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| Jacob catches Charlotte helping in an escape |
The flickering light of a single oil lantern burned in the corner of the turret room. Mary and Filipe were sleeping on the small bed cuddled together as the cool autumn air pulled their bodies closer together. Earlier that night, the two imprisoned new lovers were drawn together in an act of passion thinking these were their final days.
Was it love? Perhaps more like a last ditch effort of two people giving in to what they thought was the final moments of lust.
But Filipe did feel a genuine closeness to Mary after they made love and Mary felt the same. It was impossible for the two who had often come across each other over the many years, not to see something special in each other. But all of that was put aside as Filipe was devoted to Celeste and Mary (for a time) was devoted to Jacob and her daughter.
But last night, their two ships finally met at port, so to speak, and a park was lit like the candle that shined down on their glistening skin.
Locked in the turret room together and their former lovers now planning to marry, Filipe and Mary could only dream of one more night of passion before the end of their lives right there in the cold, damp turret room in the glow of a single oil lamp.
As the two slept away the passionate love they just made, keys began to rattle at the Turret room door.
Mary woke up first. Her eyes were blurry with sleep. Her hair in a tangle after making love to Filipe all night. She nudged him in his bare chest. He woke up and heard the keys too then jumped out of the bed and reached for his under shirt.
She looked over at him, standing there still in the nude and marveled at his beautiful body and how quickly he got dressed. She took quickly grabbed a robe just as the door opened revealing young Charlotte standing there with a meal for her mother.
Charlotte's mouth dropped at the sight of Filipe surprised to see him, especially in bed with her mother.
She quickly looked down at the meal that she had brought for her mother Mary then innocently realized it wasnt enough food for both of them.
"Charlotte" Mary said softly, happy to see her.
"What is he doing here?" She asked of Filipe.
"Your father trapped him here too. Darling, we can no longer stay here, it's not safe. Please, please help us escape. If we stay here, no matter how safe you think it, we will not survive." Mary said looking over at Filipe who nodded in agreement. "If we could get to Goode island, I am sure Grandmother Eliza can help us." Mary added.
"Grandmother Eliza was arrested. I didn't tell you. I was afraid to tell you." Charlotte replied as she placed the meal down on the small table near the rectangular windows of the circular turret room.
"She was, yes. I knew." Mary said. "I set her free."
"What? How?" Charlotte asked excited to hear the news of her maternal grandmother's freedom.
"Darling, listen to mummy, please, there is no time to waste. I'm not feeling well, do you understand? The only way for mummy to live is to be back at Goode Island; I HAVE to go back." Mary said with a tone in her voice showing the situation was dire.
"What's the matter?" Charlotte asked, placing her hand on her mother's forehead as if to test her temperature. "Is it a cold?"
"Mummy has done something miraculous." Filipe expressed. "I want to help her to see Goode Island again and hen she gets there she can rejuvenate herself. I promise you Charlotte, I will guide her back and keep her safe but we can't escape Tirymor House without you. We need you to sneak us through the corridors and get us to the secret passages so we can escape. Without you, we'll both die here. Do you understand?"
Charlotte thought for a second and then frowned. "Will I ever see you again?" She asked her mother.
"Oh YES! Yes yes yes, my love! We will see each other again. I promise you. But mummy is very fragile. She's given all her powers up to save Grandmother Eliza and before you came tonight, Filipe and I thought it was the end--- for both of us. So please, with the promise of us seeing each other again sneak us out." Mary begged.
Charlotte smiled with her mother's promise and did just that.
The three carefully made their way through the quiet halls of Tirymor house under the dim orange light of the electric fixtures on the wall buzzing in the darkness. Charlotte lead the way holding her mother's hand. Mary felt weaker and weaker as they walk continued through the house to find one of the many secret passages. Then, Just before she passed out there it was. A sliding bookshelf at the end of a long hallway that lead out of the mansion and on to the ground of the east wing of the house.
"Be careful." The little girl said to her mother who kissed her goodbye then hugged her tightly.
Filipe then began to follow Mary out, but Charlotte stopped him. He looked down when she grabbed his hand.
"Be careful too." She said with tears in her eyes.
"I will." he said smiling and hugger her too.
Then, just as quick as they swished through the dark hallways of the mansion they were gone into the dark tunnels vanishing before Charlotte's vary eyes. She stood at the open hallway and peered into the dark hallway that seemed to get darker and darker.
Suddenly a shadow appeared behind Charlotte and a hand planted down on her shoulder.
She turned and saw her father standing above her.
"You let him go." Jacob said.
He did not know Mary was in the room with Filipe at the time he locked him in there.
Charlotte looked down in shame, and perhaps a bit of fright of what her father would do next.
"Now now now, that's alright." Jacob said in a forgiving tone.
"Really?" Charlotte asked, her eyes shooting up to her father standing still in silhouette.
"Yes." He replied. "I'm in a forgiving mood with the baby's birth." He grinned. "Let him go. I know he won't be back, he knows better than that."
Charlotte then looked up at her father again "So you're not angry with me?" She asked.
"You're a good girl, and you show how good you are every day. We'll forget this happened." Jacob said. "Come, let's go see your baby brother." Jacob added as he grabbed her hand.
****
 |
| Battle at Lockwood Thicket |
After a long night at the Catacombs, Nik, Alice and Matthew arrived in the small to a long path in the Tirymor Forest. As the car could not make it through on the path, the threesome took to the path by foot and continued in the dark and thick lush tress and shrubs with just two lanterns and the moon night to guide them in the wilderness.
It was almost as if they knew where they were going by heart. They did not need directions. Alice's intuitions were stronger than any compass on earth. She would reach out her hands and feel the long reeds and grass that they waded through as if each blade that touched her whispered to her the directions to the thicket. Nature was guiding her, even as she walked with her eyes closed in the dark she could see ... she knew where the vampire was holding Evie captive, it was only a matter of time before the shadowy forest, drenched in rain soaked earth and fog, would reveal the small cottage where Alice planned to finally kill the monster that was Sebastian Lord.
