Chapter Eighteen
My daughter and Lara have an unusual relationship. It makes them both feel better to cause each other injury and despite my protestation to it, they fight often and vigorously. They do not fight in a real way, but it is real enough. Both often draw the blood of the other and cause minor bodily harm, but afterwards they are loose and at peace. Perhaps I should try this method of stress relief. Grania has turned Lara into quite the fighter. She has taught her hand to hand for her own protection and Lara often tests Grania at the highest level. I would love to teach Lara to take up a sword, but she is not so much interested in sword fighting and prefers her firearms for fun. I would love to see a sword in her hand though and I imagine she will be quite good with it.
But for now, they needed to blow off steam from the last few days and seemed to enjoy kicking each other around until their souls were clean once more. Through exertion and blood they free their minds, this is the way of a warrior, even if Lara does not realize this.
I arrived the next night, after hours of meetings, phone calls and emails. I question why I got myself into this sometimes. The old ways were simpler.
Lara had a busy day, too. Grania had beaten her up, again. Lara had defended Grania from Aramea, again. The troublesome local sheriff had been around making threats, again. I thought perhaps it was time to start my day earlier. My family seemed to need more of a hands on presence of late and I require very little rest. There were pressing concerns though, my last made son, Daniel, had been making trouble of his own and it was time, once and for all, to deal with it. He was ignoring my calls to return home and that was troubling. He was suspected of murdering fourteen humans in the Atlanta area. Many of the companies I own are headquartered there and I felt this was a personal attack against me. Daniel had never wanted to come out to the public and tried to dissuade me from that course of action often. He was killing people in the seat of my financial power to make a point. My jet was fueled and waiting at BWI airport, while I went to talk to Lara, not wanting to leave her out of the loop. Grania had already been prepared for my absence, I left the connection between us open so that she would not become unnerved. I only planned to be gone for a few hours, but should it prove to be longer, she would join me in Atlanta. She seemed put out by all of this.
I could not stay long, but we talked about Daniel, Aramea and Sheriff Collins, who I knew to be a problem that was quickly working to the top of my to do list. I wanted nothing more than to stay with her, but if Daniel killed another human while I was immersed in other things, I would be at fault. Lara was acting more like herself, the light in her eyes was back and I could feel her butterflies when I kissed her. I have butterflies, too. Her lips are the softest things I have ever felt. I have never had something so strong, yet so delicate in my arms before and I relished the feeling of it. When she kisses me, she keeps her eyes open and locked onto mine. I have never been kissed like this. It is unnerving in a glorious way. I have learned that I like it. I do not think she realizes that she shouldn’t be able to do this. I know she has read the vampire educational book the AVA put out, but she seems to have missed the section on eye contact, as well as the one on how to handle an alpha vampire and possibly a few others. Had I let her seduce me, as she tried, I would have saved what came next, but I did not. She cut her tongue on my fang on purpose and stared me in the eyes as she kissed me, daring me to loose control and that reminded me that Daniel was out there and already out of control. In this instance something done out of Honor, led to the worst possible consequence. I left her. I should have stayed with her and let the humans deal with their own issues.
I felt her terror from thirty thousand feet in the air and I knew instantly that I had been mislead. The deaths in Atlanta were a ruse to get me away from home and allow Daniel to get to Lara. There are no words for it. Her terror was a white hot thing, branding my soul. I could feel her fighting for her life and I knew that I was helpless to do anything for her. I broke down the door to the cockpit in one kick and ordered the pilot to turn around, flight plans be damned. I threatened and showed the monster that I am, until he listened. I would have crash landed the Son of a Bitch if I thought it would help. Not long after turning around, we got the phone call from Air Traffic Control that I knew was coming. Grania explained what happened and I explained what would happen if they allowed her to die before I got there. I think I was very calm about it. They tell me otherwise.
