Note: blood
When it became apparent that April was as settled as she could be, Melinda sneaked out of Caleb’s bedroom and into the tiny bedroom next door. She dug through the craft basket, looking for the brightest yarn she could find and idly began to knit, to no pattern in particular.
The monotonous action of the needles lulled her into a welcome trance as she watched the morning sun breaking over the horizon. The teeny glimpse of that glowing orb physically hurt her delicate retinas. She blinked and turned her attention back to the fabric in her hands, seeing none of the colours, nothing but the inky black of the rising sun in negative for a moment.
She closed her eyes, but the second she did, she could see April again, pale and wilting and afraid. She could see the look of sorrow and disappointment on her dad’s face as he ran from the cottage, from her. She could see Faith, following Seth to the ends of the Earth and never returning.
She couldn’t see her knitting, but she could see everything unravelling.
Lilith had been gone almost a day and Caleb had been gone for two. Melinda had started to lose hope that either would return. Perhaps this was all an elaborate plan to ditch the girls; after all, the Vatores seemed to be doing fine before three teenaged vampires crashed their party and ruined their cake.
Melinda had often wished that she could take April away from her mother, away from everyone who ever wanted to hurt her and start again somewhere. But this just sucked. What would she do if no one came back? How would she get April out of the house? How would she get Danny out of the house? Would the pair be forced to drink him to death to survive?
What would happen then? Would they be forced to attack each other?
Melinda shuddered and left the small room, heading downstairs to fix Danny his breakfast in exchange for her own. April was in no fit state to accompany Melinda to the basement to mesmerise the boy, so she’d have to figure something out by herself.
Melinda emptied the can of soup into the saucepan and stirred slowly. Danny seemed like a sweet boy. Maybe, if she asked him nicely and explained the situation, he might give permission for them each to drink a little from him.
If she asked him nicely?!
Perhaps it was thirst, perhaps it was desperation, perhaps it was because she’d been wearing the same shirt since she’d left her backpack behind and it was starting to get to that stagnant stage. Whatever it was, Melinda was done. She was so, totally, ruddy done. Everything she’d ever done was done nicely. She always tried to do the right thing, the kind thing, the nice thing. And where the heck had that gotten her?
She growled, throwing open the kitchen drawer and retrieving a large knife. She tilted it in the wakening light; the blade illuminating along the edge throwing a thin shaft of light across the slate walls as she searched for her absent reflection in its surface.
She imagined storming into the basement swinging this thing with her skinny arm – her skin ashen, her fangs bared, her irises ‘missing’ – terrifying the poor boy until he submitted to be dined on. Then she’d bite him on the neck and she’d drag him upstairs and she’d… she’d…
Probably cry more than he would, let’s be honest.
Blah. Melinda couldn’t even imagine being cruel. She was such a rubbish vampire. She placed the knife neatly back into the drawer, decanted the bubbling soup into a bowl and headed to the basement to ask Danny nicely.
—
Seth’s memories might have been unearthed but his morals were still six feet under.
He had thought about what Angeline would’ve said about his lifestyle. Of course he had. He had imagined her telling him off, or making him hug a human to show that they had feelings, as she once had made him do with a cow. In a way, her influence was still there and always had been; in his existence, he had never harmed a cow, nor would he.
But people have faces too, Seth.
Not from behind, they didn’t.
Seth made light work of the character Faith had deposited in front of him. He hadn’t had the strength to addle him any more than Faith already had with her feminine charms, so it was not the most satisfying of meals, but it had certainly given him enough impetus to hunt a second one, on his own terms.
Meanwhile, Faith skulked around; pouting but maintaining that she was fine.
Ah, wasn’t she endearing? He was grateful for her firm hand and devotion and he’d more than make it up to her later, he’d decided, but he’d let her stew a while first.
Three kills in and feeling much more himself – in multiple ways – Seth was idling on a picnic bench with his insecure initiate, as he was finally able to explain the evening’s events in more structured sentences.
“Since that night on the bridge a white cat, very similar to the one in my memory, has been following me. I am nigh on certain that it is one and same as the creature that lingered around the abode you temporarily resided in in Forgotten Hollow”
“Right,” Faith mumbled. “And what? You think it’s connected to Kitty, right? Makes sense I suppose, Kitty being a kitty.”
