She tried to catch her breath and explain to Cass what had happened, but her lungs felt like they were shrinking.
“I know, Adriana. I know.” Adriana met her eyes and saw the understanding in them. “I was worried about you after our fight, so I searched for where you’d be. I saw you attacking someone and running away with your brands on display. And I saw…” Cass’ voice trailed off as she took a deep breath.
“What?” Adriana pressed. “What else did you see?”
Cass shook her head, a look of determination on her face. “We need to leave,” she said, as she wrapped Adriana in her jacket. “We need to leave today. He’s going to come for you.”
“How long do we have? How do we get away?”
Cass frowned in thought before clenching her hands in fists at her sides. Adriana watched Cass’ eyes glaze over as she ran through each potential future, their usual deep brown shrouded in a dark, hazy mist. She knew from her lessons with Striga that every single change in the present, even in the smallest of decisions, could impact the outcome of one’s future. If there was a way to hide from him, to protect them from the man that had killed her and her family, to stop her from losing the control she had worked too hard to build, then Cass would find it. But as her eyes cleared and returned to their normal colour, Adriana stopped breathing completely at the look upon her face.
“Every path led to the same ending,” she muttered. “He’s going to find you.”
“No!” Adriana cried out. She ran her hands through her hair, pulling at the roots in desperation. “No, no, no, no! He can’t find me, Cass, he can’t find me. You can’t let him, please, don’t let him find me. I’m not ready! I’m not ready.”
Cass wrapped her arm around Adriana’s shoulders, forcing her to walk with her down the canal to their apartment, trying to keep her away from the prying eyes of passersby. Adriana heard her whispering comforting words to her, promising that nothing and no one would hurt her, that she would do anything to stop that, even if the odds were stacked against them. But her words did nothing to soothe her.
As soon as they got inside their flat, Cass pulled Adriana into the bathroom and stripped her clothes, pushing her into the shower and rinsing the blood off of her. She left her there to dry herself while she fetched some clean clothes, but when she returned, Adriana was standing exactly as Cass had left her, clutching onto her towel.
Cass helped her dry and dress, before she combed her hair and made her sit on the sofa with a cigarette to try to calm her down. It was no use—nothing would soothe the brutal andpainful impact of the truth. He was going to find her. No matter what they did, he was going to find her. She was going to lose everything she had worked so hard for, her power would all be controlled by the feelings she had for him again; she would be controlled by him.
She knew her intense feelings for him had always been her downfall, despite him telling her so long ago that her emotions were in fact her strength. The way she felt for him, the way she had always felt for him, forever threatened to overwhelm her.
Adriana closed her eyes as she tried to imagine what he would do when he found her. Would he despise her, knowing that she had become a monster like him? Would he resent her for hiding, for forsaking her duties to the Courts, all because she was scared? Would he be overjoyed to see she was still a part of this world and take her into his arms? Would he even care at all?
She pictured his face, pictured falling into his arms again, losing herself in his kiss. But then she felt the power coursing through her veins, wild and unpredictable. She could feel the urge to lash out, to hurt Xander and everyone else around her.
He was everything she had ever wanted, and everything she had run from. He made her feel like she could do anything, and that she’d have no control in it.
He was dangerous, she had always known that, but now he had made her dangerous, too. Not just because he had turned her, nor just because he had infected her with his darkness, but because her conflicted feelings for him had never subsided, not once. And it continued to tear her apart inside.
Adriana’s eyes flew open at the pain in her hand. Her cigarette had burnt down to her fingers and left harsh red marks on her skin. She welcomed pain, it often grounded her, but this time it did nothing to ease the raging storm inside of her.
She turned to find Cass frantically packing two rucksacks with clothes, food, and bottles of blood.
“Cass,” Adriana called out, her voice hoarse. “Cass, what are you doing?”
Cass didn’t respond. She continued to pull all the cupboards open, taking out anything and everything. She grabbed another bottle of blood from the fridge, accidentally dropping it on the floor in her hurry. It smashed to pieces, its content spreading across the kitchen floor.
“Fuck!” Cass screamed out, the panic evident in her voice. “Okay, it’s okay, I’ve packed four bottles. I can bring a couple of IV kits with us to fill them up again when we need to. I’ve got the credit cards, we can take money out at the station, we’ll just use cash after that. We can go to Scotland, to my cousin’s house in the Highlands. The rest of my family will go there, too, once we tell them what’s happened—she’s the most remote. We can lay low there for a while, if she lets us…”
Cass’ voice was drowned out by the ringing in Adriana’s ears. She clutched her head in pain, falling to her knees and hunching over. Shadows darted around her as her body glowed with Luciferus light, so powerful and bright that it felt like it was burning her skin. She felt like the walls were closing in on her, like she couldn’t get enough air, as her powers fell under the control of her panic.
The glass of the window shattered as she let out a scream, showering her in tiny sharp fragments. A strong gust of wind blew through the flat, sending everything on the coffee table flying. The wind howled and raged around her, trapping her inside the mini tornado she hadn’t meant to conjure. She couldn’t stop it, she couldn’t stop any of it.
She felt Cass’ strong power counter-attack hers, slowly forcing the wind to die down to a more manageable breeze, but it did nothing to calm the storm within her. No one had ever helped her through that, no one other than him.
“I’ve got you,” Cass said as she knelt down in front of her. “I’m right here. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
Adriana continued to cry, the pain in her body too much to handle.
“You are my sister, Adriana. I will not abandon you, I will not do that. You helped me take control of my powers, let me help you now.”
Adriana’s pale blue eyes met Cass’s dark brown ones. She’d always liked the colour of brown eyes, she’d always felt intrigued by their darkness.
“Remember who you are, remember what you can do.”
The shadows in the room stopped, standing to attention and waiting for her command. She’d never truly taken the time to understand the darkness, never wanted to, but something within the dark wisps seemed to call out to her.
