Antithesis: The Vampire Alliance Book Three - FIRST DRAFT COMPLETED

Antithesis Chapter 24: Eve Blakethorn-Sullivan August 2013

Eve Blakethorn-Sullivan, August 2013

When the rage finally dissipates I become aware of the taste of blood on my tongue, human blood with the plastic taste of collection bags. With the help of the blood, blood that properly nourishes, my vision begins to clear and I frown, confused. There are no bodies around me, not that of Helen or of any of the other Senate Strix. The blood on the concrete floor of my cell has spilled from the shredded blood bags lying next to me and not from hapless victim. Did I imagine Helen’s presence?

If it wasn’t for the layer of dried gore coating my body I’d doubt I’d killed any of the people I think I have. As it is a crusty coating of copper red covers my hands, my arms, my still naked breasts. It’s smeared on my stomach and splattered on my legs. From the tightness of my skin I suspect it has dried all over my face too. It’s not my blood, I can smell that, but it’s definitely the blood of Strix.

It takes a moment to adjust as I regain control of my emotions and begin to notice peculiarities about my surroundings. This cell is not the one I had been in; the door is on the wrong side of the room. Why had Charleston moved me? To sort out the chaos I created? That’s when I notice the bed and the privacy screen in front of the toilet. I’m not in a Senate cell, the Senate don’t allow for such luxuries. Whose prison am I in?

“Evie,” Rob’s voice echoes through the intercom, “are you ok?”

“Rob?” Pulling myself to my feet I squint past the electrified mesh which protects the thick glass screen from me. He’s there, with Tul and Robbie and I scowl as confusion takes hold. I’m home but how did I get here? Did they rescue me? I wish I felt excited, ecstatic, pleased to hear his voice. Truthfully though, the situation fills me with nervous dread. Why am I locked up?

“What happened?” I ask, mystified by the blank space in my memory and afraid of what I must have done to merit them imprisoning me.

“Are you ok?” Tul answers, repeating Rob’s question. I can feel his anxiety as clearly as I can hear it in his tone. Nothing about this scenario comforts or reassures me. Why were my husbands out there rather than in here? Is that blood on Rob’s clothing?

“I’m in a cell, confused and coated in blood so I’d say not,” even I can hear a hint of resentment in the inflection of my voice. “Why am I in a cell, confused and coated in blood?” I ask, while focussing on their emotions as if their feelings would unravel the mystery for me. “Why are you out there?” The enquiry no sooner leaves my mouth and I realise the truth. “You’re afraid of me.”

“Afraid for you,” Rob corrects reluctantly, “you weren’t yourself when you turned up outside.”

“Are you going to explain?” At my demand Rob and Tul glance nervously at each other before relenting, resigned, to my request.

Robbie shuts off the defences only long enough for my husbands to join me in my cell, still unwilling to let me out of my confinement. Noting with some unease that the blood coating Rob is his own I feel a lead weight in my chest. “What happened?” My request is gentle, fretful, and I’m uncertain that I want to know.

“From what we gather the inevitable and uncontrollable new born rage finally took hold of you. We felt you snap,” answers Tul and although his tone is even I can feel his nervousness and he remains several feet from me “And boy, when a Strix looses it they really, really lose it. Shortly after we started get reports from our spies that there’d been an attack on what remains of the Science Facility. At first we thought it may have been humans or vampires rebelling against the Senate but then reports started coming in that the attack started within the facility. Even with your anger we expected it to be the zombies. However, Johan decided to trust Gary and have him hack back into the Science Facility CCTV feed and he confirmed your escape.

We didn’t even know they’d moved you back there but I guess they needed specialist equipment to wake the dead. We tried to find out where they’d taken your body previously but Charleston kept it off the records. Then when they woke you up we were too... incapacitated... to follow the connection. We  would’ve come for you if we could,” he promises me urgently. “Tonight you just turned up. Jumped the fence, electrocuted yourself on the door a few times and then Johan ordered us to put you here until you calmed down.”

While I’m sure he isn’t lying I can’t help but feel Tul is omitting something. Perching on the bed I pull my knees up in front of me, feeling very small and insecure as I prompt them. “So now are you going to tell me the rest, like why you’re coated in your own blood?” I ask Rob, “Or why you’re keeping your distance?” I direct at Tul.

“Can you remember anything?” Rob asks softly, taking a few brave steps towards me.

“Agonising pain,” my answer is brutally honest, “constant, unending pain. Then I heard Helen’s voice and I got angry, really angry, but there’s not much more than that.”

