Crimson Dreams

"All these years?" Alex's voice was raw with pain.

Nathan didn't say anything to Alex but his eyes rested on me as I came towards them. "You never told anyone?"

"She told me." Hayden was barely being held by Kendrick, Vincent and Emily. "And I swore to kill you the moment I found you. Thank you for dropping yourself in my lap."

"I trusted you. You were my friend. And all this time you have had me at your home as I expressed my pain and anger at how she was hurt. What did you do?"

"You can't kill me simply because she didn't enjoy her first lay. I didn't rape her. She came to my room naked and more than willing."

Hayden let out a bellow of rage and pulled roughly on those restraining him. Vincent and Kendrick lost their grip and when they finally got a hold of him again he was already a few feet closer to Nathan. Alex looked at me and the look in his eyes was indecision. If I had simply not enjoyed my first time then it really was no reason to kill him. If it had not been rape then there was no reason to take his best friend away.

"Angel, I think it is time you tell them what happened." Hayden looked at me. "If you don't then it will hurt Alex more when I kill him."

"If you knew a different story, why didn't you kill him the night when you and Alex came to get me from his house?"

Hayden stopped pulling against everyone and looked at me. "Is that why you didn't want me going in with you? Because you knew I would kill him? Is that why you jumped me as soon as you got to the door?"

"I couldn't take the one friend Alex has."

"Last night you told me that you have sacrificed your happiness for ours every since you got here." Polo looked up at me. "Think of yourself and not Alex just this once."

I looked at Nathan and thought about everything that had happened between us. I had gone to his room willingly. I had lie down on his bed and let him have my body. But that wasn't what had hurt me. He had exploited me. He had videoed himself taking me and then went to another room to watch the video while him and another woman went at it. If someone had done that to Hayden or Alex, I would not hesitate to kill them. Nathan must have seen the resolve in my eyes.

"In that box is everything." He called out.

We all turned to look at the box. I knew what was in that box now and so did Hayden. But Nathan took advantage of our distraction and threw Marco, Polo and Sherri off of him and onto Alex. Everyone let go of Hayden but not soon enough. Nathan busted through the wall just as flames started climbing the walls around us. He was Pyrokinetic just as I was. Hayden went chasing after him as all the vampires around us started running for the exits. Vampires could burn to death and their flesh seemed to be extra flammable.

Ivy started pulling me towards an exit but fought against her and tried making it back to the table. If I got to the box and saved it I could show Alex what had happened and it would be less painful to him. The table was starting to burn and I turned to in Ivy's arms to tell her I had to get the box. But she couldn't hear me over everyone else in the room. I turned back to the table to see Daniel grab the box and start walking towards me.

"Take this and get her out of here." He said as he thrust the box into Ivy's arms.

"Thank you Daniel." I yelled it as loud as I could but he didn't hear me. Why couldn't anyone hear me?

Ivy took me outside and the whole time I screamed her name. She didn't stop and when we got outside I realized I couldn't hear myself either. Ivy sat me on the ground and I focused hard on myself. I did a mental check to make sure my body was working fine but there was something there in my subconscious. I poured myself into that fading thought and seen Hayden leaning over me in bed. He was about to kiss me but we weren't alone. There was a black shadow in standing at the foot of the bed. My dream. When Hayden had first come to me I had had a dream and felt there was something in that dream I had forgotten.

The man held his hand out to me and I started screaming as pain flared through my body as if I was on fire. That’s when I felt his power against my vocal cords. He was keeping me silent by cutting off my vocal cords. I had seen a vampire do this once before somewhere but I couldn't remember where.

"I told you that you wouldn't win this."

I looked at the figure and focused on him as hard as I could. Finally the black shadow fell away to show the man it was hiding. He was well over six foot with long blonde hair and sparkling hazel eyes. His face was beautiful slopes and soft turns. As soon as I seen his face I knew who he was. Tristian. I didn't know where I knew him from but I knew his name and knew his powers.

"You stupid girl. Seeing me again still doesn't remind you of who I am?"

