Redemption (Waking Up Dead) (10 page)

CHAPTER 10
LAYNIE

Aden had spoken to me so sweetly that it made all my past feelings for him resurfaced.  I wanted to ask him why he had wanted to do the things that he had done to me and if he had honestly cared for me at all.  But none of that matters now.  What’s done is done and there’s nothing that any of us can to do to change it.  The only thing that we can do is move forward.

The idea of moving forward pleased me.  My life had turned out to be exactly what I had wanted, but it had been taken away from me somehow.  Someone had done something to me that had caused me to be in this place.

I’m not sure where I am, but it feels like I am trapped inside my own body.  That made everything so much more confusing.  Aden is here with me and there is no way that I am dreaming this up because it just feels too real, but it can’t be real. 

Aden is dead.  I had watched my father kill him.  I felt him die.  Even though our bond had been broken, I could still feel a part of him with me.  I’m not sure if it was due to the feelings that I had for him or what, but that was the way it was.

“Laynie?”  I heard him call my name.

Softly, I answered him.  “Yes?”

“How are you feeling?”

I wasn’t really sure how I felt.  It was strange because I knew that I had some type of injury to my head.  The burning sensation made that clear.  But, other than that, I felt fine, maybe a little sleepy.

“I’m okay” I whispered to him.  It seemed that every time that I tried to speak I would become more tired.  The simple action of communicating drained me and I was unsure as to why.  I know that my father had tried to cast his spell on me to turn me back, but for some reason, I think something had gone wrong.

The last thing that I could remember was hearing the voices around me.  They had spoken to me like they were trying to tell my soul something.  I just couldn’t hear it.

Maybe I had gotten the voices confused or something.  Could it have been Aden the whole time?

Deep down I knew that it wasn’t right for him to be here and anything that he could be doing to me wasn’t good.  Being good wasn’t in his nature and I had learned that the hard way.

Peaceful feeling surrounded me, but I longed to be with Max.  He had been here.  I know because I felt him.  His love for me filled the air until that bright light started burning my eyes.  Whatever it was, I hope that I don’t have to see it again.

I miss my father and I can’t imagine what he and my mother must be feeling right now. 

The more I thought about the situation, the clearer it became that I was in trouble.  Aden was here for a reason and whatever it was, involved me in some way.  The reason was very clear to me.  I had turned on Aden, refusing to protect him from my father. 

Aden had been out for my father since before I had been turned.  Knowing that Sal, Aden’s maker, is here with him didn’t make anything any easier.  They were out for blood, revenge and I knew it, but what can I do to help the ones that I love?

I wanted so badly to go to sleep, to drift off in the peaceful existence that I had found here, but Aden wasn’t going to allow that.  Every time that I got close to dreaming he would call my name.  It was beginning to piss me off.  After everything that he had done, he had no damn right to be here with me.  Max should be the one here with me, not him and his malevolent maker. 

The more I thought about Aden, the more furious I became.  The urge to move close enough to him to hurt him in some way, almost won over my intelligence.  I knew that I needed to keep my wits about me, but it was getting harder and harder for me to do.  Everything inside me screamed for me to get away and the panic started to build as I felt the spells that they had been casting on me.

Obviously, what my father had done worked.  If I had still been a vampire, there wouldn’t have been any way that I could feel the surplus of power that was holding me here.  There are no doubts that I had been transformed into the witch that I had been destined to be from the start.

However, I didn’t see that it was going to help me now.  My father had not had the time to teach me the craft before all of this happened.  I was here, helpless, and in need of his guidance.  He would find a way to get me out of this if I could only find a way to reach him somehow.  But how?

Searching desperately for the answer that could save me, Aden was getting closer and my anger was getting out of control.  If he knew that I was on to him my life would be over for real.

“Hey” he said, trying to act as innocent as he could.  It made me want to slap him right in the mouth.  Instead, I swallowed my resentment and tried to be as calm as I could.

“Hi.”  I kept my voice as sweet as I could manage.  Maybe he wouldn’t catch on that I knew something wasn’t right.

“Are you feeling okay?”

No, I feel like I’m trapped inside a cardboard box that someone is going to set on fire in the next few seconds, I thought to myself.  But the answer that I gave him was quite different than that.  “I feel fine.”

“Good.”

He moved closer to me until he was where I could feel every part of his being.  The power that was radiating off of him had a certain immoral feeling to it.  It was raw and daring, just waiting for the moment that he could take over.

