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It may as well have been a moonless night. The lowering clouds blocked out any semblance of light, leaving the road pitch black. Ariadne had to hold a lantern aloft to see ahead as she rode her horse cautiously down the winding path, the gnarled old trees reaching out for her and her mount as they wound their way closer and closer to the crumbling old castle.
At the moment she reached the large oaken door, the moon finally appeared, illuminating the briar roses that nearly covered the castle walls, thorns piercing the stonework, practically holding the crumbling blocks together.
The horse whinnied and rolled its eyes in fear. She grabbed its reins and hushed it, walking it over to a tree and tying it up, hoping it would not abandon her.
She then braced herself and walked toward the castle, pulling open the heavy door with a shriek of ancient hinges.
The castle was indeed in a state of disrepair. She glanced up at several open spots in the ceiling where the moonlight filtered in, once beautiful stained-glass windows filtered the light in a kaleidoscope of colors across the dark cloak she wore as she strode purposefully through the halls to the room where the only occupant of the castle abided.
She lifted her lantern up as she opened the door and descended the stairs into the belly of the castle, the damp and cold seeking to burrow into her bones despite her heavy clothing.
The scent of tallow candles sent out a deceptively warm welcome as she crossed the threshold at the end of the stairs, almost masking the smell of death underneath.
In this chamber isolated in the depths of the castle, the glow of candlelight lit a large, singular structure like some giant bird cage in the center of the room. Surrounded by puddles of wax that dripped from the candles placed around it, the cage contained a dark, shadowy figure who stirred upon hearing her footsteps.
“Ah…so you finally come to witness my suffering, Miss Hunter.”
The sounds of chains scraped across the stone floor as the figure shifting in the cage, head tilting back to reveal a pair of glowing crimson eyes.
Ariadne stopped a safe distance, glancing toward the other side of the cage where two bodies lay just outside the bars, shriveled and ghostly pale, every drop of blood drained from them.
“Are you just going to stand there?” the mocking voice slithered from the darkness as his hands clutched at the bars of the cage.
Ariadne raised the lantern pointedly, making him flinch away from the light, before she set it on the ground.
“Why should I come closer? After what you’ve done to my fellow hunters—no one wants to come here anymore, and I cannot truly blame them.”
He gave a soft growl, leaning against the bars. “But you’re brave enough, Miss Hunter—I should know how little you fear me.”
She glanced at the floor of the cage where the ruined muzzle sat, discarded with obvious contempt. “You took your muzzle off again.”
“It broke.” He smirked. “Those fools tried to fix it, but they got too close to my fangs.”
He licked his lips grazing his tongue across the sharp fangs peeking from under his upper lip.
“You shouldn’t do that. If you kill too many more of my colleagues, they’ll deem you pointless to keep alive anymore.”
He chuckled darkly, eyes narrowing. “Am I alive? Well, I suppose being a dead person walking counts as being alive.”
Ariadne sighed and approached the cage, taking the kit from her bag. “Give me your arm.”
He growled, brows furrowed in displeasure. “What do I get in return for you bleeding me?”
She reached back into the bag and pulled out a wineskin, holding it up. “Fresh blood—drawn today.”
He sneered. “It’s not fresh unless it’s drunk directly from a vein, and you know I despise cold pig’s blood.”
She pursed her lips, knowing he would say that. She put it back into the bag. “Fine then. I’ll put the muzzle back on and leave.”
She reached into her bag for a new pair of straps when he growled, clasping the bars, finally allowing her to see the desperation in his eyes, the obvious hunger he was pretending to hide.
“Fine,” he snarled. “I will let you take my blood for your masters’ little experimentations. But you know what I want in return.”
She pursed her lips. “You think I will give it to you?”
He met her eyes with an almost seductive gaze, one that would lull anyone less than a seasoned hunter into a deadly trap.
“You know what my cooperation is worth,” he purred, pressing himself against the bars. “And you know the only thing that will get me to cooperate.”
She sighed, rolling her eyes slightly but nodded. “Fine. I will make the usual deal. Now—your arm.”
He dutifully slid his arm through the bars, the chain attached to his wrist clinking against the metal. She opened the small leather case and took out the large syringe, fixing the needle to it. The vampire watched in obvious distaste as she gripped his wrist and inserted the needle into his flesh, drawing blood. He grunted, watching her pull the needle from him finally before transferring the blood into a glass vial.
“One more time.”
