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| Sebastian & Evie |
In a darkened room in a secret place, a man rocked his 3-year-old baby boy to sleep in his arms. The old wood of the chair creaked like aching bones as a fire to his left burned and warmed his cold skin. The echoing of the wind on the large windowpane easily pierced through the room’s stone walls like banshees crying in the dark.
The boy was wrapped in warm white wool blanket. He slept soundly unbothered by the coldness of his father's skin or the noise of ice cold wind. He was used to the harsh weather from where he came.
In the glass of a mirror a reflectionless man held his child tightly — it was Sebastian Lord and his son Gabriel.
Sebastian had succeeded in taking back his family, taking them back and taking them far, far away from Welshport, to another rocky shoreline place called Goodwick, in Scottland.
***THREE MONTHS EARLIER***
The cold, dark cliffside overlooking the black sea of the Atlantic where waves bashed the equally as black rocks hundreds of feet below. A spinning chaotic beam of light from the Welshport Lighthouse illuminated the face of Johnathon DeViana, desperate from relief of his miserable existence contemplated meeting his maker at the bottom of that cliff -- only to be interrupted by his younger Uncle Sebastian Lord, frozen in his youth by vampirism, and convinced to keep himself alive.
In that conversation, Johnathon knew, his life was indeed valuable, at least to Sebastian who sincerely did not want Johnathon to take his own life, not for Jacqueline anyway.
In the conversation that saved his life, Johnathon wondered, what would Sebastian do next?
"And you? What'll you do? You can't haunt this world forever as you are." Johnathon added.
Sebastian was confused. "I don't know. I'd like to get my family back." He said.
Johnathon grinned; a cruel icy wind blew over them both. "That's impossible."
Sebastian didn't know how to answer his younger uncle, a man on the verge of madness. He could tell there was a still a streak of cruelty in him, but the next thing out of Johnathon's mouth was surprising.
An idea, something he once read about but then a friend of his from his time in Philadelphia confirmed it was real. A place so strange and out there it could only be written in fiction; a novel by Braum Stoker even.
"I've heard of a place, in Europe.” Johnathon revealed in a quiet voice to his nephew. “A place you can go and be there safely. I've never told a soul about it; in fact I wasn’t even sure it was real.”
Sebastian moved closer, he narrowed his eyes as the wind blew colder and through his thick dark blond hair.
Johnathon continued with tears in his eyes realizing the end of a very long tug of war with Sebastian was coming to an end. “It's a place a friend of mine told me was real, he’s there now even. I'll write him for you. I’ll set you up and tell him about you. You can be safe there. Forever." Johnathon said.
***PRESENT DAY, SCOTLAND***
It had been done.
Sebastian, now free of the chains of Welshport, sat in the rocking chair with his beloved Gabriel. Asleep. Innocent, like an angel in the dark. His father, looking down on him with the most glowing of expressions: pride, adoration, hope. Yes -- there was still hope in the shadowy place he'd taken his family.
Across from the father and son, in a bed built for royalty overflowing with pillows and blankets and sheets as soft as clouds, was the sleeping Evie Jordan-Lord. She had been asleep for the last two nights since they boarded the ship set for some mysterious place; right after her abduction.
Then, finally, she stirred.
Sebastian carefully moved the baby over to a crib and laid him down with ease. His strong sculpted arms peeking through his crisp white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, reached down like giant cranes into the billowy crib where sleeping Gabriel would stay the night.
Evie began to murmur incoherently as she began to wake. Then, her eyes opened, everything was blurry. The room seemed to be as dark as the coffin she once found herself in, buried alive. That memory, the claustrophobic sense chocking at her in the dark shocked her awake. She gasped for air and reached for her throat that oddly ached on the left side
The flickering of the hearth was like a beacon for her scanning blurry eyes. Her heart beat felt slow, her mind a dizzying frenzy of panic not knowing where she was, where her child was and what had happened to her.
"Evie?" Sebastian said softly. "Are you ok?"
Hearing his voice, Evie leaned forward to get a better look. Her eyes suddenly fixed on the man she once loved but could not be with -- would not be with, not this way, not by kidnapping her and their child. To her horror he had done it.
