A Study of Poisons

TWENTY ONE

       The car pulled up to the side of the manor as the sun began to draw up behind the horizon. My arms were exhausted as I wrapped the grimoire in my jacket. At my hip, my sword slapped the side of my leg over and over again. I could fell asleep right here if it weren't for knowing my fiancé was behind those doors.

"Greerson." He looked down at me as I hugged my jacket closer to my chest.

I was glad to be back at the manor, the fear of the darkness clutching onto the back of my neck was still there. "How were they?" I asked as if I was their babysitter, like they were my kids. I was hoping Santrill would say they kept to themselves. Unfortunately, I knew Nelo better than anyone. He would always be the one I was worried about the most.

"I don't know how you can be around them so long, they're so cold." Santrill shuddered, I guess Holstein and Natalia got to the better of him. If there was a part of him that was better in the first place.

I laughed, "It's just because they don't like you." I remembered giving them the ability to antagonize him. I was hoping that they gave him enough of a hard time to make him want to leave. I just didn't want him running back to Master Nicholson and raising suspicion.

Then the subject matter changed, "You shouldn't get so close to them, I know one of them turned Lost." I looked at at him with my brow rose. He was talking about Sabien as if it was his fault that he went Lost.

Slowly, anger began to draw from the darkest parts of my mind. Sabien was innocent. I was the one who didn't watch the jar, the one who didn't consider what could happen. I should have known. They lost a friend and it was all my fault. "Yeah, and he's dead. We don't have to bring him up." I snapped to my fiancé, he didn't seem excited that I was attempting to silence him.

"The others might follow in his lead." He commented.

The thought of the others going Lost, of Alex getting turned into a monster. "It was an accident." I motioned to Santrill whose distance seemed to being devouring any emotion that I held today. I was not in the mood to be angered by a man with a simple mind.

He stepped forward to me and I refused to step back. "Still, they feed off of humans. You're vulnerable all by yourself, I wish you would let me stay." He tried to sound considerate but all I could hear was the controlling annoyance.

"So what? Then you could protect me?" I asked him, balling a free hand into a fist.

My mother be damned if I ever marry this man, I would bring up hellfire on the world with a smile on my face. "Yes. How it should be, I am your fiancé." Heat breathed into my lungs as I watched him move. He truthfully believed that I should listen to him because we were supposed to get married. Aligned by my parents.

"Don't get me started on that." The tension was unavoidable, I could feel the Vampires staring down at me through the manor windows. Sunlight drifting them right the sky as storm clouds covered them.

Santrill needs to learn to keep his mouth shut, he put his hand on my shoulder. "It's already been settled by our parents. I don't know why you always fight me on this." This was the first time I've met him this way, talked to him like this. I was not the obedient wife he wanted. I never would be. I am a Greerson, stronger than any man and Vampire. "You'd rather waste your time away with bloodsuckers than starting a family." Starting a family... that's it. This man was losing his hand.

Putting my hand up to him, I stopped him from talking. The anger had mustered into something indescribable, "Let's get one thing straight Santrill, I don't care what my mother says or who you are. I am not your fiancé. Until those Vampires prove to me otherwise, they're trustworthy. It's ignorant people like you who first assume that they're monsters. They cannot help their bloodlust, they're controlling themselves everyday. If it's anyone who needs a break it's them." I thought about Alex and who blood shared with me, about the others who struggle to keep it under control. I watched them keep themselves contained, I watched them nearly lose themselves. Poison seeped from each one of my veins, "And it isn't how it should be. A Keeper woman should have a choice, I don't care what those old diplomats think. I am not a doll or a prize. Do you understand me?" I clenched my teeth together as I pushed his hand off my shoulder.