by West, Sinden
“Don’t look at him,” Lake said to me in a low voice. “Don’t pay them any attention.” His body was relaxed and he no longer flexed his muscles or tested the bindings. He had the gentlest smile on his face and I knew that was just to calm me.
Caleb’s father gave a laugh, and then he brought the blade down onto Lake’s bicep in a vicious swipe that made him hiss in pain as scarlet began to pool from the cut. It wasn’t deep though, at least not as deep as he could have made it with that size blade. I desperately tried to suck in breaths to calm myself and stop the scream that wanted to erupt from me. I didn’t look at anyone other than Lake; I had no desire to see the smug satisfaction on their faces as they enacted their revenge.
The blade went to Lake’s other bicep, and this time it dragged slowly across the skin. Lake didn’t move, even though everything inside of him must have been screaming out in response to the stinging pain. I couldn’t watch his face right then. Instead I looked at the blood that began to flow down his skin, over the dips of the muscle and then drop to the floorboards. I didn’t take my eyes off of the red, even as the chanting around me began. Their voices began like a dull hum as they spoke, all in perfect unison. The language was unfamiliar, but it progressed to something beautiful, like a bird song or water running down over rocks. Or at least, it would have, if not in combination with the blood and pain that ran from Lake’s body.
In response to their voices, the blood no longer just created a pool as it fell onto the floorboards. Instead, it took on a life of its own. It turned into a long length, like a snake, and slowly began to move onto the deep grooves of the sun’s pattern. The witches’ voices became higher and their chanting increased in speed. I felt like the sound was drumming into my head and everything became hazy as that blood continued to glide onto the pattern beneath us.
I barely registered Lake calling out, and then I felt the sting of the knife slitting my own skin. A muffled sound came from me, and I felt the blood begin to trickle from one arm. Though no panic rose in me, somehow, I felt at peace. The pain wasn’t dulled as they attacked my other arm. I felt the bite of the knife clearly and felt the warm flow.
Still, I couldn’t remove my eyes from Lake’s possessed blood slithering on the floor. Creeping up beside it came a new strand, and my peace dissolved into horror as I realized that it was mine. It travelled up over Lake’s blood and began to twist around it, as if it were no longer liquid and had changed into something solid, something with a brain and intent. The continuous curling line of my blood around Lake’s seemed to give it power and increase the speed even more. Slithers of the blood broke off to seep into the rays of the sun, while others dived under our bodies to complete the star and the tree.
In the corner of my eye, I saw the knife placed against Lake’s chest and more blood began to run. I looked to his face and he was speaking, but I could not hear him, all I sensed was the sharp pain above one of my breasts and then more warm blood that was sure to slide down to the floor and spiral around Lake’s like a serpent manipulating this event to a speedy end.
The cuts continued. The palms of our hands were pierced so we resembled the stigmata and our feet followed suit, and then the knife rested down low on my stomach, that stomach that would never bear Lake’s child. They cut in a shallow way so that blood ran down each side, coating me in it. In the craziness of the moment, I enjoyed the warmth of my own life blood and imagined it protecting me and covering my naked body…
But then the constant pain broke through the haze, and I knew for sure that we would die, slowly as each drop of blood inched from us until our bodies grew cold and lifeless on the floor.
The chanting stopped, and a fresh fear went through me, eclipsing the pain. What now?
“Get some rest,” Caleb’s father instructed the witches. “Dawn is a few hours away. We will bleed them fully the moment the sun starts to rise. It will give their blood time to soak in and dry.” Most of them turned and started to leave the room. Two took chairs in front of the fire to stay warm while they guarded us.
Once more, I turned my eyes to Lake only to find his gaze resting on me and a small smile on his face. Why the hell was he smiling? We were about to die.
“You look so beautiful. I know that you’re terrified, but you still look so gorgeous,” he said to me softly. “When we get out of this, I’m going to make you my wife. I don’t care about having kids. I don’t care about pissing off Michael. I just want you, if you’ll have me.” Tears pricked at my eyes and the smile collapsed off of his face. “Don’t cry,” he said urgently. “Please don’t cry. I’d give anything to make you happy. Remember when we were together? You were happy then. We were both happy. I’d give anything to have that again.”
