Entre l'Amour et la Mort, chapter 26, part 2
A/N: Excuse the funky cut. I hate character limits...
"Jesus, Ivy... That's what you call not being too cruel?" I rasped once I felt I could speak again without sobbing, still in the same position on Ivy's lap, with the small, relieving change that I was no longer tied up. My shoulders were sore when I experimentally rolled them, the sensation dull and distant as my consciousness decided it didn't want to stick around long and I started to black out. My eyelids weighed a ton each, and so did my arms as I looped them around her neck to bury my face deeper in the hollow of her throat, tears streaming down my cheeks to wet the patch of sore, red skin the vampire hadn't yet healed. "Promise me you're not planning to make spankings a regular event on our sex life calendar? I think we're square now." I tried to joke to hide how shaken I was by what I had just experienced, but the quiver in my voice probably made me sound more like a condemned woman begging for a reprieve from the death penalty. This was the first time I'd come face to face with this long-suspected side of Ivy, the undead vamp side, the one that rejoiced at exerting its will over me, the possessive part that wanted to bend me for pleasure. There was almost no trace of it left now, though. The vampire held me firmly but gently, her left hand running slowly along the length of my side, caressing me in a lazy, or perhaps distracted, fashion while her right wrapped around my middle to hold me close. I nudged her with my nose, hoping to get her to give me some TLC after this. Call me a wuss, but I badly needed some tenderness, to remind myself there was more to her than that. Her taste for domination had always been there, even when she was still alive. Just because she'd let it express itself for once didn't mean Ivy was different in any significant fashion, or so I desperately needed to believe. I'd teased her too far, and it brought the monster out. My ass cheeks burned, but she hadn't bitten me, had she? She came close, but close calls were to be expected until we found our balance again, right? God, I hope so...
"Go to sleep, Rachel." Ivy told me almost wearily. I frowned, grumpily shutting my eyes and resting my head on her shoulder; it's not that that wouldn't happen very soon, but it was no reason to have such poor bedside manners. With a sigh of mild annoyance Ivy manoeuvred us onto our sides and into a more satisfactory position, her body embracing mine from behind. I tucked my legs closer, and hers followed until we were spooning together and I relaxed into the warmth and closeness I needed to balance out the intense experiences of the morning. What we had just done was almost as terrifying as it was mindblowing, and I felt very ready to hit the sack.
"I just don't understand... I thought we were doing so well. Why would you do this, Rachel? Why would you help him?"
It was the last thing I barely perceived through the dark haze encroaching over me, but I was already too far gone to give it any consideration, and as I slipped into velveteen darkness, her words didn't feel ominous at all.
Waking up from a deep sleep in an unfamiliar room with no windows or no source of natural light whatsoever is a bit of a disorienting feeling. Until you take a look around and find a clock of some kind, you have no clue at all how long you've been asleep, whether it was an hour or a week. There was still light in the guest room of the Tamwood mansion, but it was dim and easy on my eyes, even as I rubbed the sleep from them. Soft, heavy sheets covered me and my head was resting on a pillow, so Ivy had to have tucked me in once I passed out from her attentions. Considering her strength, that wasn't exactly unlikely. A bit stranger, but nice, was the fact I was no longer naked; instead, I'd been slipped into the lightest, most luscious silk nightgown you've ever seen, dark and shiny like a star-filled night sky, and the perfect length to be both enticing and decent, as the situation called for. A quick sniff of it confirmed my suspicion that it was a loaner from Ivy, probably what she had intended to wear today; it smelled just like her, and unlike the outfit I'd picked from her closet which smelled of the relaxing and homely incense of her living vampire self, this one had the sharper and spicier fragrances of the new her. The real kicker, though, was around my right wrist; a beautifully tooled silver bracelet, crafted in the likeness of a snake swallowing its tail, its eyes a pair of small, flawlessly cut emeralds. Nice bauble.
Yawning, I got on my back, stretching myself luxuriously from head to toe with a satisfied groan. Maybe there was something to Ivy's whole 'delayed/earth-shattering' approach to sex, because, damn, I felt great. My whole body was wonderfully sore and pleasantly tired out, no doubt from the same activities that left a delightful lingering buzz of sexual energy coursing through my limbs. As I finished shifting into my new position, however, my abused buttocks gave me an unpleasant jolt of pain, reminding me of the rather unorthodox (at least for me) techniques with which the vampire had brought this state of relaxed bliss upon me. The reminder made me doubly sorry my lover had stopped embracing me; unfortunately, just like that first morning after, said vampire was not under the sheets with me. Ivy was still in the room though, which could be considered an improvement, at least, but she would have some serious catching up to do on her cuddling quotas if she kept this up. I wasn't going to put up with this "fuck and run" approach to our sex life for much longer...
"Don't you think I deserve more than five seconds of spooning after what you put me through? Is there a rule written somewhere that says I can't wake up in your arms, ever?" I propped myself up on one elbow and sleepily asked the vampire sitting on the bed close by, unconsciously striking a coquettish pose. What? Even with all the spanking and the vamping out, you'd feel sexy too after spending the day with someone like Ivy. Her yummy back was to me, and as I flushed more and more my drowsiness from my system and took a closer look at her, I noticed she was sitting in a weird way, hugging her shins like a child trying to comfort herself. Unlike me, she was also naked, making her look extra vulnerable. "Ivy? Is something wrong?" I asked her, extricating myself from the covers and crawling over to her. Her lean and usually limber musculature was all bunched up when I laid my hands on her shoulders, its power almost too much for her lovely skin to contain. "What's the matter?" I put my arms around her from behind, embracing her comfortingly. If she wouldn't cuddle me, then screw it, I would cuddle her. So there. She was cool though, and it wasn't all that comfortable to touch her, but I held on anyway, and simply hoped she would flick the switch back on her vitals, like I knew she could.
"Nothing- Something... I'm not sure yet." Ivy replied distractedly, no more forthcoming than that. If she noticed I wrapped myself around her, she sure didn't show it.
"Is this from you?" I brought the bracelet to her eyes and asked sultrily, determined to up the ante. She nodded in answer, but gave no sign that she noticed me beyond that. "It's nice. Thanks." I breathed on her neck, choosing to bring out the big guns and nuzzling her gently, back and forth from her shoulder to that spot she loved beneath the ear. Zit, zilch, nada. She didn't even shiver; I might as well have been trying to distract a marble statue...
What the heck? Am I out of practice or something? After all we'd done, and sleeping next to her in a nightgown that smelled like her, there was just no way my scent still turned her off. I was pretty much trampling her buttons; Ivy should have been all over me by now...
"It reminded me of you." Ivy said, her fingers brushing lightly against the reptile-shaped bracelet resting against her collarbone. "It's got your eyes."
"Oh, yeah? Well, I think it's got your teeth." I replied more bitingly than I intended, both peeved I couldn't get a rise out of my lover and a bit insulted at being compared to the snake on my wrist. Now that I took a closer look at it, I found it had a much more vicious air about it than I first realised. It wasn't swallowing its tail at all, just resting its head against it like it was lying in ambush, and its eyes... I wouldn't have trusted anything with those eyes. I doubt Ivy would have either, which could have worrisome implications if it reminded her of me. "Ivy, what's the matter?" I asked again, giving up on bodily distracting her from whatever dark thoughts were running through that pretty head of hers. "Did you get some bad news while I was asleep? You can talk to me, you know."
Ivy stayed silent at that, her eyes slowly closing and her face completely emptying of emotion. It didn't go with the pose at all. Her body language suggested vulnerability, sorrow, worry. Her face, on the other hand, was set in a coldly distant calculating expression.
"I got a call I don't know what to make of yesterday. Truthfully I've been trying to wrap my head around it ever since I got it." She finally spoke, her head pivoting slowly so she could look at me. Her eyes struck me cold; she was looking at me the exact same way she had when she first rose and was faking her post-death stupor; detached, devious, viciously intelligent, but this time, there was no accomplice wink, just that dreadfully cold void.
"A call?" I swallowed softly as hesitantly disentangled my body from around her. "Ivy, stop it." I pleaded, throwing my pride out the absentee window. "You're scaring me."
