Intuition: The Premonition Series (44 page)

My heartbeat speeds up.
He bit me!
I growl as a pulse of anger and loathing sweeps through me.
My enemy made a snack out of me and I let him!
The blood within me rushes to my face and a deep blush stains my cheeks. I run my hand over the marks he made on my neck. Pulling my hand back, I look at my fingertips. They have blood on them. I’m still bleeding from the wound he left.
How could I have allowed that to happen? Do you never want to see Reed again… or Russell? I
ask myself harshly. If I become a Gancanagh, then I can never see either one of them again. I have to fight harder. I just moved into check and I have to get out of it or checkmate is the next move, and then it’s game over. I’ll be a monster, too—
or am I one already?
I wonder as I slowly sit up in the bed.

Stumbling out of the bed, I have to wait for the room to stop spinning before I lurch to the adjoining bathroom. The full-length mirror reflects my image as I approach it. I open my mouth, tilting my head back to see if I have acquired the fangs of the Gancanagh. Finding nothing out of the ordinary about my appearance, except for the marks on my neck where their leader has marked me as his, I feel relief.

I’m also grateful to find that I’m still wearing the torn, black nightgown and boxer shorts that I had on before everything had gone black. I look wild in my torn clothing that still has Keegan’s blood on it. Nausea rolls in me and I have to swallow hard so that I won’t vomit on the floor. Not that there is much to vomit, judging by the hunger that is wracking my body with pain, the likes of which I have never felt so intensely in my life.

I stagger to the old-fashion pitcher and water basin that rests on top of the cabinet. Pouring water into the basin, I splash my face and arms repeatedly with the cold water. I strip the ruined nightgown off me, along with the boxers. Finding the sponge in the cabinet, beneath the basin, I use it to remove Keegan’s blood from me. When I am done, I retrieve a towel from the cabinet, and seeing the straight razor sitting on the shelf, I pause. My fingers trembling, I pick it up and open it, revealing the blade.
A weapon,
I think as I close the razor, grasping it tight in my fist. Rummaging through the cabinet for anything that can be used to aid in my escape, I find nothing else.

Closing the cabinet, I clean up the area so that nothing looks out of place, before I walk back into the bedroom to look for new clothes to wear. Wrapped in a towel, I begin to pass by the bed. I stumble to a halt at the foot of it, feeling cold, prickly air. Glancing over at it, I see Brennus lying against the pillow I had just vacated, with his arms casually crossed behind his head. My heartbeat slows down, and then bolts as a kick of adrenaline launches into my bloodstream. I hadn’t heard him come in! And, where is that smell that always makes me want to stick my fingers in my nose to gain relief from it?

“Brennus! Don’t do that! You make me want to jump out of my skin,” I scold him in anger, because I had jumped in fright at the sight of him. He may look beautifully angelic, but he has no heart— well, not one that beats anyway.

“Whah did I do,
mo chroí?”
he asks, grinning at me as his black hair falls artfully over his forehead like a supermodel.

“Don’t sneak up on me. It’s not nice,” I say, continuing to the wardrobe and gritting my teeth as I listen to him laugh at me.

“Whah did ye jus say?” he asks incredulously, because we both know it is a ridiculous thing to have said. There is nothing nice about him. Nothing.

“You know what I mean,” I reply over my shoulder, rummaging through the wardrobe, looking for anything that does not resemble lingerie. Finding a form fitting white cami and a short, black leather skirt, I frown. This is the closest I’m going to get to “real” clothing. I also find some sexy underwear and a pair of black suede boots that will go clear up to my mid thigh. I put the underwear and skirt on underneath my towel, and then I use the straight razor to cut the back of the cami, so that it will accommodate my wings better. Brennus has already seen the weapon in my hand, so I have to show him a good reason for having it.

“I jus came up here ta see if ye were hungry,” he says, playing along and acting like he is innocent of any other motive. He seems pleased by the nice comment. I bet no one ever implied that he should be nice in his undead life.

“I am hungry…starving,” I say absently, as I finish fixing the cami. Turning away from him, I drop the towel and put the top on.

