Reckless

Chapter 11 Part 2

Present Day

Character POV: Roxanne

Ariadne is so sure of herself, of how this will end, that she didn't even think for a moment about how I could have turned the stake on her-- just like I could have used my magic on her, but I didn't. I don't know what that says about us, but I know that what she's done here cannot be undone. She's forever changed the dynamics, the way that we communicate and understand one another. She used to be content with letting me hide myself, but now she's forcing me to the front, making me watch as she unmakes my world.

On shaking legs, I walk towards David. His blue eyes are filled with tears, tears that escape the confines of his eyes and slide down his cheeks as he watches me walk towards him with the stake in one hand and no thoughts in my head, just feelings that I can't make sense of under this much pressure. I stop right in front of him, stepping around the pool of blood at his feet, a pool which should have been a sign of what Ariadne did to him considering the lack of a mark on him.

Standing on my tip-toes, I reach up and undo the clasps of the chains, releasing one arm at a time. He groans through the gag as his feet finally make contact with the ground, the pressure off of his arms to support his body weight. When both of his arms are free, I let the chains go and clang as they swing in the air. I look David up and down as I reach behind his head and gently untie the gag, removing it from his mouth as I step back a single step and take in the sight of him.

His arms are hanging at awkward angles at his sides. Even with his vampire healing abilities, he needs his arms popped back into their sockets. I am not strong enough to do that for him, or even have the expertise to do it and minimize the pain. He'll need a real doctor for that. Even though the pain must be extreme, David keeps it to himself. I notice then the way that his pupils are dilated, going in and out of focus as he fights with his high emotions. I was so focused on Ariadne that I didn't even notice the tells he was exhibiting, the signs that he was no longer human. I've spent most of my entire life at war with vampires, and I couldn't even tell that my boyfriend had become one because all of my attention was on Ariadne. My attention is always on Ariadne, so much so that it seems I've been blind to some many things, like how his skin is pale beyond reason, beyond what it was the last time we saw each other, the paleness of the bloodless dead.

I choke on a sob as I press a hand to my mouth, unable to stop the tears from racing down my cheeks as I whisper to him, "I am so sorry that this happened to you, David." My throat closes up with a burning sensation, forcing me to stop talking and clear my throat to dislodge it before I press on, wiping away my tears with the back of my hand, "I was trying to protect you. I should never have sent you away. All I did was push you right into her path when you had no protection. . ."

"It's okay," he soothes, tears rolling down his own cheeks. "It's not your fault. I stole one of your journals and I thought I could get her to back off of you when I found her in the club." A beat. And then it registers that Ariadne didn't go after him, he went after her. He threw himself in her path in some warped attempt to protect me. He was collateral damage because he deliberately got in the way.

He opens his arms to me, and I allow myself to walk into his embrace. I close my arms around him, my hands till clutching the stake as I close my eyes and breathe in the scent of him, but that experience is denied me because he smells of blood and lilacs, he smells of Ariadne. He brushes a hand down my hair, letting out a sharp sound of pain at the motion before he stills and whispers to me, "It's okay, Roxy. We can find a way to make this work. If you really love someone, nothing can stand in your way."

His words clang through me, striking an off-beat cord. I lean back away from him, and I feel him slowly release me. He looks down at me with vulnerable blue-black eyes, the tears having since stopped. He smiles gently at me, his eyes soft with love. But when I look at him, at the way his eyes move between black and blue, I don't see him anymore. I see a vampire male, someone whose worst qualities will come out eventually despite himself because that's what vampirism does to people. His worst qualities-- his over-protectiveness, his need for me to check in, his invading my privacy and taking my journal, his acting on my part and trying to take control, his quick temper and sometimes fragile ego, his sometimes sexist behaviors and his dismissal of non-straight issues. . . All of that, it's going to be heightened.

