KEZZ 1: Thanks!
smx1cat: Thank you so much for the long review! I really appreciate it - even more so since you don't usually write reviews. You really warmed my heart. I got a pretty scathing review about a month ago that put me in a funk so I appreciate you so much.
HarryPotterIsLife098: Oh my gosh the 3rd time? Damn, Ashley. You're amazing.
Ravensoul93: I really didn't want to make Runa a fairy lol I thought that lore was kind of lackluster in the show anyway.
dreaminggirllivi2: Aw thanks!
Turniptree: Your name is awesome.
ferallahey: Thank you so much for reading two of my stories! Seeing you review so much made my entire week. I write across a couple of different fandoms so seeing someone reading and reviewing is kind of rare for me lol
Chapter 38: A Cabin in the Woods
"Get her head up-"
I choked, unsure if I was drawing in air or just floundering with the complexities of my own lunges and beating heart. The concrete floor of Fangtasia was hard and cold against my dirty skin, filled with dank, metal-tinged air so thick that the overhead lights slanted through at odd, hypnotic angles.
A sudden blast of terror jerked through my body - somewhere in the bathrooms down the halls. And then just outside, I could see a guy getting hauled away to someone's car - but was that fear or excitement or - A mile away, in one of the nearby houses, some girl was sneaking out the window and downstairs, the parents were afraid that she would walk in on them having sex-
I let out a strangled yell, trying desperately to grapple with my own powers.
After a week - or was it months - or maybe just hours - It was like filling a cup with steel marbles, dumping it inside so that it rattled around, slamming in until hairline fractions started to form. I had been starved of any sort of fear for so long that now it all felt so overwhelming.
I had chosen the worst place to go to.
Well, Onyx would probably agree with that.
"She's shaking-"
"I think she's dying, Eric," a bored voice drawled and the shiny tip of a hot pink heel clicked down by my head.
Something cold curled gently around my nape, searing my heated skin. My teeth shuddered around the instinctive cry that broke from me. "Runa - Runa, talk to me."
A flurry of words filed off inside my head. I wanted to tell him that I was sorry. I wanted to ask about my sister and brother and that stupid vampire she was shacked up with. How was he? How had he been? Did he hate me? Did he love me? I couldn't get my tongue to form a single syllable. Whatever power the Elders had given me felt more like a drug - addictive and toxic, burning through my veins and weaning away until my own hands didn't feel like my own. I wanted more of that power. I bit down on my tongue until a burst of blood warmed my throat.
"You open that pretty mouth of yours at every availability to sass me and now you can't say a thing?" I would have laughed at the sneering sass of that question if it weren't tinged with desperation and underlined by the way his hands dragged my shivering body closer to his chest. "Dammit, Runa."
"Is she-"
"She's not on the fucking menu, Sanders." I choked, gurgling out a cry at the shock of fear that one statement caused. He cursed vilely in Swedish. "Get everyone out."
Those pink stilettos clicked away. "You heard him, darlings. Unless you want me to use your shiny, pink intestines are ribbons for my next gown, you'll find the exit quickly."
"But-" a silky, whiny female voice pouted and I could almost see the way that Pam's canines flashed as she hissed at the girl.
"I didn't ask for your fucking opinion, little throne whore." Eric's body curved around me, the focus of his eyes cool and pin-prick clear even as the world went fuzzy around me. "You'll have a chance to subjigate yourself next week."
I gulped down an uneven breath, my mind sharpening and loosening in erratic intervals. I could feel the fading effects of the Elder's magic still thruming just beneath my organs, making my insides feel like pop rocks had been shoved into every crevice of my body. My own powers felt like horses trying to stampede out from my very skin, pushing at my bones until I couldn't help the strangled yell that ripped from me.
I could feel it all - feel everything so acutely.
Feel the vampire who was still lingering behind the bar.
Feel the peaked curiosity of the person stuck in Eric's hideous torture chamber just below our feet.
