Chapter 9
A few hours later Morganna was sitting in a café in a down and out part of town. It well fitted her mood, it looked like it had seen better days, and so had the angel. It was all over for her now, everything. It was leaving a bitter taste in her mouth, almost as bitter as the coffee she was now swallowing, trying just to forget for one moment what had happened. She had nowhere else to go now.
Morganna's eyes flicked back to her phone. She had his number, she just had to call it, and say she would be coming home. Or perhaps ask, since she had left without another word. It was harder than she first thought it would be to pick up the phone. Perhaps it would be that she was finally swallowing her pride, and admitting that she was wrong.
Or perhaps it was the knowledge that she was leaving Lucian, this time for good. The angel had absolutely no illusions that she had seen Lucian for the last time. Even if he managed to survive the war, and escape the victor, then the angel knew she still wouldn't go back to him. It was bad enough that she loved him without him knowing it, yet for him to throw her away and hurt her like that. No Morganna was not going back to a war that wasn't hers.
Morganna remembered Sonja as she had been when she was alive. And then the angel compared her to the charred corpse she had become. Was that what it meant, death? That someone was so altered by it, that their soul had flown, but their body remained. Morganna had never understood death, it puzzled her, she had seen people pass beyond the gate, but had never seen bodies without souls, without the things that made them unique.
Morganna no longer wanted to know, no longer wanted to care. So she nursed her coffee cup, and swallowed more of the bitter liquid, allowing it to hum through her veins, waking her up from this tired legarthy that she had settled into, this path of remembrance that her mind had set her on, and the one way she didn't want to go.
So Morganna didn't, she just drank more coffee. And then later she moved to a restaurant to have a meal, to help her think more clearly. As soon as she entered she wished she hadn't, all the angel could see were couples sitting together. So Morganna secreted herself into a corner and sat, eating alone and quickly. Finally Morganna paid her bill and left.
Her last stop was a bar. The angel thought of how silly this was, as she would be driving out of town in a few hours, she wanted to escape that night, before midnight, before everything happened. Morganna knew it was a full moon, and thought of Michael, doomed to be a lycan in a war he never even dreamt of, let alone wanted to take part in.
So Morganna sat, nursing a single glass of red wine. The whole entire bar was empty, it was early yet, and there were only a few dedicated drinkers, and Morganna. Looking at the drunks the angel felt that if she thought that alcohol was the only way to solve her problems then she would end up like the other drunkards sitting in the room.
Morganna's eyes again flickered down to her phone. The number was still there, black against the white of the screen. The bar maid, who was a kindly middle aged woman, came over and tried to engage Morganna in conversation, but the angel didn't hear her. The bar maid just carried on talking, drying the glasses with a rag that she kept behind the bar.
"Just make the call honey," the bar maid eventually said kindly.
This filtered to Morganna, numbed as she was by pain and memories. The woman was telling her to pick up the phone and ask to go home. Puzzled now Morganna looked up to see the barmaid still smiling at her, even though the angel was looking at her with a bemused and puzzled look on her face.
"Make the call honey, go home if you can. I didn't and now look at me, a down and out. I should have called my dad and asked him to come and get me, but I didn't, I was too proud. Now I have a drunkard husband, and one kid I have to work two jobs just to keep. Just make the call." The barmaid explained.
"Thank you," Morganna answered.
"I don't want to see another young thing end up like me," the barmaid waved down Morganna's thanks.
Morganna nodded, and drained her glass. Thanking the maid the angel reached into her pockets and dug out some money for the waitress, who tried to wave it down. But Morganna pressed it on her, and eventually the maid accepted. As she left the angel thought of the bar maid, and how she had human contact, not in the way she wanted it, but still contact. That was what Morganna wanted at the moment more than anything.
That was why; as Morganna slid behind the wheel of the car she made the call. As she heard the ringing Morganna felt tears come to her eyes. All she wanted was the contact she had had, and had thrown away. She had been loved, perhaps not in the way that she craved, but still she had been loved. And at that moment that was all that mattered to Morganna, that someone would soothe her, and hold her as she cried.
"Hello?" his voice sounded at the other end of the line.
"It's me, Morganna," Morganna answered.
"It has been a long time."
"I know it has, but I have a question."
"Fire away."
"Can I come home please?" Morganna finally allowed herself to ask.
"What made you think you needed to ask, my doors are always open to you."
"Thank you."
"No, thank you for talking to me, it can't have been easy. I'll see you when you get home," the voice said before hanging up.
Morganna closed her eyes in happiness and smiled. She was finally going back to the place where she had been happiest, where nothing bad was allowed to intrude upon her life. It felt like nothing could go wrong and yet then that fragile happiness had been shattered, and perhaps Morganna had run partly out of fear that she would loose all the happiness that she had had there.
