Chapter 8

Later that night, the two of them were wrapped around each other in bed, Aurelia snoring lightly as Lisette watched her sleep. She had planted happy dreams into the human girls' head, anything to help her forget what had happened, even if it was just for tonight. Aurelia was lost in a world where she and Lisette were blissfully happy together, doing all of her favorite things. All was right with the world. For now.

It was getting increasingly harder to maintain the dream, however, as Lisette's mood kept getting darker while she went over the nights events in her head. The vampire she'd killed had been surprisingly fast and he had his sights set on Aurelia the moment he smelled her. She had chased him all around the woods, up and down and into trees before he'd managed to throw her off of him, leaving her hanging from a branch by her belt loop somehow.

It had been fun trying to get out of that. She had barely been able to turn around enough to get the leverage she needed to break the branch, but when she heard Aurelia scream, she managed to break the branch and hit the ground running. It had been a stroke of luck that the branch was perfect to use as a stake and she dragged it with her, breaking off a shorter piece as she went.

When she'd seen him closing in on Aurelia her blood had run cold, a possessive feeling gripped her like nothing she'd ever felt before. Honestly, she was lucky that she hadn't shoved the branch so hard that it went through him and stabbed Aurelia. She'd have never forgiven herself for something like that.

Lisette had chosen Binderton because she'd thought that she would be safe for a while, and hopefully she was still right. It was a pretty safe bet that nobody knew she was the vampire slayer, yet. She was praying that the vampire who had shown up today was just a coincidence.

One way or the other, she would have to tell Aurelia the whole truth and soon. She hated that she was putting her in danger by even being around her, but it was too late to turn back now. Aurelia had stolen her heart the moment they'd laid eyes on one another, leaving Lisette hopelessly and irrevocably in love with her. And if somehow the vampires did figure out that she was the slayer, the killers would go after Aurelia first if they found out about her, just to add insult to injury when they came to destroy Lisette.

She had to find more Originals and other vampires who didn't believe in killing humans for sport, to see if there were any who would stand beside her when the time came. It was a battle she wouldn't be able to continue fighting alone. There were too many vampires turned serial killers, just because they could. If she could find the Sovereign, she was prepared to beg for their forgiveness and to ask them to put an end to this heartless slaughter of human beings. That was about as likely as finding the lost city of Atlantis.

Her other option was to find vampires, especially Originals, who would back her in her quest to put a stop to these psychopath, vampire serial killers. There were plenty of vampires who lived among the humans, but the cursed Originals and their half-breed descendants were hard to separate when they could only come out at night. This limited the time she had to find and get to know them, especially now that it was much more common for humans to be out at night partying, working or whatever else they may be doing. The un-cursed Originals could walk in the sun, but they were so few and far between, that it was even harder to separate them from the humans.

The whole process of trying to separate the good from the bad was going to be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Even when she did find the ones she was looking for, getting them to hear her out was going to require some serious persuasion, so she had to act carefully and meticulously plan everything out ahead of time. She sighed heavily and looked back down at Aurelia; everything had been so simple and vampire-free in her world before they'd met. But Lisette didn't doubt for a moment that they were meant to be, everything had fallen into place so naturally and much too easily for it to be wrong.

She'd never dreamed that she could ever love someone the way she loved the girl next to her no matter how quickly she'd fallen, it was done and they belonged together forever. Or at least until Aurelia died. That was something they had yet to discuss, something that Lisette had wanted to push off until much later, but if there was a chance that more vampires could find them, she was going to have to bring it up soon. A commitment like that was something she hated to push no matter how strongly she felt for Aurelia because it was still so early in their relationship. Commitment to a vampire wasn't something you just threw out there for the fun of it when you needed them to make a choice between eternity and the rest of their natural life. She had a pretty good idea of what Aurelia would probably go for, but the one thing she'd learned is never to expect anything from the sweet, sleeping girl. She always had a way of surprising people with her answers, just as she had when Lisette revealed her true nature, asking if this was what the other girl wanted.

That was what she loved about Aurelia, she was completely unpredictable at the moments when you thought you knew exactly what she was going to say or how she would respond. In an attempt to finally quiet her spinning thoughts, she pulled Aurelia closer to her, closed her eyes and joined her in her head where they were walking hand in hand by the beach, no evil vampires, no fear, just the two of them and the sounds of the waves crashing onto the beach nearby.

When Lisette opened her eyes she realized that she'd finally gotten some sleep, she also realized that Aurelia was gone. In a flash she was out of the bed, not even bothering to put any clothes on, darting around the house, looking for her. She had just given up and had gone back to her room to put on her clothes and go search outside when she noticed the note that had slipped down between the pillows.

