“Why did you do that, Elizabeth? You nearly died.” He glares right at me. “It was stupid.”
Wow. I thought what I did was right. Everything inside me screamed do it. I don’t understand why he’s so cross. He’s kind of pissing me off.
“I had to do it. I wasn’t going to let you die,” I utter in defence.
He gets up and begins to pace back and forth. He’s created an awful unease in me as I witness him striding and grunting, twitching his neck side to side sharply.
I take the white blanket and slip it off my legs, to see I’m wearing black pyjama pants and a tight white t-shirt.
I fumble around with the wires. I need to get off this damn bed, but because of the drips attached to my veins, I can’t move anywhere.
“You should have left me to die.” He continues to pace. “How could you be so brash with your life?”
“Oh you have to be kidding me.” My cheeks heat with anger. “I don’t understand. I mean that little to you that you’d rather die.” I snap. “You would have done the same goddamn thing for me!”
“Would I,” he grumbles. “I could have killed you. Hell, I nearly did.” His eyes strike me with an uncompromising passion. “There’s always been one thing about you, the thing that has always lessened the thirst. The way you have somehow got beneath my skin and made me human. I nearly drank you all,” he stresses.
“So that’s all I am to you.” I frown up at him. “My mortality is just as necessary to you as a bag of blood.”
He hovers at the foot of the bed. “No Elizabeth!”
“So if I did die, you wouldn’t have brought me back, made me the same as you?” I question.
“Why do you think you are in that bed?” He laughs cynically and begins his angry pacing ritual again. My eyes are finding it hard to keep up with his frustrated movements.
“I’ll do everything in my power to save a life, rather than take it,” he states clearly. “It’s not something I’ll inflict on purpose. Especially on you.” He pauses. “Becoming a slave to the thirst, jeez, I may as well roll up your sleeve, inject you with heroin, and make you a junkie.”
“Then what about Sara and Dom?”
He holds his head very still, visibly not liking my argument. “Don’t compare yourself to them.” He’s trying not to yell in frustration. “You know Dom’s story. And as for Sara, Laurie beat and cut her so badly she stopped breathing. What the hell was I supposed to do? I had to clean up his mess, and at the time it was the only thing I could do,” he emphasises. “Maybe I should have left her. Let her die. I guess I’m just a goddamn fool aren’t I!”
My eyes start to water. I’d rather be back in that freaky nightmare with Laurie, than have him reprimanding me this way. I’m in love with him. Does he not realise that when you love someone, lines are crossed when it comes to losing them.
“Would you not have done the same thing in my shoes? I let you drink me because I care enough about you to save you,” I snap. “We’ve already been through this whole I’m not good for you nonsense, and I’ve accepted what you are. It has no relevance or impact, other than your never-ending need to keep bringing it up,” I yell, breathlessly. “I did not do a thing to instigate any of this, only to love you too much to let you go.”
“Don’t!”
“Don’t what?” I wipe my cool cheek.
“Cry... fuck it... Elizabeth,” he growls.
Irritated, I yank the wire and needle out of my right arm, so I can get out of the bed. A bulb of blood swells from the puncture site. Adrien charges to me and holds down my shoulders to stop me pulling out the left. He’s in my face, nose to nose, eyeing me angrily. I weep. I can’t stop it.
His serious lines soften as he places his hands on my cheeks. I gaze at him, noticing the gleam across his pupils. He rests his head on mine, bracing down his jaw.
“All this is my fault.” I can see he’s fighting hard not to shed a very rare tear. “I’ve sat in that chair waiting for you, and couldn’t do a thing.”
“But I’m here now.”
“Yes, but only just.” His eyes close slowly.
“You didn’t do anything other than take what I gave you. And I would do it again.”
“Why, to exist like me?”
“I don’t care,” I state firmly. “I don’t care if you bite me. I don’t care if I stay the same. What I care about, is you.” I watch his features for a moment. He looks like he has a headache, but this is worse. He’s full of doubt, and it’s not only breaking my heart, it’s making me so damn angry. “You’re trying to push me away again aren’t you?” I yell through the knot in my throat.
