Chapter 3

A destined soul

After only 2 hours sleep Ava's soul yearned to be whole, it needed to be complete. She woke with a ghastly roar as the pain grew inside of her. Crystal crashed through her bedroom door with a look of pure horror, skin a ghastly grey.

"What's wrong? WHAT'S WRONG?" Crystal screamed.

"I…don't… know…need…help." Ava groaned, reaching out for Crystal she fell off the sofa whilst clutching the imaginary hole that seemed to be allowing her soul to escape.

The room started to turn and all Ava could see was her broken spirit lifting from her body. What was happening? Was her soul going? Then, suddenly she started to be dragged back to her limp body, when Ava re- opened her eyes, to see how her soul had been pulled back, she saw herself holding a dagger and Crystal holding her blood covered chest.

"What happened?" Ava questioned while going to Crystals aid.

"I remembered killing makes you feel complete," of course Ava thought, she had been so busy the past 6 months she never felt the need to be complete but now it was coming over her, as did death. "So I thought by doing this you could stay awake long enough so you can actually kill someone." Crystal strained to smile.

"You didn't have to do that."

"Yes I did. We couldn't have you dying now could we?" and as simply as the cut had appeared, Crystal waved her hand and the thin pink line faded into nothingness. They both laughed faintly; obviously death was still a sensitive subject to talk about at the moment.

"Don't worry about me now, go and kick some vampire ass while you're still fresh and fighting." She wheezed as the effects of the magic still lingered, Crystal walked over to the sink to wash the knife, trying to forget the images of her gaping wound.

"Alright alright," Ava moaned.

She smirked as she got up slowly from the floor, Crystal was to kind to her and she was going to repay her someday, unlike her old friends, Crystal was never bitchy and she never back stabbed, only after being friends for 6 months Ava would trust Crystal with her life and at some points she had! Ava picked up a wooden steak as she waltzed through the door and began to make her way to the only place she could go to get a decent kill, the hang out of all bad guys. The crypt.

Fog creped along the icy concrete floor as Ava patrolled the cemetery grounds. The moon was high in the sky and the eerie scene seemed to glow under the moon light. A rotten foul stench drifted in the air, the smell of death. White blankets of breath grew and then disappeared into the night as Ava continued to breathe heavily. The frosty grass glistened as the moons beams hit the tiny little ice crystals.

Ava devilishly looked out of the corner of her eye to the big crypt in the centre of the cemetery. It was thousands of years old, it had no graves in it, it was filled with holes and covered in moss but still it was a historical landmark to the little town so it was precious. Ava knew that's were the vampires hide out was, nobody went in there so it was perfect. She slowly crept up to the rotten moldy door, she could hear them laughing, just being close to this amount of evil was making her pulsate inside. She stood, holy water at the ready, just about to kick down the door when, someone leaped out of the darkness and pushed Ava to the ground.

Ava looked up in amazement, why struggling to get free against the strong grip of the vampire; it was Blayke. His jeweled green eyes sparkled under the moonlight he looked so innocent but she knew he wasn't; Ava pushed him off of her and nervously scrambled to her feet. The colour was erased from her face as she came to terms with the fact that he was a vampire and he just attacked her so this meant … she had to kill him.

Ava gazed deeply into Blaykes eyes; her eyes started to leak tears but would turn to ice as they rolled down her cheeks. Blayke looked at her like a confused puppy dog, she slowly raised the wooden weapon. Her eyes began to stream as she realized she was never going to see him again, she was never going to look into his beautiful green eyes, she was going to kill the one who saved her life only days before. Blaykes eyes flickered up to Ava's hands and he realized what she was about to do. Ava breathed in and began to drag the stake down towards his heart when suddenly Blayke caught her arm and pressed his body up against hers. He smelt her sweet natural fragrance as he peeled the life taker out of Ava's hand. She closed her eyes and took in what was happening, burying her head into Blayke's chest she wrapped her arms around him, half because she felt guilty and half because she felt a pull towards him.

"Sorry," she whispered gently As Ava burst out into tears, He held her close, but swiftly opened his mouth and directed his fangs towards her tender neck...

