“You will be okay, Taylor, I will make sure we find it and finish it. It can never hurt you again, I won’t allow it. I am so sorry. I should have been there to protect you. I never thought your new nature was so strong that it would lure in the demonic creatures out there. You should not have been alone, and for that I will never forgive myself.”
“It isn’t your fault,” I said.
Harland walked in.
“Yes, I agree with Elisha. It was her henchman. She needs to forget this,” he said.
Lucian nodded looking at me intensely. Elisha walked in behind Harland.
“Now, Lucian, she can’t live with this, not if it’s what we believe it to be. Remove it and I’ll clean up all sign of it. Her family needs to forget, too. I can’t keep them asleep any longer. Its unsafe, and you know that.”
“The packs already out hunting it. The moon is at its highest point, we have to remove all threat now or she'll never be safe,” Harland said with aggression.
“It’s her choice!” Lucian shouted.
He softened as he looked at me.
“Taylor...”
“Yes?”
“I can take away your pain, remove the memory of this ever happening, but you will not remember anything from the last few days.”
“No, I can’t, won’t, lose that. I must remember. I have to be stronger than this,” I said, pushing him back.
“Okay, of course. We will find Seine, and you can have the pleasure of ripping out its demonic heart. Does that sound better?”
“Perfect,” I smiled, finally.
It would pay. It would never harm anyone ever again, and I’d take pleasure in seeing its end.
CHAPTER 13
Stirring awake, I stretched and fumbled my way out of bed. I was tired, to say I hadn’t slept was an understatement. I hated sleeping in my room. Feared it, in fact. But with Harland and the pack patrolling outside, and Lucian lying next to me, I was safer than I’d ever been.
Lucian had only agreed that I could go home if he could stay with me. He felt bad, I could tell. It wasn’t his fault. He had a hero complex and whenever anything bad happened to me, he blamed himself. He didn’t really sleep either, just laid there stone cold, unmoving. He looked dead, to be honest. But even as a dead looking Lucian, he was still handsome. What was it about him? I couldn’t help but stare, tracing my fingers over his torso. Together we were perfect, together we were amazing, and together, Lilith’s beastly pet and henchman Seine didn’t stand a chance. I don’t think he’d ever leave me alone again. This was it, this was us, united forevermore.
“Taylor, you’re awake. How are you feeling?”
“Tired and achy, but alive and ready to make that thing pay.”
“That’s my girl,” he exclaimed, “and we will, don’t you worry!” He paused. “But for now, I believe you have a date with Rowena, dress shopping.”
Her car horn pipped outside.
“Damn, I’m late!”
“I’ll see you in York, my love. I’ll be watching from afar.”
“If I didn’t like you, I’d be creeped out by that.” I laughed as he jumped out of the bedroom window.
Taking a few steps, I felt wobbly, achy, too. Lucian's blood had helped but it didn’t remove the aches and pains. That took human time to heal. My room gleamed, looked immaculate, in fact. Elisha had done a good job. There wasn’t a speck of dust anywhere. After a few minutes, I headed over to the mirror, and as the sunlight shone through, I looked at myself. My perfected body, built with seduction in mind. As I stood there and saw the person before me, with her big hazelnut eyes and bouncy locks, I made myself smile. Positivity, Taylor, you can do this!
Rowena beeped the horn outside again as I ran down, kissing my dad goodbye. We were off to York to find the perfect dress for the Yuletide dance. I had to admit, I’d been looking forward to a girly shopping trip, a time where life went back to normality. Away from all the monsters and back to partying and prepping for university.
