A smile tugged at his lips. "I know darlin, I wish you could. But you need to go back! You can come back later this evening, I promise I'll be waiting." He kissed her lips softly.
She slowly came awake, wanting nothing more than to stay snuggled next to his big warm body. "NO! I don't want to go back!"
"You have to darlin. You need to work things out with your friends back there. Now come on, I'll walk you back." Reluctantly she got up and dressed for the long walk back home.
Judy had never been happier. Although it was still early, she went to the kitchen. "May as well put the coffee on!" She thought, a satisfied smile on her soft swollen lips. Humming to herself while waiting on the coffee, she was unaware of Kane having joined her, til he spoke.
"Oh Kane, you startled me!" She looked lovely and happy even though she'd had almost no sleep at all.
Kane studied her, as he sat down in the chair next to hers. He looked down at his clasped hands, wondering how to begin. She wasn't gonna like what he had to say, but her life might depend on it.
"Did you stay with Trace last night? I know this is none of my business, but I need to know!"" He asked, as he accepted the coffee she handed him. The guarded look she gave hm, as she sat down, was answer enough.
"Kane, no offense, but where I spend my nights and who I spend them with are really none of your business or anyone elses." She was beginning to get angry again.
"Please don't get mad! Your life may be in danger, that's why I was asking! Now, did you?" His soft husky voice was so much like Taker's. His eyes looked deep into her, searching for and finding the truth.
Her eyes glittered with anger, yet she knew Kane wished her no harm or hurt. Judy sighed deeply, looked down at her cup, before returning Kane's steady gaze.
"Yes, I was with Trace last night. I will be again tonight too. Why? How is he a danger to me?" She waited for his reply, no longer angry, but still irritated. Lifting her cup, and taking a sip of coffee, her eyes never left his face. How to tell Her? How to tell this tender-hearted, sensitive woman, that the one she chose is a monster! Kane looked down at the coffee he hadn't touched, before answering.
"Trace belongs to a secret community! I'd heard of them through my time with Paul Bearer. In his line of work, you hear all kinds of strange stories. But Trace's name came up in several of them, the worst of them usually. None of which were pretty. Judy, he's a vampire! One of the worst kind! Story goes, he had a wife once. Name of Liza. You look like her. She met a violent death. He almost lost his mind in his grief, then one night, he was attacked and left for dead, back in his native Louisanna. The Vampire Colony was drawn by the smell of his blood, and, well, they made him one of their own. Story goes, he gives monster a whole new meaning."
Judy could not, no, WOULD NOT believe what she was hearing! "Kane, that is the biggest bunch of bull shit I ever heard! Vampires! A colony! Please!"
Kane stood up, and with a speed that belied his size, had her hair pulled away from her neck, and was jerking the neck of her sweater down off her shoulder.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She demanded as she pulled away from his grasp. Angery all over again. Staring at him with eyes that let him know that she thought he'd lost his mind. With jerky movements, she rearranged her sweater, looking at him accusingly. "You were looking for his mark!" She stated flatly. Kane hadn't found one, thoughly confused by that fact.
Judy continued to stare at him for a moment, then turned away, seeking out the privacy of her bedroom. "Kane must have lost his mind!" She thought as she climbed the stairs.
Kane cornered his brother as soon as he came down for breakfast. He knew he wasn't mistaken about Trace. Judy had to be protected, even if it meant from herself. He had grown fond of her. She always had a kind word, or a joke to share. He, also, suspected she was lonely.
"Trace is a Vampire. And Judy has fallen under his spell." Kane did not mince words with his brother, feeling Taker was partly to blame. A startled gasp drew both men's attention to Kaliegh. She was standing just inside the doorway, right behind Taker.
"How can this be?" She managed to get out. Fear and worry evident in both hers and Takers eyes.
Kane related the entire story to them both. Not leaving anything out, telling them things he had been unable or unwilling to tell Judy, for fear of antagonizing her completely.
