by J Wells
I notice a change in Tristan’s expression.
“Caspar, I believe you’ve done me a favour.”
I hear the rip of material and see his shirt fall to the floor. Shaking his back, Tristan releases his wings. His crisp white feathers vibrate, and I feel a cool breeze trickle itself around my neck; though cool, it warms me.
“Brooke…” He heads to her side of the table. “How do you fancy hitching a ride to school?”
Her electric blue eyes almost ignite as he turns her chair and takes her hand.
“Her release is our death sentence,” Caspar spits, climbing to his feet.
Tristan appears to pay no heed as he takes Brooke under his wing. I can’t help but admire his finesse as he hovers only feet above the table. All I can do is sit and watch; my eyes follow them as they start on their journey. The breeze heightens and they are gone.
“This predicament in which we find ourselves is all down to you.”
My head jolts back, and I feel Caspar’s fingers as they tangle themselves in my hair.
“Get off that pretty little ass of yours, you will come with me.”
I hear a scuffle of feet beneath the table. Lucian’s family attempt to stand.
“Any of you move and I’ll break her neck!”
“As if!” Bert shouts through the silence.
The chair topples beneath me, crashing sideways onto the floor. With a fistful of my hair and a knife at my throat, Caspar drags me towards the open doors.
“You can’t kill her!” I feel Caspar’s grip tighten as Jazlynn calls out after me.
“Do you really think I care? We are all doomed, every last one of us. We’ve allowed outsiders into our world, and you think the schoolgirl won’t talk.”
I’m held between Caspar’s muscular arms, and as his fingers tighten I scream, for my scalp burns. Each member of Lucian’s family holds their heads, grimacing; the way they react I can see there is still a connection between us. It’s awful to hear them cry out, though I am helpless to stop their pain.
“Look what you’re doing to them. Put me down!” I yell.
The sharp-edged blade leaves my throat, and I watch it spin in flight, passing my face as it delivers its pain to the wall.
“Do you walk, or should I drag you?”
I flinch as he hauls me along the floor. I count the stairs before me; I can take the pain, though with a slight turn I think of the others. What choice do I have?
“Yes, Caspar, I’ll walk.”
He places my feet on the bottom stair. With his hand still knotted at my scalp I’m cajoled up to the first floor. I’m marched along the landing we take two steps down to a lower level; I read the plaque on the door as we pass the lavender bedchamber. Two doors on and we stop. His open hand against my back pushes me inside. The door slams.
“You’ve messed us around; let’s say I mess with you now your angel friend isn’t here to offer his protection.”
He loosens his grip and I shake my hair free. The strength of his fingers feels like I wear handcuffs around my wrists. He lifts and hurls me onto the bed, and I fall face down into the covers. He holds my head and I gasp suffocating breaths.
“Bitch, you return feeling in me that I lost two hundred years ago. Do you know how much I want you?”
His legs are straddled over me as he ruches up the skirt of my polka-dot dress. Forcibly I turn my head.
“Get your filthy hands off me.”
“Madam, you forget, I was a nineteenth-century gentleman with a title. I am not a twenty-first-century pig.”
My breaths slow upon feeling his release. I hear a thud and I turn, watching his body as it slides down the door.
“Damn it, I can’t hurt you no matter how hard I try. I don’t hate you enough,” Caspar says as he sits and sobs. “We’ve kept our secret for two hundred years; then a curse is sent in the image of you, a pretty girl with the touch of the devil. You’ve damned us, every last one of us, to burn in hell. I’m not the bastard you think I am … I’m not an angry man.” With his head down, he rubs his hands over his face. “I love Lucian, I love my family, and like Tristan protects you I will protect them. If I have to burn in hell by doing so, then so be it.”
“Caspar, I’m sorry.”
Feeling a sudden sense of guilt, I lower myself from the bed and on my knees I crawl to his side.
“I’m so sorry, I had no idea.”
I place my hand on his shoulder and feel his arms take me.
