by Bond, Casey
“What would you have me do?” he asked, his grip tightening.
“Nothing. There’s nothing you can do, Enoch. You aren’t Terah. You can’t climb into her brain and give her a command to stop. She’s not one of your sires. And you sure as hell can’t promise she’ll leave me alone.”
“She gave her word –”
"Which means absolutely nothing,” I interrupted, whirling around to face him. “Terah does what she wants, when she wants to do it, with no consequences whatsoever. She's out of control, which is why I don't understand why you continue to defend her."
"Because I understand her," he replied. My mouth gaped open, and he rushed to clarify. "Let me explain before you jump to conclusions. I'm not defending her actions, but my sister does not process things the way that Asa and I do. She's always been more emotional, and felt things more deeply, more profoundly than the two of us have. It's something she's struggled with her entire life, something she struggles with every day, and will continue to battle until she dies. She can't help how she is, any more than I can. I suppose I can be empathetic because I know what it's like to feel unbalanced."
I held my tongue. Although he claimed he wasn't defending Terah's actions, in the end, he justified them, which was a defense in and of itself. It reminded me of the time she attacked the sailor on Enoch's ship. She killed the man while he slept, and what did Enoch do? He threw the man's body overboard, like that somehow erased what she had done. Terah never faced the consequences of her actions, but that was about to end.
Enoch could either stand by me or choose to defend her, but he couldn't do both.
“I think I need some fresh air,” I said, pulling out of his grasp and walking down the porch steps. When he started to follow, I added, “Alone.”
Chapter Fourteen
Eve
I walked into the garden and strolled through the pathways. The sun had set, but it wasn’t fully dark. Twilight was one of my favorite times of the day. Sometimes, Maru would tell me to grab our dinners and meet him on the roof. He liked to watch the sky and comment on every hue, but burnt orange was his favorite. I wondered if I would ever make it home, and if I would ever see Maru again. Not only did I miss him, I worried about him. He wasn't safe in the Compound. He wasn't safe anywhere near Victor or Kael.
Once I ducked into the short maze of tall hedges, I pulled out a stake, removed the vial of holy water, and then slid it back into the holster. The small glass vial warmed in my palm.
I smelled her scent before she stepped out from between the formed vines.
"Do you want to know why I did it?"
"Did what? You'll have to clarify, Terah, because you've been trying to get at me since I landed, and I'm not sure which 'it' you’re referring to." I turned to face her. Her hair was still golden brown, still beautiful and shiny and perfect, but hatred marred her face.
"I thought you were trying to hurt him again."
"Are you honestly claiming that you were protecting Enoch? From me? You expect me to believe that?"
"I was protecting both of my brothers from you."
"Both of them?"
"The other Eve was obviously up to something. How do we know you weren't given the same command she was? How do we know you aren't biding your time to get him to turn you? You might be luring them into a trap they won't even know they've stepped in until it's too late."
Suddenly curious, I asked, "What exactly was 1776 doing?"
"The same things you are with Enoch, only she focused on Asa. She didn't want anything to do with Enoch."
Which was strange… Her target would've been the same as mine. Unless her seduction of Asa was a ploy to get to Enoch in the end, through some sort of twisted game of reverse psychology.
"She snooped around the house and she followed him everywhere, even into battle. She was always watching. Always listening. Always looking for something. Aren't you doing the same? I've heard you poking around her old room."
"I was poking around her room, because I don't understand what she was doing with Asa. Every other Eve has targeted Enoch, haven't they?"
"Yes, and every Titus has met his end by targeting me," she sniffed.
I fought the urge to roll my eyes. She hadn't killed every Titus clone, but whatever.
Terah continued, "Regardless of the game she was playing at, she lost time and again. Asa is a masterful opponent. He pretended to play into her hands, pretended he was caught in her web and at her mercy, when he was anything but. She tried everything she could think of to get him to bite her; scandalous things. Things that would ruin a good woman's reputation. Finally, he acted as if he would give in to her. He told her he would bite her only if she agreed to marry him, and only after they had exchanged vows. She pretended to be a giddy bride-to-be, but she wasn't happy to be marrying my brother, she was happy because he was going to turn her. Or so she thought."