That was it.  I knew what he was trying to do now.  He is trying to take my body over, to possess me and use me to do his will, but I refuse to let that happen.

“I won’t do what you are trying to get me to do” I said dryly. 

My life is on the line, yet again, and for me to try to act like this wasn’t happening was only going to cause me more problems.  If I start fighting now, maybe it will be harder for him to take over.

His laughter was something more than evil.  It was like he actually thought that he was going to get away with doing this, but I knew better.  My father would find a way to punish him if he hurt me.  I’m going to do everything in my power to keep him from succeeding.

The only thing that I could think of, other than that, was Max.  I tried to shut my mind off, but that wasn’t going to work.  It would only open the door for Aden to enter.

The sorrow that was building in my heart was beginning to become more than I could stand.  I whispered a silent prayer to myself, a prayer for help, in hopes that somehow the magic within me would allow someone to hear it.  The will inside me to live, broke through every barrier that was being placed on me and my strength matured into something more than it was.  The power rushed in my body, connecting me to something, an unseen force that I found familiar.  Maybe it was my father that I was feeling, but the welcoming feeling wasn’t one that I had ever felt with him.  It was warm and happy, with an insignificant amount of power.

“Laynie?”

I should have known that it was her.  The bond between the two of us had been tried and remained true even with the distance.  It was strange because as soon as I heard Alice call my name, I could feel a warming sensation somewhere on my body.  She had touched me and she didn’t know that something as simple as that was giving me the strength to fight.  If she was here with me that means that my father and Max are too.

“Alice!”
  I called back to her. 
“I need help.  Find Max and tell him that I’m okay.”

“What’s going on?  They aren’t telling me anything.”

“Just tell them that Aden is trying to take over my body.  I’m trying to fight, but I’m not sure how I’m going to keep him from doing it.”

She was silent and I thought that I had lost the connection.  I was getting weaker and Aden and his maker were talking about something in the background.  Listening carefully to the words, I heard them say that it was time and that I was getting stronger by the minute.

“Alice, you have to hurry!”
I forced my words at her, hoping that there was enough of the connection left for her to hear me.

The shock hit me hard and, instantly, Aden’s power was trying to enter my body.  Frightened, I did the only thing that I knew to do…beg.

“You don’t have to do this.  I’ll help you do whatever it is that you want to do” I called to him, pleading for him to listen.

“Oh, I know you will.  I’ll make sure of that.”  His voice was twisted and this was the beginning of the end for me.  It will all be downhill from here on out.

Their words were influential, making me want to do what they were asking, but I fought it as hard as I could.  It took every ounce of determination that I had to try to fend off his attack.  Knowing more about my nature could really come in handy right now.  I could have used a spell against him, but I didn’t know any.

Aden’s words were starting to tear away the edges of my willpower and I was weakening to the point that I knew there would be no coming back from this.

Suddenly, I could feel a new pressure building in the area around us, making Aden’s power feel as if it had been shadowed by something far greater.

“Laynie?” 
When my father said my name I knew that the battle was on.  He began to say words to a spell, calling me to join him in the chant.

Repeating the words that he was saying was easy, but the feeling that it gave me was indescribable.  Power rushed through me and soon, Max had come to me.  For me to feel him here with me was all it took.  The fire inside me burned and my power burst from me in fury.

“Laynie, what are you doing!” Aden screamed.

“I’m doing what I should’ve done a long time ago.”

The air around us quivered with authority and I knew that Aden and his maker were going to be no match for us.  With Max and my father with me nothing could stop us.

My father directed all his power and Sal, leaving him shaken and confused as to what him, but we didn’t stop.  My heart would let me.  If I was ever want to be safe again this had to be over now.

Sal screamed in agony as our power twisted his essence into nothing.  Only a cloud of smoke remained of what was left of him.  He’s gone, finally.

Seeing his maker disappear only fueled Aden in his quest.  He summoned all of his power and directed it two us.  The force of it was terrible and unrelenting, but we didn’t back down.  Smoke clouded the area around us and I couldn’t see anything.  I could still feel my father and Max with me and that’s all that mattered. 

Something happened, something terrible.  I struggled to see if anyone had been hurt, but it was no use, I couldn’t.  I had to rely on my strength and love for my family to get us through this.  Nothing else matters.

I heard Max screamed and I instantly knew that he was hurt.  The need to find him overpowered me, breaking my concentration on the spell.  I searched for him, but came up with nothing.  I tried to remember the words that my father wanted me to say, but somehow I had managed to stray farther than I intended.

