Note: In dedication to every loyal reader, reviewer, critiquer, I want to thank /you/ for making this piece of writing possible. Without you, I honestly don't think I could have ever finished it. And guess what? I am going to actually finish something this big for the first time! I have trouble reading a novel all the way to the end, much less writing them.
We have two more chapters left. Not including this one, two. I can't believe it's been an entire year since I've started this thing. An entire year, thirty chapters, 200+ reviews later. Holy fucking shit, guys! This is really... really... dignifying. Enough of my mush. Celebrate the third to last chapter of Vengeance is Written in Blood. The last chapter will be followed by an extremely lame little ending summary that could be classified as an epilogue, and a bonus epilogue with twist that NONE OF YOU will be ready for.
Chapter 28 – Aftermath
Destiny, a predetermined existence; the concept can both infuriate and advance a person. For some, destinies are filled out no matter what a person chooses; for others, they desire to fill out their fate exactly as they are designed to. Then there was the smaller handful, such as myself, who were told their destiny in whispers and bedtime stories since birth. This did nothing but anger me. I felt like I wouldn't be able to live my own life, that I was living something a higher being wanted me too. I felt if I surrendered to a predetermined fate, I wouldn't be a true human being, I would only be a puppet to God.
To live, to die, who decides it? Certainly not God, whoever that was. If I had learned anything while I resided in that hell with Courtney, it was that we control our own lives, and sometimes the lives of others. Destiny and fate had nothing to do with it.
Voices and beeping and lights began to steal me from my subconscious.
"She has several bite marks like the victims found in the rivers. Do you think she was telling the truth about that vampire?" A female voice asked. Beep. Beep. Beep.
A masculine voice replied, "I don't know, and it's not my job to know. Patch up every wound and treat the bite marks like a dog bite. There is trauma to the back of her head, another nurse mentioned the swelling has increased in the past few minutes. Test her system for any drugs, hook her up with some water, she's dehydrated, and Christ, give her something for the pain." There was a sudden pain in my wrist, I screamed in my subconscious. Beep, Beep, Beep! "A badly sprained wrist, too. Do a scan later and make sure it's not broken. The investigators might want to test for rape, go ahead and do it for them when you're done with everything else."
"Yes doctor." the female from before said in a rushed tone.
"God save the queen." He whispered, his voice fading.
Beep. Beep. Beep...
The darkness I continued to rest in had no sense of time. I heard the doctor and his nurses now and again, but after the doctor's voice faded for the second time, and that continuous beeping continued at a slow rate, beep beep beep, a very familiar and completely soothing voice took my ears and held me in oblivion. The voice was that of soft velvet, or the rolling of the gentle ocean waves, or a hum of a winding breeze in the valley. When the voice whispered my name, it was enough to tantalize me out of my darkness. A lighter condition brightened the vision of my closed eyes.
"Allison, I'm so sorry." The perfect voice told me again.
I tried to say a phrase in return, but my mouth never opened.
"I love you."
My sapphire eyes fought their way open against the light. The white walls and florescent lights of the hospital flooded my vision and for a moment white was all I could see.
"Allison?" The velvety voice asked with worry.
My blurry bright vision became focused with each blink. Darkness, light, darkness, light.
I looked to where the voice that aroused me was produced and I concentrated on the pale tan color of his square jaw and strong cheeks, the gorgeous yellow strands of his hair shining with the highlight of the lights above, then his intense, icy blue eyes that hovered over my form.
"Luke," I started, a faint smile on my lips. I was overjoyed just to see him, but I knew I would find even more comfort in his touch. My hand reached up to feel his smooth, cold skin. There was a pulse reader on my finger tip, it pressed against his unnaturally cool, unique skin. Skin that wasn't quite soft and squishy that held a certain hardness to it yet was comforting to lean into. He wasn't human, I knew, but behind his eyes and in his heart and soul he was more of a human than any mortal. He held more emotion and felt more intensely than any human I'd ever met. It was honestly odd to imagine a life where his absence was predominate. "I love you." I voiced.