I was out the door and in Westminster before the plane could taxi to a stop. Since Lara healed me, I can travel the old ways, but seldom do because danger lies there. I did not care that night. I stepped through a door at BWI airport and exited again in Lara’s backyard.
They were keeping her alive, but just barely. The poison was worse than Lara knows and ever will. Noah, who had been in panther form near her home for reasons known only to him, had fortunately scared Daniel away, but not before the damage was done. The doctor had placed a breathing tube in her lungs and was doing all her could medically to counteract the poison. Multiple medications hung from a pole by her head. She lay on a table with her throat so badly torn I could see the plastic of the breathing tube in places where flesh should be. Blood pooled around her and continued to run from her wounds, it would not stop. It dripped off of the table and puddled onto the floor, refusing to clot, a reaction to one of the poisons in her. I have never been so horrified by the sight of blood in my life. The color of her lips matched the color of her skin and she was beyond white. I sent Mikolosi home.
Noah, Grania and I worked into the growing night to no avail. Noah called his partner for emergency blood and had it delivered in large coolers. There was nothing he did not try, he is an excellent physician and a powerful Healer in his own rite. We fought against an enemy we did not understand to no avail. In the end, Lara Liann Hennessey died that night. Whatever small bit of humanity she possessed did not survive Daniel’s attack. Her DNA changed. We all watched in horror as her green and yellow layered aura faded and disappeared and her heart stopped beating. The smell of rapid decomposition filled the air and she was no more, she turned gray and withered as we watched, black lines of poison tracing her veins. Noah pulled the breathing tube from her throat and threw it with a loud scream of a feral cat. I smashed everything I could and simultaneously cursed the Gods for allowing this to happen. Grania sobbed uncontrollably, rocking herself back and forth. It was a heinous night. Unspeakable. I shall remember it until I die.
Then she took a breath. In the beginning it was a low rattling noise that came from somewhere deep within her, followed by another and another, before gradually evening out. The wound on her neck began to heal under Noah’s stitches and before our eyes. Her body arched and fought against whatever change was happening to it. Her color faded and changed many times over.
She had seizures. Violent fits of shaking where she frothed at the mouth and moaned before going still. Then it would happen again. And Again. Her temperature rose to over one hundred and six. Noah swore that alone was beyond the limits of an adult human to handle. We packed her body in ice and watched as she seized, before becoming still as death and unmoving. Noah called it a coma. Her pupils dilated and fixed. I could no longer feel her through our shared blood. Of course, all of our mixed blood had drained upon the floor and been replaced by countless bags of blood from strangers.
We stood helpless and in stunned silence as we witnessed the horrific death of one being and the rebirth of something else entirely. We did not know what it meant, but we all swore upon our own lives and the lives of those dearest to us to never tell her what had happened that dark night. She holds on to her humanity with a vengeance and will never learn that there is nothing left to hold onto. Her new aura glowed and pulsed a brilliant rose gold around her and she was reborn like a phoenix rising from the ashes of her death.
None of us knew what kind of creature had come forth from death that night, but I needed to be there to find out. We were all afraid. Lara’s power likely
knows no bounds. She is magic. That night proved it. Beings weaker than she, have descended down paths that set the world on fire by the magnitude of their strength used for ill. We would deal with this new thing, if needed, but I hoped and prayed the prayers of the desperate that she would remain unchanged in her soul. She is Good. I believe that. I sent the others home, bound by my blood to never speak of this. I used faerie magic they did not know I had to seal the binding. I no longer cared if they knew I could use it. They could never speak of this to anyone, of that I made sure.
I took Lara upstairs to her own bed, stripped her naked and packed her feverish body in fresh ice. Nothing about her moved, but the rise and fall of her chest. She was still in the way only a vampire can be and I worried over this. We were unsure of what Daniel had done to her. He could have Turned her, using blood or magic. I did not know. She could awaken and be exactly like me. My heart stilled in abject terror at the thought. I lived nothing but fear in those hours and it was a foreign place for me. All I knew for sure is that I had watched her die, I smelled her die, she did assuredly die, yet there she lay, breathing. I long suspected she was immortal in the way only the purest blood Tuatha can be, now we would see. I lay my head upon her chest and slept, because in that moment, I needed to hear her heartbeat against my ear. Whatever she was when she woke up, she was still mine and I would love her regardless. We would face this new thing together.
