The last thing I remember after being forced to drink that disgusting elixir was the lightheadedness. I felt light, feather-light even, as if I was floating away. Away into a darkness that was about to consume me. I could feel myself lifting from the table. I could see the brilliant white light above me sucking me away from this dreadful place. I could hear the screams outside of Julius crying my name. If I had tears, I would have cried too. He did everything he possibly could to keep me safe all these years and yet I never knew until recently that it had been him all along. I had felt a giant burning in my heart and soul for him when I heard him screaming above. Unfortunately he was too late and the evil deed had been done.
I wasn't expecting to awake, after what felt like me floating away to heaven. If that was heaven I was floating away to. However, I did open my eyes again. Only, they weren't my eyes. Everything seemed to shimmer and glow. I could see colors around the faces directly in front of me, though my vision was too blurry to see who they were. I could hear them enough to distinguish who was in front of me. Tristian's cool hands caught my face as he called me, "Aine?"
Who was Aine I thought as I lay there. Why are they calling me that? And as my vision got clearer, I could see the fine colors around Tristian's body as if outlined in brilliant blue. He was glowing. Was this an aura? I had always read about them, but I had never seen them before. If it was, then Tristian was calm and happy, even in love. In love with me? No, I couldn't be myself. None of this seemed right at all. I didn't even feel like myself.
I turned my head to see Morrigan looking down upon me and her aura glowed deep crimson, which should signify anger, but she seemed enlighted that I was awake. I could feel my mouth open and my lips move to say the words which I didn't dare speak, "Mother?"
"Daugther" she smiled down at me.
What was going on? Morrigan wasn't my Mother. Why would I have said that? It's like something else was taking control of my body and speech, yet here I was trapped in the head of my body, or a body for that matter with no control. I sat up with the help of Tristian and looked at the table next to me. And to my horror I saw myself. There I was, lying there, lifeless and pale, my face turned up in a strange expression of rage and fright as I was pulled from my body. I looked down at my hands to see porceline and delicate skin with long nails. These weren't my hands. I had a terrible habit of biting my nails, so I knew this was not me. I felt up to my hair and saw that it was the color of night and very long. Long enough to cover my entire torso. I was dressed in an old dark colored woolen skirt and blouse that was tied very tight around my waist although I didn't feel as though I had trouble breathing in it. My breasts were smaller and my hips were much more narrow. From looking down at my feet, I could have guessed I was much taller as well.
"Now, the hand-fasting ceremony, quickly before Lilith returns," Morrigan said as she pulled me to my feet towards the bubbling mass over the spit. Tristian took my hand in his and walked with me towards the fire.
I felt my face grow and my mouth turn up as I smiled at him. He smiled back at me and mouthed, "I loved you," as our hands were being bound by a very prickly rope. I soon noticed that it was a rope of thorns, like the stems of roses and Morrigan pushed them into our hands and out the blood spill over the bubbling liquid in the pot. I didn't feel pain, though I thought I might have at some point. Morrigan mumbled some hocus pocus and then dipped our joined hands in the scalding liquid. I didn't cry out though I wanted to. I could see the reddened flesh as they emerged and Tristian pulled me tight to kiss my lips. The kiss was light and obviously full of passion and longing. I suppose this "Aine" is a person he knew a long time ago and now I was here. But how can I think like myself, but I can't speak as myself and move as myself. It is as if I was a different person and I was the little angel trying to sit on the shoulder that constantly gets ignored. I was now the subconscience.
Morrigan's smile was vindictive and gleeful as she looked at the bond that was now forged between Tristian and myself. Or Tristian and this girl that was named Aine, whomever she was. I heard it as sharply as she did when her head tilted towards the ceiling. The agonizing scream of a man heartbroken and lost. Julius. My mind was screaming, "I'm down here!" but to no avail would my lips move to say such things, nor would my body move to go towards him. I felt trapped in a body to which I couldn't escape. If you've ever seen the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers, you'd know how I felt right then. I literally felt like I wasn't controlling my own body at all. The way I moved, the way I spoke, it was not my own. I kept screaming to myself that I wouldn't go with them, that I shouldn't be talking to them or caressing them, but here I was, doing what I didn't want to do and hurting those whom I loved. I kept screaming to myself that maybe he would still hear me, that maybe in some dark and deep recesses of his brain we would still be bonded and he could deliver me back to my own body.
