“My son knows to fear me. He will not harm you.”
“I’m not just worried for me. I’m worried for you too. If you are not here anymore to protect us…” I couldn’t think about it.
His hand touched my cheek softly. “You are one of my favorite girls, Elle. But I’m stronger than I look. Seymour still has a lot to learn.”
He just looked at me. “Now go and climb into your bed and sleep. You are safe.”
I nodded and watched Clive leave with only his robe covering his body. James had been here tonight and I feared for his life too.
I couldn’t imagine what Seymour would do to James if he found out about his father’s extra activities that didn’t involve women at all.
Still sleeping at night was a luxury in this place. I’d discovered that I could only cope with a few hours now.
Clive was wrong. His son was a son of a bitch and something told me that Clive was going to learn the hard way just how big.
“WHAT THE HELL are you doing?” Becky asked and I opened my eyes. “Are you sleeping?”
“No, I’m not sleeping.” I sounded irritated.
“Then what was that?”
“Tuning in.”
“To what.”
“It’s nothing for Little Miss Comment to worry about.”
She sucked in breath as George laughed and she chucked a napkin toward me.
“I’m not Little Miss Comment by the way.”
“You sure? You seem to have a lot to say, especially when none of us want to hear it.”
“That is just how I am built, okay?”
“Sure, whatever.”
She sighed. We had a few laughs now and then before the heavy weight of Elena still being missing crashed down on all of us. It had been almost four months. Christmas without her was the hardest, not to mention the New Year. A New Year was supposed to be a new beginning, a new chance. It was supposed to be our first, and I spent it with Emanual, camping out, not even getting drunk, and just searching for her. We watched the fireworks for a while. But everything had lost its beauty ever since I’d woken up that day inside my bed.
“Are you okay, Blake?”
“Becky she’s not dead, okay?”
She raised her eyes. They were all disagreeing with me, but I knew better. Ever since the Creepers’ poison flowed through my veins that first time, picking up on her heartbeat was no longer a problem anymore. It had gotten easier and easier.
“How do you know?”
“Becky,” George and Sammy said at the same time.
I sighed and smiled softly as I looked at her. “Because I can feel her heartbeat.” I put a piece of fruit in my mouth, raised my eyes once, got up and left the cafeteria.
Footsteps followed me fast just as the first bell rang.
“What do you mean you can hear her heartbeat?”
“Not hear, feel, there is a difference. It’s something Emanual taught me, but don’t go and wear yourself out, George. It comes with centuries and centuries of being together.”
“Oh, but you can do it already?”
I shrug. “I’m the Rubicon. I can do everything.” My entire posture fell as that comment bit me in the ass immediately. “Except find Elena.”
“You will find her. If her heart beats, you will find her.” George slapped me on the back as we entered Professor Pheizer’s class.
I closed my eyes and tuned in again. My heart beat loudly now and then it was like music to my ears, finding hers was easy now. She was still alive.
Month four
VERYONE WAS RUNNING down the hallway. It was dark and a faint light briefly showed the way.
Annie was in front of me.
When the scream came, chaos broke out. Doors opened, and staff ran down the halls toward it. It had Seymour written all over it. He loved chaos and it was easy to inflict it here in this place.
More screams came from the staff’s courtyard, those that didn’t reside, like Annie and Terrance, in the house. Terrance, a butler, wrapped his arms tight around Marcell, one of the maids who screamed.
Annie and I reached the door and found James hanging on a metal cross. I cupped my face as the blood dripped from him and pooled at the floor. He was cut everywhere, and parts of his skin were completely ripped off.
Muscle and bone showed.
Annie doubled over and threw up, as the courtyard smelled of blood.
Clive entered the courtyard from another direction and I could see on his face the agony that was going on in his heart.
Our eyes met and I shook my head. Seymour. This is what I’d warned you about. Your son is a psychopath.
“Hello, Father.” Seymour appeared from behind another wall, close to James’s corpse. “You still recognize him, or should I turn him around?”
Gasps rose in the courtyard and I closed my eyes.
“I don’t know what you are talking about. How could you do this to another human being?” Clive said through gritted teeth.
“No, this doesn’t please you? I wonder what the Wyvern King would say about that?”
“Please me?” Clive asked. “This is fucking disturbing, Seymour.”
“Oh now, don’t be so dramatic. He was just a servant, Father.”
Clive just shook his head.
“Elle is your mistress, right?”
Everyone was staring at them. My heart was racing. I’d never told anybody, not even Annie.
“What the hell is he talking about?” Annie asked.
“Shhh,” I quieted her as Clive just stared at his son with tears for his lover in his eyes.
“There is something seriously wrong with you Seymour. I should’ve listened when Elle tried to warn me.”
“Elle warned you.” Seymour started to laugh. “It looks like the little bird loves to sing.”
“Stop calling her that.”
“Come now Father. It’s not so bad.”
“This is not pleasing me at all. In fact I feel sorry for you.”
Seymour pulled out his sword. “You don’t care a thing about Elle, give her to me and all this will go away.”
WHAT!
“You killed one of my servants because of one of my mistresses.”
“I want Elle, Father. Now.”
