Her eyes narrowed, the smile fading. “But that’s not why you look like you ain’t slept. What else happened?”
I hesitated. Talking about it out loud made it real. But Seraphine wasn’t the type to let things go.
“Don’t look at me, like that, cher. Now you tell me what’s happening.”
I took a slow breath. “I’ve been… dreaming,” I started. “Only they don’t feel like dreams.”
“How so?”
“It’s not a vision, it’s physical. I canfeelit. The air’s hot, the ground burns through my shoes. Everything smells like iron and ash.”
“Hell,” she said quietly.
I looked up at her; she gave me a knowing nod. “Yeah,” I whispered. “I can hear people screaming. I see shadows moving, twisted shapes that crawl instead of walk. And then there’s the demon.”
“Demon,” she murmured, her face hardening. “The one who has your papa runnnin’?”
I nodded. “He fought him for years, Seraphine. But he always said Bael had promised to come back one day. I think that day’s arrrived.”
Seraphine’s jaw tightened. “You’ve seen him?”
“Last night. At first, I thought it was just a nightmare, but it’s too real. He’s there, in my head. He’s tall, built like something that was once human, but it’s been corrupted. Its skin is black like coal, cracked with fire underneath. Eyes red as blood, mouth full of teeth too sharp to belong to anything natural. He likes to mock me, says he’s been waiting for me. That he’s going to finish what he started with my father.”
Seraphine reached across the counter, her fingers brushing mine. “What does he say exactly?”
I swallowed. “That he’s going to take me. That he wants to feel me burn from the inside out. That he wants to make me scream until heaven forgets my name. And that he wants my holy boy to watch.”
“Holy boy?”
I nod. “Peter Hellsing.”
Her hand tightened around mine. “He’s trying to break you.”
“I know.” My voice trembled despite me. “Yesterday afternoon, when Hellsing went down… I felt his power. And I did something I shouldn’t have.”
“Tell me.”
“I performed an ancient spell. One that bound me to Hellsing and now, now I’ve taken in his powers, and I can’t get rid of them.”
She listened, eyes sharp, lips pressed tight. By the time I finished, she wasn’t smiling anymore.
“You know, that energy you felt,” she said slowly, “that wasn’t just fear or adrenaline. Hellsing holds power. Old power. And it’s tied to you now, cher.”
I shook my head. “It felt like… him. Like I pulled him back from somewhere neither of us should have been.”
Seraphine nodded. “You did. I can feel the residue on you from here. You dragged him out of the dark, and that kind of act leaves a mark. You and that man? You’re linked now.”
Her words made my pulse stutter. “Linked how?”
She gave a small, knowing smile. “In more ways than one, I bet.”
I groaned. “Seraphine…”
She raised her hand. “Don’t even try to deny it, beby. I can smell sexual tension a mile away, and right now, you reek of it. You’ve got it bad for that man.”
I rolled my eyes, but heat crept up my neck anyway. “He’s impossible. Bossy. Arrogant. Always trying to take control.”
“Mhm,” she hummed, sipping her coffee. “And that excites you, doesn’t it?”
