Mer's eyes snapped open as the soft caress of fingers trailed against her own. Running them shakily down her skin, Damien intertwined his fingers with hers before he gripped her hand firmly.
Thank god. Damien was still there.
Over the stinging pain of his fangs in her neck and pounding of her heart, she began to notice the commotion going on outside her cell. A clink drew her attention, and in an instant, she was jerked up into the corner and pressed against Damien, who had hidden behind her back. Like a gentleman, he ripped off his good sleeve and tied it around her neck as the room became visible.
They had opened the snare and cell, it seemed, and she eyed the two mages behind her aunt. With terror in her eyes, Lia had formed her lunar staff again and was leering at the huddled form of Damien behind her.
"Meredith, get away from that thing. Come to me. I'll protect you!" Lia called to her, but she instead looked back at Damien, who was in no better condition than he'd been before, despite her blood.
If her aunt wanted to cast magic, it would be absorbed by her before it made it anywhere near Damien. Right now, she was his shield, and he was still too weak to do much of anything. At the very most, Damien had taken enough of her blood to keep himself conscious a few more hours but not enough to fight a mage or rejuvenate.
"No. I won't abandon him just because you tell me to! Damien is only here because he wanted to protect me," Meredith argued, and Lia narrowed her eyes at her.
"The girl is tainted with dark magic, Luna. You can't trust her not to have sided with the beasts," one of the mages said, referring to her aunt by her mage name.
While Mer wanted to believe that her aunt wouldn't think that, she saw the nervous backwards stare she gave the man. How did this have to be for her aunt– to lose another family member to dark magic? But Mer wasn't lost. She just had a head on her shoulders. Damien was kind, protective, and loyal. A beast, he was not. Ravenous in hunger, desperately trying to keep control of himself as well as stay conscious, yes, but not a beast.
"So, what, you want to turn on me like you turned on my father!" Mer spat angrily, and she gasped as Damien slid his arm around her stomach to hold. Damien was worried about her?
"Meredith, you don't know what you're talking about," Lia replied, though not angrily, more of in despair.
"You haven't told me anything!" Mer argued, and Lia lost her aggressive stance toward Damien to sink in on herself.
"Meredith," Damien's voice. "Sweet Meredith, such sad tales don't suit your ears." He nuzzled her face, and she shoved him back in annoyance.
"Not you too. I want to know. Tell me!" Mer insisted, but Lia's eyes shifted away from her.
"If I tell you, maybe it will beat some sense into you." Lia's tone was sharper than she'd ever cast toward her. "You're an adult now, I guess. Do you know of your father's madness? Regardless of how slowly or quickly it was overtaking him, it was overtaking him."
"I know this, yes. Paul explained it to me." Mer twitched lightly as Damien's fingers trailed down the side of her face. He whispered more into her ear and it was abnormally calming, though her heart was pounding in anticipation of finally hearing the truth.
"Paul..." Loathing laced her aunt's voice. Paul had said that the mages didn't like him. "Did that Nothing tell you I ordered your father's death?"
There was an accusing glare in her eyes, and Mer sighed, leaning against Damien to try and calm her racing emotions. Damien was very obliging, sliding his fingers through her hair and pulling her into his lap. That action caused her aunt to stiffen, but right now Mer didn't care about that.
"Rush told me, not Paul," Mer cleared up that confusion quick enough, and her aunt let out a disgusted breath.
"Did he tell you when I ordered it? Likely not."
Why did when even matter?
"There were attempts on Darc's life far before I ordered them. I allowed him to go and do as he pleased, tormenting the children and the mages. Some of the ways he did so were harmless, others we had to work with the mages to explain to them that they were harmless. Even despite his spiraling descent into madness, I dealt with him.
"But then your mother... Your mother begged me to take you from him, to hide you away somewhere, because she would often wake in the middle of the night to find him leaning over your crib. Even though he never harmed you, she feared he would lose it and destroy you, taint you. How you turned out infused with both magics, I can't say that he didn't taint you.
"Maybe you were destined to always be a mix of darkness and light, or maybe your father did corrupt you with the darkness. Either way, we'll never know, but it drove your mother to ruin. Afraid that one day she'd wake to find you corrupted, she couldn't bear it anymore. It was only after your mother took her own life in despair that I ordered your father's death. He was spiraling Meredith, and he was taking people with him. It had to stop."
Mer felt light headed as she looked around the room, unable to focus on anything. All this time she'd thought her mother had perished at the hands of vampires. For years, she'd feared they would also take Lia away from her, but that had never been the case. If her mother had killed herself... Had she not wanted a tainted child to go with the tainted man she'd married?
"Stop! Oh my god, stop!" Mer shoved Damien's face when he pinched her side so hard that she knew it would bruise.
"You weren't paying attention to me," Damien said, chuckling, and she frowned at him.
"You know, I have other people in my life I think about, Damien." She snapped at him, and he frowned back.