"What --- what have you done?" She said in a low voice, her arms locking around her knees. "Where are we?" She then reached for her aching neck again; a bandage marked two tiny holes left by Sebastian's vampire grin. "Sebastian," Evie began again her voice filled with intensity and tears in her eyes as the memory of his fangs sinking into her flesh came back "What. Have. You. Done. TO ME!"
Sebastian's head tilted, realizing she was seeing everything that had happened as a negative thing. He had only wanted to be with this family free of the prying eyes of his family and the town that hunted him.
He had taken Johnathon's advice, found the man Johnathon had known from his travels in Europe and found a place safe for creatures like Sebastian. His family was now on safe in this sanctuary where they could eventually live out the rest of their lives -- one way or another.
The answer to Evie's question was so simple. Sebastian moved over and sat on the edge of Evie's bed -- their bed-- and reached over and patted her cold foot as the wind continued to chill the air around the in the locked stone bedroom with windows frosted over. Sebastian scooted over closer to her with their child in his arms.
He smiled, a cold grin she did not find reassuring and even worse his expression chilled her more that the weather itself.
He said:
"I've saved you."
****
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| Matthew with the Bragas: Filipe & Fatima |
As the night carried on over the sea back to the village of Welshport an autumn day was welcomed with a bright butter yellow sun in the sky. The beech tress of Maine had already changed to their warm yellows and orange color of leaves. The crisp air cooled the summer away into memory.
In the village, Matthew Winterborn sat in a small table with Filipe Braga in the home of Filipe's mother Fatima who had taken in her son and his family after the horrific events of the witch trial. Matthew was in a state of panic and needed advice.
Evie was gone. Matthew had overheard Sebatian tell her he wanted to take his family away.
But the fact Matthew had seen Sebastian, or at least Sebastian's dark shadow, lurking into Churchill's home left Matthew in a horribly worried state, especially after reading Baxter's headline that Churchill was dead.
For his part, Filipe's mind could deduce all of the same conclusion Matthew had come up with, but he wanted no part in any of it.
As Fatima brought over coffee for the two men to drink, Matthew laid out his case.
"All I want is to make sure Evie is ok, I know in my heart that she would never leave like this without saying goodbye to her family." Matthew noted.
"That's true, that doesn't seem like her at all, but there is the fact that so much has gone on that maybe she wanted to make a clean break too. Evie and Sebastian have had a long, long history of terrible events happen to them. There have always been forces mounting against them being together. Maybe they wanted to start fresh without anyone trying to convince them otherwise. Matthew, you yourself know how traumatizing the last few months have been. Doesn't it seem likely that they would have wanted it this way, on their own terms?" Filipe wondered.
Fatima lifted a brow -- not convinced of her son's words but said nothing. She turned to Charlotte who was watching over baby Caleb while Mary rested. The young heiress leaned up against the frame of the garden door that led back into the house. She felt the same as Fatima.
Matthew leaned in. His eyes intense with concern "No." He said with a calm voice. "It absolutely does not seem likely. She would never, ever not say goodbye to her brother and mother. She's taken Gabriel, how could she not allow him to say his goodbyes either?"
"It's not Evangelina, no." Fatima whispered, as she went back into the house with Charlotte.
"Listen Filipe, what I saw the night Churchill died wasn't normal. Sebastian had every reason to kill him, I don't care what that article says. Added to the fact of what I overheard him say at the beach house, it all makes sense, to me at least. He killed Churchill went to the beach house and stole his family away in the night. I know it in my heart, Filipe, I think she's in danger."
"How would you even find her?" Filipe wondered.
Matthew sat back in his chair, there -- that was the part Matthew had the most trouble with. He had no idea where to start looking. They could be literally anywhere on earth far, far away from the rocky Maine coastline and the shores of Welshport Island.
Filipe saw the anguish in Matthew's face, it was as if someone had taken his heart and squeezed all of the life out of it in front of his own eyes.
"If Evie is in trouble," Filipe began before Matthew interrupted.
"She is. I will go to my grave saying that she is in trouble anytime Sebastian is involved."
"Then she'll find a way to get a message to you." Filipe Continued. "She's very resourceful and a survivor, if she's in trouble she wont allow herself to say in trouble, not if she has Gabriel with her." Filipe added.
