by Emma Mills
it was an easy matter to suggest a postponement. You were a child then and you reminded me of another child I once knew. I failed her and I failed her mother, but I made it my ambition to protect you.’
‘Well then, you failed in that too,’ Genevieve whispered, turning her head away, not noticing his gasp as she stared at the crack snaking down the plastered wall.
‘Evie, you are alive. I saved you!’ he growled.
‘Then you should have let me die. You should have forbidden me from seeing my mother like that. I will remember her pain every time I close my eyes.’
‘Your imagination would have been worse. The mind can be crueller than any truth. You wanted to know she was dead. Evie, she felt nothing at the end,’ he said. ‘And now you must live.’
‘There’s no point. I can’t have my old life back… even if I wanted it back. I was tied in a corset and taught nothing but embroidery and how to look pretty. I don’t want that back. It didn’t teach me how to survive did it? It didn’t teach me how to make a fire or defend my family!’ Genevieve rolled onto her back, and after staring at the ceiling she found her eyes magnetically drawn to his.
They were so dark… almost red. They were mesmerising. She wondered why she had never noticed before, but then she was never supposed to look directly into a man’s eyes. She was taught to flutter her lashes, smile and avert her eyes if a man who was not family looked at her. She frowned. A whole lot of good that did her!
‘What is the matter?’ Sebastian muttered, his eyes roaming hungrily over her features, occasionally darting down to her bare neck.
‘Nothing… everything! Sebastian, I don’t want to remember. I just want to fall asleep and forget everything. I want to fly away and be free of all this…’ Her words tailed off as her hands slammed against the pillow in frustration.
‘That was not my intention. You were supposed to live. I was going to save you, not turn you,’ he muttered, making Genevieve’s eyes dart back to his.
‘What did you say?’ she whispered.
He said nothing for a moment and they just stared at each other.
‘Evie, how old are you now?’ he asked.
‘Nineteen.’
‘I thought so, but…’
‘Why?’ she asked.
‘You are three years younger than me… when I died.’
‘When you what?’
‘Evie, you know what I am. You must have realised that after I saved you. You even said you didn’t want to think about it…’
‘But they are just fairy stories. It can’t be true… can it?’ she whispered, watching him and pulling her tired body up into a crouching position, curling her knees up under her chin.
‘Fairy stories?’ he said, his dark eyebrows shooting up.
‘You’re an angel... my guardian angel… you saved me…’ Genevieve trailed off as she caught the smirk lighting up his eyes. His loud laugh echoed round the room and Genevieve frowned as she felt a blush scurry across her cheeks.
‘I’m no angel, lovely; but I can live just as long as one,’ he said, his eyes dancing wickedly, drawing her further into their dark depths.
‘Then what are you? ’ Genevieve demanded, trying to conceal the rush of emotions that fought within her. Desire. Fear. Intrigue.
‘I can extinguish your fears. I can take away your weaknesses. I can obliterate your memories. I can make you forget. Evie, if you truly don’t want to remember... if you want another life... I can offer you that and you will be mine,’ he said roughly, his eyes once again lingering on her neck, making a rush of heat flood her belly.
Genevieve swallowed the lump that had been growing in her throat and looked at the man sitting next to her. She reached out her hand placing the palm on his cheek. His eyes widened slightly but he held still. He was cool to the touch, but not strangely so. His skin felt soft and yet there was an underlying impression of diamond hard strength. He was very handsome with his dark, almost black hair. His shoulders were broad and powerful-looking, his skin as pale as porcelain. If he wasn’t an angel, but lived as long as one, she had a good idea what he was. She had grown up in a world full of legends and superstitions, and that knowledge spiked an increasing fear within her, but also a new feeling; a feeling of excitement. She hadn’t really wanted to die, but equally she had no reason to live. She wanted to feel alive, and for the first time there was a feeling coiling tight in her belly which just hinted at the possibilities ahead. Her eyes darted to his mouth and were compelled by his full lips. She felt a blush rise and looked away.
‘Why did you say I will be yours, as if you are going to own me… just like any man I was going to marry. I thought you were different?’ she asked, looking back into his eyes, feeling bold.
