The Kiss of Death

Chapter 3

Eleanor's POV:

    After quickly discarding my towel and dressing in his sweats and shirt, I shake off any nerves left over from before and open the door, returning into the bedroom. My eyes scan the room, looking for the vampire that I know continues to reside in it until I finally find him, standing at the window, staring out at the starry night sky. I step further into the room, heading for the couch where I assume he'll want me to sleep for the night. He doesn't know, of course, that my plan is to wait until he's asleep and then slip away into the night. 

    "I don't mean to tease you so much. I just find it incredibly easy to do and its strangely exciting to watch you react so.." He pauses, taking the thick curtain between two fingers, causing it to sway very slightly. He glances back at me, a very innocent smile gracing his face as he says, "Abashed." 

    I stop in front of the couch wringing my hands together nervously as he continues to stare at me. Irritated at myself for continuing to behave just as he's described, I force my hands down to my sides and sit down, refusing to respond to his statement. Instead I pretend to be fascinated with the print on the cushions and pick up a throw pillow, placing it in my lap to have something to do with my hands.

    He snaps his teeth together harshly, in an attempt to get my attention I'm sure, before moving away from the window and coming to sit beside me on the couch. He's so close now our thighs are touching and I begin to shy away just as he removes the pillow from my lap and wraps an arm around my waist, keeping me snug against him.

    "Get off me." I spit out threateningly. "Before I lose my temper and become violent." I elbow him lightly, not trying to make him angry, but still wanting desperately for him to release his hold on me and maintain his distance.

    He shakes his head once and leans into me further, placing his cheek against my shoulder as he lifts a hand to play with my hair, running the fine strands between his thumb and forefinger. "You're hair is different now that its clean. It's also much wavier than before. Is that the natural state of it or did you do something?" He wonders aloud, seemingly to himself, as he continues to play with my hair.

    "Yes, the waves are natural." I answer flippantly, still annoyed at his proximity. "I've never liked my hair. It's so dull and lacks the shine that my sist-" I stop immediately, shocked at myself for having made such an error. Did I really just admit to having a sister? All this time I've been trying to protect her and not even a full night in this mans company, I've already betrayed her simply by opening my own big fat mouth. I peer over at him without moving my head, hoping that he hasn't noticed my blunder. He quirks an eyebrow and tilts his head ever so slightly.

    "Sister?" He questions, making it obvious to me that he is paying way too much attention to what I have to say. What happened to the quiet, disinterested guy in the woods? Bring him back. "You have siblings? A family? Are they living?" He continues his array of questions as he drops my hair and brushes it all back behind me, leaving room for him to brush his fingers along the side of my neck and down to my shoulder. I flinch away from him, turning my head to face the wall to avoid looking at him altogether.

    Why is he so interested in this? Just tap a vein already and leave me alone. I can almost feel the steam shooting out of my ears as I realize how livid I've suddenly become. Why am I here? Why is this happening to me? I want my mom. I want Edith. I want to go home and I want this vampire lord or whatever he is to leave me alone already. Instead of answering more of his questions, I decide to shoot off some of my own, hoping to avoid the subject or warn him to back off. Or maybe I'm just looking for any excuse to go off already.

    "What did you think?" I start fast, standing to my feet, effectively shoving his arms off of me as I do.

I turn to look at him angrily. "You thought that I was just conveniently placed in the woods for you to find me? That I didn't have a purpose for being there? That I couldn't possibly be a person with people who love and depend on me to keep them safe? You've picked me up on a whim, expecting that everything will continue on as it was and that there were no consequences to me? Are you so dense as to believe that you've done me a service when you ripped me away from my life and my loved ones?" I continue on, my voice rising in anger the longer I am speaking until I'm so worked up that I have to force myself to turn away and pace throughout the room so I don't attempt to lay my hands on him. "I hate to be the one to tell you that you'll receive no thanks from me. I am not grateful to you or happy to be involved here. If I had things my own way, I would never have met you and I could be back in those woods minding my own business and going on with my life the way it should be."

