Love Unfortunate (8 page)

"I'm beyond scarred, Cristophe. I'm her." Liana opened the door and stared blankly at the stark white stairwell. "Even sealed away, Hel was so powerful, so determined to be able to seduce France’s Dauphin, conceive and give birth to us, all the while driving an innocent man insane. That's not how history remembers it though, is it?
La Belle au Bois dormant
is remembered fondly, but we're not there.
Sole, Luna, e Talia
is the closest to remembering us and it's still wrong.
So if history has the power to change the truth, why can't I?"

Cristophe didn’t pretend ignorance. "We may have been forgotten but we're here. Hel is not and you are not her."

"Oh, but I am. Don’t you see why the guilt has been killing me? I didn’t want to be alone. I wanted Laurent. I knew what would happen and I didn’t care. I also knew I’d never be able to turn him, so I left that for you. And because of my blindness, I never imagined that our mother’s blood would drive him mad."

"It’s not just your burden, Liana. I carry the guilt as strongly as you do. I should’ve never done it. I should’ve never listened to the Elders. I should’ve…"

His words died and humorless laughter disturbed the night air.

"Hmm, but you did and I let it happen. I believed you that night. I believed Laurent was safe and he wasn’t. I didn’t protect him then and then I betrayed him twenty days later. So it is my burden and I will change history. No matter what I will change it and I will be forgotten but
my
way."

"It's not just your burden," he repeated.

"You’re wrong. I sealed him away, Cristophe. He tried to turn me, I panicked, put my hand in his chest, and made him sleep for a hundred years!" She trembled with disgust. "If I hadn’t been crazed myself with grief…if I had buried him—"

"But you didn’t. You kept him here in the tower." He remembered finding her with Laurent so many centuries before. Cristophe shuddered from the memories.

"He’d still be there if I had listened to anyone else. I would’ve never known he was alive. So I have to be here, Cristophe. Please try to understand. I can’t let him awake alone. It has to be like the first night he brought me here."

Familiar resignation beat him down. There was no reasoning with his sister. There never was. "When do you think Laurent will awaken next?"

"The Lab thinks it could be as early as another month. But then again it could take another year. We haven’t been able to understand what triggers the Awakening. We can only study his consciousness."

"And how much time will that give you to go back to the tower?"

"A few hours. Then I wait. I wait and hope to make it to twenty-one days." Liana sighed brokenly. "I want at least one lifetime with him. One before this all falls apart."

"Then what will you do?"

Cristophe’s question peeled away the layers of resentment, pity, and futility. What was she going to do? She knew. So did he.

Liana and Cristophe had always known.

* * * *

"I am you. You are me. We destroy the sons of God. We shred them apart—make them do our will. We defile the pure, annihilate the weak."

"I don’t want to."

"But you will, Liana. You will."

* * * *

Liana had stumbled across her heart’s desire in Laurent. She had found a soul who understood pain and shame, but whereas she had engorged herself with rage, he had chosen kindness.

Liana had tried to walk Laurent’s human path. She had thought her submissiveness, self-pity, and suffering led the way to benevolence.

She wanted to be someone else at least one lifetime. Someone who wasn't a monster. However, the more she tried the more she saw exactly what kind of monster she really was.

"I know what I'll have to do. But until then, Laurent’s my sin and I must eat him slowly."

AUTHOR CHAT

I'm an unrepentant dark romance writer of angst who loves vicious villains and impure heroines. I craft tales of moral ambiguity and am drawn to stories with a low fluff content and a high emotional pain meter. I don't appeal to the masses but I do appeal to angst junkies.

If you enjoyed this short story, please feel free to visit my website www.claudiadchristian.com. It’s a place for me to publicly experiment with storylines, to post work-in-progress novels, short stories, and share info on other dark romance writers whose work I just adore. I’d love to see you there!

---Claudia D. Christian

OTHER TITLES BY CLAUDIA D. CHRISTIAN

Vicious Bliss: fallen

Fracture - A Miserable Love Collection

Devil's Descent I: purgatory

Devil's Descent II: impure

Suicide Doll