CHAPTER EIGHT
Soft lilac melded with sky blue. Watching Olivia paint lulled me to places far from here.
What looked like smudges of color at first, transformed to delicate impressions of beautiful places.
I sat mesmerized as she crafted a world from a blank space, somewhere I’d rather be.
She made it look so effortless, pushing color into canvas with her brush.
Hues swirled together, lines blurred and took their first breaths.
Golden light poured over the meadow like sparkling honey as wildflowers reached towards the warmth.
I glanced towards the window. Her canvas depicted the opposite of current conditions.
A swollen fog rose from the ground. Trees of auburn and firelight speckled the expanse of gray with color.
The darkened clouds that roiled above hung low with rain that was sure to fall soon.
Olivia, warm and golden, embodied summer.
I, ashen and pale, embodied autumn. And though I loved all seasons, autumn was my favorite.
I reveled in the crisp air that always held a distant scent of smoke and cedar.
I loved the brightly colored leaves and how they surrendered to the fall when they couldn’t hold on any longer, feeding the ground with vibrancy and decay.
As the chill set in and stretched far across the land, the hearths could finally be lit once more.
I did well curled up indoors. My pale skin did not fare well under the sun.
I was content to sip my tea and watch her paint, until her words shattered my carefully constructed peace, unbeknownst to her. “Are you excited for your first date with Sebastian?” Her voice hitched higher, eager for me to respond before she had even finished.
“Certainly.” I took a long sip.
She turned to face me, and I frowned as her brush left the canvas. “I know you’re not too fond of ... what he does.” She danced around the words. “You have avoided men like him. Maybe this time it will be different. Maybe he’s just what you need.” Oh, if she only knew.
I shrugged, and she glared back at me playfully.
“Edward is taking me to the ballet.” She grinned.
“He got us seats up on the balcony because he knows how much I hate to crane my neck.” She rubbed the back of her neck as if just the thought made it ache.
Olivia always wanted to be a ballet dancer, but she often got discouraged with herself and would stop going to classes before she even began.
“He’s very thoughtful.” I winked over my teacup.
She rolled her eyes and grinned. “He certainly is.”
* * *
I looked to the carriage, then to Sebastian holding the door open for me.
The scene looked all wrong. And it felt especially wrong once I sat across from him within the tiny space.
The satin walls inched closer. We stared at each other for a while, neither one of us saying a thing, until I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Where are we going?”
The corners of his lips tilted up slightly. “It’s a surprise.”
That was the last thing I wanted to hear from a demon.
He leaned forward and closed the curtains, casting us in darkness. Only a sliver of light peeked through the edges so I could still make out bits of his face. This had officially become the oddest date I’d had so far.
We rode in silence. As the carriage jostled across the uneven road, our knees brushed together every now and then.
Every time it happened a wave of electricity shot through my thighs, warming my center.
I spent most of the ride keeping my legs away from him, desperately avoiding any further contact.
But the carriage would inevitably lurch violently, and I was beginning to choke on the tension in the air.
Anytime I met his eyes, I could see his smug smirk through the dark.
It made me want to jump on him and strangle him, and I was not a violent person, though he would only become more amused at my hostility.
“Why so tense, Charlotte?” His words drifted through the dark, landing on me like a delicate caress that made me suppress a shudder.
“Hmm, I don’t know. Perhaps, it has something to do with my plan for a normal life completely shattering, leaving me with an absolutely abnormal life that is sure to only get worse in a matter of time.
And Alaric stuck his finger in my mouth.
” My voice hitched near the end, and I cringed as I hoped the driver, also a Society member, didn’t hear.
“He what?” he asked flatly.
“He doesn’t like that you’re courting me,” I said in a mocking tone. “He dropped by to threaten me, and then he put his bloody finger in my mouth.”
“Is that just an expression, or was his finger literally bloody?”
“Yes. Actual blood.”
Sebastian always had a statuesque appearance, and I didn’t think it was possible, but he grew even more rigid. He looked to the window even though the curtains were still closed. “He’s moving faster than expected.”
