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“I am sure you did, Adam,” I ground out sarcastically. “When will you learn that not everything everyone says is true?” I pulled my fur shawl around my shoulders contemplating ripping his head from his shoulders right now. It was too much to be around him, to look into his face—so similar to my own—and know what he had done to me. He deserved theultima mortem.
“This changes everything,” he said in an offhand tone. I paused my contemplation as he stared deeper into the alley, holding his breath while he thought. I had heard that expression too many times before and the phantom of bereavement washed over me.
“I'm not in the mood for this,” I snapped, taking a step toward him.
“Where is William?” Adam asked, fangs bared. My own fangs protruded, my tongue running over the tip easily. I should not have been surprised that he would resort to violence, not after what he’d done.
“I have not seen him since before 1870. Nor do I ever care to again,” I snarled in animosity. He shoved my back against the wall, the building underneath quivering with the force. His hand was on my throat and instinctively I gripped his arm.
“If you pull off my hand, your throat comes, too,” he threatened. “Whereis William?”
“I just told you I don’t know.” I choked out. He loosened his grip. “Why do you wish to know so badly?”
“Confidential information, sister. Tell me where he is. Now!” Without mercy, Adam hurled back his fist, bringing it down onto my face. There was a loud crack, the pain radiated through my jaw and into the back of my head. Again he reared back to strike me but I gripped his fist in my hand, tears of fury burning down my face. He wrapped his free hand around my throat once more, pressing into me.
“Adam!” I cried, the icy tendrils of betrayal working their way through my walls. My face ached and I wriggled under his grip. “Why in God's name are you partaking in all of this?” My airway was crushing under his hand but he loosened his grip once more, shaking his head.
“I want to tell you all of it, Rose. Everything that’s transpired since the war, I want to tell you because I’ve missed you,” Adam sighed heavily. “But you don’t understand what side you’re on. With William… Listen, I love her. She’s my whole existence; Noel is everything to me. You don’t understand howgoodshe is, how she saved me during the war. I was laying theredyingand she made sure I wouldn’t suffer again. It is unfortunate you somehow got mixed up in all of this.”
“You think she’sgood? She killed your sister and your niece.” I spat, “You think she loves you? She herself told me she cannot move on from William. She doesn’t love you, Adam! Let go of me!” I struggled under his grasp as a group of humans passed by the alleyway. Adam stilled, pressing himself into me, into the shadow.
“Noel said he was using you to get to her. He was using you as his personal blood bag. She said he was using you to spawn his own army with your hybrid daughter. That he would go to greater lengths, give into his more theatrical tendencies and he needed to be stopped. To stop him we had to kill you and–” I merely gaped at his words, what in the world was he rambling about?
“She thought you were dead, but clearly not. It changes everything, it’s a matter of great importance she’ll want to hear of immediately. All these years he’s been on our tails, not to mention the incident in New York. You were there the whole time! Clearly he is still in London.” Adam thought deeply for a moment, releasing me completely.
William, Noel, AND my traitorous brother were all in London? Wasn't the city becoming a little crowded? I needed to get out and leave the continent. Maybe I could go home and see Mother and Father since it had been so long... But what would they think? Oh no, I could just peek in on them. They would never see me, really.
“I must take you to Noel,” Adam finally surmised, bringing me from my thoughts. I bent down into a defensive crouch, unwilling to go anywhere. This dress was going to get ruined and that thought made me sad. “Or perhaps I will kill you myself.”
“You were my brother–my best friend. You’ve gone to a new low, Adam, and it won’t be me who dies tonight.” I declared, confident in my abilities. Adam mimicked my stance, sneering.
“It’s the way it has to be, Rosemary, there will be no loophole now.” Adam jumped toward me in a lightning-fast move but I dodged, climbing up the wall of the seven-story brick building. He was close behind, I let my shawl fall onto his face, throwing myself over the side of the roof. I ran over the rooftop, kicking my red heels from my feet to jump to the next one. The seams of the dress stressed with every leap, I gripped it in my hands, holding it up for better movement.
I went on like this until the River Thames, where Adam was trailing two buildings behind. Out of options, I flung myself into the river, the water breaking around me was like hitting a brick wall and I sank to the bottom in pain.
The river was cool and dark, there was little movement beneath and I hoped he would think I’d leapt into the streets. I stayed completely still, watching the black figure jump from the roof and out of sight. I didn’t have much time, London was no longer safe. There was every possibility he would track my scent to the hotel. I swam down the dirty river toward Tower Bridge. A poor choice, but the only one.
Before long I spotted my exit, bobbing my head up into the spring night air. Clouds were parting and the tiny points of twinkling light became visible beyond them. My hair stuck to my face, the breeze which brushed over my skin left no chill in its wake. I swam over toward a pillar leading to the bridge and climbed up, my dress clinging to my skin in all places.
Taking the soaking hem into my hands, I sprinted toward the hotel. Carefully, I watched every movement as I made my way back into the lion's den, streets darker than before, quieter now that the city had finally grown sleepy.
When I reached the hotel, I did not stop, nor did I bother to take the main entrance. Certainly not covered in Thames water, the stench of sewage permeating from it. I climbed up the side of the building, smashing the glass window to my room, and leapt inside.
Waiting for me in the darkness, sat Adam, reading the letters I had written to our mother and father, but never sent.
“September thirteenth, eighteen seventy:
“Dearest Mother, how I miss you. I cannot even articulate to you the trouble I have had hiding from what I am. I am sorry I cannot come home again, but there are things that I do not even know or understand yet that I do not want to expose you and Father to. I genuinely hope William's excuse was enough to quiet your worried–”
Sorrow opened the hole in my chest, black and heavy. I shrieked, lurching toward my own brother to kill him, knocking the couch over with the force of our bodies colliding.
I ripped the letter from his hand but Adam kicked me in the stomach, knocking the air from my lungs and propelling me upside down into the door on the opposite wall. I was up instantly, an ache slithering through my abdomen as I moved toward the window to leave. Adam stood in a perfectly human stature, blocking my way as he flipped the couch back up.
“Now, now, RosemaryBlackwell?” he laughed, shuffling through the letters. “And you expected me to believe that you weren't with him. Hah!”
“I am not!” I shouted, panting with rage.
“Then why in God's name do you have his ring around your finger still? Hismother'sring?” I looked down at my hand, gripping it into a tight fist. “And why, Rose, do you have his necklace around your neck?”
