{"sf1_id":152113,"sf2_id":"dmBkZWXn","title":"Nightfall - 4. The Darkest Night","author":"Judah Vishas","words":2655,"posted_at":"2010-06-07T16:22:00.000Z","tags":["Death","First Person","Fox","Gay","Lynx","M/M","No-Yiff","Vampire","Violence","Wolf"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/152113-nightfall-4-the-darkest-night","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/dmBkZWXn","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/27/2b/272ba3a9-240f-4190-af75-2af97c0117ba","description":"","content":"\u0026nbsp;\n\nBy the time the sun had set and it was time to begin the night, we'd made it back to my bed - our bed.  \nArael had agreed to make arrangements to move in with me, as my size and blood red eyes make me  \nincapable of living among mortals. I awakened and looked up at the mirror above the bed. My  \nnarcissism had extended to include him. We looked amazing together. My arm was around him and he  \nwas turn into me with his head resting on my chest.\n\nMy eyes fell upon the bite marks I'd put on the soft spot where his neck met his shoulder. I ran my  \npaw gently across them. Arael's blood was sweet. I almost couldn't stop once I'd begun feeding on  \nhim. How would he feel about letting me taste him more frequently, I wondered.\n\n\"I wouldn't mind.\" I turned my attention to his face. He hadn't opened his eyes, but he'd most  \ndefinitely spoken.\n\n\"You're awake.\" I said before the more interesting point hit me. \"You can read my thoughts? Since  \nwhen?\" I asked, running a paw through his hair.\n\n\"I always could, I just didn't start listening until last night.\" He said, pulling himself up in the bed to kiss  \nme. \"It's how I found you. Your scent is gone from the woods.\" He sat up and turned to look at me.  \n\"I'm not very knowledgeable about Strigoii. Do you eat? I can make you something if you have food in  \nthe house.\"\n\nI chuckled and shook my head. \"No, I do not. Once you die, only blood satisfies.\"\n\nHe nodded. \"Then...\" The fox pulled his hair back behind his shoulders.\n\n\"Why are you so fixated on me eating you?\" I laughed. He batted a paw at me. \"No worries. It hasn't  \nbeen long since my last.\" The dark room lightened in my glowing eyes. \"I'm still sated. Thank you, by  \nthe way. I felt worse than I looked.\"\n\nArael grinned and fell back into my arms. \"I'm glad to.\" He said, running a paw through my hair. A look  \nof worry flashed in his eyes.\n\n\"What is it, Arael?\" I ask, sitting up on my elbow.\n\nHe chuckled. \"I just remembered that I left Maxwell at Ebon last night. I wonder if he got home  \nalright.\"\n\n\"If you like, we can go to find out.\" I paused. \"Well, you can actually talk to him. He won't want to talk  \nto me.\"\n\nThe fox tilted his head a little. \"And why is that?\"\n\n\"Well, you see... when I tricked you into coming here before, I sorta threatened his life. I don't know if  \nhe told you.\" He smacked me on the arm, but I couldn't help laughing at him. \"I didn't hurt him! I just  \nthreatened to kill him if he called you. In fact, I gave him a wad of cash to go drinking.\"\n\nHe smacked me again. \"Well, I'll patch things up between the two of you. I can't have my best friend  \nand my mate hating each other.\" He put a paw over his mouth. \"If... that's what we are...\"\n\nI laughed at his uncertainty and moved the paw to kiss him. \"I'd like to think so.\"\n\nHe grinned and sat up again. \"Well if we're going to catch him, we need to get moving. Max reversed  \nhis days and nights to be my driver, so he's probably on the move by now.\" The next instant, he was  \nstanding on the other side of the room. I loved to watch him move. When he used his speed, he  \nflickered in and out of view. The fox looked at himself, then at me. \"I don't suppose you have anything  \nhere that'd fit me.\"\n\nI nodded and stood up. \"My Sire was a man of about your size. He lived with me until I was killed, then  \ndisappeared. He had a suit you may be able to fit.\" I smirked. \"But why do you have to dress? You're  \nrather beautiful naked, you know.\" I watched the confusion on his face when I disappeared from his  \nsight to be behind him. He didn't flinch when I wrapped my arms around him. He was getting used to  \nmy speed.\n\n\"Well, for you, I'd happily remain as I am, but I'm sure I'd get arrested for running around nude in the  \ncity. Time may be out greatest quantity, but I'd rather not spend any of mine in jail for indecent  \nexposure.\"\n\nI chuckled and nodded. \"I suppose you're right. Let me get the suit for you.\" I released him and by the  \ntime he turned around, I was back with the suit in hand. I held it for him as he looked it over then  \nlooked up to me.\n\n\"I love it, but I think I'll just take the vest and pants.