The Other Side Of Midnight

I smile at him. “I’ve been blessed to have you.”

“No, the honor to serve you was all mine,” he says loyally.

“Thank you, William. Now I have a few more final arrangements to make before I leave.”

“Good luck, my Lord,” he says softly. Then he stands, and walks away quickly.

Chapter 65

Rocco

London

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXYlFuWEuKI

-Save Your Tears-

My father’s butler greets me by name, “Good evening, Count Rossetti. Your father and mother are in the Rose room.”

He has never seen me before so I imagine he must have recognized me from that family portrait my mother keeps in the living room. He opens the door to the Rose room, announces me formally, and closes it behind me.

The dusky pink and gilded walls are the same, albeit a little faded. It is impossible to imagine that more than a hundred years have passed since I was last here. My father and mother are sitting on a long sofa. His deterioration is remarkable, his eyes are sunken, and his skin wrinkled and mottled, there is a seeping sore on his cheek. My mother looks unchanged, but I realize, like my sister, she is wearing a wig. Even standing two meters away from them I can smell the putrid stench of rotting flesh.

“Come and sit down,” my father invites cordially.

I sit opposite them. “What’s the plan?”

“What it always was,” my father replies coldly.

“Where is she?”

His hands tremble slightly as he reaches for his glass of sherry. “You will see her tonight… at the ritual.”

“You’re forgetting something very important. She has refused to willingly take part in your ritual.”

My father lunges forward suddenly, like a striking snake, his eyes glittering with cold fury. He may look weak and aged, but the ancient power and might is still coiled up inside him. “That’s because you didn’t do your job properly. Sometimes I wonder if you are truly from my loins. You turn away from your own nature, and now you fail at the one duty your lineage expects of you. It was a simple task. Make one human female fall in love with you, but you even managed to fuck that up.”

My mother touches my father’s sleeve. “Calm down darling. Rocco is more like me. He has a kind heart.”

My father leans back. “Stop deluding yourself, Junia. Our son is the one who persuaded her not to take part. One look at her and I can see she is deeply in love with this fool. She would have done anything for him. I know he persuaded her not to. He wants to destroy us all.”

“Yes, it’s true,” I snarl. “I didn’t want her to do it. I want us all to die off. We don’t deserve to live. We are cursed parasites.”

In a flash, my father streaks across the space between us, his fist raised to deliver a blow to the side of my head. I duck easily, and he flies face-first into the sofa. I stand and move back. My mother takes the opportunity to stab her syringe filled with very strong sedative directly into my arm.

I turn and smile at her. She is breathing hard and afraid I might retaliate, but she has nothing to worry about. It is exactly what I expected from her and it is the only way I will see Autumn again, the only chance I have of saving her.

I sink down on the sofa and let the sedative take over.

Chapter 66

Autumn

Scotland

I wake up feeling strange. My head feels as if it is full of cotton wool and my tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth. There’s light from a lamp on the bedside table. Confused, I squint and look around me groggily. I am in a beautiful, but unfamiliar bedroom. And then I remember. The horror floods my mind.

The deer, the man, the jab in my arm.

Oh Rocco! I’m so sorry. I’ve been so stupid.

I look down and see that somebody has dressed me in a long white dress. There is a window on one wall, and I scramble out of bed and hurry to it. It is pitch black outside, but it is clear I am very high above the ground.

The door opens and Isadora walks in wearing a long red robe with gold embroidered on it. It looks grand and ceremonial. She smiles at me. “Ah, you’re finally awake.”

“Where am I?”

“In my father’s castle on the Scottish highlands. It’s a pity you woke up so late. Otherwise I could have shown you the grounds. It’s very beautiful around here.”

I stare at her in amazement. Scotland? They brought me all the way to Scotland. “How long have I been sleeping?”

“Would you believe a whole day and a half.” She shakes her head as if scolding a child.

But clearly, they drugged me because they wanted me to sleep for all this time. “Why have you brought me here?”