Betrayed: Dark beginnings (7 page)

She brushed her hair straining to get her curls under control, she quickly gave up. Elizabeth walked into the bathroom and jumped into the shower, no time for a bath, she thought.

When she got out she dried her hair, brushed it and put on her pale pink lipstick, she knew that Lorcan loved this colour. Today was going to be a good day, she thought, I get to maintain Cecile’s life, leave this place and not look back.

She thought of the Limnades, all she knew about them is what Lorcan had told her. The Limnades are powerful creatures who take the personality of the water they live in and how they are bound to that place. They are immortal creatures and can only procreate once every one hundred years. She could hear Lorcans voice of wisdom as she recited this in her head. She remembered the last time she got tied up with water nymphs, they were not Limnades as they lived in the ocean, but she hated them, and for good reason, Nineteen Twelve, the year she lost Matthias. She shuddered at the memory.

She used to think of them as weak creatures until she saw what they could do. They can shape shift into any water creature. They have the power to drown you from the inside and they hold similar powers to witches. They can also entrance people to make them do their bidding if they wanted. So yes, she is cautious of them because even though she is immortal, she never wants to end up in there underwater lair.

She has seen a few before on her travels to America. They are extremely rare. She enjoyed the company of one particular Limnade that embodied the water of Lily Lake in Alaska, she was very pure. The Limnades in this lake have a dark side, not completely evil but almost there. They do, however, need to steal human lives to obtain there immortality and powers, their souls, they are more like Elizabeth than she cared to think.

Elizabeth has been human so she guessed she could be classed as evil for taking human lives so she can live hers. But the Limnades, they have never been human. They look at humans as a source that they need, and have no emotional ties.

They are also very loyal to each other and are a species where men are inferior.

The Limnade women have several mates, of all stay loyal to her. They are tied to her, and never have the lust to go near another Limnade.

If only the human race were like this, Elizabeth thought. Love is nothing but a chemical reaction but loyalty sticks, real loyalty anyway. Humans switch and change their minds all the time. Whereas these creatures only know loyalty and looking out for each other and that is the key to their survival.

This she respected the Limnades for. Humans, however, can go with other humans whenever they feel like it; they do not care for loyalty, letting their emotions run them.

Elizabeth knew that she must capture a female Limnade; this only made her task more difficult. They are the most powerful and their partners are willing to die for them without hesitation, protecting them. Capturing a male would be less work, but she would need all the power she could get in order to maintain Cecile’s life.

chapter fourteen

London 1666

The young man Elizabeth had just met stared vacantly into the darkness.

“The warlock that did this to us was the husband of the woman that was tied to the tree. She was being burnt after we found out she was a witch. He was outraged and placed a curse on us.” She stared at him with her mouth open; did she just hear this right? He had put a curse on her? But she hadn’t done anything wrong!

“So what curse?” She said as bravely as she could manage.

“I’m not sure, but I intend to find out. All I do know is that my sight and hearing is sharper. I’m faster and stronger than ever before, but nothing else has changed apart from how thirsty I am. No matter how much water I drink it does not go away.”  He said aggravated.

Elizabeth started to realize how strong she felt. She felt different, she was thirsty yes. Not hungry though, but just like she had not had water in days and she was close to dying from dehydration. She would do anything for water, but as this man had said, water does not help. So what would?

“What should we do?” Elizabeth said innocently, he could see how scared she was. His expression softened and he wore a kind smile, looking at her as though she was a small child in need of help. She tried her best not to cry hysterically and wiped away the few tears from her cheeks.

“I didn’t do anything wrong, if I can find the man from last night I can explain. I can tell him how I had nothing to do with the execution of those women, and get him to reverse the curse, or something.” She spoke rapidly, with hope, hope that this man had clearly lost.

“We will go and find him, but I don’t know where to start. We need to go into town but no one can see us. We have to lay low until we can find that warlock.” He stood up and helped her to her feet; she brushed herself off and looked around.

“Where are we anyway?” Elizabeth looked around trying to see anything familiar.

“We are just outside of town.” Matthias had brought her out here when he awoke; he needed to get her away from the chaos.

Elizabeth nodded, it seemed reasonable. Anyone cursed or associated with magic whatsoever would be executed. People hated it, and she didn’t fancy being tied to a tree or stake and burnt alive. She shuddered at the thought, her emotions were everywhere and she was exhausted. All she wanted was a drink and to sleep.

She followed Matthias down the path; they did not talk, instead just walked alongside each other, both of them lost in thought. The closer they got to town the thicker the air got. They could smell the smoke, it was not strong but it lingered in the air. The sky was grey and thick with clouds, the air cold. They reached the familiar houses that were not far from where Elizabeth lived.

“We need to get some different clothes and disguise ourselves.” He said assertively. She felt as if she did not have a choice, he was not asking her, but telling her what she had to do as if she was some undisciplined child. Still, she obliged and followed him to a nearby clothes shop. She quickly realized that she had no money.

“I don’t have any money.” She said embarrassed. She always had money; she was wealthy and was worried he would look at her as if she was a peasant.

“We will have to steal then.” He smirked.