"Why would you say that, Dear Heart?" Ivy asked neutrally, the dispassionate way she said her moniker for me chilling the blood in my veins. "Do you have a reason to be afraid of me?"
"N-no." I stammered. "I mean, you're giving me a pretty good reason to be scared right now, but other than... Ivy, if you're trying to sweat me, you did it, just cut it out. Whatever I've done, I apologise, okay?" Normally, I would have been a lot more flamboyant about being given the cold shoulder or accused that way, but Ivy... Ivy would have scared the pants off of me if it wasn't for my current attire.
"You haven't done anything, I'm afraid that's exactly the problem. It's what you didn't mention that worries me, and it's going to take more than an apology if I turn out to be right." She stated enigmatically. "I'm curious to know what Trent wanted with you yesterday afternoon, or why you kept your little meeting a secret. Considering what almost transpired, I think I should have been informed..."
"What Trent- How did you know Trent came to see me?"
"Come now, Rachel. Who did you think Erica would call if she barged in on a meeting involving you and people threatening you, hmm?" Ivy asked expectantly. The cell phone, I realised, feeling like banging my head against a wall all of a sudden, Ivy was on the phone with Erica when Quen caught her. "The poor dear was so scared for you, she got sloppy and gave herself away when she called me. I hope for Quen's sake I never lay eyes on him again, because I'll be sure to snap his fingers off and shove them into his eye sockets if we do."
"Ivy, w-wait. Calm down. I can explain."
"You'd better. I was listening in. As a matter of fact, a few of Reed and Heidi's colleagues were seconds away from barging in and killing every elf in the church when Erica assured me everything was fine and I called them off. I clearly heard you say you agreed to help him." Ivy cut me off, her pupils smoothly swallowing up her irises. Her hunting aura rose about her, seemingly wrapping itself around my throat and choking me it was so intense. I couldn't look away from her eyes, couldn't think at all. The warmth of life left me in the space between one heartbeat and the next, leaving me trembling, numb and weak. "He put the three men I had watching the church in magically induced comas in order to talk to you without my knowledge, you know. The doctors aren't sure they'll ever wake up, so for your sake you'd better tell me what 'helping him' means." Ivy demanded, her voice deeper and colder than I ever heard it.
"He... He wanted me to help him stop you. F-from taking over." I couldn't help but answer. Far too much of my brainpower was dedicated to being scared out of my mind to even think of ways to present the truth otherwise.
"And you agreed?"
"N-no, I didn't-"
"Don't lie to me." Ivy warned me with deathly calm. "I heard you. The only reason I'm giving you a chance to explain is that you declared Erica was off limits. You agreed to help him. Tell me what he's planning."
"I didn't agree to work with him against you." I amended, panicking when the smothering aura reached negative Kelvin. "I agreed to talk to you about letting him perform some treatments on pregnant elf women! That's all! Ever since you seized his labs, he's been falling behind on their treatments! I agreed to help them! He wanted more, but that's all I gave him! If he's planning something, I've got no clue what it is!" My words stumbled all over each other as I gushed out, clutching at my throat even though her fingers were only wrapped around it in my head.
"I don't believe you." The vampire said, the oppressive waves of cold emanating from her redoubling. "If you think sharing my bed somehow gives you a free pass to plot against me, I've got some news for you, little witch." That was it. She pushed me past my limit; the very concept of pride long since lost to me, I skittered off the bed like an insect startled by sudden light, falling flat on my ass on the carpeted floor. The pain going ignored, I crab-walked into a corner of the room, driven by pure fright or flight instinct (yeah, I was that scared) and shaking like a leaf from head to toe.
"It's the truth! Smell it, or hear it, or whatever vamp mojo you always use! You could always tell when I was lying before, do it now!" I scrambled for a way to convince her of my innocence, still scared out of my mind even though Ivy hadn't made a move to close in on me. The vampire was still sitting in bed, in the same position, looking harmless at a glance though her mere presence chilled the air around us. For what felt like a very long time, Ivy stared at my cowering self, her expression impassive, her only movement the flaring of her nostrils and the slight rise of her chest as she breathed in what information my scent offered her. I felt like a bug pinned under a sadistic kid's magnifying glass while she analysed whether or not I could be trusted.
"You've altered your scent before." She finally stated simply, her aura retracting back into her body anyway, letting me stand upright and breathe easier, though I was still scared enough that I didn't want to move from the furthest spot in the room from her yet. "I don't know if I can trust it." Like a child listening to her parents fight in the next room, she hugged her shins more tightly, letting her forehead rest on her knees. She was clearly lost in thought, and God help me, I didn't want to know what conclusion she was going to draw.
"I think I want to go home now." I gathered enough of my wits and said in a quiet, wavering voice. Screw sunlight, screw great sex, screw cuddling and most importantly, screw my stupidly ignoring Jenks', Ceri's, Trent's and even Ivy's own warnings. I'd gotten close to a goddamn undead vampire, offered her my body, locked myself naked in a room with her, surrounded by who knows how many of her minions... there was no word for my stupidity. Jenks was right. Out of grief, I'd placed my head on the chopping block for a chance to hold on to a shadow of what Ivy and I could have had, and now Ivy was fiddling with the guillotine's trigger, debating whether to pull it or not.
No, not Ivy. Ivy died a month ago. She's dead. She's gone, and she's never coming back. All those dark, despairing emotions that had washed away in that first kiss we shared in the kitchen a week ago came flooding back, threatening to drown me once more, but before the realisation Ivy was truly gone could knock me flat on my ass, I slammed everything down, locked down my heart and threw away the key. I could cry my eyes out over losing her a second time once I was back on holy ground.
I swear to God, if I can get back to the church I'm never leaving it again...
"I understand." Ivy murmured without raising her head. "Unfortunately, you're not."
"Ivy, please. Don't be stupid." I pleaded with her, tentatively sending a part of my mind searching for a line, feeling a little more confident when I found we weren't too deep underground for my magic to work. I was still trapped in close-quarters with an undead vamp, so short of a chainsaw manifesting out of thin air, nothing would really reassure me, but at least I wasn't helpless. I had an edge her sheer physical aptitudes couldn't match; I could only pray I wouldn't have to find out if it was enough.
"I can't let you go, Rachel. Where you're involved, I don't tend to act rationally. You're one of the only weaknesses I have left. It's too dangerous to let Trent get his hands on you. You're too close to me to be allowed to work for him, in any way, shape or form."
"I'm not." I defended myself curtly, discreetly letting the energy trickle into my chi so as to not give my hand away. "Ivy, I don't want to fight you." It was the truth. Even for me, turning around and blowing the face off a lover I'd just shared myself with was pallid. No matter what Ivy thought or how it turned out, my desires and my feelings had been honest when I stepped into bed with her.
"I don't either." Ivy responded, still not moving a muscle. She sounded so genuine I could've almost forgiven the aura... and the brutal interrogation... and the death threats. On second thought, that was one stupid impulse; we were light-years beyond gluing back together. "Please come back to bed. It's still early, and we have a long night ahead. Get some more sleep. I won't lay a finger on you, you have my word."
"No. I'm not going to come back to bed. I'm leaving. I'm not going to pick a side between you and Trent, so just let me go peacefully, and we can both go our separate ways, without killing each other."
"Please don't be too mad at me. You have to look at this my way. I'm getting a serious case of déjà-vu here. It always starts like that, doesn't it? First he comes to you with a proposal that you refuse him, saying you'll never help him ever again." Ivy recounted reasonably. "Then he finds a chink in your armour. You start to waver, he starts to make sense somehow, and before you know it, he's gotten through to you and it ends very badly for the poor schmuck he needed help with. Tell me this isn't history repeating itself?"
"It's not! I swear to God it's not."
"I'm sorry if it's the truth, but I still can't take that chance, not anymore." She said with patient stubbornness. "If we were living in a vacuum and it was all up to me, maybe I could trust you, but by the time the sun rises tomorrow, I'll be the new master of Cincinnati. I have duties to others, too. Duties I don't intend to fail in. There's too much at stake to beat around the bush any longer."
"You... Your mom gave up?" She won. Ivy's going to be master of Cincinnati. Yay? Boo? Little bit of both? Great for the city, but it sure sucks for me? I couldn't decide how I felt about that. It didn't make her immediately more threatening than she already was... right?
