Chapter Five:
Mackenzie ran.
The moment Eric's fangs extended, she was out of the room as fast as her short legs could take her. It wasn't up to her room, however, that she ran, and instead, towards the front door. She was panicking. She couldn't stop. All she was focused on was getting as far away from the family she thought she knew as fast as she possibly could.
Until, that is, Eric appeared before the door, forcing her to skid to a sudden stop only a foot away. Her eyes were wide with fear, it was radiating off of her. Her breaths were rapid, and her tiny little heart was racing so quickly in her chest, it was almost painful. But she just couldn't stop moving. She needed to run. She needed to get away from the man she thought of as a father, a man she loved like any child loved a parent. But he wasn't a man, he couldn't be.
"Mackenzie, you need to calm down." Eric took a step towards her. "No one is going to hurt you."
"S-stay away from me." she squeaked, inching away from him before spinning around on her heel and began back through the house. She made a beeline for the back door leading to the backyard. Once she was outside, she could escape the property with ease. She just needed to make it to that door...
"Mackenzie, please." It was Godric this time that caused the yelp to escape her lips. She nearly stumbled over her own two feet as she was forced yet again to a quick stop just before her escape route. A soft whimper sounded from the girl and it broke Godric's heart. "We're not going to hurt you, love."
She was shaking from head to toe as Godric stepped towards her in an attempt to comfort her. When his hand was inches away from her, she flinched before tensing, her eyes squeezing shut as if she expected him to hurt her. It tore him to pieces to see her in this state. Not even when she was petrified from her many nightmares of her childhood home did she ever appear so frightened. But that's what they were; vampires were the epitome of nightmares, only worse.
"Shh, it's alright, little one." Godric retracted his hand, a frown on his face as he racked his brain for something to do to comfort her in any possible way. He couldn't take just watching her like this. He wanted to take her in his arms and promise her everything was going to be alright. But he couldn't. Because he couldn't promise her that. It was up to her now. They had shown themselves to her, their true selves, and now it was up to her to accept them as they were. Godric was just worried that she wouldn't, that they had just lost her forever.
"We should just glamour her." Eric approached with his own frown deepening. "Look at her, Godric. We can't just..."
"No." Godric snapped send a glare at his progeny. "We're doing no such thing."
"Godric, be reasonable..."
"Perhaps you should be reasonable, my son." Godric's eyes narrowed. "You didn't have to frighten her."
"You were dragging it out." Eric defended. "I didn't even want to tell her. This was your idea, remember."
"I would kindly suggest you show some respect." There was an edge to Godric's tone. He didn't want to lose his control, not when Mackenzie was frightened enough, no thanks to Eric. "Retract your fangs, Eric. You're not making matters any better."
Eric rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest but obliged nonetheless.
"Mackenzie, love." Godric focused back on the shaking blonde before him.
She hadn't moved from her spot, completely frozen in place. Her eyes were still squeezed shut, tears beginning to slip down her porcelain cheeks. He wanted more than anything to wipe them away, but he didn't want to startle her. So he kept his distance, though it was killing him too. He was always the one she ran to whenever she was upset, whenever Eric harshly punished her, whenever she scraped her knee, whenever she had a nightmare or was scared of the shadows lurking in her bedroom at night. He had always been her protector, her safe haven. And now she was scared of him. The worst of it all, was that Godric didn't know what to say or do to fix this. This had been his idea to tell her, he knew that, he felt the guilt for putting this weight on her shoulder. And now he had to fix this, to savage what he could of their relationship.
If he even could.
"Look at me little one." He pleaded, his voice softening as he took a small step forward. "I'm not going to hurt you. I promise you. I would never hurt you."
She just shook her head, her eyes squeezing tighter as her entire body tensed from head to toe while her shaking continued. The tears began multiplying, and soon tiny muffled sobs could be heard as she bit down hard on her bottom lip, as if she was afraid to make any sound at all.
"I love you, Mackenzie. You know that. I would never hurt you. Just because I'm a...vampire, that doesn't change that fact." Godric felt strange referring to what he was in the presence of this treasure he had tried so desperately over the years to protect. But what he had done tonight was the complete opposite of that. He should have listened to Eric. She was too young; she was still just a girl. They shouldn't have told her, he saw that now. He was just tired of lying to her, of not telling her the truth. They had gone through so much over the last handful of years that he hated keeping this part of himself away from her. When she started asking him questions, he thought that had been a sign, that he was supposed to tell her. But he had been wrong, he had been very wrong.
"It would be easier to just..." Eric interjected.
"I won't glamour her." Godric shook his head. He knew Eric was right, that it would be easier to just make Mackenzie forget, to ease her fear, to put things back to how they used to be. But he didn't have the heart to manipulate her like that. He had promised himself long ago that he would never glamour her. There was a time in his life when he had no qualms about glamouring, especially those that he lusted after, or those that became his victims. But he was no longer that vampire, and hadn't been in many years. Mackenzie was too important to him. He wouldn't risk the damage he could do by glamouring her.
