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| Sebastian & Evie on the balcony |
On the night Evie believed she and Gabriel had been held captive for three-weeks at Cyfrinach Castle, she stood on the forbidden balcony of her room that faced the village. She was too far up for anyone who walked the streets in the village to see her or even hear her screams.
The sea raged before here on the horizon, and she looked downward into the dark empty cervices of the castle below and saw no way of climbing down.
As she did this, the room of her door unlocked. She turned back to see Sebastian entering.
He looked paler. Thinner even. He was dressed in a dark red suit with a tie tightly wound around his long beck with a pearl pin attached at the center. Despite her anger towards him, he looked handsome, albeit, colder and more distant.
She entered back into her room and stepped down the two tiny steps form the balcony and took the tray of dinner he brought her. She saw her own reflection in the tin dome that covered her food but did not see his. It was a reminder of who-- and what he was.
"How's Gabriel?" She asked, with hope in her voice.
"He asks about you." Sebastian admitted softly.
"Then why don't you let me see him? He clearly needs me, Sebastian."
"Evie, I can't let that happen, and you know why." He replied. "We don't have faith in you; you might do something to take him away from here."
"We?" She asked in a tone of outrage. "Since when are you, a we?"
"The court." He clarified referring to the vampire clan he’d become a part of.
"I don’t accept that Sebastian. I demand you send me OUR son, you said yourself—he’s asking for me.” She demanded.
Sebastian refused.
“How can you be so cold to me?” She asked. “After everything we've been through, this is how you are treating me? Keeping Gabriel from me is probably the cruelest thing you've done to me in a very, very long time Sebastian. I don't know if I will ever find a way to forgive this."
"In time, you'll understand that this is the best place for us. I keep telling you this, and Dominique thinks that it'll be soon. Gabriel is -- he's needed here. They treat us like royalty. Gabriel is like their crowned prince. You should see!" Sebastian said, sounding completely indoctrinated.
Evie backed away from him. The man she once loved and made a child with had once again changed into something different than she knew. She had met this handsome boyish man that she fell in love, he turned into a tragic almost horrifying figure but through a long terrible process he'd sort of came back to her once again with his attempts to prove to her his humanity remained.
But this betrayal, of kidnapping them to Scotland and separating mother and child was something even she never expected from Sebastian. This was a new Sebastian that felt alien.
"I want you to step back from all of this Sebastian and really listen to yourself and hear what you are asking of me. You are asking the mother of your child to sit idle around this empty dark room while you keep her from her child. While there’s some strange plan for him and some Count that neither of us have heard of. When will you open your eyes to this? When will you see the dangers here?? When it's too late? When I'm dead? When Gabriel is dead?" Evie shouted.
"How can you think that? Why would you think that?" Sebastian asked stupidly.
Evie only shook her head. "It doesn't take someone like Mary or Charlotte or even Jacqueline to see the future here Sebastian: There isn't one. Not for me. Not for Gabriel. You've brought us to the end of our lives and it's only a matter of time until it happens. And then what will you do?"
Sebastian's eyes narrowed. He didn't believe Evie's fears. He didn't care what she thought, he knew in his heard his decision to come to Cyfrinach was a good one, that the Doshalls would protect them and make them happy there. He would follow the rules and do as Dominique instructed because it was better for them. This was where they belonged.
"You'll never see me as more than some monster that walks the night. That's where this is." Sebastian said softy and with a tinge of sadness.
Evie walked over to him; their eyes met. Coldness there and nothing more. She searched his face for the love he once had, frozen like ice. He searched hers too, even colder. They were two icebergs floating atop of a slush-like sea but only one would survive the coming warmth of whatever hell the Dominque Doshall had planned.
Evie did not directly answer Sebastian's question. "Promise me you'll keep Gabriel away from Dominique, Sebastian. Make me this promise and I think I can find the human in you again."
"She won't hurt him."
"DAMN IT SEBASTIAN! Listen to me, she is dangerous! She wants to do something to him!" Evie shouted.
"Why do you keep saying that? Why do you keep thinking she's going to hurt you or our child? She has never ever once said anything to me that would suggest this."