"Didn't you wonder why it took nearly half an hour to tuck my little sister in? My parents and I had a chat after I saw Erica to her room. It turns out they had their own talk while we were together in the library, and my father convinced my mother to come to me with a reasonable proposal. The terms aren't very important here. What matters is that tomorrow the life and prosperity of all this city's vampires will become my responsibility... and you are conspiring with one of their enemies. That makes you one of mine."
Okay, maybe that righteous leader act did make her more dangerous...
"I'm not! For God's sake, you incredibly stupid moron, how many times do I have to tell you?"
"Why did you spend the morning with me, then? Why did you try to seduce me, all of a sudden?"
"How about the obvious reason? Because I wanted to!" I yelled at her. "God, Ivy, is that so mind-boggling you can't wrap your head around it? I love... loved you, damnit!"
"You refused to see me all week, but mysteriously let go of all those doubts you had today? Mere hours after Trent met with you, wanting your help against me?" Ivy wrongfully analysed my supposed motives. "Even you can see how it looks. If you had just mentioned what happened instead of keeping it a secret, I would have believed you, but now? The evidence isn't in your favour."
"I didn't keep it..." I began to protest, before remembering I had indeed kept it a secret. I'd done it in hopes of preserving the semblance of peace that had come back to my home town, but why was I getting the feeling telling her that would not convince her? "You're paranoid." I scoffed and threw my arms up in consternation, turning my back to her with a confidence I sure didn't feel. "Worse than paranoid, you're day-tripping. It's clear I can't convince you I didn't plan this, so, sorry, but we're done talking now. Don't bother calling anymore." Swell, I hope I don't have to fight out of here. I'm already driving out in her nightwear... I realised as I strode towards the door, thinking there was no chance Ivy would let me dress, but before I could even finish that nervously flippant thought, Ivy, still naked as the day she was born, materialised between the exit and me, slowly shaking her head with a look of pure regret in her eyes.
"I implore you, Dear Heart. Let go of the line, and come back to bed. I can give you another pheromone bath, even a massage if you want. You'll sleep like a baby. I promise no one will hurt you, not now, not later." She was blatantly trying to bribe me, but I only went colder at the mention of her pheromones, and I listened more attentively for the sound of the ventilation, finding only a vague reassurance when I faintly made it out. Could it keep up with her outpour of mind-altering chemicals? Damnit, I had to get out before she had me bespelled and I stopped wanting to get out altogether.
"Get out of my way, or I swear to God, I'll blast you right through the door." I grunted at her, stubbornly tapping the full extent of the line and bracing myself for the kickback of discharging energy I was about to be hit with. The vampire didn't even blink, to my never-ending dismay. "Last chance. You've got three seconds." I swallowed audibly, raised my right arm to her face, my fingernails cutting into the skin of my left palm and my eyes scrunching close as I mentally counted down. I didn't want to do this, let alone watch this, no matter how dire a turn our relationship had now taken. It was still the face of a woman I loved. I'd just been too stupid to let her go when she died, and now it was my turn to pay the price to keep my freewill and my life.
"No. That was your last chance." Ivy said from under her dark bangs... just as her gift came alive. "You can spare yourself some pain if you let go of the line right now." The silver snake encircling my wrist mysteriously began to constrict it so tightly it made me gasp in pain and clutch my wrist in a desperate attempt to get the crushing bracelet off. The damn thing wiggled over me for a few seconds, becoming in turn almost loose enough to be pulled off and so tight it cut off all blood flow to my hand, until it settled somewhere in between, uncomfortably tight, but not so much that it hurt.
Then the real pain started.
The snake reared its vicious little head back, coming alive before my bewildered eyes and hissing menacingly at me like a real one would, its silver fangs aglow with dark purple energy. It struck just like its flesh-and-blood kin would, sinking them blindingly fast into the tender flesh of my wrist. I screeched as the metal points broke the skin, but the flesh wound soon went ignored. The line energy I was channelling slipped from control, my mastery over it wrenched from my grasp by the construct quickly bonding to me.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!" I yelled frightfully at the vampire, trying pointlessly to wrench the silver teeth from my flesh.
"Let go and it will stop. Don't, and I can guarantee you won't like what happens next."
With a cry of effort, I attempted to lash out at her, using all of my willpower to tap more from the line, but all it did was accelerate whatever process the bracelet was going through. No matter how much I sucked out of the line I tapped, the snake just sucked it right back out of me. For several heartbeats nothing happened, other than the familiar, violating sensation of being drained of ley line power and the sharp pain of the little silver fangs sunk into me. The emerald eyes of the snake shone with an inner light that intensified by the second, its metal skin warming up as it pulled more and more from me, until it felt like I had a small star strapped to my wrist, dramatic shadows getting cast every which way from the pulsating glare. It trembled, like it was reaching breaking point, and I took heart in that, fighting through the revolting feeling in hopes I could overload the damn thing and get it off me somehow. I could channel and hold a lot of power; there was no way in hell some magical trinket could outdo me in raw magical strength and stamina, I was sure of it.
Turns out, I was half wrong. At least half wrong. Maybe the bracelet couldn't hold out as long as I could, but I never got a chance to find out. All the energy it stole from me had to go somewhere, hence why it looked more and more like the Energizer bunny's infinitely creepier cousin. A new pulsing joined in low in my belly as the amount of energy it held obviously reached a critical point, at first barely noticeable but quickly rising and intensifying, turning uncomfortable, then rapidly downright painful, all the way up to agonisingly unbearable, making me double over in pain as I realised just what was going on. The damn thing was giving me back what it took from me, with what sure felt like a buttload of interest; painful bursts of power surged out of it straight into my body, raw and wild, their jagged edges tearing my brain apart. It felt like getting hit with Angel's backlash in miniature version all over again, and repeatedly this time around, my chi and mind mercilessly assaulted into submission. Frantically, I listened to Ivy's advice and let go of the line before the damn thing left me with medium-well done synapses, but the waves of burning power didn't stop with my compliance. Apparently, once it got going, the snake construct had to discharge entirely, and I hurt from it all the way, like I was getting tasered a hundred times over. My legs gave out in the near-seizure, and I collapsed miserably to the floor, twitching and drooling, lost in torment that felt never ending. Damn it all to hell, how much juice had I been stupid enough to pump into that thing?
I have no clue how long I was left writhing on the floor, getting fried from the inside by my own magic harnessed against me, but eventually, the damn bracelet ran out of power to throw back at me, leaving me sagging in nigh-orgasmic cessation of pain, panting and squirming in my smouldering, too tight skin. My muscles were so sore I could barely move without their protest cutting off my breath. I felt like I'd been run over by an eighteen-wheeler, and my head was killing me, but as I painstakingly pushed myself on all four, I got the feeling there wasn't quite as much damage to my chi this time around as there had been after my confrontation with Angel; bully for me, I may not need a month of recovery this time around. Small favours. It's not like I could use magic anyway as long as the serpent bracelet was around my wrist. The trinket apparently didn't trust me anymore, as it didn't loosen its grip on me, even as its vicious little head settled itself back against its metal tail. There was a little blood left where the fangs had pierced my skin, but in the wake of the energy backlash I barely felt the little punctures the piece of jewelry had left. My God, what dark corner of hell had that thing crawled out of? How had Ivy gotten her hands on such a nasty magic item?
"I did warn you..." Ivy whispered very close by, her cool palm against my sweaty cheek snapping my thoughts back to the present crisis. In all the pain and misery of the past minutes, I'd forgotten the other mortal danger I was in. Startled, I fell backward, crawling away on all four until my back hit the wall. "I was hoping you wouldn't trigger it. To answer your question, it's an unfortunately necessary insurance policy that will make sure you don't use magic again before I trust you to. Think of it as a distinguished version of those spelled zip-strips you're so fond of. It will relax its grip too eventually. As long as you don't try to use magic, or to take it off, it will remain comfortable to wear." The naked vampire informed me casually, as if she hadn't stood there watching me get pounded into submission by her goddamn 'insurance'.
"Was all of this morning a pretext to get it on me?" I rasped accusingly, feeling as used as a blow-up doll. "Everything you said, everything we did? You knocked me out with sex and pheromones just so you could slap that thing on me without a fight?"
