In My Mother's Footsteps

I sat down on the bed, trying to not either cry or set something on fire. Mother didn\'t know how I feboutbout Michael, nor Damon, but I was still pissed. I had the man I had been lusting after for gods knew how long, in my living room with the man who was everything I feared. I was upset, and had no way to show it. Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. This wasn\'t fair.
\"Judith?\" Adriel peeked his head in, face worried. I gave him my profile.
\"Leave me alone.\" I didn\'t look at him, just shifted on the bed so that all he could see of me was my back.
\"Judith, don\'t do this.\" His voice was quiet, but it didn\'t matter. The others would still hear him. I didn\'t care.
\"I\'ll do what I damn well please. Go away. Sleep on the damn couch. Or not. I don\'t care. All I want is to be left alone!\" I hit the bed once, twice, growling. My dragon shifted inside me, disturbed by the emotional outburst. I quieted my emotions, unclenching my fists and sitting upright. \"Please go. You can come back in to sleep when you\'re tired.\" That was all the leeway he was going to get tonight.
Adriel accepted that and left, closing the door behind him. I sighed and curled up into a ball on my side of the beightighting tears. I didn\'t want to be so close to the man I wanted more than I wanted me. It was selfish of me, I knew, since my own brother was in a magical sleep, but I couldn\'t care. All I could think of was Michael, the feel of him underneath me, thrusting up into my body, my nails raking his arms as I came. I shuddered at the feelings that image provoked, rolling over onto my other side. It didn\'t help things any. I wanted a shower, or a bath, but the bathroom was out in the front room, and I didn\'t want to see any of them. Not Eadoin, not Adriel, especially not Michael and Damon. Damn.
I must have drifted off to sleep, as I awoke when Adriel climbed into bed. I stayed where I was, but I knew he heard the change in my breath. He reached out one hand and caressed the side of my face. I swatted him away. \"Go to sleep, Adriel. Just go to sleep.\"
He obeyed, rolling into the covers on his side without a word. I wanted to cry. Instead, I closed my eyes and drifted back to sleep.
I was dreaming. I knew this, and yet I didn\'t want to wake up. I wasssedssed in a see through dress that fluttered at my feet, and was held together only by silver chains at the shoulders and sides. My hair was done up tightly, it felt like a tight bun on top of my head.
Monsters paraded re mre me, baring long, glistening fangs, or wicked looking talons that could gut me in a heartbeat. I waved them on, bored. They weren\'t what I was looking for, so I couldn\'t care. I was looking for something in particular, and they weren\'t it.
Finally, a woman stepped up to me. She was dressed the same as I was, with the same hairstyle, but it fit her. She was tall and lithe, with a few chestnut colored strands of hair escaping the tight bun. She smiled at me and walked up to where I was sitting. I couldn\'t keep my eyes off of her. She was gorgeous, in ways I could and could not see.
She stopped an arms length away from me, smiling that intoxicating smile. Leaning in close, she breathed in my ear, \"I can give you whatever your heart desires, my little dragon. Whatever you desire.\"
I looked into her eyes as she pulled away, still smiling. Images of Michael danced through my head, taunting me.
\"Anything?\" I asked her, leaning forward.
\"Anything,\" she whispered. \"You have until the full moon, my little dragon. If you pass, then you will not get this chance for another thousand years. Will you even live that long?\"
\"Mother hasn\'t ages since her first shift. She should be dead now, by human standards.\"
The woman smirked at me. \"Are you so sure of that?\"
\"Positive.\" I smirked back, sure of myself. Mother should be really old my now, if not dead. I was seventy. That would make her ninety. Instead, we looked more like sisters than mother and daughter.
The woman laughed, and beckoned something forward.
Heavy chains scraped the ground, slowly, as if it hurt to walk. It probably did.
The thing stopped moving as the woman moved to the side, leaving my view unobstructed. At first, all I could see was long, wavy red hair streaked liberally with white. Then the person raised her head, and I gasped. It was mother.
\"Ler gor go!\" I stood up, taking a step towards her. The woman put her hand on my arm. \"You are the only one who can let her go. It is your need binding her, aging her.\"
\"No!\"
\"Yes.\" The woman laughed. \"It is you who will bring down your mother. It is your fall that binds her. It is your decision that will kill her.\"
\"What decision?\" I couldn\'t take my eyes off of Mother, bound so tightly her back bent with the strain of holding the chains.