"You're in denial and I can't help you. I cannot. I cannot show you what she is going to do because I don't know!" Evie said.
"Then? If you don't know then you're making things up!" Sebastian shouted.
"No, no, I can't tell you how I know, but I do. I know something is happening. They know Gabriel is part you and part me." Evie said unable to say the word vampire in the moment.
"Of course he is!" Sebastian replied.
"No...he was born of you after you became this... they know that. They seek it. The need it and that hold something important and special to them and I don't see it ending well. I don't how you can't see it!" She shouted back.
"You're jealous. You're lying and you're jealous!" Sebastian shouted. "You're making things about Dominique so that I turn on her and take us out of here. You're LYING!"
Evie slapped him across the face.
"How dare you." She said, seething with anger.
A single tear feel down his cheek. Evie reached to wipe it. He grabbed her hand and held it there for a second. They stared into each other's eyes seeing two completely different people now, no longer the lovelorn paramours from 4 years earlier. They were now a tattered reminder of what happens when darkness falls on the heart. Sebastian slowly lowered her hand and turned from her going towards her room's door. She followed. Her dark dress swishing passed the furniture like a flower petal folding into itself.
He said nothing. No reply. No angry eyes or fangs.
He locked the door.
Evie banged on it begging to be released but he stood there, on the other side, another tear falling knowing that this would be the last time he saw her. He'd someone else to bring her dinner.
It was over. Evie sobbed. Sebastian said nothing. And like the fall of the legendary Troy their relationship fell into ruins before their very eyes
****
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| Sinead & Evan in the Courtyard |
Downstairs outside under a cloud-covered moon, an interior courtyard was lit with long tall iron lamp posts around the perimeter. A set of two gravel paths that intersected with a giant fountain in the center of it sprayed water from a siren's chest as if her heart were weeping. Triangular patches of grass crowned with large bushes and small pomegranate trees added extra shadow to an already cloaked garden.
Sitting on one of the benches the Sheernan twins watched as others from the Court walked about the night watching the fluttering bats go from courtyard tree to courtyard tree.
"Don't you wonder what he's really about? He seems so mysterious. He intrigues me." Sinead said of Sebastian Lord, as if he were a new fashion item to be bought and worn.
"He's quite odd, if you ask me." her brother Evan replied.
"Why?"
"He's too quiet. Never trust a person who doesn't say what they want when they want and how they want. Something about him, I just don't trust. Besides all of that Dominique warned you to stay away from him." He said.
Sinead scoffed and swatted as his shoulder playfully. "Oh, she's a bit full of herself. She can't hog all the new blood around here can she?"
"Sinea...." Evan said, seeing his sister stepping too far off the ledge.
"We don't know him that well yet, and I think I can change that."
Evan turned to face his sister. The lamp light from the closest lamp glowed on his caramel skin making him look even more handsome as the shadows of the flickering flame danced on his face.
"I want you to listen to me, do not get too involved here. The American is directly linked to something much greater than us and I want no trouble from the Doshalls. Maybe wait until the Sickle moon has passed and the mixing has done healing Alexandre for you to then go after --- him." Evan pleaded.
"And where would that put us?" She said. "Still on the outside."
"What are you talking about?" Evan wondered.
"Evan, this is our chance, don't you see?" She said slightly frustrated with her brother's lack of ambition. "Sebastian is Dominque's new favorite. Its almost as if we've all vanished and the only one here with her is Sebastian. He's the father of the mixing too. If I can just get into his good graces, then I know for a fact I can get into a better standing with the Doshalls. This is good news for the two of us! We'll be closer to the Alexandre than anyone one else once he finally gets back on his feet once the prophecy of the mixling is done."
"Keep your voice down. We don't even know when they'll take the mixling's life to save the count. Nothing has happened yet, nothing. We all know it needs to be on a particular night when the moon is in crescent form. We wait." He replied in a whisper. "Besides, what if Sebastian rejects you?" Evan added. "Are you prepared for that?"
She rolled her eyes, those big brown eyes that reflected almost everything in it's gaze. She pouted ats him with the irritation of a child and once again pushed him teasingly.
"He wont." she replied confidently in her own whispery tone.
