Reckless

Chapter 16 Part 2

The wind blows through the trees, carrying the musky smell of coming rain, despite the fact that the sky is clear and a thousand stars twinkle above, a sight I rarely see in this modern world and didn't realize I missed this much until this moment. It's a glimpse of the world I left behind, surrounded by the cement and steel modern world once you get past the roads out of here. The vampires are scattered throughout the treeline, all of us waiting for Drusilla to step into the clearing. At that point, all hell is going to break loose.

I glance over to my right to where Ariadne stands, her nails elongated, her eyes red. Standing here without my cane kills my leg, but I can't afford to have anything in my hands that stops me from being able to direct the flow of magic when I need to. She stops looking at the clearing as her senses alert her that someone is looking at her. She swivels her head in my direction and briefly links hands with me, giving my hand a squeeze, before she pulls her hand back. I want to tell her to come back, that even Drusilla is incapable to taking on all of these vampires. I want to tell Ariadne, Zebulun, and even Sita to walk out of here and let the others handle this, that I will personally help them find more magic to sire more vampires so that we can have endless shots at this without their lives being on the line.

All of those words freeze on my lip before I can even utter them for two reasons. The first is that they would never agree to it, and even I find it barbaric to think of the others' lives as being so easily replaceable. The second is that all of the hairs on my arms stand on end, a crackle of energy in the air that makes me turn my attention to the clearing just in time to see Drusilla step out into the night. The moment she arrives, I know that there will be no talking Ariadne down-- any of them down really. There is no going back now.

Drusilla has gone all the way in dropping the modern woman for the modern age act. Her deep blood red hair is pulled up in the severe fashion of many women of Ancient Rome. She's clothed in a stola, the traditional garment of upper class women of her time, and it is pure white. The only thing on her that I can faintly make out as being different is that her feet are hidden by black boots, practical ones for the terrain she expected she'd be encountering.

She turns in a wide circle, arms held out in a deceptively inviting gesture, as her low voice rings out, "I have come, as requested. I am here, but all of you are hiding yourselves away like cowards." I feel Ariadne bristle at my side, but I reach out and grah ahold of her arm, forcing her to stay beside me. Her head whips in my direction as she tries to figure out my plan, but I give her a single shake of my head to tell her not to do anything yet. She reluctantly stands down as Drusilla continues, "You have no honor. Your ilk never has. And you, Roxanne," she calls out, and I drag my attention back to the clearing, where she has stopped turning in a circle, her eyes looking like the eyes of a demon in the cool light of the full moon, "you have allowed yourself to be brought low by their kind. You have betrayed your oath, your leader. I have every right to strip you of your magic, leaving you with just a mortal lifespan to spend with the demons you have chosen for company, damning your soul just as theirs are." I feel my cheeks heat, but it's not with shame, just pure rage. This time, Ariadne grabs ahold of my arm, spotting me, but I barely feel her against the tidal wave of anger that is crashing into me. Drusilla turns and someone pinpoints where I am with her own senses, staring right in my direction as her lips contort in a cruel expression and she nods in my direction, "Come out and face me yourself, Roxanne. Don't hide behind the brainless vampires and allow them to do your dirty work. Or else, I'm just going to turn the entire forest into a vast array of stakes and shoot at random. Maybe I'll even hit your precious Ariadne and get lucky, taking out the lot."

Silence descends then as Drusilla waits for me to make my decision. I know that she's not bluffing. She'll take them all out without them even having a chance to step out. We probably shouldn't have been so desperate to get this over with and instead chosen to meet in the middle of the Sahara where there are no trees or wood sources for her to manipulate. But that's a faulty decision that we made, and now we have to live with it. It's doubtful that she would have actually gone to the Sahara because of its proximity to Zahra anyway.

"I have to go out there and meet her," I declare, and I feel Ariadne's head snap in my direction without really having to look at her. Her hand tightens on my arm, her nails almost digging into my flesh enough to draw blood, only stopping because it's me and not someone she cares much less for.

"Are you fucking insane?!?" She hisses, and I slowly drag my gaze back to hers. Her eyes are wide, panicked. The breeze picks up, carrying a scent to my nose that makes my heart ache. I spell the scent of pine and sage, inexplicably sage. I can feel a tingling at my back, but when I glance back there's nothing there. It's like Boudicca is standing here with me right now, here to watch how this ends even if she cannot help because she was there when this all started. The breeze carries the scent of lilac and blood to me as well, the scents of the two people who have meant the most to me throughout my centuries of life enveloping me and reminding me of why I have to do this.

"What is it you said to me, "I am insane, thank you for noticing. I work hard at it, too."" I grin at her as the words escape my lips. She opens her mouth to say something more, but I advance on her, taking her face in my hands and holding her there so she will actually listen to me as her hands rest on my elbows, her violet eyes scanning my face as she desperately tries to convey to me her reservations. "If I don't go out there, this battle is over before it has even really begun," I intone, scanning her face for any signs that she understands this. "It's all ruined then. All of the lives that have been lost, all of the sacrifices that both of us have made. It's all over, and you're all dead. But if I go out there, if I confront her, I can distract her. You all can move into a better position and come at her while she's distracted. We have a shot at winning if I go out there now."

"She could kill you," Ariadne replies, her voice breaking as tears line her vision. "The moment that you step out where she can see, she could kill you, and there would be nothing that I could do to stop it." Her greatest fear, having to watch me die. It's the thing she almost witnessed on the pyre that day, and I know it stuck with her because watching Drusilla almost kill her in the last battle has been one of the things that has come back to me over and over in my dreams and has terrorized me.

"Trust me," I breathe, drowning in her scent. "Trust my training, that I paid attention when you taught me. I have magic, and I have skills with weapons and my hands that Drusilla doesn't have." Because if we don't trust each other, then this plan has no hope of actually working. We need to trust one another if we are going to pull this off, and that's a tall order considering how we both have done so much to hurt each other these past centuries.

Her eyes gradually turn back to their red coloring as she reaches up and pulls my hands away from her face, giving them a squeeze before she releases me and says to me, "I trust you." Because that's all there really is so say. I nod to her, moving to step out of the trees as she calls after me, "And I love you." If things go wrong, those being the last words we say to each other would make it more bearable for the survivor.

I glance back at her as I break through the trees, whispering to her, "And I love you, too." I force myself to turn away from her before my resolve breaks. My hair is tied back in a braid down my back so that it doesn't blow into my face, a braid that Boudicca used to do for me but that Ariadne had to do now, a way to have my sister here even if she has been gone for centuries-- and a reminder of what Drusilla is capable of.