"What do you think you are doing?" Ava screamed as she pushed Blayke away.

"Ssshhh!" Blayke whispered, pulling her to the ground to get cover from any spying vampires, while nodding towards the vampire filled crypt. "I'm sorry, I couldn't resist, I tasted your blood when you fell from the ladder, it was likes oranges and honey, so sweet, unlike any other I've tasted."

"I don't care you didn't have permission and this is a cemetery … scared grounds! You know what happens when you bite on sacred grounds don't you."

"Yes … but ..." he smiled devilishly and rolled to his left so that he was now on top of Ava, pinning her to the ground, she struggled at first but then relaxed as she realized he wasn't letting her go.

"But nothing we can't be eternally joined I'm a slayer you're a vampire do you know how bad that is? Plus … I have a boyfriend." Ava looked away as if she didn't want Blayke to know about Luke.

"That didn't seem to bother you when I was hugging you." Blayke leaned in closer to Ava and pulled back his lips over his teeth in a slight grin, getting closer he began to pout and Ava realized he was searching for a kiss.

"Just don't try it again," she interrupted his movement and he looked up at her through slits, angry she had disturbed the flow of passion. Blayke sat up in a huff and crossed his arms across his chest; he did not like it when people did not play along with his games. Ava, realizing she was free, lifted her legs and rolled over so she was now on top, Blayke reached out for her to pull her back down to him but she jumped to her feet before he could touch her. "Now if you don't mind I have some people to kill… I have half a soul and I need to feel complete, like you, so if you excuse me..."

"You don't know do you?" getting to his feet also, he took a step closer to Ava.

"Know what?" she turned on the balls of her feet to face the Blayke to read his face, not knowing he had got up she had turned directly to face his chest, he was so close. Strangely the closeness felt good, it felt natural but the shock of finding him there made her instinctively take a step backwards. Blayke smirked to himself. "We're two halves of a whole, I make you complete, you complete me, soul mates blah blah blah." Whilst speaking he was waving his arms about provocatively as if he speaking of something casual, but how could love be casual. Ava stood with her arms crossed, raising one eyebrow.

"Do you not know what that is? Did your mentor not tell you?"

"Tell me what?" she was beginning to get frustrated with him now, she obviously didn't know what he was talking about so why did he have to be so stupid and tease her this way! Blayke saw that she was getting irritated as she began to tap her foot on the floor and one of her eyes and become slightly more squinted that the other, he thought it best to just come out with it.

"That whenever there is a dies lamia and slayer on the earth at the same time they are destined to be together to complete each other… we both have half of a soul so if we bind together we get one whole soul. Do you see now?"

Ava's jaw opened widely as well as her eyes, her heart sunk as she realized why Alexis slammed the book shut after reading her the passage about dies lamia in stead of letting Ava read it for herself. Ava didn't feel like killing any more, she looked back at Blayke through tear filled eyes, his face dropped when he saw how upset she was; this news was supposed to be happy, he thought she wanted him, obviously not. Stepping closer to Ava he outstretched his arm to smooth her face and to wipe away the tears, but she turned away from him abruptly and began to walk at a very fast pace.

"I… have to go… we'll talk about this later…" she shouted back to Blayke as she made for a hasty exit towards the cemetery gates.

"But your energy … your soul it needs feeding!" Blayke shouted as Ava disappeared into the night.

Chapter 4

Secrets

Wind blowing, the small pebbles crunched underneath Ava's feet, as she ran down the long and windy road. Her heart was beating against her rib cage as if it was a lion wanting to be free from the zoo. Tears flowed down her cheeks, they were rivers on her skin. She felt weak, but the urge to find out the truth kept her going, she started to feel faint and her head became heavy. Ava looked up to the school building, only to see it all blurred partly from tears but mostly from her soul needing feeding, but still she continued to run towards the school gates. As she took a big breath, her pale fingers ran down the glossy green door, while the cold hit the back of her throat like daggers, every time she took a breath. She heard a voice, a familiar voice,

"Ava? … Is that you Ava…? Oh no."

