Succumbence

Spring was on its way and the entire castle was buzzing with life as everyone was busy preparing for the spring party, which apparently was an annual thing in this place.

I had no idea what it was or what the purpose of it was, so I did my best to stay out of the way and watch from a distance.

For some reason Zachary had ordered the interior walls of the castle repainted in a creamy white color and it was barely recognizable.

The large dark carpets that had previously covered the halls had been removed and the wooden floors had been polished to the point where one was almost afraid of stepping on it.

Lavish curtains had been hung up in replacement of the old, worn raggy pieces of fabric, that had previously been covering the windows and the atmosphere in the castle was shifting into something much warmer and nicer.

I thought that perhaps it was in honor of the spring party and that it would be returned to its old self afterwards but nonetheless I decided to enjoy it for however long it lasted.

Mason had gone abroad for two weeks to meet up with some of their distant relatives, so I was mostly left to my own company when I was not chatting with the maids and so I spent a lot of my time in the library or in the garden.

Zack had seemed awfully distracted for a while although his mood had seemed to lighten after the night in the beautifully painted room. He was also more likely to let me in on his plans and thoughts and had allowed me to go places on my own, which had been a very nice change as I felt that he trusted me more.

When it came to myself, I still had my secrets and I had not yet told him what I had seen in my visions that night, nor was I in a rush to do so.

The way that people around me had acted on the night and for several days afterwards had led me to keep quiet about it, as I felt there was something more going on than what I had seen and I did not want to push the matter and ruin the mood before the festivities.

As the day got closer, guests began to arrive at the castle and soon it was buzzing with life.

I mostly kept to myself but did indulge in related activities or joined conversations from time to time, which made me glad that I had been practicing my gossiping skills with the maids.

Although I clearly stood out from the crowd, I was beginning to feel more at ease and it seemed that the guests had also begun to accept my presence, some more than others.

To my great discomfort, Eleanor had persuaded me into wearing dresses almost every day and only let me wear jeans and t-shirts or the likes of it on eventless weekends, which was almost never.

Heels were the devil to me and so I had begun wearing long dresses that would hide my feet and allow me to wear whatever I wanted, without insulting the eyes of the already curious guests.

The night before the party, I had been summoned to the room where I had met up with Zack and his brother on one of my first days in this place.

When I arrived, I had been surprised to see not only Zack waiting for me, but also Mason and three other men whom I had never seen before.

I froze in the doorway and looked at the three strangers who did not seem to be much older than the two brothers.

One was significantly shorter and had an almost child-like appearance as he had a rather slim figure and his shoulder-length brown hair was a mess.

His eyes seemed kind and curious and were a light grey color that seemed to reflect the light in the room.

He bowed lightly and presented himself to me as Maximus, without a last name.

I curtsied lightly and smiled in response and the next man came forward to present himself.

This one was a little taller than Mason but not as tall as Zack, who was almost a head and a half taller than me, and he had a broader figure which indicated that he was very strong.

His hair was cut practically short and had a little more of a ginger hue to it, almost like a fire and his eyes were a somewhat green color.

He bowed to me as Maximus had done before him and told me his name was Jeremiah, again not telling me his last name.

I once again curtsied and smiled in response before I turned to look at the last man.

This one did not seem too bothered to introduce himself as he stood with his arms crossed in the corner of the room, watching me.

He looked a little like Mason but did not at all have the same hypnotizing effect on me with his closed-off attitude.

His hair was a dusty, dirty blonde color, his eyes were a dark grey which to me seemed to reflect his mood pretty well and he was rather normal in build, if there ever was such a thing as normal.

Mason stepped up, gestured towards him, and told me his name.

"And that would be Nicholas..."

He continued to speak, this time while looking directly at me.

"All three are our distant cousins and they will be staying with us from this time forward, so it would be a good thing to learn their names"

He winked at me and nudged my arm to lighten the awkward atmosphere a little and I could not help but smile at his attempt. Zack was watching his brother closely in silence, almost judging his behavior, and so I decided it would be better for me to distance myself a little bit from him.

He and the three cousins left the room shortly after and I was left with Mr. Judgemental who did not speak for a while.