Feel the man 10 miles away, terrified that he could get caught, terrified that he wouldn't get caught. But he was hidden in the brush right? Joggers couldn't see him - the last two hadn't until it was too late-
Tears burned hotly down my cheeks. Stop, I begged, unsure of who I was trying to call out to. Please just stop.
"What did they do to you, little nightmare?" Eric breathed into my temple, his words distant as flashes of people, places and things zinged through my head. "Fuck. I'm going to have to give her my blood."
"We don't know what's wrong with her." Pam's voice was a cautious warning, her presence cool and crisp as she crouched down on my other side.
"She's covered in fucking filth," Eric snapped, his voice so filled with venom and animosity that the vampire behind the bar shrunk a bit farther back. "She's lost at least 20 pounds in the last fucking week and she looks like she's been beaten - a few fucking times. What else do I need to know to give her my blood?"
I could feel the frigid fury in his body, could feel it jarr through me like a bitter wind ripping across the flat surface of the ocean. It cooled something in me - the power still rolling beneath my bones, desperately trying to get out. It perked up, centering on the hulking mass of bitter violence that had me tucked into him.
"We don't know what they've been doing to her this last week-" Pam barely got the words out before Eric's body rolled with a furious snarl, his teeth baring as he lunged forward so that he was leaning over my shivering body.
"Either help me or get out."
There was nothing more after that. Of course, Pam would help him. She would always help him. The hands that held my head were smoothly replaced by much daintier ones, Pam's body drifting closer as she supported me. I could smell the clean linen and expensive musk of her perfume, the crisp lines of her designer dress smooth against my dirty cheek.
"You'll be paying for my dry cleaning, beautiful," she purred into my ear.
And then Eric was grunting, his wrist shoving against my quivering lips, his other hand cupping my cheek. I didn't open my mouth, my teeth sinking farther together as I felt the first flicker of trepidation race up my spine. I didn't want that. I didn't want his blood. Bad idea. I tried to jerk away, only weakly pulling at the hands bracketing my face.
"Don't be a brat right now, Runa," Eric hissed and his body leveled closer to mine, crouching above me so that all I felt was him - his cold presence, his crushing attention. "Drink the fucking blood."
My lips clamped tighter together, the power inside of me roiling like a coil of unhappy snakes. One of his thumbs pressed along my lips, prying open a sliver before I was able to slam it shut again. He cursed vilely in Swedish, the wound on his wrist closing, healing spectacularly quickly.
"I'm having to rip myself open for you twice tonight, little mare." he warned in that thunderclap voice that always made my insides tremble. He let out a grunt and then his thumbs were pressing harshly to my lips, his fingers curling around my jaw as he pried my lips open and slipped his digits inside.
Cool liquid dripped past my teeth, hitting my tongue in a thick river. He had slit open his thumbs.
The effect was instantaneous. I gagged, trying and failing to fight against both Pam and Eric as they swiftly moved to try and hold me in place. Pam hissed something sharp to Eric in Swedish, their combined strength keeping me pinned. All of that power beating inside me raged, roaring as if it was a clutch of animals that had just been taunted into a rage. I felt it beat wildly in my chest, the taste of Eric's blood putrid on my tongue. Drop after drop slithered down my throat, saliva rushing forward as I felt my own body rejecting it before it even hit my stomach.
"Knulla!" Eric snarled, the razor sharp points of my teeth sinking into the meaty part of his thumbs as I flailed.
"I don't want to say I fucking told you so-"
Pam's words cut to an abrupt halt as I let out a scream, the air ripping from my lunges as the golden collar around my neck pulsed with burning heat. It felt like someone was holding a heated wire to my skin, the metal eating away the top layer of my throat until it hissed and spluttered all the way to my wind pipe.
I couldn't breath. Blood pooled in my mouth, my eyes rolling.