"What were you thinking about then?" It was strange to have Damien asking her something instead of talking constantly to keep himself sane. Did he feel better from her blood, or was he just really possessive.
"I just... does anyone really want me?" Mer asked, and tears ran down her face unbidden, and Damien clutched her to his chest. "My aunt looks at me like I'm turning into a monster, Rush treats me like a dangerous roommate, and even Paul just watches me out of obligation. Does anyone actually see me and want me for who I am?
"I'm not a weapon, and I'm not going crazy. I'm caught in-between a bunch of insane people and races that think I'm the person who came before me. I just wanted to go to school and have nothing to do with magic, but it follows me. I just...I..." Her tears were soaking her shirt and dripping down onto the sleeve that was now tied around her neck.
"I want you enough for two people, so whether or not your mother wanted you should mean little and less," Damien whispered it into her ear, and she let out a long sigh that stuttered with her half sob.
"Damien, it's not the same."
"Why not?" Damien was smiling at her. This guy was always smiling at her, even missing an arm and barely able to hold her. "Is my affection worth less than others?" Damien prodded her again, pressing his face against hers, and Mer heard the shuddering noise that escaped her aunt's mouth.
"Damien, I..." Sadness molded with his smile, and more tears slid from her eyes. "What do you really know about me even?"
"Everything." Damien chuckled, and his laugh shook him, reverberating into her.
They did share a mind every time she slept, for a reason she couldn't fathom. When she was unconscious, her mind eased into his as if it were home, no matter how different they were. It had been that way ever since she'd accepted her calling. With it, Damien had come too.
Everything though? It was uncanny how he knew her name, though she'd never given it to him. Even though Rush knew it, it was because she was a sacrifice to him. It wasn't common knowledge, her full name, as any mage or associate of a mage's wasn't. Further still, Damien had taught her magic that only someone who could wield dark magic would be able to use effectively. Somehow he'd known she held within her both magics.
Damien was a strange vampire who liked caffeinated hot chocolate, playing tricks on people, and he... Damien had a daughter. A daughter he didn't see often, but loved... more than anything.
'My daughter is fine. Much more beautiful than you, but I mean she has my genes so it's to be expected you wouldn't compare.'
'Did you know you're the most beautiful woman I know?'
Shit...
'You're mine. You'll have always been mine, and I'll always be yours'
'I want you enough for two people.'
She was probably hyperventilating as things started to click together that she'd never expected to be in the near vicinity of each other. Being around Damien was calm to her, even in his mind, and there was a madness about him at times that she'd easily noticed.
Damien loved her, craved her, and wanted to protect her. There had been fear and pain when he'd found out that she was at Rush's mercy, and he'd offered time and again to free her. Now at risk of losing himself to the draw of her blood, he was spilling every single thought he'd ever had of her.
Wanting to love her with every second of every day.
Hear everything about her life.
Give her everything she desired and destroy anything that threatened her.
"You said you were sick." Mer trembled, tears dripping from her face, though this time unrelated to Lia. This had to be a delusion in her mind, and yet how could it be?
"I was sick, since the moment I was born," Damien responded, his jovial tone gone as he pressed her head into his chest gently. It was apparent he'd caught on to her racing thoughts. "I've never lied to you, Meredith."
"What is that thing saying?" Lia snapped, and Mer remembered she'd been having a conversation with her aunt.
That had been somewhat lost in the revelation that the one-armed vampire desperately trying to keep control of himself was...
Damien was...
Her father.
"What do you mean?" Mer asked her aunt, a bit confused. They weren't so far that her aunt couldn't hear them.
"Very powerful Haze spell, Meredith," Damien said, still running his only good hand over her hair. "It's stronger around those who know me. Your aunt can't hear my voice correctly, see my face, or even recognize my name. It was the last spell I cast as a human, to cleanse my life before from the person I am now. As I've said, people cannot eavesdrop on me, though I can converse with her if I desire."
Standing up shakily, Mer teetered, but Damien stood with her, a concerned look on his face as their eyes connected. She couldn't resist the urge to hold him and squeezed him to her. It choked a strangled gasp out of Damien when she did so, as if he hadn't expected her to hold him that tightly, or to touch him at all. After composing herself enough that she could push this conversation with her father until later, she turned back to her aunt.
As she did, there were three people at first... and then six. It took her a moment to understand what was happening. The two mages next to her aunt splattered on the floor, and Lia barely knocked away a vampire's claws with her staff. They raked her stomach and she fell forward on the ground.
Immediately, Mer darted for her aunt, collapsing on the ground next to her, and though there had been a vampire coming at them, in the next second it was raining blood. The thump of Damien's scythe on the ground startled her as it had been almost instantaneous with the screeches of the vampires as he disposed of them.
"Natalie!" Damien scooped her aunt up into his arms, and Mer was surprised to see him displaying such heavy despair. Despite everything, her father still cared for his sister. From all that she knew of him, she didn't expect any less, but knowing he was her father now, his pain raked blades through her heart.
