14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

" H alt! Who goes there?" one of the sentries called, not long after they had begun to cook dinner.

Everyone raised their weapons or held out palms beginning to glow, but between two of the protection rods stood a small group of travelers with their own hands raised in surrender.

Directly between two rods, already having made it past the circle.

"Apologies!" a beautiful dark elf woman said in their defense, wearing bright violet garb that looked more like a minstrel's than a fighter's. "We saw the light of the circle and hurried for fear of what might snatch us in the dark. Our own rods were lost, and we couldn't find sanctuary elsewhere. Please. We can't go back to our village."

Beside her stood a handsome high elf with golden hair and brilliant blue eyes, such a contrast to her, and yet the way he held her arm said they were intimate. He had meager leather armor but was the only one in anything other than cloth, and while he had a rapier in his belt, he hadn't drawn it.

The others were all unarmed: another dark elf, a young man, whose similarly beautiful features to the woman pointed at them being family; a gnome with chestnut skin, dark eyes, and the loveliest of wavy dark hair; and a pretty dwarven woman with brown hair and eyes but fair skin.

"Why did you leave your village?" Xari went toward them, collected as ever and scrutinizing as she eyed the eclectic group.

"Someone must have angered Gaian," the younger dark elf said, hugging himself with a shiver. "The rods started snuffing out one by one. Suddenly, beasts were everywhere. There were so many… screams."

His sister pulled him against her to comfort him.

The high elf said, "We tried to gather some of the remaining rods as we ran, but in our haste, we lost too many. We've been running since close to yesterday morning."

"Please," chimed the gnome, "we only ask to be allowed to rest."

"We can offer our skills," added the dwarf. "Whatever toll you may ask of us."

More victims, Zen thought, yet Gaian swore he wasn't cruel. Zen didn't know what to believe.

Xari relieved the sentry with a touch on his shoulder, but though he backed off as she took his place, he didn't lower his bow. No one's guard dropped yet.

"Zen," Xari startled Zen by calling him, "would you join me?"

For hours Zen had been holding his fears at bay. It ratcheted into his throat now, but he tried to swallow it and not let too much show on his face or in his steps as he obeyed. "Yes?"

"They passed the first test. The barrier permitted them. Let's see if they pass the second."

Zen knew she meant his amulet, a prayer to see if they were powerful monsters in disguise. He saw the way the five seemingly frightened people looked to him in wonder, not understanding until he pulled the amulet from his robes—then they gaped in surprise.

As Zen prayed a blessing into his amulet and it lit up the darkness, though the dark elf siblings squinted, none of them shied away.

"A priest," the dark elf woman said. She seemed nervous, but then, of course she was; she'd run from carnage caused by going against Gaian's will, and Zen's god was another example.

"Worry not," Xari said. "You are safe among us, and very welcome here."

In hardly any time, it was like the height of the previous night, with a sense of peace descending, along with comradery and hope. Here, once more, was a mix of people coming together, eating and drinking and celebrating, while Dante, Morty, and Khel all seemed eager to fall in line with it.

Zen wished he could do the same.

"You aren't eating?" The dark elf woman, Leela, had snuck up on him. She really was stunning, her black hair in an array of braids that came together over one shoulder, and the violet colors of her dress playing beautifully against her black skin.

Zen tried to smile, failing as much as he imagined he had all day. He'd sat away from the others, though Guardian had chosen to lie beside him by one of the fires. In truth, Zen was starving, had been ever since Gaian fed from him earlier, but he hadn't wanted anyone to notice.

The pastry Leela offered made Zen's mouth water, because it was filled with meat, unlike the sweet pastries from the village, something she and her companions had smuggled when they left their own.

"I should," Zen said, accepting the treat. "You're awfully kind, you know, when really, you should be the ones tended to. I'm sorry for what Gaian made you go through."

"He didn't slight us personally." Leela finished settling in beside Zen and reached to pet a dozing Guardian. "To defy him carries consequence, but you have nothing to be sorry for. You can't control what others do or deny in Gaian's name. None of us can. But we can control what we make of what we have. My family and I are minstrels. We used to perform together with stories and song. Would you have a request of us?"

"You're family? All of you?"

"Elwyn is my husband," Leela said of the high elf, "and Lukas my brother. But while Fennic and Shael are friends, aren't good friends just as bound to us as blood?"

Zen looked across the camp at Morty and Xari engaged in heated discussion—though perhaps the heat was for reasons other than intense debate. Khel was flirting as easily as he had with villagers the night before, men and women of all races, and Dante was sharing more of his homebrew with the dark elf he'd befriended.

They were a good lot, all of them.

"No truer words," Zen said. "I'm afraid I wouldn't know any stories or songs from Nightfall to request."

"A genre then. Adventure? Comedy? Tragedy?"

"I think we've had enough of that," Zen answered. "What about… a love story?"

