Time passed by slowly, my numbing emotionless façade began to fade. Shock had taken its toll and I picked up the little that remained of her half-human corpse with every effort to find a suitable place to bury her. She deserved an honourable burial, after all, she had suffered so very much and in such a short time. She was now part of my life. The moment was inscribed eternally on my timeline, something I would always look back on, see clearly, and remember every disturbing detail.
I found myself walking in a daze back to the camp; freezing cold, soaking wet from the rain, and covered in the blood. I still carried her seared body in my arms. There wasn’t much left, it didn’t weigh all that much anymore, but after a while my arms wobbled and waned as I tumbled, falling to the ground.
I listened attentively as Lucian sprang up, aware of my demise. Something warned him. He needed to find me, to get to me.
I was so tired, worn down, and shaking from the cold, completely taken over by shock at that point. My body iced over as my soaked clothes began to freeze. The night brought in a storm of fire and ice, but even my fiery core could not ignite to keep me warm anymore.
There I lay, so close to help, wanting to shout out for the Darkwaters, for Lucian. But I couldn’t. My body began to conserve its energy, shutting down and cocooning itself as I lay next to the girl I had killed. I realised my stomach was bleeding, the blood was not from the girl but my own. It must have happened when the dying girl reached out, and I reached to save her.
Dead to the touch with a glossy shimmer of frost, I died. The skies misted with tears of sorrow as my heart slowed to a steady pace, haltering, slowing, missing a beat, and slowly ending. The rush of colour in my face dissipated as my energy left my body leaving it sallow and empty. My eyes glazed over with their last sparkle of human life and I faltered over the love I once knew, running forth to save me once again.
Death became a fallacy. I had died so many times in the past. It was becoming a chore, a burden, something I kept seeming to go through. If a beast did not maul my body, then a fallen girl ended it, or a shadeling, or humanity’s own terrorists. Life was a joke, non-existent. I was able to come back from every possible death, just by having a Dark One in my corner, and today was no different.
My eyes felt heavy as I fluttered them open, closing them again suddenly as the light of the campfire bleached my retinas. The irritation of pain slinked through my body like a serpent coiling around its next meal. Thinking about meals, I was hungry, hungry for more. My mouth tasted bloody with a hint of metal escaping my lips.
I could tell it was Lucian's blood that consumed me, his arms that I lay cradled in. He would always be my saviour, as I was his light in the darkness.
“Taylor, come back to us.” Lucian softly spoke.
I stuttered.
“Ah, thank Lilith.” Nic’s voice arose. “TayTay, you scared us.”
“Indeed,” Lawrence said sternly.
Julian grunted in the background, the ever quite one who was stood over the crispy corpse of Sarah from earlier.
“What did you do?” Elisha screeched.
Lucian continued to cradle me, protecting me from the elements as he sat listening to the others talk and argue about what had happened. To me, it was all a droning noise merging into one another
Then he spoke.
“Taylor, what was she?”
“I,” I paused, catching my breath, “I hoped you could tell me that.”
“What happened?”
So I told him, walked him step by step through the events of the evening. He listened in both awe and sorrow.
“You did the right thing,” he said as he stroked the wisps of hair from my face, kissing my tears away. “I'm sorry I was not there by your side.”
“You can’t protect me forever, Lucian, but you're always there to save me.”
“Yes, I feel I need to work on my timing.” He smirked as I managed a curdled laugh, gargling back blood in my throat.
“How do I look? Was it bad?”
“I’m surprised you made it as far as you did with an injury like that, but it's healed now.”
After surveying the corpse, Lawrence made his way back over with Julian in tow.
“It appears that she was one of the missing girls. It must have been a Lycan that attacked her, and as with all Lycans, most females do not survive the change.”
“But it wasn’t a Lycan.” Lawrence looked puzzled as I continued. “She was changing before a full moon and whatever she was changing into was twice the size of a Lycan. It was as if the beast itself was clawing its way out.”
“Seriously, TayTay?” Nic grimaced as I nodded.
“I’ll call Harland, check that his family are all accounted for, just to be safe.”
“Okay Lucian, but it wasn’t them. It looked like the beast from before.”
The evening continued with a discussion of the girl’s painful attempt at a change and all the family agreed it was the right thing to do, ending her misery. But to me, it didn’t feel right. The beast that did this to her was eviller than I could have ever previously imagined. I thought the shadelings were the worst of all creatures out there, but now we knew that the beast existed, and it was frightful. Especially since it was trying to birth a new generation of beasts through mortal girls. All it took was one bite.
Strangely enough, though, I slept soundly that night, nuzzled in the arms of my lover. We had escaped to our tent early in the evening, leaving the others to proclaim their thoughts upon each other.
I was a mixture of emotions combined with the heightened sense of Lucian's blood flowing through my body. I wanted, no, I needed him. Combining all those emotions into one orgasmic dance expelled sexual desire throughout the tent that cocooned us. I was more aware and could not only feel, but hear and taste every gasp, every swallow, every drip of sweat as it ran down my naked body. Our desire came out through our fiery sex life. It was the excitement of devotion that strung us together, knowing that neither could live without the other.
