Dark Secrets


      Author: aria


      Rated: R



      Chapter 7
      Dal'rien was right; being in the harem was fantastic. For a week she did 
      nothing but lounge around wearing the most amazing jewels and clothing she 
      had ever had the privilege to even see. Belonging to Darien, no one 
      bothered her except to fulfill her every whim. It was fabulous!
      She spent her days wandering through the gardens and around the palace 
      exploring, finding intriguing new things to see and do. Luckily a harem 
      girl was able to access everything within the palace grounds. She made her 
	way through systematically from top to bottom, from the harem chambers 	out.
      Everything fascinated her. It was all so new and amazing. There was never 
      anything like these people or their technology where she came from. In 
      comparison her people were savages.
      Among her favourite things were the strange conveyances that did not 
      require horses to move them. They came in all shapes and sizes and she 
      could sit and watch them move around all day long. The variety of people 
      living in the city was another. Sern'riya had never seen so many different 
      people living together so peacefully. Some had light skin others were very 
      dark. She heard dozens of different languages being spoken when she 
      removed the necklace experimentally. Tall, short; light, dark; skinny, 
      fat; everyone seemed happy and living together in perfect harmony.
      At the end of one day she came upon the library. Ra'ine had commented on 
      it one day but she hadn't come upon it again until now. Curious to see 
      what a 'library' actually was, Sern'riya walked in and looked around. 
      There was nothing but shelves and shelves of leather-bound boxes and rolls 
      upon rolls of scrolls filled compartments next to them. People milled 
      around pulling the boxes out and opening them and looking very interested 
      in their contents. Curious, she did the same.
      The boxes weren't what she thought they'd be. They weren't even boxes, 
      rather leather flaps with pages inside covered in strange scribbles she 
      had never seen before. She flipped through and wondered why people were so 
      interested in it.
      "I see you've found your way to our library." The deep voice chuckled from 
      behind.
      Sern'riya jumped and turned around. "Dal'rien. You scared the life out of 
      me."
      He put a warm hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. Are you 
      enjoying the collection?"
      She shook her head, shaking off the feeling of his skin against hers as 
      well as to answer his question. " I do not see why people would be 
      interested in a bunch of paper."
      He chuckled. "It's not the paper their interested in. It's what's written 
      on them."
      "Written?"
      Dal'rien sighed, he should have known her father wouldn't have thought 
      enough of Sern'riya to educate her. "Yes, written. Look at this book." He 
      held out the book he was reading. "See these symbols? Those make up words. 
      It's a way of keeping records or telling stories."
      "Really?" she took the book from him and turned it from side to side. 
      "How? They don't look like pictures of anything."
      "They are not meant to be pictures." He took a quill and dabbed it in the 
      ink next to him. "Watch."
      Sern'riya watched as he drew a series of 'symbols' as he called them.
      "These represent sounds and they form words." He sounded a few out for 
      her. "See?"
      "I think so." She pointed at the letters on the page. "So you have one of 
      those for every sound?"
      "Well, not every. Sometimes you have to use a combination."
      "Can you teach them to me?"
      Dal'rien hesitated. "You should really learn from a teacher. They could 
      help you much more than I could."
      She sighed and nodded almost forlornly. "I suppose you are right."
      Seeing how it disappointed her that he wouldn't teach her, he tipped up 
      her chin and smiled. "How about this? I do not have much free time. But 
      when I do get the time I will tutor you. Just remember it will be slow 
      going. I do not have much experience with teaching."
      Impulsively she threw her arms around him. "Thank you! Dal'rien! I swear I 
      will be the best student ever!"
      So every day after that, when he had spare time, Dal'rien sat with her and 
      taught her his language and customs. It was usually either early in the 
      mornings or late in the evenings when he had the time. Sometimes he would 
      even let her come to lunch with him and his advisors so she could see how 
      their governing system worked.
      Sern'riya proved to be a quick student. The language was simple enough to 
      learn and he wasn't as bad a teacher as thought he would be. Dal'rien 
      expressed his delight and admiration at how easily she was picking things 
      up.
      She was happy too except for the fact that with each day his patience and 
      kindness was making her fall even deeper in love with him. Of course, it 
      was pretty hopeless. What chance did she have with him? She was a harem 
      girl and he was the ruler of the most magnificent empire in the world.