I heard someone call my name and it sounded like my father but I wasn’t sure.  I focused on the sound of it, trying to use it to find my way back.  I called for my father and each time he called back to me.  I was getting closer.  The words of the chant were clearer and a fill right back into tune with them.

I could feel the pain that Max was going through, but I couldn’t do anything.  If I tried to leave again we were all going to die.  Aden would make sure of that.

Even though I knew it was wrong for me to be here like this, something inside me didn’t want to leave.  I wanted to stay here, in my own world, free from the tragedies that I had been handed in this life.

Even in death, Aden would let me go.  There was something about that that frightened me to the point that I wanted to shut down.  I wanted to run away from everyone and everything that I knew.  How could I be happy knowing that any second someone was going to come after me?  And if they were after me, that were after my entire family.  It just seemed better for me to stay here, but in order for me to do that, we had to get rid of Aden.  He would just keep coming back if we didn’t. 

I noticed that Max had joined the chant again and I hoped that he had found a way to relieve himself of the pain that he had been feeling.  His voice added to the power that was building around us, but something was different.  The words had changed.

Flashes of light blinded me and the air thundered.  The only thing that I could hear was Max yelling to my father that this was the only way to save me. 

My father’s reluctance scared me.  I could feel every emotion from the people that were here.  They were a part of me.  Our bodies and minds were linked to each other.

Everything went silent.  The cloudiness around me had vanished and I was alone.  Something had happened that had stripped them from me.  I couldn’t hear them anymore and the only hint of emotion was coming from Alice.

I hadn’t realized that Caleb was not here until now.  Everyone else was and I feared that he had been hurt, but we aren’t connected like I am with the others, so I felt reassurance because of that.

Soon, the joy of being here alone pleased my emotions and I could finally relax.  All the power that I had given had exhausted me and I wanted to sleep.

CHAPTER 11 Aden’s Plan

I thought that the plan was go to work out exactly the way we had wanted it to, but my expectations had been wrong.  Now my maker is dead and for good this time.  There is no way that he was going to be able to come back from what they had done to him.

Alzar had killed him, but the question remains, am I really free of him?  Being without him made me fill lost and left me not knowing how to handle the situation that I am in now.  Alzar and Max had found a way to pull me out of Laynie and into the real world.  Here, I’m just a ghost, was left of one of the few vampire witches.  There are many of us and the ones that do now their nature are only a handful. 

I had chosen Caleb and Alice because craft runs in their blood.  Laynie hadn’t known that I was going to choose them that night and thankfully, the draw that she felt to Alice kept my secret intact.  If she had found out then, she wouldn’t have allowed me to go forward with them and I had to have them.  Rarely, have I crossed paths with a witch that didn’t know what they were and I had to seize the moment.

Max was trying to get a hold of me, but my body had never really materialized.  Now he can’t touch me.  He can’t use his physical strength on me and that was good on my part.  At least I wasn’t going to have to feel the pain of that.  Only the magic that runs in him can hurt me and I would be stupid to think that he wasn’t going to use it.

I have to give him credit.  He is a very admirable opponent to have.  And his love for Laynie is only going to cloud his judgment, making it easier for me to find a way back to her and finish what I started.  I have to kill Alzar.

Thinking about my maker and his death made me realize that I am not bound to him any longer.  Should I really go through with this?  I have a chance to move on, but the only thing that is waiting for me is the punishment that had been coming to me.  I had taken many lives and done so many terrible things that I am sure that I was not going to be forgiven for any of it.

None of that matters now.  Either I can stay here and allow myself to be forced into the beyond, or I can go on my own.  Neither way sounded appealing to me at all.

I wanted my life back.  I wanted to be able to change everything that I had done, but there isn’t time for that and I might as well just face the fact that I am here in my last moments.

Alzar took Max by the arm, pulling him away from me.  That was a relief in itself, just being near him made me want to kill him.

Just to add to his distress, I spoke to him.  Something inside me wanted him to know that he could still save Laynie.  I knew that their love had been real from the beginning.  It wasn’t like the love that she had thought she felt for me.  I had made her feel that and once she had begun to question me, that opened the door for her and Max to connect.

I can’t say now that I would change that if I could.  In all honest, Max is a good person, but the things that we had gone through together had changed us.  We had been friends when I was human.  When I turned, I had killed his brother accidentally.  There’s really not much of a story to tell, but the way that he stalked me after that made me hate him.