“Perhaps,” Seth replied. “There are vampires who can shapeshift; Layne – the rogue leader – he reportedly could become a bat, although I never did see that.”
“A bat. How predictable,” Faith scoffed. “I bet he slept in a coffin, too. So say the cat is Kitty, and she’s been appearing to you in cat form lately for whatever-the-fuck reason,” Faith started, her cool tone betrayed by face. “Why do you want to find her after everything she did to you? Revenge?”
The angry little tremor in her voice made him both smile and shudder, but at least now he understood why. Even after all this time it appeared that he still enjoyed his women ‘rebellious, bad-tempered and unremarkable’. Although he had warmed slightly to his feisty fledgling, one part of her still grated on him to no end; her questions – or rather, his compulsion to answer her questions.
He attempted to formulate a lie, as practice more than because he didn’t want to answer her, but was unable to even configure it. He was right back to square one, he realised bitterly.
“Answers,” he replied. “I want answers. Even with all the new memory, I still don’t know what happened between my falling to my knees in the courtyard and ending up in the basement, but the cat was there, so that seems a pursuable route. Revenge would be a sweet side, of course.”
“Yeah, totally,” Faith chewed the inside of the cheek and mumbled, “Where did the guillotine come in?”
“Guillotine?”
“When we first met, you told me you got your scar from ‘dodging a guillotine’. Where does the guillotine fit?”
Seth blinked a few times, rubbed his thumb along the scar on his jaw, thinking. Through the murky black he could see the glint of a suspended blade, but he couldn’t place it in his timeline. “I don’t know,” he muttered, annoyed.
“Right,” Faith huffed again. “So you’ve still got memory missing. Fucks sake. Is this, like, amnesia or dementia or something?”
“It’s something,” he mumbled, not wanting to admit that it was possible to erase a vampire’s memory, just yet. He was still attempting to fathom how Lilith had managed to bury something so huge, and why. She was clearly far more powerful and devious than he’d thought, he realised with regret. “Perhaps, once we find out what happened to Angeline—“
He watched the name ignite Faith, like it had always ignited Kitty but this time there was no thrill in his fear.
“OK, I’m done with this softly, softly shit. I can tell you what happened to Angeline,” Faith spat, startling a couple of teenagers who were making out on the nearby pirate ship. “She is dead, Seth. Deceased, expired, fucked sideways and pushing up daisies, as are any kids you might have left her with, their grandkids and generations after. Even if you find out what happened to her, even if you trace your whole fucking family tree, what do you expect to gain? Did you think you could waltz in and play ‘happy families’? That she would give a hollow damn about you? I’m all you have, Seth and the sooner you accept that, the better.”
Faith’s fury wavered slightly as she realised he wasn’t biting. Her voice lost its conviction.
“Shit. I’m… I don’t know where that came from. Of course you want answers. I… sorry,” she shook her head. “Look, I don’t know what happened to make you forget this stuff, but maybe… I think I know why it happened. I think you got so obsessed with finding… finding…” she paused at where she should have inserted the name and looked like she was composing herself. “I think that you got so obsessed with her that you lost all focus and drove yourself – and everyone around you – literally insane. Lilith probably clobbered you on the head with a frying pan or something until you shut the fuck up.”
Was that why Lilith did it?
“This is totally not how I thought vampire life would be,” Faith whined. “It’s not like in the movies at all. We are supposed to be all dark and mysterious and powerful and shit. I’m filthy and I bloody stink. I’m bored to the back teeth, you’re fucking mental; we don’t even have a lair and before you say it, no that shack doesn’t count, nor does that cave.”
Seth turned his attention towards the path where a solitary man was jogging along, his mind flooded with the earworm that was stuck in this human’s head.
Faith was quietly crying now; her dry hiccups shook the picnic bench. “I miss my life,” she sobbed, “I miss my sister. I want to go home.”
Her words resonated and for the briefest moment he wanted to let her do just that.
Then, graciously, his senses returned. He had more to discover, more to learn, more to take and if Kitty was still out there, a reason to equip himself best he could against her. He began to wonder if that was his motivation all along. If, on some level, he had always known that she was not gone, that one day he would have to face her again.
