The Return (14 page)

"Please," he took her hand.

Morgan gazed at him
,
her expression conflicted
. Abruptly, she dropped his hand and stood, downing the last of her drink. She was angry
at
him.

"Morgan," he groaned, reaching for her.

"I get it," she said quietly, stepping backwards before shrugging and walking from the bar, the door closing heavily behind her. 

Zac resumed his favorite
position,
glass in hand, the epitome of a boozehound. He would have to apologize to her later. He was a major asshole at the best of times, but she didn't deserve that. He'd make it up to her later. After he goaded Arturius on a bit.

It wasn't long before the Roman sat next to him, taking the bait. He wouldn't find the same down and out vampire he had the last time.

"What are you still doing here, 
Arthur
," Zac sneered, using the name he'd found in his father's book.

"You know exactly why I'm still here," he said, obviously giving him a little credit.

"Gabby?" he guessed.

"Where is she, Zachary?" he snarled.

He shrugged.

"Don't play games with me," the founder spat. "Wherever you've hidden her, I will find her eventually. You're only stalling the inevitable."

"Well, you can't have her," he snorted. "Off limits Artie." 

Arturius cocked his
head,
"There is no such thing as limits where I am concerned. I take what I want, when I want."

"You're so full of yourself," Zac prodded him. "Don't you ever get tired of living? Ever just want to lie down and die?"

The Roman was arrogant, but didn't fire up. Instead, he hit where it hurt. "Happen you know a little English rose by the name of Victoria?"

Zac stiffened at the mention of her name. His maker had never elaborated the reasons she had for claiming the South for vampires. The only thing he had ever overheard was the fact that she was trying to gain favor with someone.
Who that was, he never knew.

Arturius smirked at his reaction, "Thought so." 

Then he realized
,
she was trying to win favor with the founders by using him.

"Victoria was my brother's pet," Arturius continued almost resentfully. "Regulus always has these grand schemes. Shame none of them have worked when they mattered the most."

Zac shook his head, "Why are you telling me this?"

"We heard about you, before her head was torn off," Arturius looked at him with disdain. "Honestly, I don't know what she saw in you. Perhaps I'm biased by the ages where men fought with swords and bare hands and didn't hide behind their automatic weapons. As a man, I fought the savages of the frontier lands with naught but a flimsy blade. Do you know how I got this?" He traced the scar that ran down his face, forehead to jaw over his left eye. "A Briton tried to hack my skull open with an axe," he sneered. "And you know what happened to him? I ripped his heart out with my bare human hands." He laughed, sitting back onto the barstool. "Very effective, wouldn't you agree?"

"If I live to be two thousand, do you suppose I will be as mental as you?" Zac sneered at the founder.

Arturius laughed, "Zachary, if you hadn't of jumped the fence, I might have liked you. You could have been great. Such a 
shame
."

"I would never have fought for you," he spat. "Never. I'd rather watch you die. Speaking of dying... How about it?"

"Try all you like, Zac. The only thing that can kill me is dead," Arturius said smugly, thumping him on the shoulder.

Zac didn't believe him one bit. From what Gabby had said, there was always a way to undo a spell. Aya had obviously been turned after the founders and she could kill them. That meant there was a loophole, another way. How had she done it? They just had to find how and perhaps they could replicate it.

That's it.
 
How hadn't he thought of it before? Perhaps Gabby could 
replicate
it.

A
ya's eyes snapped open. So, she had died again. This was her rebirth.

The secret she had kept for two thousand years. She was the one true immortal.
Last of her kind and yet the only one of her kind.
In all that time no one had tasted her blood and lived to remember it... until Zac lay dying in that clearing.

Aya's body began to awaken and she writhed in the pain that was returning along with her senses. Her heart was racing... her heart! It had been rent from her body. Clawing at her chest she found it intact, the muscles still knitting themselves together. Still raw, but her heart had grown back. She curled up into a ball as the searing heat of her muscles reaching out to each other overwhelmed all other senses. She was hardly aware that she was screaming as her insides began fusing together, the blood flowing more freely in her newly grown veins. Tears streamed down her face as she gave herself to the onslaught of agony. This was the part she hated the most.

When she finally came to, she found herself in the cave at the edge of the manor grounds. Who had put her here? Perhaps Sam and Zac had made this her tomb. Zac... She tried to stand, but slipped and fell onto the rocky ground, cutting her hands and knees. Cursing, she crawled towards the cave entrance. She was weak, but without blood she wouldn't gain her former strength and the wound wouldn't heal completely. Using the cave wall, she managed to stand and began to make her way through the dark passageway.

Coming to the rock that blocked the entrance, the effort it took to budge it enough so she could slip through almost wore her out there and then.

It was early morning outside and the sun was still below the tree line in the distance. The light hurt her eyes and burnt against her sensitive skin. Looking around, the grounds were suddenly unfamiliar. Had they changed somehow? How long had she been out? Disoriented, Aya could only walk and hope she found her way.

The only thing Alex hated more than early mornings was extremely early mornings. The sun had only just broken the horizon and he was already halfway into town. His gear rattled in the tray as he went over bump after bump in the old road. He'd gone to the
lumber yard
on the outskirts of New Orleans to pick up some supplies and he was running ahead of time. At least with an early start he would finish the last of the build at Mrs. Greene's cafe. He had Liz to thank for suggesting starting something on the side of his job at the gardens and hooking him up with her boss. This was his best work yet, by far. If this went down well, then the Real Estate would be begging him to take on their contract. That meant building and landscaping. Regular work meant regular money. And he was fond of money. 

