by Dawn Gray
"It has too." Sage answered, quietly then knelt beside Justin. "If you see that something isn't right, either with him or me; pull me away."
"I don't know, Sage." David said, shyly, but she reached over and touched his face, which made him close his eyes. "I just don't want to lose you, either one of you."
"I know, and I promise to be as safe as I can." She replied, and then looked down at the stone and the stake that lay in front of her. "Well, here goes nothing."
With those words, David watched her place one hand on Justin's head and the other against his chest, cuddling the weapons in between their two bodies, and then she glanced one last time at David, before closing her eyes.
David sat in silence, waiting for something to happen, some sort of sign that they were both coming back.
* * * * *
When my eyes opened, I was once again in the room where I had left Justin, but the girl had been moved from his bed, which was now occupied by him. He turned over and looked at me with his brown eyes. They seemed dark and menacing, but still familiar.
"You came back." He smiled, which let me see the sharp points of his vampire teeth, and then he sat up. "I knew you would."
"I can stop this, Justin, if you let me." I told him, trying not to give into the seductiveness of his voice. He slid off the bed, wearing only the tight black pants that he had worn before, and walked towards me, slowly. "You have to face your darkness, and then kill it."
"What if I don't want too?" He asked, laughing. "What if I like it this way?"
"Don't be stupid, Justin, you haven't ever liked it this way and you never will." I answered. He reached out and touched my hair, then grabbed the back of my head by a hand full of it. I tried not to protest, not to give into the sudden fear that I felt, but I couldn't help but shake at the immense power he was letting off, and that's when I saw it, the dark mark above his eye, one that Justin didn't have. "You're not him."
He smiled a grim of pure evil. "You're not as stupid as you look, either."
Just then, the door opened and another man walked into, this one was Justin and he looked at the two of us.
"Devon?" He questioned, and I turned back to look at the face of this man, and even though, through my eyes, his features were disorientated, I could tell he wasn't a nice man. "What are you doing in here? Let her go!"
"So, now the fledgling becomes the master?" Devon asked his voice was now deep, monster-like and eerie. "This child says that she can help you. How?"
"She means with the transformation." Justin said and grabbed my arm, pulling me away from him. "She's delusional, someone I picked up off the street, for an after dinner snack."
Devon smiled at us, nodding his head, then he headed for the door, but before he left us, he turned and looked directly into Justin's eyes.
"Keep an eye on this one, Justin." He said. "Or, I might have to take her for myself."
With that, he left the room, closing the door behind him.
I looked up at Justin, who let out a loud sigh, and wrapped his arms around me. I could feel his heart beating next to my ear and his face against my forehead.
"What are you doing back here so soon?" Justin whispered.
"David and I found something that might help you out of this whole thing." I replied, stepping back away from him. Justin looked at the objects in my hands, the stone and the stake that I had consecrated in the real world, and then he looked back up at my face. "Listen, you have to kill your evil side. He'll be just like you, a vampire and you have to stake him through the heart, and place the rock on him when he falls."
"Will he look just like me?" Justin asked, pulling me closer to him. I shook my head; there was no way that I could know this for sure. "It could be anyone."
"No, I think you'll recognize him when you see him." Suddenly, the door to the room flew open and a black object floated in. "I think we've found your man."
"Get out of here, Sage!" Justin yelled to me as a force separated us. I tried hard to hold on to him, but I couldn't.
Since my grip was slipping, I tossed him the stake, which he caught, and dropped the stone on the floor by his feet. It was then that I saw the object moving towards me. Forced to the floor by the overpowering darkness, I blocked my face with my hands, but caught Justin's movement out of the corner of my eye, as he moved up behind the darkness.
"Sage, go!" He yelled, which I barely heard over the loud noise that surrounded me. I could almost see him raising the stake high above his head, and my eyes widened as he brought it crashing down there the back of the dark mass, into its heart, which exploded into a blinding blue light. "Sage!"
My world had become nothing but light, then sudden darkness as I tried to hold onto that voice, but I slipped out of Justin's reality into a quiet blackness all my own.
* * * * *
Justin sat up in bed, quickly, which made David turn suddenly towards him from where he stood by the window. Justin looked up at David, as he, slowly, brought his breathing back down, and then he looked at the sleeping body beside him on the bed. David walked over towards them, as he watched Justin lean down, and put his ear next to her mouth.
"Justin?" David whispered. Justin looked up at him and smiled, and then he gathered Sage in his arms and held her. David sat on the floor beside the bed and breathed a sigh of relief. "So, is it over?"
"Yeah, it's over," Justin Whispered, and looked at his friend, "for now. We still have to face Victor."
"Halloween is tomorrow night, are the two of you going to be strong enough to face him?" Justin shrugged.
"We don't have a choice." He whispered. David got up and walked over to the door, then looked back at Justin. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to let everyone know that you’re awake." David smiled. "And, I figured that the two of you needed some time alone."
Justin watched David walk out of the room, shutting the door tightly behind him, then he looked down at Sage's face and he smiled at how peaceful it looked. Her eyelids fluttered, quickly, but it took her a few moments to open her eyes wide enough to see the loving expression on Justin's face. Her eyes began to water as she reached up and put a hand on his cheek.
