Читать книгу Soul Song - Shawna Bennett - Страница 9

Chapter 2

Liam and Lucas were born into a royal house. Their cousin was the king of England. Although they were twins, nothing about them was the same. They had been born into the same station in life, but both boys had approached it differently. Liam took to his father’s views of the world, while Lucas preferred his mother’s.

The lived a life of privilege and were afforded the best education of their time. They had private tutors and were fluent in Latin and French. They were both skilled riders and marksmen with a bow. When they reached their teen years, they were invited to come live at court. Like most young men born to power and privilege, they were reckless and showed little regard to people considered lower than themselves. Even Lucas, who had a kind heart, was inconsiderate to people below his station. He blamed the mentality of the time, but as he aged, he understood he should have been a better person. As men of status, they were not expected to marry and provide heirs until they were much older. They spent their youth flitting from girl to girl. The court was abundant with them, and they never took them seriously for long. These young women were meant for the older men who were ready to marry. So the two young boys took nothing seriously for any length of time.

It was one such young woman who became their undoing. Liam was prone to falling in love quickly and falling out of it even more fast. Liam loved the rush of a new love, the adrenaline of emotions that were uncontrollable. The madness that would take over his young brain at the first kiss or the first touch. The feeling never lasted long though, and so he kept seeking out new girls.

He was out riding one day. He had grown tired of the monotony of court life and equally tired of his cousin the king. He had never met a more pompous man, and his whims were growing tiresome. He would announce that he felt like going quail hunting, and they all had to drop whatever they were doing and attend him. One day he had decided he wanted the men of court to watch as he had his portrait painted, and so for weeks they would sit wordlessly while he posed. If you played a game of cards or went shooting with him, you had to let him win. It all seemed mindless to Liam, who had started to think no one should be allowed to have their every whim to be fulfilled. It seemed the madness the monarchy was famous for hadn’t skipped their current king, and his whims were becoming more dangerous. At least for now the men were safe, but the ladies were starting to experience the cracks. As he rode through the forest, he happened upon a beautiful girl by the river. She was washing clothes and had flaming-red hair and porcelain skin. He sat upon his horse and watched her until finally she took notice of him. She was immediately frightened to see a stranger just watching her and ran away quickly. Liam took chase, but she eluded him. Liam loved a challenge and began to come to the river every day to sit and wait. He would leave gifts of exotic fruits or sweetbreads for her to find when he left. He didn’t see her for three weeks, but he noticed his gifts started disappearing.

One day though he found her waiting by the river in the spot he always left gifts. He continued to bring her gifts of food, and slowly she warmed to him. He noted she never ate the food in front of her and took her to be shy. He spent a lot of effort on wooing her. Finally she warmed to him and began to trust him. She was all alone in this world, and his efforts did not go unnoticed.

Like any spoiled child, he enjoyed his new toy in the beginning. The challenge she had presented was a welcome distraction from what he considered a boring life lately. He had become skilled at making young women fall in love, and he spared none of his charm on this one. She had not been like the other girls. She had made him work for her attention. Her name was Agnes, and although she had resisted him for longer than other girls, she soon enough fell in love with him.

Agnes had been turned at the age of sixteen, much too young to be turned. When her family discovered what she was, they drove her from their house and the village, believing her to be a monster. She had been abandoned at too young an age and was heartbroken to be alone. She had to eventually flee her country when tales of her kind began circulating. The men would hunt for people like her at night with torches and wood sharpened into points. She had met others like herself but didn’t stay with them long. They seemed to her to be to savage and merciless. She had made her way to England and found a quiet life hidden in the woods. She had given up hope of ever finding someone she could trust with her dark secret. She was only twenty-five years into the change when she met Liam. She believed that he was the one to love and accept her. She was wrong.

For ten days she gave to him her heart and her body. She was the happiest she had ever been. He was over the moon about her also, and he took her away to his family’s summer house. It was late fall, and it was empty except for the staff who stayed on there to maintain the great house. It was a great diversion for him, and he loved the rush of it all. He was dabbling with a girl obviously far below his station, and that in itself gave him a rush. He had disappeared from court without a word to anyone, and that also brought him happiness. This is probably what kept his attention focused on her for as long as it was. He spoke of their future and vowed to love her for eternity. She absorbed every false word and took it to heart. He claimed his soul now belonged to her. That was his worst mistake.

Agnes, who had never experienced a first love before the change and whose own heart had been broken by her family’s treatment of her, fell hard for Liam. She had never even had a first kiss yet, and here was her prince, come to mend all that was broken in her. She fell in love quickly and without hesitation. She believed every word he spoke to her because she wouldn’t have thought anyone could vow such love if they didn’t feel it. She had not been experienced enough in the world to know that young men spoke lies constantly. She gave herself to him completely body and soul.

By the seventh day, Liam had become annoyed by the sound of her voice. By the eighth day, he started to long for the excitement of court again. By the ninth day, he had decided she was just to needy and he would be done with her. Agnes could tell he was becoming distant to her but thought she was doing something wrong. She tried harder every day to please him and take him out of this mood. She didn’t understand what was happening or even why, but she vowed to be a better woman for him.

