by Unknown
Damien turned on my favorite Amy Lee soundtrack for me so that no one would feel the strain the silence would bring on as none of us spoke. As we pulled into the drive I groaned.
Phoenix had driven as indicated. Damien sat shot gun as I rode in the back. Before I could even move for the door Damien had it open. His hand extended for mine to help me climb down. Phoenix stood at the back of the Jeep. Waiting for me but pointedly not looking in my direction. Damien seemed lost in his own thoughts. I was glad not to know them.
It was then I noticed Phoenix’s skin was turning grey again. He needed to feed, badly. We all did, but there was no time for that.
Phoenix opened the door and moved straight for the kitchen. He indicated the door to the kitchen with a head nod and a raised brow. I nodded as I turned for the stairs. He’d have blood waiting.
Damien and I made a slow climb up the stairs. He walked me to the entrance of his bathroom and paused, “I’ll wait here.” He seemed as awkward as a teenager, making me laugh out weakly and shake my head.
“No time to be prude just get in the shower. Besides, you stink.” The old dried Dragon blood was not an appealing smell. “And you have Dragon in your hair.”
“You don’t exactly smell like roses either.” He lifted a strand of gelatinous bloody goo from my hair making me cringe. Point taken.
“Actually I think I’ll use Hendrick’s. I’ll see you downstairs.” Before I could argue he kissed my forehead and was gone, closing the door quietly behind him. My heart felt frostbitten.
As I heard Paul’s door close I went outside. “Hey, Paul, what’s up?” I spoke softly. It was easier to act human when I was so worn out.
Paul grunted. “Um, hey, Anna. Can I come in? I just wanna talk.” Paul’s eyes were black still, his knees were trembling. He looked like he hadn’t slept since he’d last been here, if not longer.
Paul’s clothes were wrinkled and showing signs of having been worn more than once between washes. His hair was bed headed, but not in the purposeful way. To top it all off he smelled a bit ripe, too. Damn.
“Your funeral I guess.” I shrugged turning back to the house. Yes, Jez would be furious. But I didn’t feel I owed her much of anything these days. Damien looked genuinely surprised as Paul followed me into the living room.
Phoenix sat on the couch, rather sprawled which was unusual. He had taken a shower, too, and changed into some very unlikely attire. Light blue jeans and a white normal men’s under shirt. He also had a black metal water bottle between his legs. Who wants to bet it’s not water? He’d already given me one. I took a sip of mine, and as I walked past Damien I gave it to him.
“What brings you back?” I fell back onto the loveseat which left Paul to sit in one of the wing back chairs as Damien occupied his usual seat. Damien hadn’t said a word to me since he’d left me in his room.
“I have been blowing your phone up for two days. You ever gonna remember to keep that damn thing with you?”
“Probably not.” I’d smashed it one day when I was stupid enough to listen to a voicemail message he’d left. Yeah some people say I have a temper, but I can’t imagine why. Phoenix’s brow rose a bit on that mental note.
Damien grunted. He didn’t like how much Paul cursed around me. When Damien cursed it was the equivalent to hearing your grandmother swear, believe me. Okay maybe not my grandmother. Babushka had the mouth of a drunken sailor.
“Melody’s gone missing.” They’d been pretty good friends. Paul had worked at the store when he was younger. He baby sat the younger girls for years. I had my suspicions that Paul and Melody had dated at one point though he was really too old for her.
“I was hoping you’ve heard from her. Since you did the same thing I thought maybe she was here or something.” I caught what he meant. We all did. You’re pushing my buttons, dick wad.
A very low rumble sounded from Damien’s chest. Paul heard it. I forced a smile turning to Damien. “I know you’re hungry, honey,” my voice caught in my throat unexpectedly. As I cleared my throat Phoenix arched a brow at me questioningly. “I’ll make you boys something to eat soon, okay?”
Damien and Phoenix locked eyes. Phoenix just couldn’t help himself. “Yeah sounds good. Stay for dinner, Paul?” Damien snickered. I held back a laugh. Boys! Shame on you!
Of course Paul had to push it, too. “What’s the matter, they can’t take care of themselves? You wipe their asses, too?”
“Melody’s not here,” all humor gone, I spoke as calm as possible.
The low rumble sounded again from Damien as his eyes set onto Paul with a glare. “Apologize to her.”
Phoenix’s torso had become more rigid. Slowly he slid up and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. He set the metal bottle down onto the coffee table. Paul jumped up in defense. It was pretty stupid for him to say things like that in front of the two of them.
“Paul, why are you really here?” I finally asked with an obviously irritated grit in my voice. Paul’s heart was pounding. He was more anxious than usual. It made his veins throb. It made me hungry. Looking down to my trembling fingers, I gulped down on my burning throat. It was time for him to leave.
With a heavy sigh Phoenix leaned forward grabbing the bottle and tossed it to me. Catching it too easily and twisting the lid off, I took a long drink.
Paul stared at me with a befuddled look. Oops. I’d never been so coordinated as a human. Oh well. After taking another drink, I closed the bottle and tossed it back to Phoenix who caught it easily and gave me a wink.