Stonebridge Academy was a great place, but it would be my last year there. I planned to head to university next, probably in York, so I was still close to home for Dad and Caleb, and of course, Lucian. He and I, we were two peas in a pod. His peculiar family accepted me and he’d promised to show me the world. He wanted the best for me. He had pushed me to apply for University after I’d told him about my mother and how she had spent her life helping people. He said I could, too, no matter what I was, I could always devote my life to the greater good. The lists of careers in the service were endless; doctors, surgeons, nurses, police officers, the army, or fire fighters like my father. But for me, well, I had the caring nature my mother was born with, and with it, I wanted to hold the hand of people who felt alone. I saw myself helping people that hid in a world full of darkness, our world the realm beyond all realms. Lucian believed that one day I would be able to travel through the realms. I must admit, I did feel like a super hero when he said that.
Rowena kept chatting away as usual.
“I’m so excited about the dance. Do you think Ricky would like blue?”
Ricky was the boy from the fair, he’d asked Rowena to the Yuletide ball earlier that semester. The date at the fairground had played a huge part in that, she had been bouncing on air ever since.
“Yes, I bet he would.” Although, to be honest, I had no clue what Ricky would like. I didn’t really know much about him.
“So, where are we heading?” I said as we arrived, leaving the car down a side street.
It was cold and wispy outside with the autumn leaves rustling across the courtyard ahead. It was the area where the pied piper played his tune and the Femme Fatale danced a distressingly beautiful dance of death. It left a sickening taste in my mouth. I wasn’t exactly sure why, because after all, I had gained a perfected body from this alluring experience.
“Just down this back alley there’s a fabulous little boutique with exquisite dresses at amazing prices!”
“It sounds great. Lead the way,” I said, intrigued.
The bell rang as we entered a kooky little shop. The older lady at the till gave us a wave and a gracious smile as Rowena pulled me along and over to a rack of dresses. There were so many beautiful dresses before me, every colour you could imagine. But why were the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end? Why did I feel like Gretel standing before the house of candy? Something felt wrong.
“Rowena, have you found anything?” I asked, uncertain of her whereabouts.
“In here, Taylor!” she shouted from the changing room while the shopkeeper stood watching me, licking her lips.
Shuddering, I headed in, tripping over a rack of coats and falling to the floor as a gust of wind burst through the shop. Lucian knelt before me, catching me as I fell.
“Lucian!” I exclaimed as he smiled, catching me safely in his arms.
“What?” Rowena said, opening the curtain, standing in her underwear before us.
Screeching and swearing, she pulled the curtain shut. Lucian smirked and we both laughed, looking at each other
“The blue one, Rowena,” he said as he picked me up.
The lady came in, still licking her lips, her long nails scoring the sides of the wall as she slithered in to the changing room, stomach growling and saliva flowing in anticipation. She stopped dead still, deathly quiet, before Lucian, who had instantly pounced in front of me. Lucian growled under his breath and the lady backed off.
“Taylor, it’s time to leave.”
“Oh, okay,” I said, feeling a little uneasy about this situation. What was the lady before me? She looked human, but clearly had a more twisted side than she showed. “Rowena, are you ready?”
“Yes, coming,” she said as she backed out of the cubicle, flustered after changing so quickly.
“Everything all, right?” Rowena said as she eyed Lucian glaring at the shopkeeper.
“Yes,” Lucian said. “Time to go.”
“I’m going for the blue one after all, it
is quite beautiful.”
“Good choice” Lucian didn't take his eyes off the shopkeeper, who still stood perfectly unmoving.
The lady backed off slowly to the till, took the dress, and as Rowena paid the shopkeeper, she would not take her eyes off me. Lucian growled again, making Rowena jump.
“You ought to get that cough looked at, Lucian,” Rowena said as we left the store.
The bell tingled as the door slammed shut and a ‘closed’ sign went up. Locks locked, and lights went out.
“Weird!” Rowena said, peering back in through the window.
“Indeed, there are a few weirdos in York.” Lucian exclaimed as I nodded in agreement, linking hands with Lucian and heading back over the courtyard towards the car.
“But Taylor, you didn’t find a dress How could you not find a dress in that shop? They have everything you could ever imagine!” Rowena stated, realising I hadn’t bought anything for myself. To be perfectly honest, I had completely forgot.
