Genevieve: A Witchblood Story (Witchblood Series) (6 page)

‘
Eva, stop
!’ Sebastian shouted, and with his words Eva dropped the woman’s body and she fell to the floor.

Sebastian darted to the salon door, locking them in and turned back to Eva who was kneeling by the woman pulling at the dress, snapping the woman’s arms in her hurry to free them from the dress.

‘Eva, what are you doing?’ Sebastian said quietly.

‘This was my mother’s dress,’ she said
, finally pulling it free from the woman’s broken body.

‘We must go Eva,
now
!’ he said as someone pounded on the other side of the door.

Opening the sash window he beckoned to Eva
, who leapt through and landed two floors down with a soft thud.

They were
already in the lane opposite his house when the alarm rang out and the police began their search.

‘We
shall have to lie low for a while now, Eva. What were you thinking?’ Sebastian demanded, his face furious.

Confusion clouded Eva’s face.

‘I’m not sure… I can’t remember… but this dress... it means something. All I knew was that woman shouldn’t have been wearing it.’

Sebastian sighed.

‘It’s my fault. I thought your past was behind you. Eva, that dress belonged to your mother. The peasants ripped it from her body and fought over it,’ he said.

‘Yes I remember now.
That’s what I saw. I saw my mother, but I can’t remember what happened,’ she added.

‘You don’t want to. Just forget it now. Give me the dress and I
’ll pack it in my trunk. We must be ready to leave quickly if the gendarmes come looking.’

Eva handed the dress over and lay back on the bed. Rage continued to course through her body
, but she had no real idea why. It was unsettling and eventually she left the bed and wandered over to the window, to watch the night. There were lamps being lit far across town, but so far the news had not reached the outskirts and their lane remained undisturbed.

After an hour of packing and pacing the room irritably, Sebastian came to stand by the window and watch the lamp lights flickering in the centre of the village.

‘Eva, I need to feed and I also wish to find out what is occurring in the town. Look at me and listen. You will stay here and not leave this house until I return, do you understand? You will be safe here. Do not open the door to anyone.’

Eva nodded and smiled
. She had no reason to leave now anyway. Her hunger was satisfied… for the time being and she felt a strange peacefulness, as if she’d succeeded in some unknown ambition. She watched as Sebastian left the house and rushed across the lane, once again disappearing into the shadows of the night.

Lying back and waiting for Sebastian was becoming increasingly tedious and Eva’s eyes roamed the room, looking for an occupation. Sebastian had packed most of his belongings into an old trunk
, but the wardrobe had not been fully emptied and this was what gave Eva her idea. She knew she would need more clothes, and there was no way she was going back to the uncomfortable dresses of old when she had felt the soft breeches against her skin, and been able to jump and run with no restriction to her movement.  She picked up a pair of Sebastian’s black velvet breeches and eyed them speculatively. They were slim fitting as was the fashion, and holding them against her she realised they would only need a small amount of alteration around the waistband and down both thigh seams. Sewing was one skill she
had
been taught and she grinned as she formulated her plan. She began to scour the rooms for sewing needles and thread, but of course found nothing useful, and that was when the banging on the door below surprised her.

‘Gendarmerie, open the door,’ a voice boomed from outside.

Eva darted to the window and looked out onto the street below. There were four policemen and unfortunately one of them was already watching the windows. Eva looked out and wondered what to do. She was forbidden from leaving the house and she very much doubted that she would even make it to the door, and if she did… what then? Having spotted her in the window the voice shouted up again.

‘It is the police
. Open this door or we will be forced to break it open,’ the voice came again.

Adrenaline began to spike in her chest, and standing by the window she could already hear their heartbeats thumping steadily away, blissfully unaware of quite how much they would be risking by entering the house. The banging continued and Eva frowned, the noise irritating her and triggering the recently quietened rage to grow once more. Why
was everyone intent on chasing her? Why couldn’t they just leave her alone? Leave her family alone… her family… something had happened to her family, something unthinkable, something connecting them to the men outside in the blue coats. Eva shook her head, dispelling the memories, but the banging continued. She looked out of the window once more, her beautiful face, a perfect picture of nobility, shining in the moonlight. She caught the soldier’s eye and smiled slowly.

‘There’s a girl hiding in there…’

‘Never seen her before…’

‘She doesn’t belong to this town…’

The words drifted up to Eva just before she heard the wooden door split and break open. She walked over to the dresser and readied herself, enjoying the delicious chocolatey notes of human blood as they poured through the house and were hungrily breathed in.

‘Why didn’t you open the door?’ the first man
demanded as he entered the room and stared at her.

‘And why are you dressed like a boy?’ the other
asked, as the last two banged about on the ground floor.

Eva stared at them, her previous meal
instantly forgotten and she found she was once again parched. She licked her lips and got ready to pounce.