They glance at each other again, still uneasy but Rob continues anyway, “From the CCTV footage you lost control when Helen arrived. You killed her,” he tells me, “truly killed her. No amount of reassembly is going to bring her back. Then you attacked the others in the cell. I’ve never seen you move like that, I mean you were a blur even to us. The guard outside opened the cell door, I guess he thought a few Senate Strix might survive if offered the chance to run. You killed them anyway, all of them, you were too fast. You took out a lot of guards in the facility and walked right out of the front door.”

The hint of amazement in his tone and emotions doesn’t comfort me as I consider the absolute mindless slaughter I must have carried out. “And Hardy?”

Tul scowls slightly at my question, “He’d already left. From the speed at which you turned up we guess you came here straight away as well, so he’s probably uninjured. For the present.” The last three words are little more than a sinister growl and I think Charleston may regret his own birth if Tul ever gets his hand on him.

Watching them expectantly it dawns on me just how anxious they are to avoid telling me anything else. “And?” I demand, still concerned by Rob’s gore stained state. “What happened after that? Rob, for Christ’s sake tell me I didn’t hurt you!” His guilt is enough to confirm my suspicious, “What did I do?” Despite my persistence they still hesitate and I add, “Tell me or I will look into the past and find out myself.”
Sighing Rob finally joins me, perching on the bed and taking hold of my hands. “Well,” he murmurs slowly, “you did beat me to a bloody pulp.”

“And?” I demand again, his continued resistance relating to me that there’s more to this tale even if he says otherwise.

“You tried to pull my head off. You didn’t seem to recognise us, it wasn’t your fault,” he adds quickly, still clinging to my hands, “You were completely oblivious of what you were doing. When we came out, armed to the teeth, you just panicked. It wasn’t your fault.”

That doesn’t help, not at all, and self-loathing wells inside me. “How close did I come to decapitating you?” My tone is quiet and I pull away from him, shifting into the corner, terrified of the answer.

“You severed my spinal cord,” he answers honestly, resigned to giving me the facts, “but my head was still attached so I healed quickly enough.”

I had severed his spinal cord. If he’d been a normal vampire I may have killed him. For a moment I stare at him in shamed anguish before I manage to stutter, “And how did you prevent me doing more than that?”

“Six bullets,” Tul confesses softly and I groan, lowering my head into my hands. Tul had been forced to shoot me in the head six times to save Rob, but worse, I know that still isn’t the full story. “And after that?”

“We got you into the base, Robbie and I were trying to get you down here when you woke up. You were still,” he pauses, debating the most diplomatic word, “confused,” he attempts lamely, “and it took another round of bullets to get you in here. We left the blood in the hope that it would help you recover. You looked drained, bloodless and, well, corpse-like earlier. What you took from the Senate Strix didn’t really feed you and considering what you’d been through... you needed the blood of a human or ordinary vampire.”

“Did I hurt anyone else?” I want to know, desperate to be told I hadn’t but doubting that will be the case.

“One human, he got in the way and you flung him against the wall. With your strength it caused a lot of broken bones and internal bleeding. Alex changed him to save him.”

Upon hearing Tulloch’s admission I curl my body into a ball, unable to resist my need to cry. Guilt courses through me, poignant and unforgiving. I’ll never forgive myself. I’d almost beheaded Rob and nearly killed a bystander. I’m dangerous.

“Evie,” urges Rob, “you have to understand that it wasn’t your fault. We’ve felt everything. They’ve been waking you up, torturing you and killing you every few hours for over a week now. You were starving. We could feed at least, in between... but you... We understand.”

“And the man I nearly killed?” The question hangs in the air and they ponder it worriedly. “I doubt he understands,” I comment with no hint of humour. “So much for human-vampire liaison.”

Tul sighs, moving to my side and squashing onto the single mattress beside Rob and I. “You never wanted that gig anyway. But... the humans are a little afraid at the moment. There are more of them now than there were before; Johan’s had a lot of new recruits and you were a little volatile when you arrived. Grace and her lot seem more willing to try and understand, and the donors and Harkers too, but the newer mortal Alliance members, the ones who’ve had our world forced on them...” His words fail, stuttering into loaded silence.

“So what’s Johan going to do with me?” I wonder out loud, knowing there’ll be repercussions even if I can’t remember any of the events they’ve described to me.

Rob tenses, “He’s not going to do anything with you.” Predictably there’s a ‘but’ at the end of that sentence. “He wants to be sure you’re in control though, so he wants you to stay in a cell for awhile, for your own protection as well.”

