Chapter 10
CHRISTOPHER SEPHTIS
“ L orenzo!” I tumbled to his side as a sense of despair smeared the startling tone that escaped me, a name spoken in the past but never in this manner. Anguish wrapped its fingers within my chest, sinking its nails until pain echoed in my bones. Never had I worn a mask before him. But in this moment, my very being wished I could fortify myself as the small fragments of composure disintegrated.
After discovering Lorenzo in That Man’s chamber, thoughts had haunted me without avail. Questions regarding his motive floated like a fickle speck of dust, materializing abruptly when the sun poured into my chamber. Theories loomed when sleep was unfeasible.
How had Lorenzo broken through the chains? The night That Man had them installed after our mother’s passing, it smoldered our flesh with second-degree burns. Lorenzo, on the other hand, had remained unmarked.
After sending Sonia to face what I couldn’t bring myself to, it did not alleviate the foreboding that had overhung like a shadow, intensifying with each passing second that trickled into the dead of night, when a sudden intuition tugged at my veins. In a daze, it dragged me under the blanket of light rain, droplets caressing my flesh until the moon-lit cave emerged. A blood trail streamed inside, revealing a figure I never thought to witness in my lifetime.
A lycan, sculpted in bulging veins and protruding bones, contoured by muscle and fur, encapsulated between the tangible and the mythic. A lycan that I recognized in scent and shadow.
Lorenzo’s motionless body transfigured. His lycan-lined features mutated, snout and paws reverting to the human form I recognized. Amidst his largely naked build, hollow eyes darkened as pupils dilated and gaped beyond me. Blanched, copper flesh hung from the lower side of his neck to his collarbone, scarlet-red blood pouring from the monstrous wound. Spindly muscle and veins dangled over his bare shoulder. Grime stained his fingers, particularly the black sharpened nails that curved at the tips. Lorenzo’s elevated chest caved at every inhale, each shallower than the last.
Until he ceased to breathe.
“Oh no.” A harsh ripple of memories awakened a heaviness from five years ago with full strength. It was too similar to the night we discovered our mother, bloodied and lifeless on the floor of That Man’s chamber, during a night that was to be festive and enjoyed. “No, no, no!”
Instinct drove me on him and propelled trembling hands onto his chest. A string of life dangled, thinning by the second.
Beneath the pulsing wound, veins steadily connected. Traces of mangled muscle rejoined, yet his flesh remained unmoving. If lycans possessed similar capabilities as vampires, then he would be able to regenerate. But at the rate his body was healing, death would consume him before so.
“He needs to feed,” I whispered to myself, the frigid air stiffening as the realization dawned. Intuition whispered.
Within our society, vampire blood was regarded highly due to its vigorous make up and strong regenerative abilities when ingested, especially to humans. In old tales, consuming our blood after a bite was assumed the elixir to vampirism. In the current age, vampires reveled in such lore to dupe humans.
However, in both of our societies, the realities of transitioning have never seen the light of day. Regal Families were to know, yet many remained uninformed. The few who did know were out of reach, like That Man, or long gone—like our mother, the first successfully transitioned vampire.
However, the knowledge our society was well-versed in were feedings. Sharing our blood amongst each other during intimate moments was a norm, a stimulant that fine-tuned and enhanced our systems. In contrast, when done with humans, it was a criminal offense. Vampire blood was the most potent opioid a human could acquire and resulted in implacable hysteria.
Would it incur the same to a lycan?
The risk to ascertain the notion was greater than life.
So be it .
Adrenaline pumped into my gums, fangs extending from their pockets. Before others, they were always evident especially when feeding, to further cement the image I must upkeep. In private, they drew back based on pure instinct. Never had I forced them out in this manner, but as I punctured through my flesh, familiar frenzied sensations webbed around my eyes.
Hunger. Desire. Tenacity.
Copper clashed on my tongue, droplets carving lines on my pale wrist as I forced it to Lorenzo’s paling lips. His nostrils flared yet his mouth didn’t part. “You bloody imbecile! Be stubborn to live, not to oppose me!”