Morrigan had insisted that I go with her upstairs and leading the way, I didn't falter. Tristian pulled me back and spoke angrily at Morrigan who spat at him with evil words. My mouth opened to tell him it was alright and I took the hand of my so called Mother and followed her up the staircase that consequently lead to my house. How had I not known about a door that led to a torture chamber below? I was too focused on the things I failed to see instead of where my body was taking me, which was outside into the light of day which was darkening under black clouds and thunderous sounds of the storm high above. They moved swiftly as if reacting to the situation on earth below and perhaps it was.
I turned from the house to see Julius crouched low on the ground, snarling and growling at a crimson haired woman far off towards the barn. She looked familiar, as if I had seen her before. Her face had a similiar structure to someone I had seen previously, though the color of her hair was all wrong. If it had been onxy colored, she would look most like the woman in the bar from the other night. Yes! That was it. It was her. The woman who was allergic to lemons.
"You can't keep her from me Lilith!" Julius screamed at the woman. So, this must have been his maker, Lilith. Julius had told me much about her and considering the conditions that he was human and needed to either drink the blood of the Werewolf that bit him or find his maker. Seems his maker came to him.
"Ahh, no, I can't, however, she has appeared and she can decide for herself," Lilith responded as she straightened up and bowed towards Morrigan and the body that I was trapped inside. "Morrigan, Aine."
Morrigan tilted her head towards me, "Tell him, dearest, who is your bonded?"
"Tristian. He is my life mate and we are bound in body and soul," the voice that was much deeper than my own answered from the mouths of the body I inhabitted.
"Who is this? What have you done with Anabelle?" Julius screamed while Morrigan just smiled. I felt that the face that I hid behind was also smiling as well.
"Your precious Anabelle is dead!" Lilith said.
In a fit or rage Julius turned on his maker. As Lilith continued to laugh, thinking there was no way that a child can overcome their maker, Julius pushed her up against the wall by her neck, pinning her hands above her head as he spoke, "Have no fear Lilith, if she is indeed dead, so shall you."
"I assure you that her body is no longer Death Eater," the voice coming from the body I inhabited said, "Go ahead, kill her if you wish."
Julius squeezed hard around her neck. You could see the purplish color rising to her cheeks. "You wouldn't, Morrigan, you must stop this," Lilith yelled as she tried to squirm from Julius's grasp. He let out no primal rage or scream, he didn't even give it a second thought before he attacked. He bit down on her neck and drank greedily. Lilith screamed in writhing pain, yelling for myself or Morrigan to come to her aid, but neither of them moved. I couldn't have willed myself to move if I wanted to. All I could do was sit and watch as she slowly slumped to the ground, with barely a bit of blood left as Julius turned back on Morrigan with eyes of angry fire. Blood was dripping down his chin and covered half of his face as he snarled at both of us. I was afraid then. What would happen if Julius attacked the body I was in, would I finally die? How would Julius feel if he knew that he was the one that really killed me, not Morrigan, though my body lay underground, lifeless and without color. It would destroy him, and Silas as well. I would have to find a way to communicate with him. I had to. It was then that I noticed the reddish gold ring around him. He drunk in Liliths essence and power and thus it was coursing through him. Her strength was now his.
"Aine!" the traitors voice said from inside the house, "Don't do this Aine! Please!" he called out. My hearing was exquisitly magnified in this body. I could hear everything. The little creaks of the floorboards to which Tristian was trying to move to, the birds in the air, the movement of the wind and so forth.
"Don't listen to him love, simply use your powers and put this Death Eater to a final rest," Morrigan instructed as she put her arm around me.
