Of Light and Darkness (4 page)

The room’s atmosphere was like a human mausoleum, the air stagnant, chilled with death. Her eyes could not adjust to the deep blackness. Holding up the lightning bug captive in the jar, she found it was no aid at all to her vision.

This is stupid
, she thought, even as she continued to sneak slowly to his bedside. She should just go back to her own bedroom. She wasn’t supposed to be here. What good could possibly come out of seeing him this way? Yet she continued to creep closer to the bed, finally making out the dark figure in the center of the mattress. The hair on the back of her neck bristled as she leaned over the long corpse before her.

Valek lay there, a shell of the way he normally looked. His arms—bones with a thin layer of skin—draped gracefully over his chest. His hair, now gray and bristled, lay neatly on the cool pillow around his sunken skull. Charlotte’s eyes widened as she examined him closely. His eyes did not open when she traced them with the tips of her fingers. It felt like they never would again. He was nothing but a weathered corpse, merely glamorized by the magic of the moonlight at night.

To Charlotte’s surprise, a single tear slid down her cheek. So this was why he never wanted her here—why her strong father figure never cared to burden her with this secret. She knew he just couldn’t ever let her see him this way. She thought of how lonely it must be to die every single day, forever alone. She wished he would let her be close to him the next time this happened.

He would always wake up, Charlotte reminded herself to keep from sobbing. Valek, who had found her and raised her, was neither man nor monster.

Thunder whispered to her miles away and soft rain patters began across the old roof. Setting the faintly glimmering jar on Valek’s nightstand, she pulled one knee up onto the bed and then the other. She touched his forearm gently, carefully, as if she might shatter it. He felt colder even than normal. Charlotte stroked his hair, long and silken during the hours of the night, now brittle on the pillow. She turned so she lay next to him.

Charlotte took his arm and wrapped it around her shoulders, resting her face on his chest. His body felt so fragile, and the rotting stench of his deathly flesh permeated the area around her, but she didn’t care. More tears fell as she listened to the rain pound heavier above them. She wondered if he could somehow feel her there next to him. A sob broke from her. The sound of the storm began to fade out in her mind as she drifted off to sleep.

Chapter Four

The Spider’s Burrow

A few hours later, Charlotte's eyes fluttered open to meet the white walls of her own bedroom staring blankly back at her. She had been tucked snugly under her bed sheets. Her white curtains flailed around violently in the storm now invading the open window. She jumped from her bed and forced the pane closed against the wind gusts. She glanced at the cuckoo clock hung on her wall. It had already turned ten. How could she have slept so long?

She frantically scanned the room for her shoes, which had been parked neatly by one corner of her bed. Her heart sank when she figured out she had in fact not dreamt what she thought she had after all. She really
had
mustered up the guts to go into his bedroom. She was in a lot of trouble. Charlotte slipped on her flats and hurried out the door.

She stood very still at the top of the stairs, hands clasped under her chin, listening. She didn’t hear anything and wondered if Valek was even home at all. Did he have a patient? She wondered how angry he was with her. He
must
be angry. Slowly, she began to descend the stairs, her hand sliding along the polished banister.

“Charlotte?” Valek’s voice lingered threateningly from the library threshold.

She froze on the third to last step, her skin bristling.

“Can I see you in here, please?” His tone struck her like warm poison.

She made her way to the library door; stopping short when she saw him perched on the arm of the garnet-colored armchair. The fireplace crackled in front of him and made threatening ember reflections in his crystalline eyes. She swallowed thickly when Valek stood.

“S-sorry. I know I woke up late. I’m leaving now.” She spun on her heel.

“I think you know that is not what I wanted to speak with you about.” His words halted her once more.

Biting her lower lip a little too hard, Charlotte turned slowly back around. She should have prepared a bit more for this. After all, she
had
broken the most important rule.

“What is this?” He pulled out the small glass jar, which had once held the glittering lightning bug. Charlotte saw the little fly had become nothing but a brown carcass crumpled at the bottom of the glass.

“It m-must have died.” She winced, her fingers winding in knots behind her back. “I caught it for you because I thought you might like it. Like a little piece of the sun.” Valek sighed and firmly placed the jar on the wooden end table by his chair. The sound of the glass bottom slamming against the wood made Charlotte jump.

“You are
not
allowed in my bedroom. You know that, Charlotte.”

Her heart sank when he used her full name, instead of the much more endearing term, “Lottie,” he normally liked to call her. He only did that when she was in a
lot
of trouble.

“I don’t know what made me do it,” she said quietly.

“Charlotte.” He approached her. “I make these rules for a reason. I am only trying to protect you.”