    I pause to catch my breath and turn on him again, noticing that he has come to his feet as well and is watching me nervously as the anger rising in me reaches to the highest level I swear its ever been.  I'm shocked that such a simple line of questioning has led me to become ill with violent behavior, but I'm too far gone to care to stop it. This has been a long time coming considering the life I've lead. "I'd be damned if I sat for one more minute on that couch with you playing in my hair and feigning an interest in me to get close enough to drink my blood which we both know is all you're trying to do! So why don't you just get on with it and kill me or set me free because I can't stand to look at you for one more second with all that mock surprise on your face, as if you're too dumb to comprehend what I've said!" I yell at him, stepping just close enough to shove his shoulders back hard, hoping to startle him and if not, to knock him off his high horse.

    "Hold your tongue. You forget yourself so easily in the presence of royalty, it's as though you're asking to be punished. Do you expect that you are immune to the law just because I've taken a special interest in you?" William raises his voice as well, causing me to shrink away from him, realizing that I've obviously gone too far and that I should retreat for my own safety. He is a vampire after all, and he may even decide to kill me considering it is his inclination. "Are you that desperate to be made into a meal? Trust me there will be time enough for that, what other reason do I have to keep you? You are mine to do with as I please whether you can accept it or not." He continues on angrily, stepping towards me until I've been backed into the wall. He cages me in between him and the wall, roughly grabbing my arms and shaking me harshly before looking into my eyes, a fire blazing in his own.

    "If I'm such a monster to have ripped you away from your own happiness, let's prove it shall we? After all its like you said..." He pauses, extending the moment to build up the suspense. "I'm just holding out for a drink." He grins, jerking my head to the side before he violently tears into my neck with his teeth, drawing deep pulls of my blood into his mouth.

    For a minute everything is blurry. My screams, my struggles, they seem far away and almost unimportant. Like this is just a horrible dream and now that I've reached the peak of my own terror, I'll wake up from it very shortly. I stop struggling, stop screaming, stop thinking. I stand still, waiting for the nightmare to end and focusing only on the feeling of Will's arms wrapped tightly around me and his lips pressed against my neck. I expected more pain, more fear. I'm shocked that instead it's almost pleasant, especially when you stop fighting it. A warm tingling sensation begins to build in my neck, radiating outward and spreading throughout the rest of my body. I tremble as the vibrations intensify. 

    I bring my hand up then, reflexively placing my fingers on the back of Will's head as I gasp quietly, feeling my head start to swim and my vision begin to blur with what I assume is the blood loss. That's strange, I hadn't thought that he'd been drinking for very long. Maybe time is passing quicker than I'd imagined it. Everything seems to be happening in slow motion, possibly just a side affect from blood loss or vampire venom. Do vampires have venom? Another burst of that strange tingling sensation shoots up my arm and down my spine, reminding me of the warmth I'd felt earlier when he'd breathed against my neck and distracting me from my train of thought.

    Suddenly, with no warning at all, I can no longer see or hear or feel anything, and for a moment I believe that I'm dead. I don't know where I am or what's happened to me, just that it's dark and I'm alone and everything that I knew before this place drifts away on a whisper of wind. Then I hear a voice, a man's voice, far off in the distance. He seems upset and for some reason I'm bothered by it, so I walk towards him into the nothingness, listening hard as I struggle to hear what he's saying.

    "You're so frustrating." He murmurs angrily, though I can't see him yet, I can hear it in his voice as it echo's in this empty space. 

    "Who are you?" I ask curiously, "Where are you?" I continue walking towards the voice when a golden light shines blindingly throughout the dark room, illuminating us both in its warm rays, and I realize we are standing right in front of each other now. 

    "You!" I shout at him, finally close enough to make out his face. "What are you doing here?" I ask, also just now understanding as I take a look around us that where we are isn't a room at all. I don't know how I know, but I do know, that where we are isn't a place, but a state of mind. We've somehow been pulled together by this strange gold string of light and are now meeting here, at a bridge our minds have formed, able to hear each others thoughts and feel what the other is feeling. My real body must still be out there with his, though I can't recall what we are doing anymore, its too far away.

