After the mishap, Lyssa was able to finish cleaning Bex up and helped put her to sleep in her coffin. She needed answers and needed them fast. She didn’t have the first clue as to what was happening.
One moment she was sad about the loss of Rebecca, the next there Rebecca is, in the flesh. A vampire now. How did this happen? Why did it take so long? Why didn’t she remember anything? What was up with their bond? So many questions that needed answers.
“I need you to leave, I have to focus, you will only distract me,” Lyssa said to Joan.
“But—”
“I can watch over Rebecca from now on, I’ll teach her how to control herself, for now, it’s best you stay away.”
“For how long?” Joan asked.
“However long it takes. You being here only makes it harder for her. Let me handle this. When she is ready, I will let you know.”
“You can’t just take her away from me.” Joan got defensive.
“Joan, she’s right. We don’t have the first clue on how to take care of a reborn, let Lyssa handle this. Rebecca is safer that way. Besides we have to deal with the slayers in town and find out who did this to her.”
Joan sighed in defeat.
“I will need you to watch her for a few days while I go retrieve my things, but for now I should be fine. I can go without rest for a long time. When I need you, I will call. Hopefully, by then Rebecca will be in much more control of herself.”
“Fine, just… don’t take her away okay. I just got her back.” Joan said.
“I’ll do what I have to, if I deem it’s not safe here, we will leave.”
“We’ll handle the slayers, just take care of Rebecca and make sure she doesn’t run off again,” Rooney said.
Lyssa nodded.
Against her will, Joan was dragged out of the house and driven to her truck by Rooney.
Lyssa spent the rest of the night and the next day cleaning, finding books to help Rebecca and herself, and stocking up on blood to last a while.
When Bex awoke the next night, Lyssa was ready for her.
Bex followed Lyssa around, doing simple tasks like getting ready and brushing her teeth. She frowned at Lyssa when she still hadn’t fed her.
“Hungry,” Bex said.
“I know, but you are going to have to learn to control yourself. Here. You only get one for now.” She handed Bex a blood bag.
Bex made a face.
“Deal with it,” Lyssa said.
With a pout of protest, Bex begrudgingly ripped into the blood bag and began to drink. Lyssa gave a satisfied smirk.
“Now, Rebecca you are going to have to brush up on all vampire literature and research. These are the books I’ve laid out for you to start reading.” Lyssa led Bex into the library where a table stacked with books awaited.
“I don’t want to.” Bex pouted.
“Too bad, while you read those, I will read these books over here. Reading will help you focus and keep your jumbled thoughts from overwhelming you.” Lyssa pushed Bex so that Bex sat down in the chair.
Bex huffed but grabbed a book and opened it.
Lyssa walked over to the table across from Bex and sat down to read her books.
Lyssa was only halfway through her first book, about a couple hours in, when she could feel Bex’s amusement.
She glanced up from her book and caught Bex staring at her, when Bex was caught she quickly looked back down to her book as if she hadn’t been doing anything. Lyssa raised an eyebrow but went back to reading.
She could feel Bex’s amusement level rising and looked up again, but once again Bex looked back to her book.
“Okay, what is it?” Lyssa asked.
“Nothing,” Bex said too quickly.
“I can feel your emotions you know,” Lyssa said.
Bex snickered and hid her face deeper into the book.
“Let me see.” Lyssa reached for it.
“No.” Bex moved the book away.
“Let me see.” Lyssa reached again.
Bex got up and laughed as Lyssa knocked over a stack of books in her quest to get the book out of Bex’s hands.
“Let me see.” Lyssa ran over to her.
“No.” Bex ran out of the room with super speed, Lyssa chased after her with her own super speed.
Bex ran all over the house giggling as Lyssa chased her, finally Lyssa had her cornered in the master bedroom. Bex looked for an outing but could see none. Before she could try and escape Lyssa tackled her to the floor.
“No!” Bex laughed and screamed as Lyssa got the book.
On it was a picture of a girl that looked a lot like Lyssa. The caption, slave owner. The chapter was about a female vampire who had slaves do all her work. There was an even smaller picture with slaves reading books with a paragraph on how she treated her slaves kindly and made sure they were well educated.
“It’s you!” Bex laughed and pointed.
Lyssa frowned.
“You’re a slave driver!” Bex laughed.
“That’s not funny.” Lyssa got up off her.
“Yes, it is,” Bex laughed.
Lyssa turned a couple of pages to a new picture and showed it to Bex,
“it’s you,” she said, suppressing her own laughter.
Bex grabbed the book and examined the new picture. It was a picture of educational punishment, a person sitting in the room corner with a dunce cap on their head.
“Hey! Wait, what does that mean?” Bex asked.
Lyssa laughed and ran away.
“Hey! What does it mean!” Bex chased after her.
“Look it up.” Lyssa sat back in her chair in the library room.
