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CHAPTER 22
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2024-10-29 19:42:56It was ironic, how quickly the tables had turned.
The last time we'd known each other, Hezekiah intentionally bed me without even "bedding" me at all, successfully using me as a passage to steal what belonged to Mama and the Coterie. I felt like an idiot for letting that happen. My body gave into him so easily, hypnotized by his touch and his mastery of the female body. Goddammit, I was completely submissive to him that night.
But now, the tables have turned. Oh, how they've turned.
Now, my hands were pushed into Hezekiah's firm chest until his back was against the couch completely. I let him know that this time, I was in control. And he was willing to play along only because I had teased him to the point of him needing me
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** Mama retired to her room after that. She didn't say a word to me. She didn't want to. I could see it in her eyes - she was almost ashamed at what had become of her. Sajida's words were proven true; the spirits came through her in her moment of anger. I stood on the front porch, stunned into silence. Hezekiah was gone by then, taken down into the basement - the "Undercroft" as some House members were calling it. Everyone was on edge, even when the vampire was locked away deep underground. And as they all cowered in fear, they looked at me as if I was the enemy. To them, I was supposed to let Hezekiah's hand burn. I was supposed to stand by and watch, no matter how gruesome. But what they didn't understand was that it wasn't about Hezekiah's hand. It was about Mama - what she w
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** I had locked myself in the guest bedroom with the black box as my only form of company that night. No one came to me; I was left alone, which heightened my suspicions about the truth I had brought to them. I sat on the floor, still dressed in white and covered in dirt and dried sweat. The ball gown lied on the bed, staring back at me. I thought about trying it on; I didn't need to know how it fit, since Jeffrey assured me that the dress was correct to my measurements. But I wanted to see myself in this dress. Is this how Russell Van Doren remembered me one hundred and fifty years in the past—wearing this gown when it was common attire at the time? I expected Hezekiah to knock on the window and let himself in the room, trying to explain himself and his actions; his reasoning f
