Page 84 of The HalloQueen

“Of course, I’d come back for you. I will always come back for you, we were promised forever. We were bonded,” She planted a soft kiss on the bite, her saliva beginning to close the wound.

My peripherals began to fade into a black vignette and the world went out of focus entirely. I felt her weight leave my body, and I heard her say something, but could not decipher it. I tried to will myself to move, to save the little witch who’d only barely forgiven me. I wasn’t ready for it to be done when our story had barely begun. I wasn’t ready to go yet.

I allowed my body to fall toward where I heard Annabel screaming and the animalistic snarls in the distance. The pain in my side worsened and I yanked at the embedded wood, hissing in pain as I removed an eight-inch slice of wood that had been shattered off the counter with an edge sharp enough to puncture my skin.

I examined it blearily as if it were a magic wand floating in front of me, beckoning to me to use it. My brain was slow, too slow, and I tried to decipher what my mind was telling me to do.

“Tommy! Tommy, please!” Bels’ scream pulled the thread between us tight and my head cleared momentarily to find her. She was on the floor, struggling to keep the beast away from her. I looked between the only two women who had owned my heart and the shard of wood in my hand.

“I’m sorry,amour. I’m sorry,” I whispered reverently and flung myself with the last bit of strength I had in me, collapsing atop Monique’s back, feeling the white blonde hair against my face as I had each night for over 200 years and felt a single tear escape my enflamed body as I slammed the wood into her chest. She froze instantly and I rolled off them exhausted and burning into a puddle of blood.

“Monique! No!” Yusuf appeared out of nowhere, howling at the back door, banging against it, unable to enter without invitation, “Monique! You killed her! You killed her!”

I gasped like a fish out of water before two perfect green eyes floated above my face, “Tommy. Oh my god, Tommy. Where is it, where -”

“ANNABEL LET ME IN!” The desperation in Yusuf’s voice must have torn at Annabel’s heart because she responded immediately.

“Yusuf please come in!” She shouted at him while patting my face and neck, looking for each and every injury, “Yusuf, please help me! Help!” Warm, wet drops fell against my skin, and somewhere far away, I felt lips touch against mine. “Yus, you have to help me save him!”

My head fell to the side and I saw them, my two life partners, one still in death and the other holding her, wailing at the shattering of their bond. The sobs and howls filled the home, creating a soundtrack to the heartbreak. Monique’s eyes were lifeless, seeing nothing even as they looked at me. None of this was supposed to happen.

“Bels,” I gasped, “Bels…”

“I’m here! I’m here, Tommy. I’m right here.” Her soft hands cupped my face, “I’m here.”

“You need to leave. You need to go.”

“What? No, no, you’re hurt, let me fix it.”

“Bels, she bit me. I’ve been bit. You need to go, you need to run. Yusuf needs to kill me. I won’t change. I won’t become that monster.”

“Yusuf!” She shouted, “Yus, he’s been bit! What do I do?!”

He didn’t answer her, lost in the grief of rocking his deceased lover.

“I’m not going to let you fucking die, Tommy. I say no, and I’m the fucking boss. You’re not just going to turn into a monster in front of my eyes.”

I gave her a sad smile, swallowing some of the burning in my throat, “It will be fast. Just a poof and I’ll be gone. I love you, Annabel.”

“Shut the fuck up, Thomas! You’re not going to die. You don’t get to poof!”

I reached up with arms heavier than lead, pushing her hair out of her face, “tell me you love me too, amour. Let it be the last thing you tell me. Please don’t let you telling me to shut the fuck up be the last words I hear from your beautiful voice.”

She laughed while she sobbed. “Wait. Wait. No! Thomas! Thomas hold on.”

I felt cold as she climbed away from me, leaving me in a pool of blood, the burning was tapering off. I knew a bite from an undead turned one faster than the slow progression of unbalance as Monique had experienced, but I thought I would have had more time. I thought there could have been more time to say goodbye. My eyes closed slowly and my body turned as still as stone. I could only pray that my beautiful Annabel would be gone when I awoke in the next phase of my life.

35

ANNABEL

My heart broke at the sight of Yusuf sobbing into Monique’s straw-textured hair. I couldn’t imagine the heartbreak of losing someone that you’d thought would live forever. They had had multiple lifetimes of love and it had all ended on my kitchen floor. Such a story deserved a better ending than that, but I didn’t have time to grieve alongside him. I wasn’t ready to let my love story end before it’d even begun.

I scrambled across the kitchen, slipping on the blood coating the brick and my uneven footing only drew attention to the wounds I’d acquired. My back burned where her nails had clawed at me, and I had numerous contusions on my shoulders, hips, and legs. She should have bitten me. I would have made it through a bite, and I swore on any magic I had in me, Thomas would too.

I dug through my purse on the counter, pulled out the book and supplies my mothers had sent home with me, and rushed back to his side, laying his head in my lap, knowing I had to act quickly. If he woke up from the stone-like state without healing, it would be too late. I immediately took the knife which had been blessed and cut the bite wound off his skin as if I were skinning an apple, then I packed about four times more comfrey poultice on it as was needed. I held it with my hands, pressing it into the new wound, begging the toxins to pull back out as they had done for me.

“Please, please, Thomas you can’t go yet. There are bigger players at work here. You kept saying there are bigger players…They need to make their move,” I made an unattractive snort as I tried to reign in my snot and feelings, “Please, love. I forgive you. I won’t fight with you. I will accept your apology and I will make this better. Any dangers we face we can do it together - we can be together. Just come back. Someone has to cook for me and I need you to teach me all the naughty french words you promised.” I laid my head on his chest, pressing harder against the wound, feeling a slime-like substance ooze between my fingers. I prayed to anything that was listening that this plant could save him. It was so much faith to put in a plant.

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