Sorry for the lack of uploads, life has been ultra busy.
I'm heading into the exam part of the year and with not just school on my plate I am going to be really busy. I don't doubt that my writing will suffer because of this.
I am going to try and upload as often as I can but until the end of june, updates will be inconsistent and (possibly) sparse.
In hindsight it was a stupid idea. Stake or no, charging a vampire – especially one that had survived argentalium bullets – was a foolish venture. What would she have done anyway? She wouldn't have been able to stake him fast enough.
She reached him just as the door opened, revealing a blonde vampire – Jonno's blonde vampire. And in that split-second she glanced at the door, Mir snatched her and flung her across the room.
For a moment she was airborne and then she was hitting the wall, dropping like a rag doll and feeling the sting where her spine and skull had crashed against unforgiving metal. She made it to her feet, hissing curses and yanking out her gun. The barrel of her UV pistol shook in line with Mir's head. "Stay where you are!" Her feet shifted unsteadily and her vision rippled like the surface of a lake as she cocked the gun to fast.
Mir could sense the power balance had shifted, and took advantage of her momentary daze. "Keys," He told the vampire at the door. Blurred silver rattled across the floor. With a burst of alarm Olivia realised that they were the keys Jonno was supposed to have. "Stop!" Her jittering finger crushed the trigger.
Had she had been at full strength she would've hit him, but with a wall-shaped dent in her skull and a concussion her shot went very slightly wide.
The vampire snarled as the wall inches from his face smoked, UV rays scorching the panelled walls. Olivia fired again and again and again.
But Mir was too fast, and then he was too close.
Swiped from her hand the UV-pistol skittered across the floor. Her hand reached for her stake but that had been lost too, thrown from her grip as she was hurled across the room. She threw her arm up. It was caught by the vampire.
He gripped both her wrists and slammed her against the wall. Everything rocked as pain exploded at the back of her head. Sharp teeth flashed as the vampire leaned into her throat to take what he wanted.
The slayer managed to speak, breathing hard, choking out "Don't."
It gave her just a moment. A moment to drive her knee into the vampire's groin and shove him backwards. It was only a temporary defence as she was no match for two vampires in her current state but it was time.
She stared straight at the vampire, glassy hazel stopping him from mounting another attack. "If you believe in what you said..." Her voice was shaking and her head was burning. "Don't do it."
For a second she lacked faith. She expected the vampire to throw her back against the wall and steal her life from her. Then he moved back.
His eyes didn't seem so cold. There were hints of pleading, flecks of compassion. "Don't let this be a mistake."
Then he and the blonde vampire swept out of the cell. Olivia considered crawling to the door and searching for Jonno but instead she slumped. Air flew out of her lungs in a sigh of relief and she dropped against the wall massaging her throbbing head.
They'd fine her soon. Vampires weren't known for their subtly. She could only hope they hadn't been stupid enough to kill Jonno.
"You fetch Ingrid and I'll get dad." His touch was electricity but it was so brief and then they had to separate. "And Erin?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't tell Ingrid I told you to release her."
Rescuing Ingrid was a cinch, she was barely even guarded, powerless in an argentalium cage. Then they were back at Garside Grange and she was alone with Mir in his room.
"They would've killed me if you hadn't got me out, wouldn't they?" He was sitting on his coffin, fingers fidgeting, worming in the cracks in between catches. Erin found her eyes drawn to the constant motion and she found herself struggling with the truth of his question.
"Without a chance." She told him. Maybe he now regretted sparing that slayer. The blonde with a harsh voice had earned his trust, or some of it at least and maybe Mir realised that was likely a lie. "Slayers would do anything to keep you non-violent."
Her eyes were skimming the floor, her feet shifted, unsure of where to stand until Mir spoke again.
His rich, low voice dragged her gaze back to his face. "I guess that means I owe you my life." The half-smile on his face was an invitation. He indicated the coffin and she lowered herself beside him. Just as before, she was completely aware of the space between them and how she craved to close that gap.
Time seemed to stretch as they leaned towards each other, then his lips were pressed against hers.
Her hands shifted, wrapping themselves around Mir and the gap between them disappeared. There was a current in them, drawing them together and pulling at Erin's very core. She had been alone with the flutter of her own emotions, the desire to be near to Mir, to do whatever he wanted but now she could feel his emotions too. They were swirling waves of fear and curiosity and deep within the carnal lust… something warm and white, something that Erin knew was love.
She knew Mir loved her.
It was electricity. Their kisses increased in fervour, desperate to taste every inch of one another. He was bending her over the coffin. Her hands were squeezing into his back and shoulders. She could feel their closeness all over. It reached into her, rearing sensations of softness that Erin hadn't been capable of for so long.
She remembered being human, the gentleness of their encounters and she remembered who he'd been and she remembered who she'd been. There was love in their kisses, the purest that two vampires could achieve.
But there were imperfections. Overthrown by the electricity and the loyalty, hate and poison had slept. Unlocked by Mir's love, the monster in Erin blinked eyes of red and black.
There was love between them.
There was love between them.
"You were lucky," The medic told her, encouraging her to hold the warm cloth to the back of her head. "A moderate concussion and grazes isn't the worst a vampire like that could give you," An expression of admiration tugged his features. "You must have fought back well."
Olivia nodded vaguely. "Yeah, he was..." She thought about the vampire's strange attitude and his emotional eyes. "Tough..." Further back in the ward she spotted Jonno, holding an icepack to his head, sporting several dark red patches on his face.
Abandoning her medic, she darted over. "Those are going to turn into some mean bruises later."
The slayer glanced at her. Olivia could see him evaluating the damage, or lack of. "You got off well," There was suspicion in his gaze. "And you were in the room with him."
The bruising on her wrists and the damage to her head was nothing. Slaying was a win or lose situation and when you lost… You died. Yet both Olivia and Jonno were alive and relatively uninjured. "He let me go." The words were empty. In some ways Mir's behaviour was terrifying; it showed that vampires weren't all mindless and maybe… they weren't all bad.
"He did?" Jonno didn't look as surprised as she expected.
Her eyes fixed on his. "Yeah, I'm as shocked as you. He was about to kill me but backed off when I brought up peace." The other slayer's face was impassive but Olivia continued speaking anyway. "I think he believes in what he said."
Slowly he started to react. "You think we should listen?"
Olivia sighed. A nurse jostled her and she shot them a sharp glare. "I think you should listen, I'm not, I'm out of here."
Jonno caught her arm. "What do you mean 'outta here'?"
The elder slayer freed her arm. "I've spent my entire life killing vampires, I became a slayer when I was fifteen." She shook her head weakly. "I can't change who I am, not after all these years." Jonno's stake was resting on the end of the table so Olivia grabbed it. "I can't ally with the vampires, you can not me." The varnished wood was cold in her hand. "I'm going home Jonno." Before he could utter another word Olivia pressed the blunt end of the stake into his hand and hared out of the ward.