Biting Temptation

29: Until Dawn

"When has any of the things I've done been a brilliant idea?" I challenged.

He actually pretended to have a think and nodded and moved. It's true, I couldn't even think of an idea I've come up with that was actually brilliant... well, apart from this one and the new vampire idea.

I quickly walked through the basement door and made my way downstairs before he changed his mind. Gosh, she looks terrible. The wound was healed leaving a wide circular hole in her t-shirt on her stomach. Her wrists were bound by chains connecting to a bolt in the ground that appeared to be burning her skin. I shuddered at the sight. Her eyes were as black as the night as she glared at me, the veins on her face throbbing down and along her neck.

I sat against the far wall already knowing the chains didn't reach far enough for her to reach me. Her eyes were cat like, darting over me, over the door upstairs and then back to me.

"Come to watch me suffer, Evangeline?"

I shook my head. "No, I've come to talk."

Her laugh was as if I'd spoken the funniest joke ever created. "Because the last time we talked it turned out so well."

"Last time, was different. Stabbing you was for when you stabbed me all those years ago."

"Wow," She lay her head against the wall with a sneer. "Someone knows how to hold a grudge."

I narrowed my gaze. "You deserved it Florence. You deserve a lot more."

"Let me ask you, Evie," Her eyes returned to their original violet as she leaned forward. "Do I deserve to die?"

"Yes." I answered without a hint of hesitation. "Anything else?"

"Do I deserve to suffer?"

"Definitely."

"By whose hand would it be fair for me to suffer?"

"Every single one of the people in this house."

Her brow rose. "Everyone?"

"You want me to list everything? Okay. Katherine - her grandmother would have lived a lot longer if it weren't for your return. You burnt down Celia and Ethan's cafe a few months ago. Michael and Nate, well, you already know what you did to them. Christian hasn't spoken to his brother in centuries and the obvious. Lewis - he's your great-times-whatever grandson or nephew and he's had to suffer with this damn hunter gene-curse. And me? Well, let's not forget you almost killed my brother, you did kill my best friend, you bit me, you stabbed me, you punched me, and I'm sure there's more but I can't think of much else right now."

She held a hand to her chest and gasped. "My God, is that all I've done? Personally, I thought there was more."

I watched her silently, my gaze unwavering. "You really don't care."

"I fight or I fly, turtledove. It's my natural instinct."

"I keep thinking there is more to you but there really isn't there? I shouldn't have even considered giving you the benefit of the doubt."

"You gave me the benefit of the doubt? You're too nice, Evie."

"You're right." I glared. "I am."

**

I watched her watching me, her top lip occasionally twitching upward exposing her elongated fang. "You want to kill me don't you," I murmured to her a few hours later. I hadn't moved, not even for food or a drink. I hadn't even slept yet. I couldn't, not just yet. "You're tugging on those chains like their silly string. Why? Finally realised you're not getting out of this?"