Good morning my love. I'm sorry to have left you without saying goodbye directly to you, but my parents wouldn't have taken it well to have found that I hadn't come home at all last night. Last night was incredible, despite all that happened, and it's taking all of the self discipline I have to write this note and make myself leave instead of coming back to bed with you. If you don't show up by the time they've all left, I will come to you.

I love you more than the stars in the sky,

A.

Lisette gave a great sigh of relief and glanced over at the clock, eight fifteen. Aurelia's family would all be gone by now. She hopped into the shower and washed up as fast as she could, ten minutes later she was dressed and on her way out the door, her wet hair cascading down her back while it dried. They ran into each other around the halfway mark between their houses. Aurelia was running and nearly plowed into Lisette, not seeing her right away. She looked as though she'd been crying.

Lisette steadied her before looking her in the face, "What happened?"

Aurelia was white as a sheet as she replied, "That vampire you killed last night had already gotten to other people before it found us," she tried to swallow back a sob so that she could continue, "he slaughtered thirty people gathered for a meeting at the town hall, he didn't bother trying to hide who he was, others saw him." She couldn't stop the tears now and she cried as though her heart was broken as she collapsed in Lisette's arms.

"Well he's gone now, it will all be alright." Lisette said with her teeth clenched. She was absolutely livid, this was completely uncalled for and she had a feeling that the vampire had done it simply because he could, for fun.

"That's not all of it," Aurelia wailed, trying to unsuccessfully calm herself to finish what she needed to say.

"What else?"

"He said there is a bounty on your head and that they would be better off to hand you over immediately otherwise people will continue to die one by one. He told them what you are!" She was crying uncontrollably now, Lisette could see love and anguish mixed in her eyes.

"I'm not even supposed to be out of the house, mama says that vampires aren't supposed to be able to come in without an invitation."

Lisette sighed and smoothed Aurelia's hair, "They're not supposed to be able to go near running water either and you know how true that story proved to be." She tipped Aurelia's chin up to look her in the eyes.

"It's going to be alright, he's gone now and I promise that I'll protect you from anything or anyone who comes after you alright?" Aurelia just nodded.

"But what am I supposed to do about my parents? I'm not supposed to have anything to do with you."

"Well you're a grown woman who can make her own decisions, if you'd prefer to stay with me, you're welcome to do that. Otherwise we can prove your parents and anyone else wrong about their vampire suspicions which are mostly just made up stories anyway. They'll feel silly for being so worried about me and then we can focus on keeping you safe." Aurelia just nodded, still trying to swallow back the sobs that continued to rise in her throat. Lisette put an arm around her and began to steer her back toward her own house.

"I need you to go back home right now though. If you see anyone around who shouldn't be, I want you to hide and call my mobile phone." Lisette almost never used her cell, but had one in the event of an emergency. Fortunately, Aurelia's parents felt that she should have one for the same reasons, although she used it socially rather than for emergencies only. When they reached the front door, Lisette went through first, keeping Aurelia close behind her as she quickly searched the house for anyone who didn't belong. When she had verified that the house was empty, she locked Aurelia in and searched the grounds, also coming up with nothing before going back inside.

"I'm going to go into town and see what I can find out. I know it's going to be scary to be alone for a while, but it won't do you any good to go with me if people are all worked up about me being a vampire. They might try to attack me or even both of us if things get out of hand." Aurelia just nodded blankly.

"I'm pretty sure that he was the only one, but I have to make sure and figure things out from there. I have something I didn't want to bring up this soon, but in light of what's happened, I should probably say something now." Aurelia stared at her expectantly as she cleared her throat and looked slightly uncomfortable about what she was about to say.

"While I'm gone I'd like you to think about whether or not you'd like to um, become like me."

"You mean you want to turn me?"

"Well, only if you want me to. It could be safer for us both in the long run."

"You really love me enough to want to spend eternity with me?" Aurelia gushed, and then mentally reminded herself to rein it in a bit. Lisette might as well have proposed marriage because this was sort of the vampire equivalent.

The panic that Lisette had braced herself for never came. Aurelia's eyes were full of happiness and hope, there was nothing to make Lisette second guess the idea of spending eternity with her.

"Yes," she answered finally as her lips curved into a smile. Aurelia squealed and threw her arms around Lisette just before their lips came together.

"I love you so much," Lisette whispered against Aurelia's lips.

