Opulent (The Opalescent Collection Book 1) (25 page)

“You still haven’t apologized.” I pointed to the large stitches on my neck.

“Neither have you.” He pointed to the blue-black bruise on the left side of his face.

“Do you see what you have done?”

“Yeah, but why did you have to do that to me?”

“I had to do
that
because you did this to
me
.
You
apologize.” I said still pointing to the stitches.

“Let me see what I can do.”

              He walked up to me, placed his fingers against the stitches and I felt them come apart, until there was a single piece of thread in his hands. He pressed his lips where the stitches had been.

“I am sorry,” he whispered.

              I felt the wound begin to reopen itself, no longer bound by the thread and I slipped away, shaking my head. I walked backwards out the bedroom door and down the stairs, through the sitting room, dining room, and kitchen where a dark corridor led to a wood door.

              Pete was still following me, just as I hoped and I opened the door, went down the brick stairs into the chilled darkness of the dungeon. Prisoners were once kept in the dungeon, in the past, but now there were none. I opened one of the heavy metal bar doors and stepped inside the chamber with a lit torch I found near the entrance. I waited for Pete to come and at last, he appeared and angrily stepped forth. He held me, his poison dripping painfully against the raw flesh on my neck. I slowly wrapped my arm around him, tilted the torch so his cape caught fire and he backed off to swat at it. I made my escape, closing over the heavy metal door as he ran for it and held the bars in his hands.

              He held the metal bars tighter and growled as I began to walk away off to bed where I could finally sleep and rest my aching head. I started to walk up the stairs to the bedroom when I heard a knock at the palace door. Once opening the door, three figures stumbled in. Prusaious, Calvin, and an elder woman all looked at me, exhausted.

“We…we got away from the wolves,” Calvin breathed.

“What happened to you guys?”

“Werewolves, there was a group of werewolves that attacked us, but we got away.”

“Sit down, make yourself comfortable.”

              They took a seat and rubbed their eyes. I looked over to the elder woman. “Who are you?”

“My name is Verna. I was Luna Silver’s mother.” She placed her mask down on the coffee table.

“You are the woman who told me about Lucian on the bridge.”

“Yes, I warned you about that and told you about the book.”

“How did you know?”

“I can see the future just before it happens, that’s how I knew.”

“How is Pete doing?” Prusaious asked.

“He’s well…acting pretty aggressive lately. So aggressive I had to lock him in the dungeon.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah, you know, it’s all about blood and poison. I don’t know why, but he’s usually not as aggressive as he has been lately.”

“Some Eternal Mates have the tendency to get especially aggressive before a lunar eclipse.”

“Why is that?”

“The lunar eclipse has a very strong affect on a vampress and an Eternal Mate will guard her until it’s over. Many have said the mood of their Eternal Mate is so aggressive that it is worse than any phase.”

“What will it do to the vampress?”

“If a vampress sees the lunar eclipse, she could change, maybe come to hate her Eternal Mate completely.”

“I never knew that could happen.”

“That is why you must release him immediately. I don’t know how close the eclipse is, no one knows, but if you don’t let him out, your life could change as you know it.”

              I stayed where I was, hesitant to go back down into the dungeon.

“I will go and let him out if you want,” Calvin offered.

“Ok, just be careful.”

              He stood, made his way to the dungeon, leaving us in the sitting room.

              Verna’s eyes grew wide and she let out a gasp. “The eclipse is coming…now, it’s coming now!”

              I felt something come over me, like a trance, and walked toward the door.

“Chenille!” Prusaious launched, tried to stop me, but I was already outside.

“Pete is coming!”

              I continued to walk and as soon as I was out of the palace, I looked up and saw Minx standing before me, his great head blocking my view. I looked up at him dazed.

“Chenille!” There came the harsh shout from Pete who dragged me back into the palace.

“Did she see the eclipse?”

“I’m not sure. She was outside, but her dragon was blocking the way.”

“Say something Chenille.”

              I stared blankly, still in a trance and at last closed my eyes.

“Help her onto the couch, quickly now.”

“Everyone upstairs, let them be.”

              My name was said repeatedly, even when my eyes had opened. I shook with every bit of energy leaving me and still nothing happened. It was as if I was reincarnating, as if a part of me had died.

“You saw the eclipse…and I couldn’t stop you.”

“She didn’t see the eclipse, stupid vampire.”

              He looked over his shoulder to see a swan made of glass.

“What did you say?”

“She didn’t see the eclipse, fool!”

“How do you know?”

“I was standing right there!”

“Is she going to be all right?”

              The swan swayed her head from side to side as though unsure of what to say. “I don’t know. I am not a healer. Besides, I just came here to drop off a dragon.”

“What should I do?”

“You’re the King of Catastrophe. What are you asking a star for?” She blinked her beady black eyes.

“If you aren’t going to help me, leave.”

“I have to go somewhere anyway.”

“Oh? Where?”

“That isn’t any of your business, but if you
must
know, I am going to Earth.”

“What for?”

“There is a big party on Earth tonight. I can’t be late.”        

“Fine, we don’t need you here.”

“Good.” The swan turned up her golden beak and walked away swaggering.

