Chapter 31 – Devil's Enchantment

Serena rolled over, burying her face into her soft, downy pillow. She felt Tom turn over as well, his arm moving onto her waist and pulling her closer to him. She smiled softly into her pillow. Even though he was asleep, he still held her tightly. Was he so afraid of her slipping from his grasp? She wondered.

Her body was exhausted, completely spent from their…activities. But her mind was still wide awake. She sighed, and let her mind wander.

It had been a month since their…marriage. They had apperated from…well, wherever the "ceremony" had taken place, onto an old, cobblestone street. It was still black outside, and Serena found herself shivering, though not from the cold. Archaic houses were littered along the street they stood on, spaced a few miles apart from each other. Grass gleaming silver in the moonlight surrounded the houses like a dangerous sea. A few trees were scattered here and there around the houses in an attempt of looking normal, but Serena could tell these houses were anything but.

A light breeze passed through, and Serena moved closer to Tom. An eerie silence was upon this …town, and Serena felt very uneasy. This was a place where dark magic was practiced, where corruption was rampant, though hidden under painted facades, and where evil himself seemed to reside.

Serena smirked at that thought.

It went literally as well, as apparently this is where Tom lived.

She had looked around, for the house in which she presumed she would be staying in, but could see none.

"Where are we?" She asked, looking up at Tom. He smirked.

"This is where you'll be staying," He said. Serena looked around.

"Where?" She asked, confused.

"Well it's invisible to you now, due to the spells I've placed around it," He said. "But it's just straight over there." He said, pointing to his right. Serena followed his hand, but couldn't see anything. It just looked like an ordinary hill to her.

"Come," He said, taking his hand off of her hip and extending it to her. "We have to walk there by foot so that I can get through the enchantments."

She had hesitated a moment, glancing back once more at the empty street, before slipping her hand into his.

It had been a relatively short walk, though Serena hardly noticed. She was too busy taking in her surroundings and trying to grasp the idea that she was married.

Married.

I'm married.

I'm really married.

With no friends or family there to witness.

Alone, in the middle of the night.

To a murderer.

That I love.

I'm a fucking idiot.

In the middle of the night.

And in black!

Serena couldn't help but frown at the thought. She was still a bit…upset. But, it was what she had wanted, wasn't it?

Tom had stopped walking, bringing Serena from her thoughts. She looked up at his handsome features, contorted with concentration. Apparently he was breaking through the spells.

What spells?

She froze. What kind of spells did he place around the house? Was it just an invisibility spell, or something else? No, it would have to be something more, otherwise he wouldn't be in such concentration.

Serena was about to ask him straight out, but he started walking again, dragging her along. Serena glanced ahead of them and was surprised that she could see a house now.

But what a house!

It was old. No, ancient. It was huge as well, though it looked smaller than some of the surrounding houses. The roof was dark, and because it was nighttime, she couldn't tell exactly what color it really was. The house was made of gray stone and old, faded wood.

Before she could further take in the house's appearance, Tom had opened the heavy oak door.

She had walked in to find a sitting room. There was a fireplace on the far side, and a few windows on the other side, though they were covered with black curtains. Serena wrinkled her nose in disgust.

Black curtains?

There was a black leather couch and two green sitting chairs by the fireplace, a honey-oak coffee table resting between them. Serena found the bag she had packed before lying on the table and slowly walked towards it.

There were few paintings on the walls, so the room gave off the feeling of cold and loneliness. There was, however, one painting above the fireplace that caught her eye, and Serena moved to take a better look.

It was a simple landscape of someplace exotic. There were two camels, a little girl, and a really old man at a drinking hole in a desert. The girl wore a white cotton tunic that flowed as if in a light wind. The man's face was lined with wrinkles and he squatted near the water. The moon danced above them, the stars seeming to twinkle though it was a painting.

Serena felt herself being drawn into it. She could almost feel the soft desert breeze on her shoulder, the light caress of sand.

One of the camels seemed to lift its head, and looked at her. She was entirely mesmerized and found herself falling into those brown eyes; eyes that should have been dull and stupid but were filled with a strange, vibrant power. It was intoxicating and she was being dragged into it.

"Serena?"

She heard Tom call, but the camel didn't look away and neither did she.

"Serena." She heard his voice again, this time sharp and commanding. The camel slowly returned his head back to its earlier position of drinking water, and Serena found herself shaking her head, being brought back into the cold, stone room.

She was suddenly dizzy and grabbed on Tom's arm for support.

"What was that?" She asked him, as she regained her focus. "I felt as if I was inside the picture."

He laughed.

"Captivating, isn't it?" He asked. She nodded.

"It was a gift," He said. Serena was skeptical, more likely he had just taken it. "It is enchanted so that anyone who looks at it will gradually be taken into the picture." Serena nodded her head, suddenly overcome with a strange desire to look at it again. So, instead, she turned her gaze to Tom.