‘You will be mine and for a while… until the bond wears off, you will do everything I ask of you. But, Evie, I promise I will never ask anything of you that you would not wish to do. I will always remember my promise. I will always be your protector,’ he said.
‘And I won’t have a choice?’
Sebastian shook his head. ‘It is the only way. Otherwise you would have no control and it takes a long time for a vampire to learn control,’ he said, his eyes sparkling at her sharp intake of breath.
‘Will we be lovers?’ Genevieve whispered, already feeling her cheeks warm as she darted her eyes away from his dark, greedy ones, and immediately glanced back, catching his smile.
‘Only if you wish it… but Evie you will want it. You will want me. Then when our bond breaks naturally, well then you will choose you own path. Some vampires stay together for centuries while some drift apart. C’est la vie,’ he added with a small shrug.
Genevieve swung her legs to the side of the bed and then walked over to the window. The winter sun was already beginning to dip behind the horizon. She had been sobbing for hours. She rubbed her belly absentmindedly as it growled loudly, reminding her of her human plight.
‘Evie you need to eat. Come, I have acquired some food for you,’ Sebastian said, motioning towards the dining room.
‘What if I don’t need to eat? What if we do this now?’ she asked, suddenly feeling brave and seeing nothing but the debris and squalor of the outskirts of town that made her want to remain human.
Sebastian turned and looked back at her, hunger and desire flashing through his features, before regaining his composure with a quick shake of his head.
‘No, Evie. You must eat first. You will need some strength, whatever you decide.’
Ͼ
The sun had set and Genevieve felt full for the first time in weeks. During the past two hours Sebastian had left her alone and she had thought of nothing other than her potential future. Her decision was made. It was a decision made easier with every waking moment, as each moment was filled with the memories of the past few horrific weeks. People screaming. People dying. Hunger, dirt and fear.
‘Sebastian, if I am to have a new life with you, there are a couple of things I want you to promise me now, seeing as I may not remember after,’ she said.
Sebastian nodded.
‘A new life deserves a new name. When I wake up I don’t want to be Genevieve… or Evie any longer. I don’t want anything to do with this life. I want to be called Eva.’
‘As you wish, but I always liked Evie.’
‘No! I want to be Eva.’
Sebastian nodded, a smile twitching at the corner of his mouth. ‘And there was something else?’
‘I want to kill them. Kill them all,’ she added, watching as his eyebrows shot up.
‘Evie, I cannot let you. We cannot kill humans. A hundred years ago the Council used to be more lenient, but recently things have become tighter. Vampires can feed from humans, but we cannot kill them. It draws too much attention,’ he said.
‘Then you will find me a pistol and I will kill them tonight, whilst I’m still human. They deserve to die after what they did to my mother.’
‘Evie, you could not fire a pistol, and even if you managed to kill one ma
n, you would be caught before you finished the job.’
‘Then help me. How would the council know we had killed the peasants anyway? Everyone is murdering everyone out there!’ she said.
‘It’s pretty obvious when a vampire kills and it always causes much consternation with the humans…’
Genevieve frowned, ‘Why?’
‘The total lack of blood left in the body would be a clue. When a vampire kills a human the body is drained dry. It looks a little suspicious,’ he added with a rue smile.
‘Oh! Well, I wouldn’t drink their blood. Yuk! No… we could just kill them. You said I would be strong - stronger than any man, yes? So I could just strangle them or something,’ Genevieve said, her face set, eyes steely.
‘You wouldn’t be able to stop yourself - the scent of their blood, the adrenalin. Evie, revenge is not a good reason to wish to be turned.’ He sighed and after a minute said quietly, ‘Come with me. You need to see something.’
He led her back along the darkening streets, keeping to the shadows and skirting the edge of town, until she recognised the little shabby alleyway she had hidden in with her mother the previous night.
‘Sebastian, why are we here?’ she asked.
‘Shh, come,’ he answered pulling her along behind him towards the very cottage she had been hiding in.
‘Sebastian, I don’t want to come here…’
‘You need to see this. Trust me Evie; it’s not about your mother now, but if you want me to change you, you have to do as I say. Now wait here,’ he said, quietly pushing open