Beguile // Demetri Volturi

Chapter 10: Newborn

Elowen laid motionless on the granite table, the only thing moving was her chest; it fell at a languid rate, and the thick muscle of her heart grew weaker with every push of venom enriched blood. Her heart was failing...she was in the process of dying. Her heart would eventually stop but my venom, which has coated every vein, reinforced every muscle, and rebuilt every bone in her body, would ensure her immortal awakening.

What little color she had in her skin vanished, giving her the illusion of having been made of polished alabaster. Her hair, which I had brushed earlier in the day, formed a dark and lustrous halo, and the delicate waves cascaded down her shoulders and back. The thin skin of her eyelids twitched and the dark fan of lashes fluttered slightly.

She would awaken any moment.

Elowen was beautiful; she was beautiful as a human and now, as a vampire, her beauty was immortalized and amplified. I had been right to assume that her beauty would be on par with Heidi's.

Felix entered the room with three human men in tow; one was thrown over either shoulder and the last one was being dragged by the torn fabric of his shirt. "It won't be much longer," he said, throwing the three men onto the floor on the other side of the room.

The men groaned and one of them, a man with icy blond hair and blue eyes, tried to stand up. His legs buckled out from under him and he clumsily landed face first on the stone floor. The sweet tang of blood filled the air and when the man rolled onto his side, the red liquid dripped from his broken nose and split lip.

"Did you get her belongings, including the camera?" I asked, keeping my eyes locked on Elowen's chest. In the last minute she had only taken one breath.

Any moment.

"Yup," Felix hummed. "Her belongings are just outside the door."

He walked towards me and stared down at Elowen. His eyes shamelessly roamed her body and when he reached her face, he hummed in approval.

"Felix," I growled, glaring at him from the corner of my eye.

"What?" my friend demanded, giving me a confused look.

"Watch yourself," I bared my teeth and snarled.

Felix scoffed but before he could respond, Elowen let out a pained whimper. Immediately, my attention snapped back to her. I raised a hand and brought it to her face. My fingers danced across her smooth pale cheek, and I smiled to myself. We were the same temperature now.

Another wave of pain hit Elowen and her heart began beating at an incredibly fast pace. The atriums of her heart gave out, then her ventricles.

Ba-boom.....Ba —

Elowen's heart stopped beating and the air left her lungs in one final exhale. All was still, all was quiet, and Felix laughed, "Here comes the newborn."

➴➵➶.☾✶☽.➴➵➶

I was drowning in a sea of fire! The liquid flames consumed every cell, scorched every nerve, seared every muscle, and blistered every bone; my organs had been surrounded by the fireless flames and they were consumed by the white heat.

It was too much; it was too hot, much too hot; it was painful, much too painful, and it was never ending, it lasted much too long. I was burning from the inside out! I wanted to scream and cry out, but the pain was too much; I could not scream, I could not cry, I couldn't do anything.

My heart thrashed violently against its cage of bone, much too fast. My lungs seized and the air that was in them became caught, painfully so. There was so much pain; I was burning, my muscles were too tight, to the point they were about to rip; my bones ached and I truly thought they had melted and turned into a gelatinous goop of marrow; my heart felt like it was trapped in a vice, one that was being tightened and on my heart was on the precipice of exploding.