2 comments/  19152 views/  9 favorites

The Darkness Beyond Ch. 01

By: fieryjen



It had been a most uneventful night, Cian noted. He was sitting on the windowsill, his back leaning against the sturdy wall. He was safely hidden somewhere between the curtains waving lazily in the slight breeze and the solitary candle casting confusing, dancing shadows on the walls. 

Besides, if Cian didn't want to be seen, he wouldn't be. Not that it mattered. 

He cast his eyes down at the couple fucking on the bed by the far wall. His friend Briar, who knew perfectly well that Cian was here. And the girl he had picked up, who would soon be dead. 

The girl's hands wormed themselves tightly into Briar's ash blond hair and she pulled him down for a kiss. Briar groaned as he thrust hard inside her, continuing the assault on her cunt that had begun quite a while before. Cian turned up the corners of his mouth; who would have thought Briar was in such a good shape? No wonder Meraja fucked him so much. 

Cian felt a small twinge of regret as he thought of his former lover, her angelic face flushed and head thrown back in ecstasy. The way she had looked when he had first caught them in bed together, a few years ago. The way she had so often looked when Cian had bedded her. He wasn't a sore loser by any means, but he still missed fucking her sometimes. Like right now. 

The girl's moan brought him back to reality. Briar was still riding her hard; he had brought his hand down to her clit and was stroking it furiously. His other hand was busy pinching her breast and keeping her still. She was actually quite pretty, Cian realized, with creamy white skin and long silky black hair. Her long legs were wrapped around Briar's waist, and the red flush on her skin was turned into a soft glow by the candlelight. One of her nipples was an angry red because Briar had bitten it just moments ago, but now it was merrily bouncing up and down with its partner. 

Cian watched it with fascination for a moment, taking in her shapely curves. He liked her breasts, definitely more than a handful there. Her curvy ass was planted firmly on the bedsheet now, but Cian had seen it earlier when she had knelt in front of Briar, incidentally giving Cian a perfect view of the area between her legs. It was a pity, really, that Briar wouldn't let her live to see the morning. 

Cian could see that the girl was close now, and by Briar's moans, he could tell that his friend was as well. He leaned forward in anticipation as Briar tried his best to time their orgasms perfectly, a trick Cian had actually taught him a long time ago. The girl finally started to shake frantically, head tossed back and eyes squeezed shut. Her nails clawed into Briar's back, marking the blemish-free skin. She moaned again and Cian could see the orgasm ripple through her like a tidal wave. Now, he thought. Now.

And as if he had said it aloud, Briar groaned and started to pour his release inside her while his hand pushed aside her head to give him access to her neck. She spasmed right when he started to sink his teeth into her and he didn't meet his mark, but it didn't matter, it was close enough. Cian licked his lips unconsciously as he imagined how her blood must taste right now, freshly after her orgasm. He had tasted this sort so many times but it was still different each time, each girl had her own unique flavor of endorphin-enriched blood. But each was delicious and unmatched. 

The girl screamed now, not in pleasure but in pain and panic. Her arms flayed to the side and she thrashed wildly, not that it would have bothered Briar. He was too busy sucking in the essence of her life, his hands with years of practice keeping her still enough to continue his drink undisturbed. 

There was a flash of silver and orange, and suddenly a sound Cian couldn't identify. It took him a few seconds to figure out what had just happened, and his eyes widened in surprise. 

The girl had managed to grasp the steak knife that had fallen from the table earlier and had landed right by the bed. Now, it was lodged firmly in Briar's back, her shaking hand still clasped around the handle as his body convulsed on top of her. Cian tried to estimate the angle and to figure out if it had hit his heart, but he couldn't be sure. Ironically, it had been Briar that had made the knife fall by pushing her against the table earlier, after they had eaten, too busy bending her over and sliding his cock inside her to care about fallen silverware. The irony seemed to be lost on both participants of the act though, since the girl was still shaking with shock, and Briar had a knife sticking in his back and wasn't moving any more. The girl's hand finally came off the handle, and she struggled to lift Briar's head away from her throat, an act made difficult by the fact that his fangs were still firmly lodged inside her. Once she accomplished it though, the girl managed to push the large man off her body, turning him over in the process, and when Cian saw Briar's face, it became obvious to him that his friend was dead. His eyes were wide and his mouth open, grimacing in pain, though frozen in its motion. Blood was splattered all over Briar's face, making him look all the more demonic in death. 

The girl weakly pulled herself up, grasping a napkin from the table and pressing it against her bleeding neck. She started to crawl towards the door, dragging the blanket with her and moaning in obvious pain, but halfway there managed to pull herself up on a chair and walked the rest of the way, doubled over, blanket wrapped around her. 

Cian simply sat there until she was gone. He was still somewhat stunned by the events that had just passed, surprised that she had even mustered the force to stab him, and even more so that she seemed to have managed to hit his heart quite by luck. He considered mourning for his friend for a moment, but then decided against it with a chuckle. Briar's betrayal had been too recent to waste any thought on him in death. Cian would have to tell the others and collect the essence, that was the only thing of importance right now. 

Maybe not such an uneventful night after all, he decided, and leaped out the window. 



The Darkness Beyond Ch. 01



"I'm really tempted to shoot you in return, you know," he informed her. "It fucking hurts."

She didn't answer, but looked up at him with a hateful look in her eyes as he examined his thigh. The wound had already started to heal, although some blood had dripped onto his cloak. He winced as he moved the leg onto her arm to control her more efficiently. 

"Well excuse me for not wanting to die," she finally spat. He backhanded her and she was silent, but still glaring at him. Cian quickly considered his options, realizing that he would either have to bind her or incapacitate her in some way. 

"You don't happen to have any rope, do you?" he questioned, and she struggled to move her hand under his, successfully managing to show him the finger. 

Sighing, he raised the gun and aimed, striking her neatly across the temple. 



The Darkness Beyond Ch. 02



Hannah Simmons woke with the worst of skull-splitting headaches she had ever had. She kept her eyes closed for a moment, willing down the searing pain behind her eyes. Then, she opened her eyes. And closed them again right away. 

Fuck. She remembered now where the headache was coming from in the first place, that bastard, Cian, had struck her with her own weapon. She tried to move carefully and found that both her hands and legs were bound, and her whole body was securely tied to some big object that seemed to be made from stone, like a pillar. She was also still wearing her pajamas. She was hurting in several places, but her head was the part of her that felt like it would explode any moment. 

"I know you're awake, so you can keep your eyes open," she heard Cian's voice. She blinked a few times and her eyes promptly began to water, but now she could see Cian sitting on the stairs to her left. He was wrapped up in his cloak and gave her a blank stare. 

"That hurt," she told him, rather belatedly, and the corners of his mouth turned up slightly. 

"I sure as hell hope so."

"Sadist," Hannah accused him and his smile widened. 

"What is your point?"

She gulped and shut her mouth, staring at the concrete floor. He was starting to scare her a bit. Considering the events of the night, it was really a surprise to her that she wasn't much more frightened than she was. She was sitting here with a vampire, an associate of the man she had killed only hours earlier, and it seemed that he and his fellow vampires, who had yet to show up, were planning on killing her before too long. She was tied up pretty securely, she noticed when she tried to move her wrists. Cian apparently knew what he was doing. 

Her glance moved back over to the man who had captured her, and she looked him over more than superficially for the first time. 

She was shocked when the first thought on her mind turned out to be that he was good-looking, although definitely more than a bit intimidating. He wasn't taller than average but he seemed strong and lithe enough, with pale skin and short hair that was either a very light brown or a very dark blond. The light was dim and she couldn't make it out exactly. What she could make out, however, were his piercing green eyes.

The room didn't appear to have any windows, its grey walls ascending far higher than an ordinary room would have warranted. The only light source was a couple of lit torches, one right next to her captor, the other to her left. There was barely any furniture. The floor was even only in the middle of the room, where Hannah was sitting, and turned into several sets of uneven stone stairs rising toward the edges. 

Hannah started when she heard steps come down one set of these stairs. A woman was approaching them, a tall, beautiful creature with long, fire red hair, translucent skin and a look on her face that should by rights have killed Hannah. The woman walked quickly right past Cian, who seemed too surprised to take action, and lunged herself at Hannah. 

Hannah screamed as the stranger started to claw her face. Pain shot through her, originating at her right cheek, and she tried to avert her face as the woman called her a bitch and a whore over and over again, now choking her as well. The woman was in tears and seemed near hysteria, screaming in frustration as Hannah felt the newcomer's weight being lifted off her chest. She looked up to see Cian hold her in a death grip, dragging her over to the other side of the room where he slapped her twice across the face and ordered her to sit down. The woman spat at him, but Cian didn't seem to care about that. He said something to her, so quietly that Hannah wasn't able to make it out, and the woman seemed to calm down. She was still sobbing slightly, but she stayed put now and Cian made his way back over to the stairs, where he sat back down and caught sight of Hannah's face. 

"That," he explained, "is Briar's lover. Meraja."

"Ah," Hannah said uncomfortably. 

Cian grinned. "I don't think she likes you."

"It would appear so," Hannah answered dryly. She leaned her head slowly back against the stone, her eyes darting back and forth between Cian, Meraja and the entrance to this place. She had no idea what lay behind the dark rectangle that Meraja had walked in through, but she was willing to bet that it was not the outside world. At least, not right away. Even if she somehow managed to get out of the rope that bound her, an escape wouldn't be guaranteed by any means. 

Another cloaked figure appeared in the doorway, but this one walked slowly and seemed to have no intentions of attacking Hannah as well, she noticed with relief. It was a slender young man, his silver blond hair gleaming as he stepped into the light cast by the torch. Cian only acknowledged this newest arrival with a short look to the side, but the newcomer didn't seem to be bothered by this. He strode down the steps and in a circle around Hannah, studying her. 

"So this is the girl that killed Briar?" he said loudly. Cian looked up, a tired look on his face. 

"Yes it is, master of the obvious," he stated and shook his head in obvious disgust before letting it sink back down. The boy didn't seem bothered by that reaction, but much rather encouraged, and he came closer to Hannah. 

