DISCLAIMER - I don't own any of the Nightworld characters and I don't make
any money. Yes I know I should get out more. I do however own a sexy
vampire called Tar, so hands off!
REVIEWS ARE MUCH LOVED AND BEGGED FOR!!
CHAPTER FOURTEEN - LOST AND FOUND
Xanna ran like she'd never ran before, as fast and straight as possible. The sun would rise soon, she'd been running for what seemed like forever and a half. Whilst running, she could concentrate on jumping over fallen logs, dodging branches and thorns. She had no room to think about who she was, who the ashen one was and what her memory would tell her if she asked.
She saw lights ahead and automatically steered away from them, not ready to deal with their vermin owners. She was concentrating so hard on getting away from the lights that as she gained a hill, the dawn light flooded her eyes and she tripped. She fell awkwardly, tumbling, falling, trying to reach for something to catch on, hitting her head. She felt the ashen one behind her, his life force stronger now. She tried to get up and managed to get to knees. She felt the edge of a ravine behind her, fast flowing rapids storming through. Just what she needed when the ashen one came to corner her.
"Mary Lynette. It's me, Ash. Do you remember me?" He said timidly, edging into the clearing as if she was a wounded animal. He thought she was weak!
"Of course I remember you, you idiot. I remember what it felt like when you tortured me, I remember how it felt when you killed me. Well I say to you, you shall not have that pleasure again!"
A look of surprise crossed his face when she said 'killed' but it had no concern to her. She let herself fall backwards, away from the confusion, away from the pain, hearing only a mind splitting cry of pain and feeling nothing but air.
She fell for a long time, or so it seemed. She hit the icy water on her back, paralysing her muscles on impact. She stayed on the bottom for several minutes then the buoyancy of her body pulled her to the surface once more. She came up spluttering and choking in the rapids, being tossed and beaten against rocks and gullies. An uprooted tree came down the river and hit her square in the back. Blood exploded into her vision. Her consciousness rapidly failed and she sunk into the warm blackness that surrounded her.
Ash was running, following his instincts. She'd let herself fall into the ravine, obviously not aware that most vampires could probably survive something that would drown a human. Unless they were staked by a fallen tree. Or pinned to the bottom of a gully by the current. SHUT UP! he told himself. Everything is going to be fine. He repeated it over, trying to convince himself. He saw a black dot floating in the shallows of a small cove on his side of the river.
MARY LYNETTE!
He shouted, already moving towards it. He watched the dot elongate into a figure shape as he ran towards it, gaining arms legs and long red hair. He felt tears running down his face, what if she were dead? How would he go on?
He leaped over a low hedge, his calves catching on it and sending him tumbling over the next field. Ash climbed down the bank and into the water, splashing and running towards her. He grabbed her facedown-form from the water and pulled it onto the bank. He turned her over and shook her, screaming her name.
YOU'RE NOT GOING TO DIE MARY LYNETTE. I WON'T ALLOW IT. I WON'T LET YOU GO WITHOUT ME!
Her eyelids fluttered and she choked up several litres of water. When she opened her eyes and looked at him, what he saw was fear.
She tried to squirm out of his grip immediately and he let her go. He was heartbroken. She pulled herself back on her good hand, Ash noticing the other impaled by a small sapling. When she was backed against a tree trunk and could retreat no further back, she stopped, exhausted. He sat down where he was and looked at her, despair in his eyes.
Xanna was confused. She remembered falling into the churning water and soaking in the darkness. Why had the ashen one saved her? He eyed her with concern, eyes flicking to her left arm every once and a while. She looked at it with disgust and pulled out the twig. It would heal.
"Why did you save me?" She looked up at him, completely uncomprehending his compassion for her. Perhaps he saved her only so that he could torture her again later, she thought. Ash thought on the question.
"How much do you remember?" He asked carefully, not wanting to cause distress.
"I remember waking up and seeing you obviously."
"No, before that. Before you came to Briar's Creek. Before that." She grimaced, embarrassed, but held her head high.
"Nothing. Nothing before you killed me. You took it all away with your games and tricks and .oh I don't remember, but I'll make you pay for what you stole." The ashen one looked honestly surprised at this and it confused her more.
"I didn't kill you, Mary Lynette." He said quietly, almost to himself. "I couldn't hurt you at Briar's Creek, even when I knew you would kill me. I could never hurt you. I love you more than anything I've ever known." Xanna was silent for several minutes, thinking this over.
"Why do you call me Mary Lynette, ashen one?"
"Why do you call me ashen one?"
