The Fire Within (The Fire of The Soul Series) (35 page)

"My Meg would never haven forgotten her first
love, Simon. Nor would she be holding a knife in that fashion. I know that
you're not Meg, your real name and face I'm not sure, but I don't particularly
care either," I say venomously, indicating towards the knife that
"Meg" is pointing directly at me. Meg would have had put the knife
down before engaging in a conversation with anyone.

"You're right, I'm not Meg. Meg's in that
crystal box that you were admiring before up in her old room. She's been in
that little box since my arrival here," The Skin-walker woman says, she
still looks like Meg but now that she has agreed to the fact that she isn't, I
no longer have any doubts. I reach for the table behind me as the Skin-walker's
words sink in. The box was crystal not ruby, the glass should have been clear,
not red, and it makes me sick to think of Meg being murdered, and butchered,
and then stored away in that box.

"Oh God," I whisper clutching to my heart.
I have no time to grieve Meg not with a murderous, carnal Skin-walker before
me, but I am overcome with sorrow.
My
Meg is
gone
! "You
killed her," I say, my words only repeating the single thought within my
mind.

"Yes, but first I chopped her up into tiny
pieces, whilst she was still alive of course. I had to cut out the tongue first
you see, that way she wouldn't make a sound when she screamed." Meg's face
is twisted into a vicious sneer, her purple eyes burning with the woman's
hatred.

"Oh God," I say again, imagining the
torture that Meg went through at this women's hands. I feel as if I am going to
be sick. I can't allow myself to dwell on what happened to Meg. I have to be
strong for her. I have to conquer what she could not, overcome the demon that
she had to face down and lost to. I had to kill the Skin-walker woman for Meg;
so that her death may not have been in vain.

"You're sick." I say, venom beginning to
fill my words. Meg simply smiles at me, running her thumb and index-finger over
the butcher's knife that she still clutches onto.

"Yes, I suppose you can look at it that way.
Then again my king gives honour and nobility to those who are loyal to him.
Rotting in that cell I would have been of no use to him, as you're friend I
have learned far much more than I would have as you're mother," She
sneers, she is inching closer towards me, that knife poised to strike. The
bitter bite of the venomous serpent.

"Of course your precious little Meg wouldn't
stop crying, even though she couldn't scream. She put up a good fight as well,
but I guess I'm better with my knife than she was with her fists," She
says again, twirling the knife in between her fingers to make her point even
clearer.

"Any last words before you met your
death?" She asks, her knife once again poised to strike. She has me backed
up into a corner and I cannot see Shade anywhere. Had he gotten lost on the
way? Was I truly alone with this woman?

"Shade," I scream begging for him to come
to my rescue but there is no answer, and the woman is coming ever closer. She
stops before me, the edge of her knife digging into my neck, poised to slice
the life out of me.

"Seems you have no one to rescue you. Just like
your precious Meg, you're alone with me, and my knife. How very ironic."
Her smile is vicious, and as a last resort I tap into the dark energy that is
within me. I have used it before to torture, to use as a weapon of pain, but
never have I used it to murder. However, to get out of this situation that is
what I have to do.

Tapping into the dark energy I pull at it until I
know that my hands are deep within it. I look up into her eyes and think only
of death, of her dying before me from the sting of the Death Wish. She drops
the knife and I feel a trickle of blood flow freely from my neck. The woman
before me is backing away clutching at her head before she drops to her knees
in the middle of the room. I feel as if I have lost control, but I cannot stop,
I can feel blood foaming in my mouth, pouring out from the inner corner of my
eyes.

Subconsciously I reach for the knife, and crawl over
to the woman. I turn her over and I can see that she is still alive, whimpering
from the pain that I am causing her. I straddle her waist, the knife in my
hands raised above my head. I can see myself within her eyes, for a moment I
can even see some sort of humanity in her eyes, but as the knife drops and
plunges through her heart whatever I see within them disappears as does the
life in her eyes. The female changes form, from being short beautiful Meg to a
tall woman, with bronze skin and dark locks of hair.

