Marionette

Chapter 5 Love's Lies

The rhythm of his soul drummed in his ribs;all because of her. A silent, tearless cry for mercy escaped his lips when he pressed his hand over his chest.

"It wasn't Odette...it never was Odette." His hands twisted around the volume. "It would never lie...my body..the vampiric lore." But his skin pulsated forward. Nicolae was sure Odette was the one. She filled his aimless and bitter days with her laughter and soft touches. She filled his bitter life afterwards with memories.

Like how humans lusted and loved, for vampires, love came with complex layers. Having a normal family through human means was almost impossible but somewhere through evolution their need for companionship intensified, thus when they found their true love, their once still heart would beat again more alive than ever. Some found them. Some died without knowing their soulmate's name.

A single scarlet tear rolled down his cheek. Him and his fiery red haired wife were never meant to be. Nicolae had a child with her and became a vampire for her. He courted, loved her, married her against his parents' wishes.

They were in love! The feelings, the touches, the sweet nothings. They'd end one day if Odette lived; it didn't have to be death but maybe a nasty divorce, maybe she'd hate him one day. She'd hate him so much that she'd take his son away.

"I even remember running my hands down the curves of her hips, the night Octavian was conceived. She'd never take my son away from me? Would she?"

Nicolae could have died happily without knowing that piece of information; ignorance was bliss, a luxury not afforded to him. The price of immortality was a cost he never asked for and cross too burdened for his weakened shoulders to bare alone.

"I loved them so much but we were destined to lose each other somehow."

He tried and tried but his body stifled his sorrow; crimson bled from his eyes but the pain felt muted yet he wanted to shout.

"What else in my own life did I not know?! "

The volume landed across the floor, tearing the spine; soon a metal candelabra crashed next to it in a deafening, echo.

"What else am I burdened with?!" He seethed swiping up his chalice of blood. With shaky hands he tried to drink but it snapped under his angry grip, gifting his fingers with lines of plasma that healed quickly.

Watching his vampiric power at work distressed Nicolae. "Disgusting, what am I? What am I really doing here? Vampire but my mortal foolishness never left me! I should have died that night...I deserved to die!"he loathed himself. "But my own greed and selfishness is why I am here...suffering!"

He grabbed another book off the shelf. Odette's favourite; Zofloya. Like Laurina in that novel, Odette was easily seduced by him; a bank tycoon son's masquerading as a street magician; not caring about the events laying in the wake of their Prague marriage.

Nicolae seethed ripping out the pages.

"Fucking hell..." he cursed hurling the book across the room. He swung around, breathing heavily; looking for another object to take his anger out on. A shelf met an unfortunate fate.

Did it matter anymore? The devil could burst through the floor and drag him to the depths of hell. It would be far more comforting. Right now the migraine pulsing around his head, felt more comforting but the pain encouraged his rage.

"And it would be a paradise away from this hell!" Dark thoughts lurked behind his shoulder; like a demonic entity ready to attack. Propping himself against the wall beneath Octavian's portrait; his red hued eyes bled and bled drowning out the other colours of his eyes;forming rivulets on the tiles. Red choked his vision.