21 - Josep
There is only one way this ends.
Syrsee is writhingagainst me, mouth searching for more.
Paul is trying to comfort Ryet with words and soft touches.
I am… in shock, I think. That it actually worked.
We are in the dirt under Ryet’s cabin, all of us squished together in a shallow grave about six feet wide and two feet deep, covered in loose, rich earth.
I know I have to leave—there is much to be done now. But I allow myself a few more moments of peace.
We did it.
We tricked it.
We controlled it.
And soon, we will be master and it will be slave.
Paul interrupts my thoughts, talking in hushed tones as he has a private moment with Ryet. But his whispers are hard totune out and the level of anguish in his voice makes me turn my head. Syrsee is still writhing, nearly on top of me now, and Paul is lying on his side, hovering over Ryet’s chest as he pushes sweaty hair away from his eyes.
“You’re OK.” This is what Paul is saying on repeat. “You’re OK, Ryet. It’s going to be OK.”
Syrsee is panting heavily, unable to calm down because the blood lust in the beginning of every transformation is insatiable. Her mouth is still seeking my blood. She’s licking me, and sucking on me, and writhing against me like she wants more sex.
But this isn’t really her.
I could feel the moment when Ryet took her away into some kind of dreamwalk.
It doesn’t matter. She didn’t need to be mentally present in her body when the consummation took place. Ryet wasn’t there, so it makes sense that he would take her with him.
But neither of them are back yet, while Paul and I are both awake.
That’s why Paul is worried. He won’t be able to stay long. He’s here, but not. Because he’s still under whatever spell Syrsee put on him.
I don’t have much time either. I am really here, thanks to the Darkness. It’s more than evil. It’s always been more than that. It’s made up of carbon and code too.
And it’s everywhere under the earth.
Everywhere. Little veins of black, oily Darkness run under the surface of the entire planet like tree roots. That’s how I got here and that’s how I’ll get home too.
It only has one objective: Replicate.
That’s all it does, all day long. That’s all it’s been doing since it came into being long, long, long before I did.
It’s very good at replication. What it is not good at is making more than itself. It’s been here millions of years, it’s beenreplicating this whole time, and all it can do is make more ofitself.
It cannot make a new, independent copy.
In other words, it cannot make babies. It can only grow bigger, and longer, and more spread out.
That’s why it needs the vampires.
It made the vampire to make a baby and it made the Black witch to feed us their blood. The Black blood of Black witches comes from the Darkness because the Black bloodisthe Darkness. Its mission is to get inside us, and take over our cells, and rewrite what’s in there, and make something newfrom us.
Something it cannot make itself.
