Genevieve: A Witchblood Story (Witchblood Series) (4 page)

The room came back into focus
, and as she bit further into Sebastian’s skin a pain so acute burst forth that it sent starbursts dancing in front of her eyes. The blood fed the pain, fed the furnace inside her… killing her, changing her, hardening her… transforming her. Death was sudden and paralysis stiffened her limbs, sealed her eyelids and momentarily stopped her heart. The warmth dissipated as what felt like ice crystals formed in her veins, slowly transforming her into a frozen angel, floating in a starry space.

Ͼ

Sebastian sat back and stroked her face softly. When he
’d first seen her, introduced at court he’d stood rooted to the marble floor as her gaze passed over him, unaware of the memories she triggered, memories of a strikingly similar young girl. A girl called Alba, the girl he’d promised to protect a hundred years earlier; the same girl that had given her life to save his. It had been an easy decision, when he met Genevieve again at her engagement ball and saw the terrified, trapped girl hiding behind a mask of breeding, to save her, free her. The revolution had changed everything and he had watched and manipulated, changing her future, saving her from a marriage and a subsequent death as the wife of the Marquis. He had done what he could, watched and waited, and now she would live on for an eternity. Now her future would be secure.

He would have to lie low for the rest of the week. The next few days would be crucial and he couldn’t risk their exposure whilst
Evie was still paralysed. He would close all the shutters, lock the doors. Entomb them from the world and wait for her awakening.

Ͼ

Time passed and
Genevieve remained paralysed… floating in a dream world filled with stars. Her dreams fluctuated between happy memories and dark, twisted nightmares with a side helping of earth shattering, bone splitting pain. Sebastian hadn’t told her how much it would hurt. He told her she would forget, he told her she would become stronger than any human; yet the memories continued to torture her and in addition to the faces of murderers emblazoned in her mind, she had to deal with a pain so acute at times it even distracted her from her dark recollections.

She could
physically feel her bones strengthening, hardening. It felt like someone was pouring molten iron onto her bare, frozen flesh, melting the ice crystals and jump-starting her heart. The sensation of slowly creeping lava inched its way up her body, and by the time it reached her shoulders she knew she could take no more. Yet as the fire scorched her mouth she simultaneously became aware of it subsiding in her feet and the new, heavenly cooling sensation was what she focused on, as it felt like every follicle on her head was being seared from her scalp.

Her heart
beat had revived and was beating steadily now, slowly… slower than a human’s; a strong, calming thump as the cooling tidal wave submerged it and flowed higher towards her parched throat. The stars began to fade away, her ears stopped ringing and just as if they had popped, everything sounded ten times clearer; maybe a hundred times. She could hear
everything
.

Her lips opened and she sucked in the
stale air, the sudden gasping sound startling her as she realised she could move. She opened her eyes and instantly saw Sebastian. She knew him; she remembered every single thing he had ever told her, all his promises. He had lied! He said she would forget and yet she remembered it all; every little thing that had ever happened to her, her entire past.

‘You said I’d forget,’ were the first words that passed her parched lips.

‘You will…’

‘Ahhh
! I’m thirsty. It hurts… Sebastian, it hurts. I need something. I need…’ she interrupted suddenly.

‘Shhhh
! Evie you can wait. Be calm,’ Sebastian urged, leaning forwards and looking directly into her eyes.

The sudden
burning hunger subsided and became slightly more bearable.

‘How did you…?’

‘Are you sure you want to forget, Evie?’

‘I’m Eva now
… and yes, everything,’ she whispered.

‘Very well,’ he said. ‘You will forget, forget it all
, Eva. Forget your family. Forget your brothers. Forget your mother. You never saw what happened to her, you do not know her. All you know is you now have a new life with me. Anything you
wish
to forget will be forgotten.’

Eva lay still for a moment
, her eyes slightly glazed, staring up at the ceiling and out to space. Something niggled at the back of her mind, a memory, a task to complete, a nightmare; but it seemed less important than the gnawing hunger and persistent burning in her throat. She sat up and rolled her head to each side. She felt stiff, as if she’d been asleep for a hundred years. Her eyes darted to the serious looking man at her side and she grinned wolfishly. Was he the prince that had woken her from her dreams? Dreams that were now evaporating as fast as the morning dew.

A dim light was creeping under the heavy curtains which were drawn and Eva turned her head to the side, suddenly aware that she could hear monotonous chatter from the street outside. She could hear individual voices… and something else. Something interesting; she strained her ears further and listened
, aware that the pensive man called Sebastian was watching her, silently. Beneath the chatter, beneath the sound of the creaking wooden carts and horses hooves there was a beating sound. No, not one beat, but many different drumming noises, all far away and almost indistinguishable from each other. But some were faster and some louder. They increased as the footsteps and chatter got louder and people passed the house. 

Instinct told her to leap from the bed
, and in one lithe movement she was at the window, dragging the material away from its frame, eager to find the source of the beating noise that was drawing her in.

‘Eva
,
no
!’ Sebastian’s voice carried across the room and simultaneously pulled at something deep inside. She took a glance at the dying day on the street below, her eyes squinting in the dim light, before pulling her gaze back to the man by the bed. She knew where the noise came from now and her mouth watered pleasantly at the thought, but even as every emotion in her body willed her to smash the window, leap out and sink her teeth into those warm, pulsating creatures that wandered past obliviously, she could not. An iron leash held her tight and pulled her back to the man by the bed.

‘I need one,’ she
pleaded, her eyes darting back to the window.

‘I know. Come here
. You’re still naked. I had some clothes made up whilst you were asleep,’ he said.

