Darkness Embraced Part 5

Was that Vasco?

Did I care?

It felt like something hit me. If I were human, I was certain the breath would've been knocked out of me. My body struggled to process what had just happened. I looked down at Renata and felt anger. No, not anger...rage. I didn't think. I acted. I grabbed a handful of her velvety hair and pul ed.

I screamed as her fangs tore my skin.

"Epiphany!" It was Vasco. I heard him speaking in fast Italian. What he was saying, I couldn't translate for the death of me.

Anger. Fear. Panic. Vasco was panicking. I was feeling his panic as my own.

He grabbed my face and turned me to look at him. "Bel ezza," he said. "Colombina...look at me."

"Look at me," Renata said and I couldn't help myself. I turned to look at her.

"Colombina," Vasco said in a gentle voice. I started to turn to look at him and Renata said my name.

Sharing blood had cal ed to my power and they were playing tug-of-war with me, casting their emotions at my empathy.

Vasco's power pulsed against mine, like he was water and I the sponge. He showed me gentleness and protection, but when I turned to look at Renata she showed me pa.s.sion and l.u.s.t.

It was the latter my body craved.

"Vasco," I said and felt his hopefulness. "Let go of me."

His hope crumbled in my mind.

"No, colombina." He seemed so sad. Why did I have to make him so sad? Why was I so determined not to let him protect me? Vasco always protected me.

I grabbed his hands and screamed like a cat coming out of water. I thrust him away from me.

"Do not touch me!"

"I wil touch you," Renata said, licking my blood off her lips. She started moving toward me. Yes, I wanted her to touch me.

"Epiphany!" Vasco yel ed at me. "Fight her, d.a.m.n you!"

I shook my head. "No, I don't want to."

Renata was getting closer. I reached out my hand, chest rising and fal ing in antic.i.p.ation.

"Do not let her make you weak!"

Weak? I licked my lips, tilting my head. Did my desire make me weak?

"Am I weak?"

"No, my darling," Renata said. "You are mine."

Then Vasco did something.

An image of Renata and me lying in bed. Her nude body spooned mine. Her breath warm against my neck as she stroked my hair.

"It is not always weak to succ.u.mb," she whispered in my ear. "I enjoy you this way, Epiphany. I love that you trust me." Her fingers slipped between my legs as she began to part me.

Trust. She had broken my trust.

I tried to scream when I came back to myself, but I couldn't breathe. I was drowning. I pushed up off the bed, moving clumsily to the far side of the room. I probably looked as unstable and dizzy as I felt, but it did not matter. What mattered was that I got away from the two of them.

Vasco and Renata stared at me. Their power pushed at me and this time I pushed back.

"Stop it," I said. "Both of you."

Vasco's pupils returned to a normal size as he withdrew his power.

Renata's eyes were stil swimming, like echoing waves cal ing me home. Somewhere in the back of my mind I could've sworn I heard the ocean roaring. "Epiphany." She moved to the edge of the bed and offered her hand. "Come back to me."

I took a step forward and stopped myself.

"No." I shook my head, hands trembling. "No, stop this."

I felt her power s.h.i.+ft, like an invisible wave threatening to take me under. For the first time, I stood my ground, bracing myself against the tsunami of her power.

Her power receded, going back to the ocean from whence it came. I knew, without a doubt, that she could've forced me. Why she didn't, why she did not use that power to break my wil , I did not understand.

"She would have failed had you not interfered." Her words were scalding as she turned to Vasco.

"No," he said, "She would not have, my Queen."

"She was already giving herself to me," Renata said. "You had no right."

It seemed a thousand thoughts flitted through Vasco's eyes. "This was a part of your test for her?"

Renata gave a very slow nod.

Vasco cursed and then asked, "Why?"

She gave me a considering look. "I wanted to taste her power. To see how strong she has grown."

If lying was a piece of candy, I was sucking on a real y big piece of it.

"That's not al ," I said.

