Lucian Nightshade's Arc

Chapter 2 of 5

Lilith's hand stayed on his cold wrist. She did not pull away, but she did not lean closer either. "Three hundred years," she said. Her voice shook. "You don't age. You don't bleed. Tell me what you are, Lucian." He took her back to his house that night, the grand manor with its black trim and tall red windows. He lit no lamps. In the dark he told her the truth. He drank blood to live. He had killed men. His hunger was not a thing he could promise to tame. He watched her face for horror. He found only that searching look she always wore. "And me?" Lilith asked. She sat on the edge of a high-backed chair. "One night you look at me and I am food. Is that what you fear?" "Yes," he said. He would not lie to her again. She stood. "Then I can't marry a promise you can't keep. Show me your love is safe. Show me, or I leave this house and don't come back." Lucian had nothing to show. No proof. No charm against his own nature. He paced the cold floor. Then he remembered the drawer where he kept his oldest things. He pulled out a small locket on a chain. It was black, carved with little flowers, with a pale stone that glowed faint blue in the dark. A witch had made it for him long ago, a binding charm. He had never used it, because using it cost him. "This holds an oath," he said. "If I seal my word inside, the oath binds me. If I ever break it, the charm takes my life. Not slow. All at once." He opened the clasp. "I will swear to never feed on you. Never harm you. The locket will hold me to it. My own death is the price if I fail." Lilith stared at the glowing stone. "You would wager your life on this?" "My life means nothing without you in it." He pressed his thumb to the stone. The blue light flared and sank into his skin. He spoke the oath aloud. The locket grew warm, then cold. The light dimmed. It was done. He held it out to her. She took it with both hands. A tear slid down her cheek and struck the black metal. "Wear it," he said. "Then you'll always hold my life. If I ever become the thing you fear, you'll know, because I'll be dead." She fastened the chain around her neck. The stone rested over her heart. "Yes," she whispered. "I'll marry you." Lucian felt hope return. Then Lilith's eyes moved past him to the window. Figures stood in the dark garden below, pale and still, watching the house. He knew them. Others of his kind. They had smelled a living woman inside a dead man's home. And now they had seen her wearing his bound life around her throat.