"Not so tough now, are you?" he asked, stepping over her legs and bringing his face close to hers. "Thought you could kill us, you little bitch!"

His hand flicked under his cloak, and the next thing she noticed, he was pressing a knife against the portion of her throat not covered in bandages. The sharp blade moved once, and Hannah could feel something wet running down her throat and chest. The boy ran one of his fingers down her skin to catch it, and she could see her own blood for a second, before he opened his mouth and suggestively started sucking on his finger. Hannah stared at him. If he was trying to make her uncomfortable, he had most definitely succeeded. Voices that were getting louder made her head turn automatically, and she winced as the blade cut deeper. A whole group of people had arrived, all of them clad in long, black cloaks, and some of them seemed to be arguing. One woman with dark, crazy eyes and short unkempt hair simply stared at Hannah, making her even more uncomfortable, if that was possible. 

"Adrian, what the hell are you doing?" someone yelled, and the boy hastily withdrew his knife, much to Hannah's relief. He held it behind his back for a moment, but when a tall, dark man started to move in their direction, Hannah saw him drop it in one of his pockets before he retreated into a corner. The new arrivals settled themselves around the room, and a tall, slim woman who looked to be about seventy, the oldest of the bunch as far as Hannah could tell, approached Hannah with a reproachful look in her eyes. 

"So that's the girl. Do you know yet if she has the essence?"

"She does." Cian closed in from behind, gun in one hand. 

"Your proof?"

Instead of an answer, Cian raised the gun and shot Hannah in the leg. 

There was a moment where she felt nothing, but then the pain was so sudden and blinding that she forgot everything but it, and a piercing scream escaped her, turning into shaky sobs after a few seconds. There seemed to be a peculiar numbness crawling through her entire leg. When Hannah forced her eyes open to look at it, she gasped. The wound, a neat hole right above her knee, had already begun to close, her blood appearing to boil shortly before vanishing and leaving unblemished skin. 

"Good," the woman nodded and let one of her hands glide into a fold of her robe. When she withdrew it again, she held something delicate made of glass in her hand. It glittered in the torchlight, and it took Hannah a few seconds to recognize the pyramid shape. Instinctively, she knew that its purpose was to capture the essence she now carried within her... the reason why she would die...

This thought jolted her mind out of the pain-induced haze like a slap in the face. She twisted her wrists, hastily trying to free them from their binds. When the woman carried the pyramid carefully to a location behind Hannah's back, she realized that she would not have enough time. She heard a weird, grinding sound and felt nails scraping across her scalp before her hair was grasped and her head was pulled back roughly. 

"Wait a minute."

It was Cian's voice, sounding very calm and collected as he approached. Hannah's hair was released as she heard the woman behind her sigh. 

"What's the problem now?" 

"Well I just figured," Cian started, kneeling before Hannah and stretching out one hand, "if she has to die anyway, I might as well get a few minutes of fun. Besides, she shot me twice when I went to find her. I still owe her one. It'll be a waste if you kill her now." His fingers grabbed her chin, despite Hannah jerking her head to the side to avoid the touch. 

"You're kidding!"

The voice came from behind her as well, but Hannah didn't need to turn to remember who it belonged to. Meraja, the lover of the one she had killed. 

Cian looked up and past Hannah, faint amusement visible on his face. "No."

"That bitch needs to rot in hell, and I want her there, now!"

"Ah, you've never understood the subtle joy of slow torture, Meraja." 

Cian drew his fingers slowly along Hannah's jaw, unnerving her. Suddenly, she felt the cold, hard mound of the gun on her throat, and she flinched as Cian's hand tightened around the trigger. He didn't pull it though, and Hannah was suddenly strangely aware of each breath she drew.

"For crying out loud, hurry." The woman behind her didn't seem to care for Cian's games, but she didn't interfere. The mound of the gun moved lower, between Hannah's breasts and further, across her belly. She squirmed uncomfortably as a grin spread across Cian's face and her eyes widened as she realized the meaning of the look in his eyes, a split second before he pulled the trigger. 

She couldn't even scream. 

Hannah couldn't draw breath or even move as she waited for the pain to hit, her body shaking with shock. What should have been excruciating was only a small sensation at the edge of her awareness. Then the sensation changed.

She just sat there, mouth open in a silent scream as wave after wave of pain finally washed over her. Something shattered, and there was an actual scream, but she didn't notice. She was too preoccupied fighting the overwhelming nausea, straining against her bonds with her eyes tightly closed and her face screwed up in pain. 

Finally, she was able to draw breath again. She felt her own body complete the healing, an odd sensation that seemed to draw from her strength and left her shaking and bathed in sweat. She coughed hard, each time flinching from the pain it brought her, and finally opened her eyes again, expecting Cian's sadistic face to be smiling down at her. Instead, she looked at chaos. 

Something had appeared in the middle of the room, a hole that opened into a dark dimension, blurring and distorting the room at its edges. It seemed almost as if it had forcibly grabbed hold of a corner of reality and refused to let go, pulling a small part of the real world towards itself. Hannah was dizzy after staring at it for only a moment, and when she turned her head away from it, she noticed that it seemed to have an effect on everyone else in the room as well. 

They were deadly afraid. 

All of them were clinging to each other, staring at the distortion in terror, or alternatively pacing the circumference of the room, and after a moment, Hannah understood why. The hole was moving. 

Towards her. 

Hannah struggled, making one more completely futile attempt to escape her bonds. She had no idea what this distortion would do to her, or where it was coming from, but simply looking at it scared the living daylights out of her. There was nothing she could do but scream, until she felt someone move behind her.

"Oh, for fuck's sake!" 

She felt the rope that tied her to the stone being cut, then Cian lifted her up and dragged her backwards, until they were in a corner of the room. He cut the rope around her ankles there as well, but left her hands tied behind her back, roughly grabbing her shoulders to help her to stand upright when she stumbled. 

"What the hell... is that thing?" 

"A portal, I assume," he answered, not taking his eyes off the dark distortion. 

Something hit the wall next to them. Hannah turned just in time to see the woman with the crazy eyes hurl another stone at the portal, this time actually hitting the dark distortion. The stone was swallowed up and vanished, and the woman picked up the third stone, undeterred. 

"Satne, stop it! You're going to hit one of us!" the slender, silver haired man yelled across the room. As an answer, the disheveled woman -- Satne -- threw the third stone right at him, and he ducked at the last moment. The two eldest vampires had taken their places at the only door of the room, ready to bolt at any moment, but also dead set on not allowing Hannah to escape. 

"Why is it here?" Hannah asked while her heart seemed to continue its beating in her throat. The distortion, and the weakness she still felt from her body's use of her new healing ability, left her deeply disturbed and shaken. Cian's hands on her shoulders felt strangely reassuring, and at the mere thought of anything about that monstrous vampire being reassuring, Hannah felt nauseous. 

"Damned if I know," Cian replied to her question. "I've never seen one before. Someone must have called it, but nobody here did." He started inching to the right as the portal drew ever closer, tugging Hannah along with him. Hannah didn't like that too much and tried to wrestle herself from Cian's grip, but he grabbed her shoulders so hard he bruised her. 

"Don't be stupid. I'm not going to push you in, you know."

"How do you know nobody here called it?" Hannah asked in a desperate attempt to manipulate him. "Those two by the door seem an awful lot like they're not going to let anyone out of here. Never thought they might want to kill your sadistic ass?"

Cian only snorted. "Nice try Hannah. It takes a ritual to call a portal. You didn't see anyone here waving around incense, did you?" He pulled her further to the right, and when Hannah looked back at the portal, a new idea entered her mind. What if someone was trying to help her?

Obviously, the vampires had not called the portal, and they were scared. Maybe someone outside the room had, either to panic the vampires, or... to rescue her. Someone who didn't like the vampires for some reason. Maybe someone would come out through the portal at the right moment. 

Or maybe she was supposed to go in.

Her eyes widened when she realized how logical that sounded. A portal popping up in the exact moment she was meant to die couldn't be coincidence, especially if Cian said that they were a rarity. 

"Move."

The older woman by the doorway yelled that order, and the vampires, who had tentatively begun to move up the stairs and towards the door, sped up. The portal sped up as well, following Hannah's movement as Cian pulled her with him. She took a deep breath, not daring to look directly into the dimensional distortion, and steeled her mind against the horror that overtook her at the thought of even getting one step closer than necessary to it. As Hannah and Cian reached the bottom of the stairs, Hannah still facing the direction of the portal, she stumbled over the bottom step, and when she slipped from Cian's hands for only a split second, she bolted forward. 

"Oh no you don't!" was all she could hear from Cian as the lithe vampire lunged after her and tried to grab hold of her arm. Hannah screamed and pulled away, throwing herself towards the portal as Cian tried to get a hold on her. He finally darted forward and wrapped his arms around her hips, lifting her, but they were too close now. Hannah felt a strange force beginning to pull on her body and knew she was being sucked in. The less she resisted, the more powerful that force became, and although Cian was still trying to pull both of them away with all the force he could muster, the portal overpowered him. 

Hannah felt herself pulled into all directions at once, stretched and compressed at the same time as darkness overtook her. She made a small sound as her lungs were crushed and the air escaped her, and her arms flailed wildly in a half-panic as the gate took her wherever it was designed to take her. When the pressure finally became too much, she felt herself beginning to faint once again, despite her desperate attempts to stay conscious. 

As she finally slipped away, she was aware of only one thing: Cian was still holding on to her. 



The Darkness Beyond Ch. 03



Cian was starting to get sick of being in pain. It had happened entirely too often in the last twenty-four hours, and it was starting to piss him off. He inflicted pain, he didn't receive it. His entire body was throbbing and aching, and his vision was slow to return.

He tried to move. It didn't work well at first, but as the feeling to his limbs returned slowly, he made progress. His hands scraped across the concrete floor as he pulled them underneath his body, and at the same time, he felt something moving underneath his cloak. 

