The Delacours

twenty-one.

                Aria and Ray walked away from us for a bit. He wanted to talk to her about how she was feeling after killing Zipporah and to take a chance to feed one last time before the fight. Val tried to get us to feed off her again, but we took a couple of blood bags instead. She wasn't happy, but we didn't give her a choice. She needed all the strength she had and I offered to watch over her so she could sleep until we saw any indication of them coming back.

"How are you doing?" Chris asked.

"I'm not gonna turn ripper, Chris. So for fuck's sake, can everyone stop asking me how I'm doing? You all know how I'm doing, because you're doing the same. I'm furious. Odette wasn't supposed to die! She was supposed to be here with us!" I started to cry again. "She raised me, literally. She's the only mom I ever knew. I was ten years old when I met her and she showed me how to live life to the fullest – even though she was a vampire. She never hid that from me, you know. It was mostly my fault. I thought she was drinking alcohol soon after she'd adopted me, and I drank out of the cup, only to spit it back out. Odette told me the truth and I accepted it. It totally made sense that she wasn't human, and I understood how she came to be my adopted parent. Even though things were different for her, she was able to help me through all my stupid human shit; my first period, my first crush, my first drink. I never had to hide things from her, and she was always super understanding." It was silent as Ray and Aria returned from their hunt.

"Hey," Ray said. I wiped the tears off my face. "Still no sign?"

"No. We're still waiting," Chris responded.

"Hearing you talk about Odette made me realize that she's really gone for good..." Ray said quietly. "I know I knew for less than you two did, but she definitely helped me through a lot of shit too... After I killed Jackie and her family... You guys didn't know, but I did talk to her about things with Aria. I wasn't sure how to pursue a relationship with you, and she helped me through it," he said, looking at Aria. "When we found out you were sick, I spent a night with her. We talked about it all and she helped me come to the decision that I would let you make the decision. When Chris brought me to her and I woke up in transition, despite the way I felt, what Chris tried to convince me to do, she let me make the decision to complete it, or die as a human. She had such a big heart."

"She took me in after all that shit with my family. She convinced... well now I see that she compelled them, to let me stay with you guys, even though it wasn't ideal for her. I only knew her a short time, but she was pretty great." It didn't take long for all of us to be crying.

"I wasn't sure how this worked, you, me, and Val," Chris said to me. "I wasn't sure that I was okay with this. I grew up traditionally, I guess we all did. A relationship was between a man and a woman, and that was it. When I saw you and Val together, but then you came back to me, I was hurt and confused. I didn't know what it meant, other than a way for you to feed. But when Val stuck around, I realized this was going to be hard. And then... when you went ripper... Odette walked me through the steps on how to bring you back. She told me about what you two did when I went ripper and I didn't realize how hard it was on you guys."

"When we found you Chris, you were working your way through Canada. I don't know how many people you'd killed but getting you back home was hard. I don't know how many times you escaped on us, but I eventually had to break your neck to make you pass out and carry you home. We had to starve you for almost a year before you agreed to feed on animals."

"When Odette and I found you I was scared there was no way to bring you back. It broke my heart seeing you like that. I felt like shit that I couldn't fix it but Odette stayed by my side to get me through it." I stood up and held the last bottle in the air. It was a bottle of Grand Marnier – Odette's favorite.