Page 29 of Cursed Lifeline (Eternal Love)
Twenty Eight
Esme
song: born of this | the score
“I’ll need your dagger.”
“You’ve got one already,” Felix growls, turning away from me as I reach out to disarm him. “And a spike. No need giving you more ammunition you aren’t trained to use yet. Especially since, if things turn out not in our favor, everything you bring into battle can be used against you.”
I frown at him and step out the back door onto the platform at the back of the caboose. The moon is high, and the air is still. I get the sense that someone is waiting, watching. Looking over my shoulder, a shiver trails down my spine.
“If you’re still stubborn enough to go through with this, remember there are three rules,” Felix demands as he steps out into the night with me. “Know thyself, know the enemy, and never let your opponent pick the battleground.”
Glancing back over his shoulder, Caelum trembles in the corner of the caboose. Evangeline sees to Alfred, making him sip some juice to raise his blood sugar in hopes he won’t faint on us again. Rolling my eyes, I turn towards Felix and ensure I am shielded from the view of the others as I raise my skirt. Quickly strapping the stake to my right thigh, my lonely dagger to the left, I glance up and watch Felix’s eyes heat. He wets his lips as his ravenous focus remains diligently trained on my exposed skin.
Breathing in deep, he closes his eyes and whispers, “Commit. Focus on what you have to do. Exhale sharply with every punch. It’ll bring your fists more power. Never cover your eyes; never let your opponent out of your sight. Lean into them and...”
“Like this?” I tease.
Placing my hand on his chest as I finish tying the weapons to my bare skin. My lips hover a breath above his and his eyes flash open.
“Felix,” I purr his name, and I swear the Prince of the Damned trembles under my touch, “Trust me, I’m focused,” I whisper against his lips, never taking my eyes off his.
His hungry gaze fuels me. Gives me confidence.
Leaning in further, I say, “I know you’re worried,” my hand lowers, and I grasp the hilt of the dagger he’s suddenly forgotten about slung carelessly at his side. “But there is no way I’m going to be able to remember everything you’re telling me. Especially when I’m trying to think about getting Caelum set up for a kill shot.”
I start to back away, but his right hand lifts, and he harshly grabs the back of my neck, keeping me in place.
“When you died,” he sighs, “I made us both a promise to always keep you safe in your next life.” His left hand firmly grips my hip. I grasp the weapon at his side and smile when I realize he has no clue what I’m up to. “I don’t feel like I’m fulfilling that promise when you have no training whatsoever, and I am letting you walk right into the hands of the enemy.”
“You mean, kind of like the enemy who has his hands all over me right now?”
His forehead falls against mine. “Trust me when I say, what awaits you tonight does not have the honorable intentions I do.”
“Liar,” I sass. His jaw ticks, but he remains silent. “Your intentions are not at all honorable.”
“My first priority is finding a way to break this curse so I can marry you,” my heart soars, his grip tightens, and my hand closes around the dagger. “All other intentions will be deemed honorable after that.”
Before I can stop myself, I ask, “And what if I die before you can make good on that promise?” Heartbreak swims in his eyes. Nervously, I say, “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have said that. I promise I’ll do everything in my power to remain safe.”
“And how do you plan on doing that?” his tone is half mischief, half inconsolable torment.
“I’m a woman,” I smile. “Skilled in the art of distraction.”
I grip his dagger and pull it out of its scabbard quickly, but I’m not quick enough. Felix’s hand, which was moments ago gripping the back of my neck, drops and wraps around my wrist while his other snatches the one holding the dagger. Flinging me around, he firmly presses my back against his chest and raises both our hands, sharply pressing the blade into my neck.
“Oh, Esme,” his breath feathers against my ear. “You’ve yet to remember how easy it is for my kind to read your mind.” My breathing quickens, but it isn’t from the weapon dangerously pressed against my jugular vein. No, it’s from the way he lowers it and tenderly presses a kiss against where it was formerly resting. “I knew your intentions the entire time. Your assailant tonight will, too. Promise me you’ll guard your mind, as well as your body.”
“So many promises,” I tease.
My heart speeds up as he lowers our hands and presses his dagger into my palm. Spinning around, he takes the belt tied around his waist and fastens it around mine.
“There’s nothing I wouldn’t promise you,” he says, taking the dagger back from me and placing it into the scabbard.
“I suppose you expect me to do the same?”
He studies me momentarily. “There was a time when you wouldn’t hesitate to do the same,” he says. I go to speak, but he continues, “I understand I broke your trust. Though it wasn’t my hand that ended your last life, it was my family. For that, I will spend the rest of my immortal existence begging for your forgiveness and finding endless ways to repeatedly repay that debt.”
