Incarnations

by Butler, Christine M.

"Oh great!" She rolled off her side of the bed, into what little space that was there, because Gregore dove to get his hands on Ash. Unfortunately for Gregore, Ash was Fey and he just morphed into a butterfly and fluttered around Greg's head, taunting him.

  Then he fluttered off, past Vesta into the other room. She heard him open the door, which meant he had morphed back to himself before he left. His snickering was the last thing she heard before Gregore's frustrated scream into the pillows.

  Vesta glanced at him momentarily and then at her daughter. "Caislyn," she all but whispered before she left the room.

  Caislyn just watched as Gregore punched the pillow, repeatedly. She didn't know what to do. She knew she was hurting him, but working with Ash was the only way to learn enough to get Jaxon back. She tried to go to him, and stopped herself each time his fist met the pillow again. Caislyn was sure she could feel her insides shredding with each hit. She just didn’t know what to do anymore.

  "Just tell me, Cais." Gregore's muffled voice hit her like a slap in the face. She could hear the strain in it, even through the pillow he was talking into. "Just tell me to go, because I'm not sure I can keep watching you with him." He looked up, his eyes pleading with her as she stood there motionless. “Caislyn, I need you in my life, but I will go if I’m not what you need in yours.”

  Something inside her heart was breaking. Caislyn was so torn, and there was no getting around that. A part of her heart belonged to Gregore and always would. Maybe if she hadn't been so rushed into things, maybe if Ash hadn't come along, things would be so different. Caislyn was honestly stuck, not knowing what to do, let alone what she really wanted. Her heart thumped uncontrollably in her chest. The decision to be with only him, to send Ash away was on the tip of her tongue. Gregore was the one she knew she should chose, and for all the reasons that made good sense. She hesitated though.

  Caislyn had no time to wallow in her own misery, and pitiful choices. She didn’t even get the words she wanted to say out. Gregore had gained a second wind and he was now sitting in front of her, pulling her close. His emotions were raw and plainly evident on his face, reddened eyes not withstanding. He pulled her to him, hugging around her waist, his head turned to the side, rested on her still firm belly. His shoulders shook as he kept saying her name, over and over. Tears were streaming down her face now, as she ran her hands through the hair on his head. Gregore was that boy she stood up for in grade school, the one she used to laugh and party with. She hurt when he stopped coming around after her parents disappearance. She hurt, but she'd been the one to push him away then too. "Just tell me what you want, I swear, I will listen."

  He had all but whispered the words and she couldn't stop her heart from breaking a little more. The problem was she didn't know what she wanted. She couldn't let go of him, but at the same time, she needed Ash. She needed them both right now, and it wasn't fair to anyone. Not at all. "Gregore, I..." The tears fell harder as he slowly released her and got up. He walked over to the door in silence, and looked back at her one last time. Gregore made an attempt at a smile before he turned and left. Caislyn was numb. She sunk down onto the edge of the bed, and hurt as the sobs wracked through her whole body. Before long she was curled up on the bed, crying into the pillow Gregore had been abusing only moments ago. It smelled of him, but it smelled of Ash too. He had been laying there before Gregore had come in. Closing her eyes only allowed her to remember clearly that Ash had just been wrapped around her, teaching her how to manifest things in their shared dream world. The wild absondon of the Fey was a heady cologne, and it drifted through her senses as she lay there hugging that pillow. Their conflicting scents just made it all worse somehow, but she pulled that pillow close to her for comfort anyway, not quite sure who's comfort she was seeking anymore.

  ~*~

  "Caislyn," Vesta called lightly as she entered the bedroom area of the RV. She stopped by the bed and set the cup of tea down on the counter as she sat beside her daughter. "Caislyn, we need to talk."

  "Momma, I just don't want to. I'm so tired. All this running, and chasing down lead after lead to get to you, losing dad, and now, this... this mess. And Jaxon. I just can't do this anymore. It's too much." Her face was still hidden by the pillow, voice muffled, so the tears weren't evident. She couldn't hide the tremors that racked her body though. Vesta just leaned over and hugged her, holding her tightly.

