The Delacours

twenty-two.

                We waited for her to return. She came back and passed out with that one last spell, and I caught her. I carried her home and set her down in the backyard. Everyone went inside to shower, while I dug a hole outside. I undressed Val to her undergarments, placed her body inside and covered her with the dirt – the closer to the earth she was the better for her. I could see a very faint glow start to return. When Chris finished in the shower, he came outside. The wound from the white oak stake had scarred over. Aria and Ray wanted to get one last feed in and went to find something. I could see Aria's scar on her shoulder too.

I left Chris outside to watch over Val while I showered. In the mirror, I inspected myself. A new scar on my cheek, another under my breast, my hands were badly scarred too. In the shower, I washed my hair, and lathered the soap on my body. The water was warm, I closed my eyes, and for a second, I felt human again. I felt another pair of hands on my body and I nearly jumped out of the shower. It was Val; she was laughing.

"Jesus fucking Christ, Val. A little warning would be nice!"

"How did you not hear me? Or is something wrong with your hearing?"

"...I guess I zoned out. How are you feeling?"

"Great. Thanks for digging the hole, you didn't really need to. I would've been fine just on the ground."

"I needed to distract myself. And I wanted you to get your strength back." She kissed my neck, then my lips. "Val, stop." I gently pushed her off me. "I'm sorry. I'm not..." She nodded her head and helped me clean the soap off my body and shampoo out of my hair. She ran her hand over the scar under my left breast. She started to cry as a light emanated from her hand. "What are you doing?"

"Healing your scar..." I pushed her hand off my body.

"No, don't."

"Why not?"

"It will serve as a reminder that although I'm a vampire, I'm not immune to death. Leave it." I wrapped a towel around my body and headed to my room, leaving Val to finish her shower. I sat down on my bed and grabbed the bottle of rum off my nightstand. I took a long swig. I got dressed and headed back outside. The sun was just starting to rise. I heard a door open behind me.

"...Can I please just be left alone for a little while? I promise I won't go on a ripper binge. I just want to get drunk and forget for a while." Chris handed me a fresh bottle of rum and a pack of cigarettes and sat next to me.

"I won't talk if you don't want to. But I'm going to sit here and get fucked up, too." He cracked open his bottle of whisky and handed me the lighter. He clinked his bottle of mine and we both drank.

By noon, we were both drunk, the pack of cigarettes gone and surrounded by empty bottles. Val finally came out of the house in a robe and slippers and she started to collect the bottles. I grabbed my head, and sat up.

"What are the chances that the wolves planning this attack next week during the Blue Moon are all dead?" I asked Val.

"Very slim. Their talk of 'witches, wolves, and vampires all over are dying' was bullshit. It didn't even start until I was fighting Tristan. The spell belonged to Zipporah. Once she died, he didn't have that kind of power on his own. While Adriel was gone, they must have..." she made a face, "strengthened their bond now that Zipporah was gone. But after she died, the power died down again, and you guys were the first to feel it as far as I could tell."