"What does this have to do with me? I'm not her, Terah. My wrist isn't marked. You know my scent. And the last time I checked, she's dead, so you couldn't have confused me for her."
"How do we know you aren't a new type of Eve? One with the original's scent? How do we know you haven't been given new orders, reassigned to Asa or me?"
Beyond exasperated, I huffed, "Because I haven't. I just left Eve's Curse. Only I would know about what happened on that ship." I levelled her with a knowing glare.
Her nostrils flared just as she lunged, and I smashed the vial of holy water against her forehead. She screamed and raised her hands, fingers spread wide apart as her wailing rent the calm evening. "If you ever come at me again, it won't be holy water I use on you," I promised.
Asa and Enoch rushed to her side, but there was nothing they could do. They couldn't touch her without also being burned. The flesh of Terah's forehead was raw, blistered, and bubbling. The sound and smell of its sizzling should have bothered me, but it sounded sweet as birdsong; a warning temporarily carved in her flesh.
"You horrible bitch!" she screamed, lunging for me.
"You broke my arm! You could've killed me when you pushed me down the stairs. Now, we're even," I growled. Just then, Titus ran into the maze, standing defiantly at my back.
"Whoa," he breathed. “You don’t waste time,” he said into my ear, pulling me backward and guiding me out of the maze. Terah continued to rant about how she’d kill me before morning, and for the first time, I wondered if Enoch might let her and then pity her after I was six feet under and pushing up daisies.
“Time is all I seem to have these days,” I said, a chill running up my spine, causing my teeth to chatter. The Nephilim exited the hedge maze, staring at the pair of us as if we were foreign and out of place. Guess what, geniuses? We are!
“Watch it, brother,” Terah fumed. “She’ll probably swoon and pretend to faint next, just so you’ll rush to her side and offer comfort. Meanwhile she’ll poison you, mind, body, and spirit.”
“I’m not the poisonous one, Terah, but I won’t let you push me around anymore. Every time you come at me, I’m gonna fight back.”
“Yes, but I will win,” she boasted.
“You didn’t tonight,” I taunted.
Titus chuckled but pulled me to the house faster. “You’re going to get us killed,” he noted through his teeth. My body began to tremble violently. I wasn't sure if it was fro adrenaline, anger, or if I was getting sick again. "You okay?" Titus asked as we walked through the front door.
"I'm fine."
"’Fine’ is never okay," he said. "If a woman says she's fine, something bad is about to happen. Women are never, ever fine."
We walked up the stairs, and then I opened my bedroom door and slammed it behind me, leaving him in the hall. His voice filtered through the door. "Right, so I'll just be next door...trying to sleep ... again. And you’ll scream if you need me, but you’ll promise not to get into any more trouble while I’m resting." The door opened and closed. Through the wall, he continued, "You should get some rest, too, by the way."
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He was insane if he thought I could sleep after what just happened. Clearly it didn’t bother him, because Titus was snoring before I could remove the God-awful boots I'd squeezed my feet into.
I ransacked my clone's room, feeling angry, weak, and just aggravated in general. Not only at Terah, but at Enoch. I tore the clothes from the closet and tossed them carelessly on the bed, and sent her extravagant number of shoes sailing over my shoulders. Titus never woke, even when they thumped the wall between us. I wondered how he managed to wake up when Terah started screaming. Though she was loud...
The memory of her boiling flesh was oddly satisfying until it brought forth another memory. Of my flesh on fire, the smell of burnt hair and branded skin. The feeling of relief when my suit made the pain go away, and the feeling of terror when I realized Victor wasn't finished.
"This will make you strong, but more importantly, you'll remember who made you," he said before he pushed the brand into my arm again.
