Chapter 2
Avrum
Iwalk through the flooded streets, my footsteps heavy and noisy, especially for me, but they match my rage. I’m wet to the bone, my navy suit now tight and clinging to me.
Thunder claps above me, loud and threatening.
It makes me move a little faster as I head into the more neglected part of the city, where the factories and buildings have been abandoned for something faster, larger, and newer.
The storm is at its peak, and I can feel the intensity of it in the air.
That means I have to be quick, get Haven and leave before the weather gets too dangerous—even for an immortal.
Why didn’t she just stay at the party?
I lift my nose towards the wind. Many scents hit me at once, the strongest being urine.
It burns the inside of my nostrils. Even though the factory buildings don’t seem to be in use anymore, there are still the lingering smells of smoke, manure, and sweat surrounding them.
But when I inhale again, I catch a hint of something sweet. Sweet and alive.
Found her.
Taking another step forward, a crunching sound comes from under my shoe, and I hesitate. Looking down, I spot an object shining under the glow of the streetlamps. I bend down and pick it up.
A silver and sapphire necklace. The same one I’d seen around Haven’s neck.
Fear grips me, and I’m not sure why, but suddenly I’m worried about her more than before. Could she be hurt? She’s alone out here and only human, and this storm is growing too dangerous to travel through.
She could’ve been robbed or forced upon. My stomach churns at the thought.
Peering through the darkness, a few steps away, something else glistens. And not too far from it, another. Her bracelets.
I shove the necklace into my breast pocket and follow the rest of the trail of fallen jewelry and scattered hair accessories. They lead me through a narrow alley to a building with a crumbling foundation, boarded doors, and broken windows.
It isn’t until I make my way to the side that I find her. She stands underneath one of the only untouched, stained-glass windows, leaning her forehead against the wall. Her beautiful gown is drenched by the constant wind and rain, and the hem is ruined with mud.
As I creep closer, lightning flashes, illuminating the alley and her pearl white skin. For that second, I can see the sadness on her face. The tears sliding down her cheeks.
Thunder rumbles again, but she doesn’t even flinch at the sound and I can’t help but think how angelic she looks standing there with her elegant dressings and beautiful face. Maybe a fallen angel would be more accurate with how out of place she appears in this darkness and gloom.
Any anger that had been building up in me quickly drains away as I look upon her. Her overwhelming grief engulfs the cramped lane and suffocates me. I can’t bear it.
Remembering my promise to Lord Henri, I know I have to gather myself and bring her back to Greystone Manor. Haven is my charge now, my responsibility. She isn’t safe out here.
I don’t understand why she would even choose to run away. It’s a mystery to me, especially when Lord Henri is offering her such wondrous things. Riches. Feasts. Things I used to only dream about. Surely she isn’t that ungrateful.
The rain pounds on the rooftops of neighboring buildings, sounding like an energetic roll of drums.
“Miss Haven!” I call out finally into the wrath of the elements. “I’m here to take you back.”
Haven’s head turns, and she looks over her shoulder at me. I can fully see her expression now—eyes half-closed but swollen with tears and lips parted. Her dark curls stick to her cheeks.
“Leave me alone,” she says in a weak whisper.
I fight the immense pity pulling at me once again. I still don’t understand why I’m feeling anything at all.
“Please, Miss Haven,” I continue, “you are safer at Greystone with—” Me? That thought surprises me. “Lord Henri,” I finish instead, and clear my throat.
With the mention of the lord’s name, Haven walks to me. Gone is the sorrow that had clung to her before. Now, I’m only faced with anger as she glares at me through thick, dark lashes.
“I will go with you,” she snaps, “if you promise to continue to leave my father alone.”
I pause, unsure what she means. “Your father?” I glance back at the window. I had assumed she’d been orphaned like me. Lord Henri hadn’t mentioned that her father is still alive.
The defeated drop of her shoulders tells me she’s not lying. Even her tone softens, filling with regret. “I’ll go with you. I’m sorry for leaving.”
Then, she pushes past me, head down.
Leaving me no other choice, I curse under my breath and follow after her. If she has a parent, why would Lord Henri choose to bring her to Greystone? It doesn’t make sense. There has to be a reason I don’t know about, something more to it. I will have to ask Henri about it when I see him later.
