Just then the door to Los Noches flew open and in the doorway stood a bloody and soaked Caryn Smoke. She weakly looked up at the three surprised vampires, pain in her eyes as she spoke one word before she collapsed onto the hard floor.
"Dominique." Jessica flew across the room with fear that she was dead, but was relieved to see that she was still alive. Blood was everywhere and Caryn was soaked in it from the many deep and wide cuts that were obviously the result of Dominique's many knives. There were many bruises that were visible on her bare skin, the places where her shirt was torn, as well as on her face and throat. Her breathing was short and raspy, and as Jessica inspected her, was the result of a collapsed lung.
"She's lost a lot of blood." Jessica said as she looked at the already massive puddle that had formed on the floor were Caryn laid.
"What are we going to do? We can't let her die and give my mother the satisfaction." Sarah asked gravely.
"I know." Jessica said, as she, without another word, bit her own wrist and held it to Caryn's mouth.
"Wait! No! Don't, she can't be blood bonded because of her witch blood." Sarah exclaimed as she tried to stop Jessica.
"I'm not doing that, I'm just giving her the ability to be able to make it on her own through the night." Jessica said as she waited for several more seconds before hauling her wrist away, the cut healing instantly.
"Let's get her home." Aubrey said as he picked Caryn up. The three of them appeared back at Jessica and Aubrey's house, in yet another unused bedroom. Jessica used her telepathy to open the thick drapes, allowing the outdoors to be visible.
"Aubrey get me some bandages." Jessica ordered as she stripped off her jacket as she sat down beside the bed where Caryn layed. She began examing the wounds, keeping her focus on her heartbeat, which was pumping strongly again thanks to Jessica's blood in her system. Aubrey ran back into the room, his arms overflowing with bandages. Sarah took some of them from him and knelt down beside Jessica, who began tending to Caryn's wounds.
"There are so many. The damage is emmense." Sarah said painfully as she looked at what her mother had done.
"Don't do it Sarah." Jessica said, looking over to Sarah as she continued to tend to Caryn.
"She deserves it." Sarah argued has she contained her anger.
"Wait, save your anger for later. Trust me she will come after you." Jessica replied truthfully. Sarah did not reply but only nodded as she watched Caryn's motionless body.
"What can be done about her internal injuries?" Aubrey asked.
"The same that she did for me." Jessica answered as she finally finished bandaging the major cuts. Sarah and Aubrey looked at Jessica in shock as they watched as she suddenly started glowing a mystical dark red. Her hair rose up in back around her, her eyes blood red as she placed her hand over Caryn's chest. A strong breeze circled around her, the power that she was emitting was almost smothering. The temperature in the room dropped drastically, and the breeze faded. The light faded and everything was back to normal as Jessica removed her hand from Caryn's chest.
"What the hell was that?" Aubrey asked as he and Sarah looked at each other, the same question on their minds.
"Let's just say Siete's blood in me does more than give me lavishing looks." Jessica answered with a mysterious smile.
"She's going to be alright, all her internal injuries are healed." Sarah said as she stood by the bed, inspecting Caryn.
"The internal yeah, but I'm afraid she's not quite out the woods yet. She still has her surface wounds and I'm not quite sure how entirely my blood will react with her system." Jessica explained as she covered Caryn up with the blankets.
"All we can do now is wait till she wakes up." She continued as she stood up.
The next night after the three of them had gone out and hunted for the night, Jessica volunteered to be the one to sit and watch Caryn while Aubrey took Sarah out in the backyard to get her use to her new vampire skills. There had been no change in Caryn's condition, but her aura was even more tainted than before. Jessica hauled a chair up to Caryn's bedside, sat down, and placed her laptop on her lap and began trying to finish organizing her files which had gotten scattered around her harddrive over the past few months. After about half an hour she looked up as she heard a sound coming from the bed, Caryn was awake.
"About time you woke up. You had us worried." Jessica said as she closed her laptop and sat it aside.
"Jessica?" Caryn asked as she blinked to try to clear her vision.
"The one and only." Jessica replied lightheartedly, moving a piece of hair out of her face.
"Where am I?" Caryn asked as she looked around at the room.
"At my and Aubrey's house, in New Mayhem. The same one you were brought to that night." Jessica answered with a smile.
"I remember now. How, did I get here?" Caryn asked as she tried to remember back.