      She looked over the study books Dal'rien gave to her to help her reading 
      skills and smiled. But she was his harem girl. And even if she couldn't 
      get him to love her she could still get close to him. Really close.
      The thought brought a smile to her face. How was she going to do it? He 
      barely had time for himself with all his duties. And he never even seemed 
      to see her as a woman. Only as someone who needed his help.
      She smiled wickedly as a plan started to formulate in her head.
      When evening rolled around Serena laid on her bed in her most scanty 
      outfit. It was the same as all the others but somehow it was smaller than 
      the rest. She never even thought about wearing it until that day. She 
      could still barely bring herself to wear her usual clothing. There was 
      just too much skin showing. It wasn't right. Unless you were trying to 
      seduce someone. Which was now the case and in this occasion she was 
      thrilled that Atlantian clothes were so skimpy. It was the perfect excuse. 
      She knew enough about men to know that they had a weakness for women 
      baring their skin. And from the looks she sometimes got from the men 
      around the palace she knew she was not excluded from this.
      "Sern'riya? May I come in?"
      She heard his voice at the curtain at the entrance to her room. And 
      quickly made a few readjustments before answering him. "Of course." She 
      quickly moved her skirt so that more of her thigh was showing.
      He swept aside the sheer material and entered. Dal'rien stood staring at 
      her for a moment. His eyes moved from the tips of her painted toes slowly 
      up the length of her bare legs, over her hips, up her uncovered 
      midsection, curved over her breasts and, after their delightful trek, came 
      to rest on her face.
      "Hi Dal'rien...ready to study?"
      He gulped. "Y-yes." The books he had been carrying fell out of his arms 
      and onto the bed. He struggled to pick them up but couldn't with his 
      useless fingers and finally just left them there. "I brought books."
      She smiled at his nervousness. "I can see that." Patting the bed, she 
      rolled over into a sitting position. "Let's study then."
      Dal'rien looked as though he had to force his tall frame to move. He sat 
      down hesitantly on the edge of the bed before shooting back up again. 
      "Would you like to go for a walk?"
      Sern'riya pouted. "But I wanted to study. I think I'm making some real 
      progress with your verbs."
      "Sometimes it helps to have a change of scenery." Dal'rien looked 
      longingly at the doorway. He turned back to her and found that she had 
      slid over to him.
      "That sounds nice actually." She slithered off the bed and smiled up at 
      him. "Shall we?"
      He coughed and nodded before leading the way out into the garden.
      She walked next to him and smiled. Sern'riya was surprised when she first 
      walked with him and found that she was permitted to keep pace next to him. 
      She was expecting to be forced to walk behind or something of that manner. 
      Instead, the amused monarch informed her that he wanted her walking right 
      beside him. So she did and had been doing it every time they were together.
      "Where are we going?"
      He smiled down at her. "You will see."
      They walked through the main section of the garden, past the fountains, 
      the topiaries and animals, over into his private area.
      "Are you sure I should be here?"
      He stared straight ahead, but she could hear laughter in his voice. "I 
      give you permission."
      "Thanks." She kept close to him and looked in wonder at what he had at his 
      disposal. The first thing she saw when they past the gate and tall hedges 
      was an immense fountain. She was sure she could see enormous black cats 
      wandering aimlessly over the manicured grass alongside peacocks. Eyes 
      wide, she watched as the cat walked past the bird without a second glance 
      to lie on the grass to lick its paws. "This is amazing!" She slipped off 
      her sandals and stepped onto the cool grass letting the blades tickle 
      between her toes.
      It was such an invigorating feeling to run free in this place. It was 
      simply amazing how wonderful her life had become. Sern'riya felt like 
      flying. But since she couldn't do that, she had to be satisfied with doing 
      a series of pirouettes before coming to a stop back in front of Dal'rien 
      once again.
      "I take it you like it here." He asked dryly.
      "Absolutely." She looked over at his amused expression and sobered a 
      little. "I never got the chance to thank you for saving me from...from that life."
      He looked into her eyes, "I'm just glad I was able to help you. I don't 
      think I would ever forgive myself if I let someone as..." he cleared his 
      throat and broke eye contact. "Someone like you continue to be treated 
      like that."