I hadn't realized what I said until after I'd said it again. The words just slipped from me without thought, they felt so right, so natural for me to say. And they were completely true. I prayed that what I'd said wasn't too much to say.
His eyebrows arched in their shock, then he closed his eyes and smiled to himself.
"I never thought that a near death experience would finally make you realize it." Luke replied softly. A small chuckle erupted and a very thankful sound was in his perfect voice.
"What? You mean, you knew?"
"Allison, everyone knew that you loved Luke except for you." Lucy chimed in sweetly. "Even Taylor, I bet." Taylor made no comment to that.
It was my turn to be surprised when my angel spoke. I blushed a respectable amount; I hadn't noticed the other people in the room when my confession came out. My world beheld only Luke as its centerpiece in those moments. I felt the warmth in my cheeks, my face was surely red as I looked up at Luke, then down at my lap.
"Hey," He started, his cool finger reaching underneath my chin. My eyes lifted to his benevolent again. "You're beautiful, you always will be. And I also love you, Allison."
I wanted to shout in joy and cry in happiness at the same time; instead, Luke placed a sweet, slow kiss on my lips. It was intimately received.
"I bet I don't look very good with all of these tubes and bandages on me." I told Luke with a slight embarrassment. He shook his head.
"You always look very lovely." He replied, then kissed my forehead. "It's almost dawn. Taylor and I will see you again tonight."
I nodded my head toward him as he rose and turned toward the door. "Wait," I called back. "What ever did The Grand Council decide about me?"
Luke froze for a moment. He turned back, his eyes hidden under his blond hair. "Well... I sort of... improvised."
"He bought more time for your life by formally announcing to the Grand Council that you were dead." Taylor finished easily for him. Luke let his head fall before lifting it with an awkward smile. He shrugged his shoulders.
"What if they find out I'm not dead?" I asked carefully.
"Well, if that happens, I will make sure that you are at least kept alive long enough to do the job you want to do now." Taylor answered. His coal eyes narrowed over me, and I knew exactly of what he was referring.
Taylor understood exactly what I wanted. Yes, I'd always wanted to rid of Courtney, but after that experience in her personal hell, I wanted to kill her myself. I wanted to be the one to end her life. I wanted to make her scream, bleed, beg, anything to give back even an ounce of horror she gave me. Taylor understood this and he was going to make it happen. I nodded a thank you toward him while Luke and Lucy looked a bit confused. There was no time for the group of us to discuss it at the moment, thankfully.
"I'll see you soon." Luke bid, and he and Taylor left the room.
There was a churning inside my stomach when the door closed, making me ill. But not physically, I was ill internally, deep within the chest where my soul and heart resided. There was unrest within me, unrest that wanted Courtney's head on a golden platter.
When my angel's gorgeous pink fleshy features and blonde hair, slightly curled near the bottom came into view, a fraction of the unrest subsided. She smiled at me with a certain worried glimmer in the oceanic blue of her orbs. I could tell she was very relieved to see me alive and awake.
"How long have I been like this?" I asked her, motioning toward the tubes running out of me and devices attached, either giving me water or keeping my pulse. The beep beep beep never ceased. She sat down in the seat next to my hospital bed. She held her arm under her flat stomach, the palm of her hand warmed the skin through her shirt. I frowned as I noticed this. I thanked whatever deity that was above that Lucy was not kidnapped also, and I was glad that she hadn't lost hope during the day or days I was missing. Time was a tool that was lost to me after I was taken.
"Well, about two days, I think. Nicolas and his father come by day and stay all day, Luke and Taylor come as soon as Nick and Luis retire for the evening and before they return. Everyone's been really worried." As she said this, I noticed the dark circles under her eyes and the lack of luster in her enthusiasm and tone.
