It was only a couple hours later that Bex fell back asleep. Joan stared at her in longing before a shadow blocked out the light from the balcony door windows. She turned and a red-eyed Lyssa was standing over her.
Joan sighed and got up.
"Okay, okay, I'm going." She grumbled.
Lyssa caught her by the shoulder, her injured shoulder and squeezed hard.
"Ow, hey!" Joan complained.
"She doesn't love you," Lyssa said.
"Who you trying to convince?" Joan ripped her arm free and walked to the door
Lyssa clenched her fist and followed Joan out into the hall. Joan tried her best to seem normal but her heart raced in fear, and she couldn't help but feel powerless. All her supplies were outside and if Lyssa attacked her now she would have all the advantages. Power, home court, skill, experience. Joan knew she was outclassed in this fight.
Maybe she had always known she could never defeat Lyssa even if she really tried. The truth was Joan was always afraid of vampires, like a child is afraid of the dark. She could tolerate them, even pretend it didn't bother her, but the truth was her heart rate always increased even just a little when Lyssa got a little too close for comfort.
Even though she was afraid of Lyssa, she would never let her or anyone know it. After all, there was only one way to get over your fears and that was to face them. It was the whole reason she became a vampire slayer in the first place. So she could face her deepest, darkest, fear.
"You need to break up with her," Lyssa ordered.
"No. I am not going to leave her, not like you did." Joan turned to face Lyssa.
"She's mine," Lyssa growled.
"She is her own person and if you ever hurt her again I'll kill you. The only reason I am not killing you now is that you two are still bonded, but that will change soon. I'm working on a way to separate you two, permanently." Joan got in Lyssa's face.
Lyssa grabbed Joan by her arms and slammed her against the wall. Her eyes were glowing red, her fangs bared. She looked like the vampire from Joan's nightmares. Joan shut up real quick and just stared at Lyssa, doing her best to show no fear.
Then to Joan's shock, a tear slid down Lyssa's cheek. Joan's eyes got wide as she watched it fall slowly down until it dripped off her chin.
Lyssa let out a sob and squeezed Joan's arms before letting her go.
"What's your problem?" Joan snapped at her.
Lyssa grabbed her head and whimpered as she struggled to get herself under control.
"Just get out of here, go!" Lyssa shouted.
Joan backed away as she watched Lyssa's figure blur in and out of focus.
"No! Stop it." Lyssa cried out to no one.
"We have to kill her!" Joan heard Lyssa say but didn't see Lyssa's lips move.
"No! we can't!" Lyssa fell to her knees.
Joan backed up even more until her heels touched the first step at the top of the stairs. She flinched when Bex's room door swung open and Bex quickly ran over to Lyssa, falling to her knees and wrapping her arms around the vampire.
"Shh, it's okay. I'm here. Don't." Bex pleaded.
Lyssa cried out in pain and held her head.
"Lyssa, look at me, look into my eyes," Bex ordered.
Lyssa did and Joan saw one eye was red while the other was green.
"I know you," Bex said to Lyssa, grabbing her face.
"It hurts!" Lyssa cried out.
"I know, trust me I know." Bex croaked out.
"I can't do this Rebecca, I can't."
"Yes, you can. You are so strong and I know you wouldn't do anything to hurt me."
"You take advantage of my kindness!" Lyssa snapped, both eyes turning red.
Joan flinched back and nearly fell down the stairs but caught herself. Bex was unfazed.
Bex grabbed Lyssa and put their foreheads together, closing her eyes. Joan could tell they were having a silent conversation by how their facial expressions changed. Finally, Lyssa's figure came into focus again and both eyes turned back to green.
"What was that!?" Joan walked over to them.
"You okay?" Bex pulled back from Lyssa.
"I don't know. She is in me but I don't think we are combined fully." Lyssa wiped her tears.
"There has to be a way." Bex said.
"Can someone tell me what just happened?" Joan said.
Lyssa stood up and helped Bex to her feet.
"Thank you, my love," Lyssa smiled at her.
"We are a team remember? You hurt, I hurt."
"Hello!" Joan pulled them apart.
Lyssa hissed and turned to her.
"Stop it, Joan, Lyssa isn't fully um, uncursed I guess. She almost split in two again, and trust me you don't want that to happen."
"I knew it, you aren't safe here." Joan turned to Bex.
"The only one not safe here is you!" Lyssa snapped at her.
"Lyssa stop!" Bex grabbed her by the arm.
Lyssa lashed out at her, smacking Bex in the chest and sending her flying back into the wall. Bex smacked against the wall and slid down to the floor.
"Rebecca!" Joan and Lyssa said at the same time before running to her.
"Get away from her you monster!" Joan shielded Bex from Lyssa.
Lyssa recoiled back and cradled her arm close to her chest.
"I... I didn't mean to..." Lyssa said.
Bex was completely unconscious.