“It’s okay,” Lucian said, “I have already bought something for you. I planned to bring it along to our date tonight.”
“Aww, now that is so sweet!” Rowena cooed.
“Thank you, Lucian,” I blushed, kissing him on the cheek. A date too! I was excited and intrigued as to where we would be going.
“I’ll take her home.” Lucian declared as he opened his car door for me.
“Of course. Thanks, Taylor! I can’t wait to see your dress.” She said before she drove off waving.
Jumping in the car, Lucian started driving us back home.
“So, who was the lady in the shop, really?” I asked. I’d become suspicious of all ‘humans’ lately.
“She looked like a witch, but not the fairy-tale type. These witches are cannibals. Pure evil. Killing for fun rather than necessity. This coven feeds on the flesh of weary travellers and bathe in their blood.”
“That’s horrible!”
“There are so many evils in this world, Taylor, it's a wonder any humans survive to live another day.”
Lucian dropped me back home to change and spend a little time with my family. I felt like I had hardly seen them lately and looked forward to showing Dad how to cook spaghetti bolognaise, my mother’s favourite.
Spending time together was important. Caleb laughed as Dad tried flipping the spaghetti. I tried to tell him that you flipped pancakes, but spaghetti flips sounded fun, too.
“No, Dad, not like that.” I laughed as he added a little too much salt to the recipe.
“Ha, it’ll be fantastic, young daughter!” He laughed as he added extra pepper as well.
Dinner was served and, surprisingly, wasn’t bad. Dad joked how he was now the best cook in the house. I told him Mum would have been proud, as we all smiled, finishing the last of the spaghetti.
Dad had told me there had been another girl missing. She was in my year, too. It was worrying. I had promised never to walk the streets alone, and just to ensure my safety, Dad announced several ways to get out of sticky situations. One being the headlock, which he demonstrated on Caleb, just in case the creep gave a girl a headlock. It was amusing, if not interesting, and perhaps with Lucian's training I could stand to fight a little longer. I could only presume it was Seine or the beast that took Pearce that night.
I kissed my family goodbye as I headed out to Lucian, who opened the car door for me, ready for our date. He sat for a moment, looking at me, smiling away.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yes, always when I’m with you.” He smiled warmly, placed one hand on my thigh, and then we sped off to our date's destination.
I rested my head on his shoulder, staring at the evening sky through the sunroof. The light began to dim as I snuggled safely against the arm of my lover. It didn’t take too long to get there and I enjoyed the quiet, listening to the sounds of the wind race by, out on the open road in a pristine condition classic car. Life was wonderful.
Arriving beside a deserted moorland, I had no clue where we were or what we were doing there. But opening my door and pulling me up, Lucian flung me onto his back and raced along at a breath-taking speed. I gripped him tightly, falling more in love one step at a time.
We stopped beside an old relic, a stone circle with twelve raised stones; all built from the Earth up. Placing me down beside the largest stone, he turned to me.
“I have brought you here to share something with you. This is part of who I am, the history of my race.”
“Okay,” I said.
He walked over to one of the large stones.
“This here is where Lilith stood. She claimed this space to defend her children from God, protecting them forever more. She vowed to never again let another one of her children fall, and with that, she created her own Disciples.”
“The first of their kind?” I asked.
“Yes. As you know, I’m one of the Disciples. All of the Darkwaters are. One of my names was once Mochlan.”
“I know that name.”
“Yes, you’ve seen the hammer I once wielded at the academy.”
“What about Victoria Bane. Her scythe was there, too.”
“She was an angel of Eve's, a Disciple of sorts. I was very fond of her, but sadly, she perished and returned to Heaven.”
“I’m sorry she died,” I said.