"And what about you, Luce? When do you come and go?"
"I don't." She admitted. "I stay here, and sleep on that poor excuse for a bed." She pointed behind her on the makeshift bed of a cushioned bench covered in blankets on the other side of the room. "I want to stay, to be here for the moment when you woke up from your rest. You really look like you need more rest, too. I also stay because Luke wanted someone to be here to give him a signal of when it's okay for him to come, so that he doesn't conflict with anybody like Nicolas or Luis. I guess he owes me one now."
"Yeah." I replied. I glanced over her exhausted features. "You look like you need a hot shower a good night's sleep, Luce."
"Speak for yourself." She said, holding her nose to tease me about the fact I hadn't showered since before the kidnapping.
"Ew." I said when I realized this fact. The nurses had just sponge bathed me when I came in so that they could cleanly dress my wounds. Besides that, she was right.
We chatted a little while longer, avoiding the important subjects like what I'd thought about Lucy and her baby while I resided in hell, or perhaps how worried Lucy was for me. How would she have reacted to losing another close friend? Perhaps her last close friend. Henry Davidson, my Prime Minister and Lucy's love interest, came into the room and interrupted our petty chat while holding a bag of food and a fresh cup of coffee for Lucy. He was dressed casually, a look I hadn't seen on him, and his hair was freely flowing and not held intact with fancy hair products.
"Good morning, lovely!" He announced lively to Lucy. "How's the sleeping beauty?" he asked, then pecked a kiss on Lucy's cheek.
"Awake." We replied at the same time. He jumped into the air and looked over at me and saw my eyes were open.
"Good God! I didn't notice you had moved! I thought you'd still be resting, my Queen." He told me apologetically.
"I'm nobody's queen right now, Henry." I replied, a certain edge to my tone. It was the crack of dawn outside and the man was livelier than ever.
"Even so, it's a blessing to see you awake and recovering. Shall I call Nicolas and deliver him the good news or should I let him be just as surprised as I was?" he asked me.
"Let him sleep. I don't think the doctors will let me go anywhere at the moment."
"True. The dark cloud looming has parted, at least. The sunlight may now cut through and no longer dampen the hearts of this country! I must depart now, business calls me elsewhere."
With a skip in his step, my Prime Minister escaped from the room in poetry that was almost a song.
"He's definitely a keeper." I teased Lucy. She looked down at her knees and blushed. A short pause rested between us as I glanced at how her arms were positioned; she was cradling the growing baby within her without even realizing. "Have you told him about... you know?" I glanced at her stomach.
She half smiled. "Same answer to the question 'Have you told Luke that you're engaged to Nicolas?'"
I laughed nervously. "I see. Looks like we both have something to get off our chest with our men, then."
Within the day, Nicolas had come to my room and was very joyed to see that I was awake and fairly well. He came alone, and I took the opportunity to converse with him about how my disappearance was going to be covered up.
"Allison! I've been so worried. It's a great relief to see you awake." I could see that his words weren't fully expressing the extent of his joy.
"I'm relieved to see you too, Nicki." I replied softly with a smile. He gingerly placed a kiss on my cheek and I did the same for him. The stubble of a queen-less week chafed my lips. "Has anything happened politically since I've been in the hospital?"
"Nothing. No one has touched a single document while you've been... what happened to you, Allison?" He asked with his eyebrows curled in pure concern.
"What have you told the public?" I asked him.
"The public is censored right now. We wanted to keep the incident contained in case it was a political kidnapping."
"Not a political kidnapping." I retorted under my breath. Nicolas heard and leaned closer to my bed in his seat. His auburn hair fell over his eyes as he waited for my words to enlighten him of the true events.
"Nicolas, I want you to tell the public that my disappearance was merely an accident. I was out riding when the storm began, then my horse and I slipped from the edge of a small cliff and I was trapped at the base in the rain and found by a guard who was in the search parties to find me."