Paul continued on, “Great, they’ve got you drinking, too.” You could say that. “Look, I told you why. I just want to find Melody. The last day I came up here was the last day anyone saw her. I feel responsible about her running off like that. We got into an argument. I made her mad, okay? So it’s kind of my fault I guess.”
Damien sighed, “Okay, Paul. We’ll do what we can. I have some friends in the NYPD. I will have them run her name and see if they find anything, okay? We’ll let you know.” This made her disappear in a legal way. That seemed good. It would give her family some closure.
Paul ignored Damien and kept his eyes on me as he stood up. His eyes were swollen and puffy. The bags under them were blued and hung heavily. He really had spent a long time looking for Melody. “Thanks, Anna. Let me know if you hear anything. Even if it’s nothing, okay?”
“We will.” Paul gave a nod as he walked out the door.
Phoenix’s phone started buzzing with Hendrick’s ring tone. “Dangerous Game” by Three Doors Down. Phoenix had a weird thing about ring tones. He had a special one for everyone. This is something I’d only recently learned. “You’re going to have to tell me what mine is one of these days.” I chuckled.
Phoenix shook his head. “You don’t have one, you keep breaking your phones.” He chuckled as he answered his cell. “Hendrick.” The humor left. “What’s going on? - This way. How old? - Are you sure? - He just left. - Is the kid still with you? - Hendrick... It’s too late. She’s here.”
Click.
Damien and I were already on our way out the door. We could all smell it, or feel it maybe. All three of us were out the door before the phone hit the ground. Paul’s hand was on his car door.
The three of us saw her before Paul, but it didn’t take long for him to follow our eyes. Melody was a good ten foot behind him. Her skin was paper white and so very thin. She looked more fragile than she had as a human. Her clothes were torn and bloody. Mud caked her pants up to the knees. You could smell blood caked on her clothes and in her hair. It was all hers.
Paul turned for her. I yelled but it was too late. “No!” Paul was thrown hard as Melody slammed into him. We heard his ribs crack from the force as his body hit the car. Before anyone else could react I had moved for the two of them. Melody’s hands latched on Paul’s shoulders for dear life. His joints cracked from the pressure.
Melody had already begun to maul his neck. I could hear him gurgling. My body plowed into he
rs, throwing her off him. As she flew back I stayed on her. The ground gave to the blow of our bodies shattering the concrete where I pinned her down.
Her fingers dug up into my rib cage with all the strength that she had. It broke the bottom two on each side. My hands took a firm hold of her hair, slamming her head into the concrete. Her skull fractured instantly from the blow. Crazed, her hands swung at me, determined to kill. Mine locked on her throat. It wouldn’t take much at all to kill her.
The lust from fight was empowering, difficult to control. I felt the same enthralling wave roll through me just as before with Roman, whose heart I plucked like a flower. The promise of what was to come.
Everything seemed to slow down for me. Melody was screaming and lashing against me but I was deafened. My hand slid to the back of her neck, the base of where her spine connected to the skull and snapped it in my hands. Her eyes widened as she looked at me, realizing her death was coming.
I couldn’t stop. Mouth closing around her jugular, my fangs sunk into her flesh. The blood was still thin. Still more human than immortal. It didn’t take long for her blood to be drained completely.
Finally I pulled back, looking down at her limp body. Her eyes were still open. That was disturbing. They were so mute and bland of color though slowly turning solid black. “I’m sorry, Melody,” I whispered and kissed her forehead just before my hand finished the job removing her head from her shoulders.
Phoenix was slow to approach me. Phoenix carefully took a hold of my arm, urging me to stand up. Pulling me step by step away from the corpse. “Anna-”
“I’m fine, Phoenix. That poor girl had no power to be taken, it was a mercy. Where’s everyone else? Where’s Paul?” Phoenix’s eyes were narrow on my ruby red irises with suspicion. My hand rose to wipe at my mouth with as much casualness as if I’d been wiping up a dribble of ice cream.
“They’re inside. I will take care of this. Go. They need you,” Phoenix had not finished speaking before I was hitting the door.
They had waited for me before they made any decisions on what to do with Paul. Damien sat kneeled by his head. His shirt waded in his hand pressed firm to Paul’s neck, trying to stop the bleeding without killing him.
Jezabell and Lara paced circles around the room. Hendrick and Ryce were still with Anthony, supposedly looking for both girls still. Good. Anthony didn’t need to see that.
“Lianna. You need to make a decision. You’ve got two choices.” Damien grunted, the smell of blood obviously affecting him. He hated Paul and to drink from him would have been quite enjoyable. Paul was in shock. His body was shaking. His eyes were distant as he stared back at Death.
“And what would those choices be exactly?” I questioned calmly.
“You turn him now. Or he dies,” Damien wouldn’t look at me as he spoke. Even Lara and Jezabell turned away from me.
“Why do I have to make the choice?”
“Because that’s how it has to be, Lianna. I know it’s difficult but I will help you with whatever decision you make.” He would, too, no matter what it cost him.
