The Blood King

Six months ago... FROM THE moment I laid my eye on him, I knew it was fate. It felt like a dream, drowning in his sharp cobalt eyes and drinking him like a cool glass of water on a hot day. I could tell he was telling me something but everything around me was muffled. Sounds were echoing in all directions and I couldn’t pinpoint exactly where they were coming from. My sight was getting blurry, I was losing sight of him. It felt as if I was in water, trying to push my way to the surface for a breath of fresh air. His hair was soaked wet as he spoke to me. I knew he was telling me something important, but I just couldn’t figure it out. His eyes flashed with alert as he turned to his right and looked as if he was talking to someone. An angel, I thought as a halo filtered around his head, but I realized the street lights in background made him appear like that. I couldn’t understand where I was or why he was there, but I was beyond sure that meeting him the way that I did was not a coincidence. A breath escaped my lips and I cringed in pain. My chest hurt unbearably and my lungs labored tirelessly to try and pull in as much air as they could… That was when I started realizing details. It was in the middle of the night and there were light showers. I was trembling because I was cold and wet, and I was lying down on the ground. While one side of my body blared with excruciating pain, the other side was completely numb. My eyes turned up to the man in front of me and this time, I was able to make out his words: Stay with me…. A smile appeared on my face. He wanted me to stay with him…but he was a complete stranger, a very good-looking stranger with black hair locks populating his forehead. He was too beautiful to be real. Maybe he was death. In myths and legends they said that death had ethereal beauty that kept you at ease while he took your soul. Stay with me… But why was death saying such a thing to me? Wasn't he just supposed to take my soul to the afterlife? And why was I not able to move or make a solid thought? “Who…” I croaked and but my throat burnt as if someone had poured a gallon of sand down. I tried to shift, sit up but I couldn’t. The numb side of my body wouldn’t have it and there was an annoying itch on my nose where a wet hair lock clung. As if reading my mind, the stranger reached up and pushed the hair lock away and cupped my neck. “Stay with me, sweetheart.” He rasped again and I hummed in content. Hearing him say those words somehow penetrated deep into my soul and settled inside cozily. They made me feel warm and fuzzy— I frowned when I saw the blood in his hand as he removed it from my neck. That was a lot of blood. Was he injured? “Blood…” I croaked again trying to point to his hand, but every movement of my body made the crippling pain I was feeling intensify. “Sit still. You are wounded.” He had an accent! Suddenly I forgot about everything else and just basked in the attention that he was giving me. His movements were sure as he tried to make me comfortable, removing his jacket and covering my chest with it. I got a glimpse of the black coils of an intrinsic tattoo on the left side of his chest inside his black shirt but it was quickly obscured from my sight. “We need to keep on moving, Rayn.” Another voice came through and suddenly the person moved into my line of sight. He darted his eyes all around before landing them on the man who was crouched beside me. He had blonde hair, a little longer than the angel of death's but dripping wet and coiled around his face. He also had a beauty unlike any other but he wasn't as striking as my angel of death. His blue eyes pierced through mine as if trying to decipher my soul.  “I can’t leave her.” The angel of death; Rayn, turned his cobalt eyes back at me. “She is going to die anyway! The Hounds already have our scents and they will be here before you know it. We need to go!” The blonde man urged his friend and my heart began to thump faster in panic. What happened to me? Why was I on the ground writhing in so much pain? Who were these strangers who wanted to help me but abandon me at the same time? The last thing I recalled doing that evening was leaving Kenny's Eatery where I was working and calling my friend Vela for a couple of drinks in town. It was a Friday night and though it was chilly and wet, I was willing to go out because I didn’t want to remain alone in my apartment with memories of my previous boyfriend getting married that weekend. The gut-wrenching ordeal made me want to go anywhere else but there. Vela thought it was a great idea to go to one of the new lounges established about a twenty-minute walk from where I lived. ‘New possibilities!' I recalled Vela giggling as we made our way there. It was an amazing place and it made me