Resurrected
Me: R&R!
"I don't see her letting us get close enough to try."
Lenobia leant forward. "Would it be possible though?"
Anastasia pulled a face. "Possibly..." she said, "I've never tried that before, it would be like cloning." Even the few hours of sleep had done her the world of good, she looked bright, alert, she wasn't even as thin as she had been, and neither was Dragon, who was sitting right next to her. Blood really was a miracle cure.
"Someone with increased speed might get close enough, but no one here has that." He said.
"I think I can help."
The vamps turned around. They had left the fledglings asleep, knowing they couldn't function on so little as adults could. They had left the casualties to sleep as well, except for Anastasia, who had wanted to be there. Besides, Dragon had yet to let out of his arms. There was Loren Blake, standing up where he had been sleeping, looking fully alert, but somehow unenthusiastic.
"Loren?"
Silently, he began fumbling in his pocket, pulling out an amulet on the end of a chain. He came and sat down with the others, his fingers fiddling with a clasp at the edge of it. Finally, he pulled it apart, opening it like a locket. Onto the table fell a little curl of brown, turning and twisting as it fell.
The vampyres all looked at it as if it was Nyx Herself.
"Loren..." said Eliás, picking up the lock of hair, "You just made my day."
"Now he doesn't have to do another Mission Impossible." Lenobia added.
"Only a Poet would be so cheesily romantic." Said Anastasia, leaning her head on Dragon's shoulder.
"With you two coming in a very close second."
Loren said nothing, looking a little offended by Anastasia's comment. His face remained hard, his eyes as cutting as Lenobia's as he put the locket back into his pocket.
"This is going to require a lot more than a little rhyme." Said Anastasia, "I'll need potion for this kind of thing." She turned to Erce, "Can we use the House of Night's facilities?"
"Of course."
"We may need to defibrillate the body to kick-start it." Said Eliás, "I can do that. And some help from the Spirit element, technically..." his voice wavered.
"You're not sure it'll work." Dragon evaluated.
"As a sorcerer, I think it will. But as a scientist..." he held out his hand and tilted it to either side, "I can't be sure. Magic versus science? How far does science go before magic takes over? There are still so many things even humans don't know about themselves, vampyres know even less. How are we going to incorporate the DNA into the spell?"
"I will do it." said Loren suddenly, the cold in his voice taking out any surprise they might have felt. He picked up a pen and pad of paper, "Any specifications?"
"None." Anastasia replied, "Just that it has to rhyme. Not too long either."
He nodded abruptly and turned on his heel, heading off in a flurry of black into the conservatory, not saying a word.
"Is he alright?" asked Eliás.
"Who knows."
Loren's POV
I leant against the door behind me to close it, the little click of the latch flicking a switch in my head, clearing the fog in my head and allowing me to enjoy the silence around me. I looked out of the glass window ahead of me, through Erce's array of plants, and saw the castle in the distance. The night was cool, a climate I far preferred. I began to write down words, just random words. Words that I liked or thought I could use to good effect in this spell. As I did I began to think about what the Hell I had got myself into. I had never wanted to go this far.
I had described my relationship with Neferet as just that. A relationship.
It was a fling. Sex and good wine. She did not care for me and I definitely did not care for her. I wasn't a sexual deviant, but there was a darkness, something foreboding about her that had attracted me to her. A thrill, the power.
I liked that thrill. Ever since I became the Poet Laureate, I would be introduced as 'Loren Blake, Vampyre Poet Laureate', I would appear and anyone taking a sip of their orange juice would spit it all back out again because the figure before them wasn't female. Darkness, defiance, the thrill, the rebellion. Not doing what I was supposed to, the forbidden fruit, I thrived on it.
When Neferet included me in her plans, all I could think about were the above listed. I was not lying to Dragon when I said I could do abhorrent things. I could, and I still can. If it meant my life were safe, I could hurt people, gladly. I was not a paragon of good. There was darkness. More darkness than light.
But more recently I have felt like nothing more than a fish on a tackle being drawn up from the murky depths of black water into the first penetrating rays of light, wishing that the person on the end of the fishing rod would be merciful and throw me back when he had had a good look at me, asphyxiating me in the process.
That's where I am now, asphyxiation.
Imprints are easy. I discovered that long before it was taught in Sociology. When I Imprinted with Neferet, well, it just added to the thrill. At one point it even served as justification, that what I was doing was, in some twisted way, right.
