Dark Moors (THE TWO VAMPIRES, #4) (13 page)

‘This is pretty good too,’ he shared.

They sat in silence as they ate their meals, taking sips of their rich wine and exchanging coy glances and smiles.  After Sarah had swallowed her last bite he took her hand and kissed her palm, then held it and projected, ‘Shall we pay, and then go and wait outside for another meal?’

‘Yes,’ she said, rising straightaway.

He took her hand and she stood close by his side as they re-entered the bar which was becoming crowded.  He looked around the people there, still trying to find the source of the magic he had sensed, but discovering nothing.  He gave up and led Sarah back outside - into the night.

The sky had cleared and the moon was
half way towards full.  It was not going to be long now until they would once again need to fight, and they needed to be strong.  He led Sarah around the side of the pub, once more into the shadows that the building and the night provided.  He wanted a break from this, from feeding on humans.  Yes, of course he enjoyed it when lost in the blood and the power it provided, yet he still hated it, hated taking from others.  He would much prefer to consume only inferior animal blood, but have a clearer conscious.  Right now that was not an option though, he needed strength and so did Sarah.

He pulled her into his arms and t
hey leant against the pub wall.  He breathed in Sarah’s heavenly scent that was incomparable to anything he had previously experienced, until he heard the door to the pub open and someone stepped into the night.  He wrapped that person in influence until they succumbed and walked straight into his grip. 

He let Sarah go and said, ‘For you,’ passing her the man who was under his control.

Sarah’s eyes glinted and she had sunk her teeth into his neck in a flash.  Daniel was not sure whether or not he would need to intervene this time, and closely monitored the man’s vitals as Sarah fed on his blood, his essence.

He was listening so hard to t
he man’s heartbeat that he did not notice the approach of a young woman until she was before him and magic flared in her palms.

‘Drop him,’ she commanded, extending her hands towards Sarah and Daniel
- ready to fire flames in their direction.

Daniel immediately reacted, he delved into hi
s own magical reserves and cast a boundary between him and Sarah and the woman - who was beautiful with long curly brown hair falling about her middle, and dark slanting eyes; she reminded him substantially of Heather; the witch he had known in New Orleans, and it was quickly clear where the hint of magic that he had felt earlier had come from.  Sarah did not release the man and a stream of fire pummeled his boundary, his shield.

The woman’s eyes widened in confused, and mixed with fear.

‘Wait,’ Daniel said to her, as he heard the man’s heart begin to weaken and Sarah was not showing any sign of letting go.  If it was not for the distraction before him he would have intervened by now.

He maintained
the boundary as the witch did not wait, she fired fresh flames towards him, and he commanded Sarah, enforcing the command with all the strength of influence he could muster under the circumstances, to stop feeding at once.

She retracted her teeth, and glanced at the flames that were bouncing from the barrier before her,
then looked back at the man who had fallen to her feet.  She reacted quickly, and did as she had seen Daniel do before, and bit into her own wrist, quickly pushing it against that of the man on the ground.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, as she fed him her blood.

Daniel, sure now that the man was safe, returned his attention to the witch, who had stopped with the fire and was looking at Sarah, perplexed.

‘We do not kill anyone,’ he said to the woman.  ‘We need strength, something horrible is happening here and we wish to prevent it.’

‘But you are vampires,’ she said, inconsequentially, watching them closely.

‘So?’ said Daniel, simply
, he hoped she would get his point; there was no reason why vampires had to be bad, just because their instincts dictated it.  They still had their own minds.

Regardless of the fact the witch was no-longer fighting him, but quietly watching
, Daniel still held the barrier in place.  He glanced back at Sarah as the man rose and dusted off his clothes, and he watched as she successfully projected influence making the man forget what had happened.  Daniel dropped the barrier enough to let the man through as he walked towards the car park to the front of the pub, seemingly himself again, although not acknowledging their presence as he passed.

Sarah stood by Daniel’s side and asked the witch, ‘What is your name?’

‘My name?  Who are you?’ she said, distain rich in her voice.

‘I’m Sarah, this is Daniel, and like he said we are here to stop something bad happening.  We don’t want to hurt anyone – do you?’

Daniel glanced from Sarah to the witch, watching their battle of wills.  They looked to be approximately the same age, both around twenty-five years, with similar builds and hair lengths, yet very different colorings.  The witch had deep brown calculating eyes that she studied them with.

‘Of course I don’t, hence the fact I’m here trying to fight you,’ she quipped.

‘You really don’t need to though, do you? Daniel would have made me stop feeding sooner had you not interrupted us,’ Sarah said.

‘OK, fine, have it your way, you can lower your boundary, I won’t hurt you,’ she said, stepping back.

‘I have your word?’ Daniel asked.

‘Yes, sure, I won’t hurt you, unless you try anything, or hurt anyone, that is,’ she said, her voice tinged with an air of threat that suggested she had only shown
them a hint of what she was capable of.  ‘But I want to know more about you.  You must tell me why you are here and what it is you are trying to prevent – before I will let you leave.’

Daniel exchanged a questioning glance with Sarah, and she nodded, showing him she was fine with staying to talk.  He suspected he could fight the witch off
just fine, and they could be on their way, but if she was good, as she seemed to be insinuating, she may be able to help them, or she may know something about what they faced that could be of use.

‘Would you like us to talk here, or can we buy you a drink?’ Daniel asked.

The witch scowled at him, although he thought he saw a hint of amusement behind her eyes, and she said, ‘I would like a drink, thankyou.  My name is also Sarah,’ she said, looking Sarah’s way and smiling ruefully, her own boundaries disintegrating with that glance.