"But what if he does?" Evan pushed.
"O ye of little faith. Men aren't fickle when it comes to flirtation and desire. Not even a vampire as cold as you." Sinead said.
Evan knew what it was like to be one of Dominique's favorites. He was once one too, before he became part of the court. She adored him, so it seemed and made him the creature he was so that she would n ever lose him. Over time she bored of him and now narrowly acknowledged his existence. This was something that weighed on Evan. She never even looked at him, spoke to him. Touched him.
Often times, Evan would drift into slumber dreaming of the nights they'd make love, passionately somewhere outdoors under the stars. They'd fulfill each other's most desired fantasies and then, like the extinguishing of a candle -- Dominique lost interest. No rhyme or reason.
She just moved on. It broke Evan's cold heart and he never let this go.
As the twins discussed Sinead's eager and somewhat dangerous reach into the power struggle at Cyfrinach, Sebatian walked into the courtyard fresh from his argument with Evie far up into the tower.
Sinead got up quickly and walked over to him, Evan followed.
Sebastian stared into the stone face of the siren in the fountain. He noted in his mind how her face looked as if she were in pain as water flowed out of a hole in her chest above her breast, but the pain oddly seemed more like heartbreak, given that the water came from the area of the siren's heart. He could almost hear the siren's call, a melancholy song of loss and desperation. It echoed in his mind swirling with her image that harmonized with the pitter patter of the falling water into the fountain.
The stone creature sat on a rock, her hands extended with more water pouring out from one, the other hand crossed over her naked breasts. Sebastian drifted off into a fantasy that the siren was Evie, lovelorn and lost. She cried for her lover, he imagined, Sebastian teared up for the sad siren.
All this imaginary backstory clouded the American's vampire's mind as the twins fought for his attention right at his side finally breaking through to him when Sinead tugged at his sleeve.
"OH!" Sebastian said finally noticing them. "I'm sorry. I was lost in thought."
"I was asking you how you and the mixing were getting along here." Sinead said.
"Fine." Sebatian replied curtly. "Why do you call Gabriel the mixing and not by his name?" he wondered.
Evan turned to Sinead worried that his twin sister offended a man that was practically the closest thing to a god they'd seen. The father of the mixing, the one living being whose life force would be responsible for everyone else's survival in the court was not to be offend.
"Its not meant to upset you Sebastian, not in the slightest. It's --- well, he's very special to us here. We're just very happy to finally see his face." She explained.
"Evie isn't happy here." Sebastian confessed.
"The child's mother?" Evan asked, Sebastian nodded.
"She feels I've chosen the court over our family and she feels that perhaps we are in danger here."
"She should not speak of us in that matter, in fact I believe you made a mistake bringing her here in the first place. You should end her." Evan replied to Sebastian's shock.
"End her!?" Sebastian shouted.
"My brother can be a bit medieval in his thoughts; Sebastian please forgive him.” Sinead said slapping her fan on Evan’s arm and rolling her eyes. “Evie must be lonely. Imagine her position. Imagine coming to such a strange place and living amongst us. It can’t be easy, you've been one of us for longer and understand the life of the shadows. She hasn't had that kind of experience." Sinead added.
"I just want her to see what I see, I want her to see how this place can give our family an opportunity to thrive. In Welshport we’d have to live as hermits, hiding ourselves away — practically shamed into the dark. But here there would be none of that." Sebastian explained.
Sinead pouted patronizingly “Yes. Yes. Poor Sebastian.”
She could see that although Sebastian did an abhorrent thing like kidnap his whole family to Scotland, he did it out of blind love. He still loved Evie and Dominique had not gotten to him —yet, as they all knew was in the long plan.
"Make her one of us." Evan said suddenly breaking the beat of silence.
"NO!" Sinead replied, realizing quickly that if Evie was a vampire she'd lose all chance of having the powerful Sebastian for herself. And she could do without any more competition. "He can't do that."
"Why not? Dominique did it to me?" Evan revealed.
"Sinead is right, I could never do anything like that to Evie." Sebastian replied as the fountain continued to trickle out water from the siren's hand and heart.