I scatter away from the body, trying to ignore the
knife that now protrudes from her chest. After a while Victor, Kayden and Shade
come into the room. They take in the body first, and they are quite surprised,
that their task has already been done. They notice me next, I cannot understand
their expressions, nor can I make sense of the words that they are saying,
shouldn't they be running, I just
killed
someone? I had lost control for
a moment and someone had died because of it. I can feel my body beginning to
shut down, beginning to not respond to the things around me. All I want to do
is sleep, but I cannot for I know that if I do I will never want to wake.

My thoughts revert inward, away from myself, and
what I just done, and towards the girl that I grew up with, that protected me
and hid me from my father and the world, the girl who had been my strength and
safe-harbor when I was weak and lost, the girl who would have been better off
if I had left her in our old world, the girl who would have been still alive if
I had left her behind. I stay within my mind, but I know that I am being moved,
most likely by Victor. I lose track of the world as I mourn the loss of my best
friend. I mourn for Meg and her untimely death. I mourn for hours, all through
the night and all through the next day, until I am strong enough to get up and
move on with life. However for now I simply mourn as the grief consumes me.

Anna's P.O.V

It's hard to get up and moving again. All I want to
do is lay in bed until the heartache and sorrow is gone. However, I know that I
need to be strong; after all it is what Meg would have expected of me. Three
day's have passed since I learned of Meg's death, and killed the Skin-walker
woman. Three days of mourning have passed. I awake to the morning light shining
through my room, my bed empty once more. I sit up and pull my legs over the
side of the bed, holding my head in my hands. I try to figure out if I am
really up to doing this, if I really am up to facing the world again. I think
of Meg, I think of what she would do if the situation was reversed, what she
would say if she was here right now, and I know that I need to go on. I do it,
for Meg, I get up and go through the morning routine. First I get dressed,
simple clothing for I have not the patience or energy to go over board, so I
put on a corset and a simple dress, I put on a pair of briefs and a pair of
boots. I pull out my hair brush and stand before the mirror, and I run the
brush through my hair as I consider my red eyes, and the blotches on my skin
around my eyes. I try a smile, and as I realize how fake it appears it falters.
I try again, and this time it seems more real, although it's not completely
there. I know that this will have to be good enough, and so I make my way
downstairs, to the dining room in hopes to find breakfast.

I find Victor, Kayden, Shade, Astoria, Augustus and
Baron sitting at the dinning table. Victor, Kayden and Shade are sitting
together and looking like a couple of school boys as they whisper to each other
across the table. Augustus, Astoria and Baron are in their own conversation,
they too are whispering although they look more like old housewives than young
school boys. Victor is the first to notice me. His words falter and he stares
at me in abandon. We haven't seen each other for days, and although he checked
up on me constantly, he never stopped to chat.

"Morning," I say to the three boys and I
take my seat beside Victor. I am sitting across from Kayden, so I try to avoid
his eyes. I don't want him to see me in this state; I do not want any of them
to see me in this state. The vampires pride themselves on strength, on feeling
nothing. Must I too try to accomplish the very thing they pride themselves on?
Must I too abandon my heart in hopes to feel nothing at all? If I felt nothing
it would make this pain so much easier to bare.

I barely eat anything, though I feel as if I have
already had my fill by the third bite. No one says a word to me, and I prefer
it that way. The memory of Meg would have been tainted, and I cannot taint her
memory. I think this too soon as I am caught between thoughts by a hand resting
upon my own. I look up to find that the hand belongs to Astoria.

"Anna, I've been discussing with my husband,
and Lord Baron that your friend Meg deserves a funeral. However not just any
funeral. She died a warrior's death, and we will honour her memory with a
warrior’s funeral. With your blessing of course."

I smile, or at least try to at the woman who has
been like a mother to me. "Astoria I appreciate your offer. Meg deserves
the best; she died protecting me, serving me. You have my blessing to prepare
the funeral for her. I request that you collect her, as I doubt that I will be
able to go into the room myself," I say my voice wavering. I choke on the
words as I think of Meg in the crystal box, and I hold back the tears that long
to be shed at her death.

