Two
My wife screams, panicked and terrified. She has just been tortured, had our baby girl ripped from her womb, and Antonio did who knows what to her before she escaped.
I know she can’t suffer any more trauma. I know she’ll die if she loses any more blood.
But I can’t tear my new fangs out of her.
Her blood slides down my throat, an orgasmic taste that explodes on my tongue. I might have tortured her so badly she can no longer control her magic, but it still runs through her veins. Still makes it so fucking heady to consume. My senses expand until she becomes overwhelming. Her taste, her scent, the feel of her body against me blocks out all else. But it isn’t enough. I pull her closer with a groan.
It isn’t enough!
“Varius, stop!”
she screams as she beats me with her fists, but her blows are weak, her limbs too drained of energy. Fear barrels into my chest, knocking my heart up into my throat. I know I’m killing her. I know I’m hurting her. I’m reminded of all the pain she suffered after I raped her, the last time I was lost to this madness. How she cut my mark from her skin, how she didn’t want anything to do with me. I betrayed her then, and I’m betraying her now.
And it’s killing me.
I want to stop.
I want to soothe her.
But my fingers dig into her skin, holding her still as she tries to pull away. I’m a slave to the bloodlust inside of me, can’t control my body even as my own mind rails against its binds, begging it to listen.
“Stop! Varius… stooooop! Help me! Maddox, heeeeeelp!”
I cry out against her throat, tears falling down my cheeks as my own wife is forced to beg for the aide of another man. But Maddox is still knocked out cold. Leno is helping Ezriel. There’s no one left to stop me.
And so I feed on the broken body of my little monster as she bleeds out through the hole in her stomach. As I press Bambi against her, squishing our little baby between us, I drink until my wife is dead.
With her finally drained dry, I pull back. I look down at her limp body in horror, and the full weight of what I’ve done rips an unholy noise from my throat.
I cradle her to me, screaming and crying and begging the gods to bring her back.
She came back to me, and I killed her.
She escaped from Antonio, only to die at home.
I climb to my feet, screaming for Sau.
For Louise Warner.
For any healer in this fucking town.
Any necromancers.
But no one comes to help me.
I spin around to face my brothers, to beg them to go get Mom, to please get somebody to save my wife, but when I turn, I find the hall full of line-dancing goats.
I scream as I backpedal, squeezing Micha tighter against me. They’re dancing in sync, moving sideways, their arms lifting at the elbows, then dropping again as they advance. Their soulless, demonic eyes latch onto me as their heads cock to the side in small jerks that crack their necks. They keep twisting and twisting and twisting until their heads are upside down. Sweeping their arms out, they part the air in front of them and slide forward, their hooves scratching across the floor. Their heads shoot back upright, then lean further back so they can stare at me down their noses.
But they’re not the cute goats I’ve conditioned myself to be afraid of for Rudy. These are half-decaying monstrosities, with matted hair and wriggling maggots. Flesh falls free, revealing rancid muscles and infected bone. One’s eyeball falls out as it comes for me, but it just sticks out its tongue and catches it, pulling it into its mouth for a wet squelch. Blood bursts out from between its teeth, as does a half-eaten maggot, which lands in its goatee and stays there.
“Rebeccaaaaa,”
they sing as they creep closer, tapping their hooves on the floor. “We’re comiiiiiing for yoooooou.”
The fuckers have always used names that aren’t mine. I fell for it when I was a kid, thinking they weren’t after me, that I could just stay still, and they wouldn’t get me. When they danced past me, I thought I was right, but it turned out, they just wanted to stab me in the back with their horns.
So I know better now than to stay still.
But to fight, I will have to let her go, and my heart is breaking at the thought of it. At the moment, she is still warm. When I finish killing the goats and get back to her, she might be cold.
“Fucking hel, Leno! What the fuck were you thinking?”
Maddox screams, his voice ringing far in the distance.
“I thought it would calm him down!”
“It’s fucking Varius, bruh! He’s obviously going to have a bad trip!”
“Well, sorry for –”
“Shut up and help Micha!”
I shout as I finally find the strength to lay her down on the ground. When I stand, my eyes go to my left palm, and a cry of pure agony rips its way out of my lungs. I fall to my knees as I look at my little girl.
Bambi lies squished against my fingers, so flattened that there’s no identifying features left. She’s just a red and black blob of lost kisses and hugs and love. And I did that to her. I lost myself to the bloodlust and destroyed the only part of her I have left.
Screaming, I stagger to my feet. I need to kill something, to make the world as destroyed as I feel. Tenderly wiping Bambi across my heart, I meet the goats head-on.
One lowers its head to impale me, but I grab hold of its left horn as I pivot out of the way. I snap my foot into the goat next in line, kicking it back. But my foot sinks into its chest, and the broken ribs cut up my leg. Gritting my teeth, I yank myself free and twist around on my other foot. I swing the goat I’m holding by the horn into the second beast.
Flecks of rotten skin with tufts of matted fur drop to the floor, followed by wriggling maggots. I set my leg down, but as soon as it takes my weight, I nearly buckle. The pain is nothing, though, compared to the horror I see crawling out of the wounds. Maggots and worms and cockroaches and centipedes. And everywhere they crawl inside me, a black disease weaves its way through my veins, visible beneath the skin.