"No, you couldn't. Listen, why don't I go up and talk to her, I can help her see what a wonderful opportunity this for her child. Sometimes speaking with a woman may be a better way for her to see clearly." Sinead said.
"Sinead, you know you're not supposed to interfere this way." Evan said, his eyes now more serious in shape and body language stiff. She was about to insert herself in the place of Dominique without permission. This was a massive faux pas.
Sinead did not listen.
"Trust me, a little girl talk would do her some good." Sinead said, her hand extending out to Sebastian for the key to Evie's room.
"I don't know, I just brought her dinner. She may be getting ready to sleep." Sebastian replied.
Sinead's eyes lifted towards a long stretch of wall that made up the east-wing of the castle and towards a set of towers that made up the apartments where Evie was being held. There was a small window that looked towards the sea, it was one that belonged to Evie's room, on the opposite side of the balcony.
A light flickered.
"She's awake, see?" Sinead said, again reaching her hand for the key.
Sebastian followed her eyes, he took a breath and reached into his coat and pulled out the key Dominique had given him to Evie's room.
"Don't upset her any further." Sebastian said.
Sinead smirked "I wouldn't dare."
As his twin sister rushed off to meet with Evie for the first time, Evan knew she had nothing good planned. She was the ambitious side of his brawn, but she didn't always think through her schemes. He watched his sister quickly reenter the castle and disappear into the dark hall. He turned back to Sebastian who continued to look up at Evie's window.
"I hope you know what you're doing." Evan said.
"Why, do you think she'll upset Evie even further?" Sebastian asked innocently.
Evan's eyes narrowed, "No, fool. I mean I hope you know what you’re doing here. At this place. With Dominique. Do you know what they want from you?"
"Dominique is giving us a safe place to be with people like me. We'll be protected here." Sebastian said.
"Dominuque said that you, did she?" Evan asked as Sebastian's nodding head cofirmed. "She's the one who made me. We were lovers. Years ago. I worked for her and her father and had no idea what they were. I was --- a fool, just like you. I fell in love. We would make love nightly and it was the most powerful thing I had ever felt in my whole life. I became intoxicated with her. Everything about her was like a the finest things in life. The best wine was like kissing her. The best food was like tasting her skin. The best clothes was like feeling her on my body. Until she bit me and took my blood."
"Why would she do that?" Sebastian said.
"She needed it."
"Needed?"
"We all need it Sebastian." Evan reminded. "The difference is She wanted me to be around more, and here I am. She did not kill me because she wanted me. But -- from a far."
"You two are no longer together?" Sebastian asked.
Evan shook his head and looked Sebastian dead in his eyes and said: "She's found better toys now."
****
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| The path to Cyfrinach Castle |
At the mouth of a small river that led into the sea just below the back cliffside mounted with Cyfrinach Castle, a women dressed in thick black wool from head to toe, and a shawl that covered her hair pushed open an iron gate that conveniently had no lock.
She turned back to face Matthew and Hope, revealing her face to be Sister Anna. She held the gate open with a worried look on her face.
"Follow this path up the back side of the cliff. It'll take you to door that leads into a lower chamber inside the castle. There you'll find a staircase that'll take you up inside to the main hall." Anna said, her experience with this entrance left a mystery.
A gush of wind blew across their faces. Hope looked down a slope of green grass that had become so dark in the night that each blade looked like black waves floating above sea level. She turned to her brother Matthew who was determined to find Evie with the protection of his natural powers.
"You should stay behind with Anna." He told her.
"You aren't well with the gift yet. I can't allow you into that vampire's nest alone." Hope replied.
"You're trembling." He told her. "They'll smell your fear."
"Aren't you afraid?" She asked.
But before he could answer Anna spoke.
"If you do not feel the ache of terror, you should both stay. Not feeling this will only lead you to their darkness. They fear nothing and hold it against those who do. The good in us knows fear. We know love and hatred. We have to always keep these things alive in us, otherwise, we are no better than the creatures they've become. Hard like stone. Empty like a desert. Hungry like the wolf." Anna said.
Matthew agreed.
Hope blinked hard. The nun's words were heavy like the sky above their heads filled with clouds about to drop rain.
