Chapter 27 - A Twisted Night

Chapter 27 - A Twisted Night

For the first time since Cord and Amanda arrived in Wellington, their stay had finally felt like a vacation. Spending time together never had been great. Four nights had passed since Cord’s return of sight and so far, they hadn’t faced any problems or consequences with it. No Matteo to be cautious about. No unknown enemy to think of.

They took this opportunity to travel around New Zealand, commuting through trains and buses, and even rented a car to fulfill Amanda’s wish to drive through the hills and countryside. By nightfall, they would either rent a hotel room or camp outside the field under the moon’s mystical light and the wondrous sea of stars.

Cord took this chance to get to know Amanda’s home country better. The last time he visited here was to sate his hunger only. Now, he wanted to see what the land offered. He found the mountains of Auckland rich and teeming with vegetation and wildlife pretty much like Belgium. Some parts were secluded and only reachable by helicopter, some were within a network of cities. The former had him considering putting up a second home for Amanda. Maybe give it to her as a gift. Maybe even set-up a family of their own—that was if his curse would be lifted. Though he knew it was an impossible wish, it was at least worth hoping for.

His blood meals had also gotten fewer which turned out to be convenient while they were traveling. Amanda had offered her blood too, daily even, but with the five days they were together, he only took her offer twice. The last was last night after another heady love making. Fortunately, his seizures had remained dormant since he regained his sight. Cord should have been very happy with it, but he felt it too good to be true. Certainly, he thought, there was a catch.

On the fifth night, they were back in Wellington. Amanda decided to stay in her family house since her father invited them for dinner. This time, Amanda had no apprehensions as to their meeting. Clearly, Mr. Arnold liked the Vitalis Master more than she possibly could hope for.

Their dinner turned out to be easy and smooth. Her father asked a few questions here and there and Cord was composed enough to answer it without a hitch. By the time they finished eating, Mr. Arnold was happy to invite him to stay inside the house. Amanda and Cord exchange furtive glances, but in the end, the latter declined the offer under the guise of work-related pre-appointments. He left by private car of the hotel, or so it seemed.

Amanda and Mr. Arnold had a father-and-daughter bonding first before they retired to their bedrooms. When Amanda entered her room, Cord was already waiting for her just as expected.

“Your father seems to fawn over me,” Cord stated, remembering the more-than-necessary attention he was receiving from the man. It was his first receiving such from a human—an understandable effect since he had always been self-contained inside his castle.

Amanda hook her arms around his neck and answered, “Well, he always said he wanted me wed to a King, and it seems, in his eyes, you’re the closest to that title. Or...” She looked at him with mock suspicion and grinned, “you didn’t use your beguiling ability on him now, have you? Like you did with Chief Morretti, hmm?”

He tossed her a mock hurtful look and shook his head, “I honestly admit I did that to the Chief but with your father, no. I choose not to ruin his mind in respect to you.”

“Good answer, Master Vitalis,” she placed a peck on his cheek and stepped back. “At least now, you as a blind man is out of the equation. And you certainly don’t need to use contact lenses when meeting him too.”

“This is just a momentary respite, Amanda, but I’m more than pleased to take advantage of it,” he answered, studying the way she moved across the room to the bathroom door.

“You might want to take advantage of our time here,” she hinted, looking at her bed.

Cord picked up her hint and a pleased grin formed on his lips.

“Control your screams then, my witch. We wouldn’t want your step-father to hear it.”

Amanda entered the bathroom with an inviting look towards him, a clear sign to follow. He gave her privacy first and waited for a couple of minutes. When he teleported to the bathroom thereafter, she was already naked and showering.

Much to the pleasure of his eyes, he joined her and in there they spent the longest shower they had mixed with moans and groans and muffled by the water’s noise.

Close to two hours later, they were out of the shower and into the bed fresh and all spent up. Amanda, too tired from the travel, quickly slept, wrapped around Cord’s protective arm, but thirty minutes later, he left the bed and waltzed outside the balcony wearing only his yoga pants.

