Chapter 24
Sleeping Beauty
Packs a Punch
“Will she ever wake? It’s been forty-eight hours straight!”
I heard a worried sounding Ben asking and my mind felt lost to the fog of a deep sleep.
I vaguely thought about work and going through the motions of asking myself if my alarm had worked or not.
Then I asked myself why had I dreamt of hearing Ben’s voice?
“I had to send her deep,”
a gruff voice said that sounded less than happy.
Seriously, what were these men doing in my bedroom and what was that one talking about?
“But…but is that even possible with a human, for them to go that deep and find their way out again…can’t you help her?”
Ben asked, again sounding dire.
“Relax shifter, she is still in there, she’s just been sleeping sound is all.”
“Yes, but for forty-eight bloody hours! I may not be an expert on you Drudes, but even I know that isn’t usually possible!”
Ben argued, making someone growl in response.
“What do you want me to say, that I have never heard of it, so I’m fucked if I know why that is…or what exactly she is for that matter! Is that what you want me to say?”
An angry and clearly frustrated voice said and now I was starting to recognise it as one I knew.
Dante.
I could hear his voice and in it, heard an equal amount of worry and aggravation in his words before he expelled a deep sigh.
Ben then said a word that I had no problem in bringing me closer to home.
“We should have told him…we should have told the King.”
“Oh yeah, and what do you think he would have done? Do you think if he knew this was half your fault that he would let you live as well as me… uh?”
Dante said sounding equally threatening as he did annoyed with himself.
“Yeah, well don’t pretend it’s only my skin you’re protecting, as what do you think he would say knowing you sent his Princess down so deep into her own mind that she is practically in a coma…huh, give you a bonus?”
Ben snarled back before the noise of something like a chair being knocked back on the floor sounded and seconds later gargled spluttering for breath could be heard.
“Remember who you speak to, flesh eater, for I could quite easily send you down just as deep and fucking keep you there for a millennia without breaking a sweat.”
A threatening voice snarled back and even in sleep I flinched.
After this he must have let Ben go as he started coughing and trying to test his voice again.
“Besides, the King just believes the girl is too angry to speak to him and I have assured him she is continuing on as usual.”
“Yes, and how long before he grows impatient enough to visit again, like the last time…you know he can’t go long before he sees her and his trust in people grows thinner with each passing year?”
Ben asked now with a croaky voice.
“She will wake soon, I feel it…her mind is becoming her own once more…you shall see, for this little lamb will find her way home soon, won’t you, darlin’?”
A now kind and gentle version of that gruff voice spoke to me and I felt a slight touch along my cheek as if someone was giving me an affectionate caress.
“But what I want to know is how she even managed to fight you for so long…how is that possible? I thought she was human, it’s what we were told…what he told us…”
Ben asked in confusion and at first I wondered who they were talking about now, but then that thought seemed to fade away just as quickly as the time it took for me to hear it.
I could feel the darkness seeping in again and the last thing I heard this time before the emptiness that was this dark wakeless realm consumed me once more was,
“I don’t know, but no human has that type of power…no human alive.”
And the very last question I asked myself…
Which King had they been talking about?
The next time I felt my mind coming back to me was when I heard my name being whispered from above.
It was Lucius and he was whispering a demand…
“Wake now…wake for me, my princess…my Amelia.”
“Lucius!”
I shouted as I bolted upright, reaching out with my hand as if I could grab on to him to stop him from leaving.
But there was nothing there but the closet opposite my bed and the mirrored door that only showed my confusing image reaching for myself.
“Emmie!”
Ben shouted my name and rushed into my room.
I threw my arms around him and held him to me before I even asked myself why he was here.
“Oh Ben, I had the weirdest of dreams, a nightmare really! It was terrible, and you were there but you were someone else and…and…Ben?”
I stopped the second I felt him tense in my hold and I pulled back to say his name in question as I knew that there was something he wasn’t telling me.
“Ben?”
I said his name again and he lowered his head as if he couldn’t look at me any longer.
Then he rose from the bed and stepped back, looking utterly ashamed.
His big blue eyes were actually filled with tears, a few he swiped at with the back of his hand before he finally said,
“I am so sorry, Emmie…but it happened…it all really happened,”
he said softly, making me frown first before I shook my head as the ghost of an image in my mind started to form.
Making me then argue,
“But…no, it couldn’t be…you were a zombie, Ben,”
I said making him scoff and then a booming laugh was heard behind him as Dante walked inside my room.
