As they approached the mansion-like estate, Riddick could feel a terrible sense foreboding pressing down on him, telling him to run away.
"Ignore it, that's what happens when too many vampyres collect in one spot." Victoria said reading his mind. They approached the wrought iron gates and she looked up at the camera on the stone column on one side of the gate. "DANTE!" she roared making the metal of the gate shake. "You have something of mine! I've come for it!" the gates creaked open and they walked in, the gates swinging closed behind them and latching back together with an ominous clang.
"Could they get more horror movie cliched?" Riddick murmured and she snorted. They walked up to the mansion and the front door swung open as they approached. "That was too easy."
"Yes, it was." Victoria said and he looked over at her. Her brow furrowed as she looked around the suspiciously empty hall. "Far too easy."
"Victoria Greco. The first of the vampyres." A man was suddenly standing at the foot of the sweeping staircase leading up to the upper floors.
"Dante Scariot." She said nodding her head at him.
"Oh come now mother. Do we really need to be formal?" he asked and Riddick looked at Victoria again.
"You're his mother? You failed to mention that." He said and she looked down, her hair falling and shielding her features.
"Yes human. She is my Dark Mother. She made me what I am today, a vampyre. Oh by the way mother. Did you happen to speak with your favorite son recently?" she looked up at this, looking at Dante with a furrowed brow. "Its funny how he said your name, before he died."
"You killed Elias." She whispered.
"Yes, I did." Dante said smiling. "Drove the stake through his heart myself, chopped his head off and them left him outside for the dawn."
"Why?" she asked and his face contorted in rage.
"Because you loved him more than your other children! More than me! It was he you chose to be your eternal companion! Not I!"
"You were jealous? That's why you killed him. I explained to you why it had to be he."
"All that nonsense about him being more patient, more understanding, was just that, nonsense! I should have been your eternal companion! He was unworthy of your love!"
Riddick, Her voice rubbed against his mind. There's a vampyre on your right side in the shadows. He's young, only about a hundred. Get a stake ready, and remember, aim for the heart. He twitched a muscle in his forearm and stake that had been strapped loosely to his arm dropped into his hand, hidden by the long sleeves of the leather coat he had put on shortly before leaving.
"And now you have this human! This deer who is unworthy of your gaze. Humans are food and you've taken one for a mate! And the girl! You're in love with the girl! A human girl!" Dante ranted.
"I just want her back Dante. Give her back to me and I'll leave." Victoria said slowly as if taking to a child.
"You don't understand! I don't want you to leave! That's why I took the girl! I knew you'd come for her and then you'd be mine forever."
"Just give her to me Dante and I'll stay."
"I don't believe you."
"Give her back to me and I'll give her over to Riddick. Then I'll send them away and I'll stay here with you for as long as you want me." She sounded honest, too honest.
Victoria, I'm not leaving here without you. Riddick thought.
I have no intention of staying here Riddick. Dante has gone mad. You have that stake ready?
Yes, just give me the signal.
Get ready for it.
"You promise?" Dante asked.
"I promise. Now bring her out." Victoria asked but he hesitated. "Please my son, bring her out." Dante beamed when she called him her son.
"Bring out the girl!" he yelled and door off to their left side opened. A tall vampyre came out with a limp and deathly pale Jack in his arms. She had been fed on heavily. They could see several fresh bite marks on her neck, wrists and the bend of her arms. Only they weren't neat punctures, the flesh had been torn. The vampyre approached them and laid Jack on the floor, retreating quickly, sensing the power in Victoria's blood. Victoria dropped to her knees and picked wrapped her arms around Jack, picking her shoulders off the floor so she could hold her to her chest.
"Jack, my Jack." she whispered and Jack's hand twitched, she came awake groaning and Victoria pulled away a bit so she could look at her.
"Victoria?" she asked, squinting up at her face. Victoria tucked Jack's hair behind her ear and stroked her cheek.
"Yes my Jack, I'm here."
"They bit me Victoria. So many times. But it wasn't like when you bite me. It hurt, a lot." Jack said weakly.
"Is she gonna be alright?" Riddick asked warily, looking down at her.
"They took too much in too little a time. She's dying." Victoria said, tinted tears running down her face. Jack's shaky hand rose and wiped the tears from her face.
"Don't cry Victoria. Please don't cry. I can feel your sadness." Jack said and Victoria leaned over, putting her head on her chest, listening to her slowing heartbeat.
That vampyre is still on your right. I can smell Jack's blood in him. Kill the bastard.