His power flexed inside my subconscious. I could still hear Ivy calling my name but I blocked her out. If I lost him now I may never find him again. The last thing I heard was Ivy yelp in pain. I was suddenly back in my home before my mother was killed. She was sitting on the couch watching TV and beside her was Tristian. The cat was in my lap as I stroked him softly and he purred. Mary was giving me glances of hate that made me uncomfortable.

I was standing in the kitchen pouring some soda when Tristian came in. He didn't say anything to me as he laid down some food and water for the cat. Mary came into the kitchen just as Tristian and I grabbed the door to the fridge at the same time. His hand was on mine when she rounded the corner. I looked up at Tristian and then pulled my hand away. Mary slapped me and sent me back to my room. I cried myself to sleep that night as I listened to Mary and Tristian in the room next to mine.

Suddenly I was standing in my room crying as Tristian sat on my bed with no clothes on. He was smiling as if we had done something but we hadn't I had went to the bathroom and when I came back out Tristian was sitting on my bed naked. But Mary didn't believe me. She was calling me a whore and hitting my bare legs with a leather belt. I had always slept in just a t-shirt and panties but she swore I never had and that it was just further proof how I was taking all her lovers from her.

She kept accusing me of taking Alex from her bed and asking me if I enjoyed his company in my bed. I had always thought Alex was attractive but I had never slept with anyone. I tried pleading with her and telling her she was wrong but she only started hitting me harder. When I fell to my knees crying and holding my legs she started hitting me across the face with the belt and saying she would make it to where no one would every think I was more beautiful than she.

I attacked her. From somewhere deep inside me I attacked and started kicking her anywhere I could reach. She screamed and begged me to stop but I laughed and continued to attack her. Even when she was no longer moving and there was blood everywhere in my room I kept hitting her. Finally Tristian pulled me off of her and set me on the bed. He stood over her and flexed his hand out. Her body mended itself together and she came back screaming. He flexed his hand gain and her scream was cut off. With another flex of his hand she laid on the floor twitching with her face contorted in agony.

I watched as he broke bones and mended them again with a flex of his hand. I watched him make her stomach turn until she was puking on my floor and yet I did nothing to stop him. I sat on the bed and watched as she was tortured. Tristian offered to make me a vampire and said that if he did so I would have the power to hurt those who hurt me just as he could. I was about to take his offer when he spun around quickly and mumbled a string of curses.

He tried to take me with him but I fought against him and finally he threw me to the bed with a promise to be back. I sat alone in the darkness of my room with Mary dead on the floor in front of me. I was soaked from head to toe in her blood. I pulled the shirt off of me and started rubbing down the walls with it. I had to get the house clean. A man came rushing into the room. My fifteen year old memory couldn't place him but I was seeing this through my subconscious and my twenty one year old memory could place him.

Polo looked at me as I cleaned the blood off the wall and then looked at Mary. Marco came in behind and started searching my body. Not that any of it was hidden from their gaze. Satisfied there were no marks on me he took the shirt from me slowly before picking me up in his arms and carrying me out the room.

The memory shifted slightly and suddenly I was in Polo’s arms with his jacket thrown over my naked body. I had refused to redress and this was their only way of covering me. Polo had told me he was taking me somewhere safe and no one was going to harm me ever again. Not that I was listening to them anyways. I knew they were taking me to Alex's house and I knew Mary would hate me for it and think I went to sleep with Alex.

Alex was sitting on the front porch when we got there. Jesse was sitting beside him talking but stopped and stood up as soon as we approached. Alex asked me what happened but all I did was shrug and hold on tighter to Polo’s neck. Alex touched my arm and brought my attention back to him. He asked me if I wanted to remember anything that happened and when I said that I didn't he pushed his aura into me and altered my memory. He made it to where I thought I had come home from the movies with a few friends and found her that way. He also, unknowingly, erased Tristian from my memory.

When he was done he stepped back and Polo set me down on my feet. Alex asked me if I wanted to live a normal life or him to release my true self. I chose to have my true self because I never really did fit in with the humans. I felt the powers stir within in me and knew I had made the right choice. I had always remembered this part with just Alex and me. Now I knew that Marco and Polo were there as well as Jesse, Sherri, Tack and Lucas.

