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Walking to the basin of water near the fireplace, I cleaned myself up, grabbing another towel for him. He smiled as he took it, but he didn’t meet my eyes. He was acting shy, and part of me relished in his timidness.
I knew this may be the only time we would be together, especially if I planned on giving him to my Melody.
“Come back to me, okay?”
He replied quietly, “Always.”
***
Ever since the wolf-man mangled his hand, Thomas had been reclusive and locked in his room. I took him in without argument, and he only requested that he be left in peace and allowed to attend church.Of course, I had said, and now I would call on him to return the favor after all these years. He would agree, I was sure of it. The only thing I needed to do was tell him it was God’s Will. Just one small sentence and it would be that easy. It was the very reason my grandfather chose this line of work—persuasion was all too easy.
Charles did not take to his orders lightly, I knew he would make me proud. We had shared pillow talk, life lessons, and seed. But it was time to release my Melody of the sleeping curse, so we could be together again.
I stood from my chair, a young servant girl quickly clearing the plates as I stood. I walked to the far wall where the tapestry of Lilith hung, pulling it back and looking over my shoulder before disappearing behind it.
Her room was the last, after many turns inside the pitch-black corridors. I felt along the walls as I went, but part of my abilities was perfect sight in the darkness.
Moonlight washed over the bed where she slept, a single rose bud in the vase beside of her. The flower never bloomed, and I feared that the prophecy wasn’t true. Once the flower bloomed—she would awaken. For years, I had faith that it would, and she would awaken, only it never did. The day she fell into the slumber, the day that Lilith left, I vowed to do whatever it took to bring her back. I often bit my own wrist and trickled the blood into her mouth, hoping it would be enough to sustain her. I held on to faith, and day after day, I was not given anything more than that.
The Witch of the Woods was the key. She had to be; she was Lilith’s kin. Magic be damned, I would make sure Melody was brought back to me.
I stroked her soft cheek, which was sharp, and her blonde ringlets still shined with youth, locked in that state forever once she was turned.
If her foolish parents didn’t do what they did, she never would have needed to be turned. It was the only choice I had, and once she was orphaned, she became mine.
“We will be together again, angel.”
25
DANTE
1730 FRANCE
Every woman who ever rejected me would see flames before they died. It brought me great satisfaction to know their death came at my hands, if I could not have them, no one would.
I stood in the apothecary room, surrounded by my tinctures and herbs. This was the only place that I felt like I belonged. Even the small animals I’d sacrificed, they were happy to give their lives to me, they wanted to die for me. I held power here, and when I healed someone of their sickness, or stopped the bleeding from a terminal wound, I was revered, thanked profusely. I was the healer, I was the mad scientist, and nowomanwould ever take that away from me. I crushed belladonna with my mortar and pestule as an old man lay in the make-shift bed to my left. He was dying of a disease that ate his flesh, and the only thing to do now was keep him quarantined and his pain eased. It wouldn’t be long before he was gone.
I needed to feed soon, I hadn’t drunk a drop of blood in weeks, and I would soon become weak and tired.
My thoughts were catapulted back to the night Lilith let me feed from her.
I awoke to the soft snores of Lilith, Domenico absent from the bed now that it was sunrise. The window drapes were a heavy black to keep the sunlight out, but Domenico preferred his dark corridors to any other place.
I watched them fuck, unable to move from lack of sustenance. I hated who I was, and for that, I rarely fed.
I wiggled my cold fingers, but they only moved a tiny bit. My eyes moved to the edge of the bed to see Lilith peering over the edge with a devilish smile plastered on her face. “Are you hungry?”
I nodded, ever so gently. She crawled from the bed to the floor beside me. She bit her own wrist, bringing it to my mouth. Laying her head on her other arm, she watched me drink deeply from her. We locked eyes as I fed, and I felt small charges of electricity ping through my body. I had never felt healthier, never felt so sure of what I was. I was greedy with her blood, taking long pulls until she’s stroking my long hair while droplets fell on my face.
“There, there. All better.”
I sat up, reacclimating myself to the room but stood quickly, exiting before any of these feelings unfurled any further.
I craved the taste of her blood now, but no one had seen her since she left. I had to lie to Domenico, tell him I was able to trap her within a stone, but now he had made his life revolve around her return.
The stoned contained her, but I wan’t sure how long it would hold.
I had severely underestimated her powers.
