Amnesia

Chapter Fifteen

New Life

Everything was so clear. Sharp. Defined.
The brilliant light overhead was still blinding-bright, and yet Maeryn could plainly see the glowing strands of the filaments inside the bulb. She could see each color of the rainbow in the white light, and, at the very edge of the spectrum, an eighth color she had no name for.
Behind the light, she could distinguish the individual grains in the dark wood ceiling above. In front of it, she could see the dust motes in the air, the sides the light touched, and the dark sides, distinct and separate. They spun like little planets, moving around each other in a celestial dance.
Maeryn found the dust was so beautiful that she inhaled in shock; the air whistled down her throat, swirling the motes into a vortex. The action felt wrong. She realized the problem was that there was no relief tied to the action. She no longer had need for the air. Her lungs weren't waiting for it. They reacted indifferently to the influx.
Even though Maeryn had no need for the air she breathed in, she liked it. In it, she could taste the room around her - taste the lovely dust motes, the mix of the stagnant air mingling with the flow of slightly cooler air from the open door. Taste a lush whiff of silk. Taste a faint hint of something warm and desirable, something that should be moist, but wasn't... That smell made Maeryn's throat burn dryly, a faint echo of the venom burn. And most of all, she could taste an almost-rainy-rose-and-sun-flavored scent that was the strongest thing, the closest thing to her.
Maeryn heard the sound of the others, breathing. Their breath mixed with the scent that was something just off rainy and roses and sunshine, bringing new flavors. Cinnamon, hyacinth, pear, seawater, rising bread, pine, vanilla, leather, apple, moss, lavender, chocolate.... Maeryn traded a dozen different comparisons in her mind, but none of them fit exactly. So sweet and pleasant.
Maeryn heard that Demetri and Felix had finished playing their game as there was no longer the buzzing sound the TV made when it was turned on.
She also heard a faint, thudding rhythm, with a voice shouting angrily to the beat while screaming guitars accompanied the singer. Rock music? Maeryn was intrigued for a moment, and then the sound faded away like a car passing by with the windows rolled down.
With a start, Maeryn realized that this could be exactly right. Could she hear all the way to the freeway? The freeway was quite far away from the castle as it was on top of a high in a quiet village.
Maeryn hadn't realized that someone was holding her hand until whoever it was squeezed it lightly. Like it had before to hide the pain, her body locked down again in surprise. This was not a touch she had expected. The skin was perfectly smooth, but it was the wrong temperature. Not cold.
After that first frozen second of shock, Maeryn's body responded to the unfamiliar touch in a way that shocked her even more. Air hissed up her throat, spitting through her clenched teeth with a low, menacing sound like a swarm of bees. Before the sound was out, her muscles bunched and arched, twisting away from the unknown.
Maeryn flipped off her back in a spin so fast it should have turned the room into an incomprehensible blur, but it did not. She saw every dust mote, every splinter in the wood-paneled walls, every loose thread in microscopic detail as her eyes whirled past them. So by the time Maeryn found herself crouched against the wall defensively, about a sixteenth of a second later, she had already understood what had startled her, and that she had overreacted. Ofcourse, Alec would no longer feel cold to her. They were the same temperature now. Maeryn held her pose for an eighth of a second longer, adjusting to the scene before her.
Alec was leaning across his kingsized bed, the bed that had been her pyre, his hand reached out toward her, his expression anxious. Alec's face was the most important thing, but Maeryn's peripheral vision catalogued everything else, just in case. Some instinct to defend had been triggered, and she automatically searched for any sign of danger.
Maeryn's vampire family waited cautiously against the far wall by the door, Felix and Demetri in the front. Like there was danger. Maeryn's nostrils flared, searching for the threat, however she could smell nothing out of place. That faint scent of something delicious tickled her throat again, setting it to aching and burning. Jane was peeking around Felix's elbow with a huge grin on her face; the light sparkled off her teeth, another eight-color rainbow.