"That we can definitely do."

Zen stayed with Guardian as Leela rose to gather her family. They didn't have instruments, but as they came together amidst the merriment, all other voices hushed when they sang in unison, and then broke off into glorious harmony.

I knew you when we met Though you didn't know me yet So familiar was your smile I could stay there all the while For time could not erase How I long for your embrace

Moments turn to centuries But I never stop waiting For true love will come again And never, ever end

I knew when we were younger And the world around us sharper That no conquest or plunder Could assuage my growing hunger For your touch sought in the dark Of a restless, aching heart

Moments turn to centuries But I never stop waiting For true love will come again And never, ever end

I knew I lost the right When I lost you in the night But our time will come again Like a sunset paints the land I am yours, remember me And together we shall be

Moments turn to centuries But I never stop waiting For true love will come again And never, ever end

The tale was bittersweet and so clearly about Gaian and his lost love, for what else would the people of Nightfall have to sing about? Even so, as Zen ate his pastry, he felt his anxieties fade. Leela and her family had experienced tragedy, yet there they were, uplifting others with their song. Even in a land of eternal night, hope persisted.

Was there hope for Gaian?

Fears appeased for the moment, Zen longed only to know more, and since his friends were distracted, his attention drifted to Morty's bag of books. Surely, Morty would let Zen borrow anything he asked for, but Zen didn't want to be questioned why.

Patting Guardian and whispering for the wolf to stay put, Zen finished his pastry and stood. The bag was behind Morty with a few tomes spilled out onto the ground, but the book Zen wanted was back on Morty's belt.

Morty was engrossed with Xari, but to pluck someone's purse in a crowd without an alley to hide in, Zen needed something more.

"What was the first spell each of you learned?" Zen crouched abruptly between them. "I'm sure it would be fascinating to compare. I wonder how many spells you each know that the other doesn't."

"What a thought!" Morty announced, easily taking the bait. "I've heard it's much contested whether priests or wizards are more powerful." He continued animatedly, allowing Zen to pat his shoulder—and simultaneously unhook the black tome.

Everyone else was too lost in gaieties to care that Zen snuck to the edge of the encampment to read. He leaned against a tree just inside the line of protection rods to page through it. The handwriting was an intricate script, though Morty had clearly written in the margins in his own blockier lettering. In truth, while the story was told as if from an outside view, Zen could believe Gaian wrote it, but there was nothing in the tale that Zen didn't already know.

Until he touched the tip of a finger to one of the last passages.

Gaian swore, as he held in his hands the cold unseeing visage of the man he'd lost, that the kingdom of Aerie would know greater suffering than Gaian himself, mourning and longing to one day be reunited with his Zenos .

With his love , the passage had said until Zen touched it, but the word glowed and turned to a name.

"Surely, you do not doubt my love for you."

Zen would have gasped, but he felt a lingering calm. It no longer startled him to hear Gaian's voice or feel his presence coming from around the tree.

The protection rods could not protect against him after all.

Zen removed his hand from the name, and it faded back to love . Slowly, he closed the tome and glanced at Gaian, right there in the shadows so near him—so near everyone who had no idea he was amongst them.

"I sent that book back with your head," Gaian said. "Aerie had to know the story to eventually bring you here. The church didn't let it out much though, did they?"

"No," Zen said softly. "I doubt Morty would have discovered it if he wasn't… Morty. Please—"

"I am merely here to spend time with you." Inching closer, Gaian leaned against the tree beside Zen, close enough that Zen felt the brush of Gaian's cloak against his robes. "Did you ask them? Did they tell you that I can release you once you are one of my brides?"

"Yes. They also said you won't."

"I will. I want an equal. I want you willing. I love you." Gaian's hand was cool on Zen's cheek, and he was so beautiful, so regal in his noble garb and with Enki's entrancing face.

Zen pulled from his grasp. He couldn't give in so easily when others were at risk. "The story doesn't say anything about a werewolf attack when you first met Zenos."

"No," Gaian said, returning his arm to his side. "Back then, it was a raiding party sent by the king, because I wasn't turning over the ‘corrupted' races as requested. We hid then too. I couldn't sit idly by, pretending to be Enki, so after our parting kiss, I revealed who I was and used my magic to stop the attack. Enki was the name I gave you. It's how I like to be known, so my people think of me as one of them."

"You visit your villages often, even now?"

"I do."

"The parents know who you are. Do the children?"

"No. They are told when they come of age. Some are frightened to learn the truth, some are awed, some choose to seek me out and join my ranks."

"As monsters that serve you?" Zen sneered. "Mindless—"

"Only ghouls are mindless, and becoming one is only a fate for those who oppose me."

"Even children?"

"Never children. Only adults can be held accountable for their actions. I would never harm a child. I told you."

