Blood and Fire

Chapter 3-1

Chapter 3Kelwyn woke again, and for once his head was clear. He wasn’t sure how many times he’d slipped in and out of a drug-fueled haze over the last few days. He’d been awake enough to eat several times, and he’d certainly also been awake enough to notice that at one point he’d been on board a ship. Then there had been another carriage, and now it seemed that he had arrived at wherever it was they’d been going.

He sat up, trying to collect his wits, and found he was lying in a huge canopied bed, only wearing his undershorts.

He swallowed hard, pulling the blanket up over him. Something clinked as he shifted, and he saw that there was a heavy manacle, padded but of solid steel, around his ankle. A chain led from it over the edge of the bed and across the floor to a ring in the room’s stone wall. It was a square chamber, and curtains suggested there were windows in it, but they were heavy, and drawn tight, blocking out all light. He had no idea what time of day it was.

Glancing around he saw the door was in the opposite wall. The length of the chain suggested he probably couldn’t reach it.

He took a closer look at the shackle. Maybe if he was lucky it would be the kind of crude, one-lever lock he could pick with any old thing left lying around. Unfortunately when he examined it the narrow, carefully tooled keyhole suggested otherwise. There was no way to be sure without getting something in there, but it was too slender for most things to fit, and a good lock like that probably had at least three or four levers. It would be impossible to pick without at least halfway decent tools.

With a sigh Kelwyn flopped on his back on the bed. He was stuck here. None of his friends knew where he was, and even if one of them had known, nobody was going to go all the way to another country to rescue him. Harun might, perhaps, but he might not. He was about to head off on an important mission, so even if he’d noticed that Kelwyn was missing, his duty might mean he couldn’t do anything about it. And even if he were free, and willing, how would he find Kelwyn?

No, there was almost certainly no hope of rescue, and he couldn’t get himself out of this mess either, at least not immediately. He was going to be stuck here for a while, one way or another. That thought was equal parts terrifying and depressing, and Kelwyn let out a long sigh.

The door swung open with a creak of hinges, and Lucretious entered, carrying a tray. Kelwyn’s stomach immediately rumbled as the scent of food wafted from it.

“Ah, you’re awake, love. Good. I’ve brought you your dinner. Come, eat. You need to get your strength up, restore your blood.” He set the tray on a nightstand beside the bed. Kelwyn almost wanted to defiantly refuse, but he felt half-starved, so he scooted over to it and started eating.

Lucretious hovered by him as he did, making Kelwyn intensely uncomfortable. He wished the vampire would go away and leave him alone. Instead, no sooner had Kelwyn finished the food than Lucretious was climbing into the bed, wrapping his arms around Kelwyn and trying to kiss him again. Kelwyn turned away from it for what felt like the thousandth time, resisting even though he knew it was hopeless, useless, futile.

Lucretious grabbed him by the hair, pulling his head around, forcing a kiss on him. He was so strong, it was impossible for Kelwyn to escape it. He gave up his fight, just letting it happen. As Lucretious pressed against him and kissed him again, though, Harun suddenly floated through his mind. The thought came to him that he fervently wished it was Harun’s strong arms holding him, and not this horrible madman.

He focused on that thought, blocking out what was actually being done to him, and thinking of Harun instead. What would it be like to be kissed by him? To be touched by him? It would surely be nothing like this awful violation. He whimpered softly, intensely wishing that it could be the fire-lion here running his hands all over Kelwyn, and not Lucretious.

“Oh, Maltheus.” Lucretious started kissing Kelwyn’s neck again, his whole body pressed close. Kelwyn shuddered. The mad vampire could no doubt do worse things to him than this, but Kelwyn didn’t want to be bitten again. He cringed away, but it was no use, Lucretious pinned him down and nipped at him roughly. “I should wait, you’re weak yet,” he said, punctuating his words with further nips. “But I want it. I know you want it too.”

“No, please no,” said Kelwyn, whimpering at the pain as Lucretious continued to nip and bite at his neck.

“Yes, don’t pretend you don’t want it. I know you. You always have to act like you’re reluctant, but I know what you like.” Kelwyn had the brief, passing thought that the real Maltheus might not have been terribly into this either, and then Lucretious bit down, sinking his fangs in deep, and as the pain shocked through him all other thoughts went out of his head.

His body spasmed beneath Lucretious, his wings flaring out as he shuddered with it. He wanted to fight more, to shove the vampire off him, to do anything to escape, but that same horrible lassitude stole over him, robbing him of his strength. All he could do was lie there as Lucretious sucked his blood.

Then the weird pleasure he’d felt before began to wash over him again, and he whimpered in negation, rolling his head slowly from side to side. He didn’t want to feel good about this. He didn’t want to enjoy it. His mind, strangely, latched on to Harun again, and he held to that thought instead. Harun could do whatever he wanted, even bite him if that was what he wanted, and Kelwyn wouldn’t mind.

He clung to the mental image of Harun as the vampire continued to drink. Somehow it put space between him and what was being done to him. Now if only Harun could actually be here. He could surely take care of this madman easily, and then finally Kelwyn could kiss him instead.