“Yes,” he answers plainly. “I am.”
I look away, shutting my eyes. “Then leave.”
I see what we’ve been through in such a short period of time. Memories flash through my mind like a picture book. Our first hot encounters. The trip to Killiecrankie. The revelations and danger. It’s been so intense. Our relationship is in-between the light and dark, but then isn’t every relationship? When things get rough, you stand by one another and put in the work to fix it. I guess this is just a little too much work for him, me being a weak human girl, and him being torn from right and wrong. And maybe he’s right.
One tear lingers on my eyelash as his cold soft hand cups my cheek.
“Look at me Elizabeth.” I blink open my eyes to gaze into his. “I let my whole dark existence, my duty, my authority slide, because you have given me so much more. You make this heart do things only a human heart does. I’m alive with you, Elizabeth Lovell. But people have been hurt because of what we have become together.” He wipes the tear on my cheek away with his thumb.
“So what now?” I whisper, fraught and confused.
“You once asked me for normal. And right now, normal is slow. I’m not going to see you in a bed like this again any time soon. So we be what we are, and we take our time.” He leans into me, kissing my lips tenderly before drawing back. “Can you do that?”
“Yes,” I reply, and again he kisses me.
He stands up, sweeping his hand down my hair, then walks to the door. I don’t want him to leave, not yet. This damn needle needs taking out of my arm. I’m okay now. I don’t need to be attached to this bed.
I get up and hobble barefoot around the bed. I take hold of the drip stand and twiddle with the line.
“What do you think you’re doing? You need to rest,” Adrien stresses in the doorway. “Anaemia is a very serious illness.”
“I’m fine, and I need to see Nathan. To see if he’s okay.”
He holds the door open and rolls his eyes. “Get back into that bed,” he orders. “I’ll send Nathan in, if he’s ready. But you mustn’t push him, Elizabeth. He’s finding all this very hard.”
I do as I’m told and sit on the bed, waiting apprehensively. I pluck at the large white sticky band aid. It’s stuck to my arm hair and is beginning to itch like crazy. I manage to curl over a tiny section at the bottom. I can’t see much, other than dried blood and a few irritated spots. I want to rip the thing off and scratch the hell out of it.
The door opens, making me jump. Nathan pops his head through, leaving his body outside. I don’t care about the damn drip now. I roll out the stand and clumsily rush across to him, but he sticks out his hand, wanting to keep a distance between us.
“Nathan... come in.” Please don’t bite me though.
He smiles. “I’m not going to, Liz.”
I need to stop thinking in his presence, but that’s kind of impossible to do.
Apart from being extremely pale, he doesn’t look too bad. Adrien has given him some of his clothes to wear. The jeans are a little long in the leg, but he’s clean, with no dirt or blood on his face. Not like the night when he pounced on me.
“Liz, I’m sorry about that.”
I try to clear my mind as he hovers like a terrified child. Who should be more anxious here? He can read my mind, and I’ve got stuff rattling around up there that no
one should know.
“You need to work on your shield, or whatever it is they keep warning me about,” he mumbles. “The static buzzing from you is going right through me,” he cringes.
He sits down in the chair flinching, as I hesitantly perch on the edge of the bed. I fiddle with the tangled drip line, trying my best to think of something to say to him. How can I possibly make this situation less daunting for him? It’s not like he’s sick and going to get better. His entire life has been turned upside-down.
“I’m sorry Nathan. If I could, I would have told you. You know that.”
“Let’s just say we’re both to blame.” He suspends his head, solemnly. “Mine for not keeping you when I had you. I was a dick. A stupid little boy,” he angers. “And well you, for falling for one of nature’s freaks. But I guess I’m just like him now aren’t I. God, this is so fucked up.”
“What happened; who did it to you?”