On the morning of the tenth day before sunrise, he shook her gently to awaken her. He told her he had been called back to court and would return shortly for her. She snuggled back into the blankets which held his scent and thought of what she would wear upon his return. He had let her wear his sister’s clothes while she was here, and she had never felt such expensive fabric against her skin. She heard the sound of his horse’s hooves as he rode away. She thought of the way he had kissed her forehead before leaving and was sure his mood had returned. She stretched lazily and planned on making him a special meal with foods from her home country tonight. She was going to tell him her secret after dinner, and then she was going to turn him. She would be with him now for all eternity, like he promised. Shortly after the sun had arose, the servants came knocking at the door. She was shocked when she learned that Liam would not be returning and had ordered her to be removed from the house. The servants were to watch to make sure she did not take any of his sister’s clothing. She was humiliated and confused. She didn’t understand what was happening. She knew though it felt like when her own parents had driven her from her home, and she grew desperate. She screamed at the servants that they were making a mistake, and Liam would be angry when he found out what they were doing. Finally one of the maids explained as gently as she could that it was Liam who had ordered this, and she wasn’t the first girl he had done this to. She still didn’t fully understand what was happening but left. It would take months for her to work out in her head what he had done.

Liam returned to his life of privilege at court and was welcomed back without question. Young men were allowed to have their dalliances, and no explanation was needed. He didn’t even think of her once he returned, and he certainly didn’t feel any remorse for what he had done. In fact, he started to blame her. If she hadn’t been so eager, he might have stayed longer. It seemed that she had faked all that innocence and was probably experienced at trying to trap men of his station. His only concern was that she would try to claim some pregnancy against him, but he was a lord, so no such claims would be allowed to tarnish his name. The law would see to that. Soon the variety of young women at court held his attention again, and Agnes had been forgotten, like she had never existed.

Agnes, on the other hand, had been in agony over his betrayal. It took a full month before she even accepted the fact that he wasn’t coming back. She convinced herself that he was busy attending to the king and would return. It took a few more months for her to figure out that all his words and promises were false. She replayed their every word over and over, trying to figure it out and where it had gone wrong. Her broken heart caused her rage to become a slow burn, but eventually it engulfed her entire being. The day she had decided what his fate would be, he had completely forgotten all about her.

She waited and watched his every move. Her change allowed her to move quickly without being seen. She had decided to rob him of the very life which afforded him to treat her so callously. She would take from him his every security, and then she hoped he would never take women for granted again. A part of her had hoped secretly that he would realize how horribly he had treated her and beg her to love him again. She played that scenario over and over in her head. She decided if he was really sorry and begged her to love him again, she would take him back. She had gone mad in her grief. Once he had lost his family, his lands and his noble birthright, he would learn to appreciate her again.

It was on the afternoon that he and Lucas rode to their family’s summer home that she put her plan into action. Their sister was having a grand wedding and was to be married to a duke. The duke and his family would arrive the next day, and Lucas and Liam were expected before their arrival. There was much to do, but the brothers rode at a leisurely pace.

She took them in a dense part of the forest. She changed Lucas first so Liam could watch in horror. She wanted him to suffer. Then she left them. She knew they would be crazy with the change, and their bloodlust would be at its most dangerous. She knew exactly what happened when someone was changed and then given no instruction. They would wander for years learning what they were and how to control it, and she was counting on them not being able to control it. She had full knowledge of what she was unleashing, and she didn’t care in the least.

They slaughtered their entire household that night. No one was spared. None of the servants who had fled into the forest had survived either. The grand house was covered in blood; it was scattered all across the floor with the dead and up the walls and the heavy curtains. Liam and Lucas couldn’t stop. Whatever she had done to them had made them crave blood, and the more they tasted, the more they wanted. When the duke and his entire family arrived, they were not spared either. It took weeks before they were able to control themselves. They lay waste to entire households across the countryside. When the family was finally discovered, it had been months, and the bodies were so rotten that it was assumed that Liam and Lucas were among the dead. A band of rebels were found guilty of the murders by the king. Liam and Lucas were without a name or a family anymore. They wandered the English countryside for nearly a century. The privilege they had grown up in was long gone.

They finally decided to set sail for America. It was newly discovered and untamed. They figured it would be safer there to hunt, and they could make a home for themselves. The night before they left, they tracked down Agnes. She was still in the woods in her little hut, although the woods were becoming more populated as the people in the city needed to find new places to live. She heard them coming and was surprised. She had long ago given up on Liam coming to her for comfort and to rekindle their romance. She knew they still lived in England but gave them wide berth. So when she heard them enter her hut, she was surprised.

Liam stood looking as he had the day she turned him, and she remembered how softly he used to speak to her. She remembered the smell of him and the taste of his lips. She thought of him every night still even though her heart had long since healed from his betrayal.

He looked at the young girl who should have been long dead by now. She was forever to be sixteen, but he realized she didn’t look so innocent anymore. She had finally understood how cruel the world and the people in it could be. He had only come for one thing.

“Why did you do this to me?” he asked.

“Because you promised me your soul, so I took it,” she answered.

Lucas and Liam tore her apart limb by limb. She could have put up a fight, but she didn’t. She had grown tired of the world of men and was ready to go. They burned her body parts on a huge fire that night they had started out of her hut. When morning came and all trace of her had been erased, they went toward the docks and set sail for America.