forget for a minute that I was a dumped case, left to drown in my misery for the rest of my short existence. A couple of guys bought us drinks and we ended up chatting the night away with them. It felt nice to be the center of attention once more and the gentlemen were very polite and even when the night was concluding, when dawn was prickling the skies with her light and we told them that we needed to leave, they made sure to escort us to the door. Vela managed to get their numbers and they were going to call a taxi for us, but I wanted to walk home and catch the dawn. We were walking down the dark street, laughing and chatting, in a world of our own shrouded with alcohol and the feeling of contentment and as we approached the park that was located between me and my apartment, it got a littler colder and the rain started coming down harder than before. In the process of running to find shelter, there was a loud sound behind us, almost like a wild animal and suddenly darkness swarmed me and that was all I could remember. “Where’s Vela?” I managed to ask the two men in front of me, my voice grating my throat painfully. “My friend. Where is she? She was with me.” Rayn’s jaws ticked as he looked at a location behind him, but he didn’t say anything, and my heart felt like it was finally giving way for me to die. Tears gathered in my eyes because the man in front of me didn’t need to say anything for me to know that something very bad had happened to us and that Vela didn’t survive it. The more the tears came down my temples, the more my sobs worsened, and my body rattled with pain. The guilt that was saturating in my blood was almost lethal because I dragged Vela out that night and I refused for the people who we were with to call us a cab.  “We need to go!” The second man touched Rayn’s shoulder forcefully. “Wait…” Rayn looked down at me with what looked like remorse. “I can save you but you need to trust me.” “Rayn, no!” The second man barked. “I will take responsibility for the repercussions.” Rayn gritted his teeth and pushed the first man off him. “If she doesn’t survive?” The second man asked. “She will survive.” I didn’t know what they were walking about because I was drowning is sorrow. Vela was the closest person I had in that town. She was like a sister to me and we did a lot of things together. Not having her in my life to stop me from doing crazy things was going to be the hardest thing I would ever do. She was dead and I was on the way. “Just let me die.” I told Rayn sorrowfully. He touched my face again, his fingers soft and warm against my cold and wet cheek. This was going to be the last comfort someone was ever going to give me. I couldn’t get enough of it but this man was a stranger and I had no right to enjoy his attention so much. “No, sweetheart. I will cure you; you just need to accept it. Will you do that for me, love?” He asked her. “I can’t live without Vela. If you want to save me, then save her too.” I told him adamantly. “Rayn, we are wasting time!” The second man suddenly got up from his crouching position and disappeared from my line of sight. “I can’t save her, but I can save you. You need to live, love. There is something about you that tells me you are special and that one day, I will find you again—but until then, you need to survive.” My heart panged loudly in my ribs. Rayn was someone I would never forget because he had a face so distinct and unique that it was almost otherworldly. He made me want to accept whatever he asked of me and true enough, I found myself nodding. His dark eyes brightened in he placed his hand over my eyes. “Close your eyes, love.” I did because a deeper and primal side of me trusted that Rayn didn’t want to harm me. I felt him lifting his hand from my eyes, but I kept them closed. His body shifted a little around me and suddenly a rich and thick syrup ran down my tongue and into my throat. I swallowed the syrup that had a hint of what tasted like cinnamon and cardamom. It was delicious and the moment it slid down my throat, I felt a warm fuzzy feeling spreading throughout my body. The feeling seeped into every corner and alcove of my body, keeping me at a state where I wasn’t sure I was asleep dreaming or awake fighting to stay alive. Rayn cupped my head like a baby as more of that syrup oozed down my mouth to my throat. I couldn’t have enough of it because it was so refreshing and heady, giving me and false sense of comfort. “Okay, that’s enough.” He removed the cup from my lips and my eyes snapped open looking at him. The man behind him looked down at me in horror, his skin leaching of color and his mouth opening in shock. “For f**k’s sake, Rayn. What have you done?” He accused his friend just when everything else went hazy and I comfortably fell into a deep sleep….