You thought it would be this easy to get away? Empress' voice reburated through my skull, ringing in my ears as I flailed weakly. You little bitch. Who the fuck do you think you are? You think that this promise was around your neck just for show?
Eric's hold loosened on me, his thumbs leaving my mouth as my lips went slack. I choked, fighting for any sort of breath.
"Roll her!" Strong hands shoved me onto my side, all of Eric's blood rushing from my lips as I struggled. I couldn't breath. I couldn't breath. Inside of my chest, I felt the irratic swell of my heart, the rabbiting beat of it as my lunges started to burn. "What the fuck is happening?"
I'm going to enjoy watching you die. My vision went hazy, the sounds around me dimming to a whisper - the gentle lull of voices behind closed doors. In the back of my head, I felt the smooth satisfaction of Empress as she tightened that collar even more, spit flying from my mouth as my mouth worked to try and draw in even a sip of air. I could feel her - all that smugness. I could feel her.
My shoulders drooped, my body loosing the fight.
I could feel her.
Just like Onyx.
I reached back, clawing along that slim line of magic, drawing up from the erratic swell of my own in the pit of my stomach. Older but not nearly as old as what the Elder's had given me. I raced along that thread, desperation making me ravenous as I searched and searched, finally reaching the very core.
I could feel it.
Her magic was dim, archaic in the way that old, used paper is. And I had so much untapped energy inside of me right now. I felt her sudden alertness moments before I wrapped myself around her, digging my teeth and claws in.
"They collared you," I heard Eric whisper to me so many weeks ago, his words filled with agony.
A collar's a flimsy sense of control for a master. Especially when someone like me can tugging on the leash.
Empress' screamed filled my ears. Her magic collapsed under the full force of whatever hellspawn was inhabiting me, her very soul withering with the desperation to get away from me. I want something, I thought, forcing that magic to riffle around inside of her. I dug my teeth into her, swallowing mouthful after mouthful of her very essence.
I don't know how she got away from me - only that one moment she was there, still safely trapped beneath me and the next she had simply… vanished. Like she had cut the thread that connected us.
Air rushed into my starved lunges with a hack. I gasped and shivered on the floor of Fangtasia. Eric's body crouched over me as he tried to yell me back into the living. Pam sat back with a mildly shell-shocked expression her legs folded demurely beneath her. My chest rose and fell in harsh bursts, my throat still burning.
"God fucking dammit, Runa," Eric raged but his arms curled around me, his face coming to rest against the side of my face. I shut my eyes at the blissful cool of his skin, his arms so strong and sure as they curled around my waist.
Any trace of Elder magic had subsided in me, disappearing just like the last specks of Empress.
My words were raw, harsh like gravel as I forced them out brokenly. "Now you can give me blood, Sherriff."
Eric's broad shoulders rolled with all the rage and unspoken words that I knew were crowding around inside of him. He was furious, practically bubbling over with his own aggression. I knew it all too well because usually, I liked to roll around with him, maybe tease a bit of that violence to the surface.
Right now, I was just unbearably tired.
"Are you going to speak to me or continue to stare out at the trees?" I whispered, my words drifting across the space between us. The muscles in his shoulders tensed, locking up beneath the thin fabric of his white shirt.
Imagine my surprise when, after I had drank a good amount of his blood, Eric hoisted me into his arms and dragged me to some remote cabin deep in the middle of woods so dense that I knew without a doubt that we weren't in Bon Temp anymore. Maybe not even Louisiana at all.
Eric's house was… beautiful. Breathtaking. Everything that the mare inside of me who longed for the bite of mountain air and engulfing trees could ever want. No roads led here, the dark wood of the single-story home tucked safely away from all signs of civilization. For the king of Fangtasia, the brute of a Sherriff to the vampires of Area 9, this place seemed almost a striking contrast to his exterior. But it hadn't seemed all that startling to me - at some point, it felt like Eric, and I had melded souls like we had been forced to sit in a boiling pot for so long that we had begun to melt down and swirl together.