She vomited on the floor, squirming enough to wake me. Her body lay cool under sheets, wet from melted ice. As she struggled to sit up, my fear was replaced with elation. Carrying her to the bathroom, I could feel her warm and alive against me. She shushed me and pushed me out the door so she could empty her bladder, then vomit extensively without my watchful eye upon her. Whatever new thing she was, she, herself, did not seem to notice. Her new aura pulsed with each heart beat and was breathtaking in its beauty. Her more than pale skin showed the stress of the night, dark shadows rimmed her eyes and her lips were cracked and bloodied, but she seemed herself in all other ways. I fell to my knees and thanked the Goddess that I had verbally abused for giving Lara back to me. I would not make the mistake of leaving her again, so I thought.
She cried as she talked about what happened, what Daniel had said and done to her. She gave me all the details she could, the pain in her eyes obvious. She has seen the result of human violence upon other humans, has lived through it herself, but her eyes were wide with surprise anyway. I would have given anything to take that pain, fear and surprise away and make it so the deed had never happened, but even I can not do that. Tears rolled down her cheeks in quiet streams and I swore to lay Daniel’s head at her feet. The sight of her tears did more for my resolve than the deaths of hundreds over the years by his hand. She deserved more, but that was all I could offer. I would bring Daniel home at last and I would make sure he never hurt another soul again. I branded the memory of Lara’s death upon my mind so that I could never forget. It was a lesson learned, too late. Kindness has a place, but weakness does not. Daniel had made me weak and it had cost her life. That is the way I see it. I will see it that way always.
I did not want to leave her, but she needed rest before Aramea came to visit and my presence in her house with Aramea was not advisable. I posted guards on every corner of her land and they would alert me when anyone came. Lara knew to make no deals and Aramea could not take her unwillingly to Talamh na Sithe, but that does not mean she cannot harm her. Aramea’s poison is potent and her game has many moves. There is a way to neutralize her, I am sure, but I have yet to plan ahead that far. I did not believe Lara to be in immediate jeopardy from her grandmother given that she was still trying to woo Lara to her side with kindness, so I left, planning to see her later, trusting my guards to keep anyone else out.
Chapter Nineteen
My Anamcara came to me, wearing a black turtleneck to cover her wounds, her face many shades too pale and her brilliant eyes a bit less bright. The jagged tip of one of Daniel’s bites, stared at me in accusation over the rim of her shirt. She moved with a deliberateness that belied her discomfort, her eyes scanning for danger, she was not comfortable with us and no longer felt safe. Her pain was palpable to everyone.
We sat through a security meeting and I can not tell you now what was said. I could not stop thinking about her attack and about Daniel. I half heard comments about the Watchers and knew I should pay attention, but I could not. My mind was already set on what was to happen this night. Not everyone agreed that Daniel should die for his actions, not that I took a vote or cared about dissenters. I was unaware that he had as many proponents to his cause. It seems I have been too far removed from my House of late. In the past, I would have known exactly what my people were thinking, but I had been too preoccupied with the announcement and the inner workings of politics to see the behemoth shape of betrayal as it rushed toward me with ever increasing speed.