He grabbed Hannah's wrist reflexively, but the girl was just as fast. She pulled away, slipping from his grasp, and took her weapon with her. He rolled over and lunged at her from his lying position, causing her to lash out with it. Cian felt more pain as the metal collided with his cheekbone. His vision faded as his head fell back and hit the concrete. He gasped as he tried not to faint again and stubbornly blinked his eyes until his vision returned. 

"Hey," he said in a rather raspy voice, and the word was followed by a cough that shook his body and hurt his throat. "Truce, okay?" He managed to raise his head slightly in order to look at Hannah, who was huddled against a bare concrete wall, pointing the gun at him once again. She looked scared as hell. Cian lowered his head carefully back to the floor and coughed again. 

"Look," he said, staring at the ceiling of the room they were in, which was also bare concrete disturbed by nothing but a naked light bulb distributing dim yellow light. "I think you are going to need me to get out of here." His knowledge of the place they were at was almost as limited as hers, but he could not let her find this out. If he let her get the impression that he was useless to her, she might think it safer for her to kill him. He really didn't like the look of things right now.

"I am?" Hannah asked, and when Cian raised his head again, he noticed that she was in mild shock - pale, dazed and shaking, her eyes unfocused. He sighed and snapped his fingers in her direction. 

"Look at me," he ordered, "and take a few deep breaths. You need to snap out of it." She obeyed, and he was glad when he saw her lower the gun and click the safety back on. He was starting to feel better as well; his body was healing itself rapidly. When he tentatively sat up again, his head was spinning only slightly. 

"Where are we?" Hannah asked timidly. She was brushing her long black hair out of her face and looking around with an expression of confusion and fear. He wasn't surprised, since she had no idea what was going on. He had drawn his conclusions by now, and he considered how much he should tell her, since this was the only card he could play at the moment. 

"Somewhere in the Lost City, I would imagine." He didn't elaborate, but left her to puzzle over this cryptic bit of information while he carefully got to his feet and looked around. The room they were in was concrete on all six sides, and there were no visible doors or windows. Cian was slightly disturbed to notice that. The two of them, and the light bulb, were indeed the only things in the room not made of concrete. 

He walked over to a wall at random, and started running his fingers along the concrete, trying to find ridges, bumps, or other telltale signs of a hidden door. Hannah watched him for a while with an expression of confusion on her face, before she seemed to notice the fact that she was doing it. He watched her blink twice, reminding him of an owl. She forced herself to her feet after a few seconds, then went to help him explore the walls of the room. 

There didn't seem to be anything to find though. Cian started to grow frustrated as he finished with the third wall and still hadn't found anything that would help them. He stepped over to the wall Hannah was searching and was just about to stretch out his hands and help her when she removed her fingers from the wall hastily and stepped back. 

"It's vibrating!"

"What?" he asked, surprised for a moment, before he went and touched the wall himself. Hannah was right. The concrete had started a deep vibration. Cian couldn't tell what caused it, and so he stepped back as well and eyed the wall with some suspicion.

"I need to tell you something," he said, resigned. "If we really are where I think we are - this place isn't exactly... normal."

As if those had been the magic words, the vibrations grew suddenly so strong he could see them, and he hastily retreated to the other side of the small room, pulling Hannah with him. This turned out to be a very good idea, because not a second later, something came bursting through the concrete.

The two of them were showered with small pieces of wall, and Cian turned his head away reflexively as he closed his eyes. Hannah wasn't quite as fast. She yelped in pain and touched one of her eyes with the fingers of one hand. Instead of worrying about her, Cian turned back towards the wall when the pelting of small pieces of concrete ended, to see what in the world had just broken through there.

The view was grotesque. The thing reminded him of a badger, only much bigger, and colored a little differently, mostly mud brown. Then there was the minor matter of the steel claws the animal -- if that's what it was -- possessed, and the large metal antlers that grew out of its forehead. Cian took another involuntary step back, his body now tense with anticipation, and felt the wall at his back. Hannah, by his right side, was giving the creature a wide-eyed stare. She had obviously reached the limit of extraordinary encounters she could take for one night. 

"When I tell you," Cian instructed her quietly, hoping she would listen, "move slowly to your right, along the wall. Now!"

Hannah obeyed him blindly, inching away from him, while he tried to keep the creature's attention on himself by waving his arms around. He started moving to the left, and the creature followed his movement with its head, just like he wanted it to. Finally, when it had taken an tentative step in his direction, he turned his attention back to Hannah. 

„Run," he advised her, and she scrambled to get past the badger-like animal and through the hole it had created. Cian jumped at the same time. The animal's antlers missed him by mere inches, since it had apparently decided at that very moment that it was tired of waiting. While it crashed into the wall and tore another large hole into the concrete, Cian caught up with Hannah by the first hole, pulling her along with him as they stumbled into the next room together. It turned out to be a long corridor with creaking floorboards. The two of them made their way through it at a fast pace, and when they had reached the door at the other side, Cian turned and promptly froze. 

The hole that they had come through had closed. 

There was nothing to prove there had ever been anything but solid concrete wall there. No marks showed the passing of the large creature that had attacked them. Still, he didn't think they were anywhere near safety yet. 

"Move," he ordered Hannah and opened the door, following her through it. The room they were entering now was very much like the first one they had awakened in, with the addition of several large holes in the walls. Next to him, Hannah had had enough.

"You have a lot of explaining to do," she said weakly and sank to the floor. She looked completely exhausted, and Cian almost felt pity for her. 

Almost. 

"I'm not going to do it just now," he replied and crossed the room. He picked a hole at random and climbed through it, satisfied when he heard Hannah get up and follow him. The room he entered this way looked just like the last one, but standing in it, he could feel a light breeze on his skin. As Hannah entered through the hole behind him, he was already moving on, trying to find the path to the outside world. 

Whatever that world looked like.

It took the crossing of a few more rooms to get there. Hannah was scrambling to follow him as he climbed through hole after hole, guided by the feeling of the air brushing past him. Finally, the current of air grew stronger, and Cian made his way through yet another hole just to freeze as he noticed that the far wall of the room he was entering simply didn't exist. Instead, the room opened to the view of an endless city of grey, tall, seemingly deserted buildings, interlaced by paved, empty streets. The sky was almost entirely dark grey, with the exception of the horizon, where something emitted a faint, reddish glow. There was no sun or moon, nor any stars visible. 

"This is crazy," Hannah whispered behind him. He turned to see that she had sunk to the floor once again, completely overwhelmed by the view before her. Just as well. He needed some time without being distracted to figure out how to escape this place anyway. 

Cian stepped forward, carefully peering over the edge where the floor seemed to suddenly stop existing. They were at least eight stories up, and there was no visible way down. When Cian turned, he noticed that the hole they had come in through had once again grown shut, leaving them no choice but to attempt the descent. 

"Now that we have some time and a view, maybe you'd like to finally explain some things to me?" Hannah asked. She had taken out her weapon once more, pointing it at him. 

Cian groaned when he saw it. "Oh, come on."

"This seems to be the only way to make you talk, you know," Hannah replied, not moving. Cian sighed and moved from his position, sitting down where he could have a reassuringly solid wall at his back. He really didn't fancy getting shot again. 

"As I said, I assume that this is in fact the Lost City. I'm pretty certain actually, since we got here." He made a vague hand motion towards the city. 

"And what is the Lost City? Where is it?" Hannah asked. Cian shrugged.

"Where, I can't really tell you. In an alternate dimension somewhere. But I know what it is, and you're not going to like it."

She only raised her eyebrows at his dramatic pause. Cian contemplated for a moment how to best phrase this bit of information, but then decided for the direct approach. 

"This is where we originally came from," he explained. "The vampires. This dimension is... it used to be full of demonic creatures, and a few of them figured out how to conjure portals to Earth. That was a long time ago, and we're not sure what exactly happened, but..." He scratched his head. "You can see the place now. It's deserted, or at least it appears to be, except for some bizarre... things. It's dangerous here. That's why my kind doesn't call portals anymore, because we decided not to come back. It's not safe here even for us."

"And yet, we're suddenly here." Hannah bit her lip, obviously suppressing something. "How?"

Cian shrugged once more. "I can only speculate. I know none of the others called the portal, and we don't know of any other vampires left on earth. Only the nine of us. But maybe we're wrong. Or maybe..." He glanced up at her, not liking this new idea. "Maybe there's another way. Maybe it was you. You do have the essence after all. But I doubt that's true."

"Maybe you shouldn't..." Hannah began, but she was interrupted when suddenly, the entire building shook. 

"What in the world?" Cian heard her ask, astonished, but by this time he was flat on his belly, peering over the edge.

Something was moving down there. He was up high enough that all he could see seemed like a blur of the air, but there was definitely something. He narrowed his eyes, trying to get a better look, but then something heavy suddenly landed on top of him. 

He got the wind knocked out of him quite effectively. First he thought that it was Hannah who was assaulting him, but then he could hear her frightened scream, somewhere in the background. He twisted, and something cold grabbed hold of his arm.

His eyes widened when he could finally see his attacker. It appeared to be the shape of a person, but made of something that seemed like liquid glass, or smooth, hard gelatin. He could see the distorted walls of the room right through the thing.

It also appeared to be extremely strong. Cian wrestled with it, trying to free the arm it had pinned, but unable to do so. Finally, he heard a shot being fired, and witnessed a bullet going right through the creature's head just a split second later. It exited the see-through mass unharmed and unslowed, and vanished into the open air. 

"Don't waste your bullets!" Cian yelled, and finally managed to free his wrist. He backhanded the creature, which had absolutely no effect. Cold, slim fingers wrapped themselves around his throat, choking him. He gasped, tried to twist away once more and finally managed, narrowly avoiding falling over the edge as he dragged himself away from the creature. When he glanced down, he suddenly felt sick to his stomach. 

What he had thought looked like air distortions were in fact more of the eerie, glassy creatures. They had been on the street when he had last seen them, but now they were moving up the wall with astonishing speed. It wouldn't be long until they got up to where he was laying, and he couldn't even handle one of them. 