“Thank you. There was a battle among the races. The Disciples and Angels tried to come together to keep the peace between our sides, but it wasn’t so. There were spies in the ranks. The whole plan fell apart and millions were killed, whole races extinguished. Some even say humanity nearly came to its finale. There was a lot of carnage to clean up. Lilith disappeared, she went underground. This is the last place her and Eve were seen together.”
“Where are they now?”
“I don’t know for sure, but it’s rumoured that Lilith and Eve live among us, under both human and supernatural kin, defending their true nature until the final battle comes.”
“What’s the final battle?” I said, thinking back to the dream I had where the angels and demons fought in a battle of pain and purity.
“It’s said that the final battle will be the end of mankind, their Armageddon. Many of our kind look forward to this day, but not me. I quite like their blood supply,” he laughed. “Anyway, enough of me. It is time, ma cherie, for our first date.”
He whipped out a white lace blanket in the centre of the circle, lit candles he had placed on each of the twelve stones, and reached in to his bag, pulling out plates of traditional picnic food that smelled delicious.
Hours passed as we sat laughing at time gone by, considering the past, present and the future. We talked about where we would go from there as I explained I had taken his advice and started looking at courses at York University. The idea of a little place together sounded good. Somewhere we could be as one but still in touch with humanity as I studied for the future, helping the mortal race. I planned to look at studying as a doctor, like Lawrence. I wanted to cure the sick and perhaps open a night shelter for the homeless, the sick, and the dying, treating their ailments and giving them somewhere to stay for the night.
“What was it like in London at night, Taylor?”
“Night time in London could be a pretty scary place to be. Even more frightful now, as I know about what actually lives in the shadows.”
“The night shelter sounds like a beautiful idea, something I am sure your mother would have been proud of.”
“Thank you,” I gushed. “I would love to follow in my mother’s footsteps, although she was certainly a better artist than me.”
I laughed. She was, her talent was out of this world. She had an air for beauty and portrayed the darkness of the world with such wondrous intent.
Taking in the romantic setting, we rested against the greater stone as the sun began to set across the moors. He kissed my forehead and then lifted my chin, slowly and gently, up to his own.
The candles flickered as he kissed me smoothly. My heart skippe
d a beat as he pulled closer, studying my face, stroking my hair. Moments passed, and with the romantic candle light caressing his face, he warmed before me. his ice blue eyes met my own as he took in every ounce of my being.
“You are so beautiful, Taylor Lane, inside and out.”
“Thank you.” I smiled.
“Always. You deserve so much more than me.”
“But I only ever want you, Lucian.”
“You make me the happiest monster on this Earth,” he smiled. “You are mine and I am yours. I’m in love with you. I have been since the first time I ever saw you.”
I gushed. He said he loves me, and I love him too, but should I say it. I needed to say it, I wanted to say it.
“I love you, too, Lucian.” I smiled with reddened cheeks and panting breath.
That evening, after Lucian bought me home and kissed me good night, I felt all squishy inside. He’d told me he loved me. Butterflies caressed my stomach as I settled down to sleep, safely and soundly on clean, crisp white sheets.
In the land of dreams, I travelled through many stories. But one stood out amongst all the others.
It started at a funeral. An empty, cold funeral.
Walking into the church, I felt the breeze curl around my body. At the back, the casket lay open, exposing the aged corpse to all that would come to say goodbye. Alone, except for my love, I let go of his hand and walked forward towards her, towards me.
As I walked, I could sense the emptiness that the coffin displayed. She was me, but an older version, writhed with darkness and dismay and laid out on show. She was displayed like a doll in a case, caged up and broken.
For her age, her skin should have worn with deep wrinkles, raised with each vein that crossed the back of her hands, flourished with liver spots. The first part of her decaying corpse that stopped me dead in my tracks were her hands. They were puffed up and swollen, like a surgical plastic glove that someone had blown up. There was not one wrinkle in site as they lay there adorned with blackened fingernails, cradling her shallow body across her stomach, one on top of the other.
The Celestial Rose BoxSet Page 13