Angelic

Ev ~ 24

Ten minutes later we had arrived at the graveyard and the small hole for Lizzie's body was already dug. This felt so wrong that all I wanted to do was run away, but I couldn't leave Lizzie. I had to be here when she came back.

Magnus and I stood back as Raphael set her down on the damp dirt.

"I'm sorry." Magnus said next to me, watching as Raphael jumped back out the grave and began shoveling dirt onto Lizzie's body.

"Why do you keep apologizing?" I did my best to sound indifferent, but I could hear the sorrow in my own voice.

"Because I've been where you are." He responded simply. "Death is never kind to anyone. It has its own agenda and plays by its own rules. In the end it is never fair. Not to the ones left behind, at least."

I looked up at him, my eyes watering. "Tell me, Magnus, how many people in your family have you had to bury? How many times have you watched them become the thing you--" I broke off then, my eyes unconsciously glancing at Raphael.

Magnus stared at me for a long time. I knew he had no answer. I knew enough about him from listening to Alec to know that he was an only child. Finally he said, "Pain is pain. Whether you are saying goodbye to a friend you won't see for six months or are saying goodbye to a friend you will never see again, you feel the same. Maybe not to the same degree, but your heart still weeps over them. I may not have lost family, but I have lost people close to me--friends and lovers."

How many people has he lost before? How many people has he seen die young--too young to be fair? And then a worse thought crosses my mind: how many people born after him has he watched grow old and die of old age? Did he realize that that was the best way for Alec to go, because he would die old and not be killed by a demon in his youth? Was he prepared for that?

Raphael dropped the shovel. It clattered to the ground loudly, startling me out of my thoughts. I looked over at him. His eyes found mine. A shudder ran up my spine, goosebumps quickly following. Was it just me, or had it suddenly dropped ten degrees?

"What now?" I asked him.

"Now we wait. She'll dig herself out when she's ready." Raphael said. "Eveline, if you don't want to watch--"

"No." My voice was quiet, but I spoke sternly enough that he didn't argue. "I'm staying here. I'll be here when she wakes up."

Raphael didn't say anything more on the subject. I watched as he pulled out a small bag of blood from the inside of his jacket. He saw me staring. "She'll be hungry when she wakes up." He explained. I knew that, of course, but seeing him hold the bag of blood--and imagining her drinking it--made it suddenly real. Lizzie was dead. She would never be human again.

I don't know how long we waited. Knowing the emotional state I was in, I knew I wasn't good judge of time. But eventually, when it did happen, it took me by surprise. Her fingers appeared first, sticking out of the dirt like a growing flower. Then her left hand appeared, and along with it her right hand. They moved around the ground until she could push herself up. She pulled herself out of the dirt too easily for how small she was--another reminder that her human life was behind her.

When she was out of the grave, piles of shoveled dirt around her, she fell onto her hands on knees. Vampires, before they fed the first time, were very weak. It was the blood that gave them power, that gave them the ability to run faster than cars and hear through walls and sees the tiny details of leaves on trees. Lizzie lifted her head up, her eyes falling on Raphael.

"You!" She cried, her voice hoarse. "What did you do to me?"

I looked at Raphael, but he was staring back at Lizzie. I figured I would get an explanation later. Impatiently, I grabbed the blood bag from Raphael and walked towards her.