“In misty grave yards by ancient tombs, i weave my spell, the Dark Lord looms.”
She waited…. hidden from view; hardly daring to breathe; totally alone and cold. She stood motionless and silent within the ancient yew grove, adjacent to the bleak, deserted waste land just outside the old village churchyard. She stood there frozen and still, caught in a dark and encompassing shroud of silence; waiting. Each muscle in her shivering, aching body strained and tense; her trusting heart that beat so safe and warm inside her chest knew nothing of its impending, ultimate doom. Neither too, did the living life blood that surged within her burning veins have any sense of the dark secret chill of its owner’s yearning, for a taste of life beyond the grave.
The hour was nigh, there was still just time to turn back; to back down from all her precision executed plans. Could she, would she, sacrifice her own sweet lifeblood on the altar of a desperate desire, to willingly let go of life forever, for a love so dark, so deep, that sang so seductively and constantly to her from a shadowy place within her own soul? Could she let go of all she knew from the realm of the living and sacrifice it all forever, for the love of one immortal man?
Weeks before she’d found the spell in a tacky little joke shop, tucked behind the plastic fangs and dusty bottles of fake blood. It must have fallen out of something else, she had thought at the time. It certainly did not seem like it belonged in the joke shop at all. All that was now left was a little tatty and grubby, dog eared pamphlet. “To Conjure up your own Vampire!” it excitingly announced on the front cover. She had laughed but bought the booklet anyway. Maybe good for a Halloween joke she’d thought at the time.
And yet, three times or more she’d read the little spell contained within the pages of the archaic looking pamphlet, digesting all the arcane words; was it supposed to be a joke or not she’d thought. But before she knew it, she’d become encaptured and entrapped by those ancient rhythmic words and felt herself becoming hopelessly compelled by them, caught up in something she could not control or understand and to be honest she had no desire at all to even think about controlling those thoughts and feelings that she was discovering she liked very much. Something within or was it without, seemed to be calling to her, opening doors in her own perceptions, tangling with her mind and leading her dangerously into the hypnotic pages of another century, another existence. She read those mesmerizing words over and over again. Words and chants with inner meanings, that came not from those grubby little pages, but from somewhere afar through time and space, from an exciting, yet dark, cold place where no human life dwells. She was caught, trapped in a dangerous web of darkness and silence and now here in this moment of time, she waited in the gloom of the ancient yew grove.
“No circle cast, no consecrated ground, no protection for the soul”. She had read.
She had rehearsed it well, remembering all those words. Her incense, silently wafting around her, had been carefully prepared of unfamiliar ingredients, hard to find in this day and age, and of course, her own very sacred menstrual blood. She watched as the swirling, spiralling smoke engulfed her in a magical cloud of unfamiliar scents laden with an unfamiliar purpose. She waited, chilled to the core, just staring at the patterns in the smoke, until she thought she saw the forms and swirls change or had she just been staring too long, far too intently? She strained, wanting so much to shut her eyes tight but willing her eyelids to stay open. She felt cut off from reality; the real world suddenly seemed oh so far away. A closure not of her making was happening; a boundary between her world and another realm was being laid down, or was it in fact being opened? As the shift in reality continued, furtive shadows started closing in, veiling the ‘real’ world, changing the energies, shifting the patterns in time and space and seducing her senses. Suddenly the air stilled, became colder, heavier, the patterns of energy changed and then it started and then right there in that unholy place, it began.…
Into that circle of forever-darkness she was being drawn. She sensed a feeling, so ancient and remorseless; a feeling that suddenly seemed far too close, far too claustrophobic and now far too real. Visions came to her, shadows tugged at her soul causing long-lost memories of old, deserted half lit forests to weave their way in and out of her mind; forests in which ancient creatures she had never seen on earth lived their lives unbeknown to mankind; always hidden from view. Yet upon those remorseless mists of darkness now came words that whispered into her ears, words of sweet seduction and sensual pleasures yet unknown to human kind.
She shivered; a sudden breeze? It must be…. she looked up, startled. It was a still night and the dampness hung heavy and very cold in the now unmoving air. She was transfixed, she knew she’d followed the spell exactly and now it was done; there was no turning back. There never was any turning back for she’d called him, summoned him and was totally terrified at what her ears were now beginning to hear and at what her eyes were now starting to reveal to her.
