Images, scenes, places, times, days and words all came back to me. Each cruel pool of darkness that threw itself at me screamed, “The darkness will prevail!”
As my hands rose into the air thick black blood ran down my arms and soaked into my ghostly white gown. Francis began to scream somewhere in the distance, I couldn’t see her amongst the shadows no matter how hard I tried.
Beneath the blood on my left hand I could see a slim white line, the only light within my mind. Hunter. Something told me that my scar meant that I was a hunter. As the cruel pools of blood continued to drown me in their darkness and the pain of the thick coppery liquid filling my lungs struck me I realised that to feel so much pain I had be alive.
I was alive.
I could feel my chest rise and fall. I could feel the warm silk beneath my fingers. I could feel the burning tears of another on my hand, and then I could feel the softness of their cheek and their trembling lips. I could feel my smile shake softly onto my lips. And then I opened my eyes.
I looked down at the body that was hunched over me and pushed under their chin to force them to look up at me. His pale green eyes were filled with relief and my smile grew, his shadows had completely dissipated. He stood and walked to the head of the bed and held my face in his hands. I closed my eyes and he kissed me softly once, and then again with force of one who had thought that they would never kiss their true love ever again.
“What are you doing here?”
“I had to see you.”
“What if Levi…”
He put a pale finger to my lips and looked across to the door.
The door opened. I turned my eyes filled with panic to Victor, but he had vanished just as suddenly as he had appeared. I worried that I had imagined his presence, that it had been a hysterical hallucination.
Levi’s eyes lit up with relief as he saw me awake. “How are you feeling?”
I pushed myself to sit up. I felt Victor tense beneath the bed as I gasped in pain. Levi took me gently in his arms and helped me to sit up; his hands lingered on my skin for a second before I asked, “How did you find me?”
Levi didn’t answer my question, but sniffed into the air surrounding my bed. “Can you feel that?”
I looked around and shook my head. “Feel what?”
He walked to the window and pulled at the handle, seemingly satisfied that it was secure he walked back to me and shook his head. “Roberta must have been up to you again.”
“Roberta has been here?”
“I called to ask her about Gabriel, but she said that she had only agreed to help you. When we found you the next day she was here waiting.”
Levi smiled down to me and graced my cheek with his cold fingers. I caught his hand in mine and frowned. “You have killed today?” I asked.
He took his hand back and thrust them both into his pockets.
He picked up the stale glass of water that sat on my bedside and left the room.
Victor crept out from under my bed with his hair ruffled by the sheets. I couldn’t help my smile, but soon sobered as he stood and his shadows slithered out from under the bed with him.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“Neither should you.”
“It’s safe here.”
I rested my hand onto my chest and froze as he placed his hand over mine.
“Who is the real monster Victoria?”
I closed my eyes as I clasped onto his hand. “He is doing it for the balance.”
“What are you really doing it for?”
I met his sharp eyes and shook my head. “I want you to leave.”
“I… I’m glad you’re okay.” He walked to the window and stood looking out as he spoke. “I know that it is him and not you, you feel like you owe them both something which is why you are helping him seek his revenge for poor Katelyn. I remember her fondly; we crossed paths a few times. She was a lot like you, but you have… something more. You owe them nothing Victoria. You have saved him more times than he has you, trust me I was there. I won’t give up on you.” He took off his jacket and turned to face me. I looked upon his scar and lifted my left arm out from under the duvet covers and bowed my head. “We are two sides of the same coin Victoria.” With that he opened the window and leapt down into the garden.
I saw that he had left his jacket on the floor. Panic raced through my chest. I forced myself out of bed and stumbled to the window. I leant over and as I did I fell. I pushed the jacket under the bed and crawled to the bottom of the window. I took hold of the ledge and pulled myself up to stand.
Levi walked into the room and upon seeing me at the window crippled with pain he ran to me and lifted me into his arms. He closed the window once I was sat on the end of my bed and looked out, as if trying to see what had caused me to leave my safe haven.
“What on this fated earth possessed you leave your bed?”
“I wanted to see the Heights.” I mocked him and rested my head onto my pillow and closed my eyes.
“As soon as you are well I am going to kill you.”
“I’m sorry.”
I held my hands out to him and he knelt down into my arms. I pressed my lips hard against his cheek and let my tears fall onto his shirt.
“How long was I out?”
“Three days.”
“How is Gabriel?”
“Suffering,” he said, his warm breath softening the pain his words brought to me.
He sat on the bed beside me and ran his fingers over Sedric’s ring. I smiled as I watched the memories play behind his eyes.
“Would you ever buy me a ring?”
He met my eyes and a smile toppled onto his face. With his steady strong hands he cupped my face and kissed my lips softly. “I would pick a star from the sky and have it encased in the finest gold for your precious hands.”
I laughed and poked the end of his nose playfully. “An emerald would do just fine.”
His body relaxed beneath my hands and his eyes melted into mine. “An emerald you will get then my love.”
