CHAPTER FOUR
calm and cruel

There was a tense silence as Elijah turned away from me and faced Rose and Trevor. I watched the scene with wide eyes and my instincts warned me of incoming danger. When nobody answered his question, he adjusted his sleeves in a casual, calm manner. But he was the furthest thing from calm.

It was clear that despite not knowing me, Elijah cared about me in some shape or form. Given that I had only spent a few minutes in his presence, I was yet to decide whether that was a good thing or not.

"Must I repeat myself?" Elijah asked in a cold tone, "Which one of you laid a hand on my mate?"

I sucked in a breath at his words. I was still trying to wrap my head around the situation. Elijah claimed that I was his mate and I was trying not to jump to conclusions. Did he believe that I was his soulmate or did he mean something else entirely?

Henrik had not mentioned the existence of soulmates to me during his explanations about the supernatural world, however, he also had not mentioned vampires. Perhaps Henrik did not know anything about either topic? After all, he had been very young when he had died.

Trevor took a shaky step forward and Elijah's piercing gaze shot towards him.

"It was I, and for that, I beg your forgiveness." he announced with a shudder.

Elijah sent him a frosty smile, his eyes utterly emotionless. I held my breath as he turned his attention back towards me. His face softened and we locked eyes as he knelt down before me. Carefully, he removed the coarse rope that bound my wrists to the rickety chair. He frowned down at the tender skin of my wrists, which had been rubbed raw. I flinched when he traced a delicate finger over the marks.

"I can heal you, if you would like?" Elijah asked softly, sensing my skittish nature.

I frowned skeptically at him, not knowing whether or not he could be trusted. My mind urged me to run but a warm feeling in my chest was adamant that Elijah would never hurt me. Slowly, in regards to his question, I nodded.

"Okay," I whispered.

Elijah smiled softly at my acceptance, a look of relief crossing his face. I frowned in confusion as I watched him, unsure of how he intended on healing me. I let out a sharp gasp when he bit into his wrist and held it out to me. I looked at the wound with horror, the sight of the blood causing me to become lightheaded.

"You must drink it," Elijah informed me, "My blood will heal you."

I immediately shook my head in denial, words failing me. Elijah looked at my pale face with concern as he nodded and pulled his wrist away from my view. He then stood and offered his hand to me to help me stand. I promptly ignored it as I stood on my own and backed away from him, attempting to brush aside the desire to be close to him.

"We have a lot to discuss," Elijah said softly, "But would you rather I take you home now? Or perhaps you have a family member or friend who could come pick you up, if you prefer?"

"I have a friend..." I answered quietly and he nodded, pulling a mobile from his pocket.

"Here," he said, handing it to me, "You can go and call your friend outside. I shall join you in a moment."

I nodded and quickly walked towards the exit, gripping the phone in my hand.

"What about the doppelganger?" Rose inquired as I left the room and entered the corridor.

"The doppelganger is of no concern to me." I heard Elijah reply, "One last piece of business and then we're done."

Curiosity got the better of me and I slowly peered back into the room. From experience, I knew that the best way to learn someone's true nature is to watch them when they are unaware of your presence. It was a useful truck that had helped me during my teenage years spent in foster homes.

I held my breath as I saw Elijah turn and walk towards Trevor.

"I've waited so long for this day, Elijah. I'm truly, very sorry." my kidnapper apologised.

"Oh no, your apologies are not necessary." Elijah said casually as he walked around Trevor with slow strides.

"Yes, yes it is. You trusted me with Katerina and I failed you." Trevor insisted.

"Oh yes, you are the guilty one and Rose helped you because she was loyal to you, that I honor." he said before stopping in front of him, a small smirk adoring his face, "Where was your loyalty? And after everything you have done, you still had the audacity to harm my mate."

"I beg your forgiveness."

"So granted," Elijah said a split second before ripping his head off.

I couldn't stop the scream that escaped me as I witnessed such horror. It had all happened so quickly and my brain was having a hard time catching up with the fact that a man had been murdered in front of me. My eyes landed on the decapitated body as tears stung my eyes. Trevor may have kidnapped and hurt me but the sight of him dead brought me no sense of justice, only disgust and fear for the man responsible.