“What do you mean?”
He looked back to me with a solemn expression, though the subtle rage took over before I could process his worry. “He plans to turn you,” he said simply.
The blood emptied from my face so quickly I nearly felt faint.
Ash filled my mouth, tainting my tongue with a bitterness that left me sick.
All I had ever wanted fled me as if it were eager to get away.
I was a terrible hostess. It would never return.
A new void opened up within me. And I thought of Olivia painting.
It was a simple thing. Maybe I’d try it.
Everything slipped from my grasp like soil threaded through loose roots.
It had nothing to hold on to. But I still attempted to hold on, even though I would inevitably fall away with the debris.
“No,” I whispered. “I don’t understand, what .
..” I trailed off. From what I had read, when a vampire bites a human, their blood is then enchanted with venom that would cause a human to turn.
But if the vampire immediately drinks following the bite, the venom is extracted, so the human does not turn.
“I know what your father believes, and it is mostly true. Except he’s missing a piece. A vampire’s blood must be in the human’s system before they are bitten. If a human is bitten without vampire blood in their system and the venom remains, they just die a painful death.”
“How long does vampire blood remain in our system?”
“Forever.”
“Why didn’t he turn me then?”
“I’m sure he has a plan. He derives enjoyment from others’ suffering. He’s playing with you.”
Thought eluded me as the slow uproar clashed within my ears.
“Charlotte, our courting may be a ruse but my job to protect you is not. He will never have you.” His eyes appeared black through the dark, and they only seemed to deepen.
For a moment I couldn’t look away. His darkness melted into me like a warm balm, soothing the fear that ate away at the edges of the void.
Before I could process anything, the carriage lurched to a halt.
The light stung my eyes as the door opened, and he stepped out, waiting for me.
I peeked through the door. A townhouse was before us.
We were in the city. The clopping of hooves against cobblestone stacked on top of each other in an unending cacophony, topped off with various boisterous shouts and the clicking of heels.
I had never heard so many sounds overlap one another.
Sebastian leaned back into the carriage. “Do you require my assistance?” His dark hair fell across his eyes that held nefarious intentions. With that and his sly smirk, I knew I certainly did not want his assistance.
I scrambled out of the carriage. My heel caught on the step sending me careening forward.
Instead of falling face first into stone, my face went into a hard chest, which might as well had been stone.
His strong arms wrapped around my waist to steady me, and I gaped up at his smug face with widened eyes.
“I suppose you did require my assistance.” He grinned darkly, and the sight made my knees so weak that I slid down his chest a little. His arms tightened around me, tugging me upright. I finally got a hold of my senses and swatted him away, taking a large step back when he finally released me.
I huffed out a sigh, running my hands down my cloak as I glanced around. “Where are we?”
“My home.” He nodded towards the brownstone we stood before, and I looked at it in horror.
“I am not going in there.”
Amusement colored his eyes. “It’s not a dungeon. That’s located in my real home back in Svealin.” He winked, and I quickly averted my eyes from him.
“Why are we here?” I said to the side of the carriage.
He slapped the back of the carriage, and I jumped as it took off down the street, leaving us alone, except for all of the people weaving through one another.
“I need to change.”
I looked him up and down. “Why?”
He stepped towards me. I leaned away slightly. He lowered his voice, and his silken words left pinpricks across my skin. “Because a Society member cannot seek out a witch.”
His eyes fell to my open mouth, and I snapped it shut. “We ... wh—wait.” I held my hands up as if to push him away. I wanted to push him away. I wanted to push all of this away. It was all crowding in too close.
It was rumored that a witch had opened the portal, but many didn’t even believe in witches.
Though as far as I was concerned, where there were vampires, there were witches.
I would even believe in goblins and faeries at this point.
Because many believed in this rumor, including my father who convinced the king to believe so too, it was illegal to seek out witches.
If they could bring the demons upon us, who knew what other evils they could release.
I was already conspiring with a vampire, which was assuredly illegal, and to add a witch on top of it all. I shook my head.