Neither of us spoke for a second. His eyes were hot on mine and my heart began to race. His eyes dared me to close mine, begged me to melt into his touch.
“Roseanna,” he whispered, his voice controlling me.
His lips came down to mine. Lying beneath the white sheets in the grand four poster bed sheltered by white silk I felt like Sleeping Beauty being woken by her Prince.
I took a shallow breath as he stood and moved back from the bed.
“I have to go, George is waiting for me.”
Without another word he left and Sleeping Beauty was left heartbroken as her Prince rode away without her to battle another princess’s demon.
The day after, still utterly confused and uncertain as to where or what I was, Clarence begrudgingly gave me a lift to Gabriel’s and helped me up to his room.
At the end of his bed Gabriel sat stretching up; his face was contorted with pain. Roberta was stood outside beneath the bedroom window, unbeknownst to Gabriel. I had tried to ask her if she could help, but she looked past me as if I wasn’t there whenever I broached the subject.
“Levi has been doing all he can to find a cure.”
That wasn’t all that Levi had been doing. Avoiding me, being at the top of the list, he had also been hunting overtime.
I helped him rest back against the headboard and handed him a glass of cool fresh water. He smiled and gulped with a face of bravery and terrible acceptance.
I put my hand onto his arm and watched him for a while.
“Stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like I might die any second.” He moaned as a pain shot through his chest.
I pushed his shoulders down and pressed hard against his ribs, careful not to break them. His convulsions calmed and I wiped the thin sheen of sweat from his forehead. The first time that I saw him fit I had panicked, but I soon learnt how to help and control them.
“You shouldn’t
be here doing this, you should be out there trying to return the balance. If anything has made me sick it is those shadows that cling to every crevice of this damned bloody city.”
I sat back and closed my eyes. He took my hand and his trembles calmed as he ran his fingers around Sedric’s ring.
“I’m not going anywhere,” I said in a breath, opening my eyes to see him watching me intently. “Stop looking at me like that,” I uttered, frowning down to him.
He coughed and laughed, repeating my earlier, “Like what?”
I shrugged and relaxed my brow. “Like you might close your eyes and never see me again.”
He rested his head back and nodded slowly, the pain showing in the lines on his aged face. The disease, or infection, that plagued his body had aged him devastatingly.
“I’ll be fine for an hour or so, go get some fresh air.”
“I could find Poppa’s old wheelchair and take you somewhere?” Poppa was Gabriel’s last living relative. He died in the mid twenties without leaving behind any other family connections.
“That old thing couldn’t carry a kitten. Leave the window on the latch that will be fresh air enough for me. Now go, if I have to look upon your sorry face a second more I might go mad.”
I kissed his forehead, reluctantly opened the window, and left him alone. At the end of the drive Roberta was waiting for me. I sighed and held up a hand in a casual greeting.
“How is he?”
“I don’t know Roberta. I can see that he is in pain, but at least he’s lucid.” I suddenly realised that she had asked me how he was. “Are you going to help us?”
“I’ll help you, as I promised.”
I wasn’t entirely certain what that meant until I looked upon the piece of paper that she slipped into my hands.
Chapter 12
I had to find Victor. As I ran I could feel the weight of the words that Roberta had scrawled onto the paper and the piercing glances of the charcoal eyes which seemed to follow me as I looked upon it. Roberta had agreed to help only me, which meant that saving Gabriel was in my soul interest.
Victor, it always came back to Victor. Since the second that I met him he was the echo behind every word I spoke and the shadow behind every movement I made. There was something about him, it was how he looked at me as if I was all there ever was and would be. He confused me, overwhelmed me and awoke feelings and sensations within me that I had never felt before. Yet what he said about Levi forced doubt into my mind. Levi had changed and I was terrified that it was because of me.
The sky was inky black, and as always it was raining.
“Victor!”
He bowed his head and ran faster into the night. The rain soaked through his thin white t-shirt and my own silk blouse was sodden. I kept pace and continued to call his name, awakening the shadows that surrounded us. He stopped suddenly and I skittered to a stop behind him.
“You’re not going to stop are you?”
“Not until you listen to me.”
“Why should I listen to you?” His eyes held no love, no kindness, and spite filled them to the brim as he uttered, “Francis’s name won’t be cleared and you know it.”
I looked away from him, his eyes burning through my flesh and poisoning my blood.
“I gave you a chance to save him.”
“This isn’t about Levi!” I stormed forward and stopped as he held my hand, stopping it from colliding with his face. I stepped back and took a breath, “I’m sorry. Just please, listen to me.”
He frowned and held out his hands, “Do I have a choice?”
“I need your help; you are the only person who can help.”
“Help you with what?”
I took out the paper that Roberta had given to me earlier and handed it to him.
“So…” I began, unable to see through his ice cold mask.
“Do you want me to help you, or that arrogant maker of yours?”
“Gabriel isn’t who you think he is. Levi… he detests Levi.”
“The feeling, I assume, is mutual.”