\"I cannot tell you that. It would spoil my f" Sh" She laughed. \"So, what do you wish for the most, my dragon sidhe?\"
\"No. I make a choice, and my mother\'s doomed. I will not play this game.\"
The woman gave me steely eyes. \"But you must choose, Dragon Sidhe. You do not have a choice in that matter.\"
My head was reeling. Mother was so young! How could she do this? \"Wait. You said I have until the next full moon. The full moon was yesterday.\"
The woman looked at me, head cocked to one side. \"And so it was.\"
\"Then I have until then you give you my answer.\"
\"Very well.\" She stepped in my line of sight, blocking out the image of my mother bound. \"I will come to you then, my dragon sidhe.\" She smiled, that amazing smile that even I would kill for, and kissed me.
I woke up, panting. I looked at the clock. It was six in the morning. \"Adriel.\"
He mumbled something, shifting in his sleep. I scowled and shoved him out of bed. \"ADRIEL!\"
He hit the floor with a thump, snapping awake. \"WhatWhat?\"
I hugged my knees to my chest, shivering. \"I need to talk to Liam.\"
Adriel climbed back into bed, eyeing me funny. \"Going after your mother\'s men now?\"
I scowled again. \"No. I need to talk to him. Can you go get him, please?\"
\"Why not go yourself?\"
\"Because I want to talk to him alone, and if I go, then I\'ll have you, plus my other bodyguards, then there will be Mother, her bodyguards, plus Liam, Mourn and whoever else is there. I need to talk to him alone.\"
Adriel sighed and rolled back out of bed. \"Dammit,\" he muttered under his breath. \"You are a hard to please bitch, you know that?\"
I sighed, rubbing my temples. I had nothing to say to that, so I said nothing.
Once he was gone, I stood up and grabbed the brush, running it through my long hair. I would have braided it, but there was no time. So I secured it with a hair tie.
Adriel came back with Liam in mes. es. I shooed Adriel out of my room, closing the door after him. I didn\'t want to face Liam, but I had to talk to someone about this, and he was a great listener.
I finally turned around, though I didn\'t look him in the eye. \"I had a dream, Liam.\" I chanced a lookup, and relief swept over me. There was no look of condemnation in his eyes, no reproach, just a father figure who would help if he could. So I stood there and told him my dream, watching his face for clues. Unfortunately, he was sidhe and dragon, and had spend most of his life in either court, so I got nothing from his expression.
\"What happened?\"
\"Well there was a woman. She was tall and thin, with long chestnut colored hair, and the dark green eyes, the color of summer leaves.\" I paused, trying to remember the dream. \"And her face was narrow, angular, but well sculpted, with full, red lips. If she hadn\'t of kissed me, I would have thought she was wearing lipstick.\"
Liam sighed and sat on the bed. \"I know who she is. She is Aislin, the queen of dreams. Not the goddess,\" he held up a hand, stopping my question,\" but her realm is the dreamscape, and there is no one better at manipulating dreams that her.\"
\"So what does she want from me? If she can offer me anything in the world, what\'s it gonna be, a realistic dream?\"
\"What did you tell her you wanted?\"
I swallowed. \"I didn\'t tell her anything. She said I had till the next full moon, and I said give me until then.\"
Liam nodded. \"That gives us some time to figure out what she wants.\"
\"She had my mother bound, Liam. If I ask for something, she will take her from me.\"
\"I don\'t think she can. To kidnap the monarch is to initiate war, and the last thing we all need is a war between the dragons and the sidhe.\"
\"So what will she do?\"
Liam shrugged. \"I don\'t know, Judith, I really don\'t know.\"
I crossed my arms and snorted. \"Some help you are.\" The moment I said it, I regretted it. It was a mean thing to say, but I was feeling petty.
Liam said nothing, merely stood up. \"I\'ll leave you along. If you dream of her again, come tell me, please?\"
I nodded, moving out of the way of the door. Liam let himself out. I let him. After all, he wasn\'t my father.