Touch Me ✔

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Screams enveloped me. I was trapped between two worlds; one of which had me pinned to the floor of the sitting room under Sebastian while my skin beamed bright as though I had been painted with the light of the sun. The other part of me was trapped in the memories, only now I knew whose they were.

I was flickering between the memories of different Genesis witches, many of which were sheltered within the Genesis House. After the initial shock to the heart, there had been a pause among the witches in which they only looked from one to the other for some form of explanation. Some could feel their magic drain and that of the magic around them, including that which protected the building from dangerous monsters like vampires.

It seemed to happen all at once. A fire was ignited, catching on the material of the building, and then the massacre began. I screamed under Sebastian as an image of him moving faster than sight crossed my mind. He struck at me and I was drowning in blood.

I jerked under Sebastian as if he had actually struck at me, momentarily choking on my scream of terror. The foundation trembled around us, but I didn't notice. I was in another witches' mind, feeling her fear as another vampire lunged at her; this one being Miles.

"Kill em all," Miles snarled dangerously, addressing the others who were entering behind him. He then ripped into my flesh and I screamed again.

I flickered from mind to mind, seeing their lives for just a moment before it was taken. In one moment, I was a married man expecting a child in the near future. In another, I was a teenage girl who had preferred spending her time with non-magical humans rather than events with the coven. And always, I was ripped from life, sometimes instantly but mostly painfully.

Sebastian abruptly released me without explanation, moving away as Theo approached me within the sitting room. All of them had come to see what was causing me such pain, but I couldn't recognize them in this time. I could only see through the eyes of the dying. I didn't notice Theo's hands wrapping around my arms to pull me to him.

"What did you do?" He was roaring to Sebastian, whose face refused to reveal anything. And yet in my mind, Theo was in front of me in that massacre, viciously swiping his claws at my throat. I screeched in pain within his grasp.

I was choking on the smoke, drowning in blood, and wherever there wasn't a vampire, a painful poison was seeping into my chest. The heart of the Phoenix was working fast, poisoning each witch with purpose until there would be none left. I was dying. Over and over. I was dying.

"She's awakening," Sebastian said in the background, "I thought she would know what we'd done. I didn't think she'd relive it."

I screamed until I felt as though my throat would bleed from it. My flesh was raw without even being touched. My lungs burned with smoke that no longer existed. And the images continued mercilessly. I had been murdered repeatedly by each of those I loved, Sebastian, Jax, Theo, Oliver, Miles, Levi, along with Desmond and Shiloh. None of them stopped. None of them hesitated. Many of them laughed without emotion.

And then I was in a familiar room. I was a man, but more than that. I was an elder; the leader of the Genesis coven. My skin was wrinkled with age and wet with blood. I was lying on the floor, bleeding out from my stomach where Desmond had previously attacked me. He was taking his time, watching me as I struggled to survive. I had already begun the last incantation, feeling the poison of the Phoenix behind the slaughter of the Genesis coven. The smoke was growing heavy and the screams were quieting until I would be the last one left.

Desmond stood over me, watching me without pity. Despite the fact that the last time I'd seen him was decades before, he hadn't aged a day since then. And yet, I could still see the image of him as a child; my child. My son.