Blood Vengeance [COMPLETED]

Chapter Thirteen - Twin Rivalry

"You shouldn't have gone wandering about."

When Selene let herself back into the bedroom, Arthur was already there. He now wore a more casual shirt and trousers, paired with smart leather shoes. He had closed the curtains once again, but Selene could tell it was light outside because there was a glow about the edges of the fabric.

"Sorry. I just -"

"Wanted to see. I know. I understand. They won't kill you here either; I always demand cash up front for a kill, and there are huge financial penalties for accidental slaughter." He took a deep breath and stood up straighter. "Sit down," he said, gesturing to a chaise longue that was upholstered in exactly the same fabric as her dress.

"Veronica made that too," he said, watching and waiting as Selene perched on the edge of the chaise, her dress melting into it.

"There are some questions I want to ask you." He began to pace about the room, back and forth, just in front of where she sat. "How did you come to be here?"

Selene bit her lip. "After Hector disappeared, I continued on to where he had been going. I thought he might still come here."

Thankfully, this seemed to satisfy Arthur, for he nodded and raised a hand to his chin.

"Do you think he is here?" he asked.

"I don't know." Selene blinked and clasped her hands in her lap. But in a roaring blur Arthur was bending down and staring into her eyes, having crossed a distance of several meters in the time it took Selene's eyelids to open.

"Don't lie to me." She heard his fangs grind free of his jaw, and she pulled herself back from him., pressing her chin into her neck in an attempt to create space between their faces.

"I don't know. I dream about him; I seem him; sometimes I think I feel him, but I can never be sure how much is real."

"What if I told you there is no Hector Stanley?" He stood up straight and crossed his arms over his chest, looking down at her.

"What do you mean?"

"What if I told you that Hector and Arthur Stanley were one and the same?" He tipped his head towards her, awaiting a response, allowing his fangs to retreat into his gums.

Selene's heart began to thud and Hector's soul clenched it tight.

"Would you give yourself to me, if I told you I was Hector?" he asked, his face so handsome and familiar that Selene wanted to say yes.

She shook her head. "I've seen you both in the same room, at the same time. At the ceremonial dance." She was baffled and frightened by his words, because nothing seemed impossible; perhaps there was only one of them?

"Don't you think that a man who can turn his body to dust and back again could convince a room full of people that he was standing in that room twice over, as two different people, in two different places?"

"Perhaps," she admitted. "But I don't believe it. You can't be him."

"Are you sure?" he said, leaning in towards her, inhaling her scent, pressing his nose, his jaw, his lips to her neck.

Selene pressed her lips together, her mind full of doubt; he even smelt just as Hector did; an irresistible scent that made her want to offer herself up to him there and then.

"No. I can't be sure," she said, finally, and in spite of the pressure she exerted on it, her lower lip began to tremble. If she wasn't even sure that Hector existed, then what was she doing here?

"They say twins know when something has happened to the other. I felt it when Hector was about to be killed. I knew it; I experienced it as though I was there." His breath brushed against her neck as he spoke, but then he pulled away again and stared at her. "And then there was nothing. I thought he was dead right up until I read the papers the following day. And then do you know what I thought?"