As they walked, the fog hid the secrets of the forest and the every present eye of Sebastian's wolf pack that stalked the group as they made their way deeper into the woods. The group could hear the growls under the brush. These wolves were hungry and were alerting the vampire on the approaching threesome.
Matthew stopped in his tracks and turned to his left. Then his right. Then back behind him.
"What is it?" Nik whispered.
"Shhh." Matthew said with his finger over his lips.
Alice turned back and opened her eyes. "They smell us." She said of the wolves.
Then Matthew did something he had not done in decades. He too tapped into his connection to the nature, to life, to the earth. The gift all of this people shared. He closed his eyes and put his hands together in a prayer stance. He breathed in deep. Then exhaled. Then with a quick motion released his hands and brought them down into a clap that sent vibrations through the air and swayed the tall forest grass. The noise, was loud, like shockwaves into the cold air. The wolves, stopped frozen in place and realized they had been loyal to the wrong master.
Matthew was the true speaker of the pack. They howled into the night a howl of respect and love to Matthew and then, like the night meets the day dispersed into the shadows of the forest back to where they came from.
"How did you do that????" Nik asked of Matthew's power and connection to the wolves.
Matthew said nothing. Alice grabbed her brother and hugged him tight. "You remembered your gift." She said proudly remembering herself how he had vowed to never be seen as one his people with these gifts fearing exposure by those who killed the entire tribe.
His purposeful denial of his own gift was to keep them safe. He hid among regular people all his adult life to make a living. He was too afraid to show his true pure hearted powers gifted to him by his ancestors.
Nik stayed silent and realized the Winterborns were both special people. Not just Alice, Matthew too. All the Dænian people had similar abilities.
As they continued on their walk safely thanks to Matthew pushing back the converted wolf pack, the moon soon became obscured by the thick canopy of forest trees and fog and the darkness began to engulf them.
Nik could feel his nerves causing his stomach to turn. In the brush he could hear the scurrying of the wolves who watched them make their way to Lockwood Thicket. They'd grown occasionally, then howl at the hidden moon behind the autumn clouds.
"This doesn't feel right." Nik whispered as Matthew hushed him.
Then, as the fog lifted in swoops of white smoke like mist, there it was. Lockwood Thicket with it's two little front windows burning with light from a burning hearth.
Inside Evie was a sleep. Her arms and legs still tied to the bed. Sebastian sat on a dark colored chaise that was fastened with silver rivets.
As he sipped on a silver cup filled with fresh rabbit's blood, the front door burst open by Matthew thick shoulder. Sebastian didn't flinch. He only smirked with his bloody teeth at the threesome standing in the doorway.
"Welcome." He growled.
"How are you alive???" Nik asked petrified of who he saw sitting in the front room.
Sebastian did not answer and leapt into the air and then lunged at the font door and slammed it in their faces. Matthew again thrust it open and pushed his way in and grabbed at Sebastian by the neck and squeezed tightly hoping to strangle him, but the vampire only laughed and slapped Matthew across the face with such a violent blow that Matthew flew across the room and into the fireplace where his shirt and coat caught on fire.
Quickly, Nik went over to Matthew and put out the flames.
Still standing in the front doorway of Lockwood Thicket, Alice extended her arms and closed her eyes. Her body began to change into that of an eagle. Feathers. Claws. Her arms became wings. Her mouth and face became that of a golden eagle.
She screamed an eagle's screamed and her giant wings flapped a fierce wind into the house that began to knock things over, turn furniture, drop old Lockwood family picture frames and extinguish the fire in the hearth.
Sebastian, hissed and lunged at the giant Eagle that was Alice but with her giant left wing she swatted him away knocking him to the floor.
In the chaos of Alice's transformation, Matthew and Nik rushed over to the back room where Evie had woken up. She screamed for help and the two men burst into her room. She screamed again both of their names when she saw them and the rushed over to her and began untying her.
"LEAVE HER!!" Sebastian shouted as he turned to go to the back room and stop them from taking Evie, but Alice, in her bird form, flew in front of him and swung her claw at him scratching into his chest.
She swatted again with a wing creating yet another vortex of wind the blew Sebastian into the opposite corner of the room just as Matthew and Nik carried Evie out between them with both her arms over their shoulders.
"NO!" Sebastian shouted as he lifted his head towards the escaping Evie.
Sebastian got up, his teeth sharp, pointed and ready to taste blood. His anger so burning in him that the fire lit again in the fire place. He rushed over, grabbed a the broken leg of a table and lit it on fire. He began swinging the torch at the Alice the eagle as she screeched and swatted at him missing him over an over again. Seeing their opportunity to run, Evie, Matthew and Nik quickly dodged the vampire and giant eagle and made a dash for the front door.
In the escape, Evie turned back, her heart pounding in her chest, her hair bounced in beautiful curls with each step towards freedom. She saw the eagle that was her friend Alice from Windlciff battling with her former husband Sebastian who was swinging the leg of the table engulfed in flames. Then as the three made their way out of the door Sebastian impaled the table leg of fire deep into the eagle's chest.
The eagle, Alice, screeched a sound so loud it shook the ground beneath all their feet.
Alice's feather's caught fire. She screamed in pain as her body returned to it's natural human form.
Then, the flames caught the curtains a blaze and the walls and the ceiling.
"ALICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nik screamed.
Evie screamed too as Lockwood Thicket began to burn out of control.
 |
| Lockwood Thicket on fire |
"We have to go! WE HAVE TO GO NOW!!!" Matthew shouted.
"What about Alice?" Nik asked desperately trying to go back into the burning house for the woman he loved.
"No! Niky no!!!" Evie screamed grabbing his arm and pulling him back.
"We can't save her now. She's gone." Matthew said, tears for his sister Alice streaming down his face. “She’s gone!”
As the little cottage once owned by Rebecca's family the Lockwoods burned in a blaze so hot and so dark in the middle of the forest, the group saw Sebastian slowly walk out of the fire holding Alice's dead body.
