When Sebastian came back to life, he quickly noticed three things before he opened his eyes. First, there was no sounds of a jet engine. So either they had crashed in the Atlantic and he was in the afterlife, or they had landed safely in Paris. The second thing was that he wasn’t alone for someone was sitting near him with his head in their lap. And finally, his jaw felt like it was stuffed with cotton.
He opened his eyes and found himself staring at the windshield of a car from the backseat.
“Welcome back to life. You feeling better?” A friendly voice asked. Sebastian turned his head slightly and looked up at two violet eyes.
Agnés smiled and ran his hand through his hair. “You were out longer than I thought. Do you feel any better?”
Sebastian sat up and touched his jaw. “Richard, what the hell did you go all out on me?”
“Sorry, ‘The Child’ was hell-bent on killing us—though he didn’t put up much of a fight—I had no intention of dying on a plane.”
The younger twin growled. “And you think I had the intention of being another vampire’s punching bag?”
“I’m sorry. I can’t stress it out any thiner than that.”
He scowled at the mirror. “Pha! You think sorry is going to make the pain go away? I feel like I’m made out of cotton. I’m surprised I can still talk.”
“It was just a small drug. You were in Death’s Rest and I didn’t want you to wake up in pain.”
“To late for that now genius.”
“What was I supposed to do?”
Sebastian rubbed his stiff jaw. “Incase you forgotten, I’m a vampire. Death’s Rest heals vampires.”
Richard held up a finger. “From my point of view, your body was having a hard time healing on its own.”
“Well, forgive me for being ‘The Child’!”
“Hey I told you—”
A deep growl cut into the conversation. “Shut. It. Both. Of. You or I’ll force you both into Death’s Rest.” Agnés threatened. He shot an ice cold glare at the twins before settling back against the door.
Sebastian paled slightly, “Did someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed today?”
“How about I didn’t get any sleep at all.” Agnés hissed, glancing over at him. “And I’m tired of settling your arguments. You’re brothers,” he said in a more calmer tone, “and both of you are in on this. You should put your arguments aside and focus on Adrien.”
Silence settled in between them. Sebastian looked out the window as Paris flew passed him. When Richard came to an intersection, he rose from his seat a little and pointed to a clothing store near by. “Wait, pull up into that store.”
Richard looked at him like he was crazy. “This is not the appetite time to go clothes shopping Sebby.”
“Just trust me.” Sebastian pleaded.
With a small sigh, Richard pulled into the parking lot and heard Sebastian unbuckle his seat belt and open the door before he put the car in park. Agnés followed soon after, running into the store before the sun could light him aflame. Rolling a kink out of his neck, Richard got out and hurried after his brother.
Sebastian jogged into the girls department, causing Agnés to become confused.
“What are we doing in the girl’s section?” He asked.
“I’m not going into the castle as myself.” Sebastian said, scanning the wall of bras.
“Afraid to what Gabriel might do if he knows you’re there?”
The young twin nodded. “Exactly. If I get in without alerting anyone about my presence, then I can distract most of the clan while you and Richard look for Adrien. And while I’m at it, I’ll find my father and put an end to his life.”
Richard came up to them panting. “That’s how your going to. . . .save Adrien? As a girl?”
Sebastian turned to them. “If I walk in there as myself, Father will know and we’ll have to fight our way to Adrien. Now, if you can help me, I’m also looking for my friend Moira: blond hair, French, blue eyes, probable recently had a manicure with blue nail polish—”
Richard pointed to a girl that matched his description, “Her?”
Sebastian nodded and waved to get her attention. She smiled and walked over to them.
“Aw, Monsieur Belmont.” Moira held out her hands, touching them to Sebastian’s shoulders then kissed both of his cheeks. Sebastian did the same and smiled.
“It’s been so long. What can I do for you, darling?” Moira asked in French.
Also in French, Sebastian said, “I need a disguise, a female disguise in fact.”
Moira looked up at him. “Oooh, need to seduce a few men are we?”
“Hopefully not.” Agnés said, clearing his throat.
Moira giggled. “In any case, come. Follow. I shall turn you into a women.”
“I think he can handle that himself.” Agnés quietly mentioned. “Sebastian, I really hope you know what you’re doing.”
They followed Moira to the back of the store to the employ lounge. Moira and Sebastian slipped into Moria’s office while the other two waited in the lounge area.
“So this is his big plan?” Richard asked as he looked around before sitting on a tan leather sofa near the wall. “He’s going to seduce death out of our fellow clan members?”
Agnés shrugged. “I believe it’s more along the lines of roaming around as a women till he found Adrien. But we should ask just to make sure.”