The man seemed shocked and drawn aback by my statement. "Everyone will know that it isn't the truth." Meaning 'Tell me the truth.'
"But they will accept it because they'll be told nothing else." Translation 'I'm not going to tell you.'
"What is the truth, Allison? I can see horror in your eyes, but I can't imagine what events had taken you away from your home for fifty-four hours and brought you back in your current condition." I could detect the plea in his voice. It was the same begging that he'd possessed since I returned and he wanted to know where I'd been and what I'd been doing.
"I'll tell you, but not today. Please, I don't wish to recall right now."
The stunning brown eyes searched over me for a moment, they tried to uncover any hidden meanings or truths my eyes may have held. Then he gave up, and bowed his head. "Yes, your majesty." I internally flinched at the formality of his response. There was no fondness in it at all.
"I am truly sorry, Nicki. I wish I could tell you everything that you deserve to hear, but now is not the time."
"I understand perfectly, Allison."
I doubted those words, but replied, "Alright." Our conversations then and for the next two weeks were weak and short. They lacked intimate subjects and fondness. Our relationship was casual and business-like and every time I noticed this I strained to make him understand why I could not abide my knowledge in him.
In those two weeks, my injuries had healed. My wrist was strong again, my wounds were mere scars that were almost invisible against the milky tone of my skin, but my hair had remained the same honeysuckle color of a white blonde equivalent to Courtney's. Nobody, not even myself, knew exactly why I didn't dye it back. Part of the reason, if there was one, was because the cover story Nicolas publicized told that I'd wanted a change in hair color after I was crowned, and in the same day the 'horrible accident' happened (that my horse had slipped and I tumbled down a cliff while I was riding and the storm caught me outdoors). The other part of the reason I didn't wash out the color was because I wanted it to be a reminder to Luke, Taylor, Lucy and Julie. A reminder to why we'd come back to the country and what our goal was. Courtney. Killing Courtney, capturing Courtney, murdering, tearing, burning, cutting Courtney.
I made sure to see Taylor every day after I was released from the hospital. He would stare at me with dark, vengeful eyes when I floated passed him in a becoming dress. I appreciated the passion he held in them for her death very much; I knew mine now equaled his. My cosplay wasn't well appreciated by Luke, however. Luke's beautiful icy eyes would pass over me and he'd silently disapprove of my choices of attire and my behavior around Taylor. I was sure that my striking resemblance to the vampiress with the complete hair color brought up memories for him, too. He understood why I acted so disturbed; I had been with the disturbed and cursed, and he blamed himself for that. I knew he wanted me to be consoled and happy, but that couldn't happen while Courtney lived. I had gotten myself in too deep to ever back out and be satisfied with existing on the same plane as her. Vengeance was a curse in my blood now, compared to my ignorant, witless days in America when I was never so absorbed in revenge and I was capable of moving passed my mother's death and royal duty without the knowledge of any vampire. Of course, as fate would have it, my blood was too strong and curious to just leave the mysteries and secrets unsolved and unrevealed. I had sought the knowledge of my mother's killer and the secrets of my family's curse and I had received them; and now I looked at the situation I had created around myself and couldn't complain. Perhaps it would have been better if I never found the knowledge I sought. Perhaps not. There was no way to tell, and in all honesty, I wouldn't have it any other way.
The night was bare and lacked a moon when I abandoned the dresses of Courtney's choice and I appeared before Luke in his favorite outfit on me, a simple black robe which dragged along the floor and untied to reveal the lacy lingerie beneath.
I made the two weeks prior to this night a sort of festival leading up to the big event we'd all been waiting for: Courtney's execution. I liked to think I had gotten everybody in the mood for that day; it certainly was a day worth celebrating. Taylor scarcely came out of the library, Lucy comforted when it was needed, Julie was constantly on a string of errands, and Luke was more grim than I'd ever seen him before. He worried, so much, and he wanted to blame himself for everything that was happening. I couldn't let him do that, though.
