Sound of the Fiddle

"Around!" Carlisle whipped his horse around and steadied it as the animal reared up in surprise from the sudden movement. "Go around! They are there!" He called to his men, drawing his sword from his side. Two men rode to the other end of the alley to which they had chased their prey. It lie between two houses with shuttered windows and crosses embellished along the stone work of the outer walls. But the blackness of the shadows of the alley did not allow him to see well into their depths, and Carlisle could only just see his men on the other side as they waited for his command.

Suddenly, he heard movement in the darkness. Carlisle remained silent, watching with his chin raised as his eyes struggled to focus on the dark shadows moving about in the alley, hidden from the moonlight shining brightly overhead. He saw his men ready themselves, one man with a crossbow readied and drawn taught, the other with a steel chain net, lined with barbs and blades of broken, jagged iron.

"Hear me, creature of the darkness...." Carlisle snarled, drawing the blade at his side. "Come unto us or we shall come to you." His words, however, received nothing but silence in reply to their threat. "In God's name, you are under arrest."

Then, there came the sound of not one, but several wretched chuckles and grimacing laughs rumbling from the shadows, louder and louder until there was a shrieking chorus of laughter mocking Carlisle's command. "All of us?!" Came one voice; it was the voice of a man, louder than the others and clearly the most dominant, for when this vampire spoke all other laughter stopped.

Carlisle and his men had been hunting a male vampire originally, and Carlisle expected the voice to belong to that vampire, but the young mortal had no idea where the other voices had come from or how they had joined together so quickly, seemingly without being seen.

"All of you." Carlisle's voice was reserved, low, quiet, almost, but the vampires heard him and this time they respected his threat. A form came forth from the darkness, the form of a man. The man was dressed in the clothes of a rich noble, with a cloak and a collar of fur hanging around his broad shoulders. He stepped out of the shadows and into the moonlight until he came before Carlisle. He was the vampire they had been hunting, and he looked upon the mortal who had been chasing him with a snarl resting on the corners of his grimacing lips.

"Carlisle, son of the Church..." The vampire hailed. "... what brings this fury down upon me, upon my fellow "Creatures of the Night" or so you have chosen to name us?" he motioned toward the shadows standing still in the darkness of the alley.

"You murdered a woman--"

"An old woman who had more of a home on the side of the street than in the hearts of any whom she called her family. She had nothing, she was nothing... so you cannot say that I have stolen from your Lord."

"You murdered one of my Lord's children," Carlisle's voice retorted with sharp hatred. "And his fury has been given to me that I might bring it upon you."

"Such power given to a human?" The vampire snickered. "To the weakest creation scratching survival on this earth?"

Carlisle hissed in fury and leapt from the saddle of his steed, wielding his sword through the air with a mighty speed, but as quickly as his feet touched the ground, the vampire he sought to destroy took flight and disappeared over the roof tops of the townhouses, his companions fleeing with him.

"Damn!" The young hunter cursed under his breath and sheathed his sword, "He-- they have disappeared! Find them! Track them down! Be swift, my fellows!" He leapt onto the saddle once more and urged his steed swiftly through the alley way to join his fellow hunters in their never ending chase.


Nearly seven hours had passed since the hunt first began, and it seemed less like a hunt and more like a game with each hour that passed as Carlisle tracked the elusive vampires across London's alley ways and darkest corridors. Now, they were no closer to capturing their prey than at the beginning and the young hunter was losing faith quickly.

"It is folly..." One of Carlisle's oldest companions sighed as he leaned heavily on his saddle, resting his crossbow leisurely across his lap.

"What is folly, friend?" Carlisle asked, raising his brow. "This game we're playing with these creatures? But no, we are not playing at any game... we are hunting."

"Has it not been a game since the very beginning?" The man stated, but he knew the answer.

"It has only been seven hours."

"Since your father took up the duty of... fulfilling the Lord's wishes to smite evil across this great city. It has been folly from the start."

Carlisle fell silent. "I know this." He said at last. "They are waiting."

"Waiting, Carlisle?"

"For us... for my father and I." Carlisle smiled grimly, leaning his head back as he looked up to the dark night sky. "But it gives me some consolation to know that our presence sets them ill at ease.

They would not have chosen to participate in our game of cat and mouse if we did not pose even the smallest threat to their existence."

The man next to him nodded in agreement, but he was thoughtful. "They are well hidden mice tonight." He said with a chuckle. "Where do you suppose they are hiding now... assuming there are more than just one we are hunting now."