No way could he afford to lose Faith now. He snaked his arm around the trembling girl beside him and stopped her, once again, from clawing at her wrist.
“It gets easier, Faith. The isolation, the roaming, the careless slaughter—”
Faith winced at this last one. “Let’s just not,” she mumbled. “Let’s never mention her again.”
He shrugged. “All right.”
“She was so young,” Faith sighed, breaking her own rule immediately. “And she smelled like a fucking sweet shop,” she choked. “And she was so… so innocent… and I did really like her jeans. I should have at least kept her jeans. Shit. I literally killed her for fucking nothing. I’m a fucking monster.”
“You’re dreadful,” Seth agreed. “I hope you don’t ruin my pristine reputation with your misdeeds.”
Seth finally drew a small, temporary smile from Faith before her face once again fell. She looked around the car park; it was empty besides the two of them, but clearly she felt additional privacy was required. She reached for his hand and he heard her voice from inside him, like the beat of butterfly wings against the glass wall of a jar.
Seth, can I ask you something?
Her features bore a vulnerability he rarely witnessed on her and he wondered what she might ask. He attempted to read her but she was, again, frustratingly mute. You may, he projected back.
She looked like she’d changed her mind. Her face cycled through a few emotions and he wondered if maybe he wasn’t hearing what she was trying to transmit. But then finally, the wings fluttered again.
What was your first kill like?
Had she asked him that prior to tonight, he would have told her about the coachman on the roadside in 1734, but now he knew better. “I’ve told you that,” he reminded her, swallowing back the lump in his throat as he recounted the memory that had previously eluded him. “I was fourteen—“
“No,” Faith interrupted. “Not your gutting of your asshole dad – who was totally asking for it, by the way.” Your first vampire one.
Seth balked as her request pulled up a vision from the darkness. It was hazy and long-buried but he could get the gist.
He frowned. “Ah, right.” He cleared his throat trying to make sense of what he was seeing; it was like trying to use a tarred rag to clean a filthy window. He could push the dirt around just enough to see inside, but the picture wasn’t clear. “I was in the basement. Parched and on the brink of wild. I didn’t even greet the human they threw in before I ripped him to shreds.”
“Shit. That’s… shit,” Faith gasped.
“They always fed me that way,” he realised. “I quickly learned not to even try and befriend the humans. Not to try at all. They wouldn’t survive. It was more merciful to simply kill them the second they appeared than have them trapped down there with me, waiting for the inevitable.”
“Merciful,” Faith repeated quietly. “Inevitable.”
“Yes,” he stated. “And no,” he added, anticipating her next question, “I don’t intend to join Lilith on her fruitless quest to ‘wholesomeness and light’,” he scoffed. “We are what we are, Faith. If anything, I care even less for humans now, knowing how they treated me.”
Faith was staring into space; Seth couldn’t see her face. “Did they ever let you out of the basement?” she asked quietly. It was not the question he’d expected and he knew she wouldn’t like the answer.
“Sometimes,” he murmured, hoping she wouldn’t ask him to elaborate.
“Crazy,” Faith muttered, tugging at the popper on her wristband as she asked, “How did you escape?”
Seth tilted his head to his shoulder, thinking. He could recall being in his cell, Patrick was there, there was commotion, Kitty was screaming… and then he woke up at the roadside. He mulled this over silently, trying to fill in the gaps. “I think we were ambushed.”
“By who?”
“You don’t know,” Faith groaned, swinging her legs off the bench and sashaying across the car park. Seth swaggered to his feet and followed her, watching the exaggerated sway of her hips and listening to the distant thoughts of an approaching human male.
“I wonder why you don’t remember and why you’re only remembering stuff now,” Faith thought aloud. It was not a question, but damn it if he wasn’t inclined to respond.
He shrugged. “Perhaps it was the events of the day. Maybe if we repeat it all today, I’ll remember the rest,” he joked.
Faith stopped in her tracks and shook her head, but he could hear her smile as she spoke. “You can fuck right off. Between almost burning to ash in the sun and you losing your marbles, yesterday was literally the worst day ever.”
“Was it all so bad?” he purred, raising an eyebrow.