Having grown up in the system, I was no stranger to acts of violence, having occasionally found myself on the receiving end of it, but it didn't make what I'd just witnessed any less horrific.

Rose wailed as Elijah turned to me with wide, guilty eyes. I marveled at how calm he seemed to be after committing such an atrocious act. I ignored the warm, fuzzy feeling in my heart that threatened to lead me astray and instead listened to my head.

Before Elijah could take a step towards me, I ran towards the front door. I pulled it open and shot out the house before banging into someone. I panicked and looked up, a relieved sob escaping me as I realised it was Henrik. I threw my arms around his neck, clinging to him as he held me tight.

"Morgana, what happened?" he asked urgently.

Before I could answer, we heard the front door slam and I turned to see Elijah casually walking towards us. Henrik froze in my arms when he saw the vampire.

"Elijah?" He whispered in disbelief.

"You know him?" I asked, my head whipping around to look at Henrik in confusion.

"He's my brother." my friend whispered, his eyes wide with shock.

I sucked in a shocked breath. How could my gentle Henrik be related to such a cruel and monstrous man? How could the boy that rescued me have any connection to this vampire?

Elijah stopped, confusion flooding his face as he took in Henrik's appearance. He blinked and inhaled sharply upon recognition.

"Impossible." he whispered.

Henrik glanced at me, untangling himself from my arms before standing protectively in front of me and asking, "How are you here?"

"I am guessing that I must be here for the same reason you are," Elijah summarised, "For our mate."

"Our?" I cried out, jolting in shock. Did he mean that both he and Henrik were my mates? I almost laughed in disbelief but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. I had always felt a pull towards Henrik, as well as lust, which I had tried to ignore. I wrote it off as him being the only person who had ever protected me. Deep down, however, I knew it had been something more.

I turned towards Henrik, question in my eyes, and found that he did not seem the least bit surprised by this news. He had known, and something inside of me broke a little at that.

"You're all grown up." Elijah said with a small smile, "It's good to see you, brother."

They embraced and I looked away, not wanting to intrude on a private moment. When I looked back, they were both staring at me and I shifted uncomfortably.

"What would you like to do, Morgana?" Henrik asked, smiling softly as he approached me and wrapped an arm around me.

"I just want to get the hell out of here before my head explodes." I muttered, instinctively leaning my head against him.

I watched Elijah rummage around in his suit pockets before pulling out a key card and handing it to his brother.

"Here is the key to the hotel I'm staying at, the address is on it. I have some business to take care of but after that we need to have a family meeting." Elijah said with a soft smile, "Is that okay with you, Morgana?"

I hated the feeling of happiness that arose at the sound of my name on his lips.

"That's fine," I nodded.

Henrik took my hand in his and led me to the hire car. Something inside of me protested at the idea of leaving Elijah behind but I silenced it. After all, he had literally just murdered a man in front of me. I climbed into the passenger seat with a sigh and refused to meet Henrik's gaze. I stared out the window and watched as the abandoned house became smaller and smaller.

"Morgana, there is so much that I should had told you and I promise that I was going to-"

"Save your excuses," I shot back, "In the span of a few small hours, I have been abducted, assaulted and I witnessed a very brutal beheading dealt by your long lost brother's hand. Forgive me if I am too busy processing all of that to discuss why you didn't tell me that I was your mate, whatever that means!"

"I'm sorry, Mor," Henrik said sincerely, running a hand through his hair, "I always suspected it but I never knew for certain."

"Later, Henrik" I said with a tired sigh as my eyelids fluttered closed and I drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

A/N: how is everyone enjoying Frostbite so far?

I am really enjoying rewriting this book and adding/removing certain aspects to improve the overall story. This chapter alone is nearly 1000 words longer than the original version.

I feel like Morgana is a lot more evolved in this version than the previous version of this book. I am committed to writing a realistic depiction of a traumatised person, however, Morgana will speak her mind more often in this rewrite. She will never be a stereotypical strong female lead, however, she is strong in her own way an I look forward to writing her journey of healing.