Chapter 6
952 Words
The wood of the door groaned under the weight of Sarah’s persistence. Inside the darkened apartment, the air felt like a physical weight. Cassius remained coiled, a shadow against the moonlight, his focus locked on the hallway as if he could see through the layers of paint and timber.
"Chloe! Come on, I know you're not asleep yet. I can practically hear your brain overthinking from out here!"
Chloe looked from the door to the man standing in her living room. Every time he shifted his weight, his movement was so instantaneous it made her eyes ache. He didn't move like a human; he moved like a frame of film had been cut out of reality. She felt a shiver race down her spine, her knees feeling weak, but she didn't move away.
"Stay," Chloe whispered to the shadows, her voice trembling. "Please. Just... do not move."
She moved toward the door, her heart doing a frantic dance against her ribs. She cracked it just enough to block Sarah’s view of the room, leaning against the frame with a forced, shaky yawn.
"Sarah? What are you doing here? It's nearly one in the morning."
Sarah stood there, a bottle of cheap merlot in one hand. She looked Chloe up and down, her eyes narrowing. "You didn't answer my texts. And since when do you sit in the dark? You hate the dark."
"I have a migraine," Chloe lied, her hands hidden behind the door so Sarah wouldn't see them shaking. "The lights were hurting my eyes. I was just about to head to bed."
Sarah hesitated, her extroverted instincts sensing the lie but her friendship winning out. She sighed. "Fine. But I’m keeping this as collateral. Get some sleep, Chlo. You look like you’ve seen the end of the world."
Chloe waited until the sound of Sarah’s footsteps faded and the building’s main door echoed from below. She closed her door and locked it, leaning her forehead against the wood, her breath coming in shallow gasps.
"She is gone," Chloe said, turning back to the room.
In the blink of an eye—so fast she didn't even see him step—Cassius was standing by her bookshelf. Chloe gasped, her back slamming against the door in a reflex of pure terror. Her heart hammered so loudly she was sure he could hear it.
"Thou art frightened," Cassius murmured, his voice a low, melodic rasp. He didn't look at her; his fingers hovered just an inch away from the spines of the books. "Thy blood sings a song of panic."
"I... I'm fine," Chloe breathed, though she was still shivering. She hated how her body betrayed her, yet there was something about his presence that kept her from running. He was a monster, yes, but he was a lonely one. "You said you were from Carcassonne. That coin... the date on it. You’ve been around for seven hundred years?"
Cassius looked at her, and for a moment, the predatory mask slipped.
"Eight," he corrected softly. "Eight hundred and thirty-one years, to be precise."
Chloe’s breath hitched. She did the math in her head, her nursing brain trying to reconcile the impossibility. "Nine hundred years... How? You don't have a pulse. You don't breathe unless you're speaking. It’s not just some medical anomaly, is it?"
"It is a consequence of my own arrogance," Cassius said. He moved toward her—not fast this time, but with a slow, deliberate grace that was almost worse. He stopped a few feet away. "I was a man who thought he could cheat the laws of the Night. I loved a woman... a human, as soft and fragile as thou art. I tried to bring her into my world. I tried to turn her."
His jaw tightened, a flash of ancient grief crossing his features. "It was forbidden. The others... they brought the fire as punishment. I watched her burn, Chloe. I am a widower of the flames, left to rot in the earth for centuries because I tried to make a mortal eternal."
He reached out, his hand hovering near her face. Chloe flinched, her eyes fluttering shut, expecting the cold strike of a predator. But his touch was feather-light, his ice-cold thumb barely brushing the hair away from her temple. She was terrified, yet she found herself leaning into the chill of his palm.
"I am a ghost, Chloe," he whispered. "And the hunger I feel... it is not just for the red veil. It is for the peace that was stolen."
His hand shifted, his thumb brushing over her pulse point at her neck. Chloe felt her blood jump. She knew she should run. But she was the nurse who stayed, the girl who couldn't leave a broken thing behind.
"I can't change the past," she whispered. "But you're starving. I can... I can help with that."
Cassius’s grip tightened slightly, his eyes darkening. "Thou art a fool. I do not eat the bread of men."
"I know," she said, her voice trembling. "I'm a nurse. I have access to things you need. Just... don't move that fast again. My heart can't take it."
A sudden, violent crash from the fire escape outside made them both jump. A heavy metal planter had been knocked over.
Cassius pushed her behind him in a blur that left her head spinning, his fangs sliding down with a sharp, audible click as he faced the window.
"It seems," Cassius hissed, "that I am not the only ghost haunting thy streets tonight.
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