The height difference between them was a little comical as Ben was about my height making Dante look huge next to my podgy little friend.
A friend who was now trying to tell me that he was actually a flesh-eating demon.
Dante slapped him on the back making him fall forward a step before righting himself with a wince.
“Ah, don’t be too hard on this guy, Sugar, he was only doing his job,”
Dante said before shifting around him to come over to the side of the bed.
“What do you mean doing his job and what happened…you, I saw you, I dreamt of you?”
I asked, feeling like I was groggy after too much sleep.
I watched as Dante shifted uncomfortably for a second and then asked,
“You dreamt of me you say?”
I frowned before closing my eyes a second as I recalled it.
I remembered the black room, then the white light.
A voice wanting me to follow it…but no, not a light…something else.
“A white rabbit,”
I muttered before confirming,
“You were the rabbit.”
This time I heard the gasp from Ben by the door and Dante shot him a knowing look before asking,
“What else?”
This was said in a tense tone as if me remembering him wasn’t a good thing, but he needed it confirming all the same.
So, I let my memory find the dream with ease and hissed through my teeth the second I saw him…saw what he became.
“You changed.”
This was all I needed to say for Dante to hang his head in what looked like defeat.
“But that’s impossible, isn’t it…she shouldn’t have remembered?”
Ben said in astonishment and again Dante gave him a pointed look as if trying to tell himself something without words.
“I don’t understand, what is going on? How did this even happen?”
I asked which seemed to make Dante relax a little now that my questioning had changed direction.
“Ah well, your friend over there might have gotten a little carried away with his meal and you unfortunately picked the wrong time to walk in on him.”
I frowned in question and Dante decided I needed more than just that.
“Your friend is what is known as a Manushya-Rakshasi demon, a shapeshifter of sorts, if that helps,”
Dante said making me look at him in shock before turning my stunned gaze on my friend.
Ben gave me an awkward little wave and said,
“I am so sorry, Emmie.
Gods girl, but I would never have wanted you to see me like that.
But the truth is I hadn’t fed in a such a long time and well I needed to regenerate before I got sick and the feeding lust just took hold and…well, it all got a bit messy,”
he said screwing his face up as if even he found it all too yucky but couldn’t have helped it.
I thought about all he’d just told me and the first question out of my mouth surprised me, as it was one that I never believed I would have found myself having no choice but to ask a friend.
“Did you kill them?”
Ben looked upset a moment, obviously knowing the reasons why I would have to ask something so bad.
He shook his head a little as if his voice couldn’t be trusted not to break.
“No, he didn’t… but I did,”
Dante said, totally unashamed of the fact.
I now shifted my shocked gaze to him and asked,
“But why and who were they?”
“They were about to break in to your flat, Emmie, so I hit them over the head with a cricket bat,”
Ben told me making me raise a brow at him in question, making him shrug and correct himself,
“Well okay, so it’s Owen’s bat but still, I couldn’t let them break in.
But then you came back with the King and I got scared I would get in trouble, so I just hid them in my flat,”
he told me as if this was his confessional and I was his damn priest.
Ha, well I couldn’t have gotten further enough away from that role now could I, not if my upbringing was anything to go by.
“He called me the next day and I found the assholes hogtied in the bathtub.
So, I tortured one who, the second he started to speak, a Hex took hold.
Knowing the other would be just as useless I snapped his neck and not being the wasteful type, I let your friend have his meal,”
Dante finished for Ben.
It was at this point the memory came back to me of Ben in the middle of some horror film gorge fest and I had to be honest I started to feel slightly sick, although now no longer terrified as I had been.
“I should probably mention now that my kind only eat the flesh of the dead, although the fresher the better but hey, we will often take what we can get.”
I wrinkled my nose a little making Dante laugh and say,
“I have a friend at the morgue if you’re wondering.”
I wasn’t but no doubt I would have been later.
“Can I have some water?”
I asked feeling suddenly a little queasy and now I knew it wasn’t just down to Ben.
“I have been trying to keep you hydrated as Dante had been influencing you to drink.”
Ben told me before running into my kitchen and obviously getting me a bottle from the fridge.
“Influence me, so you did make me sleep?”
I asked confirming it had all happened just as I was starting to remember it.
Then, just as Ben came back, they both exchanged a few wary looks with each other before Ben handed Dante the bottle.
“What? What is it, come on guys?”