"Of course," Matthew added "I am fearful, but mainly for Evie and Gabriel. I can't imagine what they're going through in there."
"I won't let you go alone." Hope continued.
He grabbed her hand and smiled, "It's very dangerous." He said. "I need you to stay safe."
"No. No. I came this far. I won't let you go alone. I can help." She said, reinforcing her promise.
"Then, there's no time to lose." Anna said. "Please, be careful. And God be with you."
The nun did the sign of the cross over both Winterborn siblings as the slowly walked passed her and through the gate up the winding dirt path along the cliff that looked like a crooked spine crawling up a green monster's back. The wind was forceful; Hope's long black hair blew across her face blinding her.
She yelped as her foot twisted on a rock causing her to begin to fall, Matthew grabbed gold of her and lifted her up before she hit the ground.
"Are you alright? There's still time for you to go back." He said, looking back towards the gate seeing Anna was still there, just a black blur of a woman but still there.
Hope nodded, signaling she was fine and wrapped her long hair around her hand and held it close keeping it out of her face.
The continued up the long path that seemed to turn slowly making a wide you shape. The air almost thinning as they climbed, but it was an illusion brought on by their anxiety. The heaviness in their souls made the walk worse, as they silently wondered what they'd find in the dark evil castle.
After a half an hour of walking they came to the door Anna spoke of. It was large, wood craved of creatures flying in a sky. Hope touched the door and closed her eyes. She could see through the walls and it was just as Anna had told them. The staircase that led up to the main chamber. The darkened walls and hallways. It was all there; no lie was told.
Matthew then lit a match he had in his satchel that he brought just in case they needed to see in dark places. He put it up against the door to see the caved creatures were bats with human faces. Grotesque. Strange. Otherworldly.
A chill went down his spine and Hope blew out his match.
"Never mind it. We know what we're gong to find." She said, her voice suddenly stoic and ready.
Matthew nodded and grabbed on to the doorknob. "Ill go first, just hold my other hand."
Matthew pulled on the door, and the siblings entered the guts of Cyfrinach Castle.
****
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| Evie & the shocking death of a vampire |
Upstairs, in the locked room Evie was bound to, a single candle burned in the window that faced east over the courtyard. It shined it's light in the frosted glass of the large window as Evie slept in the bed under the domineering painting of Dominque Doshall.
The entire time Evie had been at Cyfrinach, she had never slept in the bed -- only on it. She refused to make herself comfortable. She refused to make this prison her home and feel the warmth of the bed while she slept. She wanted to hate this place every second she was there awake or asleep. No amount of softness and luxury would feel as good as freedom would.
As she lie there on her side, back away from the door, they soft clicking sound of the rooms key began to twist the interwoven pins and chambers unlatching the lock.
The door pushed open slowly, and Sinead entered with the light of the exterior corridor casting her in silhouette.
Sinead slipped the key into her dress pocket and clasped her hands almost like an inverted prayer stance. She carefully walked around the bed, her eyes gazing up and the darkened painting of Dominique and finally came to face Evie sleeping.
The young vampire woman bend over so that her face could see Evie better in the shadowy room. She narrowed her eyes realizing how beautiful she was, how kind she looked. Sinead had foolishly hoped to find some grotesque version woman in the bed, someone she could easily find a reason to dislike and even hate. But there was nothing.
Evie's seeming innocence clouded Sinead's motive for being in the room but she knew that allowing Evie's power to remain in Sebastian's conscious for a moment longer would do more harm than good to the plight of the entire Court of Saints at Cyfrinach.
Evie had to be delt with to free Sebastian to finally be who he was meant to be. The father of the mixing that would save them all and with good convincing and practiced conversion Sinead's lover. This would rise Sinead to the much higher position within the court, closer to Alexandre, closer to Dominique. Should she be the lover, the wife even, of the father of the prayed for Mixing -- her world would change.
Evie being there, alive, hampered all of that.
Sinead's eyes blackened. Her heart stopped and her face sunk in. Her fangs extended passed her perfect lips and a soft hiss came from her mouth like a black cat protecting it's prey.
