In Darkness We Must Abide: The Complete First Season: Episodes 1-5 (3 page)

Grasping the sketch pad firmly, Alisha viciously yanked the curtain back and slammed the drawing against the glass panes. She only saw the emaciated form, with the shrunken features, and gaping mouth, for an instant, then an unholy scream rent the night air and it threw itself over the balcony railing to the ground below.

“It’s gone!” Relief and confidence swelled within her. She wrenched the doors open and shakily stepped onto the balcony holding the pad firmly. To her horror she saw it climbing up the wall toward her.

“
Where is it?” Vanora’s voice was a terrified wail.

“
The bastard doesn’t learn!” Alisha exclaimed and moved toward it, the drawn cross between her and the creature.

It howled as if in pain, then averting its face, muttered something in a foreign tongue.

Alisha retreated into her room and locked the doors quickly.

“
Bring me the tape,” Alisha said in a hushed, hurried voice.

Vanora didn’t move.

“Bring it!”

The youngster ran to the desk and grabbed the roll of tape. Alisha tore the drawn cross from the pad and pressed it against the window. Vanora joined her and pulled pieces of the sticky tape off the roll. Alisha secured the cross to the window with feverish intensity.

“I can see it! Vanora sobbed.

“
Don’t look at it! Don’t look at its eyes,” Alisha ordered.

Another scream rent the night, then the thing appeared to disappear into the darkness. But Alisha knew better. She’d looked into the glowing eyes and had seen the centuries old hunger. It would return again and again, for it was desperate to feed on the blood of the living.

Finally finished, the sisters crawled onto the bed and covered themselves up.

“
It’s still out there!” Vanora whispered.

“
I know, Vanora,” Alisha responded.

“
Can we call the police?”

“
They can’t help us with this.”

“
What is it?”

“
It is one of the old ones. The one from the coffin that was chained. Roman set him free. It can roam the grounds and probably get into the house because we descended from him.” Alisha pressed her cold, trembling fingers to her forehead. “I knew bringing those coffins here was a really bad idea.”

“
But if we are his family, why does he want to hurt us?”

“
Because he is insane with the hunger. Vampires crave blood and after being locked in that coffin for a hundred years or more, he’s insane with the desire to feed.”

Vanora’s little body was shaking so hard, Alisha regretted being so honest with her. “You have your cross, Snow Pea. It will protect us.”

“But what about Roman?” Vanora asked.

Vanora was so white, her skin flushed a bright pink when she was upset. Her purple eyes were swollen and filled with tears and it broke Alisha’s heart. Gently, she stroked her sister’s snowy blond hair.

“I wouldn’t worry about him. He has that giant mother-of-pearl cross in his window and he always wears his cross around his neck. Right now he’s sleeping and is perfectly safe. And so are we,” Alisha said, trying to convince herself as well as Vanora.

Vanora glanced toward the door that opened into the hallway, pressing her lips tightly together. “Maybe we could go knock on his door?”

“I don’t want us to risk leaving the room. We know it’s safe in here.”

“
Call him?”

“
Okay we’ll do that. Though he’s probably just going to be cranky.”  She was almost afraid to call and not have him answer. Then she would have to risk running down the hallway to his room. Alisha picked up the phone and dialed Roman’s extension.

“
What is it?” he sleepily answered.

“
Uh, is everything okay?” Alisha’s fingers played with the telephone cord.

Vanora’s big eyes watched Alisha anxiously.

“What?” Roman sounded more asleep than awake.

“
Are you okay?”

“
Go back to sleep, Alisha,” Roman mumbled and hung up.

“
He’s fine,” Alisha assured Vanora. “And cranky.”

“
I wish morning would come,” Vanora whispered.

“
So do I, Snow Pea. So do I.”

*

“
Get up, you have to go to school,” Roman said, shaking Vanora awake. “What’re you doing in here anyway? You gave me such a fright when I found your bed empty.”

Alisha stood next to the bed, nervously tugging on her robe as she watched Vanora’s eyes focus sluggishly on Roman as he leaned over her.

“Is it morning?” her little sister asked.

“
Of course. What sort of a question is that? Hurry up! I’m already running late as it is,” Roman said, knotting the red tie that hung about his neck.

Vanora gazed at her older sister questioningly, and Alisha nodded, urging her to obey.

Reluctantly, Vanora crawled out of bed. “I don’t feel well.”

“
I know you have a spelling test today. You’re not getting out of it. Now, hurry up!”  Roman ordered.

Vanora groaned, scowled, and then reluctantly left the room.

“I guess yesterday unnerved her more than we thought it did. At least she crawled into your bed, Alisha, and not mine. Her feet are always so cold, and she kicks the hell out of me.”

Trying to muster up her courage and sort out her frightened thoughts, Alisha said, “Roman, I have to speak to you. It’s important.”

“Can this wait? I have a big meeting today first thing and then I’m flying to Austin to meet with that real estate agent about that property that might be opening up. You know I want to expand the company.” Roman retied his tie, obviously frustrated at the bit of fabric’s lack of cooperation.

“
I’d rather it didn’t,” Alisha answered.

Glancing at his watch, Roman grimaced. “It’s going to have to.” He darted back into the hallway as Vanora slipped back into Alisha’s bedroom.

“Do I have to go to school?” Vanora asked in a plaintive voice. She was slathering the heavy-duty sun block she had to wear to protect her skin and still yawning. Due to a lack of melanin, Vanora was prone to severe damage from the sun. 

Alisha nodded. “You’d better go. I’ll pick you up right after school.”

Vanora pouted as Alisha pushed her firmly out of the room. Dragging her feet, the little girl returned to her own bedroom.