He stopped inches from her, his shoulders back, his stance broad and erect. Blood burned in Charlotte’s cheeks, yet she looked him in the eye in spite of it.

“Why do you have to be alone? Why do you have to
do
that to yourself?” She fought back tears.

“Because, Charlotte.” His glare pierced her. “It doesn’t bother me anymore. Can’t you see I am trying to protect you?”

“Protect me from what? You?” Her frustration built. “No one should have to
die
alone!”

“I will not subject you to that!” he bellowed.

Charlotte quaked in his shadow, frightened. He had never yelled at her before. She stared angrily down at the tears splashing on the floor in front of her feet.

“And why did you leave the Occult borders today? I told you, it is dangerous! If you got into trouble, I couldn’t do
anything
to help you!"

She looked up at him, surprised. “How did you know I left? Will you get out of my head,
please?
” The taste of salty tears flooded the back of her throat. “Besides, you
make
me cross those borders every single night to do what you are unable to do so you won’t kill me!” She jabbed a finger at him. “I don’t see how the amount of danger
you
put me in is any less significant!”

Valek shuddered.

Charlotte hadn’t realized just how far she had gone until then. She could have said anything to him. She could have called him any name in any number of languages, and it would have never hurt him as much as what she had just said.

“If you regret living here so much, then I grant you your freedom. Just say the word,” he said quietly, sadly.

Charlotte’s mouth fell open. The emotions rolled from her like tidal waves. “You should have just left me in the gutters the night you found me. Did it ever cross your mind that maybe my real parents put me there for a reason?” She bit her lip harder than she had before, regretting everything spewing from her, but she couldn’t control it. He opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out. His brows furrowed.

“That was an utterly selfish thing to say.” His voice cracked when he looked her in the eyes. “You are only allowed to leave the Occult when it is unquestionably necessary. You leaving for me
is
a safety precaution,
because
I want you here, Charlotte. That is
true!
”

“But I have been leaving the Occult every single night for the last ten years.” Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes.

“Not anymore.”

“But what about you? What are you going to do?”

“Don’t worry about me.”

“But Valek—”

“And another thing—you are never,
never
allowed to be in the woods alone!” He pulled his pipe from his breast pocket and lit it.

“But Aiden was with me!” She continued to argue.

“And he did nothing to protect you.” He put the end of it to his lips.

Charlotte’s mouth filled with acid. “Yes, he did! He stopped my bleeding so I wouldn’t be in any danger walking back into
this
house!” Her hands flew up to cover her mouth.

Valek closed his eyes and calmly blew a perfect smoke ring into the air. He turned his back to her and walked steadily toward the fire. “Do what you want, then. If that’s how you really feel, Charlotte.”

Her arms dropped slowly back to her sides. Of course that wasn’t how she really felt. The honest truth was she had been sketching his face in her drawing book for months. The honest truth was she had snuck into his bedroom because she couldn’t tear him from her mind, because if she were being upfront with herself, he was the one thing in life she treasured more than anything she’d ever possessed. But she quickly shoved those sick thoughts back to the deepest depths of her mind. He could not
ever
know how she felt. Sadly, she turned and started to leave, hiding her own pained expression.

“Take your whistle,” he whispered.

Grinding her teeth together, she clasped her trembling hand around the small, tarnished thing on the end table beside the door. She placed it around her neck again.

***

Valek listened to her footsteps make their way out into the windy night. He heard the front door open, and then shut with a finalizing thud. He peered out of the large, dusty library window at the small girl pushing through the frigid wind, her arms wound tightly around herself. The wind blew the hem of her dress up around her knees. He thought about running after her, but he knew he ought to just leave her alone. He had never felt the need to yell at Charlotte before, but there was just something about her getting too close to him scared him.

She was like a small, pomegranate seed he held in his hand. If he squeezed too hard, it would burst and the red would spill over and stain his fingertips. She would be so very easy to destroy, and yet she seemed so quick to destroy him. He couldn't deny his instincts. He never told her how he still struggled sometimes. If she walked past and the wind rushed the scent of her mortality to him, he had to force himself to fight that one awful thought.

He knew she didn’t really mean what she said, and he knew she felt sorry the instant she’d said it. Guilt grasped a tight hold of him as he watched her walk alone in to the freezing darkness and fought the urge once more to run after her. But the Regime had just begun to keep a close eye out for Occult people crossing the borders. He had to be home anyway, just in case a patient decided to walk in.