"Yeah, I know, look what you did to her when you did mean to. Just stay away from her." Joan helped Bex up off the floor and slung her arm over her good shoulder, carrying her back to the room.
"I'm sorry..." Lyssa said once Joan had Bex back in bed.
"Let me make this clear right here and right now, I don't give a damn about how you feel. All I care about is her."
"I didn't want to hurt her."
"But you did! Look what you've done. She can hardly breathe because of you. You almost killed her! Again! What is it going to take for you to realize she is better off without you!" Joan snapped at her.
"No! I love her."
"You'll love her to her grave." Joan narrowed her eyes.
"NO!" Lyssa clutched her head.
Joan fell back on her butt when Lyssa split in two. The red-eyed Lyssa grabbed Joan and went for the kill, going to snap her neck with one hand. Joan was too slow to react. She yelped when she felt Lyssa grab her and felt her feet get lifted into the air.
"No! Leave her alone!" The other Lyssa tackled herself before mean Lyssa could kill Joan.
Joan landed on the floor with a thud and watched as the two merged back together.
For a moment Joan and Lyssa just sat there calming down.
"You have to help me," Lyssa said to Joan.
"Me?"
"We have to fix me before I seriously hurt someone. Or worse, kill Rebecca. Please." Lyssa begged with teary eyes.
"What can I do?" Joan said confused.
"You and your friends know a warlock, take me to him. We can take Rebecca back home, she is safer there."
"Why do you want my help?"
"You are the only one who cares about Rebecca's safety like I do, sort of. You care about her about 80% of what I do."
Joan rolled her eyes and stood up then walked over to Lyssa and offered her hand. Lyssa took it and stood up as well.
"Just so you know I am only helping you because I don't want you to kill her on accident."
"Thank you," Lyssa said sincerely.
Joan nodded and they both turned to Bex.
They carried Bex to the car and then dropped her off at home. No one was there so Lyssa carefully placed Bex in her bed before kissing her on the forehead and walking out back to the truck.
Then Joan drove to school.
They got there just as lunch started.
"Darci!" Joan came up behind the chubby blond girl.
Darci squeaked in fear before turning to Joan.
"Joan! You scared me, where have you been?" Darci said.
"Yeah, we missed you at breakfast, where's Bex?" Mike added.
"Long story, we need your help," Joan said.
"We?" Jaden looked around.
Lyssa appeared in front of them in a flash, surprisingly no one noticed.
"Whoa!" Jaden jumped back.
"I did a sweep, he's here," Lyssa said.
"What is going on?" Darci asked.
"We need your help. Well, Lyssa needs your help. Long story short she was cursed, almost killed Bex and was somehow able to defeat herself. Now she is stuck fighting herself and needs to be put back together for good before she kills Bex for real." Joan said.
The three friends blinked at her like she had just said a bomb was going to be dropped on the school in less than five minutes.
"Could you repeat that last part?" Mike asked.
"We don't have time for this. I need you to talk to your ex, Aron. I need his help." Lyssa said.
"Okay, just a few follow-ups," Darci said, "First, is Bex okay? Second, why don't you just ask Aron yourself, and third, what the heck is going on!?"
"Darci focus," Joan grabbed her by the shoulders. "If Lyssa and I just march up to Aron it's going to look super suspicious. He knows you, he won't get freaked out by you. Also, Bex's health is sort of in a grey area right now, ask again later."
"What!?"
"Go!" Joan pushed Darci towards Aron's table.
Darci stumbled forward before glaring at Joan and walking on her own towards Aron.
"What happened to Bex?" Jaden asked.
Lyssa let her head droop in shame, while Joan glared at her.
"I'll tell you guys later we just have to do this before a teacher notices we aren't supposed to be here."
They watched as Darci tapped Aron on the shoulder drawing his attention away from his friends. Aron looked confused and Darci said a few words to him and he looked back to his friends before excusing himself and walking away with her.
"What's going on?" He asked when Darci led him back to the group.
"I need your help," Lyssa said.
"Darci I already told you, I don't want anything to do with this. Keep your vampire drama far away from me." He began to back away.
"Hey!" Joan grabbed him by the collar of the shirt, "You owe us one. You nearly got us killed, you chicken, when you ran away back there. This is the least you can do."
"I also helped save your friend's life, so call it even." He pulled free.
"Her life is in danger again!" Joan called after him, causing him to pause in his steps.
"I don't see how that's my problem." He turned to face them.
"I've been cursed by a witch and because of that curse, I nearly killed her. Please, you have to help me."
"Also you're the only warlock we know so we are just going to keep bothering you until you say yes," Joan added.
He groaned in annoyance before walking back over to them.
"Fine but we can't do it here,"
"Do what here?" Jaden asked.
"I have to perform a ritual to see what kind of curse it is."
"I have my brother's truck, we can skip," Joan said.
"Are you kidding I have perfect attendance!" he said.
Joan raised an eyebrow and looked to Lyssa, Lyssa smirked and looked at Aron, her eyes flashing red.
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