Startlingly large windows took up most of the walls, each one with a deftly hidden sheet of metal that would clank down at any given moment. But right now, the metal was up, and the heavy curtains that would shut out any light was pulled back to let in the quiet night of the forest, the sound of distant birds of prey and other animals filtering in.
The impressive beams of that kept the roof and walls steady were starkly displayed, the vaulted ceilings reminding me of a ribcage as I stared at the interlocking wood. It was bold and blunt, harsh in its lack of fancy trim and frills, but it was so unbearably powerful that I couldn't help the breath of awe that whispered from me. A few harsh black iron chandeliers cast the vast interior with warm light, a fire roaring in a giant fireplace just a few feet from the heavy front door. A large green couch sat pristinely clean just in front of that fireplace, taking up a massive section just to the left of the door, a heavy wood table filled with books and letters between the two. To the left a surprisingly small office table of heavy oak nestled between a massive display of bookcases, all overflowing. Eric had never particularly struck me as the type to sit down and go through a novel at the end of a long day, but as I looked closer, I realized that a lot of them were informational - about vampires and human anatomy and business and finances, modern technology and upcoming innovations.
Around the wall that held the fireplace, I could see the beginnings of an impressive dining room with a massive table made of walnut and redwood and, just beyond that, a tiny kitchen that was wedged next to a series of french doors that released to a large patio beyond. But far and above was Eric's own room. The massive bed was made with emerald sheets, downy and voluminous. A long armoire rested at the very edge of the bed, and just to the right, I could see the steel ring of a cellar door. Just around the bend, there was a large bathroom with a sunken bath, the whole space made up of deep granite and stainless steel.
"What I would say wouldn't be nice, Runa," he murmured, his back still to me, the striking blue of his eyes reflected in the glass of the windows.
I couldn't help the tired curl of my lips. "You've never been one to mince your words, Northman."
He was in front of me in a second, his eyes harsh, burning blue embers as he loomed before my sitting form perched at the edge of the trunk at the base of his bed. His jaw was hard, his whole body looking more like the marble statues I had seen in museums. "You're tired, Runa. You look and smell like you've been dragged through dirt and mud and dung. I suggest you get into the bath that's been running and leave this conversation for another day."
My temper flared along with burning humiliation. I knew I smelled and look like I had been tossed into and landfill and left to mummify, but his words stung. But I was through with being shamed. I wasn't going to crawl back to the pitiful mess that I had been with the mares. Not when all I had dreamed of was him - not when he was such a pivotal factor in my escape.
I gulped down a breath, tilting my head back defiantly to glare up at him, my words tight as I forced them through my teeth. "I suggest you get the stick out of your ass and stop treating me like a frail doll."
The answering snarl was enough to make the hairs on my arms raise, his fangs clicking down as he crouched down so that I could see fully the burn of his eyes. "Tell me what they did to you, Runa. If you don't need to rest and be taken care of then tell me what they did to you this past week."
I drew in a sharp breath, the words just there at the tip of my tongue. They beat me. They starved me. Kept me in a hole like a pig for most of the time. Then they dragged me out and spit at me when they knew I was within an inch of my life. It was easy. It should have been easy to say.
I broke away from his penetrating gaze, blinking infuriating tears from my eyes as I stared hard at the shining floors beneath us. I couldn't say the words. I was ashamed. Ashamed and humiliated that they had done those things to me. That I had let them. Eric would have never allowed anyone to collar him, to beat him and degrade him and spit on him and dig their heel into his face. He was too big - too big of a person to let anyone make him kneel like that.
I felt tears start to burn up my throat, burn at my eyes. I couldn't be anything less than the Runa who had defended him in a room filled with vampires. I couldn't be anything less than the person who I thought I was before this whole mess. The person with a spine. The person who didn't cower and crawl to the opening of a hole in the hopes that water would come for the day.
