Charlotte & Sebastian (4 page)

Chapter Seven

Charlotte was awoken early the following morning by her alarm and groaned. Cracking her eyes open, she squinted at the red numbers and groaned again before burying her face in her pillow.

She'd had about three hours sleep. Not nearly enough for her to function properly.

The alarm continued to beep noisily but she left it, knowing that if she turned it off too early—like before she got out of bed—that she'd fall back to sleep and be late for duty.

As she lay in the dark her thoughts drifted to last night and a certain vampire. How stupid could she be? Covering her face with her hands, she shook her head.

Sitting up, finally, she reached across and hit the snooze button on the alarm. The sudden silence was deafening. Reaching a little further, she found the switch for her bedside lamp and blinked against the glare until her eyes had adjusted before climbing out of bed and making her way into her bathroom.

Ten minutes later, she was showered and dressed in her uniform. Grabbing her sports bag, she spent the next couple of minutes arming herself and then left the room.

She already knew some of the details surrounding her mission today. To search an apartment building where a low level demon was thought to be hiding out. It sounded easy and was the reason she was going solo on this one.

Heading out of her room, she went down to the second floor and stared at a perfectly made-up Adrianna, who was sat behind her desk typing away. It was almost like she never slept.

The other woman glanced up and smiled before picking up a piece of paper and handing it to Charlotte and explaining, “Your mission briefing. The Director's too busy to see you right now.”

Brain picking out the important bits, she asked, “He's talking to Lucien?”

Adrianna's eyes widened for a second, like she'd just remembered she wasn’t supposed to mention it in front of her, and then nodded sharply once.

Taking the hint, she glanced down at the sheet of paper in her hands. It contained an address, description and what little information they had that clearly stated that the demon was so low level in his abilities that she would probably just have to turn up and he'd either hand himself in or be killed by one well aimed throw of her knife to his chest.

For an instant she thought it sounded far too easy. Like there was a catch.

Demons were renowned for their evilness and treachery, only appearing when summoned by someone of greater power who wanted them to do something in return for a bounty.

Shaking those thoughts out of her head, she thanked Adrianna, “I'll be back within the hour.”

The woman nodded and then returned her attention to the computer in front of her and began typing at speed.

Turning on her heel, she exited the office and headed to the garage. It was full apart from the black Hummer H2, which seemed to be a favourite of the guys. She eyed the silver Mercedes and then checked the location again. Too posh for that area; it would probably be stolen. Her eyes went to the car beside it, a beat up, grey, Jeep Wrangler, and smiled. Perfect.

Climbing inside she adjusted the seat and started the engine. It sputtered a little before catching and she put on her seatbelt before driving out of the garage and out into the morning sunrise.

The area she was headed to she wasn’t well aware of, she just knew it was rough, hence her choice of car, and it took her a good forty minutes to get there and find the right address. As she pulled up outside, she noticed the group of hooded youths on the corner and was sure they had noticed her too. One of the taller ones stared in her direction as she exited the car and she ignored him as she walked around the bonnet of the Jeep and moved toward the building.

It looked abandoned, with smashed windows and graffitied walls. The door was hanging off, held on by one hinge and she quickly entered the building, hoping the youths didn’t follow her inside.

Charlotte took in her new surroundings; a hallway ran on either side of the small entry hall and there was a lift in front of her with a doorway beside it, which was probably for the stairs.

The demon would most likely be higher up so she headed towards the staircase since she doubted the lift was a safe way to travel.

There were five floors but she stopped ascending at the fourth, using her logic to try and workout where he would be. She had a feeling the demon was on this floor and pushed open the door as quietly as possible. Her breathing stalled when she saw a small figure in the centre of the hallway, their back to her. Doing a quick scan of the hallway, looking for any threats, she took in the blood splattered walls and cringed. Had the demon she was hunting done that?

In slow motion, the figure turned and she saw the cherubic features of a small male child no older than eight years old.

