Vampire Darcy's Desire

The colonel tilted his head as he pondered her question.“I have been in situations with less preparation and fewer options for victory. Maybe I underestimate our opponents, but we have the means to hold sway.”

“Then Fitzwilliam and I will put our trust in you, Sir.”

“They dare to defy me!”Wickham shouted in the empty hall. His emulators had returned to their graves, and he remained alone to face his own demons. Furious with how Darcy’s family had tricked him, Wickham steamed before exploding. A tornado unleashed itself within the hall, as Wickham stood dead center in the room and let the wind carry the tapestries and the furniture in a crazy swirl of color and power and deafening noise. His hair whipped about his face, but Wickham was lost in the impregnability of the display, allowing the blast to steadily increase in strength, rebuilding his confidence with the sheer brute force of it. “Aaaah! ” he yelled at the top of his lungs before letting his arms lower and the whirlwind subside. “They will rue the day they dared to question my order!”

Rushing up the stairs, he hit the door to his private room with a blast of air, tearing it from its hinges.Then he stilled himself, reverently entering his shrine. Here he might find serenity. Everything he loved—except Ellender D’Arcy—could be found in this room. The sun, the moon, and the stars—three turning gold circles—hung overhead, directly above the moss-covered coffin. A misty cauldron, whispering of time and night and blood, sat in the corner, while an ivy-covered crown of antlers stood in the center of the altar. Candles lighted in veneration highlighted a torque of gold, a symbol of his sacred pledge, while five serpents, embodying the five rivers, slithered among his treasures. “Welcome home,” he whispered to the room. The open coffin spoke of longing, and Wickham moved to it. Stepping within, he laid back against the satin-covered interior. Within moments, he slept deeply—chest Tonight, Darcy.”

“Will this work, Colonel?” Gordy unloaded bundles of white thorn and ash staves. It was high noon, and the Darcys prepared for the evening.

“A dhampir knows how to drive a vampire away, and this is one of the steps.”The colonel placed a stave horizontally across each of the marked and unmarked graves.

Gordy followed Damon’s pattern.“What will them staves do?” he asked, bending over to place the wood carefully on the mounded dirt.

“The soul cannot leave the grave if the stave lies across it.”

“All them creatures be stuck in the ground?”

Damon responded,“Until we decide to let them out.”

“That be somethin’ to see, Colonel.” He picked up another bundle and moved to the other side of the cemetery.

Damon watched as Elizabeth struggled with the large bags of salt and millet. “Gordy, leave those if you would, and go and help the lady. She will explain what she needs for you to do.”

Damon’s newest recruit did what he was told.“Let me be helpin’ ye, Ma’am.” Gordy took the heavy bag from Elizabeth’s arms.

“Oh, bless you, Gordy.” She wiped perspiration from her forehead with her handkerchief.

“Ye jist be tellin’ Gordy what to do, and I be doin’ it. Colonel there tell me to he’p ye.”

Elizabeth looked up to see Damon continuing to place the staves.“I will thank him later. Now, Gordy, if you will follow me, we want to place a stream of salt all around the inside of the graveyard.”

“Seem like a mighty big waste of salt, Ma’am, but I be doin’ what ye ask.” Using a knife, he cut a small hole in the bottom of the bag and walked slowly around the perimeter of the site.

“Make at least two rounds, Gordy. The spirits cannot cross the salt

“Yes, Ma’am.” He continued his slow trek, meticulously filling in the uneven flow.

Darcy came up behind her. “Where shall we place the millet, Elizabeth?”

“Have Peter use a ladle to scoop millet onto both the head and the foot of each grave and in front of the gate of each crypt.”

Darcy smiled at her, squeezing her hand. “Yes, my love.”

They brought in wooden stakes and several bags of coins to hide in a church alcove until they needed them. “Everything is set!” the colonel called out to the group.“Gordy and Peter, you two stay here.We will send food and drink.You are to make sure that no one else enters the cemetery. The three of us will return long before it is time for the confrontation.”

“Yes, Colonel.”

“Gordy,” Darcy asked, “do the villagers understand that they must rebury those we release tonight?”

“I be tellin” em all.We be not understandin’ how ye be doin’ all this, but they come on the morrow. I’se sees to it.”

Darcy, Damon, and Elizabeth returned to the inn. Not wishing to talk about what the night might bring, they took their meal in Darcy’s room, away from curious travelers.They ate in near silence, each one consumed with his or her own thoughts.

Finally, the colonel could take no more.“I believe I shall take to my bed for a few hours. It is likely to be the last rest I will have for some time. If you two will excuse me.” He left with a half bow.

Yet still they remained silent. Finally, Darcy spoke his thoughts. “I wish I had not agreed to this. How can a man place his wife in such danger and still call himself a man?”

“I am not a weak woman, my Husband.You, in fact, taught me to use a sword and to ride,” she protested.

Darcy looked contrite. “I should not have encouraged your behavior.”

“Mr. Darcy, you fell in love with me because I was different, not ton. Did we not settle this earlier?”

Darcy moved to kneel in front of her.“God help me, Elizabeth, I truly do love you, and although I know you to be