Chapter 52 #2
Far off, a cockerel announced the morning.
If I’d had the time to find it, I’d have rung the bird’s neck.
I strolled away, along the winding street, glancing back several times before leaping up onto one of the rooftops.
The night seemed blacker, and the cold reached into my bones.
London’s nightscape was a mass of grey buildings in disarray, the bleakest city.
Longing for Spain, I reassured myself that soon I’d return with Jacob. Heavy-hearted, I made my way home.
The house was deserted; the servants having gone home hours earlier. I found Sunaria in the lower chambers. She wore a transparent gown, and a plumage of fine, black feathers at the neck and cuffs. Two coffins were pushed up into the corner.
“When did we acquire those?” I felt uneasy.
She’d placed candles around the den. Plush blue and gold pillows were scattered here and there.
My gaze met hers. “You’re not planning on sleeping down here, are you?”
“I feel safer down here.” She glanced at the coffin. “And in there.”
“Why?”
“I don’t trust him.”
“Marcus has our best interests at heart.”
Sunaria sat down on the coffin lid.
“What’s gotten into you?” I asked.
“He hates you for turning him.”
I frowned. “He understands that I had no choice.”
“He hates me, too.”
“No, he doesn’t.”
“He won’t accept what he is.”
“As I recall, I needed time to adjust when you turned me.”
“That’s not the point.”
I struggled to suppress my frustration.
“You understood what it is to be a vampire.” Her tone was brusque.
“You left me buried for days,” I said. “That helped to persuade me.”
Sunaria rose and approached me. “You deserved that.”
I bit my lip and didn’t respond.
She stared at the wall. “It was my right to do what I wanted to you.”
“It’s 1500, time to realize that progress means change.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“That your old ways… No, that your ancient ways are redundant.” I gestured my exasperation. “Your ridiculous obsession with myth, for example.”
“What myth?”
“Superstition.”
Sunaria wouldn’t look at me. “You’re angry because you know you should have brought your son home.”
I glanced at the coffin. “You’re not sleeping in there.”
Sunaria pouted.
“What is this really about?” I asked.
“It’s you who hinders us by exposing us to outsiders. You should never have allowed Marcus to stay here.”
“Marcus risked his life for us.”
Her turquoise gaze fixed on me. “Ever since you brought him into our home, I’ve been unable to sleep.”
“What is it that’s really troubling you?”
“You left Jacob in that house.”
“He’s safer there.”
“You must get him tonight,” she demanded. “Start preparing him.”
“For what?”
“Don’t tell me you haven’t considered it? We are superior beings.”
“Are you deliberately provoking me?”
“I’m not ashamed of what I am,” she screamed.
“Neither am I.” My voice was calm, concealing my alarm.
“Do you want me to transform him?”
In an instant, I was beside her, grabbing her wrist. “Stay away from my son.”
“Immortality is his birthright.” She dug her nails into me.
“Never speak of this again,” I warned her. “Do you understand?”
“You’re hurting me.”
I loosened my grip. “Sometimes, I don’t think I know you.”
“You’re too caught up in yourself to know anything about me.”
A feather from her cuff came loose and spiraled, and I watched it float to the floor. It seemed as though it had always belonged to the sleeve of that long, black chemise, and had never been ripped from the small body of a dead bird.
Sunaria stared up at me. “Marcus is in love with you, and so is his sister.”
I wrapped my fingers firmly around her throat. “I love you.”
“He’s obsessed with you, but you don’t see it. Drink from him and you’ll know the truth.”
“I don’t need to.”
She broke away.
“What you and I have is different,” I said quietly.
“How?”
I spun her around and grasped her arms. “You need me more than I need you.”
Her gown slipped off her left shoulder, exposing her breast.
“I’ll not tolerate this,” I said, pinning her against the wall. “If you think that burying me in the earth was a fair punishment, then you have no imagination. Your dark soul needs to be restrained.”
“Your soul is blacker.”
“I don’t doubt it, but that, too, I’m able to control.”
“You have no power over me.”
I backed away. “If you want to stay in this house, you’ll obey me.”
Sunaria’s expression softened. “Marcus is upstairs.”
I left the room hating what I had to do, but knowing there was no choice.
Rachel turned the corner and stopped, giving me a questioning look. I was, after all, lingering before her brother’s bedroom door.
“What?” I snapped.
“Would you like to join me tonight?” she said softly.
“No.” My hand hesitated on the door handle.
“I’m going to the opera.”
“Why in God’s name would I want to go with you?”
Her face fell.
I hated hurting her, but this agony was impossible to fight. I wanted to say I was sorry, to say that this is the man I am now.
“Don’t you have something better to do?” I turned the handle and then paused, waiting for her to walk away.
“You’re visiting Marcus instead?”
I ignored her.
Marcus stirred when I entered. Red stubble was speckled over his jaw and his English complexion was pale. He’d obviously not fed. His appetite, like mine, had dulled with tonight’s events back on Petherton Road.
I ignored his questioning expression, as well as his resistance, and nuzzled into his neck. He tried to shove me away, but I restrained him, pinning his hands down on either side of his head, his strength no match for mine. Marcus jolted when I bit into his flesh.
There was no turning back.