She was literally frozen to the spot, as if her legs had transformed into deeply buried tree roots and become a part of the grove itself. She was transfixed, hardly daring to breathe, yet she felt a deep longing within her soul that wanted so much of all that was about to become. Then with heavy eyes still straining to look through the now slowly parting mists, she heard a sound, a voice. She could hardly dare to look, for out of the shadows, from out of the gloom she knew he now stood before her, still clouded yet in mists, but his mesmerizing gaze sought her out and met her eyes; simultaneously she felt an icy dagger plunge deep and irretrievably into her lost soul.
And then that voice, chilled, dangerous and deliberate and yet somehow with a long-lost longing of its own;
“I come to you through the mists of time and from out of the shadows of my own tortured pain and longing. Through the endless, lost centuries in a frozen moment of time I heard the call of another’s beating heart. It was a rhythm I recognized, a rhythm I once knew so well. A memory within me stirred. I felt a deep love calling. I heard it and I came…”
The air all around her seemed even colder and more frozen than ever before or was it just the fact that her own dear soul knew that it was about to take flight for ever.
He continued….
“Through centuries of endless-night I have waited, have waited for the calling. Do you really think it by chance that we meet tonight?”
She shivered uncontrollably…
She watched him through the mists fascinated, drinking in all she saw. He had an aura about him that could have stemmed from a noble birth; he had a highly educated and intelligent persona. Or was this in actual-fact merely a glamour; another part of his web of deception? For a fleeting second though, she thought she glimpsed the person he once was, the person he had once been. She suddenly felt a deep sadness and an unexpected compassion for him, as he continued….
“To taste the love of an immortal is to drink from the well of eternal darkness. Are you ready? Are you ready for a life of eternal darkness, a life of endless shadow and torment, an existence of neither blessing nor curse? Do you have the courage to savour that feeling of cold numbness which dissolves and explodes into a desire born of pure blood lust that no mortal has the right ever to know?
Do you commit, do you submit to me? Do you…do you?”
The question hung there in the air for what seemed like an eternity.
Still frozen and transfixed with fear she could hardly dare look, for now out of the shadows, out of the gloom he started walking slowly and deliberately towards her, his intoxicating gaze, his air of confidence and allure was so compelling and frightening, so seductive and dangerous. His charismatic beauty together with his sophisticated air, that came she thought, from a noble birth line. The whole way he held himself as he made his way toward her, caused her to utterly and completely forget his one true purpose of why he now walked upon this earth; why he was now walking towards her…
He softly, oh so softly whispered in hushed and sensual tones….
“I have been a mortal man and I have tasted the love and desires of a mortal man. For when I walked upon this earthly plane I knew love, passion and compassion. You understand, for you are like me, you know the fear, know the longing and you feel the desire. For centuries of endless-night I have waited, for this time, this place, for you. Did you think it accidental when you stumbled on that spell? You are my love, my chosen one, tentively treading the foothills of your own desires and passions and now your journey proper will finally begin. Are you ready to take that final journey? But remember this and remember well my love. To taste the love of a vampire is to drink from the cup of eternity. I ask again, do you commit, submit to me?”
His words hung long, lonely and frozen in time in that dark yew grove, just as the cold air had, as the mists had only moments before. She slowly drank in all she had seen and heard and from within her, from an isolated island within her own soul she heard a voice that she knew to be hers…
“I am ready to tread upon the dark path of no return. I am ready to commit myself to the cup of eternity. I am ready to commit to the bonding of your desire. Just one look into your eyes has sealed my fate and I realize and acknowledge that on this night there can be no turning back. I realize that without these dreams and desires there is no hope and yet I know that without my death I can have no rebirth and will forever walk alone and lonely in the world of men. So yes, I say yes with full conviction and love and knowledge of who I am and who I will become.”
She waited as time stood still and eternity ran backwards, in order to catch her in its grasp.
When he finally came into full view and reached out and pulled her towards him, he uttered no words, simply and finally kissing her, but a kiss unlike any other she has ever experienced before. It was a kiss so full of tenderness and totally unexpected love that she was completely thrown off guard and yet it contained an electricity of sexuality that burned up and ignited every cell in her body. His body though was cold, so very, very cold and yet from somewhere deep inside of him there emerged a human warmth that she hadn’t reckoned on. Was it some lingering memory from his time as a human man, some deeply embedded genetic makeup pattern that he had never quiet totally thrown off? She was being seduced, felt drugged by his very touch and totally under his spell now. It was oh so easy to lie beside him and not to feel the cold, clamminess of the damp earth beneath them both. So easy to let him drink in all her dreams and desires with his lovemaking. Yet she knew, was fully aware that he was taking all her dreams and desires and twisting and weaving them into something borne of sheer darkness. She willingly allowed this to happen, craved his seduction and yearned to be by his side forever. The pleasure of their lovemaking bought her to the edge of feelings she had never experienced before. It was intense and totally consuming; it was dark lust and totally fulfilling.
