Chapter 4:

So… hey guys! Hope you've enjoyed this story so far – this chapter was my responsibility so sorry for the long update… I spent an AWESOME week in Barcelona!

Oliver's POV:

I truly cannot believe that she is here – when I left her in England, all those years ago it seems, I never expected that I would be able to see her again. Oh, I always wanted to – I aimed to return to her as soon as the book came into my possession, a feat I never thought would take so long. Then I lost any chance of getting the book and knew then that seeing Azcadelia again would most likely be impossible.

And now here she is, in my living room. It doesn't seem plausible, possible, likely… oh, I could say so much more, but I doubt that it would be wise to continue to question myself and Azcadelia to myself, when she is sitting here.

"Tea?" I ask politely, not wanting to go through the pleasantries but finding it impossible to stop myself. It's as if I am doing anything possible to put off the inevitable question…

"Cut the crap, Oliver, and let's get down to it," she says with a smile, sitting down on the sofa and leaning forwards. I sit in the armchair opposite her and match her stance of sitting, finding it impossible to stop myself smiling.

I ask the most obvious question first, as so I can get a feel for this – normally it seems that I am the one questioned… I still remember when I came to Morganville: Amelie questioned how I was here, how I was alive still, for hours

"Where have you been?" I ask her quietly, unable to look her in her perfect face. It's as if the picture I took of her those years ago in my mind was taken with a camera which refused to develop properly – it is flawed and entirely wrong. But I want to know what happened to make her seem so… hard… so… perfect before I look at her again.

"I've been all over the place really," she dodges the question at first in her answer, before finally telling me. "After you left, I went to Asia and travelled there… the last stop over there was Russia before I came over to America," she explains and I smile slightly. I always assumed she would have stayed in England when I left, the lost little child unable to leave her last 'blanket of comfort'.

"What made you come to America?" I continue the questioning after a moment, having let the information sink in properly.

"I learnt everything that there is, Oliver – and I mean all of it," she sounds excited, proud, pleased – everything I would associate with pure glee. "Every single thing that there was to learn, I did. I have most of the spellbooks as well… but why I came to America? Well, I visited my old home, said a proper goodbye to my parents, and proceeded to take care of some unfinished business I happened upon… then I came here, to you," she explains and I wonder what unfinished business she could have. After all, she was ten when she left… but I have a feeling the question will be answered later so there is no need to get into it now.

"Interesting," I say as my mind whirls around, trying desperately to process this information. I always knew that she was going to be a powerful witch, but to have learnt absolutely everything in the world according to magic is a shocker – I doubt anyone else has ever accomplished that in this world's history…

A more pressing question hits me – one that is rather disturbing, or rather it would be for Amelie who wants to keep Morganville hidden. "How did you find me?" I inquire, keeping my voice level as I find out how she managed to find me in the entire continent of America – she only knew I was coming to America, not that I was going to Morganville in Texas… I never mentioned to her the location of every vampire in the world, ever.

She smiles slightly – I see it in my peripheral vision – and shakes her head, clicking out her fingers. "That one was quite easy, actually. Most of 'The Circle' keep tabs on the other magical creatures and whatnot… you said to me that you were going to a town of vampires and my fellow witches informed me that there was only one, here in Texas. So I came to Texas and followed your aura, which was as clear as it was the day you left, and it was like a lighted path," she explains – wow. I didn't realise that there were so many 'magical creatures' – evidently there must be more than vampires and witches if creatures other than witches are in the plural form.

Keen to return to topic, I ask her a similar question to where she has been. "What have you been doing?"

"Nothing much, besides learning," she shrugs, and I instantly want to ask what she has been learning, before she continues. "However, when I returned to America, I realised that my only drive was my desire to learn everything I could. Now that this is complete, I acknowledged the one thing I had left: you."

"But… what have you been learning?" I ask, without even thinking about her previous answer. This is what I want to know: if she is so powerful, how does she know that she knows everything? God, this is making my head hurt – just her being here is shocking enough. "I mean… what are you? A witch, right?"