Determination imposed my streaming wound to his pressed lips. Unyielding, he rejected my demand with a slight shake of his head.
“This isn’t a request, Lorenzo.” A deep timber vibrated in my tone. “Feed!”
He stalled by weakly turning his face, but as the uncertainty on his expression dissipated, his lips took my wrist. Everything in existence impetuously snapped into place.
The world's axis titled as the night, the cave, the humid air, all eroded, senses unraveling to attune to the jolt of his Adam's apple, pulling and gulping my blood as though it was the essence to his existence. His possessive growl entranced my body, a calling my veins thrummed to.
Air escaped me as Lorenzo dug his teeth deeper, taking with all his might. Scorching electricity infiltrated every crevice of my being.
Unprecedented pleasure skirted toward desire, flaming as I slumped forward on the floor and onto a wall of muscle, heat and sweat enclosing me. Darkness spotted my vision.
“Fuck. I got carried away,” Lorenzo cursed as he pulled away and straightened. His tone echoed, yet there was a rough, gravelly edge to his amplified voice. Skin fully patched itself on his neck, appearing as if nothing had occurred.
My lips parted, but scrambled thoughts struggled to string words as the familiar intuition clicked, heightening a sudden pull that craved to meet Lorenzo’s propelling right shoulder.
“Take, Christopher.” The darkness consumed my sight as my nose nuzzled against where blood coursed, the curve of his shoulder. His heat swelled and my tongue cried to drink him in.
If a gap existed, it was rapidly closed as I followed Lorenzo’s directions, fangs sinking into shoulder and crunching beyond his flesh. Sweet liquid burned my throat, but the searing sensation numbed as I took, took, took, amplifying the ever-growing electricity that awoke me from a slumber I hadn’t known I was under.
Life was insignificant compared to this. This was more than the essence of it, more than Lorenzo and I compared, burying what I thought to have presumed.
A groan forced me to withdraw in a harsh drawl; however, it was the sudden jab against my abdomen that widened my eyes in a panic.
Vampire heartbeats were known to be vastly different from a human’s. For humans, their heartbeats changed the slightest depending on their intentions. However, a vampire’s was regarded as inaudible due to being customarily slow and heavily moderated.
It rarely changed in its tune, but before Lorenzo, underneath the veil of night and secured between his lap and broad arms, my heartbeat did the inconceivable—it echoed in my veins.
“Your heart is beating pretty fast for a vampire, Doll. Think you need to see a specialist for that.” Lorenzo’s teasing tone filtered through the scraping grittiness in his voice.
“You almost died, you imbecile.” Though I tried to match his bite, it faltered as the weight of the situation fully cemented. Anger charged through me like a live wire. “What the bloody hell did you do?”
The wound had fully closed as if it had never existed. In its wake remained dried blood smeared along his neck and chest, and two tooth wounds against his collarbone, perfectly symmetrical.
Where I had bit and consumed him without qualms.
Lorenzo leaned to the side and slowly pulled at the leftover clothing material hugging his hip. Between his index and middle finger rested a slip of paper with Sylvester’s handwriting.
“What is this?” I unfolded it. “Silverman’s Island?”
“Went back to the parlor and uncovered this by chance. I got this shit in return.” He pointed to the non-existent wound. “A lycan nearly killed me to get that piece of paper.”
“Lycan?” My eyebrows scrunched together. “There’s more?”
“Apparently so and one with a loose screw since he started babbling about finding some mate nonsense before he mauled me.”
Mates? My body stilled. Such a thing didn’t exist in our world of science and logic. While our mother entertained the idea once or twice in my youth, it was a simple illusion painted for entertainment. There was no possibility of it?—
Lorenzo inhaled sharply as he straightened himself. While it had been over a week since our last visit, why had Lorenzo gone without me? A tinge of dejection tugged at my chest. “Why did you go back?”
“W-Why?” His complexion darkened and a smirk played at my lips as I gazed down at him. Was Lorenzo Devon capable of blushing? “Wipe that smirk off your face.”
“I will once you answer my question,” I responded and quickly pressed my lips together to hide the smile that wished to deepen.
