The Vampire & the Rebel (Completed)

Part 3: Chapter 6

I was lounging in my favourite chair, whiling away the hours of the night, and considering my next move when the time came to return to the council while the light sound of Jamie's deep and even breathing washed over me from the bedroom.

Going to the capital was dangerous now considering I did not know what the situation was, but if I skipped the next quarterly, it would make me look even more suspicious. There was no way that I could take enough human guards with me to even the odds, and with so many vampires around there, I was at a severe disadvantage.

Of course, it was only a concern if they suspected me. Perhaps I should have tried to torture more information out of Magnus or Willow before I killed them. If I hadn't been so hasty, perhaps I could have leveraged their strange codependent affections against each other.

I shrugged. Well, there was no putting blood back in the vein. We would just have to deal with this difficult new situation I had invented. At least it was interesting and outside the norm.

The increase in the tempo of Jamie's breathing caught my attention. He groaned and I got up and wandered back towards my bed, wondering if he was caught in a nightmare.

As I observed his sleeping form, his brows furrowed slightly as he made another sound of fear or frustration low in his throat. I wondered what he was dreaming. Was it past trauma slipping out of his memories to haunt him, or a new spectre of misery pieced together by his subconscious mind?

For me, dreams were only the vaguest memory of a life long lost.

Another sound of distress left him, drowning out the sound of his heartbeats, and I considered waking him from his torment, but would it be worse to be brought out from the fear of the dream only to be confronted by one of the dangers of the waking world? I did not know what was worse, imagination or reality.

He shifted and I decided to do it. I slipped down so I was at his level. "Jamie?"

He groaned.

"Jamie. It's just a dream." I nudged his arm lightly and he woke with a start, eyes wide open in the darkness, his heart thumping loud and fast.

"Jamie, it's just me. You're safe," I lied. He was safe in the moment, but not in general, even taking myself out of the equation.

"Vienne." My name sounded wonderful in his husky timbre. He pushed himself up onto one elbow and looked at me. I doubted he could make much out, but he could obviously at least see my silhouette by the torches in the hall.

"Yes. You seemed to be having a nightmare."

"Yeah. Yeah, I was."

I decided not to push him to talk about it. If I was a part of it, I probably didn't want to know.

"Just memories."

I wanted to comfort him, but I did not know if such a thing were even possible. I was not human any more. I could not share my heat, or the common experience of true mortality with him. I could not dream.

I did not touch him as he leaned back down on the pillow with a groan. He closed his eyes again.

"Sweet dreams, Jamie," I said, and I quickly retreated from the room again and left him to sleep.

* * * * *

Jamie woke early in the morning and he either did not remember or did not want to talk about his dark dreams. He kissed me with what truly seemed to be passion, and then went on his way to find Connor.

I was not looking forward to him leaving for New Haven again. The idea made me ache, like he was taking some vital part of me along with him.

I wanted to see him before he left, but he was outside in the training yard again and I certainly was not going to send someone to fetch him for me like I was mooning after him or something.