Merle trekked down the dank corridor to the Governor's lair, the coolness making him long for the warm summers of his youth. Warmth was an elusive memory; all he had now was the cold.
Male screams echoed against the walls, growing stronger as Merle headed in that direction. He hated hearing a vampire scream. It was like a cross between a possum's hiss and a cat in heat.
He pulled open the heavy wood door to the Governor's chamber, the stale air swollen with the stench of vampire piss. He'd be smelling that funk for days.
Strapped to an operating table was a vampire writhing in pain, without a single mark on his bare white chest. Merle wondered what tortuous cocktail the Governor had mixed up this time.
The Governor sat in an armchair, calmly thumbing through the thin pages of a beaten, leather-bound book. It was as though he existed in his own cruel world, completely oblivious to the presence of others. But Merle knew better.
He stopped a safe distance away; it would be daylight soon. He patiently waited to be addressed. The last vamp who'd spoken out of turn was the one now strapped to the table.
"What am I missing? He should've transformed by now."
Into what? Merle suppressed a shudder at the memory of the deformed beast he'd met with the last time he'd been down here.
After a long enough pause to make Merle nervous, the Governor acknowledged him. "Where's the girl?"
"She got away." Merle slightly shifted onto his other foot. He shouldn't be the messenger, but the vampire who'd fucked up was the pile of white ash currently in a garbage bag in the trunk of his Mustang.
"Rowan?"
"Dead."
The Governor's expression remained impassive, though the twitch in his right eyebrow told Merle that he was pissed. "How?"
"Well…" Merle wasn't sure what the hell had happened. "She turned into…ash. White ash."
"White. Ash." The Governor emphasized the White.
"Yes, Sir." Merle knew better than to ask what was really on his mind: What's powerful enough to burn a vampire alive?
"Any whereabouts on the girl?"
"She's not at her apartment or with any of the band mates. The boyfriend is dead."
"And let me guess - Rick is acting like normal."
"Martinez lost track of him just before the girl disappeared. He came home alone a few hours later."
Sleep tugged at Merle as the dawn sky began to emerge in the only window in the dark basement. He took another step back as the first rays of sun shone through the small circular window, which couldn't be wider than a fishbowl. The curved glass magnified the light into a strong beam. Merle snarled. Even from ten feet away, he could sense the heat of the sun's power.
The vampire screamed for the last time, as sunlight first singed, then melted away the skin of his chest. Merle averted his eyes before the light burned down to the bone. The silence told him it was over. There would be a smoking hole where the vamp's heart used to be.
The Governor remained seated, bathed in light and yet completely unaffected. Merle reminded himself the Governor wasn't human, but that his tolerance of the sun had meant that he wasn't a regular vamp either. Merle figured he knew everything about the Governor that he needed to know - he hated vampires even more than he did.
"Have Tim and Crowley follow Rick. He'll lead her to us eventually."
Merle departed, the pull of the sun making it hard to keep his eyes open. He'd prepare the day team before retiring to his coffin. Vampires never dreamed. And this was one of the times he was grateful for it.
Michonne awoke from a new nightmare. She reached for Mike, finding his arms snuggly wrapped around her.
"Bad dream?" His voice was heavy with sleep. She'd woken him and only felt the more guilty.
Michonne pulled Mike's arms tighter around her, snuggling back into him until she found the perfect fit. "I thought you'd died."As much as she'd fought him in the beginning, she'd eventually surrendered to his excessive need to spoon.
"Why do you always think I'm going to leave you? You only wish you could get rid of me that easily." She could hear the smile in his groggy voice.
After a pause, he asked, "You still awake?" He knew full well that she was. She wondered if he didn't actually look forward to her waking up in the middle of the night.
Michonne feigned snoring sounds. Mike pressed into her from behind. She squeezed his wrist, remaining silent, curious to see what he'd do.
The hand around her waist snaked its way up her t-shirt, fondling her breast. She couldn't help but moan in return. Mike had always been good with his hands.
"Give it to me baby," Mike sang in a whisper. She giggled, her desire rising. Rick James was baby-making music.
She rolled over to face him. He took advantage of the position, capturing her lips in a heated kiss. Michonne's hand drifted down his hard chest. She stilled, willing herself to open her eyes. Looking between them, she found a gaping hole where Mike's heart should be.
Michonne jolted awake, the pain of his death rushing back. She put a hand on her chest, catching her breath. She was awake for real this time.