He rolled his eyes and gazed away, but his hold tightened around my waist. “I was pissed off ‘cause you were all I thought about. You requesting me through Sonia sent me over the edge.”
His heartbeat hitched as the flush traveled to his temples. We had yet to discuss what occurred that night in That Man’s chamber, but such thoughts washed away as my gaze fell on his full lips, the pronounced Cupid’s bow that pursed.
“Christopher?”
“Yes?”
Worry hollowed his gaze as they caught on mine, his jaw slightly hardening into a contour. “What you saw tonight, you can’t share with anyone. No one knows about my lycan side.”
“You have my word, Lorenzo.” Lycans were portrayed as extinct, but in truth, they were ostracized into extinction. They had ceased to exist to the eye, but the media never candidly confirmed nor denied their current existence after the Cold War. Mother assured as such through her teachings, sharing how she herself wasn’t entirely sure of the matter.
With such realization, a weight pressed on my shoulders. It was one that dug through flesh and throbbed within my muscles, a sensation like nothing felt before. It would be an honor to carry it for Lorenzo, to share a secret only for us.
“Thank you,” he whispered, his tone a rasp against my flesh.
My eyes traced the outline of his sharp features, the short stubble tracing his cheeks and jaw and fading into his clean-shaven head. Melting medallion yellow eyes possessed me inwardly and outwardly.
Lorenzo was a furious storm that disturbed the peace I had solaced in. The opposition to my accordance in this society. Rugged yet flawless—a transpiring calamity that possessed the power to drift me apart from all I’ve known and have existed for.
Yet, my bones didn’t drum with the inclination to distance myself. Something else—that sixth sense—whispered to plunge with abandon.
And I did.
Sensations crashed onto me as my lips took his, fangs further elongating and nipping without breaking his flesh. Lorenzo responded in his touch, hands rummaging upward my spine and onto my neck. Fingers wrapped around my nape and pulled me deeper, his nostrils flaring as he took me in with his tongue.
“You smell so fucking good. Like mine .”
Awareness sparked my flesh as he lifted us in a single swoop and pushed me onto a soft curve of limestone. Its frigid surface had no effect on me as Lorenzo’s heat enveloped my body, as if melding into my own.
But it wasn’t enough. With him, more was requisite.
I pulled away, a low growl escaping Lorenzo’s lips. They stifled when his gaze fell on my fingers as they undid my buttons. My pale blouse was discarded in the blink of an eye, bare flesh meeting Lorenzo’s as I brought him to me, his large length grazing mine.
He didn’t fully settle as doubt lined between his eyebrows. “What do you want?”
“You,” my response was fluid, one that needed no reconsideration. An attraction had always existed between the two of us. This was more than that. It was beyond primal lust and impulsiveness. It was the light out of the void I had been sustaining myself in. “And a shower after we finish.”
“If we do this, there’s no going back.” A shadow casted over his gaze, the nervousness persisting as his pupils expanded. Gooseflesh followed his wake as his fingers trailed from my arms and up my shoulders, meeting at my nape. Light touches slowly unraveled the braid resting on my back.
“Says the one who wanted to stop it all before it could fully start.”
He rolled his eyes, a playful grin softening as he tugged off my glasses from my chest and leveled them. “Be honest, do you actually use these?”
“I do, but not because I need to.”
His eyebrows furrowed. “Then why?”
“Because they were my mother’s.” The distant memory was of one of my youth, one that I had long forced myself to forget. Before it could be burrowed, my lips spoke, “She used to have them near her at all times up until the twin’s birth. She never wore them out of necessity. At times, she used them when she read because she missed the feeling. But it was a token from her human life, and a gift to me before her passing.”
Lorenzo’s facial expression softened, his eyes flaring with compassion and awe as he nodded. “Then we should keep this safe, yeah?” He tucked them away from us. “You know, you may have been a pompous fuck, but I knew from the beginning that you were more than that.”
“Is that so?”
He lowered his head and softly nuzzled his nose on my neck, hovering. Trailing. “More than a doll, actually. You’re the torment that calls to all of me.”