"I thought I'd lost you." She whispered. Justin smiled, sweetly, and kissed the palm of her hand.
"Never." He replied, leaning down to kiss her. "You're stuck with me for the rest of your life."
"Good." She smiled back. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
Justin's lips touched hers softly, letting the warmth of his body spread over her, bringing her more and more out of the cool darkness. She could feel him close to her, so close it was almost painful as the warmth became an overwhelming heat and passion between them.
* * * * *
David closed his eyes as he smiled and relaxed on the couch, the magazine he had been reading was laid out across his lap. He could feel the two lovers upstairs, not the physical, but the pure emotions that they let off and it eased something in him.
A knock on the wall made David open his eyes. Flush from the images that had been running through his thoughts; David looked over at Julian, who stood in the doorway.
"I'm guessing that everything is well?" He smiled.
"So far, so good." David whispered then sat up slowly. "What is it?" He asked, referring to the blankness of Julian's expression.
"It's nothing to do with you or the two of them." Julian replied his fake smile faded. "It's more personal."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"No!" Julian answered, bluntly, shaking his head. "I just wanted to make sure everyone else was all right." Julian put his hands in his pants pockets and shrugged. "Well, I'll let you relax."
David sat forwards, folding his hands together, and sighed. There was something that Julian was holding in and that bothered David, because Julian was a strength that they all needed. He closed his eyes, letting the feelings of the other two was over him and he prayed that they all had the strength to make it through the next 48 hours.
* * * * *
I walked into the sitting room, bright and early that next morning. It was Halloween, "Dooms Day", or whatever, but as I stepped up to the window and looked out at the rising sunlight, I felt only the peacefulness of a new day and I stood there admiring the view for a long time before I heard the footsteps of someone behind me.
I turned, slowly at first, then quickly, when I noticed who it was. Lauren stood in the doorway, smiling at me.
"I guess I'm not the only one who likes to see the sunrise." She whispered, walking into the room, her hands folded in front of her. It was then that I felt the oddness of her presence. She must have noticed the change in my expression, for she looked around her then back at me. "What is it? Do I have something on my face?"
"You feel...different." I replied, then shook my head and smiled. "I'm sorry, but that's the only way to describe it to you."
"I feel different myself." She smiled then stepped closer to me. "Can I tell you a secret?"
"Sure, but why would you keep something like this a secret? I mean, it must be something extremely big for me to pick up on it." I shrugged.
"It is big, in fact the only one that knows, well, besides me, is Quinn." Lauren's giddiness and overly wide smile made me think about just what this secret maybe. I looked down over her hands and noticed that the right one covered the left, as if hiding something.
"Okay, this is probably going to kill me, but, what the hell." I smiled and stepped closer. "What is it?"
Lauren moved her hand and showed me the diamond on her fingers. It was the same engagement ring that I had seen plenty of times before, but there was something else to it. It had another ring, made of pure gold that held it snuggly in place. I remember seeing these types of rings after someone got married.
"You got married?" I whispered, looking up from the rings to her smiling eyes. Lauren nodded. "Secretly?" Again, she nodded. "But, why not tell everyone?"
"There's another secret that brought us to this one." Lauren danced in place, but that was all she gave me, obviously wanting me to ask the questions.
"Lauren, just spit it out." I laughed, watching her move in that one spot. She leaned in closely, smiling as she came closer, then whispered softly in my ear.
"I'm pregnant." She answered and stood back. I was in shock, and I could feel all the blood drain from my face, which made her smile fade. "Sage?"
"I'm sorry, it's just a shock." I smiled and hugged her, then back away and blinked a few times, trying to let it sink in. "Do you mind me asking how? I mean, Quinn is a vampire, right?"
"We've been seeing a specialist, someone that knows of our, and I mean "our" as in Quinn's, kind, to see how we could get pregnant and have the baby genetically linked to Quinn and me, even though he couldn't produce the other half that we needed." Lauren and I made our way outside and sat on lawn, secluding ourselves from the rest of the house so no one else would hear. "We found someone, after talking to Louis, Quinn's son when he was mortal, that would be directly connected with Quinn, but wasn't a vampire. He matched almost exactly, and with a little genetic tampering on the doctor's part, was able to get the right genetic code for the baby to be Quinn's and mine."
"How did he get this code?" I questioned, curious because of my own connections with Michael.
"By his blood." Lauren replied. “My only thing though is that the dates of when I went in for the procedure and the ultrasound dates don’t really correspond. We’re happy, nonetheless.”
"Okay, this is good, but why haven't you told anyone else but me?" Sage asked. "Isn't Ashley closer to you?"
"Something's going on with Julian and Ash, again." Lauren sighed. "You see, Jack, her son, is in some way connected to Michael, like you are, but not quite as much, and she feels that Michael should be a bit responsible for him."
"But, he's not Mike's biologically, right?" Lauren shook her head. "I don't get it, what's the deal?"
"Ashley, to put it plain and simple, doesn't know what she wants." She looked at me and sighed. "Don't get me wrong, I love her, but she has a hard time deciding between Julian and the rest of the world."