Matthew nodded, he knew it was true. He knew that Evie wouldn't just allow herself to be taken away by anyone, not even Sebastian. He took a breath, sipped some more coffee, and looked out over into the lush green of Fatima's gardens. The thick bushes of white hydrangeas had bloomed; their fresh scent wafted over to Matthew almost like a ghost slowly creeping around the garden table make it's presence known.
"I just feel so alone now." Matthew said, his now blurry with tears gaze still locked on the hydrangeas. "I did everything I could to protect her, to protect Gabriel and it just suddenly is all gone. I have no one. My sister is gone. My whole family -- all my people. It's just me."
"Matt, you have us, your friends. Lucas too. We're all here for you." Filipe said.
Then an idea sprang into Matthew's mind. He turned his head from the flowers and blurted out: "MARY!"
Filipe looked confused.
"Maybe Mary or Charlotte! Maybe they can do something to help me find them. They were able to find you when you were here recovering from the wolf. Couldn't they help me, even if it were just one time. If they could get me any information I could, I could find them! I could save them!" Matthew added.
Filipe shook his head. "No. Matthew, I can't let you ask them." His voice lowered as they were outdoors. "Not after everything they've survived during the trial. Mary could have been burned at the stake. If anyone, anyone at all, were to find out they were using their powers again or that they even had them to begin with after we've all denied and lied and covered for them, it could spell disaster. We've all, including you, have gone through too much to go back now into that world."
"I'm begging you." Matthew said. "When Mary wakes from her nap, would you ask her opinion?"
"You can't ask me to do that, Matt. I just can't. Mary would help you, I know she would. Charlotte too but their all I have, if they were to be discovered and something happen again taking them from me, I wouldn't know what to do. You understand, don't you?"
Matthew did understand. He knew the dangerous world they lived in. He saw it first hand as he too was accused of being a witch, wrongfully at that. He felt selfish for even asking and nodded along with Filipe agreeing he wouldn't put Mary or worse, Charlotte, in that position. He finished it coffee and stood up from the table. Filipe too. They gave each other quick hug goodbye as Matthew decided to take himself to the docks and get things settled for a possible fishing trip.
Work. Work always soothed his searching mind.
As he walked through the house and said goodbye to Fatima and little Caleb in her arms, he passed 14 year old Charlotte who was in the parlor reading. She set her book down on the sofa and carefully walked out behind Matthew without anyone seeing. She dashed across the front cobblestones of the front yard and yanked on Matthew's sleeve.
Startled by her he turned quickly. His heart skipped at beat.
"I'm sorry, I just wanted to say something before you left." Charlotte said in a whisper as she looked around to see if they were being watched.
"What is it?"
"Sebastian and I have a connection. We've always had one, being cousins, but there's more. As I've grown and my ---" she lowered her voice even more -- "powers have intensified, our lock has been unbreakable. Sometimes, I can almost see what he's thinking, but now always." She revealed.
"Do you know if he's taken Evie? And where?" Matthew asked.
"Sometimes he blocks me, he's gotten used to us being so connected that he's learned how to lock me out, but not always. Quickly, hold my hands."
Matthew did as he was told.
She took hold of his hands, the calluses of a sailor scratching her soft palms. She looked around to be sure the coast was clear then closed her eyes. A breeze lifted her soft blond hair slightly into the air from around her face. Her eye lids shifted back and forth with her eye sliding underneath as if she were reading with her eyes closed. There was light and flashes of something -- the lighthouse! A ship in the dark. A ship with a name she could not read. Then intense waves, waves the reached the ship's deck that leaked into down, down into its body. Under all of the hidden things in the ship's hull three secret passengers: Sebastian, Evie and little Gabriel.
"He's taken her." Charlotte whispered. "I see her asleep. He's awake. With little Gabriel. A ship has set off. East ... but I don't know where."
"Can you see anything? Any clue as to where they might have gone?" Matthew questioned.
Charlotte searched the cargo hold where Sebastian was hiding his family. Crates and boxes and more crates. She saw writing on one of the crates that read ESCOCSIA.
"Escosia? Scottland?" Charlotte said as her eyes opened. "I think he's taken her to Scottland."
Matthew smiled, big and wide and scooped Charlotte up into a hug. She giggled as he set her down. He put both hands around her cheeks.
"I will forever be grateful."
She smiled and he dashed off down the street with the new lead on where Sebastian had taken Evie and Gabriel.
