DARKLING: Book One

MERCY KILL

“I expected your human minion. But you will do just fine.” Ciprian said as he walked the thrashing Fear Eater into the dark room at the end of the hall. The window was still cracked open, as it was when he entered the hospital. He slammed the Fear Eater into the wall. The monster’s claws ripped at his arms and Ciprian slammed him again, this time making a sickening crack and the creature howled.

Ciprian could hear the humans scurrying toward them. He quickly used his mind to send a glamour over the room. When the humans got to the end of the hall, they saw only empty rooms and heard nothing. Turning back to the Fear Eater, Ciprian’s solid black eyes watched the creature tear the flesh of the arm holding its throat. Its black fingernails were like razors. Its greenish grey skin was stretched beyond reason across the skeletal frame. Every muscle on the creature was defined but looked foreign to the body. It was obvious to Ciprian that the being rarely used its human form. It clearly had trouble recalling its true form and this grotesque shape was all that it could conjure.

Ciprian squeezed tighter around the throat of the Fear Eater as it tried to shift under his grasp. When that didn’t work, its face bubbled and turned to liquid beneath Ciprian’s fingers. The creature fell to the ground with an echoing “plop” sound. He noticed that the being was weak. Either it had not fed enough or was dangerously close to true death. Ciprian could sense the evil in it, that was certain. But he also was acutely aware of just how much the Fear Eater was not fighting back. It didn’t spew spells, nor attempt to glamour him. It wasn’t even making a great attempt to escape. Thus, leading Ciprian to believe it wanted the true death. Maybe this pitiful monster had not turned by choice. Maybe this was Ciprian’s true fate had he not found the mother and child. For so long Ciprian had envisioned a cruel, monstrous wave of evil sweeping the nations and wiping out continents, if ever he turned. Incapable of being defeated even. Looking down at the now shifting mess that used to be a powerful creature, he knew his fate was laid at his feet.

“Please,” the Fear Eater whispered, “Please, give her to me. She is my last chance!” It finished its shift back into the poor excuse of a human. Laying naked on the floor with black spital spewing with each breath. Its neck was partially destroyed, Ciprian observed. “I need her. You don’t. You have time, still. I do not. Please.” The Fear Eater laid in a heap with ragged breath. This wasn’t the kind of Fear Eater Ciprian fought in his day. Not before going to ground. No, they were relentless. Terrible. And killed just to kill. They never truly wanted to keep their human traits. They only wanted to feel power and lust. This creature, instead, was begging for Ciprian’s mate. In hopes it would cure it of its current state.

Ciprian kneeled down in front of the being. “You chose this. You chose to give in. You chose to feed on a human without enchantment and you chose to feed until humans died. Now you beg for MY life? My soul? My MATE? You not only have subjected your own self to this torture, your mate, whomever she is, will wonder the earth looking for one that does not exist. Your mate, will be subject to beings far crueler than yourself.”

The creature moved closer. “You think I chose this? You think I wanted to be like this? No. Never!” It bowed its head. “You must know I am not the only one that felt your mate being born. I don’t know what she is, but we felt her. As if she were our own mate. I woke in my den with the other Fear Eaters. When they realized it was a baby, they gathered to regroup and plan on how to move forward.”

What? Regroup? Ciprian thought to himself. They were working together on kidnapping another’s mate? No. Fear Eater’s did not do that. They would have fought like hell to get to an unmated Darkling. Why would they work together? Because she was a child? This didn’t make sense to Ciprian.

“If that is so, where are your den-mates?” Ciprian asked.

“I slipped out and came straight here when you found me outside the room. I am alone. But they are not far away. You cannot leave her alone.” This creature was surprising Ciprian more and more. It seemed genuinely concerned.

Ciprian was beginning to feel weakened. It wasn’t long before daybreak would come and he had not fed enough after such a long sleep. He could not muster the control to reach the mind of the mother down the hall. He had to move fast and make some decisions.

“Look. I get it. You cannot forfeit your mate to another. Our mates are taken at birth, shifters, vampires, and werewolves alike. I don’t know where you have been hiding. But we become…” the being looked down at itself, “this. I didn’t choose it. But our female mates are being hunted. Others reach them long before we do. Some think they are human hunters. Some say human witches. But it doesn’t matter. Without our mates, we go crazy. Especially those of us that feel our mate’s death. When our mates don’t make it, we do not either. They are killing us through our mates!” Ciprian could feel the truth in this poor being’s words.

“Please. If you cannot help me any other way, kill me.” The Fear Eater looked up at Ciprian. For a moment, the creature’s eyes were normal. The tears that ran down its face were like thick black honey. “I cannot go on like this. The minion, you say you saw, is not my own. So please, be swift and get your mate far from this place. It is crawling with Darklings.” The Fear Eater dropped it’s eyes and head once more.

Ciprian knew he had to get the woman and child far from the hospital. Part of him wanted to take this Fear Eater along. But the idea of another male being near his mate as a defenseless child was too much. He could not trust any unmated males. Especially one already turned.