"That was one reason. Your magic was the only thing that could threaten me while I questioned you. I had to find some way to neutralise it, and I could hardly risk forcing it on you where someone might see us. They might get the idea our relationship is strained, and there's a lot of faith riding on both of us being together."
"And you accused me of seducing you..." I scoffed with dark, bitter irony. Seriously, how the HELL could I have been this stupid? "You're the one I never should have trusted. This was all an elaborate trap from the beginning, wasn't it? You got me right where you wanted."
"Not remotely." Ivy replied, her voice still as smooth and mild as warm caramel, even in the face of my accusations. "If anything, it was a test, not a trap. I didn't want this. I would have been so happy to simply sleep alone today. If you hadn't offered yourself to me, if you had proven to me beyond a doubt you were still letting our relationship evolve naturally rather than using it to further Trent's agenda, I would have gladly put this incident in the church behind us. Instead, you gave me just enough blood to whet my appetites for you and took those risks to get close to me. You have to admit you shouldn't have gone along with a lot of what I did to you this morning."
"Because I wanted to show some trust. Some damn acceptance. I was a damn fool and I wanted to be with you again, so I let you do what you wanted, because I wanted to trust you not to go too far!" I spat bitingly, my voice rising and rising. I knew I was cornered, and all I had left was a sharp tongue to put up a defence. Ivy would make a mockery of me if I went hand-to-hand against her, and attempting to use magic would again harm me more than her. I was trapped like a rat.
"So you say. Maybe that's the truth. I'm terribly sorry we came to this extreme if it is, but I promise you it won't matter anymore after tonight, one way or the other." Ivy replied enigmatically. Slow and confident, she stalked towards, making me flinch away from her even though I had nowhere left to run. "Look at me." She demanded gently once she was kneeling before me, her voice taking on a mysteriously vampy quality hypnotically reverberating soothingly through my abused brain, bypassing it entirely to force my eyes to meet hers. "Breathe. Slow and deep. Breathe. Relax. There won't be any more pain if you just relax."
My heart hurt so much that promise almost made those deep breaths she wanted me to take sound like a good idea, but I had enough self-preservation left not to want to. I knew what she was doing, but I could only hold my breath for so long before I passed out, and I eventually drew a shallow, shuddering breath. The rush of pheromones in my lungs almost instantly weakened my resolve and the air whooshed out much slower and steadier than my panicked state should have allowed. I couldn't hold out any longer, and soon my breathing was synched with hers, slow and deep, just like she wanted, taking in the pheromones she was putting out to sap my will completely, slaving it to hers.
"I was such a fool..." I whispered. A single tear made it down my cheek before her pheromones took root in my brain, altering my thoughts to whatever shape the vampire wanted them to be. An unnatural numbness spread through me, as if I was watching someone else's life unfold and unravel all of a sudden. Ivy righted herself and offered a hand to help me up, my own hand meeting hers without any conscious control on my part. I was a prisoner of my own body, enthralled to the vampire's will, yet I also remained cruelly aware of the control I no longer had. I watched myself walk to the edge of the bed though I desperately didn't want to. I watched my hands throw the covers back and my body slip beneath them, though entering the gates of hell would have frightened me less. I watched Ivy pull them around me and distantly felt her climb next to me, over them.
"Will you let me hold you?" She asked softly.
"Why do you even bother to ask?" I sniffled, trying my hardest to keep from crying. "It's only a courtesy anyway when you can just make me want it."
"Rachel, only your body is outside your control right now. Your mind is your own. I wouldn't take that away from you." The vampire defended herself, her tone not fluctuating one bit. "Please, let me comfort you."
"Get my hair out of my face?" I swallowed and asked, her compulsion not even letting me deal with the annoyance of my red curls irritating my nose myself. The vampire complied immediately, her fingers taking the time to lightly caress my jaw and ear as she pulled the fiery strands away. Giving my lack of protest the value of worded consent, she almost timidly slipped under the covers and encircled my waist with her arm. I didn't tell her to get off me any more than I told her to embrace me, feeling I was at least preserving a fraction of my pride this way. There was one very simple reason why I wanted her there; if I closed my eyes and used my imagination, I could almost pretend the creature at my back really was my Ivy, not just a broken shell of her, and find some semblance of solace in it, if only for a moment.
"What's going to happen tonight?" I asked even though I couldn't look at her, dreading the answer so much but inquiring anyway in hopes the small mental effort required could stave off the darkness encroaching on my mind. Ivy was willing me to sleep, and she was winning, big time.
"Tonight, I'll be officially recognised as the master of Cincinnati. And you'll be by my side, as my prospective Scion when I receive the families' allegiances." Ivy declared almost mournfully. "It's going to be the first night of the rest of our lives, Dear Heart. Tonight, the last scores are settled, the last debts repaid. Tomorrow at this hour, we'll have a blank slate and a whole city to make whatever dreams we want come true."
"You're planning to bind me, aren't you?" I asked, deducing I wouldn't stay her prospective Scion for long in that grand vision of hers.
"I didn't want it to be a punishment, Rachel." Ivy murmured wearily. "I was planning on making it a beautiful gift. I wanted to give you a few years to warm up to the idea before even proposing to you. Proposing, not forcing you. But thanks to Trent, I can't afford to wait or to let you choose. I have to make sure you don't harm anyone under my responsibility. Binding you is the only way to make sure of that now. I won't turn you into a puppet, my love." She added and gave me a comforting squeeze when I started crying quiet, frightened tears. I couldn't help it. A feeling of crushing helplessness was weighing down on my chest, a blind panic rampaging through my mind though my body was only dead weigh I couldn't will to move, to fight, to flee or just... act! Ivy had set loose one of my worst nightmares; she turned me into that dying child again, the one who dreaded going to sleep because she knew that if she closed her eyes, they might never open again. Protectively, Ivy curled her body more tightly around mine in a gesture that could have been sweet if it hadn't been preceded with torture and interrogation. "I still loathe Piscary and what he did to me. I won't force you to exist in a state of constant mental violation like he did. Your binding to me will be nothing at all like that. You've seen Angel, haven't you? She's a strong and wilful companion who speaks her mind, who has a life and a will of her own. I want you to be like her, even freer. You and I will be beautifully intertwined, but I want you to remain your own person. I want you, such as you are, with all your strengths and all your infuriating quirks. It will be loose and gentle, I promise. I just need to make sure beyond a doubt you're not trying to take me down. Do you understand?"
"Ivy, I don't want this! I'm begging you, let me go!" I sobbed, using the last of my rapidly decreasing strength to force the words out. "I won't ever do anything to cross you again, I swear! I'll shut down Vampiric Charms! I'll leave the city behind and never come back, but please, please don't do this to me!" I promised frantically, more than ready to follow it through if it meant I could escape my approaching doom. That Ivy compared her plans for me to what Nathalie had done to her seemingly free-spirited Scion gave me no comfort whatsoever. My free will couldn't merely be a gift from her, a reprieve she granted me from slavery. I would die first.
"Dear Heart, is the thought of living by the side of someone who loves you forever truly that terrifying to you?" Ivy asked, having the gall to sound hurt about my plea, even after she tortured me into submission and temporarily enslaved my will to hers. "I don't want to consume you or degrade you. I want to give you more power and status than you ever had; strength, grace, influence, beauty, safety, all the material comforts you could want, even immortality that you won't have to stain your soul to pay for... This is hardly a living hell I'm offering you. It's... the closest I can do to asking for your hand in marriage, actually. I want to make this happily ever after, for both of us. Please don't be afraid."
"Don't... want it. Not like this." I breathed out barely audibly. I didn't have the strength to protest further. I couldn't keep my eyelids open any longer, but in the few seconds before my consciousness evaporated into oblivion, I made out Ivy's last words, the coddling in her voice clearly gone despite the illusory distance.
"I'm afraid there is no other choice, my love. When the sun comes up tomorrow, you will either be mine... or you will die. I can't let you go any other way. I'm sorry."
You know what? I'm totally blaming it on falling asleep that I didn't tell her I preferred that last choice. I was not balking in the face of death at all. The tsunami of terror that overcame me in that last second of consciousness was just a coincidence. Yeah...