Shit
. There was a person ahead walking on the road. He was slowing down to give them a piece of his mind when he noticed it was a woman, and she was walking all strange. Like she was drunk. No, she must be
hurt,
it was way to early for anyone to be drunk. Chivalry setting in, he pulled his truck over and jumped out calling, "Miss? Miss, are you okay? Do you need help? 
Miss
?"

Her long back hair was all messed up, her jeans torn and her jacket had a huge hole in the back... Geesus. Alex jogged to catch her; she was still stumbling along as if she hadn't heard him. It looked like he'd have to take her to hospital or call the cops, or both. He reached out and touched her shoulder and she stopped, turning slightly. He started as he saw two piercing blue eyes peering at him through a tangle of hair. Fucking hell! "Aya?" Alex exclaimed, "Fuck, Aya? We all thought you were dead! Geesus, are you okay? What are you doing out here?"

Aya stared at him for a moment and her expression softened with a hint of recognition. "Alex?" Her voice was a ragged whisper.

"Yes, it's me, Alex. We've got to get you to the brother’s place. Shit, you're all messed up..." And he had to race forward to catch her as she passed out.

She was light as a feather. Alex held onto her limp form and noticed the raw looking skin on her chest through the hole in her shirt. Hadn't Sam mentioned her heart was ripped out? Yet here she was. Since when could vampires grow back vital organs? He knew they didn’t, but Aya was different, that much he understood. Opening the passenger side door, he placed her gently in the front seat of his truck and buckled the seatbelt around her. Jumping in the drivers seat he spun the tires in the dirt as he accelerated back onto the highway. Grabbing his phone from his pocket, and breaking about a billion laws, he clumsily dialed Sam's number.

Zac stared out the window into nothingness, "They're only dreams, Sam. It's not like we can verify them." He was tired of talking about it. It was all they had done for the past few days. He couldn't even get anything out of Arturius and Gabby thought his idea that she could replicate Aya's ability foolish. Then what the hell could he do? They were right back at the start. Square one. The sun was beginning to burn his face as he loosened his will around the sunlight spell on his body.

Sam pushed him away from the window into the shadows, "Don't play with your spell, Zac. And no, it's not about verification. It stands to reason that Aya never wanted anyone to taste her blood because it would do this. She said her blood acted like 
poison
."

Zac’s eyes looked as if they were about to cloud over. Sam held up his hand defensively as he approached.

"They're true dreams, Zac. She gave you her blood to save you because she was in love with 
you." 
Zac grabbed the front of his shirt and they were face to face. "Arturius is the one you want. Save your anger for him."

Zac breathed deeply, trying to sate his anger. He wanted to rip something apart, something living. He 
needed
 to feel warm living blood through his fingers. 

Then Morgan was pulling him off Sam, standing between them, her hand on his chest. She had appeared out of thin air and he was grateful she'd chosen to come looking at that moment.

"Snap out if it, Zac," she said, glaring at him from under her lashes.

Clutching his head in his trembling hands as his eyes settled, he said what he'd been thinking everyday for the past two weeks, "I failed her. I should have died... Not her."

He didn't understand the look on Morgan's face, but her hand dropped away and she glanced at Sam who grasped both of his shoulders and stated, "You did not fail her... know that we 
will
 avenge her."

He looked from his brother to Morgan, ashamed that she had found him slipping back into his old ways.

"I'm with you," she smiled, sensing the uncertainty in his gaze. "Whatever it takes."

The moment was broken as Sam's cell began to ring. Pulling it from his back pocket he saw it was Alex. Sliding his finger across the screen he put it up to his ear and said, "Alex..." His expression became confused, "Slow down, slow down. What's happened?" His eyes widened. "Holy shit. Come to the house. NOW."

Zac grabbed his brother's shoulder, his composure returning. "What's happened?"

Sam looked at him with an expression laced with confusion and disbelief. "Aya is alive."

Alex slammed on the brakes as he came up the driveway to the brother’s house. Sam burst from the front door as he jumped from the cab, Zac not far behind. Morgan lingered in the doorway, unsure, a sick look of disbelief plastered on her face.

"Take her to my room," Zac said as Sam picked Aya's limp form from the passenger side. Her arm flopped to one side and her shoulder lay exposed. The muscle had fused together, but her skin was raw and had begun to bleed.

"Holy shit, Zac. Her heart has grown back."

They exchanged a concerned look. It was the same as Zac's dreams. All those times she had died and woken.
All of those
horrible
deaths.
It meant that it was
all true
. He couldn't begin to understand her torment.

Sam bounded up the stairs two at a time, careful not to jolt her. Kicking open the bedroom door he placed her gently on Zac's bed as she began to stir, "She's coming round."

Aya opened her eyes groggily, blinking to clear the fog that threatened to take her again. The pain in her chest was overwhelming and involuntarily she cried out, her back arching. She felt hands holding her down onto a bed... bed? She had lost all sense of time and place... but she could smell the blood. She knew it was her own, but she needed blood or she would fall back to the abyss. She would be trapped in the dark sea of primordial nothingness for eternity if she didn't feed. She struggled against the hands and the pain and opened her eyes wide in an effort for clarity.

And there she beheld Zac.
Zac who she had saved.
The only one who had ever tasted her blood and lived to tell the tale. His eyes were wide with surprise and worry, but she couldn't tell what he was feeling... what he had seen.

"Aya," he was speaking to her. "What do you need? Please."

Blood, she wanted to say, but nothing came out of her mouth. She collapsed back into the bed, almost spent. Zac sat
beside
her, cradling her weak body against his chest; her head nestled against his shoulder.
Her lips against the skin of his neck.
"Drink, Aya. I trust you." He understood. He
understood
.

When she had drunk his blood in the silo it had awakened her power stronger than ever before. There was no way of knowing what would happen if she did again. For the first time in two thousand years, she felt genuinely afraid.