By moonlight's shadow

Chapter 47

“There are times you know Rebecca when I feel that I wish I had taken my father’s advice and not waited for my soul mate and married whom he had wanted me to marry. At least that way I would not be spending my existence alone in this place amongst the youngsters never to find love in my life,” said Raphael with a forlorn look on his face. His expressions and his acting was so honest and convincing that even a born liar like a witch could not understand that he was lying. The lie slipped out, smooth and easy like melted butter running down toast.

“Oh Raphael!!! You should not think like that in that manner…you have always done what is right and what was correct, so why do you think that the fates are going to deprive you of the pleasure and the happiness that you so richly deserve?” asked Rebecca, as she placed her hand on his chest hoping to hear a beat but then his heart beat much slower than humans.

“Well you are the only one to think that I deserve happiness dear Rebecca, after all, after living in solitary existence for about more than thousand years I have lost all hope. My family has forsaken me long ago since I was not the son that they had hoped for. I was a disappointment to them then, and now it feels like that I am a disappointment to even myself,” said Raphael with a sad smile adorning his handsome chiseled face.

“You are wrong Raphael, and I am going to prove that,” said Rebecca as she leaned up and kissed him softly on his lips. She had never thought that it would be so easy to get close to him and Raphael would be so willing to be seduced by her even without being affected by the love potion. It was now useless, thought Rebecca at the back of her mind as she deepened the kiss and Raphael responded to her kiss better than she had expected.

Rebecca gently leans in and kisses Raphael's warms lips. They pull apart and take shaky, shallow breaths. Unable to contain themselves anymore, Raphael holds Rebecca's head in his hands and pulls her into a fiery and passionate kiss. Her hands work their way around his body, feeling each crevasse, each line along his perfect physique. Rebecca thinks that how easy it was to take the control of a man through his body and how she was succeeding admirably in it but what she did not know was that Raphael was gearing up for something worse. Something darker, something so bad that it would have curdled her heart, just like lemon did to milk when placed together.

He knew that he would never allow this witch to go out of this room, could not. His Snow was the most precious thing which he needed to protect but right now he needed to know what she had exactly done so as to elicit such a reaction from Snow.

“Now tell me Rebecca, have you been a bad girl???” asked the vampire as his fangs slid out from his gums.

“Bad girl? How so? I have been doing nothing which I am not supposed to do, well except might be this,” said Rebecca as she touched his fangs and smiled. Raphael’s eyes turned red and this time he growled and hissed at her at the same time. There was nothing romantic in his gaze. And Rebecca knew that something was very wrong.

“So tell me, witch, you have not been doing any spells and cooking up magic in the tiny little kitchen that you have stored away in the corner of the room on which you have put up a glamour spell? Is that so?” asked Raphael as his fangs were precariously close to her vein which was throbbing just like the way a rabbit in the grasp of a tiger.

“Yes..yes Raphael I have cooked some potions but then again the castle has got the ingredients which I am never going to find elsewhere,” said Rebecca as she tried to act smart and put on her brave face but Raphael could hear the errant breathing and beatings of her heart which were threatening to burst out of the confines of their ridges and ribs. He could smell her fear which hung around her like the cloak she had been wearing along with yesterday’s stale perfume. The odour was heavy that he could almost touch it with his fingers if he wanted to but he needed to know what had happened to Snow.

“You see Rebecca, from the moment you have placed your foot on this Academy you have said nothing else but lies. I know that you cannot tell me the truth but now you don’t have any other choice. You know in your small beating heart and in that ugly mind of yours that you are going to die because you did something which made my students vulnerable. And if it was me you would have attacked I would have forgiven you, or given you a second chance at life but since you chose not to Rebecca you know that you have mere moments before your life ebbs away before your eyes. So tell the truth,” said Raphael as his eyes flashed even brighter for a brief moment.

“But I did not do anything which might have harmed any student of yours, they are of no concern to me at all,’ said Rebecca truthfully.