He rolled away when he felt the cold hands touch him once more. The creature's grasp slipped, but it lunged again. Cian ducked, then thrust out his hands when the creature was in midair, pushing away the slippery, cold body. The creature was flung through the air, far away from him, towards the city. He wondered briefly if it could survive such a fall. 

He felt a hand wrap itself around his ankle, and reflexively kicked out. A glass creature recoiled as he hit it, but then lunged forward again, and Cian stumbled. While he was still trying to escape the creature's grasp, a second one threw itself on top of him, and Cian wasn't able to stop it from also wrapping its arms around his throat. 

More hands held him. He had no idea what had happened to Hannah, but sensed that she wouldn't be of too much help right about now. He tried desperately to escape his attackers, but there were too many hands, much too strong for him, and his vision started to blur as his lungs ached for air. 

He couldn't see the creature on top of him any more, it was too see-through and his vision too faint. He heard a hissing noise, and thought it was him, struggling to breathe. Then, it was as if waves were splashing all over his body, as if he were being submerged. It was a rather pleasant sensation, and Cian stopped struggling as his consciousness finally gave way to nothingness. 



The Darkness Beyond Ch. 04



She was submerged in darkness. She was conscious, but she couldn't see, or feel anything. There was just soothing coolness, silence, and pitch black night. 

Suddenly, there was something. A tingling in her neck, and then the sickening sensation of not being in control of her actions, of her body being taken over by some other being. She moved without wanting to, powerless against whoever had taken over her physical self. But without warning, there was someone else.

She could smell the scent of male sweat, and a second later unwillingly opened her eyes to take in the dark, olive colored skin of the other. He was naked, she noticed with mild surprise. 

There was no talking, only the feeling of being lifted upwards and then sinking down onto the other. He had soft, tempting looking lips, and she kissed him without thinking, running one hand through his long, black hair. She tasted something on his lips that she couldn't identify, but it only served to heighten her lust. He responded fiercely, rolling on top of her and pressing himself against her. His breath tickled her throat as he kissed a trail down to her shoulder, then came back up to slowly suck on her earlobe. She could feel his hand move down her body and between her legs, could feel herself getting wet at the mere touch. 

She could hear the one with her moan when his finger dipped into the wetness between her legs, and she involuntarily reached down for him. He was hard and ready, but at the same time he felt like living velvet. She wrapped her hand fully around him, encouraged by the small noise he made, and could feel his finger slide further into her at the same time. Silky black hair brushed over her face when he moved to kiss her again. 

His other hand reached down to join the first in pleasuring her. She moaned when a second finger entered her, carefully exploring her depths. 

"Oh, please," she whispered, then sighed contently when a third finger entered her. His dark eyes looked into hers for just a second, then he removed his fingers and moved into a better position atop her. 

She spread her legs automatically. He rubbed sensually along her thigh, leaving a slight wet trail as he moved towards her center. They kissed again, this time for long as their tongues toyed with each other and he slowly parted her folds. He slid inside her almost too quickly, making her gasp, but the pleasant sensations soon overshadowed the initial feelings of discomfort. He was big, warm and pulsating inside her, eagerly thrusting deeper. 

She welcomed him, thighs wide open, arms wrapped around him. His pace quickened soon, he was getting more and more aroused, and suddenly, something inside her shifted, changed her feelings for the worse. She felt no longer aroused, but bloodthirsty. 

She wanted him to die. 

Yet, she let him fuck her, watched as his eyes glazed over slightly, as his face contorted in pleasure. Then, when he was close, she offered him her neck and guided his mouth to the soft, inviting flesh. As she felt the teeth puncture her skin she had the most dreadful feeling of déjà vu, but at the same time she couldn't stop herself from doing what she felt she had already done. The knife materialized in her hand as if by magic, and as his body spasmed in orgasm, she thrust it into his body right below the ribs. 

This time, she could feel the exchange of something that reluctantly left his body and was absorbed by hers. It was like a pulsating, glowing thread of energy, a promise of power and strength. 

But then, she felt another part of her pulled away, and she screamed as all sensations faded and she was once again left in the darkness. 





The Darkness Beyond Ch. 05



He was perfectly aware of the presence that entered his mind when he was prone, but he wasn't able to fight it. It was just there, sitting in his brain like a parasite and mocking his efforts to rid himself of it. He shuddered, hating his helplessness. His hands were clenched into fists, but suddenly, they relaxed and opened without him allowing them to do so. His eyes closed and remained that way. The parasite had taken over control. He wanted to scream, but even this was not allowed by the parasite. Instead, he felt a body being flung at him, and hands clawing at his face. 

He grabbed the wrists and pinned them down without thinking, laying his weight on the other body to still it, and noticed he was naked. So was the woman beneath him, who was still fighting him. All he could feel was his skin on hers. 

"Shh," he whispered, and felt himself grow hard surprisingly quickly. He felt her spit in his face, but he ignored it. When her body continued to fight his, pressing against him in the process, he simply grunted and worked to part her thighs with his. He could only take so much teasing. His cock was throbbing painfully by now, and knew he needed release. He could still feel the parasite in the back of his mind, but satisfying his need had taken precedence over fighting the other presence. 

He tried to take both of her hands into one of his to hold her down, but she was surprisingly strong. He finally just rammed a shoulder into her, knocking the wind out of her, and gained a few valuable seconds. As his hand wandered down her body, he noticed crusts of what he assumed to be dried blood, and when he scratched at them, he could smell the metallic scent he knew so well. He found her cunt under a mess of tangled hair, his need too strong to be turned off by any of this. 

When she started to move again, he entered her, fast. He could hear her gasp and then scream again, moving her hips to meet his thrusts. He gave a triumphant groan and rode her, knowing he wouldn't last long, but knowing just as certainly that they had to orgasm together. He worked hard at it, finding her clit under the tangled hair and pinching it. She seemed to like it, bucking her hips again before he felt her long nails claw his face. He ignored her. 

Finally, he simply couldn't hold back any longer. To his horror, he felt compelled to tilt his head and allow her access to his neck, something he had never done in his life. When she sank her fangs into him, he suddenly felt the bloodlust too, even as he poured himself into her. The knife that materialized in his hand served only to cement the decision, and he rolled over onto his back, taking her with him, and stabbed her in one fluent motion. 

She convulsed on top of him, and he could feel something being sucked out of her body and entering his. It was the strangest sensation, and suddenly, he was disgusted by the smell of filth that emanated from her body. He dislodged her fangs and pushed her limp body off him, just when he noticed that the parasite was leaving him. It took whatever he had just received from the woman with it, and left him laying there, alone and shaking. 





The Darkness Beyond Ch. 06



Noor stood in front of them very suddenly, and Hannah jumped when the woman bared her teeth at them. 

"We must keep moving," she said, her voice unusually deep. Hannah turned to Cian, who had fallen asleep in the middle of the street, and shook him gently. 

The vampire's eyes opened very slowly. Hannah understood he was exhausted, probably even more so than she was. Cian groaned when he recognized Noor and Hannah, and he got to his feet sluggishly. 

"Did you dream again?" Hannah asked, and he shook his head mutely. 

Noor tried to get them moving again with urgency, pulling first Hannah and then Cian along by their arms. Hannah assumed that this meant they hadn't left danger behind just yet, and she soon found her walking rhythm again, staring blankly ahead as she tried not to think of her exhaustion. 

The street was turning again now, leading away from the grey buildings again. Hannah was glad to leave the creepy city behind her, even though the surroundings didn't get any more cheerful. They were surrounded by dark hills of volcanic stone, and once in a while, they encountered dead, charred trees. 

"What will you do when you get back?" Noor's voice suddenly cut through the silence. Hannah chewed her lip and thought. That was a good question. The answer depended in part just what place they would return to, and if she had a weapon when she got there. 

"I'm going to find out who has been hunting my kind, and kill them," Cian replied to the question, matter-of-factly. 

"Why would anyone collect essences?" Hannah wondered aloud. Cian gave a short, bitter laugh at her question. 

"You of all people should know. You've got one. Suddenly you can heal and do all kinds of other neat tricks."

"I didn't ask for this!" Hannah defended herself. 

"No," Cian replied, "but someone else might."

Hannah lowered her eyes as she considered his words. What he said made sense. Someone else was after the vampires' powers, and she had inadvertently found a way to get them. That didn't mean it was her fault the attacks were happening, but she still felt guilty.

She checked her feelings just as she had finished that thought. This was insane. There was no way she should feel sorry for the death of the creatures who had tried to kill her, who killed innocent people every day. Yet she did, and that made her more than just uncomfortable. She really needed to get out of this strange place. 

"How long is it until we arrive at wherever we're going?" she asked Noor. The woman turned towards her. 

"We'll rest soon," was all she said. 

At this point, Hannah was starting to become more concerned about food than rest. Her stomach had been empty for a while, but now, it was starting to really hurt and she could feel the lack of energy acutely. 

She froze when she heard the sound of water. She hadn't dared ask Noor for a drink, especially after she had found out that the water was needed to repel the Thuarins -- the glass creatures. If there was a river nearby, she might be able to satisfy at least one of her needs. 

Cian seemed to think along similar lines. His eyes were darting around the barren landscape, as if searching for the source of the water. When they reached the top of yet another hill, Hannah finally discovered it. 

A small river ran along the bottom of the hill, appearing black because of its volcanic bed. When they got closer, Hannah could see the rock through the clear water, and she sighed appreciatively. Water sounded very good right about now. 

"We will rest here," Noor told them, dropping her three packs. Hannah ignored her and knelt down by the river, ignoring the rock digging into her skin as she scooped up a double handful of water and brought it to her mouth. Cian did the same next to her. The water was cold, with a slightly metallic taste, but Hannah was too glad just to have something to drink to worry about details like that. 

Once her thirst was stilled, she untied her pack and spread out the blanket it contained. Just like the ones she had used before, this one was thin, tattered and stained, and it didn't look like it would offer much protection from the rock. 