"It tries to hypnotize the viewer, and sees how long it can hold you there," Tom said. "The man who gave it to me said that he knew someone who had spent four years just gazing at it."

Serena frowned.

"Really?" She asked.

"It's not really very dangerous. It takes ten years to fully transport you into the picture."

"What!" She asked. Not that dangerous? Tom smirked.

"Well, if one were to continue staring at that picture for a full ten years straight, it is designed so that the viewer will be slowly transported into the picture where he will be trapped for, eternity." He said. Serena shivered.

Trust Tom to have a sick painting like that in his house.

The first time Tom left, she knew that she was moving that picture.

"That's sick," She said. "Is that what happened to the little girl in the picture? And the man?"

"I actually don't know," He said. "But probably."

Serena turned quickly away from it. It was definitely going to be moved, if not thrown out.

Tom held out his arm for her.

"Shall we continue on our tour?" He asked her. She slipped her arm into his and let him take her away from the horrid painting.

Serena rolled over, so that now she was facing her sleeping husband.

The rest of the tour had been short. She had many rooms in her two-story house. There was a fully stocked library, a kitchen, a dining room, a room with a piano (which did her no good as she couldn't even play), a study where she supposed Tom worked, and many bedrooms. There had been no more incidents with paintings, but she couldn't escape the strange, lonely feeling the house still seemed to emit.

And though Serena had felt confused, unhappy and even scared during the "wedding ceremony", once she was back in Tom's arms, all thoughts of discomfort and fear were caressed out of her mind.

It had been a month and she still hadn't heard from anyone, not that she had expected to.

A pang of guilt twisted in her stomach.

No one knew what had happened to her. No one knew if she was still alive, or what had happened to her. All they probably knew was that Harry Livingston was dead and Serena was missing.

She felt terrible about it. They must be worrying and going crazy. They must miss her too. And though it had only been a single month, she was starting to miss them as well.

She sighed. There was nothing she could do. At least not at the moment.

Feeling depressed by her thoughts, she turned her attention back to the man next to her.

His raven hair was a mess, and his brows furrowed. She frowned softly. Even in sleep he was still planning things. Did he never have a moment's peace?

She ran her fingers between his brows, trying to relax away his frown. It didn't seem to help. Her fingers slipped to trace his high cheekbones.

How is it that one man can be so beautiful, yet so evil? She wondered to herself.

Her chocolate eyes flicked up to Tom's face again and she sighed. She knew she was completely smitten with him. She had been since her sixth year at Hogwarts, but she still couldn't understand it. She tried to understand him and found that it was very difficult. She hardly knew anything about him, about his past, and all she really knew was that he was powerful, ambitious, dangerous, and didn't shy away from killing people. But she also knew that something had happened to him when he was younger. He had said he knew and killed his father, who was a muggle, so that explained his dislike towards them, but she didn't know anything about his mother.

Did he?

She knew he was an orphan and grew up in a muggle orphanage. He must have been lonely and felt estranged, as he had magical powers and no one else did. Although, she sighed, knowing Tom, he probably used it to his advantage, even as a child. She smiled softly, sadly. That was probably where he developed his skills at manipulation. But for some reason, for all the bad things he'd done, she couldn't hold any of it against him.

She loved him, and was not ashamed to admit that, to herself or to him. And she also knew that he cared about her, in his own, strange way and that she was safe with him, that he'd always be there to protect her. She had thought, during school, that maybe he'd grow tired of her, but now she had begun to see that maybe he wouldn't. He came back for her, and married her, even though it wasn't the typical wedding. And she couldn't help thinking, dreaming that he might love her, or at least grow to love her, even though he might have problems admitting it.

Which was fine. She'd be there to help him.

She leaned in and kissed him softly, her lips lingering on his for a moment. Kissing him then, she wished she could take away all of his pain, all of his loneliness, and relieve him of his psychotic drive to prove his worth to the world. She knew that he was fighting to prove himself and had learned at a young age that using dark magic only made him more powerful. But she knew that she couldn't wipe away his past, that he was already too deep into it to ever become completely free of it. But she vowed to herself, in that moment, that she would try to help him as much as she could. And she hoped, that maybe, just maybe, she could eventually turn him away from the darkness that was poisoning his soul.

That is, if it wasn't too late for him.

Tom's eyes flickered open and distracted her from her morbid thoughts.

He frowned, bringing his hand up to brush a strand of hair out of her face.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked her, his voice almost, was it possible, concerned? Serena smiled at him and kissed his cheek.

"Nothing," She said. His frown didn't go away and she snuggled in closer to him, running her hand idly across his chest.