Don't have to tell me twice. Riddick's suddenly flung out, releasing the stake and he watched as it imbedded itself into the vampyres chest, spearing its heart. The vampyre fell to the ground and slowly began to disintegrate; becoming a pile of ash and bones since the stake had been dipped in holy water. Victoria settled Jack very carefully back onto the marble floor and in the blink of an eye was in front of the vampyre who had carried Jack in, her arm buried in chest. Her mouth opened and her fangs dropped as she ripped out his heart and then feasted on it. The body fell to the floor and she dropped the dry husk of the heart to the floor.
"This is how you wish to gain my favor Dante? By killing someone I love?" she asked as she advanced on him.
"If they're dead then you won't be thinking of them when you share my bed."
"Share your bed? A little incestuous don't you think?"
"You didn't birth me, you made me. So you aren't really my mother. I've wanted you since you made me. My Angel of Death." He reached towards her but she dodged his hand.
"You disgust me Dante." She spat and he became enraged.
"Kill the human! Drain him dry!" he roared and Victoria looked over seeing vampyres forming a circle around Riddick.
"Riddick!" she yelled and tried to go to his aid but Dante splashed something in her eyes that burned like fire, burning her eyes and blinding her, Holy Water. He tossed the small bottle away and punched her in the stomach, driving her to her knees.
"The human made you weak mother." He said and backhanded her, knocking her to the floor.
Riddick stabbed the first vampyre that came at him with a wooden knife under the ribs and it disintegrated onto the floor. There was a blur and a sharp pain; blood started to course down his chest from the deep wound. A vampyre licked its long, sharp claws. Smelling the blood, all of their fangs dropped and they rushed him at the same time.
Victoria closed her eyes, feeling them heal themselves as her body absorbed Dante's blows.
"Victoria!" she heard Riddick yell and smelled blood, his blood. She caught Dante's foot as he was about to kick her again and she opened her fully healed eyes, her fangs dropped. She pushed his foot away and stood, striking him across the face and sending him flying across the room. She looked over at Riddick and found him being feasted on.
"Stop." She said, putting all of her power in it and the vampyres froze, withdrawing from him and letting him fall to the floor next to Jack. "Dawn is here, walk out into it. Now." She compelled and they turned and walked to the door, opening them and walking out into the dawn, their screams were blocked as the doors swung close. She went to Riddick and pulled him into her lap. "Riddick?" she asked lightly and he opened his eyes, looking at her.
"Victoria, I'm so cold."
"I'll make you warm again."
"Save Jack. Don't worry about me, just save her." he said and she nodded, setting him very gently back on the floor. She grabbed Jack and stroked her face until she woke. She was fading fast and wouldn't last the next couple minutes. Victoria bit open her wrist and put it to Jack's mouth.
"Drink my love." She said and Jack clutched her wrist as she drank her blood. The bite marks on her body healed, her skin becoming smooth and whole. Victoria pulled her wrist away, healing it and laid Jack back on the floor. "Now sleep." She said and bushed down her eyelids. Jack went to a dead sleep as Victoria's blood converted her.
"NO!" she heard and saw Dante running towards them. Victoria met in him a blur and twisted his head to the side.
"You will aid me my son. Aid me better than you could possibly imagine." She whispered against his neck and slid her fangs into her jugular, feeding on him and draining him dry. The husk fell to the floor and dissolved into ash. Victoria went back over to Riddick and found him hanging on by a thread. She sat on the floor and pulled him once more into her lap. "Riddick," she whispered. "Riddick open your eyes. Open those beautiful mercury eyes." his long lashes fluttered open and he looked up at her. His Adams apple bobbed as he swallowed and he cleared his dry throat.
"Is Jack going to be okay?" he asked hoarsely.
"Yes, she's going to be just fine." Victoria said smiling down at him.
"Okay. Now I get to rest. No more mercs, no more running, I finally get to rest." He said, his eyes closed and she heard his heart skip a beat.
"Riddick, look at me." His eyes didn't open. "Richard, please look at me." He opened his eyes hearing his first name and he looked at her. "I can't let you go."
"Please let me go." He pleaded.
"I can't. I'm sorry. I love you."
"I love you too." He said and she began to cry. "Don't cry Victoria. You'll have Jack now."
"I love Jack, but I am in love with you." she said and his brow furrowed. "I can see me spending eternity with you, and I mean eternity." She said and raised her hand to her neck, slicing open her skin with her nail. With her hand cradling the back of his head, she pressed his face into her neck and his lips to the bleeding cut. His lips were motionless against her neck and she started to cry again, then she felt the pull of her blood through the cut, his lips forming suction on the gash.