    "Who did you think it was?" Will shouts back at me, angry and yet, not. The look in his eyes do not match the tone of his voice. He looks, shocked. Almost terrified, and it's like he's trying to cover up how he really feels with a false sense of anger. I can tell through the string of light that my guess is right on point which only makes him more desperate to hide away.

    "Get out of here! I don't want you! You can't be here! Leave!" He turns away from me, heading further into the void, hiding behind great big roadblocks of black mist that he throws behind him as he goes, trying to keep me from following him.

    "Wait!" I call after him, stumbling behind him, desperate to catch up. "Don't leave me alone here!" I move to push through the fog to continue after him when out of no where I can feel that I'm falling. Falling through open space, out of this void and crashing down suddenly on my stomach, my hands on either side of my head and my face smooshed up against the table I landed on, my breath whooshing out of me from the impact. I cough twice, as I push myself up and climb off the table to settle my shaky feet on the ground.

    "What the hell is going on?" I scream in frustration, looking around, trying to make sense of my new surroundings. It's a library, with walls and walls of books, and high vaulted ceilings. I begin to wander between the shelves, running my fingers along the spines of each book, still searching for Will. I peer around the corner of yet another shelf and lo and behold there he is, all the way at the end of the aisle, sitting at a large study desk, brightly lit by several lamps, full of books and pages and notes.

    He's studying? At a time like this? I fall from the ceiling and bust my face all up and this guy is sitting there calmly reading a book? "Hey!" I call to him as I walk slowly down the aisle, getting closer and closer. "What are you doing?" Just as I near the end of he isle, I notice that he is not alone, and not actually quite the Will I remember. He's shorter, just a smidge, and his hair is shorter too, and not as messy. He looks almost like a child still, maybe very early preteens at this stage. "Will?"

    The childlike Will glances up from his studies and flashes a brilliant smile, not at me, but at the man standing just a few feet away at the same table. The man is very obviously much older than Will, though still considered to be in his youth, with charcoal colored eyes and peppered black hair. He looks up from his own book to give Will a stern look and a cool answer to his unspoken question. "No." The man looks back down at his book and continues to read as if Will has already been forgotten. 

    That's strange, can he not see me? I move into the light and step to Will's side, placing a hand on his shoulder. Well, I would have placed a hand on his shoulder, except there was no solidity to this Will, and my hand falls right through him as if he were a ghost. "What?" I stutter, taking a stumbling step back.

    "Come on Simon, I'm bored." Will whines, obviously dissatisfied with his answer. "I don't understand why I have to learn about this anyways. What would a vampire prince need with a soulmate?" He wrinkles his nose and flips the page away disgustedly. "I'll be in charge of all five kingdoms someday.  I won't have time for some girl." He huffs and presses the book firmly closed. 

    "Some girl?" Simon looks up from his book again and stares at Will, raising an eyebrow and giving a slow smile. "A soulmate is more than some girl, kiddo. A soulmate is the other half of a split soul. Most people never even find their own soulmate, but it's still important for a young prince like yourself to know all the fundamental studies of our kind." He pauses and closes his own book before placing it on the table and moving to stand behind Will, opening the book he had in front of him to the page they seemed to be referring to. "You never know, some day, you might be lucky enough to find your own. She would be a formidable force to be reckoned with indeed to be a match with one as powerful as you will be." 

    I move to stand behind Will again, glancing over his shoulder down at the page. There's nothing significant on the page, just lots of tiny printed words. No book I ever read at his age was quite this dull.

    "Yeah but this doesn't even make sense. It talks about gold strings and merging. What does that even mean? Like a bonding ritual? We don't use strings for that, and its not near as complicated as this book makes it out to be." He looks down at the book and then turns sharply to look back up at Simon who seems to be laughing quietly to himself. "What's so funny?" He questions him, sounding disgruntled. 

    "No, not a bonding ceremony. That can be performed for any couple, including but not limited to soulmates. The strings and merging's are of the mind. When two people find their other half, their minds tend to merge together, a golden force pulling them closer and closer until they are truly one. A place where they will hold no secrets. A place where you will be wholly accepted by one another." Simon stops and waves his hands towards the page. "At least that's the way its described in the text, which you would know if you actually bothered to read more about it. Get back to your studies Will, you have a long way to go before you'll be ready to rule anything." He stops and turns back to his seat, resuming the same position as before and returning to his own book.

