Chapter 6
It was so beautiful.
Briar knew he was dreaming, but he also knew he wanted to stay in the dream. It was the park, but everything seemed more...alive. Maybe it was because she was there. She was so beautiful, in a pale blue dress the color of her eyes that floated around her dreamily in the wind, her silky hair falling straight past her waist. Laughing, she took his hand and began to pull him, smiling, down the hiking path.
“Come, Briar,” she smiled. “Come with me.”
“Where?” he heard his own voice, shaking slightly.
“To be with me,” Raven whispered, her face suddenly dropping. “Oh, god, Briar, don’t die! Stay with me forever!” And she threw herself into his arms, quivering with pent emotion.
He held her for days, weeks, years, lifetimes, whispering again and again,”I want to be with you. I want to be with you....”
She pulled away eventually, reluctantly. “You have to wake up now.”
“No, I...”
“Briar! Don’t argue. Just wake up, love. Please. You have to wake up. You have to.”
Briar’s eyes fluttered open.
Raven stared at him, incredulous. He was so close...but it wasn’t over. She’d managed to get Chastity up to her room, where Briar lay unconscious, but convincing her to do it hadn’t been quite as easy. And the sight of her sharp, milky fangs plunging mercilessly into his neck...And now Chastity was drawing a fingernail, in classic vampiric style, across her chest, drawing up a small well of blood.
Raven knelt beside him. “Briar, you have to drink. If you don’t, you’ll be dead in just a few minutes and you won’t be coming back. Please, my love, please understand.”
Too weak to even speak, Briar gave a slight nod and allowed Raven to raise him to reach Chastity. Darion watched from across the room, muttering to himself about filthy humans and hormones.
Raven watched fearfully until Chastity pulled away gasping and Briar fell back against her pillows, eyes shutting and breath quickly beginning to slow.
Briar had always wondered what death felt like. Now he knew. Maybe this kind of death, the kind where you came back, wasn’t the same, but it was...incredible. He could feel his heart, bumping along noiselessly, suddenly slow, then stop altogether. He could feel it as his breath left him, as his body jerked in a last convulsive grasp at life, and then he could feel the icy fingers closing around his throat once more, the two healing puncture wounds burning like live coals. And then he was cold. Oh, god, he was cold.
And then the darkness enveloped him.
“I’m not sure about this, Raven.”
The dark-haired girl’s head lifted slowly, incredulously. Yes, this was Darion talking. This was Darion with his blue eyes serious for once, his jaw clenched with worry. The same Darion who’s whole life was parties, hunting, and seducing.
He was serious.
“What are you not sure about?” she asked slowly.
“This...this whole thing. I mean, you’re just turning this guy into a vampire. You asked him, but he was not exactly completely in his own mind, and he doesn’t know...he doesn’t know what it’s like.”
Raven shook her head. “Darion, I love him. This is not one of your little conquests, I’m not just toying with him just to feed. I LOVE HIM. Without him, I can’t go on.”
“I know.”
Raven’s eyes widened considerably. She hadn’t expected him to know. She had expected him to laugh, or at least tell her she couldn’t know that, hadn’t known him long enough.
“Excuse me?”
“I KNOW, Raven,” Darion repeated, fervently. “You love him. I saw that right away. Which is why I didn’t stop you. The way you look at him, I...this is not just some crush, or some weird physical attraction. And the way he looked at you for those few seconds he was conscious...Raven, I know you love him. But is this really the right thing to do?”
A bitter smile played across Raven’s lips. “I really don’t know,” she said,”but I guess I’ll find out soon.”