He flexed his fingers, and the tips of them managed to touch mine. I gave him a bloody, macabre smile in response and he grinned again. We stayed like that, touching each other just lightly, as the hours passed and dawn loomed closer and closer. He didn’t speak; he just kept his eyes on mine, and that was all that I needed.
Until, a lighter glow began to fill the room. The light quickly snuck in under drawn curtains. Was it dawn already? No, it was too bright. The men standing guard jumped to their feet.
“What the hell?” One ran to the window, brushing the curtain aside and the glow beamed even brighter. “Dammit, get—” His words were cut off by a scream erupting from his mouth as he stumbled back, clawing at his eyes. “It’s burning. It’s fucking burning.”
The other witch stared at him in horror. “We’re supposed to be protected here. There’s supposed to be a protection spell around us.” He took a step forward as if to touch his friend, then thought better of it. “We need help in here!” He ran for the door, while his friend fell to his knees screaming for help.
Lake began to laugh, and when I looked at him with my eyes wide with confusion, he merely said, “We have witches, too.”
From other rooms, we heard screams and pleas for help, and then we smelled smoke. A pungent yet familiar stench reached us and made me want to vomit. “They’re burning them,” Lake told me. “It won’t be long now, Ivy.”
The guard was still crouched over and moaning, his hands covering his eyes. He didn’t even move when the door flew open and a group of men and women entered the room. They were all of varying ages, but their faces were long and oval like they all shared the same blood. Their expressions were grim as, in unison, they began to chant.
And the man began to scream again, he pleaded and begged, but no one was listening. He burst in flames; a controlled fire so intense that I could feel the heat on my face.
“They need six to make fire,” Lake explained as he watched. His eyes were alive with bloodlust as the reflection of the flames danced in them while he pulled at his tethers.
Six to make fire, and I only needed one…
The man’s screams stopped as he collapsed to the ground, and the new witches let him burn for a while longer before extinguishing the flames. And then, solemnly and silently, they filed from the room, not even bothering to look at us.
Felix rushed in. “Lake, are you okay?” Knife in hand, he began to cut through the binds that held Lake.
“I’m fine. Release Ivy. She’s lost a lot of blood. Her wounds need to be dressed, and get that awful thing out of her mouth,” Lake ordered.
“You’ve lost a lot of blood, as well.”
I cast my eyes to the person who had spoken. Dorothea stood above me, dressed in white furs and with her black hair piled on top of her head, she looked like the Snow Queen. She must have stolen in silently like the snake that she was. She wasn’t looking at me though; her eyes were firmly on Lake who, with his bindings cut, now managed to sit.
Felix helped my stiff body into a sitting position also, and in the rush of freedom, I barely felt the pain anymore.
“I’m fine,” Lake told her.
“No.” Dorothea rushed to crouch down beside him. “You need to replenish.” Taking her fur lined cuff, s
he drew back the sleeve of her coat to reveal her thin, pale wrist.
“I told you I’m fine.” He glared at her and she just stared at him for a moment, before switching her eyes to me and then quickly back to him.
“It’s her, isn’t it? You don’t want her to see? You think it would disgust her? You’re probably right, but I don’t see why it matters when everything we do disgusts her anyway.”
“Shut up. Get that thing out of her mouth!” Lake snarled.
Felix took my jaw and peered at my mouth. “I’m sorry, but this will hurt,” he said finally. Then, without warning, he wrenched my jaw down. Pain exploded in me as the thorns drew out of my flesh, ripping as they went, and blood pooled out and down my chin. I let out a moan, but would not allow myself the luxury of screaming in their presence.
Felix took a silk pocket square from his breast pocket and bundled it up to place in my mouth to stem the blood. I bit down on it, and it seemed to work. Felix gave a small smile of satisfaction before pulling something from his inside jacket pocket. It was a small vial with a clear liquid inside. “This will help the blood to clot and the wounds to heal.” From another pocket, he drew out a syringe. “May I?”