That grin reassured Maeryn and then put the pieces together. Demetri and Felix were in the front to protect the others. What Maeryn hadn't grasped immediately was that she was the danger. All this was a sideline. The greater part of her senses and my mind were still focused on Alec's face. It seemed as if she had never seen it before this second. How many times had she stared at Alec and marveled over his beauty? How many hours - days, weeks - of her life had she spent dreaming about what she then deemed to be perfection? She thought I'd known his face better than her own. She'd thought this was the one sure physical thing in her whole world: the flawlessness of Alec's face.
Maeryn may as well have been blind this whole time.
For the first time, with the dimming shadows and limiting weakness of humanity taken off her eyes, Maeryn saw his face. She gasped and then struggled with her vocabulary, unable to find the right words.
At this point, the other part of Maeryn's attention had ascertained that there was no danger here besides herself, and she automatically straightened out of her crouch; almost a whole second had passed since she'd been on the table. Maeryn was momentarily preoccupied by the way her body moved. The instant she'd considered standing erect, she was already straight. There was no brief fragment of time in which the action occurred; change was instantaneous, almost as if there was no movement at all.
Alec moved slowly around the bed - each step taking nearly half a second, each step flowing sinuously like river water weaving over smooth stones - his hand still outstretched. Maeryn watched the grace of his advance, absorbing it with her new eyes. "Maeryn?" he asked in a low, calming tone. Maeryn could not answer immediately, lost as she was in the velvet folds of his voice. It was the most perfect symphony, a symphony in one instrument, an instrument more profound than any created by man. "Maeryn, amore mio? I'm sorry, I know it's disorienting. But you're all right. Everything is fine. No one is going to hurt you. You are safe here. I promise." Everything? Maeryn's mind spun out, spiraling back to her last human hour. Already, the memory seemed dim, like she had watched through a thick, dark veil - because her human eyes had been half blind. Everything had been so blurred. Alec reached out tentatively and stroked his fingertips across her cheek. Smooth as satin, soft as a feather, and now exactly matched to the temperature of her own skin. His touch seemed to sweep beneath the surface of her skin, right through the bones of her face. The feeling was tingly, electric - it jolted through her bones, down her spine, and trembled in her stomach. However, the dry feeling in her throat worsened every time she took a breath of unneeded air. She hissed slightly in annoyance and realised what was happening.
She was a newborn vampire. The dry, scorching ache in her throat gave proof to that. Maeryn heard a heart beating, and could hear the delicious flow of the blood it was pumping around. It made her throat only burn fiercer, more violent. Maeryn hissed again and wrapped an hand on her throat, trying to find a way to sooth the pain, but she knew only that sweet nectar could help her out. Alec frowned slightly but realised soon enough why his mate was hissing. Thirst. He looked at his masters who both where smiling. "Go ahead my boy, just make sure to not hunt in Volterra." Aro said "Take your time. She needs to be well fed before training starts. We'd like to begin as soon as possible." Caius said. Alec nodded his head and turned his attention back to his mate, who started to lose her control. She needed that sweet nectar. Everything in her body screamed for her to run to it and sooth the pain she felt in her throat.
"Shall we?" Alec asked. He reached up to take the hand that was still at her neck. His fingers smoothed down the column of her throat. "I don't want you to be hurting," he added in a low murmur. Something she would not have been able to hear before.
"Okay." Maeryn answered, using her new voice for the first time. The sound that left her lips surprised Maeryn. She was so surprised that she forgot her thirst for a second. Her eyes where wide. The voice wasn't hers, yet it was. It was smooth, silk like and singing. How the voice of an angel would sound like.
"Wait, wait, wait," Jane trilled from the doorway. She danced across the room, dreamily graceful. "You promised I could be there the first time! What if you two run past something reflective?" "Jane - ," Alec protested. "It will only take a second!" And with that, Jane darted from the room. Alec sighed. "Give her the pleasure, my dear one. She has been waiting for four days." Aro said. Alec nodded his head in agreement. Maeryn was confused for a second, but Jane was already back, carrying the huge, gilt-framed mirror from her room, which was nearly twice as tall as she was, and several times as wide. Felix had been so still and silent that Maeryn had taken no notice of him since he'd followed behind Aro. Now he moved again, to hover over Jane, his eyes locked on Maeryn's expression. Because she was the danger here. "Alec promised me I could be there when you saw your reflection for the first time. It is quite an important thing for a vampire, especially a girl." Jane explained. Alec rolled his eyes slightly. "I believe her thirst is more important than her reflection right now." He protested. "Oh shush you. You can hunt in a minute." Jane said.