When we reach the main street, I catch up to stroll beside her. I’m itching to know more about her, her father, and the life she lived before Lord Henri. She’s the only other person he’s brought to the manor since me. I want to know why. Why her? What does Henri see in her that no one else can?
“I knew very little of my father,” I blurt out, and regret it instantly.
She peers at me through the blur of rain.
Not sure how to recover, I let the words continue to tumble out. “He died of consumption when I was a young child, and left me and my younger brother to run the family farm. My mother became too fragile after that for laborious work.”
Her brows rise, but she says nothing.
I keep going. “He was not in my life for long, but I did have great love for my mother and brother. A year ago, I lost them to a fire.”
Still, Haven says nothing, and her silence pinches at my chest. Is that sympathy I catch in her stare? It’s hard to tell. But my fingers twitch at my sides. I want to reach out, to touch her, to offer her some kind of comfort, but I know that wouldn’t go over well.
Still, I wonder what her skin would feel like under my fingertips…
“Do you miss them?”
Her question surprises me. After so much silence between us, I hadn’t expected her to respond at all to my blabbering.
With this new immortal life, I’d always expected the pain that came with my family’s loss to alleviate somewhat, but it hasn’t. There’s still the clench of grief in my chest whenever I think of my mother and brother. Sometimes I think it’ll never go away.
“Yes, more than anything in the world,” I say.
“Would you do anything, give anything, to see them again?” she asks, her voice soft but her gaze fierce.
“Y-Yes. Of course.”
Haven sighs, her arms wrapping around herself, but doesn’t say anything else about it.
A purple streak of lightning slices through the sky before us, stealing the rest of the conversation. Not knowing what else to do, I walk alongside her in silence.
The moment my feet meet with the wood floors of the manor’s empty foyer, the tension in my muscles eases. Home again, safe. From the thunderous sounds of music and laughter echoing throughout the walls, it’s clear the party is still at its peak.
As Haven comes to my side, her soaked hair clinging to her cheeks and forehead, my heart freezes behind my ribs.
Being this close to her now, I can really see just how beautiful she is.
Even disheveled and wet. My eyes fall to the swell of her breasts, where water droplets glisten in the foyer’s gold light.
Little bumps rise all over her skin from the cold.
This woman is unlike any other I’ve ever met. She even puts the ones blessed with immortality to shame.
As if bewitched, my feet move toward her without my permission. The closer I get, the stronger her scent is. It reminds me of growing lilacs and rain, and it surrounds me. A sweet perfume. I’m lost in it. Lost in her.
A thumping pounds against my ears, and it takes me a second to realize it’s her heart calling out to me, her blood singing that familiar and addicting song as it pumps through her veins.
My own speeds up to match hers—faster and faster until my vision sharpens and my incisors press against my bottom lip.
I fixate on the blue lifelines underneath her pale skin, watch them pushing the blood to make a blush redden her skin on her neck and cheeks.
Haven steps back, but her back meets the wall.
Her mouth opens to speak, but no words emerge.
At least none that I can hear. I’m too focused on the hypnotic sound of her heart beating rapidly.
The curves of her lips. The way her tongue darts out between them nervously.
God, I want to kiss those lips. Taste her.
Press her slender body against my own and…
My mind runs away with me; all my rational thought is gone.
There’s only her. Slamming my hands on both sides of her head, I lean into her, pinning her between me and the wall.
As I imagined, she’s so soft against me.
And when I look down at her face, I’m amazed to see her blue eyes looking back at me with the same heat and need flickering behind them.
I dip my chin, closing the distance between us, ready to take the risk and kiss her, but when she rises onto her toes to meet me, a different scent hits my nose.
Henri.
Ice shoots through my veins, and I rip myself away from her so fast, I stumble back.
What am I doing? I can’t just… I can’t…
Henri wouldn’t want me involved with her. Especially if he has plans for her change. I would be breaking some kind of rule. I’m sure of it.
He trusted me to look after her. Not get distracted by her.
Panic rushing through me, I shake my head clear. Where is my self-control?
I may be fairly new to this gift Henri bestowed upon me, but I need to keep my composure. If I let it go too far, I could give in to desire right here in the middle of the open room. Or, worse. I could rip her throat open, drain her, and kill her. Instantly.
Both are ultimate betrayals.