Of Light and Darkness (26 page)

Normally, when human beings know they were about to die, they saw their entire life flash before them. Well, these images he saw
were
his life. They were Charlotte, every one of them. He saw the glistening streets of Prague nearly two decades ago. He felt her tiny hand grasp his finger as she took her first steps. He heard the first time she ever said his name, and then the last. He closed his eyes.

To Charlotte’s terror, he overlooked her completely and ran straight for the Elf at the end of the hallway. The cracks in his skin emitted a strong, white light before being encompassed completely by golden flames, as the morning sun struck him.

Charlotte screamed, her legs collapsing underneath her weight. She stretched her hands out to him, calling his name.

Valek slammed into Aiden, refusing to burn until Aiden was dead. He sank his teeth deep into the throat of the Elf as Aiden grappled to get him off. Valek’s jaw stayed fixed on the Elf’s throat as he pulled and pulled, until there was no life left to take. He felt Aiden’s body go limp, and he let it collapse to the floor before dropping to his knees. The flames that engulfed his body were now fading, licking just at the surface before sputtering out completely.

Charlotte found the strength in her legs to run to him then. She hoisted the material of her dress up around her knees as she stumbled. “
Valek!
” she screamed against the silence, and collapsed beside him.

Her hands hovered over his body as he lay before her, broken. She could barely see what the sun had done to him from behind the blur of her tears. “Valek,” was all she could say. She gently ran her fingers through his hair. She did not want to touch his ruined skin in fear it might crumble into ash. Instead, her hands fell in her lap as everyone who was still in the hall numbly looked on.

“Valek,” she cried. “If you can hear me, wait for me. Please.” The words burned so badly in her throat as she spoke them. She could barely open her eyes with the heaviness she felt as she finally draped herself over his chest. “I love you.” She continued to let her tears disappear in the material of his clothes.

The spider Třínožka and Sarah burst into the room. They were met with hundreds of gazes. Meredith Price, who had been watching in frozen horror suddenly burst forth, running to her son’s side as Charlotte had. She clutched her son’s head in her hands. “My baby! My son!” She turned her eyes angrily on Charlotte. “What have you
done?
  You will die for this!” she hissed. “For taking away my child.”

Charlotte looked up at her and then at the hundreds of eyes resting on her also.

“No one will touch the girl.” Sarah leapt off the Spider’s back and approached where Charlotte and Valek lay. “We have killed every leader in the Regime order.” Sarah’s announcement was responded to with gasps from around the hallway.

To everyone’s surprise, Lusian, Dusana, Sasha, Jorge, and a much different looking Francis emerged from behind Mr. Třínožka, as well as a few other Vampires Charlotte did not recognize. She stood. “What’s going on? How are you alive?”

“We drained the blood of powerful Elves from every denomination,” Lusian explained. “Be it fire, wind, earth, or water. It has always been said the blood of one from magic is poison to us. But we have discovered consuming the life of someone of the light will protect us against it.” He flashed his fangs at Meredith. “Valek is alive,” he said joyfully.

Everyone looked to the Vampire lying next to Charlotte.

“Because he drank from Aiden. Light cannot rule over darkness anymore because we now know your secret. We will leave in peace if you do not follow us,” Lusian announced to Meredith.

“Who is going to follow you now?” Tears streamed from Meredith’s eyes. “You have killed my entire family.”

“Aiden is not dead,” Sarah said softly. “But he will need immediate attention. If you don’t want one of us to finish the job, you will not follow us when we leave. Light and dark should exist in balance. One may not rule over the other, or the world will surely fall in on itself.”

Meredith turned back to her son, taking his hand in hers. “Fine! Go! We will not bother you. I just want my baby to come back to me.” She cried and buried her face in his chest.

The coven rushed to Valek’s side and hoisted him onto Mr. Třínožka’s back, where Dusana jumped up and fastened Valek to him using her many belts. Lusian followed.

“Come on, Charlotte.” Sarah held her arms out.

Charlotte blinked at her, but before leaving for the final time, she turned once more to look at Meredith, on the floor with her son.

“Meredith.” The woman did not look at her. “I want you to know if I ever see your face again, I will personally not rest until I know you are dead.”

