Author Notes: If you would like me to continue this story please review and
to all those who have I am honored and adore you, also just a little
something to think about, I'm most likely going to try and do Alex's point
of view next chapter but I won't promise anything.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from in "In the Forest of the Night"
MPOV
I don't know how long I was standing there holding that phone to my ear with the droning beeps constantly going off to signal the connection had been severed.
It was Alexander who gently pulled the phone from my ear and shut it closed. He was quiet and calmly waited for me to respond.
"We, we, we," I stuttered.
I was trying to think but that scream. I just couldn't form coherent sentences with that shriek going off in my mind over and over and over. I was trying to pull myself together but it just wouldn't leave me alone. It brought back all the screams I'd ever heard, all the screams I'd ever caused.
I barely knew right from left. Up and down seemed to be the same direction as I stumbled over a street curb, movement seemed better than nothing at all. The loud honk from a 4x4 Dodge was a long and loud bawl as the tires screeched to a swerving stop.
Alexander gripped my waist and wrenched me backward all in the same second, both hands wrapped so tightly it knocked the air right out of me. Screams erupted from neighboring people who had caught sight of an almost death and I covered my ears. I did it to no avail it just swirled with the multitude of them that worked like a foghorn.
"Are you ok?" asked Alexander.
I looked over those high cheekbones and into those eyes as if to beg for forgiveness for what I had provoked to the poor soul Theo had found. I was going to tell him everything then and now so he could disappear like everyone else. I just didn't want Alexander to be like everyone else. More than anything I wanted him to stay and that's exactly why I had to let him go. That was why I had to push everyone away until they disappeared forever. It was death that followed with me and life without, the choice was easy but it was the choice that left me bleeding for no one to see.
Admitting this to myself was hard; admitting this to Alexander was near impossible. I know he couldn't hear my thoughts so I gazed until I'd get the heart to tell him. It was confession before I dealt with the person who showed themselves as the grim reaper to the few people who had stayed. And o how he'd pay, I wouldn't rest until he paid.
My lips were set against any mention of this garbage, although determination was lassoed around my tongue. Alexander looked back at me through golden orbs and ran a hand over my jaw line. Gently tilting my head to the side he kissed me. The screams faded and I tingled all the way down to my ankles. My lips we ambushed and my tongue, well I dropped the lasso.
Something clicked, my eyes shot up with the foreboding of who had made their dying outcries. I pushed him back in order to catch my breath but he didn't let go his arms still wrapped securely around me.
"Caryn," the word fell out of my mouth, and the revelation hit me like a brick wall.
"Caryn," I repeated his eyes so close to me the gold seemed to spark as I said it. "Caryn Smoke, that, that was Caryn," I tried to explain. "Theo, he said he found Caryn when he went looking for me, that was Caryn screaming," the repulsive crack reverberated through my bones.
He pulled me up and off the pavement and straight into a back alley. His fist was like iron on my wrist as it pulled me along I felt like a boat being overturned by the current.
Alexander shifted to Caryn's house, which for the life of me I couldn't understand why he hadn't offered to do just that before hand.
Caryn's house smelled of sage and peppermint mixed with blood and the nauseating smell of coming death. Alexander seemed a bit disoriented as he steadied himself on my arm. I could guess why he hadn't offered to just shift before. Motion sickness seemed a bit odd for a witch born with that gift but I only had a second to think about it.
Caryn was convulsing on the floor while two neat marks lay embedded in her throat her mouth was red with the blood only Theo could provide. She whimpered softly as she finally steadied and pulled into a protective ball.
Alexander knelt beside her and brushed her hair out of her eyes but I just couldn't bring myself to do it because then I'd be lying. I'd be lying about what I'd have to do in the next few minutes. I didn't want to lye to the person who had saved my life and I could do nothing to save her own life. The only kindness I could do was to make her death as painless as possible.
Alexander seemed new to the fact of killing our own kind. Experience I was more than willing to give up at any price. As I took the blade from my thigh he looked at me as if I had physically wounded him.
Salvatore had once told me that self-obedience was harder when you really didn't agree with what had to be done. That you did what you had to in life because although both the vampire and Triste were similar the law of the jungle was the same: Be Strong or Be Killed. I remember this specifically after laying to rest my brothers.
So I knelt before Caryn as she lay silent and serene, oblivious and out cold. I remained emotionless and numb to any and every feeling that decided it should make itself known before the knife came down. Except for the deep disgust I had for myself in being Caryn's murderess.
"I'm going to severe her magic, and then snap her neck so she can't feel when the knife goes through," I was prepared for Alexander to full on tackle me.
"What about the toxins we could try and destroy it?" he asked, stalling.