‘I don’t need clothes. I
need food,’ she said, looking down at her body. It looked little different to her body of old, but it felt very different. Even though it was early winter and she could see a dusting of snow on the ground outside, she felt warm. Her limbs felt strong, her muscles felt like stretched elastic bands ready to spring.

‘Eva
, you will stay here. Get dressed and I will hunt for you,’ Sebastian said, standing and walking over to her. ‘You are beautiful,’ he whispered in her ear, as he trailed a finger down her neck, over her collar bone and between her breasts. Desire surged through her body, adding more urgency to the hunger within. She wanted this man. She wanted to bite him all over, taste him, kiss him and do things she had never dreamt of before. She launched herself across the tiny space between their bodies and pressed herself against him, her new strength throwing him back slightly as they collided. She pulled at his shirt and, with a quick sharp pain in her gums, found she was running her tongue over her newly formed fangs. The throbbing coming from his chest was so much slower than those outside her window, and it didn’t appeal in the same way, but it would do. She opened her mouth wide and leaned in.

‘Ev
ie, stop that,’ he said smiling and pushed her back slightly.

‘It’s Eva
… not Evie,’ she growled and flung herself back into his arms reaching her mouth up to him, unsure if she wanted to kiss him or bite him.

‘Shhh
! I’ll be back soon. Stay here. Do not leave this room.’

He pushed her back and seconds later he was gone, the door clicking behind him.

Eva’s immediate instinct was to follow, regardless of the command and she darted over to the door as quickly as he left, but found that no matter how much she wanted to, she could not pass the threshold. A hiss of frustration left her lips and she darted over to the window and stared out at the now darkened sky.

Below
her the cobbled lane was almost empty. As Sebastian’s house was on the very edge of town, there was just the odd villager hurrying back through the streets after a day in the fields. Memories tugged at the back of her mind, making her wonder why they were so empty. Something seemed wrong with the seemingly urgent nature of the peasant’s quickened steps, but she shook the thoughts away and instead returned to her new obsession with the fluttering heartbeats passing below her window. She noticed that the stronger ones, the louder ones belonged to the young men. A slower, more uncertain thumping belonged to a man with wrinkled skin and greying hair; the details of which all stood out in full colour regardless of the faded light. To Eva’s eyes light was now unnecessary, unwanted even.

Eva was so absorbed in the street below her that she failed to notice Sebastian slip out of an adjacent alleyway and dart towards the house, a middle-aged man pulled along in his wake.

‘Evie… Eva, stay where you are. Don’t move.’ His voice coming from behind the salon door startled her and had to be instantly obeyed, but as he opened the door a blast of dry, burning hunger crushed her like a tidal wave, pounding against her, hammering relentlessly until a sob left her lips.

‘Sebastian, help me. Give it
to me. It hurts… so much,’ she whimpered as the scent of the human assaulted her senses and burned her like nothing else. Her fangs were instantly fully protracted, her eyes huge, dark pits of desire.

‘Okay
, now Eva… slowly. I want you to
slowly
come to me,’ he commanded. ‘And why are you still naked?’ he sighed, a half smile lingering on his lips.

Every muscle in her body craved to leap, to dive, to attack
, but the iron leash held her steady. She moaned quietly as she neared them, the burning increasing with every step. She failed to notice the man’s glazed expression, didn’t care about his trance-like attitude. All she saw was food; all she heard was his beating heart.

Sebastian lifted the man’s arm up and held it out towards Eva, pushing up his worn shirt sleeves and exposing his wrist. Eva’s eyes darted to his exposed skin and zeroed in, noticing the network of blue and purple veins criss-crossing his skin. She could see the sligh
t pulse of the blood there, hear it throbbing. She whimpered again.

‘Please Sebastian…’

‘Okay, but gently Eva. I don’t want him scarred. Here…’ he said urging her forward and towards his wrist.

She bent her head and sank h
er fangs into his wrist, the instant burst of blood flooding her mouth, prompting a moan of pure pleasure as she sucked hungrily. The blood cooled the burning desert in her mouth, flooding its parched surface with cool nourishing liquid. She bit harder and drank deeper.

‘Eva
, enough now, he’s paling. Eva stop!’ Sebastian barked.

As his words took effect
, she found once more the invisible iron leash encircling her neck and pulling her back from her prey. She snarled in frustration, licking her lips as Sebastian led the dazed man out of the room, and away from the house.

Eva watched
from the window as they crossed the street quickly and disappeared into the shadows. Her hunger was partially satiated, the pain dulled, but the dryness was still there. The dry thirst remained and the darkness called to her. She darted to the door and her eyes widened as she found she could pass over the threshold. Sebastian had forgotten to replace her iron shackles. She leapt down the stairs three at a time and crashed through the door into the street below. Instinct told her to hide herself and keep to the shadows as she had seen Sebastian do; so she edged round the perimeter of the building, pausing occasionally to sniff the air and taste it, but there was nothing. The lanes were empty now.

She reached
the crossroads with a village square and something seemed recognisable; it pulled at an uncomfortable memory, and irritated her like a gnat she couldn’t swat. She took a step out of the shadows, towards the square and paused.

‘Eva
, what are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay inside?’ Sebastian’s voice coming from behind her was cold and controlled. She swivelled round and his eyes bore into her and touched something warm inside. Her memories of him were intact. This man had watched her grow up, protected her and saved her from something she couldn’t quite remember.  Her craving for more blood evaporated and she smiled at him.

‘I was looking for you,’ she said.

‘You have no clothes on… still!’

Eva looked down at her naked body
. She hadn’t even thought about it, and there was snow on the ground. She felt a freedom like no other.