“How slight you are,” he whispers. “Nobody would know I could sit here and squeeze the very last breaths from your body. No, Rose, it’s not just you that I’d kill. I know how strong our connection is, and I won’t have my family’s blood on my hands. What will be will be, but I will play no part in it.”
I shudder as his rough, damp tongue licks its way up the side of my face and laps at my cheekbone.
“You are nothing more than a green girl, a doxy. Damn you, Rose, I don’t feel hungry, I don’t yearn for your blood; even my teeth don’t lengthen. You’re just a woman; I no longer know what it is that I am.”
My shoulder brushes away his saliva that cools on my face.
“Do you think I asked for this? I had no idea the damage my touch could do.”
“Rose, your words come too late, and your actions speak far louder. I have lived far too long to accept the changes you bring. All I can do is offer my humble apologies. Now I fear I must bid you farewell. My destiny is the forest, and with the sun on my back I shall surrender myself to her.”
He lifts me from under my arms and softly places me back on the bed.
“May God look kindly on me and rescue my soul,” he mutters.
The door closes and I’m left alone, staring at the wooden frame. It seems the bedcovers pull me down into them. I yawn; it’s been hours since I last slept. Tiredness mixed with the alcohol means I have to prise open my eyelids, but they fight back.
I scratch my face as something tickles my cheek; I flick it away. There it is again, and my eyelids flicker.
“Tristan…”
He kneels on the bed to my side; between his fingers he holds a perfect white feather. He brushes it softly down the bridge of my nose and traces it along my cheekbone.
“Rose, I’ve been looking for you for the past hour. I must have opened every door to every bedchamber.”
I push myself up on the bolster.
“Did you get Brooke home safely?”
I watch the slow roll of his eyes.
“Bert certainly knows how to choose them. She was a right piece of work, all sweetness until one street from her school. She puckered her lips and closed her eyes, wanting me to kiss her. I was to meet her after school. She wanted… There was a list of things she wanted. So I whisked her up into the sky where we sat for a while on a cloud.”
I can feel my heart’s disappointment, since I had thought that was our special secret.
“Did she get her kiss?”
“No, don’t be daft!” He laughs and grabs at my hand. “I’ve got you.”
“What else did she want?”
“Rose, what didn’t she want? She wanted me to pick her up from school and take her out that evening. I nearly fell off the cloud when she suggested that I be her boyfriend.”
His grey eyes drop and he shakes his head.
“I think this girl is going to be trouble; I need to speak to Lucian.”
“What did she say?” I demand.
Again, he shakes his head. “It’s not what she said, it’s what she did. I opened my wings and we leapt from the cloud. She squealed as we glided between pockets of air. I could feel her fingers as they latched onto the back of my neck. Still laughing as we neared the ground, I thought we were on good terms. We stood at the school gates. I said my goodbyes and turned to leave. Hearing a sob, I turned back. Brooke was ripping the arm of her T-shirt, so that the torn and frayed material hung from her shoulder. She ruffled her hair and then crouched down. Placing her hand in the dir
t, she smeared mud across her face and passed me a snide sort of smile.”
“Why did you offer to take her home?” I ask, scratching my head. “And why did you show her your wings? She’s sixteen, impressionable, what did you expect?”
I sit forward, hugging my knees to my chest.
“I didn’t expect her to scream. Her screams were piercing, and grew louder and louder.”
I laugh. “No one will believe stories from a silly girl. How will she be able to explain an angel and a castle of vampires in the forest?”
“I was seen by a passer-by. A white-haired lady walking her dog. She saw the punches Brooke threw at my chest, watched her spit in my face. I could see the glint in Brooke’s eyes as she turned and ran into the woman’s arms. Panicked, I fled down a nearby alleyway. It’s only a matter of time, people will come.”
I jump from the bed.
“We must find Lucian,” I call over my shoulder.
“I already did; he’s in the Tulip bedchamber, sleeping.”
“Well, we must wake him, he needs to know.”
I turn the handle to open the door.
“He’s dying, Rose…” His tone softens.
My hand freezes.
“No, Tristan, he can’t be.”
