Blood Rebel [COMPLETED]

Chapter Eighteen - Demon Soul

“A soul needs a body Selene; and yours houses mine. I searched for it for hundreds of years, trying to discover how I could put the two halves of my soul together again.”

Selene dropped her knees and let her legs fall to the floor, pressing her feet onto the carpet, feeling the shards of glass press though the skin. She pressed deeper, feeling them sink in and draw blood.

“You want to be human?”

“No. I want to be all powerful, and that requires a complete soul. But my soul was so weak, so helpless after hundreds of years of being bodiless, that I needed a human to host it, nurture it, let it grow to full strength. And not just any human: one that was perfectly suited to me and my soul so the unity would be harmonious. And so I paid to have you created, swearing all involved to secrecy, having those that might have talked killed. I had to find someone who could perform that dark and fearful Vampire magic that hadn’t been used for millennia.”

“Who did it?”

“An ancient female Vampire. She took your soul and bound it with mine and had it implanted within a human embryo, specifically designed and genetically modified to be my perfect match by Professor Andrews, who grew the embryo and nourished the child Institution One.”

Selene couldn't process the information; it was too much to take in. She sucked in a long, slow breath until her lungs inflated like balloons, and then she released it, puffing out her cheeks and letting it explode. 

"I..I..." She couldn't speak. Hector looked at her, anguish in his eyes. She took another breath, and another, and tried to settle herself. She felt the pain in her feet with a grim satisfaction an she ran them over the shards of crystal. She steeled herself, gritted her teeth, and spoke:

“So what am I? Am I you? Who am I?” As the words fell from her mouth she began to feel all self-control disintegrate, slipping away from her like grains of sand. Selene began to claw at her cheeks, her bare arms; the confusion unbearable. “Why haven’t you just killed me and reunited your souls?” Her voice was shrill, vibrating like a tuning fork.

“You were created to satisfy my every desire Selene. You are perfect; your face, your voice, your scent. All of it, created specifically for me. If I so much as tasted your blood I would never be able to stop. You would be dead in minutes.” He interlaced his fingers and looked down at his woven hands. “Do you know how hard it is to resist you?” He dragged the words out, tugging at them like a torturer extracting nails from the fingers of a victim.

“Then why do you do it?”

“Because you have worn away my resolution, my purpose.” He picked up another knife and flung it to the other side of the room, where it plunged into the plaster of the wall before falling to the floor in a puff of dust. “I feel the human goodness in you, my human goodness, and it seeps into my veins. It corrupts me.”

“How much is me, and how much you?”

“I don’t know Selene. All I know is that I want you more than I have wanted any other human, any other being, in all the years I have walked this earth. But I don’t just want you once: I don’t want to kill you, and yet the urge is so strong that I don’t know how much will-power I have left.”

Selene stood up and ran her hands through her hair, pulling at it until some of it came away in her clenched fists.

“I want you to get it out. I don’t want it inside me!” She ran her nails over the skin of her shoulders, leaving red welts to rise up in their wake, and began to beat her chest with her fists.

“Selene, please. Stop.” Hector stepped towards her and held her arms, pinning them to her sides.

“How can you ask me to stop? I don’t know what to think anymore.” She let her body sink into his grasp, and began to cry. “I don’t know who I am. You have to let me leave. I can’t stay with you.”

“I can’t let you go. If I don’t initiate you they’ll kill me. Marianne will give me up to the Grand Chamber and they’ll make an example of me.”

“So you’ll do it anyway? Why even bother telling me? Why not just do it now? Don't make me wait if I'm going to die.” She shook her shoulders, tears streaming down her cheeks, but he tightened his grip, forcing her to pay attention.

“I can’t kill you Selene.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m in love with you.”

They were the words Selene had wanted to hear for weeks, but now the meaning was evil and corrupt; not pure as she had believed love ought to be. His soul had violated everything; her body, her mind, her love for him. The words meant nothing now.

“You love no one but yourself!” She screamed the words and spat in his face. He let go of her, stepped back and pulled a silk handkerchief from his pocket and wiped away the saliva that had settled on his cheek.

She turned and ran for the door, barely conscious of the blood that covered the soles of her feet and left dark footprints on the carpet. But a second later Hector grabbed her, pulling her back towards him.

“You can’t run Selene.”

“Don’t touch me! You foul, warped monster!” She twisted and turned like a pig on a spit, but couldn’t escape his grasp. She was exhausting herself, using every last shred of energy to try and free herself.

“Stop, stop, stay still. I won’t hurt you. Not now.” His words were almost a caress, and she began to cease struggling, and as she did so he enfolded her completely in his arms and picked her up like she was nothing but paper. She laid her head on his shoulder and her tears created dark patterns on his jacket. She breathed in his scent and felt the heat of his body pressed against her; comforting, reassuring, confusing and terrifying.

He pushed the door open with his foot and carried her up the stairs. As they ascended Selene was vaguely aware of the sound of human screams coming from the other bedrooms, but she was too exhausted to care.