Inside the cemetery building, which had been built for Acheron Gauntlet, Eve lay on the dusty ground next to the open tomb. It took a minute before she gained consciousness. Upon inhaling the dust that had settled on the ground for several years, she softly coughed.
"Did you hear that?"
Eve turned alert on hearing someone's voice outside the building, and she quickly covered her mouth before another cough erupted out of her throat.
Outside the cemetery building were two castle guards who had decided to patrol the grounds after hearing the sound in the forest.
"What is it?" Asked the other guard with him.
"I heard someone cough, but it sounded… distant," said the first guard with doubt in his voice.
It was because no one ever came here to the forest cemetery that was made specifically for the Gauntlet family members. Even though they were once a royal family, people avoided coming here as many believed that the family was cursed. They were doomed, and anyone who came near their graves would be infected by bad luck.
The guard's ears were good enough to pick up the sound of a cough, but even after walking around for the next five minutes, they didn't find anyone in sight.
"There's no one here," said the second guard, carrying the burning lantern.
When they heard a deep sound as if someone was crying, the first guard said, "I am not imagining things, am I?"
"I heard that too! Is it the ghosts…?" The second guard's eyes frantically moved, wanting to see who it was, and he loudly asked, "Who is there?!" But no matter how much they walked around, they didn't find anyone, making the person wonder, "You don't reckon that there are spirits in here, do you?"
"Let us continue looking before we turn back," the first guard suggested, who wanted to make sure that there were no thieves lurking near the castle.
While Vincent and Timotei were busily looking inside the graves to find Timotei's past life skeleton, on the other hand, Eve sat upright on the dusty ground as she tried to recollect what she just saw. She heard footsteps approaching near the outside of the cemetery building, where she caught sight of light.
The guards were here, Eve thought to herself.
The guard who stood not too far from Acheron's cemetery, his eyebrows furrowed, and he noticed how the light reflected with a higher intensity when he raised his lantern. Eve quickly crawled and further dimmed the lantern's flame. Thankfully, the guards finally left the forest cemetery. Feeling a wetness on the palm of her hand, she looked down and noticed a drop of blood there. She touched her nose and looked down before pursing her lips. She wondered where the limitation to her powers laid.
Eve got up from where she had been sitting and returned to where Acheron's skeleton lay. She quickly walked to the door and used force to push it aside before making a gap through which she squeezed herself out of there. Turning the lantern off, she closed the door before meeting Vincent halfway.
"Did you find Timotei's skeleton?" Eve asked him.
"We did. What happened to your hair?" Vincent asked as he gently brushed and dusted her hair with his fingers.
"I found pieces of Acheron's memories," Eve then explained what she saw in the skeleton's memories as they made their way to the cemetery building.
Once Vincent heard what Eve saw, he said, "That's understandable as you were accessing the information through one person, so you will only see what he saw and what he knows. If you are looking to fill in the blanks, there's Erasmus Gauntlet."
"He's the other son who survived until the end?" Eve asked Vincent, and he gave her a nod.
"Yes. You might see something from his skeleton. Though I must inform you that some of his bones are missing," Vincent let her know, and Eve looked at him questioningly, "Timotei doesn't know about it either. Maybe you will find something in there, but before it, let us go where the black cat is."
When they neared the cemetery building, the rays of the moonlight fell on the name of the person to whom this place belonged. There were two names: Lady Kismet Gauntlet and Lady Selene Gauntlet.
Though prince Tobias had them tour the forest cemetery this noon, the young man hadn't given them in-depth information about the family members. Vincent explained to Eve, "Selene Gauntlet was the vampiress wife, and his daughter Kismet."
"That's Acheron's sister," Eve said softly, before they stepped inside the cemetery building. Her eyes fell on one of the open tombs, and when her gaze moved to the one next to it, she noticed Timotei sitting with his head close to the skeleton's head.
It was Kismet Gauntlet's skeleton, whose bony hands were wrapped around a small skeleton that belonged to a cat. Timotei held a sad look on his face, with his eyes closed. When Eve got near the second tomb, Timotei said,
"She was always kind to me. She always made sure that I was well fed, and loved. Protecting me when I had no one… She's the one who found me."
"You were her pet then?" Eve asked the black cat, who looked like it was depressed from finally recollecting some things it had forgotten.
"People find us, but that doesn't mean they are meant to stay with us. Kismet found me on the streets when I was young. She was young too, which is why when she brought me here, I was rejected immediately and it was Acheron who finally took me as his pet," and as the black cat said this, he turned to look at Vincent. "We didn't really get along in the beginning, but with time, things turned good... Eve, can you see how I died?" Timotei asked her as he pulled his body away from the skeleton.
Eve gave a nod, and her hand reached towards the cat's skeleton in the tomb. When her fingertips did touch the skeleton, she felt a chill run down her body, and her eyes tried to create gold flecks in them.
Noticing the change in her heartbeat, Vincent asked her, "Are you alright, Eve?" And Eve quickly pulled her hand away from the skeleton's body. When she turned to meet his eyes, a slight frown appeared on his face, "Your siren side is trying to push through. Let us take a break."
Eve shook her head, knowing they didn't have all the time to spend here, and she said, "I will try to hold her back…" her siren side that belonged to Nerissa. When she went back to touch the cat's skeleton, she said, "His body is cold… It must be because of the times Timotei was reborn, leaving his previous bodies behind like a shadow."
She then raised her hand in front of her before moving it upward, and the next moment, she created a dome around her. The dome held fragments of blue and green particles that floated inside it. Timotei coughed before getting away from the dome and said, "I couldn't breathe!" While Vincent stood in the dome that Eve created.