My curiosity got the best of me and so I carefully asked him why it had been so important for me to meet the three of them so suddenly.

He hesitated for a moment before he spoke and almost looked like he was afraid of how I would react to what he was going to tell me.

"The three of them owe me a favor. I invited them to the party with the intention of asking them to stay here and... Work for me I suppose you could say"

I thought for a moment before I spoke.

"And what exactly will they be 'working' as?..."

His lips became a thin line and he sighed before he replied, suddenly seeming a bit agitated.

"You have fooled and escaped your previous guards and so I intend for them to replace them as soon as possible. They are more than capable and their p..."

He stopped in the middle of his sentence and corrected himself.

"Skills... Their skills will make it very difficult for you, if not impossible to get rid of them"

I thought for a moment about what he initially had intended to say but left it at that.

At the same time, I felt a growing annoyance take over as I felt the level of trust between us drop back to zero.

More babysitting??

I simply looked at him in disbelief, unable to think of anything to say that could possibly be in my favor.

"You don't trust me"

I finally said and he furrowed his brows for a moment.

"I do" he replied in a calm tone as he looked at me.

I was confused, angry and honestly felt a little bit betrayed.

The tiny bit of freedom I had been able to enjoy had now come to an abrupt end, and there he was telling me that he trusted me?

He was keeping something from me and I intended to find out what it was.

He stepped closer to me and the tingling sensation on the back of my neck began but I refused to back away as I now had learned that he felt it too and I wanted to obtain that same level of self-control that he seemed to master to perfection.

His dark eyes lingered on me as he considered to take a step closer.

"Please believe that I do trust you Stella. The circumstances have led me to more desperate measures and I hope you will at least accept that, even if you don't agree or understand"

He looked at me with pleading eyes and I found myself unable to argue against it, so instead, I nodded and turned my eyes to the floor.

I felt his hand gently lift my chin and I let him.

He had almost closed the gap between us and was now standing right in front of me, close enough for me to feel his gentle breath on my face.

Every cell in my body was screaming, begging for him to close the gap completely and surrender to whatever was doing this to the both of us.

His eyes lingered on my lips for a moment and I could tell that he was fighting against himself to not give in to the temptation.

At this point I did not care what had happened between us, that someone could see us or that the tiny voice in the back of my head was screaming at me to pull away and leave immediately.

I felt out of breath and I begged him in my mind to kiss me and release us both of this invisible hell.

It seemed that he almost understood what I wanted him to do but he did not move an inch.

A painful expression came over his face as he whispered in reply to the question I never asked.

"I can't..."

Those two words left me feeling empty and I suddenly felt like a part of me had shattered.

Tears began streaming down my cheeks as I felt his hand move away from my chin and before I could even think I grabbed a hold of his shirt to keep him close to me and I begged him.

"Please..." I begged.

It was like the world had stopped and all air had left me when he moved his hand to the back of my neck while he slid his other arm around my waist and pulled me close to him.

As he leaned in, I felt his breath on my lips and the tingling sensation spread and coursed through my entire body, setting me on fire.

The moment his lips met mine, I knew I was lost to him, but I did not care at all at this point.

My body had been aching for weeks and I had desperately been trying to suppress the urge to be near him, to touch him and to feel him touch me.

Little did I know that I had just made not only him but also myself unable to keep that urge under control.

I moved my left hand into his hair and pulled him closer to me while I slid my arm around his neck.

I wanted more, needed more.

The painful expression that had previously been on his face had been replaced by an immense hunger and almost desperation. The tingling sensation had vanished, which we were both too busy and distracted to notice as he had lifted me up and carried me to the table in the center of the room, where he gently put me down.

My heart was pounding in my chest and I broke the kiss to breathe for a moment and to gather my thoughts and senses.

He seemed to be at least as affected as I was, which for some reason gave me a feeling of happiness.

Whatever this was, it felt right, whether he liked it or not.

He was looking at me closely, almost inspecting me and I raised my head to meet his gaze.

His breathing was heavy but otherwise he seemed pretty contained, considering what had happened just a moment ago.