Every image I ever had of Paul flashed through me. He had been like my brother in many ways. Could I just let him die? He’d lost too much blood. He had seconds left to live and it was up to me. Yeah, he had turned into a real prick. But that wasn’t his fault.
He had been my friend. I owed him. Kneeling down beside him, I pushed Damien’s hand away. My hand placed over the shirt on his neck, carefully wrapping around his throat. “Anna, we can’t get him to a hos-” The snap of bone was quiet but for our ears it was audible. The others stared at me wide eyed. I guess they hadn’t expected it.
“There was no reason to let him suffer.” It seemed like the right thing to say.
Damien’s hand took a hold of my arm, but I jerked away. A red hand print painted my arm in Paul’s blood. “Leave us.” I sat motionless, staring down at his lifeless body. Damien tried to argue, but my hand came up to quiet his attempt. “Just go.”
They were slow to leave b,ut before long it was just Paul and me. They must have thought I had lost my mind. It was time to say goodbye. As I sat there, looking at the corpse of the man of whom I had known for so many years, I thought about things. I thought about death mostly. It seemed wrong. It seemed like it should hurt more. “Goodbye, Paul. I hope that wherever you end up, it’s better than this life was to you.” My hand pat his chest before I rose and walked out of the house.
Thick smoke overwhelmed me as I ran past the field where Phoenix stood burning Melody’s body.
It must have been amusing to watch the realization hit me as one second I was running and then suddenly I wasn’t. Standing there, I looked around me as if I had forgotten where I was going. Though of course I hadn’t. I just realized I had no place to go.
Absently I wondered who drove Paul’s car as it pulled down the driveway to disappear in some secret Vampire victim facility or something. Maybe Phoenix or Damien. I could see Damien asking Phoenix to go with him, having good intentions to give me some space.
But it didn’t matter. None of it did. I wasn’t mourning really. In fact it’s disturbing how little I felt. What made me want to get away was the knowledge that if I stayed, all of the pain I had caused would only continue. Maybe even get worse. Though to say goodbye to them would be impossible for infinite reasons. They wouldn’t be able to let me go.
Even though Damien didn’t want me, he wouldn’t be able to let me go without a fight. He had his own guilt to carry. His own blood promise that despite his denial, bound him to me. And a spell created so many years ago that had bound him to me out of my own greed. When would it end?
Phoenix was a complication in itself. He felt responsible for me. Not that I could fathom why. And now we, too, were bound. He said he cared for me deeply. I didn’t know to what extent or in what manner. I didn’t really need to know. In the end my heart belonged to them both. Each equally. Though each in different ways.
My head began to spin with thoughts so painfully fast I could barely stand. Images danced through my mind as if my life were flashing through my eyes, just as potent as a vision.
A child, playing with magic she could never understand, swarmed by dragonflies and laying on freshly blooming roses. A dream of dreams where a single drop of blood brought hundreds of crimson roses to bloom on a magical island.
A night with Damien lying in his arms as he traced the black rose on my side. Waking in Damien’s arms with tears of blood streaming down my cheeks. A kiss to build a dream on.
Phoenix tackling me to the ground while teaching me to fight. “Not fast enough, cupcake. Come on. Let’s do it again.” He grinned. Another time. A walk in the woods with Phoenix just a day ago. “Hm, I wonder if you could still use any of the Shaman’s magic.” The memories just washed through me.
As suddenly as it started it was over, and I was left lying on the earth with a single blood tear running down my cheek. I smiled with understanding. My finger caught the blood tear before it could fall. As I sat up from the ground, I let the ruby tear fall to the earth off the tip of my finger. “Until we meet again. Forevermore.”
Vines grew from the earth, crawling along and spreading out to cover the ground at a miraculous rate all around me. Rose buds blossomed in shades from brilliant crimson to pure ebony. As I stood they spread further. My eyes clinched shut briefly before I took off running- and would run until I could run no more.
Jacquelynn F. Gagne is an artist. When she cannot be found in the real world she is usually found covered in paint, pastels or most usually words. Among writing, photography and art, Jacquelynn has been married for ten years and is mother to two incredible boys who take after their parents in every way, for better and worse.
For more works by Jacquelynn Gagne please visit her at WWW.UnhinderedArts.COM
Note from the author,
There is something that is just pure magic about literature. No matter what you’re reading, it holds the possibility of all things
, and that is magic! Every story has the potential to give you any and every emotion: love, fear, excitement, sadness, joy, anger, and so much more. There is no purer sense of humanity than emotion. Literature is the quintessential of art. Through words alone we have the ability to create and step into any universe imaginable. Imaginable! And what limit is there to the human imagination? Absolutely none.
To create a book, a novel or otherwise, there is this magnificent feeling of accomplishment but it goes so much further than that. We’ve taken part in creating a completely new existence. Another dimension comes to life with every word we put on the page. We fall in love with these characters like we do with our partners and our children. They’re not just characters, but lives that we give birth to that every reader recreates again and again. For me to finally complete this story and to show it to the world is one of my personally proudest moments. So thank you, to all of those who have come this far. The journeys we’re to share together through these pages are going to be absolutely unforgettable.
Book three in the Blood Saga
Coming soon…