Reckless

Chapter 15 Part 6

Present Day

Character POV: Roxanne

I lied to him and said I was fine, he believed me. It didn't take long for me to sneak out and find myself in a bathroom in a club blotting out everything Ariadne loves about me. What Ariadne reminded me I wanted to do -- hunt the witch hunters-- was probably not the best way out of that mental place, but it worked. I saved people instead of damning myself. She got through to me then, as she did today, and just like then, I am still in a state of awe and wonder at the multi-faceted nature of Ariadne. There's still a leariness when I remember what she did to David and that poor human girl, but she honestly believed that she was doing it to protect me. Being a vampire warps perceptions. It makes the smallest feeling that someone has the biggest, the most off-handed thought becoming the main focus of all their time and energy.

We step out onto the dance floor, white lights illuminating the front of it for what I am guessing is the first time. Ariadne never liked the color white all that much. Standing shoulder the shoulder in somewhat neat rows are all of the remaining vampires. They vary in race and gender more than the current state of the witches does. As I scan the group, I see traditional garments from all across the globe paired with crisp suits and business dresses. Ariadne has travelled the word to turn these people, as have her sired vampires. I can see her relishing each stop along the way, and an ache forms in my chest at the thought of all of the places that she went that I have never gotten to see. I can see the smile on her face, imagine the way she'd throw her head back and laugh with people from all across the globe. Meanwhile, I spent my eternity blacking out in random alleys with people I'd never see again and would never amount to anything significant in the span of time.

Ariadne steps into my line of sight, taking center stage with Zebulun on her other side. It's like she's shielding me from the other vampires, her body language showing that she trusts me enough to turn her back on me, trying to convey that I am not a threat. Before she can even start talking, a female vampire with darker skin snarls, her black eyes flashing, "What is that witch doing here? You called for a meeting of vampires. Unless you've turned her, we will not listen to anything you have to say while that witch is here." She spits on the ground for emphasis, and I hear some collective hisses of agreement rise from the rest of the assembled individuals.

Red eyes glare back at me, the glint of fangs contrasting with the darkness at the back of the club. I search the group for any friendly faces. I find that about half of the assembled vampires have normal colored eyes and are looking at me with either passive expressions or outright curious ones. One look at them shows that they either bear very wise eyes or very coy and frenzied energy which leads me to believe that it's either the ones from before the war, who probably heard rumors about Ariadne and I from the war and know that I saved her life and in so doing, theirs-- or it's the super new ones who haven't really had to contend with any witches or vampire killings started by witches. Everyone in the middle, who wasn't at that final battle and has had to deal with centuries of conflict between our two people-- they hate me. And I can't blame them. Before I met Ariadne, I hated vampires. I hunted them like I was ordered to. I never made a distinction between the ones that had gone off the rails like the other two original vampires and the ones who held it together like Zebulun. They all had to die in order for stability to be restored to the world's magic. They were a blight, according to a lot of the witches, who stole immortality by sucking magic from the world. They were never supposed to exist and were tampering with the ordinances of the gods. It didn't matter what religion it was, what time that religion had existed; vampires were always evil, always something to be extinguished and killed because they went against the divine plan. At least witches were respected for our magical properties in ancient times. We advised kings and queens, we delivered prophecies as priests and priestesses. Magic was woven into society instead of mocked or outright attacked in some ancient societies. We enjoyed peace and acceptance for some of human history; vampires never did.