Maeryn however was only aware of this exchange with the lesser part of her concentration. The greater part was riveted on the person in the mirror. Her first reaction was an unthinking pleasure. The alien creature in the glass was indisputably beautiful, every bit as beautiful as Jane or Chelsea. She was fluid even in stillness, and her flawless face was pale as the moon against the frame of her light, caramel gold, heavy hair. Her limbs were smooth and strong, skin glistening subtly, luminous as a pearl. Her second reaction was horror. Who was she? At first glance, Maeryn couldn't find her face anywhere in the smooth, perfect planes of her features. And her eyes! Though she'd known to expect them, her eyes still sent a thrill of terror through Maeryn. All the while Maeryn studied and reacted, her face was perfectly composed, a carving of a goddess, showing nothing of the turmoil roiling inside her. And then her full lips moved.
"Well, the eyes are sure bright red." Maeryn whispered. "But what do you think?" Jane asked, a little impatient now, pointing to the mirror. "I'm not sure," Maeryn hedged, not wanting to admit how frightened she really was.
Maeryn stared at the beautiful woman with the mesmerizing eyes, looking for pieces of herself. There was something there in the shape of her eyes - if you looked past the dizzying beauty, it was true that her right eye was slightly more pointed to the right than her left eye, though not very noticeable if you didn't know it. Finding this familiar little flaw made her feel a tiny bit better. Maybe the rest of her was in there, too. Maeryn raised her hand experimentally, and the woman in the mirror copied the movement, touching her face, too. Her crimson eyes watched Maeryn warily. It was quite a lot to take in all at once.
Alec sighed. Maeryn turned away from her reflection to look at him, raising one eyebrow. "Disappointed?" she asked, her voice beautifully smooth. He laughed. "quite the opposite," he admitted. "I am afraid I may be even more possessive now. You are absolutely beautiful. More beautiful than the prettiest flower ever frown on this planet." Alec said and wrapped his arms tightly around Maeryn's newly frozen form, pressing his lips against her cheek. Maeryn felt better at once, but the burning sensation returned in her throat.
"Can we hunt, please?" Maeryn asked, a thrill of nerves and anticipation making her stomach quiver.

"The window?" Maeryn asked, staring seven stories down. she'd never really been afraid of heights per se, but being able to see all the details with such clarity made the prospect less appealing. The angles of the rocks below were sharper than she would have imagined them. Alec smiled. "It's the most convenient exit. If you're frightened, I can carry you." "We have all eternity, and you're worried about the time it would take to walk to the back door?" Maeryn asked He frowned slightly. "Well Gianna is downstairs, and Master Aro would like to keep her around for alittle longer. Plus, we are not allowed to hunt in Volterra." Alec explained. "Oh." Was all Maeryn said. "Watch me," Alec said. And then, very casually, he stepped out of the tall, open window and fell. Maeryn watched carefully, analyzing the angle at which he bent his knees to absorb the impact. The sound of his landing was very low - a muted thud that could have been a door softly closed, or a book gently laid on a table. It didn't look hard. Clenching her teeth as she concentrated, Maeryn tried to copy his casual step into empty air.
Ha! The ground seemed to move toward her so slowly that it was nothing at all to place her feet to place her bare feet exactly right so that landing was no different than stepping one foot forward on a flat surface. she absorbed the impact in the balls of her feet and her landing seemed just as quiet as his. Maeryn grinned at Alec. "Right. Easy." He smiled back. "Maeryn?" "Yes?" "That was quite graceful - even for a vampire." Maeryn rolled her eyes playfully. "You mean I am no longer clumsy?" she asked. Alec grinned playfully, showing she had figured him out. Alec grabbed her hand. "Ready?" he asked and Maeryn nodded her head, wanting the burning in her throat to sooth. Alec started running. And so Maeryn flew with him through the living green web, by his side, not following at all. As she ran, she couldn't help laughing quietly at the thrill of it; the laughter neither slowed her nor upset her focus.