She looked up to see a blurred vision of a skinny tall women walking towards her. Ava blinked to get a better picture but her eyes remained fuzzy. Ava felt her body slip down the door as she gently closed her eyes to rest, just for a while. And slowly the voice slipped away into the distance.

Ava felt her body lying on what seemed like a sofa. She lifted her arm to her head to feel the pulsating heart beat on her temples. She slowly began to lift her heavy eyelids to see the red oak wood and the 1000 year old books. She realized she was in the library. At first Ava felt a sigh of relief come over her but then she remembered her mission before she passed out. She shot up like a bullet. Ava scanned the room with her bloodshot eyes and searched for Alexis. No sign. Where was she? She was the one that saved her? Wasn't she?

Suddenly the doors creaked open, and there Alexis stood, bronze plate in hand, piled to the brim with twigs and herbs. She always liked to heal the old witches' way. Alexis looked to the seat were Ava once slept with a questioning look. At that moment memories of the cemetery and Blayke came rushing back and anger began to fill inside of Ava once more. She leapt across the desk to push Alexis flying to the ground, the bronze plate span in the air as ingredients fell left right and centre.

Ava snarled like a wildcat, as her hazel oak eyes turned black. The evil inside of her, the side that yearned to be full-filled, the side that could be completed by Blayke, rushed out and turned Ava into a raving animal. She raised her left arm like a claw ready to slice Alexis, but Alexis froze Ava in her position. Alexis didn't like to use magic against Ava unless it was absolutely necessary and she thought saving her own life was necessary.

Alexis carefully slid out from underneath Ava, trying cautiously not to stir her. Her frowning face scanned Ava's body and noticed she wasn't her self, so she chose to forgive Ava this one time. She carefully tied Ava to a chair so that when Alexis unfroze her there would be no chance of Ava trying to kill her again. Alexis took a big breath and finally decided to awaken Ava from her motionless sleep.

Alexis flicked her hand and Ava suddenly started to struggle to get free from her rope cage. Her eyes still pitch black; Alexis knew she had to calm her down. Alexis starred deep into Ava's eyes, it was going to hurt but it was the only way, so Alexis grabbed Ava's hands and breathed in slowly. The room began to spin around them and a ball of shining white light appeared in between them both. Alexis concentrated as Ava continued to lash out at her. Suddenly the white light exploded and connected its self to Ava and Alexis's eyes. They both let out a roar of pain and terror as there bodies went limp. When the light had dissolved into the air all that was left was the two of them motionless on the floor. Ava slowly regained consciousness to see her mentor, pale and stiff, dead-looking. Ava started to well up with tears as she rushed to her mentor's side.

"No…no… you sacrificed your life for me and how do I repay you? … I attack you!" Ava sniffed and tried to hold in her tears. "You taught me everything I know now and now … now … your gone" Ava collapsed onto her mentors body and let the tears pour out, she just couldn't keep them in.

All of a sudden, Alexis jumped up and gazed down upon Ava. Her once innocent hazel eyes were now a midnight black and her soft smile was now a tight sneer. Ava looked up at Alexis with shock knowing the worst was yet to come, Alexis' raised her hands so Ava cringed with fear. But, Alexis brought her hands back down into her centre as the evil darkness brightened up into colour, Ava's evil side had now been tamed so Alexis let Ava's soul out of her body and back into Ava's. Ava breathed in deeply as her soul re-entered her, somehow the soul felt like it had been fed and didn't feel the need to kill anymore. Just like always.

Alexis stood in silence and Ava stuck to the floor; the only sound was there chests heaving up and down as they breathed heavily. Then, without warning, ava leaped into Alexis' arms and the pair abruptly broke down into tears.

"I thought you were dead!" Ava squealed

"I thought you hated me!" Alexis sniffed

"I could never hate you,"

"I know,"

"You sacrificed yourself for me,"

"I would do anything for you,"

Once again the girls pulled each other closer, and felt one another's embrace. But then Ava remembered the reason she came here.

