AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The creak sounded again. I recognised its location from being in Tom’s room. I prepared myself to find him dead, like his mother and father. The stairs replied to the noise that waited for me, squeaking its betrayal of my presence.
There was no point in sneaking.Whoever, or whatever, waited upstairs knew I was coming.
I burst into Tom’s room, the cry of battle wetting my lips and filling my chest with a false sense of confidence.
“Arlo…” Tom stood still in the centre of his room; darkness danced around him. Only the light of the silvered moon cutting paths through his window illuminated us.
“You are alive.”
“It is your fault.”
I lowered my knife. The shock at finding him alive sent a violent tremble through my legs. I hardly registered what he said as a new urgency spread through me.
“We need to get out of here, Tom. Whatever has killed your parents will be back.” Getting my words out was hard. I rushed, urgent and frantic, as I raised my hand towards him.
Tom stayed still, chin raised high as though an unseen hand had lifted it. “You brought this. You killed them. You…” Tom began to cry now, spitting with each shaking breath. Snot leaked down his nose, spreading with the dribble and tears until it coated his pale skin.
That was when I felt it, a shift of the shadows as a hand reached out behind Tom and hovered in the air above his shoulder. Tom flinched as though sensing the presence but did not turn to see it. It was not the clawed hand of a vampire. The light of the moon dusted across it, catching the almost diamond glint of its skin, perfect nails, and a deep ruby ring set in a gold band that stood proud upon its middle finger.
“Get back!” I shouted, throat dry and tongue feeling too big for my mouth.
“You never answered my question,” a voice spoke from the shadows, deep and rich. It caused the air to vibrate as though it danced in command to it. The hand that belonged to the shrouded figure twitched, fingers rising and falling one by one as if he was playing the ivory keys of an instrument.
Tom snivelled like a pig being led to slaughter, eyes rimmed red with the knowledge of what was to come for him.
I pointed my knife, narrowing my gaze as I tried to navigate the shadows for the speaker. It was as though they had thickened into a cloak, andhewore it. However, he did not need to step free from his hiding place for me to know who spoke. I recognised his voice as if it was as familiar as my sister’s.
“Faenir…” I said his name aloud, hoping speaking it would shatter this illusion. Perhaps I still slept beneath the trees in the outskirts of Tithe. Surely this had to be a dream. This death. This horror. How else could it be explained that an elf stood within Tom’s room? When it went against everything I knew about their visits.
As if hearing my thoughts and wishing to prove me a fool, Faenir freed himself of the shadows. He did not move. They did, shifting away from him as if someone else had pulled his cloak free.
My breath hitched. Tom spluttered a light scream that belonged more to a young girl than him.
“I see I have made an impression on you just as you have on me.”
I cringed. My skin felt as though it would melt from my bones just as it had for Tom’s parents.
“Do not hurt him,” I pleaded. “I disrespected you. I refused your Choosing, not him. Why come and hurt these people when they had nothing to do with it?”
It felt natural to close the space between us. I wanted him to know that I did not fear him. But should I? If Faenir had caused the death within this house, then I should be frightened.
“I thought you wereallfree from my curse. Now I see that was wrong.” Faenir did not smile as he spoke, although his voice was full of excitement. He did not take his golden eyes off me, not as he lowered his lips towards Tom’s neck where they waited a hairsbreadth above it. “You interest me, Arlo. I wished to see you again and make sure that it was not I who was crazed and mad. I almost left without trying again.”
“Please,” I said through gritted teeth. “Let him go.”
“Why?” Faenir pouted, lips growing closer to Tom’s neck.
“If you hurt him, I swear I will kill you.”
Faenir smiled, welcoming my threat. “I am not scared of death. Why should I fear something that belongs to me?”
He kissed Tom before I could do anything to stop it, pressing his lips into Tom’s neck gently and for only a brief moment.Tom relaxed, shoulders lowering, and all creases of fear and panic vanished from his face until he was the handsome man I remembered him to be.
The peace lasted only a moment.
Tom’s eyes were thrown open as the first warning. He went to scream but a gargle came out instead. Then, like his mother and father, a shadow of grey passed over his skin. Tom died where he stood; life drained from his body with each prolonged second. I had never seen a body decay so quickly apart from the vampires I had staked myself.
I couldn’t mutter a word. The knife shook in my hand, my body rooted to the spot, as Faenir released Tom and he tumbled to the floor like a sack of rotten shit.