\" He said, taking the hanger from me. \"I think it'd  \ndraw attention if I were to appear anywhere in full 18th century dress.\" As he put on the clothes, I  \nmoved to my dresser and took out a pair of tattered, green denim shorts. I heard a chuckle as I put  \nthem on.\n\nArael already had the suit on. The red silk vest and slacks were a size too small for him, but they looked  \ngreat on him. \"Tell me, do you only own torn up green shorts?\" he asked.\n\n\"Well, when you only appear every once in a while to feed, you don't really need more.\" I said with a  \nsmirk. \"Boots are in the closet.\" I jerked my head toward the doors on the other side of the room on  \nthe wall adjacent to the balcony. He nodded and walked over. When I looked back at him, he had on a  \npair of shiny black leather boots with silver buckles on them.\n\n\"I'm taking you shopping. You've no choice.\" He said, sitting on my dresser before he'd finished the  \nsentence. \"And I don't think it'll really be shopping. Being a model has its perks, you know.\" He  \nlaughed. \"My designer friends will have fun dressing a big thing like you.\"\n\n\"Well until such a time, I'm all set.\" I said, throwing my hair back over my shoulder.\n\n\"Then let's get going.\" He said, moving to the balcony doors. He looked back to me with a sly grin.\n\n\"Race you.\" The fox chuckled as he opened the doors.\n\nThe next instant, he was on the pinned to the wall opposite the balcony by a black arrow through his  \nchest.\n\n\"ARAEL!\" Before I could move to him, a feline flickered into view kneeling before him.\n\n\"You're going to watch this, traitor.\" He said. \"Then I'm going to kill you as well.\"  \nIt was the tracker he'd warned me about. How could we have forgotten? The tracker, a lynx, pressed  \nhis ornate recurve to the floor, using it to get to his feet. \"Do me a favor, abomination.\" He took an  \narrow from the quiver strapped to his back. \"Draw your last breath for me.\" he said as he took aim.  \nThe next half-second, I was behind him. I grabbed him by the long silver hair pouring down his back  \nand slung him out the balcony doors before turning to remove the arrow holding Arael down. I  \ncouldn't bear hearing his screams, but at least I knew the tracker had missed his heart. He was still  \nalive.\n\nAs I grabbed the arrow, I looked up to the painting above where he'd been pinned. In the glass's  \nreflection, I saw the lynx catch the balcony railing as he went backward and launch himself back at me.  \nI turned to knock him away, but I was a hair too late. As I swung my paw at him, he ducked under it  \nand struck two pressure points in my arm, paralyzing it from the shoulder down before he elbowed  \nme in the ribs so hard that I hit the wall and cracked it.\n\nThe lynx jumped back and took aim again, but before he could fire, I was in front of him. I grabbed the  \nbow and snatched it from him, then turned around sharply, striking him across the face with the  \nrecurve's end. He reached under his coat and drew a .44 magnum. The lynx fired off four rounds. I  \ndodged three easily and held flicked a finger on my good hand at the fourth, sending it back at him.\n\n\"Get this thing out of me!\" I heard Arael scream. The sound enraged me. How dare he harm my  \nprecious fox? I was in front of him again before he could come at me. I grabbed him by the throat and  \nthrew him into the fireplace, hitting his head on the iron back of it. Too bad it wasn't lit. As he  \nstaggered to his feet, I was next to him again. I grabbed his hair once more and swung him over my  \nhead, slamming him on the floor on the other side of me. He swept his legs under me, knocking me off  \nmy feet, but I put a paw down, using it to spring back to my feet.\n\nUnfortunately, it was the paw I was holding his bow with. He jumped away from me in a blurred  \nmotion and took aim. I looked to Arael quickly to make sure he was still breathing. He was gone. Not  \ndead, but not in the spot where he'd been pinned. The bloody arrow was lying on the floor. There was  \na scream. I looked back to the tracker to see the last thing I ever wanted to see. The lynx had dropped  \nhis recurve, but not for a good reason. Arael was on the tracker's back with his legs locked around his  \narms so he couldn't move. He was removing his fangs from the lynx's neck and now draining him of his  \nblood.\n\nI remembered in my education as a Moroii that we were to stop before the heart stopped. The lynx  \nwas definitely on the verge of death but Arael showed no sign of stopping. He looked up to me as his  \nvictim sank to his knees.\n\n\"Get out of here before more come. I love you.\" He said before biting into the lynx again.\n\n\"No!\" I moved behind him to pull him off the dead lynx, but it was too late. He'd drain every last drop  \nfrom the tracker. Arael stood and looked up to me. His eyes burned bright and he smiled at me as they  \nbegan to fade. He wrapped his arms around me one last time before he drew his last breath and went  \nlimp against me.