      There was something in his eyes when he looked at her. And that something 
      spurred her on. He liked, well maybe more than liked, her. And that was 
      enough to give her hope that he would come to love her in the end.
      Sern'riya smiled and leaned in closer. "I am forever in your debt." The 
      words were barely a whisper.
      They stood staring at each other for a moment; their bodies so close that 
      if either were to take a breath they would come into contact. That was if 
      Sern'riya could even think about breathing. His eyes were just so blue. 
      She couldn't take her eyes off of them. Even in the growing darkness, they 
      blazed. They dipped form her eyes to her lips and back as if he was trying 
      to decided whether or not to kiss her.
      Sern'riya reached up and made the decision for him, dragging his head down 
      so that their mouths came in searing contact with each other.
      Serena gasped and blinked. The memories were coming back with a vengeance, 
      and at the most inconvenient moments. She looked around at the rest of the 
      lab to see if anyone noticed her zone out yet again. No one was even 
      looking in her direction so she took a deep relaxing breath. This was 
      getting crazy.
      She blinked again and tried to make it look like she was studying the 
      slide in front of her when she was really trying to get the facts straight 
      in her head. Thank goodness the memories from all of her lives didn't come 
      all at once, she'd go insane if that happened.
      A little giggle escaped her lips. She couldn't believe that she was taking 
      it all in stride like this. If someone had told her she was several 
      previous lives and was in love with a vampire a few months ago she would 
      have told them to go jump off a cliff. But now it made sense, in a scary 
      way.
      She had some vacation time coming. It probably would have been a good idea 
      to take some time off until this whole thing blew over. Or at least until 
      she figured things out. If ever.
      Serena returned the slide to its tray and moved onto another. Her 
      movements were mechanical and she wasn't paying attention to what was 
      going on but to anyone looking at her, she looked in complete control.
      "Serena, can I have a word with you?" Alan stood at the doorway and waited 
      for her to come to him.
      She walked over. "What's up?"
      "We've got another John Doe."
      Serena kept up with his pace and looked over at him. "Is he...?"
      Alan nodded grimly. "Just as strange as the other two? You bet." He led 
      her to his office and they entered.
      Serena looked over at the microscope set up on his desk. "Is he there?" 
      she went to investigate when he nodded. The blood cells looked just like 
      the other sample from before. "Have you tested it?"
      Alan shook his head. "I was waiting for you." He pulled a vial out of his 
      lab coat and handed it to her.
      Serena took a little drop and added it to the slide and watched the 
      reaction. She nodded grimly, "It's the same as that second sample from the 
      last time."
      "I was afraid you'd say that." He stared thoughtfully at the microscope 
      for a moment.
      "What?" Serena looked up from the instrument and found him staring at her. 
      She knew from the look on his face he wasn't thinking about work. "About 
      the other night..."
      Alan's brows snapped together. "The other night?"
      "Yeah...Darien...didn't mean..." how was she going to cover for him? Her
      frantic thoughts were halted by Alan's puzzled voice.
      "Who's Darien?"
      "That guy..." She paused and looked at him. Alan didn't know what she was 
      talking about. He had absolutely no idea. Whatever Darien did to him, it 
      wiped his memory of the evening. "Never mind. I'm just babbling. What are 
      you thinking about?"
      He gave her a strange look and shook his head. "Nothing." Sighing, he 
      leaned up against the doorframe. "What are we going to do about this then? 
      It doesn't seem to be going away."
      Not sure what to say, Serena just shook her head as well. She had more 
      than enough to deal with as it was. "I'm not sure."
      "I think we should keep this under wraps until we know for sure what it 
      is."
      "How are we going to do that when it's out there and more and more people 
      are getting infected?"
      He came up beside her and rubbed at her tense shoulders. "Hopefully, we'll 
      figure it out before things get any worse."
      Serena stepped away and whirled around to look at him. "We? You expect to 
      figure it out between the two of us?" She walked around the room shaking 
      her head. This was too much! She had only just come to terms with Darien 
      and now Alan had to throw this into the pot as well. "I can't! We need 
      help. We can't figure out something this big between the two of us."
