The Celestial Rose BoxSet Read online

  In the meantime, Adam fell in love with Eve. Eve sank down and was held as lower than Adam, a lesser being. Eve birthed Cain and Abel. Then to appease God, Cain slaughtered his beloved brother Abel. By doing so, he was cast out of paradise onto Earth’s wasteland. Eve later birthed Seth, and the next immortal generation was revered as Eve's disciples, the protectors of the crown.

  Tempted by trickery, Eve ate fruit from the tree of forbidden knowledge. Because of this, she became more self-aware and enjoyed her new visionary experience. But she later found out that her fruit of temptation had caused irreparable damage and her ability to bear immortal children ceased to exist. Mankind was finally born; a race of mortals that walked the Earth through the millennia.

  Cain, on the other hand, came across the seductive temptress and fell in love. Lilith taught Cain how to drink the blood of mankind, destroying the essence of humanity through seduction and temptation, enriching their lives as they became the first immortal Dark Ones.

  Over the years, Lilith birthed many demonic children and, with Cain by her side, they created a second generation of Dark Ones by turning three of Eve’s mortals. Cain fortified a city called ‘Enoch’ as a hellish paradise of demonic desire. Enoch was a place for the privileged, dark society, the originals, the pure bloods.

  Throughout the generations, genetic point mutations developed, causing the creation of a whole new race of creatures. Each mutation created its own faction, developing new beings with unique abilities, traits, and facades.

  After considering the timeline before me, I lay listening to the sound of the rain tip-tapping on the window pane, slowly sending me drifting off to sleep and into the realm of unconscious thought, with light and dark both coming together as one.

  CHAPTER 8

  Weeks passed with more training and time with friends. It was good to feel a part of something again, to laugh and joke with people around me. I’d warmed to them, just as they had to me. It hadn’t been easy in the start, trusting people, believing in them. But Rowena made it easy, they all did. I was lucky to have found them. If only I could show them the real me, the shivering nature inside, delving into a taste of the supernatural. Would they like me then? Could they accept me for all I am, warts and all? I hoped that they would, as I couldn't keep the secrets forever. Mum used to say the truth comes out in the end, and she was usually right.

  Morning rose with the pleasant sound of birds tweeting their early morning song. I was wrapped in my mother's blanket. It was only six am, another half an hour before my alarm sounded to alert me to the start of a new day. I sat watching the shadows dance, as I did every morning, stretching every part of my body, gradually taking in the freshness of the cool air.

  The smell of pancakes drifted into my bedroom. Downstairs, my father clattered pans, attempting my mother’s morning ritual. As we chatted, I managed a couple of pancakes, congratulating him on how much more like Mum's they were. Then the phone rang.

  "I’m waiting, Taylor," said an abrupt female voice.

  "Elisha?"

  "Yes, now hurry up!"

  I looked out the window and saw a classic red Spitfire with its engine revving impatiently out front. Elisha held up her hand to signal for me to get a move on. I wasn't quite sure why she was there. Did we make plans?

  "Dad, my friend Elisha is giving me a lift today."

  "Okay Taylor, take your time then."

  I gathered my things and left.

  Elisha sat in the driver’s seat, grumbling away about being late.

  "Hi, erm, did we make plans?"

  She glared at me, ordered me to buckle up, and then stepped on the accelerator and sped away.

  Elisha was not human, that I could tell for sure. What she was, I didn’t know. But the scent of roses always followed her around. She was clearly something otherworldly, giving out an instinctual attraction like a Lepidoptera to a phosphorescent light.

  Elisha had the same characteristics as the boys in her estranged family. Her presence aroused a desire in the base of your spine, travelling up through your body, shivering as it touched the heart and head. As the lead cheerleader, she fashioned a delicate selection of burgundy and golden yellow. Her outfit bounced and swished with her polished movements as the initials SBA stood proudly in the centre, presumably standing for 'StoneBridge Academy'.