Valek somberly made his way back to his office to take care of some paperwork. Sounds of the house’s foundation settling filled the space Charlotte left vacant. He hated the empty feeling. Even silence seemed too loud when she was gone. He sat at his desk, sighing, and pulled messy patient files from the drawer. He started putting them in some sort of order that made sense to him. It was merely busy work. He actually didn’t need to keep files at all with his photographic memory. He glanced at the desk schedule in front of him. No scheduled appointments tonight. He sighed. No scheduled appointments for the last several months. It seemed nobody wanted to pay a visit to the Vampire doctor.

Maybe he
should
go after her.

There was a knock at the front door then. He stopped.
Curious
. Patients always came in through the office door in the back. If it even
was
a patient. Who could be visiting now? He looked at the carved owl clock on the wall. It was a little after midnight. Charlotte couldn’t be back so soon. That was when he remembered what she mentioned to him last night. Evangeline.

He quickly shoved his papers back into the bottom drawer, and inhumanly sped to the front of the house, taking him about half a second to get from one end to the other. He adjusted his corduroy vest and opened the front door to find the sultry Witch standing before him in a curve-hugging, black dress that only came down to the middle of her thigh.

“Good evening, Evangeline. What can I do for you?” he asked, maintaining his gentleman-like qualities. He did not allow his eyes to stray any lower than her face.

She scoured the house behind him, no doubt looking for Charlotte. Her wine-colored mouth twisted into a wicked smile and she walked in, letting the door slam shut behind her.

***

The harsh wind whipped Charlotte’s matted hair around her face, blinding her as she pushed through it. She was so stupid. She could get rid of some of her pride to go back and at least grab her sweater. The night air was freezing. Her teeth chattered as she hugged her arms tightly around herself. The leaves flew easily from the trees to the wet ground. She saw almost every pair of tavern doors bolted shut, and even the most restless night creatures had turned in for the evening. Nothing was dumb enough to be out in weather like this.

She grimaced as she continued to play their argument over in her mind. He was just as prideful as she was, if not more. Maybe she really would have gotten to live a normal life if he had just left her where he’d found her almost eighteen years ago. Maybe, if he had just gone on about his magical, otherworldly business, someone from her own race would have rescued her instead. Someone
normal
. Someone
safe
. Someone who would have turned out to be a lot less confusing, because they would have aged just as she did. Someone she would—no matter what—think of as nothing more than a
parent
.

Charlotte blinked back the image of Valek’s devastatingly beautiful face behind her sour tears. Crossing her arms over her chest, she dug her nails into her arm, trying to distract from that which was causing her internal pain.

She rooted around in her satchel to see if there was anything left of the traveling potion Evangeline had given her. To her dismay, she pulled out two empty glass bottles. She couldn’t run away now, even if she really wanted to. And she didn’t really want to. As much as Charlotte didn’t want to admit it, she could never leave Valek. But having those spells would have made hunting for him easier at least. Now, she just had to be lucky enough to find someone on the country road. A farmer, perhaps. Though, she knew stumbling across another human wouldn’t be likely on a night like this.

Thunder thrashed somewhere very close by, causing her to leap out of her skin. She decided if it started to rain heavily again, she would turn around and go back. Valek would just have to stay thirsty for one night. She held her arms up to shield herself against the heavy wind as she continued to push through. Maybe she shouldn't even wait for the rain. Maybe she should just turn back now.

“Do you need a lift somewhere, love?”

Charlotte looked up to see an enormous man with four long arms and four long legs walking easily beside her. Clearly the storm was of no worry to him—a Phaser that was only half-changed into his animal form. How unfortunate it must be to turn into a giant spider.

“No, thank you!” she yelled over the wind. No matter how kindly the old man’s face seemed, she was never to speak to strangers under any circumstance. Occult creatures were very dangerous more often than not.

The half-spider looked up at the threatening sky, the cavernous lines in his human-like forehead wrinkling.

“Seems like a bad time to be out here on your own. Where are you off to, little girl?” He ruffled his bushy mustache.

“I live with the Vampire, Valek Ruzik,” she said matter-of-factly. “I’m out hunting for him.” She hoped mentioning Valek’s name would be enough to scare the spider off. For some reason, a rather negative stigma had been attached to Vampires recently. Valek hadn’t seen a drop of business in months, aside from Evangeline’s run-in with the Lycan. Charlotte thought again of Mrs. Price’s ignorant words.

The man’s face shifted into an even kinder smile upon recognizing the name as he continued to follow her.

“Ah, yes. Valek! Do send him my regards, will you? It’s been ages since my operation,” the man recalled. “But a girl like you shouldn’t be out here in this kind of weather. There are other things, besides me, that like to stalk in weather like this. They’re just waitin’ for something delicious like you. Why, you don’t even have a sweater,” he observed.