How fragile happiness seemed to Morganna. She had seen it so often shattered around her, and often it was her own falling to the ground like shards from a broken window. Morganna sighed and rummaged around in her handbag for her keys, dropping her phone into it securely. Carelessly she tossed it onto her back seat, before turning back.
The angel jumped as someone opened the door and sat down in the passenger seat. She turned with a frown, and was about to answer with a sharp word, cursing that she didn't have a gun to hand. The frown deepened when she saw it was Jonathan who was sitting, smiling in her car seat, and he had her car keys in his hand.
"Give them back!" Morganna commanded.
"Not until you promise you'll come back," Jonathan jiggled the keys just out of Morganna's reach.
"I'm not coming back; apparently I'm just a liability."
"You know he didn't mean it like that."
"Well then how did he mean it?"
"Honestly? I don't know how he meant it."
"Well then why go back?"
"Morganna, because Viktor is awake, we have Michael, and raze has just gone to bleed Amelia dry, and oh yes, the probability is that Viktor has Singe, and is being told all our plans as we speak."
Morganna blanched when she heard all the reasons that she should go back. So she was expected to fight Viktor and reassure Michael? Hell no, her job wasn't as nursemaid, but neither was it as someone to throw in front of a vampire overlord for use as a meat shield. Jonathan turned to Morganna, who realised she had just thought out loud.
"They'll have the silver nitrate bullets," Jonathan tried as persuasion.
"All the more reason for you to stick clear and come with me," Morganna replied cheerfully, holding her hand out for the keys.
"They'll kill him you know."
"Who?" Morganna asked nonchalantly.
"Lucian, and the others, and it'd be entirely your fault."
"You bastard, you know it's not my fault, it's not MY war!"
"So then why did you fight in it in the beginning?"
"Perhaps to try and right a wrong, I don't know!"
"So why don't you go back and find out what you were fighting for, what you should still be fighting for."
"I hate it when you're right," Morganna admitted finally.
"So you're coming back?" Jonathan asked hopefully.
"I need my keys back first."
"Done."
"And, oh, one more thing."
"What's that?"
"I need directions."
Jonathan began to laugh at that. Morganna joined in after a while. She could see the hilarity in the situation after all. Pulling the sun break down Morganna looked at herself in the mirror. Her nose was no longer broken, she could heal things quicker than most, and little things didn't take that long to heal. Morganna decided to apply a coat of bright red lipstick, before fluffing up her hair.
"Does my skin look suitably pale?" Morganna asked Jonathan.
"Are you going in as a vamp then?" Jonathan asked in disbelief.
"It's the best disguise in the books."
"They'll know I'm not a blood."
"Good, because that will get us in just a bit quicker." Morganna answered.
"What do you mean?" Jonathan asked.
In answer Morganna simply revved the engine and shot off into the streets. Jonathan had to clutch tightly to his seatbelt to stop himself from sliding about in the seat. Morganna listened to the directions that were shouted at her by a frantic Jonathan. A few streets away Morganna killed the engine, and got out.
Walking to the boot she opened it. Finding the backpack she wanted she opened it and pulled out her guns and holstered them. Finding a bundle that she had been looking for Morganna took it out and held it tightly, looking for an alleyway. Jonathan puzzled, followed Morganna into the alleyway, and gasped as Morganna unrolled the bundle to reveal a more vampire like outfit.
"You go and tell me when the vamps are here." Morganna commanded.
"You're really going in as one of them." Jonathan answered.
"Of course, and if you do see any vamps, don't shoot them." Morganna answered, tossing Jonathan a gun.
As Jonathan left Morganna wriggled out of her trousers. She pulled on the first element of her new outfit, black leather trousers which had to be belted up. This was where Morganna added her guns, at her waist, and a small amount of the liquid iron that she had tested on other people. Next the angel wriggled out of her top, and held a corset loosely onto her. It was a deep wine red with a pattern of black beads forming flowers and vines along it.
"Jonathan, come do up my corset," Morganna commanded when the lycan reappeared.
"Some of the vamps are here, but no signs of Viktor yet," Jonathan explained.
"Then we better hurry, we don't have long until Viktor does get here," Morganna replied, pulling on a pair of black high heels, which were pointed to almost knife like sharpness.
"Almost ready," Jonathan answered, holding up the trench coat.
"Let's get going, if you know a back way in?" Morganna asked.
"Let's go." Jonathan answered.
Morganna drew a deep breath as she prepared to enter the Underworld for a third time. The phrase drifted through her head, third time lucky, but Morganna brushed it away, not knowing its real meaning. The pair made their way into the inky darkness of the city, lit by the light of a full moon.
Author's note: Here we are, I hope you all like it. Yes we're getting to the fighting at last. And for those Michael and Selene fans, yes they are going to come into it in the next chapter, I most sincerely promise. Any reviews on what you all think would be much appreciated.