Blood and Fire

Chapter 2-2

“Maltheus? What’s wrong?”

“Look, you’re obviously mistaken, I’m not this Maltheus, my name is Kelwyn. Please let me go.”

“Don’t talk nonsense, my love.”

“Love? Woah, okay, this is going too far here. I’m not Maltheus, I promise. I’m Kelwyn, I’ve been Kelwyn my whole life. Let me go, please. I’m not your love.”

“I’ve waited so long to find you again, Maltheus.” The man completely ignored Kelwyn’s protests, and tried to kiss him again. Kelwyn managed to get his wings spread and tried to use them to shove the man off him, since his arms were being pinned.

The man suddenly snarled an angry curse and pulled Kelwyn away from the wall, shoving him down to the floor. Next thing he knew, Kelwyn was lying flat on his back with the man straddling him, his knees on Kelwyn’s secondary feathers, pinning his wings down, while the man held his wrists in a firm grip against the floor. Kelwyn felt a knot of terror forming in his stomach. The stranger was frighteningly strong, utterly deranged, and had him completely helpless.

The stranger pressed another kiss on Kelwyn, and the only thing he could do was to turn his head to the side, away from it. That didn’t really help at all, for the man started kissing down the side of Kelwyn’s now-exposed neck, and Kelwyn felt an entirely different sort of fear spike through him when the man nipped him there, and Kelwyn felt the sharp prick of fangs. Oh hell. The man was some kind of non-human; a were-creature or a vampire or something of that sort. That was why he was so strong.

“Oh Maltheus, it’s been so long since I tasted you…” The man’s fangs pricked again, and Kelwyn started struggling in earnest, his boots scraping against the carpet as he fought futilely to get free. Then the man bit down, sinking in his fangs, and Kelwyn arched under him, letting out a shocked cry of pain.

The man let go of Kelwyn’s wrists as his lips fastened on Kelwyn’s neck and he started to drink there, but Kelwyn found he still couldn’t escape. A strange paralysis, a lethargic weakness ran through him, keeping him lying limp on the floor as the stranger took his blood. He whimpered softly, still feeling a stinging pain from the bite, yet there was a weird pleasure that joined it as the vampiric man kept drinking. It was a gentle euphoria, a dizzy lightheadedness that enfolded him completely, washing through his whole body from head to toe.

Kelwyn whimpered again, struggling to reject that pleasure, managing to find the energy to lift his hands, to try and push the vampire off him. His shove was feeble, though, and did nothing at all. The vampire still pressed close atop him, drinking deeply of his life’s blood.

He lay still, then, giving up as the unwelcome euphoria grew steadily in him. He moaned softly with it, his eyes rolling back, his head spinning, his mind dazed. The dazed feeling grew, and the world started fading, the already-dark room growing darker still. Then blackness closed over him and he knew no more.

* * * *

He came back to himself slowly, still dazed, feeling a sense of motion, and an odd pressure against his body. He blinked his eyes open and found that he was being carried by the same stranger who’d assaulted him. It was still dark, and the man was just coming down the stairs in front of the mansion’s door, so Kelwyn probably hadn’t been out long. It was a city home, and not quite wealthy enough to have grounds of its own, few places here did, so the door simply let out directly onto the street. A carriage was parked in front of it, the horses and driver waiting patiently. Their livery was unfamiliar, the design foreign, as the stranger’s clothing had been.

Kelwyn didn’t fully take this in, though. All he knew was that he was being taken somewhere he almost certainly did not want to go. He started struggling, flailing with all his might, and, startled by his sudden return to life, the man carrying him dropped him. Kelwyn staggered to his feet, feeling dizzy, weak, confused. The man grabbed his wrist in a grip tight enough to hurt. “Maltheus, be still. I’m only taking you home.”

“I’m not Maltheus! No! Help! Let me go!”

“Here now, what’s going on?” Kelwyn’s heart jumped, hope thrilling through him as a guardsman in uniform approached.

“Help, I’m being kidnapped!” he cried.

“Sorry, sir, my friend is very drunk, and I think it was a bad batch, though he does get paranoid fits at times. I’m only trying to take him home, so he can recover.” The stranger kept his grip on Kelwyn’s wrist, but smiled charmingly at the guard. Though it was a close-lipped smile, not showing the fangs he must have.

“Of course, sir.” The guard gave a little nod, and Kelwyn’s heart sank.

“No, that’s not true, he’s kidnapping me, I swear! Please, help me!” Kelwyn’s head still spun, and he couldn’t think, couldn’t focus. He knew if he were better composed he’d come up with some actual argument, but all he could think to do was to insist that he wasn’t going willingly.

The man let go of his wrist for a moment, and he stumbled, staggering dazedly. Then he felt the man’s arm around his waist, just below his wings, supporting him. “Come along,” he said, “Let’s get you home.”

The guard gave a little nod, and turned away, and Kelwyn’s heart sank further. He was being kidnapped by a deranged vampire, and nobody was here to help him. If Harun was here, he would help. Harun!

“Hey! Hey! Hey, you guard!” he shouted as he was being shoved through the carriage’s waiting door. “Tell Harun Rashid! The Queen’s Own! He’ll come looking for me! You have to tell him!”