…and yet as she was reeling in a zenith of pleasure, his body was starting to hear the sound of a different drum, was starting to dance to the rhythm of a different beat. A blood lust was rising in his body, he needed to feed, he needed blood and he needed it fast. He began to feel an uncontrollable urge take hold of him. His sexual desire for this woman, his lover was so overwhelming but so too was his own desire; a desire forged over the centuries by the most chilling existence ever imaginable. It was a desire that could only be satiated in one fashion, the ultimate horror, the ultimate release, by the kiss of death. The kiss of the blood rose. It was who he was, his birth right….
Her trust in him was so total. She may have thought she was prepared but nothing, nothing on this earth could have prepared her for the nightmare that was about to become her. In the ecstasy of the moment she had totally forgot, why they were really there. She had given in to him so completely and now could wait no more as the final crescendo of pleasure began to rack her body like a tidal wave.
His wet lips continued to suckle at her defenceless, naked body. A body that looked so white and smooth and innocent upon the dark, dank earth, yet his own ravaged excuse for a body heard the sound of a different beat; an older beat born of death, war, decay and rotting corpses; of a time gone before that can never be spoken of, a time of lust and blood, famine and pestilence in a world that was forever dark. He felt her body, so white, so smooth and so sensual beside him. So warm, so alive, ah yes.…so very alive; a reservoir of life for his own rebirth.
As she lay totally absorbed in the pleasure she was receiving, he slowly and deliberately began to move up her body. His tongue licking, his lips caressing and his teeth.…his teeth.…gently biting into her warm, soft, silky flesh. When his tongue and teeth finally found her neck, he felt an uncontrollable wave of blood lust take over him and as she reached the point of blessed release he relentlessly sank his exposed fangs deep into her lily-white, innocent throat.
She let out a terrified scream of absolute unbearable agony. She suddenly felt cold, her body heavy, numb, lifeless. Her death was stalking her from the shadows, impatiently waiting for the invite in. Blood began to slowly seep from her opened throat as he greedily guzzled from this deep well of vitality, the ultimate gift of everlasting life that she was now bestowing upon him. As his fangs sank deeper and yet deeper still, he gorged in an almost animalistic way, savouring every mouthful, every morsel, every drop of that warm blood that was oozing from her still living body. His sexual desire and ultimate satisfaction was manifest in a bodily release that was way past the boundaries of mere mortal understandings.
“Oh, this ecstasy; this dreaded, cursed ecstasy!” he wailed,
Yet he was totally unable to stop, unable to halt himself from his deathly embrace. When finally, he had had his fill and had drained his beloved of all her precious life force, he paused and was strangely compelled to gaze at her cold lifeless body sprawled on the ground at his feet. Her innocence and beauty were evident even to his dark soulless eyes; maybe even more so now.
“What have I done?” he screamed “This cursed, eternal night has triumphed again!”
He stood up and glanced around him, searching frantically for he knew not what. Then he stumbled towards where her body still lie on the hard ground and scooped up the limp, lifeless form in his arms, for she was yet still bound in human death and her fate to return as a vampire was ever in his hands.
“I take you with me into my realm of forever darkness where our bonding on this night, like our love will live on and on.” He cried.
He slowly and desperately staggered towards the mists tenderly carrying her in his arms and back into the darkness. And in that very instance of stillness they were gone…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
….and the only sound to be heard echoing in the crisp, early morning mists of that yew grove, was the metallic clatter of a single, silver bangle; a silver bangle that had fallen from her wrist as he had hastily scooped her up in his arms. And on that cool morning breeze, amongst the damp leaves and twigs, a small scrap of paper fluttered out from inside that silver bangle….
….and written in her own, clear handwriting was the reverse spell.…the reverse spell that could only be cast as she reached the other side; the reverse spell that now lie damp and shredded like the rotting autumn leaves.
The Keeper of Scrolls 2006
updated 2013/14 & 14/02/2019)
Please feel free to share: