Séraphine (Eternelles: A Prequel, Book 0.5) Read Online Free

communicating how much she loved her. Loved her like no other living thing. She squeezed her hand and focused on it, as though searching for the right words.
    “Please, Mum.”
    “If Rafe drank your blood, and then I fed you mine within the hour, it can only mean one thing.”
    Sera’s eyes widened. Why hadn’t she thought of that? “That I’m now like him?”
    “Yes.”
    “God, how am I going to explain this to William? He doesn’t even know what I am. What we are.”
    “You won’t”
    “But won’t he notice if I don’t…”
    “Age?”
    Sera nodded.
    “ Ma fille , there’s more.”
    When her mother hesitated, a treacherous thought stabbed at her. The woman was never short for words.
    “Tell me, how long have I been asleep?”
    Adri kept stalling, but at Sera’s direct gaze, she finally gave in. “Two weeks.”
    “Two bloody weeks! You let William sail without us? Why on earth didn’t you have me carried on the ship? Did I need some special medical treatment? I never get sick, or if I do, not for long.”
    “And what was I supposed to tell your fiancé or the physic on board? That a vampyre bit you? I am still unsure how you will react to the sunlight. Too many questions, and not many answers so far.”
    “I don’t understand how it took me this long to recover.”
    “You had some waking moments. I…slipped something in your tea.”
    Sera threw her hands up in frustration. “Why?”
    “Something happened. I wanted you to rest, to get your strength back. You’re going to need it.”
    Sera’s warning glance brooked no argument.
    “All right, then,” Adri said on a sigh. “ Mon coeur , the ship…there was an accident. It sank…they had a dire issue with the lifeboats and many passengers died. I spoke to some people, who kept me abreast of things, and I saw the list of survivors…” Her voice trailed off at the end.
    “William didn’t make it,” Sera said in a barely audible whisper.
    “I’m so sorry.” Adri ran her fingers through Sera’s hair, hooking a wayward strand behind her ear. “You need to be strong.”
    William, happy, kind, loving William. My William.
    “Strong … you mean deal with losing everything in a blink of an eye as though nothing happened.” Sera looked at her mother with fresh eyes, suddenly despising her. “That’s how you always handle difficult situations, right, Mum? Forget they ever happened, dust yourself off and move on.”
    “Oh, Sera, please—”
    “Don’t! Don’t preach to me how I should act! This is my loss and I’ll manage it my way, if at all.” Sera hadn’t realized how loud her voice had gotten until Adri’s startled expression made her pause. She’d never spoken like this to her parent.
    “Why didn’t you let me die? If you hadn’t fed me, I wouldn’t be alive to feel all this grief!”
    “Séraphine—”
    “Don’t!” She huffed for breath. “Go. Just go away!”
    In the deserted mews behind her home this woman had saved her—twice. One time too many.
    Deflated, she closed her eyes and wished she were dead. Wished her mother had just left her on the street to breathe her last breath. She could barely wrap her mind around the idea she’d lost her beloved.
    Lost her innocence, her will to go on without him.
    She opened her eyes then and let them seek her mother’s form. Inside her entered a new guest, one she’d never had before.
    Hate—the destroyer of all things beautiful.
    Mum, I’ll never forgive you for this.
    And she wondered—would this world ever be big enough to hold the two of them?
    Would she ever be able to stand in the same room with this creature who’d nurtured and raised her, without getting sick or going insane?
    Only time would tell, and time was something she had a lot of.
     
    THE END
     
     

Like this prequel?
    Check out Adri’s prequel:
    ADRASTEIA (Eternelles: A Prequel, Book 0)
    http://www.amazon.com/Adrasteia-Eternelles-Prequel-Book-ebook/dp/B00D45D0AU/
     
    Also, read more about Sera and