Chapter 10 - Cain
1332 Words
“Sir! Your wife has been located, we did what you suggested and followed her daughter, she led us right to her, although…she was with another man when we found her.” Cains blood boiled. He had been looking for her for centuries since she left him, only to discover that she was now with someone else!? How dare she! After everything that they had been through, everything he had given her… His voice was laced with venom as he spoke. “Get them and bring them to me. I want her alive, I couldn’t care less about the man. Now go!” His squire stood, unmoving, staring at him as fear tore through his features. “But…but sire we can’t kill the man…she…she has made him immortal, just as she did you.” The man flinched, already expecting the slap that was to come.
“SHE DID WHAT!? How could she do this to me…she swore that I would be the only man she’d ever want by her side, and yet she made another eternal!? Fine, bring them both in to me, I don’t care what you have to do to make it happen, just do it. Do not return until you have them or you will pay with your life.” With that Cain turned his back on the squire, walking out the room and through the halls of his estate, his home had once been warm and inviting, back when she still roamed the halls, she had given this place life, energy, and a vibrance that it now sorely lacked. He walked further down the hall before coming to what was once their bedchambers, now occupied by him alone. The door swung open slowly, the hinges creaking as he took it all in. He had left it exactly as it had been when she was still here, the room a token of their memories, all the nights they’d spent making love, the whispered words of adoration throughout the night. This was the only room he had ever felt vulnerable enough to be with her in such a way, everywhere else he’d felt too exposed. So he had put on the front of a madman hellbent on war.
He sat on the bed, resigned, unable to believe that she had truly moved on from him after all this time. He wasn’t sure how long after she left him that she had found the new man, but he dared not let himself entertain the less…ideal thoughts that were running through his brain at that moment. ‘what if she was with him while with me…what if she had left me because of their affair.’ None of this was something that he wanted to entertain, but he had to accept the fact that it was a possibility. As he laid back on the bed, a hand travelled across his face, an attempt at wiping the stress out of his features. He had changed so much since she left, gone was the man she had fallen in love with, replaced instead by one hellbent on bringing her back, willing to do anything to make it happen. He had been kind once, but after murdering his brother that kindness had disappeared, locked behind a wall so high that even Eleanora herself nearly didn’t pass it. The scars were different as well, when they met he had been flawless, his skin a dark tan from the sun of the summers, now his torso was littered in battle markings, each one larger and uglier than the last, so many wars, so many witches cut down for what they had done to him. He both hated the witches and yet, begrudgingly respected them, for it was with Eleanora, a witch herselfs help, that he became immortal to begin with. It was also with a witches help, that he had found their secret weapon, the one that would turn the tides in this war, stopping any future wars in their places.
These thoughts kept spinning through his head as a knock on the door sounded, jarring him from his thoughts. He spoke loudly, letting them know to enter, regretting it immediately as Alexa, one of the concubines he returned to on a frequent basis, stood in his doorway. She twirled a strand of hair lightly between her fingers as she spoke. “Hello Cain…I hope you don’t mind me just showing up unannounced like this, but your squire sent for me, he said you may be in need of…comfort.” She grinned mischievously, trying to be seductive, instead i felt nothing but repulsion. Over the years I had intentionally chosen women that reminded me of Eleanora, Alexa the most of all in her looks, After discovering Eleanoras betrayal, I wanted nothing to do with anyone who looked even remotely like her until I had a chance to speak to her for myself and figure out what was going on. I stood suddenly, walking towards Alexa as I wrapped a hand around her throat, forcing her against the wall.
“If I wanted you I would have called for you Alexa. I have no desire for your coy games, nor do I have a desire to even look at that face you are so fond of, as a matter of fact…” Without blinking, Cain gripped her by the hair, slamming her face into the wall repeatedly, until she was left with nothing more than a bloodied and broken face, teeth cracked and now missing, her nose likely shattered as well. She screamed in agony, clutching what was left of her once beautiful face and running from the room sobbing. Cain had never been one to hit a woman for no reason, but with Alexa…she looked too much like Eleanora to be able to stay around him without him doing something to make her more tolerable. He sighed loudly, going to the window, staring out at the garden below him. It had been her favorite place, and he’d done his best to have the maids take care of its upkeep so that it would look just as presentable when she arrived back. She had consumed his very being, wanting only to be near her from the moment they had met, instead being lucky enough to be chosen by her to love and be loved. She had given him her heart, and he had destroyed it. He knew it killed her that he had refused to be as kind and loving to her as she deserved, but the truth was that he just didn’t know how to. He couldn’t risk the exposure if she were to be seen as a weakness. Instead the people looked at her as if she were a burden on him, one that he had been all too willing to let go of. It kept her safe, no matter what it made her think of him in the end. He shook his head, clearing it of all the sappy and gloomy thoughts that it had made him think of, he never used to be like this, but he couldn’t help but think of her being back in his arms, of the fact she had finally been found after all this time, and soon, if that bastard did his job, she would be back before him. ‘But so will her new lover…’ he thought, and while he was angry at the new man she had chosen, he also couldn’t blame him for falling for her, Eleanora was…magical to say the least, aside from her actual abilities the woman was enchanting all on her own, just the way she was, before he knew of her gifts he couldn’t help but be around her, but once he saw how much power she had…he had fallen even farther in love with her.
Another knock on the door sounded from behind Cain and he turned, frustration evident in his face, the look dropping as he saw her.
“Eleanora…”
- Writer