Charlotte wiped the last of her hot tears away from her eyes and walked out of the palace hall with Sarah and the rest of what she considered to be her family.

Chapter Thirty

Reprise

It was evening back in what used to be the Southern Bohemian Occult when Charlotte and the coven walked through her familiar bent, iron gate, past the small cemetery, and under the long, forest tunnel. They walked into the town square she had not seen in what felt like an eternity. They were not greeted by any sort of parade. There were no celebrations for the unsung heroes of the night as they made their way past the old, abandoned inns and shops. The sign to Edwin’s store had been broken and was dangling from one chain in the wind. Charlotte suspected it would be a while for her forsaken town to regain its magic.

Francis had left them. He went where he could exist in eternal night, where he could not harm any of the ones he loved, including Charlotte. He bid them a farewell after seeing them safely back through the forests to the Occult city border.

“I will be watching over all of you from the city of the night,” he told them. “No harm will come to you as long as I am there.” And then he was gone as easily as a shadow in a bright flash of light.

Sarah, who had been riding atop the spider for the journey, had been tending to Valek as they went, cleaning up the charred cracks and sooty scars. All of her books and spells had been left at Francis’ home in Prague. Tomorrow, she would cook up a transportation spell to retrieve them. That was the plan she’d told them. Whether she would succeed or not, the others really didn’t know.

Charlotte, who led the group through the abandoned square, could see clearly the large, brown house with the one spire at the front and the cockeyed roof shingles. She stopped walking when she could see her porch steps, too, surrounded by the low, green bushes that had now grown all over the cobblestone footpath. She inhaled the frostbitten air and ran to it. She tripped all over the bottom of her wedding dress, if she even wanted to call it that, ripping the hem to shreds. She ran up the steps like they were her last salvation and collapsed, her hand grasping the small brass doorknob.

Home
. A place she thought she’d never see again. She would never take it for granted. Home. She didn’t even bother to open the door. The mere knowing that home was just on the other side of it was enough. She sat on her porch and buried her face in her knees. It was finally all over.

She felt Sarah come and sit beside her. “I can’t imagine how this must feel to you right now.”

Charlotte looked at her. “Of course you can! This is home to you now also. You don’t have to be anyone’s servant anymore. Now all you have to be is my friend.” They smiled at each other before they embraced.

Mr. Třínožka grumbled at the start of the footpath and they both looked at him. “I don’t mean to break this up, but we’ve gotta get this feller inside.” He indicated Valek, who was still strapped to his back. Sarah smiled at Charlotte again before running to help Dusana and Lusian carry him inside.

They easily trailed up the stairs of the house and down the hallway, laying Valek on his bed. The dark drapes were left open so the silver moonlight would be there when he opened his eyes. He would know then that everything was okay. No more hiding. No more fighting. Perhaps it had all just been some horrible nightmare that was over now.

Charlotte stayed downstairs while they did this, trusting Sarah would make sure he’d be comfortable. Instead, she trailed the lower parts of the house, her hands brushing along each wall, ensuring herself she was truly there.

The study, which had been thoroughly abused in their absence—books all over the floor, furniture overturned—was still there, with its forest green walls and wooden moldings. Charlotte bent to pick up her
Volume on Vampire Anatomy
and placed it back in the same place she had put it thousands of times before. Her sketchbook had been tossed about also, and a picture that had been torn out from between its brown covers was one she had been sketching for Valek. It was of the two of them and their home, together. She picked it up, considering it needed a few new additions.

Ultimately, she made her way past the foyer and the kitchen, to the back room, where she had seldom been allowed. His office. Cautiously she opened the door. What she found on the other side was exactly how he had left it. Pristine. White. Organized. A true embodiment of who he was. Valek’s papers were carelessly shuffled about on the desk like he had been there just last evening. Charlotte hugged the drawing to her chest and smiled. She was really home.

“Charlotte?”

She turned to see the others standing in the threshold of the office.

“Are you all right?” Jorge asked.

She nodded, folding the sketch behind her quickly and smiled. “Yes, just having a look around.”

“Valek should be awake soon,” Dusana offered.

“Thank you. I’ll go up in a minute.”

They waited, looking at her expectantly.