He sat on the edge of my bed with his hands folded underneath his chin and watched with hungry eyes as I walked before him in his favorite. "Luke, please don't worry anymore." I began in a soft plea. I knelt before him and placed my chin on his knee.
"Easier spoken than accomplished." He replied.
"You look terrible."
"You look amazing. Please, it is I who should be at your knees." He urged me to rise and I did and took a place in his lap. My warm hands cupped his cold face with skin so unique and smooth...
"I apologize for the way I've been acting lately. I know you've been worried, about more than just I. I assure you, you won't have to worry anymore very soon."
He was puzzled by this decree. His skin, usually a perfect marble smoothness and whiteness now took a bit of a gray tint. I thought it was because his diet had strictly been bottled blood ever since the kidnapping. He couldn't stand to leave my side when the sun was absent, not even for an instant to feed. I wished nothing more than for his happiness at this point, because I knew he'd given so much, and whatever way I could give him bliss, I bent to the will of his felicity.
"Apology not needed. I understand completely why you've acted the way you have. There is no fallacy." He replied cordially.
I stood, and the robe once tied around my body found the floor. I recognized the faint smirk on the edges of Luke's lips and the unmistakable lust in his eyes. During the love making, I allowed my blood to be a desire he could savor in. As I said, I bent to whatever aspiration he possessed. Usually just a small, painless slit would be made and sampled. I felt reticent when he kissed every single scar on my body that I received from Courtney. He felt guilt in them, and even though they were practically invisible to my eyes, he must have seen them with ease. After this, I would do all I could to pleasure, and he would do the same. Even within these darker hours there was always a candle lit with just a glint of good times and romance. I loved him, I knew.
We were very close, so much so that it was difficult to image the room without his presence in it. I rose from the bed after our intimate connection, drew on a robe, and he followed me with only a pair of boxers to cover him. I gathered the two of us in the library, where the door to the outside balcony was open and a soft breeze traveled in carrying scents of earth and nectar. It was light and open in this room. I wanted to see Luke's face before I expressed this to him:
"I want to go through with the plan. The plan for deception." Too quick to listen, he retorted,
"Allison, I couldn't possibly leave you alone after-"
"NO!" I shouted so suddenly, I startled him. He has honestly drawn back by the outburst, confused by it, even. "After what? What she did to me?" I began, beginning an uproar within myself. His rejection of my request sparked a sudden rage in me. I wasn't angry with him, I was just suddenly angry in general. "You cannot begin to understand what she has done to me. What it stirs within me!" My booming tone and my actions made him actually fall back on his bottom. The vampire Lucas fell off balance because he was startled by the actions of another; it was unheard of. I began to pace around the room, ranting. "I don't care what you do. I won't have any limits, I won't harbor a single drop of jealously over it... Go to her, speaking lovingly to her, sleep with her if you have to! I don't care what you do, goddamn it, just get her to where Taylor wants her, where I will be waiting as the bait, and I want to kill her myself!" I was chaotic. The storm brewing within me had built to the level I'd waited for it to, the level that would be enough for me to stab that wicked devil through the heart. I ran outside unto the balcony and threw myself against the railing outside; I clenched the smooth stone of that rail as hard I could and I screamed at the top of my lungs into the climax of this delirious outburst. "For everything she's done, to me, my family, my friends! I will take the very vengeance from her name and kill her with it!"
A cold pair of arms grabbed me tightly around the waist, broke my grip on the stone, and dragged me back inside of the room.
"Allison! Calm the hell down now."
My back found the Indian carpet that was on the floor near the balcony doors, Luke had pinned me down with his body. I struggled for a moment, but it was very useless under his awesome strength.
"Now," He continued. "You say you want to go through with the plan of deception?"
"Yes." I told him, my breaths ragged.