It's funny how blessings are curses in disguise. Neferet became different after that Imprint, like a personality disorder. She went from one person, to the other during the course of, well, intercourse. It worried me at first, it definitely wasn't normal, and I couldn't stand what she became. Nice. Light. And yet when she did change into this other person, my heart leapt out of my chest at her, I could actually feel the ties between our souls pulling us closer. I hated it. I hated her more. I hated how I couldn't control the glow, the arising contentment I felt when I felt it was her and not Neferet, when all I wanted was Neferet. The Imprint twisted me, my body, my mind, even my heart. Sometimes I would wake up in the morning afterwards and I would be able to think just for a second, just for a second it wasn't happening. And then she would still be there, even in the morning, she kept getting stronger, kept control for longer. She told me her name.
What's in a name?
I sighed. This was why livestock destined for slaughter were given numbers but not names. This person was no longer a part of Neferet, not a slither of life trying to break through the real thing. The name changed everything.
She would kiss me, I would become weak like an ant beneath a magnifying glass, and I would kiss her back.
She told me more. Everything. Everything that I had just told Dragon.
I scribbled more words, forming loose sentences, drabble. This was not what I wanted. At the beginning, I had wanted Neferet, and to get rid of this other person.
And, originally, I did try. Nothing about it told me it was wrong, that I shouldn't be doing it. Or maybe it did and I liked that. I didn't think of it as killing, and even if I had, I still would have done it.
I found out how. I planned. And when it came to it...
I couldn't do it.
I couldn't even force myself to contemplate it. I wanted her, at that moment, so badly, I almost considered extracting Neferet instead. To think about it now made me feel physically sick. I didn't want this! I didn't want to need another person like this. I loathed it all so much to the point where it tortured me in every waking moment I wasn't with her. I hated it. I hated her.
And I loved her.
I sighed frustratedly. However much I disliked it, I wasn't the kind of man who couldn't look facts in the face. Whether or not I really did love her, or if it was this damned Imprint talking, I honestly couldn't tell the difference anymore. I never wanted to love, not anyone. It wasn't a part of me, never has been, never should have been. Although when Neferet 'killed me'... She couldn't know about any of this. So I did what she told me to do, I acted, I lied, I told her I had feelings for Zoey. It's amazing how even the most intuitive of people will buy the silliest stories. And I ended up in more than just the doghouse.
What Dragon said was the worst. It's so easy, to shove something under the carpet, pass it off as speculation, a presumption. Because they wouldn't know what they were talking about. Another truth I was blindly facing. Dragon did know. He was the only one who did. And those words from him held more gravity than they would from anyone else I knew. I had read of binding Imprints, soulmates, but Dragon and Anastasia were the only example I had ever seen. My own first shrinking suspicion had been that Neferet/Laila's blood made me even hotter than that proverbial ant beneath the magnifying glass, whereas anyone else's was dull in comparison. I passed it off as my imagination... Until I began to hear her thoughts inside my head.
My brain was ready to explode. I was too young. I wasn't ready. Hell I didn't even want it. In the grand design of things, it didn't even matter. It was done.
I could even swear, that as I looked up out of the window into the cloudless night, the stars were winking at me.
I was truly going insane.
Normal POV
"Hello? Is anybody there?"
Zoey, awoken too soon from what was more than your usual beauty-sleep, tried not to slip across the wooden floorboards in her socks as she wandered into the kitchen. Nobody. Where the Hell had they gone? Erin, Shaunee Damien Jack Aphrodite and Darius were still asleep, and the professors seemed to have disappeared. Not a soul stirred. Walking back into the main sitting room, she heard a door click behind her. Spinning around, ready to strike, she felt a very deep repulsion.
"Loren." She said, "Where are the others?"
"They went to the Spells & Rituals laboratory." He said, flipping a piece of paper into his hand from his pocket and holding it up to show her. For a moment, she thought he had written her poetry again, "I have to go down there now." He said, stepping over Darius and Aphrodite, and walking past her to the door.
"Wait." She said, hopping as she pulled on her shoes.
He looked back at her scathingly. "What?"
"I'm coming." She said, "I don't trust you."
He gave a tiny roll of his eyes. "If you must." he said, as she followed him out of the front door.
"What are you doing?"
He focussed his gaze ahead, not looking at her as they crossed the massive courtyard towards the House of Night's corridors, "I've written a spell for Anastasia." He said blankly.
"Why?"
"Because she needs one."
"Why did they go to the Spell & Rituals lab?"
"Why do you have to ask endless questions?" he asked, "You'll see when you get there."