  "I know you gave up so much to make sure you found your father and I. It was more than I could have asked for, and beyond what was expected. Gregore told me about how you disappeared, threw yourself into the store and the search, even when everyone else had given up. I know what you've lost, the time, the freedom to be young. And then the prophecy." Vesta sighed again, "I can't help thinking it's all my fault."

  "How is getting kidnapped possibly your fault?"

  "Oh, well, not the kidnapping part, dear." Vesta almost chuckled at that. "No, I mean the prophecy, and you being so unprepared for what was to come. Your father and I were foolish to think we could keep you hidden forever. It was already foretold, after all." Vesta rubbed Caislyn's back as her daughter lay there looking up at her. "I keep thinking if you had known, if we'd told you from the beginning, maybe none of this would have happened."

  "Mom, it wasn't your fault. I understand what you did, and even why you did it. I mean, I remember being a kid and playing with the butterflies, and other things that I just thought I conjured out of the air. If you hadn't bound my powers, things could have gone a lot differently."

  "Yes, I know." Vesta stilled with her hand on Caislyn's back. "I just want you to understand, that in hindsight, decisions can seem foolhardy. Sometimes, they turn out to be exactly that, but others... well, it's something you have to figure out for yourself. And Caislyn, I know there's been so much, too much, for you to have to deal with." Vesta stopped there, apparently trying to find the right words.

  "But..." Caislyn interjected.

  "But, you need to make another decision soon, or it may be taken out of your hands completely."

  "Good." She said stiffly. "If it's taken out of my hands, then so be it."

  "Just remember Caislyn, sitting back and allowing the decision to be made for you can be way more painful than making it yourself. Even if one of these boys decides it's not right for them, what kind of message are you sending to the other?" Caislyn looked at Vesta questioningly, not getting it. "He's going to think you only chose him by default, because he was all that was left. He's going to see that you really didn't make a choice. You took the coward's way out, and that's never an attractive look on anyone." Vesta patted Caislyn's back one more time, and then got up to leave the room. “My daughter is not a coward,” she said as she walked out.

  This time, it was Caislyn's turn to abuse the pillows. By the time she wore herself out again, she realized the only person she wished she could put in front of her fists was herself. "How did I let my world get so screwed up?" She said it out loud, but there was no one around to answer her. She found herself wishing for all the world that Jaxon was there to help her. "Jax, I need you," she cried into the pillow.

  ***

  HISTORIES & MYSTERIES

  "I have a proposition for you."

  Jaxon looked up into the quiet greenish blue depths of Brigid's eyes, wondering how in the hell she had managed to fall asleep in the midst of a strange vampire so easily. "What kind of proposition?"

  "I need to get to a certain vampire, for a little revenge of my own, but he's guarded by a witch. I haven't been able to get close enough to do anything more than watch from a distance in a great many years. I would love nothing more than to be able to end his reign on this Earth."

  "Sounds awful personal, feels worse." Jaxon nursed her temples. She hadn't quite brought her shields all the way up before the blazing anger rolled off of Brigid in white hot waves. "So, what did this particular vampire do to you, because honestly, unless he's wearing the brown robes of the Brotherhood, I don't have a whole lot of interest." Jaxon
stood up and went to the small kitchenette off to the side. She filled her mug with the water that had been boiling, and dropped a tea bag in.

  "He used to run with another woman, although back then it was another vampire instead of the witch he's using today. The day Marc sired me, his little minion killed my entire family." The name drew Jaxon's attention immediately. "He may not wear the brown robes you and I both seek, but I have it on good authority that he once did." Brigid drew closer to stand over Jaxon as she fumbled around with her tea, adding honey and a little cream to it before she turned to go sit back down.

  "Does this Marc have a last name?" Jaxon knew it was a long shot that she was thinking of the same vampire that Brigid now wanted dead, but she still had to ask.

  "Indeed, his surname is Pithview."

  Jaxon had to swallow her reaction quickly. "Okay," she said simply as she sipped her tea. Brigid eyed her suspiciously, but didn't say any more on the subject.