\n\nThe rule was that if we drank beyond the stopping of the heard, we died with the victim. I tried my  \nhardest to believe that Arael had stopped.\n\nNo amount of believing changed it. My Arael was gone. I looked into his far-too-blue eyes to see the  \ncolor fade from them. I shook him, still not ready to believe he was gone. \"Arael? Arael, answer me...\"  \nHe was silent. My eyes began to sting. \"Arael, say something... please?\" I shook him again before I  \ncould no longer hold the truth at bay with disbelief.\n\nIt hit me so hard that I fell to my knees, still clinging to him so tightly that I'd be cutting off his  \ncirculation. I put my head to his chest and heard no heartbeat and no blood rushing through him. The  \npain burned so badly that when I opened my mouth to scream, for a moment I couldn't. My screams  \nshook the walls, causing the paintings to fall from it. I dared to look at his face again and let out another  \nhorrible scream as I raised a shaking paw to close his eyes. I rocked back and forth on the floor, holding  \nhis body in my arms as if holding on would bring him back to me.\n\nIt hurt when I thought he hated me, but I'd take that pain any day over this. I lifted us from the floor  \nand carried him to our bed where I laid him before falling to my knees again. I couldn't look at him, so I  \nlooked up; forgetting that above the bed was a mirror. Seeing it sent another shock through me and  \nanother scream ripped from my throat.\n\nAs I wept at his side, his last words began to echo in my mind. Get out of here before more come. I  \nwasn't ready, but I needed to move. By now I was certain someone was aware that the tracker sent to  \nkill me was dead. There would definitely be more of them converging on this location to find me.\n\nI couldn't let them kill me.\n\nI wanted to die without my Arael, but I couldn't. Not yet. Something in me snapped and I felt  \ndifferent. It wasn't until just then that I realized being with Arael had greatly mollified me. I'd been  \ncalm and gentle for the first time in nineteen-hundred years, but now I could feel my old fury burning  \nwhite hot inside me, searing all that away and bringing with it madness. One word took my thoughts  \nnow.\n\nRevenge.\n\nI would have vengeance. Arael would be avenged and then I could die peacefully and join him. Or die  \nin the process, it didn't matter now. I had to avenge him. That was all that was important. My  \nnewfound fury made it possible for me to move now. First, I would take care of Arael's body. I stood  \nand lifted him over my shoulder, then walked over to the fireplace. I yanked the lever, opening the  \nbottom of it and jumped down, kicking off the wall and landing out of the flames that burned in the  \nfurnace deep beneath the ground.\n\nI'd disposed of many corpses down here, but I'd not handle his in the same manner. A long time ago,  \nwhen I first built the cabin, I'd set up a machine in the furnace. It was a casket on a set of rails. The idea  \nwas that if I ever felt remorse for the things I'd done in death, I'd take my own life by resting in the  \ncasket and activating the machine and sending it into the flames. For a moment, I thought of climbing  \nin myself, but I shook it off. I would return later to be with him. Now I had something to do. I lifted him  \ninto the casket and folded his arms over his chest.\n\n\"I'll come to be with you later. First I'm going to make they pay.\" I said before leaning in to kiss Arael  \nonce more before I closed the lid on him. There was a button inside the casket that activated the  \nmachine, but I could not press it yet. I'd come back when I was done. I'd get in with him and send us  \nboth off together. It was made to fit me, so he didn't take up much space. There'd be room for us  \nboth if I held him.\n\nI took one last look before scaling the wall and getting out of the fireplace. Autonomously, I walked to  \nthe bathroom and picked up the jeans I'd torn off him, then opened the drawer beneath the sink,  \ntaking a cigarette lighter from it left by one of my previous meals. I went back into the bedroom and  \npicked up the tracker's bow before leaping out of the balcony doors. I landed on a branch in a tree a  \nfew meters away and tied a scrap of the fabric to the arrow and lit it.\n\nI wanted nothing but him to come back to. I took aim and fired. I heard it stick in my bedroom wall and  \nturned away. The house would be gone when I came back. I had work to do now.\n\nIt did not end here.\n\n  \n  \n\n","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/151257-nightfall-3-of-understanding-and-forgiving.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/153839-nightfall-5-rebirth.json"}