“Greedy humans,” he snarled, but endured stoically as she drew another vial of blood from him and finally put the equipment away.
“I did what you asked, Miss Hunter,” he said as he watched her stow the precious blood back in her bag. “Now…will you uphold your end of the bargain?”
She didn’t reply, simply began to roll up her sleeve, offering her arm to him.
The vampire took her wrist almost delicately and pressed his nose to her wrist, inhaling deeply with a pleased sound.
“Are you aware of your blood’s scent?” he asked her huskily as his tongue slid briefly across her skin, making her shudder. “It’s akin to a strong liquor topped off with salt. Forever boiling and never satisfied.”
He made a vague gesture behind him. “Those fools tasted as disgusting as they acted. Nothing more than lackluster trifles. I nearly grew ill consuming their blood.”
His eyes came up to meet hers under his long eyelashes. “Yours, on the other hand, is always a delicacy.”
She bit the inside of her cheek as his fangs pierced her skin, pricking just enough to allow for blood flow before he started feeding.
A soft moan of pleasure escaped him, eyes fluttering shut as he drank.
Ariadne watched him, heat flushing her body along with a strange, pulling sensation as the blood loss made her slightly dizzy.
Before she could tell him to stop he was already pulling away, licking across her wounds to close them.
“Satisfied?” she asked.
“Mmm, more than I would have been with the vile pig’s blood,” he sneered, stepping back and sitting down against the bars.
He was always like this after eating, more content and docile. She took the chance to open the cage, stepping inside to retrieve the muzzle before using the crank on the chains binding him, pulling them taught so he couldn’t move from the other side of the cage, arms trapped above his head.
The vampire furrowed his brow in annoyance, but didn’t make a move. She fixed the new straps to the silver muzzle and stepped over to him.
“I dislike that vile thing,” he muttered.
Ariadne felt a brief sense of regret, but pressed her lips together, remembering her duty.
“You obviously can’t be trusted without it,” she said, nodding toward the corpses. “So, you need to wear it.”
He glowered at her, and she didn’t miss the still healing scars on his jaw and the bridge of his nose where the silver from the muzzle touched his skin.
“You’re lucky, they make other ones for vampires that force a silver bit into their mouths. If you keep attacking people, they might decide to use one on you.”
He scoffed. “Let them try and see if I don’t bite their fingers off.” But he finally tilted his head up to let her fix the muzzle around his face again, making sure the straps were tight.
She retreated and lowered the chains once again, letting his arms slump into his lap.
As she locked up the cage, she reached back into her bag. “Here,” she told him in parting. “I brought you a new book this time.”
His eyes lit up slightly as he took the tome and passed it between the bars.
“How very generous of you, Miss Hunter,” he said. “You truly are too kind to a beast like me.”
“Don’t give the hunters who come next time any more trouble. If you keep killing people I’ll stop bringing you gifts.”
She packed up her things and turned to leave, bringing her lantern with her.
“Goodnight, Miss Hunter,” he called to her.
She raised a brief hand in return and left the dark cellar, climbing the steps one at a time.
~~~~~~~
His name was Sylus. He used to be the lord of the castle he resided in many, many years prior, known as something of a tyrant in his day.
No one knew when the affliction came over him, or if he had been born with it and simply hid it for years, but his lust for blood eventually became his undoing and he would become a monster who could only go out by night, and could not abide anything silver or holy.
Or so the story went. Since those days, research had been done into vampirism, determining that it was a latent gene in some humans. And though those who were vampires could turn others, it didn’t always happen that way. From her own research, Ariadne had determined that Sylus had discovered his ailment as a young boy, was cast aside by his peers and family alike because of it, and was forced to go into self-inflicted exile, becoming the beast everyone deemed him in order to protect himself.
It was at least a century ago when Ariadne’s predecessors, the first Hunters, had captured him, cornering him in his own castle, and locking him up to serve eternal isolation and punishment in his crumbling stronghold, little more than a test subject to try new weapons on, and to study, showing the scientists of the day what they could learn from vampirism.
Ariadne might be a hunter, she might kill vampires when needed for the sake of innocent lives, but there was something about Sylus that pulled at her heartstrings a little. Perhaps it was in the looks he gave her when she showed him even a modicum of human kindness, or in the brief moments when he showed vulnerability to her, like when he had admitted to disliking the muzzle. Despite his past crimes, true or fabricated, despite the hunters he had killed, she couldn’t help but see him as simply a lonely young man who had never had anyone truly care for him. No one who knew him and accepted him for who and what he was.
