Declan:
“Stop screaming,” he said as he tried to hold on to the fighting girl in his arms without hurting her. He realised his mistake the minute he picked her up. He really should have taken an extra minute just to let her know he was coming for her, but his nerves got the better of him and he grabbed her before he could change his mind and run away. Aster kept going. He didn’t know it was possible for one, frail, sickly girl to bellow so loudly. “Jesus Christ, will you stop?”
Gently, he lowered her to the floor, and she abruptly stopped hollering. At the same time, her legs gave way, and she crashed to the floor. Declan caught her just before she cracked her head on the hardwood. “Why? What?” she asked, looking confused.
“I’m sorry,” he said, and helped her to her feet. “I should have warned you.”
“It’s okay,” she said, but he could hear the fear in her voice. “It’s me – I’m so high strung.”
God help him, he liked her. Every
Aster: Aster sat in the recliner where her gaggle of nurses had taken turns spending the night over the past nine months and watched Declan sleep. He lay where he fell, legs dangling off the bed. She tried to move him on the bed, but it was impossible to shift the solid block of a man. All she could do was cover him with a blanket and hope he was comfortable. Earlier, she had snuck through the empty mansion to the kitchen. She was hungry in a way she hadn’t been for months. The last few weeks were especially bad, and eating had become mostly mechanical – and since everything she ate tasted like dust, everyone had to force her to eat. Now she sat with a tray of food next to her – mostly items that were ‘grab and run’ food, as her father called it: cheese, fruit, crackers, cold cuts. Everything tasted delicious, and she had to stop herself from tearing into the food like an animal. The mansion was quiet and empty. Presumably, her father
Declan: Declan struggled to open his eyes. It was daytime, and the light stabbed him like millions of tiny needles, burrowing under his skin. Something, someone, repeatedly punched him in the chest though he barely felt the blows, and somewhere, far away, he heard a girl screaming and crying incoherently. It took his foggy mind several minutes to register where he was. He tried to force his eyes open. Being awake during the day was difficult. Painful. He didn’t want to do it, but Aster was in full-blown panic mode; and why wouldn’t she be? She thought he was dead. Summoning all his strength, Declan somehow managed to open his eyes, and struggled upright. The room was too bright, and the whole place looked like it was hazed in a mist of red. “Aster,” he said, but the word came out as a barely audible croak. He tried again, but she was so frantic that she didn’t hear him. Groaning loudly, he willed his muscles to move. Somehow, he manag
Aster: Aster sat in shock on the floor next to Declan, unable to move. He still had that same deathly pale-grey complexion, and from what she could tell, he wasn’t breathing. At last, the fear ebbed away, but it lingered under the surface. She got up, went to her closet and fetched a blanket and pillow – she didn’t know if he felt discomfort or cold in his current state, but sticking the cushion under his head and covering him up was the least she could do. She lay on her bed and watched the corpse on her floor until she fell asleep sometime in the middle of the day, while still praying that Declan would be all right. ** In her dream, she’s a little girl again. Healthy and carefree, running through the fairy garden that her daddy built just for her. Jumping from rock to rock, she peeks under every bush, and behind every tree, looking for hidden secrets. The fairy garden made mommy very mad. She yelled at daddy, but litt
Declan: Declan woke right after Aster left the room. He listened to her padding down the hallway to the shower, heard the rattle of the old pipes as she opened the taps, and then soft singing while she readied to take her shower. He enjoyed the moment; could even see himself wake up just like this every night. For a few minutes, he allowed himself to think about it. The what if of the future, unencumbered by Rowan, Katelynn, his brothers…just him and Aster, living their own little life somewhere far away. It wasn’t at all an unpleasant fantasy. But then he remembered that he barely knew anything about her, and there was still a good woman out there whose heart he'd have to break – and he still didn’t know what his father had planned. Sighing, he got up from the floor. His body still ached, and while it wasn’t as bad as before, he knew that if he didn’t get some nourishment, he’d be in tremendous pain and half dead by the time he had
Aster: The next few hours passed in somewhat of a blur. Declan came back just as Aster sat down to what she had to admit was an exquisite meal. While the two men watched, she wolfed down the stew Rowan had prepared for her, and even decided on a second bowl. This one went down a little slower, and by the time she was done eating, she regretted her gluttony. “Feel better?” Declan asked, a small smile on his lips. He looked fantastic. For a guy who looked like death warmed over twice mere hours ago, he now appeared rested, healthy, and was oh-so-hot in his tight jeans and black t-shirt. The clothes folded around him as if they were painted on, showing off his perfectly toned body, broad shoulders, and narrow hips. Now that the pain of dying didn’t cloud her mind and vision, she could really appreciate how truly good-looking he was. “It’s time.” Rowan said out of nowhere. “I know.” Declan replied softly. She saw him crumble befor
Declan: It was a beautiful night. The full moon bathed the garden in a white, ghostly glow, and the hidden lights twinkled in the dark giving the grounds a magical, fairy tale appearance. Like the mansion, the garden was absolutely devoid of any human life, but he heard animals all around them. Frogs croaking in the ponds, rabbits hopping through the grass, birds chirring softly in their sleep. Declan stopped, and turned to Aster, “Take me to your favourite place.” “Why?” Now that she felt better, he had the feeling she won’t submit so easily to him. Unlike the previous night, she now questioned everything. “If you are in a place you love, you’ll fight harder to come back.” “I don’t understand what that means. Tell me what it means.” He glanced at the moon, then at his watch. They had precious few hours left. “I’ll tell you on the way.” She nodded. “This way.” They walked side-by-
Aster: Aster’s mind spun in two hundred different directions. She didn’t really believe anything Declan had been telling her, and for a crazy minute she thought that she had been wrong all along, that he was there to kill her. It’s just as well, she thought, then I don’t have to go through the whole getting sicker by the day thing all over again. But at the same time, she was sure she was wrong. He was his gentle self … until he turned her head to the side. She heard a faint clicking sound, and when she tried to twist her head to see what the sound was, he kept her firmly in place – her face turned away from him. “I’m sorry,” he whispered close to her ear. She was about to ask him why, then, out of nowhere, a blinding pain shot through her neck. She gasped, closed her eyes, and bit into her lower lip, trying to stifle a scream – she had screamed quite enough in the last twenty-four hours, and she didn’t want to give him the
Declan: The screams. The screams were the worst. And he couldn’t drown them out. Nor should he have…this was why a vampire felt like he was being cut to the core every time he made a vampire. It was a reminder that what he was doing was no trivial matter. He heard as her bones snapped one-by-one, and still the death grip wouldn’t let go and give her release. He remembered the day of his rebirth like it was yesterday, but he couldn’t remember the pain. Rowan always compared it to childbirth … over time, the mother forgets how much it hurts, and the baby doesn’t remember at all, but Declan was sure he’d never forget this moment. It went on for hours and hours, and there was nothing he could do to ease her suffering. She was lost in the world of darkness and pain, and she’d have to fight her own way out. Finally, mercifully, it ended. She collapsed to the ground like a broken ragdoll. Staring at him with big open eyes. Blood ooze