Vampire Sunrise

Katie Mathis

The fiends finished their business, took the cat from me, and then wandered away into oblivion or wherever they spent their time. I went back to the bar and found Angel.

"I was just about to bring him to see you; he was in the ice machine under all the ice," Angel said.

"Anton, I can't say it was nice knowing you. I gave you a chance to do the right thing, and you didn't."

"What was I supposed to do, Alice? What choice did I have? He would have known, and I would have been silvered."

"Anton, you could have come to me. You could have walked into the blood bank apartments and asked me to help you. Heck, you could not have called Dominus and just ran off. You had so many options, but you took the easy way out. I guess you thought the Sollicitus would kill me," I said.

"Angel, put him back in the ice machine, permanently."

Anton started to plead and cry and ultimately tried to escape, but his efforts were futile. In the end, her crescent moon blade dislodged his head from his body, and she put him on ice inside the bar ice machine in two pieces.

Angel and I walked out of the bar and up the stairs. As we walked, I thought about Roxanne and hoped she was safe. I wanted to see her again. We crossed the foyer and made our way out of the French Quarter Mansion and back to the Mathis coven house.

The wards were not up, so I pushed the gates open and closed them behind Angel and me. The walk through the garden was sad, and blood tears welled up as I knocked on the front door. I wasn't sure how the witches would react to me. Her coven may try to kill me for all I knew, and I wouldn't blame them. The door opened, and Beth stood to the side, letting us in.

"Go to the back garden and follow the trail," she said. I nodded and walked through the library and down the hall that led outside. The back garden was spelled like usual, and everything was tranquil and calm. Colorful orbs hung in the air shedding light on a path of broken quartz that was not there before.

We walked on the quartz path to the very end of the backyard and through an iron gate. I had never seen this part of the coven grounds before. The trail continued into a thicket where several weeping willows grew together. Underneath the trees were six gravestones and one open grave where Katie's body rested, waiting to be placed into the earth.

Katie's resting place sat between her two children; both were taken from her by vampires a few years before. She would be with them; her fight was over.

Beth came up behind me and took my hand.

"She would not have had it any other way; she was a fighter; it was in her spirit. She wouldn't have blamed you, Alice, and neither do I," Beth said. She took her sleeve and wiped the blood out of my eyes.

Julie came over and gave me a hug echoing what Beth said. "We don't want you to go; please stay." Little Samantha walked up and took Angel's hand and stood silently. The rest of the coven was behind us.

I didn't know what to say. I just looked down at my boots and cried. Red tears fell, soaking my shirt and staining my face.

"Katie, I promise I'll not stop until the bastard is dead. I'll go city to city; I will kill them all if I have to. I'm so sorry, sugar."