CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
As each second ticked by I grew more restless.
It had been a few days since the harvest ball, and Sebastian and I had attempted to go to the portal twice, but we were interrupted as he was pulled into another mission by my father.
After Alaric’s stunt, my father had seemed upset with me, likely because I had attracted even more attention to myself.
Even though it was not my fault. That did not matter.
Everyone was talking about it. I heard whisperings from the staff that people thought I had attracted yet another demon.
Little did they know, it had always been the one demon, and that was him.
But the rumors had already taken off, and there was no stopping them.
Though if anyone had a chance, it was Elsie. She swatted many upside the head for spreading said rumors within our very own walls.
Sebastian was able to convince my father that he needed to take me on a trip to further our connection.
And after this fiasco plummeted my social standing to an abysmal low, it was not surprising that my father would become worried that I was messing up this relationship too, so he agreed.
We were scheduled to go tomorrow, or rather, today, since it was nearing three in the morning.
But something was brewing within the walls.
Something dreadful.
And I couldn’t take it any longer.
I kicked off the blanket in a frustrated attempt to relieve the energy coursing through my body.
The groan of the wood beneath my feet shivered through the stagnant air.
An icy grip wrapped around my heart as I made my way to the door.
Before I could open it, it clicked open on its own, slowly swinging with an unsettling creak.
This was Alaric, and I internally groaned at what he had in store for me.
But I took in a sharp breath and held my head high.
I could handle this. And if I saw him, I was going to punch him square in the face. I was ready.
Until I stepped out into the hall.
The soft flames usually contained within the wall sconces at all hours were extinguished.
The only source of light was the cast of blue from the moon.
The silver rays cascaded through the windows like falling specters.
The white linens covering each mirror along the long corridor flowed through an invisible breeze.
The fabric rippled like water gliding over river rocks.
The drifting tendrils reached out and retreated to gather more effort before reaching out again.
My eyes settled begrudgingly on the floor length mirror at the end of the hall.
The linen moved in an erratic pattern, undulating, as if the terrible, writhing mass beneath it was about to erupt and break through the glass.
I floated down the hall. My body stuck in a dream.
Time slowed as resistance met each step I took.
I clutched the hem of my nightdress that fell to my thighs, rolling the silk along my fingers, an attempt to stay grounded in this reality.
I cringed as the phantom linen grazed my skin, leaving pinpricks behind.
I knew what this was. It was only an illusion.
But no matter how many times I reminded myself of that, the fear only sank deeper.
Gnarled fingers dug in, cementing to bone, refusing to release me from the terror racking through my body.
I could feel the scream bubbling up, absorbing all of my oxygen, as if the only way I could breathe again was to let it out. What would surely wake the whole manor.
As I stopped before the mirror cloaked in white, my eyes fixated on how the fabric roiled. And I couldn’t look away. I knew I should have, but it was so comfortable. I took a step forward. And another step, another, until my face hovered only inches away. The air grew thicker.
A hand reached out through the mirror, beneath the white fabric.
Before I could run, it grabbed the back of my neck, spinning me around so my back crashed into the hard surface.
Only it didn’t feel like the flat surface of the mirror, though it was certainly as cold as glass.
The frigid, awful hands snaked around my throat and my waist, tugging me in closer.
I thrashed and writhed, desperate to be free of this grip that was attempting to swallow me up.
“If you want to visit the vampire lands so badly, I’d be happy to take you.
” Alaric’s voice echoed through my head, crashing against my skull and bleeding into the fragile grey matter.
Those last two words a promise to take and keep forever.
And I couldn’t suppress it any longer, the acid that climbed up my throat and burned through every vein.
A terror unlike anything I had ever felt.
I screamed.
It took me a moment to gather what had happened. The red I saw was the light that bled through my eyelids. I opened them to the soft glow of the halls. Every sconce lit, as they likely always were. The cold marble at my back as I thrashed on the floor, clawing at the white linen that entangled me.
“Get it off her! Put it back over the mirror! Hurry!” My father barked orders to the staff.
“What was she trying to do? Was she going to ...” My mother’s voice was quiet as she stood over me, her hand hovering over her mouth in shock.
“She wouldn’t have done that. The demon taunted her.” My father’s attempt at soothing fell short as his words came out rough and clipped.
Olivia crouched over me, attempting to grab hold of my arm or anything as I continued to thrash.
And scream. I was still screaming. I couldn’t stop.
The fear was too overpowering, a fire eagerly lapping me up, consuming me whole, and I didn’t even know what I was afraid of.
Those icy hands reached down my throat pulling out scream after scream, wrenching my body of all that it could take.
“Charlotte.” Olivia’s soft voice came through. “You’re okay, Charlotte. You’re safe.”
I believed her. I knew that. But my body did not. Phantom claws dug in and held tightly on to me, refusing to let go. And all I could do was attempt to fight through it.