Cian's blanket fluttered down on top of hers, and his cloak followed a moment later. Hannah gave him a thankful look, but he ignored her and went back to the river, splashing water into his face. Hannah shrugged and lay down on one side of the blankets, too exhausted to contemplate his odd behavior. She was asleep just a moment later. 

The presence entered her mind faster this time, almost as if it remembered the way in and had left the back door propped open. Hannah protested, but the presence silenced her and she complied. As last time, darkness surrounded her. This time, it didn't give way to reveal another person close to her, however, but Hannah was simply left to sit there in this bizarre dream, listening to her own heartbeat. 

The waiting was tiresome, especially since she knew what would happen. When the darkness around her finally parted, she lifted her head, just to realize that she recognized the silver-haired boy that was now laying next to her. He looked younger than she was, maybe twenty years old, though Hannah knew by now that he was likely much older than that. He was the one who had held a knife to her throat. 

He still had the sadistic look in his eyes, and Hannah's consciousness screamed in frustration and horror when her body bent down and her lips covered his. 

His hands buried themselves in her hair and he pulled it, hard enough to cause pain. Hannah tried to scream, but the only thing that escaped her lips was a sensual moan. Her hands suddenly developed a life of their own as they moved across her body, cupping her breasts and pinching her nipples. He watched her with desire in his eyes. 

"More," he whispered, and Hannah parted her legs and ran her hands up her thighs, spreading the folds of her sex for him to see. He bent forward, licking his lips, and two of her fingers entered her tunnel, while another slowly rubbed her clit. She threw her head back, disgusted at herself, but also no longer able to ignore the feelings of lust that spread throughout her body. Her legs were spread further as the boy leaned forward, pushing her fingers aside, and started to lick her sex with broad movements of his tongue. She moaned, entranced.

He moved further up her body, grasping her hands and pinning them. 

"Slave," he whispered with gleaming eyes, and Hannah realized that this was indeed true, at least until the entity that controlled her body decided otherwise. 

He thrust a finger inside her, moving it rapidly. Another joined it for several seconds, before he pulled both of them out and pressed them into her mouth. Hannah licked them greedily, tasting herself. He smiled at her, looking smug and superior, and pulled his hand away, dragging the fingers over her skin and leaving a wet trail. She moaned again when he moved them back between her legs, this time thrusting a third finger inside her. He pulled her up until she was in a kneeling position, riding his fingers and grinding her hips against his arm. A fourth finger probed her other hole, which under normal circumstances would have more than disconcerted her, but now she simply groaned and lowered her body, causing his fingers to slide deeper into her. His other hand was busy pinching her nipples, and even the pain added to her arousal. She knew she was dripping wet and ready for him, but he did not seem ready to take her just yet. 

He withdrew his fingers, making her lick them clean once more, and pulled her by her hair until her mouth was over his hard organ. She took him between her lips, sucking and licking, until he pushed her further and she slid down his organ, choking. He kept her there while she gagged, and he groaned as the spasms of her throat massaged him. When he finally let her come up for air again, he rubbed the head of his stiff pole against her cheeks, then pulled her up until she was straddling him. He guided her hips, and she eagerly lowered herself, not able to protest when she felt to her horror that he was pushing against her sphincter. 

She imagined she heard the presence in her mind chuckle as her body took the organ, as she let him spear her without having control of her body. Her anus burned and twitched, but still she rode him hard, waves of pleasure overwhelming her once more. He used his hips to push her upwards, fucking her with fast, hard strokes. Hannah wished she could slap the self-satisfied grin off his face, but instead, she found herself moaning more and more, turned on and begging him to continue. 

After several minutes of this, her riding him hard, he finally pulled out of her. Hannah brought her hand down and started to finger her now sore and loose anus for his viewing pleasure. She slid two fingers inside it, watching as his gray eyes lit up and he started to stroke himself furiously. He knelt in front of her, his eyes fixed on her fingers in her anus, and finally ejaculated. 

Hannah could feel the liquid hit her breasts, her stomach, finally her face as he moved up and aimed. She opened her mouth and the next spurt landed on her tongue. She swallowed, her hands moving up and massaging her breasts, rubbing the warm fluids into her skin. 

He was still hard, and he entered her sex just a moment later. Hannah moaned as she took him in, and he furiously fucked her, choking her in the process. He pinched her nipples so hard she wanted to scream, but instead she could feel herself starting to come. He followed just a second later, his fangs sinking into her breast as she felt him twitch inside her. 

She would have used the knife on him even if she had been in control of her body at this point. She felt a sense of relief when she noticed it materialize in her hand, and for the third time she stabbed a vampire in the heart, feeling as he twitched, then went limp above her and his essence started to flow into her, filling her with energy. 

As fast as it had entered her, the essence was pulled away again by the presence inside her. Then the presence vanished, the body above hers vanished, and she was left alone with feelings of lust filling her to the brim, leaving her sex drenched and her clit pulsating longingly.



The Darkness Beyond Ch. 07



He recognized her scent, and the feeling of her hair dragging across his chest before he even opened his eyes. She was laying on top of him, kissing small trails across his chest, and he sighed contently when he finally looked at his former lover. She was beautiful, her red hair surrounding her face like a halo of fire, and her green eyes looking at him intently, waiting for his reaction. He sighed and stretched out his hands for her. 

They kissed for what seemed like forever. His hands wandered across her body, brushing the tips of her breasts, sliding over her curves. When they finally parted, he took a long look at her face, something which he hadn't done in a very long time. She was still heart-achingly beautiful, her sensually curved lips shaking ever so slightly in arousal, her green eyes looking at him, dazed. 

He knew her body well, and his hands reached between her legs with certainty. She moaned as he worked his magic, rubbing her clit and fucking her with three fingers. She threw back her head, red hair flying, and he smiled at the sight. He had missed this. 

"Yes," she moaned, "Please... please!"

He guided her hips to his waiting cock. He was hard, had been since he had sensed her presence, and he couldn't help closing his eyes in enjoyment when she finally mounted him and he felt his cock sliding up and inside her. They both moaned, kissed some more, and he helped her keep the rhythm of her slowly grinding hips by moving his alongside hers. 

"I missed you," she whispered, sucking on his ear, and he could only groan in agreement. He moved his hand between them once more, he could feel himself getting close and he didn't want her to think he was being egoistic. Her face flushed when he pinched her clit over and over again, expertly inflicting just the right amount of pain for her to translate into pleasure. As her moans became high pitched and he could feel his release flooding her, he offered her his wrist without thinking. Only when she sank her fangs into him and he felt the knife in his other hand did he realize what was happening. 

"No!" he groaned, but the parasite in his mind, whose presence he hadn't noticed until now, took over his actions and plunged the knife into his lover's body, slipping it just under the ribs and into her heart.

Her green eyes were wide, staring at him, not understanding. He knew he had betrayed her, just like she had betrayed him all those years ago, but what he had done was a hundred times worse. 

"I'm sorry," he whispered as she slowly slumped, the life leaving her and her essence slowly surging up his arm. He wondered faintly why he cared so much, and then he felt himself plunged once more into the darkness as her body vanished from his sight. 

"No!" he cried, reaching out for her and feeling only emptiness. 





The Darkness Beyond Ch. 08



Hannah blinked sleepily as her mind detangled itself from a fluffy, hazy nothingness. The gray sky was still there, and she could feel the rocks digging into her back, but her head was comfortably propped up. She saw Cian's face looming over her and blinked sleepily, trying to make sense of this. When she finally remembered bits and pieces, her hand shot up to her neck, but she couldn't find a wound.

"You healed," Cian told her, his voice strangely shaky. Hannah looked up at him again, not understanding just exactly what had happened between them. She could feel his thumbs stroking her shoulders reassuringly. 

"You should probably drink something," Cian told her. "And take some iron supplements when we get back to Earth. Here..." 

He helped her sit up slowly, and Hannah felt a sickening lurch of her stomach. When the nausea had passed, Cian handed her one of the metal bottles, and she started to drink. She finished half the bottle in quite a short time, aware that there was a lot of liquid she needed to replace. 

"I know there probably isn't a really good time to ask this," Cian said, "but I was wondering who you dreamed about?"

Hannah shuddered when she remembered. "That sadistic kid. The one with the silver hair."

"Adrian." Cian exhaled audibly. "If we hurry, we might be able to save Aurai."

Hannah looked at him. "What do you mean?"

Noor told me who is doing it," he explained to her. "Lizanne, our matriarch. She is possibly getting help from Coram, they have been lovers for a long time. Aurai is still alive, everyone else has died." He shook his head. "I still don't quite understand it."

"Why she is doing it?" Hannah asked.

Cian shrugged. "Power. All my kind strives for, really. Noor told me some things. She... she used to be one of us. Lizanne sent her here by accident when she was experimenting. Apparently she's been trying to rob us of our essences for a long time, and you finally gave her a way." Cian rubbed his temples. "She must have been overjoyed when I told her how you did it."

"So they slept with Adrian and the others?" Hannah asked. "Is that... customary?"

"That's the thing," Cian said, staring blankly. "I think they used us for that."

"What?" Hannah frowned. "How in the world do you figure that?"

"Because Meraja told me that she missed me," he said. "I was in my own body, it wasn't Coran or Lizanne that she was sleeping with. It was me, and she knew that. When I killed her..." He paused, and Hannah lay her hand on his arm reassuringly. 

"I felt like I betrayed her," he sighed. "She looked at me like... in this way that she would never look at Coran, or anyone else."

"I'm sorry," Hannah said. This obviously was painful for him, and she wasn't sure how to react. She touched his shoulder comfortingly, but after several seconds pulled her hand away. 

"Cian?" she whispered. "What the hell is happening here?"

He shrugged, disconcerted by her show of affection. "I don't know," he said, sighing. "I just don't know."





The Darkness Beyond Ch. 09



Cian woke up when he felt Hannah shift in his arms, snuggling more deeply into her pillow. He carefully detangled his arms from hers and climbed over her, out of bed. She reached out for him just when he thought he'd managed not to disturb her. 

"Don't go," she said. 