"Menina. You shouldn't have done that." Fatima said from the doorway, using the Portuguese word for girl. "Mateus will put himself in danger for Evangelina and now you may be responsible for that."
Charlotte frowned "I love Sebastian, but I don't think taking his family away like that wasn't right. Evie deserves a say in her own life, don't you agree?
Fatima sighed agreeing with Charlotte but unwilling to give in for the sake of the argument.
"I wanted to help her and Gabriel. Matthew is strong. He loves Evie. He respects her. I just want everyone to be where they want to be. Not where they are being forced to be."
"You speak with wisdom beyond your 14 years, menina." Fatima noted. "I will give you that."
"I know what it's like to be taken and held in a place against your will and the people you love kept from you all your life. My own father did it to me, it's not what I want for Evie or Gabriel, that's all." The young Lord heiress said.
Fatima crossed her arms and lifted a brow; in a way she was very happy to see Charlotte being so independent with her powers and thoughts. She was using them both for some good instead of squandering them on luxuries and parlor tricks, but she also saw the drawback of it. There would be a price to pay by intervening in fate. There always was.
Fatima knew Charlotte may have sent Matthew to his demise. Sebastian would not free Evie without a bloody, deathly fight.
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| Matthew receives visitors |
As she walked towards the front door of the building, she paused when she saw three people there before her.
"Have you eaten?" Aurora asked, always the concerned mother. "You shouldn't neglect taking care of yourself."
Matthew smirked. "Thank you Mrs. Jordan, I have, yes...I'm ok."
"We just worry for you." Lucas added. "Evie leaving with Sebastian was a shock to us all, I can't imagine how you're feeling."
Matthew's jaw clenched at the idea that Evie would have chosen to leave with Sebastian after what she told them both, that she was not going to choose between them anymore, that she wanted to focus on Gabriel, raise him and then decide what she wanted to do in the romantic realm.
"I admit, having her write a simple letter hurts." Nik added. "It's a bit rushed and unlike her, but considering the hell you've all been through with the trial, I can also see that they'd want to leave without much fanfare.
"So why do you believe it?" Matthew replied quickly.
"Is that what I think it is?" She said, everyone followed her eyes. "Are you leaving?"
Matthew took a breath to think. His journey to where ever Sebastian may be holding Evie was already too dangerous, he didn't want anyone to go with him, follow him or worse, talk him out of it.
Aurora narrowed her eyes, her motherly instinct was sure he wasn't telling the truth, and although she worried about Evie and Gabriel she wanted nothing more than for them to be safe.
Matthew shook his head, again trying to keep them out of danger and trying to go with him.
"I'm not." he lied again. "She's made her choice, if we are to believe her letter and I have to live with that. It doesn't sit well with me, but what can I do? I don't know where she went, I don't know where I can find them, or who could tell me where they went. They've virtually vanished. It is what it is. My heart is broken, but I have to live with it now."
"We should let Matthew do what Matthew wants to do." She said. "We won't stop you from finding what you need to find, Matthew. When you come home you know you have us here for you. We love you." She said.
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| Cyfrinach Castle, Goodwick, Scotland |
Evie had never felt this power so strongly before. It was as if Welshport had become a living creature, hungry for something to devour and Sebastian offered them up on a silver platter allowing the beast to swallow them whole.
Evie's eyes scanned the room searching for something to tell here where she was or a way out.
But there was nothing. She was trapped.
The eyes she felt on her slept now, in a bed far from the place she was held captive. The creature, old, centuries old, needed her to live. Needed her child to live. The Lords had come to this Scottish world of secrets and darkness thanks to the connection Johnathon DeViana had with one that dwelled within the same walls.
An Ironic connection that even Evie could never have imagined.
Here, was an empire built on something sinister that thrived and fed on the malevolence and weakness of the soul. A mystical man his beard long and gray cared for an ailing creature in a bed built for royalty. Swaddled and draped in red thick wools and the creature, born centuries before, lie there with labored breathing, his body skin and bone.
Cyfrinach Castle was a place where the living were the dead and the dead were the living A cross-section of where the veil between two worlds was as thin as air. It was a fortress where all could be lost if the one man they followed could vanquished without the precious lifeforce of the mixling. Gabriel.
Here, hope was tainted by a violence in the form of blood and not everyone would leave alive.