"Because you have ash coloured hair, Ash Redfern and I cannot bear to speak the full name of my soul mate's killer often. Answer my question." Ash smiled, he'd never told her his full name. Perhaps there was hope for her yet.
"Mary Lynette is your name. The name your parents chose for you when you were born." Ash left the topic of Tar well alone.
"My parents." A distant look filled her eyes.
"You don't remember anything do you? Your childhood, hobbies, school life, university courses, parents, sisters and your brother. It's all gone."
For the first time since Tar had told Ash that he'd wiped her memory, Ash fully understood what Tar had meant. He hadn't just wiped the memory of her last few weeks, he'd taken everything. She had no concept of right or wrong and he doubted she even realised what a vampire was and how they were different than humans. No wonder she hated the world, she had no reason not to be. She'd never seen any good in the world and so how could she know the difference between right and wrong?
She let a defiant tear roll down her cheek for all the memories that had been taken from her. Ash had said she could have them again and for the first time she tried calling them. She let herself slip deep within her soul, away from the riverbank, away from Ash and away from the waking world.
She saw a little girl helping a boy over a style. The puff of flour as she clapped her hands together after making muffins on a summer afternoon. The manor house bathed in sunlight and a petite looking blond working in the garden with a teenage boy laughing and joking with her. An ash-blond boy running his hand down her face. A tall girl bringing hot chocolate to her when she'd stayed up too late studying. Walking up the steps to a porch to a door, turning back and seeing Ash there looking at her, grinning. The feel of his hands in her hair, the electrical magnatisim of his touch. She saw him walking away from her into the desert. She didn't want him to go. She called out to him, but he didn't seem to listen.
The scenes shifted to a night sky and she was looking at the stars, picking out her favourite constellations. She could remember their names now. She was on the roof of a building when she turned and saw a figure emerge from the shadows. She breathed a sigh of joy; it was Tar, he had come back to her. She was seeing Tar again, but he didn't look pleased to see her. He gripped her face tightly and tilted it back. He stung her throat. She felt the life being pulled out of her like a whirlpool and the incredible pain of dying. She realised that she had been human when this had happened. The images came in flashes, him ravaging her, forcing her to drink his blood, laughing at her and telling him how she'd learn to love him. She had. She tried to back away, to get away from the pain.
Ash watched the focus fall out of her eyes, her gaze focusing somewhere he couldn't see. She almost smiled. She frowned and began calling out.
"Don't go Ash. Please don't leave. Don't leave me here alone."
He crawled over to her and held her.
"I'm right here, Mare. I haven't gone anywhere."
He looked down at her face to see her smile replaced with horror and she started thrashing out at things only she could see. He tried to hold on to her, stop her from hurting herself, calling out to her to come back to him. Whatever it was she seeing, she didn't need to see it now. When she'd quieted, he began stroking her hair, as if by willing it, he could draw her out of her state and back to him. When she opened her eyes, they reminded him of Thierry's; they were full of sadness.
"I'm so lost." She looked up at him.
Ash's hand slipped for a moment from her hair to her shoulder and she jumped in shock.
"Please don't touch me. Everything is confusing enough and when you touch me, it's like the whole goes insane."
He pulled back and looked at her. She couldn't meet his gaze anymore and turned her head, trying to hide behind her shoulder. He lifted her up in his arms, almost glad she was still weak from her episode in the river and carried her towards the town she'd obviously been heading for.
Ash reached the edge of town and took her into an abandoned hotel, setting her down on an old mattress. He led down next to her, cursing that he had no blankets to keep her warm. She's a vampire idiot, she won't feel the cold. He told himself. He put his arm around her waist and willed sleep to come.
Xanna felt Ash put his arm around her and his breathing slow. She knew him as Ash now, knew that he loved her. She also knew that she loved him, in a strange type of way. The way his touch blurred her vision and the connection between them was different than between anyone else, even Tar. The problem was that she just simply couldn't remember him at all. It was to her as if some random person had met on the street and announced they wanted to spend their life with her.
She was confused more than anything. She couldn't see why Tar would have lied to her, he had loved her and she had loved him. She had known that. She had felt that. Yet, she had the images of him hurting her, knowing now that it wasn't Ash who had hurt her, but Tar himself. This confused her more, as she'd felt she'd known Tar all her life. She plucked Ash's arm from her body and crawled out of his embrace. She curled up as close to the window as she could physically make herself get, feeling terribly claustrophobic. She bowed her head and let her body rest, even if her mind couldn't.
I never forgot you completely Ash. Not really.