Not a moment after the words had been spoken-to early spoken-, a shadow alighted upon the road before them, touching the earth with no noise but the rushing of wind around the graceful figure in the dark. Wind tousled streaming golden locks, and the moonlight came from behind clouds to unveil the figure suddenly standing before the group of hunters. Carlisle's men quickly jumped to arms, but Carlisle was entranced and held up his arm so that they would halt. "Wait." he hissed, and urged his horse a little farther up the road.

When he came closer, Carlisle saw that the woman in the road was smiling and her smile was something unearthly, something he had never seen before. Her lips were as red as roses, telling him something without ever parting that he felt inside of him, but did not know. Her eyes were a piercing black, and large enough that they reflected the light of the stars shining through the lamplight over her golden head.

"Who are you?" In truth, Carlisle had never seen this creature before, and he was smitten, though he knew that she held him captive intentionally. The woman smiled broader and outwardly it would seem that her smile was kind and warm, and the laughter that followed was light-hearted, but Carlisle's form tensed. He steadied his horse as it began to rear at the sound of the vampire's laughter.

"I was sent to find you..." Carlisle's heart beat faster in his chest at the sound of her voice, and he found it difficult to reply.

"Why?" He asked, though his voice was tight and restricted. "Were you sent by the ones I am pursuing?"

"Hunting." The woman raised her brow. "I know what it is you do to creatures like us." Her lips parted as Carlisle watched and she ran her tongue over them, grinning maliciously; but he leaned forward in his saddle so inent was he watching her every delicate, captivating move. "I was sent to kill you..." The woman tilted her head, and held up her hand, her palm facing toward the sky.

Carlisle steadied his horse once more as the woman giggled and beckoned him to come to her with a slow movement of her finger. Her eyes remained upon him, burning through his chest and melting his heart as he leaned farther forward in his saddle.

Then, he gasped, his brow furrowing slightly as a rush of warmth pervaded his chest and spread all through his body, tugging at not only his heartstrings, but the growing lust pulsating beneath the strict confines of his tunic and chandail. The primal instincts burning within him pulled him deep into the vampire's spell, into her lusty eyes as she slowly walked forward, beckoning him with her finger all the while. His eyes closed as he reached forward. He released a breath he did not know he had been holding, the air hissing through his clenched teeth as another wave of heat pulsed through his loins, sending him into a greater ecstasy than he had ever known, sending his eyes rolling and his breathing into heavy, irregular fits. He groaned, his head falling back slightly.

The woman came to him, and with hands tantalizingly delicate, she ran her fingers along his thigh, the torturous touch elicting a hiss from Carlisle's lips as he tried vainly to pull himself from the stupor he was bound beneath. Sinful thoughts running through his head that he had never thought before pulled another groan from his throat. The woman sighed passionately. The sound was enough to push young Carlisle over the edge, but she did not will it. Instead, she mounted his saddle before him, wrapping her slender legs around his hips, every motion that pressed her frigid body against his was of torturing lightness, every touch leaving him wanting more, her sweet, cold breath melting the burning skin of his exposed neck. Her thighs pressed against the sides of his waist, her arms snaking around his shoulders.

Carlisle could not move. He felt her touch him, running her fingers along the smoldering heat of his hard length. Her touch around the throbbing pain of his erection made Carlisle start and his body lunged forward as an elated cry of absolute pleasure parted his lips. "Ah! God!" He moaned, his head falling back once more, his body going limp as the woman ran her fingers along his shaft skillfully. Her eyes remained upon him at all times, even when he found the strength to open his own eyes and look upon the vampire pleasuring him. She was smiling, her black eyes smoldering, her full, red lips, parted as if she, too, were breathing heavily.
**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

They could see Carlisle in the shadows ahead, sitting upon his horse still, but they could not hear him speak, and they did not see the woman that had been standing where Carlisle was originally.

Bruce, Carlisle's closest companion, looked long upon where Carlisle was, until he saw the woman again, only she was at the side of Carlisle's horse. He watched as she mounted the saddle.

"She is seducing him." Bruce said to the others as he pulled a silver arrow from his quiver. "She will kill him."

Another man snickered. "How?" He asked, "Loving the life from him?"

Bruce reasoned for a moment. "If we don't get her off of him...." He said, ".... then yes. She is a vampire; drinking his blood would not be the only way she could kill him. Her legs wrapped around his waist could break him in two if that is how she wished to kill him."
**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Look at me." The woman wove her fingers through Carlisle's hair, pulling his head up. He opened his eyes, though they were veiled with cloudy passion. The blue depths of his lovely eyes focused and refocused upon the beautiful woman's face. She licked her lips, forcing him to look upon her.