“Then why don’t we just go in? We could take out half of the clan before morning.”
Agnés leaned against the wall. “I don’t think he wants to kill everyone. Besides, if your father knows that you’re here to spoil whatever he has planed, he could very well just kill Adrien because of that before you even get there to stop him.”
They waited a few more minutes before the door opened and Moira stepped out. “May I present Natasha Lumen.”
The men turned their attention towards Sebastian as he stepped out. Dressed in a long flowing, dark blue-green skirt that came up to the hip, and a silver bandeau with a small light blue oval jewel in the middle that brought the center of attention to a cleavage created by fake (but appealingly large and very convincing) breasts.
With Sebastian's midsection exposed, it was clear that he was casting an illusion to make his once strong abdomen to look like a sleek, sexy and lean stomach and hips of a women. A dark blue opaque veil with a turquoise motif decorating the edge covered his nose and lips, leaving his honey eyes surrounded in mystery. Two dark gold arm cuffs were on his biceps and a gold armband with a light blue jewel was upon his left arm, overlaying the arm cuff. With two gold bracelets dangling over his wrists, Sebastian sashayed over to them.
“Hello boys.” He said with a sexy feminine voice.
“S-Sebastian?” Richard stuttered, blush covering his cheeks. He swore that he just swallowed his own tongue.
Agnés turned to him. “Don’t get turned on now, Richard. ‘She’ is your sibling after all.” He turned back to Sebastian, “They don’t call you the Prince Among Mortals for nothing, do they?”
“No they do not.” Sebastian twirled around for them to get a 360 view. “So, what do you think?”
Agnés cleared his throat and tried to keep his composure. “Well. . .um. . .I uh. . . .I must say that’s. . . .a very convincing outfit. But a belly dancer? What do you plan to do?”
“A few seductions and if I have to, a few up close assassinations.”
“You’re really going to kill others dressed like that? That’s awfully sad knowing that the most sexiest girls you’ve ever seen will be the last thing you do see.”
Sebastian rolled his eyes at the comment. “This isn’t going to end without bloodshed, Agnés. I know that now. Even if we did get Adrien without spilling blood, Father would just come after him again. He’s beyond reasoning now.” Sebastian replied as Moira took a few strands of hair into her hand. He flicked his eyes over at her.
“We need to do something with your hair.” She said. She snapped her fingers. “Come. I know exactly what to do.” She slipped back into her office.
“Sebastian.” Agnés called as the young twin turned to follow. “Are those real?”
Sebastian glanced down at his fakes breasts then with hands on his hips, he shot a sour look at his friend. “You better damn know that answer to that.”
Angés gave him a cheeky grin. “Another question: girls aren’t usually six feet tall. How do you propose to explain that?”
Sebastian shrugged. “Both of my parents were tall?”
“Women aren’t normally six feet tall,” he repeated. “And that’s not a very convincing cover story.”
“Sebastian.” Moira called.
“I’m a rare exception.” Sebastian stated before disappearing in the office.
“Be sure to cover those scars too.” Agnés reminded.
* * *
Adrien looked up at Vanessa as she smiled sweetly, though it seemed more like the sweet smile of hell with venom dribbling out with a grass hopper screaming ‘Help me! Help me!’
Adrien slowly got to his feet, feeling the ache in his keens now for being on them for so long. Now that he was in a well lit area, he gazed down at his hand. A spider bite pure and true was on his hand, and no doubt poisonous.
“Oh, it looked like you got hurt in your little escape.” Vanessa stood and approached but Adrien quickly turned and dove back into the secret tunnel. He hurried to press the switch to close the passage way with his foot when finger grabbed his ankle and yanked him out. He hit the floor again, bruising his chin and bitting his tongue.
He flip his body around and managed to kick Vanessa’s hand. She let go but before Adrien could move a muscle, her hand flicked out and he found himself pinned against the wall.
“You reek of that insect’s scent.” She hissed. “A play toy for his ‘greatness’?”
“I am not. Who the hell are you?”
“Vanessa Witchcoff. The last witch in the world. And you are going to help me.”
Adrien took a quick look at the room. The door was directly across from him with the king size bed covered in red silk sheets to his right and a great large window to his left. “I’ll never help you.”
Nothing but a pleased smile came up the witch’s lips. “Actually you will. If you don’t, I will kill Sebastian in front of you. And don’t think for a second that I can’t because I’m much more powerful than him by the means of magic. I could burn him to ashes if I wanted to. Sad though, seeing how I was his first love.”
Adrien’s stomach cramped as if someone had kicked him. “You?! So then. . . . You were the one who stoled Sebastian’s virginity and didn’t give a care? He loved you and you went and broke his heart.”