I pushed the memory away, focusing on my fingers as they touched the bottom of the wardrobe. I hit it with my fist and a hollow sound hit my ear. I hit it again, and the front left corner of the wood popped up. Pushing against it with steady pressure, I got a finger under the panel and raised it up, realizing it was a false bottom.
The bedroom door opened and closed. Enoch stepped in and surveyed the chaos. "Before my house was built, Asa allowed me to stay here for a time. This was my room.”
"Did 1776 know that?"
He blinked thoughtfully. "Yes."
"She was looking for something."
"Just as you are now," he pointed out.
"I don't know what she wanted, and it's driving me insane."
"What about you? What do you want?"
I took a deep breath and dodged the question. "I'm not sorry for what I did to her."
He nodded. "I know."
"And I won't justify or excuse myself."
"You feel like I excuse what she did?"
"Yep." Bingo. Give him a prize. "But at least I figured out who stabbed my clone, so I guess poking around has its perks." He stepped closer to see what was hidden in the wardrobe's false bottom. A knife, still showcasing a few streaks of dried blood on the blade. "I'm guessing the attacker didn't drop the knife in the garden."
"No, he didn't," Enoch replied warily.
"She stabbed herself," I surmised.
"Why on earth would she do that?" he scoffed.
There were a lot of reasons, but the simplest was likely the truest. "Because she was loyal to her cause. She was told to do whatever it took to get one of the three of you to bite her and turn her. She was desperate, and desperation makes a person do things that wouldn't make sense under normal circumstances."
Realization dawned on Enoch’s face. "She thought if she were dying, he'd turn her to keep her alive."
"And my guess is that when she realized he wouldn't, she pulled her suit up and saved herself."
“I don’t blame you for using the holy water on my sister,” Enoch added. “I admire you for it. For what it’s worth.”
Wait, what? He admired me for it?
“The fact that you used it instead of staking her was a warning – and a mercy. I’m grateful you gave her both.” He stood, shifting his weight on his feet. Then he confounded me again by clearing his throat. “Can I… God, can I just hold you?”
Hold me?
“It’s just that, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you and since you’ve arrived, I’ve only seen you for a few moments here and there, at best. You landed when I was riding away, and when I returned, it was to find Asa’s home on fire and learn that mine had been destroyed. So much has happened, so much to keep us apart, but enough of that. Apart from you isn’t where I want to be.”
I stood toe-to-toe with him and pushed up on the tips of my toes, pulling his face down to mine. I wanted his kiss more than I needed to be held. I wanted to consume him and let him consume me in the process.
Closing my eyes, I fell into his kiss, letting my mind think about nothing but the feel of him. For a moment, the past and future were meaningless. The present, this moment, was all that mattered. For one, blissful moment, we weren’t fighting to survive.
His hands ran down the length of my arms, leaving a trail of goosebumps over my skin. He wove his fingers into my hair and held my lips steady against him. We kissed for seconds. For minutes. It could’ve been hours.
I couldn’t figure out how to make the moment last forever. I didn’t want him to pull away, or to open my eyes again.
I just wanted him.
It seemed like the simplest, yet most impossible thing in the world. Nothing lasts forever, I told myself as he finally pulled away, nuzzling into my neck. He ran his nose up the length of my jugular, inhaling.
I froze.
“Enoch?”
He parted his lips and scraped the delicate skin on the column of my neck with his elongated fangs. I pushed him away, hard.
Once there was distance between us, his dark irises faded back to green. “I’m so sorry,” he breathed.
“You can’t do that, Enoch. Ever. You can’t feed from me. I don’t ever want to be a vampire.”
“I… I know. I don’t know what came over me.” He shook his head back and forth like he was having difficulty clearing the cobwebs from it.
“Nothing came over you. You were just being what you are.”
There was no changing the fact that he craved blood, or that he needed it to survive. Or that he craved my blood above anyone else’s. But there was no way I would ever want to be turned.
