Page 17 of Little Doll

Costel dashed across the room and loomed over me, leaning menacingly into my face. His breath was sick with the smell of the drink. “You will not talk to your mother that way, Nova,” he growled.

A quick image of me removing his head from his shoulders with a roar flashed in my mind and made me smile. I reached past my mother and shoved him. He blasted backward, crashed ontohis backside, and slid comically across the glossy parquet floor.

The entire room, including myself, drew an audible gasp as we all stared down at my father. A war waged within me between a shadow part of me that wanted to murder him, and the rest of me who revered and loved this man above no other. After an awkward hesitation, Fane rushed to offer Father a hand and hoisted Costel up. Fane’s strength paired with Costel’s drunken clumsiness made our father seem suddenly old and frail.

“I’m so sorry, Father,” I gasped.

He nodded and shifted his gaze to the ground. “It’s alright,” he mumbled.

Shocking. The last time I spoke with my father, the night that we had quarreled, I was convinced he’d have beaten me to death if I’d shown him even a fraction of this insolence. But now he seemed… Frightened to confront me?

Fane led me by the hand to another sofa opposite Cleo and my mother, who had apparently decided to meet my demand of drying up her tears. He flourished a hand, silently asking me to sit. When I did, he sat down next to me, our bodies connected at our sides. He did not let go of my hand.

“What do you remember?” Cleo asked, watching me with her glittering black eyes.

It was a good question that gave me great pause. My eyes fluttered toward the fire, getting lost inside the flames. I tried to recall that night.

“Father told me… That I was to be married!” I exclaimed, remembering. It felt like more than one day had passed. What had become of the mysterious man I had been poised to marry? “We feuded. And then… And then afterward Fane wanted to cheer me up.”

Fane squeezed my hand. I glanced at him sideways, and he gave me a small encouraging style.

“We… We shared a delightful evening in London and then, there… There was an accident.” I shuddered as memories of the precious little boy came back to me. A flash of Fane shoving the child assaulted me, but I knew I was remembering it wrong. “Oh dear, whatever became of the little boy?” I pleaded, peering around at them all one by one.

Cleo frowned sorrowfully. “He didn’t survive the accident,” she explained. “He’s been buried, and his family has been… Comforted by ours.”

“Little Doll,” Fane whispered.

I turned my face to him. He stared intently at my lips. He reached up ever so gingerly and touched two of his fingers to my lips. “Do you remember… When his blood got in your mouth?”

The memory came thundering back, and I recalled the warm droplets splattering across mycheeks and into my mouth. My mouth went dry, and heat swelled low in my belly. I clamped my eyes closed, recalling the taste. I could feel my own blood racing through my veins. I could feel every nerve ending sizzle beneath my skin. My teeth ached and inexplicably, I ached in my deep center. I grew wet with arousal and squeezed my thighs together.

When I opened my eyes, he was still staring at my mouth, touching my lips.

I nodded weakly. He nodded too. “There is a curse,” Fane said.

I could hear the blood pumping through every chest in the room. I could hear their blood flowing. I licked my tongue along my teeth and discovered two of them toward the front had somehow grown razor sharp.

“In a few days, our cousin Carmilla will arrive from Styria,” Cleo said in her dry, withered voice. “She will help you understand more.”

My mother leaped to her feet. In a flash, she was in Fane’s face, her own face red and rabid. “This is your fault. YOUR FAULT!” she shrieked. Fane closed his eyes but did not move away from her. “She had but one more day. She was safe here at home and she would’ve been free forever. HOW COULD YOU!” Arcane drew back her fist and smashed it into his face, thrusting him back against the cushioned rest of the seat.

Everything inside my body stopped for a split second, only to be activated and awoken once again by a powerful, vicious, unadulterated rage. I lurched to my feet, gripped my mother’s throat, shoved her away from my brother, and lifted her into the air. She clawed at my hand while squirming and kicking her feet. I could see her face take on a panicked blue cast and she gurgled and choked pathetically.

My father and Cleo had also jumped up to join the fray. Costel had his arms around Mother’s waist, attempting to pull her from my grasp. Cleo reached up to stroke my face and whispered soft pleas to let my mother down that didn’t penetrate the black fog that had snaked across my mind.

Her movements weakened and with great delight, I noticed her pretty blue eyes roll back in her head. I dropped her then. She fell into Costel's arms and they crumpled to the floor.

Father cradled her, trying to soothe her as she gasped and choked air and life back into her lungs. A strange shadow had fallen over my vision and the scene I looked upon looked darker as I watched them all scramble to aid my mother. Only Fane remained calm in the seat, watching me and smiling softly.

I returned to my place next to him and my vision returned to normal. The rage retreated like vines dying and rolling back. Soon everyone hadreturned to their seats, my mother fingering the black bruises that had already appeared on her neck.

“Apologies, Mother dear,” I said. “I don’t know what came over me. Perhaps you shouldn’t strike my brothers.”

But, “brothers” wasn’t the right word, because we all knew she would never ever under any circumstances lift a finger to her darling son, Draven. We all knew her attack on Fane was part of a pattern. Whatever was happening to me was just the most recent reason for her to blame Fane. I had never thought about how cruelly my mother treated Fane, although it had transpired all my life right before my very eyes.

I peered at my brother, seeing him in a new light.

“Where is Draven, anyway? Why wasn’t he invited to thisfamily meeting?” I spat.

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