"Well why shouldn't I ask questions, especially as you owe me answers?"
"I owe you nothing."
Zoey scoffed. "Oh really?"
"Really. I sincerely hope you didn't want me to fall on my knees and grovel before you for forgiveness, High Priestess, I do not seek it, want it nor need it."
"You're sick."
"You're more childish than I thought you were."
That got her. Zoey walked silently for a bit, sucking on her lip. "I heard them talking about you and Neferet." She said. "Do you love her?"
"No."
"Then do you love Laila?"
Loren's breath caught. "No."
"Then why are you here?"
Loren didn't answer. He continued to walk past the oncoming Italian students that were late for their lessons, until he came to two large double doors. Pulling on one, he begrudgingly held it open for Zoey.
"Hello?" she asked, the lab looked empty.
"In here."
Erce's head popped out from around another door at the front of the classroom, just to the left of the white-board. "We're in the prep room." She said.
Entering the prep room, the smell of Spells and Rituals hit her nostrils. A strange combination of chemicals and cuisine, she could smell the wafting scent of herbs, oils, and also the not so nice stench of phenol and other nasty chemicals she didn't recognise. A space had been cleared off centre prep table, the moonlight from the window in the ceiling lighting it like a floodlight, or a spotlight on a stage.
Zoey almost screamed and her hands shot over her mouth. "Oh. My. God!" she said, "What is she doing here??? How did you do this???"
She felt Lenobia put her hand on Zoey's shoulder. "Don't worry Zoey, this is the same spell that was used to duplicate Anastasia in 1918." She said, "We've used some of Neferet's hair from her pre-Tsi Sgili days, this is what she was like before she became one."
"I see the spell worked." Said Loren.
"Yes, thank you. Do you have the other one?"
He nodded. "Of course."
Zoey removed her hands from her mouth as she realised the body on the table was completely immobile, just like something that might be in the House of Night morgue. It was Neferet, her Mark, her face, everything. Only her head and neck were visible from beneath a sheet they had used to cover her. Although she looked younger, as if she were just Changed, her face was peaceful and impassive. Zoey didn't need telling what they were doing.
"You're going to try and separate them aren't you?" she said.
At that moment, before anyone could answer, all of the others that she and Loren had left at Erce's filled into the prep room, each of them looking equally shocked. The Twins shrieked, Damien and Jack stared, Aphrodite looked murderous.
"Z..." said Erin.
"What is Neferet doing on the table???" Shaunee finished.
"Don't worry." Said Anastasia calmly, "It's not Neferet, just a copy from a duplication spell."
"She looks younger." Damien observed.
"We used some old DNA of hers."
"Frankenstein much?" Aphrodite murmured.
"We need to separate Laila from Neferet." Lenobia explained, "Once we do, there is nothing to stop us from attacking her." Her eyes flickered very quickly and unnoticeably to Loren's, who looked away equally as fast, "We couldn't kill her at the expense of this girl's life."
Anastasia came out from behind her mixture dish, and put her hand on Zoey's back, leading her towards the body. "This is where we need your help Zoey." She said, taking the piece of paper from Loren as she went, "We have a spell to transfer her soul, which we will need everybody to read, but we need you to summon Spirit to help on her way here." She pointed to the body, "To make sure it sticks, for lack of a better word."
"Alright." Said Zoey.
Anastasia read from the paper:
"Blessèd spirit, we call to thee
Those who wish to set you free
Come to us who call you near,
Come to us and settle here."
Aphrodite sneered. "Is that it?"
"It's not my best work." Said Loren, "It'll do."
"Little matters in spell-writing, except for meter and correlation." Said Anastasia, "This is excellent for its purpose." She looked to Eliás, "Are you ready?" he nodded. She returned to her post and threw some more things into the large silver dish, causing a flash of light and dark blue smoke to arise from its contents. "Now." She said.
"Blessèd spirit, we call to thee
Those who wish to set you free
Come to us who call you near,
Come to us and settle here."
The light coming through the window brightened into white from silver, shimmered in straight lines and flickered over the table, dancing like something from a disco, everyone felt Nyx in it when it brushed over them.
"Again." Anastasia commanded.
"Blessèd spirit, we call to thee
Those who wish to set you free
Come to us who call you near,
Come to us and settle here!"
The light got even brighter, everyone in Zoey's circle felt their elements stir, the various bottles of chemicals and spell ingredients began to shake and fall off their respective shelves. Every single window in the room shattered, the glass thrown onto the grass outside, Those with good hearing could even hear the Sorcery Mistress of San Clemente Signora Dell'Ora trying to calm her class of anxious fledglings in the room next door.