“You are not even capable of taking care of yourself, you are not ready to take care of someone like Elle. Go before I lose my temper with you boy.” Clive turned around and was ready to leave when an arrow coming from the roof struck him in the back.
We all gasped, some even screamed. My entire body went ice cold as Clive turned around and more struck him in his torso.
“Run, Elle,” Annie said and I ran as fast as I could to my room. I had to get away from here, and not knowing where James’s secret tunnels led to, I had to give them a shot. I was sure Seymour didn’t know about them.
I almost made Clive’s room when an arm grabbed me around the waist and pulled me hard into the wall.
It wasn’t Seymour. It was Patrick, his sadistic buddy.
“Oh, what a delicious meal you are going to be, bird.”
“Meal, I’ll give you a meal,” I said and kicked as hard as I could with my knee into his groin. My elbow connected hard with his jaw line and another kick pushed him away from me.
I ran into Clive’s room, shut the door and locked it. Then ran into mine and closed the door too.
I felt for a latch, to let me out of this place, but nothing I tried wanted to open that stupid door.
I closed my eyes and used an incantation. It opened the door and I found a very dark staircase. I shut the door behind me just as Clive’s door was smashed into tiny pieces.
The staircase was slippery, it was cold and I wore only my nightgown. I had no shoes on.
I could hear their voices in my room. Seymour screamed. I couldn’t believe that he’d killed his father just for me. But something told me that this was fueled by years and years of oppression from Clive’s side. I couldn’t imagine that he’d become either of thei
r children’s favorite when he’d killed Mark.
A faint light showed an opening and I found myself back in the staff’s courtyard, but a different part.
It was empty when I opened the door that divided the staff quarters from the courtyard and ran with everything I had.
As I passed the body of Clive laid still and there were a couple of staff kneeling over him. I had no choice but to leave, and ran through the courtyard. I smacked into someone in the third hallway and was relieved it was Billy.
“Elle, are you okay?”
“No, Seymour has lost his mind. He killed his father.”
“What?” Pure shock was evident on Billy’s face.
He reached out for my hand. “We need to get you away from here fast.”
“Billy if he knows, he will kill you.”
“It doesn’t matter Elle. Something tells me he will do worse with you.”
I followed him. He was fast too and I thanked heaven he was here in his truck and not on Penelope’s back.
He opened the door for me and I climbed in. Two seconds later, his door opened, he jumped in, and he closed it. The truck roared to life and he spun away.
“Thanks Billy. Any idea where Seymour won’t find me?”
“A couple, but you have to trust me, okay?”
“Okay.”
I felt better as we put some distance between the house and us.
I could breathe again. Then Billy’s phone rang. It wasn’t like the Cammys. Phones here reminded me of what phones used to be like behind the wall.
He grunted as he saw who it was. “Is it him?”
“No, my mom.”
“It’s fine, just take it.”
“Hey Mom.”
A laugh came over the line, it didn’t belong to a woman. It was Seymour’s.
“Bull’s eye Billy boy, when that first arrow hit him. Didn’t know you had it in you.”
I became cold.
“She really bought it?” Seymour asked.
“Yes.” Billy still sounded alarmed. Playing his part. I should’ve listened to Annie. “Okay. I’ll get you some bread and milk. Look, I’ll speak to you later.”
“Sure my boy,” Seymour joked as I closed my eyes. “We’re waiting in the forest. Bring my little bird to me.”
“Just give me a few, okay,” Billy said. He was such an idiot and had no idea I had enhanced hearing at all.
We were on a dirt road, close to the trees. The doors were not locked yet as he still believed that I trusted him. If I wanted to escape, this was it.
“You are an asshole Billy,” I said, opened the door and jumped out.
“Elle, wait!”
I rolled and rolled until I couldn’t roll anymore, and then I got up and made a run for it toward the trees. I just hoped that it wasn’t the trees where Seymour and his gang were waiting for me. I found a hiding spot and hid immediately behind a big oak tree. I was a freaking Dragonian with many abilities. Okay, scratch the ability part. But I knew magic.
I could hear voices, Zack, one of the idiots that always followed Seymour and Derick, his buddy. They were close by.
Then Billy’s truck neared. It stopped with screeching tires.
“What the hell happened?” Derick asked and Billy answered.
“I have no fucking idea. She trusted me. I could see it in her eyes.”
Zack laughed. “You are losing your charm, Billy Boy.”
“No, I’m not. It was as if she heard that conversation between me and Seymour.”
“Bullshit, nobody could, unless she is a dragon.”
“She’s not a dragon. I grew up with Dragons. I know.”
“Then how?”
“She kicked the living crap out of Patrick an hour ago,” Derick said.
“You think…” Billy started.
“C’mon Billy. Riders, here? They are all shit scared. No, she’s just feisty.”
“If she is one, it means she has an ability and one we don’t even know about.” Billy sounded scared.
“Have you seen a mark?”
“No, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t one.”
They carried on walking and I could hear something big connecting with a dull sound on the floor. Penelope.
Billy spoke to her in Wyvic. I heard her sniffing like a huge dog.
