Coalesce In Darkness ♡ Frerard

TWENTY THREE

Frank could smell the fading trail of the two vampires overlapping the smell of all else festering in the catacombs feeling too familiar for comfort. Lindsey must have viewed the underground differently, the familiarity bringing her a sense of homeliness where she'd built her tiny empire underneath a mansion in Jersey. Frank started moving forward, tracking the scent, letting it guide him through the twisting tunnels buried under the castle. The chill here was far more bitter than the cold of the nighttime above, coldness trapped between unfeeling stone walls and possibly hundreds of years of abandonment. No one in their right mind would ever want to venture into the darkness he'd climbed through if they were a mere visitor, a tunnel of black leading to no visible bottom unless the ladder was climbed. Embarking alone shook his resolve, but he'd never wanted to bite the bullet more than ever, forcing his legs to pump themselves quicker when at last, he could hear the treading footsteps coming from two vampires in the distance.

Frank froze up before turning around the corner beside him, silently hovering to pick up the words being spoken by Lindsey and Jamia in the hallway they stormed through.

"They'll find us!" Jamia cried, her voice echoing across the stone walls.

"They won't." Lindsey snapped, but Frank could hear the bridge of insanity forming her syllables, quivering anxiousness coloring in the gaps between the truth she attempted to grasp. "Not under here, the fools could never make it through the tunnels."

"They almost had us in in the maze, Lindsey, what makes you believe they can't track us down here?"

"I saved your life! Some faith would suffice for your lack of gratitude!" Lindsey's voice was nothing short of cruel, snapping towards a vampire concerned for their well being.

A pause dragged on as they embarked, leaving Frank to hold his breath. He silently peered around the corner until he caught sight of their forms in the distance. Jamia's wrist was in Lindsey's iron grip and she appeared feeble in the presence of Lindsey standing tall before her, a lengthening shadow hovering in front of her.

"I love you."

"Good. If you truly do, then keep moving." 

The response was from a woman built from the black rivers of venom, holding no true love in her heart no matter how tenderly it was doused upon her by a woman who Frank believed was still pure deep inside her heart. Manipulation blinded her human eyes as she took the form of a creature never suiting her gentle personality and her brain was swiped clean of all sense of good unless it somehow involved placing Lindsey on a pedestal as a gracious queen rescuing poor souls from the darkness. All Lindsey had done was slide her fangs into Jamia to prevent her decay, to use her against the vampires she spited if an army wasn't her choice of style. It triggered a ticking bomb built into Frank's chest, installed the moment Jamia was yanked from his grip by evil forces, and the explosion announced itself in a form of pure rage bringing shades of crimson into his vision, he could taste it like rustic, rotting blood on his tongue, and so he'd spit it upon Lindsey's corpse when she was dead at his feet.

Frank was flying before he could fully drink in that he was lunging for the woman set in his vision, rapidly entering his line of sight more and more as his fangs split out from his aching gums and his hand was poised around the stake held tight in his hand. Sensing his approach, Lindsey whirled around, her eyes glowing with an impossibly bright shade of crimson suddenly overtaking the normal darkness of her irises, and she lashed out with a cry ripping free from her throat. Frank's fresh transformation permitted him quicker senses, adrenaline, and his hand immediately captured Lindsey's wrist before she was able to strike him. In a nearly crushing grip, he pulled the vampire's arm with enough force to slam her against the ground. Jamia cried out near him at the expense of her shock.