Vitality (Vitality Series #1)

Chapter 53 Eclipse of the Heart pt.1

Ava felt something moving on her stomach. It was soft and pulsed purring vibrations through where she ached. She put her hand down to feel for Freddy before she could open her eyes, running her fingers through his puffy fur, and she let out a comforted sigh. "Just what I need... But how'd you get here?"

There was a quiet laugh from across the room. Freddy hissed, and her eyes opened into blurry vision. "Layton?"

"No."

She squinted her eyes and saw Gabriel standing there against the table, dirty and his hair straying wildly.

Alarm rung. "Where's Layton?"

"He's off gathering your friends," his voice fluctuated. "To bring them here. To help you."

"No," she groaned, whipping the covers off and tried to stand, until dizziness dropped her back down. "Tell him, no. I don't want them here."

"I would help you to stand." He raised his shoulders aloofly. "However, I am not to touch you." He spread his long fingers out, presenting his question. "You understand, of course?"

Ava grabbed her head and looked back up with a scowl. "What are you doing here?"

"Ha. You say that as if you are not in trusting company."

"Obviously." She glared at him and his plastic smile. His high cheeks looked frozenly sucked in. His amber eyes were too big, and childlike. They gave her fear — but they also dazzled against her wishes.

"Though, you trust Layton's company?" He tilted his head with dry amusement.

She didn't answer.

"You know, I used to have a twin too, once — like those friends of yours on the way."

"Ella and Christian?"

"Yeah. A twin sister," he said in a quick spurt. "Layton took us for our socialite ardor. She didn't make it. Tsk. That was after her tongue was ripped out. Mine was too." He stuck his tongue out and back in and laughed. "But it grew back."

She tried to pull in her grimace.

"Ah, but there was another reason he took us. Did you knooow — I share the same ancestors with your friend Dahlila?" He grinned cartoonishly. Ava pulled her lips together, and he nodded. "Someone else does, too." He winked. Then his face fell flat. "And do you think she will be safe from him?"

"What are you talking about?" Ava tried to stand again, but failed. He uttered a tsk.

"His sister talks to her at night. She does it to all of us whom share the blood. Layton cuts that annoyance right out though..." He wiggled his tongue and waved his hand, looked away and looked back as he came off the table to lean down over her. Ava leaned back, and her head spun. "Those feelings of his are not real, you know? What you see are the reflections of your own. Yours reflecting. On. A hard. Cold. Blank. Surface."

"Please. Get the fuck. Out. My face." She swallowed, trying to steady her sight and to contain the water rushing behind her eyes.

"It's impossible," he boasted, all too chipper, and stood back, his eyes still peering down at her. "Even if it were true. Though, it is not. What would that mean? Exactly, what has he come back from? And what kind of life... can a nightmare make? What kind of person, after? Dressing a wolf in sheep's clothing." He laughed by quivering his lips.

"He has spent lifetimes on his creations, the only thing that has ever truly mattered to him, and do you think he will suddenly stop because he has met you? It is going to be a new world when he is done. Unless you are going to help him?" He paused and then started back up. "No. I do not see that... I do not see that because the two of you think you are changing him for the better. What is better? It is better over on our side. Why does your side get to be BETTER?" His eyes enlarged with a speck of turmoil, and so did Ava's. "And you are just flaunting around on your better side, thinking you're going to take him away from us. You cannot. He is us. We are him. We are not in the night — the night is in us.

"That is okay." He ran his fingers through his white hair and paced a few steps. "He will clear you up. He drained it out of me. We will all be purified from this hell.

"Suffering is only a state of mind," he whispered to himself, pacing again, and it was clear that he was coming unhinged. "That is what he taught me."

"What does Dahlila have to do with Layton?"

He stopped and turned towards Ava, his face straight suddenly. "She is from his lineage."

"Why is that bad?"

"Because his sister, Cynane, does not stop in the grave. She uses his descendants to get to Layton. She wants to haunt him. Tear him. She wants to stop him and destroy what the witches cannot touch... I would be a tad annoyed myself, if it were me. And, trust me, I had the pleasure of her in my head — Cynane cannot be taken lightly. Though, I don't know if he will take Dahlila like he did me. I do not see a use for her. I'm sure he'll simply take her tongue. Then her blood. The normal routine for family."

Ava croaked but couldn't manage to say anything to shut him up. She thought she was going to pass out.

"But then again, you never know all his reasons. I still do not know why he took Verina. She was his first child. Verina had a perfect, quaint life before he snatched her up into the sky, away from her cottage and away from two wee ones." His voice pitched high, and his head moved back and forth. "They rotted."

"Stop!" Ava yelled.

"All alone." He mimicked a child's voice.

"STOP — "

Her vision went black and it was silent.