"What's wrong?" He asked, sensing her mood. She was careful not to upset him by lying to him

"I was just wondering why you always have to be planning something," She said.

"What do you mean?" He asked, not sharply, just unsure.

"Well I was watching you sleep and you were frowning," She said. "Were you having a bad dream?"

"No," He said. "I was thinking about…things."

"Well," Serena said, running her nails lightly over his arm. "I was just wondering why you always have to be doing that. You never seem to be at peace, or really happy."

"I'm happy when I'm with you," He said, taking her hand and placing a kiss in her palm. Serena smiled and felt herself blushing lightly. Her heart was beating wildly in her chest.

That HAS GOT to mean something! She thought to herself with girlish glee. But she did know that Tom was a skilled seducer, so she wasn't sure.

"I'm at peace when you're sleeping under my arms," He said, planting her arm with gentle kisses on a trail up until he reached her collar bone.

"And I'm most definitely happy when you're beneath me," He said, smirking, as he kissed her smiling lips. Serena rolled her eyes and kissed him back feeling so happy that she might float away on a cloud.

She traced his face gently and found herself smiling, playfully.

"I'm happy when I'm beneath you too," She purred. He smirked and rolled on top of her, pinning her down with his arms.

"Well, then," He growled mischievously, leaning down and kissing her again. "Let me make you happy again."

0-0-0-0-0

When Serena awoke, Tom had already gone. She yawned, for once happy with the black curtains because they did an amazing job at keeping out the sunlight.

She pulled the sheets up higher over her.

It must be late. She thought, a smile lighting her face as she thought of their late night passion, and what he had said to her before he jumped on her.

Stretching out her arms, she rolled onto her stomach and propped herself up on her elbows. Her brown hair fell was a mess, she could tell, but she couldn't help herself from sighing contentedly.

It didn't matter that she was basically imprisoned here as his wife, that everything in the house was black or green and it was nearly driving her mad, that he was still busy at work doing bad things for power: what he said last night made her heart soar.

Filled with a burst of girlish, love-sick energy, Serena bounded out of bed and went skipping into the bathroom.

An hour later, she left the bathroom, cleaned and dried. She felt so happy, that she took extra time doing her hair and putting on her make up. She wrapped her black silk robe around her and waltzed into her bedroom and over to her dark mahogany dresser.

She pulled open the doors and searched for something to wear. The clothes had been courtesy of Tom and she had found them her second day there. She held one of the dresses to her chest and sighed, like the love-sick girl she was at the moment.

Her first two weeks at her new home, Tom had stayed with her, helping her get comfortable with everything. Her second day there, he had surprised her with a dresser full of clothes, and a small black kitten to be her companion while he was away, for he told her he would be away a lot. She had absolutely adored the kitten and had felt immensely flattered that Tom had been so thoughtful. She had immediately bonded with the cat, who turned out to be a sweetheart.

She asked Tom what type of cat she was, but he had merely shrugged, saying he found it in the woods one evening and it had followed him home.

"Does she already have a name?" Serena asked him. He shrugged again.

"I didn't really address it," He said. "It just sort of waited at my door."

"She," Serena corrected him.

"What makes you think it's a girl?" He asked her.

"I don't know, I can just tell," She said. He rolled his eyes and walked off to make himself a drink.

Serena had stood, watching the kitten rub itself against her legs, when a huge snake appeared from at the end of the hall.

Serena had let loose a very loud scream, and was about to go find Tom, when the kitten jumped up and stood between Serena and the snake. It hissed and puffed up its fur, preparing for a fight.

The snake raised itself and let out a hiss as well. Serena heard footsteps, but couldn't turn away from the scene before her. She was so frightened for the little cat that she contemplated bending down, picking it up and facing the snake herself.

She heard hissing from her side, and noticed the snake turn its attention to Tom. After a little, it backed down, and slithered off out of the room.

"Sorry," Tom said, as Serena bent down and picked up the kitten. "I didn't even think of Nagini when I brought the cat home."

Serena smiled. "I forgot you're into snakes."

Tom smiled back, amused by her comment.

"I think I'll name her Lyonette," Serena said.

"Lyonette?" Tom asked. Serena smiled as she kissed the kitten on the head, which in turn licked Serena on the cheek.

She giggled.

"It's French for 'little-lion'" She said. Tom smiled.

"It does seem to fit," He said.

"Yes it does," She agreed.

Serena sighed, coming out of her memories. She looked at the dress she was holding and decided to put it on before she caught a cold. It wasn't much of a "dress", as it was thin, had very thin straps, ended a few inches above her knees, and had a square cut neck lined with lace. And, of course, it was black.

Serena slipped on some slippers and grabbed a warm robe from her dresser in case she got cold, and skipped down to the kitchen to feed Lyonette and make something for breakfast.