She knew how foolish that line of thought could be for one of her profession, but there was just something about him that was different.
She returned to her headquarters that night, making the report to the captain. He promised to send a crew the next day to retrieve the dead bodies of the former hunters. Ariadne was dismissed for good work and left to retire for the night.
Life went on as normal and she tried not to think too much of Sylus, even while the marks on her arm from his fangs healed and faded.
She was sent to a neighboring town to quell an issue, and came back just in time for the captain to tell her that he’d sent several other hunters in her place to feed Sylus.
“You should have waited for me,” she told him grimly, already gathering her things to head out yet again.
“We needed more of his blood, we had little choice. They can handle it, Ariadne.”
But she was already leaving Hunter’s Headquarters and retrieving her tired horse from the groom before he could even remove the tack.
She raced to the castle, and the instant she dismounted, a young recruit rushed out of the door, nearly colliding with her, terror in his eyes.
“The fiend! It’s gone mad! You have to help them!”
Ariadne swore and ran inside, making her way as quickly as possible down to the basement.
She heard shouting and Sylus snarling before she even got there and shoved open the door.
The flickering candlelight illuminated a gory scene. The cage door lay open, one hunter already lay still and lifeless on the floor of it, the other, Sylus had by the arm, pressed painfully against the bars as Sylus sank his teeth into the meat of his forearm. His muzzle was discarded yet again.
“Sylus!” Ariadne shouted as she rushed forward. “Let him go!”
Sylus looked at her with a feral expression and she saw one side of his face and neck were red and inflamed. The crushed flask of holy water lay halfway across the room, thrown there as if in derision.
The hunter cried out, trying to pull away. “Miss Ariadne! Your gun! Shoot the beast!”
She ignored him and turned back to Sylus, gripping the back of the hunter’s coat. “Release him now.”
Sylus snarled, breathing heavily and finally let the hunter go.
The man scrambled back, falling on his backside in terror.
Ariadne picked up the muzzle, stepping into the cage and angrily cranking the chains so that Sylus was nearly suspended by his wrists.
“Can you go one feeding without causing trouble?” she demanded.
Sylus growled, teeth gritted, one eye closed as blistered skin even now began to heal from the fresh blood he had consumed.
“They didn’t bother asking politely,” he sneered.
Ariadne dragged the body out of the cage and turned to the cowering hunter. “Take your comrade out of here. Did you get your blood?”
“Y-Yes, miss.”
Ariadne nodded. “Then there’s no point in you staying. I’ll finish up and make sure he’s locked down.”
The man didn’t need a second bidding. He heaved the body of his comrade over his shoulders and began carrying him out.
Ariadne finally turned back to Sylus, studying the burns on his flesh. She reached out to touch his collarbone. “What did you do to make them use holy water on you?”
Sylus snarled and snapped at her hand. She slapped him and stepped back.
“Don’t bite me,” she commanded.
He chuckled, licking some blood off his lips. “Fine. I suppose I had enough blood for the night anyway.”
She pursed her lips as she fixed the muzzle back over his face. He allowed her to, but grunted as it pressed against the sensitive skin that was still currently healing. Once it was in place, she gently cupped his chin and inspected his eye, brushing her thumb over it. He shuddered, letting out a shaky exhale.
“Will it heal?”
“Yes,” he bit out.
“I warned you not to kill another hunter.”
“They shouldn’t have opened the cage.”
“Why did they want to come in?”
He snorted. “Thought they would try out one of their new little toys.”
She frowned. “What?”
Sylus glanced over at a syringe that had been discarded on the floor. She had thought at first that it was leftover from an attempt at drawing blood, but it still had something in it.
“They wanted to see it’s effect. I’m sure if it works, they’ll be coating your bullets and blade in it soon.”
She bent to pick it up and pushed the plunger, expelling the liquid on the ground, an oddly uneasy feeling welling in her stomach at the thought of them using it on Sylus without even knowing what it did.
“You look troubled,” he observed.
She turned to glower at him. “I’m exhausted. I’ve been hunting for the last three days straight and as soon as I get back you choose to cause trouble.”
“If you don’t want trouble, don’t let your colleagues come next time,” Sylus said simply. “I don’t like them.”
“I’m aware,” she replied, and reached for the crank once again to lower his chains to a comfortable length again.
Sylus sighed and slumped back against the bars, sitting down.