The night was peaceful and calm, not a single noise could be heard except the gentle passing of the breeze until he broke it with a firm call of three names.

“Calvin. Mera. Pamela.”

The addressed vampires immediately appeared in front of him. Calvin swooshed right in, while Pamela and Mera stepped out of the shadows. Their heads were lowered in submission.

“Cord, you called?” Calvin was the one who spoke first.

“Report,” the Master replied.

“We just arrived two days ago, Cord,” Calvin started. “Charlie and I are still scouring the whole of Wellington for Matteo’s house. It seems he is a clever man. He has placed a hiding spell around it so that we couldn’t find it easily.”

Cord’s expression turned sour.

“Once you find it let me know. I’m pretty sure now that the unknown enemy we have is collaborating with him. I can’t have Amanda go back there anymore.”

He turned to the castle doctor and regarded her with the same sour expression.

“Mera, any progress?”

“I’ve developed pills for you to take, Cord. They are potent clotted blood enhanced with other ingredients that could temporarily contain your seizure attacks: carbamazepine and benzodiazipine.”

She pulled out a small box from her sling bag and handed it to Cord.

“I advise two pills a day,” she added.

Cord arched a brow, looking at the object with animosity.

“And the seizures themselves? Have you found the cause?”

Mera shook her head. “I’m afraid I still haven’t found the root cause, Cord. Like I said, it has an external element I couldn’t quite figure out, but I had a breakthrough three days ago before we flew here.”

“And that is?”

“I examined Amanda’s blood too. Unfortunately, I only had a small sample of it so I couldn’t confirm yet, but your seizures seems to be connected to her. Her blood cells are covered with a purplish glowing energy and that energy, I reckon, has to do with the external element.”

“Are you suggesting my relationship with Amanda is causing an imbalance inside my body?” Cord snapped, clenching his fists at the audacity of the doctor. It was as if she was subtly saying they weren’t meant to be together.

“No, I couldn’t put it like that, Cord. I wouldn’t be so bold,” Mera quickly shook her head, saving herself from his temper. “What I’m saying is that the witches powers are vast. You could be under a spell, or the abilities you took from those witches many centuries ago are now fighting inside you. You might be having some side effects.”

Cord paused for a moment and took in all of her words. She may have a point, but she also said she couldn’t clarify it yet. “You said you only had a small sample of Amanda’s blood?” he asked.

“Ye...yes,” Mera nodded nervously. Somehow she sensed where their conversation was heading.

“With Amanda’s consent, I’ll secure a sample of her blood for you. Get it tomorrow morning.”

“Your will, Cord,” Mera answered with a bow.

Pamela then stepped forward, rerouting his attention to her.

“I have a feeling you want a report from me too,” she said, taking off her elbow-length black gloves.

“That is if my subjects back in the castle squawked for you,” Cord stated.

Pamela released a sigh and cleared her throat. “Well, you wouldn’t believe how easy I got the intel. Do you want to know where I got it from?”

Cord’s sour expression didn’t change. “Spit it out, Pamela,” he said.

She giggled and then pointed to a woman hiding behind a tree down the balcony, her head lowered in deference to her Master. “Charlie willfully gave the info to me. It seems her past betrayal to you had advantages.”

“What information had you gathered from her?” Cord asked, thinning his eyes at her.

“Cord, I prefer to show you.” Pamela neared him and with her ungloved right hand, she touched his shoulder and injected Charlie’s memory into his mind—a memory of Sir Alfort and a familiar woman talking under the cover of the shadows of an abandoned parking lot. By the time Pamela was done, Cord growled low and bit out a curse.

“Bloody hell...”

“Exactly.” Pamela nodded. She placed her glove back and stared at Cord with gravity. “Back when I first touched Amanda, I saw this woman too. She’s basically Amanda’s mother.”

“No, you’re wrong,” Cord corrected. “That woman that Charlie met is Amanda’s aunt—her mother’s twin sister, and the witch that cast a curse on all of us.”

“But I thought she was long dead?” Calvin interjected, wrinkling his forehead.

