Rising from a crouch, a tall, red-haired woman stood to her full height. The female seemed to have dropped from the sky. Serenity stared in shock.
The newcomer took her breath away. Red hair sprung in wild curls around her face. Her porcelain skin was flawless, her eyes bright green. She was as slender as a catwalk model, with none of the extra bumps or bulges Serenity had been conscious of her whole life.
“What the…?” but Serenity couldn’t find the words.
The woman tossed her hair back and smirked. She eyed Serenity up and down, and Serenity shrunk beneath her gaze.
“He’s a fool for bringing you here,” she said, her voice tinged with a faint accent, her tone as smooth as warm honey. “I never thought he would be so stupid.”
“Who are you?” Serenity said, managing a hoarse whisper.
The red-head reached out and pushed Serenity’s hair away from her face, back over her shoulder, mimicking her own actions. Serenity jerked away.
“You’re just his little human pet.”
“What?” Though confused and frightened, her anger flared. “Who the hell are you? What are you doing in Sebastian’s house?”
“Oh, Sebastian and I are old friends.”
“Old friends?” Serenity didn’t think she’d imagined this strange and intimidating woman implied something more.
Surprise and laughter danced behind the woman’s strange, brilliant eyes.
“You don’t know, do you?” she laughed. “He hasn’t told you what he is?”
Serenity’s cheeks burned with shame. She hated that this woman seemed to know more about Sebastian than she did.
“I know enough.”
She laughed again and Serenity wanted to slap her perfect face. The laughter disappeared and her face grew hard.
“You have no idea what you’ve got yourself into.”
Guilt rose inside her like a tidal wave, heat coloring her skin further. The strange woman’s words rang in her head, ‘got yourself into...’
Anyone might have read the guilt on her face, but this woman’s perception was uncanny.
“Oh, don’t worry,” she said. “I know what you did to your husband but that’s not what I’m talking about.” She leaned in closer. “Are you so stupid you haven’t even noticed the things that are different about him?”
She reached out and grabbed Serenity’s hand.
Cold! So cold!
Serenity tried to pull away but the woman was freakishly strong.
“Recognize how cold I am? Just like Sebastian,” she said. “What about how he never sleeps? That he never eats or drinks?”
A flicker from her nightmare rose in her mind, but she shook her head, tossing the thought away. She didn’t want to know. Whatever it was, she didn’t want to know.
“Shut up,” she shouted, and the woman dropped her hand. “Just go away. Leave me alone!”
Serenity put her hands over her ears. Tears filled her eyes and streamed down her face.
“Little baby,” the woman spat. “What he does he see in you?”
Forcing herself to stand straight, Serenity wiped the tears away. “Get out of here,” she demanded, her voice hard.
The woman looked surprised, but it didn’t last for long. The smirk returned and she looked like Jackson had in the kitchen. Rage boiled through Serenity; a fissure of an underwater volcano.
Surprising herself, she lashed out, her palm flattened, fully intending to slap the obnoxious woman in the face, but her hand never made it that far. The woman caught Serenity’s wrist in a cold, hard, grip. It came out of nowhere; she hadn’t even seen the woman’s arm move. Her strength was unworldly and Serenity stared at her hand in a mixture of shock, amazement and horror.
She tried to pull away, but the woman held strong and her hand didn’t even budge. Her arm might have been bound in concrete.
“Tell Sebastian he’s playing with fire,” the woman said, her eyes narrowed. “Tell him I’ve met his little pet bitch now and if he doesn’t start behaving himself, I’ll make sure I undo all his good work.”
She hissed—actually hissed like a snake—and Serenity was sure she’d seen too much white between her perfect red lips.
The woman sprang away, leaping from Serenity with such speed she appeared as no more than a blur. Serenity caught sight of her again for the briefest of moments in the middle of the staircase and once again in the window, and then she was gone. Serenity felt the difference in the atmosphere, a palpable change in the way the air was charged.
She knew one thing for sure; whatever the woman was, human didn’t figure among her qualities.
Chapter Thirteen
Standing at the bottom of the staircase, Serenity trembled. Her heart raced and nausea swept over her. She bent over, certain she was about to lose her earlier binge all over the marble floor. Disorientated, her head swam and the room spun around her, as though she suffered from altitude sickness.
Her brain fought to process what she’d seen. The woman couldn’t have moved the way she had. It was impossible to move like that.
To move like Sebastian did.
Whatever Sebastian was—and she now thought ‘what’ as opposed to ‘whom’—he was the same as that horrible, terrifying red-head. They had the same porcelain complexion, strange eyes and uncanny strength. Of course, she couldn’t forget the coldness of their skin and the impossible way they moved.
Serenity’s stomach plummeted. She didn’t want it to be true. She wanted to push away the thoughts pressing down upon her, hide her head from the knowledge fighting to be heard. She didn’t know exactly what this meant but some part of her reality had shifted.
She hated the idea of the woman and Sebastian once being together. The thought filled her with a gut-wrenching, painful jealousy. She couldn’t get away from the fact the woman was stunning; a more than perfect match for Sebastian’s beauty. But Sebastian having lovers before wasn’t the only thing tormenting her. If he could be with someone so cruel and spiteful, what did that say about him?