“Rest up and heal those wounds,” she said gruffly, leaving the cage and locking it tightly behind her again.
“You rest as well, Miss Hunter,” he told her as she left.
The other hunters were still waiting outside when she exited the castle, seeming slightly surprised when she returned unscathed.
She held up the syringe. “I assume you were sent to try this on him?”
The older hunter swallowed hard. “Yes. The boffins came up with something new.”
“Well, I tried it out for you,” Ariadne lied easily. “You can tell them it didn’t work.”
She mounted her horse and turned back to them. “Best get back and report another death due to negligence.”
She didn’t bother hearing their reply, simply rode back to headquarters.
~~~~~~~
For the next two months, the captain allowed her to handle everything related to Sylus. He behaved exceptionally well, and she brought him several more books she thought he would find interesting.
It was a couple days before his next feeding, when she heard a discussion in the captain’s office as she was passing by the open door.
“The test went better than expected. We would like to try it on a more powerful vampire to make sure it still holds.”
“The fiend in the castle would be the perfect test subject.”
Ariadne felt her heart freeze, as he paused.
“If you must, do it with caution,” the captain said. “The beast has killed five hunters in the last six months.”
“Considering the results, it’s unlikely the fiend will have the strength to oppose anyone,” the other voice said with a hint of dark satisfaction. “This new concoction will prove incredibly valuable to the Hunter Organization.”
Ariadne retreated, stomach churching. What did they plan to do to Sylus now? She would have to warn him the next time she went to see him.
When the time came, she went to let the captain know she would be heading out.
“I’m going to the castle for Sylus’s feeding,” she told him. “Do you have any special instructions this time?”
“Don’t bother,” he said with a wave of his hand. “The research team will handle everything this time. They’ve already gone to test a new weapon on him.”
“What?” she demanded.
The captain gave her a look. “It’s not your concern, Ariadne. You can’t keep treating that vampire like some sort of pet. As soon as he outlives his usefulness he’ll be done away with, and that day is quickly approaching.”
She clenched her jaw, trying to school her emotions. “I simply worry that the research team won’t be properly equipped to deal with him. I should go oversee—”
“No,” the captain cut in, standing up and gripping her shoulder, forcing her to meet his eyes. “I’ll say this now, before it becomes a real issue, Ariadne. You have become too fond of that creature.”
“I—”
“The other hunters say he keeps acquiring books by an unknown means.”
She looked down, unable to deny it.
“Do not make the mistake of thinking that thing is human,” the captain said firmly. “It is nothing but a blood-drinking fiend in a cage. You’re a good hunter, do not throw everything away for one beast.”
She nodded, pretending to agree and the captain let her go.
As she retreated from the office though, she had already made up her mind.
~~~~~~~
By the time she had reached the castle, the research team were already leaving, all of them in one piece, joking amongst each other.
“Did you see the way that thing reacted? It’s better than we thought!”
“This is going to change hunting forever!”
They looked up at her, their words trailing off as she dismounted her horse.
“Miss Hunter, what are you doing here?”
“The captain wanted me to come and make sure the vampire was secure when you left,” she lied. “We’ve had issues recently.”
“Oh, don’t worry, miss, the beast won’t be going anywhere for a while.”
Her stomach twisted at the jovial words and ignored the man as she headed inside.
As she descended the stairs into the basement, the stench of blood hit her before she even opened the door.
She quickened her pace and flung it open, skidding to a stop as the cage came into view.
Sylus hung from his wrists in the center of the cage, his breathing ragged, blood soaking his torn clothes.
“Sylus!” she cried, unable to help herself.
He twitched slightly, breath hitching but he didn’t make any other moves.
She rushed forward and grabbed the key to undo the lock, stepping inside.
“Sylus.”
She felt sick at the sight of the weeping wounds covering his body, a pool of blood soaking the floor at his feet.
She reached for the crank leading to his chains and started to let it out, lowering Sylus back down.
He crumpled to the floor of the cage, breathing heavily as his eyes finally opened, seeking hers out.
“Miss…Hunter…” he rasped.
She knelt in front of him and started to undo his muzzle, hearing him sigh in relief as she pulled it off.
“Don’t talk, drink some blood first,” she coaxed, rolling up her sleeve and offering her arm to him.
Sylus took a shaky breath and didn’t hesitate, ducking his head and grabbing her arm.
He sank his teeth in with less finesse than usual, making Ariadne wince, gritting her teeth against the pain.
