Hellfire | Hayley Marshall

Chapter 49

Eisa was having the worst twenty-four hours of her life.

She'd lashed out. She'd gone to one of the guest rooms, and torn through the entire thing, breaking every piece of furniture, shattering mirrors, using the broken glass like throwing knives to rain more destruction on the room. She had fully intended to fix everything, but before she was completely done, Elijah had come in, and her plans had been ruined.

With an angry scoff, she'd brushed past him, trying to find a minute alone, only to find herself being followed around by her siblings, who were all eager to know if she was alright.

"I'm not fine!" she spat. "Stop asking! You know that I'm not alright, so why would you ask if I am?!"

"Eisa," said Freya quietly. "I was only—"

"Only asking one of the stupidest questions a person can ask someone after an ordeal like this. Go away, Freya, before I make you leave."

Freya, who of course was completely mortal, had scampered away immediately. She was replaced by Rebekah, who couldn't even get close when Eisa had hurled a vase at her head.

"Why the bloody hell won't any of you leave me alone?!" Eisa screeched. "I remain in this house because I need to feel you all around me, but it does not mean I wish for you to cling to me like you did when you were children! Clinging to me is what got Aya killed!"

"Eisa, I—"

"GET OUT!" Eisa screamed, throwing another vase just as Rebekah managed to close the door. "STOP BOTHERING ME!"

They'd remained outside her door, listening to her cry. They kept wishing to be in there with her, to see what they could do, but what Eisa really needed was for them to stop hovering, and they simply wouldn't listen.

"Stop leaving blood bags at the door!" Eisa cried out when she heard another one be plopped down. "Can't you take a bloody hint? I'm not thirsty! Unless that blood is Aurora de Martel's or Davina Claire's, I will not drink it!"

She was murderous. She wanted to kill Aurora. To kill Davina. To kill every last Strix member who helped Tristan. She needed to kill them all.

The sun had shone through her window hours later, and she'd gotten up, sick of hearing everyone whispering about how she was doing. She'd brushed right past them, picked up Aya's body, and sped away before anyone could stop her.

She'd had her cremated, and had taken the urn full of ashes to the docks after slaughtering a guard who tried to stop her from going into a restricted area.

"I wish for you to take me to the beach just for a day of sun," Aya had told her, "even if I despise the sand and the water. I wish to zipline, and feel like a bird in the air. Of all the powers we vampires have, I wish we could truly fly."

"This isn't the beach," whispered Eisa, taking the cover off of the urn as a particularly strong breeze swept overhead. "But the sun is out, birds are zooming overhead, and I can see the water below me, which surely has sand at its bottom. Today, my darling, you will fly."

She swept the urn upside down, allowing the ashes to spill out. They were scooped up by the wind, carried out into the distance, until Eisa could no longer see them. She'd closed the urn, and with a quiet sob, she'd forced herself to go to her loft.

She'd just ended up making another mess there, finding herself feeling furious when she found several of Aya's things left behind. What was she to do with them? Keep them? Give them away?

"Why the bloody hell did you have to go?" she said angrily, grabbing every last article of clothing and tossing it into a bag. "Why, when you never even told me what to do if something happened to you? You left behind everything! Everything and I know not what to do with any of it!"