I cackled with my forehead planted on the table. I was laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. I hadn't the faintest idea what was going on around me, all I knew was it was funny as hell. How many bottles had we finished? 2? 3? Who the hell was even keeping count? Everything seemed funny to me now. The world was spinning as if my body was moving around in circles. I felt as if I was sliding across the table that I was pathetically trying to cling too, though I couldn't seem to grasp its surface.
Komos was red faced trying to hide his laughter behind his hand, while holding a glass with liquid spilling over the rim. There were cups scattered across the table, tipped over, some with liquid still inside them.
Kaera had fallen off the chair she had been sitting on, and now laid on the floor on her back with her legs still on the seat. She was laughing so hard her face was turning purple, though there was no end in sight to her laughter. She was gripping her sides as tears were spilling down the sides of her face into her disheveled hair that lay on the dirty cafeteria floor. I was sure she was going to choke on her own laughter with how hard she was laughing.
We all sat there laughing up a storm until it hurt to breathe, and even then, we continued. Only when we all stopped laughing were we actually able to breathe. "I needed this." I finally said breaking the silence that had started to grow between us all. "I don't think I would have lasted too much longer without something like this."
Komos gently swirled the liquid around in his plastic cup. He didn't seem interested in trying to drink it. Had he even finished a glass? I wasn't even sure anymore. "I know you did." He stated simply. "You have been running yourself ragged ever since-" There was a heavy silence that seemed to weigh in the air between us all.
A darkened cloud loomed over my head as I kept it pressed to the cool table surface. I swallowed hard as I knew what he was about to say. "Before he left." Everything between us seemed to change in a single instant. No one wanted to say anything. No one moved, or even dared to breathe. If a pin had dropped across the cafeteria, we would have heard it so loud, the sound itself would have reverberated off the walls and rung in our ears, deafening us.
Komos sighed, breaking the silence finally. "Listen Rainy, I didn't mean-"
"No, it's okay." My tone was sad as I thought about all the sleepless nights that I spent crying trying to keep everything together. "I don't know why he left, but I know it was my fault."
"Don't give us that crap." Keara, who was usually so chipper and overly full of energy, picked herself up off the floor and stared at me with judgmental eyes. "Rorak left, that has nothing to do with you. You didn't fight, he just left. He didn't tell anyone anything, so that's not on you. Don't you dare blame yourself for his actions."
Komos and I stared at her, absolutely stunned. We had seen her angry before, after all, the last time she was angry, she and Komos had ended up destroying a base in the amazons. It was just so rare to see her mad, so when she was, we kind of forget she's capable of it. After a moment of stunned silence, Komos and I looked at each other. "You know she's right."
"Yeah I know, but still. It's hard to think it was not my fault when its been six months. This group was his life's work before I came along. He loved you all. You guys were family. Then one reckless night, we got super hot and heavy and boom, accidental turn, then he's gone."
Kaera shrugged "the way i see it, you got us in the divorce. If we truly meant anything to him, he wouldn't have left. Not like that."
I sighed in frustration as I sat up straight, then running my fingers through my hair, pushing it back out of my face. "He convinced me to keep the baby. He convinced me he would be here for it. Why did I expect anything different when he wasn't there for Temptress?"
"Temptress?" Komos questioned as he raised a brow at me. Clearly Komos and Kae had not gotten the memo that he was a father before lyra.
"His first born. Him and Nykira had a child together."
"No way!" Kae's face turned excited, shocked, amazed, I don't really know how to describe it. Her eyes had bugged out of her head, her mouth dropped but twisted into a smile at the same time. "Scandalous!"
"Anyway, I guess they weren't very good parents, and she played a part in the plot to kidnap my mother and siblings. Bones killed her in front of me, but supposedly, they were engaged while I was married to him."
"Whoa, that's kind of heavy." Komos's eyes widened in disbelief. He shook his head once and pulled the plastic cup to his lips, apparently needing a drink after hearing that juicy bit of drama.
"That's only one of the many reasons why I currently hate you for having me bring him back from the dead."
"Hey, it was all in the name of science. Your power is practically limitless, we need to know what you can do so we can help you control your power."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, so you keep telling me. Still, it's annoying to see his face every time I walk out of a room, or be woken from a dream with him in the dream."
"I have to say, that is a really cool ability though." Keara smirked as she lifted her glass.
"Believe me, it's not. I hardly get sleep anymore because I'm afraid once I close my eyes, he will just appear."
"My lady," a voice said from behind me.