Renata gave me a satisfied smile. It reminded me of the way she used to smile, like a cat teasing its helpless prey. "No," she said, "not al ."

"What do you mean?" Vasco asked.

"It wasn't just to see how strong I've grown," I said, but my attention was al for Renata. "I felt your remorse. You meant what you said earlier." I didn't repeat her words, not in front of Vasco.

She considered me for a long while. "Did I?"

"Yes."

She turned to Vasco and a flicker of anger went through me again.

"Renata," I said and this time my voice was firm.

The look she gave me wasn't very friendly. "You have grown bold, Epiphany," she said. "But I am stil your Siren and you wil not talk to me in such a way."

"I hate you."

My words were like a spear that I wrapped my power around and threw at her.

Pain. As if my heart would burst. Fear.

I stumbled as Renata pushed me out too fast. She had so much more experience that it seemed al it took was a flick of her wrist.

"Do not try to read my emotions." Her eyes narrowed, darkening again.

She cared. There was some part of her that cared. I had not expected that. I'd expected her to get angry or to feel hurt, but not pain, not fear of what I thought of her.

I searched her for an answer. Renata turned away from me, as if she did not want me to find words written in the expression of her features.

"Why did you cast me out?" I asked.

"Because you no longer held my interest," she said and her words were empty.

"That's a lie. I don't have to be in your head to know that is a lie."

We stared at one another, until Vasco said, "If you were trying to chal enge her, my lady, why didn't you pick someone that Epiphany would actual y fight?"

"You loved me," she said and her voice wasn't empty this time. "You couldn't fight that."

"You set her up to fail," Vasco said, surprised. "You don't want her to become an Elder."

"I did not set her up to fail."

I laughed, but it wasn't a funny laugh. It was the kind of laugh you give when everything was going horribly wrong and there was nothing you could do about it. "No, you didn't," I said. "You set me up to stroke your ego. I won't fight you, Renata." I took a step closer to her, this time of my own wil . "You've always liked that I didn't fight you."

"You fought me earlier."

I moved forward again, and this time I realized that the stone floor was cold beneath my feet. At some point during our little power play, I'd lost my leggings and boots.

"It's kind of pointless to fight you, Renata. Don't you think?"

"Why?"

"You are my Queen and my Siren. You were my lover."

"Once," she said.

"More than once," I said.

She gave a sly smile, eyes lit with remembrance. "True."

I felt the heat rise to my cheeks.

Her lips curved even more, noticing my blush. "That is why you do not want to fight me? Because of love?"

I started to smile and stopped myself. It wasn't her power; it was just the ridiculous effect she had on me. "Am I supposed to want to fight my Siren, my Queen?" I asked, very careful y avoiding answering her last question.

She sighed almost wistful y. "It is such a waste." She looked me up and down.

"You're the one that threw it away."

"I had my reasons."

"I'd love to hear them."

"No."

"Suit yourself."

The look she gave me was too complex to decipher. At last, she said, "You have changed, Epiphany."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"I am not sure yet. I do believe that some of Vasco's confidence has rubbed off on you."

I smiled at that. "Wel , he had plenty to spare."

She gave Vasco a displeased glance. "She is no longer the aching, trembling thing I once knew. You have inspired change in my Epiphany, Vasco."

"No, my Queen," Vasco said. "I have helped Epiphany bring herself into the light. This is the real Epiphany." He motioned at me with his wrist like a magician unveiling his a.s.sistant. "Do you not like what you see?"

Renata looked at me again and I fought the urge to fidget. "I have always liked what I see. I would not have brought her over and made her mine had I not," she said, "but I am not so certain this newfound confidence and boldness is beneficial to her. It makes her more difficult to bend to my wil ."

"Then stop trying to bend me."

"And what would I accomplish by doing that?"

"I'd be happier with you."

She laughed. "Happier with me? That does not matter to me, Epiphany."

"In some part of you, it does."

She wasn't angry this time, just thoughtful. "I told you to stay out of my mind."