"Alright sweetheart; her funeral will take
place this afternoon, and we will all be present to say farewell to the warrior
that is Meg." This I think is meant for everyone, and after a few moments
they all nod their heads in consent. My eyes drift for a moment and they stop
upon Kayden, he is the only one who hasn't nodded his head like the others, the
only one who is truly watching me. We just sit there for a moment, watching
each other. There is such a broken look in Kayden's eyes, as if he can feel my
sorrow and loss. He looks like he wants to say something, but he doesn't utter
a word to me.

After breakfast I make my way down past the stables,
and to the arena. I pull out the sand filled potato sacks that I have seen
Kayden and Shade practicing on, many times before when they are alone in the
arena. Thus I know where the dummies are stored, and where I must go to pull
them out. I take down my sword from the wall of weaponry. I caress the swords
glittering handle, and slowly I approach the dummy. There is a red cross in the
middle of the dummy, and I can see that there are multiple stitches on it,
where the maids of the castle have sewed it back up. Stitches that show where
the blade once cut through the thick skin of the dummy. I don't take these
details any further into my mind. All my attention is focused on the sword
within my hand, the sword that I swing through the air at the dummy before me.
There is the tinkling sound of sand pouring down onto the hay-covered cement.
Again I continue to cut up the dummy, slicing at the crumpling figure until it
is just an empty sack on a stick.

I fall to my knees on the ground, my cheeks becoming
wet with tears again. I'm not crying over the dummy that I just slaughtered.
No, I know that that is not real. My tears are once again for Meg, for all the
things that she never had but deserved, for that she could have been, but will
never be.

I don't notice that I'm no longer alone until there
is someone else beside me, the strong muscular hands on my shoulders.
"Anna," The man breathes and I instantly know who it is. I turn my
head into their shoulder and weep. Victor had come to check up on me. He simply
holds me until my tears are gone.

"I came to check up on you in your room, and
you weren't there. I was quite worried about you, and then Kayden told me that
usually when you are upset or mad you'd come here to let out your anger. I'm
glad he's paid quite close attention, it came in handy," Victor says. I
stiffen within his arms, hearing in his words Kayden's affections for me. I
don't think that Victor even realizes what he is saying.

"Yes, I usually do come here. It is easier to
let out my anger on something that is not real, than to risk hurting someone.
And it is good that he pays attention, you wouldn't be here now if he did
not," I say smiling at my fiancé, ignoring the small voice at the back of
my mind that whispers another name.

"Anna, I know it's hard to lose someone who is
so close to you, and I am deeply sorry that you lost Meg in the worst way
possible. However, I think once we have given Meg a proper goodbye, you will be
on the road to recovery," Victor says and he stands up, pulling me up to
my feet with him. "Astoria asked for me to come and collect you, she has
everything organised. Now she is only waiting for you." Victor says as he
gently rubs his thumb over my hand. I watch his face carefully, trying to see
if he remembers what this feels like, to lose someone close to him.

"Did it ever stop hurting for you? Did you ever
recover from losing your mum and dad?" I ask, my eyes focused though sore
and raw from the fresh tears.

"I never fully recovered. It still hurts from
time to time, but eventually you learn how to look past the pain, eventually
you find something worth living for," Victor says and I feel as if he
means me, that - for him - I was worth living for.

Not much else is said between us, we both dwell in
our thoughts hand in hand as Victor leads me away from the arena. It isn't
until I bump into a large rock that I realize our scenery has change quite
vastly. There are bare, leafless trees, and there is fog swirling around our
feet. The sky has darkened, the clouds are black and it is obvious that there
is a storm approaching. I try to sweep the fog away from the rock so that I can
inspect it closer. My hands graze on the top of the stone, and I realize from
the thinness of the top of the stone, that it isn't a rock or a boulder. For a
moment the fog moves long enough for me to see a name; Columbus Menédez.