She could finally understand why Alec never hit the trees when he ran - a question that had always been a mystery to her. It was a peculiar sensation, the balance between the speed and the clarity. For, while she rocketed over, under, and through the thick jade maze at a rate that should have reduced everything around her to a streaky green blur, she could plainly see each tiny leaf on all the small branches of every insignificant shrub that she passed. The wind of her speed blew her hair and her torn clothes, something that had happened due to her struggling and scratching and pulling while getting changed into a vampire, out behind her, and, though she knew it shouldn't, it felt warm against her skin. Just as the rough forest floor shouldn't feel like velvet beneath her bare soles, and the limbs that whipped against her skin shouldn't feel like caressing feathers. She kept waiting to feel winded, but her breath came effortlessly. She waited for the burn to begin in her muscles, but her strength only seemed to increase as she grew accustomed to her stride. My leaping bounds stretched longer, and soon he was trying to keep up with me.
"Maeryn." Aleccalled dryly, his voice even, lazy. she could hear nothing else; he had stopped. Maeryn had barely noticed that she had passed him and with a sigh, she whirled and skipped lightly to his side, some hundred yards back. Maeryn looked at him expectantly. He was smiling, with one eyebrow raised. He was so beautiful that she could only stare. "Did you want to stay in the country?" he asked, amused. "Or were you planning to continue on to France this afternoon?" "This is fine," Maeryn agreed, concentrating less on what he was saying and more on the mesmerizing way his lips moved when he spoke. It was hard not to become sidetracked with everything fresh in her strong new eyes. "What are we hunting?" "Just some low lives. People who no one will miss. So we stay unnoticed." Alec explained. Maeryn nodded her head and her throat only burned fiercer, if that was possible, at the thought of blood. The continued their ay until they reached a bad neighbourhood.
"Hold still for a minute," he said, putting his hands lightly on my shoulders. The urgency of her thirst receded momentarily at his touch. "Now close your eyes," he murmured. When she obeyed, he raised his hands to her face, stroking her cheekbones. Maeryn felt her breathing speed and waited briefly again for the blush that wouldn't come. "Listen," Alec instructed. "What do you hear?"
Everything, she could have said; his perfect voice, his breath, his lips brushing together as he spoke, the small chatter inside houses from humans, the beating of their hearts and most importantly, the flow of their blood. And there, near the noise of a party, was the splash of liquor flowing richely in the humans throats, and the laughing and chatter it caused., the loud thudding of heavy hearts, pumping thick streams of blood.
It felt like the sides of Maeryn's throat had sucked closed. Maeryn growled and could no longer control herself .
Half-hidden around the edge of a purple-black alley, a man was cussing at a woman and slapping her while another woman watched silently. From their clothes, Maeryn guessed that it was a pimp and two of his employees. "Don't think about it," Alec suggested and took a step back. "Just follow your instincts. Watch me."
Alec inhaled through his nose - a big, long pul - and Maeryn watched his body change. He crouched on the roof, one hand gripping the edge. Al that strange friendliness disappeared, and he was a hunter. Maeryn followed his movements, though she felt that she did not need instructions. Her throat was burning and she wanted blood. Now.
Maeryn's brain turned off. It was time to hunt. She took a deep breath, drawing in the scent of the blood inside the humans below. They weren't the only humans around, but they were the closest. Who you were going to hunt was the kind of decision you had to make before you scented your prey. It was too late now to choose anything.
Alec dropped from the roof edge, out of sight. The sound of his landing was too low to catch the attention of the crying prostitute, the zoned-out prostitute, or the angry pimp. A low growl ripped from between her teeth. Mine. The blood was mine. The fire in her throat flared and Maeryn couldn't think of anything else.
