Cristophe stood at the darkened entrance. His silver-blond hair shimmered with unnatural brilliance. "I hoped that by now…" The words left unsaid cut to the core of her disgraceful existence.
"He…hates…me." Liana sank to her knees, unmindful of nudity or dignity. "Laurent HATES me."
Cristophe came forward and enveloped Liana within his arms. "Ssh, I’m here for you. You’re not alone."
Wounded cries spilled from her cracked lips as she clutched him tightly. "Why can’t I undo this?!"
Two children were spawned in a forsaken tower. Nursed by hate and manipulation, they became monsters.
Once free, they thought to challenge their destiny.
But in the end, it didn’t matter because Liana and Cristophe couldn’t fight who they really were.
And so, they never left that tower—only collected broken companions.
Cristophe bowed his head and wept, knowing there was nothing he could do to mend the tragedy he had helped create.
"How long are you going to keep doing this, Liana?" he whispered hoarsely. "When will you stop this madness?"
The only answer the desolate vampire received came from the tower in the form of echoes.
Mournful echoes of his sister’s grief and their victim’s unnatural slumber.
LOVE UNFORTUNATE – Epilogue
Hours passed before Liana let out a final, watery sigh. She rubbed her cheek against Cristophe’s damp coat. "Laurent hates me."
"I know. He hates us both. This is why—"
"But it won’t stop me from trying again," she interrupted violently, knowing exactly what her brother was going to say—what he always said. "Everything at this manor is just how it was then. The Shapeshifters I hire ensure that even the people look exactly the same. It’s all perfect…so why do I keep failing?"
"Because HE doesn't want this, Liana. That's why. What you're doing to him is cruel and wrong, don't you see?"
"Everything's perfect," she murmured as if she never heard him speak. "Everything's perfect except for me."
Cristophe tightened his arms. Pity and helplessness scarred his ethereal beauty. "Liana, how long will you fight this losing battle? Eight centuries have already passed! How many times will I find you like this?"
"As long as I exist. I’ll never stop until I get him back."
Slender fingers ran through her hair with long, soothing strokes. "And if it doesn’t happen?"
"It will! Laurent is mine, Cristophe. I will cure his madness. I’ll cure it and no one will take him away before then."
"Even the End of Days?"
Liana pulled away, chilled by what she had been racing against frantically. "That’s why you’re here, isn't it? After all, I haven’t seen you since Vietnam. Why else now?"
"Because our nature calls." While a beautiful smile teased the corners of Cristophe’s full mouth, his eyes reflected terrible sadness. "War is coming, Liana. Iraq has just invaded Kuwait."
She held his gaze for several moments before shrugging. "I care not."
"So you won’t come."
"No." Liana stood up. "I’m needed here. Any one of a hundred gods can take my place and provide you with an opponent."
"I don’t do it for sport." Cristophe’s fiery tone belied his negligent posture. "So don’t you dare insinuate that I enjoy this anymore than you do."
Liana began her trip down the tower stairs, steps weary but sure. "I’m sorry. You’re right. I shouldn’t have said that. I’m just not used to real conversation."
"You say it so matter-of-factly. This is madness, Liana!" Cristophe kept close to her heels. "What happened at the beginning cannot be taken back. Neither you nor your ridiculously overpaid scientists can erase the past."
"I know! Don't you think I know that! Those who can change time won't come here no matter how much I offer them so this is the only way left to me!"
"They won't come because this is something that can't be erased, Liana."
"I’m not trying to erase it. I’m just trying to fix it."
"By replaying the same tape over and over again?" They reached the last step. Cristophe's tired whisper pleaded in favor of the inevitable. "You spend exactly twenty days in this tower. You’ve never made it to twenty-one, Liana."
"I’m very aware of that fact, Cristophe." Liana waited for him to say his peace before exiting. It was a trial of patience but she owed him this much.
"It won't change. This madness won't stop until you free him."
