Irredeemably Me

"You are such a temptation."

Lauren's words resonated through Camila for days following. She let them settle on her and she'd seen the truth in the vampire's eyes. She knew Lauren still loved her, but she also knew there was a darkness in her that she was slowly beginning to lose control of and Lauren would find a way to put an end to her before she could cause further destruction.

Lauren, despite her loyalty and love, would take Camila's life if need be.

Camila looked to the vampire as they sat in the diner. Vero was happily eating her dinner with Lucy's eyes almost perpetually settled on her whilst Lauren's eyes lingered on the world outside of the diner. Camila could practically see Lauren's patience wearing thin and she wondered what kept the vampire with them. She'd healed and had her strength back, she was well equipped to leave them once again and yet...she hadn't.

Part of Camila wanted to hold onto the belief that Lauren stayed for her...for them but she knew it would be naive to hold faith in that.

"Eat." Lauren spoke, not once glancing her way but Camila knew the word was directed at her.

She'd been picking at her food aimlessly. Mainly because she wished with everything in her she could just talk to the woman she loved. She just wanted to have a conversation with Lauren where it didn't feel like the vampire wanted nothing to do with her. She just...she wanted to explain.

As if sensing it, Vero's eyes looked up and met Camila's. It took merely a second and the world around Camila disappeared. Every other patron in the cafe vanished, Lucy and Vero were no longer seated before Lauren and Camila. The world outside was bare of any other living being.

Camila looked to her vampire counterpart and saw the anger boiling in those cold, green eyes.

"End this trickery now, Camila." Lauren spoke softly, as if to rein in her anger.

"I'm not doing this." The angel girl sighed. "I'm not exactly upset about it though. We need to talk."

"We certainly do not."

"I love you." Camila stood from her seat and sat on the other side of the booth so she was facing the vampire. "That's not just going to go away for me and it won't for you either."

"It is irrelevant."

"I didn't choose this, Lauren. You think I want this bond with Vero?" The brunette scoffed. "If I could get rid of it, I would do it in a heartbeat. I want to always choose you."

"Camila!" Lauren unable to hold her tongue any longer, unable to pull the anger back into herself. She from her seat and grabbed at the nearest bar stool, tearing it from the floor and swinging it at the window. She watched as it travelled into the parking lot and felt her anger slowly begin to dissipate. "I understand." She turned to Camila and brunette was finally able to see the toll their separation has taken on the vampire. She could see the dejection in those cold, green eyes and she felt her heartbreak double. She felt Lauren's heartbreak along with her own. "I want to see past the obstacle in our path, Camila, truly I do because I wish for nothing more than to have you in every sense that I had you before. I wish for us. I wish for the simplicity of holding you once more and feeling the certainty that I am yours in the same sense that you are mine."

"We can still have that." And because she couldn't handle their distance anymore, Camila took the steps needed to stand right in front of the vampire, her hands cupping those cold cheeks and seeing Lauren's entire body react to her touch the very same way hers did. "I still only want this life with you."

"You are such a temptation." Lauren's smile was but a shadow of the one Camila knew. "But this life is no longer ours to dwell, my love. We will never simply have each other in this life. You are tethered. You will always remain tethered and your love for me cannot fight the bonds of the piece of your soul you placed within Veronica."

"You are my soulmate." Camila shook her head quickly before lurching forward and placing her lips on the ones she'd been dying to kiss again. "You are. You always will be. I'm yours, Lauren."

"But you are not." The vampire stepped back and closed her eyes as she fought with everything in her not to give into the angel girl. "Not when you can so easily be swayed towards another. I ask this of you kindly, Camila," Lauren's green eyes opened with a plea settled within them. Vulnerability leaking through them in waves. "Do not tempt me like that again. For if you truly love me, you will allow me that mercy."

And Camila could see Lauren in that moment, not the vampire, but the human. The girl she had once been. The one rendered weak and so easily broken. With Camila, Lauren wasn't a being made of stone and fire...no, with Camila...Lauren was breakable. She was fragile.

"Vero," Camila spoke softly. "Bring us back."

And as quickly as they found themselves in their isolated world, Camila and Lauren were brought back to reality. Where they were perched beside one another and it was as if no time had passed. But Camila's eyes met Vero's and she could see her own heartbreak reflected in the witch's familiar brown eyes.

Camila made a point to scoot a bit further away from the vampire. Because she did indeed love Lauren and that meant she couldn't hurt the green-eyed woman more. She'd done enough.

"We can assume that the rest of the sins will find us." Lucy sat back and crossed her arms. "And I for one deem it rather counterproductive idea to allow Camila to use her darkness to destroy all of them, for she succumbs to it more and more with every encounter."

"I can cast a veil onto us for a while, but they're powerful demons," Vero sighed softly. "They'll see through it if they get close enough."

"I need to talk to my father again." Camila shrugged. "I need answers on how to control my darkness...amongst other things. If I can control it then maybe it won't be able to tempt me the way it does and then we don't have to hide. We can take the fight to my mother."

"That would entail you having to destroy her, how willing are you to do that?" Lauren looked to the girl beside her.

"She hurt you," Camila scoffed. "I'd kill her without hesitation." That same dark glint flickered through Camila's eyes for only a moment but it was enough to remind everyone why she couldn't touch that power again any time soon. It was encompassing her heart in hate.

"So to talk to your dad..." Vero frowned to her tethered partner.

"I have to die." Camila looked to Lauren, because she knew how adamant the vampire had always been to keep her with the living.

And she saw it again, the argument playing in Lauren's eyes. The vampire was still as reluctant for Camila to die as she had been since acknowledging her feelings.

"Very well, what shall it be this time?" Lucy sighed, knowing her cousin would not be the one to take Camila's life.

"Let us refrain from bringing death upon my daughter once more," A new voice made his appearance and Camila felt her blood run cold as she looked up to the man decked out in a fitted suit. "You wish for answers, Araquiel, very well, I shall indulge you."

"Gabriel." The brunette stood from her seat because she knew her father's feelings about every dark creature seated at the table and she would be damned if she allowed any harm to come to any of them at the hands of her own father.

"Your darkness grows with every death," The angel looked at the creatures perched in the booth. "Though the company you keep certainly would contribute to your growing darkness as well. And therefore," His hand came to rest on Camila's arm and in the blink of an eye, the pair were perched upon the edge of a cliff. "I believe it beneficial we speak without the presence of evil in our company."