"You will die now." But Carlisle's head was spinning with such pleasure that his mind was not his own and he only nodded his head, exposing more of his muscular neck. Suddenly, the pace of the woman's stroking hand on his length quickened and he arched his back slightly, rocking his hips to meet her painfully pleasurable rhythm, letting another cry escape his lips. He did not care if his companions saw, or of the sins he committed, he only wanted completion. "God... ah.... release me!" The rhythm of the woman's hands quickened faster and faster, harder and harder. "Ah! Oh Heaven... ah, ah...!" she moved her hands so fast it was difficult for Carlisle to tell she was even stroking him, there was just a consistent wave of heat and friction burning him, bringing him to the very edge of an unnatural climax.

The vampire kissed his neck, sending tremors down his spine. Then, slowly, she opened her mouth and licked his burning flesh, grazing her teeth along the skin. Her lips trailed kisses from his neck to his ear, sucking on the lobe, biting the tender flesh. He hissed. Then, she moved lower, to his neck once more. Grazing her teeth along his skin as she ran her hand faster along his shaft, she could feel the blood in his veins pulsing quickly; she could feel his heart pounding beneath the weight of her chest pressed against his.

Carlisle placed his hands on the woman's shoulders, his eyes open and looking at her still, but he could not see her, and his face was slightly contorted with the onslaught of a powerful orgasm on the brink of shattering his entire being. Suddenly, something silver whirred past Carlisle's head, but he only just noticed it. The vampire with her grip around him gave one final squeeze, so tight that it finally sent her prey into a ferocious orgasm. But before Carlisle had the strength to come to his sense, the silver object that had passed him struck his lusty predator in the chest and she was taken to the ground, ripped away from her convulsing prey.

Carlisle's eyes shot open, his entire body lunging forward as wave after wave of intense orgasm shot through his body, sending him into convulsions, writhing on the saddle of his horse. He could not cry out, he could not speak, he could not control his body and it tumbled from his saddle onto the cobblestone street a man's height below. His fair face a contortion of agonizing pain and pleasure, beads of sweat running down his face as his back arched and his hips rocked. He planted his fists firmly against the hard stones of the alley way, clinging to whatever earth he could find to keep him grounded from Heaven.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"You will thank me later, old friend..." Bruce pulled the string of his crossbow taught, the silver arrow glistening in the moonlight. Then with a small rush of wind the arrow was let loose and raced to its destination. It struck the female vampire in the chest, and though it did not pierce her marble hard skin, it took her off guard as she was caught up in pleasuring young Carlisle. She leapt from the saddle and landed a stone's throw away, clutching the silver arrow in her hand.

Bruce cursed. Commanding the other hunters to follow him, he rushed forth upon the vampire woman, and arrow after arrow was fired upon her; blades struck her skin and harmed her, but she was so swift footed that nothing the hunters did fatally weakened her. She was unlike the other vampires they had been hunting. She was faster, like a ghost whisking through the air at unimaginable speeds, just catching the very tips of meager sword blows.

The woman leapt into the air and landed high up on the roof of a neighboring building, looking down on her hunters with a grim smile. They could do nothing, for no weapons they used were effective against her rock hard skin. "It is done. Upon the morrow's night this game shall end for good. Such trifling with your pathetic little playmates bores me." She giggled. "Goodnight, sleep tight." And with that final adieu, the woman disappeared into the blackness of night with a whir of white silk.

Bruce grunted and shook his head. "We were right." He said, "It is just folly to them... just a game."

"How long are we to make ourselves vulnerable for naught?" Another man asked furiously. "What point is there in risking our very lives for the amusement of the villains we hunt?"

"There is none." Bruce replied. "Only that our efforts differ us from the rest of humanity. We are the only ones with enough strength and courage to fight the very demons from hell. If there is aught to take gratification in, it is that we may be proud of our attempts."

"Pride is a sin, Bruce."

"Then we are sinners saving sinners from evil." Bruce furrowed his brow, thinking deeply, chuckling.

He turned to where Carlisle was still lying on the ground, writhing slowly, his breath heavy, panting. Bruce sighed. He went to his young friend, looking down on him with an amused smile.

"Well now Carlisle," He said loudly, forcing the young man's attention on him. "What ever has she done to you?"

Carlisle struggled to laugh, closing his eyes as another shock wave of post-orgasm pleasure swept over him. He clenched his fists, trying to contain himself as his body began to convulse once more, his hips rising off of the ground. His back arched. He could still feel the warmth spreading from where she had touched him all throughout his body. He could feel himself pulsing beneath the confines of his leggings, and any friction created by his legs moving together in an attempt to control the movement of his hips caused small orgasms to shudder through his body. "She still has a hold of me..." He moaned, and his hand clutched the engorged bulge beneath his tunic. "Ah, my god...!" As a third orgasm struck his weakening body, he felt himself lose the will to keep his dignity before his companions and he stroked himself through the thick fabric of his leggings.