"The reason I refrain is because I don't want to hurt you, Allison. I might have to do things that I would normally never do because I am loyal to who I love."
"I know you are, Lucas. I trust you, I love you. I understand that it will be an act. I know you won't leave me for her. Please, we will finally be able to kill her. I must, soon, or else I will become just as twisted and full of hate as she is..." I began to choke as I told Lucas this. "Every day I become more like her and I don't want to be like her at all." I broke into tears, now. He stopped pinning me to the ground and cradled my body into his chest and let me cry bitter, unfinished tears. "I must kill her before I become her." I whispered, my body shaking.
"You are not her, Allison. You're just not. You never will be, trust me." He promised.
.x. Lucas
The night after Allison proposed to me to follow through with the plan of deception Taylor and I had concocted, I traveled to the location Allison told me Courtney was staying. The vampiress hid in secret passages that led from the castle and winded underneath the graveyard! The only godforsaken place I hadn't searched for Allison was underground. Goddammit all.
But that was in the past now, so Allison helped me see, and I was on my way to prove to Courtney that I was back on her side to stay, and that I only had eyes for her, and all of that horse shit.
I came into the underground entrance from the outside. The night was brisk, the air was fresh, but inside the hell, as Allison described, it was dank, damp and restricted. Differing from Allison, I liked dark, restricted, narrow places; the reason I slept in a coffin rather a regular bed. (And the other vampires call me odd).
As I traveled along the underground passageways, I was greeted by a freshly turned young man in tattered clothes. It turned out that his skin ripped just as easily as the clothes; in a fraction of a second the young one was just a few separated limbs and stains of red.
Because of that first disturbance, several more of Courtney's fledglings were met along the way. They came at me with hisses and tiny claws and fangs, some with metal objects, but not a one touched me. I made sure to rip each one apart, beyond repair. I'd always killed Courtney's minions; they were an embarrassment to the vampire community and rather illegal, considering she let them break the laws with her. Creating armies or forces of any sort had become outlawed when I came to be a vampire. Her fledglings led me, one mutilation at a time, to where Courtney was. She must have heard me coming, because when I dismembered her last minion, a labored woman in ratty clothes, I stepped into the decorated underground room she abided in and she was ready for me.
In her thin hand rested a scared, shaking child. Courtney always loved the premature sweet blood of the child over the matured essences in adults. I did nothing as she sliced easily at the neck of the child and poured the two of us a glass. Crystal glass goblets were filled with crimson red; the body of the child lay abandoned by the couch as she rose and offered the drink to me. This act was a test; one to see how soft I'd become or hadn't become, and two if I was on her side enough to drink with her, just as we used to.
I had no other choice but to accept the obscene, yet suited gesture.
I promised Allison that she wasn't anything like Courtney, and here was the proof in cold blood.
Blood was absent in her pale flesh, but she was just a beautiful as when I sank my fangs into her neck that first time. Beauty and to have that beauty forever was really all she ever desired in her heart, if there was one within her chest. She didn't need any companion or other company. She didn't need anything but her own beauty and the beauty of the kill, with a lick of vengeance in every drop. Why then did she desire me in this moment? I could sense her jealousy of my love for Allison, but I couldn't understand why she felt that way. It wasn't because she loved me, I knew Courtney was not capable of such an emotion. Even if she could love she wouldn't just suddenly begin to love me now if she hadn't three hundred years prior when I gave her what she most desired. The answer was simple, Courtney wanted me to adore her and be under her spell. I was the only being she'd come across that she actually felt a sense of respect toward. When she had me under her control it was as if she were the mistress of a grand king; she was the controller of the ruler with more power than she could ever hope to have. Now that I was being taken away by Allison, she wanted me to become to her loyal puppet again.
Before me she swayed her perfect hips, taunted me with her delicate, fluttering lashes and deep blue eyes, deep like the ocean's darkness and abyss.