  "I need a little downtime first to recharge my batteries. I've been rolling along at a solid run for almost a month now."

  "Do I need to ask what you're running from?"

  "No." Jaxon said and turned to head for the hot shower she so desperately needed.

  ~*~

  Jaxon stepped out of the bathroom with a smile on her face. She looked right at Brigid, "did you find what you were looking for?"

  "Excuse me?"

  "When you went through my bags, did you find what you were looking for?"

  "I..."

  "Listen, I'm not angry. I would have done the same thing. Don't bother lying either. I'm an empath, I could feel your paranoia from in there." She nodded her head back to indicate the bathroom she had just come from. "You wanted to know why I agreed to help you so quickly the minute you mentioned Marc Pithview. Truth is, I used to work for him in an art gallery. Not that I ever met him as a result of that work, but I know he had me watched. He was pulling strings in my life and my friend's life that he had no business pulling. And for a final blow, he's the one that sent us into hiding in the first place. So, I agreed to help you because it also benefits me." Jaxon looked up at Brigid again as she towel dried her hair and then ran her fingers through the natural curls that were springing back into place as she dropped her hands.

  "So, you're saying your dead honest when it benefits you." Brigid just sat there looking for all the world as if she hadn't just been caught in the act of snooping. "I like it. You're going to be a great change of pace for me. For once," the excitement in her voice was evident, "someone not afraid to just say it and be done."

  "Okay, the last time I saw Marc or Melina was when we were in Ireland." Jaxon watched as Brigid's eyebrows rose a little. "You didn't know they were there?"

  "Oh, no. I knew they were there. It was the one place I wouldn't follow them." At Jaxon's questioning look she continued, "too many memories." Brigid looked away quickly, and Jaxon didn’t press the issue.

  "Okay, well that was..."

  "A while ago. The last I heard they were heading to Italy." Brigid's stillness gave way to pacing as if she needed to move to think. "I've been trying to find a pattern in their movements, but it's just not as simple as that."

  "Maybe it is," Jaxon sat down on the couch, "did you know why they were in Ireland?"

  "No."

  "I did." The pacing stopped and Jaxon now had Brigid's full attention. "They were looking for my friend Caislyn. At the time they were systematically going through each of the properties that had been owned by her family." Jaxon looked up into Brigid's face now. "We find out which properties Caislyn's family owns in Italy, and we can venture a pretty big guess as to where Marc and Melina are."

  "Now, we just have to find a way around that witch."

  "That may be easier than you think too. When we saw her in Ireland, she was looking very worn out. I think he may be forcing her to use too much magic. It's taking a toll on her."

  "I knew the fates were smiling on me when I watched you kill Brother Andrew."

  "Andrew?"

  "Yes, I had been watching that particularly vile creature for a few days before you got to him." As Jaxon began to look a little sick on the couch she amended her comments, "I'm sorry. I used to have a thing about names too. The more you know, the worse it is. I have forgotten what that's like. If it helps, this man was a pedophile. Someone who never deserved to live anyway. If you must remember his name now, think on his future victims - the ones who no longer have to bare the loss of their innocence. That should cheer you up a bit."

  "Yeah," Jaxon threw up a bigger shield, and pulled on her vampire side to take away the feelings that were threatening to drown her. "We have work to do. I don't suppose you have a laptop or something."

  "Right, down to business." Brigid pulled out a small laptop and handed it to Jaxon. "So, any ideas for how we pull this off once we find them?"

  "Sure!" Jaxon looked up from the laptop, the electronic glow amplifying her pale features, "we give them what they've been looking for all along." Jaxon watched as Brigid quirked an eyebrow up and then smiled as the answer dawned on her.

  "We give them you."

  "Exactly."

  ***

  MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

  "Hey man, how's it going out there? Any luck?" Gregore sat back on the couch looking at everything he'd been setting up for Caislyn.

  "No luck at all. I had her for a while, she was leaving a pretty evident trail. Now, I seem to have lost her." Seth paused for a minute and then he continued, with a little more desperation evident in his voice. "Has Caislyn, you know, seen anything?"