"No!" Liana whirled around and pushed against his chest. "I will never free him. Laurent belongs to me. Don't ever suggest it again!"
Cristophe grasped her violent hands with gentle pressure. "He loved you, Liana, but what you're doing is eroding every bit of that away. Can't you see?"
"No, he loves me. I love him. Nothing will change it." She stated the words with the calmness of someone too maddened to see anything else. "He's getting better. Tonight was different. I will fix this."
"I know you believe it, Liana."
"Why can't you?"
"I tried. I was more than willing to help you and did for over three-hundred years to make this right."
"I never kept you from leaving, Cristophe."
Exasperation laced his voice. "I’m not saying you did."
"Then what are you saying?"
"I’m saying I left because I couldn’t stand to see you continue to barter your life away to chase this dream. I left because this is never going to change."
"You didn’t love him, Cristophe. You’ve never lost anyone like this. You wouldn’t understand."
"I understand love because I love you. And I see what loving Laurent is doing to you."
Cristophe’s next words shot out, designed to pierce through Liana’s apathy.
"You’ve killed to keep all away. You’ve defied the Elders and threatened to send this world to Hell to keep this land. You’ve refused to change one thing of your appearance, but don’t you see? You can’t fix what we broke because it is not meant to be fixed."
Liana yanked her hands away from his. She turned away and pushed the door open, uncaring of her nudity or the swarm of bodies who could see it.
Cristophe viewed the milling crowd with mild disgust. The array of guards, scientists, and Shapeshifters gave his sister's madness legitimacy. It infuriated him. "You’re going back to the lab, aren’t you? Back to your data and reports?"
"What do you think?"
"I think that you’re going to end up destroying whatever is left of his mind! If it’s not destroyed already."
She whirled about, rage contorting her fine features. "It’s not destroyed! Laurent, my Laurent, is still there. So stop trying to convince me otherwise!"
Identical gazes glared in stalemate. Finally, Cristophe nodded his head and murmured, "I hope you are right, Liana. I truly do."
She swallowed once and replied, "I’ll come to the next one after Iraq. I won’t let you shoulder our legacy alone."
"Legacy? Curse is more apt. There is no rest for the wretched Children of Hel. But we are as we are, Liana. It's how we choose to live that determines the quality of our existence."
Liana's patience with her brother's lectures had long since come to an end. "Go back to Rome, Brother. I don't believe you've prayed enough today."
"My prayers are spent on you, Liana. Don't mock them." He didn't wait for an apology that didn't exist. Instead, he clasped her in his arms. "I have to leave, but I will see you soon. I'll send word of the next engagement."
She returned his embrace. "Things are getting worse—even without me leaving this compound. Aries must be becoming fat."
"He's been very busy, not that he minds." Cristophe kissed her brow and released her. "The Elders believe the seals will break before this generation grows old. What do you feel?"
She watched her lead scientist approach with robe in tow. Accepting the garment with thanks, she slipped it on and motioned for Cristophe to follow. The final visual enchantments about the castle
fell with a brush of her hand. A silver door appeared in place of battered stone. "Do you want to come up for a bit?"
"No, thank you. I really have to go." Cristophe saw her nod her head in acceptance while reaching for the door. He repeated his question of before. "What do you feel, Liana?"
"Yes, they're right. We have a little over twenty years left." Her hand tightened on the door handle. The cold metal reminded Liana of the fear spiking in her heart. "I’m running out of time."
Cristophe remained silent. There wasn’t anything left to say.
"Do you ever miss how we were?" she asked suddenly. "You know, before the Elders took us away."
"Sometimes."
"Why?"
"It was just us. Hel didn't exist for me, Liana. Only you." Futile regret brushed across his words. "I know that's not what it was for you. I know she spoke to you. I know she tried to force her will on you while I dreamt. I know she scarred you in ways she couldn't do to me."