His eyes are shiny with humor when I turn back around to face him.
I amuse him…like a pet,
I observe, picking up the boots and going to the bed. Sitting on the edge of it, I bend down to put on the ridiculously long footwear. “How come there aren’t jeans in there, or running shoes?” I ask Brennus with a sullen expression, pulling on the other boot.

Brennus’ smile is sublime. “Whah is sexy about denim and trainers?” Brennus asks with humor in his voice.

“Ugh!” I reply, slipping the razor in the top of my right boot as covertly as possible. “I should’ve known.”

“I had one other reason for coming up here,” he reveals cryptically.

“Don’t tell me you missed me?” I ask, trying to sound like I haven’t just gotten doused in the black dread that accompanies all of his surprises.

“I did, but dat is na it,” he replies with ease.

“Maybe you can tell me after I’ve eaten,” I say, trying to postpone any ugly revelations he has planned for me.

“If dat is whah ye wish,” he says with a small sigh. “Whah is da razor for?” he asks as I get up swiftly from the bed to face him.

“Protection,” I reply, glaring at him with my hands on my hips.

“No one will dare harm ye now,
mo chroí.
Ye do na need da razor… I will protect ye.”

I frown. “Ha! You are the one I need protection from the most,” I reply, watching him for his reaction. “I don’t appreciate being anyone’s lunch, Brennus.”

“I do na suppose dat ye do,” he replies. “Whah if I said dat I’ll let ye bite me back next time?” he asks, smiling.

“I would say, ‘keep your fangs off me,’” I counter as a shiver of revulsion escapes me. He just chuckles and lifts his brow, but he doesn’t argue with me about the razor.

“Come, let’s feed ye,” he says as he gets up off the bed, holding his hand out to me. I don’t take it, but walk ahead of him into the next room and out into the hallway that leads down to the main hall. The guards are waiting just outside the door for us. I recognize them now by name: Declan, Eion, Lachlan and Faolan.

As we stroll down the stairs to the main hall, I detect a different kind of smell in the air that I’m unaccustomed to inhaling. Now that the scent of the skin of the Gancanagh has diminished for me, probably because I have been bitten and it has done something to me, I can now smell other things that the odor had masked. None of these odors are pleasant. I can’t name the scent until I reach the main floor and see the horror for myself. It’s the stench of dead bodies. The women who had been used for food are piled in a heap by one of the far fireplaces. Eibhear and Cavan are steadily throwing their ravaged bodies in the fire and burning them.

What I had thought was a dramatic way to light the hall and give heat is turning out to have a more practical purpose for the Gancanagh: the disposal of dead bodies.
This is truly a house of horrors,
I grimace, averting my eyes from the face of a female corpse I had seen alive just days ago. Her face is frozen in a mask of pleasure.

“There usually aren’t this many bodies, Evie,” Alfred says from the table where he is seated, dining on bread and soup. “It’s your fault they all bit it last night,” he continues, chewing his bread and laughing at his own pun. “After the show you put on for everyone, the bloodlust couldn’t be controlled and all those lovely women had to die…all because of you.”

“How’s the shoulder, Alfred?” I ask, sitting in the chair that Brennus is holding out for me at the head of the table, next to his own chair. “Hurt much?” I ask, trying to hide the stabbing pain his words cause me.

“Just twinges… nothing to worry about,” he replies, but I know he is lying by the way he is having trouble lifting his spoon to his mouth.

A bowl of chicken soup and some bread is placed on the table for me. I’m shocked and a little dismayed that I’m still hungry, even with the rancid smell and the sight of the carnage in the hall. I thank Lonan for bringing food to me, and then I begin eating it as fast as I can. The food doesn’t taste as good as it had yesterday. In fact, it tastes awful, but I’m so hungry, I almost can’t control myself as I eat it all. When I finish, I can tell that I’m full because my belly feels really full, but the hunger pains aren’t diminishing at all. In confusion, I think maybe I will have to wait a little bit for the food to digest before I feel better.

Brennus watches me with a light of expectation in his pale green eyes, but I can’t decipher what it is he is waiting for me to do. “Would ye like some more soup?” he asks, raising his brow.