Cian stared at her reaching hand for a moment, trying very hard to swallow all of the emotion that was overcoming him. These feelings of caring and longing were unfamiliar to him, and he wished they would cease. He couldn't think like this. He couldn't get Hannah out of his head, and it was driving him crazy. 

"Stop," he finally whispered, if to himself or to her he wasn't sure. He pulled away, and her hand slipped back down onto the blanket. There had to be a way to clear his mind, and to prepare mentally for what lay ahead when he returned to what was left of the coven. 

Cian paced through the apartment until he reached the bathroom. A cold shower might actually do him some good, he decided, and was busy turning on the water and shedding his clothes just a moment later. When he first stepped under the ice cold-cone of water, he had to grit his teeth, but after several seconds his body adjusted to the low temperature. He shuddered, then started to wash himself and to think. 

Aurai was the only one left that he knew he could trust. Coran was so close to Lizanne that he might well be aware of her plan, maybe even helping her attain her power. All the others were dead. He wondered if Lizanne was aware he had come back to this dimension, but if she did, she was patiently waiting for him to find her instead of making a move while he had slept. The best thing for him to do right now was to feed, and then to find Aurai and make sure she told him everything that could be of use to him. 

He left the apartment soon after. Hannah had not woken up again, which was probably for the best. He couldn't concern himself with her now. He needed his mind to be clear. As of right now, he didn't have a clue how he could even stop Lizanne and Coran. The essences they had collected so far had probably made them much more powerful than he was. 

It was broad daylight outside now, so he kept to the shadows, the small side streets and narrow passageways that only one person at a time could fit through. In his many years of nightly excursions, feeding and seducing, he had gotten to know the city's hiding places better than any human. Now, he was looking around for something quick to feed on. 

Cian soon found a victim, a middle-aged man on a bike who was using one of the alleys as a shortcut to work. It wasn't difficult for Cian to rip him from his bike, and break his neck before he could make a sound. There was no art in this, but it would have to do for the time being. There was no time to hide the body either, so Cian slit the man's wrists after he had drunk. With luck, it would be assumed that the man had bled out elsewhere and been dragged to the alley afterwards. 

After his meal, he headed for the only place that made sense -- the coven's hideout. He felt more powerful now, finally rejuvenated, and he was almost looking forward to confrontation. He was two streets away from the hideout when he began to get a feeling of being watched, being followed even. His muscles tensed. He doubled back down the passage he had just crossed, his eyes darting around, looking for anything unusual. When he stepped sideways into yet another small alleyway, someone grabbed his hand. 

He threw her against the wall reflexively, closing in on her, his hand squeezing her throat before he recognized her. 

"Aurai!"

He stepped back, and the girl gasped for air. Cian tried to contain his surprise, he'd expected to find her, not for her to find him. 

"I was hoping..." she whispered as soon as her throat had recovered. "I was hoping you'd still be alive. The others are all gone. I'm scared, Cian."

Her large dark eyes were staring up at him, a helpless look on her face. She had been the youngest of the group, and she certainly didn't have enough experience to know what to do in a situation like this. Cian knew she was glad to see him, and he was relieved as well to find her unharmed. 

"Do you know where Lizanne and Coran are?" he asked, and she shrugged helplessly.

"I think... maybe," she said carefully. "I found something, and I don't know what it means."

Cian frowned. "What do you mean?"

She grasped his hand.

"Let me show you," she said, and pulled him along. 





The Darkness Beyond Ch. 09



"So what are you going to do when Coran gets here?" he asked. "Rape me?"

Lizanne cocked her head in a dismissive gesture. 

"That won't be necessary... not any more." She gestured to the glass pyramid spinning behind her. "I can draw your essence directly to me now, when you die. It takes a lot of power, but it's better than that messy business."

"You raped all the others," he growled. 

"Technically, you and that girl did." She laughed as she watched his expression change. He remembered discussing this with Hannah, wondering why Meraja had recognized him during his dream. 

"I called your specter," she explained. "Yours, and hers. It was Coran's idea, actually, though I can take credit for the execution."

"That would only be possible if we were dead." 

Cian's mouth was dry. He'd known about the calling of a specter, he had even been a witness to Meraja doing it once, to torture a college girl she had had her fun with. It involved conjuring the spirit of a dead person, then making this person corporeal again for several hours, ready to do the bidding of the one who had called it.

"As it turns out, being in another dimension is enough grounds for it to work." Lizanne ran her hand through his hair. "I must admit I was irritated at first about the rogue portal, stealing two essences from under my nose. But it all worked out to my advantage, see? I was able to get to the others this way, using the two of you as temporary vessels. I simply possessed the both of you and took the essence with me."

She let go of his hair and stepped back again. "I must admit that it was fun, being the girl. She has such a sweet, young body. I was counting on K'meer's lust taking over once I drugged him, and Adrian's as well." She giggled. "He was still young, but that did not stop him with her. You might have liked to watch them, actually. So rough, dirty..." Her voice trailed off.

"Ah, to be so young again."

Cian clenched both fists behind his back now, desperate not to let his emotions show. He had never found it so difficult before. He was shaking with suppressed rage, wanting nothing more than to kill Adrian for touching Hannah, almost wishing the boy wasn't already dead. Lizanne did not notice, however. She was standing with her back to him now, staring out of the window into the white fog. 

"Speaking of the girl," she finally said, "tell me what happened to her. Did you leave her in the Lost City?"

Cian clenched his teeth. "Does it matter?"

"Of course it does." Lizanne did not turn to look at him. "If you left her there, Briar's essence is likely lost to me. I know you did not kill her, I would have the essence by now if that was the case." She nodded towards the pyramid once more. "If you brought her back with you, tell me where she is. I may even let you live for a few more days while I send Coran to kill her."

The shot that rang out made Cian jump. He saw Lizanne stumble towards the window, saw the telltale red spot that spread rapidly around the entry wound on her back. Hannah had shot Lizanne through the heart, spot on. He turned to face her, faintly relieved that his legs worked again. 

She was standing by the stairs, gun still raised with trembling hands. Cian opened his mouth to say something, anything that would calm her. That it was over. Before he could decide on what exactly she needed to hear at this moment though, he saw all the blood drain from her face. 

The next moment, she screamed as her body was flung through the air, hitting the opposite wall with quite the speed and finally falling to the floor, limp.



The Darkness Beyond Ch. 10



Hannah heard the voices as though through a mist. She wasn't sure where she was or what had happened at first, but as she listened to them talk, she slowly remembered. 

"Maybe you're right. Maybe I'm insane, but what does it matter? I am truly immortal now. And you... you'll die anyway."

"Crazy bitch."

"I was honest with you, Cian. You could have had a few more days, had you given her up. I don't quite understand why you brought her along, to be honest, but it suits me just fine. That way, I won't have to look for her later."

Hannah blinked, trying to move her body and realizing that she couldn't. Her limbs felt as though frozen in place, no matter how hard she tried to get them back under her control. When the mist around her finally lifted, she spotted Cian. 

He was pinned to the wall, several feet above the floor, naked and spread-eagled. There was a small puddle of blood below him, and more was dripping down from the cuts across his chest. Lizanne, standing several feet away from him, made a brutal slashing motion with one of her arms, and another deep cut appeared on Cian's skin. He screamed, his muscles tensing as he processed the pain. The torture sent tremors through his entire body. 

"You'll have to heal eventually." Lizanne sounded calm, almost amused. Hannah had barely recognized the woman. She had been so much older only several days ago, and now...

"I must confess I'm nothing short of surprised, Cian, that you would kill yourself to save the girl."

These words finally jerked Hannah awake. She wasn't sure what Lizanne meant, but it was clear to her that Cian wasn't healing himself. He was allowing himself to die, to bleed out eventually.

"Fuck... you."

Cian was speaking through clenched teeth. Sweat was pouring down his forehead, mingling with the blood below. His anguish was clearly visible on his face, making Hannah want nothing more than to free herself from her invisible bonds, to run up to Lizanne and make her stop. 

"You should have listened when I said it was too late to kill me." 

Lizanne had turned, she was speaking to Hannah now. Hannah stared as the woman advanced towards her, casually slashing Cian again. She looked even taller now, and much more threatening. 

"Will you tell me then, what happened in the Lost City?"

It wasn't necessary for Hannah to hear Cian gasping "Don't!" before shaking her head. She knew they would die either way, and she would not give up those secrets. She would not tell Lizanne about what was between them, and she certainly wouldn't tell her that Noor was alive. 

"It's almost a pity. Almost." Lizanne turned and walked towards Cian, stretching out her hand for him. He slid down the wall until his feet almost touched the floor. 

Lizanne reached into the pocket of her robe. When she withdrew her hand, Hannah needed several seconds before she realized that the woman was now holding a syringe, her other hand stroking Cian's cheek. 

"Just a small dose, Cian. Just enough to weaken your will."

The needle went into his neck seconds later. Cian gasped in anguish, jerking away from the syringe and Lizanne's hand as far as he could, but without success. His eyes met Hannah's, and she tried and failed to read his expression. 

Lizanne rubbed swiftly over the wounds, breaking the clotted blood apart to let fresh, red drops pour over her hand. Hannah bit her lip, unable to look away from him. 

"Please heal," she whispered, tears in her eyes. 

"She is telling you herself, Cian." Lizanne slapped him. "Heal yourself."

"No!" 

Cian screamed once more, but he finally seemed to have lost the fight. His wounds started to close rapidly, the skin knitting itself together at a fast pace, and soon the only evidence of his torture was the blood left on his chest and beneath him. The next second though, Lizanne had slashed his skin open again. This time though, the wound healed right away. Cian was simply hanging there now, his head falling forward limply. 

It went on for a long time. Hannah wished fervently that she was able to cover her ears, the small sounds of the flesh being torn were getting too much for her. She had averted her face some time ago, glad she still had control of this particular part of her body. 

Lizanne had become too powerful. There was no way they would be able to get out of this place alive. She had realized this as soon as she had seen the woman heal a wound that should have been fatal. She had aimed carefully, she knew she hadn't missed the vampire woman's heart. 