He walked half way out of the house, safely away from the flames as the house began to collapsed in on itself. He placed her singed body on the ground then he looked over at Evie who made eye contact with him. They stared into each other's eyes and she knew this would be one of the last times she's saw his face.
Matthew then grabbed her hand and she squeezed it tightly back affirming she was with him, and leaving her past with the vampire behind. And with that image in his eyes of his beloved Evie holding the hand of another man burning his mind just as hot as the fire behind him of the house, it happened: like a bat out of hell Sebastian himself burst into flames and vanished in a ball of fire into the darkness of the night.
He was gone now. Destroyed into ashes.
Evie was free of him.
Nik ran over to Alice's body and cried over it. He begged for her to come back to him, but she was gone.
Evie went over and hugged her younger brother. They both cried with each other as the house fell and burned to ground in front of them. Matthew scooped up his dead sister and began walking back towards the car sobbing as he went.
Nik and Evie, equally as devastated for Alice's death followed and cried along with Matthew.
She scarified herself for them. Her life, was gone, but their lives were saved by the young woman of the sea. Of the air. Of the earth.
Alice Winterborn was dead.
****
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| Mary & Filipe arrive at Eliza’s home |
The shoreline of Goode Island crashed with wild powerful waves. The sea was angry and wild with pain from all the events of the night.
In her cabin alone in the woods safe but terrified of what was to come, Eliza stood in the center of the front room of her home.
She had been standing there for hours. She never moved. Her arms frozen at her side. Her heart beating slowly like a ticking clock just waiting for the mob to return with their torches and angry hearts ready to take her back to Welshport and burn her at the stake.
She had been so traumatized and so frightened for her life that Eliza never wanted to open the door of her small little home to anyone again.
In her fright, she hadn't even thought of her child Mary's fait.
Then, to her terror, a knock on the door.
Eliza, who was newly freed from the grips of her would be executioner Reigns, stood in the center of her cabin’s living shaking in her shoes. She thought of the mob that came for her before. Their burning torches. Their mouths salivating for her witches blood, faulting her for all their life’s misfortunes. She shook. Her hands unable to stop as she slowly made her way to the knocking at her door.
“The mob.” She thought to herself. “They’ve come again.” She whispered.
As the knocking intensified a sudden peace came upon her. It was as if a warm ocean wave from the seas just outside her door has come over her and told her this was the end.
And if it was she would accept her death or whatever was what was on the other side of her door.
Eliza stood talk and bravely opened the door and her child Mary fell into her mother's arms.
"My god!! MARY! MY DARLING MARY!!!" Eliza said falling to the floor of her cabin cradling Mary in her arms as they both cried.
Filipe and Mary had both swam from Welshport in the wild ocean all the way to Goode Island in hopes that Eliza had made it back safely from Constable Reigns clutches.
"You're soaking wet!" Eliza said as she and Filipe helped Mary up off the floor.
"She's been slowly losing herself. I don't know how much more she has in her. She's so weak." He told Eliza.
"She used everything she had in her to save me. She's dying." Eliza explained.
"You have to do something! She's your daughter." He replied soaking wet too from the sea.
Eliza sat herself next to the exhausted Mary who was asleep on the sofa exhausted from the swim over and the power drain she had when she transferred all her powers to free her mother. Eliza grabbed Mary's hand and squeezed it tightly.
"Mary, please, please come back to us. You are strong. You are So strong my love! Come back to us!!" Eliza said as Filipe lit a fire to warm them.
"Can't you help her? Help her how you helped Sebastian or... something? ANYTHING? She's dying Eliza!!" Filipe said in a panic. "Here! Take from me!! TAKE MY BLOOD again!! Give it to her! Give from me what you did to Sebastian and save her!"
"STOP IT!! JUST STOP!" Eliza yelled at Filipe. "I can't do that anymore. My powers have done enough damage to us all, can't you see? Don't you see where we all are? I was never meant to leave this place and I did. Now look! Look at the destruction my life has caused. If anyone should die to save Mary it should be me. I will give my self over to save her like I had always planned." Eliza said as she scanned the room for something, anything.
Then she saw it, a small dagger that she used to peel pears and oranges that was left on the coffee table the night she was taken by the mob.
She grabbed it and put it to her wrist and just before she were to slit her wrist and drain her entire body of blood to give to Mary, Mary woke up and grabbed her mother's arm.
"Mother, no." Mary said in a weak voice. "You can't do this."
"Mary, you're dying my love. I have to save you. With my blood you will live. I've lived long enough and Gregory Reigns' memory may come back to him at some point if my spell is broken. I cannot risk that. He will be after me again and he will not let up if his memory of me and what he wants with me returns. Doing this, saving you then moving on from this world will give your life anew. This is a way out for me. It's inevitable my darling: My life For Your Life. I have to do this, any good mother woulkd do this." Eliza explained.
"Mother, please don't PLEASE." Mary said in a weak voice. "Filipe!" She added looking over at Filipe begging with her eyes for help but the poor man didn't know what to do.
It was too late. Eliza slit her wrist then turned and slit the other. She grabbed Mary's face and forced her mouth open and poured the gushing blood into Mary's mouth symbolically passing the torch of life from Mother to Child, the life force of one to another.
Eliza's blood, the powerful blood of an anointed sorceress, a witch with powers that could destroy the world should Mary harness them correctly began to flow into Mary's body rejuvenating her one cell at at time.
The fire in the hearth went from smoldering and warm to raging hot like the sun.
Filipe jumped in his skin when the fireplace exploded in the fireplace and with that raging hot flame, Eliza collapsed to the floor.
Mary was strong again. She got up from the sofa and took hold of her mother who was still living. Eliza had aged. Her hair had turned white. Her skin had wrinkled once the life force in her body left in the blood she gave Mary.
"Help me carry her to the her room!" Mary asked of Filipe who quickly rushed over and helped Eliza up.