“How?” I smile. He eyes me curiously. “Will you grovel?” He grins, and I add, “Preferably on your knees.”
“I can think of no better way to show you how sorry I am than to worship you on my knees, doll,” he grins, pulling me closer. “Make it through tonight, and I promise I won’t make you wait until we’re wed to start benefiting from the pleasure my mouth intends to give you.”
“If you’re both done flirting, can we please find out who did this before it’s too late,” Caelum groans in the doorway.
I attempt to step back and put some space between us, but Felix’s hands grip my waist and keep me firmly anchored.
“Remember, inhale,” I take a deep breath, and he mimics the same, “Exhale,” I release it slowly. “Focus. Commit.” My hands shake as my fingers lace with his. He feels the tremble, the worry in my touch. Shaking his head, he leans forward, places a kiss against my cheek, and whispers, “You’ve got this, doll.”
“It’s cold,” Caelum shivers next to me on the bench outside the train station.
Glancing down the platform, I watch as some passengers get off and others board. From where we’re sitting, I can only make out their shapes, whether they are men or women. Other details are too hard to memorize since we thought it smart to sit so far away. Now, that decision doesn’t seem as clever as when Caelum and I first made it.
If something goes wrong, we are that much further away from help.As I debate moving closer, a raven catches my eye on a lamp post near the train. I stare at it blankly as its presence jogs a memory from my past, and the bird eerily reminds me of the fowl that used to watch me at my father’s estate.
“Isn’t it cold, Esme?” Caelum asks again. “Damn, it’s so cold. Any colder and I swear I’d freeze to death.”
Rolling my eyes, I glance his way. Alarm shoots through me as I watch the green of his irises darken, his pupils enlarge, and his canines glisten in the moonlight.
“How long did they say it would take for the venom to take over again?” I stammer nervously.
I debate standing and running. Screaming. Begging for help from anyone that would be brave enough to take my place right now. But then I remember, I’m the slayer. I’m the one that everyone else is counting on for help. I can’t let them down before I ever even tried.
Plus, it’s only Caelum. He wouldn’t hurt me, right?
“Two to three days,” he huffs, looking back across the train yard. He shrugs, “Who knows, since I’ve turned fae, maybe it will be shorter.”
“Yeah,” I mumble as a dark shadow catches my eye. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about that. Since I wasn’t around for the big change, how did that come about?”
He laughs, “Don’t ask me, ask Felix. He’s the one that found Evangeline and brought her to the three of us.”
“Three?” I ask.
Out of the corner of my eye, I notice the shadow move closer. Hovering just far enough away that I can’t make it out completely, I urge Caelum, with a nudge of my knee, to take notice of our new company.
“Me, Alfred, Silas,” he mumbles.
Turning, he glances in the direction of the figure. A wicked immoral grin spreads across his face that instantly turns my blood cold.
“Silas?” I ask, but Caelum rises from his spot on the bench next to me and starts to walk off into the train yard.
I watch his back for a moment in disbelief as he stalks toward the figure with malicious intent. Rising, I raise on my tiptoes to try and get a better look at who it might be. When Caelum doesn’t stop, and the figure stays put and doesn’t venture any closer, I yell out, “Caelum, who’s Silas?”
“You’d be smart to run right now,” a male voice says behind me.
I whirl around to see a man emerge through a low-lying mist and the shadows of the train station with a lady at his side. A young woman who looks to be about my age. She looks me up and down like I’m a disappointment. It puts me on edge. Makes me angry. Jealous even. My hand instinctively closes over Felix’s dagger.
“Excuse me?” I ask.
The man releases a heavy sigh. He glances at the woman, who looks up at him as if she’s waiting for instruction.
“Let me.” The girl begs. “Please.”
But the man doesn’t answer and his stare swings back my way.
“It’s been a long time,” he smiles. “And while I wish we’d met again on better circumstances, duty calls.”
Flustered, I take a step back and mumble, “What?”
“Celeste,” he grins. The woman looks up expectantly as he nods towards the train yard.
“Finally,” the girl squeals with excitement as she rushes past me, jumps the platform, and rushes quickly after Caelum.
What the hell?
Taking off after her, I pull Felix’s dagger into one hand and reach up under my skirt, quickly arming myself with the stake. Celeste stealthy does a cartwheel, then a backflip, before she somersaults into the safety of an empty train car. In awe, I follow quietly behind and shield myself from the view of Caelum and the dark figure in the distance. Hiding against the same car she just entered, I peer around the side and watch Caelum approach the shadowed form. His steps are calm and calculated. Finally, the figure drawing him closer comes into the light and grins. His black eyes and long canines tell me all I need to know. Breathing rapidly, I grip Felix’s dagger and raise the stake just before I start to take a step around the car.