“Oh! Yes, let me show you around. You can make yourself at home anywhere you want.” She cautiously walked past them. Tomorrow, Charlotte decided, she would take them all out hunting in the daylight.

Once they were all settled in; Jorge in the study, reading by the fire after Sarah had magically seen to it that all of the books had been stacked back where they belonged, Lusian, Sasha, and Dusana searching around in the kitchen until they found Valek’s emergency blood packets, and Mr. Třínožka napping in the middle of Charlotte’s singed, old bedroom with Edwin as a teddy bear, Charlotte finally made her way to Valek’s bedroom.

She closed the door softly behind her, as she had weeks ago when she snuck into his room the first time. But she could see him now, lying peacefully in the center of the bed—the first time he had ever
slept
peacefully. She crept over to him as she had before, pulling one knee up and then the other, until she was lying next to him, her arm fastened securely over his chest. Sighing, she closed her eyes.

“Valek,” she began when he still did not wake up. “I love you.”

Valek opened his eyes.

Epilogue

Charlotte visited each room one by one in the large house at the end of the town square, biding a “good night” to her newfound family. First Sarah, Lusian, and Dusana, then Sasha, Jorge was the last of the Vampires, then Mr. Třínožka who slept in the study by the fire, ever with his little Edwin. He would create a new burrow for himself in the morning just under the house, so he would always be close. Charlotte opened the door to one last bedroom, left vacant. A small, golden wedding band sat alone in the center of the bed. Charlotte gave a tiny smile. “
Dobrou noc
, Andela,” she whispered, before closing the door behind her.

She finally skipped back to his bedroom, where Valek was sitting on the edge of the bed, toying with something small in his hands. She ran over and pounced into his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pecked his cheek. “What is that?”

“It is your birthday present.” He held up a little silvery whistle to the moonlight. “Belated, of course.”

Charlotte cocked her head and grasped it. “But I already have one.” The thing was beautiful, however. It was intricately done, with the image of a phoenix carved into the sides, embellished in pieces of jet and pearl.

“You don’t,” Valek mused. “It was destroyed in the flames as I wore it. Its pieces must be somewhere in the Regime still.”

“I love it!” She reached behind her neck to clasp the necklace chain.

Valek’s large hands replaced hers as he helped her. It fell just in front of her chest. It was smaller and more delicate than the one she used to have. She continued to study it.

“I had Sarah order it from a human merchant days ago, when we were still in the city. There is nothing enchanted about this. It is meant more as a symbol that I will forever be here to protect you, no matter what happens, Charlotte. No matter how much fire we endure.” He closed both of her small hands in his. He turned the whistle to the backside and read the letters carved there. “
We will always rise
.”

She smiled as she then fully understood the symbol of the phoenix and lifted her face to kiss him. “Thank you, Valek. I will treasure it.”

“I am never going to let you leave my sight again, Lottie,” he said seriously.

“I wouldn’t want you to.” She nuzzled his chin. They sat in silence for a few moments, thinking privately. He did not cross the boundaries of her mind. “We are safe, Valek,” she reminded him.

“Yes. For now, we are.” He rested his cheek atop her head.

“And you will walk in the daylight tomorrow.” She beamed. “Like the others.”

He smiled. “Yes. I will.”

They were together. Finally. They were the moon and the sun—the light and the darkness—together and to be alone to more.

* * *

~ABOUT THE AUTHOR~

Shayne's first year out of high school, she penned, co-directed, and starred in the feature-length film,
The Incubus
, a paranormal romance, which obtained distribution and opened in over fifteen theaters across South Florida among popular chains like Regal, AMC, and Cinemark. The Incubus obtained a fan-base of over 100,000 girls online, and has garnered the attention of reporters from the Miami Herald, CBS News, and NPR Radio. Leighton also starred alongside Scream Queen, Tara Cardinal in the film,
Legend of the Red Reaper
.

Now, 20-year-old Leighton is excited to release her debut young adult novel series,
Of Light and Darkness
, set in contemporary Prague, as well as penning several other screenplays, a novel adaptation for
Legend of the Red Reaper
, an original pop/rock album, and acting in various film roles.

Visit Shayne online at:
http://www.shayneleighton.com