He had, but Zen still doubted what was true and what was fiction. "The bodies by the barrier, they only wished for freedom. The people of Daxos, they are ignorant, and they can be cruel, but some are kind." Like Rosie, the bartender, even if she too would have shrunk from Zen if he touched her.

He thought of his friends, who sought to end Gaian, of Xari's people, forever on the move to stay safe from Gaian, and now Leela and her family, who'd had to flee their own homes.

"How many have died for your vengeance and while searching for me? How many here, in your own lands? You are the cause of all of it."

Gaian reached once more for Zen's cheek, but he did so slower, waiting for Zen to pull out of reach.

Zen didn't.

"I require loyalty, but even then, death is swift if it becomes necessary. How else can I feed my armies? You think me cruel, but the people of Daxos earned their fates, and the people here are part of a balance. They feed on cattle. My horde and I feed on them. But no one dies unless they go against me. Would you not call that survival? Or do you prefer your Sun God and his cold justice?"

"Is there a difference compared to cold vengeance? None of those answers are right."

"Then maybe none are wrong."

"I know what feels wrong."

"Do I?" Gaian brushed the pad of his thumb along Zen's cheekbone. Zen thought vampires didn't require breath, yet he could feel Gaian's against his lips. "Does my touch or presence feel wrong?"

Tears stung Zen's eyes, and he had to close them to stay their spill. "I have longed for you since I first dreamt of you, but you ask too much of me."

"Then let me give," Gaian said, soft and closer still. "Let me show you some of the good that awaits your journey's end."

His lips were as cool as his touch and just as welcome. Zen knew he should fight it, and though he clung to the book in his arms rather than reach for Gaian, he couldn't deny how easily his lips moved in reciprocation—the gentle press, the subtle movement that parted their mouths to let their tongues meet instead. Gaian's tongue was warm and made Zen shiver far more deeply than any chilling touch.

Zen felt the book tugged from his grasp and let it go, hearing it thud to the ground. The hand on his face moved to his waist to pull him closer, and he allowed that too, sagging against Gaian. He was so hungry. The pastry hadn't been enough. Yet the desire that stirred in him was for far more that might pass between his lips than food.

What if the others saw, Zen thought? Would they think this Enki? Would Xari or someone else recognize Gaian for who he truly was?

The fear of being discovered made Zen break the kiss, and though he sagged further into Gaian's embrace, he looked out toward the others.

Leela and her family were no longer singing. They were intermingled with the others. Everyone was… mingled , Zen noted, sitting around fires, closely met together.

Kissing and pawing at each other…

Zen lurched from Gaian's hold to look more closely, but he wasn't imagining things. Even Dante, who had confessed no desire for men or women, was being removed of his tunic by the dwarven woman, Shael. She poured some of his homebrew down his throat and chased it with her lips.

Nearby, Leela and her husband, Elwyn, were giving equal attention to Khel, who was lying back in bliss to accept it.

Leela's brother, Lukas, was kissing Morty and beginning to untie his trousers, though Morty had been fawning over Xari all night.

In turn, Xari was with Fennic, rolling in the grass, as she held tightly to a very different gnome than the one she'd been exchanging stories with all night.

The sight of them and the nearness of Gaian beside Zen stirred the passions deep inside him all the hotter. Zen felt calm, pliant, and had ever since…

The pastry. Just like in the village, when he'd felt mostly at ease after eating one of the sweet pastries Dante purchased, and later, how trusting he'd felt eating and drinking at the festival.

There was something in the food .

"My horde can give pleasure too, you see?" Gaian moved to slip up behind Zen, enveloping him in his firm arms, the same way the others were enveloping each other. Even Xari's people were tangled together in pairs or more.

Zen watched them writhing, unsure what to do. "They're your monsters, aren't they? Your brides. But my amulet…" With a shaky hand, Zen reached to grasp it.

"A trinket now," Gaian said beside Zen's ear. "You lost the ability to have such talismans hold power over my creations as soon as my blood passed your lips."

Zen had doomed them.

"You still have power, Zenos, but not in baubles. Would you use your prayers on me? Call for the sun to burn me away? Everyone is enjoying themselves. Shouldn't we?"

"It's not real. You've bewitched them."

"They are enjoying themselves, I assure you. Don't they look like they are?"

They did, even Dante, holding Shael atop him, while Guardian remained lying in the grass as if nothing was amiss.

Gaian's hands snaked inside Zen's robes and down between his legs. Zen was half-hard already, he couldn't help it, and Gaian's touch made him pulse to fulness. "Succumb. Surrender to me, my love. Offer your body, heart, and soul as you once did, and we can be together. Forever."

The offer sounded so sweet, and the slow stroke of Gaian's hand, his other running over Zen's chest and shoving the amulet aside, made Zen want to melt in his arms and give in without a fight.

