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Jolting upright with a shout of surprise, Eros leapt into a defensive crouch and cast desperately around in search of his dropped weapon. In search of the battle. Of the fires and ruination. Of the enemy. What he found instead was a small meadow, a warm breeze-perfumed by the scent of blooming wildflowers and abuzz with the low drone of bees-playing through his hair as it shook the long grass like a playful child. Not far to his right a shallow stream flashed silver as the scales of a fish in the afternoon sun, winding its way off towards the familiar shape of Greer Keep rising in the East.
Though the setting surrounding him now was the furthest thing from threatening, his body still thrummed with the heart-quickening high of a life-or-death struggle. Though a quick glance downwards at his front showed him to be uninjured, the ghost of pain still dogged him a fervid insistence.
“Eros?” the sound of her voice made him jump. Whirling around sharply, he caught sight of Luciella-holding a wicker basket full of fruit in her hands-making her way towards him from the trees with Cerdic at her side.
“L-Luciella? Cerdic?” No. No, this couldn’t be! He’d sent them away to safety before the battle. They’d left. He’d seen them! “Why did you come back! I told you to head South! The Dhampir-!”
“Eros,” the raven haired knight cut him off with the patient tone of a long suffering parent explaining to a child that the monster they so feared did not, in fact, exist, “the war is over. You slew Lilith yourself almost a full year ago, now. Don’t tell me you really don’t remember?”
“He must have had another nightmare!” Mindful of her dress, Luciella knelt beside where he crouched poised to strike or run and reached out. “Come here.”
“Nightmare?” he repeated slowly, allowing his wife to pull him in and stroke his face. “The war...is over? The Vampires are gone?”
“Yes, gone. Forever.” She soothed him gently. When Luciella leaned in towards him he caught her familiar scent over the sweetness of the field of flowers, her long soft hair tickling his cheek as her lips-warmer than his-lightly brushed against his mouth. The familiarity of it all helped to calm him considerably, his heart rate slowing to a much more natural pace as a soft smile unfurled itself across his face.
“It’s really over?”
Now his friend chuckled with a smile of his own as he watched the scene before him play out. “Yes, Eros, it’s really over. By now, between the two of us, you must have asked that question at least 1000 times.”
“At least now we know what to do with him when he works himself up like this. Hand me that apple, would you?” once the knight had retrieved the fruit from the basket and passed it to her Luciella held it out for him to take. “Here, it this. It will help things to pass faster if you have something in your stomach.”
He’d seen apples before, but there was something about this one which made it stand out from the rest. Perhaps it was the size of the massive fruit, or the weight to it. Or maybe it was how dark of a red the glossy skin was, reduced to the point where it looked almost black. His reflection, warped along to curvature of its side, was cast back at him; the image of a bloodied soldier, showing him wounds that hadn’t been present on his body only moments earlier when he’d glanced down at his front.
‘Death is not in my mother’s plans for you.’
Dread filling him, Eros raised his eyes from the apple to stare at the pair again like a deer trapped in the sights of a hunter. His mind struggling to come up with some way-any way-to escape from the situation in which he now found himself; wounded, alone and in their power.
“Eros, my love, what’s wrong? You look pale, all of the sudden. Are you feeling alright?” He recoiled when she reached out again, chucking the apple away with all of his might as he did so.
“Back, Demon!” But with Dagaz gone and his body so severely weakened he was powerless to stop her.
The image of Luciella drained quickly of its color, the curls of her hair straightening to a silken curtain and the red color fading into darkness as her eyes turned black. Cerdic’s image, too, faltered. Transforming into the pallid Dhampir Lord, the slash across his face though no longer bleeding still raw and dark red. The meadow surrounding him with its blooming wildflowers and bright sunlight shattered apart to reveal the cold darkness of a cave. Pain from his countless wounds scalding him as his broken legs refused to support the weight of his body, sending him mercilessly forwards. The cold water which had gathered on the floor of the cavern drenched his front when he fell.
