by L. C White
On my belly, I scurry across the wet grass, but I’m not moving fast enough dammit.
I hear talking, heavy footsteps, and see the headlights of many vehicles shining through the trees. Figures appear, hundreds of them. Fuckin great, more vampires.
“Maeve.” Adrien stands over my quaking body. “Take my hand, Maeve.” His fingers reach out to me.
I can’t take them. I find myself sobbing and wailing into my hands, my face down in the wet dirt. I can’t get the last moment I saw Daniel out of my head. He’s dead, he has to be. He sacrificed himself for me.
Adrien’s feet stomp to my side and he blows out. He grabs the back of my arms and lifts me up to my feet.
“You’re bitten,” he shouts. “Who bit you Maeve?”
“DANIEL!” I cover my mouth with my hands, looking back to the warehouse.
“Daniel, you’ve seen Daniel. He attacked you!” he yells at me.
“No!” I pant in and out. “He saved me. He’s dead. They all had him… he… he…”
Adrien looks at the vampires now closing in on the warehouse. I see Liz, Gwen, Dom, Ben, and Sara. And behind them, are many faces I’ve not seen before.
“Gwen, it’s too late. No spell. We move onto plan B.” Adrien points and flicks his fingers at Nathan, who’s in a vampire huddle.
“And what’s plan B boss?” Dom yells over.
“Use your fuckin imagination,” Adrien barks.
“Gwen, I need you to take Maeve away. Fix her up,” he orders.
Adrien goes to move away, but I grab his arm to stop him, as Liz comes to stand in front of me.
“I want to stay,” I say, stubbornly.
“Maeve, when will you give up?” he snaps at me. “You cannot be involved in this any longer. He told you to leave. He saved you and gave you a get out clause. Now he may be dead inside that building. I don’t care for love, Maeve. You want to keep your life, then you go now, and never show your face again!” He charges away from me, as tears surge from my eyes like a swelling stream.
“Maeve,” Liz says. “I’m sorry.” She jogs to Adrien’s side, leaving me weeping.
I hang my head, listening to the vampire army move further away. A hand comes behind my back; a sympathetic touch. I tilt my head to see Gwen’s concerned pout.
“Sweetheart, let’s get you out of this bloodbath. All will come right, you’ll see.” She slowly guides my exhausted body toward the row of headlights.
Chapter 32: On the Edge
Liz
I find my legs won’t move forward with the others as they close in on the warehouse. The beat of the music echoes through the corrugated steel, and I can feel it under the soles of my boots. From the very first moment I laid eyes on Adrien, and everything we’ve been through: me being an Executive’s Red, falling in love, and Daniel, it’s as though it all leads and must come to a stop right here. Everything that has happened to us, has happened for a reason, and the sands of time in our hourglass, are down to the very last grains.
“Elizabeth.” Adrien runs up to me with a concerned expression.
He didn’t want me to come. Even though I’m now just as strong and fast as him, he still has this adorable sweet need to protect me. I can’t lie, I do love it. It reminds me of being human. But tonight is different. It’s about the one thing we have all gone to hell for. It’s about Daniel.
“I told you not to come,” he says to me in a quiet tone.
“What happens if we get in there, and Daniel is lost?”
“Then we bring him back.”
“What if he can’t be brought back?” I lower my head.
He pushes up my chin, so I see the poised determination in his eyes. He was once a soldier. A commander of men. Sometimes I think he can only see the battle, and not the consequences or beyond that.
“Then we die trying,” he says so clearly it causes my legs to tremor. “That’s why when we get in there, you make no mistakes, and you fight with a clear conscience. You go forward, not back.”
“No one should die fighting for this.”
I’m now understanding what this is. I had this fuckin stupid notion, I could just go in there and speak to Daniel, while the others take care of Laurie and Lillian. But I’m standing on a goddamn battlefield. I can’t lose Adrien and Daniel in this. What the hell will that achieve? I don’t care if Laurie gets away, or if the Voax run the frigging world. As long as I have my family back, none of that shit matters.
“We get to Daniel, then we leave,” I yell at him. “No one dies. I want us all out of there in one piece. Fuck who runs the vampire side of things. I don’t care Adrien. I’m not here for Nathan, the order, or revenge. I want my damn family back!”
