Born into the lap of luxury and a time of turmoil, Duchesse Eleonore Vigneron experiences her coming of age in the Court of Louis XVI . Embroiled in the chaos that surrounds Versailles, Eleni uses her unique blend of wit, charm, and beauty to ensure...
"I know you loved both she and I, the way a mother can love two sons. And no one should be judged for loving more than they ought, only for loving not enough."--Catherynne M. Valente, "Deathless"
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For the two weeks of the curfew, there was a sense of domestic bliss among the strange assortment of people in the Feila household. Scott had curiously abandoned his room in the hotel, though he technically still lived there. He spent all of his time with Ali and Lala, helping them to fix up the house, buying them furniture, giving the semblance of a well-adjusted man helping two young girls become responsible adults. Behind the facade, he was a man who was falling apart. His already tenuous grasp on the world was replaced with a longing, frenzied obsession he didn't know how to satiate.
He watched Eleni from the window, his body consumed with a frenzied kind of lust that combined Eleni and Lala in his mind. He wasn't even sure who or what he lusted for, just that he needed them both. He thought he was losing his mind, as something had happened that merged Eleni and Lala into a single entity. When Lala passed him in the hallway, and reached out to squeeze his hand and kiss his lips quickly, the smell of Eleni's roses overwhelmed him.
It was the small things that triggered Scott's sense of unreality. One day, Lala appeared, her tanned skin and warm brown skin turned to something darker with Eleni's crimson lips and shining blood-red nails. He almost pushed her against the wall then and there, not knowing which of them she was, and not caring.
The next day, he saw Eleni with her hair loose, her jet black waves falling softly against her skin as she danced in the moonlight by the water. Not a stitch covered her body, and she was nothing short of a goddess, Aphrodite reborn in darkness. He knew it was Eleni, because he'd know Eleni's kind of perfection anywhere she was, but she moved liked Lala. Eleni was perpetually poised, the sort of woman who was always in control of life. Watching her dance without inhibition was both alluring and confusing. He fought with himself for hours before he convinced himself not to run to the home next door that beckoned to him daily.
He hadn't been able to keep his promise to Lala, nor to Eleni. Lala wasn't his yet, not in the way he wanted her to be. She didn't push him, didn't blatantly proposition him, but instead made it her mission to keep him in a state of arousal he hadn't been in for many years. It was almost a mania, and there was cruelty in the way she teased him. He felt mocked, as if she were reminding him who was really in control.
A few times, Scott swore Lala changed her appearance, making herself look like Eleni in small ways that were so accurate it took his breath away. He wondered if she broke into the house next door to steal little things Eleni wouldn't miss. Other times, she reminded him of Ali, only a dangerous Ali, one that would not be hurt by him. This version of Ali would destroy him. He didn't have to wonder if she used Alisaundra's things to create the illusion.
She made him feel not only desire, but rage, and they merged together in a dangerous cocktail he hid with booze, and since Lala's arrival, stronger and.more reality-altering drugs. If Eleni was a Siren whose allure was beauty, Lala was a succubus. Everything about her inspired thoughts he was ashamed to acknowledge, even to himself. Every night was a struggle not to enter her room, or her body. He would fight for control if it killed him.