I thought I wanted to be alone as I prepared for Daniel’s death, but Lara followed me to my rooms and I realized I never really want to be alone again. She slept as I prepared a meal for her, a simple thing to do. The edges of her frayed aura pulsed softly as I watched. Unguarded as she was, the strain of the last few days showed on her face. Perhaps, it was the strain of the last months, if I am honest, her induction into our society had not been as kind or gentle as I had planned. When others are around she jokes and teases, pretending as if things are normal, but looking at her here, I could see the cost to her. It is no small thing. Her beauty was uncommon regardless of the strain, if anything it made her more beautiful, she glowed like one lit from within. Sometimes it has the brightness of a thousand candles and sometimes the dimness of one, but she always glows now. She is ethereal in her beauty, damage or no. Her heart beat pulsed in the jugular vein in her neck, too fast, too hard and a bit irregular. I hated it. She was my One, my love and another of my own had done this to her. I would end it tonight. I took a picture of her in that moment with my cellular phone so that I would never forget the price of my weakness.
In the courtyard with the smell of snow in the air and the light of the stars cool and distant, I let the smallest hint of my power out. Perhaps I realized that things had gotten out of control with my people, perhaps I did not, I am unsure. I usually do not allow others to see the magics I can perform, but that night it was important that they know. I did not want to lose any others in my house to outside influences or false perceptions, so I exchanged blood with Mikolosi, hoping to strengthen our bond and allowed Grania to drink from me as in the days of old. I do not share my blood often or lightly, this is well known, the effects of it are immediate and intense. I have not made a child since Daniel and that was many centuries ago. My fear is that as I age, my blood becomes more powerful and perhaps that is what went wrong during his making. I do not know, but have not tried again. I do not allow Grania to drink from me often for fear of making her even more dependant upon me. When I bind a vampire to my house, I only give them a few drops, for that is all it takes. More than that can be too much for them. That night though, I bid them both to drink their fill in front of all my People and they did. I wanted my People to understand that this was not done lightly and I wanted to remind them who was Master of them all.
I kept an eye on Lara’s face through this. She was shaken, afraid and sad, but she remained brave, even though she did not understand my actions entirely. With the rustle of a few long dead fall leaves hanging desperately from their limbs as a background, I called my son home and when he came in a whirlwind of Faerie magic, I broke him down, taking slice after slice off him. I used the power of my body and my mind to pound him into submission and force him to recognize me for what I am. A Master. His Master. It was horrible, for a part of me loved him still. I missed the man who had once been my lover and I loved the boy who had become my son. A small piece of me wanted nothing more than to take him up and forgive him his crimes, but I could not. He would not change. He has been as he was for more years than not and no amount of conc
iliation or confession in the end could forgive that. A sliver of my heart died when I drew my sword and took his head, his sightless eyes staring up at the cold moon saddened me to the core, but I am Master here and this is my job. Often the price is high and we both paid it that night.
The silence in the courtyard once the deed was done was absolute. Nothing moved, nothing breathed, even the earth seemed to have paused. Expectant. Waiting. I met her eyes over his corpse, asking if the promise I made had been satisfied. She bowed to me and called me Master in front of my People. She said it cost her nothing, but she does not always understand the political implications of her actions. I am sure that word of this reached those that surely do understand. She is viewed from the outside as the most powerful supernatural creature to currently exist in our world, whether that is true or not I do not know, but that is how she is perceived based on the history of our People and for her to call me master means that she is either acknowledging that I am more powerful than she, a thing I hope never to learn the truth of, or she is giving me the right to use her power for my own purposes, which I would never do. I do not need her power. Again, I would never hold her to these declarations, but others are not so forgiving. They will see me as becoming even more powerful than I already am and if they do not agree with my mission to legitimize us, they might wish to end my reign before it can solidify in this new world of ours. I have been lax with them, had I let the full force of my abilities be known, they would have feared me. Had I let the full force of my power run through my veins, they never would have taken me. I was foolish to become so narrow minded and focused. I should bathe in my power like a river and let it soak through me so that none would dare to try to usurp it. Should I be free of this place, that is what I will do. There will be peace through strength and not through speech or there will be no peace at all. Even the horror of war sometimes has a place in polite society. They will follow, or they will die, my leadership is not optional.
The Scarlet Heron Page 9