Finding Daybreak – Ash and Mary-Lynette.
Disclaimer: None of the characters or ideas are mine, all belonging to L. J. Smith. However, the sequence of events is my own portrayal of the story and should not be copied without permission.
Author's note: this is a continuation of Daughters of Darkness how I believe it happened. The first few parts of this (even though it says 'Ash and Mary-Lynette' will be both their point of views but individually. I'll be reuniting them later.
Chapter 1.
Ash rolled over in bed, groaning. It was a feeling he got often, this dismaying nausea and the left over beating from nightclubs; it hurt to think, so he did what he normally did after a night of partying, he grabbed Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World' and begun reading.
It was a morning like any other Sunday morning, he felt dead, a useless lump lying on the hotel-room bed, wrapped in the comfortable silk sheets, every limb on his body hurting, every sense dulled. This time, however, the words on the page in front of him dulled, and Ash had to wonder what was so different.
Then he remembered.
Mary-Lynette… the promise…
Last night, he hadn't gone to the Black Iris club with the intention of wrecking whatever remaining brain cells he had, that was the first thing that had made it different to any other Saturday night.
The second thing was that he'd taken – how many? – two? Three? Of the most robust, evil, condescending vampires of the Night World out of commission. No one had suspected Ash Redfern, a party animal like themselves, someone who had been exactly like them, to lead them to their deaths instead of to the private party he told them of.
He groaned, pulling the silk pillow to his face and drowning into the whiteness of it.
He knew perfectly well that killing others probably wasn't exactly what Mary-Lynette had meant when she'd sent him away to redeem himself, but he also didn't know what else he could possibly do. Join the NSPCC and save abused children? Go to Africa and help the starving people? He knew they were worthwhile causes, but really…they weren't saving the whole of humanity. The only way to do that was to get rid of the Night Worlder's who wanted all humans dead or as a food supply.
"Yeah," he told himself in a raspy voice that surprised himself, "and you, Ash Redfern, are going to take down the whole of the Night World?"
If I have to, yes. For Mare.
Even thinking of her made him smile, but it scared him too. Where was the Ash he'd known for eighteen years of his life? That arrogant, conceited bastard? How could one person – it didn't matter whether they were vampire or human – change him so deeply?
Because it's Mare…
He worried that he might go back on his promise, that Mary-Lynette would never come to love him the same way he loved her. He anxiously did what he thought was needed, knowing that his soulmate had probably sent him away to do something completely different.
Why couldn't she have just given me a step-by-step manual? How to redeem yourself in ten easy steps…
Rolling onto his side again, Ash looked at the mobile on his bedside table. He wanted to call Mary-Lynette, but didn't know if that would be a good idea – she hadn't replied to any of his letters yet – he wanted to call James, wanted to apologize for almost ripping his soulmate from him, now knowing how that could feel, but didn't know the number. Too bad, perhaps if he apologized, everything would become hunky-dory again and he could quiz James and his soulmate about what Mare wanted him to do. He didn't understand humans.
Face it, Ash, you're in this alone…
Mary-Lynette looked up at the stars from her perch on her favourite hill, wishing above all else that Ash could be with her. She had received letter upon letter from him, all full of hope and a sadness that she couldn't bear to answer with. She knew Ash wanted her to tell him that everything was fine, that she'd love him forever and would be waiting in a year's time – or even invite him back early.
She wanted to do all three of those, but it hurt too much to write, hurt too much to even think of him.
Why did I send him away? She wondered to herself, why did I need redemption? He could be here with me, not harming anyone ever again, and I send him away to make up for what he's done?
He was her soulmate, her partner, her one and only reason for living. How could she ever have imagined that she'd live through the next year, waiting for him to return? How could she cope if he met someone else, decided that being soulmates wasn't enough, that he needed someone like him. Strong, passionate, gorgeous…
She couldn't stand it! She pushed aside her telescope with a force that surprised even her and shocked the two figures sitting on the grass next to her: Mark and Jade. She loved her brother, even loved his girlfriend; her blood-sister. But now she became aware of them for the first time since arriving at the hill. They had been kissing, and now she saw that as Jade reluctantly pulled back, pouting.
That could have been Ash and me…happy…
She just had to face facts, no matter whether they were looking up at the same sky or not, whether the stars always twinkled with the same light… Mary-Lynette would never be whole without her soulmate, he was both the love and the hate inside of her.
Love, because he's so gentle and kind – when he wants to be. Because he's my soulmate. Because he is the one person in this universe whom I belong to, and who belongs to me – forever. Love because he can look up at the stars without ridiculing them, and me. Love because he understands me…
Hate because of the things he's done in the past.
That was the problem. She couldn't be with someone who had done…what he had done…no matter what, she didn't have a time machine, and - as far as she knew – neither did he. But if he did good things to those he once classed as Vermin, if he helped them, then the two things would even one another out and the hate would disappear.
She grabbed her telescope from the floor, hoping she hadn't broke it – again – then started towards the car Claudine and her father had produced after her other had burnt with Jeremy.
She wondered what Ash could see in the sky.