Startled, I whirled around in my seat, to see Azazel coming down the cafeteria ramp to walk towards us. "A-A-Azazel." I felt my cheeks redden slightly, it was probably the booze talking, but he looked really fine walking towards us the way he was. Azazel, much like majority of the chosen ones camp, had crimson colored hair. His hair was cut so he had a side shave that turned into an under shave, leaving one side unshaven. He had two corn rows braided along his scalp where his hair met the shave. He always wore a black open sweat shirt that had the sleeves cut off so it looked like an open vest with a hood. Much like most of the guys in the camp, he liked to be shirtless, often leaving his sweatshirt vest open to expose his smooth pale chest. His chosen one mark was a simple design, two rings around his bicep, one thick and one thin. His whole look made him look like an edgy emo boy, but by god, it looked good on him tonight. "What are you doing here?" I asked more sheepish than I had intended to sound.
"My lady, we need you at the front. One of the scout teams came back claiming to of seen an army heading this way."
"What?! How did they find us?" I stood abruptly, getting light headed the instant I was up. The world seemed to spin and I started to fall over. I tried to catch myself on the edge of the table, but my hand slipped. Without missing a beat, Azazel reached out and caught me. His strong arms cradled me, as he helped to steady me.
"Are you alright my lady?"
"I'm fine. I just got up too fast." I could not hide the flush of color that seemed to deepen on my cheeks the longer that he held me. Now's not the time for that. "Keara, sound the alarm. I want everyone at the front now."
"On it!" Keara opened her fairy wings and off she went out the cafeteria doors.
"Komos, I'm going to need you at my side. You haven't been drinking as much as I have, I'm going to need your intellect to defend this place."
"What would you do without me?" He smirked as he stood up. He tossed his beautiful, silky red hair over his shoulder. He delicately placed his cup down on the table and walked around the table to my side. "Let's go kick some ass shall we?" He held his hand out to me for me to take. For a moment, I contemplated who I should stay with, before I ultimately took Komos's hand. "Azazel, as one of the healers, your job is to fight when necessary but ultimately stand back and at the ready." Komos instructed as he took over the burden of steadying me.
"Yes, sir!" Azazel stated handing me over to Komos before he took off running towards the front of the building where everyone was to meet.
Once Azazel was out of sight, Komos smirked down at me. I had not noticed he was staring at me while I was watching Azazel disappear. Once he had, I turned to look at Komos, just to see that devious smirk on his lips and his all knowing eyes burning a hole in mine. "I saw that Rainy."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Uh huh." We started walking towards the ramp slowly. As we walked, I hoped that I would be sober enough to walk on my own so I could run from this conversation. "You could hardly keep your eyes off of him. There's nothing wrong with that. Its been six months. I bet you have cob webs growing up there." He joked as he kept a steady pace with me. With how he was acting, it was as if we weren't in imminent danger.
"Oh please. I was just noticing how...handsome he looked tonight."
He raised a suspicious brow at me, knowing full well i was bullshitting. "He looks like that all the time. What's so different about tonight?"
"Um....I was drinking?" I stated as I began grasping at straws for any excuse I could think of.
"So you admit your loins get set afire when you're drinking." He taunted with that ever widening smirk that said I was just proving him right.
"I admit nothing of the sort!" We started walking up the ramp. The incline alone was enough to make my already unstable legs feel even more like noodles than they already felt. "Damn I drank way too much."
"I'll say. I had to pretend to be drinking my drink half of the night."
"When did you stop drinking?"
"After my first cup. That majority of that time I had nothing in my cup. I was enjoying you girls make a fool of yourselves too much to jump in and make it worse."
"You're evil."
"Well duh! I am your best friend. I have to be! It's in the job description."
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?! " I acted as if I was offended even though I couldn't hide the smile that was so clearly displayed on my mouth. "And might I add, you're the self proclaimed best friend. I never said you were." There was no doubt in my mind he would see my bluffing, bullshitting expression, and call me out on it in a heart beat.
"Best friends are supposed to be evil to each other. I didn't self proclaim shit! We have been glued at the hip since the first time we drank together, okay! So, AS your best friend, it is my expert opinion, that you get his bones girl!"
My face went bright red. I wanted desperately to run away from this conversation. "Komos! I'm engaged to Rorak. I cant just-"
"You can, because he done left your ass girl. The best way to get over someone, is to get under someone new."
As we walked through the cold, white hallways, I felt myself feel less dizzy. With the cool hallways on my hot skin, I started to feel brave as the dizziness started to fade, eventually I pulled my arm from around him and steadied myself against the wall next to me for a moment. I wanted to test myself, to see just how dizzy I was really. When I felt I was able to walk without the use of the wall, I let my hand down and proceeded next to Komos, keeping a slow pace with my finger tips grazing the wall, just in case I started to fall at least I had something to steady myself on.
"I know its been six months, and I know it's pathetic of me, but how can I move on when I made him? I can literally feel him. I know he's alive Komos. It's one thing to be dumped and be able to move on like a normal person, but it's so much harder when I have that gnawing nagging feeling at the back of my head constantly reminding me he's not here. I cant ignore it!"
