Part Four
I crawl up the stairs to the attic I'm staying at. It's right under an old bell tower. The bells are long since gone, but it gives me plenty of shadows and the freedom I need. I hear the steps creak under my feet and float up an inch. Just enough to stop touching the ground.
I could have flown in, to hell with hovercars or the old fashioned walking. I just couldn't.
"Hurt you didn't she?"
I practically jump out of my skin as I hear his sniped voice. Hard, sarcastic.
"What did you expect boy. That they'd just welcome you and you could go back to whom you were during your mortal life. To just go back to a Slayer, protect her, stand at her back. Even knowing she doesn't really need you."
He whispers in my ear. I can feel the breath he takes touch my skin. He hangs over me. I shiver at the nearness.
"You still think you're the white knight. Don't you boy?"
"Shut up!" I yell the words, but they don't even faze him in the slightest.
"Why should I?"
LaCroix is the semblance of calm. So cold, I can't take it and fly up at him.
Forcing us both against the wall over us. Up to the top of the belltower. We're
out in the wind now and I hold him up against the beam that holds up the whole
tower. The worst is that he's allowing me this semblance of control, while all
the time he's the one in power. He could destroy me in a second. That's how
powerful he is. His power radiates from inside of him and I can feel it. I want
to be near it, to touch it.
Our eyes meet and he's smiling. Thrilled at my urge to destroy I reckon.
My sires sire. My grandfather.
Oh god Janette, what did you pull me into all those long years ago?
I let go and float away from him before landing. He just descends slowly as he straightens his collar, pulling it in pure order. I need something to drink. Not even a hesitation enters my mind as I go up again and pull a bottle out of the place underneath the boards. It's drained before I even realize what it is. I'm so hungry, shaking still. The human blood goes through my throat and I can feel the mans fear as the blood was taken.
My beast is taunting me with his unbridled hunger and pleasure. I know I'm an animal, dark, destructive and I want to stop drinking but I can't. I just need it too much.
"Why are you here?" I take another gulp.
"I don't want you here."
He snorts at my words.
Who cares what I want.
"You need me boy."
I want to claim my independence. I want to refuse any connection to him. But
I can't. He's a part of me. I'm his and I shiver as he comes closer again. He
pries the empty bottle out of my fingers and I look at him.
There's a mirror hanging at the other side of the room. A permanent reminder of
what I am. It reflects neither of us. I turn around. The
general face seems arrogant, but that doesn't say anything. He's got every right
to be arrogant. It's who he is.
But what am I?
"I don't. I'm not …" doing anything wrong, I want to say but he silences me with one glare and that twitch of his left eyebrow.
"But she only goes after the obvious ones. The ones the enforcers would take out anyway. Them and the Demonbreed."
"And you think that makes it right?" his voice is filled with fake
disbelief.
"She's a threat to all of us."
"She doesn't even know about us." I look up, trying to face him,
but am forced to look away almost instantly.
"I didn't tell her."
I know he doesn't believe me. But I'm not stupid. If I told her, she'd have to die. They both would. The slayer and Willow. It's a secret to many have died for, I can't just betray it.
When a smile cracks open his face again, I shiver once more.
"Keep her in sight. If she does become a threat, kill her."
He disappears through the window, but his last words before he leaves ring
through my head.
"It's not like you've never killed a Slayer before."