Dark Romance

What Erin saw in Ana's mind

Blackness filled his vision and shadows in the blackness became apparent, lining his peripheral vision, creating a sort of gauntlet, then the vertigo hit in a wave of nausea. The shadow gauntlet swirled with dizzying speed and blurred. The swirling shadows elongated, stretching out before him, creating a path.
He felt a sudden burst of movement that seemed to rip him in two, leaving half of him at the head of the shadow gauntlet. He felt the ties between himself and his duplicate being strained with the distance. The dark path stretched out before him, allowing no deviation as he flew down its black length toward his destination.
Forward motion stopped abruptly, he had arrived, at last…
He emerged from the tunnel into blackness. The blackness bombarded him like a relentless barrage of missiles, invisible to the naked eye and loaded with doubt and fear.
The black space, like pitch, vast and empty was like some subterranean cavern. It was cool and still, yet the surface rippled with waves stirred up by an unseen breeze
He hovered in mid air, surrounded by darkness. Pitch everywhere, as far as his vampiric eyes could see…
As his eyes adjusted to the lack of light, he saw what looked like glass below him reflecting like vast endless mirrors. The sound of someone crying echoed through the vast black expanse. Wailing the likes of which he had never heard before ...
His heart began to beat faster and faster as fear gripped him. The air was thick with fear. He could feel it as tangible as touching another person.
A scream echoed through the pitch, slowly fading into nothingness. It made his head pound in the emptiness. He moved in fits, at first, gradually gained sustained flight and flew with ever increasing speed in the direction of the scream.
Then the sounds of claws scrabbling on concrete and the sound of ripping and tearing filled his ears.
He caught sight of Ana lying, strapped down and immobile on a table in the pitch. A red-orange glow surrounded the table. Figures moved furtively in the shadows, pacing back and forth howling, and laughing.
A strange sound floated on the dead, stale air. His ears caught the sound and he was stricken with fear. The faint scent of dogs tickled his nose and in his mind, he saw what was coming next. With urgency growing in the pit of his stomach and his mind racing through the horrid images that had popped up, he flew towards her position.
The sound grew louder as he got closer. Finally he identified the sound. It was the sound of animals growling and gnashing their teeth in anticipation, anticipating the satiating feel of her flesh and blood quenching their desire, their hunger. He looked around her but nothing was there. The growling and teeth gnashing sounds seemed to come from thin air. He also sniffed the air, the air reeked of dog but yet nothing to be seen…
HELLHOUNDS! Was his first and only thought as she screamed in pain. Out of thin air, her abdomen manifested numerous claw marks. Choking on her own fear, she fell silent and her head fell back. She lay unconscious. He felt something building deep down inside, rising up within him.
His eyes were drawn to furtive movement at the head of the table. Shadowed, man-sized figures circled Ana’s prone form, some whispered and some laughed like madmen. The black forms stretched out what appeared to be hands, many hands, and placed them on her body in various places.
Suddenly a roar ripped from his throat as his stance shifted. His center of gravity lowered, his gait widened, he squatted slightly, leaning forward in a fighting stance. The power that rolled of him rippled through the still air. The dark forms turned their heads up to him and backed away from her, still standing in a circle around her.
He walked forward, ripped apart the restraints and scooped her up off the table, backed out of the circle of shadowed figures with her unconscious form cradled gently in his arms. As he exited the shadow circle, he snarled in warning as one shadow made an advance toward him.
His retreat halted abruptly, the figure ceased the advance and spoke in a surprisingly deep voice, being the air of feminity hung about it. “Guard her well” it said. “She is important to us all.”
His head began to swim in a sea of images as he stared at the darkened circle. They all sent him mental pictures as an explanation in reply to his unformed question. A sense of peace grew within him but the uneasiness clung to him for dear life. He stood, holding Ana in his arms, feeling a sense of incompleteness, scared and in a bit of a hurry to get out of there. He did not trust the shadowed figures and kept his senses trained on them as he turned away.
In the distance, his eyes spotted something solid; he walked towards it. As he got closer, the darkness began to fade. The pitch receded somewhat. It was like twilight, the time from sunset to nightfall. He lay her down on soft, warm-brown earth, suddenly fire split him in two and his eyes bled to white.
Ana began to stir She screamed “NO, GET AWAY FROM ME!” Then she opened her eyes. Her eyes took in her surroundings but she did not see them. There was a wall between her eyes and her brain. Then mumbled… “Erin?”
Her muscles protested use and refused movement. Ana was paralyzed; she could not move! Her heart began to race in an adrenaline surge as panic set in. Her mind went wild, running through all kinds of scenarios. Her head had begun to pound, every noise was amplified and her eyes blurred with tears as pain burned through her body and she screamed. Erin! She called him with her mind.
Erin’s ears picked up her scream, a muted sound, almost imperceptible as if from a great distance. His heart sank and fear blossomed within the space where his still heart had lain in wait. Pain gripped him. He began to lose balance and the power of dream flight was forgotten as his equilibrium took a vacation, temporarily. He feared he wouldn’t make it to her in time to save her from the ever hungry hellhounds waiting to sink their teeth into her flesh.
As he flew to her rescue his mind conjured up images of her flesh ripping apart and blood welling up in the wound track as they magically manifested themselves. He saw her life essence soaking her skin and turning her white dress to red. It poured out of her pooling around her prone form, he became blind and deaf, and his nostrils flared as the sweet metallic sweetness of her blood filled him with a craving for her. Fire erupted inside him, nearly burning him to cinders. He advanced, on foot, with such speed that the movement became a blur of color.
The darkness had a scent to it, a strange addictive scent. It was of stale life mixed with that of dog and burnt flesh. The scent of fresh blood wafted through the air, filling his nostrils, pulling him in like a dog that caught the scent of a fresh steak being cooked as he watched and waited for the chef to drop it.
His eyes focused on the red pool she lay in, his ears deaf to her screams of pain and pleading to him to give her relief from the agony the hounds inflicted on her and the echoing laughter at her pain and fear of death… Or in this case the lack of death.
Pain doubled him over, clutching his stomach as the fire burned through every nerve, every muscle was on fire and weakness suddenly came over him. His knees buckled and sunk to the ground, teeth elongating in preparation for the feeding. Instinctively he moved with practiced ease and the surety of his kind. He mentally whispered, “This won’t hurt.” Reared back like a cobra about to strike….
He paused. Something intangible had stopped him dead in his tracks.  He hissed a long echoing sound of pain as he said softly “DO NOT SEE ME!” he whispered as he turned away from her. His hunger burned in his eyes making them glow bright red like a flame and contorted his face.