"Again!!!"
"Blessèd spirit, we call to thee
Those who wish to set you free
Come to us who call you near,
Come to us and settle here!"
Zoey called. "Spirit, I summon you, go to our friend and guide her on her way, protect and strengthen her so that she may arrive safely."
On the word 'safely', there was a flash, and a slither of bright white descended from outside the broken sky-view window, it shone every colour of the rainbow if the light caught it right, it was like a blinding daytime hallucination. It dropped gently, as those little lights one sees do, slowly, gently, like a feather that is so light, the slightest breeze could blow it off course for miles, it fell softly, seemingly into the heart of the lifeless form on the table, filling it with light that seemed to radiate from beneath her skin, making her look like some kind of angel.
Eliás put his fingers to the pulse on her neck, his expression firm and concentrating, like he was afraid he might miss a beat of her heart. He shook his head to himself and summoned his power, delivering it to his fingertips, before lightly tapping her on the chest where her heart lay. Lenobia began to push up and down on the girl's ribcage like people did when performing CPR, and Eliás tapped her again, feeling for a pulse.
"We have a pulse." He reported, earning a whoop of cheering from the little ensemble.
Zoey grinned. "Thank you Spirit, I release you."
"Is she, alive?" asked Jack, staring.
Eliás grinned too. "Yes." He said, his finger still firmly at her neck checking that she remained that way.
Loren's heart jumped, wriggled and squirmed to get free of his asphyxiating grasp. Rooted on the spot, his eyes scanned her for signs of life. Her head twitched, and suddenly his stomach wasn't there.
Her face moved, her nose twitched again, she blinked a few times, as if waking up from a very deep sleep. "Wha..." she murmured, taking in her surroundings, exhaustion stopping her from jumping up in shock, "Where am I?"
"It's okay..." said Anastasia caringly, "You're free."
She looked overwhelmed. "I'm... Free?"
Anastasia smiled and nodded. "We created a body of your own for you."
The girl gawped at the petite vampyre for a moment, before enveloping her in a tight hug. "Thank you!" she gasped, "Oh Goddess thank you so much!!!"
Anastasia laughed and hugged her back. "Erce's brought some clothes for you." She said. "Come on." She signalled for everyone to leave the room, "Let her get dressed."
Everyone filed out. Everyone that is except Loren, who was still rooted where he stood. "Laila?" he breathed.
She looked over at him, her dark wavy hair falling over her shoulder. "Loren?" she gasped again, "Oh my..."
Loren's lips firmly pressed against hers silenced her completely and they fell into a passionate kiss, sending electricity into their minds and shivers running down their spines.
She pulled away. "Are you alright?" she asked, rubbing the back of his hand in hers.
"No." He said, "You did this to me."
She had. She had turned the ferocious tiger into a harmless kitten, the predator into a morsel of prey at her mercy. She was the fisherwoman at the end of the tackle, pulling him towards the surface, out of his depths, into the light, and she wouldn't throw him back.
She smiled up at him and lean her head against his chest. "I love you." She said simply.
"Why?" he whispered, his eyes pleading for an answer, "How? I've hurt a lot of people and not cared! I'm cruel. I tried to kill you."
Even as he spoke he could feel her pure heart infecting his, lifting the blackness. It was hurting him. His pride, his mind, it was prickling at him, stinging him again and again and again. It hurt, but he wanted more.
"Being cruel is not built into you Loren..." she said, "It is a choice you have to make. Ever since we first imprinted, I have known you were not an evil person. I've shared my body with one for fourteen years and trust me..." she smiled, "You're not. You've done some things you're not proud of, and even the things you are proud of and shouldn't be, you will soon not be. Love enlightens the soul."
He looked away from her, almost embarrassed. What she meant was obvious. This Imprint, this, love, was making him a better person.
She began putting on the clothes Erce had brought for her, jeans which were too long in the leg, a vest top, some trainers and of course some underwear, leaving him silent as she did so. "Look..." she said, pulling the vest top over her head, "I didn't ask for this, or intend for it to happen either. But it just did. We can't help it. So stop dwelling on what you've been, think about what you can be."
She smiled as he kissed her again, this time wandering to her neck and ear. "I love you..." he breathed into her ear, kissing her repeatedly.
She encircled her arms around him in a hug. "Even if you hate me for it. Because, deep down Loren, and this I know. Far deeper down inside you than you have ever cared to look, you like it."