Alisha ran down the stairs and entered Roman’s office. “Roman?”

He barely glanced up at her. “Make it fast.”

“
Roman, I want you to seal that coffin back up!” Alisha blurted out.

“
Are you seriously going to bring this up again?” Roman asked as he searched through a drawer.

“
You let something truly evil out when you unchained that coffin!” Alisha declared.

Roman studied her evenly, taking in her rumpled hair, bloodshot eyes, and trembling lips.  “What happened to you?”

“That thing you set free was outside the house last night, Roman! I saw it! Vanora saw it! It wanted to kill us!”

Roman sighed heavily and slid a folder into his briefcase. “I’ve never known you to drink, but Alisha, did you get smashed last night?”

“No!” Alisha slapped the briefcase lid shut and glared at Roman. “Maybe you don’t believe in the supernatural, but I do! But I never believed that something so evil could exist until last night.”

Roman stared at her for a long moment. He actually looked a little unnerved. “What did you see, Alisha?”

“A vampire!”

Roman sighed and locked his case.  Casting a concerned look at Alisha, he said,   “Once the sun is higher in the sky, you will realize what foolishness you’re spouting. This, Alisha, you have to see, is absolutely absurd. Vanora has been watching far too many horror movies and you, well, I can understand how the new mausoleum could spark your imagination.”

“I wish you would listen to me!”

“
I am listening! What am I supposed to do Alisha? Call Van Helsing to come take care of our vampire problem?”

“
No!”

“
Then what?”

“
Roman, please, put the chains back on that coffin. For me. Please!”

Shaking his head, Roman tugged on his suit jacket.

“Roman, listen to me! I’m not imagining this! Vanora saw it, too! She said it crawled into her window and tried to attack her.”

“
Alisha, she had a nightmare!”

“
I saw it, too!”

“
We’ll discuss this later. I’m running late,” Roman said with a soft snort and brushed past her.

“
Don’t treat me like a child!”

“
Don’t act like one!”

“
I know what I saw!”

Vanora stood in the hallway in her school uniform, her satchel in one hand and a peanut butter sandwich in the other. Dark sunglasses covered her sensitive eyes, but Alisha knew the little girl was watching them with concern.

“Are you ready, Vanora?” Roman asked, but didn’t wait for a reply as he strode down the stairs to the entrance hall.

Vanora tilted her head so she could look over the top of her sunglasses. She questioned Alisha with her eyes.

“I’ll do what I can,” Alisha said with a sigh.

Vanora nodded and motioned to her cross. “Don’t forget.”

Alisha touched her neck. “I’ll find mine. I’ll pick you up after school.” She kissed Vanora on both cheeks and smiled. “I’ll see you later, Snow Pea.”

“
Bye,” was the peanut butter smothered reply.

Alisha’s white Camaro wove in and out of the two o’clock Houston traffic at speeds exceeding seventy-five miles per hour, the speed most Texan drivers cruised at despite the posted signs. She sat behind the wheel, her face tense and determined. After a frustrating hour of trying to get the dial-up modem on Roman’s new desktop computer to work, she had given up and spent most of her day traveling to Houston’s various libraries searching for books on vampire lore after several bookshops had turned up empty. They had all been a dead end as well. The library computers all reported the vampire tomes to be in-house, but when Alisha sought them out, the shelves were empty. Finally a librarian had confessed that most vampire books disappeared into the backpacks of teenagers.

Alisha took an exit, effectively cutting off a cowboy in his gleaming truck. He honked at her, and she promptly flipped him off. She was in a desperate and foul mood. She didn’t know what she was going to tell Vanora. Her younger sister was counting on her to save them from the monster that had invaded their lives.

Alisha felt fiercely angry with Roman and his family honor. Sometimes his high ideals caused him trouble he could have otherwise easily avoided, but he was so kindhearted, he didn’t even stop to consider any other way than the honorable one. Alisha was well aware of the fact that Roman had, in essence, postponed starting his own family to care for his half-sisters. Even though she felt guilt over his delayed life, he didn’t seem to ever regret the decision to be their guardian.

Pulling hard on the wheel, Alisha skidded around a corner and nearly avoided slamming into another car.

“Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn!” she cursed under her breath fiercely.

The hot Texan sun was beating down through her windshield, virtually cooking her alive. Just driving about Houston today had given her the beginnings of a lovely tan or a rotten burn. The sunlight made her feel safe, but she knew that the sun would soon begin to dip below the Houston skyline.

She glanced over at the only vampire book she had managed to find in the children’s section of a library. It only repeated the vampire lore of the Hammer Films. But in the end, it was all she had. Spotting a flower shop ahead, Alisha made up her mind as to what her first step would be.

*

Vanora sat quietly on a bench in the hall, listening to the muted sounds of people talking in the classrooms.  The bell had already rung for dismissal of the lower classes, and most of the kids were outside loading onto the bus or waiting for their parents.  Though she regularly applied sunblock to her skin and wore her dark glasses, Vanora didn’t dare stand outside to wait for her sister. After she had suffered a nasty sunburn after a romp around the playground on a hazy day, the school determined she was not allowed outside due to liability issues.

With a sigh, Vanora pushed her sunglasses up on her nose and glanced out the glass inset in the doors to look for Alisha’s car.

Two kids from another class on her grade level sauntered past her on their way out the front doors. The two little boys, dressed in blue blazers and gray trousers, were a study in contrasts: one a fair-skinned white boy with blue eyes and blond hair, the other black with dark brown skin and eyes. Giving her sharp, quick looks, they whispered to one another, laughing while they obviously talked about her.