I'm old enough to remember the other two members of the vampire leadership, the rumors about them. Before Ariadne became the leader of the vampires and only her line remained, vampires were dark creatures. They weren't restrained and calculating like Zebulun. They weren't fun-loving and spontaneous like Sita. They weren't even passionate and fiery like Ariadne. They were worse. They had no up sides, and they left a trail of dead bodies everywhere they went, bodies that were innocent people, not like what Ariadne and I did together during the witch trials.

But this is the man that I chose to move in with. After centuries of having one-night stands, of small romances where I kept my own private apartment far away from the people I was flirting with, I let him in. I let him in more than I've let anyone in since Ariadne. I tried to be honest with him, and when that failed, I tried to protect him. That's all I have ever wanted since, to protect him. Just because he's a vampire, that doesn't mean that all of those old feelings are suddenly dead, does it? I can't just shut out my emotions, not unless I'm passed out with a body full of substances, and even then the emotions come back twice as strong as they were when they were suppressed.

I think on his words as he gazes lovingly into my eyes. If you really love someone, nothing can stand in your way. Not leaders who disapprove and slap you when you slip up, not substances and self-destructive behavior, not time and distance, not being of different species-- of warring species, not even the confines of society. Nothing can stop two people who really love each other from finding each other, from choosing each other, not if they don't let things get in the way.

I reach up with my free hand and press it against his cheek. He leans into the touch, and I feel my heart swell inside of me as I whisper to him, "You're right. Nothing can stand in the way if you really love someone. I nod to myself as I drag my eyes away from his loving gaze. "The problem is," I whisper even quieter, "Ariadne's right, too."

I feel him stiffen under my hand with confusion, but what happens next happens too fast for even his vampire senses to help him escape. The stake comes up and I slam it into his chest, feeling the crack and give of his bones and flesh as I use my magic to force it in deeper than I could with my limited strength. Blood rushes out, gurgling from his mouth as he blinks once, stunned, before his eyes roll back in his head and he falls to the ground.

I stand over his body and watch as it ignites into flames, burning and burning until it's a shell of who he was. When the fire has gone out, leaving only bones and dust behind, I still stand there, bearing witness to what I've just done to the man I claimed to love. The minutes tick by, but the little self-preservation voice kicks in, reminding me that I am standing over a dead body. I need to get out of here, before any passersby should enter. In this warehouse district, there's probably more than one dead body lurking around, but where there's crime, there's cops, and I have no desire to kill any more people than I have already killed today.

Forcing myself to turn away from the scene, I march towards the exit. I pull the door open, and slam it shut behind me as I walk towards my rental car. I pull the door open, slide into the driver's seat, close the door, and lock it for good measure. I sit there, with my hands on the wheel, just staring into the distance without really seeing much of anything. Eventually, I press the "Start Engine" button and hear the quiet hum of the engine.

What catches my attention is the song blaring from my speakers, "We'll Meet Again" by Vera Lynn." I roll my eyes as I reach for the glove box, only to find the bottle is missing from my car, a little scrap of parchment the only thing that remains. I snatch the piece of paper out of the glove box, reading Ariadne's beautiful scrawl, "Thanks for this. I've had a long day. - A"

The song continues playing, and the lines sink in. Ariadne's not done with me. The line about smiling through, a shot at my substance use, how she knows what I'm doing to myself despite the image I've put out to the world. And say hello-- to Analize. Because she's coming for her, she's coming for the witches now.

I reach up and hit the eject button, removing the CD that she put in, and I roll down my window, throwing it out before I put the car in drive and speed away. We'll meet again, and I can't tell whether I'm looking forward to it, or if I am dreading it. One of us might die the next time we meet.

Ariadne's fake form sits in the passenger seat next to me, elbow on the arm rest as she smiles, "Oh honey, one of us is already dead. Kinda hard to die when you're already dead. That's the beauty of it." She winks at me, and I just press my foot down on the peddle even harder as I speed to the airport.

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