"Rainy, I understand there's things I will never understand about the vampire species, but the fact of the matter is, he left you. He didn't just leave you, he left us too. He left his daughter here, he left his leadership behind, and even though he isn't Rorak's, that sweet little baby boy was named by Rorak so he's practically his. He left us all behind without so much as a word to anyone. We all have to move on."
Now that's a thought, Bones is the biological daddy, Rorak and Bones hate each other, and yet Rorak is the adopted father. The thought alone made me cringe. It was quite the situation and it was far from comical, but it was absolutely ironic due to the fact that Rorak wasn't here and chaos's biological father tried to kill him before I had a chance to give birth. Just recalling that night still spun me through a loop since I had not realized I was pregnant and then suddenly there was a child in my arms when I woke up. To think we are talking about all this, when there's about to be a battle right outside these walls. I just couldn't believe this was a more important conversation than the fact I am drunk and about to command an army against an attack. Still, as much as I wanted to run, I was glad to have the distraction.
As we neared the entrance to the hospital, I froze in place, my hair stood on edge all over my body the moment I caught a whiff of rotting Flesh. I suddenly became so much more aware, like my drunk switch had been turned off. and my sober hypervigilant switch had been turned on. "Rainy?" Komos asked though I couldn't hear him. My attention had completely zoned out, succumbing to my senses. The rotting flesh smell was absolutely over powering, how no one else could smell it through these walls was absolutely mind blowing to me. Even if they didn't have the senses I did, they should have at least smelled something. That wasn't all I sensed. I could hear the very familiar rhythmic beat of human hearts, pumping blood through their veins. Most humans when going into battle, had an erratic heart beat, whether from being terrified or excited. These hearts, they sounded completely calm, almost as if they didn't realize the danger they were in. How many were there? I counted in silence, listening closely to all the drumming sounds in their chests. Four...five...seven....eight....twelve? No, that can't be right. I lurched forward without warning, running down the halls with my vampire speed, zooming passed everyone that in the waiting room, preparing their gear. I slowed so the automatic doors could register my presence, allowing me to pass at a human speed until I stood outside the front doors. There wasn't anyone outside, at least not that a human could see. Komos, having ran after me, finally caught up with me, gasping for breath. His hand gripped my shoulder as he was hunched over trying to catch his breath. "What...the hell...was that?" He asked gasping for breath. My eyes widened and my mouth hung ajar as I continued to stare ahead with my vampire sight. I couldn't speak, all I could do was point ahead of us.
Komos followed my finger and stared hard into the darkness, squinting into it as he tried to sharpen his sight, though it was futile until darkened shadows barely came into being down the street. with my vampire eyes, the sight in front us was clear as day. Before us, an army of undead slowly made their way towards us. All the people that had been killed the night of the Ancients massacre sauntered towards us, groaning and gutturally growling. Behind the horde of undead, was what clearly looked like twelve women in bloody clothes, their hands at their midsections like slave women often are made to do. The women didn't look scared, in fact, there was no emotion on their faces at all. They seemed completely oblivious to the mass of zombies directly in front of them. Behind the women was a woman in scarlet Victorian clothes, with a fan in her hand fanning herself as if she were hot. Next to her was a man in black, with long black hair and a sword sheathed in his hand. Staring at them, even from this distance, I could clearly see what they were. I didn't need my hearing to confirm it. One word ran through my mind, turning the blood in my veins to ice. Ancient Ones. Something else caught my eye, on one of the buildings next to the man and woman, I could see something leaping from roof top to roof top. Upon sharpening my sight, I could clearly make out distinct physical attributes. First, it was a he, and he had golden hair. The way he was jumping, it was clear he wasn't human and he was quite agile since some of the buildings between us and them were vastly separated.
"What's happening?" Komos asked standing straight up as he too looked into the darkness. I knew he couldn't see everything I could though, due to his human attributes.
Without saying anything more, I gripped the scythe pendant from around my neck, ripping it off its chain and casting the spell to release my weapon from its dormant state. I immediately got into a defensive position, gripping either end of my duel bladed scythe. "Tell everyone to hurry up, we are out of time, they are here." I didn't look at him, my eyes were trained on the mass ahead of me that the others couldn't see. "i'll hold them off but you have to get them out here now." I commanded as I ran off ahead, charging straight for what I knew was bound to be a blood bath. Can 20 men and women really do it? Can we really win against all this? What am, I thinking? Of course we can! In the time that I was running at them with my vampire speed, time seemed to slow around me. Buildings began to blur into slow colors that seemed to meld together. It was as if time wanted me to think about life up until this single moment.