Her heart contracted as she took in the blonde hair and green eyes. “Hey,” she said softly. She received no answer and took a step closer, her palms raised in a non threatening gesture. “Are you okay?”

The boy cocked his head slowly to the side, only his head tilted more than was humanly possible and she had the sudden realisation that this boy could well be the demon she was hunting. As she watched, the child's pupils bled into the iris and then the whites until his eyes were black globes and he said her name in a rough hiss, “Charlotte Bevill.”

She reached for the gun at her waist. Only her hand never made it. Her body suddenly turned into stone, her limbs too heavy to move and her vision went black. Seconds later, a scarily familiar scene began to play out behind her eyelids. Charlotte frantically tried to block it out but no, she had little choice but to watch the scene unfold.

She picked the two bags of shopping up from the passenger seat and climbed out of the car, smiling as she saw the small toy racing car she'd picked up for Ethan. He had a growing collection and she knew he'd treasure the new addition like he did his others.

Using her hip she shut the car door and fumbled with the key until she managed to hit the auto-lock button and then hummed a popular song under her breath as she walked up the path to the front door. Reaching for the door handle, she froze when she saw the bloody hand print on the white material and that the door wasn’t shut properly.

With a gulp, she pressed her foot to the door and peered around the frame as it opened, hoping like hell her family were okay. Stepping inside, she lowered the bags to the floor and made her way into the living room.

The sight that greeted her was like something out of a horror film. Her dad was laying on his back, his head severed from his body and blood everywhere. She had to fight the urge to throw up and pressed her hand to her mouth at the gruesome sight. A scream quickly worked its way up her throat but whoever or whatever had done this might still be in the house.

Walking away from her mutilated dad, she went through to the dining room and saw the body of her mum, her throat ripped open, laying in the doorway to the kitchen, her blood clotting on the floor tiles.

This time she couldn’t hold it in and she threw up violently on the floor, tears blurring her vision.

What sort of creature had done this?

Ethan. Where was Ethan? And Kelly and Justin?

Turning, she headed towards the stairs and froze as she saw the bloody footprints that tracked upstairs. There were no tracks heading back down.

Heart pumping crazily, she slowly crept up the stairs listening for any sound. As she reached the top she saw the footprints headed towards her nephew's play room and a choked sound left her lips.

Not Ethan. Please not Ethan.

Hesitating for only a second, she shoved the door open and took in the scene that greeted her. Her sister and brother-in-law lay on the floor, their hands extended like they'd been trying to reach their son, even as they died. Her gaze lifted and she saw her six year old nephew cradled against a pale creature who appeared to be biting at his throat, slurping noises leaving his throat every few seconds.

What was he doing to him?

Looking back at her nephew, she saw his skin looked blue and his eyes lifeless. He was killing him.

“
No!” She whisper shouted.

Everything froze at that moment, or so it seemed, and the creature's eyes met hers. Red eyes. Evil eyes. She blinked, hoping it was just a trick of the light or her mind playing tricks on her but no, they were a rich, bright red

In the next second, he dropped her nephew to the floor with a harrowing thump and then stood. He smiled at her with bloody fangs and cocked his head in a freakishly animalistic way and then disappeared in a black blur.

Ethan was her first thought and she hurried over to his lifeless body. She checked for a pulse and found none. Placing her hands on his chest, she started compressions. Blood started to seep out of the gaping wound at his throat with every press, and a cry of rage left her.

What had she done to deserve this? Glancing back at her sister and brother-in-law she wondered what any of them had done to deserve this kind of death.

A physical pain burned in her chest and stomach and she let out a tortured scream of pain, her eyes closing as tears fell down her cheeks.

Opening her eyes once more, she found herself staring up at the demon. He'd shed the childlike visage and now stood before her in all his ugly glory, his pointy teeth gleaming with blood and flesh. “You die,” the thing growled in its garbled English. “Lucien's command.”