"So she must not be allowed to return to him." Kane felt drained when he'd finished.
"Where is she now?" Taker asked quietly, his expression unreadable.
"In her room, I guess. She went upstairs awhile ago!" Kane replied.
"What can we do?" Kaliegh was afraid. Afraid for them all, but mostly afraid for her friend.
"It all depends on how badly he wants her!" Kane replied.
Judy slept most of the day, totally exhausted. She awoke shortly after 4:00 p.m. and Trace was the first thought she had. Smiling to herself as she dressed, she thought of their meeting in just a couple of hours. Damn, she felt like a teenager getting ready for a first date. All excited and giddy inside! Trace was a remarkable man, and just what she needed right now. Why on earth would Kane make up such an impossible story? Her good humour disappeared as she left her room and went downsairs.
Taker was waiting for her to come down. As she entered the living room, she noticed no one else was around. She barely acknoledged Taker's presence, still angry with him, as she headed for the kitchen. Helping herself to a cup of STRONG coffee, she sat down at the kitchen table, preferring that, to making polite conversation with Taker! But no such luck! He joined her there helping himself to a large glass of iced tea.
Sitting down beside her, he knew she was still angry with him. He also knew that what he was about to tell her would make her angrier still. With a sigh, he thought about how to begin.
"Where is everybody?" She asked cooly, keeping her eyes down, as she placed her cup on the table.
"They are giving us this time to talk." His piercing green eyes looked at her intently.
"I don't see that there is anything to talk about! Seems to me everything has been said already. At any rate, I think my time here is about over. Any way, I'll be leaving soon, for good." She said calmly, almost cold in her reaction to him. She never would have thought that he would leave her cold!
"I can't let you meet Trace. I WON'T let you meet him tonight or any other night." His quiet words held a note of finality to them.It was not a request or an order, but he was simply stating a fact.
Through narrowed eyes, Judy glared at the man she would have done anything for up until a few days ago. Now, it was like looking at a stranger. Her entire body was as rigid and unyielding as a steel rod. Her anger was at it's peak, yet she felt oddly betrayed, by this man, in a way his relationship with Kaliegh had not caused. With sadness, and regret, she looked at this man, for perhaps the last time!
"Taker, I've loved you for a long time. I've tried to please you in all things and to do your bidding. But you have no say in this, not now, not ever. You can not stop me from leaving here and you know it! If you don't, then you better figure it out! I had hoped we could part as friends, but I see that won't be possible! Good-bye, Taker! Have a nice life!"
As she stood up to leave, Judy never saw the right hook coming. He caught her limp form easily, and carried her back upstairs to her room. He laid her out on the bed, and left the room, locking the door behind him with a key Kane had given him.
Kaliegh jerked her door open as soon as she heard his knock on her door. She had been anxiously pacing back and forth, wondering what was happening. Taker looked awful! He looked as though he'd aged twenty years just in the last couple of hours. He took her in his arms and held her tight against him. "It is done. She will hate me for what I've done to her." Taker said tiredly.
Kaliegh hugged him, and gently stroaked his hair, at a loss as to what to say to ease his guilt. "It's for her own good. You may have saved her life. Just keep that thought." She said softly.
************
Judy awoke a short time later and felt her swollen jaw, knowing instantly what had happened. Taker had knocked her out. And she knew without checking that her door would be locked. Slowly, she swung her legs over the edge of the bed and thought about how she was going to get out of this room! Glancing toward the window, she noticed several tree limbs dancing in the slight wind that was blowing. With a grim smile, she had her answer!
Trace had just came out of his hiding place below ground. when he sensed anothers presence. It wasn't the woman, Judy, but a man's presence. He'd been found out somehow.
Judy approached the clearing where she had met Trace. But something was wrong. Bits of red cloth, and what appeared to be blood was all over the place. Kane! Looking about frantically, she saw him sitting up looking the worse for wear. Running over to him, she asked if he was alright.