"She's using the moisture in the atmosphere to create the dome as there's no other source of water," Vincent stated, noticing how the air felt dry from where he stood. As he was a pureblooded vampire, the composition of the air didn't bother him, but for a person who depended on air, it would make things hard.
Eve's eyes appeared to be in a trance state, and the next moment, she touched the cat's skeleton, it wasn't just her, but also Vincent, who had travelled back in time that belonged to the past.
Timotei, who had taken a step away from the dome, noticed how Eve and Vincent had disappeared from his sight, and it turned his eyes wide.
"Eve? Vincent?" Timotei called their names, while taking a quick round in the small cemetery building. He questioned, "W—where the hell did they go leaving me alone?!"
Eve and Vincent were pulled back in time, and they fell flat on the hard ground, making Eve wince.
"Looks like your powers are expanding."
Eve turned around, not expecting Vincent to join her visiting the past. She said, "I didn't know I could take a companion with me."
"We learn something everyday, don't we?" Vincent replied with a crooked smile, and once he stood up, he offered his hand to help her to stand up. He said, "Seems like a lot of things have changed after the end of the Gauntlet's family. I am guessing your experience with Acheron's memory lane was different than this?"
Eve nodded, "It was. It was very specific with him, but with Timotei's skeleton… It feels different. I don't see Timotei anywhere."
Eve was right, Vincent thought to himself because his eyes moved around where they stood in the garden and he couldn't find the black cat. He said, "Maybe it is not Timotei who we are looking for."
"What do you mean?" Eve asked.
"Think about it. Timotei is not an ordinary cat, but one who talks and has actually lived through his eight lives and now on the ninth one. In a pack of cards, you often have a joker card that is a key card, and Timotei is nothing less to it," Vincent explained to her, and they heard an uproar inside the castle. "I am unable to smell or hear things more than what we are intended to, so I doubt there's anyone who can see us. Let us get inside."
Eve agreed and they stepped inside the castle, noticing blood on the floor and walls, which were fresh. There were a few bodies lying on the ground as they made their way inside. On noticing the mermaid, she pointed her finger,
"There's Marina!"
"Spitting image," Vincent murmured, and they followed her. The young woman, who looked like Eve, led them through the corridor, she walked in haste and disappeared behind two doors. When they finally got there, the woman was in the arms of a man. The pureblooded vampire remarked, "Looks like this isn't Marina, but Nerissa."
It was because the man held yellow eyes and resembled the werewolf Sullivan family. In silence, they watched the couple in each other's embrace.
"I have been looking for you all around the place, Nerissa," Erasmus rubbed the siren's back with a gentleness that the young woman had craved.
"Is it true that Acheron killed your siblings? There's blood everywhere and there's barely anyone alive," Nerissa said to the werewolf, who pulled back and caressed her face. "I didn't know he was capable of it."
"I told you he wasn't a good man, Nerissa," Erasmus said to the siren, "He is waiting to kill you along with your sister."
Nerissa shook her head, "Marina will never stand next to a man as vile as him."
"I know my vampire brother well, and he will do anything for the crown. But you don't have to worry about it, as I will protect both of you. You are the person whom I love," Erasmus promised the siren, his eyes appearing to look as if he adored the woman. But it wasn't adoration that was in there, but obsession, and obsession that was soon going to appear and he said, "I worry he will take you away from me, and I know a way to keep us together for life."
Though siren by nature, Nerissa was a woman by heart, who wanted to be accepted and loved. Though Acheron was spoken for, she had found Erasmus to be no less of a man, who would keep her happy and was in love with her. She said in haste,
"I am willing to do anything to stay next to you!"
Erasmus looked more than pleased and said, "In this loveless world that we have been born in, we were meant to be with each other, Nerissa. Do you understand that? We are fated," he picked up her hand and brought it to his lips.
Eve's eyes widened, as it seemed both the sisters had created a bond each with the two sons of King Gauntlet.
What dawned in Eve's mind, also dawned in Vincent's mind and he said, "It isn't because Marina died, that the mark on your hand isn't complete." They watched the werewolf create a bond with the siren. "It is because both of them marked you, creating a conflict. A siren belongs to the water more than a mermaid does because of their nature and incompatibility on the land. Which is why your mark disappears when under water."
"Where does that leave me…?" Eve whispered, not knowing who she was.
Vincent slipped his hand in hers and squeezed it, "You are a remarkable governess, whom I fell in love with. And as the mark turns half in the water only, it shows that your body is more suited to be a mermaid. You were destined to be with me."
Nerissa stared at the mark the werewolf gifted her, and a content smile appeared on her lips. She told him, "I will go find Marina and tell her the truth!"
"Be careful, Nerissa," Erasmus shouted a word of caution as if the castle was no longer safe for anyone.
The siren quickly ran out of the room, while Erasmus chuckled at the dumb siren, who was easy to fool. With the doors closing and him being alone, he murmured with a sneer,
"Make sure you bring Marina to our side, Nerissa. It is only time for Acheron to fall into his grave for the way I have paved for him. And then I will be the King with the powers of the siren and the mermaid."
Eve's eyebrows furrowed, and she said to Vincent, "I will follow Nerissa," She ran out of the room to catch up to the siren, leaving Vincent behind in the room, who stared at the werewolf prince.
Eve ran through the corridors, looking for the siren, who a minute ago had disappeared from her sight. She tried to remember the inside of the castle she had walked around this noon after lunch, while trying to remember where she had seen the mermaid dying earlier in Acheron's arms.