Blood Rebel [COMPLETED]

Chapter Thirty One - The Plan Evolves

Selene didn't know how long she had slept when she felt the weight of someone else's body on her leg. All she knew was that sleep had been hard and deep: no dreams, nothing. Only darkness.

"Selene?" came a voice, travelling through the void. She blinked and sat up, a quaver of relief trembled when she realised it wasn't Jackie. She was still alone in bed.

"Who is that?" She could see the light from the sitting room glinting off slippery eyeballs that hovered above her bed, but her vision hadn't adjusted sufficiently to work out who they belonged to.

"Virgil."

"What are you doing in here?" She hadn't meant to sound aggressive, and regretted the question immediately. Virgil was one of the better ones.

"I wanted to see if you were OK. What happened up there? Your cheek is swollen and bloody and Harland didn't even mention it."

"Oh, that," she said, pressing a hand to her cheek, which felt as though it were full of gel and tender to the touch. She winced as she caught the wound with a fingertip, tearing the newly forming scab. "It's nothing really. It was just for effect."

"Harland takes it all too seriously. Or not seriously enough. He can't play with you like that." Virgil leant in closer to look at her cheek and Selene recoiled. His eyes opened wide with surprise, and Selene could see him wondering why she had jumped away from him.

"Sorry," he said, and dropped his hands into his lap. The bed creaked beneath his weight as he shifted away from her and sat down, although he wasn't as huge as some of the others. He was more what Selene imagined a male dancer to look like: muscled, but lean.

"No, I'm the one who should be sorry. It has been an intense few days. I don't know what's what anymore..." She paused and bit her tongue. She had been about to say that she didn't know who she could trust, but realised at the last second that Virgil might not be amongst that number either.

"Were you happy before? With Hector?"

"I don't know. He was good to me, but there was no guarantee that his kindness would have lasted. Vampires are unpredictable." She thought of Hector, his face an insubstantial hologram in her mind. She saw him telling her that he had to kill her to become all powerful; that she had been bred for death.

"I thought we were helping you. When I heard we were going to kidnap you, I thought we were saving you from a terrible life. But when I heard Harland talking about how Hector spoke to you..." Virgil's words tailed off and he twiddled the thumbs of his clasped hands.

"I wasn't kidnapped. I came with you. I followed Richard Mason and Jackie. I chose to come with you." Selene's voice was full of truth.

"You had no choice. The place was burning to the ground."

Selene hung her head and let her back rest upon the iron headboard. She tried to pull the covers up around her neck, but Virgil's weight pinned them in place. He lifted himself off for a second to allow her to manoeuvre them, and sat back down when she was comfortable.

"A lot of things have happened which I don't fully understand," she said, tugging the covers up again.

"We're going to kill him you know. Hector. He won't walk away this time."

"I know."

"Selene, I know you feel something for him. I don't know what exactly, but you aren't dispassionate; you aren't emotionally detached."

Virgil placed a hand on the cover, where it rested over Selene's thigh. It was warm and heavy, and she made no comment, no attempt to shrug it off.