Vampiric: Chapter Seven, Part 1

Chapter Seven: Shattered

Drei was by my side when I awoke. We were in a small, colorful room. Posters were tacked haphazardly on the walls and the quilt I was curled under was faded and worn soft. There was a single lamp lit with a square of pink chiffon thrown over it. Around the lamp, on the night table, necklaces and bracelets were strewn as decoration.

“Where are we?”

He smoothed damp hair from my face, his eyes scanning over me. “I presume you have suffered nightmares the past day,” he said.

Day? It felt like I had just fallen asleep. That horrible room and those ghastly people still seemed to be lurking behind some curtain of shadows. The room was comforting, though, as it didn’t seem likely such dangers could lurk beyond pink light.

“You have been sleeping for the past two days or so,” Drei informed me, wrapping a hand around mine. “Lily was kind enough to allow you to rest here. We are at her home.”

“Days?” I bolted upright and immediately regretted it. My head throbbed and dizziness overtook me. Cradling my head in one hand, steadying myself with the other, I asked, “Why haven't we left? It's dangerous here being so close to that place.”

Instead of answering, Drei put a hand over mine and rubbed my arm with the other, the gesture calming. “You needed rest. That, and you need to be awake when we return. Caroline tells me you are on the news as an escaped convict.”

Though that should have been startling news, it wasn’t. Not because I wasn't concerned about it, but more so because, through the headache and receding dizziness, it felt like I was forgetting something…or someone.

“Nick?”

“He should be at work, helping with the investigation of the security breech,” Drei responded, a slight twist to his lips. It was unusual to see him enjoying something like this so much. I swear, ever since he admitted he loved me, he reveled in breaking the rules. To my benefit, at least.

I realized that wasn't it. At least I was certain it was a someone and not a something. Why couldn’t I remember?

“What is it?” The glint of his wry smile dissipated.

Shaking my head—a vain hope of knocking loose whatever I was forgetting—I said, “I'm forgetting someone…but I can't remember—Mom! Where is she?” I asked, the dizziness gone and my headache a dull throb at the base of my skull. I wrapped my hands around his, holding them between us, steadying my eyes on his pale amethyst ones. He wasn't sidestepping my question. When he looked away, I read him, needing to know where she was, if she was okay.

“Why didn't she come?” I demanded, dropping his hands. I felt betrayed, but couldn't figure out why or by whom. It was either Drei, because he had to know what having her meant to me—despite how annoying she could be in her current state—or Mom, because she had finally had her chance. Granted it wasn't Dad, but it was still an unlocked door waiting to be opened. The possibility of it being Nick crossed my mind for not telling Drei in the first place Mom was there, too, or where to find her. But the moment they crossed my mind—reasons attached—I knew they were all wrong. It wasn't any of them.

“She chose to stay,” Drei said softly. “I offered to bring her along, but she said she needed to wait longer. Her time was yet to come.”

“Why did you listen to her?” I argued, anger boiling in my chest. The second he answered me, I knew by whom I felt betrayed. Myself. I had been stupid enough to think it might last. “She's crazy;” I felt tears press at my eyes.

Drei grabbed my shoulders firmly, trying to catch my gaze. I kept boring holes into the posters tacked to the walls, trying to find some answer in them and hoping someone could tell me why I had thought this wouldn’t be the case.

“Abriel;” my eyes finally met his again. “She was perfectly lucid when I asked her. She knows what she is doing is right, even if it means she must hurt you.” The memory floated above Drei's head and I snatched it away, wanting to see for myself.

She had cried as she told Drei that she had to stay behind, that she would only be in the way if she didn't. As awful as it may be, I felt some small amount of relief in seeing her cry. It at least meant she had an idea of what she was doing abandoning me again. No matter how annoying she had been, she was still my mom and I felt emptier having lost her than when I had never met her.

“You need more sleep,” he said after a moment when I didn't say anything else. As I laid back down, Drei sank to his knees, his free hand rubbing mine. “We shall leave tomorrow. I can understand your fear of staying too close for too long.” As he said this, I felt his fingers lightly brush along one of my wounds. They had started to scar.

“Are we walking?” I asked, my eyelids heavy already. I still hadn't been able to wrap my mind around why, whenever Drei was nearby, I could fall asleep so quickly.

“Not back to the city.” His amethyst eyes sparkled; “Especially not when you are in such desperate need of rest.”

“Then what?” I yawned, unable to help myself.

“You shall see when you wake tomorrow.”