"I'm beyond scarred, Cristophe. I'm her." Liana opened the door and stared blankly at the stark white stairwell. "Even sealed away, Hel was so powerful, so determined to be able to seduce France’s Dauphin, conceive and give birth to us, all the while driving an innocent man insane. That's not how history remembers it though, is it? La Belle au Bois dormant is remembered fondly, but we're not there. Sole, Luna, e Talia is the closest to remembering us and it's still wrong. So if history has the power to change the truth, why can't I?"
Cristophe didn’t pretend ignorance. "We may have been forgotten but we're here. Hel is not and you are not her."
"Oh, but I am. Don’t you see why the guilt has been killing me? I didn’t want to be alone. I wanted Laurent. I knew what would happen and I didn’t care. I also knew I’d never be able to turn him, so I left that for you. And because of my blindness, I never imagined that our mother’s blood would drive him mad."
"It’s not just your burden, Liana. I carry the guilt as strongly as you do. I should’ve never done it. I should’ve never listened to the Elders. I should’ve…"
His words died and humorless laughter disturbed the night air.
"Hmm, but you did and I let it happen. I believed you that night. I believed Laurent was safe and he wasn’t. I didn’t protect him then and then I betrayed him twenty days later. So it is my burden and I will change history. No matter what I will change it and I will be forgotten but my way."
"It's not just your burden," he repeated.
"You’re wrong. I sealed him away, Cristophe. He tried to turn me, I panicked, put my hand in his chest, and made him sleep for a hundred years!" She trembled with disgust. "If I hadn’t been crazed myself with grief…if I had buried him—"
"But you didn’t. You kept him here in the tower." He remembered finding her with Laurent so many centuries before. Cristophe shuddered from the memories.
"He’d still be there if I had listened to anyone else. I would’ve never known he was alive. So I have to be here, Cristophe. Please try to understand. I can’t let him awake alone. It has to be like the first night he brought me here."
Familiar resignation beat him down. There was no reasoning with his sister. There never was. "When do you think Laurent will awaken next?"
"The Lab thinks it could be as early as another month. But then again it could take another year. We haven’t been able to understand what triggers the Awakening. We can only study his consciousness."
"And how much time will that give you to go back to the tower?"
"A few hours. Then I wait. I wait and hope to make it to twenty-one days." Liana sighed brokenly. "I want at least one lifetime with him. One before this all falls apart."
"Then what will you do?"
Cristophe’s question peeled away the layers of resentment, pity, and futility. What was she going to do? She knew. So did he.
Liana and Cristophe had always known.
* * * *
"I am you. You are me. We destroy the sons of God. We shred them apart—make them do our will. We defile the pure, annihilate the weak."
"I don’t want to."
"But you will, Liana. You will."
* * * *
Liana had stumbled across her heart’s desire in Laurent. She had found a soul who understood pain and shame, but whereas she had engorged herself with rage, he had chosen kindness.
Liana had tried to walk Laurent’s human path. She had thought her submissiveness, self-pity, and suffering led the way to benevolence.
She wanted to be someone else at least one lifetime. Someone who wasn't a monster. However, the more she tried the more she saw exactly what kind of monster she really was.
"I know what I'll have to do. But until then, Laurent’s my sin and I must eat him slowly."
AUTHOR CHAT
I'm an unrepentant dark romance writer of angst who loves vicious villains and impure heroines. I craft tales of moral ambiguity and am drawn to stories with a low fluff content and a high emotional pain meter. I don't appeal to the masses but I do appeal to angst junkies.
If you enjoyed this short story, please feel free to visit my website www.claudiadchristian.com. It’s a place for me to publicly experiment with storylines, to post work-in-progress novels, short stories, and share info on other dark romance writers whose work I just adore. I’d love to see you there!
---Claudia D. Christian
OTHER TITLES BY CLAUDIA D. CHRISTIAN
Vicious Bliss: fallen
Fracture - A Miserable Love Collection
Devil's Descent I: purgatory
Devil's Descent II: impure
Suicide Doll
Love Unfortunate Page 6