He turns from me and steps forward towards the free-standing mirror. I gaze into the glass; the reflections of his dark grey eyes stare back.
“They are no longer vampires; they are no longer the living dead. You’ve seen their reflections, witnessed their pain, and seen the changing colour of their eyes. You were there tonight, you watched them eat; they are almost human, Rose, so yes, Lucian can die. If he were to become fully human he would die, and I would have the privilege of taking his soul to heaven, but he’s not yet been released from his vampire curse, so if he were to die his soul would burn in hell.”
“It’s my fault, I’m the cause of this. We need to get out of here. Without me their lives can return to some kind of normality.”
“It’s too late, Rose, the damage has already been done. They were vampires because of us both, and the pact Lucian made with the devil over two hundred years ago. You say we should go, but think. You need their protection as much as they need yours; the moment you die, they die. Though you will go to heaven, their souls will go to hell.”
“No, Tristan, no!” I gasp. “There must be something we can do, some way we can help them.”
“There is one thing and one thing alone that can set them free from the devil’s curse, and that…” He turns from the mirror, looks at me and smiles. “…is the love of the masked girl, who over two hundred years ago walked into the masquerade ball. Lucian saw her and fell in love.”
I know the girl was me. My eyes drop, and I gaze down at my feet.
“Your love has the ability to break the curse… The kind of love where you’d lay down your life for that one special person, and that love will sever the connection between you and will set Lucian and his family free. Only then will they become fully human.”
“So…” I stutter, “if I were to love Lucian, then all of his family will become human again, like you and I?”
Tristan nods, and the breaths I let out are ones of relief.
“If that’s what it takes, then that’s what I must do.”
“Love him if your heart will allow; it makes very little difference to me. All your love will do is break the curse and give them back their mortality.”
“Surely that’s a good thing?”
“Well, yes and no; it depends which way you look at it. Lucian and his family knew the rules when they signed the contract written in gold. I was there, I witnessed their signatures. My duty lies with the angels, and is to kill every last vampire that lives in the forest. This is the reason we met, the reason we are here. I’m here to collect their souls.”
I take a second to mull over his words.
“You bastard! I trusted you. You wheedled your way into my home, my heart… All those little talks we had, the films we watched, the meals we ate, it was all bullshit!”
“Rose, you’ve got it wrong.” Tristan shakes his head. “I’m trying to save them from eternal damnation and stop their souls from burning in hell. I could have lived in ignorance and stayed up on my cloud. No one made me fall for you, that was my decision. I jumped because I love you, Rose, and I jumped to make things right. One way or another Lucian and his family will meet with their death, there is no way to prevent that. My only hope was that I could lead their souls to heaven, and then my job is done. Their penance will be left in the hands of God and his angels; it is for them to judge.”
“Well, Lucian deserves to know, and I’m going to tell him.”
I can almost feel my words biting into Tristan as I storm through the door.
The Tulip bedchamber is not far from my room. I tap my knuckles on the wooden door, but have to do so again before I hear him call for me to enter. The darkness is only lifted by a couple of small candles that sit next to the bed where Lucian is lying. I can hear the rattle of his chest as he breathes.
“You’ve just missed Caspar. He went out into the forest even though it was daylight. He went out, Rose, and still lives.”
I hear the creak of the door and see Tristan standing propped up against its wooden frame.
“Ah, Tristan, just the man. I wanted to thank you for helping me to my bed. So strong are your arms. I’m not feeling myself today, quite out of sorts in fact. I feel too weak to walk, but I must see daylight with my own eyes and join my family in the forest.”
Lucian shuffles to the edge of the bed. Cradled in Tristan’s arms, I follow them from the room.
Lucian’s eyes almost dance in the daylight. It’s not a special afternoon; the sun is absent and it is overcast, leaving the forest’s greenery bland.
“Here, angel, sit me down.” Lucian’s hand shakes vigorously as he points towards the base of a grand horse chestnut.
Tristan crouches and sits Lucian down between the protruding roots.
