoulder, and he bowed his head so he could reach her neck with his mouth. She felt his breath on her as he spoke ever so softly. “Please forgive me if I hurt you.”

Zane then bit into Bree’s neck. She gasped at the suddenness of it, but the initial pain from his fangs piercing her gave way to a dull ache, and eventually all she could feel was the flow of her blood as it left her body. Zane drank from her as gently as he could, and released the good venom as he did so. Bree felt elated, and so close, so close to Zane, as if she were one with him. His mouth on her was cool and his gentle sucking was more like a caress. Her face had the look of rapture.

Then, her head became light. The extremities of her body began to tingle and soon became numb.

“Zane?”

“Hmmm?”

“I think you are taking too much.”

But he kept drinking in her sweet, empowering blood.

“Z-Zane?” When Bree began to panic, Zane suddenly released her. She wilted into him and he caught her.

“Bree! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to take that much!” Bree’s head rolled limply to the side as he picked her up in his arms and carried her into the castle. He felt so strong, so very strong. His head was clear, his mood was stable for a change. Bree’s blood was like a cure for him, of cure of everything bad. But every drop was precious to her now, and it was draining down the side of her neck, staining the lovely white nightgown.

Bree was pale, limp, and barely breathing. Zane hated himself for having done this. He didn’t want her to be just another human whose life he took. She was different. He wanted to give her life, if that were possible. And then he realized he could. He could save her life by making her into a vampire. But that would not satisfy the curse. She had to remain human for a while longer, and at this point he wasn’t sure that she’d make it if she did.

A Thousand Years (A Vampire Love Story) , © 2009 Hurricannah