I looked to Lake, who nodded. Hesitantly, I offered my outstretched, bloody arm. Like an expert, Felix found my vein and gently inserted the needle, emptying the contents of the vial into me.
“She’s right, you know,” Felix murmured as he slowly withdrew the needle. “You need to replenish. It would be foolish not to, otherwise it will take your body a long time to recover. Do you want to risk infection? Who knows what those bastards put on the knife. Your skin is already grey.”
He was right. Lake looked like he had aged. I snatched out the cloth that Felix had placed in my mouth to stem the flow out of my mouth. “What do you mean replenish?”
Lake ignored me. “Take Ivy out to the car,” he said to Felix.
“No,” I burst out. “No more secrets. You promised.”
“Ivy…”
“Tell me!” I spoke through the blood and gore in my mouth, but the mess of my tongue and the pain in me subsided to a lack of importance. I needed to know.
He sighed. “Our blood is…special. We don’t respond to normal medicine. Sometimes, herbal tinctures can work effectively, but otherwise…”
“Otherwise the blood of our kind is the most effective elixir for every ailment that we have,” Dorothea cut in. From the folds of her fur coat she drew something out. It caught the light of the fire in the hearth and the flames flickered in the clean sharpness of the blade. The handle had a sheen to it and looked like it were made of pearl. It was a ladies’ knife; small and a lethal. Showing her pale wrist once more, she drew the blade across it, not even hissing when a line of dark red showed. She offered it up to Lake while I gazed on in amazement and horror.
He shook his head, pressing his lips together, but I could tell, through the look in his eyes, that he wanted it. He needed it.”
“Do it,” I whispered.
His eyes flew to me, alarmed and somewhat shamed. He gave a slight shake of his head and mouthed, “No.”
“Do it.” My voice was louder now; I had control of my mangled tongue once more.
Lake stared at me, long and hard, his forehead furrowed, and then he took a breath. Roughly, he grasped Dorothea’s waiting hand. I saw his nails curve into her palm, and his knuckles turn whiter than they already were. She gave a slight gasp at the pain but then her mouth curved into a smile; a triumphant, smug smile.
Then Lake finally tore his eyes from mine and dipped his head down, closing his mouth over Dorothea’s bloodied wrist, and he began to suck on it. She stared down at him, her eyes hazy and that smile never dropping from her red lips. Instantly, color flooded back into Lake’s cheeks. His eyes didn’t appear as hollow anymore and once again he was a healthy young man. He closed his eyes for a moment, and a look of euphoria came over him as he took in her blood.
When he finished, he thrust her away from him violently. She fell back, putting a hand out to steady herself. But instead of the anger that I expected, she gave a laugh as she darted her eyes over to me. I made sure to keep my face like stone. His lips on her while her blood gave him what he needed…I would never let her know the irritation that seethed inside of me.
Lake wiped at his bloody mouth and got to his feet. “Are they all dead?” he asked gruffly.
Felix squared his shoulders. “No. The leader, Rossi, escaped along with a few others. But don’t worry, we’ll get them.” Then his eyes went slightly tender. “I’ve sent others out after them. You can’t hunt them just yet. Let the witches track them. By then, you’ll be fully recovered.” Felix shrugged off his long coat and offered it to Lake, who took it and slid his arms into it to cover his nudity.
He walked over to me, offering his hand, which I took and he pulled me to my feet. “Ivy and I are returning to my apartment. You can dress her wounds there.” He turned to Dorothea. “Give Ivy your coat.”
Her eyes bulged slightly, and she opened her mouth, but then she must have seen the determined look on Lake’s face and thought better of arguing. Reluctantly, she peeled her white fur coat from her body, leaving her clad in a skin-tight black top and pants. Without the expensive fur covering her, it was like she had been whittled away to nothing. With both hands, she passed the coat over to Lake, who took it and spread it over my shoulders, wrapping it around me. Instant warmth surrounded me from its weight, and I could imagine my stained body leaving smeared scarlet marks on the inside.