"Theo made his ties into her long before he ever called. I can feel it from here," I shamefully confessed.
"Then her magic, I can severe the line she could still live then," he argued.
The suggestion startled me. Was he so brash into thinking of letting her become a leech? I didn't know whether to be appalled or touched. It was possible of course but he was damn near crazy if he thought I was going to bottle feed her the kill she'd need.
"That's not an option," I replied calmly.
"Why not?" he pleadingly argued.
"What you're suggesting would mean we'd have to take the life of a mortal, a human being, so she could become one of them. We'd disown ourselves and dishonor Caryn." I told him gently.
"What if one of them took Caryn, to feed." He seemed very bent on letting Caryn live.
I swiftly dove into Caryn's mind and severed her magic between my fingertips and when I came back up for air I felt Alexander. Caryn's neck lay in my grasp. His fists tightened around both my wrists as I attempted to carry through with my plan.
"You betray your line in making one of them out of an honorable witch, Alexander."
I was trying to struggle as he shifted. Jabbing my elbows as hard as I could into his stomach I pushed forward with my palms but it was to late.
He dropped me to the cold ground.
"It's not about honor," he rasped and disappeared.
"Alexander!" I yelled, "Damn it Alexander the counsel will skewer you when they find out about Caryn. Alexander, Alexander." I yelled beseeching for him to come back.
I was alone now, how I'd been most of my immortal life but why it made me so completely angry now I couldn't fathom.
He was really going to do it then, he was going to let her become a leech. Could I have underestimated the relationship of Alexander and Caryn, I didn't think that was it. Piecing together a motive for the betrayal he was committing just made me even worse as I began to lose control.
Losing control was the last thing I wanted to do, because the consequences that followed were never good. That you be vampire, witch, or mortal, keeping control was the highest power you could achieve.
I needed to settle down, just let it go, let it fall away, and disappear. So I sat back against the brick wall of an alien building just breathing, trying to turn away from the situation I should have turned over to the Witch Counsel, wherever that was.
It thundered overhead and the clouds rolled out to drop the rain it had been coveting for quite some time now. It started as droplets just here and there and then by the bucketfuls it poured.
They ran together over my cheeks, the clear water of the rain and the salty warmth of my tears. It had finally happened, despite both the warning of Salvatore and my own constant scolding of myself through all these years of immortality it came.
That warm-blooded disease had snuck in and spread like cancer through my whole body. I was hopelessly in love with Alexander, traitor to the Triste line and friend to the vampire, Caryn.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from in "In the Forest of the Night"
MPOV
I don't know how long I was standing there holding that phone to my ear with the droning beeps constantly going off to signal the connection had been severed.
It was Alexander who gently pulled the phone from my ear and shut it closed. He was quiet and calmly waited for me to respond.
"We, we, we," I stuttered.
I was trying to think but that scream. I just couldn't form coherent sentences with that shriek going off in my mind over and over and over. I was trying to pull myself together but it just wouldn't leave me alone. It brought back all the screams I'd ever heard, all the screams I'd ever caused.
I barely knew right from left. Up and down seemed to be the same direction as I stumbled over a street curb, movement seemed better than nothing at all. The loud honk from a 4x4 Dodge was a long and loud bawl as the tires screeched to a swerving stop.
Alexander gripped my waist and wrenched me backward all in the same second, both hands wrapped so tightly it knocked the air right out of me. Screams erupted from neighboring people who had caught sight of an almost death and I covered my ears. I did it to no avail it just swirled with the multitude of them that worked like a foghorn.
"Are you ok?" asked Alexander.
I looked over those high cheekbones and into those eyes as if to beg for forgiveness for what I had provoked to the poor soul Theo had found. I was going to tell him everything then and now so he could disappear like everyone else. I just didn't want Alexander to be like everyone else. More than anything I wanted him to stay and that's exactly why I had to let him go. That was why I had to push everyone away until they disappeared forever. It was death that followed with me and life without, the choice was easy but it was the choice that left me bleeding for no one to see.
Admitting this to myself was hard; admitting this to Alexander was near impossible. I know he couldn't hear my thoughts so I gazed until I'd get the heart to tell him. It was confession before I dealt with the person who showed themselves as the grim reaper to the few people who had stayed. And o how he'd pay, I wouldn't rest until he paid.
My lips were set against any mention of this garbage, although determination was lassoed around my tongue. Alexander looked back at me through golden orbs and ran a hand over my jaw line. Gently tilting my head to the side he kissed me. The screams faded and I tingled all the way down to my ankles. My lips we ambushed and my tongue, well I dropped the lasso.
Something clicked, my eyes shot up with the foreboding of who had made their dying outcries. I pushed him back in order to catch my breath but he didn't let go his arms still wrapped securely around me.
