The Darkness We Hide

Leaving his brothers to tackle Richard and bind him securely, Gareth and Louise removed the straps from Michelle.

Looking down at her Gareth could see how sick and injured she really was. In the two weeks she'd been missing she'd lost at least ten pounds, and her already pale skin had taken on a slickly yellow tinge.

“Oh Michelle,” he sobbed, pulling her into his arms, “I’m so sorry.”

Louise moved to the sideboard, looking at the jars and testing the bowl Richard had dropped.

“We’re too late,” she said, moving to the altar where Michelle lay in her son’s arms. “He’s started already started. Damn!”

Gareth held her closer, tears spilling down his cheeks.

Michelle was burning with fever, her breathing making a terrible gurgling sound every time she took even the shallowest of breaths.

“You bastard,” he raged at the bound figure held between his brothers, “you’ve killed her.”

“No,” Richard said, his eyes gleaming with madness, “I’ve made her mine. She will wake tomorrow my progeny, and she will never be yours again.”

“Gareth,” Louise said, pulling his attention back to the more important situation, “we don’t have a lot of time. If you want to save her, you must perform the ceremony and give her your blood.”

“I can’t,” he said, his voice choking with emotion, “she’s not strong enough.”

“Strong enough or not,” his father interrupted, “if we do nothing, and she survives, she will be bound to that madman forever.”

Lowering Michelle back to the table, Gareth kissed her gently on the forehead.

“Forgive me,” he whispered leaving her side to begin the ritual.

As he cut, he was not surprised by her lack of response, given the condition she was in. She never flinched or made a sound.

Praying to the Gods, the old and the new, he lifted Michelle’s head and poured the liquid into her mouth.

From some reserve deep inside her soul, she managed to turn her head and beg Richard to stop.

Tears streaming faster, Gareth cooed and coaxed until she was too exhausted to fight anymore and surrendered to drinking the vial mixture that was being forced into her mouth.

Gareth watched helplessly as Michelle went through the change. He’d see people go through it before, but that didn’t make it easier for him to watch the woman her loved wraith in agony.

Suddenly her moans of pain turned into a blood curdling scream as her body convulsed into the fetal position.

“Shit,” his mother hissed, moving to stand at the end of the altar.

“What’s wrong?” he demanded, seeing the look of panic on her face.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!” she continued, seeing a stream of blood coming from the young woman’s body.

“Hugo,” she called, summoning her husband.

“What?” Gareth demanded, not understanding what was happening.

“I think she’s having a miscarriage,” his mother said, trying to find a way to stop the bleeding.

“Miscarriage?” Gareth breathed, his overtaxed mind finding it hard to remember what that meant.

“Damn,” Hugo said, moving to stand next to his wife. “What can we do?”

“Unfortunately there’s nothing we can do to stop it,” his mother sighed, “it’s too late.”

A rage like nothing he’d ever experienced before filled Gareth, the beast inside of his screaming for justice and revenge. Surging forward, he ran at Richard intent on ripping the man’s head off.

“Boys,” Hugo called to his other sons, knowing they understood.

Gareth’s brothers blocked him physically, taking the brunt of his rage as they forcefully pushed him away from his intended target.

“No,” William snarled, finding it hard to keep his brother from killing the mad man laughing behind him.

“Dammit Gareth,” Phillip grunted, unable to dodge a savage claw swipe, “we won’t let you become a murderer.”

“Gareth,” Louise yelled, using her own power of voice, “Gareth, Michelle needs you!”

Hearing her name, he stopped trying to kill Richard and returned to her side.

“Michelle,” he breathed, trying to offer her some comfort with his presence by wrapping her in his embrace.

“Hugo,” his mother said, distracted by the maniacal laughter of the madman behind them.

“Get him out of here,” she said, motioning towards Richard. “I can’t concentrate with that shit in the background.”

While her husband and sons carried the mad man upstairs, she could only watch as Gareth held onto Michelle’s body as the change ravaged her body, and their baby died.

‘Our baby,’ he thought, sadness driving a cold knife into his heart.

Looking at his mother, he could see the pain in her face as well as she tore large pieces of fabric from the altar cloth to wipe away the blood and tissue that had carried his child out of Michelle’s womb.

As the bleeding stopped and her convulsions ebbed, his mother gave a gigantic sigh of relief.

“I think she’s going to make it,” Louise said as she finished wiping Michelle’s body down the best she could.

Gareth pulled her from the table, slumping to the floor with her in his arms.

Michelle’s skin was still cold to the touch, but he could feel it warming slowly. Her muscles and joints still cracked and popped as they were overlaid with lycan augmentation.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered into her ear, wishing more than anything that he had been able to protect her from this.