Valentine Morgestern

Valentine Morgenstern- Part 8

The next month was a blur of terrifying nightmares and an anxious wait in the full moon. I was beginning to fear Valentine deeply. He often starred in my nightmares, morphing from shape to shape often taking the form of demons who snatched a baby with green eyes and red hair out of the cradle and stealing him from me. Other nights I would dream of Valentine forcing strange mixtures down my throat which became blacker and blacker with every dream. Often I awoke to an empty space in the bed beside me. My breathing was so fast and my heart racing, fit to burst. One night my nightmare changed, strangely on the night of the full moon, when I dreamt that Lucian had become the fiercest werewolf about and had long pointing claws which he used to tear my baby out of my belly which he pronounced "a spawn of satan which deserved to be killed before it destroyed all Shadowhunters." That nightmare left me gasping for breath and my baby kicked hard as if protesting against the images my mind was conjuring.

Valentine also grew stranger in the weeks approaching the full moon. Often I would wander the manor and search for him for hours but he was nowhere to be found. Unexpectedly he would appear from the room I had been in last and I'd be stunned. I assumed it was my worry brought on by pregnancy but I couldn't help feeling he was up to something. He also turned The Circle far more extremist and far crueler. His cruelty surprised me as he talked of the wholesale slaughter of Downworlders. He had not yet announced his plans of how to accomplish his aim to purge the world of Downworlders but I had a suspicion he was waiting on the signing of the Accords. His dark eyes glinted as he studied the lunar calendar and counted the days to the full moon. What his eyes glinted for scared me. Was he planning something?

The morning after the full moon I sighed as I got up, instantly my mind raced to Lucian. Hurriedly I searched for him, only to find no one. I paced back and forth in the hall, awaiting his return. If he returned, a horrible voice whispered in the back of my mind. I shook that disgusting thought from my mind as I paced.

A few hours later the door opened and I rushed to find a disheveled Lucian. His dark eyes were wide and terrified. His hand shook as I rushed to reassure him, tell him it would be okay, that I didn't care if he was a lycanthrope because to me he'd always be Lucian Greymark, the boy who had been my best friend, my confidant and my training partner all my life. Nothing between us had changed nor ever would change.

"Jocelyn the baby!" Valentine warned as he stepped between me and Lucian. I was stunned into silence, I wanted to scream this is Lucian! He would never hurt me or my baby!

"I'm one of them," Lucian confessed. His lip curled with disgust, disgust he didn't even try to conceal.

I watched with widening eyes as Valentine grabbed a cloak for himself and one for Lucian and announced they were going for a walk to discuss Lucian's options.

"My skin can no longer bare marks. I am no longer part of the proud race of Raziel," Lucian said, his voice lacking all emotion.

"But you're still you," I interrupted in a whisper.

A look from the pair silenced me and I felt tears trickling down my face. They didn't care what I thought. I knew Valentine would try to convince Lucian to escape Alicante so others would remain unaware of his misfortunate condition or he'd convince Lucian it was better to leave the world than to be a dirty Downworlder. I shuddered and stood in the open doorway and watched as the made off into the woods without so much as a backward glance at me.

A few hours later Valentine returned bearing bad news. His face was drained of all colour leaving it a sickly white and his hair startlingly blonde and his eyes a deep deep midnight black. I chewed nervously on my lip as he walked up to the house completely and utterly alone. I vacated my seat beside the living room window and flung the door open.

"Where is he?" I demanded. I was panicked. He would hardly leave Lucian alone! I wanted to see my friend. What did it matter if he were no longer a Shadowhunter but a lycanthrope instead? He'd still be Lucian with his dark eyes, kind and easy smile and his laughter. He wouldn't change.

"Lucian decided it was better to end his life than to be one of those filthy lycanthrope. He ended himself with a silver dagger as befitting a lycanthrope," Valentine told me.

The bluntness of his words astounded me. Why was he not in panic? In pain. Why did he not feel as I did? I struggled to comprehend his words and stopped hearing him as I could barely believe it. I collapsed backwards into a chair and sat in silence, not thinking, not hearing and not seeing anything.