The Vampire Executioner (A necromancer romance novel)

Chapter 6: Saying goodbye

Esmeralda

Lucan didn’t really say anything to me except that we would be waking at six in the morning to make sure the zombie got back to his grave before he would just become a corpse again.

He didn’t undress and neither did I as we climbed into our beds. I didn’t fall asleep until I felt sure he was sleeping first, and then I finally managed to fall into a fitful sleep.

I woke up relieved I was still alive, and no stake was sticking out of me and sat up to see that Lucan was already prepared to leave.

I did that horribly awkward thing, where I got distracted by how mesmerizing his eyes were so that I was staring him in the eyes, realized what I was doing, tried to stop myself but took too long to drag my gaze away so that he was looking at me quizzically.

I blushed so hotly, I praised the lord that my skin was as dark as the night sky without the stars.

He didn’t say anything, but I felt the suspicion in him raise a few octaves. He turned and opened the door and waited for me to put my shoes on before walking out and knocking on next door.

Mrs and Mr Brooke both looked solemn when they opened it, the smiles from the night before gone. They knew this was goodbye.

When we got to the grave, Mrs Brooke was sobbing and Mr Brooke quietly patted her hand that was looped through his arm. “There, there Dorothy, no tears, I want you to be happy, to live your life, to move on, and before you know it we will see each other again and it won’t have seemed so very long, you’ll see.”

He kissed the top of her head lovingly, and I couldn’t stop the tears from falling down my cheeks. It was heartbreaking to watch, and even more so when I could feel all of Mrs Brooke’s pain and grief.

I wondered if Lucan could feel their pain through his power and looked at him. He was standing firm and solid, but when Mr Brooke let a tear slide down his face, I saw Lucan stumble back slightly before recomposing himself.

His face for almost a second, showed more pain than I had ever seen a human feel before, when I blinked, his face was back to that cold neutral look he gave, so you had absolutely no clue what was going on behind those eyes.

I figured he did feel the pain, but it seemed to be more from the dead than the living as he hadn’t reacted until Mr Brooke’s pain came through.

Lucan had to step in and help Mr Brooke uncurl his wife’s fingers from his arms, and then I watched as Lucans face softened and wrapping his arms around her chest from behind, he held her tightly and whispered into her ear, “let him go, he is right, it won’t seem so very long before you see him again, you go on that trip with your friend, and you can tell your husband all about it when you see him again. Where he’s going is a place of peace and love, you don’t need to worry about him.”

Mrs Brooke never took her eyes away from her husband, but with such innocence she asked Lucan, “have you seen it?”

“No, we don’t get to see it until it’s our time, not even I have the power Mrs Brooke, but every single spirit I’ve spoken to who has come back from there has only ever said the most incredible things about it, magical things.”

She nodded and looked a little more content, and finally allowed Lucan to use his power to put her husband back to rest in the ground.

It wasn’t as intense, thank goodness, it felt like he simply withdrew the power he had let out of himself and into his zombie and absorbed it back into himself.

When the ground had swallowed Mr Brooke back up, I watched Lucan and noticed he gave a small nod at something or someone we couldn’t see, and then he leaned down into Mrs Brooke’s ear and quietly said, “he crossed over.” She nodded quietly and sank back against his chest with silent tears.

I had to turn my back on them, so I could quietly sob. I could feel all her pain, and it took everything in me not to collapse to the floor from the strength of her grief.

I turned back around and ran to her, grabbing her into a tight hug. She was surprised for a minute and then wrapped her arms around me and we sobbed together.

I hadn’t meant to pry her from Lucan’s arms and I could only imagine what he was thinking about with my bizarre behavior, after all, I wasn’t the one who had just lost her husband.