Chapter Twenty-Nine

Stubborn

It was dark. They had refused to give her light, treating her like a regular prisoner, despite Mika's objections. Though she was still in the med-bay, she was shackled to the stone slab that she had been laid on those few days ago, bleeding her life away. She lay flat on the slab, her wrists cuffed on either side of her head, her ankles done the same at the other end of the bed. It was a little extreme, outright outrageous if you listened to Mika ver Leth's hollers from the Hall of Princes, considering her condition. Somehow those Vampires seriously believed she could escape their constant guard, run through unknown passages, find her mark and kill him all with a gaping hole through her abdomen. She smiled, if only that were true.

They whispered about her. About how she had been in hysterics when they brought her in, screaming about being on fire, asking 'why' over and over again. She had been dying. And she should have died on the slab, dripping enough blood to aid an entire hospital emergency ward. But she lived, taking staggering breath after staggering breath, shivering and crazed; just as she survived all those years ago, pulling her broken, burnt and battered body from the wreckage of her home.

There was a shuffling outside her room, and she recognized the voice of the person who asked to enter, as well as the professional mannerisms the guards gave. In walked the target of her malicious attentions, Mika ver Leth, his face grim, wearing his customary all-black ensemble, but instead of stopping at the black shirt, he had picked a particularly shiny, long-sleeved, cuffed, button up one of black satin.

Jewel turned her head to him. Three days since she'd woken up to find him strangling another Vampire, shouting at the man to save her life. Three days since he'd walked out on her prone form after she'd vowed to make him regret his life-saving, she woke only hours later to find herself chained. Three days she'd seethed, unable to comprehend his actions, carrying her from the tunnels to the medical ward and demanding the best medics in the mountain do everything in their power to save her. Even after he'd been the one to drive his sword through her. Even after he'd been the one to drive her mad.

"What is it Mika. Finally come to find out why I'm here?" her words were practiced, haughty and biting. She spat them simply to provoke a reaction.

Mika didn't respond, instead he sat in the chair closest to her 'bed', in front of a small metal desk covered in surgical instruments, his eyes downcast.

"Or maybe you're here to apologize?" now Jewel narrowed her eyes at him. Daring him.

He removed one of his gloves and began wringing it in his hands. They sat for a long while in silence, Jewel glaring daggers at the Vampire Prince. Finally, he spoke.

"They told me you died in a fire."

Somehow her glare intensified. "I'm sure you would have loved that."

Mika merely shook his head. "You… haven't aged more than… five years."

Jewel snorted. "How perceptive. I noticed that too."

Her words dripped with malice, but Mika could sense dread behind them as well. "Do you know why?"

"I know it all started when I met you."

"You believe I am the reason behind your agelessness?" Mika frowned intensely, stroking his chin with his ungloved hand. His gaze became unfocused.

Jewel grit her teeth. "You can deny it all you want, but I know you worked some sort of Vampire hoodoo on me. I've seen firsthand the sort of thing you monsters are capable of." he looked at her, but she'd turned away, now staring, or glaring, at the wall next to her makeshift bed. "Vampires are heartless, evil creatures. But what you did to me… beyond cruel."

Her voice broke softly towards the end of her jab, and Mika couldn't help but soften his gaze. Fifty years this woman had lived without aging, and she believed him to be the reason. "Juliet… I cannot fathom what this has been like for you." He paused for her to snap at him, but she remained silent. "I do not know what you've heard, but Vampires cannot place a curse upon a person. I was not the one."

Mika's heightened senses allowed him to see clearly the way Jewel's jaw flexed irritably. "Can you explain to me how it is you came to our mountain?"

She didn't answer, just continued her steady glare at the wall.

"Alright, I understand that you do not trust me." He sighed, raking his fingers through his jet-black hair. "But what has made you think so ill of my people. You speak of knowing firsthand what kind of 'monsters' we are. What vampire put you through something so awful?"

"You."

It was Mika's turn to glare, now.

"You left me. So I hunted you down in order to rip your heart out of your chest, the same way you did mine." Her eyes were cold and infinitely sad as they bored into his. His breathing hitched, and his chest ached. He had hurt her so bad, instinctively Mika reached out for her, but suddenly she scowled. "Is that really how pathetic you think me?" she spat. "Oh, Mika left me! Whatever shall I do? I am far too weak to survive without his stalwart guardianship, his brave composure, and his cock in my cunt!"

Her vulgar words set Mika to scowling, and together they sat, glaring daggers at one another. Her pale blue eyes returned to their crazed state, the corners of her mouth twitched upward with each mocking word.

"Ah, yes we had some good fucks, didn't we? All night joined together. I remember." She spat. "What was I thinking? Well I was young and foolish, and you were well hung…"

She cackled wickedly. It was a terrible, heart breaking sound.

"You're the one who is pathetic. Disgusting bastard. Did you really think that's what it was? Undone by a man, oh that's rich." She laughed outright, still glaring straight into him. Mika could no longer meet her gaze.

"Then tell me-"

"Well here's an idea," She interrupted him, and he looked up to scowl at her, but found her face turned away. "Maybe I wanted to save others, to make sure nobody had to suffer the same way I did."

His eyes were full of question. "Be assured, Jewel, I haven't harmed a single human being during my entire life as a Vampire." His growl resonated throughout the room. She simply scoffed.