"Caryn," the word fell out of my mouth, and the revelation hit me like a brick wall.
"Caryn," I repeated his eyes so close to me the gold seemed to spark as I said it. "Caryn Smoke, that, that was Caryn," I tried to explain. "Theo, he said he found Caryn when he went looking for me, that was Caryn screaming," the repulsive crack reverberated through my bones.
He pulled me up and off the pavement and straight into a back alley. His fist was like iron on my wrist as it pulled me along I felt like a boat being overturned by the current.
Alexander shifted to Caryn's house, which for the life of me I couldn't understand why he hadn't offered to do just that before hand.
Caryn's house smelled of sage and peppermint mixed with blood and the nauseating smell of coming death. Alexander seemed a bit disoriented as he steadied himself on my arm. I could guess why he hadn't offered to just shift before. Motion sickness seemed a bit odd for a witch born with that gift but I only had a second to think about it.
Caryn was convulsing on the floor while two neat marks lay embedded in her throat her mouth was red with the blood only Theo could provide. She whimpered softly as she finally steadied and pulled into a protective ball.
Alexander knelt beside her and brushed her hair out of her eyes but I just couldn't bring myself to do it because then I'd be lying. I'd be lying about what I'd have to do in the next few minutes. I didn't want to lye to the person who had saved my life and I could do nothing to save her own life. The only kindness I could do was to make her death as painless as possible.
Alexander seemed new to the fact of killing our own kind. Experience I was more than willing to give up at any price. As I took the blade from my thigh he looked at me as if I had physically wounded him.
Salvatore had once told me that self-obedience was harder when you really didn't agree with what had to be done. That you did what you had to in life because although both the vampire and Triste were similar the law of the jungle was the same: Be Strong or Be Killed. I remember this specifically after laying to rest my brothers.
So I knelt before Caryn as she lay silent and serene, oblivious and out cold. I remained emotionless and numb to any and every feeling that decided it should make itself known before the knife came down. Except for the deep disgust I had for myself in being Caryn's murderess.
"I'm going to severe her magic, and then snap her neck so she can't feel when the knife goes through," I was prepared for Alexander to full on tackle me.
"What about the toxins we could try and destroy it?" he asked, stalling.
"Theo made his ties into her long before he ever called. I can feel it from here," I shamefully confessed.
"Then her magic, I can severe the line she could still live then," he argued.
The suggestion startled me. Was he so brash into thinking of letting her become a leech? I didn't know whether to be appalled or touched. It was possible of course but he was damn near crazy if he thought I was going to bottle feed her the kill she'd need.
"That's not an option," I replied calmly.
"Why not?" he pleadingly argued.
"What you're suggesting would mean we'd have to take the life of a mortal, a human being, so she could become one of them. We'd disown ourselves and dishonor Caryn." I told him gently.
"What if one of them took Caryn, to feed." He seemed very bent on letting Caryn live.
I swiftly dove into Caryn's mind and severed her magic between my fingertips and when I came back up for air I felt Alexander. Caryn's neck lay in my grasp. His fists tightened around both my wrists as I attempted to carry through with my plan.
"You betray your line in making one of them out of an honorable witch, Alexander."
I was trying to struggle as he shifted. Jabbing my elbows as hard as I could into his stomach I pushed forward with my palms but it was to late.
He dropped me to the cold ground.
"It's not about honor," he rasped and disappeared.
"Alexander!" I yelled, "Damn it Alexander the counsel will skewer you when they find out about Caryn. Alexander, Alexander." I yelled beseeching for him to come back.
I was alone now, how I'd been most of my immortal life but why it made me so completely angry now I couldn't fathom.
He was really going to do it then, he was going to let her become a leech. Could I have underestimated the relationship of Alexander and Caryn, I didn't think that was it. Piecing together a motive for the betrayal he was committing just made me even worse as I began to lose control.
Losing control was the last thing I wanted to do, because the consequences that followed were never good. That you be vampire, witch, or mortal, keeping control was the highest power you could achieve.
I needed to settle down, just let it go, let it fall away, and disappear. So I sat back against the brick wall of an alien building just breathing, trying to turn away from the situation I should have turned over to the Witch Counsel, wherever that was.
It thundered overhead and the clouds rolled out to drop the rain it had been coveting for quite some time now. It started as droplets just here and there and then by the bucketfuls it poured.
They ran together over my cheeks, the clear water of the rain and the salty warmth of my tears. It had finally happened, despite both the warning of Salvatore and my own constant scolding of myself through all these years of immortality it came.
That warm-blooded disease had snuck in and spread like cancer through my whole body. I was hopelessly in love with Alexander, traitor to the Triste line and friend to the vampire, Caryn.