Shit, she was busy sniffing me out.
Screw this hiding place, I told myself and got up from behind the tree and ran as fast as I could away from them.
“We have her,” Derick yelled, and more footsteps started chasing me.
Penelope landed right in front of me, out of nowhere. Billy always kept her at a safe distance from humans and if she had a human form, I’d never seen it.
She spoke in Wyvic and I could make out some sort of destination and my name. Where I was going?
I retreated as she came nearer. Why was she helping him? Oh, I forgot, she was a Wyvern and it was in their nature to be sadistic and evil.
Zack’s arms folded around me. “Great job, Penny.” There was laughter in his voice and my head collided hard with his nose.
I’m a fucking Dragonian! If they didn’t know what that was, well they were about to find out right now.
Blood poured from his nose as his arms released me and I kicked him in his gut, away from me as hard as I could. If I had my twins with me, this defeat would’ve been so much easier.
Fire erupted close to me.
Sweetheart, your fire means nothing compared to the Rubicon’s. I bared my teeth and hissed at her, as if I was about to change into a dragon too. Derick went for me.
My hand thrust against his jaw line and I threw him over my shoulder with a kick in his ribs, showing him that this game wasn’t going to play the way they’d thought it would. Zack went for me again, and this time Billy ran toward me, and punched me in the face, real hard, again and again, but I refused to go down as I knew that my eyes would never open again if I gave up.
“Enough!” Seymour’s voice pierced the night as Billy hit me one more time.
“What the hell happened to you?” he asked Zack and started to laugh.
“She is a fighter. Moves I’ve never seen before in my entire life,” Zack said as Derick pulled me over his shoulder.
Seymour grabbed my hair and lifted up my head. “A fighter, huh? Where did you learn to fight like that, Elle?”
I just glared at him. My lip felt numb, and my head was pulsing.
“Up North,” I said and spat in his face. A red blotch connected hard with his cheek.
His hand collided hard with my cheekbone and this time everything went black.
When I woke up I was on the ground. My face pulsed from where they’d punched me. My body ached from their kicks.
Man-made torches glowed a distance from me, above my head.
My heart was stammering in my chest.
I didn’t want to die.
“Looks like the little fighter is awake.” Patrick’s voice had so much joy in his tone. These boys were evil. They were not men.
Seymour climbed over my torso and sat on my chest with his full weight. His head was inches from mine. “So, you want to show us anymore moves, little bird?” He grabbed my chin real hard and laid his head on my chest. I knew it was to hear my heartbeat and nothing I could do slowed it down.
He chuckled as he lifted up his head. “Not so fierce after all.”
I started to scream for help and squirm with my body but his weight was too heavy and I couldn’t get free.
They all started to laugh. The five of them turned into seven. Two of them were in their thirties. I’d seen them once or twice having tea with Clive. Oh man, how long had they been planning this?
“Seymour, get on with it,” one said, as he was busy taking off his jacket and laying it over one of the branches.
I looked up at Billy, my eyes wild. How could he have done this?
Billy smiled, staring down at me. He didn’t look anything like Blake now that I’d finally seen his true
colors.
Seymour grabbed my chin hard to make me look at him. “It’s time you learnt that what you do and say has consequences little bird. We are not up North anymore.”
He got up from me and I used it. I kicked his legs from under him and push myself up from the ground real fast.
I didn’t think and started fighting against all of them. I got a couple of punches in and a couple of kicks, but then a kick from the back made me fall onto the floor like a rag doll.
Arms grabbed my hair again and my head got smashed hard into the ground.
When all the fight had left my body they turned me around.
When my eyes opened I saw Billy unbuckling his belt and Seymour already on top of me.
I willed my mind to shut down, knowing I wouldn’t survive this ordeal. Finally, my mind slipped away and I went into a daze.
I FOUND MYSELF high up in a tree, looking down on my body. In a way I was lucky that I was experiencing it like this, but still, every touch to my body was tormenting my soul. I shuddered in disgust as I watched myself being savagely attacked by these monsters.
My body was numb and I was helpless, completely helpless. I had no fighting spirit left in me.
Tears streamed down my face and I squeezed my eyes tightly.
It seemed to go on for hours. Both Seymour and Billy had this savage need to have me more than once when finally, Seymour was done. I nearly felt relief, but heard him telling Derick to make me disappear when they’d finished with me. I looked down at my body as Seymour bent down towards me. “I told you, Elle, I always get my bird.
I was dead. I was certain of it. How could this have happened to me? I closed my eyes, willing the images from down below where my body lay to disappear from my mind. If only Clive had listened to me, then maybe, just maybe, this whole mess could’ve been avoided. But he didn’t listen and now he was dead. I was sure I was dead, and now Annie would die as well. I forced my eyes open and watched the assault on my body continue over and over again. Every touch from Zack, Derick or one of the other men, was shredding a piece of my soul to pieces. I saw Billy, Seymour and one of the older men leaving in Billy’s truck. Their spirits were on a high and it left me feeling more disgusted, more dirty. The truck’s taillights shone in my face and for a moment it didn’t make much sense. I wasn’t close to the line of lights, I was up in a tree.