A/N: *blank* *the author ran away again*
"Jesus, Ivy... That's what you call not being too cruel?" I rasped once I felt I could speak again without sobbing, still in the same position on Ivy's lap, with the small, relieving change that I was no longer tied up. My shoulders were sore when I experimentally rolled them, the sensation dull and distant as my consciousness decided it didn't want to stick around long and I started to black out. My eyelids weighed a ton each, and so did my arms as I looped them around her neck to bury my face deeper in the hollow of her throat, tears streaming down my cheeks to wet the patch of sore, red skin the vampire hadn't yet healed. "Promise me you're not planning to make spankings a regular event on our sex life calendar? I think we're square now." I tried to joke to hide how shaken I was by what I had just experienced, but the quiver in my voice probably made me sound more like a condemned woman begging for a reprieve from the death penalty. This was the first time I'd come face to face with this long-suspected side of Ivy, the undead vamp side, the one that rejoiced at exerting its will over me, the possessive part that wanted to bend me for pleasure. There was almost no trace of it left now, though. The vampire held me firmly but gently, her left hand running slowly along the length of my side, caressing me in a lazy, or perhaps distracted, fashion while her right wrapped around my middle to hold me close. I nudged her with my nose, hoping to get her to give me some TLC after this. Call me a wuss, but I badly needed some tenderness, to remind myself there was more to her than that. Her taste for domination had always been there, even when she was still alive. Just because she'd let it express itself for once didn't mean Ivy was different in any significant fashion, or so I desperately needed to believe. I'd teased her too far, and it brought the monster out. My ass cheeks burned, but she hadn't bitten me, had she? She came close, but close calls were to be expected until we found our balance again, right? God, I hope so...
"Go to sleep, Rachel." Ivy told me almost wearily. I frowned, grumpily shutting my eyes and resting my head on her shoulder; it's not that that wouldn't happen very soon, but it was no reason to have such poor bedside manners. With a sigh of mild annoyance Ivy manoeuvred us onto our sides and into a more satisfactory position, her body embracing mine from behind. I tucked my legs closer, and hers followed until we were spooning together and I relaxed into the warmth and closeness I needed to balance out the intense experiences of the morning. What we had just done was almost as terrifying as it was mindblowing, and I felt very ready to hit the sack.
"I just don't understand... I thought we were doing so well. Why would you do this, Rachel? Why would you help him?"
It was the last thing I barely perceived through the dark haze encroaching over me, but I was already too far gone to give it any consideration, and as I slipped into velveteen darkness, her words didn't feel ominous at all.
Waking up from a deep sleep in an unfamiliar room with no windows or no source of natural light whatsoever is a bit of a disorienting feeling. Until you take a look around and find a clock of some kind, you have no clue at all how long you've been asleep, whether it was an hour or a week. There was still light in the guest room of the Tamwood mansion, but it was dim and easy on my eyes, even as I rubbed the sleep from them. Soft, heavy sheets covered me and my head was resting on a pillow, so Ivy had to have tucked me in once I passed out from her attentions. Considering her strength, that wasn't exactly unlikely. A bit stranger, but nice, was the fact I was no longer naked; instead, I'd been slipped into the lightest, most luscious silk nightgown you've ever seen, dark and shiny like a star-filled night sky, and the perfect length to be both enticing and decent, as the situation called for. A quick sniff of it confirmed my suspicion that it was a loaner from Ivy, probably what she had intended to wear today; it smelled just like her, and unlike the outfit I'd picked from her closet which smelled of the relaxing and homely incense of her living vampire self, this one had the sharper and spicier fragrances of the new her. The real kicker, though, was around my right wrist; a beautifully tooled silver bracelet, crafted in the likeness of a snake swallowing its tail, its eyes a pair of small, flawlessly cut emeralds. Nice bauble.
Yawning, I got on my back, stretching myself luxuriously from head to toe with a satisfied groan. Maybe there was something to Ivy's whole 'delayed/earth-shattering' approach to sex, because, damn, I felt great. My whole body was wonderfully sore and pleasantly tired out, no doubt from the same activities that left a delightful lingering buzz of sexual energy coursing through my limbs. As I finished shifting into my new position, however, my abused buttocks gave me an unpleasant jolt of pain, reminding me of the rather unorthodox (at least for me) techniques with which the vampire had brought this state of relaxed bliss upon me. The reminder made me doubly sorry my lover had stopped embracing me; unfortunately, just like that first morning after, said vampire was not under the sheets with me. Ivy was still in the room though, which could be considered an improvement, at least, but she would have some serious catching up to do on her cuddling quotas if she kept this up. I wasn't going to put up with this "fuck and run" approach to our sex life for much longer...
"Don't you think I deserve more than five seconds of spooning after what you put me through? Is there a rule written somewhere that says I can't wake up in your arms, ever?" I propped myself up on one elbow and sleepily asked the vampire sitting on the bed close by, unconsciously striking a coquettish pose. What? Even with all the spanking and the vamping out, you'd feel sexy too after spending the day with someone like Ivy. Her yummy back was to me, and as I flushed more and more my drowsiness from my system and took a closer look at her, I noticed she was sitting in a weird way, hugging her shins like a child trying to comfort herself. Unlike me, she was also naked, making her look extra vulnerable. "Ivy? Is something wrong?" I asked her, extricating myself from the covers and crawling over to her. Her lean and usually limber musculature was all bunched up when I laid my hands on her shoulders, its power almost too much for her lovely skin to contain. "What's the matter?" I put my arms around her from behind, embracing her comfortingly. If she wouldn't cuddle me, then screw it, I would cuddle her. So there. She was cool though, and it wasn't all that comfortable to touch her, but I held on anyway, and simply hoped she would flick the switch back on her vitals, like I knew she could.
"Nothing- Something... I'm not sure yet." Ivy replied distractedly, no more forthcoming than that. If she noticed I wrapped myself around her, she sure didn't show it.
"Is this from you?" I brought the bracelet to her eyes and asked sultrily, determined to up the ante. She nodded in answer, but gave no sign that she noticed me beyond that. "It's nice. Thanks." I breathed on her neck, choosing to bring out the big guns and nuzzling her gently, back and forth from her shoulder to that spot she loved beneath the ear. Zit, zilch, nada. She didn't even shiver; I might as well have been trying to distract a marble statue...
What the heck? Am I out of practice or something? After all we'd done, and sleeping next to her in a nightgown that smelled like her, there was just no way my scent still turned her off. I was pretty much trampling her buttons; Ivy should have been all over me by now...
"It reminded me of you." Ivy said, her fingers brushing lightly against the reptile-shaped bracelet resting against her collarbone. "It's got your eyes."
"Oh, yeah? Well, I think it's got your teeth." I replied more bitingly than I intended, both peeved I couldn't get a rise out of my lover and a bit insulted at being compared to the snake on my wrist. Now that I took a closer look at it, I found it had a much more vicious air about it than I first realised. It wasn't swallowing its tail at all, just resting its head against it like it was lying in ambush, and its eyes... I wouldn't have trusted anything with those eyes. I doubt Ivy would have either, which could have worrisome implications if it reminded her of me. "Ivy, what's the matter?" I asked again, giving up on bodily distracting her from whatever dark thoughts were running through that pretty head of hers. "Did you get some bad news while I was asleep? You can talk to me, you know."
Ivy stayed silent at that, her eyes slowly closing and her face completely emptying of emotion. It didn't go with the pose at all. Her body language suggested vulnerability, sorrow, worry. Her face, on the other hand, was set in a coldly distant calculating expression.
"I got a call I don't know what to make of yesterday. Truthfully I've been trying to wrap my head around it ever since I got it." She finally spoke, her head pivoting slowly so she could look at me. Her eyes struck me cold; she was looking at me the exact same way she had when she first rose and was faking her post-death stupor; detached, devious, viciously intelligent, but this time, there was no accomplice wink, just that dreadfully cold void.
"A call?" I swallowed softly as hesitantly disentangled my body from around her. "Ivy, stop it." I pleaded, throwing my pride out the absentee window. "You're scaring me."
"Why would you say that, Dear Heart?" Ivy asked neutrally, the dispassionate way she said her moniker for me chilling the blood in my veins. "Do you have a reason to be afraid of me?"
