Page 49 of The Vampire's Mercy
I saw myself running through trees in the dead of night. A smile on my face, at one with the forest around me.
Away from the burden of politics Lucius thrived on. He spent hours mulling over the intricacies of the realm—from the serious to the mundane. Pouring over dry texts, insisting I do the same, when all I wanted was to be outside.
“The biggest…wasting…ridiculous…”
His broken words drowned in static.
Lucius? Who was that? Why couldn’t I see his face?
The petals continued to fall, the lovely melody playing on while darkness closed in on me.
Lucius…
A petal landed in my hand, changing, twisting. Becoming a tiny figure, a tiny elf.
“Paris?” I questioned, my voice an echo around me.
The small version of the elf, wearing the crop top and jeans, drew his tiny stakeblade and drove it into my palm with a sharp scratch.
I flung him off me. He spun comically through the air, vanishing in a puff of white mist.
More petals fell, the song growing louder, the darkness closing in.
Petals…
Rose petals. Those which grew at… at… at…
“Where?” I asked. “Where are you from?”
Paris appeared before me, head tilted to watch the floral snow. “Isn’t it beautiful?”
I couldn’t help but stare at him, his body now wrapped in white light, hints of nudity lurking beneath the glow.
He caught a petal, holding it up to his face. “…crumble…”
“Sorry?”
His mouth moved, but no words were coming out, shadows filling his eyes.
“I didn’t hear what you said.”
The shadows left, the blue returning, mouth still moving silently.
“Speak up!”
The elf exploded in a cascade of petals, the encroaching darkness inches away from me now.
Petals…
Petals from?—
I broke out of this strange dream at the exact moment he struck me with his stakeblade.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
PARIS
My stakeblade broke just like it did before.
