CHAPTER EIGHT
ʙᴀᴛᴛʟᴇ sᴄᴀʀs

The scars were like tiny silver moons on my skin, punctured in pretty pale ink against paper white skin. It felt wrong that they looked so beautiful, so delicate in the crescent shape. It was wrong. They represented the immobilising moves that first were made to pull me away from the speed of my run, and second to rip my head from atop of my shoulders. These were the first of such marks that I'd ever received, and I had the imminent feeling that it would not be the last.

Not now that William was fresh on my trail.

The inane irrationality that I suffered, brought a deep self-hatred from within. It was not that William had been able to sink his teeth into my hard flesh, but the fact that he'd found me at all, that bothered me so. It had only happened twice before, both times of which had been in extraordinary circumstances that were highly unlikely to ever occur again.

The first time had been in London, just short of the new year of 1901. My clothes were out of date by a few years in terms of my northern hometown, but in the big, bustling capital, my skirts and blouses may have been from foreign countries centries ago. Needless to say, I stuck out like a shore thumb with the dullness of my clothes against the ostentatious designs, all top-heavy and s-shaped, moulded by corsets and again intensified by full-backed petticoats. Sumptuous silks and satins, chiffon and damask filled the smoggy streets, painted in colours of soft reds and blues and greens.

Ironically, the only thing about me that did not stand out, was the sickly pallor of my skin. The frailness that often equated with illness was by no means uncommon, with many ladies powdered to a point of solidness.

It was at a Sunday market, that William first set eyes on me. The markets along the Thames riverside reminded me of my mother. The last Sundays of the month were often the days we'd travel into town, looking around the bustling markets the county over by the River Tyne. I don't know how he'd spotted me. Even with my heightened senses, I didn't detect him until it was too late. I guess I'd blocked all thought of him from reach.

Despite the inhuman elegance of his walk, the god-like superiority that he radiated. Despite the moon-light colour of his skin, which almost glowed in the dim fog, the polished, out of time clothes that he wore. Despite the red luminosity of his eyes. Despite all of that, no one looked at William. Not one turn of a head. He had a curious way of blending in, becoming so normal looking within the crowd, as if his higher beauty had no effect, no meaning.

He stared at me with those cruel, crimson eyes and I shook with a vehemence that threatened to snap my unbreakable bones. Pure feer bubbled within me. All I could remember of him was the selfish cruelty that hid behind his expression, the blood later dripping from his lips. My blood.

A sickening smile formed, not moving an inch of his skin from perfection. The look on his face was pure ecstasy. I was alive, just like he'd wanted, not as he'd thought. And, like a cheater racing to reach his golden prize, William sprinted toward me, little more than a blur in the wind, a hand connecting with the base of my waist another with the outline of my chin.

Darling Elide. His words like whispers in the air, pecking kisses on my cheek. With me, alive or dead.

The threat had come from nowhere. Only a few years ago he'd turned me into this monstrous state out of a loving obsession. But I'd evaded him for years. That was evidence enough, I supposed.

Travel with me. I still whisper those words to myself sometimes, in warning. Travel with me, or not at all.

The second time had been worse. I'd run from him once and William was not forgiving enough to allow me to do it again. The second time had been in Wales in a small, passing seaside village, a breath away from Aberystwyth, 1921. It was this time that he'd attacked me, taking me by surprise with his barrelling speed and forceful hands. I'd only just gotten away with a trick of a mirror that stood by the side of the beachfront road. Red eyes had haunted me well after then too.

It was enough to remember the pain of those memories, but to feel them both again in his third arrival, a third attack in which this time he'd left a mark, was enough to prick my spur into a spiralling intent. Perhaps, indeed, I'd gone mad with paranoid, unable to cope with the pressure of his scent trailing down my back. Perhaps it was crippling worry, a need to protect everyone even if that meant mortally hurting myself. Alice surely would have believed I was being selfish, reckless, impulsive, all words she no doubt thought.

You'd put your life last in what matters.

Now that I was leaving, the forest no longer felt welcoming. It was as if it felt what was coming, anticipating the worst for my weeks, months or years ahead, playing out my funeral in their own, fruitful time. Even the leaves were draped in shadows of black, the air enshrouding like a misty veil, cold and breathless. The wind was washed off any strong scent, leaving only that wet, icy smell of the weather. And down, further, along my unplanned path, the spiders of mourning crawled, playing the church bells with their scattering feet.