She let Sylus drink his fill though, watching as the wounds on his body started to sluggishly heal, not nearly as quickly as they should.
She finally tugged on her arm to warn him he’d had enough, and he pulled away, slumping back and breathing heavily.
“Thank you,” he said sincerely.
Ariadne nodded silently and pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket, wrapping it around her arm.
Sylus’s fingers shakily came up to tie it for her and she let him, feeling an odd flip in her stomach as he did.
“What did they do to you?” she finally asked him.
He growled, fury flashing in his crimson eyes. “They came with weapons. Coated in some new poison. It burned worse than holy water and leeched my strength away.”
He glanced down at the wounds still covering his body, the healing painfully slow. “They had their enjoyment goading me when I’m caged like a beast. But they wouldn’t stand a chance if I were free. I would kill them all and drain their pitiful blood from their useless sacks of flesh.”
A growl distorted his last words as his fists clenched. Ariadne couldn’t say she blamed him. She had felt a similar anger seeing the sadistic enjoyment in the research team’s eyes as they left, joking about the cruelty they had just played a part in.
“I’m sorry. I tried to stop them,” she said quietly.
Sylus looked up at her, brows furrowed. “Why do you work for them?”
She opened her mouth, but didn’t have an answer. She realized she had been questioning the same thing recently.
“Do you labor under some twisted delusion of justice?” he sneered.
“Maybe once,” she admitted. “But…I don’t know anymore. I don’t think they operate under the same justice as I do.”
“Then leave them,” he said simply.
“It’s not that easy.”
He looked at her and suddenly reached out and hauled her against him, his breath hot against her throat. She froze, heart pounding in sudden terror.
“It is,” he insisted. “Release me and we can run away together.” The whisper sent a shiver through her, a longing she refused to acknowledge. His lips brushed her throbbing pulse, hot, the scrape of his fangs against her sensitive skin making her shudder as he continued. “You can become like me. We can live for eternity, just the two of us.”
She finally found her senses again and shoved him away, pulling out of his grip.
Sylus grunted as he was shoved back against the bars of the cage and Ariadne scrambled to her feet, away from him.
“What’s wrong?” he sneered. “Do I disgust you now?”
She refused to reply, heart pounding in her throat as she quickly left the cage, shutting and locking the door behind her.
She glanced back at Sylus and saw an unreadable expression on his face. It was almost fragile, like sugar glass, and something ached inside of her to tell him how she really felt. To agree to his longing. But she couldn’t. Not now.
“Sylus…”
He snarled, yanking his chains briefly as he shifted. “Leave!”
She pressed her lips into a thin line that trembled slightly, and with one last moment of hesitation, she turned on her heel and left, feeling like part of her soul stayed back at that castle.
~~~~~~~
The captain seemed to give her more out of town missions after that and she took them, somewhat glad, somewhat pained. Part of her wanted to forget Sylus completely, but another part of her couldn’t.
She came back from yet another mission late at night, the moon full and beaming down overhead. She was ready to give her report to the captain and head to bed, but heard a conversation before she reached the office door.
“They’re on their way now—it should be done by morning.”
“Good. It’s far past time for that vampire to meet his end.”
“Agreed. We were able to achieve many things thanks to his captivity, but we no longer have need of it. It’s time to let it finally meet its maker—whatever form that might come in.”
A man passed by Ariadne as he stepped out of the office and she met the captain’s eyes through the open door. She knew from his expression that he realized she’d heard everything.
“What vampire, captain?” she asked darkly.
“Don’t do anything foolish, Ariadne.”
“Sylus?” she demanded.
He sighed and shook his head, holding his hands out as if washing them of the entire thing. “What’s done is done. There’s no point in throwing your career away for a beast that should have been eliminated decades ago.”
Ariadne saw red. She didn’t even bother to say anything, simply turned on her heel and strode out.
“Ariadne! Do not do this!”
She continued to ignore the captain as she went to retrieve her horse and galloped toward the castle, heart pounding with the hoofbeats, the moon guiding her way as she prayed to anyone listening that she would not be too late.
The stench of death hung over the castle as she approached and she dismounted, heart in her throat as she rushed inside.
She followed the trail of dead bodies down to the cellar. Each one had been torn apart, no blood consumed, simply annihilated in anger and rage.
When she finally reached the cellar, most of the candles had been tipped over and blown out. Five more bodies lay around the cage. The door hung open, crooked on its hinges. The chains that had once held Sylus captive were snapped, the muzzle torn and discarded.