      He grabbed her shoulders and shook lightly. "We can do this. And think of 
      what will happen when we uncover it all!"
      Serena's jaw dropped she couldn't believe what she was hearing and for a 
      second was completely speechless. "You're doing this for fame?" she shoved 
      at him. "I can't believe you! There are people dying out there and all you 
      can think of is yourself!" Serena glared at him. She'd never seen this 
      side of him before and found it extremely revolting. "You took an oath, 
      dammit!"
      "Serena! Listen to me. We can do it! Trust me!" When he saw that she 
      wasn't convinced he pulled her closer. "What if I were to say your career 
      depended on this." He hissed.
      "You're disgusting!" she yanked her arm out of his grip. If he was going 
      to be underhanded about it, she might as well too. "I quit!"
      Alan blanched. He hadn't expected her to do that. "But you can't! I need 
      your help on this!"
      "You should have thought of that before you threatened me and the lives of 
      the people of this city!" she strode to the door and spun around to look 
      at him. "I can't believe I ever respected you."
      She walked out of the room and heard him call behind her, "You'll be 
	back."
      Like hell she was.
      She went to her locker and grabbed her things, but not before grabbing a 
      few things from the lab. Serena had a feeling a microscope and a few 
      slides, one with the strange blood, would come in very handy. Hiding the 
      items under her balled up coat, she was in the process of dumping it all 
      in the backseat of a cab when Darien pulled up along side.
      "Get in."
      Serena had never been so thankful to know a vampire. "Darien. I'm so glad 
      to see you." She chucked the things in the back seat and slid into the 
      passenger side. She looked over as he pulled away. "I take it you know 
      what's going on?"
      "Yes."
      Darien drove a way before he looked over his shoulder at the microscope. 
      "You do realize that I can get equipment that's much better than that, 
      right?"
      She looked at it and smiled guiltily. "I guess I took it out of spite. I 
      wasn't really thinking."
      He chuckled and shook his head. "I'll return it tonight."
      "Thanks." Serena watched the scenery flash past. "So what do we do now?"
      He looked over and smiled. "You come and work for me, of course."
      "I'm not going to be your harem girl am I?" she teased.
      "No!" he chuckled. "So you remember that do you?"
      "I'm beginning to." She thought about that kiss she remembered earlier and 
      touched her fingers to her lips. "Do you remember the very first kiss we 
      had?" Serena looked over when he didn't answer right away. His lips were 
      clamped shut as he concentrated on the dark road ahead. "You don't 
      remember?"
      There was silence, then a sigh, "Of course I do. How could I ever forget?"
      "I just remembered about an hour ago." She shivered. "I can still feel 
      what it was like."
      His hand reached over the gap between them and touched her cheek. "So can 
      I," he whispered.
      And even though their eyes made the slightest contact, Serena felt a jolt 
      of excitement streak through her.
      His hand slid down to hers and stayed there for the rest of the ride.
      They walked in the door and Darien started walking toward the dining room.
      "Darien? I thought we were going to get to work?"
      "How can we when you don't even know what that is? I thought we'd discuss 
      it over dinner." He held out his hand to her.
      She thought it over for a split second. She was hungry and the thought of 
      talking with him over another exquisite meal was very appealing. Serena 
      took his hand. "That sounds like a wonderful idea."
      Marta had already set up the dining room when they arrived. The meal was 
      laid out along with the gleaming cutlery and flickering candles. It looked 
      and smelled amazing.
      Darien pulled out her chair and made sure she was comfortable before 
      sitting down across the table from her. He smiled and looked her in the 
      eyes. "You are wondering what you would be doing for me."
      Serena nodded. "I am."
      He reached over and poured the wine into her glass and then into his own. 
      "You will be doing research for me."
      "Research?" she leaned forward. "Really? What kind of research?"
      "The kind that will eventually cure me." He sipped at his wine while he 
      waited for her response.
      "C-cure?" she spluttered. "You want me to cure you?" she shook her head. 
      "I would love nothing more than to help, but I don't have-"
      "Time? You have all the time you could ever need now that you're not 
      working. Equipment? I can provide you with whatever you need. All you have 
      to do is ask." Darien slowly glided a finger over the back of her hand. "I 
      have every confidence that we can do this together."