It made her wonder; did she really know him at all?
Of course you don’t know him, the voice screamed in her head. How can you even worry about his old girlfriends when you don’t even know what he is?
Was he even real? Right now, Sebastian being a figment of her imagination was saner than the other possibilities currently nibbling at her mind like hungry fish.
She couldn’t even contemplate the other options.
Her legs gave way beneath her and she dropped to her knees on the hard marble floor. She covered her face with her hands. For the first time, the thought she might be in danger came to her. Danger from Sebastian? The thought didn’t sit right. He’d taken care of her. She’d not misread his kind treatment. The tenderness she saw in his eyes was real; the gentleness of his touch had not been a lie.
His cold touch.
She shivered again and this time she couldn’t stop. The shiver turned into a continuous shudder and her muscles tightened to the point of pain.
This whole time she’d managed to lie to herself about Sebastian, ignore and justify the strange things he did. She hadn’t wanted to see what he was, but couldn’t ignore the statuesque redhead.
If she couldn’t ignore the woman and she wasn’t crazy, then she had to believe what she’d seen. The woman’s movements, her strength and the things she had said.... Was she even human or was she something unreal? Something supernatural?
If she could believe the woman wasn’t human, then the same applied to Sebastian.
Fear and panic gripped her and Serenity clambered to her feet, desperate to get away. Tears blurred her vision. She wore no shoes but she ran for the front door, her only thoughts to get away from this madhouse as quickly as possible.
She wanted nothing to do with this madness.
Inside, her heart broke. She didn’t want to believe her thoughts—wasn’t even sure what she did think—but even as she ran, she desperately hoped Sebastian would find her again.<
br />
Serenity wrenched the front door open and stumbled down the steps onto the gravel drive. The cool air of the night hit her hot skin, making her terrible shaking worse.
Her bare feet crunched down the gravel driveway, the sharp stones cutting into the tender skin on the balls of her feet. Pain stabbed up through her legs as she ran toward the front gates.
She slammed into them, her hands pressed against the metal bars. Huge and imposing, the gates towered above her, impeding her escape. She wrapped her fingers around the bars and yanked at them, desperately trying to pull the gates open, but they didn’t budge. Then she remembered how, on the way in, Sebastian had opened them by using a button on his key fob.
Frantically, she scanned the stone walls on either side of the gates, looking for a panel containing a button to open the gates, but bare stone met her gaze. The only way to open the gates must be from inside the house.
Exhausted and scared, she pressed her forehead against the cold metal. Tears flowed down her face.
“Serenity?”
She froze at his voice, breath catching in her chest. In a moment, he stood behind her, his hand on her shoulder. His touch burned like liquid nitrogen, every synapse firing in alarm.
“Serenity?” he said again. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”
Filled with anger that now always seemed to bubble so close to the surface, rage she’d kept buried year after year, she spun around, dislodging his hand from her shoulder.
Everything about him was as she remembered, his broad shoulders, the faint lines between his eyes, his full lips. He hadn’t morphed into the fearful monster she had conjured in her head.
“You had a visitor,” she managed through her tears. “A woman—if you could call her a woman!”
The concern on his face turned to surprise, his eyes widening before narrowing in hate.
“Madeline!” he spat. His green eyes flashed a brilliant yellow, as though a firework had gone off somewhere in the distance and reflected in his eyes. “What the hell did she say to you?”
His anger frightened her, but she didn’t intend to back down. “Why?” she challenged. “What are you hiding?”
He glanced away. That was all the answer she needed.
“Just let me go,” she said, the anger fading, replaced by a thick tiredness. “Let me go and I won’t say a word to anyone.”
Again his eyes widened in surprise. “Let you go? Do you think I’m holding you against your will?”
She sniffed, suddenly feeling small and stupid. “Well, I can’t get out.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys. He depressed the button on the fob and, slowly and silently, the gates slid open.
“Well,” he said, his eyes shining. “I guess now you’re free.”
Serenity hesitated.
Her panic dissipated and as he stood before her, all six foot two of him with his startling eyes and generous mouth, she almost wondered why she’d been frightened of him at all.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to think,” she said, the tears threatening once again. “That woman—Madeline—she called me your ‘pet human’ and she moved so fast I couldn’t keep track of her. She was like you, Sebastian!”
He shook his head and she saw the pain in his eyes. “She’s nothing like me.”
“No? So where did you come from just then? Why didn’t I hear your footsteps on the gravel?”
Absurdly, he looked like he was going to cry. The expression looked strange on such a big man and it unnerved her.
“If I tell you the truth,” he whispered, “everything you think you know will change.”
Her stomach sank. Suddenly, she didn’t want to hear what he had to say.
Sebastian took her by the shoulders and dropped down so they were eye level.
“I’m not like you, Serenity. My life ended a long time ago.”
Tears filled her eyes. “What do you mean?”