“Laurie was an acquaintance of the company director at Westons. Drinks went down well, things got a little messy, and then I punched my boss.” He shakes his head. “He was there, watching me having a mental breakdown over you, like he had it all planned out. The smarmy bastard talked sense at the time. The rest, you can guess,” he says. “Thing is, he had the impression that I wanted you to suffer. But I could never hurt you.”
Suddenly, he ricochets over, clasping his head while bobbing his legs madly. I jump up and grab the drip stand to go to him, as he growls out in agony. Immediately, his hand shoots out to stop me again.
“Don’t Liz,” he snarls through his teeth. “It will go... in a minute.”
I wait on tenterhooks, watching as he gradually calms down. With deep creases around his eyes he sits back, rubbing his temples firmly.
Adrien has told me about awakening, and I’m amazed. He has a lot more control over it than I expected. Especially knowing how he used to sulk when he had a common cold. I back up to the bed and sit down. I’m not frightened of him, more cautious.
“Shit,” he growls. “Do you remember the hangover we had after my twentieth birthday? Well my skull feels just like that,” he fidgets. “Your boyfriend hasn’t helped, forcing me to drink every hour on the hour. I’ve had blood poured down my neck, whether I need it or not.” He rubs his eyes with his thumb and finger. “And that schizo Leanna, messing inside my head, well that’s just been a barrel of laughs.” I remain silent. I don’t know what else to say to him to make things right. “Promise me one thing before I go.”
“Go where,” I interrupt.
“I can’t stay here Liz, can I,” he groans. “Being around you and him will destroy me. I’ve already been told that.”
“By who?”
“All of them. All of this crap I’m going through needs to go smoothly apparently,” he sarcastically says. “I may go off the rails, and start hunting and feeding on virgins.” He’s trying to be light-hearted, but it isn’t working.
“Where?”
“Paris, with Leanna, where I will be taught how to be a good little vamp.” He smirks. “Who’d have thought there’d be such a thing, hmm.”
“Why haven’t I been told any of this?” I ask in anger. “I’ll stop them. You can stay here. I’m sure Adrien can help.”
“Liz, you’ve been out-cold for four full days now. And Mr Prick, well, he’s done enough don’t you think,” he says as a tear falls from my eyelid. “Promise me one thing, Liz.” He stands up. “Please do not let them do this to you, no matter what. I’d tell you to get away from him, but I know you won’t listen.”
I sniffle as he walks across to me. The thought of not seeing my best friend again, has made me realise things have changed in my life forever. My love for Adrien is a tsunami. And like a tsunami, no matter what is in the way, you can’t stop it.
“Hey.” He stands over me. “I’ll be back one day. Bye Liz.” He arches down and kisses my hair, before walking out of my life.
Chapter 39
Adrien
The city of Prague is a stunning place. A fusion of gothic buildings clad in sandstone, terra-cotta tiles, and modern architecture of steel and glass. Everywhere you turn there is something that catches the eye. One minute you’re lost in a time in which you can imagine farmers selling produce on the cobbled road outside St Vitus Cathedral, overlooked by the gargoyles. And the next, your outside the mesmerising twisted metal and glass Dancing House, wondering if the architect is either brilliant, insane, or even both. It’s perfect, but it is not the place for me. The simple reason I don’t come here often, is that I know who really runs this city. Selene.
Demetrius was once the force to be reckoned with here. But once he had his fill, he handed it over to his spoilt Daughter and retired. The order left the youth of our kind to rule, while they continue to take the spoils.
I arrive with Ben at the Halls of Valt. This vast mansion is where Selene resides, and this is where Laurie will face me after weeks in captivity. He will have to answer for the codes he’s broken before his death.
“This place gives me the creeps,” Ben says, his polished black shoes stopping briefly as he looks up at the stone vaulted ceilings.
“Please don’t let Selene hear you say that. This is her palace and she likes to hear how amazing you think it is.”