      Looking into his eyes, she could feel her own confidence rising. "It will 
      take some time. We don't even know what was done to you."
      "I knew you would say that." He reached down beside his chair and pulled 
      out a thick folder. "This is one of a hundred folders containing what I 
      know about my condition. I have been doing tests on myself over the years 
      in hopes of curing myself. I think we are quite close now."
      Serena flipped through a few pages. "I'll get started tonight."
      "Great. I will work with you of course."
      "That would be great. I'll need all the help I can get." She thought back 
      to how Alan wanted her to work with him and remembered the other blood 
      samples.
      "Other samples?" he looked interested. "What other samples?"
      "There were some very strange blood samples Alan gathered at the 
	hospital."
      "Strange? How?"
      "They weren't human. That's about the best way to say it." She reached 
      into her coat and pulled out the slide she'd taken from the lab. "This is 
      one. There was another but I don't have it with me."
      Darien nodded as if contemplating something and continued eating.
      The rest of the meal was pleasant but silent. They both knew that the 
      other was thinking about the daunting task at hand.
      Serena couldn't eat anymore; she was too excited and nervous about trying 
      to cure Darien. She put down her fork and looked at him.
      "I take it you're done eating then."
      Serena nodded.
      Darien stood up and held out his hand to her. "Let's get to work then."
      Serena blinked and focussed on the weathered pages again. It was her 
      fourth time reading them and it was closing in on five in the morning. 
      Reaching over for the coffee, she poured some while reading the last few 
      entries again.
      "I'll get that." Darien strode in next to her and poured the coffee. "How 
      is it coming along?"
      Serena rotated her shoulders, then her head. "Not too bad." She looked at 
      him with bleary eyes.
      Darien chuckled and took the papers from her. He looked at them, then at 
      her, and shook his head. "I guess I was a better teacher than I thought."
      Puzzled, Serena looked at them and didn't see anything out of the 
      ordinary. "What?"
      "Look at it again. But this time really look at the words."
      Serena did as he asked. It took her a moment before she saw what he was 
      talking about. It was written in Atlantian and she hadn't even noticed. 
      Serena laughed tiredly, "Yeah, I guess you
      are." Amazed, she stared at it a little longer. "I can't believe that I 
      can still read it."
      He took them again. "Come on. I think it's time for bed." Darien put his 
      arm around her shoulders and walked them down the hall. "Did you find 
      anything of interest?"
      Serena could see the log of tortures he had to endure clearly in her mind. 
      "You wrote of blindness in light?"
      "Yes. Hemeralopia, I believe, is the term you use now."
      Serena looked up at him and saw that he was teasing her. Of course he knew 
      the terms, he'd been studying it for hundreds of years. "Stop being a 
      pain. I also saw listings of some new abilities, like moving at great 
      speed and increased sensitivity of your senses."
      "Yes." Darien paused. He knew she was going to ask him a question.
      "Vampires have traditionally been attributed with certain qualities like 
      glasslike nails, hairy palms, etc. but you have none of those."
      He held his hand up so she could examine it. "None at all."
      Serena wanted to know something else but wasn't sure if she could ask it.
      "Of course you can." His voice was low and rough in the silence.
      She took a breath, "H--haematodipsia...do you experience it?"
      Darien shook his head. "No, I do not get aroused before, after or during 
      the time I feed." He let out an angst-ridden growl and turned her to face 
      him. "It's necessary for my survival but I take no pleasure in doing it."
      She was relieved to hear that. The thought of him enjoying himself while 
      taking a life was horrible.
      "Aren't you glad I'm not your typical vamp?"
      "Very." She was too tired to even contemplate what the 'typical' vamp was 
      like.
      He opened the door to her room and helped her into bed. Darien was about 
      to walk out of the room when Serena's voice whispered,
      "Tell me a story."
      Darien walked back to the bed and sat on the edge of it. "What kind of 
      story?"
      "Whatever." Her voice was heavy with sleep. "I just want to hear your 
      voice."
      He was silent for a moment before he began, running his fingers through 
      her hair and gazing at her peaceful face. "Once upon a time, long ago in 
      the perfect kingdom there was a king and a peasant girl. They came from 
      two completely different worlds and didn't even speak the same language, 
      but somehow they fell totally and utterly in love..."