Afterwards, when I was truly worn out, pleased and paradisaically at ease with the world, I knew that I could sleep soundly in the arms of my lover. He did not sleep, he always remained awake contemplating life, listening to the sound of my heart beating one beat at a time.
The morning sunlight shimmered through the fabric of the tent as I awoke stretching.
“What time is it?” I asked.
“Morning, beautiful. It’s just quarter past ten.” He smiled, kissing my forehead. “I believe Elisha has made you breakfast.”
“Really?” I exclaimed, a little shocked.
Elisha boomed outside the tent.
“Yes, really, Taylor. I thought your naked self would enjoy something to eat after all the calories you burned last night.” Nic laughed in the background.
I shied. “Oh, was I?”
“No,” Lucian said, “you weren’t overtly loud, but a lot of us have super hearing. Remember?”
“Ah,” I smiled, feeling a little on show.
Slipping into fresh clothes, I sat on the log ready for breakfast. Elisha had prepared an aromatic delight of a feast, something to tantalise all taste buds. Lucian insisted on feeding me strawberries as we laughed about the previous evenings action between us, teasing each other once again.
“You two are like a pair of newlyweds,” Julian grimaced, causing everyone to laugh at his distaste.
Lucian sat staring at me, watching me with a look I didn’t quite recognise.
“Is everything okay, Lucian?” I asked curiously.
“Yes,” he replied sweetly, “I am just considering the future.”
He smiled. I looked at him and realised that all I wanted for the future was to be with him. It didn’t matter about the academy, grades or a good job, the mundane things humanity throws at us. I didn’t care if I was rich or poor. All I needed in life was him, just him, as he was right at that moment. For me, that was happiness right there, time together without the monsters of the night.
Later that day, the daylight started to wane as we journeyed home. The Darkwater camping trip had been a ‘different’ kind of experience.
We stopped on the way to bury Sarah beside an old oak tree, somewhere she would fertilise the Earth and grow again in the roots of another. The Darkwaters had found it a little pointless, but considering it was my first human kill, it was something they went ahead with to humour me. Lucian just wanted to do right by me, make sure I had a way of forgiving myself and accepting what I did was the right thing to do. He knew that by giving this girl her last rites, he would help me ease the grievances I had towards the whole event.
It was a quick, meaningless ceremony. After all, no one really knew her, she was a lost soul from a tortured death. But how could we let the police find her body like that? They wouldn’t understand the creature she was becoming, we certainly didn’t. Her remains would be sent to government laboratories for testing. She wouldn’t have had a dignified burial, or a burial at all. She would remain encased in glass in a museum somewhere for the weird and wonderful. It wasn’t a fate she deserved. It wasn’t a fate anyone deserved, let alone an innocent girl, taken against her will.
Home again, I slept, calmed from the knowledge I’d helped Sarah from the pain and eased her suffering. The burial was more of a chance to reconcile the thoughts within me, and I knew I’d done the right thing. But still, it wasn’t something I ever wanted to repeat. I could tell, though, things wouldn’t be getting any easier from then out.
CHAPTER 17
The next weekend my dad agreed to let me go away with the Darkwaters to York. They were taking me to a favourite club of theirs to celebrate my eighteenth birthday.
“Here we are,” Lawrence said, as we pulled up outside the Maynard Hotel.
Lucian whipped around to open the door for me, picked me up, and carried me inside. Two older ladies tutted as we giggled through the hotel lobby. I guess to them we looked like kids, ready for a night of partying and drunken sex. They weren’t wrong, except the kids’ part. I was officially eighteen, considered an adult, and Lucian was... well, I didn't know, but he was old.
Julian waltzed in, looking all prim and proper, dressed up for a night out on the town. He grimaced as he saw me.
“Keys, please,” Lucian said, as he waltzed up to the hotel desk smiling.
We checked in and agreed to meet the rest of the clan early in the evening for dinner. Lucian tipped the porter as he carried me in, closing the door behind us with his foot.
We entered the sitting room with an elegant cream chaise lounge with gold trimmings. In front, the window opened to the world, as he carried on to the bedroom with a four-poster bed and wood panelling.
“This will do nicely,” he said, throwing me on the bed. I bounced, laughing as he clambered on top of me. “It looks like another place we need to christen, Taylor Lane.”
With that, we ripped each other’s clothes off and grinded our way to pure euphoria, one exalting orgasmic moment at a time.
“In the past, Taylor, now would be the time I’d light a cigarette.” He smirked as he rolled off of me and I leant into his arm.
“I didn’t know you used to smoke.”
“We all did back when it was popular. Now its frowned upon as bad for your health,” he laughed.
“It’s not exactly like you have to worry about your health.” I smirked.
“Exactly my thoughts, but we can’t afford to stand out too much.”
Later that day, as I showered again, there was a knock at the door.
“Are you decent?” Elisha shouted through in to the bathroom.
“Just come in,” I said, with a towel wrapped around me, dripping wet.
“Your present, Taylor,” she said presenting me with a large rectangular red box, gracefully wrapped with a black silk ribbon.