"You think I believe you?" she snapped. "You fucking monsters. You feed from us. Does that not count as harm? You think of us as nothing but prey, weak pathetic animals." Mika could hear her intake a shaky breath. "You confuse young girls like me. Make us want to help you. Then you turn around and…"

Mika shook his head. "Juliet I never meant to hurt you!"

"Oh so you didn't mean to burn my house down? You didn't mean to leave me for dead?"

Suddenly Mika remembered. The fire. The ashes. The parchment floating on the wind.

He was speechless.

"Kathy tried to warn me about you. I should have listened." This time the sadness in Juliet's eyes was honest. "Can you believe after all I did to her, that she still came back while my home was on fire and tried to save me? Too bad she didn't make it out. Or maybe she was the lucky one."

The body that was found. It was Kathy van Horn, her body burnt so terribly that Jens couldn't tell the difference.

Suddenly Juliet's words resonated with Mika. "You think I am the one who caused the fire?" he growled.

"Find me another bloodsucking monster I was shacking up with in the fifties and maybe I'll blame him instead."

Mika slammed his fists on the small tray, jumping to his feet and causing an ear-splitting clattering of metal on metal. His eyes were furious, but Jewel didn't back down, she didn't even twitch.

"I would never do such a thing."

Another disturbed laugh. "I'm supposed to believe you, aren't I? Oh, Mika. I was so wrong."

"Enough mocking, Juliet! I never started that fire!"

"You disappeared right before the blaze destroyed my home. There are no others to push the blame on to!" She snapped, her logic showing as her eyes cleared.

"Woman, I'll say it again; I am not the one who set that fire. I did not seek to kill you!"

"THEN WHO DID?"

The candlelight flickered lowly, and Mika's body felt chilled to the bone. Jewel's howl shook him. Her eyes were full of bloodlust and she clenched and fought at her bindings, her body visibly tensed to pounce. "TELL ME BLOODSUCKER. WHO WOULD SEEK TO DESTROY AN INNOCENT ORPHAN? TO BURN DOWN THE HOME OF AN HONORED LORD, TO DESTROY THE LIVES AND MEMORIES OF ALL THAT LIVED WITHIN?"

Her eyes were low, glowing pools of moonlight that caught his gaze and held them, and though she growled and writhed against her restraints, those eyes remained clear as she spoke. "But I lived." She spat. "Kathy woke me when the fire first started to spread. But I was so drunk… I'd had too much… I couldn't… I didn't…. understand what she was saying. Then everything was black." She snarled at him, as if willing herself to stop speaking. Her teeth were clenched and the metal of the restraints was biting into her wrists. "I thought I must be dead…. But I lived." A bitter laugh. "Despite all that was lost, I lived."

"I woke to searing pain, screaming though my lungs were naught but ash. And I rose up from my pain and my screaming and my tears that would not fall to find my home was gone. I was all that remained, surrounded by ash, one with the ash." As she spoke, it was as if he lived her very memories. Mika fell to his knees, his arms limp at his sides, all of his protests died within his throat. Jewel visibly shook, as if conjuring these memories made her physically ill. "I searched for his body. Hours I wasted, searching in vain for the body of a man who had abandoned me. Each step brought more pain than I had ever thought possible, but I had to know. I had to be certain. I don't know how I could stand, how I could continue digging through the charred remains of my home…"

She stopped her struggles, her body falling heavily like a marionette with cut strings, back onto the slab, but their eyes stayed connected. "You weren't there. When I finally realized you weren't there, that Kathy's last words had been true…" she looked away. "That was when I knew I was in hell."

Mika's hands shook involuntarily, clenched though they were. To think, the fire that he'd learned of had happened the very night he'd deserted her. How scared Juliet must have been as the rooms filled with smoke and she found herself unable to escape. The old, grand manor house crumbling around her, and Mika ver Leth, the man she loved, nowhere to be found. Unbidden, tears fell from his eyes. She had been so disgusted at the thought that her vengeance stemmed from his abandonment, but he knew, and she did as well, that that is exactly where it began. Looking at her now, Mika could only understand. For in that very moment, with her body limp, and her eyes lifeless, Mika ver Leth wished that she had died in that fire, to save himself the guilt of knowing the beautiful, intelligent and joyful girl he had once known had become what lay before him. More than that, the Vampire Prince wished he had been there with her, burnt to ash together so that they may float upon the wind forever as one.

Mika stood, he looked down at Jewel, but she did not budge. She'd told her tale, and was unwilling to look at him as he strode to the exit. He gave curt instructions to the guard standing by before continuing on towards the Hall of Princes. He had sins in need of confessing. And as he'd promised, he would do anything to keep the woman from the stakes in the Hall of Death.

Jewel rubbed her face against her shoulder, vainly trying to mask the fact that, though her tear ducts hadn't properly worked since the fire, and though the Prince hadn't been aware, she felt the ghosts of tears trickling down her cheeks as Mika's footfalls continued down the hallway. Even after his seat was cold and his steps were long since silence, Jewel rubbed her face against her shoulder, willing herself to stop feeling, though the tears had finally decided to spring forth.

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Recommended listening:

Only if for a night- Florence + The Machine

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