Posted: June 2004
Title: The Dark Heart
Author: Estella Greenleaf

*****

The skeletal figure in the dark shuddered. A wretched groan reverberated in the empty halls as hunger tormented his emaciated frame. The creature of the night closed his weary sapphire eyes, willing his mind to return once more to happier times. He could feel it still, the soft velvet brush of his lover's lips, the scorching heat of his lover's touch. He had been a dashing powerful vampire then, one destined to rule his kind, not this husk of a broken creature that he was now.

Hundreds of years had passed, but the memories were as clear as the blood moon on a cloudless night. How vulnerable Karl had looked then, when they first met, the mighty Hunter mortally wounded from a previous battle. One look at the half-vampire, his heart was no longer his own. With infinite care, he nursed the Hunter back to life. Those were such happy times; having the one he loved beside him to warm his nights. Bliss such as he had never even dared dreamed of, love that only Karl could give, all his to cherish.

Always, he was careful to conceal his nature from his dearest lover. Always, he found a plausible excuse to retreat before the unforgiving dawn. But time was against him. Every night Karl grew stronger; every night the Vampire Hunter's senses came closer to unmasking his secret.

His heart bled still, remembering once more the fateful night that his fantasy ended. He had forsaken his pride then, falling onto his knees to beg his beloved to stay. Why should what he was matter, he had asked, why could Karl not love him anymore.

‘Why can't you stop drinking blood' was his beloved's answer. He had no reply then. His grip on Karl's leg loosened; with tears filled eyes, he watched his lover walked out of his life.

It was only much later that he realized the words he should have said that night. For love, he would give everything; he would denounce his powers, his nature, his life's sustenance. He vowed then to never take another human life. If only Karl would return to see him now, the sacrifices he had made for a chance to hold his sweet lover one more time.

He knew he could not last much longer. The centuries of abstinence had sapped all but a tiny sliver of his life. But until the night he breathed his last, he would wait and hope. For with every fiber of his damned soul, David believed, some things were worth dying for.

*****

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