A Demon of Midwinter Part 10 (The End)
A Bloodborne Pathogens origins story with with a new demon and an old love story
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Rhys fell to his knees beside Dar, the icy water mingled with blue blood hardly registering as he pressed his fingers to Dar’s bloody neck even as Dar tried to push him away. “Aren’t you supposed to heal or something?”
“Go!” Dar snarled, but the weak hands on Rhys' chest barely nudged him. “I don’t want to…”
“You don’t want to heal?” Rhys unwrapped his scarf from his neck and held it to the wound.
Dar’s head lolled. “I can’t…”
“You can’t heal?” Rhys' forehead furrowed, then his eyes widened in realization. “You can’t heal unless you feed.”
Dar shook his head, but Rhys knew he was right. Dar fell back onto the ground, and his finger pointed towards the sky. “The mighty hunter. He died in the end.” His head flopped to look at Rhys, and he placed his bloody hand on Rhys’ cheek. “Starvation.”
“No, it was the sting of a scorpion.” Then Rhys realized he wasn’t talking about Orion. Dar was starving.
He plopped to the ground and pulled the unresisting vampire onto his lap. Dar’s head fell back, and his eyes closed. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Rhys slapped Dar’s chest, which elicited a mere flutter of the eyelids. “Why didn’t you ask me?” He jostled Dar, trying to get the vampire to wake up. “I don’t know how this works.”
He lifted his other hand to wipe away the hot tears that tracked down his cheek, and realized it still held the dagger. “I have to try.”
He glared at the weapon, then shifted it to his non-dominant one — in case this all went bad — so he could roll up the sleeve on that arm. Shifting the dagger again, he glanced between it and his pale skin. He pressed his lips together and clamped his jaw tight. His eyes narrowed to slits, and he drew the sharp metal across his wrist. “Ah.” He bit back the cry of pain but dropped the dagger. After cajoling the near-catatonic vampire to open his mouth, he brought the wound to Dar’s lips.
Nothing happened. No licking. No suction. No fangs. He hit Dar’s chest again. “Feed, god damn you.”
Rhys hung his head, accepting the vampire might be dead, then he gasped as Dar latched on. He exhaled sharply at the sensation that raced down to the base of his spine. The world tilted sideways, and his head spun. Dar’s snarl a few moments later barely registered, sounding like it was coming through water. Slowly, he realized the sucking on his wrist had stopped, replaced by the lick of a tongue. He tipped his chin down to see Dar’s eyes peering up at him.
“I could have killed you.”
“But you didn’t —”
Dar pressed his finger to Rhys’ lips, stopping his protest. “I haven’t fed since I met you, playing Nocturne Op 48 No. 1.” He glanced away, along the path before returning to Rhys. He shifted up to kneel beside him. “I didn’t want you to be just another meal.”
Rhys looked at his wrist, frowning to see it already healing, then met the vampire’s gaze. “That’s good. I don’t want to be just another meal.”
Dar’s hand tipped his chin up, and Rhys leaned in to kiss him. It was gentle, tame, given that they were both battered, but Rhys felt a fire creeping up his spine as Dar’s hand moved from his chin to tangle in his hair. Rhys placed his hands on Dar’s thighs to steady himself.
“You do realize that’s illegal, don’t you?”
Rhys’ head spun at the sound of Inspector Little’s voice. The man stared at them, seemingly ignoring the corpse lying beside them. Then his gaze dropped to the body, which had started to ooze, and he sighed. Returning his gaze to Rhys and Dar, he spoke. “Next time you go to fight a demon, could you let me know? If one of the boys had stumbled on this, what do you think would have happened?”
Rhys' mouth dropped open. “I—”
The policeman waved a hand, then turned, shaking his head as he walked away.
Rhys turned to Dar, and was glad he seemed just as flabbergasted.
“So what now?” the vampire asked, running his fingers through Rhys’ hair.
“Back to your place? I’m hungry. And bloody.” A clock chimed in the distance. His lips lifted into a grin to see Dar smile at him. “And I do believe it’s Christmas.”
If you’ve enjoy this story of Rhys and Dar, they reappear in Bloodborne Pathogens. In fact, I wrote Bloodborne Pathogens first, but fell in love with these two side characters and wanted to tell the tale of how they met. You can pick up a copy from your favourite online retailer or from the Armchair Alien store.