The two took Eliza to her room, wrapped her wounds and Mary sat by her mother's side as the clock ticked away the night.
"Will she live?" Filipe asked from the doorway of the room.
Mary looked over at Filipe, her eyes filled with tears and shook her head no.
He came over to her and kissed her on the head while Eliza lay in her bed fading away into the distance of her mind as life drained from her body.
"They're responsible for this. All of them. If it wasn't for the Lords, Eliza would be alive right now." Filipe said.
Mary shot up from her mother's bedside with an angry look on her face. "They're responsible." She repeated.
"Yes." He confirmed as Mary began to see in her own mind that he was right. All of their pain, all three of them had been subjected to the terrors of the rich and evil Lords. Eliza soon fell into death and Mary could feel herself get stronger and stronger.
"I love you." She said to her mother as hear heart slowly stopped beating. Then, Filipe called to Mary from the back of the room in a shadowy corner. Mary turned to him, her heart tattered and torn from the death of her beloved mother Eliza and saw something in Filipe's hands.
She walked over to him and as she got closer she saw he was handing her the book of her mother's spells.
"It's yours now. You are the one." Filipe said as Mary grabbed her mother's spell book and understood, she is now the queen witch of the Welshport.
Over in a corner of the room, a figure in shadows watched it all happen but did not stir. The eyes of this creature flashed red, but they said nothing. They watched Eliza die, they watched Mary cry and get angry and grab the book of her mother's spells.
This made the shadowy creature grin, as the moon light carefully shined down showing the face of the one Eliza summoned to kill Jacob, the one she called THE HUNTER, the one who took up the name Caspian Casador.
Caspian was disappointed his minion of darkness Eliza had perished in death but seeing the fire of passion and anger radiating from Mary’s eyes pleased him.
"This one is strong.” He thought of Mary. “She’ll be good for the House of the Sisters of Highgrove." Caspian continued as naming Eliza's legendary coven that he created. "I'll watch her. I'll watch her very closely." He added, then like the extinguishing of a candle’s flame he vanished into the shadows.
****
 |
| Asha & Andrew |
"I'm tired." Andrew Kim said as he sat down at a wooden chair in Asha Hoffman's living room.
The two had slowly begun their experiments the Christian Evans once again after weeks and weeks of his supposed death. Asha had lured Andrew back into his original plot to use Christian as some sort of assassin to kill Jacob Lord by incorporating tissues, cells via blood transfusion and brainwashing of an insane past patient of Andrew's who ate his victims.
The brain washing was working, as the weeks had gone on, but they had yet to test Christian in this capacity as he had failed before, thanks to Eliza shooting them.
"You've been working very hard." Asha said with a small glimmer of light sparkling in her eye. "Soon Christian will be able complete his mission for you and, you'll be free of every dark secret Jacob Lord has over you."
"Do you really think so?" Andrew asked, thinking of his departed husband, who was the secret Jacob knew about and wanted to use to destroy Andrew's life.
"Of course! The fact that Jacob hold your relationship with a man over your head as if it is a true sin, a sin darker than anything he's ever done is worth killing him over. After all, the stress of it all is what killed your husband Michael, isn't it?" Asha wondered.
"It is." Andrew said softly as he sipped from the brandy in his hand allowing the dark cool liquid swim through his veins and relax him after a long day of experiments with Christian as the sun was slowly coming up over the hills of the island.
"You should relax some more and have a day off. I do have a few things to do today at the hospital and then I'll return and take care of Christian." Asha replied excusing herself to the room Christian was laying in as he was a deep sleep from the many nights of work with Andrew of conditioning and plotting to kill Jacob.
Asha looked at Christian, checked his vitals and smiled. He was doing very well. The experiments were going very well and he was only days away from finally becoming what the passed patient was, a full on cannible.
She walked over to a filing cabinet and opened the top drawer. Inside were many notes and journals of Andrew's and he's as they collected information over the weeks and months with Christian and compared them to Andrew's notes of the past patient.
In one file was a photo of the man who had died many years ago thanks to Andrew's persistent and often times violent psychiatric experiments on him.
At the time of his death, the patient was only 32 years old, 24 years ago. Asha looked at the photo, studied the man's eyes, his nose.
"They always said I had your nose." She said to the photo. "I miss you father."
Asha Hoffman and the man in the photo, the cannible that Andrew was using as the key to the experiment to make Christian into the previous man via brainwashing and cellular mutation was Asha's father. She had lost him at a young age, she had never seen him after she turned 2 years old. All her life she heard stories of him, his awful crimes, his terrible deeds of murder and eating of his victims. She hated that aspect of him. She hated what he had done, but she promised herself she would one day find the man who killed him in the mental hospital he was locked away in. She promised herself she would find the man, Dr. Andrew Kim, who mistreated her father in the hospital, us exploited him, who used his mental illness as a science project for some bizarre book he wanted to write but never did.
She wanted to know who Andrew was and see why he so coldly used the her father's mental madness for his own gain in the name of science.
Four years ago, she did find Andrew. She found him and tricked him into hiring her as his nurse at Windcliff Sanitarium after she graduated nursing school. She watched and observed him for years as she plotted her way into his life to hopefully see a way to destroy him.
Then, came Christian and the idea to use her father's blood and cellular composite to help alter Christian's body with the aide of brainwashing and psychiatric mental games to kill Jacob Lord.
Asha reluctantly encouraged it, and saw this as the beginning of her plan to ruin Andrew.
The plotting was not easy.
Her trickery of him was not kind.
But it was all necessary.
As the months wore on, she encouraged Andrew to start Christian's sessions once more. All of this was in her plan, a plan to trap Andrew Kim in his evil ways.
And so--- the trap was set. She was ready to let it fall into place and ensnare him once and for all.
"It'll all be over soon." she whispered to her father's picture that read "JULIAN ANAND" at the top in Andrew's handwriting then replaced the photo back in the file as the morning light started to peek through the window of Christian's room.
****
 |
| Rebecca visits the returned Evie in her room |
The daylight couldn't come fast enough or the entire Lord family.