"We brought you back here after you came crashing into Los Noches last night. I bandaged you up and healed your internal injuries, mind you, you wouldn't have lived through the night if I hadn't of gave you just the right amount of my blood." Jessica explained briefly, looking away as she mentioned the last part.
"You what?" Caryn exclaimed,
"Nothing will happen, trust me. It wasn't enough to do anything, might give you a bit of fighting power but that's it." Jessica said truthfully.
"Thanks then, I guess we're even now. I saved you, you saved me." Caryn laughed quietly.
"I did it only because your my friend, not because I owed you one. I mean Dominique messed you up quite badly." Jessica said with a grin.
"Sure feels like it." Caryn remarked.
"What happened?" Jessica asked quietly, placing her hand on Caryn's hand.
"I came home last night from SingleEarth, I saw my mother sitting at the kitchen table, she was crying. I asked her what was wrong, but she jumped to her feet and told me to get out of there before Dominique discovered I was there. I asked her what she ment and she told me that Dominique was very angry at me and that if I wanted to live, then I had better flee until she was able to calm Dominique down. I had no sooner started to ask why she was angry at me, when I felt myself being thrown across the room in the wall. Dominique had found me alright, and boy was she livid. It was worse than when she found out I had helped you that night. There was fire in her eyes and I'm pretty sure she gave me several massive beats before she told why she was pissed. She blamed me for her youngest daughter Sarah's death the other night. Said it was my fault because I let her go after Nikolas and Kristopher and never tried to stop her but let her go. I tried to tell her otherwise but she screamed that it was nothin but lies. She then decided to vent her anger out on me somemore and hauled out her best knife and had some fun with that. If it wasn't for Sarah's sister tackling her mother to the ground and knocking her out, I might not have survived. Somehow I managed to run, or well stumble, from my house to Los Noches without passing out or attracting some unwanted persons with all the blood I was losing." Caryn explained, taking a deep breath.
"The bitch." Jessica whispered pounding the bed lightly in anger.
"I don't where I can go now. I can't go back home without Dominique trying to finish what she started, although I suppose I could stay at SingleEarth till I could make more permamant arrangements." Caryn said thoughtfully as she pondered her future.
"I'll hear none of that. Your home will be here, with us." Jessica stated firmly as she looked Caryn directly in the eyes.
"I don't want to be a burden to you and Aubrey, Jessica." Caryn argued.
"That's bull. We had plenty of space, too much in fact. We need some life in this place, and you'd be the first." Jessica said, laughing lightly. Caryn laughed at her truthful joke and closed her eyes in thought, clearly heavily debating her choice.
"Then in that case I'll will take you up on your offer." Caryn said, opening her eyes.
"I knew you would." Jessica laughed.
"Most likely." Caryn replied.
"Sarah will be glad to hear that you will be staying, she was really worried about you, especially since it was her mother that did it." Jessica said.
"Sarah? Sarah Vida?" Caryn asked, sitting up with great effort.
"Well I suppose she dropped the last name, but yes Sarah Vida." Jessica answered, helping her with her pillows.
"I thought she was dead?" Caryn asked shrilly.
"Well she is, but as a vampire. She was changed by Kristopher and Nikolas." Jessica answered sitting back in her chair.
"Her sister said she was dead, she said she saw her die." Caryn claimed.
"Only to give Sarah time to prepare for when her mother found out and came after her." Jessica said, brushing lint off of her shirt.
"Oh my God." Caryn exclaimed. Just then her bedroom door came open and Sarah ran in, her hair wild.
"Your awake!"she cried, running over to Caryn, wrapping her into a careful hug.
"I thought you were dead." Caryn said tearfully.
"Well I'm here, one way or the other." Sarah replied as she released Caryn, looking at her with a smile as she sat on the side of the bed.
"I would have never ever thought or even dreamt that something like this would happen to you. I would have figured that you would have fallen on your knife instead." Caryn said, tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Oh come on now, don't cry over little ol' me. I'm a vampire now, so what? Aubrey and Jessica have helped me realized that it's not the end of the world and that it's got a bad rap that you don't know the truth about till you acually are a vampire." Sarah said comfortingly as she took Caryn's hand into her own.
"The Sarah Vida I knew would have never said that, so please excuse me when I admit how shocked I am." Caryn replied with a small smile.
"Well the Sarah Vida you knew died the other night. Now you know Sarah Dakota." Sarah said with a pain filled smile. Caryn looked wide eyed at her with surprise of what she just said.
