Path of the Vampire forum

Something about how all of this was unfolding was ludicrous. It was absolutely absurd. They were sitting in an office, attempting to drink tea like they were discussing something completely normal while dancing around the issue of a mutual friend dying. Verity still couldn’t wrap her mind around it. To her, it was an impossible truth, one she’d have to somehow see to believe. No, Morgan can’t be dead. She can’t be. Harper Rock couldn’t have taken yet another from the world…No, I refuse to believe it.

Her hand gripped the hot mug, not lifting it to her lips as she wasn’t sure she could stomach the taste. It smelled perfectly fine, enticing really. But everything felt wrong. She felt nauseated, her stomach dropping through to the floor and dragging on behind her. Dizzy, lethargic, everything in her was screaming to curl up in a ball and not move until the world had ceased to exist much like Morgan had. But, she couldn’t do that. That wasn’t an option. There was still Nolan to consider, and Alex to consider; she may not have known the woman prior, but they now had a common vested interest and that interest was going to be her only driving force for the next few days.

Sleep could wait. Art could wait. Morgan deserved the best funeral possible and Verity was going to give that to her or die trying.

The conversation continued, but the woman didn’t pay much mind. It was hard to focus on each word pouring from her lips, hard to take it as truth when everything in her wanted it to be a prank. She’d been pranked before; this could just be someone’s sick version of it, right? Morgan could just have been tired of her and wanted the distance, right? Even as the thought crossed her mind, it was thrown out without any further debate. Alex wouldn’t do that to her. Morgan wouldn’t have done that to her.

She was dead, and she wasn’t coming back.

A finger traced the rim of the mug as steam danced around her finger. That was the only thing that kept her assured of her standing on Earth. The heat burned, finger occasionally dipping into the scalding liquid to reaffirm that she could feel something, that this wasn’t her imagination. Her eyes remained perpetually teary, suddenly thankful that she couldn’t see the woman before her, couldn’t see her heartache mirrored on another’s face. It’d have tipped the scales into a full-blown episode. She’d have crumbled right there for the world to see, and she wasn’t sure the pieces would have been salvageable of her broken soul. There were only so many times that she could tell herself things would get better and that those she clung to would remain there rather than slip through her fingers like the others.

Then a memory was brought up and it had a few tears trickling down her cheeks, the ribbons burning against her cheeks. She remembered the talks of aliens at the bank, vaguely remembered someone named Marta, and even Mike. But Morgan had been the one she looked forward to talking to, even if those talks included rantings about aliens and being beamed up when the weird things happened at the bank in Wickbridge.

That memory, though…was cut off. Not by the talk of her dying, directly. What caught her attention was how she had been called. Not the ambulance, not the authorities…but her. And how, she couldn’t do anything, that she tried and she could feel her still there, but she’d vanished. It didn’t click right off, not with her current state. Each piece of the puzzle was slowly clicking together, as though a fog was lifting. Alexandrea wasn’t just someone who happened to lose a friend. She was more involved than that. She had to be.

“…You’re one of them…aren’t you?” It was a simple enough question, asked quietly, the finger rimming the mug ceasing completely. It was a question that didn’t go at all in the direction she thought the conversation would go. But, she needed to know. And, if she were, why was it so hard for her to save Morgan? Why hadn’t she managed to keep her friend alive? Nolan had saved her. She knew what it took. What was so difficult about keeping Morgan alive long enough for the process to work?

Alexandrea kept her hands busy making more tea. Not that she really wanted it and her guest's cup still seemed full but to give herself something to do. Keeping busy was all Alex knew how to do to stay out of trouble anymore and whenever she got upset she seemed to get in trouble.

The blonde already could tell somehow that the human was crying, even before she turned back around. Some kind of super vampire senses perhaps or her own empathic abilities. Or maybe just from being... human? The Allurist was far more alike humans than she was different from them, unlike most of her kind it seemed.

It was an effort for Alex to face Verity's tears. It made Alexandrea's own pain new again looking at Verity's. The human's pain was still too raw, too fresh. It was all brand new for the blind woman that Alexandrea now felt the need to protect and look out for. Some kind of misplaced something she knew but didn't care. Verity and been important to Morgan so now she was important to Alexandrea. Bottom line.

She stayed quiet for a long time before she was able to reply to Verity's newest question. Well, not exactly quiet. But the blonde said nothing as she went back to sit down with a fresh cup of tea in hand, that she sipped a few times before placing carefully down on the desktop.

"One of them." Alex's voice was barely above a whisper and she took a deep breath and sighed. The human couldn't see the Allurist's face but silent wet trails were streaking down Alexandrea's cheeks as well.

"You must.. give me a moment. Verity." She sighed again, eyes squeezed closed tightly for a few minutes as she considered how to answer a question that had once been so easy to reply to just a few years ago. But a lot had happened to change Alex since her turning, and she no longer wanted to shout out the existence of vampires from the rooftop. The lens of her rose coloured glasses had both been shattered almost exactly a year ago.

And it wasn't just that it was smarter and safer for her and vampires in general. It was also because the people she loved had been targeted the last time she had been being hunted for violations. So the next time she had gotten into trouble, she had gone straight to Odin after that. And let him kill her. It had been good for both of them.

The memory actually had her grin for a split second before Morgan came back to the forefront of her mind.
Odin had asked Alex if she would ever forgive him for taking Morgan from her. And a part of Alexandrea was ashamed to realize that she had.

And a part of the blonde had a thought that is she had never been a vampire, Morgan would still be alive. Because Odin would have never met Alex's thrall... she wouldn't have had one as a human and she would have never met Morgan.

And if she had still met Odin, odds were pretty good the Killer would have most certainly killed her. Wouldn't he? And if they had both been human... he still wouldn't have still let her live, would he?
It didn't matter. He was someone she refused to let get hurt because of her actions. The idea of his being hunted made her actually feel ill.

"I'm one of something or other, Verity..." Alexandrea said with a groan. Shaking her head so hard her pinned up hair started to fall down, she pushed it out of her face annoyed.

"To be honest some nights I am not even sure what. But I think you already know your answer and I am not going to confirm or deny anything. I do not want to lie to you. But I am not going to just say it out loud either. So yes. The bottom line is that it is my fault she died. It was not supposed to happen."

But a lot of things weren't supposed to happen... a little voice whispered in the blonde's head.