Evie sat at her vanity mirror in her room slowly and meticulously primping her hair and pinning each light brown strand up and placing a beautiful pearl comb into it holding the style nice and firm for the event of the day. This afternoon, even so soon after the tragedy at Lockwood Thicket, was the wedding of Jacob and Celeste.
Her heart, however wasn't in the mood for celebrations even though Celeste had asked her to be her maid of honor.
As she continued to prepare herself for the wedding, Rebecca entered the room dressed in a beautiful dark blue gown that sparkled at the cuff-line, neckline and bottom hem. She was bejeweled from head to two and dripped in pearls like a queen awaiting her coronation.
Evie turned to Rebecca in the doorway and saw the concern on her face.
"I'm sorry." Rebecca said softly.
Evie only shook her head.
"Had I known what Sebastian was capable of, had I known more, Evie, I would have done something to..." She paused.
"Do what? There was nothing you could do Rebecca. He is what is he and we can't change him. His soul is gone." Evie said as she caressed her growing baby belly.
Rebecca noticed but said nothing.
"I pray every day that he will some how come back to us, the way he was. For you, for myself. For all of us, but I know it's not going to happen. When I think of the danger he put you and what could have happened, and of course the life of that Winterborn girl, it just breaks my heart. The police told me Lockwood Thicket is completely gone. I had no idea it was even inhabitable." Rebecca explained.
"He made it a little home for himself." Evie added. "I hope you can rebuild it, I know how special that place was to you."
"It doesn't matter now, as long as you're ok. Safe. And as long as that child is ok." Rebecca said finally revealing she could tell Evie was pregnant.
Evie got up from her vanity in her pale pink bridesmaid's dress. She too looked stunning. A perfect princess glowing in the morning light that seeped through her shuttered windows.
"What do I do? How can I raise this baby without him? What will I say when he, or she, asks about her daddy? What do I do Rebecca?" Evie asked tears welling up in her eyes.
"The child will have a large family to protect it. I promise you this, as long as there is breath in my body no harm will come to this child. Sebastian, is gone. He's dead. That's what we will tell the baby when it's time." Rebecca explained.
"But Rebecca, he's not gone. He's not dead! He told me the only thing that can kill him is the sun. We tried, I stabbed him, Alice tore into him, there was fire and beatings and ... my god, when I think of how many things we tried to make sure he, the monster in him, was vanquished, it's staggering. But he's out there. He's still out there somewhere." Evie said.
"No. No. The fire. The darkness. The evil inside of him took him, he’s dead Evie. Sebastian is dead.” Rebecca answered. “Remember that.”
Evie was confused. Did Sebastian die in the fire? How would Rebecca know that? What Rebecca wanted to convey was that the Sebastian they both loved was gone—the creature that remained was someone new, different, changed: The essence of death swelled in the room.
“The fire.” Evie said softly. “The fire took him.” She added, Rebecca took a breath and nodded seeing Evie finally was giving in to letting Sebastian go one way or another. A final nail in the coffin of their love.
“We must love him from afar now, forever. Lead our lives like he has gone to the other side because in truth dear girl, he truly has. He will never be the same, not with that shadows controlling him. We will protect you Evangeline. Just know that. I have a man who is coming to the wedding. He is someone who is powerful and strong and she will show us the way. He promised me when I went and saw him they he will show us the way." Rebecca said holding on to Evie's hands tightly as Evie hoped in her heart that Rebecca was right.
“A man? What man?” Evie asked, worried about Rebecca’s mind set suddenly.
“A guide, he’s my guide.”
Evie smiled politely but with a worried gaze as it seemed as though Rebecca had found herself a replacement for the dead Gaspar DuBois, the con-man psychic who Jacob buried under the garden Gazebo.
**
 |
| Guests arrive at Tirymôr for the wedding |
Downstairs the main ballroom was bustling with the chatter of guests arriving to the wedding of Jacob Lord and Celeste DeViana. There were people from high-society, the richest New Englanders from up and down the eastern seaboard.
The room was glittering with shining chandeliers, bright candle lights and the sun that finally crashed through the storm from two nights before.
A man, dressed in the most beautiful tuxedo with the perfectly mocha colored skin and a beard trimmed perfectly to his face was ushered in through the main hall and passed the ballroom where the other guests who were sipping on Champaign and eating small hors d'oeurves awaiting the nuptials.
He was taken upstairs, lead in by one of the Lord Family butlers.
He observed several of the paintings on the wall of family members and gazed up at the incredible architecture of Tirymor House. He was in awe of all that filled his eyes and just as he was about to turn and see a very large painting of late Sabrina Spencer-Lord, the butler told him they had arrived at their upstairs destination.
"She's inside." The butler replied with a smile.
The man smiled back and knocked on the door.
"Come in." Celeste's voice said.
The man entered, and there, standing in the most beautiful white wedding gown made of silks and lacy, the best in all the world, was the bride.
"JOHNATHON!!!!" Celeste said as she slowly turned to look at the handsome face of her brother, Johnathon De Viana.
He rushed over to her and grabbed and held her tight. "My god it's been so long. I can't believe you're getting married. I just wish I was able to come to you when the baby was born.' Johnathon replied.
"It's fine, it really is. You're here now and that's all that matters. Where's Genevieve?" Celeste asked of Johnathon's fiancée.
"She wasn't feeling too well when we came into Welshport, she stayed at the hotel. I hope you're not too upset." Johnathon replied.
"NO! No, of course not, I hope she begins to feel better soon. But perhaps it's better that maybe she didn't come today because there is so much we need to discuss." Celeste said as she slowly lifted the cuffs of her white opera gloves and pulled them up over her elbows.
"Is it about Filipe and why you two decided to end things?" Johnathon asked. "None of that is my business. You've chosen Jacob, and you're happy. Aren't you?" He added.
Celeste wasn't sure where to begin. How could she even start to explain why she would have ever entertained marrying the diabolical Jacob after he blackmailed her with the secret of her family. The secret she knew she needed to tell Johnathan before she said I do.