"N-no." I stammered. "I mean, you're giving me a pretty good reason to be scared right now, but other than... Ivy, if you're trying to sweat me, you did it, just cut it out. Whatever I've done, I apologise, okay?" Normally, I would have been a lot more flamboyant about being given the cold shoulder or accused that way, but Ivy... Ivy would have scared the pants off of me if it wasn't for my current attire.
"You haven't done anything, I'm afraid that's exactly the problem. It's what you didn't mention that worries me, and it's going to take more than an apology if I turn out to be right." She stated enigmatically. "I'm curious to know what Trent wanted with you yesterday afternoon, or why you kept your little meeting a secret. Considering what almost transpired, I think I should have been informed..."
"What Trent- How did you know Trent came to see me?"
"Come now, Rachel. Who did you think Erica would call if she barged in on a meeting involving you and people threatening you, hmm?" Ivy asked expectantly. The cell phone, I realised, feeling like banging my head against a wall all of a sudden, Ivy was on the phone with Erica when Quen caught her. "The poor dear was so scared for you, she got sloppy and gave herself away when she called me. I hope for Quen's sake I never lay eyes on him again, because I'll be sure to snap his fingers off and shove them into his eye sockets if we do."
"Ivy, w-wait. Calm down. I can explain."
"You'd better. I was listening in. As a matter of fact, a few of Reed and Heidi's colleagues were seconds away from barging in and killing every elf in the church when Erica assured me everything was fine and I called them off. I clearly heard you say you agreed to help him." Ivy cut me off, her pupils smoothly swallowing up her irises. Her hunting aura rose about her, seemingly wrapping itself around my throat and choking me it was so intense. I couldn't look away from her eyes, couldn't think at all. The warmth of life left me in the space between one heartbeat and the next, leaving me trembling, numb and weak. "He put the three men I had watching the church in magically induced comas in order to talk to you without my knowledge, you know. The doctors aren't sure they'll ever wake up, so for your sake you'd better tell me what 'helping him' means." Ivy demanded, her voice deeper and colder than I ever heard it.
"He... He wanted me to help him stop you. F-from taking over." I couldn't help but answer. Far too much of my brainpower was dedicated to being scared out of my mind to even think of ways to present the truth otherwise.
"And you agreed?"
"N-no, I didn't-"
"Don't lie to me." Ivy warned me with deathly calm. "I heard you. The only reason I'm giving you a chance to explain is that you declared Erica was off limits. You agreed to help him. Tell me what he's planning."
"I didn't agree to work with him against you." I amended, panicking when the smothering aura reached negative Kelvin. "I agreed to talk to you about letting him perform some treatments on pregnant elf women! That's all! Ever since you seized his labs, he's been falling behind on their treatments! I agreed to help them! He wanted more, but that's all I gave him! If he's planning something, I've got no clue what it is!" My words stumbled all over each other as I gushed out, clutching at my throat even though her fingers were only wrapped around it in my head.
"I don't believe you." The vampire said, the oppressive waves of cold emanating from her redoubling. "If you think sharing my bed somehow gives you a free pass to plot against me, I've got some news for you, little witch." That was it. She pushed me past my limit; the very concept of pride long since lost to me, I skittered off the bed like an insect startled by sudden light, falling flat on my ass on the carpeted floor. The pain going ignored, I crab-walked into a corner of the room, driven by pure fright or flight instinct (yeah, I was that scared) and shaking like a leaf from head to toe.
"It's the truth! Smell it, or hear it, or whatever vamp mojo you always use! You could always tell when I was lying before, do it now!" I scrambled for a way to convince her of my innocence, still scared out of my mind even though Ivy hadn't made a move to close in on me. The vampire was still sitting in bed, in the same position, looking harmless at a glance though her mere presence chilled the air around us. For what felt like a very long time, Ivy stared at my cowering self, her expression impassive, her only movement the flaring of her nostrils and the slight rise of her chest as she breathed in what information my scent offered her. I felt like a bug pinned under a sadistic kid's magnifying glass while she analysed whether or not I could be trusted.
"You've altered your scent before." She finally stated simply, her aura retracting back into her body anyway, letting me stand upright and breathe easier, though I was still scared enough that I didn't want to move from the furthest spot in the room from her yet. "I don't know if I can trust it." Like a child listening to her parents fight in the next room, she hugged her shins more tightly, letting her forehead rest on her knees. She was clearly lost in thought, and God help me, I didn't want to know what conclusion she was going to draw.
"I think I want to go home now." I gathered enough of my wits and said in a quiet, wavering voice. Screw sunlight, screw great sex, screw cuddling and most importantly, screw my stupidly ignoring Jenks', Ceri's, Trent's and even Ivy's own warnings. I'd gotten close to a goddamn undead vampire, offered her my body, locked myself naked in a room with her, surrounded by who knows how many of her minions... there was no word for my stupidity. Jenks was right. Out of grief, I'd placed my head on the chopping block for a chance to hold on to a shadow of what Ivy and I could have had, and now Ivy was fiddling with the guillotine's trigger, debating whether to pull it or not.
No, not Ivy. Ivy died a month ago. She's dead. She's gone, and she's never coming back. All those dark, despairing emotions that had washed away in that first kiss we shared in the kitchen a week ago came flooding back, threatening to drown me once more, but before the realisation Ivy was truly gone could knock me flat on my ass, I slammed everything down, locked down my heart and threw away the key. I could cry my eyes out over losing her a second time once I was back on holy ground.
I swear to God, if I can get back to the church I'm never leaving it again...
"I understand." Ivy murmured without raising her head. "Unfortunately, you're not."
"Ivy, please. Don't be stupid." I pleaded with her, tentatively sending a part of my mind searching for a line, feeling a little more confident when I found we weren't too deep underground for my magic to work. I was still trapped in close-quarters with an undead vamp, so short of a chainsaw manifesting out of thin air, nothing would really reassure me, but at least I wasn't helpless. I had an edge her sheer physical aptitudes couldn't match; I could only pray I wouldn't have to find out if it was enough.
"I can't let you go, Rachel. Where you're involved, I don't tend to act rationally. You're one of the only weaknesses I have left. It's too dangerous to let Trent get his hands on you. You're too close to me to be allowed to work for him, in any way, shape or form."
"I'm not." I defended myself curtly, discreetly letting the energy trickle into my chi so as to not give my hand away. "Ivy, I don't want to fight you." It was the truth. Even for me, turning around and blowing the face off a lover I'd just shared myself with was pallid. No matter what Ivy thought or how it turned out, my desires and my feelings had been honest when I stepped into bed with her.
"I don't either." Ivy responded, still not moving a muscle. She sounded so genuine I could've almost forgiven the aura... and the brutal interrogation... and the death threats. On second thought, that was one stupid impulse; we were light-years beyond gluing back together. "Please come back to bed. It's still early, and we have a long night ahead. Get some more sleep. I won't lay a finger on you, you have my word."
"No. I'm not going to come back to bed. I'm leaving. I'm not going to pick a side between you and Trent, so just let me go peacefully, and we can both go our separate ways, without killing each other."
"Please don't be too mad at me. You have to look at this my way. I'm getting a serious case of déjà-vu here. It always starts like that, doesn't it? First he comes to you with a proposal that you refuse him, saying you'll never help him ever again." Ivy recounted reasonably. "Then he finds a chink in your armour. You start to waver, he starts to make sense somehow, and before you know it, he's gotten through to you and it ends very badly for the poor schmuck he needed help with. Tell me this isn't history repeating itself?"
"It's not! I swear to God it's not."
"I'm sorry if it's the truth, but I still can't take that chance, not anymore." She said with patient stubbornness. "If we were living in a vacuum and it was all up to me, maybe I could trust you, but by the time the sun rises tomorrow, I'll be the new master of Cincinnati. I have duties to others, too. Duties I don't intend to fail in. There's too much at stake to beat around the bush any longer."
"You... Your mom gave up?" She won. Ivy's going to be master of Cincinnati. Yay? Boo? Little bit of both? Great for the city, but it sure sucks for me? I couldn't decide how I felt about that. It didn't make her immediately more threatening than she already was... right?
