The Dark Blood of Poppies (59 page)

Violette spat out the end of the cord. Then she slid her hands over the spectral Robyn’s collarbones and, with a quick, pitiless action, snapped its neck.

Robyn felt something break and fall inside her, as if some vital organ had collapsed. Painless, but horrible.

Then the crimson ghost seemed to collapse and dissipate, like a bubble. Nothing was left on the carpet but a great splash of blood.

“It’s kinder that way,” said Violette, as if she’d simply wrung a bird’s neck.

The vision ended. They were back on the bed, limply entangled, exhausted.

Robyn lay staring up at the canopy, while Violette lay across her, drained and trembling. “Robyn, Robyn…”

“Get off me,” said Robyn. She felt unreal, hollow like glass. Everything around her was changing shape with the rumble of an earth tremor… She realised she was hearing her own labouring heart. “Get off!”

Violette obeyed, raven hair hanging over her face. As she swept it back, Robyn saw that her expression was sombre now, devoid of rage. Tender. Robyn, breathless and shaken, didn’t know what to think or feel. The dancer’s bite had changed everything… but she couldn’t grasp how, or why.

“Forgive me.” Violette touched Robyn’s cheekbone. “I knew I’d do this when the time was right. I almost left it too late. Only I didn’t know it would be so… No, don’t say anything!” Robyn had parted her lips to speak. “Rest. Don’t speak until you understand.”

Violette poured water from a jug and gave Robyn the glass. Robyn drank, holding the vessel tight to steady her hands. Her thundering pulse quietened. The trickle of cold water down her throat anchored her to reality. She felt…

“When did you last eat?” Violette asked, sitting on the edge of the bed.

The question startled her. “Oh… yesterday.”

“And how do you feel now?”

Robyn shut her eyes, taking deep, tentative breaths. Her heart beat strongly again. Her headache was gone. Strength returned to her limbs. Most amazing of all, she felt clear-headed. Sebastian’s feasts always left her languid, but Violette’s attack had scoured her like a clean, icy wind. She felt almost her normal self: the last stand of her spirit before death?

“Confused,” Robyn said shakily.

“You weren’t made to be a martyr,” said Violette. She took the glass away and placed an apple in Robyn’s hand. “What is wrong with you, that you won’t look after yourself?”

Robyn ate the apple, ravenous for its sweet juice. Violette’s lovely eyes rested on her.
Is she hypnotising me? As if she needs to.

“What have you done to me?” Robyn asked.

“That, you must find out for yourself,” Violette said gravely.

“How did you find me?”

“You can’t hide from me.” The idea of Violette as clairvoyant seemed only natural to Robyn. “Your uncle is worried about you.”

At that, a wave of devastation shook her.

“Oh, Lord. I never thought – I should have written. My God, if I died and Josef never knew why…”

And she began to realise how Violette had changed her.

“You are not going to die,” said the dancer. “I won’t allow it. You will eat and you will live. But ask yourself, what has Sebastian done to you? He’s made you a victim. You were strong before you met him, weren’t you? You controlled your own life. Now he controls you. This is what love brings you to!”

Robyn’s mouth fell open. Her breath quickened.
Yes
. She saw the self-destructive insanity of her own behaviour as if looking on from outside. “How do you know this? I told you too much, that night in Boston!”

“No. One look was all I needed to know everything about you.”

Robyn resented Violette for compelling her to face what she had been doing to herself… Yet even resentment was a sign of emotional rebirth. She found herself regaining self-control, confidence. To find her soul stretched naked before Violette was both unsettling and eerily soothing.

“What about Sebastian?” Robyn asked. “How much do you know about him?”

“I’ve never met him, but I know him through you. He can’t face the strength of his own passions, so he walls them away. That’s why he brought you here. To wall you away.”

“Oh, God,” said Robyn, putting her head in her hands. “Yes, that’s exactly what he was doing.”
Only
, she thought,
I was too infatuated to admit it.

She felt easy with Violette now, as if they’d been friends for a lifetime. Yet she recoiled from the vision of Violette strangling the blood-red ghost, casting her into darkness.

“Tell me what you’ve done to me,” said Robyn, her voice raw. “Help me understand.”

As Violette’s dazzling gaze met hers, Robyn saw her as a divided entity; half goddess, half angry, passionate human. She spoke softly.