“Oh, wow Elisha! You didn’t have to get me anything.”
“Yes, of course I did. What is a birthday without presents? It’s not exactly like we get a lot of those round here.” She laughed as I realised what she meant. “Open it then!” she demanded, her curt attitude as effective as ever.
Inside the box lay a blood red gown, an elegant dress with black lace across the chest, figure-hugging and devilishly delightful.
“This is stunning!” I wowed as Elisha clapped and demanded I put it on that minute.
“Ah, wait Taylor,” Lucian said, as he gave me a gift-wrapped bag from the couture shop I loved in London.
“What, really Lucian? I know how expensive these are,” I said as I pulled out a sexy set of black and red underwear, perfect for the dress Elisha had bought for me.
He smiled as he saw my face light up.
“Thank you so much, both of you! These are beautiful,” I said, hugging them.
“Okay, okay, try them on Taylor!” Elisha was eager to see her handiwork.
I slipped on the lace bra and panties and then the long dress as it shimmered, draping over my body.
“Are you ready yet?” Elisha questioned.
“Yes, one minute,” I said as I fastened up the lace bow. Opening the door, Lucian and Elisha fell silent, which was a shock as Elisha was rarely speechless.
“I must say, I have good taste, Lucian.” Elisha commended.
“You look exquisite,” Lucian remarked as he looked me up and down with hunger in his eyes.
“Less of that,” Elisha commanded as she left the room. “There had better not be one mark on that dress. Not till after tonight, anyway.” She smirked, leaving to get herself ready.
“Come here, honey.” Lucian growled.
“No, Lucian! I don’t want my dress tearing.” I laughed as his carnivorous hunger begged for my attention.
“I won’t damage your dress, now come here!” he demanded, laughing. I slinked my way over to him as he pushed me down, kissing me. “I do have a good choice in underwear,” he exclaimed, smiling the way he smiled when he wanted to play around.
Afterwards, we left the room hand in hand, ready to meet the rest of the Darkwaters for dinner.
“Wow, TayTay, you look hot!” Nicolas remarked.
“Erm, thanks Nic.” I smirked.
“You look beautiful, my dear,” Lawrence said as he kissed my cheek and held out the chair for me.
Lucian sat beside me as we all ordered our steaks rare with a bottle or two of red wine. The wine commended the steak with its subtle flavours of cherry and cranberry. Lawrence remarked over the history of the bottle, as he had been bought up centuries ago on a French vineyard.
It was official, I was now legally able to drink red wine and that felt good. I was on my way to the human definition of adulthood. It did, however, start going straight to my head. So much so that I giggled quite a lot and Lawrence ordered me a strong coffee to take the edge off. He apologised, as he had forgotten I still had the palate of a human being, as well as the metabolism of one.
After dining at the Maynard, Lawrence departed for his meeting with another clan, saying his goodbyes and wishing me a wonderful rest of the evening celebrations.
A pale looking, scrawny young man wearing a chauffeur’s cap wandered over to our table.
“Excuse me, are you Miss Lane?” he asked.
“Erm, yes, I am,” I hesitated.
“Then your limousine is waiting outside,” he said and then he wandered off.
I looked at the four Darkwaters sat round the table.
“Seriously, you got me a limousine!” I screeched, ecstatic at the thought. I had never been in a limo before. I knew it was going to be fantastic!
Lucian laughed, even Julian considered a smile, as we left the hotel and readied to enter the stretch limousine outside. The scrawny chauffeur opened the door for us and as he did a group of youths inside screamed, “TAYLOR!”
It was the gang from the academy all dressed up, and by the looks of it, already working on the champagne.
“Guys!” I gushed as I entered the limo.
Rowena rushed over
to me with Ricky in tow, giving me the tightest hug any friend could ever give.
“I’m so glad you're all here,” I said, addressing the group. In the limo, Rowena was with Ricky, Chase and Pearce were surrounding Jessie, and the twins were smiling in excitement.
“Happy birthday, Taylor!” everyone screamed, piling me high with a mountain of presents and champagne.
“Wow, guys, I’m so lucky to have you!”
“Lucian, did you get her that killer, hot dress?” Rowena asked.
“No, but we made use of it earlier,” he smirked. Rowena laughed as Elisha shot him a look of distaste.
“You look stunning!” Jessie remarked.
“So do you, Jessie!”
Then again, she always did. She was wearing a beautiful cream gown that accentuated her every curve and gorgeous, golden locks.
The limo drove around the city as we took in the sights, allowing an ample amount of time for present unwrapping and drinks. Rowena had found it amusing to buy me a leather whip and satin blindfold.
“Apparently, you could make use of these,” she chuckled, as I whipped Lucian across the buttocks.
“Thank you, everyone. This is amazing! How did you all even get here?"
“Lucian had the limo pick us all up,” Jessie said as Lucian smiled at me.
Lucian looked over, took my hand, and climbed over to sit behind me, as I perched between his legs.
“One last gift, Taylor Lane.”
“Not here, Lucian!” I whispered, worried he would rip off my clothes and mount me in front of everyone.
The Celestial Rose BoxSet Page 17