“Pst,” quietly sounds behind me. Swinging around, the woman from earlier pokes her head out of the car and gestures for me to join her. When I hesitate, she rolls her eyes. “Two slayers are better than one. With any luck, if we work together, we stand a better chance of helping your friend.”
Confused, alarmed, but slightly less worried, I quietly walk her way and ease myself into the car. She nods to the right, and I follow her as we make our way over straw, freight boxes, and crates. Coming to the back of the car, we look through the slats and witness Caelum standing toe-to-toe with another vampire.
“Who...” I begin to ask.
“Sh,” she hisses as they start to talk.
She takes a stake from a bag slung across her side and presses her head against the wood to listen. Taking the hint, I do the same. When all I make out is mumbling, my mind starts to race, wondering how we’re going to save Caelum before it’s too late.
“Temperance knows better than not to finish her meal,” the vampire hisses loud enough for me to finally hear.
“And I suppose you came to indulge,” Caelum snaps back. The intruder cocks his head and stares at Caelum blankly. Curiously. “Well, before you do. I’d like to at least know the name of the man who’s feasting on my last link to a somewhat normal existence. I’d say life, but my life’s been nothing close to normal in over a hundred years.”
“It’s a mystery you’ve been able to avoid being hunted that long,” the assailant smiles. “After all, with the fae blood in your veins, it makes you all that more appealing to our kind.”
I watch them with bated breath through the cracks as the undead takes a step forward.
Caelum shivers. Oddly, the vampire stays quiet.
Eventually, Caelum’s nerves get the better of him, and he starts to ramble, “Well, it’s not been easy. Either that or I’m not as appealing as your kind may think. Or, perhaps it took the right woman to sweep me off my feet and...”
It's good to know Caelum’s sense of humor is still intact, even when he’s staring death in the eye. I shake my head just as Caelum’s words get lost when another voice enters my mind.
Trap door.
I stand up tall, suddenly alert.
At your feet.
Glancing over my shoulder, Felix’s voice infiltrates my thoughts again.
Commit. Focus. Come back in one piece so I can make up for lost time and start worshiping you, doll.
“Now you’re talking,” I grin.
Celeste eyes me curiously as Felix’s faint laugh rings through the back of my mind. To my horror, the men outside the car stop talking. Celeste and I stare at each other with wide, fearful eyes. After a moment, Caelum mumbles something under his breath, but the vampire cuts him off with a slew of curses and promises a drawn-out death.
Glancing down, I quietly start kicking away straw. My foot catches on a latch, and I look up surprised.
“Jackpot,” Celeste whispers, coming closer.
Crouching, we brush away debris until we reveal the door Felix whispered to me about.
I promised to keep you safe, his voice trails through my thoughts.
“If this is some sort of illusion, I swear…” I mumble, under my breath.
Celeste looks up at me, confused.
Magic works, Esme. Sometimes even when you don’t believe in it.
Smirking, I unlatch the door slowly, careful not to make a sound. Celeste nods for me to go down first. Grabbing hold of the floor, I lower myself and jump down with a slight thud. Glancing to my right, I make out the backs of Caelum’s knees just a few feet away. The vampire has him caged against the train car. Crouching low, I start to make my way to him just as Celeste jumps down through the hatch.
“You haven’t won yet,” Caelum laughs. “There’s still a chance for me to...”
“The venom is irreversible,” the man snarls, closing in. Caelum’s knees buckle. “Even if you learned how to defeat it, you’re too weak now. Too much time has passed. You’d never be able to beat us.”
“I don’t need to defeat you,” Caelum snaps. “Just Temperance.”
As we reach the end of the car, and I find myself staring at the shoes on Caelum’s feet, I hear, “To get to her, you have to come through me.”
Caelum’s shaky legs threaten to drop him to the train yard floor as the man’s shoes come into view.
“You’re right about one thing: I am too weak.”
The man chuckles. Worried, I glance at Celeste who gives me a wink before gently tapping on the back of Caelum’s calves. “But they aren’t.”
My head swings back to Caelum’s feet just in time to see him crumble to the floor. Tucking into himself, he rolls and takes out the vampire. Celeste is quick to pull herself out from under the train. When I finally snap to and do the same, I hear her shout, “Caelum.”
He looks her way with red-rimmed eyes. Trembling, shaking on the ground, quite possibly near taking his last breath, she throws him her stake, and he grabs it as if they’ve done this a thousand times before. Stunned, I watch confused, and realize my mistake too late when a strong hand grips my throat and throws my head back against the train car behind me.