“Struggle all you like; it’s worthless.” Lilith’s voice was toneless, the sound of her footsteps echoing off the vaulted walls as she went to retrieve the dropped apple. “I healed you to the point where you were no longer in imminent mortal danger, as you deserve far more suffering than death could ever impose, but you’re far from well enough to stand. Let alone run.”
She watched in silence for a while as he struggled to pull himself hand over fist across the ground even with a dislocated shoulder and shattered collarbone. “Did you really expect to get away with the murder of my son? Really expect that you, a human, could ever face me with any hope of winning?”
Lilith closed the diminutive distance that he’d managed to cover in a single stride pushing down on his already broken body as she raked her nails down along his spine, leaning forwards over him until her lips were at his ear. “You’re nothing, Eros.” A single cold talon, colder than the touch of death himself, traced the shape of the Light Rune that had once been present on his skin. “Even Heaven has abandoned you. And now, the time has come for you to face justice for all the crimes you’ve committed against my empire.”
Stepping away, she turned to Kharon. “Hold him!”
Claws gouged painfully at his scalp as Kharon yanked him to his feet by the hair. With the apple once more in hand, the Dark Mother smiled victoriously down at him.
“Do you know what this is?”
His attempt at defiant silence was rewarded with a rough shake from the man that had him pinned. “Answer, swine!”
“An apple.”
“Yes, an apple but not just any. This is an apple from the Garden of Eden. From the same tree as that which gone my once husband and his wretched mortal wife expelled from that paradise. But this will have a much different effect on you than passing on the knowledge of good and evil, I’ve personally seen to that much.” Her grin split wider, revealing fangs in place of canines. “I intend to see you suffer for an eternity, but I know what you will attempt once you waken to my gift. This will bind your life to mine so that, until I die, you won’t be able to.” Her next word was a harsh command as she pressed it to his lips. “Eat!”
“You expect me to follow your orders, Queen of the Damned?” even wounded and exhausted Eros still had his pride and met her unnatural gaze without fear. “I have my free will still intact and nothing left to lose. Torture me. Kill me. But I will never bow to you!”
“For ten years you’ve fought with us and yet it still seems as if you’ve barely the slightest clue of the abilities of even a lesser Dhampir. Let alone the powers I possess.” As her gaze intensified Eros found himself unable to look away, rapidly sinking into the black void of her eyes. “Your ‘will’, legendary as it may be, is nothing to me. You, AshHand, will obey!”
The darkness of her gaze surrounded him, the little points of light within the ancient eyes spiraling by in dizzying displays that left him muddled. Confused. Where was he? Who was he? What was going on? All conscious thought fled his mind in the matter of only a few seconds, leaving him blank and unresisting. His body going cold, limp and pliable in the arms of the other man who was still holding him upright. This time, when she repeated her order the bewitched Hunter didn’t resist.
Both watched with differing degrees of dark glee as the apple slowly disappeared, crescents carved into the sweet white flesh as the clear juices ran down over his lips and chin. Tossing the core away once she’d deemed him finished, Lilith ran his talons through his golden hair.
“I’ll enjoy watching as you languish in damnation, the fallen founder of a broken Order.” Her hand traveled down along his cheek in a mock caress before she tilted his chin upwards and brought her lips to his, releasing him only once he’d swallowed the blood forced into his mouth.
Kharon let go of him immediately, allowing Eros’ body to fall back to the cavern floor as the effects of the hypnosis broke and he began to seize and writhe. “Are we finished here, mother?”
Looking away from the reeling body as if he were something alien she’d scraped from the bottom of her shoe, Lilith nodded at her eldest surviving son. “Yes, we’re more than finished here. It’s best that we watch the remainder of the show from a relatively safer distance.”
With a final glance at Eros-pitifully curled inwards around his transforming body-Kharon turned and followed her out.
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