The Vampire's Heart [Sequel to the witch's heart]

Chapter 12

Gregory holds the gasping and sobbing Elspeth to his chest as tightly as possible. He says nothing, just lets her let out her frustrations.

Elspeth's heart pounds and sweat rolls down her back, she can feel a headache forming across her right brow. She just can't seem to steady her breath and all she can think about is the feeling of the world getting smaller and tighter around her. 

Gregory doesn't know what to say. He knows that nothing he says will make it better. So he just continues to hold her tightly, telling her that he is there and softly asking her to breathe with him if she can. 

She calms eventually but stays motionless in his arms, staring blankly forward.

"Elspeth," he says softly after some time. "Love, you don't have to say anything or even think about the situation, but I am here for you and I will support you through this." 

Elspeth attempts to disengage from his grasp and he lets her go slowly, ready to steady her but not wanting her to feel trapped by his embrace. 

She sluggishly makes her way around the room, deftly running her hands over the spines of her books and pulling a few out here and there. She fills her arms with books and jars, dumping them hazardously on her desk with jars rolling around. 

"El," Gregory stands and makes his way over to her, hovering at her side. "What's up? talk to me. What are you doing?"

She doesn't say anything, only begins dumping herbs and such into a mortar.

"Elspeth," he says a little louder. She continues to ignore him so he slowly places a hand over hers. She jerks her hand away from his, not expecting the sudden contact, and looks up at him. 

The look on her face stuns Gregory, he has never seen such hatred in her eyes not even during the fight with Rookery. He knows the hatred is not directed at him but he can't stop the tightening in his throat or the burn at the back of his eyes as his love looks at him with such disdain. 

"What are you doing?" he asks even more softly than before, his voice neutral. He doesn't want there to be even a hint of judgment in his tone. 

"I'm going to find them and figure this shit out," Elspeth says curtly. She pours a black or, perhaps, very dark red liquid over the herbs she had dumped in her largest mortar. She begins mashing the putrid-smelling concoction with the pestle. Gregory tries not to automatically cover his mouth and nose, pushing down the need to gag.

"Find who, Elspeth? what is that horrid liquid?" He asks as Elspeth dumps the liquid into a mason jar through a strainer.

"Poison," she says as she takes the jar over to her bed.

"What could you possibly need that for?" Gregory grows worried, his mind racing wondering why she even has poison in the first place.

"I'm gonna drink it and venture into the Void. It's the quickest way to find someone." She lays down and tries to bring the jar to her mouth but Gregory rushes to her side and wrenches her arms down with his entire weight, pulling against Elspeth vampire strength. 

"Are you fucking crazy? you can't just drink poison, I'm not even sure a vampire could survive that, let alone this half-vampire whatever you are," he shouts at her.

She looks at him for a long time, her expression somewhere between thoughtful and confused.

"Since when do you swear like that?" She asks. Gregory's heart shudders at the way she's looking at him like she almost doesn't recognize him. She had noticed that his vocabulary had changed since he had come back, even his mannerisms seem to switch between what she's used to and something more modern. 

"The way the comet worked was to shift reality around to make space for us. Fake memories were put into not only other people's heads but also our own. For an entire year I lived as Greg, I went to school, I lived as a human with no memory or knowledge of ever having been a vampire. I just kept living that life as if it had been my life all along, magic had convinced me it was." Gregory leans back a bit, realizing that they hadn't been able to talk about any of that since he got here because of all the things going on. 

Elspeth just looks away, "Oh."

"But this isn't about me, this is about you and how you were just about to drink poison," Gregory says quickly taking the jar and placing it out of reach on the bedside table. 

"It's just a method to get to the other world. Strong magic users can enter on their own but I've never been able to so I just do it this way. I won't die, I've done it plenty of times. I've even done it recently so I know it'll work out even though I'm not human currently. It's fine," Elspeth asserts rather aggressively. 

"No, this seems too dangerous with these circumstances. I don't think it's a good idea," Gregory says. He is leaning over her still from his quick scramble for the jar so he just crawls over her and into bed. Thankfully, she doesn't reject his touch this time. "It's late, why don't we sleep on this and talk about it in the morning. You've been through a lot tonight and you need just a little time to process." He opens his arms and Elspeth readily buries herself in his embrace. 

After a while, she can hear him breathing softly, she knows he's asleep. She pulls his arms tighter around her as her eyes trail over the jar he'd left on her bedside table. 

Hello! my god, it has been a long time. I can't tell you guys how sorry I am for just falling off the face of the earth. I'm dying in school still but finals are almost over so hopefully, this story will pick back up during winter break. Thanks for sticking with me and thank you to those who commented and sent messages to my board about this story, I really appreciate you!! I appreciate all of you who read my work! See you soon! and I mean it, soon.