"No, no, it's not that. Filipe and I.." She paused. "Well, Jacob ended up being the better fit for me." She said lying.
"Really?" He replied not believing his older sister.
She smiled sensing his skepticism but again didn't want to get into the details right away, especially on her wedding day. "We'll catch up after the wedding, ok? There's so much we need to talk about and of course the baby! I can't wait for you to meet your new nephew." She answered.
"My nephew." he answered smiling from ear to ear. "I love saying that."
"He sort of looks like you when you were born. So sweet. So chubby. So Very chubby." She laughed.
"Well then, he'll be most definitely grow up into a handsome man, if he looks like me now." He joked.
She scoffed at his silly retort about his handsomeness, which in truth was no exaggeration, but Celeste knew that when Johnathon was told about who his real father was, the same man who was Jacob's father, the silly jokes would stop.
But not now. Now, they were happy to be back in each other's company and the only reason Celeste felt compelled to tell Johnathon the truth now was that she knew it would be something important to use as ammunition if Jacob should begin doing awful things again.
Now so close to being Jacob's wife, she wanted to be two-steps ahead of him and any form of blackmail or scheme against her. If she exposed her mother and Albert Lord's secret love child first, no one, not even Jacob, could use that secret to hurt them again.
"Ma'am." A maid said at the door interrupting the De Viana family reunion. "It's time."
Celeste took a deep breath and pulled down the white vail over her face.
"Walk me down the isle brother." She said smiling behind the white sheet veil.
Johnathon gasped in the most heartwarming way and agreed, wholeheartedly.
"I would be so proud to."
As the two made their way out of Celeste's room and down the hall to the ballroom Johnathon finally saw the portrait of Sabrina in the hallway.
He stopped in his tracks.
He stared at it, almost frozen in place.
"What is it?" Celeste asked.
"That... that portrait. How? How is this here?" He asked.
"What??" Celeste replied confused by his reaction to Sabrina painted in the frame.
"Why do the Lords have a portrait of Genevieve, my fiancée??"
"Genevieve? That's not Genevieve! That's Sabrina Lord, Albert and Rebecca's late daughter-in-law. She died years ago." Celeste explained.
Johnathon looked at his sister like she was crazy. She hadn't met Genevieve yet and had no idea that the woman her brother was getting married to sometime next year was indeed the spitting image of the dead Sabrina Lord, and the ghost of that woman hidden in the walls of Tirymor, free from Charlotte's body knew it and saw an opportunity for a new life.
**
 |
| Wedding guests dance Tirymôr |
The guests were all seated in the ballroom that was decorated so beautifully with bundles and bouquets of flowers in every corner of the room that had been brought in from Louisiana. The smell in the room was so fragrant that it seemed like a warm spring day rather than the cool autumn afternoon that it was.
The glittering chandeliers shined in the peeking sunlight and reflected fragments of light all over the golden walls of the Tirymor Ballroom.
The whispers of the happy guests were only muffled by the quintet of violin players by the alter awaiting the arrival of the bride.
Jacob stood at the alter with the village priest and Dr. Ward whom Jacob had asked to be his best man.
"Ready?" Johnathon asked as he and his sister Celeste met Evie and Charlotte at the door of the ball room. Celeste smirked and nodded she was.
Evie pulled the pride aside for some last minute adjustments to her veil.
"Oh my goodness, Celeste, you look stunning,” Evie said of her best friend. “But I still cant believe you’re marrying him.” She chuckled.
Celeste’s face strained at the idea too “It was really the only way. I was afraid of what would happen if…well, we know what Jacob is like when he wants something desperately.”
“But do you love him?” Evie asked as the two look over at Johnathon and Charlotte waiting off to the side making adorable small talk.
Celeste shrugged “This is about protection.”
Evie understood completely. She was in the same boat with her own pregnancy. And now, the two best friends would be bonded as family.
"You look Like a beautiful princess." Charlotte, the flower girl, giggled as she walked over from her chat with Johnathon to Evie & Celeste.
Evie reached down and hugged the little girl.
"And who's this?" Evie asked of Johnathon.
"Evie Jordan-Lord, Johnathon De Viana, my brother." Celeste replied making the introduction.
"Oh my goodness! So wonderful to meet you. Your sister is my very best friend. She' done so much for me. I’d do anything for her, even be a bridesmaid in a wedding to this man!” She joked.
“Should I worry then?” Johnathon said smiling, thinking Evie was speaking more jokingly than realistically.
Celeste shot Evie a look.
“Uhhhh …we’re running late, we've got to get this girl married. And maybe I can explain later Johnathon.” Evie replied.
"Got it!" Johnathon said smiling back at her.
The entire wedding seemed so normal. They all were happy for Celeste who was doing all she could to keep Jacob happy and her new baby in the right step at being legally recognized as a member of the Lord family. Not disconnected as being born outside of wedlock. Celeste knew her role, she knew she had to go through with marrying a man she couldn't stand: it was for her safety, for her family's good name, and for the legitimacy of her new baby boy.
"I'm ready." Celeste said softly as she grabbed hold of Johnathon's arm.
Evie peeked around the ballroom door and signaled to the violinists that they were ready and the music began.
Charlotte marched down the isle so proudly dropping prink petals all the way down the long isle of the ballroom. Evie soon followed in her prink gown that matched the petals. Matthew watched from the audience in the golden back chairs.
Rebecca too watched as her grand-daughter-in-law so beautifully made her way to the alter.
Then, the bride.
The audience in the chairs rose as she came to the door with her brother. Jacob tilted his head to see her in her beautiful white gown, he narrowed his eyes in confusion at seeing the man walking her. He did not recoginize him.
The music for the arriving bride began.
She slowly made her way to the alter, like a floating cloud, like a perfect white cupcake.