I knew that bringing him here would set things that I didn’t want into motion, but my maker wanted him.  He wanted Alzar and Max dead so bad that he would have risked everything to accomplish it.

“Do you want to save Laynie?” I asked them.

Max’s fury with me intensified and it was getting harder for Alzar to hold him back.  He began to mumble something.  Alzar screamed at him, “Stop!”

Max was so shocked by Alzar yelling at him, that he stopped everything that he was doing.  I don’t really even think that he took a breath.

“If he has information that we need, we have to listen to him!” Alzar shouted, releasing the hold that he had on Max.

“I suppose you’re right” Max breathed hard. 

I knew that I had done something good in that moment.  The feeling rushed in on me, making me wish that I could have been this way the whole time.  I wanted to love and to be loved in return; I wanted friends and a family, but all of that is lost.

Now I could only try to give Laynie what I so desperately wanted…a second chance at life.  It’s too late for me, but it’s not for her.

“I just want to say that I am really sorry about what I done to your brother.  You must know that I hadn’t meant to kill him.”  I said trying to be as sincere as possible.  What I had said was true.  Taking his brother’s life was not something that I wanted to do.  It just happened.  I was young and consumed with bloodlust.  There wasn’t a thing that I could have done to stop myself from doing what I had done.  And for that, I am truly sorry.

“That’s not important right now.  What’s important is saving Laynie.”  Max dropped his head.  I knew that I had touched a part of him that is still sore because of my actions, but I didn’t linger on the topic.

He’s right.  The only thing that matters is Laynie and I can’t leave this world not knowing that she’s safe.  I owe her that much, at least.

“You’re right.” I choked on the words.  Admitting that he was right made me want to die all over again.

Alzar’s voice rang through the kitchen like thunder.  He had always had a way of showing his authority without trying.  “What can we do?”

“You have to reach her and made her understand that this is not what her life is going to be like.  She thinks that this is the way that it’s always going to be and she’s wrong.” I said truthfully.  I could only pray that they would believe me.

“That has been it the whole time?” Max asked stunned at my declaration.  He had been thinking something far from what he should have been.

“Yes.” I replied to him softly.  I didn’t want to rattle him any further.  That would make it harder for him to keep a clear mind and stay on task. 

I knew that it had taken them an abundant amount of power just to be able to connect with her before.  At least there is something that I could do to help them in that area.  It was me that had worked the spell to keep them out and I knew that I could erase it just as fast.

I began to explain to them that I was willing to whatever it takes to bring her back from the awful thing that I had caused.  The thing is, now that I have had a moment to think about it, she probably wouldn’t have come back even if I was gone.  The mark that I had left on her wasn’t going to easy to break free from.  I wish that I could take it all back.

After I was certain that they understood everything, I went to a standing position and began to cast the spell to break the barrier that I had created.  My words sounded like the wind in my ears and that was telling me that I didn’t have very much time left.

“You have to hurry” I looked at Max, urging him to connect with her.

He looked at Alzar and my guess was that he didn’t trust me enough to go on his own, but there isn’t time for that.  “You have to go now, Max!” I yelled.

My power wasn’t going to be able to completely break the barrier without help and I wasn’t sure that Alzar was up for accepting a request from me.  After everything that I had done I can’t say that I blame him at all.  I would be the same way if I were in his position.

With each second that passed, the struggle to keep my power up cultivated.  If I wasn’t able to break the spell, Laynie and Max would be trapped in there forever.  I have no their choice, I have to ask him for help.

“Please, Alzar.  I need your help.  If my power fades before I complete this, they will both die.  I can’t let that happen.”

He looked at me and I could tell that he was thinking his decision over, but we didn’t have much time left.  The spell had already taken so much out of me that I could sense what was left of me flickering in and out.  I closed my eyes not wanting to see his refusal of my request. 

I forced my power on the barricade, grunting with exhaustion from it.  Not much longer now, I thought to myself.  I had been reduced to a shadow in the kitchen, my power lessening rapidly.

That’s when I felt it.  Alzar had connected his power to me and, instantly, I felt fine.  The struggle that I had been having had been eased by the flow of his power in my spirit.  Strangely enough, I felt his hand grab mine and the amazement that he could touch me almost broke all my concentration.

“I had no other choice.” He said. I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me or to Max.

Quickly, I glanced at Max.  He was lying in the floor as if he were asleep.  His body made a slight jerking movement and I knew that he had been able to reach her.  If we could keep the spell going long enough for him to bring her back, that would be the last good thing that I would undertake.