A small ringing sound entering her ears made her turn her head again. Cian was covered in cuts and blood, his eyes bloodshot and unfocused. He wasn't the source of the noise, and neither was Lizanne, who continued to cut him over and over again. Finally, a warm glow brought Hannah's attention to the glass pyramid, still spinning in the middle of the room. Its center had turned a distinct shade of orange. 

"Aurai must be dead. I sent Coran to find her, and he was successful, as usual." 

Lizanne turned, smiling at Hannah as she stretched out her hand. The orange glow passed through the glass of the pyramid almost instantaneously, collecting in Lizanne's hand instead. Hannah stared as the woman absorbed the essence. Her hair was now a spotless chestnut color, without any trace of gray. She seemed even younger now, almost Hannah's age, and her movement as she turned back towards Cian was graceful. The vampire had healed his wounds once more, but the act seemed to have taken the last of his strength. 

"Hungry, aren't you?" Lizanne asked, caressing his cheek, and Hannah realized what the woman was about to do, just before Cian's invisible bonds were released and he fell helplessly to the floor. 

"No!" she screamed, just as Cian caught sight of her. His eyes were clouded, he didn't appear to recognize her. Yet he stumbled towards her, his hunger overshadowing what remained of his sanity. 

Suddenly, her arms and legs were back under her control, and Hannah ran. She heard Lizane's laughter as she crossed the room, but just before she had reached the stairs, Cian cut her off. He grabbed her shoulders, bruising them as he pulled her close, but Hannah managed to wrench herself from his grip. He was weak, and he seemed surprised by her resistance, which was her only advantage. 

Hannah saw Lizanne as she turned and crossed the room again in a sprint. The woman was using them for entertainment, likely wondering how long Hannah would survive before Cian finally caught her. 

She stumbled close to the pyramid in the middle of the room. Cian had caught her legs, wrapped himself around them, and now he moved on top of her swiftly, pinning her down with his weight. Hannah screamed once more, kicking and clawing at him, trying to find something but hunger in his eyes. 

Cian slapped her, and in the short moment she was disoriented, he tilted her head forcefully and lowered his mouth. 

The bite hurt more than anything she had even endured, much more than the two times she had been bitten before. Cian was sucking her blood savagely, completely unconcerned with her. During her desperate attempts to fight off the mauling vampire above her, Hannah noticed the glass pyramid starting to glow again, just as her ears started to ring. 

But something was different about it. Hannah froze when she noticed the difference in color, letting Cian drink undisturbed for a moment. The glow wasn't the bright, lively orange the other essence had been. This one was muddy, a sickly sort of greenish-brown that made Hannah dizzy when she looked at it. 

Lizanne had heard the noise as well, she stretched out her hand for the essence without taking her eyes off the two of them, watching Cian's feeding with unveiled joy. 

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the essence reached Lizanne. As she absorbed the new power, the woman's face froze. Too late she realized that something was wrong, that this essence was corrupted. 

Time stood still. Hannah was frozen, unable to breathe or do anything but witness the destruction of the woman in front of her. Cian above her had stilled as well. 

Lizanne's eyes took the same sickly color the essence had been. She fell to her knees, gasping as the corruption spread further. Her face started to wrinkle again, her hair turned gray rapidly before falling out. As the long strands fell to the floor, Lizanne started to choke.

Hannah was glad that time had stopped, otherwise her body would have revolted most unpleasantly as she witnessed the woman in front of her decay at an alarming rate. Lizanne's skin around her throat and mouth turned dark and vanished, her eyes bulging as she raised her hands in front of them. Down to the second knuckle, there was no skin or muscle left, only blank bones.

Hannah was thankful when the woman fell over. What was left of her body exploded into tiny particles of dust when she hit the floor, and suddenly, Hannah could move again. Cian collapsed on top of her in the same moment. 

It cost what was left of her strength to push him off her. He rolled over, blinking up at her as though he was sleepy. Then his eyes wandered to the pile of dust on the floor. All that remained there was Hannah's gun, and a small silver knife that Hannah recognized from her dreams.

"What happened?" 

Cian was so hoarse Hannah could hardly hear him. At least, she noticed with relief, his mind seemed to have cleared. 

"Noor," she whispered. "I think... I think she killed herself."

Cian nodded blankly. "It was the only way. She must have known that." 

Hannah stared at the floor as the reality of the woman's sacrifice began to sink in. "Her essence... it was corrupted by the Lost City, wasn't it, along with the rest of her? It killed Lizanne when she tried to absorb it." 

She looked back at the vampire. Cian was nodding mechanically, not looking directly at her, but rather at her shoulder. His eyes were wide. 

"What?" she asked uncomfortably, just when he reached out and touched the side of her neck. When he withdrew his hand, it was covered in dark blood. There was a red puddle on the floor beside her, and her clothes were soaked in her own blood as well.

"You should be dead." 

Hannah's stomach lurched when she touched the wounds herself, feeling torn skin, open flesh and muscle. Cian had mauled her in his thirst, ripping open the entire side of her throat. Even so, she couldn't help but wonder numbly why it didn't hurt any more. 

She gasped when the glass pyramid next to them began to glow once more. Then the intensity of the glow doubled, tripled. Hannah covered her eyes when the glow became too intense for them, yet she could see the painful light even through closed eyelids. The essences Lizanne had absorbed had been released again, and now they were all collecting in the pyramid trap. 

A shot rang out, and the light faded just as Cian pressed Hannah down to the floor. They were showered in tiny glass splinters that penetrated Hannah's exposed skin and sliced her open even more. Still, there was no pain.

Cian finally moved off her, and she was able to raise her head. He had shot the glass pyramid, causing it to explode and release the essences it had once again captured. Just as she wondered where they were now, or whether they had been destroyed, she saw them.

Cian gasped as well when the first one came into view, an incorporeal, misty form. Hannah recognized the man from her dream, the one Cian had called K'meer. He was glowing faintly orange as he looked down upon them. 

"At least one of us lives." He sounded tired, but smiled at the looks on their faces.

"Alanes is something, isn't it? Bringing the dead back to life... though only for a second. Stopping time, too, when Lizanne died." 

"Lizanne stopped time?" Cian looked peeved at not understanding the other vampire. K'meer only nodded.

'Who knows what disturbances she caused in the non-dimension with the power she had. This seems to be a side-effect." He nodded at Hannah.

"She won't bleed or feel pain while she's left here, since time won't pass for either of you."

"She'll bleed out though, as soon as you bring her back to earth." 

Hannah recognized Meraja, the red-haired woman, as the other speaker. She had appeared next to K'meer, along with Satne. The crazy woman didn't say anything though, she only glowered. Meraja, however, seemed delighted with Hannah's impending death. 

"Maybe she'll live," K'meer commented as his misty form faded from view. 

"No, she won't," Meraja said, pressing her lips together. "And you should be glad to be rid of her, Cian. Those feeling you have for each other will never go away, however artificial they may be. She makes you weak. It's disgusting to watch, you know."

"You shut up," Hannah growled at her through clenched teeth, watching as Cian cringed under the woman's words. Meraja shrugged, and faded from view just as Adrian appeared. 

It was as though a switch had been flipped. Cian's face lost all vulnerability, and his body lurched forward as he threw himself at Adrian's form. He couldn't touch the ghostly form, but Adrian, sensing that he wasn't welcome, vanished again. 

Hannah expected Aurai to appear next, but the space around them stayed empty for a minute or so. As soon as Hannah opened her mouth to say something though, another misty cloud formed a person before them, and the ugly green glow left no doubt about its identity. 

"Well done," Noor commented, giving them a grimacing smile. Next to Hannah, Cian frowned once more, apparently unhappy with her words.

"We didn't really do anything," he commented. "Lizanne would have killed the both of us, if not for you."

"But you distracted her." Noor's eyes were glowing an intense green; Hannah suspected that this meant she was happy. "Had she noticed my essence, had she not been so distracted and greedy, it wouldn't have worked."

Cian nodded weakly, and Noor turned towards Hannah, inspecting her wounds. 

"The fire-haired one was right," she told them, sighing. "She will die, should you bring her back to earth in this condition. And time in Alanes will not remain stopped forever either. But there may be a way to save her nonetheless." 

She turned, fixating Cian with her gaze. 

"She hasn't enough strength left to heal. You stole it from her, you drank her blood to strengthen yourself," she said. "Your blood will do the same for her. Just a little, just enough for both of you to survive until her wounds are taken care of."

There was silence as she faded from view. For a few seconds, both of them simply stared at the spot where Noor had stood. Then, Cian stood abruptly and walked towards where Lizanne had died. 

"Cian, don't..." Hannah protested weakly, but he had already taken the small silver knife and sliced open his wrist.

"Drink," he commanded as he pressed the wound to her mouth. He had to squeeze the blood out of it by force, because just like in her own wound, it would not flow on its own. When she hesitated, he swore. 

"I'm not letting you die, damn it, and you know that. I don't want to spend the next few centuries pining over you." 

He tilted her head back, forcing the blood into her mouth. Hannah could barely bring herself to swallow. She coughed when the blood ran down her throat, burning her insides. Cian's blood wasn't like that of an ordinary human. There was raw power contained within it, power that now spread through her body. She felt the wound on her neck tingle, requesting to be healed. This time, the act did not happen automatically. With time stopped, everything needed to be forced. Her head hurt as she concentrated on knitting the torn flesh together again, not fully, but to a point where it would not instantly kill her upon her return to earth. 

Cian pulled his wrist away with a small groan. His wound did not close, either. 

"This is as much as I can give you without..." He broke off his sentence, but Hannah understood. He wouldn't risk losing himself to his hunger again.

She was in the process of standing up when a wave of dizziness hit her. Everything turned black, and Cian caught her just as she slumped. She was shaking with weakness; the healing had taken her last strength.

"Take me home," she asked Cian timidly. 

"I will," the vampire answered. She trusted him, and she closed her eyes in relief as he carried her down the stairs. 



The Darkness Beyond Ch. 11



He hadn't been able to resist seeing her one last time. 