I shook my head and wiped the rain from my face. “Levi wants to find a cure more than Gabriel himself does.”
“So that he can continue his reign of torment,” Victor barked.
My eyes were sore from peering through the heavy rain. I closed them and walked to him, my hands by my sides. “Forgive me.”
He didn’t move as I reached out to take his hand and placed it on my chest above my heart.
“Forgive me.”
“Victoria…”
“Forgive me Victor. You have to help me, if you save him, you save me.”
“I will never forgive him Victoria.”
“I’m not asking you to. Gabriel is my maker; he is the only family I have left. If you know how to save him, please....”
I opened my eyes and he was looking down at my trembling hand, the hand which I held above my own heart.
“Blood,” he uttered.
“Blood?”
“He has been poisoned, infected with death. A dead hunter’s blood is the most dangerous poison in the living world. It is the reason why we cannot recreate.”
“How many immortals know this?”
“I and the man who taught me,” he whispered. His eyes filled with pain and anger.
“Who taught you, Victor, who?”
“Levi’s father.”
I stood back and his anger dissipated for a second as he met my eyes. Devastation raced through my mind and body, Levi and Clarence both believed that their father was dead.
“Where can I find him?” I spluttered and crept back to him, my hands on his chest in supplication.
“Slow down.”
“Victor, Gabriel is dying. If I go any slower I’ll lose him.”
“Marcus is a dangerous man Victoria.”
I let out a breath of annoyance and frowned up to him. “Did he teach you a cure?”
There was a twinkle in the backs of his eyes and I knew that he would help me. “You can’t tell anyone what I have told you. If anyone else were to find out…”
“I won’t tell, I promise.”
“You’re going back to him now?”
In a thoughtless moment of spite I uttered, “Yes Victor, back to him.”
“Perhaps you will actually succeed in taking my heart after all.”
“Be careful what you wish for.” I walked to him and kissed him delicately before turning on my heel and walking back the way I came through the unforgiving rain.
As I lay in bed even with my eyes closed Levi’s constant pacing kept me from sleeping. I sat up and took his arm. “Stop it,” I said as I pulled him down onto the bed, “you’re driving me crazy.”
“Not half as crazy as you’re driving me,” he muttered.
I pushed myself to sit up fully and pulled back the sheets welcoming him in beside me. “What do you mean?”
He sighed and looked down at the bed before walking to the window. “Nothing,” he said irritated, impatiently.
On the tips of my toes I crept across to him, the soft white carpet tickling my feet, “Say what you want to say Levi.”
“Seeing you almost… it hurt me more than anything, more than losing Katelyn.”
I didn’t say anything, I couldn’t. Instead I buried my head into his chest and stood beside him in the peaceful afternoon sun that burst through the cracks in the curtains.
Victor had said that me and him were two of the same, but as we stood silently beside one another I could see that it was Victor and Levi who were two of the very same.
The next day the allusive Jesse found me with a look of panic blazing in his eyes.
“Jesse, where have you been? You don’t look too good, what’s wrong?”
He put his hand onto my arm and pulled me towards a bench. “You should sit down.”
Once we were sat beside the half frozen pond I pulled off my hat and took his hand, “What’s going on with you? I called you a million times.”
/> “When you were attacked so was Oliver. They took his heart.”
I pushed my hands through my hair and kept one to my chest, thinking back to my attack. Oliver had been out for almost a week, which wasn’t good. “So he’s…”
“Still dead,” Jesse whispered as a group of teenagers walked past where we sat.
I leant back and shook my head. “Trying to kill me makes sense; I’m a threat to the corruption, but Oliver? What did he do to piss them off?”
Jesse took a breath before he took out an all too familiar piece of paper and handed it to me. Oliver had been to see Roberta. I pushed the paper down into my pocket and stood.
“Are you going to see her?”
“Later, I have to get back. But first, what’s wrong with you?”
“Could I walk you?”
I placed my hand onto his shoulder as I stood, “You’re sick.”
He bowed his head and I noticed just how thin he had gotten. His face was gaunt and his complexion was almost grey, as if he had been drained of his blood.
Blood.
“Jesse…”
We walked back slowly to Rainbow’s End. No one ever called there, considering I was never home, so it would be safe. I sat him down on my father’s bed and sat down beside him.
“Is this why you disappeared on me?”
He nodded and closed his eyes. “It hurts so bad.”
“Badly,” I said, correcting him, but shaking my head as I put my hand onto his forehead, “What have you done?”
He met my eyes and clenching his fists began to cry. “They killed her V.” And then I knew. I knew why he had really come back to London, why he had wanted me to call him, why he had disappeared. They had killed her, without having to ask I knew that they had taken his sister.
“It was you.”
Suddenly I felt the burning compulsion within my blood to feed him to hold him in my arms and to give him what he needed to survive. Jesse had taken my blood and he was paying for it tenfold. If a mortal fails to continue his supply of blood, he will eventually die the most painful of deaths. Judging from his complexion he didn’t have long.
An Immortal in London: Corruption Page 11