    Will watches him for a moment, then looks back down at the page hesitantly, seemingly much more invested in the topic than before. Like a little kid pressing his nose up to the window of a candy store, eyeing the prized lollipop waiting inside.

"STOP!" A voice thunders from above, shaking the room so hard that I tumble to my knees, barely catching myself with my hands. Just as suddenly as I was thrown into this room, I'm ripped out of it again by a pair of hands lifting me up from the ground and back into the void with the bright golden light. "I told you to leave! Stop stomping through my head!" Will growls at me, roughly flinging me to the side and turning away again, running his hands through his already disheveled hair. 

    "I'm not doing it!" I scream back at him, confused and still very flustered. "Stop throwing me around! I want to be here about as much as you do!" I stop, thinking back to his memory in the library. "Wait.." I glance back up at him. "Is that what you think this is?" I question as fear crashes into me and I shake my head vehemently. 

    He stiffens and glances back at me over his shoulder, his eyes still tight with anger. I must look pretty miserable because in the same instant his eyes start to soften and he turns to face me, holding his arms out to his sides, palms facing up. "Do you have another explanation for this?"

    "I thought it was just a part of the feeding. Doesn't this happen every time you feed on live prey?" I take several careful steps towards him, silently pleading with him to give some sort confirmation to my theory. He frowns then, standing still with an almost defeated look in his eyes. 

    "This has never happened to me before in my life." He states calmly, holding a hand out to me hesitantly, apparently having decided to ditch the effort to keep me out of his mind in favor of comforting me. I stare at his hand for a long while, fighting the urge to cry. This can't be true. This can't be happening to me. I don't want to be anybody's soulmate or whatever. I don't want this. I have to get back to Ed, I don't have time to be dealing with this too. Not to mention, what kind of a life could I live with Will anyways? In a world where humans are slaves to vampires, I honestly doubt any vampire would be ecstatic at having a lowly human be their queen. So what then? I live as his slave forever. Some kind of mistress on the side? That's assuming he even wanted to be with me at all.

    The tears start to stream freely down my face as I look back up into his eyes and notice the same sorrow glazing over his. "I don't want this." I whimper, my lip quivering as he closes the distance between us and pulls me into his arms, tucking my head under his chin. I don't even care that he can see me crying, or that I look as weak as I'm beginning to feel. I don't care that he's a vampire. In this moment, I just need a little understanding, and maybe some comfort wherever I can find it. I rest my cheek on his chest, lifting my arms up to cling to him, grabbing fistfuls of his shirt in my attempt to pull myself closer.

    "Don't say that." He murmurs, stroking my hair gently in a comforting gesture. So much for that angry façade he was trying to pull, I muse to myself distractedly. I can feel his grief and sadness as if it's my own which not only answers my question but also just makes me cry harder. 

    "It's not fair." I sputter like a child, wishing that any argument I could give would make it all just go away. As soon as he'd locked eyes with me, I knew he was right. Looking into his eyes were like looking into a mirror now. It was so clear, its a wonder we weren't convinced the first time we gazed at each other. We're soulmates. He is apparently my other half. The person I'm supposed to end up with. The man who nature intended to fight whatever battles we are both destined to face side by side with me. And yet as we sit, holding desperately to each other, neither one of us can seem to say what we know we're both thinking. 

    We both know we could never be together in our world. Only here, in the room of bright lights and sheltered memories can we really be one together. And even this couldn't last. No vampire would accept a human as their queen. No sooner than the world found out about us would they come for me, to destroy our only chance at happiness and secure a future without me in it to be of any threat to them.

    Knowing what we know now doesn't make our situation any easier. I'm still a human slave to the vampire prince, desperate to reunite my family and secure safety behind the walls of a protected city. And he's still meant to be a king in a kingdom that would never let me live, despairing at the loss of love and unwilling to part with me even given the circumstances we'd find ourselves in if we stay together now. 

    The universe is cruel, I think to myself as I sniffle, to have granted me a soulmate that I'm destined to betray.