Forgiveness and Punishment

50

Melissa is less than pleased at how unresponsive Karen is now. All she'll do is stare at the wall no matter what they do. She is force fed food and is taken to the bathroom by which ever vampire Melissa can call in to help her.

She eats when the food is brought to her lips, but doesn't even pay any attention to what is fed to her or who is doing the feeding. She doesn't want to soil herself so she goes to the bathroom when she is taken. She never focuses on who takes her or even when.

She sleeps when she's tired and wakes when she is forced to or when she no longer can stay asleep. When she is awake she focuses on the nearest wall and only that.

She is right, they can't make her want to live and that's what frustrates Melissa most of all.

"Melissa, you can't keep this up. Karen doesn't want to live. She will never survive the change at this point. Let her find peace. You know the others in the seethe despise her for what she did to you and Travis. She will always be an outcast here. She already feels like an outcast in the human world. Let her find her peace in death now." Timothy tells her as he pulls her close to him as they look at Karen's still form on the bed.

"She feels like I felt growing up. At least I had my father and grandmother once Tad turned against me. She's never had any one. She was left abandoned at a fire station as a toddler. Her name and birth certificate was the only thing with her. There were no names on the birth certificate for the parents names. She was abused and used by those in the foster system. She had one home that was good to her, but the parents were killed on their way back from a trip and that sent her and their own biological kids into the system. The kids thought it was her fault that their parents were killed, that she was bad luck. They hated her and tormented her any time they were around her and adults weren't looking.

"She ran away at sixteen and never looked back.

"She killed her first man not even a month later and although she didn't get a thrill from it, she didn't have a problem with it either. That's what made her want to become an assassin."

"Perhaps it would be for the best to let her die then, Melissa. Sounds like she would be a natural born killer as a vampire. She would be difficult to control and could easily start another purge."

"I'm not ready to give up on her just yet."

Timothy kisses her temple, "Very well. You know what you are doing, but if she turns and loses control it will be up to you to kill her before she goes on a killing spree that could destroy us all."

"I know." Melissa sighs out. How can she reach her bonded?

She thinks back to when she was human. She climbs onto the bed and pulls Karen to her and just holds her like a mother does a child. Like she had with Tad when he as a toddler.

Karen is unresponsive either way, but she relaxes just slightly in Melissa's arms and that's all the encouragement Melissa needs to continue what she is doing.

Several hours later Travis comes looking for her, "Love, the children are looking for you. They want you to read them stories or something along those lines."

"Very well, I'll be right there. Will you find Tad for me and send him in to stay with Karen like I was?"

"Melissa, what are you doing with her?" Travis says instead of answering her question.

"Trying to save her. Now will you do it or will I need to find someone else to do it for me?" Melissa doesn't like using her mental ability to summon her children, it's too much like a command when she does it that way. She doesn't want to command any of them to do this.

"I'll do it, I think Tad is doing something for Timothy right now."

Melissa looks at Travis and raises her eyebrow. "I don't think so, Travis. I still feel the hate you have for her. It will do the opposite of what I wish for you to hold her."

"I can do it, Melissa. I'll just pretend that it's you that I'm holding." Travis is sure that he can do that much.

Melissa snorts. "Yeah, right. Fine, you are welcome to try, but if she even flinches you are to get away from her immediately. She's actually sleeping right now, a real sleep, a healing sleep, I don't want all progress to be lost."

"I understand, Melissa." Travis kisses her before she leaves then makes his way to her spot and pulls Karen close to him. He sighs, Melissa is right. Karen is nothing like Melissa and more like his late wife. So he closes his eyes and thinks about the time when he was married to his late wife and they'd been happy. At least he'd thought they'd been happy. 

His wife had started cheating on him once he took his first night shift as a police officer, that was less than six months after marriage.

When he confronted her about it she said that she didn't like being alone at night in the house. It was too big and empty.

Travis snorts at the memory. It had been a dinky little one bedroom apartment just this side of respectable, but it was all they could afford at the time. He should have seen the signs but he was so caught up in his work that he didn't notice. When he was home she was just as close to him as ever, so there was no reason for him to suspect anything.

He never told Melissa, but he was actually separated from his wife when she found out that she had cancer. He allowed her to move in with him while she went through the treatments since she didn't have any one else. He was already over her emotionally though and just wished that he knew how to contact Pimpernel. 

Once his wife died it left him free to find someone new, but all he could think about was Pimpernel Lancaster and how he should have taken a chance with her that night years earlier. He never dreamed that he would get another chance to be with her. Even if he does have to share her with three other men.

It was so worth it though. He's never felt so comfortable in his life, in all aspects of it. He feels as if he is finally where he was always meant to be.

That takes him aback. Even right now he feels that way, holding the person responsible for killing his first baby.

He looks down at her and is shocked to find her looking at him.

"I knew it was too good to be true." That's all Karen tells him before turning back to the wall and ignoring the man holding her.

"Karen, what do you mean?"

Karen doesn't respond for a long time. He didn't think that she would and he resigns himself to never knowing what she meant. He wishes that he had been given the ability to read thoughts like Tad had been.

"I thought the mistress was holding me. Instead it's the one person that hates me the most. How can you tolerate being near me like that?" Karen asks the question but doesn't really expect an answer.

"She was holding you until the children called her to them. If I make you uncomfortable I am instructed to leave and find someone else to be with you."

With that Karen lets out a scoff. "There isn't any one in this seethe that would want to hold me like this. Not even the mistress, but especially not you or The Master. Why don't you just leave and make it easier on yourself?"

Her words do two things to Travis make him angry and make him sick at how accurate the words are. That just adds to the anger.

"As you wish. But Melissa doesn't want you left alone." Travis says getting up. Melissa doesn't want him upsetting her in any way so he will leave now.

He looks back and sees Karen wiping a tear away from her face. With that he turns back to the door and leaves silently.

He finds Tad and sends him in with Melissa's instructions. Tad nods. He doesn't hate Karen like the others. He's felt her pain and knows that she's suffered a great deal just like Melissa had before her turning.