"I love you too," Aurelia sighed as they were swept away in each other for a moment, but all too soon Lisette pulled away.
"I have to go, before they clean up all the evidence," Aurelia's lip poked out into a small pout, but she nodded, looking around nervously and trying to think about what she was going to do.

"Close all of the curtains and blinds, keep your mobile close and just try not to panic alright?" Aurelia nodded at her as she pressed one last kiss to Aurelia's forehead.

"Lock the door behind me, I'll be back as soon as I can," and a moment later, she was gone. Aurelia obediently locked the door and closed all of the blinds and curtains, she settled on watching TV. It was something she could stare at, but didn't have to actually focus on.

Lisette crept as quietly as she could back toward the center of town. Along the way she found the remains of a campsite the vampire appeared to have left behind, which was much closer to the water than she'd expected. After combing it thoroughly, she found nothing suggesting that he'd been traveling with anyone else. After making sure that he hadn't left anything that would confirm his identity or why he was there, Lisette cleared out the camp and rushed back to her house to leave his belongings in her garage while she went back to town. The last thing these people needed was an abandoned campsite that looked like someone else had disappeared.

Once again she set off toward town, coming in from behind the town hall. When she arrived there were police, firemen, and medical personnel all over the place, helping to remove the sheet-covered bodies after a priest had said a prayer over them. There was yellow police tape surrounding the building and hordes of people were standing around,

pushing as close as they could without breaking it. Lisette shook her head feeling slightly sick to her stomach. She knew some of them were there to find out if they'd lost loved ones or not, but most of them were there just to say that they had been. As she came around the side of the building, one of the people spotted her and began to shout.

"There she is! The vampire! She's the cause of all this, let's get her!" All heads turned toward her and she stopped cold. Some of the men began to advance toward her and she took a defensive position, prepared to run if she had to.

"That's enough!" A voice called over the crowd and they all turned the other way to see where it had come from. The crowd began to part as someone pushed their way toward Lisette. Her eyes widened and she was surprised to see that it was the priest. When he approached her, he put an arm around her shoulders and gave the crowd a look of disapproval.

"You should all be ashamed of yourselves condemning this poor, young woman just because some lunatic told you that she was a vampire right before he slaughtered a building full of innocent people. Do we really need to shed more blood? And more importantly, why would you ever believe someone who was disturbed enough to do something like this?" She looked up at him with a thankful expression.

"He put a bounty on her head and threatened to kill us all unless we hand her over!" Someone shouted from a few rows back.

"Then shouldn't we protect one of our neighbors rather than handing them up for the slaughter?" The priest asked gently.

"Not at the cost of having our families slaughtered instead!" Shouted a large man in dirty overalls.

"You stand here and pray over the bodies of those who have been brutally massacred already, can't you see that the only way to stop this is to give him what he wants?" A woman in the front cried desperately. Her face was covered in dirt and you could see the trails where her tears had run down her cheeks.

Then the priest spoke so quietly and quickly that Lisette almost didn't realize he'd said anything, "Is he still alive?"

She turned and looked at him curiously, but shook her head, trying to make it look as though she was opposing the woman who had just spoken.

"If you all are so determined to hand our neighbor over to this monster, then you're not the Christians I believed you to be." There was sadness in his voice and many in the crowd had the decency to look ashamed. Lisette put a hand on his arm and looked up at him, feigning fear and bravery.

"It is better to sacrifice one for the good of many. If handing myself over will save those who still survive, then I will seek him out myself." She offered and much to her surprise as well as the priests, a deafening roar of approval went up from the crowd. They didn't even notice the stern look that he gave them all. Lisette took a step back as they began to advance on her and much to her surprise, yet again, the police officers present came to stand between her and the now bloodthirsty mob.

"Anyone who attempts to deliberately put this woman in harm's way, will be arrested on the spot," an officer yelled. "Aside from it being illegal to have someone killed, it also makes you a horrible person and an even worse excuse for a Christian. The police are going to do all they can to help find this guy and bring him to justice. While we can't prevent this poor woman from offering herself up to save the rest of us, we will do all we can to keep you safe to the best of our ability."

Once again the crowd looked somewhat petulant and without another word, Lisette and the priest were quickly escorted through the crowd and across the street to the church. Once they reached the door, the officer suggested that they lock up behind themselves and stay put until they could finish removing the bodies and the crowd dispersed. Following the officers advice, the priest did indeed lock the front doors before moving around the room in the blink of an eye to lock any remaining doors and windows that needed it. Lisette smiled as he came to stand in front of her again with a sheepish look on his face.

"Father, it seems that you have some explaining of your own to do."