I shrunk down into myself, the urge to bite back, rearing up inside of me like a cornered dog. "I wouldn't expect someone like you to understand."
I wanted to take them back. I wanted to grab them out of the air and shove them back down my own throat like I wanted my next breath. I wanted to cover his ears so he didn't hear the words. What I meant was someone strong, someone unafraid and just - just more than me.
Slowly, his body unwound from the crouch in front of me, his face deceptively blank as he stared down at me. "Someone like me?"
It was too late - too late to say sorry. I gritted down on my own self-loathing, trying and failing to find a way to make this better. In the end, I said half-truths that were easier to get out. "You're brutal, Eric. You keep people in a cellar below your bar and slowly dissect them when you need something. You punish and maime and you don't think about the people that you hurt. You're - you are-"
"Barbaric." The single words dropped from his lips with such loathing that I recoiled. "Is this how you see me? Some animal that takes children from the streets, uncaring if they have family or lives?"
"No!" I gasp, unsure of what the conversation is anymore. Weakly, I stumble to my feet. I don't know what we're talking about anymore. I don't know how we got to this - "I didn't - I don't -"
His words are tight with barely restrained fury, his hands clenching at his side as he stares down at me with a hard gaze. "An animal ripped through half of Bon Temp trying to find you. An animal searched tirelessly, maiming and punishing anyone he could get his hands on all because some silly little mare decided that she wanted to clear her conscience - decided that she wanted to suddenly pay a debt to a group of invalids who gave her less than a passing thought-" I drew in a sharp breath, the blow landing solidly. He moved a step closer until his chest brushed mine, his body large and unyielding as his teeth flashed in a deadly warning down at me. "Before you get on your high horse and decide that you're too good for a barbaric, vile animal like me, remember that I was the only one trying to get you back. Remember that for every vile, barbaric thing I do there's a reason behind it."
I felt my whole body pulse with his words, the deep, carnal part of me lighting up with the deadly promise in his eyes. He meant it. Every word - he meant it all. I didn't know the things that he had done when I had been missing but I knew that they had been within an inch of burning the world and that he would do it all over again in a heartbeat.
His voice went whisper soft. "And I thought that maybe you - out of everyone else - would understand that."
I gulped down a breath, the walls suddenly seeming all too close. My legs suddenly felt unsteady beneath me.
You're a monster, the mares had whispered to me.
Me and mine, Eric had promised me.
Scary.
Creature.
Dark.
Was that who I was? I shivered, suddenly feeling like there was too much going on. I didn't know if I wanted to be that. I didn't know if I could bear being the thing that had killed all those people at Maryanne's bidding - because that was what being a monster meant to me. That was what it meant to completely give in to the darkness inside of me.
But worse was the crushing realization that that just wasn't me. I was weak. I let things happen to me. I stumbled into problems, and I came out less than. I didn't feel strong in any way. I had taken those lives without even fighting back - even when I could. What kind of pathetic piece of shit did that?
And that terrified me.
I stumbled to the side, darting around him and out of the room with a swiftness that I didn't know I had. The front door wavered in front of me. "I - I need some space-"
I gulped in a breath of cool mountain air, shutting my eyes against the darkness of night. My heart suddenly ached for the soft comfort of my sister - the familiarity of home.
"Runa-" Eric was just behind me. He could catch me if he wanted to. I knew it and he knew it but still he hovered just out of reach, his eyes watch on me.
"I want to go home," I breathed brokenly, shutting my eyes and slamming a hand to my eyes. I was so tired and I just - I just couldn't - why did it feel like everything was caving in? Why did it feel like there was too much space and not enough air around me all at once? "I WANT TO GO HOME!"
I felt Onyx's powers swell inside of me, flaring out until I couldn't hear the forest all around me anymore. And just like stepping through a shroud made of star-flecked night, I was gone once more.
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