"There is one thing I do need to ask you though." Ava sighed. Alexis pushed away and frowned at Ava's tone of voice.

"Of course… anything… what is it?" she replied.

"Why didn't you let me read the dies lamia book for myself?" Ava looked into Alexis's eyes for some flicker of emotion, so she could see if the subject had affected her in anyway, of course it had; Alexis had been deceitful and so could not hold Ava's gaze and only looked to the floor.

"Um...well…" Alexis hesitated to answer.

"WELL..." Ava stepped closer to her.

"Well…um... there was nothing else of your interest in there."

"Well I would like to read it my self if you wouldn't…"

"NO… I mean um no, it's not necessary dear."
"Not necessary? NOT NECESSARY? WAS IT ALSO NOT NECESSARY FOR YOU TO TELL ME THAT DIES LAMIA AND SLAYERS ARE MENT TO BE TOGETHER?" Ava turned her back to Alexis and began to storm off.

"I didn't want to tell you I was afraid that…"Alexis slowly sat down on the little red couch Ava led on hours ago.

"YOU WERE AFRAID THAT I WOULD BE HAPPY WITH A WHOLE SOUL INSTEAD OF JUST HALF OF ONE! DO YOU WANT ME TO BE UNHAPPY? IS THAT WHAT IT IS?" she had turned back towards Alexis now and was storming her way back to the sofa, she stooped down and stood inches away from Alexis's face, breathing heavily, her face was flustered and red.

"Ava please, will you just calm down? You have only known this guy for like 5 minutes and you're willing to give him your soul?' she looked at Ava with pleading eyes, like the teenager she was she had fallen in love and there was nothing Alexis could do. Except be there to pick the pieces up when it was over. Quickly Alexis changed her tactics, and played the guilt trip card.

'I just didn't want you to get a whole soul because if you did… I was afraid… I was afraid you weren't going to be a slayer anymore and you wouldn't protect us from evil anymore." Ava slowly began to prop herself upright as her mentors words leaked into her brain, she was sad. She turned her body and sat next to Alexis; gently wrapping her arm around Alexis' shoulders and pulled her in closer.

"I would never stop being a slayer… it's my destiny… you know that." She whispered the words into Alexis's hair and smoothed the stray ones out of the way like a mother tending to a daughter.

"Yes but once your soul would have been complete you wouldn't of felt the need to kill anymore." Alexis began to play with her thumbs as if she already knew what she had said, what her excuse was, was pathetic.

"But I still would of known that vampires and demons were out there," she Pulled Alexis around now so she stare meaningfully into her eyes, as if this way Alexis would believe her more if she did so. "I still would of wanted to rid the world of evil… there would still be a passion to kill but not to make me feel complete… to make me feel that the world was safe."

"I guess you're right."

"Of course I'm right!" laughing she pulled Alexis into her and both sat in silence to soak in the embrace unwillingly Ava began to pull away to ask her mentor about one other detail. "So… is it true? Blayke and I are destined to be together."

"Yes… it's true." She sighed and a look of pain crossed her face as the fear of losing Ava swept over her. But then she had an idea, is could post pone the day they bound to each other then…

"But you can't be joined together until we get the sword, speaking of which we have to start looking for it today so you get some rest, ill come back and get you later okay." All of the words came out in a rather skittish blur as she hastily got of off the sofa to leave Ava and to leave her glare.

Alexis gathered up the earlier spilled ingredients, put them back on the bronze plate and smiled at Ava as she closed the doors.

"Hmm, imagine me as Mrs. Ava O'Mara…catchy." She smiled to herself and began to play with the wedding finger on her left hand.

Ava was getting all excited about becoming Blayke's eternal partner but she had forgotten one tiny detail, her boyfriend, Luke. As Ava lay down on the red velvet couch, Luke turned away from the window, a look of horror on his face, distraught by the news he had just currently overheard.