Daniel was shocked to see his Sarah instantly warm to, err, Sarah.
  She not only grinned at her, but she approached and linked her arm with the witch, who Daniel thought would object, but she smiled back at Sarah and they all entered the bar together, Daniel rolling his eyes in disbelief.

Once they were back in the warmth Daniel bought drinks and they all sat back at the table where Daniel and Sarah had eaten their meal, pulling up an extra chair
to allow room for the new Sarah, who had chosen a double of straight tequila with ice and lemon.

Sarah took a sip of her wine and asked the witch, who now they were here
, and she and Sarah seemed to have formed some kind of unspoken bond, seemed in no hurry to question them, what her business was in the town.

‘I actually happen to live here,’ she said.

Sarah narrowed her eyes, ‘For how long?’

The witch grinned, ‘You got me!  I rented a place here when I heard about the deaths, wanted to do something to help prevent more.’

Sarah smiled this time, ‘No way, us to!  What do you know about what’s going on here?’

‘Hang on – I want to ask you some question
s too,’ said the witch.

‘Like what?’ asked
Sarah.

‘How come you’re vampires and you’re trying to help people?’ she whispered, not that anyone else would have heard them, the pub was now busy, regardless of its remoteness, and the general volume of chatter in the place had risen considerably since Daniel and Sarah had first arrived.

Daniel just decided to let Sarah do the talking, she appeared to be having fun.  He concentrated on studying the responses of the witch and wondering about her character and motivations.  They knew nothing about her – how did they know it was not her who had sacrificed those people in the stone circle?  Of course, in the dream of Sarah’s that Daniel had tapped into the sorcerer had been a man, but what if he was mistaken and it had not been prophetic at all but a figment of Sarah’s imaginative subconscious?  Or the dream may indeed have been prophetic and this woman before him may not be the sorcerer, but she could be working for him, trying to find out more about them, or this could be their second trap – she may soon proceed in trying to kill them.  Well if she did try it Daniel would just have to fight her, they were with her now so there was no avoiding it, he would have to stay on alert, just in case.  And what if she was collecting information for the sorcerer – trying to tap into any weaknesses?  Did it really matter?  The sorcerer already knew where they lived, that they were vampires and that they wanted to stop him – the only thing he did not know that could be important was their strength – that was something that he would not let on to.

Sarah shrugged in answer to the other Sarah’s question, ‘I don’t know,’ she said, ‘I just do want to help people, not hurt them, and so does Daniel – I don’t know anything about oth
er vampires or why they do what they do.’

‘Where do you come from?’ the witch asked.

‘Canada,’ Sarah said, ‘but Daniel has been a vampire for some time – he has lived lots of places.’

The witch eyed Daniel
appraisingly, then shifted her attention back to Sarah.

‘What do you know about what’s going on here?’
the witch asked her.

Sarah looked at Daniel questioningly, he nodded to let her know it was fine by him to go ahead and tell her. 
‘We read about four missing people in the paper, and when we investigated we found them – near the stone circle.  There was blood there, we think there had been a sacrifice, and a crow watching us – we think it was a sorcerer who is planning to awaken something at the next full moon – that he’s going to conduct another sacrifice.’

‘What makes you think that?’

Sarah blushed, ‘Well, Daniel thinks I have prophetic dreams – but I can’t remember them – he tapped into one and that’s what it revealed.’

This
time the witch looked appraisingly at Sarah, but did not say she doubted her, ‘You’ve discovered more than I have, but I have been reading about local legends…’

‘Really?’
Sarah asked, ‘Where did you find that info?’

‘
I have some distant relatives that live in the general area, witches too, and they have stored historical records on anything magical in the roundabout region,’ she said gesticulating to her surroundings.

‘Did you read anything about the stone circle?’ Sarah asked.

‘As a matter of fact, yes I did.  A coven of witches, I can’t remember when, did bury something there – an old vampire…’ she said, looking at both Sarah and Daniel to see how they would react.

Sarah caught Daniel’s eye, and he knew she was thinking what he was; why would someone want to resurrect and old vampire?  What about Sebastian?  Would someone want to resurrect him?

‘But why would someone want to resurrect an old vampire?’ Sarah asked the witch, who just shrugged.

‘Are you planning anything to stop the next sacrifice?’ the witch asked.

The key question, thought Daniel, if the sorcerer did want information this was likely to be it, but again, what did it really matter?  He decided to just watch and see how it played out.

This time Sarah shrugged, ‘Not really, but we do want to stop it – we were just going to watch the stone circle at the full moon and see what we could do to stop the ritual, and the people being killed.’

The witch leant in closer, conspiratorially, ‘Can I help you?’ she asked.

Again Sarah looked at Daniel question
ingly.  He half shrugged/nodded to show it was fine by him.  If she did want to stop them she would be there anyway, at least he would know where she was if she was with them, and maybe she would help, maybe she did mean what she said and was not connected to the sorcerer.

Sarah laughed at her manor, ‘Yeah sure, that would be great.  You should come by our house on the day of the full
moon, we live not too far from here…’

As Sarah explained the location of their house Daniel kept watching them closely,
Sarah so as to be sure she was not likely to succumb to bloodlust and attack anyone - but he did not think she was, she seemed just fine - and the other Sarah to make sure she did not suddenly change tack and attack his Sarah, while he went to the bar and ordered more drinks.

When he returned the two Sarah’s were laughing and chatting about life and films, and he thought, what the hell?
Might as well enjoy the evening.  He would have to feed later, for he still needed to strengthen himself for the coming fight, which Daniel suspected was not going to be an easy one.  He would have to shake off the witch later, for he suspected she would not be too accommodating of them feeding in front of her, and he did not want to risk their lives, and a fight, unnecessarily.