Page 13 of Lovesick

“It’s time,” Bram says coolly, his hands clasped behind his back, blue eyes only on me.

Nellie’s hand tightens in mine, our fingers laced, her at my back, I glance over my shoulder, peer down at her, her big eyes like saucers on mine.

Waiting, watching, listening.

Terror.

Because she knows something is going to happen, and the unknown can be… petrifying. But the anticipation, that can be worse.

“It’s okay, Little Lamb,” I assure her, even though she knows it’s a lie.

I turn to face her, feel my brother’s presence at my back, waiting for us.

“All you have to do is trust me to lead you.” With my finger and thumb, I tilt her chin, “Just like Italy, I didn’t let you get hurt then, I won’t now.” I mean it, even as the words spill so easily from my lips, smooth as silk, the lies.

‘All of those pretty little lies you told me when you were a boy, you’re still fucking telling them.’

It’s true.

Her words from earlier tonight.

I push it all aside, even as nerves rock my core, it takes everything in me to steel my spine, to exhale a slow deep breath.

I wonder why I find it so easy to lie, so hard to tell the truth.

“Physical pain is only temporary,” I tell her, pinching her chin just a little bit tighter, and that, as much as it’s hard to say, is true.

She swallows, her throat bobbing with the harshness of it, and then her hand finds my free one, her thumb stroking along the back of my hand.

“Okay, Billy,” she whispers, nodding so very slowly. “Okay.”

Hand in hand, we follow Bram through the gathering crowd. Everyone in attendance is in a circle now, parting for us without instruction, dipping their heads as we pass as a sign of respect, until the three of us reach the very centre.

Gore and Tolly are already there. Dolly, Gore’s Pair, now at his side, her blue eyes glazed, blonde hair limp, pale cheeks gaunt. They’re centre circle, facing the long rectangular table placed in the middle that could easily seat ten a side, but there are no chairs, no place settings, none of those things are required for Novus. Nothing but the naked woman lying face up atop it.

Bram, Nellie, and I move to stand at their sides, me beside Gore, Nellie on my right, Bram on hers, Tolly on Dolly’s left, her between him and Gore.

Milus isn’t here tonight, not this year, he’s visiting another Cradle, one in Romania, to bring in the new year, so it’s just us.

The next generation.

And for Nellie’s first, it’s probably best this way.

Gore steps up to the table, the crowd of people around us are so still, so silent, waiting for their future leader to speak, to act, to start the night off properly.

“Welcome,” Gore says loudly, head held high, dark green eyes scanning the crowd, making eye contact with as many of his followers as he can.

Gore begins his short speech, the same drivel Father spews every year, nonsense about fortune and peace and success.Blah, blah, blah. As if anyone gives a fuck about that anyway. We all know The Obsidian isn’t about peace and success. It’s all corruption, darkness, and death.

I’m only really interested in what comes next, anyway.

The blood.

The Pairing.

The sex.

The next step in binding Nellie to me for the rest of our lives.