“No, thank you,” I murmur, since I know if I eat more, I’ll end up vomiting because I will be too full. But, hunger is still a gnawing pain, making me sweat a little because of its intensity.

“Are you sure, Evie? You look really hungry,” Alfred teases, and he smirks at me, enjoying the look of pain that is beginning to show on my face. “Maybe she wants something else to eat, Brennus?” Alfred asks with a laugh.

“She is more den welcome ta whahever I have ta give,” Brennus replies, and he sounds so sincere that I look up at his face in confusion.

“What are you talking about?” I ask, because I’m smart enough to know they are playing with me.

“Ye have been bitten, Genevieve,” Finn says from across the table. He has just come in and has heard what is being discussed amongst us. He looks angry, like he doesn’t approve of them toying with me.

“Please explain to me what that means, Finn,” I say, staring into the light green eyes that are so like his brother’s, but lack some of the intensity that Brennus’ possess.

“It means dat ye will crave da blood of da Gancanagh who bit ye. Normally, ye would na feel da intense pain of da hunger because our skin acts like a narcotic and deadens da pain. But, ye do na have dat luxury, do ye?” he asks, looking sorry for me.

“So you are saying, that if I drink Brennus’ blood, then the hunger goes away?” I ask Finn. I’m having trouble blinking back the tears that have immediately come to my eyes.

“’Twill,” Finn’s reply is soft, making something twist in my heart.

“Is that all that will happen, if I drink his blood?” I ask, because I have a feeling that there is something he is not saying.

Finn’s eyes drift to Brennus’ as he waits for something. When Brennus gives a slight nod of his head, Finn turns back at me with a look of pity. “When ye drink da blood of a Gancanagh, ye will die and be reborn as one of us.”

Checkmate,
I think as tears brim my eyes to fall onto my cheeks.

“Oh, Evie, don’t cry…on second thought, please, do cry. You’re so beautiful when you cry,” Alfred says, leaning back in his chair, satisfied that I’m sufficiently destroyed by what is happening to me.

Finn’s eyebrows draw together. “Ye bleedin’ parasite! If ye say another word, I will kill ye meself,” Finn rasps in anger, glaring at Alfred. “Dat is a warrior and she will soon be a Gancanagh and me sister,” Finn says, pointing to me. “Ye had better be prepared ta leave as soon as she tastes his blood and her soul is released ta ye, because den if she orders me to kill ye, dere is no place under Heaven for ye ta hide.” Finn is shaking his head at Alfred, like he thinks he is the stupidest creature he has ever set eyes upon. “If ye had any logic in ye atall, den ye would leave now. Do ye hear whah Brennus is calling her?
‘Mo chroí’
… it means ‘my heart’ where we come from. He will be givin’ her anyting she asks for once she is Gancanagh—including yer heart on a stake.”

I don’t know who appears more shocked, Alfred or me, when Finn is done with his rant. So, that is why Alfred has been made to wait. If I had gone along with the water game in my cell, I would’ve done anything to have gained relief, even drink Brennus’ blood, whether he had bitten me or not. Then, my soul would’ve been forfeit and Alfred would’ve been there to claim it. Now, they have found another way to get me to become one of them. They must have reasoned, that since their touch doesn’t affect me, I would be in so much pain from being bitten that I would be forced to drink Brennus’ blood to end the pain. But, it is still my choice, I can choose the pain, or I can choose to end it and forfeit my soul.

Finn turns back to Brennus, tossing an envelope to him across the table. “I took care of whah ye asked me ta. ’Tis all in dere,” he says as he comes to sit next to Brennus. Finn glares back down the table at Alfred, who looks like he is sweating now, too, just like me.

“Tanks, Finn,” Brennus says as he pushes the envelope to me and waits patiently for me to ask him about it. I’m trying hard to focus on anything other than the pain I’m in, so I seize the envelope, but I don’t open it.

“What’s this?” I ask, wiping tears from my eyes with the back of my fist.

“’Tis da ting I was going ta tell ye about when we were upstairs, but now, I can jus show ye,” he says, waiting for me to open the envelope. Dread consumes me.

“I don’t think I can take any more surprises, Brennus,” I say, not opening it and not looking at any of them.