In the audience, Matthew Winterborn wore all black still mourning his sister Alice who would be buried in a few days. Gregory Reigns was there dressed in his uniform still dazed from the strange spell Eliza put on him when she escaped his home. Also in mourner’s black for Alice in the front row was Nik Jordan watching as several journalists sketched the guests and wrote down every details for the after noon editions of the Lord family's newspapers. Even Catherine Randall-Ruth, the wealthy New Yorker Evie met on the ship the day she arrived came to the wedding. Catherine, who had even attended Evie and Sebastian's ill-fated wedding, wondered what surprised (or murders) were to happen on this day. But none would.
Off in the corner a surprise guest, Asha Hoffman had lied to Andrew Kim about having to be at the Hospital was actually a special guest of Jacob's. On her off time from working on Christian she worked hours in the ward Jacob was in. They grew to be friendly with each other.
She looked over at the groom, her friend Jacob, and he smiled at her. She smiled back but then her attentions were drawn to the guest at the wedding she was really there to see, not the bride or the groom but Constable Gregory Reigns. She had known of him for a very long time, in fact she knew his whole past back in Philadelphia and used what she knew of him to corner the plot against Andrew.
Their eyes met. She smirked, then turned away. There would be time for their meeting
 |
| Celeste & Jacob finally marry |
Back at the alter, the celebrated couple met at the alter. Celeste was a vision glowing in her white gown, Jacob dashing to his mother's pride in a the most perfectly tailored tuxedo. The priest happily began his sermon. He spoke of love. He spoke of connection. He spoke of loyalty and adoration of one another.
Jacob did adore Celeste even if it was born out of evil.
Celeste tolerated him. She wanted her baby, who Rebecca was holding in a smart little baby outfit, to be born and respected as part of this family.
The priest joined the newly weds' hands and asked them to exchange their rings as they repeated the vows of marriage.
Then, he prayed for the two. Prayed to god to bless their marriage and their family and everyone who came in contact with them. He read a prayer for the bride, then one for the groom, the one for the new baby. He blessed them again, did the sign of the cross and asked the members of the congregation there in the ball room to do the same.
"Amen" the all repeated after the priest.
Then, he asked Jacob to lift the bride's veil and to seal their marriage with a kiss. Jacob slowly reached for the white lace fabric from over his new wife's face and he looked at how beautiful she looked in the glittering light of the chandeliers. Her caramel colored skin was the most perfect confection of caramel. He smiled at her while still holding the veil in each hand. Her bouquet shook as her nerves raddled her whole body.
Then, he moved his face close to hers, they closed their eyes and kissed a long and passionate kiss on the lips.
The crowned erupted and applause.
Celeste, the once personal maid of Rebecca Lord, then Charlotte Lords Governess was now a Lord herself.
CELESTE DeVIANA-LORD. Officially Jacob's wife. Her insurance policy on her family's secrets, especially that of her brother's true paternity was now secure and bound by the ring on her finger.
As the party continued into the evening and the sun dipped below the sea; in the large dining room just off the ballroom, food was served to all the guests and wedding party at to their heart's content. Catherine Randall-Ruth gossiped with Evie about Evie's own wedding not to Evie's amusement. The music played, the newly weds danced. The baby slept.
It was all too perfect. Almost too perfect.
“I’m very sorry to hear about your sister.” Jacob said to guest Matthew as he approached him as he drank champagne with Nik.
“Thank you.” Matthew relief keeping things short.
“So young to die of—influenza? Was it? That’s what the papers are saying at least. So sorry I never got to know her better.” Jacob said of the rumor he heard of Alice’s cause of death knowing influenza was a sickness often used to cover a real death.
Matthew lifted a brow, “A disease I hear you’re family has connections to.” Matthew replied knowing Jacob had used the same cover of death.
Jacob, the giddy groom smiled seeing Matthew’s check-mate only lifted his champagne flute and walked off.
“Bastard.” Nik said under his breath so only Matthew could hear.
 |
| Sebastian surprises Rebecca |
Finding the right time to make an exit and re-center herself after such a busy day, Rebecca went off into her private chapel where she often passed her free time meditating and praying. She opened the door that creaked and saw that candles had already been lit she paused. Who would have lit them? She had told no one she was coming. She had mentioned it not even to Charlotte who was her frequent companion to the chapel.
Then, she slowly opened the chapel door and standing there was a shocking vision of Sebastian Lord starting up at the stone state of the Our Lady of Miracles.
"What are you doing here????" Rebecca asked her grandson as she quickly closed the door behind her showing no fear of the vampire.
"This place has always been such a peaceful beacon for you, I thought that perhaps I would find some peace here too." Sebastian said, as Rebecca noticed his face was tired and white. His eyes sunken and lifeless but there was sadness in him. A deep hurt from his loss of Evie.
"You shouldn't be here. I wish you would just go Sebastian. If it's money you need, I can give it to you. Whatever you want, I can give it to you but we've all suffered so much. It's time that you let your memory die the way we have told the world and start somewhere new on your own." Rebecca said as tears crawled slowly down both cheeks.
"You would just want me to vanish forever? Just like that?" He asked.
They were once so close. She adored him. He was to be her heir, the person who would have taken over the publishing company once she was gone, but he was not the same. She had lost her confidence in him and clearly, his whole demeanor and life was gone the day he was shot at his wedding. She had mourned him enough.
"I don't think you understand. Having you here, around us, is dangerous. In fact it can bring only disaster. Don't you want your future child to grow up only have good memories of you? If you continue to push Evie the way you have, if you.... Sebastian, you killed a woman. Alice Winterborn is dead because of you and I can only imagine who else in the last few months has been a victim of yours. There have been attacked and--"
"ENOUGH!" Sebastian shouted interrupting his grandmother. "Don't you think that I want my child to love the memory of his father like I do mine? There are no bad memories I have of my father despite what people say about him even though we know none of it is true. That is what I want for my child too, grandmother, it is, but we are not the same my father and I. He is dead, I am UNDEAD!"
Rebecca composed herself after Sebastian's outburst shook her.
"You don't know he's dead Sebastian." Rebecca said of David, his father and her son.