He took my hand and led us from the room, past piles of ash and the stench of burned flesh, and out into the pink glow of the dawn that surrounded us. The witches waited, together and silent. Circle members waited beside them, and I could almost feel the animosity and hatred coming from the witches toward them. The familiar pang of injustice went through me at the memory of being used for powers, at having no control…
I ducked my head down as Lake held the door open to a black SUV for me. Once the door was safely closed behind us, he drew me close to him and delivered a kiss to my forehead. “Do I disgust you?” he asked softly.
I stretched my head up to look him in the eyes. “No.” And that was the truth. “Are you vampires?”
He barked out a laugh. “What? No. Vampires don’t exist. We don’t feed from humans; only from each other, and then its only when our bodies require extra power.”
“What are you?”
He looked away and shrugged. “I am what I am. I lust for power like it’s in my blood, and I can’t imagine another way of being.”
I swallowed. Whatever Felix had given me, my strength was returning and the blood had stopped running. “What would win—power or love?”
He bent down and touched his forehead to mine. “Why can’t I have both?”
Felix opened the driver’s door and got in the car. “Michael wants to speak with you.”
“I’ll talk to him later, once I know Ivy’s all right.” He hugged me closer to him, and we stayed like that as Felix started the engine and began to drive down the winding mountain roads. Dorothea must have taken another car, and for that I was grateful. The look on her face as Lake fed from her kept playing in my mind. His lips on her skin; his consumption of her blood—it was like she thought that she had won something.
I burrowed closer to Lake and his hold on me turned even tighter. Back at the apartment, men were already there, a body was covered up and the blood on the carpet was being cut out. “One of my men,” Lake said by way of explanation, before quickly hurrying me away from the awful sight.
Felix tended to my wounds under Lake’s watchful eye. “They shouldn’t scar,” he said, “the herbal mixture I gave you is working well to knit the skin back together and repair it.” I could already feel how much my mouth had healed in the hours that had passed. The flesh of the roof of my mouth that had gaped previously like raw, exposed meat had now reduced to mere rough spots that I could touch with my now painless ton
gue. As Felix finished, expecting my wounds with a satisfied eye, Lake took my hand and led me to a bedroom. He tucked me into bed and kissed my forehead.
“I’ll speak to Michael and then I’ll join you.”
I tried to stay awake but my eyelids felt heavy.
My sleep was dreamless, not the merest hint of nightmare touched me, and that, in itself, was unsettling. I woke up to find Lake dressed and sitting on the edge of the bed.
“I’ve got you some clothes to wear. They’re in the bathroom.” He held out a steaming cup of coffee, which I took, the burn on my palms from its heat telling me that this was all real.
“Thanks.” I kicked off the sheets and made my way to the shower. As I stood under the hot spray, my mind whirled with possibilities. Where would I go? What would I do now? And, the worst were the nagging thoughts of Caleb. Was he in trouble for helping me?
But I tried to shake that thought away. He wasn’t my concern. I needed to think only of myself and my own well-being. I ran my hand over my wounds that had now reduced to mere silvery lines that gave away nothing of the nightmare before. As I stepped out of the shower, I wrapped the towel around me, and then froze when I saw the clothes that had been left for me.
Like a vicious stain against the white of the bathroom, a red dress sat neatly folded on a stool. I picked it up. It was short dress, modern, and nothing like the scrying skirt I wore for the rituals except for the color. I bunched it up. I wouldn’t wear it. Furiously, I marched from the bathroom to the kitchen where Lake waited and threw the fabric at his feet.
“I won’t wear it.”
He frowned. “What’s wrong with it?” Then it dawned on him. “The color? Such fury over color?” He was close to smiling, but his expression became serious when he saw that there was nothing amusing about this, according to me. “I have others. I love that color on you, but there are others, if you want them. They’re in the closet in the room you slept in.”