Chapter 5 Don't let him touch you again

Elara's Pov

Vincent froze.

The wooden stake remained clenched tightly in his hand, its sharpened edge only inches away from Sebastian. His arm was still raised, his body rigid with anger, but for one suspended moment, he did not move.

Neither did anyone else.

My own breathing sounded too loud in the silence. I hadn’t thought before stepping forward. One second I had been standing behind them, terrified of what Vincent was about to do, and the next I had moved straight between them.

Now standing in front of Sebastian.

Vincent’s eyes locked onto me immediately. They still glowed faintly in the darkness, burning with fury that had nowhere to go. I could feel the heat of it even from where I stood.

“Genevieve,” Sebastian said quietly behind me, sounding more surprised than grateful.

“What are you doing?” Vincent snapped through his clenched teeth.

My heart was pounding so hard it hurt. I could feel Vincent’s rage pressing against the space between us like something alive.

“Stop pls,” I said

“Who are you,” he asked quietly, “to tell me what to do?”

His voice was low, controlled, and somehow more frightening than shouting.

“You know nothing.”

I swallowed hard, but I refused to move.

“At least I know enough,” I said, trying to steady my voice.

His jaw tightened.

“I don’t know what madness exists between the two of you, and I don’t care. I just know I can’t stand here and watch you kill somebody again in front of me.” I continued, forcing myself to keep speaking before fear could silence me.

Something unreadable crossed his face.

For a moment, I thought he might actually listen.

“Move,” he said.

His voice was low enough to make my stomach tighten.

I didn’t move.

The wind shifted around us, carrying the scent of damp earth and broken wood from the roadside. My legs wanted to shake, but stubbornness held me in place.

“I said move.”

His hand caught my side and swept me aside with enough force to send me stumbling several steps away. Before I regained balance, Vincent was already on Sebastian.

Vincent’s hand moved before I fully realized it. His body snapped forward with brutal speed, the wooden stake striking Sebastian with enough force to send him stumbling backward. The impact echoed through the road as Sebastian collided with the gravel.

Before he could recover, Vincent followed instantly, striking him again with a sharp blow that sent blood splattering across the ground.

Sebastian tried to regain balance, but Vincent grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the stone fence. The wall cracked under the impact.

“Touch her again,” Vincent said coldly, “and I will bury you myself.”

Then he released him, throwing him down like he weighed nothing. I stood frozen, my chest rising and falling too quickly as I watched Sebastian struggle to heal before my eyes. The wound on his body slowly closed, flesh knitting back together as though nothing had happened.

Nothing about this was human.

Vincent turned toward me.

“You’re coming with me.”

It was not a request.

I wanted to argue. I wanted to run. .

Instead, before I could move on my own, he crossed the distance between us, seized my wrist, and in the next instant the world blurred.

The road disappeared.

The night folded around us.

When my vision steadied again, we were back inside the mansion. I barely had time to gasp before he shoved me against the wall.

The stone struck my back sharply. Vincent pushed me against the wall with sudden force.

Stone hit my back, sharp and cold.

He stepped in close, caging me completely. One hand braced beside my head while the other tilted my chin upward.

“Don’t let him near you again,” he said slowly.

His grip tightened slightly.

“As long as you wear her face,” he added, “you belong to no one but me.”

My breath caught for a moment, not because of the words alone, but because of the intensity behind them. His gold eyes burned into mine as though he wanted to tear through my skin and find the woman he believed I was hiding.

Anger rose faster than fear.

I shoved against his chest with both hands, forcing enough distance to breathe properly again. His grip loosened, and I stepped away from the wall, rubbing the ache left on my jaw.

“I am not part of whatever madness you and your brothers have going on,” I said, my voice shaking more from fury than fear. “I don’t know who you are, I don’t know what any of you are, and I am tired of being dragged into all of it.”

He said nothing, but his eyes narrowed.

“And don’t ever put your hands on me again,” I continued, my courage growing with every word. “Stop speaking about me like I am some object you own.”

Something dangerous flickered across his face, but I was too angry to stop.

“If I die,” I said, lifting my chin despite the way my heart pounded, “then she dies too. If this body dies, your precious Genevieve dies with me. So maybe you should remember that before you threaten me again.”

For the first time since I had met him, Vincent looked caught between rage and restraint. The silence stretched between us, heavy and sharp, while his jaw clenched so tightly I thought it might crack.