He continued to inspect me and I leaned in to place a gentle kiss on his lips, to tell him that I was okay.

This seemed to calm him down and we stayed like that for a long time, gathering ourselves and embracing one-another.

There was a knock on the door and someone entered the room but Zack showed little to no interest in moving away from me, and so I did not either.

"Your presence is needed in the main hall..."

The voice was quiet, and I recognized that it belonged to one of his cousins, Max.

Zack simply nodded, and we were left alone in the room once again.

Sadly he let go of me as he pulled away to get a hold of himself and he only just gave me a last glance before he left me alone in the large room.

I could not quite believe what had just happened even though I was completely aware that it was real.

I was almost in a daze when I left to go back to my own room and I prayed that I would not meet any of the guests on the way there, as I was still obviously affected and slightly disoriented.

When I got to my room I threw myself onto the bed and fell asleep not too long after, too exhausted to get up to eat or to consider changing into something more comfortable.

I let myself drift off to sleep, filled with a feeling of peace and happiness I had not allowed myself to feel for a very, very long time.

I was woken up by a knock on my door the next morning.

I had expected Eleanor to enter but was surprised to see Max standing by the door while covering his eyes.

He really was like a child.

"I'm sorry to disturb you miss, but the master wishes to see you and he instructed me to lead you to him"

He never moved his hand from his eyes but patiently waited for my response.

I slid out of my bed lazily and walked towards the closet to find something decent to wear.

"Good morning to you too. I will be there in a moment, if you could please wait outside?"

He was more than happy to wait outside as I got dressed and he rushed out of my room to let me do my thing.

The party had not begun yet and would not for a couple of hours, so I decided to wear a soft, black sleeveless figure dress with a low back, which was surprisingly comfortable compared to what I was probably going to be forced to wear later that night.

I did not bother to put on shoes or jewelry, and I brushed my hair quickly and left it at that.

When I opened the door, Max who was seemingly still a bit flustered, turned to lead me to the far end of the castle and into a small room in one of the towers in which I had never been before.

He left me there without a word, closing the door quietly behind him and I began exploring the room, thinking I was alone.

I nearly screamed when I turned around and saw him standing shirtless behind me, watching me in silence.

"Mother of Christ!... Please don't do that"

I exclaimed and took a moment to gather myself.

I had not sensed his presence in the room, and I was never good with jumpscares.

Not that he had intended to frighten me, but the sheer fact that I had believed I was alone, had caused me to let down my guard completely.

A faint expression of amusement spread on his face and I frowned at him for being entertained by my weak nerves.

"I assume you wished to see me?"

I asked him, not expecting his reply.

"I need to tell you something, but it will be on my terms and you will not ask any questions, understood?"

I glared at him in confusion and nodded, not sure what else to do at that point.

He pulled out a small silver dagger, one I had not noticed before and he cut the palm of his left hand.

As the blood dripped from the wound and onto the stone floor, I began feeling uneasy, almost dizzy and he was watching my reaction closely.

"What is goi...."

He interrupted my question by silencing me with a gentle glare and I remembered his one condition, that I would not ask any questions.

He walked up to me and took my hand which had begun to develop the black marks I had seen on the night with the visions.

I had not noticed it before and it seemed to be spreading not only to my lower arm but through my entire arm and up onto my neck and chest.

As it spread, I felt a burning sensation in my skin and it was as if my blood was boiling inside me.

The cut on his hand was slowly healing before my eyes and for a moment I was dumbfounded and thought to myself that I was hallucinating but his close attention to me and my reaction told me that I was not.

As the wound closed up, I felt the heat subside and the black faded till it was no longer visible anywhere on my skin.

Despite my extreme urge to ask him why he did that and what exactly had just happened, I stayed quiet.

When he asked me if I trusted him, my immediate response was yes and so he continued his little experiment, whatever it was.

First he asked me to pick up the dagger which he had dropped on the floor after cutting himself, which to me seemed to be a simple task, but the moment the metal touched my skin, I felt a painful burn in my palm and was forced to drop it.

I was going to attempt to pick it up once more but he stopped me before I could and instead took the blade himself and cut my shoulder before I could react and stop him.