With that final realization, Ciprian stood, stretched his right arm out. He allowed it to grow even larger in size. His claws lengthened and became blade-like. Ciprian brought his hand down swiftly and with precision. The Fear Eater’s head flung across the room and landed with a thud. The black sludge pooled from it’s body. Ciprian knew that if he did not destroy the body, the blood would pull it back together. He used one of his still enlarged fingers and carved a sigil in the back of the body. Then he did the same to the head. When he got to the door, Ciprian whispered a single enchanted word, and the body burst into blue flames. It took seconds for the body and head to efface into smoke, leaving no hint of the Fear Eater’s existence.

Ciprian dropped the glamour. He then repaired his sweater with a wave of his hand. His arm was already healed, his own blood doing the trick. Ciprian headed back down the hall to check on Lara and the baby. After peering in and seeing they were safe and the infant was feeding, he went to the nurse’s desk. Sitting alone doing paperwork, was a robust woman with short jet-black hair. She looked up at Ciprian, allowing him to entrance her with little effort. After making sure the paperwork would reveal Lara and baby Genevieve having left voluntarily with a family member, Ciprian went to gather them.

“Do you have a car?” Lara said. Ciprian had picked up as much information from the magazine as he could but still wasn’t sure what the “cars” were.

“No, I am sorry. Do I need one?” He said, taking glimpses of what a car was from Lara’s mind.

“No, no. We can take mine. I am so sorry it's not much and you wont fit well. But it gets me where I need to go.” She said with a smile.

“I am sure it will suffice.” He said, reaching his hand to the carrier holding Genevieve. “Shall I carry her? You need not overwhelm yourself. I am here to help.”

She smiled warmly up at him, and she walked him to the elevator. They went to the lobby and out to the car. The car was small and yellow. It had two doors and a small backseat. He set the baby’s carrier in the middle of the back and Lara strapped her in.

“Would you like to drive?” She was so exhausted and was hoping he would agree to it. But Ciprian needed to see it done at least once. He was not going to put the mother and child in danger. He shook his head.

“I am sorry but you will have to drive tonight.” He climbed into the car. He glanced at Lara, and noted her body appeared defeated while strapping herself in with the seatbelt.

Ciprian knew he looked absurd in the tiny seat. He sat with his knees in the dash and his head was slightly bent down, touching the roof. “I do not know if you recall, but I have an aversion to sunlight. It causes, eh, skin, irritations?” He was asking himself, it seemed. He wasn’t exactly lying. It caused irritation. And if he was exposed too long, death.

“Oh don’t worry, I am only a few blocks away.” They drove the rest of the way in silence. Ciprian probed her mind as they rode. He could see she was terrified Roger would find her before she got out of town. But her greatest fear was losing Genevieve. She was certain the baby would be harmed or given away to strangers far away if he ever touched her. She had no money and had no support. She could not legally fight him, and he did not want a woman having power over him. It was disgusting. From the thoughts in Lara’s head, Roger was not a man. Roger was a problem. If he got in the way, Ciprian would wipe him from the earth. Nothing would touch his mate or her mother.

The yellow car pulled up in front of a tiny little cottage. Ciprian could feel something watching. He looked around, scanning the area for other races of Darkling. He wanted to call out for assistance but was genuinely afraid of what he would do to another unmated male if one came around his mate and her mother while Genevieve was yet a child. She had to be protected at all costs. She needed a stable childhood. She needed love and security. He would have to get them somewhere safe, find a Castling to permanently cloak her and leave her to grow up without him nearby. It was for the best.

They unloaded the car quickly. It was as if Lara could sense the dreadful unease as well. He probed her mind. But she just kept thinking of Genevieve. He felt eyes watching the three of them. Looking around the neighborhood as he grabbed the bag and baby carrier, he saw all the houses were in a semicircle and identical.

They hurriedly walked inside. He sat the baby carrier down. Genevieve was still fast asleep. Lara lifted her from the carrier and Ciprian locked the doors. Lara led them down the small hallway to a room with a bed and a bassinet. She laid Genevieve down.

“I do not have another room. I have this bed, but I know it is far too small for you. Still,” She began to grab extra blankets and pillows out of a cabinet. “You are welcome to it. I can sleep on the couch. The bassinet can wheel out there easily.”

“Actually, could you direct me to the room with no windows? That is where I will be most comfortable.” Ciprian tried to make it sound nonchalant.

Lara smiled brightly. “You mean my bathroom? That is the only room without a window.”

“Sure. That will do.” Ciprian said, following Lara, now carrying blankets and pillows to the bathroom.

It didn’t take long for Ciprian to sense Lara sleeping after feeding and changing the baby. He immediately went to work putting up safeguards and enchantments along the inner walls of the house. He had to be sure no one, human nor Darkling, could enter with intent to do them harm while he slept. He needed so badly to feed again. He could feel the sun getting close to rising. He finished up the last few hand movements, and spoke the last words of the chant before seeing the spark only a Darkling eyes could see; letting Ciprian know his safeguards were in place. He slumped his way to the bathroom and laid on the tile floor. His huge frame filled the room so much he had to prop his feet on the door. Ciprian fell into a dreamless sleep.