He hangs his head a little, then tilts his view on me. “Stubborn, beautiful, and always right.” His hand cups my neck gently. “Please Elizabeth, stay safe, and stay with me.” He presses his forehead down on mine. “We’ll get Daniel, then we’ll leave, okay.”
I bite my bottom lip hard, nodding my head in agreement as emotions constrict my throat.
The sound of shrubbery moving and fabric brushing, comes from the trees behind us. Both Adrien and I turn to our left, to see Demetrius and his bodyguards marching across the grass. I draw back from Adrien, scowling furiously. How the hell did he find us?
“Adrien,” he says. “Not going to get much work done standing out here.”
I eyeball him up and down; from his muddy leather shoes, his shirt and black jacket, to his pinpointed dark sunken eyes. Him being here, has fucked-up our plan. He wants all Dhampir gone. He doesn’t care about Daniel. He only wants his precious Order back.
“Demetrius, what are you doing here?” Adrien questions as we quickly follow them.
“I was invited,” he says, his body ready to flit.
“By who?” Adrien jogs to keep up.
“By Laurie, and I’m picking up the gauntlet. This is how we used to handle things, Adrien.”
His body dissolves into a black haze and he’s gone, flitting through the shutter door, followed by his guards.
I forget about everything around me and flit after him. Catching a breath, I stop sharp, my boots touching a heavy steel door, lying on the floor in a pile of rubble. Bodies flash by me, Sang and Vigore running through the warehouse in fear. I should be going after Demetrius, but my eyes are drawn into the room on my right. It’s the same room I saw in the reading Gwen gave me. The bed. The damp mouldy smell. Daniel as his Dhampir.
Adrien steps up onto the steel door. He’s waiting for me, cocking his brow at my frowning face. Maeve is safe and well. Daniel didn’t kill her in that room. He saved her. He broke through that door and fought for her.
“Adrien,” I yell over the music. “We can’t let Demetrius near Daniel.”
He holds out his hand and I reach out to slam my palm against his.
My eyes blacken as I see the last of the Voax being fought and chased away. The music is scratched off its track, and the speakers squeal. The DJ tosses his headphones on the floor and vacates the stage, shitting himself.
The coven all gather on the dancefloor, gawping at Demetrius. I release Adrien’s hand and my jaw slowly opens, as a protective fear chokes me. Daniel stands on a stage with Lillian. He has his head to his chest, holding Lillian’s hand, and he’s covered in blood. I run toward him, but Adrien holds me back. A death like silence surrounds me, noticing Lillian’s warped smile.
“Daniel!” I struggle against Adrien’s grip. “Daniel!”
He doesn’t hear me. He’s lost to something sinister. Now I cry. I sob in horror and grief. I don’t care if I die right now. All I know is I have to get to him.
I manage to fight away from Adrien and flit toward the stage. I’m only a meter from him, when Lillian flicks out her hand, and I’m tossed by her force into the wall. I howl out, as blood from a cut above my eye, drips down my cheek.
Winded I jump back up. I refuse to let that bitch control Daniel.
Adrien and Nathan bot
h run with me. But none of us can get within a foot of the stage. One slight hand movement from Lillian, and we’re all skidding across the floor. She laughs, swinging Daniel’s hand back and forth like an impulsive child.
Demetrius strolls down the centre of the room, unfazed.
“You want to see what my brother can do,” she giggles. “Look,” she points.
My eyes follow her finger. There’s a pile of bodies, over a dozen Sang and Vigore, all bloody and broken.
“He didn’t even move.” She beams a twisted smile. “He made them do that to each other.”
“Lillian,” Demetrius calls out as he continues to get closer. “You do know you have no control over me.” Lillian scowls, unbothered by Demetrius. “You see, I know you think you have power over Daniel, and that you are somehow more superior than all, but that is what you were told by Laurie,” he says. “I was there with Meredith. She was a light. She was peaceful and loving.”
Lillian releases Daniel’s hand and steps to the edge of the stage.
“You used her. Drank her blood. You murdered her,” Lillian sneers. “You should have worshipped the ground she walked on.”