“The warmth of daylight on my face,” he murmurs as he leans his head against the trunk and passes us an open-mouthed grin.
I crouch at his side and he takes my hand.
“Rose, I have such news to tell. My family are in town, shopping for food and clothing. Tonight, in the forest, I am to hold a masquerade ball.”
My eyes shoot towards Tristan, and I see the jovial expression on his face drop.
“Lucian, you can’t,” I interrupt.
He raises his finger, and I hold back my words.
“You have my family’s protection, you have my promise.”
“Lucian, hold your masquerade if you must, but we will stay in the castle,” Tristan interrupts.
“Angel, I never thought I’d see the day, but both you and Rose are my friends and I will be most offended if you don’t attend.”
I feel Lucian’s fingers tighten around my hand.
“Angel,” he continues, “will you give Rose and me a moment alone?”
I nod towards Tristan. Fallen leaves crunch as he gets to his feet.
“I won’t be far,” he calls, but within seconds it’s as if the large branches have swallowed him up.
Creases run across my forehead.
“Lucian…” I pull my hand free, shake his arm and look into his face. “Hold your masquerade any night, but please not tonight. Stay below ground where you are safe.” I shake his arm with more force. “People are coming … Brooke, Tristan took her home…”
He tilts his head, and appears to hold me in his emerald-green stare. He shrugs his shoulders.
“Let them come,” he gasps, holding onto his chest. “My fear is that if I don’t hold the masquerade this evening, my lady won’t dance her last dance in my arms. She is out as we speak, looking to buy a beautiful gown and mask. I let her down two hundred years ago, but letting her down is something I won’t be doing tonight.”
“Lucian, one night is much like any other.”
“Not for me.
I’m dying, Rose. As my mortality returns, it brings with it my consumption. All mortality can give to my family and me is death.”
“If living brings death, doesn’t it scare you?”
“How can either scare us when we have lived as the living and as the dead? It’s nice to have back the life we once had, to know love, to once again own a beating heart.”
I can see such sincerity held within Lucian’s eyes when he speaks of Jazlynn and the forthcoming masquerade. It has taken him two hundred years, but it seems he’s back where he wants to be.
“It would mean so much to me if you both came tonight.”
“I’ll speak to Tristan. I’m going to head back to the castle, have a couple of hours sleep and see how I feel later.”
Brushing leaves from my trousers, I get to my feet. I offer my hand for him to take.
“No, I think I’ll sit here a while.”
I lose the green vibrancy of his eyes as he closes his lids. He looks quite comfortable and at ease leaning back against the trunk of the old tree. I swivel round and give Lucian some space to bathe in his newfound daylight.
As I meander back towards the castle, my shoulders drop. It has taken Lucian all these years to finally find his one true love; ironic really that it is to be snatched away from him before it has the chance to blossom. My thoughts wander to Jai, then further and find Tristan. Hearing the snapping of twigs, I look up and see him walking towards me. I sigh. How lucky am I to be given a second shot at happiness? I can’t hold a grudge any more than I can hold back my smile, and I run into his arms. His look of surprise soon turns into a lingering kiss. Our lips part.
“I love you, Rose.”
“Well, I don’t love you,” I’m quick to add, biting down on my lower lip. I chuckle as his fingers tickle my waist.
I step away, prising his fingers from my side.
“Promise me, no more secrets, and please, Tristan, help our friends.”
His eyes widen and he tilts his head forwards.
“I swear to you I’ll do everything in my power to give Lucian and his family a safe passage to heaven.”
My smile soon turns into a frown; his words are kind, yet they hold a bittersweet reality. I can’t imagine never seeing them again. I have no keepsake or photo to remember them by; they are just people captured in my mind, and as time passes I know their memory will slowly fade. I smile at the thought of Jazlynn’s pretty little face and elfin-like features. Then Edmond comes to mind, with his annoying blonde ponytail. And Julian … quite a character, with his nonsensical words. I turn and look back towards the horse chestnut. Lucian, of course, for how could I forget the hand that saved me?