She whispered almost to herself as she watched the rain patter against the window.
Ash smiled in his dreams.
REVIEWS ARE MUCH LOVED AND BEGGED FOR!!
CHAPTER FOURTEEN - LOST AND FOUND
Xanna ran like she'd never ran before, as fast and straight as possible. The sun would rise soon, she'd been running for what seemed like forever and a half. Whilst running, she could concentrate on jumping over fallen logs, dodging branches and thorns. She had no room to think about who she was, who the ashen one was and what her memory would tell her if she asked.
She saw lights ahead and automatically steered away from them, not ready to deal with their vermin owners. She was concentrating so hard on getting away from the lights that as she gained a hill, the dawn light flooded her eyes and she tripped. She fell awkwardly, tumbling, falling, trying to reach for something to catch on, hitting her head. She felt the ashen one behind her, his life force stronger now. She tried to get up and managed to get to knees. She felt the edge of a ravine behind her, fast flowing rapids storming through. Just what she needed when the ashen one came to corner her.
"Mary Lynette. It's me, Ash. Do you remember me?" He said timidly, edging into the clearing as if she was a wounded animal. He thought she was weak!
"Of course I remember you, you idiot. I remember what it felt like when you tortured me, I remember how it felt when you killed me. Well I say to you, you shall not have that pleasure again!"
A look of surprise crossed his face when she said 'killed' but it had no concern to her. She let herself fall backwards, away from the confusion, away from the pain, hearing only a mind splitting cry of pain and feeling nothing but air.
She fell for a long time, or so it seemed. She hit the icy water on her back, paralysing her muscles on impact. She stayed on the bottom for several minutes then the buoyancy of her body pulled her to the surface once more. She came up spluttering and choking in the rapids, being tossed and beaten against rocks and gullies. An uprooted tree came down the river and hit her square in the back. Blood exploded into her vision. Her consciousness rapidly failed and she sunk into the warm blackness that surrounded her.
Ash was running, following his instincts. She'd let herself fall into the ravine, obviously not aware that most vampires could probably survive something that would drown a human. Unless they were staked by a fallen tree. Or pinned to the bottom of a gully by the current. SHUT UP! he told himself. Everything is going to be fine. He repeated it over, trying to convince himself. He saw a black dot floating in the shallows of a small cove on his side of the river.
MARY LYNETTE!
He shouted, already moving towards it. He watched the dot elongate into a figure shape as he ran towards it, gaining arms legs and long red hair. He felt tears running down his face, what if she were dead? How would he go on?
He leaped over a low hedge, his calves catching on it and sending him tumbling over the next field. Ash climbed down the bank and into the water, splashing and running towards her. He grabbed her facedown-form from the water and pulled it onto the bank. He turned her over and shook her, screaming her name.
YOU'RE NOT GOING TO DIE MARY LYNETTE. I WON'T ALLOW IT. I WON'T LET YOU GO WITHOUT ME!
Her eyelids fluttered and she choked up several litres of water. When she opened her eyes and looked at him, what he saw was fear.
She tried to squirm out of his grip immediately and he let her go. He was heartbroken. She pulled herself back on her good hand, Ash noticing the other impaled by a small sapling. When she was backed against a tree trunk and could retreat no further back, she stopped, exhausted. He sat down where he was and looked at her, despair in his eyes.
Xanna was confused. She remembered falling into the churning water and soaking in the darkness. Why had the ashen one saved her? He eyed her with concern, eyes flicking to her left arm every once and a while. She looked at it with disgust and pulled out the twig. It would heal.
"Why did you save me?" She looked up at him, completely uncomprehending his compassion for her. Perhaps he saved her only so that he could torture her again later, she thought. Ash thought on the question.
"How much do you remember?" He asked carefully, not wanting to cause distress.
"I remember waking up and seeing you obviously."
"No, before that. Before you came to Briar's Creek. Before that." She grimaced, embarrassed, but held her head high.
"Nothing. Nothing before you killed me. You took it all away with your games and tricks and .oh I don't remember, but I'll make you pay for what you stole." The ashen one looked honestly surprised at this and it confused her more.
"I didn't kill you, Mary Lynette." He said quietly, almost to himself. "I couldn't hurt you at Briar's Creek, even when I knew you would kill me. I could never hurt you. I love you more than anything I've ever known." Xanna was silent for several minutes, thinking this over.
"Why do you call me Mary Lynette, ashen one?"
"Why do you call me ashen one?"