I was too confused to react in any way, so I was just staring at the blood that was running down my arm, thinking to myself. Thank God I chose the black dress.

Barely a few seconds after cutting me, something came over him and his body almost seemed to change.

His muscles seemed to grow in size and a black color spread from the center of his chest, up his neck and further down his arms and his eyes seemed to be completely absorbed by darkness.

His breathing had changed into a deep tone that sounded almost like a growl and the look on his face was indescribable.

It was something that my book could not possibly had prepared me for and I glared at the figure before me, both confused and slightly frightened as I barely recognized him.

His eyes were fixed on the blood and I had a feeling that he was holding himself back from tasting it, which disturbed me but also intrigued me somehow.

I walked closer to him to get a proper look at him and I placed a hand on his cheek to turn his head, which seemed to trigger some counter-reaction to what had taken over.

The black began to retract, his body seemed to relax bit by bit and his eyes slowly but surely began to return to their initial color which made me feel more calm.

We stood like that for a while and I kept my hand resting on his cheek, almost afraid that if I moved, he would go back to that state.

He looked down at me and answered the question I had been dying to ask him.

"Blood rush"

"huh??" I replied and looked at him with confusion plastered on my face in response to his bizarre and rather awkward statement.

He told me to sit down as he explained to me what he was, what it was and what was happening to me. It was hard for me to believe and honestly most of the words that left his mouth were gibberish to me as my mind was trying to wrap around what I had just witnessed and what he was telling me.

One thing was very clear to me though, Zack was not human.

He told me he was some sort of hybrid species which at first I believed was a joke, but the more he told me, the more things made sense and the small pieces of a larger puzzle, slowly began falling into place.

He explained to me that he was not the typical species of hybrid, but as a matter of fact he was one of the last of an ancient bloodline that had slowly gone extinct.

He paused for a long time before he told me what I least expected to hear.

"All the things you have heard about the beast in the woods, Stella. It holds some truth to it..."

I sat there, shaking my head, unable to understand what he was hinting at, before it suddenly hit me.

"It can't be... You can't be..." was all I managed to say as I looked at him in confusion.

The beast in the woods had always been described as a brutal, merciless, murderous animalistic creature that killed whoever entered the woods.

For some time I had wondered why it had not found me and killed me when I ran away, as it would have been more than easy to do so.

He looked at me with slight worry in his eyes.

Perhaps it was because he thought that I would be afraid of him, but somehow none of it made me feel any different about him, which was even more strange to me.

All the feelings that would have seemed logical in that situation were suppressed by the feeling of affection I had towards him.

While I had been processing what I had just learned, his form had gone back to normal and he had gone to stand in the corner of the room to give me some space.

I could not help but ask him, knowing that there was a chance that he refused to answer.

My question came out in fractures, but he seemed to understand me nonetheless.

"I'm not... Am I?..."

I looked at him in confusion, suddenly struck by a strange, anxious feeling.

He looked frustrated for a moment as he replied quietly.

"I am still trying to figure out that part myself... We're connected, I know that much, but..."

He paused and looked at the floor, almost as if he was choosing his next words carefully.

"I have a theory, but you won't like it... I won't tell you before I know for sure, can you live with that?"

I was surprised by his answer, especially since he never really seemed to care whether I liked a response or not, but this time it seemed important to him.

I nodded in response which seemed to be just what he needed to hear as he sighed and seemed to relax again.

The silence in the room was suddenly interrupted by loud classical music from the party hall.

We looked at each other, equally surprised that we had unknowingly spent so much time in the tower and he walked up to me and helped me up before he gestured towards the door.

"Ready?" he asked quietly with a faint smile which almost covered the tinge of worry that seemed to linger in his eyes.

I squeezed his hand gently and sent him my most convincing smile to reassure him that I was fine and ready to participate in the festivities, which I was.

I was excited to say the least.

It took a moment for him to be convinced but he seemed to accept my way of responding and so we both made our way down to the spring party, where the thoughts of our conversations slowly faded from my mind.

[Author's note: Please don't forget to vote and leave a review if you enjoy my novel <3 Thank you!]