I will share the pain with you.

I could not think of Alice nor my plan of what would come ahead, though truthfully even if I could, my strategy would be just as scattered and thoughtless. It was the exact same scheme as Rosalie had described in the chess game: if I didn't think it, Alice wouldn't know it.

I will hold the burden of it.

The one thing I wanted to hold onto would always be the thing I have to let go of. It was as inevitable as the sun setting. It had happened once before.

She would forget me. They all would. It didn't matter what she thought. If she dared to follow me, she would not find me. It was for the best.

The darkness of the shadows dipped and folded until the receding light of day was present again, looming unnaturally along the base of the distant treeline. The ending bitter coldness had washed away the absence of smell, bringing back the flood of pine leaves and dirt, the lingering salt from the nearby beach and randomly the warm, fuzzy smell of a deer, and... metal. It was faint, but it was there.

All at once, William was in front of me, a sinister smile spreading across his lips, creasing the thin, papery skin of his cheeks. He was there a second and then he wasn't. Like a ghost, his shadow sunk through me, warping my own bones until I crumbled to the floor, chest heaving in what felt like useless, gasping breaths. My head whipped to the side, narrowed eyes landing on a desolate patch of grass, its blades barely bent from the pressure of even the lightest of footsteps. William wasn't there.

If it helps.

It was in that blunt moment of weakness, that my plan had failed. My intent had latched, expanded, brooded.

Though the darkness hadn't yet spread again, as the sun began to dip, it still felt as if he was there, laying witness in the wind to my erratic behaviour. I felt the air move, shifting behind me in a swift, opening warning. This time I turned on my own heels, slipping through the shadow that consumed me, only to be forced forward by a blunt hit to the back.

My stomach hit the floor, the weight that had pushed me down following straight down. The mass was light enough for me to lift, but as I spun, shifting my hips so the person was sitting on my front, my own eyes gazing straight back at those of my attacker.

Amber eyes peered angrily back down at me.

"You were leaving," Alice growled, her teeth bared as her hands pressed down hard against my shoulders.

"Alice."

"No." She stopped me midsentence with her commanding voice. "I don't want to hear your useless excuses."

All of her weight was pressed down onto me, her legs wrapped around my lower stomach.

"I hate you right now, do you know that?" She was shouting, with each deep intonation her hands pressing further into my shoulders. "I hate that you were leaving and yet I've already forgiven you."

"Alice," I breathed, reaching my hands to trail up her arms. "Alice, please."

She pushed my touch away. "No."

"You have to let me go," I pleaded.

"No. I can't."

"He'll come back," I said quickly, already remembering the shadow that had come upon me, and where his shadow lay, William was always close to following. "He'll keep coming back until there's nothing left to come back for. Please, Alice."

"No." She shook her head. "No." Her anger dissolved with each word she spoke. "There are so many of us, Elide. So many of us that could find him, kill him, hell, destroy him."

"This isn't your fight."

"Like hell it isn't!" Alice shouted. "James wasn't your fight, and yet you almost ripped his head from his shoulders."

Tearless sobs wracked through my body as Alice remained deadly angry, her body shaking on top of mine, vibrations transferring from her legs to my stomach, to my arms.

"It's our turn to do that for you," she said, suddenly quiet. Alice leaned down so her face was inches away from mine, a single fingertip touching my chin. "Let us do that for you. Please."

"Alice."

"Tell me you're staying," she demanded.

"Alice."

"Say yes, goddammit."

Her hand was resting fully on the base of my neck, the other somehow having found its way down my front, pressing on the pit of my stomach, evoking that deep, restless feeling that frustrated me to no end.

"Yes."

As the words left my lips, as anticipated, Alice's lips came crashing down upon mine with a newly ignited fervour. I groaned against her movements, feeling that hunger in my abdomen rising, knawing at my body as her weight on top of me finally became noticeable. Alice smirked with her newfound confidence, her hand teasing the skin above my waistline.

"Good thing you're staying."

☾

Wanted to say a massive thank you for getting this book to 100k! It means so much to me that you all give it so much love since it's my favourite of all my books. I feel rewarded and overjoyed reading the loving and funny comments and seeing the votes!
Hopefully this chapter coming now with this thank you note is good timing!
Again thank you! I love you all x