"I could." Eric offered, though as Godric sent him a quick glance, he could tell that even his progeny was hesitant. "It would...fix all of this."
"You know that it would be wrong, Eric."
"But it would fix this." Eric pressed, looking uncomfortable and perplexed all at the same time. He would never admit it out loud, but it was killing him to see Mackenzie like this. He hated her tears. He hated all human tears, but he especially despised hers. Because he always seemed to be the cause of them. And each and every time, he hated himself for it. He may never have wanted her in his life to begin with, but she had grown on him over the last several years, and while he may never love her as Godric did, he cared for the girl in his own way. And for the first time in all those years, he felt a wave of over protectiveness wash over him. "I hate seeing her like this. Let me just take away her pain. Please."
Godric was surprised at Eric's plea, and almost gave into his child's wishes. But he still knew it was wrong. And if the day came that Mackenzie were to ever find out, Godric knew she would feel more betrayed than she was in that moment.
"No." Godric sighed heavily. "I hate this just as much as you do, my son, but we cannot glamour her. She's still a child, even if we did, we're not entirely sure it would stick."
"We could try." Eric grit his teeth. "I can't, Godric. I just can't watch her like this."
"We can fix this without manipulating her." Godric offered Eric an encouraging smile. "It just requires patience."
Eric shot the shaking little girl a glance, and while all he wanted to do was dart in the opposite direction and get as far away from her tears as he possible could, he didn't. He stood there, wishing he could just defy his maker and glamour her, but kept control of himself and just watched as Godric once again, tried to gain Mackenzie's trust back.
"Please, love, look at me. It's me, Godric. I love you with all of my heart, you know this. You know in your heart that I would never hurt you. You know that I would never bring you an ounce of harm. Please, little one, look at me." he reached a hand out slowly, and while Mackenzie flinched at his sudden cold touch, she didn't bolt like he expected her too. She did, however, whimper, her shaking growing worse. Godric tried to caress her cheek with the back of his fingers. He tried to wipe away her tears. He tried whispering comforting words to her. But nothing he said or did worked. Mackenzie was still petrified, and it killed Godric to know that she feared him of all people. "Trust me, Love. I would never hurt you. This changes nothing. I still love you. Eric still...cares for you. Just because you know of what we are now, it doesn't have to change anything."
But it was useless. Mackenzie wouldn't listen to his pleas, to his comforts. In her young mind, he was a monster, a monster that sparked fear in her soul. Godric felt helpless as he let his hand drop back down to his side and took a step back. The moment Mackenzie felt Godric move, she took that opportunity to try and run again. Eric however, caught her before she could get very far, and lifted her right off her feet. She struggled in his arms, and while her nails caught his cheek painfully, the small scratch healed within seconds before even a drop of blood could drop.
"Mackenzie, stop this. Now." Eric shook her just enough to draw her attention. "You need to stop and just listen to us."
"Eric..." Godric warned, taking a step forward and preparing to interfere, knowing his progeny's temper all too well.
Eric sent his maker a pointed look, one that he was sure he would regret later. But someone needed to do something and quick, before they lost her forever. And he may never admit it t a single soul, breathing or not, but he just couldn't lose her. Not like this. Not ever. He had barely lasted more than a week without her the last time before he was crawling back to his maker for forgiveness. Only this time, Eric knew that if he lost Mackenzie, it would be for a lot longer than a week. There would be no possibility of reconciling with the frightened child.
"Look at me Mackenzie." Eric tried to urge her to open her eyes. When she kept them remain shut, however, he sighed and caught her chin firmly. "I said look at me Mackenzie."
Perhaps it was the slight growl in his voice, or she was just too frightened to defy him, but either way, her eyelids fluttered open. It struck Eric to see the fear oozing out of her, to see her eyes filled to the brim with tears. Never had he seen her this distraught before.
"Look at me, Mackenzie." He kept his hold around her waist, her struggling form falling still as his firm grip on her chin loosened. "Really look at me, Mackenzie."
Her heart was racing in her small little chest. He could hear it ringing in his ears, he could feel it against his own chest. She was petrified of him in every sense of the word. Once he would have enjoyed the fear that he could rise in her. Once he would have rather it to the unconditional love she had formed for him. It would have been easier to hate her if she hated him, if she wanted nothing to do with him. Maybe then, he would have been able to just leave her with Godric in Dallas seven years ago and wouldn't have had to worry about raising such a nuisance human child. But those days had passed long ago. She was his now, whether he liked that or not. This was his responsibility to fix.
