Just before sunrise the Vampire guests began to leave the house. Selene could hear them moving about, talking and shouting to one another. She opened her eyes in the dim light and rubbed them once, twice. The dark canopy of Hector’s four poster bed hung above her, draped like a cloak, concealing her from the world like the dark secret she was.
She yawned, stretched her arms over her head and opened her eyes wider still, as though expecting what she saw to change. Hector sat in an armchair near the window, staring at her.
She opened her mouth to speak, but he intervened:
“I haven’t touched you.” He lifted a cigar to his lips and sucked, his next breath pouring out in curls of smoke.
“But-”
“Not yet Selene.” He gestured for her to stay prostrate, pressed a finger to his lips, and got up and walked to the door, prising it open a few inches.
“Hector.” Marianne’s voice rose and fell, as though she hadn’t expected him to appear in the doorway.
“She’s sleeping,” he said, gesturing to where Selene lay under the covers, her hair spread over the pillow like a dark cloud.
“Is it done?”
“It is.”
“Good. I would have hated to turn you in, my son.” She leant towards him and kissed his lips. The noise was nauseating, and Selene felt her body go rigid. “Next year I expect you to share her with the others.”
He nodded and waited for Marianne to retreat before closing the door. Selene pulled a pillow over her head and burrowed under the covers.
“Selene, I have to sleep before tonight, and you need to get to the theatre.”
She threw the covers back and blinked at him, lacking the energy to speak.
“Selene, please. Diana is probably already on her way to the theatre now. You have to go.” Selene frowned; a sleep deprived Diana was something she could not countenance right now.
She ran her hands over the satin sheets, but then recoiled as though she had touched a hot coal: Lorna had lain here on this bed only days before. She looked over at Hector, his handsome face caught in the half-light, and the details of their conversation of last night began to seep out of their tired hiding places in her mind. Immediately she sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Hector moved to help her, but she backed away from him, holding her arms outstretched.
“Don’t come near me.”
“Selene-”
“Don’t touch me, you vile narcissist.”
She saw him react to her words as though she had peppered him with silver bullets, and she felt a stab of pain on realising that she had hurt him. But still she shuffled backwards to the door, only breaking eye contact to check where she was putting her feet. She turned and put her hand over the door handle, savouring the reassuring coolness of the metal against her skin. But before she let herself out into the corridor Hector spoke with a shocking collectedness:
“Be here at 10 tonight Selene. We will go to Central Control together. Your dress is hanging in your room downstairs as we speak.”
*
Thoughts were swirling through Selene’s mind like a whirlpool, twisting as fast as her feet were running down the stairs. She wanted to tear herself open and rip out whatever part of her belonged to Hector. All this time she had been nothing to him but a vessel for his soul, and a disposable one at that. He had created her in the knowledge that he would have to kill her, drink her very essence, in order to get what he wanted.
But he claimed that his feelings for her were so strong that he couldn't do it. But then, they weren’t really just for her, were they? She wasn’t purely one being, and she never had been. Hector had cared for her so attentively all this time because she was him, and to damage her, would have been to damage himself.
Her world had been completely turned upside down and inside out, and she had no one to confide in. She couldn’t tell any of the girls, because they would immediately hand her over to the authorities, and Hector too probably. He was sure to be punished if they discovered what he had done. No one kept anyone else’s secrets; it was too dangerous. Humans were quick to surrender one another because punishments were so cruel for the slightest disobedience.
As she ran through the basement corridors she passed some of the other girls huddled together. They stopped and stared, and Selene picked out Lorna from the crowd, whose eyes narrowed and lips turned down at the corners as she stared back at her. Selene looked away and hurried towards her room, feeling her cheeks flush.
And then it occurred to her; there was someone she could talk to: Xander. She stopped halfway down the hallway, her eyes flickering from side to side as though reading her own thoughts, and then spun round on one foot and ran back up to Europa.
She didn’t even bother knocking, but exploded into the darkened room once she had unlocked the door. The two Varks who were guarding Xander stumbled to their feet on seeing Selene’s dishevelled figure.
“Get out, please.” Her chest heaved as she spoke, and she found it difficult to catch her breath. She waved them out, and because they were accustomed to her speaking to Xander alone, they bowed their heads and left the room.
She strode to the window and pulled open the heavy red curtains, surprised at the weight of the fabric. It was still dark outside, but she felt stifled so she threw open the window, letting the morning calls of birdsong drift into the room.
“What’s wrong?” His voice reflected the urgency of her movements.
She turned towards him and pressed her palms to her temples, her fingers rigid and pointing to the sky, and then she ran her hands through her hair.
Xander struggled to sit up, but his legs and hands had been tied again.
“Everything,” she said, letting her arms fall to her sides. Her lower lip began to tremble and she bit it, but it was no good. She was going to cry and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
“Come over here," he said, nodding to the rumpled sheets by his side.
She took a step towards the bed, hesitating for a moment. There was something strange about going from Hector’s bed to Xander’s with barely half an hour in-between. But she swallowed the thought and lay down next to him, rested her head on his shoulder and began to cry. He smelt wholesome, earthy, unlike Hector whose scent was otherworldly, musky and masculine and unnaturally desirable.
Xander's fingers flickered in their urge to hold and comfort her, but the bonds restrained them. Instead, he lay still and let her move into his body, curling up next to him.
When her deep sobs had slowed, she began to talk, explaining everything and telling him how she felt until her throat was dry and her voice hoarse.
“You were right. He only cares about himself, and his rise to power.” She rubbed at her eyes as she spoke, pulling out eyelashes which stuck to her damp cheeks.
“But he’s hesitating. You have time to escape, Selene.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. But have no doubt, he will come for you. Like he admitted himself, he only has a demon soul, and no matter how much he wants to believe he can feel his own humanity through you, it can’t be true.”
Selene’s body began to tremble, and she snuggled in closer to the stability of Xander’s torso.
“I’m afraid.”
“I know.” He sighed and took a deep breath before rushing his next words: “Untie me.”
“What?”
“Do it: untie me. I’ll come with you.” His eyes were wide, and he shook his bound wrists towards her.
“Xander, I can’t -”
“Where is she?” The voice was outside in the corridor, and both Xander and Selene fell silent.
“She left.”
“No she didn’t. I can still smell her. She should be at the theatre by now.” Diana was getting irate. “She’s in here.” A rapping of a knuckle on the door began, quickening as they listened.
The door handle began to twist, and Selene watched it, holding her breath.
“Diana, perhaps she’s sleeping. Last night was...long.” Hector’s voice was soft, soothing. Selene imagined him placing his hands on her shoulders, perhaps stroking her cheek to calm her. “The sun will rise soon, and you should get to the theatre before it does. Go downstairs, and I will send her to meet you in five minutes.”
Seconds later the door opened and Hector stepped into the room. He was wearing his silk robe over his bare chest, but he still wore his trousers as though he had been in the middle of preparing for bed. He stayed close to the door, not wanting to step any closer to Xander in case some bodily fuild might reach him.
“I thought I told you to leave.” His eyes glinted in the approaching dawn light, and he appeared more demon than man.
Selene looked at Xander, who managed a half smile in return and indicated that she should go to him. She let a peep of a breath escape before padding over to where Hector stood waiting. For the first time she felt the pain in her feet as discomfort; it was not going to make dancing easy. How foolish she had been.
“Diana is in the hall.”
“Yes.”
“Hurry up.”
Selene nodded and Hector pulled the door closed behind them as they left the room, twisting a key in the lock.
“Oh, Selene.” He reached out and held her in place, creating a bruise on her arm to match the one Marianne had made on her neck. “Don’t be late tonight.”