She chewed her lip, no doubt recalling their afternoon delights. “You’re still only top thirty,” she teased. “What the hell do you want?” Faith scowled at the man who had diverted suddenly from his path to block theirs. He looked around in confusion and, after a moment’s contemplation, Faith turned to Seth, a question on her face.
“Consider him a gift. A ‘thank you’, if you will. He wants to offer us an upgrade on our lodgings,” Seth said calmly.
“…He does?” Faith asked, looking between the pair. “How do you – oh. Oh.”
“Pfft!” the human man snorted, “I don’t need an upgrade on my lodgings! You should see my place; it’s epic.” He threw his arms wide, grinning at the pair before focusing on Faith. “Wait a second. I think I know you,” he said dopily, jabbing his finger in Faith’s general direction.
“You wish you did,” she scoffed but the flutter in her voice betrayed how flattered she was that someone finally recognised her.
“Yeah,” the human laughed. “I recognise you all right. You’re that miserable girl who works at the cinema. You tried it on with me once, but from what I hear, that doesn’t make me special,” he guffawed and turned to Seth, “But hey, man, in the dark I suppose she’s passible, right? And out here you can barely smell the puke and popcorn on her.”
Allow me, Seth projected to Faith, his teeth already sharpening with the thought of tearing this pitiful excuse for a human a new oesophagus, but her hand on his arm caused him to pause.
No. This is my gift, right? I’ll open it.
< Previous Chapter | Index | Next Chapter >
Almost Eternal 
Poor April. We’ve seen indirectly what she’s gone through with them trying to get her out of the house, but I can’t imagine what kind of agony that must have been for her. I still wonder how the heck they’re going to get her out of there. Unless the compulsion stops as soon as she’s asleep and/or they break the house down enough that it’s not considered a house anymore.
I like the comparison to Melindog’s bright, aimless knitting and the state of her life. Oh geez I’d completely forgotten about Danny. Maybe Sage can make him a potion strong enough to erase his memory, like she did with Becky, and they can send him on his merry way. I see no other way out for poor Danny at this point without the girls being severely compromised.
Whoa, Mel, don’t go turning into a crazy knife murder- aaaaand we’re back to asking nicely. Melinda really doesn’t have a mean bone in her body, does she? Ugh, and to think that Seth was actually interested in pushing her until she broke, too. I hope it never comes to that.
Oh hey, speaking about the paranoid coward… well, heck. He’s almost back to normal, isn’t he? Did that happen from drinking? Seth’s various personalities are still giving me the equivalent of mental whiplash. I’d almost want to place ye olde Seth, cat-coward Seth and manipulative potato Seth in the same room, just to see what would happen.
People don’t have a face from behind. So do animals, Seth. That’s not an excuse for the gleeful murder you do.
Ugh, and he’s right back to his mind games with Faith, too. I wonder why. Ooooh and he’s back to being unable to lie? That’s interesting. I can’t put my finger on it but something seems off about both of them this entire conversation. My first reaction at Faith’s “you have nobody but me” tantrum was that “dang, she is so afraid to be abandoned that she’d rather he be with nobody but her so he doesn’t have other options ever?” and my second thought was “did she say it like that because she knows Seth reacts to that now, after hearing about Bob in detail?” but neither of those seems quite right. Faith hasn’t had a “happy family” most of her life, so maybe this is just her projecting again.
Every chapter that features Bob makes me think I can’t possibly despise her more, and then the next one proves me wrong. I know she didn’t do this all by herself and there were other vampires, but dang, she sure seems to enjoy it.
Whoa, I wonder if Moustache Man just became Faith’s second kill. She sure doesn’t seem too hesitant about this one. I’m sure part of it is him insinuating she’s worthless, but I wonder if she’d be this eager to drain him if it had been a woman? 🤔
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April is not having the greatest of times, no. And it’s be a pretty boring story if she was stuck in the house for the remaining 3 books so I imagine something will free her eventually, one way or another. And if Sage is to be believed, it’s easy!
Convincing Becky, a girl who frequently hosts parties where people get high, that a floating cup was a dream was probably easier than convincing Danny that he hasn’t spent a week of his life trapped in a basement, with the kidnapped daughter of a murdered celebrity occasionally popping in with a bowl of soup. Perhaps he’s doomed. Doooooooomed.
