Eternal Night

(I) Chapter 25: Tapped Out

It took a few minutes for Frankie to come to and when she did, she found not one, but two concerned faces hovering over her, looking on expectantly. The more her state of consciousness returned, the more aware she became of the way her whole body seemed to ache. Stupid Francesca, she cursed to herself. Doing that on an empty stomach, you blithering idiot. Jesus H. Christ, my head...

"Dad, what happened?" she heard Anna-Sophie ask. "Is she ok?"

"I don't know," answered Ezekiel. "I did what she told me to, and she barely flinched; just sort of... passed out. Is she all right, sweetie? Can you hear her thoughts at all?"

"Yes," the girl said, starting to giggle. "She is complaining of a headache... and she's hungry."

Frankie blinked her eyes a couple of times in a feeble attempt to focus. She discovered Anna-Sophie awake and kneeling on the ground beside her father who was cradling Frankie's upper half in his arms.

"Are you all right?" he asked, the empty syringe still in his hand.

"I think so," Frankie muttered, accepting his assistance when he offered to help her to her feet.

She could feel her body healing itself of the usual aches and pains, but one discomfort in particular lingered as she smoothed out her blouse and fixed her lightly frizzing hair: she was still very hungry. Terribly so.

"You look dreadfully pale, Francesca. Are you sure you should be standing?"

"Yes, yes. I'll be fine," she insisted. "It'll pass, and more quickly if I get around and moving. Come on – let's get the two of you to Isabella. She's probably beside herself right about now."

"Are you going to stay with mom and me?" Anna-Sophie inquired excitedly, wrapping her arms around her father's waist. He placed an affectionate kiss on the top of her head before taking her hand and leading the way into the gaping hole in the floor.

"Yes, my sweet. For a little while, at least," he replied, motioning for Frankie to follow them.

"How are you feeling?" the woman eventually asked him as they made their way through the tunnel.

"A lot lighter, actually," was his response. "It feels like you removed a great amount of weight from my shoulders that I had no idea I was even carrying... It's a little strange, but certainly not unpleasant."

"You appear to have a newfound lightness in your step," she pointed out.

"I think part of that is owed to the woman a hundred yards or so up ahead," he said with a wink and brilliant smile, the likes of which Frankie had never seen before. The man looked besotted.

It didn't take them long to emerge from the gloomy passageway and into a cavernous opening – one that Frankie recognized as the lycan throne room. Isabella was seated at the far side of the hall, her knees drawn up as she hugged them to her chest, staring off into the distance. She appeared to have noticed their entrance out of the corner of her eye because she suddenly turned her head and stood.

"Anna-Sophie? Baby, is that you?" she called to the shadows.

Ezekiel immediately released the hand of his squirming daughter and watched as she bolted into her mother's open arms, the two females embracing almost violently, Isabella visibly overcome with relief. When the queen took note of Frankie in the distance, she whispered the words "thank you" over and over again like a prayer.

After sending a grateful expression in the woman's direction, Isabella's eyes swept toward the familiar, towering silhouette just a couple of feet behind Frankie and her eyes widened in astonishment. The female vampire remained quiet and still as she observed the reunion of Ezekiel and Isabella. The two moved toward one another and were in each other's arms within mere seconds. Silent tears of joy tumbled down the queen's cheeks as she touched her husband's face with almost timid fingers, as if a part of her couldn't believe he was standing before her.