Free Immortal Embrace by Charlotte Blackwell Page A

the damp, dark alley floor, I found her beaten, bruised, and bleeding to the point that her loved ones would not have recognized her. She was a young woman–no more than seventeen or eighteen–and she was fallen, broken, and helpless. I ran toward her and placed one of my hands over her neck, where her blood had drained. One of her arms appeared be broken and was contorted in a way that arms should not bend. In an attempt to stabilize it, I carefully held near the largest break with my remaining hand, but I felt her battered bones crumble between my fingers. Looking over the woman as I held her wounds, I noticed the ring on her hand. It reminded me of one my twin sister had received from the Duke. I released her arm and brushed the long mess of brown hair away from her face. I instantly felt every bit of her pain as I realized I was trying to save my own twin sister, Sophia. My heart ballooned into my throat. A feeling of sickness and panic took over.
    When my throat cleared, I yelled for help. I held her close. I did not want her to see the absolute panic burning inside of me. Attempting to calm her, I insisted I would help her. I could not lose the person who was closest to me in the entire world. Unsure of how she would ever survive such a cruel attack, I tried to keep her calm and secure, safe and loved in her final moments on Earth.
    I began to think of our loved ones and what her passing would mean to them. She was to be married on the weekend. What is she doing out here? I knew she had been unhappy about her upcoming nuptials, and I thought maybe she needed to take a breather, a moment for herself. The family was likely wondering where she was at this very moment. I continued to scream for someone to help me, to help her.
    Then from out of nowhere, a man came. He was short and thin, and I did not believe he could help carry her, so I begged him to go get help. As he approached us, he walked in a measured, composed pace, as if nothing were wrong. Could this man move any slower? Doesn’t he see and hear that there is a problem? Then I abruptly became apprehensive, and an uneasy feeling came over me that he was planning to harm me.
    Sophia’s breathing became heavier and more rapid and she appeared slightly panicked.
    In that exact moment, he pounced on top of me and began biting me and drinking my blood. Several painful moments later, he left us both for dead.
    This thing, this monster was what hurt Sophia, ripping her arm apart and crushing every bone in it. He chewed her neck apart as if it were a piece of raw meat. His eyes were a deep crimson red with the darkest black outline around his iris, as if the middle was burning with fire. He was like a vicious wild animal gone mad, with gnashing teeth as sharp as razors. He was a creature like nothing I had ever seen before.
    I was terrified for both of us, and I began to realize I would never be able to save my sister...or myself. I began to look for peace, my last comfort, and tried to forget the horror of this monstrous being, but I was not successful.
    In an instant, something came over me, and I began seeing everything he saw. I could not explain it, and I did not enjoy it. The visions I began having would not stop, and I couldn’t control whose mind I entered or who entered mine. At least we were together in life and in death; it was just my twin sister and me. What disturbed me the most about the visions was that he was only doing it for fun, for pure entertainment, and not for survival. This man–this monster–was the cruelest of masochists.

    ***
    “Would you like to take a break?” Alexander pauses.
    Ebony and her sister’s eyes are huge as they ponder the same terror Alexander and I experienced in that alley that first fateful night.
    “Just let me get some water for everyone,” Eliza stammers.
    Matilda decides to join her in the kitchen and help. We can hear them discussing the story we are all reliving, “Eliza, if this is too much for you to