Blood Vengeance [COMPLETED]

Chapter Forty-Three - Expulsion

For a week Selene was bathed by the gnarled hands of the old witches, feeling their calloused palms soap her smooth, white, witch's skin. The deep pain of the ice bath throbbed in her veins, slowly subsiding the more they washed her.

The witch Queen, whose spectacular beauty not even Selene's perfected visage could threaten, stood nearby, watching always.

On the seventh day, Selene was declared purified.

"You may witness the expulsion of the Vampires," said the witch, holding out a shimmering silver gown for Selene to wear. At the side of the bed on which she lay were a pair of silver slippers, of a material Selene had never seen or felt before; they fitted to her feet like a second skin.

Selene, unsteady on her rested limbs, tottered from the bed and slid her arms into the gown the witch held out. Standing side-by-side, they were almost indistinguishable, and Selene's previously black hair had turned a silver white, and shone like spun silk.

She was the witch's assistant; the heir to everything, and the other old and weaker witches obeyed her every whim or wish.

The witch was like the mother, sister, friend, that Selene had never known.

"You may call me Melandrose," said the witch, clasping Selene's hand. "I see you struggle with our language, and until you have learnt to form our words fluently, I will settle for Melandrose." She smiled and a silver blush highlighted her prominent cheekbones.

Selene followed Melandrose through the shimmering corridors, where the sound of gentle music, more beautiful than anything Selene had ever heard, filled the air as though from hidden speakers in the walls. They made her want to dance, but she sensed that to dance as she had done in her former life was not appropriate here, in the witch's lair.

They entered a large hall, similar to ones Selene had seen before, but entirely gold this time, and in the centre stood Arthur and Hector, restrained by magical bonds that could not be broken.

"You may speak with them," said the witch, showing her perfect teeth in a open-mouthed smile as she pushed Selene towards them.

Uncertain as to the purpose of her approach, Selene moved towards them, aware of how much more graceful each of her movements was now that she had been imbued with this strange power and grace.

She felt no fear as she looked at the Stanley brothers, and she felt no desire. Their form of life was now so far beneath her own that they were to her as ants would have been to her former self, crawling along the bottom of the earth, waiting to be crushed by an unseeing heel.

She stopped before them, her radiance shining over their filthy and tattered clothes, or in Arthur's case his naked skin, for the witches had not clothed him.

Their handsome faces were bowed, but when her light shone on them they looked up. She noticed Hector's jaw clench, his dark eyes seeming to throb with desire.

"You are different," he said, his voice hoarse. "More beautiful."

Selene tilted her head to acknowledge his compliment.

"But I preferred your darker colouring. You look" - he squinted his eyes, assessing her - "too pure this way."

"I was pure before you ruined me," she said, her features still as though the words she spoke affected her not at all.

"There is no value placed on human purity," he said, looking her up and down.

She felt revulsion, seeing them both look at her like she were something to eat, to devour, to violate.