Fangs of Desire (Book II) (Completed)

Chapter XXV

Kat headed towards the left side of the building and Emma followed after getting up from her seat. The cellar was kept out of reach under regular circumstances. Unlike the basement it was a small room with a single door as the entrance and a cold temperature overall, perfect for preserving blood if needed and in this case, a body. Kat took out a key and unlocked one of the doors towards the end of the hall. There was a narrow staircase heading down into a dark corridor, completely different than the rest of the building. It would have been hard to see if Emma didn't have vampiric night vision.

Kat gave Emma one last look to see if she still wanted to go along with this and then headed down the stairs. The cellar was very dimly lit with the open door as the only light source. While Emma's eyes started adjusting to the darkness she started taking in more and more of the room, and the hundreds of red roses sprawled on the ground. It started out as petals, getting denser and denser as she walked further inside the cellar. Petals turned into a red blanket, the pile of roses looking like a velvet rug forever preserved in time. Emma felt afraid to look up, not sure anymore if this was a good idea. She wouldn't know what to think about Jean's sanity after witnessing what she guessed to be in front of her.

She finally found the courage in her to look up and take in the scene. Jacob's body laid down on a bed of roses, his hands holding a bouquet of flowers on top of his chest. She was afraid to see a gruesome, bloody gash in the middle of his chest but there was no blood and his shirt was clean. She stepped closer. There was a path between the roses with less petals and some stepped over roses going up to the bed in the middle and stopping right at its side. Emma followed the path and realized Jean had probably been visiting this place. How did she never recognize Jacob's smell on her?

She stopped next to the body, staring at Jacob's expressionless face and closed eyes. He looked sort of peaceful as if lost in an eternal slumber. It was hard to understand how Jean still cared for him after everything she went through. She had been enslaved and tortured, Jacob had tried taking everything away from her. Yet when she looked down, she only saw the traces of a kin who was mourning someone they cared about. She never knew what kind of a relationship they had before killing Hysteria, a thousand years was a long time to spend together. Kat spoke from behind her, she hadn't gotten any closer to the bed.

"Jean had talked so surely about killing Jacob and taking his powers, sounded so determined to get you back and get him off his title, but you can't just shake off the loss of someone you held onto for decades. Not when they were the only person that stood by your side in your darkest moments."

Emma just stared at Jacob's body while Kat talked, standing there in thought. Then she turned back to face Kat, stuck on something she mentioned.

"What do you mean by take his powers?"

Kat wanted to make a witty remark but bit her tongue, trying not to be sarcastic in a moment like that.

"Diablerie. It is a strictly forbidden act by the council but Jean was never fully in line with them anyway, and doing that would surely push her into being more like Hysteria. I'm glad she didn't."

"But how? How would you even do that?"

"I don't exactly know, I just know that it lets you consume another kin's life energy and their powers. It comes with heavy repercussions such as loss of sanity and a death warrant on your head by the council."

"Wow..."

Emma sighed and looked down at Jacob's body again. There could be many reasons as to why she chose to leave him like this, especially when it would be so much easier to steal his powers while he's basically dead.

"I guess that would make her a near perfect copy of Hysteria."

"Kind of. It would surely be the indication of a doomed future, especially considering how open she is to being manipulated."