"Then where is he?" He asked.
Rebecca shook her head unable to answer. "Perhaps that is what you should do. Take as much money from the family coffers as you need and go---find David. Do what you have to find your father." Rebecca said.
"And forget about Evie and the baby she is having? I could not, and will not do that." He replied as the candles flickered in the dim room under the faces of the many statutes of saints.
"I don't know if you have a choice." She replied.
"Grandmother you would just wash your hands of me because of what Eliza made me? You would just do that without blinking?" He asked.
"Sebastian, listen to me and listen to me well, this isn't what I want and it's not what I dreamt for you. Never! But I cannot allow you to infect this family with what you are any longer. There are true dangers in this world that we must protect our family from and..." She paused before carefully picking her words the said "and you are now one of those dangers. I have to protect Evie and her child from what you are capable of."
"HER Baby?? It's my baby too!"
"It was. It was your baby. When you lived. But to the world and....." She paused again as the tears once again fell, "and to me Sebastian, to all of us, you are dead and gone. Go. Go away and find a new life to live however that may be." She said to her vampire grandson as the two hugged in a tight embrace in the candle light.
Sebastian could not believe what he was hearing. All he could do was listen to her grandmother and do as she asked. He kissed her on the cheek and look back at her one last time before he left the chapel.
He would leave Tirymor and allow the wedding of his monstrous uncle to Celeste go on without any attack or interruption from him but not before getting one last glimpse of Evie who he looked at through a side window of the dining room. He would never leave her alone. Never. Not for anything, not even Rebecca.
But to Sebastian, what Rebecca didn't know, wouldn't hurt her.
The night progressed and the guests continued to enjoy the million of dollars the Lord family spent on the wedding and it's following reception. Now after the dinner was served and the guests continued to mingle and wander around the available areas of Tirymor House to explore, the surprise guest, Nurse Asha Hoffman approached Constable Gregory Reigns who was dressed in his smart uniform pinned with his official badge.
She knew how to do that for him. She knew if HE was the one that saved Christian, thee beloved Evans son, brother and grandson, then his good name would be restored.
"Yes?" Reigns said to the lovely Asha.
"I'd hate to get into it here at the wedding, sir, but I know what you think I know." She offered.
"Nurse Hoffman, I don't know what you think you know but I can assure you that my whole life has been about serving the communities I lived in, that includes Philadelphia." He said.
"Indeed. And the Evans family." She said shocking him,
"Yes, they were indeed very instrumental in my work back home." He said.
"And your removal." She shot back.
He saw that she was no shy woman and that she knew exactly what she was talking about. Something irked him about her, she seemed as if she had ulterior motives, and indeed she did.
"The district Attorneys are ruled by the Evans family funds. They've always been very much involved with politics in that city. They were scared of the truth." Reigns staid of him killing and burning witches in the center of the city illegality.
"Wouldn't they be grateful to you if you brought home their golden child Christian?" She asked.
"The former Constable? He's dead and from what I'm aware he's already back in Philadelphia and buried." Reigns said.
"Not the case. In fact he's alive and well and his whole life is in your hands if you choose to take charge. I can take you to him. I helped revive him and a doctor, Dr. Andrew Kim, has him captive. I admit, I've been helping but only so that I could catch him too and prove Dr. Kim's malpractice. Not unselfishly of course. He's responsible for many patient's deaths and a host of other horrible treatments at Windlcliff to so many patients who are alive, but damaged mentally for all time. I believe he is also directly responsible for the Lord/Evans shooting in the park. His work on Christian Evans is most definitely the cause of that horrible crime." Asha explained, her information half correct.
"I have pages and pages of proof of Dr. Kim's mistreatments and malpractice, yes. My father was one of these patients Constable, and although he was a criminal he did not deserve the tragic end Dr. Kim gave him. Now he does the same to Christian Evans." Asha confessed.
"Kim, Yes I've heard this name before. He had Evangeline Lord at his hospital illegally I heard for a time." Constable said. "What has he done to Christian and what did he your father?"
"Christian has been brainwashed. He's almost a zombie. He made Christian attack Jacob Lord and then Kim, I believe shot them both to keep them quiet. Christian is not who he once was and he never will be again. But that doesn't mean you can't go there and stop Kim from making him a monster. He plans to use Christian in some kind of mind controlled state to come here and kill the groom. He's tried before but failed, the night of the shooting." Asha said connecting the dots for Reigns.
"But I …" he paused. "The shooter. I know the shooter." He said confused thanks to Eliza's memory spell.
"And you have proof?" He asked to be sure.
Asha nodded her head, sipped her Champaign. "Mountains of it."
That was all he needed to hear. He grabbed hold of her arm and the two quickly left together in a swoopy blur off to end Dr. Kim's madness.
 |
| Johnathon De Viana |
"You're really ok being here in this room at a wedding even after what happened to you?" John asked Evie.
She smiled politely fanning herself.
"There's been a lot of taming and untaming around here these days." Nik offered without explaontion alluding to the wild and frightening events of the past few weeks.
"Nikolas is being sarcasatic." She said shooting Nik a look. "Listen, Johnathon why don't we have a dance? Your date isn't here tonight and my date seems to be off somewhere else."
Sensing an awkward silence, Nik excused himself and went off to find Matthew again.
"You invited Johnathon." Jacob asked with a cold tone in his voice. "You invited my father's bastard son to my wedding." He added as his jaw tightened with every word.
"What's the plan here wife? Huh? Were you going to tell him what a fool his mother was for my father and how he's some sort of forgotten heir to the family? Having Johnathon here changes nothing. Do you understand me, nothing. I still hold all the cards." Jacob replied showing is cruelty once more.
"Johnathon will remain in the dark about Albert being his father too." Celeste replied going back on her own promise to herself to release the secret for all to know.
But as Celeste turned to watch her brother dance with Evie, so did Jacob. As long as Johnathon had his foot in Tirymor House, he was a threat. A threat that needed to be nipped in the bud as soon as possible.
