Fratelli: The Awakening (The Vampire Cartel #1)

13. Kill me

Chapter 13

Kill me

H ouse of Draca - New Orleans, LA

April 14, 2018

( After Midnight )

“Leave us,” said Don Lucio.

“No, this isn’t—” Tristan warned.

“She’s mine, and I… I want this. Let her finish me, however she chooses,” Lucio whispered to Tristan, who stared at the weeping Dolly. “She’s the cure.”

“This is dangerous, and she’s acting weird… look at her, boss,” Tristan said. Lucio lifted his head further to see her run around the room crying and talking to herself, confused and delirious. It was never Dolly during sex, he realized. It had to be Darlene the entire time. His heart broke if what he felt beating in his chest was real. He had pushed her into insanity.

“I’ll get her through it; if she’ll let me again, I’ll try,” Lucio said in a hoarse voice of agony. “If this is my death, then let it be,” he told his consiglieri.

Tristan looked up at Darlene again, who had stopped pacing and was staring at them both. The silk robe swallowed her curves, her hair naturally wild and tangled from the night, tears streamed down her cheeks, and blood covered her neck. She wept silently, waiting for an explanation, mumbling about an attack and monsters, pleading to wake up from the nightmare. However, all the while, she did not leave the room. He noticed the puncture wounds on her neck visibly healing, without Lucio’s aid.

For decades, Tristan had witnessed his Master, and the three brothers hunt the descendants of Julia Brown, believe they had the ‘one’, and then break and ultimately dispatch the woman to a dark fate. Each one is desperate to understand their curse or the redemption for their father. None of the women fought back when under the spell of the Fratelli of the Draca .

“Go!” Lucio commanded.

Tristan obeyed without question. Dolly went after him, begging and pleading for prayer and salvation and then help and rescue. He had to lock her inside with his boss. What choice did he have? She banged on the door for him to call a priest, and then to call the police. She wept and screamed her pleas as he walked back out through the halls and into the night.

“Darlene? Dah—leeene,” Lucio groaned.

Dolly then ran around the room looking for a weapon, or window to escape through. When he said her name she backed up to the door and screamed. Then she ran around the room again, finally going to the door and doing everything at the door to escape. She stopped beating and pleading for salvation. Her weeping softened, then ceased. She stood with her back to Lucio, facing the door.

“Don’t be afraid of me. I won’t hurt you again. Je jure sur ma vie. I swear it.”

After what felt like an eternity of agony, Darlene’s head turned, and she looked at him. There it was—the supernatural difference. As Lucio struggled to drag air into his lungs, he stared at the Goddess who had reappeared before him. Never in his life had he seen or been with someone so sublime.

“Does it hurt, vampire?” Darlene asked.

“It’s you. It’s Darlene, isn’t it? Not Dolly?” she replied.

“Dolly cannot comprehend what you are,” she said. “She likes to pretend with men who are no good for her. I woke her so she could see you. Even so, she did not run out and save herself. Pathetic. She doesn’t believe in what you are.”

Darlene smiled. She loosened the belt of her satin robe, allowing the fabric to float gracefully to her feet. She walked towards him. With great effort, Lucio propped himself up on his elbows to get a better view of her. Even this slight movement required an immense amount of strength. Darlene positioned herself over him, her feet on either side of his knees. As she looked down at him, her expression filled with love and compassion almost convinced him of its sincerity. “Have you ever heard the saying, vampire? Patience reveals deceit? ”

“I didn’t want to deceive you, hurt you,” Lucio said. “I only wanted… I needed…”

“You’re dying. A true death. A human death.” Darlene said, and knelt, then dropped to her knees. “The one meant for your father.” Darlene sat on his semi-erect penis, allowing its growing girth to part the lips of her sex. “I wasn’t sure who you were that night at the filling station, but I always knew you’d come for us.”

“Us? You’re one, not two,” Lucio said and winced from the hunger. Even as his body lay broken between light and darkness—he longed to be punished by her once more.

“Shhh….” Darlene touched his chest, and his agony soothed. So much came with the relief of pain.

“Patience reveals deceit. Not for you, vampire. You were quite impatient with Dolly. Forcing her to join you for dinner. It was you that tipped off her bosses and got her fired? Am I right? It was you outside of her window, dipping into her mind, finding out that she dreamed of her Mama’s etouffee. I watched your game, your hunt for her. Patience does reveal deceit.” She leaned in to whisper into his ear. “I am me; I am always here. We have learned from our mistakes—me and my sisters. We are not your prey. Not anymore. Dolly wants you to live; that is the only reason I spare your life. But be warned, vampire, I do not offer you redemption. And neither will she.”

Don Lucio closed his eyes. He didn’t fear death. After all the years of slavery to the Draca and his lust for blood, he knew he needed an atonement. He dreamed of it. It was his father that he loved and wished to save.

“Remember the mercy I give you tonight,” she said and lifted his head from the floor and brought his mouth to her throat. “It will come at a price. Now drink.”

“Will she remember me? What I did to her?” Don Lucio asked. “What I intended to do to her?”

“She won’t remember a thing. I promise,” Darlene smiled. “But I will. I will always know who and what you are.”

“Then fine, kill me,” he said. Lucio sank his teeth into her throat, and to his heartbreak, he was saved.