About two hundred years ago, this seductive trick worked without flaw. My blind mind was deceived by every trap she set, I fell to my knees with every kiss, and beckoned after every curl of her finger...
Two hundred years ago.
Just recalling my pathetic, slaved-to-Courtney self made me realized just how right Taylor was on the matter. How much my behavior was feeble and pitiful. Today, on this night, her ruse wouldn't work. It would never work again, but it was the goal to make her believe that she indeed had power over me. There was a certain churn in my stomach that foreshadowed that I wasn't going to agree with what I'd have to perform to convince her I was still her puppet and I still desired her more than the rising sun.
I thought of Allison and her pleasant, kind smile. The churning dissipated.
"Lucas, my love, what a surprise. I just knew for sure that the mortal whore wouldn't be able to hold your attention for very long. She lasted what, a few months? I'm going to be here for you forever, Luke, just as you wanted me to be. Do you remember what you said to me the night you blessed me with eternal beauty?"
She was good. Demeaning Allison and recalling my intense infatuation I once felt for her all in one breath. I didn't let the anger reach my eyes for insulting the love of my existence. Instead I smirked and made the sound I knew she appreciated, the sound of a man almost growling over their strong desire to be with her. It wasn't a difficult sound to make, especially since I was thinking of Allison.
"I believe I said in a slow, possessive whisper, 'You are mine, forever.'" I emulated the stance I had been in then, three hundred years ago... She allowed me to close in on her, my mouth touched the outer lobe of her ear and I let the cold breath wash over her bare neck. Her elegant dress didn't cover anything from the shoulders up and her pure-colored skin was on display for me, her honeysuckle hair had a stronger scent from my proximity. It was delightful, I would admit, but a pretty jewel was just that; pretty to look at and admire, useless in any other pretense.
"Forever, my love." She whispered in a poisonously sweet tone. Her head bent up so that her eyes could cast the spell they held over me. I didn't let it work but my arms worked around her waist accordingly. A gentle embrace, one with a fondness which two lovers would share. I could easily kill her now, I could crush her body or tear her to shreds, right now in this instant.
But Allison said she wanted- no, needed to be the one to end Courtney. I saw images and short clips of what happened to her while she was in Courtney's possession. It was terrible enough for me to understand where she was coming from when she said that she wanted to kill Courtney herself.
"My beautiful, gorgeous darling," I whispered to Courtney, and let my cheek touch the soft, bright blonde hair curling from her head. The white blonde was the exact same shade that was now Allison's hair color. Courtney had dyed Allison's hair for the purpose of telling me of the person Allison should remind me of every time I look at her. Courtney, the angel-faced devil in my arms. Courtney wanted to remind me of who I had 'loved' first, who I had devoted myself to first. She always had a plan, and she was very crafty in the art of manipulation. "You are too good, my love. I can no longer stand to be apart from you, and pretend like I don't adore you still. No mortal could every replace you, my immortal bride." I confessed. The lies I weaved were in character for me, but not a hint of truth existed within them.
Courtney seemed very pleased with my words. She smiled and sighed with a sound of a triumphant soul. Too bad she harbored no soul in any part of her body at all. "I'd knew you'd be back. You always come back. So loyal..." What was I, a dog? "Luke, before I tell you of my intentions, you must prove something to me."
"Anything," I whispered, wanting to know of her intentions.
"Take me and never take any mortal so long as I allow it. I shall beckon to your every pleasure if you beckon to mine, and I wish for you to assist me in the destruction of the Lockett line forever. Perhaps after Allison is gone, I shall be free from with hateful curse cast upon me, and I shall be able to love and laugh and sit before my reflection again. This time, with you by my side. How does that sound?"
"It sounds too good to be true, Courtney. Could you really end the line of the Locketts and cast your vengeance aside?" I asked, right on cue.
