Episode 4: The Girl Who Came In From The Cold
880 Words
CHAPTER FOUR
The Girl Who Came In From The Cold
The fog had lifted by the time Lila reached the heath.
She had waited until the streets were empty, until the last pub had closed and the last cab had rattled away into the night. Now she stood beneath the oak tree, her hands deep in her coat pockets, and watched the moon rise over London.
She did not know if he would come.
She had spent the day—the long, grey hours between dawn and dusk—pacing her flat, replaying the kiss on Wardour Street, touching her lips as if the warmth might still be there. It was foolish. Dangerous. Everything she had taught herself not to want.
But she wanted it still.
---
He came at midnight.
She heard him before she saw him—the soft fall of his boots on the damp grass, the steady rhythm of his breathing, the heartbeat that she had learned to recognize among a thousand others.
Elias stepped out from between the trees, and for a moment, neither of them spoke.
"You came," she said.
"I said I would."
She looked at his face. In the moonlight, the hard lines of his jaw were softer, and his eyes were darker than she remembered. He was watching her with an intensity that made her breath catch.
"Did you sleep?" he asked.
She almost laughed. "I don't sleep."
"Then what do you do? When the sun is up and you're alone in that flat?"
She considered the question. No one had ever asked her that before. "I wait," she said. "For the dark. For the hunger to come. For the next night to begin."
He stepped closer. "That sounds like a long time to wait."
"It is."
He raised his hand, and she let him touch her face. His palm was warm against her cheek, and she leaned into it without meaning to, the way a flower turns toward the sun.
"There was a girl," he said quietly. "Last night. She found me."
Lila's heart quickened. "Eleanor."
"She came to the heath, just after midnight. She was shaking. Hungry. Scared." He paused. "She said you sent her."
"I did."
"She asked me to help her. To teach her how to survive without killing."
Lila held her breath. "What did you tell her?"
He was quiet for a long moment. His thumb traced her cheekbone, slow and gentle.
"I told her to wait. That I needed to think. That I couldn't promise anything."
"And will you help her?"
He met her eyes. "I'm helping you."
---
She did not know what to do with that. With him. With the way he looked at her like she was the only thing in the world worth seeing.
"I'm not asking you to save me," she said.
"I know."
"Then what are you doing here, Elias?"
He stepped closer. His hand was still on her face, and his other hand found her waist, and she was pressed against him, and the warmth was everywhere again, filling her up, making her forget why this was dangerous.
"I don't know," he admitted. His voice was low, rough. "I've spent twelve years hunting your kind. I've told myself that all vampires are the same. That they're monsters. That they don't feel anything."
"And now?"
He looked at her mouth. "Now I'm not sure I know anything."
He kissed her.
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It was different from the first time. Deeper. Slower. His hand slid into her hair, and she made a sound against his lips—something between a gasp and a sigh—and he pulled her closer, and she let him. She let herself be held, be wanted, be seen.
When they finally pulled apart, they were both breathing hard.
"There's something else," he said. His voice was strained. "About Eleanor. She told me something before she left."
Lila waited.
"She said Cassius is planning something. A gathering. On the full moon. At the house in Earl's Court." He paused. "He's going to turn more of them. Maybe a dozen. Maybe more."
The warmth drained out of her.
"When?"
"Three nights from now."
She stepped back, her mind racing. A dozen new vampires. A dozen more souls bound to Cassius, trapped in the same cage she had escaped. She thought of Eleanor's face, the fear in her eyes, the way she had whispered please help me.
"We have to stop him," she said.
Elias nodded slowly. "I know."
She looked at him—this man who had been her enemy, who had become something else entirely—and she made a choice.
"Together," she said.
He took her hand. "Together."
---
From the edge of the trees, two figures watched them.
Cassius Vaughn stood in the shadows, his hands clasped behind his back. Beside him, Seraphina Grey waited, her dark eyes fixed on the woman who had once belonged to them.
"They're planning something," Seraphina said.
Cassius smiled. "Let them plan."
He turned away from the oak tree, from the hunter and the vampire who thought they could defy him. The full moon was three nights away. He had waited a hundred years for Lila to come home.
He could wait three more days.
END OF CHAPTER FOUR
- Writer