I break my promise not to look at her and lock eyes with her, mine reflected in her glittering jewels. She smiles again and shakes her head slowly, deliberately before speaking in a calculatingly slow and nonchalant voice. "Well… I'm a jack of all trades, so to speak. I am considered the only sorceress in the world to have ever existed because I am the only witch to have succeeded in learning every piece of arcane knowledge ever known to our kind. I am the strongest in the entire world… not that that was my intention – I just wanted strength and this is what happened," she shrugs as if this is just life and she didn't have any control over it…

"Interesting," I repeat slowly, thinking through what I should ask next. The room falls into silence and I look away from her, knowing that this next question is the big one – the one that will give me the answers I want… I will know if she is just here for a chat or for revenge for me leaving her… or whether or not she truly loves me…

"Why are you here?" I ask quietly, taking a deep and unnecessary breath as I wait for her answer…

She hesitates for a long time and I worry that she isn't going to answer… then she begins talking in a rapid babble which takes all my concentration to keep up with. "I told you I have nothing left. Oliver...I...killed them. All of them; the hunters that attacked my family… when I came back they had eradicated my entire circle and two others in the area close to where I lived. Did you know that the graveyard for witches had at least tripled in size since I left?" she stops here and laughs a slightly manic laugh before continuing. "Because of this, I knew what I had to do. I lured all of the hunters of that clan, mostly the men, and lured them to their deaths. It was most satisfying…" she scares me here; no longer is she the naïve little girl who seemed woefully oblivious of her powers. Here, she is as violent and ruthless as I... this wasn't particularly what I wanted for her.

"And the women and children?" I ask her, as she pauses for a long time without speaking.

"The women and children?" she repeats and I nod. "I killed some of them…I left clues to find their bodies and I warned those I left that this is what happens when you mess with a race that has done nothing to you. I told them that we had shown them mercy, we could have finished all of them, but instead I hoped that this would teach them a lesson. I told them that they should teach their children not to hunt us, or else they themselves will become the hunted. I still remember...their cold lifeless eyes staring back at me," at this moment, she seems to return to the Azcadelia I knew before – the one who seemed to hate the violence which had been inflicted on her. I see why she seemed so different – she has become such a mass murderer… but she should be forgiven; she was seeking revenge, something which even the best of us want. Look at Amelie (she is not the best, but she is powerful and strong) and the way she fought tooth and nail to destroy her father – for revenge, nothing else.

"Is that it?" I ask her, and she looks up to meet my gaze. Her eyes are filled with tears and she looks as if she is simply the little girl she was when I left her, the pain which consumed her face which I memorised for the past few years since she left.

"After I gave my parents and little sister the justice they deserved to have, I then knew I had nothing. That was it. All my drive was gone and I truly was alone, homeless, and without a future," she sighs here, and wrings her hands together… that is something I remember she did all the time as a child/teenager, whatever you want to call her when I realised I loved her. She had her pet actions and such and this was one of them. "And then I remembered you. I took a risk by coming here. I didn't know...if you will still accept me now, knowing what I have done and how bloodstained my hands are. I can only hope that you will," she actually bursts into sobs and returns to staring at her hands as if she can see the blood on them.

Shocked into action at someone quite blatantly so powerful crying, I move over and tentatively put an arm around her, pulling her into my side to comfort her. "Bloodstained hands? Azcadelia, if you think a few revenge murders make your hands bloody, look at mine… I have killed hundreds more than that, thousands most likely. Please, do not doubt your brilliance, your sensitivity, your lovability simply because you wanted your family to have not died in vain," I beg her, but in a way that doesn't make me appear weak. Even to the woman I love, I cannot let such vulnerability into my mantra – it could destroy me.

She looks up at me and smiles through her tears. "Thank you," she whispers. "Thank you for accepting me," she continues and I smile back at her, wondering how I managed to cope for the past few years without her by my side.

But what do we do now?

So… yep… well… I'm gonna be a-saying to get yaselves to review here!

And cause I (vicky199416) am, sorry we are, amazing… if you review you will get another chapter soon… and I who wrote this chapter will, if you PM me, write a oneshot for you…

You'd best get reviewing… I gave up a tonne of necessary revision time to write this… remember… I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE!

Vicky XD