“But Snow White is, isn’t she? She is the one you have been sent looking for so as you can draw out her powers in order to understand what kind of anomaly has been growing up under our roof, haven’t you?” asked Raphael as Rebecca smiled at him.

“Then you know,” said Rebecca with an expression which soured Raphael’s heart even further.

“Well I have not done anything to her except might be the fact that she has become vulnerable to the presence of magic since her powers are starting to show. She will be now affected by any spell that happens near her and any potion which brews near her. So what are going to do about that fact Raphael King? How long will you be able to protect your precious Snow White? Your Princess? For I might be dead today but sooner or later this is going to come out and that day the witches are not letting you go for the fact that you are about to commit a sin here,” said Rebecca.

“You don’t know about that, do you now?” prompted Raphael as he brought out something from his sleeve.

The knife sat precariously on my skin, soft enough to not pierce my neck, hard enough to enforce the intended message. The harsh metal should have been cold and raw against my bare skin, but my numb body could not feel anything except for the excruciating pain of his betrayal. My throat and heart held in a silver grasp, and all I could do was stare lifelessly at the brown eyes that held the blade and a terrifying coldness I had never seen before. I had always thought his eyes were golden, but looking at them now I could see no trace of the vibrancy they once held, no trace of the man I once knew.

Trembling, I tipped my chin up into the sharpened edge, tempting him to end my anguish, half hoping he would. A small stream of blood trickled from the feeble cut I could not feel, he did not flinch or remove his eyes from mine, a cruel smile stretched out across gaunt features. My frozen heart shifted at the sight of his merciless gaze, my legs almost failing beneath me. His steadfast grip on the polished weapon shifted, causing more crimson liquid to flow from the raw wound he had inflicted.

“You slashed at me with betrayal but I shall parry you with my vengeance,” Rebecca said but she did not even realize how fast she was losing blood and at what rate. She tried muttering a spell which would stop the bleeding and infuse Vitamin K in her bloodstream but Raphael kissed her once again stopping her from speaking. She knew that he was disgusted with her. She knew that her game had been over even before it had begun. And the only thing that made her so miserable was she knew the identity of the Chosen One but she could deliver the news to her Head Witch.

Raphael would never allow that to happen. She could realize his venom as he looked in her eyes as her life ebbed away slowly. She was going to turn into nothing, a meaningless piece of existence, without the proof that she had lived for over ninety years. How foolish she had been to think that she could actually control the Vampire Prince!!!

The pain that once burned like fire had faded away to an icy numbness. Black filled the edges of my vision and the only thing I could hear was my own heartbeat. My breath came in ragged, shallow gasps. Seconds passed as I lay there, then Rebecca realized that she was no more.

It is like she is howling alone, on the verge of something to happen! Things are creeping into her body…….her mind is on fire, thoughts are burning ……. she can hear the rustling and smell the ashes. Her shoulders are tremendously heavy, weighing her down, leaving her paralyzed. What an agony she has become to.... No! No! She has survived, being alone again!

That feeling of solitude has dominated her heart, clinging every thread, catching them. The betrayals of the people she loved the most or she thought, left her heart abandoned, but live there the cobwebs billow like curtains inside her heart. Sadness is hovering over the heart and the mind!

In her dreams everything has changed! Devouring over memories, slithering back, drinking the venom, thinking it`s the remedy for her pain.

Ambivalent she is!! Vigilant all she can be, loneliness what she has! Snow woke up but this time with gasps and not screams.

There was a time when sunlight bathed the surface of this planet. Rays touching everything at one time or another, boundless, almost endless energy travelling even to the smallest regions of this fragile Earth. What a rich and contrasting world we had lived in. Mother Nature had strength then, the progression of life seemed unstoppable. An old photograph captures a boat at sea, light dancing majestically over the surface of the water, it must have been taken years before the dark days eventually took over. Darkness has taken its stranglehold, squeezing life and consuming our memories, turning them into forgotten lost dreams.

She could feel that something had happened and she had done that but what she could not remember what but the Doctor sitting there in her room was definitely something which worried her badly enough.