Shaking his head as though to clear it, he replied "Yes, I'm fine. What are you doing here? Taker was suppose to keep you at home until I returned!"
"He tried." she said flatly."Can you stand? What happened here? And where is Trace?" Judy was alarmed by the look of the campsite. Obviously a fight had occured. But where WAS Trace?
"Right behind you!" The low gutteral voice sent shivers of fear along her spine. Slowly she turned around, afraid of what she was going to see, yet knowing she had to.
Kane rushed passed her, engaging the monster in battle once again. She noticed for the first time what appeared to be some type of spear in Kane's hands. Even as she watched, Kane got the opening he needed and drove the spear deep into the chest of Trace. With a horrified cry, Judy ran forward, intent on trying to remove the awful thing. Without warning, Trace grabbed her to him, and sank his long pointed teeth deep into her jugular. Her life's blood gushed from the twin wounds, even as Trace died almost as soon as his convulsing body hit the ground.
Judy sank to her knees, weak from loss of blood and from the shock of what she'd seen. Kane rushed over to her and eased her to the ground. Lifting dazed eyes to his, she asked Kane if he too, had been bitten.
"No. I think I was able to surprise him. I'll get you back to the parlor, then come back and finish what has to be done!" Even as he talked, he was useing whatever he could find as a compress for her wounds, attempting to stop the flow of blood. Trace had done a good deal of damage.
"No! You finish here. See it done!" She whispered weakly, an awful knowledge present in her eyes.
Taker and all the Brides arrived about the time Kane lit the bon fire cremating the body of Trace. He didn't notice their arrival, his only concern in getting Judy back to the house. Kane was preparing to pick her up, when Taker's voice stopped him.
"What happened!" He demanded, angry at what he saw.
Judy appeared to have passed out, either from shock or loss of blood. The compresses Kane had applied were already saturated. Kane was telling the tale when a startled cry from Nikki brought all eyes back to Judy! Her eyes were open, but they were not HER eyes any longer. She looked around as though disoriented, then her gaze settled on Taker.
With a cat-like hiss, she was on her feet and took a few runing steps toward the big man, then stopped. A look of intense pain contorted her features. A strangled scream escaped her lips. A tortured look entered Judy's eyes as she stared into Taker's green ones. "Please, end this now!"
Kane took a step forward, but was stopped by the other man. Taker was remembering her last words to him, How her time there was nearing an end. Reluctantly, Taker came forward, carrying a spear like the one Kane had used earlier.
"Taker, if you ever cared for me at all, I beg you, please don't let me become like that!" Judy's clear blue eyes stared up at him, silently begging him to end her torment, to release her soul.
Pain filled her body as the transformation continued. Screaming in agony, Judy fell to her knees, as her body began to die, but not a true death. She was becoming one of the un-dead. A Vampire! Her eyes were changing. One moment, they were hers, the next, they belonged to a monster. The Brides were all huddled together, tears running down their faces, terrified.
"Taker do something!" Kane said softly.
Reluctantly, he raised the spear, and drove it deep, all the way through her body. Screaming and convulsing as Trace had, Judy's agony lasted a few minutes, but seemed to Taker to go on for hours. Taker knelt down beside her, tears running down his face. Judy lifted her eyes to his one last time.
"I've always loved you! Thank-you!" Judy took her last breath looking into his eyes and holding the hand of her Lord of Darkness.
Taker and the Brides cried openly and freely over the loss of this most tender-hearted Bride. Taker feeling the loss most. Kaliegh knelt down beside the big man.
"She has found peace at last. Taker, she was happy only when she was near you. But look at her face, now."
And Taker did, finally, look into Judy's face. There he saw a look of serenity. She had a half smile on her soft pink lips. Kaliegh was right. She looked as though she had found peace. At long last, peace! Taker sat back on his haunches and let the tears fall. His grief over her loss would be a long time going.
Book Twenty of The Undertaker's Brides© 1998 by The Brides of Darkness
**This story cannot be used in any way without written permission