“I’ve changed you. Strangled the sickness in your soul so that the rest of you, the adult woman, can live. I am Lilith, destroyer of children: destroyer of infantile needs and obsessions, if you like.”

“Are you calling my love for Sebastian infantile?”

“No. But your need to hurt others before they hurt you, and your willingness to sacrifice your life to the first real love you found – that was a form of sickness.”

Robyn looked down at her own hands lying on the embroidered silk. So this was Violette-Lilith’s magic. Although she still loved Sebastian, she was no longer mad enough to die for that love. She felt calm and self-possessed. All she wanted was to live out her natural life. Nothing more.

And for Violette, now, she felt simple tenderness.

“If I was sick, am I cured? You must be an angel.”

Violette’s expressive face became bleak. “I envy Sebastian because you love him instead of me. That’s rather too human, isn’t it?”

“I offered to come with you! If you’d let me, I’d never have seen him again!”

Regret suffused Violette’s face. The look moved Robyn to tears.

“If only.” She stroked Robyn’s face, her fingers achingly delicate. “I wonder if he was sent by my enemies, to seduce you away from me?”

“Enemies? Who could hate you?”

“Almost anyone. Lilith is an evil demon, didn’t you know?”

“And a paranoid one, maybe,” said Robyn. Violette looked startled. “I met Sebastian the same night I met you, at that party. How could anyone else have known? It was a coincidence, Violette. These crazy things happen.”

“I suppose you’re right. I like the way you say my name. Say it again.”

“Violette. Lilith.”

The dancer breathed out softly. “And I’m grateful to you.”

“Why?”

“For showing me that I’m capable of love, when I believed I wasn’t. And for proving the absolute hopelessness of it.”

“Hopeless… because you would do to me what Sebastian’s done?”

“And because you don’t share my feelings. Either way, I can’t win.”

Robyn was at a loss; she had no idea what to do if the dancer wept. “We can be friends,” she said lamely.

“But friendship is not what I want.”

“I’m confused,” said Robyn. “You assume I prefer men, but I felt nothing for men until I met Sebastian. And I felt very little for women until I met you.”

She sat forward and embraced Violette. Couldn’t help herself. The dancer was so slender she was hardly there at all, and yet she was warm and divinely firm to touch; so lovely that no one, male or female, could resist her.

“Lilith,” she said in a kind of ecstasy, into the black hair. “How could anyone not love you? We were lovers when you took my blood. We are lovers.”

For a few minutes, Violette held her so hard that Robyn thought her spine would break. But it was the dancer who ended the embrace. She kissed Robyn full on the lips. Electric warmth. A taste of blood and clear fluids like the sweetest nectar… then she drew away.

“You were never cold-hearted, Robyn, only wounded. You’re gentle and kind, but… don’t lead me into fond delusions. Don’t pity me.” Her face was composed, with formidable willpower shining behind her eyes.

“Pity you?” Robyn gasped. “That would be like pitying a goddess.”

“But you pity the Devil a little, don’t you?” Violette smiled, disentangling Robyn’s hair with her fingers. “And talking of your lover, what would he say if he came back and found me sitting here – or lying beside you?”

The thought froze her. Her feelings towards Sebastian had changed, but they hadn’t died. “He’d want to kill you.”

“He would have to join the queue,” Violette said tartly. “It’s more likely that I’d win.”

Robyn was horrified. “Oh, you must leave! He could be back at any moment.”

“Are you still defending him?”

“Of course!” she said fiercely. “Don’t you see? I love you both. I couldn’t bear you to fight over me. Go, please.”

“I’d like to break his neck,” Violette said in a chilling tone. Lilith’s ruthless soul burned in her eyes.

“He could have killed me months ago, but he spared me out of love. I’ve changed him, too – more than you’ve changed me.”

The hard light dimmed. “Well, there’s something of me in you,” Violette murmured. “In all my daughters, I suppose… All right, I won’t harm him – but only for your sake.”

Robyn wilted in relief. “And my blood is in you. It’s a bond, isn’t it? So you’ll remember that I love you, even when I’m not there. But you really must leave.”

“Come with me.”

“I can’t.” She added under her breath, “Not yet.”

“Robyn, I haven’t come all this way to leave you at his mercy again!”

She sat up straight, angered. “What is this? You complain that I’m too much in Sebastian’s power – then you start telling me what to do? I’m not one of your students.”

“I want you out of danger, that’s all.”