Chapter 5

Beginning

Ava looked down on the green summer fields as the daisies popped up from the earth. The wind gently breezed through her hair as the birds whizzed past her, singing to the morning sunrise. Suddenly the pale blue skies turned a foul black, the wind started to roar horrendously but it came from underneath her instead of from in front. She was falling! Ava began to panic as she looked down at the floor as it came raging towards her. A distant voice was screaming at her

"AVA! AVA!"She was now Inches away from death.

Ava screamed as she opened her eyes to see Alexis frowning with fear. Ava wiped the sweat off of her brow and breathed deeply as her heart beat slowed down. Ava looked at Alexis with a worried yet questioning face.

"You had a nightmare." Alexis frowned. "A common symptom which slayers get when they have never touched the sword,"

"Oh right… okay" Ava said while she scratched her head with concern.

"This is getting serious Ava, we have to find that sword and we have to find it now!" she pulled Ava up and rushed her to a book filled desk indicating her to start riffling through the material herself, Alexis had already been over the books a million time and found nothing, but Alexis knew Ava hated feeling useless.

Overwhelmed by the vast nothingness of information that was growing before them, and the time that was quickly dissipating Ava began to break down "I know I'm getting really worried!"

Tears began to well up inside of Ava's eyes as she went crashing down in to the heaps of papers, they whipped and flipped around the room as they went scattering across the floor.

As Ava wiped away the waterworks, took a deep breath and put on a brave face, she looked up to see her mentor shadowing over her and looking down with great concern. Alexis hid her from Crystal and Luke who were walking into the library.

"Woo hoo! Let's go I can't wait to find this 'blade' sounds like oober coolness!" Crystal jumped in excitedly.

Crystal looked around the room cautiously as she realized that all 3 of her fellow colleagues looked like death as they gazed hopelessly at their feet.

"What's wrong with you?" Crystal asked as she frowned at Luke.

He raised his head and glared into her eyes as he slowly slumped over to the red couch were Ava and Alexis were sat. Crystal raised her eyebrows in shock at Luke's rude gesture, but returned to her question turning to look at Ava and Alexis questioningly. As Ava looked at her best friend, a single sparkly droplet rolled out of her eyes and down her cheek, and she simply said,

"Im just a bit emotional today," trying her best to hide the pain inside with a slightly strained smile, "but my feelings don't matter right now we have to find this 'blade' or im going to die," she let out a slight chuckle which suddenly turned into a deep sigh of hesitation. Ava turned to face Alexis to see she was staring deeply into Ava's eyes; Alexis shook her head to get out of the trance she was in and stuttered to say

"Oh right yes, of course, of course let's start shall we?"

The gang followed Alexis over to the shiny round table, as they approached the glossy wood, their eyes widened and their jaws dropped at the sight that lay on the table.

"This book is the oldest, biggest and most intriguing book I have ever encountered, it is over 450 years old, and over 10,000 pages thick with every bit of information you would ever need."

"What is it?" Ava gasped as she reached out for the book

Alexis smacked her hand away as she replied "it's the history of the school," everybody's eyes rolled into their heads as they realized it wasn't so exciting after all, "But the most interesting part is page 8546!" as Alexis carefully peeled open the brown, moldy and tattered book cover, a cloud of thick and smelly dust puffed out from the pages, then a second layer of throat filling dust came as she dropped the heavy load of pages back onto the table. After everyone had finished their coughing fits, and the fog had disappeared you could see Ava had one eyebrow raised at Alexis's ridiculous idea, how a book about the school could know anything about the blade of death she didn't know! Alexis slid her glasses up the bridge of her nose and began to read the extract.

"According to this, and I would never declare it wrong, 100 years ago a woman named Eliza Goodhall came across a sword which gave her the abilities to destroy those who she searched for, it was able to store great amounts of light and when shone on particular beings they would evaporate as if into thin air." She looked at Ava with an 'I told you so' look, she continued "The sword seemed to have what looked like a sword inside of a crescent moon engraved on the side, with the words trucidomalum carved into the handle, which translated to English means slayer of evil, this is it! Evrything fits the sword was in the school 100 years ago and there has been no report of it ever since, according to my research she only died 20 years ago."