"Do I look like a monster to you?" He caught her gaze, determined to prove that while they were vampires, that didn't change a damn thing. Somehow along the way, they had become a family. They were an estranged, impossible family half of the time, but that's exactly what they were. And the one thing Eric detested the most was change. "Do I look like some terrible beast that would hurt you? Do I?"
She looked at him, really looked at him for the first time since he had revealed their true selves. His fangs were hidden from her, and though she expected to see evil, red orbs staring back at her with claw like hands to rip her apart like all the monsters nightmares were written about, all she saw was the man who had acted as her guardian for seven years. She searched hard. She tried to find the monster she knew had to have been there. When those fangs had suddenly appeared, her entire world felt like it was crumbling down around her. Vampires weren't real. They couldn't be. It was impossible. They were only characters that played out on the screen, or were written in her many books. But they were anything but real.
How could she explain those fangs, though? How could she possibly deny what she saw with her own eyes? Eric and Godric had moved lightening fast, quicker than she expected Superman to fly. And those fangs, those horribly razor sharp fangs. She couldn't just pretend she hadn't seen them. They had been there, right before her very own eyes. Yet every fibre of her being was telling her she was just seeing things, that maybe this was just some oddly constructed dream, that none of this was real at all. But a part of her, the part that listened to her heart, knew that this wasn't just some dream. This was real, alright. Eric and Godric, and even Pam, they were these...things. And she just didn't know how she was supposed to process that.
All she wanted to do was run as far as she possibly could away from them. They were monsters. They were terrible monsters that would suck her blood until there wasn't even a drop left in her small body. She had read all the books, seen all the movies, heard all the stories. She wasn't naive and innocent. And she certainly wasn't stupid.
So why then, was there a small sliver of her that knew deep down inside, that they weren't exactly the monsters her mind was trying to frame them as. Because Eric was right; he didn't look like a monster, not to her eyes in that very moment. He looked as he always did. In fact, she was taken aback by the sheer concern that was radiating off of him, concern that he had never directed towards her in the past. A monster wouldn't worry over her, would they?
"Do you see a monster right now? Mackenzie?" he pressed again, noting the hint of hesitation from the girl in his arms, hesitation that gave him a glimmer of hope.
Slowly, Mackenzie shook her head, though her eyes were still wide and petrified. She had stopped struggling, however, stopped shaking, and instead fell deathly silent as she just held Eric's faze as if afraid to look away.
"This changes nothing, Mackenzie." He released her chin, only to wipe away a few stray tears still sliding down her tear stained cheek. She tensed at first at the contact, but didn't flinch away as she began to grow used to his comforting caress. "Have I ever laid a hand on you? Have I ever truly hurt you?"
Again, Mackenzie shook her head, knowing he was right. He had thrown her away half a dozen times, but he had never physically harmed her, not like she would have expected a vampire to do. All along, the family she thought she knew had been vampires. And all along, not a single one of them had caused her any harm. Instead, they had loved her, or loved her as best as vampires could. Godric had always lavished her with gifts, and most of all, his love. Eric had given her a roof over her head, and a future she was lucky to have. Pam treated her like a little sister, albeit an annoying one half the time. They had never given her a reason to fear them in the past, never given her a reason to run away scared. So did that change now all because she knew what they were? Even if they had always been this way the entire time?
"Nothing changes, Mackenzie. Nothing has to. This is still a family; this is still our family. That never has to change, no matter what we may or may not be." He cupped her cheek. "Can you accept that? Can you accept us for what we are? We're not monsters, Mackenzie. We're still us."
She didn't respond, but she didn't attempt to run away either, and that proved to Eric that he was starting to get through to her.
"I'm going to set you down now, Mackenzie. Can you promise me that you won't run?" He caught her chin again to keep her focus.
She chewed on her bottom lip, and for a moment, Eric wasn't sure what her response was going to be. But after a long, drawn out moment that nearly caused the blonde vampire to rip his hair out in impatience, Mackenzie finally nodded.
"Good." Eric fought against smiling as he knelt with Mackenzie still trapped in his arm until her feet were settled on the ground. He stayed knelt on the ground, keeping complete eye contact with her the entire time. He waited for a moment as his arm slowly drew from around her, watching as the reels turned in her head. She turned her head to the side, gazing down the empty hallway. She could have tried to run. The front door was just down that hallway. If she ran fast enough, maybe she could reach it in time...
But she never did run. Instead, she shook her head, her hair falling over her shoulders as she turned her attention back onto Eric. The moment their eyes connected however, Eric cursed under his breath as the tears started to form once again. He couldn't stop the inevitable, and soon, whimpers and sobs were escaping her lips as she threw her short arms around him and dove her tear stained cheeks into the curve of his neck. Eric had never felt more uncomfortable before in his life. He was a thousand year old Viking vampire, one of the more ruthless of his kind and he was proud of every single horrible thing he had ever done in his life. He had no regrets. But he just didn't know what to do, how to act, as a sobbing Mackenzie attached herself to him and refused to let go.
