Where She Belongs

Graveyard Meetings.

It would have been nice just to wake up, go about our day and carry on life as if it wasn't something you would find in the fiction section of a book store. Mums call woke me around two in the afternoon and finding the bed void of Aiden, a slither of panic sunk in before I realised I could hear him in the kitchen. Luckily enough, I did manage to miss Mum's call and as the promise of a hangover lingered at the back of my throat, I headed to the shower. I wasn't alone for long.

"You missed a spot." Aiden whispered as he took the unused wash cloth from my hands. He barely gets a chance to touch me as I turn and hold him tight. 

My anchor. 

"I want this to be over." I finally say as the water flickers between warm and cool.

"Soon. It all ends tonight."

I shiver, and not because the heat has completely left the water now. I believe him. After tonight, everything will be different. It will be finished, though how we get to that point is beyond me. Will I still have my father tomorrow, will we still be alive - will Antonino really leave us alone?

"Why did you see your friend last night?" I ask,  thankful for the towel that he wraps over me and his silence says it all. "You're not going to tell me, are you?"

"It's better you don't know." Aiden sighs. "Just know, no matter what happens tonight you will get through it. There is nothing anyone can do to you that you won't come back from."

I don't like how that sounds. "There is one thing."

He answers me with a kiss which acts like a trigger for the ridiculous amount of tears that start to run down my cheeks. I hold him tighter than before, our bodies merging as one as the bathroom is abandoned and my hair leaves a big wet patch at the top of my bed. As much as I am loving every second, I hate it too. It feels so, desperate, final. If this is our goodbye, I refuse to let it be like this.

"Hey, don't cry." Aiden wipes his thumb across my cheek, a whisper of a kiss following it. 

"Don't do anything stupid." I beg. "You're wrong. If I lose you I can't come back from that. I can't. I won't."

"Sam, I'm not going anywhere." He promises.

"But this, it all feels so, so, I don't know. Like you're planning on goodbye now!"

"I just found you. I'm not giving up that easily." Aiden smiles. "And I'm not ready for a goodbye."

Neither was I.

Much to soon we were making our way through the cemetery. After our second attempt at a shower, Aiden had urged me to feed from him which was something that seemed strange tonight. He said I had to be at my best, and now as we neared the section David's family resided I felt it. Maybe it was more than just blood. Maybe I was taking a part of Aiden with it, as I felt stronger, calmer and confident. His hand was tight around mine and when he told me it was going to be okay as we left the car, I believed him. Brianna's charms were neatly tucked in my pocket, markings she'd been earlier to place around as protection for us were hidden and I could almost feel the electricity in the air that they generated. Maybe the couple of shots of vodka I'd snuck before left home was finally hitting my system too.

What ever I had been feeling vanished the second we saw Antonino. He sat casually on a park bench not too far from the doorway of the mausoleum, reading. Aiden tensed, stepping forward and pulling my arm so I was slightly behind him like a human shield. Unbothered by our arrival, the old vampire simply glanced up, smirked and finished reading before finally setting the book beside him. He didn't get up as we stopped a short distance away and looking around, David was no where to be found.