Redemption (Waking Up Dead) (13 page)

Alice ran to me and I was as excited about seeing her as she was about seeing me.  I had forgotten how she had this natural way of making me feel better.  Most of the time it was her being around that made things so much better.  It’s just like she is my sister.

She was on me before I even have the chance to think about what was happening.  As soon as her arms were around my neck I knew what she was. 

Alice was no longer a vampire.  Her blood flowed through her body once again and the smell of it was overpowering. The sweet stench filled my head, making every thought fuzzy and it was becoming extremely hard for me to focus on anything other than her heartbeat and the swishing sound of the blood in her veins.  My fangs had already begun to extend and my mouth watered at the thought of tasting her blood.

“Laynie!” 

Max’s voice thundered in my head.  He had somehow found the strength to call out to me.

Hearing his voice snapped me from my thirst induced confusion and I was able to refocus my attention to him and my father.

“You have to make the choice now!  Do it before you are too late!” My father screamed at me.

The choice?  What was I supposed to choose between?  Was the choice to between good and evil or between life and death?   To choose good over evil is easy, but to choose life over death isn’t.  I had to choose life… her life.  It had nothing to do with me at all and now that I had realized that, my decision was an easy one to make.

Alice was more important to me than anything else.  I carried the guilt of taking her life every day.  Now that she is human again, I no longer have to struggle with the sorrow that I felt each time that I looked at her.

My arms were quick to release her and I took an abrupt step back trying to put as much distance between us as possible.  The smell of her blood was still invading my body, tempting me to drink.  Her pulse was screaming at me like a siren singing from the ocean waters.  The urge to hunt was almost overpowering, but somehow my love for her alleviated the stress it was causing.  To cause even the slightest bit of harm to her would be devastating.

Every muscle in my body was rigid with intent.  I held my breath and tried my best to stay as calm as possible.  Alice was looking straight at me.  Her eyes were wide open, but I couldn’t find a trace of fear in them.  Her heartbeat was as normal as it would be if she were sleeping and that made me feel even more ashamed of what I had done.  Why wasn’t she scared of me?  The answer to the question was obvious.  I just hadn’t been thinking clearly at all.

Alice trusted me with her life.  That had always been the way it was between us.  She had trusted me from the first time we had met, during her life as a vampire, and even now that she is human again.  Attacking her didn’t change her mind at all.  If only I could be like her.

My father’s voice filled the room, but it wasn’t stern like it normally had been.  It was soft and flowed smoothly through the air.  “You made the right decision Laynie.”

Somehow his words weren’t soothing to me as I had expected they would be.  His tone seemed to be that of a father that had disciplined his child, but for something that really wasn’t that bad.  Still, there was love in his voice.

A great amount of pressure was lifted taken from me in that moment.  I had fought my instincts, my nature.  I had saved a life that I didn’t have to save, but my love for her ruled over all else. 

“Laynie, I can give you one last choice.”  My father spoke as he looked deep in my eyes.  “I am giving you a choice, a choice between what you are now, human, and the opportunity to become a witch.  What is your choice?” 

I didn’t really believe that I was hearing his words clearly.  Could he actually be giving me the chance to not be the monster that I am now?  Can he even do such a thing?

For me, the choice is easy.  I would give everything up just to be with him.  Living without him is not an option.  I would kill for him.  That may be the monster in me that has always been inside waiting to come out. 

I took a deep breath and gave my father my answer.  “I choose to be what my heart’s desire is…a witch.

I could see the look of approval on my father’s face, but he wasn’t surprised at my decision, by no means.  Inside, I had always known that I wasn’t like everyone else.  Something about me had always been a little different…a little bit, off.  When I was a small child I had overheard a phone conversation my mother had been having.  I could remember each word that she said.  Come to think of it I could remember seeing her face.  Every single expression was there for me to see as I hid in the next room.  I had managed to stay out of sight, but I felt like everyone could see me. 

She was telling the person on the other end things that she shouldn’t have told anyone.  That was the way that I thought about it.  She told them all about the strange things that I would say to her.  She was saying something about the way that I just knew things when I had blown my cover.  Thankfully, I had escaped to my room before she actually had the chance to see me.  From that moment on I did everything I could to hide the odd things that happened to me.  I never spoke of them to her again after that and I had gotten so good at hiding them that I think I even had myself believing that it was all in my imagination. 

The years passed and everything was fine. 

Until now…..

My father and Max started chanting and the power that I had begun to feel enveloped my entire body.  It was almost like being wrapped in a warm blanket, but an invisible one. The feeling that I was finally safe made me realize that my life might accidently be better from here on out.

Before all I seemed to be was an empty shell. My life had no real direction and I was lacking a purpose.  Right now I’m not sure what my purpose is, but I know that I have one.  Finding out what it is will be the start of my new journey. After all the chaos that I have been through, I will finally find some sort of redemption, I hope.

The tone of Max’s voice changed and I was alerted instantly to it. I could hear the victory in his voice and I knew that the end of my transformation was getting extremely close.  The dark nature of being a Vampire was slowly leaving my body and I could feel the goodness of life returning.  The burning question of how my life was going to be shook my very core. Somehow I have been given a second chance at life.  I have another chance to try to do the right thing instead of lingering around the darkness.  Now that I am human again, there are more evils that I will have to try to avoid. 

Will the world still look the same when I open my eyes?  The eyes of a vampire made everything so clear.  I know that my human eyes will miss things.  Have I made the right decision?

The light burned as I slowly opened my eyes.  To my amazement, the world around me was as beautiful as it had been even seeing it without my vampire eyes.  How could this be?

I could see the relief in my father and Max’s eyes.  The strain of saving me had been lifted from them and the peaceful aura that surrounded them was something that my vampire eyes would have never been able to see.

My father exhaled loudly as he smiled.  His smile was striking. Beauty wasn’t something that I could have thought about when I imagined anything about my father, but that was exactly what I seen…beauty.

“Are you ready to start your new life? Our life? I have been waiting for you for so long.” Max said as he took me in his arms.

I looked into his eyes and for the first time in my life I felt a certain ease about life.  I had no idea what I was about to face.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

April Margeson lives in Tennessee and is the Amazon Bestselling author of the Young Adult Paranormal Fiction series, Ultimate Power which includes, “The Beginning” and “The War.”.  The first installment of the #1 bestselling Waking Up Dead series, Chaos. The second book in the series is due out in mid to late 2014. She has also published a short story, “Demon’s Death.”   Her poetry collections Random Scribbles Vol.1 and Vol. 2 are also available.

Connect with April on her Wordpress blog, Facebook, and Twitter.