Dante handed me the drink and after running a hand over his shaved head said,
“Alright, sugar, now don’t freak out but when you saw our little friend over there in…well, shall we say…”
“Looking like a zombie?”
I added making him complain,
“Hey, I resent that…what, it’s insulting, okay.”
Ben said muttering this last part at Dante and the look he gave him.
“Well, you freaked out darlin’ and I thought the best thing was for you to have a little nap but…well…”
he paused to hand me the bottle and I took a good long gulp before asking,
“Well, just how long have I been asleep for…a few hours I guess as it’s still light outside.”
Their faces said it all.
“Three days,”
Dante said making me sit up quickly and squirt a fountain out of my water bottle.
“WHAT!?”
“Something went a little wrong and…”
Ben started to say when I noticed Dante give him a look and shake his head a little, promptly shutting him up.
“Wrong? What went wrong? I thought you guys could just send people to sleep and then wake them up whenever you wanted to?”
I questioned feeling as though there was something big they weren’t telling me.
“Look don’t w…”
“I swear if you say don’t worry about it after what I have been through this last week, then I will flip my lid and I will do it screaming, so start talking, Drude boy!”
I snapped, making him flinch back as if something I did just wasn’t right.
“Did you see…?”
Ben started to ask and Dante shot him another look before coming back to me.
Now what had that been about?
“Alright, Sugar, this is what I know.
Yes, I tried to get you to go under, but you fought me.”
“But I didn’t think that was possible?”
I questioned as everything I had heard about the Drudes was that they were pretty powerful beings and that was without being of royal blood like Dante claimed to be.
“It’s not…wasn’t…Shit I don’t know okay, the truth is I have never encountered it before so let’s just say that when I finally got you under, I just didn’t realise how deep it was you fell,”
Dante admitted, now looking uncomfortable about it.
“And it took me three days to come back out of it?”
I asked, making sure.
“Yeah, look I am sorry but if…”
At this point I held up my hand stopping him.
“Look, no offense, but I think I just hit a limit or something, so all I really want to do now is get a much-needed shower, brush what feels like fur off my teeth and eat the biggest meal of my life…yeah?”
I said looking first to Dante and then to Ben who now smiled and said,
“You shower, I will order us pizza.”
I nodded and then got up out of bed, feeling a little queasy the second I did but thankfully Dante held me up.
“I’ll help you to the bathroom,”
he said, looking guilty as hell.
“Okay, but I’m warning you guys, by the time I am out of the shower and sat in there with the biggest ass pizza EVER, you are both then going to explain to me what the hell is going on and why it is I am living across the hall from a flesh-eating demon…no offence.”
Ben shrugged his shoulders and said,
“Meh, it is what it is, so watcha gonna do?”
Then he left to go and order me food.
I looked up at Dante and said,
“Go make sure he orders two pizzas, I really don’t think I can stomach sharing food with that guy for a while.”
“You got it, darlin’,”
Dante said with a chuckle.
A little time later, after I had scrubbed my teeth within an inch of their enamel and I had consumed over half a large pizza, I was ready to talk.
I now found myself sat opposite Dante and Ben on the couch looking like naughty children.
Well, Ben did and Dante well, he just looked like the school bully who had been pulled into the principal’s office for like the thousandth time that year.
The bully and the nerd, so what did that now make me?
The victim.
“Right, you can start talking now and begin with telling me how long you have been working for my father?”
I asked remembering them talking about the King and after overhearing one of my neighbors, well it wasn’t hard to guess.
Dante and Ben gave each other a look but didn’t say anything.
“Look guys, I already know my father has been spying on me, I overheard the neighbor from upstairs giving him a recap, so all I wanna know is how long and how many?”
“How long and how many what?”
Ben asked interrupting before Dante could speak.
“Oh, come on, Ben, just how stupid do you think I am? Christ, I am just surprised that he doesn’t own the building and fill the place with…”
I paused the second I saw Ben’s face giving it away and it turned out that, unbelievably, this day could in fact get worse.
“Oh, by the Gods…please don’t tell me he owns the building…he does, doesn’t he?”
I asked them both and I did this with my head down, eyes closed and my finger and thumb running along my forehead as if a headache was on its way.
Then, when no one answered, I looked up and saw Ben shrug his shoulders and add a little,
“Uh…maybe.”
This was when my rage exploded!
“Oh no! No, no, no!”