All those days spent in happy loving bliss with Bones at my side in the society. Sneaking into each others rooms, the birth of all of Gem's kittens, the day I became an official hunter and received my scythe from Bones and Lord Father. I ached for those days again. If I had known everything that I know now, I would have killed Bones where he stood, but that's not why I longed for them. I missed all the fun I had. I missed the feeling of his love, even if it was all just a lie. But then I wouldn't have met Rorak. I thought to myself as I jumped into the air with my scythe raised above my head. It was short, and it was fleeting, but I did love him. Our first real date, looking down at the compound while bathed in starlight. I remembered everything we said that night, and everything we did. Just the memory made my heart tighten in my chest.
As I came down I swung my scythe with force, cutting three zombies heads off their shoulders at once. From there, it was a dance of fluid movements as I spun my duel scythe around like a baton. It was like my scythe was a super extension of my arm, and with every swing, I found my mind continuing to wander off to a time when I was happy. The day I met Komos and ended up drinking with him for so long, I was so drunk I slept in his bed in just my underwear. The look on Rorak's face that very next morning when he saw me there like that was so beyond priceless, it might as well have belonged on some museum wall, framed for all eternity like some award.
As the horde closed in around me, sweat dripped down the sides of my face and trickled down my neck, pooling in my cleavage. I used my elemental magic to swirl air around my scythe, the whole thing, and with every swing the horde not decapitated would fly backwards like they were feathers floating through the air. I have to hold them back as long as I can. I thought to myself as I breathed heavily. There seemed to be no end to these things. My eyes wandered for but a moment, to the human women standing in front of the Ancient Ones, like shields to protect them. How low. As long as they were there I couldn't go all out, and it was starting to hinder me greatly, for every one I cut down, another seemed to appear suddenly, as if I was making no progress at all. My eyes scanned the Ancient Ones as I swung my scythe, forcing the horde back again. Which one? Which ones controlling the horde? My eyes landed on the golden haired boy on the roof, staring down at me with the moon at his back. I could clearly make out an excited toothy grin on his boyish looking face. The excitement in his eyes told me he would rather be in the battle himself. Not him. The woman? She seemed rather bored of the scene in front of her, as if this show of force was of no consequence to her, in fact, she was looking away from the battle. No. Commanding an army of this magnitude would mean intense focus, that just leaves....My eyes zeroed in on the tall slender man with the black hair and the katana at his side. His eyes were trained on me, watching my every movement. Him. Whenever I made a move, his eyes saw it and the zombies not knocked back by my blow or decapitated by my scythe, picked up the slack and closed the gap. Could that be how he's commanding them? They are linked to his sight? If that's the case... I swung my scythe around decapitating several zombies in a perfect circle around me, with the force of a strong wind, granting me room for what I was about to try.
I let go of my scythe with one hand, with that free hand I made a fist and punched up in the air slightly. The earth rumbled under my feet and then the cement broke apart all around me. The broken slabs jutted out of the ground exposing the earth underneath. I then gripped my scythe with both hands once more, then started swinging the scythe around me in circles, the force of my air swirling all around me forming a tornado as it picked up the dust and dirt from beneath my feet. With no warning, I stopped the spinning and burst the tornado, making the dust and dirt fill the air, creating a smoke screen. With the tall black suited man unable to see my movements, the zombies paused where they stood, as if they were confused. So I was right. If that's the case, I used my vampire speed to go from where I had been fighting, to zooming through the horde, dispatching every zombie I came into contact with until I was bursting out of the dust smoke at least ten feet from the human girls. If I can kill him, the dead should go back to being dead. I was so determined to kill him, I almost didn't stop when the human women closed the gaps between them, protecting him. I skid to a stop and stare at them, almost confused as to why they would do that. "Hello, you must be the owner of young Gil's scythe." The scarlet dressed woman stated as she peered at me over her fan. "These women wont let you through, I'm afraid. They are quite the devoted servants. They must have a very good mistress to have had them be taught in such a fine manner." She giggled in a devious way.
"What do you want?" I asked standing straight up with my scythe in front of me, ready to defend should I have too.
"Why, we just wish for you to accompany us." She said in a semi sweet and innocent kind of voice that contradicted her meaning.
"Yeah!" The blond haired boy shouted down from on top of the building. "We want you to play with us!" He evilly grinned as he jumped from the building and landed next to me. The moment his feet landed, he extended himself to reach for my scythe. I staggered back out of his reach and held the scythe out of his reach. "Give me back my toy! It doesn't belong to you! Bathory she wont give me back my scythe!" He whined at her as he continued to try and get the scythe from me. It was like dodging a child while playing keep away. Is he really an ancient? While trying to play keep away with the golden boy, I wasn't paying as much attention to the others as much as I should have been. Before I knew what had happened, my vision went black.