Riddick fed from the cut on her neck, her blood was like the purest wine. He could feel it reshaping him inside, fixing everything. The bites healed but he kept on feeding. Her hand stroked the back of his head and he sat up, releasing her neck shortly before pulling her into his lap and feeding again, his arms around her waist.
Eternity… her voice whispered in his head and he pulled back, sensing her weakness. He licked the cut and watched as it healed. Riddick pulled her down with him as he lay on the floor of the hall, suddenly tired and watched her as she fell into dead sleep. His eyes closed and listened as his heart gave one last beat, then was silent. He fell into dead sleep; his arms still around the woman he loved, his Dark Mother.
"Riddick my love, wake up." He heard and groaned, hearing his heart starting to beat again.
"Five more minutes." He groaned and heard the most beautiful laughter.
"Come on Riddick! Get up!" it was Jack's voice now. His eyes opened and they settled on Victoria and Jack. Jack looked like living marble and when she smiled at him, he could see that her canines and the teeth in front of them were wickedly pointed. She was a vampyre now. Victoria stroked his face and he caught her hand, kissing her cool palm.
"Victoria! I'm starving!" Jack said and they laughed. "You said that we would get something to eat when Riddick woke up, well he's awake now!"
"Go check the downstairs cellars, there's a door under the right side of the stairway leading down. There's should be wine bottles filled with blood down there."
"How do you know?" Jack asked.
"Because I designed this house. Now go." She said and Jack vanished. "She's been doing that for the past hour, she's actually getting pretty good." Victoria said and helped Riddick sit up. She removed his leather coat and ran her hands over his arms and chest, her hand slipping into the tear in his tank top to caress his chest. His skin seemed hypersensitive her to touch and his eyes closed, enjoying the feeling of her hand on his skin. There was the sound of heavy glass being set down next to him and he opened his eyes, seeing Jack sipping from a wine bottle. He grabbed the one she had set down next to him and pulled the cork out with his teeth, spitting it out and taking a long drink out of the bottle, draining half of it. His heart beat quickened and he sighed, feeling his muscles strengthen. His tongue roamed over his teeth and he gently felt his fangs, there was a quick, sharp pain and he tasted his own blood. He looked over at Jack and perked an eyebrow.
"What?" she asked, looking over the top of the bottle.
"You look older."
"That's because I am older. Victoria explained this one to me. Her blood aged me to physical maturity so I wouldn't be sixteen for the rest of my eternity. You already passed physical maturity so you stayed the same. But technically, and she explained this one to me too, we're the same age."
"Ya wanna run that by me again?" Riddick asked and she smiled, flashing fang.
"We died as humans and were reborn as vampyres. Our slates are wiped clean, figuratively speaking of course. We are now at Age Zero." She explained and took another long swallow from the bottle, color flooding her cheeks. Riddick nodded and offered the rest of the bottle to Victoria but she waved it off.
"You need it more than I do." She said and he raised it to his lips, draining the rest of it.
"Just think Riddick, if mercs thought you had a blood fetish before. They're in for a huge surprise now." Jack said and Riddick laughed as he set down the empty bottle.
"Ah mercs, what in the hell am I going to do about them?" he asked and Victoria shrugged.
"Food?" Jack suggested and he grimaced.
"No thank you. If I recall correctly, and I always do, feeding for a vampyre is a sexual thing. Feeding from mercs? Well if it was a really attractive female merc maybe. But I don't think so." Riddick said.
"Can I?"
"Okay, but you have to get rid of the bodies, and figure out a way to disguise their true cause of death." Riddick said then paused, reality finally sinking in. "I'm a vampyre." He said and Jack and Victoria laughed, he looked at the ancient in front of him. "Jack's a vampyre. You made us into vampyres." He said and her smile fell, her eyes growing sad.
"I was afraid you would hate me." She said and he cocked his head to the side.
"Why would I hate you?"
"As you were dying, you told me to let you rest, to die. You pleaded with me to let you die and I didn't. I was selfish and made you a vampyre so we could stay together." She said looked down and he tilted her chin up with a finger.
"Thank you." he said and kissed her on the lips shortly.
I know it seems as if I rushed things, but the sequel has been buzzing through my head for weeks and if I don't get it out soon, I'll go crazy. There'll probably be one more chapter after this, and then the story is done and then I'll start piecing together the random pictures and words in my head, put them in order and write the sequel.