Page 7 of Crimson Devotion (The Sacred Seven #1)

SEVEN

Ophelia

I’m such a creep.

Faith is asleep in my bedroom, in my bed, curled under my sheets. She’s been sleeping for the past couple of days, her body trembling. The process of being turned into a vampire is similar to that of humans breaking a fever. Her body temperature is high, and she’s filled with sweat.

The sweat is the last thing she’ll ever have that’s human. Once the transformation is over, her body temperature will fall drastically, and she’ll no longer feel cold or warmth. She’ll be stuck in the endless cycle of not feeling a damn thing, of not being able to taste human food.

I sit on the bed, close to her body. The mattress dips under my weight, and I bite the inside of my cheek, eyes stuck on her face. She’s been restless, tossing and turning, and from time to time, she’d cry out for her parents.

My hand reaches for the cloth on the bedside table, and I gently dab it all over her forehead. Her hair is sticky, greasy from all the sweat it absorbed. I’m careful not to touch her skin, terrified of the confirmation of her being my mate.

I can’t wake her up, even if I wanted to. Until the transformation’s been completed, she’ll remain asleep. Sometimes, it takes them a day or two, but other times it could last up to four weeks of continuous sleep, fighting inner demons as the darkness starts to consume their soul, and heart.

The scars along her arms have healed, leaving behind perfect skin. Her face has brightened up, too, with a glow that I’ve never seen before in anyone. Her lips have gotten a rosy shade, pinker on the inside of her lips and paler on the outside.

God, I’m barely holding myself back from kissing her.

I shake my head, trying to shove the thoughts to the back of my head. It’s insane — all of this. Not once did I think I’d be the one to have a soulmate, and the fact that it’s someone who came here to kill me is laughable.

The cloth drops from my hand, landing just next to her exposed shoulder. My eyes zero onto the matching mark on the side of her neck — the very same spot my teeth had pierced through. It’s all I can focus on, two perfect little rosy dots that decorate her otherwise perfect skin.

My heart starts beating against my ribcage, and the feeling is foreign.

I’m dead. It shouldn’t be beating. The rest of my abilities are still here.

The wounds heal immediately; blood is the primary source of strength, and I cannot enter daylight without burning.

Yet, my heart is beating. It’s a steady rhythm that blasts through my eardrums, and I don’t know what to do.

I’m still immortal, that much I’m certain of. But it’s not normal for a vampire to have a beating, functioning heart. God knows how much that would be worth on the black market, and if anyone were to find out that one of the Sacred Seven has a human heart inside of them, I’d be a constant target.

With a deep breath, I rise from the bed, my heels clicking as I walk, until I find my way to the empty side.

Hesitantly, I lie down next to Faith, staring into her side profile.

Her hands curl around the blanket, clutching them tightly.

Her eyebrows narrow slightly, a frown on her lips.

It all lasts perhaps a couple of seconds, before her expression returns to normal, and her body relaxes.

Guilt starts filling my body, something inside of me clenching. When I first became a vampire, I’d killed a lot of people accidentally. As a young vampire, from the first generations of vampires, I didn’t have anyone to teach me how to control the thirst, how to control the overwhelming emotions.

The seven of us were all alone, and we were dealing with a lot of burdens. Valerio’s way of dealing with it was to shut himself into a room, and he starved himself until his urges won, and he ended up killing an entire village. I’m sure he’s still dealing with the guilt to this day.

Darius, Aurelia, Juliana, Cassius and I were monsters.

We had no concept of stopping, and no amount of blood was enough to quench the thirst that ran deeply through our veins.

More than that, we were angry because of the curse that was forced upon us, and we were taking our anger out on anyone and anything that got in our way, with no worries for the human lives we took, the bodies left in our wake.

Lucifer was a different story.

From the beginning, he was drinking little by little. It took him half a year to control his urges, and not once has he killed a person. He’s turned a lot of them into vampires, but not once has he killed.

Then, because he was tired of us killing people, he’d take us one by one to the cellar of our old house and chain us to the walls, starve us until he could hand feed us small amounts of blood.

It worked out eventually, and not only did we learn how to control our thirst, but we learned how to manage our heightened emotions, our strength, and how to control ourselves in front of blood without killing.

Well, except Juliana.

That girl doesn’t give a shit.

My hand lifts, as if to touch Faith’s face.

The action is immediate, almost as if my body’s reacting to her proximity without my input.

I force the hand back down, clenching my fist. My long nails dig into my flesh, piercing through it with ease.

Blood fills my hand before I relax it, the wound closing almost immediately.

When my eyes snap to the side, Valerio’s right there. The kindness he omits is there, though this time, something else is very evident. I can’t quite place it, but his body language is tense. His shoulders are rigid, his jaw clenched shut.

His eyes dart between the sleeping Faith and myself, a couple of times, before they settle on me. He offers a small smile, though it’s not sincere. Something’s wrong with him, and I can’t put my finger on what it is.