  Her long, sandy hair glimmered in the morning sun, with her ocean blue eyes and shapely figure; she was designed to lure normality in. Her hunger was apparent too. I’d watched her licking her lips when in conversation with a high school jock, flirtatiously parading herself around him like a peacock displaying its dazzling tail. Her blunt attitude overwhelmed the most confident of scholars, yet as the lone female in the family she always had to glow with confidence.

  The car stopped, we were deep in the forest.

  "Out!" she shouted. What were we doing here? "Out now, Taylor," she boomed with a threatening voice.

  "Okay..." I said as we both got out.

  “What are we doing here?” I asked.

  “Testing a theory.”

  “Erm, okay.”

  Elisha looked around and raced off, skipping back carrying an enormous boulder, larger than any human could carry.

  “Elisha... what’s that for?”

  “Catch,” she laughed, throwing it directly at me.

  The boulder plummeted through the sky, threatening to land on top of me, killing me quickly. As the boulder drew closer, time slowed down. With only inches to go, the sky changed its tune, fading into a deepened shade of grey. All colour began to bleed from the land before me. The darkness surrounded me, and my body pulsed throughout, changing to mist rather than raw matter. I held my hands up in defence, but there was nothing more I could do. As it hit, I didn’t feel a thing. It passed directly through my body without a flinch, with no texture, no feeling. It landed with a crash behind, and as it did, I breathed again and colour restored to the world.

  “You really did take their power,” she said, walking over to me, poking my shoulder. “I knew it!”

  “It’s a good job I did, isn’t it?”

  What was her problem? She was overjoyed I survived the boulder incident. I’d proven her right. But really, who throws a boulder at someone and how the hell could she lift that thing?

  “What are you, Elisha?”

  “I could ask you the same question, Taylor,” she smirked as I huffed and sat silently.

  “Femme Fatale.”

  “Pardon?”

  “What you naïve humans would describe as a succubus. But minus the tail and obviously better looking.” She grinned, checking herself out in the car's wing mirror.

  Heading to the academy, I felt for a pulse. Yes, I was alive. So, what happened? Where was that place I went to?

  “Do you know where the shadelings live, Elisha?” I asked as she drove at high speed.

  “No, I‘m not a shadeling. Ask your boyfriend.”

  “Pardon? And he isn’t my boyfriend.”

  “It’s obvious you to like each other,” she smirked.

  “And he isn’t a shadeling,” I corrected.

  “But he could have been. It’s the Dark Ones that went mad and turned into those things.”

  “Jeez, really?”

  “Yeah,” she paused. “But Lilith stepped in and, as Lucian was one of the originals, she made him her disciple. We’re all her disciples now.”

  “Why don’t you live in Enoch, then?”

  “Ah, you’ve done your reading!” She laughed. “We can’t, we have a job to do. And to be perfectly honest, who would want to live with a bunch of monsters? You humans are much easier to play with. Anyway, I had to see for myself. What you’ve done... absorbing powers, its rare. The last creature that could do that, well, he worked directly for Lilith and you don’t want to meet him anytime soon!”

  “No, definitely not!” I said as we pulled up outside the academy.

  When we arrived Rowena ran over, she looked like she had been crying and
not her usual chirpy self.

  "Taylor, haven't you heard?" Rowena screeched.

  Surely something else hadn't happened? It was getting a tad overwhelming.

  "Heard what?" I asked.

  "Jenna and Cailee have gone missing. They vanished after the academy closed last week!"

  “I’d better go,” Elisha intervened before speeding off in her red Spitfire, tyres screeching down the street.

  "That's awful," I said.

  "And..." she went on, "the academy is closed... no electricity!"

  "Oh.”

  “So, I take it you’ve no plans?” she said, wiping her eyes.

  “No, not now.”

  “How about we head to York? I’ll take you to my favourite coffee shop and show you around?”

  “Sounds like a plan to me!”

  Rowena took the long route into York central, showing me what the village of Elvington had to offer on the way.

  Elvington was warped with tall elegant buildings, measuring high against the twisted vines of humanity’s existence. It appeared as a rich reservation of great farms amassed with apple trees and weeping willows framing the exterior. We drove past an old English church, encased by wrought iron gates with a tortured appeal. At the end of the church, there lay a decimated crypt, which once held the bones of Elvington’s very own enchantress; the witch Edwina Laurent.