I shouted getting up and nearly knocking over my pizza, which thankfully Dante saved, or it would have been yet another rug to buy and honestly, just how many rugs could one girl get through in the space of a few years?
I stomped a few feet away before whipping back round to face them both.
“Are you telling me that I bought this flat off my father cheap because I was conned by a nice old lady on the subway because she was planted there?!”
I snapped making Ben nod his head a little and I wondered in that moment who he was most afraid of, me or my father now that the demonic cat was out of the bag.
“And just how many people that live here are of your kind, um?”
I asked putting a hand on my hip when really I was angry enough to stamp my foot and roar at the ceiling.
“Oh well, there is only one of…oh you mean like our kind as a whole, oh well there is…um…all of them,”
he said in the tone of a question and wincing as though he knew that this wasn’t going to help with my mounting rage.
This was where Dante stepped in as he obviously didn’t mind ‘raging Emmie’.
“The whole building is full of people loyal to the King, sweetheart,”
Dante finished off before Ben could continue to make a list.
“Oh, by the Gods, it’s official he…he is insane!”
I muttered as I staggered back a step holding my hand behind me until I found the kitchen counter.
“And how did I not know about any of this…? I can see my father’s kind and…ah, but of course, Rue did something, didn’t she?”
I asked referring to Afterlife’s resident witch, Vamp and demon all rolled into one.
She could have easily placed a casting over the building and its inhabitants.
Which meant I would never have known had it not been for seeing Ben in his true form when feeding.
But then, that alone caused a painful thought to take root.
I cast my gaze to Ben and he flinched seeing the hurt now there and knowing why seconds later when I asked him,
“And you…were you just told to be my friend? To help me that day and start pretending? Was this all an act for you, a job you had to do for your king, uh?”
But of course, send the unassuming cute teddy bear, gay friend as a safe choice…Gods, but I was such a fool!
“No! Well, I mean yes, but it wasn’t like that, Emmie, I swear.”
I felt the tears rolling down my cheeks and swiped them away angrily before saying to both of them,
“Get out.”
“Oh, Emmie, please don’t…”
“I said GET OUT! Both of you, leave now!”
I shouted tensing my fists by my side and even Dante looked as though he felt sorry for me as the tears were running freely, dripping from my chin and to the floor.
“But…But, Em…”
Ben tried again, clearly getting upset himself.
“Come on, Shifter, let’s give her some space, yeah?”
Dante said patting Ben on the back and I tore my face away from the sight of Ben looking so heartbroken.
I didn’t want to feel guilty right now, I wanted to feel my anger.
So, I held on to it, not looking at them again but instead placing my palms on the counter and leaning my head down.
I didn’t look up again until I heard my door close and the second I did, I grabbed the closest thing to me and threw it at the front door as I screamed!
Whatever it was smashed, shattering glass everywhere, but I didn’t care.
I was so angry I couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything but slump down to the floor and cry.
It had all been a lie.
My whole adult life.
The one I was so proud of myself for building had all been a lie.
Every single aspect of it, right down to my friend.
I had people who had been watching every single move I made and then reporting it back to my father.
I felt like I was part of the Truman show, trapped in a prison with no bars but surrounded by wardens.
I wasn’t my own person like I thought…
I was back to being that fucking princess locked in a pretty tower!
And now I knew, there was only one road for me left to take…
Time to escape this life.
In the end I don’t know how long I had sat there fuming over all I had learnt, but all I knew was that I needed to get away.
I needed to run as far as I could and for once, live in a world where no one knew where I was.
I needed to take control back!
And to do that, the first thing I needed to do was buy a new phone.
Of course, I also needed a few other things, so I grabbed what I had and stuffed them in the biggest handbag I owned, which included the pictures of the box I had printed out.
Of course, this would have been so much easier had I not accidently deleted them from my phone after printing them, as then I could have just emailed them to myself.
But unfortunately, my clumsiness wasn’t just confined to the physical type.
So, without the real thing, this was all I had left, and I gathered the bad guys knew it too or they would have just tried to steal my phone already. For all I knew they had looked and seen this for themselves, hence breaking into my flat for the only evidence of the box they could get their hands on.
After I had what I needed, I grabbed my jacket, heaved up my bag and swiped my keys off the counter before crunching the glass under my boots, no longer caring about a flat that I now knew was never truly my own.
I slammed the door and saw Ben open his a crack before asking me where I was going in a panicked tone.
“To Tahiti where no fucker will find me!”