But Harun had always rejected his advances. Harun didn’t want him either. Nobody did. He was a nothing, a nobody, a street thief who’d never attracted anyone’s attention until Harun found him, and even then it had been only pity, only a good man’s charity towards someone hopelessly below him. The only kiss he’d ever known, and probably ever would know, was because a madman mistook him for his dead lover.

Despair rushed back over him, and he gave up all hope or idea of any kind of escape, lying listlessly still until Lucretious finally pulled back from his neck.

He’d stopped short of making Kelwyn black out this time, but the avian felt weak and dizzy all the same. He could, perhaps, have summoned enough energy to sit up. But with despair still clinging to him he didn’t, he simply lay there.

“Maltheus, my love? Did I take too much again? I’m sorry.”

Kelwyn turned away from him silently, lying on his side on the bed, his wings folded about himself. Lucretious pressed up behind him and kissed the back of his neck. “I’m so sorry, love. Really, I am. I’ll take better care of you. You’ll come to your senses soon and we’ll be happy together, you’ll see.”

“No, I won’t,” said Kelwyn miserably. Yet for all he knew Lucretious was right in some twisted way. If he stayed trapped here forever, how long until he found himself going mad too?

* * * *

Harun stood with his hands on the railing and looked north. The wind was blowing strongly behind him, filling the ship’s sails, and the trip would take less than a day to complete. It was very nearly a ferry hop rather than a true ocean voyage. The Eternal Kingdom and Jorland were separated by a narrow strait. He was at least a full day behind Kelwyn’s kidnapper now, though, and that rankled. The carriage had stopped to change horses several times, at stations where one hired a horse to take on to the next station, and somebody going the other way would eventually take it back.

That meant that the vampire had been able to travel without stopping. Harun had rested as little as he could, but the journey to the coast was three days’ travel, even at a good pace, and that was longer than he could go without any kind of sleep or break. He had, in fact, given in and rented a carriage of his own on the second day, so he hadn’t lost any further time after the nap he’d been forced to take the first night, but the regular ship carrying passengers across to Jorland only went once a day, and he’d arrived too late to board—or to stop—the one the vampire had taken. He had caught Kelwyn’s scent on the pier, though, and again on the ship once he was aboard. He’d been there, and he’d been alive, which was hopeful news.

Harun still had no idea why a vampire would kidnap Kelwyn and carry him off like this, but whatever the kidnapper’s reasons, he seemed to want Kelwyn alive.

All the same, that leaden weight remained in Harun’s stomach, and he wished the wind that whipped past him as he stood and watched the distant shore slowly grow nearer would blow faster.

He finally reached shore and hurried through the streets of the port town. He found a private spot as swiftly as he could, changing to his feline form and casting about for Kelwyn’s scent. He got quite a few startled looks. Few people were used to were-cats and even fewer to fire-lions, they were rare creatures indeed this far north of their native land. Harun ignored the looks. There was a small chance he might be attacked, but even the most rabid of humancentric racists would hesitate to tangle with more than five hundred pounds of magical predator.

His only possible worry was a mob, either of racists or simply of alarmed citizens who assumed he was a wild animal, but mobs took time to form and he swiftly caught the scent he was after. A moment later he was on the move again, leaving the startled human citizens of the Jorland port behind.

The trail lead north once more, taking a direct path through the little port town, across the fields around it, and into the vast pine forest beyond. Jorland was not true farming country. It was too cold there, and too far north. The sun hardly shone for half the year, and that half was at hand. Indeed, the land around him was dusted with a light coating of snow, only an inch or two deep, but that showed no sign of melting. It was October, and the sun had set by the time Harun reached the woods, ushering in a bitter chill.

He ran on into the night, moving swiftly among the trees. The road was dirt, unpaved and rutted, and he knew he was making better time on his own four paws than any carriage possibly could. Hopefully he would catch up with Kelwyn and his kidnapper soon.

He was on the road all night, moving through a largely silent forest. There was some life amid the silent pine trees, but it wasn’t densely populated with either humans or animals.

Come morning he halted and found a sheltered thicket a little ways off the road. He curled up to nap there, resting for a few brief hours before moving on again.

Then sun was setting when he finally reached the end of the scent trail he’d been following. He’d turned off the main road some miles back, and had followed a road that was barely a pair of carriage ruts as it climbed up amid a steep valley, coming at last to a house that was nearly half castle, perched on a ridge overlooking a narrow stream that rushed rapidly along a gorge far below.

“Of course,” he muttered, looking at it. The high ridge made the place easily defensible, and with night falling the vampire would be at the peak of his power. His only real hope was that the vampire had no reason to know he was about to be under attack. So as Harun drew closer he concentrated a moment and snuffed out the betraying glow of the fire at the tip of his tail, then slipped off the road to sneak up the ridge through the trees. One slope was nearly a cliff, but the other was gentler, and his paws were sure on the damp, needle-strewn ground beneath the pines as he carefully ascended.