“I’m not in danger! Try to understand. I need to see Sebastian just once more. To say goodbye. I cannot walk out on him without explaining.”

They argued, but Violette was obdurate. Eventually Robyn said lightly, “This is our first quarrel. First of many?”

“I’m sorry,” the dancer sighed, relenting. “I’ve no right to bully you. I trust your judgement. I would wait for you but I can’t, I have business at home.”

“I must face him alone,” said Robyn. “I’m not afraid of him. I don’t want to remember him as a vampire, but as a man, my lover.”

“Enough,” said Violette. “I understand.”

She kissed Robyn again. Overcome, Robyn grasped Violette’s hand. “You live in Salzburg, don’t you? I’ll come to you as soon as I leave here.”

“Don’t. I might not be there. I made a promise that I can’t break.”

Lilith dissolved into the shadows as she spoke. Her hand crumbled to dust and stars in Robyn’s palm.

* * *

When Sebastian returned, Robyn was in the library with her stockinged feet on the hearth, a cup of cocoa resting in her lap. He rushed to her side with a genuine delight that almost broke her heart. She’d made her decision, but was still nervous of his reaction.

She feared he might suspect something wrong immediately, but he seemed oblivious. Perhaps he’d stopped looking at her too closely, in case he saw imminent death in her eyes.

“You’re up and dressed,” he said, covering her face and hands with kisses. “Are you feeling better, beloved child?”

“Yes, much better.”

“And have you eaten?”

“An obscene amount,” she said. “Fruit, porridge, eggs and bacon.”

“But this is wonderful.” He sat beside her on the chaise-longue. “And there’s colour in your cheeks again. If I had a God to thank I’d be on my knees! I was so afraid…”

“You thought I was dying? I was. But this morning, I woke up and decided to live.”

His hazel eyes were rapt with love, but she felt tranquil and distant. Then she saw his eyes cool suddenly, as if he suspected a change. She said, “You love me, don’t you?”

“I don’t know what more I can do to prove it.”

“You could prove it… by letting me go.”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

She shook her head. Her throat ached. “You’re killing me, dearest. I’m not such a fool as to die for you. I love my life too much to make that sacrifice. I want to live, for myself and for you, so that you don’t end up hating yourself for taking my life.”

He said nothing for several seconds. When he spoke, his voice was cold. “So, you want to leave me?”

“I must.”

Another silence. He looked at her strangely, then lifted her chin and rested his gaze on her throat. “You’ve changed,” he said. “Why?”

“I’ve come to my senses, that’s all.”

“No… Someone has influenced you.” His tone began to alarm her. “Someone came while I wasn’t here. Was it Rasmila?”

“No, no one.”

“Don’t lie to me! These marks on your neck, tiny silver-pink flowers that even a doctor would overlook, were not made by me. Who was it?”

She jerked out of his grip. “All right! It was Violette. Don’t be angry with her; she probably saved my life. And she didn’t ‘influence’ me, just made me see sense.”

“Made you cease to love me?” His tone was murderous. His eyes lanced through her.

“Sebastian!” She clasped his arm. “Don’t blame her! I was dying until she came. And that’s where it will end if we don’t stop!”

His rage diminished to brooding menace. He stood up and paced about. “Let us leave Violette aside. Are you saying that you refuse to see me anymore?”

“No, no.” Her confidence returned. “I’ll sail back to Boston. If there’s still trouble about Harold, I’ll sort it out. I should never have left. I’ll live in my house as before, and you can visit me, maybe two or three times a year…”

“It’s not enough,” he said grimly.

“Why? It’s all my body can take! Why is everything so extreme with you, why is it all or nothing? If you truly cared –”

“You’ve made up your mind, obviously.”

“We can still be lovers. Not so often, that’s all.”

He didn’t answer, and she could find nothing else to say. She was no longer sure what she felt for him. One thing was certain; her obsessive craving was dead, strangled by Lilith. All that had made her vulnerable and dependent – dead.

Yet she didn’t want to hurt him – assuming such a monster could be hurt. She thought,
If he tells me he faked his love for me… I wouldn’t blame him, but I couldn’t bear it. Does he care or not? Is he still playing games?

Robyn was calm, but far from happy.
I was ready to die for him; now I’m not. That’s all. But to lose that incredible passion… Has Lilith done a miraculous thing to me – or a terrible one?