"If you can promise to be by my side, only my side, for the rest of eternity, then I shall do anything for you. I know you desire a companion, and that companion is me. I've been ungrateful to your deeds for so long, it is time I pay them back." She pressed her hand to the side of my cheek and let her abyssal eyes fill with a sparkle of promise. I saw that the painted emotion was stolen from the candlelight from the far side of the room. She was empty. Every word she said was a complete guise, whether she knew that herself was the true question.
"How long has it been since you've had a man, my angel?" I asked, shifting my fingers through her hair.
"Not terribly long..." She replied, a certain keen tone arriving to her behavior.
"A real man, love."
"None since you left me." she replied in a lower tone. She meant to cause stimulation, she did just the opposite. Correction, I thought in my head, you left me.
"What if I wanted to wait until after Allison was dead to take you again? That way you'd truly be mine and I wouldn't be sharing you with revenge." I asked, hoping to deffer my way around actual being intimate with Courtney. Even though Allison gave me permission, it still wasn't acceptable to have sex with another, to me.
"Then I'd know you were only here for a guise." She answered sharply, her cold blue eyes narrowing to me. I would be found out and not trusted if I didn't do this, basically. "Besides, you've already taken me when I belonged to revenge. You didn't have a problem then." She reminded coolly. One of her pale hands found my shoulder and she pressed her lovely form against mine. She figured that if there was any chance that I was lying to her now, and I truly did love Allison, I wouldn't be able to go through with what she wanted me too. She knew I wasn't that type of man.
Oh God, Allison, forgive me. I pressed my thin lips over her cold, blood glossed ones, and it reminded me immediately of the night Allison gave herself to me. That thought alone was enough to get me through the intimate act Courtney wanted me to partake in.
Afterwards, I proposed my complete loyalty to Courtney, and continued on to the next part of the plan; convincing Courtney to a secluded, barricaded area. "Shall we lure Allison out of her palace and watch her shatter?" I suggested. "She doesn't know where I am right now. She assumes hunting, what a hurtful shock it'll be when she realizes who I truly love."
"You're so cruel, Lucas," she replied. "I love it." A dark glint dashed across her eye as she found stimulation from thinking about Allison in emotional agony. She imagined causing Allison so much pain that she killed herself and saved Courtney the trouble; I flinched internally when I saw the vampiress before me picture that in her demented mind.
"Go, lure Allison somewhere where her death will be befitting for her." Courtney commanded with a flick of her wrist. I wanted to rip her conceited arm from her socket for ordering me around like I was just another minion.
"The royal cemetery?" I suggested in a placid voice.
"Perfect, my love."
.x. Allison
The sun descended to its slumber in the belly of the sky. There was a pleasant breeze in the sunset scene, the dying sun of dazzling colors held a certain hope as it cast over the green, spring setting below me. The horse whinnied in delight and impatience, I held fast to the reigns and took a few minutes to think over my actions from here on out.
"Time is precious" they always say. That's true, if one is a mortal. On average, one would get eighty, maybe ninety years to accomplish life with modern technology. That seems long enough, but really, compared to other creatures who get to live longer, like vampires... That's eighty years to grow, learn and do all one wants to do, and then prepare themselves for death. Eighty years to mature into beauty, and then wither as the petals of the honeysuckle in the cold.
Some fear death. Others, only fear what they will leave behind or will not have the chance to accomplish. A fewer number, myself included, no longer fear death or anything associated with it because they had stared into the face of death. Death had tortured me, but death had not succeeded in destroying me. Hell, I even embraced a form of death as a lover. I welcomed death in more ways than one ever had the chance too. And when one spits into the face of death, one invokes the mortal-given right to live, and also to die.
Tonight, I looked upon the last few embers of light on the mountains of that horizon and I knew, in my soul, that death was going to be embraced.
It was unavoidable.
It was inevitable.
(Author's Note: Question of the chapter, do you think it was alright for Luke to sleep with Courtney or do you think he could have tried harder to talk his way out of it? Let me know!)