  Rowena told me that Edwina was famous for her chaotic endeavours, which included the odd love potion, ghastly curse, or putrid hex; all of which involved spells, blood, and sacrifice. Understandably, she was not the most revered person in Elvington, more like the most feared. Her final denouement came when she sacrificed her first-born daughter to secure her passage into the other realm. What the ‘other realm’ was, no one knew for sure, or at least they weren’t saying. However, her daughter's sacrifice, and eventually her own sudden death by burning, was noted in The Domesday Book. Apparently, it was part of the reason the little town of Elvington had grown as tourist spot, especially with the goths on their way to the festival at Whitby. The tale continued with Rowena talking about her interest in the witch and her story from birth to death. During the witch’s eradication, she screeched an omen foretelling the end of days as the realms collided, and as our little town appeared in The Doomsday Book, many believed her tale of despair and woe.

  As we left Elvington, we came across a field full of evergreen conifers ready for the Yuletide sale in late December. Passing through Dunnington, the Windmill Inn stood with its grand arches beside the moorland, where an unbroken cartel of deer amassed, galloping across in a synchronised fashion.

  Arriving in York, we parked near the centre down a little back alley. Rowena said it was one that only the locals knew about. She pointed out the Bluebird Inn, a local hang out for University kids, and took me along the quieter cobbled streets, across a courtyard to Quinton's Coffee and Cake House.

  As we sat outside one of the inner districts finest establishments, I sipped my creamy latte and marvelled at the world's delights. The coffee cup warmed my hands as the chill of the wind wrapped around my body, sending a tingling shiver down my spine.

  “Simply delightful,” Rowena smirked, attempting a classy accent with her little finger displayed outwards as she sipped.

  “It is rather exquisite,” I mocked as she laughed, slurping the creamy latte from the cup and saucer.

  I sat playing with the foam as Rowena rambled on about the up and coming fair. I’d agreed to go, anything to make her smile. She needed cheering up, especially after the news that morning. The worrying thing was that the missing girls meant something was taking them. Normally I’d be contemplating perverted humans doing the nasty, but now... now it could be any number of supernatural beings. I knew what Lucian said, but considering Elisha’s idea of training was throwing boulders at me, perhaps I ought to learn how to use whatever energy I had before the beast hunted me down.

  The small vintage teaspoon rattled on the cracked saucer as the wind howled in honour of the strengthening sound of music from afar. Something enchanting began to happen, the melody was too good to resist. I was drawn in by the beauty of musical notes as I rose from my seat, mesmerised by each note that played. Following the broken cobbled streets, I waltzed across the diminishing courtyard with its looming crooked buildings, comparable to those in a fanatical Grimm's fairy tale.

  I approached a grungy looking youth with striking red hair. His gaze turned towards me as he watched my reaction to the music. With each note he played, the urge within me took over. With each pitch, he captivated his audience, the crowds grew, and a silence fell upon the air. Just then he stood tall, rising to applause, bowing his head with a devilish expression. He took to his violin with a classical melody, comparable to Helena's beauty in a Midsummer Night's Dream. The depth of the melody rose with each note more intense than the last. The audience gasped and awed in relation to the strength of his music as he reached the crescendo and his aura cradled his artistry. I felt a warmth, like that of a lover’s touch, and a peace like the softness of morning dew across a newly mowed meadow.

  Devoted to his cause, a tear glistened in the eye of every spectator, blissfully admiring the sudden softness of the music as a young lady swirled out from behind him. She danced alluringly, captivating the audience with her silk skirt circling her body as she submissively moved to every classical piece. Her golden top sparkled in the light, and her supple body flexed in desire of every note played. Her hair gleamed with trellises of blond and copper, bouncing as she sprang into step. Her delicate figure gave in gracefully to the music, with each note bellowing out through her skin. It was as though the song became her, reaching out, calling her name.