“Mother, no.” Olivia struggled against Lillian’s hold as she dragged her away from me.
“Listen to your mother, Olivia. This is not Charlotte,” Father snapped.
No, it certainly was not. I didn’t know what had overtaken me.
“Get Jameson now!”
No.
No, no, no.
You can’t! It will kill me! I won’t survive another one!
I wanted to tell them, beg them, but all I could do was continue to scream. My body suddenly became weightless, and I realized I was being carried by two Society members, whose names I could not remember, certainly not now.
The one wrangling my kicking legs looked down on me with pity. A look I had to get used to, one I would see other faces don for the rest of my life after this. Along with the sneers and people stepping back to get away from me. As if I were contagious.
I was set down on something soft. My bed.
“Keep her restrained. She’s going to hurt herself,” Father ordered.
My arms were pulled taut over my head. I snapped my head back to see they had been tied to the headboard. The other member still held on to my ankles, pushing them down into the bed.
A sudden burst of energy filled the room, a commanding energy, one laced with rage and warmth. And for the first time, I was able to take in a deep breath.
“Is this really necessary.” Sebastian. It wasn’t a question but a thinly veiled threat. His voice was calm, unsettlingly calm, with an edge barely on the cusp of control.
“I know you have yet to see this, and it may be ... disturbing. But I assure you it is necessary.” My father’s tone seemed a bit hesitant, yet assuring, as if he was trying to make a sale. “Perhaps, you should wait outside.”
“No.” It was practically a growl. And coming from father’s secondhand, but my father let it slide. Sebastian was the last man standing after all.
Jameson’s head hovered over me, and I shrieked even louder at the sight of him.
The rope bit into my wrists as I yanked against it, desperate to get away.
He placed the silver amulet on my chest, and I screamed as it burned.
Searing. Hot. Pain. It’s all that drowned my head.
I couldn’t hear anything any longer. All was muffled as fire coursed through my veins.
Black spots speckled my sight, and I fought to keep my eyes open.
My bedroom flickered in and out. The candlelight bled through the edges of my vision.
A veil overlayed everything, blurring the commotion I drifted away from.
A barren oak tree sat before me against an expanse of swirling gray, my lifeless body strung through the skeletal branches.
Draped in white, my gown flowed along the currents of a silent breeze.
A raven perched above me, its croaks all I could hear clearly.
Had Brennus come to take me or cast me far away?
The haunting image rippled away, like a stone thrown into a placid lake. I jerked at the sight of Alaric. He sat at the edge of my bed, a ghost for only me to see.
“Why do you blame yourself for how they hurt you?” he asked, staring at me for a moment longer before he disappeared.
A rough voice seeped through the roaring in my ears.
Sebastian was shouting something. His usual perpetually blank stare and empty eyes were an open book now, one that bled of malice.
I had never seen such a terrifying expression.
He looked as if he was barely restraining himself from mauling Jameson.
I choked on a strangled scream as Sebastian literally picked up another member, who was attempting to keep Sebastian away from me, and threw him across the room.
Warmth pressed into my cheek, and I realized it was his hand.
His soft lips were at my ear, and my screams halted, my throat raw and scratchy.
“Charlotte,” he whispered for only me to hear. “You need to calm down. Be still.” His velvet-wrapped words wound their way around me in a snug embrace. The pain eased, though only slightly, my body still on fire.
“I can’t. It hurts,” I sobbed.
He looked down at me, his face hovering just inches from mine. A whirlwind of emotions fled through his eyes. They fled so fast I could barely decipher them, but I caught one. Fear.
“You need to stop,” he snarled at Jameson.
“It will only hurt more as the demon is extracted.”
A look of exasperation crossed his face, as if he considered telling everyone how stupid they were and how very wrong. How vampires were not demons, and this was no demon but an illusion. He looked back to me, seeming to grow desperate. He cursed.
He placed both of his hands at either side of my face.
The raging inferno that ate me from the inside started to ease, as if my body dipped into cool waters on a sweltering August afternoon.
Relief enveloped me. Every muscle melted.
Every nerve quieted. And I kept my eyes on Sebastian’s.
They held me within their endless abyss.
A portal to another world. The calm continued to wash through me like waves lapping up the shore.
The moment my entire body stilled and my screams ceased, he snatched the silver amulet from my chest and threw it so hard across the room, I’d have to check later to see if it left a dent in the wall.
“It’s done,” he growled.
Gasps erupted throughout the room at the blatant act of sacrilege, but he kept his eyes on mine with his hands still cradling my face. His thumbs lightly grazed back and forth beneath my eyes, sweeping away any tear that fell.
My father stammered for a moment. “It’s alright everyone. He’s just protecting his betrothed.”
His what?
Before I could process that, a wave of exhaustion dragged me under.