I shouted back over my shoulder, not caring even a little that I was being a bitch.
I was too hurt for that.
“Wait! Emmie, please,”
Ben shouted, throwing himself against the banister so that I stopped on the staircase going down, pausing long enough to ask in a strained tone that spoke volumes to my vulnerable state of mind,
“Was any of it real?”
I whispered, knowing he would hear me.
But of course, he would, he was just like the rest of them.
The ones I could now feel were all around me, like someone had snapped their fingers and all supernatural life became known.
But my voice sounded so frail, so hurt and fragile because I didn’t care about the rest, not like I cared for Ben.
My fake friend.
“Oh Emmie, please believe me when I say that it was real, it was real for me, even if it didn’t start out that way,”
he told me in a pleading tone that tore at my heart.
“I am so, so sorry,”
he added, and I finally looked back at him with tears streaming down my face before saying,
“So am I, Ben...so am I.”
I said this for so much more than he would ever know.
Then I dropped the sunglasses down from my head and over my red puffy eyes before I continued on with my plan.
See, when I was slumped over, cradling my body and crying my hopelessness out for good, I finally made the decision to get out of Dodge.
I didn’t know what had happened with my job, but even that now seemed like it had all been orchestrated and for all I knew Daddy dearest had forced his will on that too.
Deep down a little voice told me that he did it all out of love for me and that may be so, but it was no excuse for what he lacked having for me…which was respect! Respect for my life, for my decisions, for my bloody privacy! I was twenty-seven for Gods’ sake, not twelve!
“Oh shit, okay boss, Princess is on the move.”
I heard, the second I spotted a guy dressed in black making me want to roll my eyes at him.
He had been speaking into his earpiece and seconds later Dante turned up and started walking in step with me to my bus stop.
“Hey darlin’, want a ride somewhere?”
I ignored the offer and said,
“You know if you want your guys to fit in then I would try moving away from the Sopranos extras look and maybe on to Men in Black.”
My sarcastic reply was simply met by a raised brow and a smirk.
“Nice to see you’re back on form, Darlin’, but how about making life easy for me and letting me drive you wherever it is that you need to go?”
he said, and I stopped, folded my arms seeing as I had three minutes until my bus showed and said,
“Am I under house arrest?”
He jerked his head back a little and said,
“No, but I just…”
“And do you have the authority to pick me up bodily and man handle me into a car or Van and force me somewhere?”
I asked, knowing this had happened once.
“Well no, but again I…”
“Then I am doing nothing but wasting my time and yours…good day Mr Spyman, no doubt I will be seeing you around,”
I said, turning my back on him and walking to my bus stop where I could see it in the traffic not too far away.
Then, after I scanned my card, I found a seat and waved at Dante and his men as they got themselves in a car so that they could follow the bus.
Thanks to traffic and them not being prepared for my abrupt departure, it didn’t take long for them to get left behind, so the second I couldn’t see them following, I raised my hood and got off at the next stop before slipping inside the nearest shop.
It turned out to be a corner shop selling newspapers and a few London tourist gifts, so I hid behind the T shirt stand and waited until I saw them go past, still following the bus.
Then, after a sigh of relief that so far, my plan was working, I bought what I needed.
I picked up a black winter wooly hat with a big fluffy ball on top and an ‘I love London’ hooded sweatshirt two sizes too big for me to change into.
Then I stuffed my jacket and sunglasses inside my large bag and fished out a pair of my everyday glasses to replace them with so that I could see.
After this, I pulled down the purple hoodie and tucked my longish hair in a twist before tucking it inside the hat.
The guy behind the counter watched as I did all this, so I said,
“Stalker ex…whatcha gonna do[sh15], eh?”
Then I walked out of there to catch the next bus back to Wendy’s, but first I needed to make one more stop.
So, I caught the next bus that I knew took me to the shops I needed so that I could buy a new unlocked phone that no one could trace.
For starters, no one would know I had it and secondly my old one was still learning how to swim in my toilet bowl.
Next, I bought a pad of paper, some pens and lastly nipped into a shoe shop going straight to the best pair I knew would fit the outfit I had in mind.
They were red leather covered toe shoes with an ankle strap fastening that came down in a T-shape in white leather.
It gave it that vintage rockabilly style I was looking for as the white leather continued down the front of the shoe and finished in a little bow.
They were a great pair of shoes and really, if I was going to get out of here and was going on the run, then the least I could do was…
Escape in style.