"How so?"
"Well, when I found out about her and the boys, it had always been Julian, but then she slept with Mike, and then she went back to Julian. When her son was kidnapped, she came here to get Julian to help her, but ended up ‘falling into lust’, as she called it, with Quinn."
"She slept with him, too?" I asked; Lauren nodded. My perfect picture of the Queen of the vampires was fading rather, quickly, but I wanted her to go on. "Okay, so what happened between them?"
"Towards the end of the whole thing with Jack, Ash decided that she truly loved Julian and not Quinn, so, he started to come around and see me, not purposely, at first, but it became that way, and Ash got back with Julian in a way. You see they hadn't slept together yet, in all of the years that they had known each other, but she was still with him in other ways." Lauren stretched her legs and smiled. "Well, she got her son and left for a year, which let Quinn and I get a lot closer, but when she came back, she decided that she was in love with Julian and they've been that way since June, when she returned.
"It's odd, though, even though he seems to be ‘with’ her, she seems to be elsewhere, like with Michael and now she's telling everyone that she believes she should be with Mike, because he's Jack's father, in some way or another." She looked over at me and shrugged. "It's unusually complicated."
"I guess." I replied and smiled, "but, congratulations on your pregnancy, anyway." Lauren hugged me and smiled. "When is your due date?"
"About two weeks after you." She replied and stood up. "Would you like to take a walk?"
"Sure, lead on." I smiled and the two of us got up and walked along the beach for a while.
Chapter 15
Cristian looked up at David, who was staring out the window at the approaching night, and then he turned his attention to Justin, who seemed to be staring at the firelight, and once again, changed his gaze to Michael and Julian, who were sitting in the two large recliners in the far corner of the room. Slowly, he stood and made his way over to them, then stood directly in their view.
"What is it, Cris?" Michael asked.
"The girls." He answered, bluntly.
"What about them?" He questioned again, looking up from the stack of books in front of him.
"I think we should take them off the property." He replied. Julian shook his head. "What do you mean no?"
"This is the safest place for them, for any of us." Julian answered. "We should all remain where we are."
"And, let that bastard kill us off, one by one?" Cristian argued.
"I, personally, don't intend to let him kill anyone." Justin's voice interrupted from near the fireplace. Cristian turned to him quickly.
"You should just stay out of this. You're the reason this whole thing got started, you and that no good traitor over there." This made David turn quickly in their direction with a ‘who me?’ kind of expression on his face. "Don't look so innocent, David. You're the one that was directly involved with Victor in the first place."
"That's enough." Quinn's voice intervened as he stepped into the room. "This isn't the time to point fingers, or place blame."
"You should talk." Cristian laughed. "You've been hunting after David since he stepped foot in this house."
"Which, I might remind you that you are a guest in." Quinn replied sternly. "And, are more than welcome to leave, without the girls, any time you wish. As for what my feelings towards David were in the past, I felt I was justified in doing what I had too to protect my family, just as I am justified in saying that he has proven himself worthy of my trust again. But, you, Cristian, are wearing thin on my welcome list."
"This isn't your house, Quinn."
"No!" Julian said standing up; his eyes seemed distant, and emotionless. "This is MY house and if this whole childish act of yours continues, you will be asked, forcefully to leave it."
"Uh, G
uys." A soft female voice interrupted, once again. Everyone in the room turned to look at the four girls standing in the doorway. Taryn stepped forwards, being the one that had addressed them before. "Sage is gone."
"What do you mean "gone"?" Cristian asked, stupidly.
"She's not in the house, moron." Ashley replied, with edginess in her voice. Cristian looked at her in shock, as if he had never expected her to address him that way. "She's missing; we've been looking for about twenty minutes."
"She couldn't have gone far." Michael replied.
Sage, where are you? Justin asked with his mental voice, which made David looked over at him and shrug, as if to say he hadn't gotten an answer either.
"What is that?" Bobby asked, moving closer to the windows that David now stood with his back too. Everyone turned to look. In the distance, just before the edge of the grass, was as strange spiraling blue light, and sitting on the ground, underneath it, was Sage. "What is she doing out there?"
That's when David noticed the shadows moving closer to her and his eyes widened, as they seemed to take on shapes. "He's coming."
Those were the only words he said as sped past the group in the sitting room and made his way out onto the lawn. The rest of the people soon followed suit, with Justin not far behind his auburn-haired friend, but as David reached where the shadows began, he was scooped up by a form that seemed to be nothing but blackness, and was then thrown across the lawn.
Sage moved from where she sat, to look at the commotion, and caught a glimpse of David, who was picked up, by a dark hand around his throat, and held suspended in the arm.
"David!" She screamed as she stood and began a dead run for whatever held him there.
"No! Sage, stop!' Justin's voice yelled to her from the other side of David, but it was too late, she was suddenly surrounded.
Up on the patio, the others watched helplessly, for they were trapped by an unseen wall, which only Justin and David had been allowed to pass. Bobby held Taryn as the two watched Sage fight off the demon shadows and that's when it happened, the shadows began to change, manifesting themselves into one man, who still held David by his neck, and turned to look at Sage with an evil grin.