I mean, she considered being a knife-wielding murderer for all of three seconds there, so she’s slipping into the mire in the teeniest increments. Maybe? No, OK. She is a complete sweetheart, yes. Hopefully Seth has enough on his plate for a while, with his multiple faces. And speaking of Seth’s plate – no, being behind them doesn’t change the fact that they have a face, but hey – out of sight, out of mind!
If something feels off, it probably is.
Hurrah! You despise Bob! We might just keep your explosive potato store in business, yet! 😁
There’s a lot under the surface here, something has changed. But I’m sure it’ll all bleed out eventually
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Okay, first. Poor Melinda. The thing that strikes me most is that she doesn´t even consider the fact that /she/ can leave the house. She is so… much in denial about being a vampire that she doesn´t even /consider/ the option that she could go and get someone in the house so April and her could drink from them. Utterly incapable of independent existence right now, even more than April would be without Caleb´s stupid order. That´s… saying something. Then again, I doubt asking Danny nicely will work. And then what? If she does drink without the mind-addling… well, it would be a step.
Phew, glad to see drinking did work. 🙂 And we get a lot of info. A /lot/ of answers.
I did only realize now that Seth only ever stands behind a human when draining them. Which is weird, because I /know/ that´s not at all usual. I suppose it looked more natural, somehow, with his teeth being like that. Interesting way to cope…
Back at square one, huh? I suppose remembering the reasons why he learned not to lie would do that… but maybe there´s more to it than that.
I´m guessing the guillotine comes in between vampire lair being ambushed and waking up by roadside. 😀 Seth´s already said they considered /hanging/ him after he killed his dad, and a guillotine would totally be a vampire hunter´s tool besides.
Jealousy? No, I don´t think Lilith hid things out of jealousy. At least not of Angeline. Whatever the reason she hid Seth´s memories, I do believe it has to do more with Sage. Of course, as Seth´s daughter but also a vampire hunter, Sage could have been an objective problem. But, of course at the time when Lil was Seth´s sort-of student I wouldn´t put it past her to be jealous of his daughter, either.
And again, just like with Mel, the things Seth neglects to consider are very telling. In this case, it´s the fact he doesn´t need to have the mirror himself so long as he´s got Faith. Because if she wiped the floor with Lils on behalf of Caleb who she doesn´t even really care about… if he thought about it and ruled it out because he wouldn´t trust Faith, it would be one thing. But the fact it doesn´t even /occur/ as a possibility… again, that goes to show a lot.
…and now we know how Seth learned to kill. Makes perfect sense to me, being left to literally starve otherwise will make even a human do crazy things. Add to that the fact it won´t actually kill a vampire and you really get a picture. DX That and I guess it also explains how he learned to hunt terrified prey. They´d have been scared witless by the vampires dragging them in already, not even counting the realization of being trapped with a (seemingly) wild one.
Also, yeah, the close-mindedness of Seth´s village probably didn´t help his morals, neither did the fact his contact with other humans was nonexistant before he got into Kitty´s claws. That´s a lot of toxic sinking in and a lot of time to get set in his ways.
That pleased grin at the end there tells me all I need to know. See, Seth? /This/ is how you make the fledgling drink properly. You make her wanna do it, she doesn´t get annoying afterwards, it´s really an allround win. 😉
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Yes indeed. When Melinda says she’s a rubbish vampire, she is really, really underestimating her rubbishness. Hunting is just not an instinct she has even though, with her sweet face and her reflexes, she’d probably be quite good at it.
You get a lot of answers. 😁😉 Yes, he always stands behind. And not only when he’s draining, either. There is definitely more than meets the eye here with his ability to lie.
I should have taken bets with when the guillotine came in. Hm, I wonder when you first see him sporting his scar… Ooh, you think Lilith hid Seth’s memories because of Sage. Very interesting.
Supporting him in his time of need has certainly earned Faith some brownie points! Aw, look he’s even sourced her a gift! He did mention before his memory deluge that she was already becoming very trusting. Maybe he will keep her around, or maybe he just needs more time to get her power for himself.