She flipped myself off the roof, spinning across the street so that she landed right next to the crying blonde. Maeryn could feel Alec close behind me, so she growled a warning at him while Maeryn caught the surprised girl by the hair. Maeryn yanked her to the alley wall, putting her back against it. Defensive, it was in her nature now. Then she forgot all about Alec, because she could feel the heat under her skin, hear the sound of her pulse thudding close to the surface. The prositute opened her mouth to scream, but Maeryn's teeth crushed her windpipe before a sound could come out. There was just the gurgle of air and blood in her lungs, and the low moans she could not control.
The blood was warm and sweet. It quenched the fire in her throat, calmed the nagging, itching emptiness in her stomach. Maeryn sucked and gulped, only vaguely aware of anything else. Maeryn heard the same noise from Alec - he had the man. The other woman was unconscious on the ground. Neither had made any noise.
It seemed like only seconds later the girl ran dry. Maeryn rattled her limp body in frustration. Already her throat was beginning to burn again. She threw the spent body to the ground and quickly made her way towards the other human, before Alec could reach her. Alec was already finished with the man. He looked at Maeryn with an expression that I could only describe as... fascination. But she could have been dead wrong. But Maeryn didn't really care. She sank her teeth into the human's neck, keeping her eyes on him. This one was even better than the last. Her blood was entirely clean. The blonde girl's blood had the bitter aftertaste that came with drugs. Maeryn dropped the gril, blood dripping from her mouth and dripping onto her shirt. Now that the thirst was slightly satisfied she looked back at Alec and something bloomed inside of her. She knew this vampire was hers. And she was his. She quickly darted towards him and pushed him against the wall, kissing him. Alec, slightly surprised at first, wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed back, much rougher than he had ever done.
Small groans left both their lips, but the wind changed, and Maeryn caught the scent of even more blood. Alec hadn't noticed it and started to kiss and lightly bite her neck. Maeryn growled and pushed his arm away roughly. A noise of metal breaking could be heard as small cracks formed in Alec's arm from the force, but Maeryn had already gone, her instincts leading her to the nice scent.
Her instincts let her towards a couple making out. Maeryn didn't stop and attacked the man, practically ripping his throat open and drinking his delicious nectar. A moan once again left her lips in satisfaction, however Maeryn found the problem with humans, they were empty too soon. The girl screamed and started to run, but Maeryn had already caught her up, her vampire speed helping her in the protest. Maeryn grabbed the girl and sank her teeth deeply in the girl's neck, making her blood flow past the fire that was burning in her throat. But just like the man, the girl was empty of her blood way too soon. Maeryn growled in frustration. She wanted, no, needed more blood.
Suddenly everything turned black around her. She could no longer hear, see, smell, taste or feel anything. This worried her but also calmed her down. She no longer felt the burning in her throat, she actually felt quite peaceful. The darkness soon made room for Alec's face, looking worried. "Are you alright, amore mio?" he asked as he stroked her cheek while she laid down in his arms. Maeryn frowned and nodded her head, her eyes widening at the realisation of what she just had done to her mate. Maeryn grabbed his arm and pulled away his sleeve, checking his perfectly smooth arm. "I am fine, everything is fine. It is just your instincts. It isn't your fault, amore mio." Alec said. Maeryn nodded her head. "I am sorry." She said in her singing voice. Alec pecked her lips. "It's okay. Now, let's get rid of the bodies and go home." Alec said. Maeryn nodded her head and grabbed the bodies while Alec carried the other three bodies, making their way to a deeper, darker alley. They piled the bodies on top of each other and lit the pile on fire. Alec couldn't help himself and kissed his mate, softly and deeply. Maeryn smiled and returned his kiss, knowing this was her new life, and everything will be perfect. Her new life would be perfect. And she would do anything to keep it that way. Nothing, absolutely nothing would ruin her perfect life. And anything or anyone that would try, she would destroy, even if it will be the last thing she would ever do.

(Extra long chapter before going on my holiday. I won't be able to upload any new chapters for the next two weeks, so I hope you guys will enjoy this chapter in the meantime! Much love!)