"Say yes," Gaian urged, placing a kiss to Zen's neck. The fastenings of his collar had fallen open, so the kiss rested above the bite marks from before.

Zen closed his eyes and let a fresh tear streak free. "Yes."

The pain was sharp but faded like before to a stimulating sensation on par with Gaian's strokes between Zen's legs. Whatever the pastry had done to coerce this, it paled in comparison to what Zen was rewarded with. A devil's offer maybe, but Zen couldn't deny that he wanted it.

"Remind me to never cross you. You have a sharp temper."

"Only where it pertains to those I hold dear. Those emissaries from the king deserved what they got."

"Did they? Isn't such harshness what you are fighting against?"

"And fight I am, just like you. Do you think me cruel, Zenos?"

"I think you passionate, my love, but call me sentimental, I think you should remain the hero you were when we met."

Zen shuddered, releasing into Gaian's swiftly pumping hand. Then melt he did, weightless in the wake of Gaian feeding from him. It was the same wonderful daze as before, only this time, when a wrist with an open wound was placed before Zen's mouth, he drank of it willingly, and the flavor, the power in the heady substance, overwhelmed him with want of more.

This was right, wasn't it? This was where Zen belonged—with Gaian, while Zen's friends were free from…

Harm?

Through the haze and distant glow of red light, the orgy of moving bodies, intertwined and impassioned, looked the same—but Leela and her family did not. They had changed. Transformed. The shape they held now was monstrous, like gargoyles with clawed hands and feet, fangs and glowing eyes, and wings arched above their prey. They were naked and wholly engrossed in their victims, who seemed none the wiser, giving in as Zen was, even though they were being drank from with no signs of ceasing.

"Stop." Zen dropped Gaian's wrist, half wanting to spit the blood from his mouth again. "Stop this."

"Hush." Gaian licked his wrist, closing the wound with a swipe, and turned Zen toward him. He was monstrous too, with eyes glowing red and fangs stained equally vibrant. "They are cattle, remember? They will be added to our horde, and together, we will make the Kingdom of Aerie pay for everything they did to us."

Gaian's blood within Zen made him feel powerful, bold—bold enough to hold Gaian's gaze while he reached for the pouch on his belt.

"I don't want anyone to pay or suffer. What that king and so many others from that time did was wrong. But so are you!" Zen finished with a shout and hurled a handful of the powder in Gaian's face.

He knew what it contained now.

Gaian howled, flailing back against the tree as his skin sizzled. He snarled at Zen, blood and burns marring his handsome features. Wings sprouted from his back, and his hands and feet became clawed like the others. For one terrifying second, his fangs were impossibly long and deadly, as he roared in anger, but then he shriveled, in a blink changing shape, clothes and all, into a bat that fled into the sky.

Zen spun around. The brides were hissing at him, their victims still entranced, some unconscious, while those they weren't feeding from continued writhing together with no conscious thought that something was wrong.

The brides started to rise.

Zen's amulet may be useless, but his prayers were not, because this wasn't about the Sun God anymore.

" Bless !" Zen outstretched his arms toward the nearest rods, and they lit up with a brighter blinding whiteness that passed on to the next rod and the next, traveling down them faster and faster, until the circle was as bright as the day with holy power.

The brides howled as Gaian had, flapping their wings and taking to the sky just the same, one by one shrinking into bats that disappeared into the night.

As if a spell had lifted, the others ceased their mingling , most blinking and staring at each other in surprise—and then quickly moving to cover themselves where they had become undressed.

Khel, Dante, and Xari all wobbled when they tried to sit up.

Morty didn't move at all.

"Morty!" Zen raced to him.

He was unconscious, his complexion pallid.

"What in the hells ?" Dante bellowed.

"The brides," Xari panted. "How—"

"Wake up!" Zen tried again, but Morty remained still. Hurriedly, Zen reached to place one hand over Morty's heart and the other on Morty's bite marks, praying, " Restore, " and then, " Heal ."

For far too many breathless moments, Morty remained immobile, but then he gasped and began to cough as his eyes sprang wide. " Fuck ! Why do I feel dizzy lying down? Did I drink Dante's brew?"

Zen fell on him in a desperate embrace, too shaken to explain.

It took several minutes of bustling and rousing for everything to be made clear. The others remembered what had happened but not what had brought its end.

"Those bastards fed on you too?" Dante motioned to the bite marks on Zen, as everyone gathered more tightly around the fires, fearful of the brides' return.

"It wasn't them," Zen admitted. "It was Gaian."

Xari's people looked terrified to hear the vampire lord had been amongst them.

"How did you get him to leave?" Xari asked.

"With this." Zen held out the pouch, diminished of some of its powder but still full.

"What is it?" Khel peered at it.

"Me," Zen said, opening the pouch for everyone to see inside. He remembered what it was. He could feel it now—the dust of Zenos's bones. "It's time I told you all the truth."