Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
JADEON
Delirious.
I had lost all track of time lying in the corner of the room, weakening.
The girl’s sobs echoed around the chamber.
I tried to reassure her that she was safe, but having just sucked blood from her neck, she was hard to convince.
My body ached and my flesh crawled. Symptoms I assumed I sustained from the tainted drink.
My head felt like it was going to explode.
Covering my ears again, I tried to block out her shrills.
She banged furiously upon the door begging to be let out. In my confusion, I was tempted to finish her off, just to have some quiet. Both of us welcomed the sound of the key turning in the door.
Orpheus entered.
She ran to him. “Why the hell did you lock me in here with him? He actually thinks he is a vampire,” she slurred.
“For real?” Orpheus said.
“Yes!”
“Gill, you’re pretty stoned right now.”
Gill freaked. “I’m not. Don’t you pull that shit on me.”
“You mean he really thinks he’s a . . .”
“That’s what I’m fucking saying.”
“No, you see if he were a real vampire, you’d be dead.”
“Look what he did to my neck.” She pulled back her hair revealing two deep fang marks. “He’s insane.”
Orpheus reached for Gill’s locks and held them away from her pale neck just long enough for me to catch a glimpse of her veins.
Torture.
“Well I do believe we are making progress,” Orpheus said.
Gill staggered. “What the fuck are you talking—”
“Enough with the cursing. Can’t you see we have a lord in our company?”
Gill watched him approach me. He knelt close and leaned in. “Jade, you have lost far too much blood. Come on, why deny what you are?”
I struggled. “I will not.”
“I understand your conflict,” he whispered. “Perhaps if you were to consider drinking from me?”
Orpheus turned his attention once more to Gill, who stood at the doorway ready to bolt.
“Gill, come here,” Orpheus said.
She approached, taking the key he offered her.
“Go and lock the door. I can’t have him thinking this is normal.”
“What are you going to do?” She swayed uneasily.
“A lesson is required, to ensure that . . .”
“He can’t attack people for real.”
“Good point.”
“Fuck you, Orpheus.” Gill peered down at the large key. “You better pay me more.”
“Of course,” he said, smiling; a glint of fang.
She was too high to notice. I rallied my fading strength. “Gillian, you must leave this room now.”
“What? And miss all the fun?” Orpheus glared at her. “I’m waiting.”
Nervously, she did as he requested.
Orpheus pulled the hair away from Gill’s throat. “Good girl. Let me see your neck again. I really cannot believe—”
“Orpheus, you left me in here with a complete psycho.”
“Did you finish the coke I gave you?”
“I had to have something to keep me sane,” she said.
“So right now your blood is laced with . . .”
“Yeah, so?”
“Come closer.” He ran his fingers over the puncture wounds. “You have such beautiful skin, it’s a shame. Still, your friends will be impressed.”
She pushed his hand away. “I just hope it doesn’t leave a fucking scar!”
“Oh, those marks won’t. Jadeon’s far too much of a gentleman, but that’s where he and I differ. I am his polar opposite, and my bite always leaves a mark.”
Helpless, I witnessed her shocking attack.
Orpheus possessed her. Gill’s gaze locked with mine, a pleading stare that went unanswered.
It was as tender as it was terrible. The scene in this dark chamber unfolding with a dreadful beauty. Orpheus enfolded his prey with a lover’s care, an inescapable hold. She trembled, yielding as though thankful to be devoured. Gillian gave herself over in a sacrament of surrender.
Then she struggled, wrestling against the silken shroud of life slipping away. Her moan, once sharp with terror, dwindled into a pitiful whisper.
Then silence.
My tears welled and blurred the vision of her slipping to the floor, dead.
Orpheus overpowered me.
He bit his wrist and pressed it against my lips. The taste of blood offered no comfort. Instinctively I sucked, lost in needed rapture.
I shared Orpheus’s thoughts of Catherine. Unwilling to let her go, I grasped his wrist.
He revealed her to me through his blood . . . my Catherine.
Her youth, eternal and unspoiled, lingered like a specter through shifting seasons even as they withered, even as the walls crumbled around her to reflect her immortality. Time itself unraveled about her and still she stood, a fixed star in the chaos.
Eternal beauty, though her garments danced with time.
And I, helpless witness to her haunting grace, searched each expression, each fleeting glance, desperate to know if joy had ever touched her heart.
If you ever harmed her, I will find you and I will kill you, I conveyed to Orpheus.
Together we lay on the stone floor, panting as our hearts pounded.
I had stepped into his trap, blind with longing and fury, and he had triumphed by knowing I had followed him all around the world for this—this vision of her.
The cocaine’s unforgiving hold ravaged on and took me with it.