Stone Cold

Chapter 43

“Is Eve asleep?”

Gabriel’s grave voice caused her pale fingers which were entangled in Eve’s soft locks to stop stroking their way out of the silk tendrils as she slowly raised her head to lock eyes with his steely gaze. She had been so immersed in her thoughts that she hadn’t noticed his presence at all.

“Yes.”

“If Ares and you had a daughter, she would look like Eve, ironic as Eve is much older than you originally.”

Lowering himself in the couch opposite to hers, he folded one leg on top of other, giving her a meaningful glance.

‘Ares’ child?’

His unexpected remark caused her brows to furrow as her free hand immediately went to the soft flesh of her abdomen resting underneath her cotehardie,

‘What am I thinking? I just had my periods last month.’

Shaking her head to clear it of any lingering thoughts, she directed her gaze back at the middle aged man slumped in front of the fireplace. His eyes almost looked transparent, the grey in them burning like embers buried deep inside a coal mine.

“Can humans and vampires reproduce?”

“Yes, if the human is powerful enough to carry the child. How do you think Felix was born?”

He had answered without turning his head towards her. His eyes were still staring blankly at the pit of twisting firewood.

“Ruth is a human?”

“Witches are human with magical abilities. They live, age and die like humans.”

‘Die like humans? Then how did I meet her centuries from here?’

“Your face tells me the Ruth you met in future was no longer a human,”

Pausing for a moment, he slowly turned his head around to meet her eyes to confirm his suspicion,

“Mm. Interesting.”

“Why?”

“Because witches detest vampires, mating with one must’ve been difficult in itself but then getting turned into one as well. She must’ve been desperate to resort to this.”

“What are you trying to say?”

Her legs were getting numb from sitting in the same place for hours but the thought of waking Eve up kept her glued to her seat.

“Cyrus bonded with Ruth without her consent, capturing her younger twin Deborah as well in the process. He wanted to keep her at his side at every cost, probably to obtain an heir out of her. Two witches against all the royals, that could not have worked out better. Eventually Ruth got pregnant with Felix, it was a ray of sunshine cutting straight through her dark soul, but in the end it proved to be a stab in her heart as well. Felix was a Hybrid, weaker than others which urged him to do all kinds of stuff to please his father and obtain his approval somehow. I had long left the land by then, but I guess this was the same reason Felix met his demise. His hunger for approval drove him to it.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because as much as I have gathered, Deborah was a good person; Ares is the reflection of her goodwill. Ruth being evil doesn’t add up. There is something more to it than meets the eye. At first, I had thought revenge to be the fuel driving Ruth but her leisure movements tell something otherwise. They are after something peculiar, something which had driven Ruth to side with her biggest nightmare, Cyrus.

“What do you think they’re after?”

“You.”

Sinking her teeth into her bottom lip, she gingerly pushed Eve’s sleeping head away from her lap, letting it fall on the smooth velvet adorning the couch.