"Didn't you wonder why it took nearly half an hour to tuck my little sister in? My parents and I had a chat after I saw Erica to her room. It turns out they had their own talk while we were together in the library, and my father convinced my mother to come to me with a reasonable proposal. The terms aren't very important here. What matters is that tomorrow the life and prosperity of all this city's vampires will become my responsibility... and you are conspiring with one of their enemies. That makes you one of mine."
Okay, maybe that righteous leader act did make her more dangerous...
"I'm not! For God's sake, you incredibly stupid moron, how many times do I have to tell you?"
"Why did you spend the morning with me, then? Why did you try to seduce me, all of a sudden?"
"How about the obvious reason? Because I wanted to!" I yelled at her. "God, Ivy, is that so mind-boggling you can't wrap your head around it? I love... loved you, damnit!"
"You refused to see me all week, but mysteriously let go of all those doubts you had today? Mere hours after Trent met with you, wanting your help against me?" Ivy wrongfully analysed my supposed motives. "Even you can see how it looks. If you had just mentioned what happened instead of keeping it a secret, I would have believed you, but now? The evidence isn't in your favour."
"I didn't keep it..." I began to protest, before remembering I had indeed kept it a secret. I'd done it in hopes of preserving the semblance of peace that had come back to my home town, but why was I getting the feeling telling her that would not convince her? "You're paranoid." I scoffed and threw my arms up in consternation, turning my back to her with a confidence I sure didn't feel. "Worse than paranoid, you're day-tripping. It's clear I can't convince you I didn't plan this, so, sorry, but we're done talking now. Don't bother calling anymore." Swell, I hope I don't have to fight out of here. I'm already driving out in her nightwear... I realised as I strode towards the door, thinking there was no chance Ivy would let me dress, but before I could even finish that nervously flippant thought, Ivy, still naked as the day she was born, materialised between the exit and me, slowly shaking her head with a look of pure regret in her eyes.
"I implore you, Dear Heart. Let go of the line, and come back to bed. I can give you another pheromone bath, even a massage if you want. You'll sleep like a baby. I promise no one will hurt you, not now, not later." She was blatantly trying to bribe me, but I only went colder at the mention of her pheromones, and I listened more attentively for the sound of the ventilation, finding only a vague reassurance when I faintly made it out. Could it keep up with her outpour of mind-altering chemicals? Damnit, I had to get out before she had me bespelled and I stopped wanting to get out altogether.
"Get out of my way, or I swear to God, I'll blast you right through the door." I grunted at her, stubbornly tapping the full extent of the line and bracing myself for the kickback of discharging energy I was about to be hit with. The vampire didn't even blink, to my never-ending dismay. "Last chance. You've got three seconds." I swallowed audibly, raised my right arm to her face, my fingernails cutting into the skin of my left palm and my eyes scrunching close as I mentally counted down. I didn't want to do this, let alone watch this, no matter how dire a turn our relationship had now taken. It was still the face of a woman I loved. I'd just been too stupid to let her go when she died, and now it was my turn to pay the price to keep my freewill and my life.
"No. That was your last chance." Ivy said from under her dark bangs... just as her gift came alive. "You can spare yourself some pain if you let go of the line right now." The silver snake encircling my wrist mysteriously began to constrict it so tightly it made me gasp in pain and clutch my wrist in a desperate attempt to get the crushing bracelet off. The damn thing wiggled over me for a few seconds, becoming in turn almost loose enough to be pulled off and so tight it cut off all blood flow to my hand, until it settled somewhere in between, uncomfortably tight, but not so much that it hurt.
Then the real pain started.
The snake reared its vicious little head back, coming alive before my bewildered eyes and hissing menacingly at me like a real one would, its silver fangs aglow with dark purple energy. It struck just like its flesh-and-blood kin would, sinking them blindingly fast into the tender flesh of my wrist. I screeched as the metal points broke the skin, but the flesh wound soon went ignored. The line energy I was channelling slipped from control, my mastery over it wrenched from my grasp by the construct quickly bonding to me.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!" I yelled frightfully at the vampire, trying pointlessly to wrench the silver teeth from my flesh.
"Let go and it will stop. Don't, and I can guarantee you won't like what happens next."
With a cry of effort, I attempted to lash out at her, using all of my willpower to tap more from the line, but all it did was accelerate whatever process the bracelet was going through. No matter how much I sucked out of the line I tapped, the snake just sucked it right back out of me. For several heartbeats nothing happened, other than the familiar, violating sensation of being drained of ley line power and the sharp pain of the little silver fangs sunk into me. The emerald eyes of the snake shone with an inner light that intensified by the second, its metal skin warming up as it pulled more and more from me, until it felt like I had a small star strapped to my wrist, dramatic shadows getting cast every which way from the pulsating glare. It trembled, like it was reaching breaking point, and I took heart in that, fighting through the revolting feeling in hopes I could overload the damn thing and get it off me somehow. I could channel and hold a lot of power; there was no way in hell some magical trinket could outdo me in raw magical strength and stamina, I was sure of it.
Turns out, I was half wrong. At least half wrong. Maybe the bracelet couldn't hold out as long as I could, but I never got a chance to find out. All the energy it stole from me had to go somewhere, hence why it looked more and more like the Energizer bunny's infinitely creepier cousin. A new pulsing joined in low in my belly as the amount of energy it held obviously reached a critical point, at first barely noticeable but quickly rising and intensifying, turning uncomfortable, then rapidly downright painful, all the way up to agonisingly unbearable, making me double over in pain as I realised just what was going on. The damn thing was giving me back what it took from me, with what sure felt like a buttload of interest; painful bursts of power surged out of it straight into my body, raw and wild, their jagged edges tearing my brain apart. It felt like getting hit with Angel's backlash in miniature version all over again, and repeatedly this time around, my chi and mind mercilessly assaulted into submission. Frantically, I listened to Ivy's advice and let go of the line before the damn thing left me with medium-well done synapses, but the waves of burning power didn't stop with my compliance. Apparently, once it got going, the snake construct had to discharge entirely, and I hurt from it all the way, like I was getting tasered a hundred times over. My legs gave out in the near-seizure, and I collapsed miserably to the floor, twitching and drooling, lost in torment that felt never ending. Damn it all to hell, how much juice had I been stupid enough to pump into that thing?
I have no clue how long I was left writhing on the floor, getting fried from the inside by my own magic harnessed against me, but eventually, the damn bracelet ran out of power to throw back at me, leaving me sagging in nigh-orgasmic cessation of pain, panting and squirming in my smouldering, too tight skin. My muscles were so sore I could barely move without their protest cutting off my breath. I felt like I'd been run over by an eighteen-wheeler, and my head was killing me, but as I painstakingly pushed myself on all four, I got the feeling there wasn't quite as much damage to my chi this time around as there had been after my confrontation with Angel; bully for me, I may not need a month of recovery this time around. Small favours. It's not like I could use magic anyway as long as the serpent bracelet was around my wrist. The trinket apparently didn't trust me anymore, as it didn't loosen its grip on me, even as its vicious little head settled itself back against its metal tail. There was a little blood left where the fangs had pierced my skin, but in the wake of the energy backlash I barely felt the little punctures the piece of jewelry had left. My God, what dark corner of hell had that thing crawled out of? How had Ivy gotten her hands on such a nasty magic item?
"I did warn you..." Ivy whispered very close by, her cool palm against my sweaty cheek snapping my thoughts back to the present crisis. In all the pain and misery of the past minutes, I'd forgotten the other mortal danger I was in. Startled, I fell backward, crawling away on all four until my back hit the wall. "I was hoping you wouldn't trigger it. To answer your question, it's an unfortunately necessary insurance policy that will make sure you don't use magic again before I trust you to. Think of it as a distinguished version of those spelled zip-strips you're so fond of. It will relax its grip too eventually. As long as you don't try to use magic, or to take it off, it will remain comfortable to wear." The naked vampire informed me casually, as if she hadn't stood there watching me get pounded into submission by her goddamn 'insurance'.
"Was all of this morning a pretext to get it on me?" I rasped accusingly, feeling as used as a blow-up doll. "Everything you said, everything we did? You knocked me out with sex and pheromones just so you could slap that thing on me without a fight?"
