Chapter 18
Ororo nearly plowed over Hank as she dove at her friend, embracing her in a firm, solid hug, crying with joy. "Are you hurt anywhere?"
"I'm fine!" Jean wheezed under the pressure and Ororo released her.
"What happened? Bright Lady, I thought you were going to die! You are not allowed to die, you hear?" her eyes were glazed with tears.
Jean smiled slightly, "Understood, my lady."
--------------------------------
It had taken nearly an hour but Moira managed to roll Remy onto a blanket and drag him out of the dungeons. The man was in rough shape with two gaping wounds seeping blood. It was surprising they weren't gushing. After pulling him up a ramp into the back of the Sisterhood's hay wagon, she collapsed with exhaustion. Sweat dripped down her face and neck, arms numb from the strain. After several seconds, she continued with her work dressing his injuries by moonlight, knowing she had precious little time before the other vampire arrived again.
She hitched up the Sisterhood's only mule to the wagon and saddled up their only horse, a Freesian, with hair black as night and a mane dark enough to melt into the shadows.
The horse had been found wandering the forest un-harnessed, unmarked and yet no owner ever emerged to claim the creature so the horse had been taken in by the Sisterhood. She couldn't bear to leave it behind, for fear it would become fodder of the other vampire, so she tied it to the back of the wagon, so it could follow.
She debated whether or not to light the lamp next to the driver's seat but decided the moon was bright enough and she better not draw attention to herself. Climbing into the seat at the head of the wagon, Moira prodded the mule and they went off into the night.
--------------------------------
Jean relayed the past night's events, omitting certain details regarding the Muir Cathedral in particular, feeling it was not the right time. Ororo had too much on her mind and one more thing to distract her could compromise their consorts' safety. "It's for only one more day…" she reasoned with herself.
Understandably, she was quite exhausted, "If you all wouldn't mind, I'd like to speak to Ororo privately." King Dayspring and his fellows dispersed without question. She leaned her head back onto the bedroll, her body relaxed, and she watched her friend lay out her bedding. "Ororo…how far are we from Nymon?"
Ororo yawned before answering. "About a day's journey. Though I am still worried we haven't run into the Jishin as Callisto warned, which of course means it will probably happen tomorrow with my luck." Her eyes were distant and Jean could tell the dark elf's mind was elsewhere. She was thinking of Remy again, and it was killing Jean to not tell her.
"What's wrong?" she feigned ignorance.
Ororo's eyes dropped in shame. "It's foolish…"
"You say that about everything."
Ororo lay down next to her friend, facing her, head resting on her hands and whispered, "I think I saw Remy tonight."
Jean's green eyed stare remained unhinged. "What makes you say that?"
"It could've just been me being tired but… when I was bathing, before Nathan retrieved me, I had this feeling I was being watched. I… I can't describe it because it was almost as if something whispered it in my ear. I turned, and in the dark, I saw his shadow and his red eyes were glowing, burning into me, I wanted to run up the banks and shout for joy but just as suddenly, he was gone, swallowed by the night." Ororo unconsciously curled up, knees up near her chin. "It haunts me to say it, but the stare was empty, devoid of any feeling. And I know it is silly to say I can get all that out of a pair of eyes, meters away but… you know my connection to him."
"Perhaps it was your eyes playing tricks on you. As you said, you have a connection to him and Lord knows you've been thinking about him non-stop."
Ororo's cheeks twinged pink in the firelight and her friend patted her hand. "Let's just make it to Nymon and we'll see how things pan out. In the meantime, I am so very tired." The sentence was punctuated with a lengthy yawn. "Sleep well, my queen and Trust Tania."
Ororo smiled at the words Jean used when Ororo had been just a child. The red haired woman had been not quite a mother to her, even though Ororo's own had died giving birth to her, but more of an older sister. Only then Jean had called her princess…"And you, my lady. And you."
-----------------
Remy wrestles in his sleep, his vision blurred by a hazy fog, all he can feel is panic, guilt, and pain. Lights are dancing before him, accompanied by hushed voices, but the fog is concealing them. Slowly, the fog creeps away and he sees figures from his past, dancing before his eyes. Faces he thought he had finally forgotten; had wanted forgotten.