As they start eating me alive from the inside out, I pull out one of my many knives and start hacking at my leg. If they reach my heart, I’m dead.
“Dammit, Leno, pull him the fuck out!”
“I’m trying!”
A hoof slams into my hand, cracking the little bones. I drop the knife, but I twist and grab it with my other hand. Almost as soon as I do, though, I’m throwing it on a feral scream. Four goats have run past me and are now dancing on Micha’s corpse, stomping her into the ground.
My knife embeds itself into one of their shoulders, but it doesn’t stop them at all. Doesn’t even slow them down. I lunge in their direction, but strong hands grab me from behind, the goat who kicked me having taken advantage of my distraction.
I scream as I pull against him, my eyes on the still form of my wife as they beat her viciously. There’s no more blood left in her to puddle around her. I killed her, and they’re desecrating her. If they damage her enough, not even a necromancer can bring her back.
So with every sickening crack of her bones, with every hard stomp of a hoof, I fight against the goat holding me back. But every time I manage to rip free, I’m grabbed again by another beast.
“I’ll fucking kill you!”
I scream, my voice mirroring the cracks erupting across my heart. The goats are merciless as they stomp on her. They break open her head and send bits of her brain flying. “Nooooo! Nooooo! Leave her aloooone!”
A goat steps in front of me, its two demonic eyes bearing into my soul. Grabbing both sides of my head, it wrenches my gaze up to the ceiling. I can feel the insects crawling through my skin, eating their way up my leg and burrowing deeper inside of me.
“Varius! Varius, listen to me!”
The goat towers above me, larger than any of the others. The ceiling stretches to accommodate him. He stares into my eyes, sucking my soul out through his gaze. Then he opens his mouth over mine and spews forth a fountain of maggots fat with the flesh of another.
They fall onto my face, then wriggle their way inside my nose and under my eyes. I struggle against the goat’s grip, but he’s holding me too tight. I gag, choking on the maggots crawling down my throat, but when I try to cough them up, more of them just fall in past my lips.
“You’re okay,”
a voice says, soft yet firm. “It isn’t real, Varius. Come back to us.”
But Micha’s body is calling to me. She’s just there, and I need to save her.
But the bugs are suffocating me. They’re eating their way through my body, wriggling inside my lungs and limbs. I can feel them everywhere, and it’s only a matter of time before they make it to my heart.
“Micha needs you, Varius.”
I know! I’m trying to get to her!
Desperation claws at me. My heart is beating hard and fast. I can still hear her body being crushed under dancing hooves. The maggots haven’t made it to my ears yet, and I can make out every break of bone, every pop of an organ.
The goat spews out more insects. Centipedes, spiders, cockroaches. They all crawl across my face and through whatever holes they can find.
“Listen to me, Varius. Antonio has Micha, and we need your bond to find her. Whatever you’re experiencing, it isn’t real. Leno has drugged you. Now come back to us so we can find your wife.”
I choke on tears and bugs, feeling their legs and hard exoskeletons as they swarm down my throat.
“Come on, Varius. You’re too much of a control freak to lose to this…”
“No, I’m just too amazing with my pla–”
“Leno!”
Maddox snaps.
“I’m done! I’m done. Jeez. Hold his head back. I need to pour all of this down his throat.”
“Fucking hel. Can’t you just puff some pollen in his face again?”
“No. Now hold him.”
The goat’s fingers press into my face, cracking apart my cheeks and jaws. I choke on suffocated screams as he opens me up further to his poison. The bugs crawl all inside of me. The goats dance faster on my wife.
Her intestines and brain matter spew across the floor. I reach towards her in a pathetic attempt to hold her as I die.
Then suddenly, the bugs are gone.
The goat in front of me turns into Maddox, while the goats behind me shift into Leno’s vines. The pain in my leg is still sharp and prominent, but it isn’t from decaying flesh being feasted on by cockroaches. It’s from my attempt to dig them out, the cuts of my knife having gone deep. Blood pours from a dozen wounds, and I’m suddenly aware that I’m still starving.
My eyes drop to my brother’s throat…
“How are you feel–”
he starts.
“Maddox, get away from him!”
Mother shouts from down the hall, having just returned with Aleric and Khalid. With them is a dark-skinned woman called Stormie, and I know she was brought in by Mother solely to control me. She’s a shielder, and if she wraps me in her magic, there will be nothing I can do to escape, but she won’t take Maddox too. Won’t leave him with me to kill.
I lunge forward, and my youngest brother falls back, his feet rushing beneath him to keep him standing. The vines around my arms, legs, and torso all tighten. I roar as I strain against them, the bloodlust urging me to kill them all.
Khalid steps forward, a shield over his face. He told me what would happen if my curse broke and I attacked our brothers. He loves me, but he is the reaper, and it is his duty to protect this family.
But he isn’t the one who gets to me first.
With a cocky smile, Aleric phases and lands directly in front of me. He grabs me by the neck. When he phases again, we appear in the sky above.
The cold air shocks me into compliance. The wind rips across my face, forcing me to narrow my eyes against the burn. I start to tumble, the g-force building.
As the vampire vanishes, I fall towards the Earth alone.