I could see my face reflected in her emerald eyes. I looked just like her except for my ebony hair. My eyes were almost the same, but a little more dim, not as bright as a gem and my hair was bland and lifeless that it hung in strands on either side of my face which was hollow and sunken in. I nodded and turned towards Julius who looked like he was about to start a stampead. He let out a gutteral moan as he flew towards me at lightning quick speeds, however he looked slow and far away from my vision that warped and tunneled to narrow down my opponent. My body flung an arm out as a white ball of light raced towards his chest and sent him flying yards back the other direction.
"Good, good," Morrigan cooed as she clapped her hands as if she was at a sporting match.
Julius got off the ground and yelled again as I flung out my hand again, this time, missing him as he ducked away from me. I kept screaming in my head not to let this happen, to try and stop this. It had to stop, but I couldn't. The only option was to try and get Julius to hear me, but how? Screaming inside a head was about all I could do, none the less communicate with the outside world. Too bad Portia was in Richmond, she would know what to do.
I thought he was about to attack me, I had swore on it. Instead, he headed for Morrigan whom he pushed aside and ripped feathers out of her wings. She cried in pain as Julius leaped up and grabbed me by the throat. As my body started to choke, I started to choke. "Give her back to me!" he yelled and spat in my face.
I kept trying to yell in my head, "It's me stupid!" but it was no use, he couldn't hear me. Anyways, my body and woman who I now was had a mind of her own as well as a sassy mouth when she replied, "She's already dead!"
That is what did it for Julius, he grabbed me and pulled me towards him as Aine tried to fight him off, but it was no use because Julius was much stronger, especially when he overpowered her enough to bit her on the neck, right at the jugular. He started to drink and drink deep. I could see the lights growing dimmer. "Julius..." I would mumble to myself, hoping that maybe through the blood he might be able to hear me. I wasn't sure if he had his fill or he actually heard that I called his name when he froze.
That is when Morrigan got up and hit Julius on the back of the head, causing him to release Aine. My body stepped away as Julius and Morrigan began to fight. Aine ran back into the house, hoping that within the safety of the sheilds, Julius could no longer attack her. Aine ran down to the basement where Tristian was held. He reached out to her and she fell to the floor at his feet, wrapping her arms around his legs. He looked at her throat and his eyes started to glow an eerie red with flaming anger. "Let me loose. I shall end his life now for hurting you," Tristian said.
"No, Mother will deal with him. He is no danger to me now," Aine responded. What did she mean by that? How was Julius no danger to him.
"How is he not a danger? You did feel what he did to you," Tristian touched the area of her neck softly. "He ripped you open."
"He won't any longer," Aine said. I could feel into her mind now, I could see the idea's churning around and around. What was she getting at?
Tristian looked into her eyes, "I have waited several centuries for you my love, and now we can finally be together."
"Aine!" Morrigan yelled down at them, interupting the sweet moment they were about to have, "Make hast!"
Aine stood and looked at Tristian, "I love you and always have. I will be back my love," she told him as she let go of his hands and walked away, heading back up the stairs to aid her mother.
Once outside, I saw that Julius was half beaten, thrown on the ground, his skin still trying to regenerate as Morrigan and Aine crowded around him. "Ani," he mumbled as he tried to regain his balance and looked directly into Aine's eyes.
"Are you ready for your final death?" Morrigan taunted him.
"No, but I hope you are ready for yours," Julius smiled as he whipped around with a large piece of sharp wood in his hand and stabbed Morrigan in the chest, straight through the heart.
Aine screamed as Morrigan let out a gutteral howl. Black smoke billowed above her and up into the clouds as the form and body of my once Aunt shriveled to the ground. The body lay there lifeless as Aine ran to it. Eyes blazing, all I saw was red. She was consumed with anger. I could see through it all. The tunnel vision returning, still stained with red as she caught sight of Julius, trying to throw anything and everything at him. He eluded her and caught her from behind, sinking his teeth once again into her throat. Had he heard me last time?
"Julius?" I felt out, trying to communicate in any way possible. Pushing the urgency to have him listen, to have him hear me. To have anyone hear me.
Julius froze, pulled back from a dazed and semi-conscience Aine and looked deep into her eyes before he said, "Anabelle?"
He had finally heard me as the agonising screams of Tristian came from behind.