He had a hard initiation as a vampire and he fought. But eventually that kind of treatment would erode the strongest of wills and it definitely shaped his tastes and tolerance. “the fact his contact with other humans was nonexistant before he got into Kitty´s claws” Yes, a hundred times this. He had one single year of his whole human life where he had loving contact with another and even that was never validated by anyone. What template did he have to build morals on?
Heh, trial and error. He said it himself; he had no idea what young, modern women expected, but he’s learning.
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Yes. I definitely believe Mel would have quite the success at hunting if she had the stomach to try.
*raises an eyebrow* Why yes, now that you mention it, one would expect a “probing pose” to include eye-contact, wouldn´t one… and even that´s not everything, either… and yet he has exactly zero problem to be very horrible to someone to their face… but he doesn´t seem to have a problem with being manipulative at all. So, generally, there´s things that go against some part of his morals, such as they are, that he would only do while not looking at the person? In a way, that´s a lot like Faith not wanting to know the prey´s name.
Anyway, there is also the fact Seth seems disappointed, but not at all surprised by realizing he lost the ability to lie again. Hmm… at least he probably knows what´s going on, then, even if we don´t.
Ugh! How silly of me. Of course, he already had it in his human memories. Besides, a vampire would probably heal cleanly. So it had to be before… huh. Then… the Tower? Maybe.
Well, yes. We already established she is trying to make sure Seth and Sage don´t meet. It´d only make sense to secure both ends of that problem, no matter why it is actually a problem.
Yeah, from what he´d said before, it´s both of those. Get the power first and then /maybe/ keep the girl as a bonus. That doesn´t count, I´m talking trust, here. 😉
“He had one single year of his whole human life where he had loving contact with another and even that was never validated by anyone.” That, and let´s not forget Angeline was… very special, in many ways. Hardly a very good example to go by. ;D
Yep! He´s learning a lot of stuff. Maybe even how to teach, a little. Luckily, Faith isn´t all that bad at giving feedback, so who knows. It might actually not get that much worse, after all! XD
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Ps: I had forgotten. Seth was wrong, wasn´t he? They hadn´t been ambushed. The gang had “torn itself apart” so it was infighting, wasn´t it?
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Maybe both. If they were ambushed, something had to give their location away.
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One would, especially as Seth even said at one point that locking eyes with Faith allowed him to read her better. It allowed something else though too. Probably not relevant. Hehe.
He did not have it in all of his human memories, but he certainly has had it in all of his vampire ones. But yes, you’re right a wound inflicted post-turning should have healed.
“Hardly a very good example to go by.” Oh, if you only knew! Although ‘you’ already do know, shall we say. 😉
Things really can’t get much worse now, can they? We’re overdue a happy spell, methinks.
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…right. XD
Now I´m totally weirded out. I could have sworn it was there in the market… but no. And it´s there with the vamps. So somewhere between Angeline´s dad dying and the basement. Huh.
Waitaminite, are you trying to make me jealous of myself? X´D
Oh, Watcher. Things can /always/ get worse. They definitely could here. But, if they don´t, then all the better! 😀
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Not there in the market. 🔎 I know he’s got a great face, but I don’t include all of those angled shots of his left cheek purely for decoration
only half of them.Can you be jealous of yourself? If you can, then yes, I guess I am, sorry.
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When it comes to info? Yeah, totally can.
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I missed Mel. It’s funny that what she thinks makes her pathetic is actually her greatest strength. Compare to everyone else, even the older vampires she posseses an admirable self-control and it takes sticking a pulsing vein right under her nose for her to lose it.
The bit about Seth’s drinking ways is interesting. I think Lilith made him forget out of mercy. But that would suggest she still has a soul. How is it with vampires and souls in this story anyway? Are all vampires soulless by default or is it their actions what makes them lose it?
Sounds like Kitty’s lair was ambushed by (a) vampire hunter(s). Which brings up more questions: Are vampire hunters in this story long-lived? And if Kitty’s still alive what happened to whoever was after her and her gang? Could they be alive as well? Still not a fan of this decadent duo, Seth & Faith, though.
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Well, if she can’t hunt she needs to be controlled or that’d simply be a recipe for disaster, right? But yes, maybe the others could learn something from her if they ever paid attention.
