Haven't had time to write a lot lately, but I wanted to update… sorry for the shortness of this…
She awoke to a dark blue morning light. Integra sat up and breathed the sweetest breath she ever took. Closing her eyes, she tried to remember the details of the night, but all she could remember was agony and a continued purgatory of near consciousness. She sat in bed still for some time, cautiously breathing in and out, waiting for the pain to return. When it didn't, she swung her legs over her bed to stand. Halfway through the motion she paused.
'What?' she said under her breath.
She slid her hand over her leg slowly. Her skin seemed tighter and where there was none before, there was now slight muscle. She examined her hands. Once wrinkled and twisted from arthritis, now replaced with long straight fingers and tauter skin.
Integra threw herself over the bed and onto the floor. She gasped for air, trying hard to breathe, but panic had already set in. She remembered the night, of suffering so intensely. This was neither Heaven nor Hell. She was alive.
In bare feet and a night gown she ran to the door, turning to avoid the mirror, and abandoning all conventions and beliefs that one must always be presentable when leaving the bedroom, she threw open the door and quickly moved down the staircase.
Should I call to him? She thought. Breaking from a brisk walk to a jog, she went down another set of stairs. On her way down the second flight, she promptly stopped in the middle and looked down at herself. A white knight gown? For some reason knowing that she was changed during her hellish night made her all the more furious. As she came closer to his quarters she slowed and eventually stopped before the giant steel doors.
What has he done to me? Was the only thought racing through her mind. She knew what she wasn't and that was a vampire. He had done something else. For Integra, someone who was schooled in monsters, not to know was quite the accomplishment of the persecutor.
Quite abruptly she felt the air change behind her and sensed something. Before she could even turn arms wrapped tightly around her waist. The steel door and stone walls in front of her became fuzzy and hazed. The haze was replaced with another image that slowly came into focus. As soon as the arms let her go she spun around, but he was already gone. The air had become cooler. Tall green hedges surrounded her and the cold stone path beneath her bare feet led to a lavish fountain. She was outside in the mansion's immense back garden. The moon hung high in the sky and stars were now visible. It was not morning. It was another night. She took a wavering breath. In the midst of all that happened, the only thing she wanted was to see the sun again…
She walked to the wooden bench beside the fountain and sat heavily.
Integra began to go over all the details of the previous night, but one moment stood out in particular to her. She remembered a horrible thirst and something cold being pressed to them; then, a liquid running past her lips.