Alexis shot up from the chair and ran gracefully over to the computer on the desk, as she clicked on the internet logo and google appeared she typed in Eliza Goodhall, it only took seconds before the list came up and Alexis was reading her details, "Eliza Goodhall was born on the 12/3/1890, she died at the age of 98 after leading a long life filled with, life saving and demon –killing , so they say, she only ever had one child as her partner died shortly after their marriage, her daughter, Paris Goodhall now lives in the place were her mother grew up, nobody knows the name of her grand child as she was put up for adoption at birth, how Eliza died we will never know but we do know she was a great help to the English community" Alexis looked up from the computer and gazed at Ava waiting for her to speak.

"Of course the answer is so simple; we go to her daughters and see if she knows anything about the where about of the sword! If she does that's our job done and I don't die!" Ava's eyes widened as she realised that maybe she could spend the rest of her life with Blayke.

"That's not just it Ava!" Alexis looked down in shame "You don't just get chosen to be a slayer, it's in your blood,"
Ava looked up with shock "You mean…"

"She's was your grand mother and Paris is your mother"

"Are you serious?"

"Yes Ava,"

"So I get to live and find out who my mother is, all in the same day, this is perfect!" Alexis looked shock that she was happy at the news but she did not want it to be any other way.

"And it says here that she still lives here, in Oxford, this is so easy," Crystal jumped for joy as a sigh of relief came over her.

"A little too easy to me," a grim sound came from the background, everybody turned to stare at Luke, Mr. Gloom and doom just ruined the moment.

"Yeah maybe a little too easy but we can't help but give it go,' Crystal squeaked as she read the address on the web and skipped out of the room. Alexis grabbed her briefcase and followed shortly after her, but as Ava went to leave the library a small yet firm hand grabbed her wrist stopping her from going.

"Ava, we need to talk." Luke stared at his shoes then wandered over to the window. Ava gulped as she realised what was about to come, she slowly followed after him as she accepted her fate.

"Look Luke," Ava reached out for his shoulder but he abruptly jumped out of the way.

"NO! This is my time to talk now sit down, shut up and let me speak," he growled whilst throwing Ava onto the seat, she looked at him with confusion; he had never acted like this before. He lifted his head to reveal his ever so angry eyes; he took a deep breath and began to speak.

"I know about you and Blayke, how dare you insult my intelligence by thinking I wouldn't find out, did you not think it would get back to me somehow? Didn't you have the decency, the guts, to tell me yourself? What were you afraid of? This news has crushed me Ava; I have never loved anyone like I have loved you! I thought this situation was a way of fate telling us it was meant to be, but then you go and squash my heart like a bug. Do you not care how I feel?" Luke gazed at her as if he wanted her to answer his so many questions but when Ava opened her mouth to speak Luke just continued to ramble on.

"You do not know the feelings I have for you right now. I want to punch for doing this to me and making me feel this way, but I just want to kiss you because I still love you so much. Why does it have to be now? After so long, I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME!" Luke collapsed on the floor as his crystal blue eyes began to leak streams of sparkly water. Ava slipped off of the sofa and kneeled by his side to comfort him.

In a gentle, sweet yet stern voice Ava whispered "I'm so sorry Luke, I never meant it to be like this , I never wanted you to feel this bad, I never wanted to hurt you, I wouldn't wish this pain upon anybody, but what's meant to be is meant to be," she put her arms around Lukes back and pulled him closer like a baby needing the feel of being safe in its mothers arms "All of this happened so fast, I haven't had the chance to explain what's been happening, I only found out in the early hours of this morning , what the truth was. Me and Blayke have destined souls because of our life styles and that's just the way it is, he is a dies lamia and I am a slayer two half souls meant to be bound as one," she released her grip from Luke as the realisation hit her, she went on

"Our relationship was never love, it was never going to be love because of destiny, it was just and it always will be an infatuation, I was besotted by the amazing crystal colour of your eyes, every ship has a set destination and I'm sorry to say we have reached ours, its over," she looked deeply into Lukes eyes for the last time, before she pushed herself up from the floor and exited the library, leaving Luke, bundled up on the cold, hard ground.