Bruce looked away for a moment. "You all... go." He bid the other hunters to leave and they did so, bidding an awkward farewell to their captain. Bruce turned back to Carlisle, stooping down on one knee so that he could place one hand on either shoulder of the young man still held under the vampire's spell, pleasuring himself now as he lay on the street.

"Carlisle." Bruce shook the young man's shoulders. "Carlisle!" He pressed Carlisle's arms against the ground, but the man would not cease to writhe in orgasmic pleasure.

"Let me be!" Carlisle snapped suddenly, taking Bruce aback by the severity in his usually gentle voice. "Let her come back to me!"

"And find you in such a state as this, my young friend?" Bruce scoffed. "She was going to kill you, you know this, do you not?"

"If this is what death feels like....!" Carlisle groaned, "Then let me be!"

"Carlisle!" Bruce shook the young man's shoulders once more, "Listen to what I say! You must pull yourself to sanity! She is a vampire! You wish your soul to be taken to hell on the wings of that black witch?"

Carlisle took a deep breath, trying to regulate his breathing, though he was not completely willing to have things miraculous feelings leave his body. "Bruce..." He said with a shaky voice. "I cannot... her hand is there, I swear it!" He was forced to stop as yet another orgasm ripped through his body. However, this final time he forced his body down against the ground, and Bruce held him down; he shook the young man out of a daze and brought him quickly to reality. "Do not revel in it." Bruce said, "Think of other things. She has implanted herself upon you and inside of your head so that you feel her still. She is not here, it is only me." Carlisle hissed, closing his eyes tight as he pushed himself into the ground once more.

"Strike me.." The young Carlisle said, trembling all over. But Bruce only started and looked upon his young friend with question in his eyes. "Strike me!"

Bruce nodded quickly and raising his hand over his head, clenched his fist and brought it swiftly down upon Carlisle, drawing blood from a wound on the young man's cheek that a large ring on Bruce's finger had created. Carlisle cried out in pain, but he felt his pleasure subside. He spat blood from his mouth, but his breathing began to slow and his body ceased to convulse. He felt the nearly painful throbbing of blood in his loins subside and his heart slowed its frantic beating.

Bruce waited as Carlisle lay quiet beneath him breathing slower and slower, his shoulders finally relaxing until he lay nearly motionless. "Oh.... my," Carlisle laughed slightly. "forgive me, friend." But Bruce shook his head, laughing as well. "Think not of what has passed this night, young one." Bruce replied, helping Carlisle to his knees. Carlisle hissed slightly as he rose to his feet, and he stood with his legs parted slightly, laughing at his ridiculous state. "I cannot walk, my friend."

"Side saddle then?" Bruce asked mockingly, but Carlisle returned with a sharp blow to the older man's shoulder. "I think not. Very well then, get on your own horse. I shall see you safely home."

"Safely?" Carlisle winced as he lifted his foot into the stirrup of his patiently waiting horse, mounting the saddle again; slowly he worked himself into a comfortable position.

"Should you fall off, as well you may, sir." Bruce chuckled, riding past Carlisle, clicking his tongue for the young man's horse to follow.

Carlisle was silent for a long while as they rode through the dark alley ways until they came before the doors of his father's house. "It is Sunday tomorrow." Carlisle said as a servant came and took his horse to the stables. "Pray, do not tell my father of anything that passed this night... though I know I have nothing to fear from you."

Bruce smiled kindly and held his hand down to his young friend as he stood below him. "You know I would do nothing to bring any dishonor to you or your name."

"I have brought dishonor upon myself already." Carlisle shrugged. His heart was heavy. "It is not any business that need weaken my father's aged heart any farther." And with that, Carlisle bid farewell to his friend and entered his father's house.

Carlisle listened at the entry until he could not hear his friend riding away any farther into the night. Then, quietly, he sighed. Sinking to his knees with his back leaned against the wooden door, he held his head in his hands and released a long held breath that he had been holding for several minutes. He could breathe again. It was as if being removed from the night air completely removed the symptoms of the vampire's influence. He had heard what she said. It was a game, and he was the king they sought to slay. Well, if death was what awaited him by the next morning's light, then at least he would not go without a struggle to serve humanity better. He did not fight for God alone, but for humanity, something he clung to with every breath.