"Because you have ash coloured hair, Ash Redfern and I cannot bear to speak the full name of my soul mate's killer often. Answer my question." Ash smiled, he'd never told her his full name. Perhaps there was hope for her yet.
"Mary Lynette is your name. The name your parents chose for you when you were born." Ash left the topic of Tar well alone.
"My parents." A distant look filled her eyes.
"You don't remember anything do you? Your childhood, hobbies, school life, university courses, parents, sisters and your brother. It's all gone."
For the first time since Tar had told Ash that he'd wiped her memory, Ash fully understood what Tar had meant. He hadn't just wiped the memory of her last few weeks, he'd taken everything. She had no concept of right or wrong and he doubted she even realised what a vampire was and how they were different than humans. No wonder she hated the world, she had no reason not to be. She'd never seen any good in the world and so how could she know the difference between right and wrong?
She let a defiant tear roll down her cheek for all the memories that had been taken from her. Ash had said she could have them again and for the first time she tried calling them. She let herself slip deep within her soul, away from the riverbank, away from Ash and away from the waking world.
She saw a little girl helping a boy over a style. The puff of flour as she clapped her hands together after making muffins on a summer afternoon. The manor house bathed in sunlight and a petite looking blond working in the garden with a teenage boy laughing and joking with her. An ash-blond boy running his hand down her face. A tall girl bringing hot chocolate to her when she'd stayed up too late studying. Walking up the steps to a porch to a door, turning back and seeing Ash there looking at her, grinning. The feel of his hands in her hair, the electrical magnatisim of his touch. She saw him walking away from her into the desert. She didn't want him to go. She called out to him, but he didn't seem to listen.
The scenes shifted to a night sky and she was looking at the stars, picking out her favourite constellations. She could remember their names now. She was on the roof of a building when she turned and saw a figure emerge from the shadows. She breathed a sigh of joy; it was Tar, he had come back to her. She was seeing Tar again, but he didn't look pleased to see her. He gripped her face tightly and tilted it back. He stung her throat. She felt the life being pulled out of her like a whirlpool and the incredible pain of dying. She realised that she had been human when this had happened. The images came in flashes, him ravaging her, forcing her to drink his blood, laughing at her and telling him how she'd learn to love him. She had. She tried to back away, to get away from the pain.
Ash watched the focus fall out of her eyes, her gaze focusing somewhere he couldn't see. She almost smiled. She frowned and began calling out.
"Don't go Ash. Please don't leave. Don't leave me here alone."
He crawled over to her and held her.
"I'm right here, Mare. I haven't gone anywhere."
He looked down at her face to see her smile replaced with horror and she started thrashing out at things only she could see. He tried to hold on to her, stop her from hurting herself, calling out to her to come back to him. Whatever it was she seeing, she didn't need to see it now. When she'd quieted, he began stroking her hair, as if by willing it, he could draw her out of her state and back to him. When she opened her eyes, they reminded him of Thierry's; they were full of sadness.
"I'm so lost." She looked up at him.
Ash's hand slipped for a moment from her hair to her shoulder and she jumped in shock.
"Please don't touch me. Everything is confusing enough and when you touch me, it's like the whole goes insane."
He pulled back and looked at her. She couldn't meet his gaze anymore and turned her head, trying to hide behind her shoulder. He lifted her up in his arms, almost glad she was still weak from her episode in the river and carried her towards the town she'd obviously been heading for.
Ash reached the edge of town and took her into an abandoned hotel, setting her down on an old mattress. He led down next to her, cursing that he had no blankets to keep her warm. She's a vampire idiot, she won't feel the cold. He told himself. He put his arm around her waist and willed sleep to come.
Xanna felt Ash put his arm around her and his breathing slow. She knew him as Ash now, knew that he loved her. She also knew that she loved him, in a strange type of way. The way his touch blurred her vision and the connection between them was different than between anyone else, even Tar. The problem was that she just simply couldn't remember him at all. It was to her as if some random person had met on the street and announced they wanted to spend their life with her.
She was confused more than anything. She couldn't see why Tar would have lied to her, he had loved her and she had loved him. She had known that. She had felt that. Yet, she had the images of him hurting her, knowing now that it wasn't Ash who had hurt her, but Tar himself. This confused her more, as she'd felt she'd known Tar all her life. She plucked Ash's arm from her body and crawled out of his embrace. She curled up as close to the window as she could physically make herself get, feeling terribly claustrophobic. She bowed her head and let her body rest, even if her mind couldn't.
I never forgot you completely Ash. Not really.
She whispered almost to herself as she watched the rain patter against the window.
Ash smiled in his dreams.