"That was one reason. Your magic was the only thing that could threaten me while I questioned you. I had to find some way to neutralise it, and I could hardly risk forcing it on you where someone might see us. They might get the idea our relationship is strained, and there's a lot of faith riding on both of us being together."
"And you accused me of seducing you..." I scoffed with dark, bitter irony. Seriously, how the HELL could I have been this stupid? "You're the one I never should have trusted. This was all an elaborate trap from the beginning, wasn't it? You got me right where you wanted."
"Not remotely." Ivy replied, her voice still as smooth and mild as warm caramel, even in the face of my accusations. "If anything, it was a test, not a trap. I didn't want this. I would have been so happy to simply sleep alone today. If you hadn't offered yourself to me, if you had proven to me beyond a doubt you were still letting our relationship evolve naturally rather than using it to further Trent's agenda, I would have gladly put this incident in the church behind us. Instead, you gave me just enough blood to whet my appetites for you and took those risks to get close to me. You have to admit you shouldn't have gone along with a lot of what I did to you this morning."
"Because I wanted to show some trust. Some damn acceptance. I was a damn fool and I wanted to be with you again, so I let you do what you wanted, because I wanted to trust you not to go too far!" I spat bitingly, my voice rising and rising. I knew I was cornered, and all I had left was a sharp tongue to put up a defence. Ivy would make a mockery of me if I went hand-to-hand against her, and attempting to use magic would again harm me more than her. I was trapped like a rat.
"So you say. Maybe that's the truth. I'm terribly sorry we came to this extreme if it is, but I promise you it won't matter anymore after tonight, one way or the other." Ivy replied enigmatically. Slow and confident, she stalked towards, making me flinch away from her even though I had nowhere left to run. "Look at me." She demanded gently once she was kneeling before me, her voice taking on a mysteriously vampy quality hypnotically reverberating soothingly through my abused brain, bypassing it entirely to force my eyes to meet hers. "Breathe. Slow and deep. Breathe. Relax. There won't be any more pain if you just relax."
My heart hurt so much that promise almost made those deep breaths she wanted me to take sound like a good idea, but I had enough self-preservation left not to want to. I knew what she was doing, but I could only hold my breath for so long before I passed out, and I eventually drew a shallow, shuddering breath. The rush of pheromones in my lungs almost instantly weakened my resolve and the air whooshed out much slower and steadier than my panicked state should have allowed. I couldn't hold out any longer, and soon my breathing was synched with hers, slow and deep, just like she wanted, taking in the pheromones she was putting out to sap my will completely, slaving it to hers.
"I was such a fool..." I whispered. A single tear made it down my cheek before her pheromones took root in my brain, altering my thoughts to whatever shape the vampire wanted them to be. An unnatural numbness spread through me, as if I was watching someone else's life unfold and unravel all of a sudden. Ivy righted herself and offered a hand to help me up, my own hand meeting hers without any conscious control on my part. I was a prisoner of my own body, enthralled to the vampire's will, yet I also remained cruelly aware of the control I no longer had. I watched myself walk to the edge of the bed though I desperately didn't want to. I watched my hands throw the covers back and my body slip beneath them, though entering the gates of hell would have frightened me less. I watched Ivy pull them around me and distantly felt her climb next to me, over them.
"Will you let me hold you?" She asked softly.
"Why do you even bother to ask?" I sniffled, trying my hardest to keep from crying. "It's only a courtesy anyway when you can just make me want it."
"Rachel, only your body is outside your control right now. Your mind is your own. I wouldn't take that away from you." The vampire defended herself, her tone not fluctuating one bit. "Please, let me comfort you."
"Get my hair out of my face?" I swallowed and asked, her compulsion not even letting me deal with the annoyance of my red curls irritating my nose myself. The vampire complied immediately, her fingers taking the time to lightly caress my jaw and ear as she pulled the fiery strands away. Giving my lack of protest the value of worded consent, she almost timidly slipped under the covers and encircled my waist with her arm. I didn't tell her to get off me any more than I told her to embrace me, feeling I was at least preserving a fraction of my pride this way. There was one very simple reason why I wanted her there; if I closed my eyes and used my imagination, I could almost pretend the creature at my back really was my Ivy, not just a broken shell of her, and find some semblance of solace in it, if only for a moment.
"What's going to happen tonight?" I asked even though I couldn't look at her, dreading the answer so much but inquiring anyway in hopes the small mental effort required could stave off the darkness encroaching on my mind. Ivy was willing me to sleep, and she was winning, big time.
"Tonight, I'll be officially recognised as the master of Cincinnati. And you'll be by my side, as my prospective Scion when I receive the families' allegiances." Ivy declared almost mournfully. "It's going to be the first night of the rest of our lives, Dear Heart. Tonight, the last scores are settled, the last debts repaid. Tomorrow at this hour, we'll have a blank slate and a whole city to make whatever dreams we want come true."
"You're planning to bind me, aren't you?" I asked, deducing I wouldn't stay her prospective Scion for long in that grand vision of hers.
"I didn't want it to be a punishment, Rachel." Ivy murmured wearily. "I was planning on making it a beautiful gift. I wanted to give you a few years to warm up to the idea before even proposing to you. Proposing, not forcing you. But thanks to Trent, I can't afford to wait or to let you choose. I have to make sure you don't harm anyone under my responsibility. Binding you is the only way to make sure of that now. I won't turn you into a puppet, my love." She added and gave me a comforting squeeze when I started crying quiet, frightened tears. I couldn't help it. A feeling of crushing helplessness was weighing down on my chest, a blind panic rampaging through my mind though my body was only dead weigh I couldn't will to move, to fight, to flee or just... act! Ivy had set loose one of my worst nightmares; she turned me into that dying child again, the one who dreaded going to sleep because she knew that if she closed her eyes, they might never open again. Protectively, Ivy curled her body more tightly around mine in a gesture that could have been sweet if it hadn't been preceded with torture and interrogation. "I still loathe Piscary and what he did to me. I won't force you to exist in a state of constant mental violation like he did. Your binding to me will be nothing at all like that. You've seen Angel, haven't you? She's a strong and wilful companion who speaks her mind, who has a life and a will of her own. I want you to be like her, even freer. You and I will be beautifully intertwined, but I want you to remain your own person. I want you, such as you are, with all your strengths and all your infuriating quirks. It will be loose and gentle, I promise. I just need to make sure beyond a doubt you're not trying to take me down. Do you understand?"
"Ivy, I don't want this! I'm begging you, let me go!" I sobbed, using the last of my rapidly decreasing strength to force the words out. "I won't ever do anything to cross you again, I swear! I'll shut down Vampiric Charms! I'll leave the city behind and never come back, but please, please don't do this to me!" I promised frantically, more than ready to follow it through if it meant I could escape my approaching doom. That Ivy compared her plans for me to what Nathalie had done to her seemingly free-spirited Scion gave me no comfort whatsoever. My free will couldn't merely be a gift from her, a reprieve she granted me from slavery. I would die first.
"Dear Heart, is the thought of living by the side of someone who loves you forever truly that terrifying to you?" Ivy asked, having the gall to sound hurt about my plea, even after she tortured me into submission and temporarily enslaved my will to hers. "I don't want to consume you or degrade you. I want to give you more power and status than you ever had; strength, grace, influence, beauty, safety, all the material comforts you could want, even immortality that you won't have to stain your soul to pay for... This is hardly a living hell I'm offering you. It's... the closest I can do to asking for your hand in marriage, actually. I want to make this happily ever after, for both of us. Please don't be afraid."
"Don't... want it. Not like this." I breathed out barely audibly. I didn't have the strength to protest further. I couldn't keep my eyelids open any longer, but in the few seconds before my consciousness evaporated into oblivion, I made out Ivy's last words, the coddling in her voice clearly gone despite the illusory distance.
"I'm afraid there is no other choice, my love. When the sun comes up tomorrow, you will either be mine... or you will die. I can't let you go any other way. I'm sorry."
You know what? I'm totally blaming it on falling asleep that I didn't tell her I preferred that last choice. I was not balking in the face of death at all. The tsunami of terror that overcame me in that last second of consciousness was just a coincidence. Yeah...
A/N: *blank* *the author ran away again*