Warmth flooded my system in waves, each one greater than the last as his words echoed. “Then have me.”
At that, Lorenzo made quick work at my trousers, removing them and disposing of what little remained on him. Pale blonde waves framed us as large palms studied my spindly figure. Each probe fueled the electricity that had long become one with me. Moonlight contoured him and deepened his gaze. Beyond the possession and lust, came forth a refined yearning that swallowed me whole.
Intricate lines carved Lorenzo’s abdomen, his robust build narrowing to a taut waist that emphasized his prominent length. The heavy weight of his possessive stare was shadowed by his pants. Doubt obscured the air of confidence he carried moments ago.
“You’re beautiful,” I murmured.
The uncertainty in Lorenzo’s furrowed expression washed away. “You drive me crazy.” Fondness warmed his voice, then it suddenly shifted. “But as much as I want to hear you scream in pleasure, there’s still guardians a few kilometers away. So Christopher,” he said lowly, “if the pain becomes too much, you bite me. Got that?”
“Yes,” I said through a breath, what little remained vanishing as Lorenzo wrapped his hand around my length. The flesh on his palms were rough. His touch, however, maintained a steady, soft rhythm, fulfilling each desire that burned within me. His fingers pressed through my entrance and stretched. Moans escaped our lips, Lorenzo seizing them in a harsh kiss, his stubble marking my flesh.
The loss of Lorenzo’s lips and fingers struck at once. He reeled back, the top of his tongue caressing my neck in a trail until they drew to his fingers and sucked. “Someone was prepared. Eager, much?”
I partially rolled my eyes, the sight of his beautiful smirk captivating me alike his hold on me. “I haven’t fed.”
“Because you were hoping for this?” His snarky tone still sparked the prickly irritation in my abdomen.
“That’s not?—”
His hand vanished behind me and followed the curve of my back until it discovered my entrance again. There was no need to probe when I accepted his touch. “No need to deny. I know this is exactly what you wanted. I did, too.” My body unfolded layer by layer, beckoning him closer, firmer, as my back grazed deeper into the limestone.
Stretched and primed, Lorenzo angled his tip, his girth easing in until he could dominate. Pleasure laced in pain exploded within my abdomen as my body naturally molded to his length with each stroke. It was all too consuming; familiar yet anew. My fangs responded, lifting and sinking into his flesh. Piquant blood crashed on my tongue, the familiar force sparking my veins. Sex was an act to momentarily revel in pleasure. But this couldn’t be described as such. This was beyond the means of two bodies honoring a transaction. This was a descent to somewhere unknown, somewhere only we knew, where we would live for eternity.
Twenty-four years of existence no longer felt aimless. I existed for him. Him for myself. In return, I had him, and we both relished each other until we couldn’t no longer.
Sleep was one escape many sought after, the cure to problems which dawned on the conscious. To a great degree, vampires didn’t desire sleep. It was a chore that we abided by, revitalizing ourselves like humans. Yet, while humans depended on it in excess, vampires could endure days without such a thing before fatigue claimed us. By the principle, to crave sleep was rare, and to be enthralled by it even more.
However, with Lorenzo, this phenomenon arose.
Heat blanketed my body and tugged me awake. Warm arms wrapped tighter around my frame, shoving me into the sculpted chest vibrating with low snores. Lorenzo’s prominent Adam’s apple raised and lowered with each swallow. He remained undisturbed in my twisting form, his hold cradling my stature as I tugged. Though I wished to remain in his touch, if this continued, we would stay in this cave for another day, somnolent and buried away from the reality that persisted.
Sun rays crept through the dirt, stretching to the dark corner where obscure flowers stood beside Lorenzo’s motorbike. Dark windmill-like petals blossomed, distant light unveiling a violet undertone. These were ones the household’s garden didn’t harbor, but I recognized them nevertheless; our mother had frequented the outer grounds in search of them.