"Godric?" Eric shot his maker a lost look, hoping he would take the crying girl off of his hands.
Godric sighed and shook his head, though he was proud of his son for how he handled the exchange. He had managed to gain a sliver of Mackenzie's trust, a feat he had not been able to do.
"Please. I can't...I don't know what to do." Eric pleaded with the older vampire while half heartedly patting Mackenzie's now shaking form on the back. He wasn't known for comforting humans. It was always Godric who had cared for Mackenzie whenever she was a crying mess in the past. He was at a complete lost at what to do.
Godric could see Eric's struggle and pitied him, taking a step forward to sweep Mackenzie into his arms and offer the girl his comfort. However, the moment he took a step towards them, Mackenzie froze, every muscle in her body tensing. Godric frowned as Mackenzie shifted as close to Eric as she could possible get while putting whatever distance she could between Godric and her. And that broke Godric's heart. Never had she ever shied away from him. Never had she run to Eric over him. He had always been the one she ran to, the one she sought to soothe all her troubles away.
And now she feared him.
"I'm sorry, Eric. But she doesn't want me." Godric tried to mask his hurt, but Eric could hear the pain in his maker's tone clear as day.
Eric sighed as he fought against all of his natural instincts and searched for the strength to comfort her. He drew her back up into his arms, only this time Mackenzie was more than happy to be there.
"I'm going to take her up to her room." Eric informed, shifting Mackenzie as he stroked a hand through her hair as gently as he could. Her tear stained face was still hidden in the crook of his neck as her arms tightened around him, almost silently pleading him not to let her go. It surprised Eric to know that he couldn't have, even if she wanted him to.
Godric could only nod as Eric carried the sobbing child down the hallway and up the stairs to the second floor. Godric wanted more than anything to follow, to just take her in his arms and take away all her pain. But he knew that he couldn't, not yet anyways. At that moment, it wasn't Godric she wished for.
He just hoped that one day that he would be once again.
"You're not leaving, are you?" Eric gazed down the hallway from where he leaned in the doorway of Mackenzie's room, the tiny blonde lying fast asleep in the middle of her bed. Godric had only just reached the top of the stairs after taking nearly twenty minutes at the bottom to gain the courage.
"I think it would be better for us all if I did." Godric nodded, staring longingly at Mackenzie's room. "She's frightened of me. I don't want to make matters worse."
"You can't leave, Godric." Eric frowned with a shake of his head. "How is this going to right itself if you just abandon her?"
"I'm not abandoning her." Godric defended. "I'm merely giving her space to comprehend what we've told her. She has you and Pam around her constantly. She doesn't need me."
"She'll always need you, Godric." Eric pointed out. "She'll always love you more than she'll ever love us."
"That's not true." Godric shook his head.
"Yes it is." Eric nodded, shrugging his shoulders. "And that's fine. You can give her more than I ever could. I...I care for her, I do. I've learned to accept that over time. But I can never offer her the same love that you do."
"That doesn't seem to matter, now does it?" there was no hiding the bitterness in his tone.
Eric almost wanted to smirk. Never had he been chosen as a favourite over his maker. If it had been a competition, Mackenzie would have picked Godric over him in a heartbeat. Eric knew it was wrong to feel joy knowing that she trusted him and not Godric at that moment, but he did. He tried not to let it show, however, knowing full well that once she came to terms with this new development, that she would be Godric's little girl once again.
"The only reason she's reacting this way is because she loves you more." Eric shot one last glance into the room before closing the door as quietly as he could and moving down the hallway to meet his maker. "You're the one she idolizes. You're the one she looks up to. And now all of a sudden, she doesn't understand you, she doesn't understand what you are. Right now, all she can see are the fangs. But once she sees passed them, you'll always be who she chooses to love more."
Godric fell silent, gazing down the hallway instead of up at his child.
"You know I'm right." Eric did allow himself to smirk this time. "Stay, Godric. At least one more night. Let the little tot sleep it off and maybe by tomorrow night, she'll be throwing herself all over you. And not me. We can hope anyways."
"When did you become so wise?" Godric sighed heavily.
"I've always been wise." Eric's smirk grew. "So you'll stay?"
"I suppose you might have a point." Godric nodded. "I'll stay another night. But if she still expresses her fright..."
"Then by all means, we'll do things your way." Eric agreed. "Just give her time, Godric. That's all she needs right now."
A/N: I just want to say again how much you all rock. all of your reviews/alerts really mean the world to me. You have no idea how happy seeing those email notifications are. and it makes me want to write just that much more. I'm on a mini little vacation atm from work, so you might just be getting another chapter or two very soon.