I sit up, then walk over to him. He follows me down the corridor silently, nothing but our footsteps there to break the silence. Once we’re a safe distance from my bedroom, I turn to face him.

“What is it, Valerio?”

“It’s Aurelia.’’

My body tenses at the mention of our younger sister, and I immediately start panicking internally.

“What about her?”

“She hasn’t been answering any of our calls. Last time I heard from her was a week ago, and Juliana hasn’t seen her. They were supposed to meet in New York, but Aurelia didn’t show up.’’

“She isn’t dead,’’ I state, trying to convince myself. “She cannot be dead.’’

“I don’t think she’s dead, either. We’ve been through thick and thin for over five hundred years, Ophi. We’d feel if she were dead.’’

“Then what do you suppose happened to her?”

“I don’t know. I’ll go and find out. She was last seen in Los Angeles. I’ll start there and follow her scent. We’ll see where it leads me.’’

“Go.’’

“But…’’ he pauses, reluctant.

“What?”

“I don’t want to leave you alone. I could always tell Darius or Cassius to come.’’

I shake my head. “Absolutely not. I don’t need a babysitter, Valerio.’’

“If that girl over there is truly your mate, you know that something chaotic will happen soon. You need someone to support you.’’

“I said no.’’ I lower my voice.

Valerio backs down, stepping back. I may love all my siblings equally, but I’m one of the oldest. They will respect me, and what I say goes. He cannot tell me what to do, and even Valerio isn’t brave enough to challenge, or try to deny me.

“Yes, Ophi,’’ he sighs. “I’ll leave before dawn.’’

“Good luck. Let me know when you find her.’’

“I will, I promise.’’

For a moment, we just stand there, staring at each other. Then, he puts his hand in his pocket — which is rare, given that pants are usually a foreign concept to him — and pulls out something. The golden shimmer catches my attention, and he tosses it to me.

I catch it with ease, then stare at it.

“My bracelet,’’ I hum, putting it back on. “Thank you.’’

“Welcome. And Ophi?”

“Yes?”

“Be patient with Faith. She’s a new vampire. You may not remember what it’s like to be a new one, but it’s her first time, too. Try not to snap too much, alright?”

I scoff, but by the time I’m ready to answer, Valerio vanishes from sight. All that’s left behind is his scent, and the thoughts in my head. Now I have two things to worry about.

Aurelia is one of the reckless ones. She’s not quite as bloodthirsty or as insane as Juliana, but they’re fairly close.

However, her need to see all werewolves dead stems from the hatred that’s connected to a terrible, terrible experience she’d gone through a long time ago.

Grudge she cannot let go of. If one of them managed to capture her, it means their entire pack will die soon.

And I’m unsure whether that’s a good thing or not.

Then there’s Faith.

Valerio was right; I don’t remember what it was like to be a new vampire.

I’ve lived a long time since, and not once did I look back at the days of despair, bloodbaths, and the insanity I’d gone through while transitioning.

All I do vividly remember was the pain my entire body was going through.

It’s not easy for all organs to shut down at once, to be turned to stone, for all blood to thicken up into the mass that it becomes.

A shiver runs down my body at the mere thought, and with a deep breath, I walk back into the room.

My heart sinks to my feet — figuratively, of course — when I see the bed’s empty. I’ve been too busy thinking about Aurelia and her antics that I haven’t heard Faith waking up or getting out of bed.

My eyes immediately dart around the room, looking for her. The door of the balcony is wide open, and I don’t hesitate to run over there. It takes me less than a second, and when I look down below, I see her.

In a white gown I’d changed her into, her hair messy and still sticky from all the sweat. She’s not moving, and I don’t know why, but the fact that I can no longer hear her heartbeat because she doesn’t have one slowly kills me on the inside.

Faith tilts her head up, and we make eye contact.

Wind gets knocked out my lungs at the blank expression. Unlike the other new vampires whose eyes are pitch black, hers are bright gold. My entire body freezes at the sight, and I don’t know what to do — how to act.

Why the fuck are her eyes gold?

Slowly, as if I’m looking at her in slow motion, she cocks her head to the side, blinking a couple of times. Then, before I can see her coming, she’s standing right in front of me. She’s panting, her body slightly trembling.

Her eyes, though.

Fuck. Me.

They’re filled with a thousand questions, the pure hatred for what she’s become swirling in that deep, intense gaze. She’s not a stupid girl — she knows. She knows that she’s a vampire now, but somehow, she’s not lashing out. She’s calm, almost too calm for my liking.

She inches closer, sniffing me.

Strength wise, I’d have no trouble overpowering her. Not only would she not know how to control her strength, but I’ve been alive much longer. The longer a vampire is alive, the stronger they get, and it’s not something she can catch up to.

“Why?” she asks. Her voice breaks, the tone laced with ache, disappointment, and worst of all, resignation. “Why did you do this to me, Ophelia?”

That’s a question I don’t have an answer to.

And it fucking sucks.