“Dahlia’s are not native to this land, yet, they thrive,” she had whispered to me one morning when I had followed her to the neighboring forest in my early years, before guardians monitored us closely. The break of morning had splintered the sky in hues of oranges, the prickle of its beams forever imprinted on my flesh. “It makes you wonder how they arrived here. Who brought them. Why they came to be. There is always more than meets the eye—especially when it’s under our noses.”
A mild bitter fragrance danced in the humid air, yanking me from memories buried in the deepest depths. Sorrow pinched behind my eyes and a slight heaviness weighed my chest, the dense mass of regret echoing in my bones. The resounding pain held me captive, crawling underneath my flesh until a deep inhale caught my attention.
“He has awakened,” I jested, the humor peculiar on my tongue. Inversely, the unwavering warmth belonged in my chest.
Dazed bronze eyes slowly widened then narrowed onto me. “And he has already started. Do we have to go another round to shut that mouth of yours?” This deep, gravelly voice was unlike the one he harbored last night. Though the possession still lingered, it lacked the amplification that parted his fixed tone. Nevertheless—alongside the vivid thought of doing more with Lorenzo—his voice sparked my arousal. The hold his fingers owned in my crown said so as well.
“Though it would be an admirable way to start our morning,” I said as I parted from him and began dressing. “I need to meet with Sonia.”
An unsatisfied groan rolled off him. “Fine.”
A slight cold weight pressed against my thigh. Noah’s words rung in the back of my mind, the warning ever-present. “Next time you hold something of value, Eldest Brother, don’t drop it.”
Lorenzo’s gaze remained on me, a slight tremor in his eyes as they fixated on my sudden motion.
“A peace offering,” I mentioned as I bore the clicker. “Though I don’t expect it to be needed, I hope.”
Lorenzo rapidly stood, towering beside me as he closed the distance I had placed to keep my hands to myself. Sharp teeth grazed my bare shoulder as his soft caress accepted it. “I’ll take whatever you offer.”
His flesh burned into my veins before he parted and sauntered to his motorbike. He rummaged through the seat compartment, retrieving dark leisurewear. “But don’t think this will make me forget to pick up where we left off. Maybe I’ll get the chance to tear you apart.”
“Then we shall meet in my chamber. I’ll call for you when I conclude.” Although an ache hammered at my backside due to Lorenzo, the strain on my shoulders and back was the result of the hardened ground we slumbered on. I wasn’t opposed to continuing our rendezvous here, however, until after the soreness vanished from my body.
Lorenzo brought me to him in a swift pull and kissed me. Tongues whirled as his body pressed into mine, and before we could tear down the progress we’ve made, we parted, a sunken sensation consuming me the further I walked from him.
It caved as I prepared myself for what was to come, washing away remnants of Lorenzo until all that remained was the phantom of his touch beneath my flesh. Had Lorenzo returned? Though he was wholly healed, I couldn’t help but?—
A heavy clank beyond my chambers caught my attention and reeled me onto the hallway.
Though our chambers were soundproof, this creak was impenetrable, unlike the silent hums of my brother's doors and our mothers old chamber on the opposite side of the household.
Within the darkness, my gaze drifted away from Kaleb’s and Noah’s closed chambers to That Man’s. Neither of my brothers had perceived the undone chains of That Man’s towering wooden doors, nor when?—
The door was ajar. The chains, gone.
How?
After the night I’d stumbled on Lorenzo, I’d made quick work of shutting that burdensome entrance before my flesh could react, ensuring no trace of my presence.
Someone had taken the chains, and wedged a leather bound literature between the doors as if it was a stopple. But it was anything but that.
Jagged yellow pages decorated the fore edge, the dark front cover bearing scars of age and bruises of common wear in which belonged to one piece of literature under this household, the very one that had haunted our youths through teachings.
And haunted me now, after nearly five years, when it was meant to be stuffed away in the depths of the library’s third level.
Who did this?
Thoughts ceased to exist as I gripped the literature and stormed out the household, confusion and anger tangled as I whisked past the posted guardians and inner gate, beyond the Sephtis cemetery’s metal entrance, and stepped into the mausoleum, the sun above prickling beyond flesh.
“ Why ?”
Our mother’s soul-stirring soft voice, her request for this work of text. . .it was to never be revisited unless life depended on it.