  "Man, I wish I could help you there, but she hasn't had any of her visions lately. I think she's training too hard."

  "The training is important. It may be the only way we get Jaxon back."

  "Look, I know how badly you want her back, believe me. Caislyn's pregnant though, for sure, she took a test. She needs to get more rest, but with Ash hanging around..." His voice trailed off.

  "Congratulations, and I'm sorry." They both sat in silence for a bit before Seth continued, "They don't make it easy on either of us, do they?"

  "No, that they don't." Gregore sighed into the phone, "we'll find her for you. And hey, at least you don't have to worry about some other guy with Jaxon."

  "No, I just play second fiddle to her own demons."

  "Meanwhile, I get stuck fighting it out with the green demon."

  Seth laughed at Gregore, "yeah, well, like I said... Look man, I gotta go. Give me a call if you hear anything, if Caislyn sees anything."

  "I will. Take care of yourself, Seth. We'll find her and get her back to you." Seth never answered. The click on the other end of the line let Gregore know that he wasn't alone in his misery. Seth was just as bad off, only he wasn't battling another guy. Gregore put the cell phone down and looked over the room again. He had prepared an exquisite meal, lit the candles, spread rose petals around. "Not a romantic cliché unturned," he whispered to himself. Gregore wanted tonight to be something special for Caislyn, an apology for all the arguing they had been doing since they were married, since Ash came into the picture. Now, all that was left was to head next door and sweep Caislyn off her feet.

  ~*~

  "Caislyn," Gregore called out as he walked into the other RV. Vesta was sitting on the couch, and she put her finger to her lips and pointed back to the bedroom.

  "I think she's sleeping," Vesta said softly.

  "Sleeping or training?" Gregore questioned, unable to keep the slight tinge of anger out of his voice. He didn't wait for an answer he walked back to the bedroom area and saw Caislyn sitting up in the middle of the bed, sketching on a pad of paper. He watched her from the doorway for a minute, before some movement in his peripheral caught his attention. "Ash," Gregore hissed.

  Ash leaned over the bed to get a better view of Gregore standing in the doorway. "Shh, she's sketching something."

  "Don't shush me. What the hell are you doing here?"

  "I'm guessing t
he same thing you are. I came to check on Caislyn, and I found her sitting here sketching in her sleep."

  "I didn't come to check on Caislyn, I came to take my wife to dinner." Gregore made sure to emphasize the word wife.

  Ash just smiled at him, "well, it seems that won't be happening, since she's sleeping and all."

  Gregore was having a difficult time controlling his emotions at this point. He was seething on the inside, ready to tear Ash into pieces, and show him who the better, the real, man was. "I've had about all I can take of you. Why don't you pack your fairy ass up and hit the road now? She doesn't really need you here anymore."

  Again, Ash just looked at Gregore with mild amusement. "My little fairy ass will leave when, and only when, Caislyn sees fit to tell me to do so."

  Gregore was seeing red now. He knew Ash would wait it out. He knew he would stick around to see if his bastard seed took and got Caislyn pregnant. He also felt as sure that Caislyn wouldn’t send him away until they all knew for sure who’s baby she was indeed carrying. This, more than anything, sent Gregore over the edge as he watched Caislyn stop sketching momentarily, flipped a page, and start back in on her project. Vigorous strokes of madness began coloring the page before anything started to take shape, but Gregore lost his patience. He went to the bed, climbed up on his knees, "Caislyn!" He grabbed her by her elbows and shook gently. "Caislyn, honey, it's time to wake up." He took the pad and pencil from her and set them down to the side.

  Ash was shaking his head and backing up with his hands in the air, letting Gregore know that this was all on him. "She's not going to be happy with this."

  "Shut up!" Gregore snapped at the Fey who simply stood back, with an unpleasant look on his own face. "Caislyn!" Unfortunately, the snap in his voice that was there for Ash never left as he tried to wake his wife a second time. Greg was pissed and it wasn't easy to reign those emotions in. "Caislyn, wake up now!"

  Vesta, having heard the commotion, was now standing in the doorway, "what in the hell are you doing, Gregore?"