“See what I mean, sir? Hopelessly paranoid,” said the man. “Just raving. Sorry to bother you.” Then he dragged Kelwyn into the carriage, shutting the door behind them both. Kelwyn immediately tried to get to the door on the other side, but the man grabbed both wrists and pinned him to one seat. In that small space he couldn’t spread his wings at all. He tried kicking, but his feeble blows had little effect.

“Stop fighting,” snapped the man. “You don’t know what you’re doing, you’re confused. I’m only taking you home. I hadn’t wanted to do this…” He reached into a pocket and pulled out a length of rope. Kelwyn kept fighting, but the man was so much stronger that he couldn’t keep from being bent over the carriage’s padded seat, with his hands pulled behind his back, crossing over his wings and pinning them too, and then firmly tied together.

“There. Now be still,” snapped the man.

Kelwyn went limp, despair sweeping over him. There was no escaping. He let his head fall, his face resting on the seat. The man rapped the window at the front of the carriage, and the driver outside flicked the reins, starting the horses moving. Then he moved to lift Kelwyn, laying him more comfortably on his side on the seat. He couldn’t sit upright on it, even without being tied up, it wasn’t designed for avians. He didn’t really care about comfort right now, though. He tried not to think too hard about the situation he was in, but his heart was hammering and his stomach was knotted tightly with terror.

“Who are you?” he asked, finally managing to focus on at least one of the hundreds of questions that were rattling around in his confused mind.

“My poor, sweet love,” said the man, giving Kelwyn’s cheek a soft caress, which Kelwyn flinched back from. “You don’t remember me?”

Kelwyn shook his head slowly, reluctantly. He felt like giving that answer was somehow giving in to the lunatic vampire’s delusions, but he wanted to know what the hell was going on.

“I’m Lucretious. I loved you, deeply, intensely, for all your mortal life, but you died almost a century ago. You died and you didn’t come back. I thought I had given you the seed of change, yet you never returned from your grave. But you’re here now. You’re here. You’ve been reborn for me, I just know it.”

“Lucretious.” Kelwyn tried that name out on his tongue. It was utterly unfamiliar to him. “I’m not your Maltheus, though, I swear.”

“You are. You are his very image. You are…are…” The vampire’s voice shook with intense emotion. “You are Maltheus reborn, returned to me. Fate has brought us back together at last.”

Kelwyn shook his head in fervent denial, but Lucretious kept stroking his cheek gently, staring at him with a soulful gaze. Kelwyn turned his head away from the touch, and Lucretious scowled at him, putting his hand under Kelwyn’s jaw and turning his head back. “Don’t deny what you know is true.”

“You’re mad,” said Kelwyn, still terrified, and sure even as he said it that it was a bad idea.

Indeed, Lucretious snarled at him, fangs bared in sudden rage, pinning him back to the seat again. “I am not mad!”

Kelwyn cringed back from him, as if he could sink into the seat cushion and get further away. Lucretious glared down at him for a long moment, but then his expression relaxed. “You’re only confused, because I took too much from you just now. Forgive me, my love. You’ll come back to your senses, and we’ll be happy together soon.”

Kelwyn shook his head again, in frantic denial. “No, no, no, no. I’m not your Maltheus. I will never be happy with you. Please let me go.”

Lucretious acted like he hadn’t even spoken, bending to nuzzle his cheek. “My sweet love…It’s all right. You’ll see. It will be fine.”

“No…” Kelwyn tried to hold on to self-control and not weep with fear. This situation was utterly terrifying. He was being taken who knew where by a madman.

Lucretious kissed him again, and Kelwyn whimpered, trying to squirm away from it. The vampire gave up the attempt and sighed. “You’re going to continue to deny the truth, aren’t you? I’m going to have to fight you all the way to Jorland.”

Kelwyn’s eyes went wide. Jorland was hundreds and hundreds of miles north, across a sea, even. That was where this lunatic was taking him? He started tugging on the rope that held him, seeking some weakness in the knots. He had to get out somehow.

“Be still!” snapped Lucretious, his voice hot with anger. He cuffed Kelwyn across the face, the blow stunningly hard. Kelwyn stopped struggling, trying to gather his wits. Meanwhile Lucretious slid the window at the front of the carriage open and said something to the driver, who nodded and turned the horses. By the time Kelwyn had recovered from the slap the carriage had stopped, and the driver climbed off his seat. Kelwyn couldn’t see terribly well from his position, since Lucretious was holding him down again, but he thought they might have stopped at a market. The sky was beginning to grow lighter. It was almost dawn, so some places would be in business now that many of the city’s workers were beginning their days.

After some time the driver returned, opening the carriage door. Kelwyn tried to lunge for it, but Lucretious kept his grip, and Kelwyn only succeeded in ending up on the carriage floor rather than the seat.

The driver put a sack on the seat. “There you are, master.”

“Excellent.” Lucretious reached into the sack as the driver swung up and started the carriage again. He pulled out a stoppered bottle. Then he pulled Kelwyn up from the floor to lie on the seat and took a hold of his hair, pulling his head up. “Now, Maltheus my love. We can have another fight, and I can eventually force you, and make quite a mess, or you can just drink this. Either way you will be taking it.”