She stared up at the ceiling. She just needed a moment to breathe, a moment to suffer through his death all over again.
Michonne focused on a dark spot on the white ceiling. White ceiling? Wait, this wasn't her ceiling. She sat up in bed, the red silk sheets slinking away from her form. She donned a white dress shirt that wasn't hers; in a bed that wasn't hers.
The room was pitch black, except for the dim light from the bedside lamp. Michonne shut her eyes, trying to see beyond Mike's death, to what else transpired last night. But all she could remember was the vampire with the bluest eyes sinking fangs into her neck. Everything after that was blank. Except for…
"Michonne," a voice spoke from a dark corner of the room.
In these twenty years of separation, she still hadn't forgotten that voice. The way he pronounced her name, in that Southern drawl that was light in the beginning and heavy at the end. Her name on his tongue made her heart twinge - in fury.
A shadow emerged from the darkness, stepping into the dim light of the bedside lamp. Michonne had no problem recognizing the man standing in front of her. "Rick." His name was like gravel in her throat, painful to swallow.
His eyes were unreadable and a lighter blue than she remembered. It was the only thing different about him; that, and the beard. His features were frozen in time. He should be in his late fifties now, but still looked to be in the peak of his thirties. Everything felt wrong and she had no idea where to start.
"I know you have a lot of questions. We'll have time for that later." Yet another thing about Rick that hadn't changed - he was all business. What happened in the past was forgettable, unless it pertained to the here and now. "You're in danger."
"Mike is dead. And you show up out of nowhere, after twenty years?" She huffed in offense. He could've at least asked for her forgiveness. But maybe she'd meant nothing to him all along. She'd just been a teenage girl with a crush and he'd only been in her life to what? Help her? She had enough on her plate without all this. Michonne flung the sheets away, the cold of the room assaulting her bare thighs. "Let's just act like this never happened."
Always the gentleman, Rick glanced away as she pulled on her skinny jeans, which were freshly laundered and infused with the scent of lavender - her favorite scent. She adorned her socks, belt and boots in little time. The only thing missing was her shirt. Rick's would have to do for now - she'd burn it later.
Distress brewed at the thought of having to tell Andrea and Sasha about Mike. And the tour? She didn't think she could do it without him. Not like this. In one moment, the thing she'd strived for most in life had spoiled. It tasted not of victory but like a prime cut gone bad.
"We're done." Michonne had often imagined what it would be like to see Rick again. She'd longed for it, really. She'd fantasized he'd come to her on his knees, full of regret and seeking atonement. Other times, she said all the hateful things she'd been holding onto for the past twenty years, forcing him to take on the pain he'd caused.
But now that he was here, close enough for her to touch, she wanted nothing more than for him to disappear again. Making her way around the bed, she headed for the door.
In the blink of an eye, Rick stood in front of her. "You can't leave," he said in a low voice.
"Excuse me?" Michonne spat, thrown off by his lightning quick movement and sudden close proximity. Damn, he smells good. Like freshly chopped cedar. "I'm not a kid anymore. You can't tell me what to do."
Rick had effectively placed himself between Michonne and the door. If she wanted to leave, she'd have to go through him. "If you're a vampire, like that creature who attacked me, you can't bite me. Unless you want to end up dead, like her." She had no idea if, or even how, this could be true, but it was the only card she had to play.
Rick ignored her. "If you're worried about the show tonight, everything's already taken care of."
"What do you mean taken care of?" The thought of him interfering in her life, like they actually had some sort of relationship, infuriated her even more.
"The show's going on as scheduled. As for Mike, Andrea and Sasha think he had to leave for a family emergency."
"Why would they think that?"
"Because that's why I told them to think. And you'll also do as I say." He closed in on me. "Tell me what you are."
His dark pupils bled into the light blue of his eyes. A silky warmth encompassed her mind, pulling at her to just relax, to just give in.
Something, like a wall of heat, rose behind her eyes. She should've cowered at his exertion of power, which proved Rick was anything but the man she thought he was; that he was a vampire. "Maybe I should be demanding the same of you. What are you, Rick?"
Rick took a step back, a look of curiosity on his face. Suddenly, the space he occupied was empty and Michonne heard the door open and shut in an instant. The click of a lock set her blood boiling.
She grabbed the door handle, but it wouldn't budge. She was trapped. Michonne pounded on the wood, first with her fists and then with her feet. "No you didn't just fucking lock me in here!"