“She was loved, we drank her to protect her, and we did worship her,” he says. “She fell into the dark and became uncontrollable, like you, due to outside influences. You are not a being of power, but of good.”
Lillian keels over, sniggering. Demetrius flits toward her. He reaches her boots as she bends over, and grips his throat in the blink of an eye. Ben and Adrien burst into a run, followed by Nathan. Laurie suddenly appears from the shadows. I scream out a warning as he lifts a blade to Ben’s neck. It’s as though every movement has slowed, as the blade is driven right through Ben’s throat. The whole coven race to him. Dom drops down onto his knees, clutching Ben’s neck to stop the bleeding, as Adrien slides across the floor to get to him.
“STOP!” Lillian uses her voice to make every single one of us freeze.
I move my eyes onto Lillian as her fingers slowly sink and cut into Demetrius’s neck. She lets his lifeless body drop to the dancefloor.
“Daniel,” she says, wiping her blood coated hands on her trousers.
I’m trying so fuckin hard to move, and I manage to shift just slightly. Daniel’s head elevates in a robotic manner. His face is expressionless. His eyes are as red as rubies. I strain my vocal cords, pushing out his name in a groan.
Laurie saunters around the coven, enjoying the freedom and power in his hands. He runs his dirty perverted fingers over Sara’s face as Nathan hisses, trying to get free. He takes the blade and taps on the shoulder of Adrien, Dom, and Nathan, like he’s playing eeny, meeny, miny, moe. He’s playing god with the coven. Then his eyes find me. I want to fight. I want to kill him. And I know I can do it now, if it wasn’t for me being frozen up by Lillian’s brainwashing shit.
“Lillian, release her,” Laurie says, holding the blade to my throat. “I want to see and feel her wiggle against me again.”
As soon as I’m free of Lillian’s mind control, I thrust myself forward so the tip of the blade is drawing blood from my neck.
“Fuck you, Laurie.”
I flit away from the blade, but somehow I’m tangled up with him. He’s stronger than the average Sang, fuelled by Lillian. His arms coil around my body, pinning my arms to my sides. I’m giving my all, but getting nowhere. Adrien’s kneeling body twitches, and I see the terror in his eyes. I hate seeing it. It’s as though he’s already seen my death.
“Now then, Elizabeth,” he whispers so only I can hear. “You and I have unfinished business, remember.” His tongue slivers up the side of my neck. “I think we’ll keep you. You can be my Red, Elizabeth.”
I continue to fight against him, but he only grips me tighter. The more I struggle, the more I’m constricted, like a pythons pray.
His rough lips move on my neck hard, and I have no option but to close my eyes in disgust.
“Da… Daniel!” Adrien’s fraught voice makes my eyes open. “You can’t… you can’t let this happen.” I see his neck tendons straining, he’s trying so hard. “Daniel!”
Lillian laughs again. “You have no idea what he really is.” She rubs her hand across Daniel’s back. “Brother, show them. Show them that they are nothing to you.”
My eyelids flicker, watching as Daniel finally moves. He looks at Lillian, then begins to stroll with complete composure, down the stage stairs. His boots move slowly toward Adrien. Adrien’s pale face reddens and strains. He manages to move his hand, his fingers gripping Daniel’s foot. He looks up to Daniel desperately, as my chest swells in and out.
“Daniel… Daniel,” I scream and tussle. “She’s inside your head Daniel… Please just look at me. Daniel!”
His head turns to me. I can’t believe the lack of emotion in him. His face is blank of everything that connects us. I gaze through my pain into his Dhampir eyes. I’m begging him.
He turns back to Adrien as I continue to scream at him. He bends smoothly and grabs Adrien’s collar, dragging him up from the floor. My torso grapples, and I eventually find my arms free. Laurie growls, dropping his blade as he tries to contain me. But I won’t be held back, not when the existence of my family hangs by a thread.
A breathy cry sounds from the back of the room. Maeve runs across the dancefloor and Gwen chases her. She grabs hold of Daniel’s shoulder. Laurie looks on as Lillian jogs down the stage stairs, flicking her hand up, but for some reason, her power has no effect on Maeve.