“And you care because. . . .?”
“He’s my friend.” Adrien sneered. “And you’re nothing but bitch.”
The punch was faster than he couldn’t see it coming and it struck hard enough to cause his lip to cut against his teeth and leave blood.
“Do you know how many ways I can kill you boy? With one element alone, I could kill you in ten different ways. Times that by four elements and that’s twenty different ways I can kill you. And I know a hundred ways with using poisons and alchemy to stop that little heart of yours or slowly strangle your lungs or to make your intestines fall out from you mouth.”
“I would rather die than help you.” The words came out before he could stop himself. Another strike to the face left him with a blood nose.
“Well, I’m sure you would.” Vanessa’s voice curled over with hatred and crackled with the tone that stated that ‘I can kill you right now.’ “Listen well boy. You’re going to help me lure Sebastian here, you understand? I have plans of my own for ‘The Child’ and I will not have you or Gabriel ruin them for me.”
Adrien kept quiet, knowing that he would trap himself in a situation were he would have no choice but to say yes too. Although, it was probably too late for that. He could feel that he didn’t have a choice either way. This woman really meant to hurt Sebastian or even kill Adrien if lack of corporation was sensed.
But there was something that she had said about ‘The Child’. She said she had plans for ‘The Child’, not Adrien. So she wasn’t talking about him at all. Could Gabriel had mistaken about Adrien? And why did Vanessa want Sebastian to be lured here?
“What do you want?” Adrien said. “If you want ‘The Child’, he’s right here.”
A pleased smiled pressed against her lips. “I’m glad you can see reason but I’m starting to doubt that you’re the one I’m looking for. To think I wasted all that time hiring those hunters. Anyways, you will go along with Gabriel’s plan—
“Never.” Adrien interrupted. “I won’t help that monster, nor you, to hurt Sebastian.”
Vanessa’s smile turned into a chilling evil smirk. “Oh, so I was right.”
Adrien gave her a puzzled look.
“Very well.” She said, mostly to herself. “I’ll have to change my plan then. Since you’re so precious to Sebastian and it seems likely that he will come to save you. I have something else in mind. But first. . . .” She conjured up a raw flame and shaped it into a whip and Adrien’s heart suddenly skipped a beat. “I need to break that spirt of yours.”
The flame whip came swiping across his face, searing his flesh. He cried out in pain as another lash struck him. Over and over, the heat and the pain started to over whelm him.
He tried so hard to be strong. He had to stay strong, but with this pain? It was unbearable. He couldn’t move and his body had already been abused by Gabriel but this. . . . .was worst. Much worst.
The whip cracked against his chest, lighting his shirt on fire. He screamed at the heat at the same moment a bucket of water splashed over him, sizzling the heat and making him hiss.
“All right!” He cried. “What do you want?”
Vanessa chewed on her lip. “I don’t think you’re broken enough yet.”
Another wave of pain lashed at him like rabid dogs hitting hard and the heat burned his skin like lava. What was she waiting for? Didn’t Adrien just asked what she wanted or was that not a good enough answer?
His body was burning with pain so badly that he didn’t notice that Vanessa had stopped and it wasn’t until she moved over to a small shelf that Adrien noticed what she was doing. A jar that she took down held a creature. He couldn’t tell from where he was but as she came closer, a bolt of fear shot through him. Tears swelled up in his eyes.
No, no she wouldn’t. . . .she couldn’t do such a thing!
Vanessa opened the jar and pulled out a spider. It’s long legs spread across her hand and its brown body filled Adrien’s eyes with tears and fear.
“You know what my little friend here is?” She asked. “It’s a recluse spider. I see that you were bitten already. I wonder if your body could handle the poison?”
Adrien’s body trembled as he shook his head slowly. “No. . .please. I’ll do what you say. . . . .just don’t. P-please . . .please don’t.” His voice cracked.
“Groveling now are we? Hmm,” Vanessa smiled at the spider. “What do you think, Miko?” She waved her hand, releasing Adrien from the wall—and dropped the spider.
The next thing Adrien knew, the recluse was on the floor heading towards him.
“Now Adrien, are you ready to do as I say? Or does Miko have to bite you?”
Adrien curled up against the wall and nodded quickly, his eyes still upon the spider as it quickly advanced toward him.
Vanessa smiled pleasingly. “Very good. But just incase. . . .” She flicked her hand and the spider flew into the air and landing on Adrien’s neck and bit him. With painful yelp, Adrien flung the spider away.
Now. . .he was poisoned.
“Now,” Vanessa said with a kind smile, “this is what you must do.”