Ooh, Lilith made him forget out of mercy? I love all the theories this is kicking up. How do you define a soul? For me, it’s the essence of life, the spirit that animates us. The curse and soul are in direct competition and cannot coexist in a body, so the warmth that left and the darkness that took over when the girls turned at the start, was one replacing the other.
Sage is a vampire hunter and she is 325, so they can be long-lived and may still be alive, yes.
Heh, you don’t have to like everyone. Maybe there’ll be a pairing you do enjoy soon enough. 😉
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April looks really miserable. Melinda is having a hard time. In addition to her worries about April, she is tormented by a bad conscience.
Being a good and empathetic vampire erodes her mental resources.
I love her for her care for Danny, but after seeing what was hidden behind Seth’s milky white eyes, I’ve got a fear of what’s hiding in Melinda.
Even your most innocent facades can hide a surprising madness.
I wonder when and how Sage will take action to move the girls?
Although I enjoyed the many crazy pictures of Seth’s funny faces through his total collapse, it makes me in a strange way happy to see his beautiful face again.
He is a handsome man.
Although his transformation has cost three lives.
Seth and Faith’s relationship has reached a new stage far from their mutual irresponsible play with power and submission.
Faith has finally realized that life as a vampire is not at all as exciting and glamorous as she has imagined.
Both she and Seth appear naked and totally undressed to the skin.
Their mutual understanding seems touching in a strange way.
Seth still hides devastating secrets and his memory loss seems like a kind of blessing.
There are more obvious and hidden revelations in this onion than I can comment on, so I’ll stop for now.
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“Even your most innocent facades can hide a surprising madness.” You have such a poetic way of putting everything. What hides in Melinda may be something to be feared, it may not.
Sage is having a lovely sleep and will be moving into action next chapter. As for how? Well, she has a few plans in that head of hers.
Yes, three lives to regain his one – it’s a high price. He is slowly reaching a point where his thirst is constant, yet despite all this and everything that’s happened, he refuses to see the problem. Now Faith is realising – too late – that it’s not a game; people are dying and she’s an active participant in that. She could get out and go back to her friends, but can she swallow her pride enough to try to? And even if she does, if Sage does get April out of the house and into hiding, Faith may not even find them if she wanted to.
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It worries me that Seth needs larger amounts of blood to survive.
I’m starting to see him as a victim … even though he’s an executioner too. It’s pretty contradictory.
I can imagine Faith being too proud to turn around.
I get more and more a Bonnie and Clyde feel about them. It takes some very powerful spells to reverse their fate 😬
Wondering about Sage knowing Seth is her father?
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We’ll get a whole big pile of lore (bucket of lore? Is lore solid or liquid?) very soon which will shine a spotlight on Sage’s knowledge and motivation. By very soon I mean a few chapters. So soonish. Bag of lore? I don’t know. My head is clearly fried. As is yours probably after translating this rubbish comment of mine. 😆
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I am convinced that somehow Kitty and Faith are linked. I don’t know how, I have no proof, but I cannot get this idea out of my head. There are some similarities there that are…concerning. I mean, I’m being honest, I don’t think Angeline was all that great either. Seth has terrible taste in women.
In other news, Mel has terrible taste in women. Actually, that’s not fair. I hope she and April run off together and get the heck away from Caleb. But the truth is, as much as I feel bad for April, she’s a hot mess. I did laugh at her being unable to murder that basement kid. Oh Mel, I hope you get away from these idiots soon…
Why won’t Lilith just rat Seth out? And did she hide his memories out of jealousy like Faith?
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What a fascinating theory. I wonder whatever gave you that idea but you know the rule, if something feels off, it probably is. Seth really does have terrible taste in women; mean ones who treat him like dirt.
Aw poor Mel, getting her tastes dragged into the equation. Not that I disagree, mind.
On the face of it, Lilith hates Seth so probably would just rat him out, right? Perhaps consider Lilith’s general motivation for doing things and it might become a little clearer. If not, I will tell you all eventually. Oof, that last question of yours is loaded.
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Okay, I’m going to take this as my theory is 100% correct and no, I will not be accepting comments at this time lol.
Oh man, now I’m thinking about Lilith’s motivation and I’m…concerned.
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