Her eyes widened as she felt a burning, very much like that of a demon bite, at her stomach and lifted her now moveable arms to the pain. They came away covered in blood and a black goo. She cringed and then dropped her head back to the floor when she realised how painful it was. The demon venom would spread through her veins with her blood and burn like acid.

Without the antidote, she
would
die.

Chapter Eight

The demon had left her to her fate some time ago and she writhed on the floor as the pain intensified throughout her body with every pump of her heart. Charlotte wouldn’t have long left before the venom was too much for her heart to bear and she would die.

She stared up at the dingy grey ceiling, more or less giving up on leaving this building alive. Her thoughts went into hyper-drive going through a list of things she would now regret. Number one on that list was never getting justice for her family. To think she'd come so close to getting it, they had Lucien in the Agency building and she wasn’t going to achieve it now.

The second just happened to be never giving into one sexy, blue eyed, vampire. A soft sigh left her lips as she recalled the twinkle in his eyes as he teased her with her nickname.

Her eyes closed for a second.

It was amazing what the prospect of death did to you; making you rethink every decision you'd ever made. If she'd had the chance, she'd have changed many of them. So many.

That day with her family. Tears clogged her throat and she blinked rapidly.

To think she'd never have her own now. No husband. No kids.

She didn’t even have a boyfriend and hadn’t thought she'd wanted one but to think that no one would mourn her death—well, Sarah might but she had Mikey now—made her question her choice.

The vampire.

Could she have had a comfortable relationship with Sebastian?

Charlotte ran all of their previous encounters through her head and realised that they got on fairly well when she forgot he was a vampire, which had been more and more often lately. He had come across as genuinely interested in her, too, the past couple of days and she couldn’t stop herself from wondering what being with him would have been like. Would it have been all passionate and intense or slow and loving? Both sounded amazing to her.

A wry smile curved her lips when she realised how stupid she was being; dreaming of something that wasn’t ever going to happen. Then her smile turned sad when she realised she wasn’t ever going to see him again.

“
Sebastian
,” she whispered.

She was distracted from her thoughts as an angry roar shook the building and her eyes widened wondering what the hell had just made that kind of noise. There wasn’t much she could do with her entire body in pain; no chance of defending herself or hiding.

The door to the stairs crashed open seconds later and she tensed, eyes wide open, as she waited for whatever it was to come and get her. She'd rather see her death coming.

“
Charlie?”

She blinked as Sebastian's face appeared above her own and stared up into his beautiful face and icy blue eyes. Her body relaxed and Charlotte wondered why his eyes were that colour since he wasn’t in any pain. “Your eyes?”

He shook his head and stroked a lock of hair off her damp forehead. She let out a cry of pain at the contact, the acid making her skin sensitive to the touch. She hurt everywhere.

“
Tell me what happened,” he ordered.

“
Demon. Bite. Stomach,” she forced out through gritted teeth.

“
Fuck!” His balled fist smashed into the wall at her side and made a hole, dust and debris flying everywhere. His other fist did the same and he roared his anger.

“
Seb?” She croaked.

He was crouched beside her in the next second, his hand reaching to brush against her cheek but stopped himself before making contact realising it would pain her. “What is it, Charlotte?”

Charlotte. That was the first time she could remember him calling her by her proper name. It didn’t sound half as good as she thought it would. “Call me...Charlie,” she urged. She was surprised when he smiled at her but it didn’t mask the pain on his face. “I'm sorry...I wish...we...could have...been together,” she wheezed.

Sebastian's head dropped forward and she saw his hands curl into fists at his sides. His shoulders began to shake and she realised he was crying. It was the first time she'd seen him like that, and it was over her.

Her own eyes filled with tears and despite the pain she reached for his hand with her own and squeezed as tight as she could. His gaze locked with hers. “Charlie, if you had the choice, would you choose to live?”

“
I...” she tried to swallow but her mouth and throat were too dry and it hurt.