‘Speak
, girl!’

‘Do you think she might be simple?’ the other man laughed. ‘We could have some fun with her
, before we hand her in,’ he added, a cruel smile sliding across his face.

That was when Eva leapt. She leapt straight across the room in one graceful movement, her arms extended, her fangs protracted. She landed on the second man, knocking him back against the wall where she sank her teeth into him
, ripping the skin across his throat and sighing with pleasure as his blood pumped into her mouth.

‘What the hell…’ the other man shouted and rushed at her, swinging his musket towards her. She pulled her head back from her victim and swiftly knocked the musket out of her way, ripping the unfortunate man’s arm off at the same time. His scream died, gurgling in his mouth as he fell backwards, his head slamming against the wall
. He slumped to the ground, blood pouring from his shoulder and sending Eva into a feeding frenzy, where she dropped her initial victim and began lapping the blood from the floor.

Without a thought for their lives the two remaining soldiers burst into the room and skidded to
a halt upon seeing the horrific scene before them.

‘Out… out… run!’ the third soldier commanded as they both turned tail and fled, but neither made it past the door frame. Eva leapt from her position
on the floor and with her hunger somewhat satisfied, Sebastian’s words ringing in her ears. She shot past them, made it down the stairs to the kitchen and back up again before either of them had made it to the top step. There she drove the carving knife deep into the first soldier’s stomach, retracting it and using it to kill the second just as swiftly.

‘
Eva
… what in the lord’s name has happened?’ Sebastian exclaimed, as he surveyed the carnage.

‘You
weren’t here. I didn’t go out and they broke the door open…’ Eva began.

‘I can see that,’ he said. ‘Hurry
! I’ve secured the door as much as I can, but we won’t have long,’ he said clearing the staircase in one leap and following her into the salon where he stood speechless.

‘Sorry!’ Eva said quietly as she watched him.

‘I don’t know how we are going to explain this to The Council if they find out. Eva, human’s aren’t capable of ripping people’s arms off…’

‘I know but…’

‘It’s fine. I wasn’t here, it’s to be expected. It will be me that gets into trouble. Eva, we’re going to have to leave immediately. It was only a matter of time anyway, but they’ll hunt us down for this. We might escape the knowledge of the Supernatural Council finding out about your killings, but the humans here in the town… they know something isn’t right. Since the night your mother was killed this village has had more violent murders than the centre of Paris, and now you’ve killed four gendarmes, all of whom were armed.’

‘Well
, you were the one that killed the first four peasants in the cottage,’ Eva said with a quick shrug. ‘I just finished the job.’

‘You can’t just kill people that get in your way Eva,
or the council will find out and we will both be tried. I don’t want that.’

‘But I don’t see why we have to stay hidden. We are so much stronger than them, and I’m guessing the angels and witches are all pretty fie
rcesome too. It’s the humans that should be hiding, not us!’

‘Eva
, it’s hard to explain to a newborn, which is why you are bonded to me, but if we didn’t have rules and vampires were allowed to kill as they wished, feed as they liked, the human race would swiftly become extinct and then where would we be?’ he asked.

‘What about angels
? Couldn’t we feed from them? Or witches?’ Eva said with a grin.

‘I’d like to see you try,’ he said with a laugh. ‘No
, that’s definitely not an option. You wait until you come across one. The point is Eva, we need to leave. Those soldiers will be expected to report in soon and it won’t be long before they come to find them.’

‘Shhh,’ Eva said as s
he leapt to the window and flung it open. She could hear them, just as he said. There was a chanting, shouting noise coming from the square and focusing her eyes through the darkness she could make out the flickering shadows from lanterns and torches. They were coming, he was right, and it wasn’t just the gendarmerie, it sounded like the entire town. Her instinct told her to stay, to fight them, to kill them all, but she knew that for now he was her master. She had to listen to him when her body was ruled only by passion.

‘Let’s go to England
then. I’m bored with France,’ she said, a grin sweeping across her face as she watched his dark brooding eyes.

‘England?’ Sebastian said. ‘I’m not taking you to London
. You’d cause just as much trouble there… but you may have stumbled on an idea. We need to lie low for a while. You need to learn our ways and calm down a little. We could head into the North Country. There are a few vampires I know there.’

‘They’re coming. I can hear them,’ Eva said, nerves pricking her for the first time, firing her adrenaline.

‘It’s okay, it will be fine Eva. I told you I’d look after you always and I will. Shhh,’ he said leaning in, his hand cupping her neck and drawing her closer, his lips pressing against her own.

‘
I’ll take this,’ Eva said picking up a huge leather bag as Sebastian went for the trunk.

‘Right
, let’s go,’ he said, leading her gently out of the blood soaked house and into the inky night.