She closed in on Evie, ready to bite take her blood and leave her to die in the bed she'd never slept in.
When she was only inches away, Evie woke up and screamed. She jumped up and pushed Sinead aside and ran over to the other wide of the room where it was darker. She grabbed a candle stick and held it out.
"Who the hell are you?" Evie growled, using words and voice she'd almost never did.
Sinead's vampire form made her look older, but still there was a twinge of youth in her that Evie noticed. Then the vampire's face softened and she returned to her more natural youthful self, but her eyes remained black as the night sky.
"You don't have to fight me, Evangeline." Sinead said as she walked closer. "My bite is worse than my bark." She giggled knowing she'd reversed the saying.
"Get out." Evie replied, standing strong across the room as Sinead approached.
"Do you know what you've gotten yourself into?" Sinead asked cryptically.
"What do you mean?"
"Being in love with one of us. Having a child with one of us. You've gotten yourself into a very dramatic situation, and I truly don't know how you've survived this long." Sinead replied.
"Sebastian." Evie whispered to herself. "How do you know him? Where is he?"
"He's with friends, new friends. We're going to make him so, so famous. The fruit of his body will take us to new heights of power and things here and in so many other places like this will never be the same -- thanks to Sebastian." Sinead explained. "And Gabriel." She added to Evie's clear horror.
"If you've laid a finger on my child, I swear to God I will rearrange that face with every blow of this candle stick. Where is Gabriel, you tell me right now where he is." Evie demanded.
"Tsk, tsk! Such troubling, violent tendencies for a woman of this age. You should practice breathing techniques. I've learned some from a man in India before I came here. I loved him. I also killed him but I loved him." Sinead said, now circling Evie like a shark in water casing it's prey.
"Who are you?" Evie asked again. "I want to know who you are, right now and how you got in here."
Evie continued to follow Sinead as she paced the room with the candle stick still firmly pointed outward at Sinead, not knowing how she'd even use it but resolute that Sinead would not leave unscathed should she attack her.
"With this." Sinead said holding out the key. "He let me come see you."
"Sebastian gave you the key? Why? What you want of me." Evie asked.
Then, Sinead finally stopped. Center in the room facing Evie head on.
She said nothing her eyes black, her fangs returned and her face sunk again into the withered face of a vampire. In seconds She lunged at Evie with her mouth open reaching for Evie's head to turn it and bite down on the white flesh somewhere near where Sebastian had bitten but had taken none of her blood. This bite, one from Sinead was meant to be lethal.
Evie screamed and dropped the candlestick and reached for Sinead's shoulders and held the creature back. The swatted at each other. A fist from Sinead swung and hit Evie in the neck, Evie swung back and missed Sinead who was much more agile while Evie had only been awake for seconds.
They pulled at each other's hair, the tore at each other's clothes rounding the bed, falling to the floor, scratching and screaming, with attempt after attempt to bite down on the trapped Evie always failing.
Evie finally slapped the vampire landing square Sinead's right cheek infuriating her. She swung back and hit Evie. Evie swung again, this time with her left handing hitting Sinead's right cheek. Evie's ring, a single cluster of diamonds that Sebastian had given her years ago as a surprise gift scratched the vampire drawing blood -- black blood. Sinead screamed and got up from the ground, Evie too.
The imagine of this black liquid, oil like and shining that seeped out of Sinead's beautiful face frightened Evie and she backed away towards the window with the single burning candle. Evie reached for the handle and pulled it out in front of her illuminating Sinead's scratched face.
She could see her clearly now. She was a wonderfully beautiful woman in her normal form, but frightening with fangs that peeked out from under her top lips, so pink and pouty. If not for her murderous nature Evie felt like Sinead could have been an old schoolmate of hers back in London, a girl with similar milk-chocolate like skin and eyes wide like a doe.
"This will never do." Sinead said. She put her hand over her cut and suddenly the cut began to heal from the inside out. The black blood vanished, and she looked as if nothing had happened.
"GET OUT!" Evie shouted, the candle burning bright in her hand.
"Not until I get what I came for." Sinead said.
"WHAT? What do you want?" A frantic disheveled Evie asked.