After they had stepped through the portal, Hannah had started to scream in pain, begging him to do something, anything, to make it stop. He had brought her to the closest hospital, and left her there, to be taken care of. It had taken her a week to recover to the point where they had let her go home, a week he had spent making preparations, getting ready to leave.

Now, he was standing in a dark corner of her room, well hidden, watching her sleep. Her hair was fanned out over the pillows, her skin pasty in the darkness. Her throat as well as her shoulder was covered in thick bandages. He watched her chest raise and sink slowly, wondering if she was dreaming at the moment. 

He wanted to stay with her badly. She seemed so vulnerable, laying there, and he wanted nothing more than to be there for her, to protect her. At the same time, the notion made him feel sappy and weak, and he was disgusted with himself for letting his feelings take over his thinking. 

In the end, his rational side had won out. Even though staying with Hannah would allow him to protect her, his presence was what put her in danger in the first place. It was easier for him to leave. He still remembered Meraja's words, and he didn't doubt that she was right. The feelings between Hannah and him would not lessen with time. If he left now, though, he might be able to retain his sanity, pretending she would always be out there somewhere, waiting for him. He would not have to suffer through seeing her grow old and die, and his last memory of her would be this one, watching her sleep. 

"It's better for the both of us," he whispered under his breath, just as she stirred. 

"Cian?" she asked, her voice sleepy. 

She couldn't have seen him, yet she seemed certain he was there. When her eyes finally opened, they searched the room rapidly. 

"I'm here." He moved closer to her and stood by the window, now plainly visible in the moonlight. "How did you know I was here?"

"I felt it, somehow." She didn't seem sure herself, and he sighed when he sat down by the side of her bed. The connection between them grew stronger the longer they were together - another reason for him to get away from her as soon as possible. 

"You're leaving, aren't you?"

Now she seemed to read his mind, too. He smiled ruefully, lowering his head. Hannah only grasped his hand. 

"It's fine, Cian. I know why you're doing it." She smiled faintly. "I've been thinking about all this a lot too, while I was in the hospital."

Cian nodded, glad he wouldn't have to explain himself. He didn't want to leave while she was angry. 

He looked at her. She was so beautiful, the pale skin in contrast to the midnight-black hair, her soft lips slightly open as she looked back at him with dark eyes. He swallowed. His mind still revolted at the thought of love, even when it was no use denying it. 

Hannah seemed to sense his thoughts yet again. She sat up, running her hand up his arm and along his shoulder, her eyes still on him. It was probably just as difficult for her, admitting love for someone who had once expressed his joy at torturing her. 

"We don't have to talk, you know," she whispered. 

He closed his eyes and kissed her. She was soft and responsive, putting her arms around him and letting him hold her. His hand touched the bandage on her throat, and for a moment he shuddered, remembering the horror he had felt upon seeing what he had done to her. 

As the kiss deepened, her hands wandered, working on the buttons of his shirt. He caressed her skin, tugging the blanket away so he could touch all of her. 

Impatiently, Hannah tugged on his shirt. He smiled and drew back, shedding his clothes entirely before lowering himself back onto the bed next to her. She was ready for him, waiting, pressing herself against him. His hands stretched out for her body almost automatically. 

She whimpered into his mouth when he started kneading her breasts. Her own hands were busy as well, wandering down his body and wrapping around his erection. He liked the way she caressed him there, squeezing and massaging gently. 

He pressed one thigh in between hers to open her legs. His fingers found a trickle of wetness between them already, and he slowly penetrated her further, encouraged by her soft moans. His other hand was busy playing with her nipples now, pinching first one and then the other, as he watched them redden slightly. 

"Please," Hannah whispered, squirming on his hand. 

He could see how flushed her skin was even in the dark, a sure sign that she was excited. When he didn't react to her demand, she pulled away from him, only to press his shoulders onto the mattress the next moment. Cian lay back and watched as she moved smoothly on top of him, her long hair falling over her shoulders. Her hands on his chest to steady herself, she moved her hips over him, circling teasingly just above the tip of his cock, just enough for him to feel a hint of her soft wetness. It made him throb almost painfully.

"Tease," he groaned. 

She grinned at him, her face mischievous as she leaned forward to kiss him. He could feel her nipples brush his chest and her hair tickle his shoulders as their lips met, but only that. His hands reached around her and clenched the curves of her ass, intent to force her where she belonged, if necessary. Hannah didn't resist when he pulled her hips lower, onto him, and they groaned in pleasure together when they finally joined. He slid smoothly inside her an inch or so before he relaxed his grip on her. Hannah's ass was gorgeous, and he didn't want to bruise it too much. 

She put her hands on his chest once more to keep herself stable as she sat back up, sliding deeper onto him in the process. Her hips moved slowly and smoothly as Hannah lifted and lowered them, teasing. He gave a sigh of thanks when she finally put her full weight onto him, sliding down all the way, until they were as close as they would get. She felt warm and tight around him.

Her little moans encouraged him to thrust up and into her as she started to ride him. They quickly found a rhythm, moving together at a slow, thoroughly enjoyable pace. His hand grabbed a fistful of her hair, and he pulled her down for another kiss. 

Hannah's eyes were on him when they separated. There was uncertainty in them, and she bit her lip, tilting her head. He raised his eyebrows, questioning. 

"If you want..." she started, whispering, then bit her lip again. 

"What?" He'd never seen her this reluctant, which made him curious as to what she was about to tell him. She gave him a weak smile. 

"I think I'm well enough, if you want to, um... nibble."

"Nibble?" He grinned at her, thrusting harder, which made her lose her focus. She closed her eyes and moaned, slapping his chest with one hand after some time. 

"Yes, nibble. You know what I mean, damn it."

"I do." He took her free hand in his and kissed the flesh on the inside of her wrist. "I just never thought you'd actually encourage me to do it."

He bit down softly, just enough to cut through the skin, creating a superficial wound. Hannah gave a soft squeak as it happened, then he heard her moan as he pressed his lips against her skin and started to suck gently. He didn't interrupt the act, though her small noises of enjoyment surprised him. He'd never thought she actually liked having this done to her. 

He sealed the small wound with a final lick of his tongue, kissing her again. She was eager now, meeting his tongue with her own and tasting her own blood in his mouth. They were both thrusting harder now, intent on pleasuring the other. 

"Freak," he whispered, teasing, and she simply shut him up by covering his mouth with hers again. He wrapped his arms around her, no longer content with his passive position beneath her. Hannah didn't resist when he rolled over and on top of her, all while still buried inside her. When he finally broke the kiss, he went straight for her left side, the one that wasn't injured. Hannah's fingers dug into his back as he nicked the skin right over her collarbone with his teeth, creating a series of small cuts.

Hannah moaned deeply when he sucked on each cut in turn, drinking a few drops of blood from each before Hannah healed herself, probably without realizing it. He could feel her warm breath on his shoulder, fast and irregular. This seemed to arouse her more than she probably cared to admit. 

His cock throbbed when he looked back at her face, and he increased his pace. She encouraged him, running her nails down his back some more. He started to feel the familiar feeling of tightness inside him now, urging him to go deeper, faster, to reach his climax. Hannah was right there with him, flushed skin, shiny eyes and all. 

They moved together, much faster now, with determination. Cian could feel her move beneath him, arching her back, shuddering. There was a shared feeling of urgency between them, both of them greedy for each other. Hannah went first, crying out and digging her nails into his skin once more. He could feel her pussy clench around him, milking him, as she squirmed beneath him. It was all he needed to start coming as well. 

He collapsed on top of her with a groan, while he was spurting his seed inside of her, his body jerking. Hannah wrapped his arms around him, stroking his damp skin while he just lay there. For a while, he could neither think nor move, but instead he simply enjoyed being close to her. Finally, he found the strength to move, but Hannah's arms stayed tightly around him when he tried to move off her. 

"Stay," she begged. 

"I'm crushing you." 

Despite his protests, she shook her head, and with a sigh he lowered himself again, nuzzling her shoulder. Her hand ran tenderly through his hair. 

"Where do you plan on going?" she asked him. 

He made a small noise of dissent. "If I tell you, that kind of defeats the purpose, no?"

"So you already have a plan of some sort." Hannah was quiet for a moment. "I was wondering what you would decide to do, now that they are all dead."

"Coran is still out there somewhere," he reminded her. "He is more likely to go after me than you though." He finally did roll himself off her when he noticed that she had trouble breathing, even though Hannah was reluctant to let him. He pulled her into a spooning position, holding her tightly. 

"I was actually thinking Europe," he explained. "Now that I know there are more of us... I want to go and find them."

"Come back and visit," she asked with a smile, making him chuckle. 

"I wish I could." He kissed her neck, then turned his head to look outside. The moon had reached its highest point, and he had places to go yet tonight. Sighing, he pulled back from her and sat up, fishing for his clothes. 

"Good luck," Hannah offered quietly as he got dressed. He smiled at her. 

"Don't go worrying about me. I usually manage quite well by myself."

"So do I," she replied, sitting up. "I just... I don't really know what else to say. Don't go killing too many people." 

"I'll be good," he promised her, grinning as he kissed her. "Mostly, anyway."

Hannah raised an eyebrow as he turned towards the open window. 

"You could just walk out the door, you know."

"I don't like walking past that bloodstain of mine in your living room." He shrugged, looking at her one last time. She got out of bed and walked over to him, embracing him tightly. It took the sound of her choking back her tears for him to realize how much his leaving really bothered her. 

He kissed her temple, stroking her hair to calm her. 

"I don't usually get this damn sappy," he told her, "and right now, I'm only doing it because this is the last time you'll see me, so you won't have a chance to give me shit about it."

He paused, gently pushing her away from him, so he could look into her eyes. 

"I love you, Hannah. I'll miss you." This was the first and last time he'd ever say shit like this. 

Before she could answer, he pulled himself up onto the windowsill, out of her grasp. He turned and jumped down the eight feet to the ground with ease. 

Sighing, he put his hands in his pockets as he walked away. It was time to focus on something different now, something that would keep his mind firmly off Hannah. 

Something that would help him not to look back.