Laurie’s concentration is on Lillian. My eyes spot the blade he dropped. I flit behind him, and swiftly swoop up the handle. I grip it tightly, and with both hands I ram the blade into his chest. He staggers back as I pull the bloody blade out, and with the greatest feeling of release, I thrust the blade through his neck, growling. His eyes roll, but he still manages to grin evilly at me as he tumbles to the floor.
Lillian screams. Not a human or vampire scream. A demon like screech.
“Kill them Daniel!” she yells. “Do it!”
I race across the room, and once again Lillian has my body locked down to the damn ground. All I can do is watch.
Chapter 33: It’s Over
Maeve
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t leave without knowing whether he was dead or alive. I had this feeling in the pit of my belly. It flamed around my heart and made my head spin. It told me to get out of that car, and run back to him no matter what consequences I’d face. I raced through vampires as though invisible. I wasn’t noticed, I didn’t care, and the fear I had of this dark world, vanished.
Daniel’s red eyes stare up into Adrien’s as I keep my anxious fingers locked around his shoulder. I know this isn’t what he is. He proved that, saving me. It’s all Lillian. She’s tied to him, and that tie need severing. All his doubt, all his confusion about who he is, made him run in the wrong direction. He chose the wrong side. The side he thought made some sense to him. And he pushed away those who he could truly trust.
“Daniel,” I utter.
His view moves and slants on me, his eyelids narrowing over the red. I don’t know whether he’s thinking, remembering, or pissed-off I’m trying to stop him. I can’t tell anymore.
I’m gazing at him, hoping that the words I’m about to say, cool him down.
“Kill them Daniel,” Lillian shouts.
I scowl at her. I don’t really give a fuck about how powerful she thinks she is. Daniel was supposed to kill me, and he didn’t, so she got that wrong. Daniel was supposed to be a part of her plan, but it looks to me like he’s destroyed her army. Laurie is now lying in a pool of his own venomous blood, and she’s so cold and disconnected, she’s not even shed a tear over him. All she wants from Daniel, is to use and control him.
I ignore her and get as close as I can to his ear, rising up on my tiptoes. It’s awkward with Adrien dangling there, but if I don’t do this now, he will be gone for good.
“Daniel, remember what I said to you in that room.” I notice his jaw
tighten a little, a human emotion, as a nervous tear rolls down my cheek. “Remember what you told me, that you loved me?” I arch my neck back a little, watching his eyelids fuse shut briefly. “Well Daniel, I… I feel the same. So please, please stop this.”
His arms lower Adrien a little, his fingers scrunching tight. He inhales loudly, shaking his head as his body tenses. A twinge of uncertainty crinkles on his forehead, and his face reddens. I want to grab and shake some sense into him. I want to hold him, and tell him everything will be alright. But I have to hold back. I have to let him realise that he can come back on his own.
“Daniel, if you don’t kill him, then I will!” Lillian stomps over.
Her hold on the coven lessens, she’s losing her control. She’s near my back, panting like a wild dog. Daniel drops Adrien, as I turn to see her red eyes and rage on her face.
“You little fuckin bitch.” She grips the back of my neck and I yelp out. “You think you can take him away. You think he’s like you. He’ll kill all of you!”
She pushes me right over so my back cracks and I can’t breathe. I whelp out in pain, feeling her sharp fingernails digging and cutting through my skin.
“Let her go,” Daniel orders, smooth and deep.
The sound of his voice has tears tumbling from my eyes, and falling to the floor. I manage to strain my pupils to the edge of my lids, to see him glaring right at her.
“Lillian.” Gwen’s brown cowboy boots step closer to Daniel. “He’s made his choice, it’s not you. You have no power here anymore.”
Gwen’s words have Lillian clenching my neck harder. I cry out, seeing Adrien scrambling up to his feet. He joins Daniel’s side, regardless of him still being in his Dhampir state.
“You’re wrong,” Lillian yells as she rags me up by my hair.
I feel my roots popping away from my scalp. Daniel’s eyes glaze over as I weep silently. Suddenly, Lillian thrusts me to the floor. My cheekbone smacks down onto the concrete, my hands too damn slow to protect the fall. Liz crawls over to me, as my eyes water with a stinging throb. She pulls my face to hers, tapping my cheek to prevent me blacking out.