This is the first time Ben has ever been invited to a summoning, and his reaction is to be expected. The Halls of Valt have stood here near the Kotel Peaks since the order was formed. Built on the blood and sweat of citizens who feared and adored the pure bloods centuries ago. I can only describe it as a statement of how dark and powerful the order was back then. And this castle like building has endured era after era, just like our kind.
The entrance doors are closed behind us as we steadily walk down the hallway. The floors of black marble are similar to the floors of The Shard, but blacker. The walls are clad in slate and emerald tiles. The place is overpopulated with overbearing open fireplaces. Even walking down this wide corridor, we’ve passed by four of them. And the doors, well, they’re huge, black, each one like a gateway to hell.
I stop before the doors to the grand hall. This is where the order gather for serious matters, such as war. I need to make Ben aware of what awaits behind this door.
I take his elbows in my hands. “The purification ceremony is brutal. There’ll be moments when you see Laurie as he was. Our friend. You’ll have to stand and watch him suffer for a significant amount of time.”
“The only time Laurie was a true friend, was during the war. He deserves whatever is coming to him after what he did to Connor.”
I cock my head at his ruthless comment. Maybe I’m the one apprehensive about this. I’ve seen the ceremony done only once before. Selene had me witness an executive purified to show me what would happen if I ever betrayed her or the order. First you are sentenced. Then you are placed and chained to the rack. The ceiling is then opened in small sections at a time, so the skin burns beneath the sun from the feet upward. All the while your arms, legs, and head are stretched bit by bit. If there is any mercy, then pray you’re de-limbed before you burn to death over a period of days. The stench of charred flesh stays with you for months.
“Don't speak unless spoken to,” I warn him. “If you don’t like how I’m questioned, feel the need to jump in and defend me, don’t. Don’t in anyway put yourself in the firing line, no matter what happens to me.” I release his arms, wrap my hands around the doorknobs, and open them out into the grand hall.
I walk with my head held high, frowning up at the gallery where the order are supposed to be seated. But each oak high back chair is empty.
“Ah, Adrien.” Selene walks barefoot across the slate floor, the train of her long white dress following her. “Benjamin, would you please go and take a seat.” I turn to Ben and nod my head for him to do as ordered. “Bring him in,” she calls to an open door beside a roaring fire.
I watch as two of Selene’s servant guards drag Laurie through the hall.
I’m ten
se, fighting the empathy growing for him. He’s not fed in days. His trousers are torn, he’s topless, and his grey skin has been slashed at least fifty times. He gasps, lifting his filthy unshaven face to look at me. I can’t believe he’s looking for pity from me.
“Selene, why is the order not present? This is supposed to be a hearing.”
“We need to keep this little incident, our little secret. Don’t you think that is best?”
“Because of Elizabeth.” I lower my head.
“I have discussed this with father. He agrees that the girl should remain out of this. Tonight you will end this once and for all.”
Laurie begins to snigger. “You’re familiar with doing things off the books, Adrien.”
“Silence Laurie,” Selene warns. “You may have escaped the purification. But it is up to Adrien how you die.”
“Selene, this is not how we do things.”
“That’s right,” Laurie says. “You can’t do it can you. The girl made you weak.”
“Laurie,” I growl. “Shut the fuck up!”
“That’s why Ben is here,” Selene peers up to Ben sitting in the gallery. “A chance to prove his worth.”
I close my eyes for a moment, thinking. There was no point in me having Laurie brought here. I could have run him through the night he attacked Elizabeth. But after everything that happened, I wanted it known what he did. I wanted the order to be aware I followed our codes, to rectify mistakes made. I’ve killed before, but this is different. It is as though Selene is doing me a favour, and in return she will want the impossible.
“Let us begin.” Selene twirls with her arms out as though she has a loving audience watching her. “Bring down the rig.”
One of the guards turns a wooden lever on the wall, and from the ceiling the rig appears. It’s not used in the purification ceremony. It’s used to drain those chained in it of blood. It used to be used on humans, and knowing Selene, it probably still is.
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