"Listen you better get some more sleep and rest. I need to go, I have some stuff I need to finish, but'll see you in the morning alright?" Sarah said as she quickly got to her feet.
"Alright." Caryn answered. Sarah nodded and rushed out the bedroom door, closing it behind her. Caryn looked over at Jessica, wiping her eyes somewhat dry.
"Yeah, I'm going after her." Jessica said as she dissapeared from the room.
"I'll go make sure the house is secure." Aubrey said as he too dissapeared.
Jessica walked into the living room area of the house. There was several arm chairs scattered about the room and a large sofa sat before the fireplace. The wall surrounding the fireplace was marble and the mantle was white stone. The room gave of a cozy feeling to it, something that surprised Jessica still to this day as to how Aubrey had managed to decorate without the help of a woman. Jessica particularily loved the carpet, which was a vibrant white and was soft and cushiony to walk on. There were french styled lamps ontop of dark oak coffee tables, which gave the room a slight foreign look.
Sitting curled up on the end of the sofa nearest the fireplace was Sarah. Jessica walked over and sat down next to her, tucking her left leg underneath her. The two of them sat in complete silence, their minds even at rest as they watched the flames of the burning fire. Jessica knew what was bothering her and could see and totally understand why. She had started several short novellas about the Vida line, and knew very well that any Vida had a backload of pride in them that was hard to discard of. It was time to break the silence for it was not good to go this long without talking about something as personal as what was bothering her. Morning would be there soon and she wanted to get at least a few hours sleep before she had to begin the wait for the moment when Dominique would come barging in the doors of Los Noches.
"So you've officially closed off your last link to your human life, huh?" Jessica said as she looked over at Sarah with a comforting smile. Why was it that she is so nice to Sarah? She was never nice to people her age before but then she met Sarah and Caryn, who somehow became her first acual best friends.
"No, Caryn is my last link, and thanks to my mother I almost lost her." Sarah said emotionally, something which surprised her.
"I know how you feel. She's my last link too. She is also the first best friend I acually ever had. You being the second." Jessica replied as she tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear.
"My mother always told me to never let emotions get in my way, that they would make me weak. Friendships were for people who were normal, not for my kind. Caryn was the first friend I ever had." Sarah said as she closed her eyes and replayed the memories in her mind.
"We're talking as if she's dead instead of being upstairs asleep in her bed." Jessica stated with a small smile.
"She'll flip out if she knew that we were doing this." Jessica added.
"My mother will pay for doing that to her. She can't go back to school, my mother will have others watching for her, ready to spring to try to finish the job and try to get information out of her." Sarah said vengefully as she opened her eyes and looked over at Jessica.
"We will watch her and keep her safe." Jessica said reasuringly.
"How? She's a witch, you can't keep a witch cooped up without driving them insane." Sarah replied returning her gaze to the crackling fire.
"She has my blood in her. I'll know where she is at all times, but we will restrict her to New Mayhem." Jessica said as she continued to watch Sarah.
"That's true, but what about those like Fala? I'm sure that they won't miss their chance to get her for being a witch." Sarah replied as she stretched out her legs.
"My blood will enable her to have enough strength to hold off any of them probally even take some of them out till I can get there. We can give her some of your blood so that you can keep track of her as well." Jessica answered thoughtfully.
"I don't want to see her blood bonded with either of us. I've seen the results of it, it's worse than any disease known to man." Sarah said as she thought back to all of the times she had seen blood bonded humans passed out on garbage worthy couches, addicted to the vampires blood.
"She won't, because she won't have enough to do that to her." Jessica said, laying her hand on Sarah's shoulder.
"I promise."
"Alright then let's go do it now. I don't want to do it while she's awake." Sarah said.
"Alright." Jessica replied. The two of them appeared up in Caryn's room, where she laid sleeping peacefully. Sarah walked quietly up beside her, bared her fangs and bit her own wrist. Carefully she lowered her wrist down over Caryn's mouth and lets her drink the thick blood. Caryn automatically sucked at the blood from Sarah's wrist, and swallowed it, continuing for several more seconds before Jessica motioned for Sarah to move her wrist away.
"Let's let her be for the remainder of the night. You should try to sleep to refresh your memory of the past events so that you can recall them when the time comes in the days to follow." Jessica said as she fixed the blankets on Caryn's bed.
"She should be a lot better in the morning, hopefully up and walking around." Sarah said as the two of them left the room.