Michonne continued to pound on the door as Rick walked down the hallway to confer with Daryl. Something besides her foot crashed against the door. He guessed it was the chair. The door was specially constructed to keep even a vampire from escaping. Michonne wasn't going anywhere.
"I swear to all that's unholy, I'm going to kick your ass when I get out of here!" She screamed in frustration.
Rick closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Daryl grunted. "She always been this pleasant?" His second-in-command looked alert and ready for his morning orders, while Rick had to use all of his energy just to focus on the task at hand.
Rick felt guilty at the sudden realization of his answer. "She was happy…back then." Now, she brandished thorns on her sleeve.
"What changed?"
This was the first conversation he'd had with Daryl in a while. Michonne's presence in his home was stirring up more than just a passing interest among his staff. In many ways, Michonne was as much a mystery to Rick as she was to Daryl.
"She's been through a lot." Now was not the time for details.
Daryl nodded to a small plastic bag in Rick's hand. "What's that?"
The bag held Michonne's bloody t-shirt. "Getting this analyzed. We need to figure out what she is before the Governor does."
"Haven't been around as long as you, but seeing a vampire die like that was a first."
"Us both."
"And she wasn't like this when she was younger?"
"I'd always sensed something different about her; something dark. She was smart, not many friends. Family was the most important thing to her."
Daryl nodded. "Still nothing on the father. I may have a new lead though."
Rick yawned. It'd been years since he'd stayed up this long after sunrise.
"Ain't it past your bedtime?"
"Sleep can wait."
Silence met his ears. Rick listened, worried that Michonne had injured herself in her attempts to escape. And then she started up again, adding more expletives to her protests. And threats to his manhood.
He might actually enjoy getting to know this new side to Michonne. He'd always watched out for her from afar, ensuring she was provided for in every aspect of her life. Over time, she'd grown from an observant teen into an impressively brash woman - a woman he'd come to admire and respect. It was his duty to protect her.
"What d'ya think the Governor wants with her?" Daryl asked.
Yep, Rick noticed, he was definitely more talkative than usual. "To use against me."
At least, that had been the initial reason. With the death of his lover, Rowan, Rick could only imagine what the Governor had in store for Michonne. He'd heard the rumors about his experiments on the vampires he'd captured. What would he do with someone like Michonne, who had the power to resist Rick's mind control?
"Don't leave her side," Rick said, gravely. Daryl was the only one he trusted with the task; and not just because he headed his daylight team. "Until I can come up with a better way to protect her."
Rick departed at Daryl's nod. Sleep wouldn't come for a while.
Michonne had given up on yelling some time ago. She needed to save her voice for tonight's show.
After she'd settled down, she realized she didn't know if it was day or night, as the room had no windows. Finding her cell phone had settled that mystery. It was just after noon.
Unfortunately, she had no cell reception. And the only interaction she'd had in that time was with a grungy member of Rick's staff. He'd brought her a tray with a deli sandwich and bottled water.
"I'm vegetarian," she'd said, when he told her the sandwich was turkey.
"No, you ain't," he'd mumbled, catching her in a lie.
His accent reminded Michonne of her long-lost relatives in a small town outside of Georgia, who she'd recently tracked down through social media. "You're not a vampire, are you?"
His energy felt different, warm and full of life, even though he was dressed in all black, from his boots to his leather coat. He wore his shaggy brown hair long, just reaching to his shoulders, in contrast to his neatly trimmed, graying beard. "I'm Rick's familiar. Daryl."
"His familiar?" She'd only read about this kind of thing in her paranormal romance novels. She'd never once believed any of it was true. And then a vampire tried to suck her blood.
The feeling he gave her was different from the one she'd gotten from the boot-clad vampire and from Rick. Their coldness had felt like the warning growl of a wolf before it attacks, while Daryl's energy was more like that of a loyal dog who'd keep your feet warm in the winter.
"Rick is my master," he said, Michonne appreciating his patient tone. "In exchange for my services, I get to drink his blood a few times a year." Michonne cringed at the thought. "It gives me strength and long life, an extra fifty years if I'm lucky."
"And what are your services, exactly?"
"Anything he needs. Like babysitting you."
Michonne decided to ignore that jab, in favor of bargaining a way out of captivity. "Letting me go would be easier for all of us." She flashed the smile that reliably brought her male fans to their knees.
"Sure, as soon as Rick says you can go, you're free to leave."