I watched as he mentally berated himself. “I have to go.” He pinched his lips and walked out of the room, leaving me to wonder what just happened.
It wasn’t a big deal, really. I’d stopped him before he bit me. We had to figure out how to deal with this together. He needed to somehow soothe and learn to restrain his base instincts and cravings.
My mind spun. I touched my fingers to my still swollen lips and tried to cling to the fleeting feeling of bliss I’d had with him.
He’d come in to make sure I knew he supported me in retaliating against Terah. I thought he’d hate me for it, or at the very least be angry, but the act of smashing his sister in the head with holy water somehow garnered more of his respect.
And then the kissing happened.
And the almost-bite.
And the hard application of the brakes.
A beautiful, simple moment had somehow decayed in an instant.
Coming back to my senses, I looked around at the disaster area I’d caused. My room was a mess. A horrible mess, actually. I walked back to the wardrobe and picked up the disturbed false bottom, letting the wood fall back into place. Then I threw the gowns off my bed, finally realizing how worn out I’d let myself become. My arms were heavy. My heart was even heavier.
I wanted to let my mind overthink the situation, but needed to rest.
With a chair back wedged under my door’s handle, I finally laid down, closed my eyes, and slept.
It was late morning when I woke up, pleased that I’d managed to sleep deeply enough that no nightmares came. None that I remembered, anyway. I threw a simple dress on over my tech suit and moved the chair away from the door. I knocked on Titus’s room, but he didn’t answer. When I peeked inside, I saw it was empty.
Downstairs, the house was abuzz. Everyone was doing something to prepare for the evening’s guests. I wondered when they would arrive and where they would sleep. Mary waved me out onto the porch. “Good mornin’, Miss Eve.”
“Morning,” I answered. My voice was scratchy and my throat burned.
“You need some tea and honey. Come on out to the kitchen and I’ll fix you right up.”
Mary knew her tea. She steeped the leaves until the water was stained with tannins, and then added two spoons full of honey and two more of sugar. She mixed the steaming concoction together and handed me the cup. “That’ll do the trick.”
> “Thank you.” I took a sip and the hot liquid coated my throat, taking the sting out. “This is good!”
“Don’t sound so surprised,” she teased.
It really was good. I loved anything sweet. “What can I do to help around here?” I offered, suddenly feeling more energized.
She glanced back at the house. “Finish your tea, and then you can work with me. Titus is helpin’ Enoch as we speak.”
“Helping him do what?”
“Move some furniture around. If there’s to be dancin’, they have to make room.”
“They’re seriously going to dance?”
“Oh, yes,” she answered seriously, nodding. “These men love their dances. Anything to prance around and show off to a room full of women. They’re just like peacocks.”
I couldn’t help but smile as I took another restorative sip.
“Yours has the prettiest feathers though, right?” she teased, wagging her eyebrows.
“He does,” I agreed. Definitely.
I sipped fast so we could get to work. I wasn’t sure what time this Benjamin guy would arrive, but it would probably be sooner than I’d like, and there was a lot to do between now and the dinner Asa was hosting for him.
As soon as Mary noticed my tea was gone, she jumped up and said, “Let’s go get their rooms ready.”
When she started around towards the back of the house, I asked, “Aren’t the rooms inside?”
“Nope. There’s not as much space since the fire, but Asa had some cabins built just past the gardens. Said it’s best to keep guests within reach, but not under your nose, or somethin’ to that effect.”
“That sounds like Asa.”
Mary chuckled and continued to crack me up as we worked to ready the cabins. We dusted, positioned fresh linens and blankets on the mattresses, fluffed the down pillows, and hung bouquets of wildflowers from tacks on the walls so the rooms wouldn’t smell musty.
When we finished with the last of the three cabins, she waited at the door while I lingered, wondering how to phrase the question I was thinking. “Out with it,” she said. “Best to be blunt and get it over with.”
