Blood Vengeance [COMPLETED]

Chapter Twenty-Four - Soul Mates

Selene watched the key skitter across the floor, thrown when she had sat up with such urgency.

"Hector?" she called, before dashing to pick up the key and slip it back inside the pouch before Arthur returned.

She shouted his name several times more, throwing open the curtains on the dark night and peering out to where the sea splashed against the rocks below. The moon, a bright crescent, seemed to smile a lopsided grin at her, taunting her, increasing her anger.

"Where are you?" She shouted the words, falling to her knees, crumpling onto the carpet.

"What are you doing?"

Selene's breath choked in her throat, stopping up her airway. She looked over her shoulder to see Arthur standing behind her, his shirt undone almost to his navel. She coughed and tried to stand up, tottering to her feet like a newborn animal.

She looked at him, her eyes wide, recognising his anger.

"I heard you. Shouting for him."

He reached out, a movement so fast Selene barely even saw it; suddenly his hands were gripped about her waist, his face close to hers.

"How can I get rid of him? How can I get him out of here?" he asked, placing a hand over the crown of her head, his fingers splayed. Even like that Selene felt their strength on her skull; just by pressing it he could have scrunched her bone like a piece of paper. "Tell me," he said, shaking her so violently that her head jerked back and forth.

"He's not in my head," she snapped, when he stopped shaking her. "You've made sure he's not." She held him in a steely gaze, her eyes cool and hard. "But he's here. In Epershand."

She felt his hands release her upper arms, and she could once more breathe freely.

"Where?"

"He was here. In this room."

He stepped away from her and raised a hand his his forehead, pulling his eyebrows up. He paced a moment before stopping and looking at her.

"It can't be true, Zero. He's inside your head; he's right in there so deep that I can never get rid of him!" He groaned; a sound that wrapped Selene in his agony, his jealousy, his frustration. "I'm fighting someone who's not even here." He spread his arms as though to catch is distress. "I can't win."

"No, Arthur," she said, feeling the sound of his name roll about her mouth, realising she had rarely used his name to address him. "He's here. In the building." In her desperation to convince him, she moved towards him, trying to touch him, but he moved aside and her hand moved through the air, the lack of resistance unexpected, and she toppled forward.

But he caught her, collecting her body in his strong arms.

"It won't do, Zero. Can't you see you're deluded?" His steps were fast, purposeful, and Selene twisted to see where they were going.

"I'm not," she said, beginning to hit his back with her hands, propped over his shoulder as she was. His hands nearly rested on her buttocks as he held her in place, and she squirmed beneath their heat. "Put me down!" she shouted. "Where are you taking me?"

"It's about time you experienced the chair, Zero. You need some time to come to your senses."

Each of his footsteps thudded through her body as he passed through the dressing room, sitting room, past the bathroom and onto the tiny prison-like room at the end. He kicked open the door with his foot, jerked her from his shoulder, and let her body slide down his chest until her feet reached the floor. He stood, his hands on her waist, holding her upright.