  MESMERISED, I WATCHED gracefully bewitched as I found my body moving to the rhythm, coiling to the tunes. My body began to sway with every beat, capturing the essence of my heart. Swirling around to the sounds of temptation, I lost myself, hypnotised by her beauty as she wrapped her essence around my soul. She glided between every stranger that watched in awe, transfixed by the musical notes.

  The young beauty swam in the sea of her brethren, as she soaked in their humanity and absorbed the substance of their spirit. The music grew as her nature played its tune, louder and deeper as she passed every soul along her journey to perfection. Caressing the bodies of many, she descended upon me, cloaking her body to mine, smothering my presence with an alluring scent of roses. I was hypnotised, taken in by her charm. She encased herself around me, her moist breath fell warm on the baseline of my neck. Her hands snaked across the base of my spine, warm to the touch, as each whisper of my being urged for more of her delight. Her breath whipped across my neck as she coyly winked, teasing and tantalising. I stood in ecstasy as her lips touched my own, taking my life-force, beauty dwindling. She released my gaze with a puzzled smile and I fell deeply, quietly, and slowly to the ground, catching my breath if only for a second. At that moment, I would have given my soul for one last dance as the music fell to an end.

  Startled out of the trance, I stood silently, the dark enchantress twisted with beauty, her glow more captivating than before. I watched as strangers gathered themselves, applauding, throwing money in appreciation. The seductress curtseyed and gracefully gathered her earnings, then she vanished into the darkened alleyways of York's inner most centre. I collected my thoughts and made my way back to the table. Rowena sat waiting. She had been on the phone inside when the dance began, unhearing of any musical note the duo had to offer.

  “Are you okay?" she asked, glancing me up and down.

  "I think so?" It was as though my reply was asking her if she thought I was okay. I undoubtedly thought that someone had spiked my drink and sent me down a trip through Wonderland.

  Rowena sat staring at me.

  "Taylor, where have you been?"

  "Erm, I'm not quite sure, I feel woozy." I laughed nervously.

  "It's just, you look different." She studied me. "You actually look... hotter,” she laughed, “lik
e you've lost 10lbs and,” she paused, “have you padded your bra with toilet roll!" she exclaimed, laughing, before finishing her latte.

  Three lattes’ later, we had finished talking about the trials and tribulations of Elvington’s finest citizens. I felt a lot better, perhaps due to the high caffeine intake. I agreed to head over to a few dress shops. Rowena was dying to go shopping, but time had passed quickly, and I needed to be back home for when Dad and Caleb pulled up. I wasn't quite sure how Dad would take the impromptu visit to York, without former contact or arrangements made. He was still a little apprehensive after London.

  Rowena disappeared to make a call home and I sat glancing over at the empty courtyard ahead, lost in the numbness of thought. As I watched the emptiness, a silhouette stood unmoving, and within the darkness, he watched.

  Desire flooded through me, penetrating every essence of my being as I gazed upon the shadowed figure. I felt drawn in, connected somehow, as though an invisible lasso had caught me, pulling me closer. I stood, surrounded with an energy of raw passion, lusting for more. As I gently hopped across the cobblestones, I recognised the figure that was one with the shadow. It was Lucian, my protector. I already liked him, yearned for his embrace. But a new darkness had taken over, a passionate desire that pulsated through me, intensified through the song of seduction.

  My body danced forward, slithering like a snake towards its prey. I could feel my own song release out of me, enchanting his vision as I took on the role of the succubus before. The gentle caress of my tongue swept across my lips as I tasted the strength of lasciviousness trembling across my entire body, and with that desire embedded into every grain of my existence, I went to him. His athletic body ached for my touch, wrapped in a lustful dance of passion as I played with his being in the darkest corners of Earth. His icy caress held me, protected me, making me his own and sealing the union with a kiss. A kiss that sent a tingle through my rose-coloured lips and a delight of shivers down my spine. I needed him, and he needed me. At that moment we became one, wrapped within the desire of one another. He appeared to be taken with me, captured by an alluring scent, a scent of sweetness and roses, a scent that came from within me, pulling him in closer. And as I longed for him, he longed for me. I wanted more of him, kissed him deeper, yearning for his touch.