Christmas Consort

Hurry, Hurry

Kylie heard voices from afar. It was like she was back in her nightmare and the hall stretched at her feet. Defense, if not safety was somewhere down its length. She was laying down though, right in the middle of it all. Here was only danger. This never happened. The danger was not the Mayo Man. No. It was...the female white-eyes. Kylie needed to run, wanted to crawl away, but she couldn't move. Am I awake? Can you play dead in a nightmare? That worked with some predators, she thought. Wolves? Or bears? She couldn't remember. There was too much tingling. In her head and her hand. Her skin itched, but she was afraid to scratch. Afraid to draw attention. There was something else she should be doing besides playing dead.

Like being alive.

***

Lara stared at Silas. Goodbyes to say? She could think of nothing except 'hurry, hurry' and she didn't think that was quite appropriate. She shook her head and tried to look solemn.

Ridley knelt on one side of Silas and waved her over to the other side. She took one of Silas's hands in her own. A limp ineffectual appendage that reminded her why she had done all this.

Ridley frowned. "Well old friend. I hate that things have come to this. If I could have saved you this pain, this moment, I would have."

Behind Lara a little moan escaped Kylie. Lara held perfectly still, trying to give nothing away. Please move it along you, you, elder windbag, Lara thought.

"I can't help but feel a bit responsible. If that young woman over there hadn't come looking for me...well, maybe all this wouldn't have happened. Then again, maybe this was inevitable. I don't like to think that way."

Kylie moved, and it took every ounce of Lara's will power not to glance around. She was afraid now, petrified the blood bag would wake up and be the end of her.

She never would have thought of Jackson Ridley as sentimental. He was the hunter, the enforcer, not the philosopher. There was the music he made, though. What would a funeral dirge written by this vampire sound like?

She couldn't help but admire him further. Power radiated from his limbs. If his blood could heal a human, what more could it do for her? She'd always had to share with Silas. Weak willed Silas.

"We always have a choice, Silas. I hope you'll forgive me." Ridley held up his blade. "This is a choice I made a long time ago, when I lost my beloved. I'm truly sorry."

Finally, thought Lara. This is it.

d^