A shudder ripples through my body as my pulse speeds up to a frantic beat. Glancing around my prison, a prison which is so similar to the Senate cells, I feel panic begin to blot out my ability for rational thought. “Please don’t leave me alone in here.”
I can feel their hearts aching at my whispered plea and Tul pulls me against his side, obviously having decided that I’m not presently a raving lunatic. “No love, there’ll always be one of us here with you.”

Rob’s hand clenches in frustration as he shakes his head, “This is ridiculous. We’ve all spent too much time in Senate cells to end up trapped in one of our own. Again,” he amends a little bitterly. “If the humans have a problem then let’s go somewhere with less humans for a while.”

“Do you have somewhere in mind?” enquires Tul, “While I’m not personally averse to being elsewhere for a while, Johan’s going to feel we’re abandoning ship if we go away. Especially with the situation as precarious as it is.”

Standing and donning a determined expression Rob assures us, “Leave that to me. I’ll go and clear my idea with him. I’ll have Vanessa Rosa send down some clothes and toiletries and you can clean up,” he adds as he leans down to kiss me, his lips lingering against mine as if he can’t quite believe I’m here.

How many times must we go through this? How much loss and uncertainty do we have to face. “I love you Rob.”

He smiles at my whispered words, answering earnestly, “I love you to Eve.”

As he disappears I curl up against Tul, my heart telling him the same message I’d verbally told Rob. He holds me tight, softly stroking my short hair until Van appears with a wash kit. My old boss smiles warmly, despite everything, as she hands over perfumed soap and various other luxuries. “I’m pleased you’re home,” she promises me, hugging me tight despite my crusty, blood coated front.

After I wash and dress there’s little to do but wait. Clinging to Tul and trying to ignore my imprisonment I concentrate on Rob’s fluctuating emotions. His determination fades briefly into desperation, hope glimmers momentarily only to be followed by disappointment and finally a mildly resentful acceptance. “He hasn’t gotten what he wanted,” I state miserably, “I’ll have to stay here.”

“Not necessarily,” with his tone comforting, Tul presses a quick kiss to my head. “Rob and I are only barely Alliance at the moment, after what happened we had our own agenda. Johan’s has to know that if he doesn’t bend he could push us away and he doesn’t want that. We aren’t going to leave you in here and if he forces us we’ll take you away and we’ll vanish. Rob regrets not leaving with you years ago, before you were married. I admit I regret not running with you too. If it comes to it we’ll take you from here and Johan will have no choice but to accept our decision.”

Mollified by his assurances I fall silent, not content but touched that they would make such a decision to leave with me.  I had threatened to do the same for Rob while he was 1352 but somehow it still surprises me that they would do so in my name. Especially after what I’ve just done. I’d tried to kill Rob. It’s unimaginable.
It’s some time before Rob returns and when he does he’s carrying a number of holdalls. Upon opening the cell door he doesn’t bother entering but signals my release.

“We’re going?” Surprise has me quirking my brow at him. After what I’d done I hadn’t expected Johan to release me so easily.

“We are,” Rob confirms with a ghost of a smile, “for a little while at least. Johan has conditions, that we stay at an Alliance base and that we keep a close eye on you for a while, but he agreed.”

“So where are we going?” Tul asks suspiciously, guessing at a location although the scepticism he feels is disconcerting.

“Home,” Rob admits begrudgingly, “Norham House. It wasn’t my first choice but Pat was more willing to put us up than many of the others.”

“I’m sure Pat would love to put you up.” The words spill out of my mouth before I manage to put a filter in place and my cheeks heat in an intense blush. “Sorry.” My jealousy is entirely inappropriate and I know I should be grateful that anyone is willing to open their house to me. Still, I’m a vampire and possessiveness is part of the deal.

Laughing, Tul kisses me before he takes one of the bags from Rob. “I haven’t even been to Norham house since becoming a vampire. It isn’t somewhere I planned on going back to if I’m honest, but under the circumstances it sounds perfect. It’ll be novel not being restricted to the servants quarters,” he jokes, but there’s a nervous reluctance in his expression and something which almost feels like self-conscious uncertainty.

Rob frowns, scrutinising Tul and obviously sensing the same conflict I’ve picked up on. “Come on,” he encourages gently, “this is probably long overdue and it could be nice to escape to Yorkshire for a while. Even if Johan has requested we take all the files we stole from the archives and sort through them while we’re there.”