"Do you remember me now?" Tristan’s voice flowed over me as the memory rippled and disappeared. Instead I was standing in a room with heavy purple drapes and plum colored furniture.

"I do but why show me this and why come back now?"

"Because Tony lost a deal."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"I was the only one Tony told about his little fling with a demon woman. He came to me one night to tell me she was pregnant. He was over excited but just a little worried how Alex was going to take it. I made a deal with him that I would take you and raise you as my own until he could break from Alex. For some reason he backed out of the deal and gave you to Alex to kill."

"But Alex couldn't kill me."

"By rights you are mine. I just recently found out you were alive or I would have come sooner."

Jesse's last words rang in my ears. I thought he was being sarcastic when he said better health care. He was being cryptic. "Jesse?"

"Yes. The man likes to talk once you give him a few drops of amber."

Amber was the only thing known to intoxicate a vampire or demon. It was normally ingested orally but some used needles. I hadn't known Jesse used amber. Guess I would have to tell Alex he needed to screen the vampires for amber use.

"I am not property." Anger was my favorite emotion.

"And what will you do? Kill me?" He laughed softly while running his eyes over my body.

"If you come near me or mine again, yes." I looked down to make sure I was still dressed. I would hate to be threatening to kill someone only to find I am naked. I was still wearing the clothes Hayden had laid out for me. Good thing my subconscious liked me dressed.

"Ah. Hayden. He approaches your body now. I can feel him. He is what stopped me from getting you last time. He won't keep me this time since you have willed yourself into my domain."

I took a step back from him. "What do you mean?"

"When you decided to pursue me into your subconscious you effectively willed yourself to me since one of my powers is to travel the subconscious. I have started many wars with just a whisper in the right person’s ear."

"But that only works on humans."

"Does it?"

"Yes. If not than you would have already used it to make Alex release me to you."

"You're smart. I will give you that." He took a step towards me.

"How do I get out?"

"You can't unless I let you out."

"That’s not true." I stepped back and swallowed the panic that started swelling inside me.

"Try it. Try to will yourself from me."

I closed my eyes and tried to hear Ivy again. I knew she was still sitting over me and Tristian had said Hayden was coming to me and just maybe he was already trying to wake me. Why couldn't I just leave well enough alone? I couldn't hear Ivy or anyone else. If I couldn't get myself out of here then I was going to fight him. If his powers worked here than so did mine. I stopped trying to find Ivy and instead pulled on my vampire.

I felt my aura tighten around me before shifting to accommodate my power. I opened my eyes and looked at Tristian. His beautiful face looked shocked to see me ready to fight. I reached into my boots and found my knives were not there. Guess only clothes came through. I knew two of his powers. One was the ability to travel through human subconscious and the other was biological manipulation. This is how he was able to cut my vocal cords off.

"What are you doing?" He asked as he took another step to me.

"You won't have me. I know why my father backed out of the deal. Either kill me, or I kill you."

My vampires’ powers were still growing but thus far we had discovered power mimicry, and shadow manipulation, and the ability to turn ones own aura against them. I reached out to Tristian and threw his own aura back into him. He fell to his knees as his hand flexed to me. I joined him on the floor as every nerve in my body turned to fire. I screamed and pulled his energy into my aura before throwing it back to him. This time he screamed and his concentration broke. I could hear Ivy and Hayden.

Mentally I pushed myself back to them. I could still hear Tristian screaming but I didn't look back. A man was screaming as I came to. I grabbed the Ivy's hand and squeezed. I wanted to turn and see who was screaming but I couldn't fully get away from Tristian. I seen him stand up and charge me.

"Alex stop. You'll kill Hayden if you don't and he refuses to fight you." Kendrick was yelling at me as he shook me.

I turned away from Tristian and looked at Ivy. Kendrick was looking over his shoulder at Hayden. I was attacking Hayden? I pulled my aura back into me and rolled over screaming as fire erupted along my body again. Finally the pain died and I just laid there and cried. I let Hayden's arms encircle me but I had no strength left. I had killed Mary and almost killed Hayden. Tristian was right. I wasn't going to win this one.