              He turned back to me, saw that I was gasping. I coughed and continued to gasp as Pete grabbed his knife from his belt and cut the tight cape from my neck. The cape was choking me. He cut it off, allowing air to pass and gather in my lungs again. His hands became bloody from the wound still dripping from the side of my neck. My eyes opened and I sat up in alarm. I saw the knife and the blood on his hands, and pushed myself against the couch to make the space between us larger.

“I…I can’t trust you for two seconds,” I said through gasps.

“Your cape was choking you and the wound on your neck-,” he paused to touch my neck. I backed away, putting a hand to my wound to shield it from him.

“I…I can’t. I can’t trust you.”

              He looked at me and backed away calmly, putting his hands up in innocence. He opened his hand and let the knife drop onto the floor. My head was heavy, half-delusional and he whispered to me.

“How’d you like to go to a party? You could me my little doll tonight. Dress up in something pretty for me.”

“A party? What about Fitzray?” I asked, now light headed.

“The night is still young. We’d make it home before he wakes up.”

              He pulled me to my feet, helped me climb the stairs that seemed like a mountain to me. My servants put an indigo dress on me with a feathered mask to hide me from the mortals. Before I knew it, Pete was holding me close and we were on Earth.

              There were hundreds of people all talking to one another, some wearing masks, others without. I looked around, still dizzy, looked to the roof, a dome made of colored glass. For a moment, the room and its stature of mahogany and marble dazzled me. Several people approached us and began to talk, though I did not engage myself in conversation, too confused to say a thing. I saw her - the glass swan, Phantilla, again. I heard laughter coming from the people behind me, still talking to Pete and felt something dripping from the corner of my mouth. Still, I kept my eyes on the star.

              There was a sound, a traumatic sound, and the sound of gunfire rang. The peoples’ voices faded from my mind and I could only see one person, one not screaming or running toward the entrance like the others. Tetchra. She held a sleek gun in her hands pointed at the star who continued to scream from her beak of gold. There was a crack branching from the center of her chest spreading until she burst into an eruption of glass. Pete was there. I did not even see him run. He just appeared behind Tetchra, holding her to his body with his arm, half-crushing her to death. He threw the gun to me and commanded me to shoot. I looked down at the weapon. I had never used one, nor would I ever have considered killing someone with it, nevertheless.

“Shoot her!” The command came again.

              I held up the weapon and pointed it at her. The star had shattered, collapsed in, and became a black hole in the middle of the building, sucking everything in its path to never escape, not even light.

              I hesitated, fingering the trigger and lowered my arm. I could feel Pete’s icy glare, but he lowered his head. He understood. Once he looked up, the black hole was near and he tossed Tetchra aside into the darkness, where she belonged, where she could never escape. Startled, my finger pressed down, like a reflex, and the bullet shot up to the glass roof. It too shattered and fell as if Phantilla herself was falling over the innocent.

              I let out a gasp, heard the sound of laughter again and the voices returned to me. There was poison over my lips and I wiped it away in front of Pete and the people who had gathered to watch.

“Look at the way she yelped, like it was actually happening to her.”

“Yes, it was amazing. I’ve never seen such a thing.”

“What happened? What did you do to me Pete?”

              He smiled a wicked smile, sly and wonderful. “Mind control. It worked, didn’t it?”

”You tell me,” I growled.

              I could tell he was taken back, but would not show it in front of the spontaneous crowd.

“This is why you wanted to come? So I could be your puppet and you could show off your little trick?”

              He gave me half a smile as though my question was obvious and stupid.

“It’s like I’m chained to you…I am your puppet. Well, you know what? I am cutting my strings. I am breaking free.”

“How do you think you are going to do that? You need me to bring you back to Catastrophe.”

“I don’t
need
you. I’ll walk home.”

“Then go, I will stay here and
enjoy
myself.”

              I turned to him as the masked figures began to talk amongst themselves.

“I honestly regret performing the Ceremony with you.” I needed to say it, just so I could hear the frightened gasps from the others.

              The masked figures were silent and Pete turned away from them to glower in my direction.

“How
dare
you say that to me?” He walked up to me, lowered his voice and the crowd nonchalantly backed away.

“It seems like your group is gone.”

“You have one chance to take back what you said.”

“Or what?”

“Or you will regret to have said that.”

              There was something bubbling up inside me and I wanted to strike him while I could, but something held me back.

“You just keep one thing in mind.” He licked his lips. “I am the strongest in the world…strongest in the world,” his voice faded and my thoughts were gone. Was it a dream again? Was it reality? I could not tell the difference if I wanted. “And I can
control
you.”

              No. It was mind control. I took a step away to let my head clear, but he held me in place.

             
He can make me do anything…anything to his advantage and I wouldn’t know. I wouldn’t even feel it. Being under his control would seem like a dream to me, but he is weak, vulnerable every time he does so.

              He wrapped his cape around me still gasping, and in a flash, the voices were gone, and the people vanished. We were in the palace again. He crumbled, toppled over himself, and sat hunched on the wood floor beside the bed.

“Help me.”

“You got yourself in this mess, you help yourself.”

              He stood up on shaky legs, held onto the bedpost and called after me as I made my way down the stairs. I broke into a jog, out into the dawn. The sun was just breaking the horizon now. I knew where I had to go. I needed to seek help and advice.