Inescapable (Eternelles: The Beginning, Book 1) by Zee Monodee, Natalie G. Owens Page A
Authors: Zee Monodee, Natalie G. Owens
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could dematerialize like smoke and vanish. He couldn’t be a soul stealer—much too alive for that. How about an overlord? She hadn’t seen any pendant, though that could be hidden under his shirt. So then, how had she not felt anything specific about him when they shook hands earlier? No creature she knew of could erect a firewall against her mental prodding.
The questions rolled and tumbled, and a hiss, like that of a cat prancing for a fight, brought her back to the room.
Sera eyed her with those still-crimson irises, the blood lust having completely taken over. In another minute, or less, she would jump out of the door and go slake her thirst from the first human who would cross her path.
Adri couldn’t have that happening. Time for her to fight her daughter, to put all feelings aside and think of the greater good.
The fury came at her with her talons; she deflected the lunging body with one swipe of her arm and a stiletto-heel kick into the shins. The seam of her dress ripped in the process, but she paid that no mind as Sera lost her balance and fell. The side of her head again hit the coffee table, but this time the center of it. Glass shattered and the solid ebony wood even crumbled under the force of the fall from the superhuman inert mass.
Tentacles of regret and dismay wrapped around Adri’s heart as she contemplated what she’d done to her daughter. She’d had no other choice, though, and prayed the girl wouldn’t remember any of this episode.
She stepped through the glass and picked up the limp body, to carry her, half-dragging, onto a clean rug in front of the doorway to one bedroom. There, she sat on her knees, pulled the girl’s head onto her lap, and used a shard of glass to slit her left wrist open. Blood oozed from the cut, which she then pressed to Sera’s lips.
The trickle of the dark liquid into her mouth made Sera open her eyes. Adri averted her gaze from the red irises. She couldn’t bear to see this, what her beautiful princess had been reduced to.
The sucking at her wrist gradually decreased in intensity, and when she next glanced at the girl, the eyes had returned to their usual grey shade.
Thank goodness.
Sera’s eyelids slowly closed, and her head grew heavy in her mother’s lap. Adri drew the limp body close to her, and as tears rolled from her eyes, slowly rocked the girl like she had done so many times in the past, when Sera had been growing up. There’d been a time when she had refused to sleep without being cuddled by her mother. Of course, she’d been a little girl then, all of six years old.
And after more than a hundred years, the love Adri had felt at the time had merely grown, snowballed until it became an ever-rising tide that threatened to engulf her every time she looked at her daughter and contemplated the distance between them. Distance that Rafe, in all his selfishness, had created.
Yet, tonight, he’d shown her a different side of him. Could he really care for Sera, Séraphine, as he always called her? Then why had he been here with three vampyres and Lord knew how many soul stealers? Creatures he must’ve brought to life himself, because he’d killed them.
Which led her to the only thing that mattered at the moment—Sera wasn’t safe. She wouldn’t be until they returned to Shadow Bridge, within the protection of the town’s invisible walls and their very own castle. The sooner they got there, the better.
Glancing at the sleeping form, she sighed. How would she do this? She might be a warrior but she wasn’t that strong to carry an adult girl from the penthouse suite all the way down to the garage where her car—
Et merde! She had come here in Des’ car. Hers was still parked at the Met. She’d need help. There was only one person who could come to her rescue now. Someone who knew the truth about her and Sera, who wouldn’t ask questions.
She sighed. Loathe as she was to call him, she had no other choice. He’d done his best to make her
The questions rolled and tumbled, and a hiss, like that of a cat prancing for a fight, brought her back to the room.
Sera eyed her with those still-crimson irises, the blood lust having completely taken over. In another minute, or less, she would jump out of the door and go slake her thirst from the first human who would cross her path.
Adri couldn’t have that happening. Time for her to fight her daughter, to put all feelings aside and think of the greater good.
The fury came at her with her talons; she deflected the lunging body with one swipe of her arm and a stiletto-heel kick into the shins. The seam of her dress ripped in the process, but she paid that no mind as Sera lost her balance and fell. The side of her head again hit the coffee table, but this time the center of it. Glass shattered and the solid ebony wood even crumbled under the force of the fall from the superhuman inert mass.
Tentacles of regret and dismay wrapped around Adri’s heart as she contemplated what she’d done to her daughter. She’d had no other choice, though, and prayed the girl wouldn’t remember any of this episode.
She stepped through the glass and picked up the limp body, to carry her, half-dragging, onto a clean rug in front of the doorway to one bedroom. There, she sat on her knees, pulled the girl’s head onto her lap, and used a shard of glass to slit her left wrist open. Blood oozed from the cut, which she then pressed to Sera’s lips.
The trickle of the dark liquid into her mouth made Sera open her eyes. Adri averted her gaze from the red irises. She couldn’t bear to see this, what her beautiful princess had been reduced to.
The sucking at her wrist gradually decreased in intensity, and when she next glanced at the girl, the eyes had returned to their usual grey shade.
Thank goodness.
Sera’s eyelids slowly closed, and her head grew heavy in her mother’s lap. Adri drew the limp body close to her, and as tears rolled from her eyes, slowly rocked the girl like she had done so many times in the past, when Sera had been growing up. There’d been a time when she had refused to sleep without being cuddled by her mother. Of course, she’d been a little girl then, all of six years old.
And after more than a hundred years, the love Adri had felt at the time had merely grown, snowballed until it became an ever-rising tide that threatened to engulf her every time she looked at her daughter and contemplated the distance between them. Distance that Rafe, in all his selfishness, had created.
Yet, tonight, he’d shown her a different side of him. Could he really care for Sera, Séraphine, as he always called her? Then why had he been here with three vampyres and Lord knew how many soul stealers? Creatures he must’ve brought to life himself, because he’d killed them.
Which led her to the only thing that mattered at the moment—Sera wasn’t safe. She wouldn’t be until they returned to Shadow Bridge, within the protection of the town’s invisible walls and their very own castle. The sooner they got there, the better.
Glancing at the sleeping form, she sighed. How would she do this? She might be a warrior but she wasn’t that strong to carry an adult girl from the penthouse suite all the way down to the garage where her car—
Et merde! She had come here in Des’ car. Hers was still parked at the Met. She’d need help. There was only one person who could come to her rescue now. Someone who knew the truth about her and Sera, who wouldn’t ask questions.
She sighed. Loathe as she was to call him, she had no other choice. He’d done his best to make her
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