A small framed blonde woman smiles at him, a smile that brings light to his heart. It is Belladonna, his wife from over 800 years ago, when he was mortal. Her smile disappears and now, she is calling to him, begging him for forgiveness but he doesn't know why.
Remy runs to embrace her, to hear her words "Belle… I can' hear you…Speak up, fille!" he shouts, his words falling on deaf ears. Red water floods in, covering her, devouring her… it's everywhere… thick as blood; her face is fading and he cannot see her anymore. Did he have something to do with her disappearance? "But why woul' she wan' my fo'giveness?" He cringes at the thought…
Anna Marie steps forward. A young woman, barely 20 with a slender figure, green eyes, and rich brown hair. "Hello, Remy."
"Anna?" he whispers.
She nods. "Have you been keeping my memory with you all this time?"
He couldn't bring himself to look into her eyes, remembering their tragic encounter.
Long ago, centuries, he had taken to her. Anna was only 16, the only child of a traveling merchant. Over time, she learned to fend for herself while her father was away but the solitude had taken its toll on her. By the time she was 20, Anna never left her house unless it was for food, having become a total recluse. By this time he was well over 200 years old.
In her, he'd found a kindred spirit that needed attention, but not the attention of a normal man. He never touched her in a lovers embrace, never tasted her life, but he had touched her heart.
She thought he was a figment of her imagination, a suitor in a line of many she had concocted. "Why, Mr. Lebeau! Roses for me? You'll make the others jealous. I haven't told them yet, but you're my favorite." She whispered, fearing that whomever she had in her mind would hear her words. "If I tell them though, they'll stop coming around." She giggled and he indulged her, even going so far as telling her he was a vampire but she tossed it aside, insisting he spun the wildest tales to gain her fancy.
When her father returned to find his daughter unhinged, he left her in the care of the local convent, an order of the Great Faerie. When Remy came to visit her in the night, Anna refused to acknowledge his presence, inwardly thinking he really was a part of her imagination, muttering prayers for him to leave her be. "Please… foul devil… leave me be… torment me no longer…"
Realizing she was lost to him, he departed, leaving a kiss on her forehead, his heart heavy. "Remember me, petite. I'll always remember you." Remy left in the shadows, contenting himself to observe her from afar over time, making sure she was cared for. It was only when she found peace in the arms of death that he abandoned her.
He focuses on the apparition before him now. "I tol' y' I'd never f'get you."
"How did it feel to watch me waste away, wither and die, lonely with a broken heart?" Her face begins to age, her body shriveling as her voice rose.
"I tol' y' what I was. Y' knew…I couldn't be wit' y'… I tried…"
"Knowing and understanding are two different things! You saw me suffer and did nothing. You should've finished me off like you intended, coward. Did you really need to wait 46 years to watch me die?" With her final words, she is reclaimed by the fog once more.
A hand touches his shoulder, warm and gentle. Reluctantly, Remy looks up and is relieved to see Ororo, his dark angel. Her hair is considerably longer than he remembers, the snowy strands falling down to her waste. "Remy…"
"Ororo, please. I don' want to hear how much y' hate me."
"I don't hate you." She drops down to her knees and from behind, wraps her arms around him in a hug. "I owe you my life. No matter your past, dear friend, it will not change the fact that I lo—," suddenly her words become choked garbles.
Remy turns, fire in his eyes to see Nathaniel Essex hand gripped around her throat. With a flick of a pale wrist, Ororo's neck snaps and she hangs limp. Essex drops her body, callously kicking her to the side.
Remy dives for her body, cradling her, tears rolling down his cheeks. He holds her face against his chest, her long, white hair spilling over him. "Ororo… my li'l Stormy…"
Nathaniel wipes his hands off on his coat, as if touching the woman had brought filth to him. "I considered tasting her, to feel what you did, the power that runs through the veins of one like her. However, I think this has sense of finality, and lost ideals."
"Y' son of a bitch!" Remy spat, leaving Ororo and lunging at Essex, a venomous coursing through his body. He phases through the ethereal man, who just laughs at his attempt to harm him.
"Forget your rage; you know you can't kill me without killing yourself. Although this is just your dream, Remy, I assure you, my thoughts are very much my own. You're the one that pulled me here. I was on my way to Muir to find your dead body. However, I notice that you're still very much alive…"
"Y' don' seem disappointed."