“That woman, Madeline, she took me from my life. She used me, fed on me, and then when I was so close to death I begged for it, she turned me into what I am now.”
“What are you saying?” she managed, fear making her voice tremble. “What are you?”
“Vampire, Serenity. I am a vampire.”
“No! You’re crazy!”
His eyes locked on hers and they filled with sadness. “You know that’s not true.”
Overwhelmed, she fell against him and he wrapped his arms around her. Then she remembered what he’d said and fought, pushing against his chest.
“I don’t believe you,” she sobbed, terrified, horrified.
He held her up as she sagged at the knees, a puppet in his arms. “You have to believe me, Serenity. I don’t want to lose you.”
Pain and fear radiated from him. She wanted to use his pain, wanted to make him hurt, to prod at it like a hole in a molar. Suddenly, she wanted him to suffer.
“Lose me?” she barked at him and laughed; crazy, wild. Her fingers knotted in her hair and she stepped away. “You shouldn’t even exist! You’re not human! How the hell do you think you can lose something you never had?”
“I was once,” he said quietly.
That stopped her. “Was what?”
“Human.”
“But you’re not anymore.” She couldn’t hide the pleading tone to her voice, desperately hoping for him to laugh and say ‘gotcha’.
“Part of me still is. But other things are different now; how long I live for, my strength, what I eat to survive.”
“You kill people,” she whispered.
“So have you.”
Her breath caught in her chest. He was right, of course, but it was different with her, wasn’t it?
“Don’t use that one against me!” she said.
“Serenity,” he reached out, closing the distance between them, space that seemed wider by the minute. “Please, Serenity...”
“Don’t touch me!” She shook off his hand and stepped back. “I can’t do this. I just can’t.”
“Let me take you home.”
“I don’t want anything from you. I don’t even want to know you exist.”
He reached out again, but she jerked away from him, looking at his hand as though it were a snake about to strike.
He stared at her. “I would never hurt you. You must know that.”
“I don’t know anything anymore. What you are is not supposed to be real. It’s a myth, a fairytale, a horror story. You’re not supposed to exist!”
“I’m real, Serenity, as real as you are. The way I feel about you is real. I don’t blame you for being scared, I would be too, but it doesn’t change what I am.” He sighed, “I can’t help what I am.”
Her mouth dropped open in amazement. “Feel? How can you feel? You’re a freak and what, am I supposed to feel sorry for you?”
Emotions caught her in their grip, words spilling from her mouth. She wasn’t thinking, just reacting.
“At least let me take you home,” he offered again.
“Don’t come anywhere near me!” she screamed, her hands held up in defense. “I hate you! I wish I’d never met you!”
The pain her words caused was perceptible on his face and suddenly she was alone in the night, standing barefoot at the open gate.
Loss crashed in from all sides, the night empty without Sebastian. She cried out of confusion and turmoil. She wanted him to come back, at the same time terrified he would.
Her whole perception of reality lay destroyed on the gravel at her feet. She’d never believed in ghosts. Had struggled with the whole ‘God and the Devil’ thing. Now she was being forced to believe in something out of a nightmare and it was all contained within a man she thought she might love.
She didn’t know what to believe.
The loss Serenity felt was also for the possibility of the future she’d dare to hope for with Sebastian. A good, happy future.
She had lost everything that mattered.
She should have kno
wn better than to hope. Since when did anything in her life come to any good?
Serenity glanced back at the house. What had previously seemed grand now looked obnoxious and imposing. She briefly contemplated going back to get her things but couldn’t face it. Part of her desperately wanted to see Sebastian, to tell him she hadn’t meant what she said, but fear held her back.
Hopefully a cab driver could be persuaded to take her home. With her bed-head hair, creased clothes and no shoes, she looked a mess. If a cabbie drove right past her without stopping, she wouldn’t blame them. A spare key to the house was hidden in a fake rock Jackson had built into their front wall. She’d fought with him about the rock when they were first married, not liking the lack of security. How strange to think in the end, the danger had come from inside her home.
Serenity barely felt the stones cutting into the bottoms of her feet as she started her long walk home.
Chapter Fourteen
Serenity thought she’d never sleep but exhaustion worked through her and, though she believed her mind would never rest, it did.
When she woke the next morning, Serenity knew she couldn’t stay in the house. Everywhere she turned, reminders of Jackson lingered. His presence surrounded her, so strong she found herself spinning around, expecting to find him standing, furious and dead, behind her.
How could a house feel so haunted when the supernatural she feared was outside?
Memories filled the place; none of them good. She would have to find a motel to stay in until she figured out what the hell to do with herself.
She had no family or friends, no job, and a house she couldn’t live in. No part of her life was tangible.
Serenity didn’t want to admit it but deep down she had hoped Sebastian would be her way out. She thought he would take her away from all of this. Now she was stuck in the house where she’d lived with her abusive husband, the house she murdered him in, and she couldn’t see a way out. Staying in a hotel was only short term. They bought the house just after they got married and she wouldn’t be able to sell without Jackson’s signature or the authorities knowing he was dead.
Ironically, even in death, Jackson tied her to him.
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