Bex huffed but flipped to the back of the book for a definition.
Dunce: A stupid person. Someone who is slow at learning.
“Hey!” Bex said.
Lyssa laughed.
Bex huffed before sitting back in her chair.
Another hour passed before Bex was bored and unable to focus anymore. Her head hurt with the need for blood.
“Hungry.” Bex looked at Lyssa.
“The correct phrasing is I am hungry,” Lyssa said.
“Hungry!” Bex frowned.
“Say it correctly you aren’t a caveman.” Lyssa set her book down.
“I am hungry.” She said.
“See, much better, hello hungry I am Lyssa.”
Bex narrowed her eyes while Lyssa smiled at her and tried not to laugh.
“You may hate this, but I find this quite amusing. Once you remember everything, I will find it even more amusing at seeing your reaction.” Lyssa said.
“What if I don’t remember?” Bex asked.
Lyssa frowned. “You will,” she said to reassure herself more than Bex.
“I am hungry,” Bex repeated.
“too bad, only one a day.”
Bex glared at Lyssa.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
Bex pushed over Lyssa’s book pile before sitting back down and crossing her arms in protest.
“How mature Rebecca.” Lyssa rolled her eyes.
Lyssa could feel Bex’s anger rising, and her deep need to feed. She sighed when she could hear Bex’s thoughts.
‘Stupid vampire, what a slave driver.’
“Keep reading.” Lyssa went back to her own book.
“I am hungry.”
“Too bad.” Lyssa turned the page.
Bex got up and sped off. Lyssa quickly got up and chased after her.
“Rebecca no!” she said once Bex got her hands on the blood baggies.
Bex had already ripped into one before Lyssa pulled her away.
Bex gulped it down fast and struggled in Lyssa’s grasp.
“Let me go!”
“No, bad Rebecca, bad!” Lyssa said.
“I am hungry!”
“You must control yourself!”
“No!” Bex elbowed Lyssa hard in the gut before taking off and fleeing the house.
Lyssa quickly chased after her, able to easily track her through their bond. They wound up at Thorndale park once again where Bex had sunken her fangs into a skater kid.
“Rebecca no!” Lyssa tried to pull her off.
Bex drained him until he fell unconscious.
“Look at what you did!” Lyssa chastised.
Bex eyed her in confusion.
“Look at what you did,” Lyssa picked up his arm and let it fall to the ground with a thump. “You hurt him.”
“No…” Bex shook her head.
“Yes, you did. Look,” Lyssa pointed.
“No.” Bex looked away.
“You cannot continue to behave like this. You will get someone killed, is that what you want?”
“No.” Bex covered her ears and shook her head.
“Look at me Rebecca,” Lyssa demanded.
Bex shook her head and shut her eyes tight.
“Look at me!”
Bex forced herself to meet Lyssa’s eyes.
“This is bad,” She once again grabbed the guys arm and let it fall to the ground. “What you just did was bad.”
“I’m sorry.” Bex whimpered.
Lyssa sighed.
“Come here,” Lyssa outstretched her arms.
Bex shook her head no.
“I’m sorry for yelling, but you must learn to control yourself before you get someone killed. You don’t want to do that do you?”
Bex shook her head no again.
“Then you need to listen to me. I know it is going to be hard and it might hurt a little bit, but if you listen to me you will be able to control yourself and resist the urges when they present themselves.”
“I’m sorry,” Bex said again.
“Come on, let’s go back.” Lyssa grabbed Bex’s hand.
They quickly ran back to the house and back into the library.
“Sit here and read,” Lyssa instructed.
Bex looked down in shame, she could feel Lyssa disappointment in her, her frustration. Lyssa sighed and sat back down grabbing her own book.
Lyssa looked over her book to Bex who was just staring at the pages but not actually reading. She ran her finger up and down the page, a sad look on her face.
“I’m sorry I scared you, my love,” Lyssa said.
“Is this me?” Bex showed Lyssa the picture in the book where a vampire was standing on a pile of bodies, it was a very gory picture.
“No of course not. That’s not you.” Lyssa got up and sat next to her, grabbing Bex’s hands in her own to reassure her.
“It’s not?”
“No, of course not. I just want you to understand that if you don’t control yourself, that will be you. I don’t want that for you. Do you understand?”
Bex nodded.
“This is going to be tough for both of us, but I promise you now, just like I promised you then, I am not going to make you go through this alone. I am going to help you, you just have to trust me and listen to me, okay?”
Bex nodded.
Lyssa kissed Bex on the forehead before once again moving to sit across from her.
Bex looked down at her hand and grabbed the ring, spinning it around her finger. Lyssa looked up at her and noticed. She had almost forgotten she had given Bex that ring the day of her funeral.
“You really don’t remember anything?” Lyssa set her book down.
Bex shrugged.
“Tell me, it’s okay.”