Elizabeth looked at him horrified. Steal? She could not possibly do that, it was a bad thing to do. She looked at his assertive expression and she
realized she did not want to cross him; after all he was helping her. Plus she felt safe with him. He seemed to have it all worked out, well more than she did. She knew also that if it was not for him, she probably would not be alive right now.

They walked into the clothes shop. It was seemingly empty at first until a small mousy haired woman appeared from behind a door.

“Hello dears, what can I get for you?” She said sweetly. Elizabeth wanted to run; she did not want to be a part of this. She just wanted to go home and forget all of this. Go and cry in her mother’s arms, as the servant girl put the bedpan under her covers like always, and fall into a deep slumber.

She had to bite her lip hard to stop herself from breaking down there and then, she had never been particularly good at dealing with difficult situations well.

“Hello me and my lady friend and are looking for two new outfits, but we have no money to pay for them. I’m going to need you to go get them for us and let us have them for free.” He looked into her eyes and it seemed as if she was in a trance.

What happened to stealing? She thought. What was he was thinking? Nobody let anyone walk away without paying for it. But to Elizabeth’s surprise, she did. The lady was still smiling. She didn’t say a word but held up two dresses in front of her. One was made out of white lace with hand stitched butterflies on. It looked more like a wedding dress, it was so beautiful. The other dress was not so pretty, black with red stitching, she had already fallen in love with the white one. She felt bad for taking it, it must have cost her a lot of money to make, and lace was not cheap.

Elizabeth gestured to the white dress and the woman nodded placing it down on the counter. As for Matthias he had already picked an outfit from the shelves and had already started putting it on in front of them, stripping down naked.

Elizabeth looked away from him quickly; she could see him smirking in the corner of her eye.

“You need to put on the dress Elizabeth, there is also a hooded coat over there in the corner; put it on, it will cover your face.” She looked over to the coat. It was just a simple black robe with a basic hood, nothing special. Elizabeth looked at the woman, mouthing sorry to her. The woman looked confused and didn’t understand why Elizabeth was saying sorry but instead turned to Matthias and asked him if there was anything else he would need.

“No you can leave now.” He gestured to the woman. Elizabeth didn’t understand how he was doing it, but then she felt the same way as that lady. If he told her to do something she abided, he just had that characteristic about him.

“What’s your name, I never asked?” Elizabeth said making conversation.

“Matthias.” He murmured.

What a lovely name, she thought. Clearly a nobleman of a sort, he spoke articulately, but the scars on his face seemed strange. She wondered if they were from the fire. She wanted to ask but found herself staying quiet. She pulled off her current dress, with her back to Matthias. She could feel his eyes on her, as she pulled up her dress and struggled to do the back of it up.

He walked over and took the ribbon, pulling in the corset. He did it so gently. He had clearly done this before, to another woman perhaps? A lover or even maybe a wife, but she didn’t want to ask. He finished quickly and Elizabeth looked at herself in the shop mirror. She looked beautiful; she silently wished that Richard could see her looking like this.

Elizabeth’s thoughts turned to Richard. She had forgotten about him momentarily and needed to find him and her family.  Elizabeth didn’t say anything to Matthias. She decided she was going to wait until they found the warlock then she would sneak away from Matthias; once the warlock had reversed whatever he had done to her. She pulled the hood over her head and followed Matthias out of the shop, thanking the woman on the way out.

They had not even made it half way down the road when Elizabeth saw Richard and her sister walking hand in hand down the road. She looked at them in disbelief. So they find out she supposedly died less than a week ago and they both betray her. The thought made her furious. Matthias looked around and saw Elizabeth snarling at them, they had not seen her yet.

She pulled her hood down and went to run at them. Matthias grabbed her, pulling her into an alleyway and restrained her against the wall. She fought him, but got breathless and stopped. He grabbed her hand and led her down to the bottom of the alleyway. He looked frustrated.

“Are you trying to get us killed? What happened to laying low?” He said angrily.

His face frightened her, but she had felt so hurt and could not help it. Elizabeth threw herself onto him and sobbed on his shoulder. She had nothing else left now.

Elizabeth expected Matthias to throw her off of him and walk away, but he surprised her. He pulled her into his arms tightly and stroked her hair. It felt good, she needed to be comforted.

She felt so horrible and she wanted to run away. She hated them, they should be grieving, not sneaking off with each other, it’s the worst betrayal, he could have gone for any girl, but no, he chose her sister. And worst, her sister agreed.

They were always there for
each other. Elizabeth meant the world to her, as she did to Elizabeth and then she betrays her like this? She is not even upset; Elizabeth thought to herself and sobbed harder. She wanted to kill them both. Elizabeth could feel something boiling inside of her; the hurt went and was replaced by hot anger.

She would get them for this, and kill them. They had taken everything from her, and it hurt so much. She made a promise to herself to kill them for what they had done. Elizabeth looked Matthias in the eyes and blinked back her tears.

“I will kill them.” Elizabeth spat.

“Who? What happened back there?” Matthias looked at her anxiously.

“My sister and Richard, my husband-to-be, they’re not even upset Matthias. They were together, hand in hand.”               She started to raise her voice and clenched her fists.

“Don’t worry Elizabeth; you will have your revenge. But first we need to find the warlock who did this.” He led her off down the street.