“Esmerelda Martin,” the vampire seethes, “Someone’s been waiting over a century to meet you. Maybe I let your friend live and take you to her instead.”
“Edward,” Celeste growls, catching the vampire’s attention before he can sink his teeth into my skin.
Catching her eyes over his shoulder, she grins, “finally, we meet again,” before running a stake straight through the vampire’s heart. His grip loosens around my throat.
Her stare holds a wicked humor as my eyes widen and I realize Felix was right. I’m not ready for this. What’s more, I fear I may never be.
“Tell me,” she grins as she twists the stake deeper and he starts to fall to his knees. “How will Temperance feel when she learns her lover was killed at the hands of a wannabe slayer.”
He growls as a loud shriek is heard coming closer in the distance.
“Celeste,” Caelum warns. Before I can register what is happening, the vampire who just had a death hold on my throat bursts into a pile of dust at my feet, and another one emerges through the darkness.
Screaming and shouting, the woman runs for us as if she has nothing to lose and everything to gain. Canines bared, hands raised, I take a step back as Celeste takes one forward and growls, “Temperance.”
Quickly, Celeste barrels off towards her and ducks low in front of Caelum, who is still sprawled out on the gravel floor. Shaking, near death, or rebirth, depending on how you look at it, he’s still clutching the spike from earlier. Celeste sweeps out her foot, tripping Temperance, and shouts, “Now Caelum.”
With the last bit of strength he has left, Caelum lunges as hard and as high as he can off the floor just as Temperance falls toward him. Spike held high, he runs it through her heart with ease. Temperance’s shrieking stops immediately. She stumbles back. Her eyes glass over in pain before filling with tears. She glances at Edward, who is now no more than a pile of dirt, and starts to cry. Blood pools at the corners of her mouth as she says, “In death, again, I will meet my lover.”
Her words wound me. They grab hold of my heart and threaten never to let go, reminding me of a penance Felix and I may be replaying. Sucking in a shaky breath, I watch as she falls to her knees and takes her last damned breath before dissolving into a puff of powder like her lover a few moments earlier. Our train’s whistle blares in the distance, and I jump.
“Phew,” Caelum whistles, rising from the floor and pulling Celeste into a big hug. “That was a close one. I’d like to say I had faith in our girl Esme here, but if you hadn’t shown up, I’m not sure how that would have gone.”
She swats his shoulder playfully, and I blink a few times, stunned at the color quickly returning to Caelum’s cheeks. He stands tall, confident, not shaking and trembling as he pulls Celeste into his side and the two of them start to make their way towards me.
“She’ll get the hang of it,” the new girl grins. “If I know Felix, he’ll have it no other way.”
For some reason, the mention of Felix’s name falling from her lips causes a surge of jealousy to wash over me.
“If not, Alfred will beat the basics into her. Speaking of,” Caelum looks over his shoulders as they come to a stop in front of me. “Where is Silas? You two were the passengers we were picking up, right?”
“How’d you guess,” she grins.
When I haven’t said a word, they stare at me as if I’ve grown two heads. I eye Caelum momentarily, wondering if he’ll elaborate on how he knows her and who Silas is. But when I hear Celeste question, “Do you think she’ll be alright?” My gaze whips angrily to meet hers.
“Just worry about yourself,” I snap as I turn and return to our train. Felix has more questions to answer now than he knows. “Besides, why would the slayer tell a wannabe anything?”
Caelum whistles, “Watch it, Es. Your weakness is showing.”
I shoot him an evil glare as I make my way back across the train yard. Soon, their footsteps crunch against the gravel as they follow me.
“This just got a lot more interesting,” Caelum laughs.
Celeste and I look at each other and frown.
As we approach the caboose, I catch Felix’s eye, and he smiles. A raven’s kraa sounds overhead, and Felix and I instantly look up. A deathly premonition slithers across my skin for the first time since Felix walked back into my life as the raven takes flight and quickly vanishes from view. When our gazes lower, Felix’s eyes land over my shoulder on Celeste, and he frowns.
His angry expression snaps to the right and I follow it. The man who was with Celeste earlier strides toward the train. Felix crosses his arms over his chest and watches him approach. In the darkness, it’s hard to read his expression, but as I look back the stranger’s way, I see his grin widen mischievously, obviously loving the twist he and his wannabe threw into the game.
As we board the train for the last leg of our trip to Long Island, I have to agree with Caelum.
Oh yes, this did just get more interesting.
The question is, will the added players help or ruin us in the end?