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BEATRICE
Sarah fellasleep with her head in my lap, I played a little with her hair, stroking it and watching her face which, like so many, looked younger, more innocent in sleep. She was no bright eyed fool yet had complete faith that we would be alright. That we would lived, and possible laugh at the story later. I did not have that same, smiling enthusiasm. This did not seem some grand adventure to me, but I was happy to let her believe it.
At somepoint I must have fallen as sleep because I found myself jerking awake, my body cold and stiff, at the sound of someone unlocking the door to our cell which creaked on its hinges as it opened. A hysterical giggle broke out. My time since arriving here felt like I was in some gothic novel. Rusty locks, intrigue, foes becoming friends… Friends becoming foes.
For in the door stood Eliza, wearing a man’s dark suit and her hair piled high on her head.
“It is time to leave, Beatrice,” she said without inflection.
“Are— Where are my mates?”
Sarah stirred in my arms, sitting up she looked between me and Eliza before shifting so that she sat on her knees.
“They won’t be trying to rescue until tomorrow.”
Her words were like a slap. “You are behind this? Not Stimpson?”
“Stimpson lacks the natural ability to much beyond spend money. Did you know he is my cousin? Distant. A poor relation hanging onto my coat tails.”
I felt sick to my stomach. The question swirling in my head making me dumb as I tried to sort through the information.
“Oh, I am not responsible for his shooting you. I only learnt of that recently… But you see, those alphas who bit you? They will kill him. And then be hung for murder.”
“It isn’t murder if you are defending an mate,” I hissed.
“Perhaps you are forgetting you’ve not been blessed by the Goddess. You are married. They have bitten you… But none of that matters until you stand before the Goddess… Which won’t happen until the Equinox. Stupid, stupid girl. You shouldn’t have given in to a knot when a female knows better than any how to make your body sing.”
“Oh, you are staying here, you little whore.” Eliza pushed Sarah who stumbled back, her head landing oddly against the stool. She didn’t move, show that she had been hurt. She made no sound, just lay there.
“Sarah?” I slipped under Eliza’s arm and crawled to where the beta lay still, too still on the floor.. There was no blood except for a cut where her head had hit the stool. “What did you do to her?”
“Why do you care about some beta whore?” Eliza’s eyes glinted. It was Stimpson all over again. It was his face I saw, his foul stench. How had I not seen how similar they looked? “Come, Beatrice.”
“Why? Eliza?”
She grabbed my arm and tugged me out of the room. I looked over my shoulder at the too still body of Sarah.
“Wait. Sarah. No. We—“
“I do not desire to lose my temper with you but if you do not follow me I see no recourse but to rend you unconcsious. And I do not think you would like that.”
I felt the weight of the pistol in my hand and looked at the woman who’d I considered a friend until I’d seen another side of her at the Mountview ball. I shook my head. “I’m sorry Eliza.”
The Goddess gave me a new strength and with a mighty swing I struck her with the butt of my pistol. The risk was too great, how could it not be?
I fell to my knees, my hands running along her body. “No, Sarah… Wake up. You didn’t hit you that hard…”
“No. Please… You can’t be dead. That is not how dying works. You don’t die when you hit your head a little. I hit Eliza harder and she is alive. See… You cannot be dead.”
Stimpson came around the corner and gave a shout when he saw me.
“Bitch!”
I raised my arm and fired, the loud rapport made louder by the confines of the space. Though I only had the one shot, I kept pulling the trigger over and over again, each time imagining another bullet. One for each nightmare my ordeal had visited upon me. And with each click, I took another step until I stood over him.
He’d collapsed, a hand going to his chest as if that could stop the mortal wound. I’d not hit the heart. I could have at this distance but I wanted him to suffer. Even if another came and took me, killed me. This man would feel the agony of death. Choking on his own blood, his eyes glared up at me.
“You are lucky it was I who shot you. If my mates had been