Then a voice broke through the room.

“Brother.”

I turned so quickly that my pulse stumbled.

Another man stood at the entrance of the hall, tall and broad-shouldered, with dark hair brushed carelessly away from a face that looked too handsome to be trusted.

Another brother again.

Great.

Vincent’s expression hardened immediately.

“Leave, Damien.” Vincent said

He smiled as if he had been welcomed warmly instead.

“That is hardly a proper greeting after years apart,” he said, stepping into the hall with leisurely confidence. “I return to find the mansion alive again, my brother breathing again, and all I receive is hostility.”

“You abandoned this place years ago,” Vincent replied. “All of you did. Do not come back now because you heard I survived.”

Damien spread his hands lightly. “Can you blame us for being pleased? I do not know how you crawled your way back from death, but I am delighted all the same.”

His gaze drifted lazily around the dusty hall before settling on me with open curiosity.

“And to celebrate your return,” he continued, “I thought I might bring gifts. Humans to scrub the filth from these walls, perhaps twenty of them. You can feed while they work. It seems practical.”

My stomach turned.

He said it so casually, as though people were no different from furniture.

Vincent moved before I fully realized what was happening. His body tensed, his eyes flashing brighter, and fury rolled off him like heat from a fire.

“Thank you, but I don't need them.”

Damien laughed softly. “I noticed you killed a lot today… is that enough to satisfy the hunger that has starved you for nineteen years?”

Vincent said nothing and walked upstairs. Just then, Sebastian entered and struck him hard enough to send him crashing into a pillar. I flinched in shock as Vincent quickly stood back up, ready to fight again. In an instant, everything descended into chaos as Damien stepped in, trying to separate the two brothers.

The brothers moved too fast for my eyes to follow properly. Stone cracked. Wood shattered. Growls echoed through the mansion as their bodies collided with enough force to shake the floor beneath me. Vincent seized Sebastian by the throat and hurled him across the room, only for Damien to grab Vincent from behind in an attempt to restrain him before the fight turned deadly.

I was tired of all of them.

Tired of the violence.

Without another glance, I turned and walked out of the hall. I climbed the staircase quickly, the sounds of crashing and shouting fading only slightly as I reached the room where I had woken earlier. Once inside, I shut the door and leaned against it, pressing trembling hands to my face.

The silence in the room felt unreal after everything below. I crossed slowly to the bed and sat down, my body heavy with a kind of exhaustion sleep could never fix.

What had my life become?

Only yesterday, I had been sneaking into an apartment with Andy, laughing over cheap candles and stolen jewelry. I had worried about school, about my mother asking too many questions, about whether I looked pretty enough for a boy who smiled like sunshine. Now I was trapped in another woman’s body inside a mansion full of murderous brothers.

Witches existed.

Vampires existed.

Marcel existed.

And somewhere out there, my real body—my body—was lying abandoned, hunted, or worse. I thought of my parents, of my mother hearing that I was dead, of my father pretending to stay calm while falling apart inside. I thought of Andy waking up alone, blood on the floor, no answers or worse even dead.

Pain tightened in my chest until breathing hurt.

Then another memory surfaced.

Marcel’s voice.

I expected more from her body. It could not hold what I placed inside her since birth.

What had he put inside me?

Why did he need my blood?

Why was I important before I even knew it?

I wiped angrily at the tears threatening to fall.

No.

I could not sit in this room and wait for monsters to decide my fate. I would not become a pawn passed from hand to hand.

I needed answers.

And if Marcel wanted my body badly enough to hunt for it, then finding it before him might be the only chance I had left.

By the time night settled fully over the mansion, my decision had hardened.

The halls were quiet when I slipped from the room. Moonlight stretched across the floors in pale silver lines, and the house felt almost abandoned again, as if the violence of earlier had only been a dream.

I moved carefully down the stairs and through the corridor, pausing at every sound. No voices followed me. No footsteps came behind me.

At the front doors, I hesitated only long enough to steady my breathing before slipping outside. Cold night air struck my skin immediately. The gates stood ahead, tall and iron-wrought, opening toward the dark road beyond. Freedom was only a few more

steps away.

I quickened my pace.

My fingers had just touched the gate when a voice rose behind me, calm and terrifyingly close.

“Where do you think you’re going?”