Cord would have nodded at him if it wasn’t for the sudden realization of Amanda’s words. She did say Matteo resurrected her mother and that alone was an enough clue.

“Fuck...” Cord cursed, the expression on his face a picture of controlled anger. “Get out of here,” he ordered, “I have to do something. Continue finding Matteo’s house, but be vigilant. We have a powerful witch to clash with.”

“Yes, Cord,” all of them stated in unison and in a heartbeat, they all left the balcony.

Cord, now alone, turned around and went back to Amanda’s bedroom. There was only one task he needed to do and it was to warn Amanda about this so-called mother of her. Good that she felt something different about her mother. It only goes to show that she wasn’t a hundred percent fooled by them, but still, he had to tell her to be cautious.

However, as he neared the foot of the bed, his shadows wildly convulsed. Excruciating pain instantly shot through his chest and head, sending him kneeling on the carpeted floor with a suppressed groan. The small box that Mera had given joined him, its contents of individually foil-wrapped capsules spread near his knees.

“Ughhh...”

He kept his forehead pressed against the mattress, taking note of Amanda’s toes within his reach. She was sleeping peacefully. He didn’t want to wake her up and have her witness his pathetic condition.

With another restrained groan, he squeezed his eyes shut and clawed his chest. The pain was a hundred times more than the previous ones. If anything, he had expected his attack to come back with a vengeance, but he didn’t expect it to be this unbearable.

“Fuck—” he muttered, gnashing his teeth as he felt the shadows convulse even more.

He wanted to keep his control. He wanted to make sure he wouldn’t give in to the darkness already waiting in the sidelines for him to snap. Seeing the capsules in the periphery of his vision, he quickly snatched one and fumbled with the wrapper.

He was too late however. Another wave of seizures followed and that was what snapped his control.

Cord, under the control of his dark self, slowly stood up with the shadows enveloping him from head to foot. It had stopped convulsing, appearing like it was exalting him. He looked up and grinned, instantly pinning his attention on the sleeping Amanda.

“Ahh, yes. How lucky of me to be in this situation,” he said to himself as he walked to the left and joined Amanda in bed.

He straddled her with both of his hands on her waist, testing the curves under the bed cover.

Amanda, feeling his touch, thought it was an invitation to another wondrous love making. She moaned first and smiled, then popped her eyes open. Her delighted expression soon changed into panic.

“Co—!” she cried, but was cut off.

“Shhh... shhhh...” Cord covered her mouth with one hand and lowered his face to meet her frightened and surprised gaze, “try to behave lest you want your bed to be bloody, witch,” he threatened.

Amanda, wise enough to listen, stilled herself, but at the back of her mind, she was readying her crystals to form on her fingertips.

“I certainly didn’t expect you to hide so much power,” he stated, his voice filled with menace. “I want it all. Last time, you caught me off-guard. Now, you won’t be so lucky.”

His shadows moved and engulfed Amanda’s wrists. It soon turned into cuffs, pulling her hands away from his arms and locking them in place over her head, inevitably disabling her crystals from reaching him.

“Hmmmh!” Amanda found this a disadvantage. She wriggled when he withdrew his hands to pull her bed cover, but she found herself unable to fully move. His shadows had actually restrained her body too.

“What’s this?” Cord stated, surprise filling his face. He stared at her full breasts first with a flicker of desire and then completely pulled her bed cover off of her. Consequently, she was exposed all over, her body tensing under his scrutiny.

“What’s your relationship with me?” he asked, confusion filling his face. “Why are you naked?”

“I’m your lover!” Amanda cried out. Sure she understood him forgetting about her being a witch, but as his lover? What had become of his memories?

“A witch! My lover?” he parroted, chuckling in disbelief. “Now that’s a twisted story to tell.” He leaned forward and whispered on her ear, “For all I know, you’re just seducing me, trying to get into my pants so you could have your revenge.”

He straightened again and gazed at her naked form in hunger.

“I don’t care what’s your purpose though. While I abhor your kind, I certainly won’t back down on a good lay.” He flashed his teeth into a wicked smile. “I’m going to enjoy taking you, woman.”