Sinead's eyes, black and empty looked like space without stars, her mouth wet with the thirst of a hungry wolf sparkled with the glimmer of the light of the candle.
"I want...." Sinead began before she paused and stepped closer. "Your life."
In a split second after she spoke Sinead lunged at Evie, Evie screamed and instinctively jumped to the side falling to the floor. The rush of Evie's fall extinguished the candle leaving them both in darkness.
Sinead tripped on the hem of her dress, fell into the small table that held the candle, lost her footing and crashed through the glass of the widow falling out of it 200 feet down towards the courtyard.
Evie got up from the floor and rushed over to the window and looked down seeing Sinead's tiny lifeless body twisted and tangled in a blur. She gasped and pulled away horrified of what had just happened. Then she realized the noise would have gotten attention from her captors. She quickly hid.
Out in the courtyard, the horrified residents along with Sebastian and Evan rushed to where the person had fallen, believing it had been Evie falling to her to her death from her window.
They group waded through brush and trees and came upon an iron fence with large iron rods topped with sharp spear-like guards. The person had been impaled on an iron rod straight through the heart, almost exactly where the siren in the fountain had water flowing from. A woman in the group screamed when she saw the iron rod of the gate had gone through, not Evie as they suspected, but one of their own: Sinead Sheernan.
"She... she killed her." Evan said, holding back angry tears as his sister's dead body bleed before him. "Evie killed my sister!!!!"
"My god." Sebastian said almost at the exact same time in a whisper.
"SINEAD! SINEAD!!!" A woman said at Sinead's side. "SINEAD WAKE UP!"
There was black blood everywhere.
Evan, in a huff and paced back and forth unable to reconcile in his battered mind how it could have happened. How Sinead could have allowed it to and how Evie even had the strength. He turned from Sinead's twisted and impaled corpse, recoiling at his dead twin. "I'll rip her throat out."
Evan then departed the courtyard and headed for Evie's room, Sebastian's quickly caught on.
"NO!" He shouted at Evan, following him quickly.
The two vampires, Sebastian and Evan with one more man rushed to Evie's room and when they finally got there the door was wide open and Evie was gone.
Sebastian looked down and saw the fallen candle. It had spilled white wax on the rug. It was still warm. The bed was made. The food was not eaten. It was as if a ghost had pushed Sinead out.
"I will find her, and I will kill her with my own bare hands." Evan said.
"Stop, you must stop this!" Sebastian shouted holding Evan back. "Sinead must have done something. Evie would never do this; she would never kill anyone. Look around, there are things thrown about, there was a struggle. This must of been a fight. Yes, that has to be it, Evie and Sinead fought for some reason and she fell. I say this to you with all sincerity, Evan, Evie is not capable of murder."
"Accident? ACCIDENT? Sinead fell to her death, my twin sister is at the bottom of this tower with an iron rod through her body! ACCIDENT YOU SAY!?" Evan shouted, grabbing Sebastian by the lapel of his back jacket.
"We have to find Roman before this gets to the Doshalls." The other male vampire said. "He'll know what to do."
Sebastian and Evan knew protocol; nothing got to the Doshalls unless it went through Roman. But Evan was incessant that they find Evie and kill her. He wanted nothing more than her body as destroyed as his twin sister's was.
"No, No. I want her dead. Look what she's done!" Evan growled, his eyes black as night staring into Sebastian's face even though he had not said a word.
But the court at Cyfrinach had rules, those who betrayed them found themselves in a pile of ash. Evan knew this.
"Listen to me," The other male vampire said grabbing Evab's arms and attempting to pull them off of Sebastian, "Evangeline is missing, we cannot stand here and let the late hours go until the sun comes. We must tell Roman; he must find her and then the Doshalls will decide what to do. You know this is how thing are done. COME!" the male vampire ordered.
Finally, and reluctantly, Evan removed his hands from Sebastian's coat and the three went off to warm Roman of what had just happened while Evie, cleverly hid under the bed.
She got up, slowly made her way to the open door and looked back at her prison.
Sebastian and Evan had to find Roman to stop her, but not if she found Roman first.
To survive the rest of the night, she could not fail in finding her cousin before anyone else.
