Available Darkness Season 1

to delay the inevitable; to linger with her lover in a few final moments of innocence, before it was shattered by the ugly reality looming ahead.
    John looked her in the eyes and said, “I’m a vampire.”
    Hope paused, trying to make sure she heard him correctly, barely stifling a laugh. “You’re a what?”
    “A vampire, of sorts,” he said. The cold, serious expression on his face sent a chill down her spine.
    Holy shit, he IS crazy. I’m in love with a crazy person.
    Her mind conjured scenarios of a deluded, murderous John, killing people while thinking he was a vampire. She swallowed hard and took a step back.
    “I’m not crazy,” he said, keeping his distance and using his hands, open palms out, to accentuate, or perhaps work through, his words. “I know how crazy this sounds, but I’m not from here, not from Earth. Neither are my brothers, Jacob or Caleb. We’re from somewhere else, we’re all vampires, for a lack of a better word. But I was able to find a way to become human, to be with you.”
    Hope shook her head, slowly at first, then violently, “No, no, no, this isn’t happening.”
    “I—” John managed before Hope cut him off with a raised finger and an angry, frightened scowl.
    “No! Don’t say another word. I’m leaving here now.”
    John stepped between her and the door, “No; you can’t.”
    She stepped towards him, tears streaming down her face, and shoved him in the chest, “Get out of my way!”
    He stepped aside as she moved towards the open warehouse door. She’d gotten four steps before something stopped her in her tracks.
    Levitating inches in front of her face was a single silver ring, one she’d given him for his birthday last year. One that she complained a million times that he never wore, taking offense that he didn’t wear it proudly as a token of their love.
    There it was, floating in front of her face.
    How? Oh my—
    She reached towards the ring, not believing what she was seeing until her fingers closed around the ring and it lay warm in her palm.
    She closed her gushing eyes, then turned to face John.
    It felt as though her whole world was about to collapse beneath her from the sheer weight of new, impossible information.
    “I’m so sorry,” he said, inching closer. She reached out, beating him furiously with her hands, then her arms, anger turning to rage. Eventually, she surrendered into the same embrace she could never leave.

    **

    John

    John held Hope close, never wanting to let her go. If he could find a way to freeze this moment, or even die right then and there entwined in her arms, he would be happy. But fate had a way of dragging you forward, and didn’t care if you went kicking and screaming.
    He pulled away, looked Hope in her eyes, then rested his palm on the side of her face. “I know that you have a million questions. And I know it’s not right to ask this of you, but right now, as crazy as it sounds, as crazy as I sound, I need you to trust me. The more I tell you now, the harder this will be.”
    “The harder what will be?” she asked, pulling back.
    “What you need to know now is that Jacob has been looking for me and Caleb for a long time. He wants something that we have. Something which, if he gets it, is a threat to the world.”
    Hope’s eyes had that look again, as if she were on the verge of not believing a word. He had to charm her, to get her to drop her reservations, using magick. He didn’t want to, but it was the only way of getting through this conversation.
    John focused on her eyes, and then past them, sending the calming thoughts through to her brain. Hope’s eyes grew almost glassy as he smoothed his influence over her defenses.
    “Caleb has no idea what he is. He had his brain wiped as a child, made to forget everything—our past lives, our mother’s death, and what we are. I’ve been keeping an eye on him, from a distance, ever since. The people who wiped him are the same people looking to protect the knowledge we have, even if that means killing me. To keep it from ever getting to Jacob. In wiping Caleb, they were also able to turn him mortal, to remove, or at least halt, this vampiric disease we have.”
    Hope stared, absorbing it all, though he had no way of knowing if it would make sense to her once she was clear headed again.
    “I wasn’t so lucky, though. They couldn’t wipe me. How much easier it would be, if they’d been able. I lived for years as a monster, feeding off of people, until a