"I had other plans for you but it was a command asked of me by my Lord. No hard feelings. Although it took the longest time for me to convince him that I couldn't do it myself, what with this curse of not being able to kill your direct heir with your own hands etc… etc... But I didn't feel he needed to know that particular weakness of mine. Besides, after tonight's events, I have a few questions to ask you. When did you taste her?" he gestured his head towards the dead elf, the braid at the base of his neck tossing over his shoulder as he did.
"Who?" Remy stared at him in defiance, knowing exactly who he was talking about. He'd be damned before he told anything about Ororo to a man like Nathaniel.
Countless seconds ticked by before Essex grabbed him by the collar, pulling him close to his face, red eyes burning into equally fiery ones, his voice husky with anger. "Do not get silent with me. I know you've had her blood on your tongue. Not only can I smell the lust for her on you but I saw her tonight. And she was very much aware of my presence which could only mean…"
"What?" His eyes were menacing but fear gripped him, knowing that Essex had lain eyes on Ororo… that he knew where she was…
Essex shoved Remy away and threw his hands up in the air, frustrated, and strangely, amused, at his progeny's boldness. "What do you think?" He began to stroke his beard. "Remy, I know you're not stupid but wisdom seems to abdicate you tonight. You forget that when I sired you, you gave up your independence. We're linked boy. And although I might not know every thought that passes through that skull of yours, you can be assured that I have my ways of finding what I seek."
"Y' can' find shit 'bout me. De guild's disbanded, an' I ain't talked t' no one in years."
Sinister smiled, revealing sharp teeth. "They wouldn't have anything that interests me anyway. However, the Queen of Elves looks most delectable. I think I will see what flavor the dark elf has to her…" Essex began to fade.
"Wait! Wait… I will tell you… just, leave her alone." Remy reluctantly admitted, bitter that Nathaniel could goad him so easily.
Nathaniel's apparition grew stronger, a smirk on his face. "It is amazing that unimaginable strength you possess to cling to your humanity is still your greatest weakness. As long as you remain a man, Lebeau, I will always own you, playing the pawns you set around yourself."
"D' y' want to know de answers or not, homme?" he said dryly.
"Of course. When did you bite her?"
"I didn'."
"If we're going back to this circle of no words and nonsense, I will leave because I have an elf to…"
"Y' asked if I bit. I didn'. Don' get mad at me when y' asked de dumb question."
"You are in no position to be smug, whelp," he said through clenched teeth, "When and how is it you came to taste her?"
"First day."
"Are you lying?" There was another silent pause as Essex searched Remy's very soul, it seemed. "No. You're not lying. Fascinating. Oh, the torture you are in must be exquisite…" he mulled. "And how?"
"Saved de femme from an armor piercin' arrow. Took it right t'rough here." He pointed at his heart. "Was runnin' on empty, so I t'ought I was done for. She saw de teeth n' eyes an' wit'out hesitation, cut herself f' me," Remy begins to recall the burning on his tongue from her blood, followed by the soothing warmth dripping down his throat… the selflessness she repaid… the thoughts and feelings within her being, passed to him through her blood… but mostly the power in her life. Torturing him yet sustaining him, giving him strength… lulling the demon and awakening his humanity.
"This is too perfect…" Essex was clearly lost in his own thoughts, as he absorbed Remy's unguarded emotions in the memory. The possibility in a new race tantalized him, preying upon elves to produce a new vampire, but what Remy was claiming fulfilled one of the prophecy's recorded by Tania's scribe, Destiny. A prophecy that did not bode well for his master, not that Essex felt obligated to inform Nur anyway…
"Y' leave Ororo alone now." Remy stated, implying no request but a demand for her safety.
"I cannot promise you anything beyond myself. I will leave her be until she's under your watch. Then it's up to you to keep me away." He faded from Remy's sight, abandoning him to the mists of his own mind.
---------------------------------
author's note: you know what's funny? When you absentmindedly change something your spell check recommends and in the final read over, you get this sentence, "Why Mr. Labia, roses for me?" Perfect LOL moment. Thanks for the patience on this chapter! I hope I delivered!
I think I fixed all the grammar errors that snuck through the first posting of this.