The History of Vampires fostered the power to end me. End Lorenzo and my brothers alike.
Why had it all appeared now , when time had enshrouded it all? Unless. . .
No.
“What were you thinking, Mother? How could you abandon us yet forsake us with traces of your presence?”
A gust of wind gave rise to gooseflesh as I stepped forward and my hands tossed the heaving weight. The thick piece of literature bounced against the cement ground, a resounding thud echoing within the caving mausoleum. Had it always harbored such a narrow path with bright walls? When had it become so suffocating in the last year?
A familiar presence swelled behind me, quaint and smoldered, indistinguishable within the air if not studied. His presence thinned amongst Noah’s and Kaleb’s, theirs exuberant and vain, but I recognized it in moments where I visited our mothers mausoleum every year, lingering from the flower-filled vase at the centered podium.
I didn’t turn to face him as Alek asked, “Where did you get that?” His tone usually held a habitual serenity, seldomly quiet and apathetic when spoken to. In this moment, it was elevated and sharp, rumbling with rage underneath the contained surface.
“It was mother’s.”
Short, cedar waves and hardening sharp features met my sight, Alek’s dark brown eyes growing pitiless as they widened. “We all witnessed the destruction of the book, the fire that encapsulated each page until it was ash on the ground.”
The night a few days after our mother’s burial still reigned lifelike in my memory, the fire’s hovering heat a shadow on my flesh.
“We did.” My gaze fell on him as I fully turned, tension warping the space between us. “But that wasn’t the true edition.”
“Why?” he gritted with a hardened jaw.
“Many things that cannot be disclosed, Alek,” I responded, a shiver crawling on my flesh. Though this was not an outcome I was expecting during this unbidden visit, it was one I needed to rectify immediately. Alek’s knowledge of the literature’s existence doubled the risk—if another brother discovered it, death was absolute by the Ministry.
I lowered to grasp the wretched thing, but Alek kicked it, the piece flying behind me and onto our mother’s resting place.
“No,” he stated, his gaze capturing mine. “I’m tired, brother, of being left in the shadows to fend for myself when all three of you have constantly thrown me into the pits of hell once I escape. Either you explain why you’re holding a piece of obstruction, or I risk all of our lives.”
Never had he spoken to me in such a manner—notwithstanding, had spoken in such lengths. Though irritation ran through my veins, there, underneath the adrenaline, spiked a sense of respect at his intrepidity.
“Watch your tongue. I’m the eldest, and if you don’t obey my word, then you will be met with repercussions.”
He inhaled sharply. “ I’d rather meet with repercussions on my own terms than yours or anyone else’s.”
“Then what do you ask for, Alek? An explanation in exchange for your silence?”
His consideration befell us. “In exchange for keeping the whereabouts of the book silent, you’re going to assist me with dismantling Kaleb’s authority over all of us.” Caution echoed within the fortified words. “If you don’t choose wisely, brother, then the first to discover your possession will be the Ministry.”
The weight of his threat amplified the self-imposing pressure, my grave more apparent by the second. Kaleb’s torment had once been miniscule. He’d inflict dirty tricks, and though our mother handled the majority, the few that slipped under her nose were the ones that heightened with time. After our mother’s death, his attention had slowly transferred over to the schemes. There were less whispers between the younger siblings and notifications from Sonia of Kaleb’s doings.
And as the burden of the marriage arrangement persisted after Anabella’s and I’s blood compatibility failed, I didn’t concern myself with Kaleb. In truth, it wasn’t a responsibility I could bear.
But now, as I took in the harsh lines along Alek’s pale flesh, guilt tugged at my chest. Had he been the only brother who Kaleb continued afflicting misery upon? Had it existed before the Ambrogio visit that left Mr. Amelle injured?
The damage stood before me with a fiery gaze, warning the very air of his pending incineration.
I couldn’t undo the damage that was done to him—the one I allowed with mere ignorance. Atonement was in my grasp.
I met him with what I knew best as I gripped the book: a silent agreement in which bestowed him the authority to subjugate my existence.