From the blood loss or shock, her aunt lost consciousness, and Damien lifted her in his one good arm. It was something a human would not have been able to do, but as a vampire, he cradled her easily against his chest.
"There is an infirmary not a few rooms from here. Quickly, Meredith," Damien urged her, and she followed him as he slid out the door.
There were vampires all over the compound. As they slid down the hall, Damien had to set Lia down to whip his scythe around and end about four more of them, though it wasn't like she could count by the splattered blood. Damien was taking their heads in two, so she also couldn't count them rolling down. Mostly, they exploded from his dark magic. It was grotesque, but he didn't have another option right now.
While Damien was certainly trying to protect her, he was exhausted. When he wasn't fighting, his scythe faded back into his body, likely his mage weapon from before he'd been changed. More and more though, he was faltering, leaning against the wall as they walked. A few rooms down, really meant a few hallways down, and the cells had been in a separate area of their own. For a vampire, it was likely just a skip and a hop, but in Damien's condition he was barely crawling. Fearing heavily for her father, she knew he likely wouldn't last another assault, or one from a vampire of any skill.
"There is a blood bank here," Mer said to Damien, drawing a crude grimace from him.
"I can't," Damien said to her, leaning against the wall only to slide to the floor. "I can't drink blood from a bag, Meredith. Neither can Remus or Neil. When a vampire reaches a certain point of strength, they need living, pulsing blood. Believe me, I've tried."
What could they do then? Damien wouldn't have enough composure to drink from anyone else without killing them, and she couldn't sustain him without dying. Drinking from her had been a horribly poor idea in the first place, and he'd only done so as a last resort to remain conscious.
"You need help though!" Just as she said it, three more vampires approached them with a hiss, and Damien threw her aunt gently back into a corner before turning to them. Barely able to lift his own scythe, he batted them away before falling to his knees.
This had to stop, but all she knew was a cage and a homing spell. Neither would help here. Somehow, she had to get Damien out of here. All this time, her father had been protecting her, but she couldn't do anything for him.
There was one more spell she knew.
A change spell.
One that required no inscription or chant, only something to change. What could she change? As she looked around, a pulse shook her chest, and she collapsed at her aunt's feet, gasping for air. Damien was at her side in an instant, trying to figure out what was wrong.
Shiva.
Shiva was a weapon, one of great power. That was what she needed, but not a blade. Rush was right, she couldn't fight. Calling to Shiva, she pulled it out of her chest, the familiar feeling of agony and ecstasy swarming her as she did. It was still dull as ever, but hopefully she could make it sharp. Running the blade across her palm, she sliced her flesh with its power and scrawled the only spell she had used functionally on the ground.
A cage.
Holding Shiva, she called on her magic. From a weapon of great power to another weapon of great power. This one required no skill, no prowess or experience.
A bomb.
Hurling the newly formed orb at the vampires as they dove for them, she slammed her hand on the cage spell as it burst. The explosion of energy was spun with shrapnel, but that of the magic kind. Darkness and light, it would hurt both Damien and her aunt, but not a wall of such an equal making.
It was sadly the best she could manage, but when her cage fell the vampires were slain, lying on the ground in the shape humans were when a plane crashed. It sickened her to think of, but they didn't have time to linger.
"What in the world did you do?" Damien asked her, and it was nice to see he could be surprised.
"Come on. We can't stay here. I know I'm sort of useless, but I can fight."
Damien gaped at her but nodded, lifting her aunt in his arm again, and they slid around the corner.
"Aren't these vampires the Arcs?" Meredith asked.
"Yes," Damien said, and her stomach rolled. "Vincent gained power from me wiping out the Latvius clan. Remus's wounds were grave, but livable. Unfortunately, the Shades weakened was the chance Vincent wanted. Had I known this was his goal, I'd have never helped him to take out vampires."
"Don't you have to obey Vincent?" Mer asked, but Damien just chuckled.
"No. There is nothing Vincent can do to me that any other can't. I obeyed him because it afforded me freedom and eased my conscience. If he intends to slaughter my kin, I will not stand by, but as I am, I cannot do much. Thank goodness," Damien exclaimed happily, and she realized they'd reached the infirmary.
Slipping inside, Mer could sense three entities of light magic, and she looked around one of the back tables to find the mages huddled together. On sight of Damien, they let out a cry of terror, but he wasn't focused on them just yet. Instead, he slid Lia onto a gurney before he looked over to the three of them.
"You're healers, or at least one of you is. I can feel your potent magic. Heal her." Damien's demand had them pressed against the wall, and no one moved. Their refusal to help made Damien growl angrily. "She is one of your own, or do you not care for your own?"
The woman among them looked around him and jumped up, realizing who it was. Eyeing him warily, the mage stepped far to the side so that she could get past him and went to her aunt.
"Luna Aurion," the woman acknowledged her aunt and put her hands over her wound.
~~~~~~~~~
Word Count: 3227