And with that, he left. That had been almost four hours ago. Andrea was probably blowing up her phone with accusations of her and Mike being holed up in a hotel room somewhere.
Luckily, the room she was currently being held prisoner in, had a private restroom, so she'd at least been able to take care of the basics. Michonne's stomach growled; the room service was lacking.
Just as she finished the thought, she heard the lock on her door click open.
"About time," she said, as the door swung open. "A girl's gotta eat."
Michonne came to a halt as she realized the figure in the door wasn't Daryl. The man stood at over six feet, his scowl menacing, with a bandana wrapped around his forehead.
"Who are you?" She took a step back as he took a step forward into the room.
And that's when she heard the characteristic scuffle of a fight. She assumed it was Daryl, who probably wouldn't be coming to her rescue soon. "You know, if you bite me, you'll die." She needed to buy time.
The man seemed genuinely amused. "I'm not a vampire."
"Of course, you aren't. Who knows what anyone is nowadays?" She was rambling, but it was her only line of defense.
Just as she'd considered making a run for it, a limp body flew through the doorway, slamming into the man from behind. He crashed to the floor, disoriented.
Before he could respond, Daryl was on him. He delivered a one-two punch, rendering the man unconscious. Michonne let out the breath she'd been holding.
"Thank you," she said, panting her relief.
Why the heck was she thanking her captor?
"There were only two of them. You're safe now," Daryl said.
She finally noticed the body that had been flung through the door. He was handsome, Asian and as unconscious as his colleague.
"What are you going to do with them?" The pair didn't appear to be dead.
"Interrogate 'em."
Daryl moved quickly after that, ordering a team of men to clear the room. After they were done, he came back.
"You're free to go," he said, handing Michonne a bag with her laundered t-shirt.
She should have just walked through the door, but the curiosity her mama always said was deadlier than a cat's reared it's head. "Why?"
"Because Rick doesn't need to keep you here anymore."
"What's that mean?" She had a feeling things weren't done with Rick.
Daryl just nodded and left her to make her own decision. Michonne walked out of the room, not knowing how she felt about Rick's casual dismissal of her.
She had so many questions. Was she safe? Who was after him?
Something told her this wouldn't be her last time seeing Rick or his cronies, and in the dustiest corner of her heart, she realized she might actually be okay with that.
"Don't worry. We've already met the replacement," Andrea said.
Michonne had made it to the venue with ten minutes to spare, only to find that Terry was nowhere to be found, after she'd already made arrangements with him earlier that night.
"He's amazing, how'd you find him?" Sasha beamed. Michonne had never seen her smile so big.
"What replacement?" Michonne was thoroughly confused.
"Rick."
Michonne's heart twinged. "Rick?"
"Yep," Rick said from behind her.
Michonne groaned before turning around. Rick stood with a blue electric guitar, dressed in a button-down denim shirt that matched his eyes. The black jeans he wore clung to his muscular thighs and she could only imagine the view she'd have of him from behind. His brown curls were neatly tucked behind his ears. He looked the complete opposite of a ruthless vampire.
"Why wouldn't we? He already knows all of our songs," Andrea said.
"Does he?" Michonne eyed him suspiciously.
"Passed the test with flying colors," Sasha piped in.
"Nope. Not gonna happen." Michonne was drawing the line. There was no way she was going to spend the next month on tour with Rick.
"But if we don't go out there tonight, we'll lose the trust of our fans. And we can't survive without them. We'd have to cancel the tour." Andrea gave Michonne big blue, doe eyes. "The band needs this."
Michonne sighed sharply. This was more than just her career on the line. She had other people to think about besides herself. "One show."
Rick's smirk made her immediately regret her decision.
Now can you love a girl,
Who says that those who love are mere fools?
Now can you love a girl,
Who'd rather live life numb than love you?
While Rick knew the music for the song perfectly, this was his first time hearing the new lyrics. Michonne had given them a heads up just before they'd gone on stage. Apparently, she'd made the most of her time in captivity. Her voice was dark and piercing as she sang:
She's hollow. Hollow.
Hollow. Hollow.
Rick grimaced through the growing pain in his head, focusing on strumming the strings of his guitar, as his ears began to bleed.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed the update! The lyrics are from Tamar-Kali's song, Hollow. The next chapter will be dropped close to Halloween, so I'll do my best to make it a fun one. We'll even learn more about what the heck Michonne is. Thanks again for all of the interest in this story, the faves, the follows and the always insightful comments!