“
Would you?” He asked again, sharper. “Charlie?” He gritted out, his jaw clenching.

“
Yes.”

With a swift jerk, he ripped her t-shirt open and she gaped at him, wondering what he was doing. His eyes ran over her exposed body and she caught the flicker of sympathy in his gaze before he met her eyes again. “You really mean that? You'd choose to live?” She nodded, despite the agony it caused, but he continued talking, “I need to know you want this; to become like me.” Her nodding stopped and she stared at him in apprehension. “You know we aren’t all like Lucien.” He said, obviously picking up on her fear. “You know me well enough to know that. You wont be either, I promise. We'll do this together. It's your only chance of living...and I really want you to live, Charlie.”

A single tear escaped her as she moved her head in the slightest nod. She would live but have to sacrifice her humanity for the chance.

Sebastian released a huff of air and briefly closed his eyes, his head bowed. Then they flicked back open and he met her gaze with affection. “This will hurt,” he told her and reached out to move her head to the side so he had better access to the artery.

He struck quickly and she cried out at the pain, her back arching, fingers curling into the carpet beneath her.

The pain was unbearable and she quickly passed out.

Charlotte could smell something delicious; something familiar but far more potent than she remembered it being. Her mouth watered, wanting a taste.

Footsteps nearby caught her attention and then more, along with a cacophony of thuds that made her wince with each one. Where was she?

Her eyelids opened and she bolted upright, her eyes flicking around the dark, unfamiliar, room. A motion to her right had her leaping from the comfort of the bed she'd woken in and she landed gracefully on its other side, her eyes wary as they sought out who had moved in the room.

Pale skin and dark hair. Only one person she knew looked like that. Sebastian raised his hands in a placating motion.

“Where am I?” She asked, and then noticed the silky cream coloured night-dress she had on,  “What am I wearing?”

“
What do you last remember?” He demanded, ignoring her own questions.

Closing her eyes, she tried to remember something, anything. The mission. Going to the block of flats. The demon.

“I was dying,” she whispered and watched as he nodded, “and you asked me...you asked me if I had a choice, would I choose to live. I said yes. You—?”

“
Yes. I turned you. You wanted me to do this, Charlie. You agreed.”

Nodding, she glanced down at herself and for the first time noticed the paleness of her skin. Reaching up with her finger to her mouth she swore colourfully when she nicked it on one of her razor sharp fangs and watched the skin as it knitted back together before her very eyes.

Amazing.

That delicious scent she'd first noticed enveloped her and then Sebastian's hand wrapped around her wrist and he took her finger into his mouth, swirling his tongue around the tip of her finger.

Mouth parting in surprise and a heavy dose of sudden lust, she got another breath of that mouth-watering scent and realised it was coming from Sebastian himself.

Her blood heated and she took a step closer, drawing Sebastian's gaze to her. His eyes flared that icy blue colour but there was nothing cold in the look, it was pure heat.

Raising up on tiptoes she pressed her cheek to his and took a second to enjoy the feel of his skin against hers before saying, “Make love to me, Sebastian.”

A strangled sound left his lips before he suddenly pulled back and stepped away from her. As she inhaled, a hint of spice tickled her senses. “You're not ready for that, Charlie. Your body's just been through a traumatic ordeal, you need time to heal fully.”

She wasn’t going to let him off so easily. “I feel fine,” she started and spoke louder when he opened his mouth to argue, “and I'm a vampire now. Don’t I heal quicker? Have better stamina? Heightened senses; feelings?”

Sebastian ran his hands through his dark hair and muttered under his breath but she heard every word clearly. “I thought she was beautiful before,” he shook his head. “Damn.”

His words had her heart galloping in her chest and she flung herself at him, knocking him off his feet. Only his super-fast reflexes stopped her from hitting the ground first, as he twisted them mid air.

Straddling his waist, she dragged her nails down his chest and began a slow grinding motion between their bodies, “Make love to me.”