But the vampire wasn’t there.
Ariadne rushed back up the stairs, following the trail of bodies outside and finally spotted the trail of blood that continued in the moonlight, slick on the ground, leading on a path away from the castle and toward the woods.
She hurriedly followed it, covering it as she went. The further she got into the woods, the weaker it grew, only a few drops here and there now, some more smeared across three trunks. But up ahead, lay an old, small chapel, nearly as dilapidated as the castle, a forgotten sanctuary.
Ariadne hurried toward it and pushed open the door.
A rustling inside caught her attention, accompanied by a low growl.
“Sylus?” she called, cautious.
The growl ceased and a soft exhale came instead. “Ariadne?”
Hearing him call her by her name sent a thrill of longing through her as she rounded the broken pews and found him lying on the ground in front of the crooked alter.
Blood stained his body, seeping from a deep wound in his chest that his hand pressed weakly against. She staggered the last few steps and took him into her arms, letting him rest his head on her shoulder as she pressed her hand over his, willing his blood to stop flowing.
Sylus gave a shuddering groan, eyes fluttering shut.
“Will you recover?” she asked.
“It will take…a lot of blood,” he admitted, looking up at her sadly from under his eyelashes. “More than you can give.”
She swallowed hard, smoothing his hair away from his eyes, realizing just how beautiful they were, especially in the moonlight. “What if I don’t mind giving it?”
His brows pinched. “No…I—” He coughed, curling into himself as blood flecked his lips. He breath rattled in his throat as she held him tighter, already reaching up to loosen her collar, baring her neck.
Sylus’s eyes dilated at the sight of her pale skin.
“You shouldn’t offer so freely. In this condition I may devour you entirely.”
“You won’t,” she replied firmly. “I’ll stop you.”
He looked torn, but he was fading fast, she could tell. “Sylus, please. Don’t let it end like this. I don’t want it to end like this.”
“Miss Hunter…”
“No,” she said firmly. “I’m no longer a hunter. I am only…Ariadne. I am…yours.”
His eyes widened slightly as he stared at her. “Your audacity is boundless,” he said. “Do you know what you are asking?”
“I do,” she said firmly.
“Make a deal with me. If you want to live, that is.”
She leaned in and pressed her mouth to his. Sylus inhaled, his breath cool on her tongue, fangs pricking against her lip.
Then he slid a hand behind her head and with his fingers tangled in her hair, he tilted her head back to expose her neck.
Her breath caught in her throat as his fangs found her pulse, sinking into the tender flesh and drawing forth her life’s blood.
It was different this time. More than just a feeding. She could feel the heady pull of desire, overcoming the dizziness of blood loss. It was intoxicating, sensual. Her body felt cold and hot at the same time, an eclectic spark shooting down her spine to bury itself low in her belly.
When Sylus had drunk his fill, he lay her down gently, kissing the slowly bleeding marks on her neck. She stared up at the night sky from a hole in the ceiling, the moon and stars swirling overhead in a kaleidoscope of dazzling lights.
Sylus took her chin in his hand and forced her to meet his eyes.
“Will you truly not regret it?” he asked quietly, earnest.
Ariadne wet her lips and found her voice as she gazed into him crimson eyes. “If following our hearts is a sin, then you and I must be the last of our kind in the world.”
He gave her a genuine smile. “In that case…” He raised his wrist to his mouth and sank his fangs into his own flesh, drawing some of his blood into his mouth. “Stay by my side, until the end of time.”
He kissed her and his blood tasted sweet on her tongue, like pomegranate wine. She gasped at the sudden fire burning in her veins, arching her back in helpless agony.
“It’s all right, breathe though it,” Sylus said, holding her tightly in his arms as she convulsed. “You can handle it.”
After what seemed like an eternity of burning, she finally fell limp against him.
They rested in the safety of the chapel, healing their wounds until the day passed and night fell once more.
Ariadne finally awoke, feeling like a new being. She was, she realized, remembering the taste of Sylus’s blood as it lingered on her tongue.
He stirred beside her and hummed, leaning in to kiss her eyelids softly.
“Your eyes look beautiful in scarlet,” he told her.
No one ever saw the hunter Ariadne or the fiend from the castle again. The hunters never bothered to pursue them and they simply walked off into that moonlit forest hand in hand, heading somewhere far away where they could make a life together for all eternity.