“I… I remember some sounds, some feelings. It’s all jumbled up. I don’t know what goes with what. I remember words… some words… and how to talk. I remember how to do some stuff now, like dress myself and take a bath. I remember pain… horrible pain.” Bex stayed looking down, her face scrunched up in thought.
“You don’t remember me?” Lyssa pushed.
Bex once again shrugged.
“What do you remember about me?”
“You… make me feel… nothing nevermind.” Bex shook her head.
“Tell me.”
Bex shook her head no.
“Why not?”
“I don’t know you.”
“Yes you do, deep down you do.”
Bex shook her head no.
Lyssa sighed in frustration.
Bex stared down at the book, at the picture. Lyssa could feel Bex wanting to say more, hear the confused jumbled thoughts running through her head.
“Rebecca,” Lyssa called.
Bex looked up and met her eyes.
“How long have you been changed?” Lyssa asked.
“What do you mean?”
“What is the first thing you remember, when did you wake up a vampire?” Lyssa asked.
“I was stuck… inside that coffin.”
“How long?”
Bex shrugged.
“How did you get in and out?”
“I change into a mist, want to see!?” Bex said suddenly excited to show Lyssa.
“No, that’s okay.”
“Oh.” Bex frowned.
“Were you scared?” Lyssa asked.
Bex nodded.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you. I just… I thought you were dead, like dead dead. You didn’t move or anything after I gave you my blood. Even as they prepared the funeral you didn’t move. How come you didn’t move?”
Bex shrugged.
“Do you remember that?”
Bex shook her head.
“I mourned you. I really missed you. I almost did something awful to myself. But I held strong because I knew that’s not what you would have wanted.”
“It is?” Bex asked.
Lyssa nodded.
“And I’m glad I did hold out, or else I wouldn’t get to be here with you right now.”
“You like me?” Bex asked.
Lyssa smirked and nodded.
“Why?”
“Because you are Rebecca, my Rebecca.” Lyssa once again got up and sat next to Bex.
“I am?”
“Come here,” Lyssa held out her arms.
Bex shook her head no.
“I want to hold you, my love.” Lyssa pouted.
Bex curled in on herself and moved away from Lyssa. Lyssa frowned and let her arms fall to her side.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know you… and you don’t know me.”
“Of course, I know you.”
“I’m… bad.”
“Bad? Why would you say that?”
“Bad people die.”
“Who said that?”
“Can’t remember.”
“You aren’t bad Rebecca,” Lyssa reached for her.
“I am bad… I am selfish.” Bex pulled away.
Lyssa eyed her in confusion.
“I deserved to die…”
“Who said that?”
Bex shrugged.
“That’s not true Rebecca.”
“I remember it, it is true, I remember.”
Lyssa closed her eyes and focused on Bex’s thoughts trying to decipher what the heck Bex was talking about. She could see it, faintly. McKinley hitting Bex, yelling at her, saying she deserved to die. Bex’s last memories before she died.
‘Do you deserve to die?’ McKinley had asked.
‘Yes…’ Bex had responded.
‘Don’t cry Rebecca, we are all heroes in our own tale. We only find out we are the villains when we lose.’
Lyssa gasped at how horrible it all was, Bex’s last moments of life screaming in pain because she felt like she was on fire. Bex crawling out into the rain and struggling to take her final breath.
Bex cocked her head to the side and eyed Lyssa in confusion.
“Oh Rebecca, I am so sorry I wasn’t there. How horrible.” Lyssa reached for her.
Once again Bex pulled away.
“Rebecca you are not a bad person.”
“What if I am?”
“You are not I know for a fact you are not.”
Bex looked down and away from Lyssa.
“Rebecca look at me,”
“I… I don’t want to be bad. I don’t want to hurt people.”
“I know you don’t, you are not a bad person.”
“I think… I think I was.”
“No, don’t listen to him. you were an amazingly beautiful person.”
Bex shook her head no.
Lyssa sighed in defeat.
“Come on, let’s get you to bed. The sun will be coming up soon.” Lyssa stood up and grabbed Bex’s hands.
They walked down to the basement where Lyssa opened the not so secret, secret room. She led Bex over to her coffin and opened it up for her. Bex looked at Lyssa with a sad expression on her face.
“What is it, my love?” Lyssa asked.
Bex engulfed Lyssa in a hug.
Lyssa quickly hugged her back.
“Thank you for being nice to me. You make me feel… safe.” Bex nuzzled her head into Lyssa’s chest.
“You are safe, I’ll protect you. Always and forever. I promise.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m going to figure this out Rebecca, I promise. Soon you will be back to your old self in no time.”
With that Bex pulled back and forced a soft smile for Lyssa. She still wasn’t sure about Lyssa but for some reason she quickly found herself letting her guard down for the vampire. There was just this aura around Lyssa, a familiar hum that made Bex want to trust her.
And in a big world filled with all these unknowns, she kind of liked that feeling.
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