Page 100 of Love Lives
"What's happening?"
Aldrich didn't have a response to that, so he simply watched. Gradually, the light faded away again. Some of the vampires around them fell to the ground, motionless, others stared at their hands or sank to their knees and clutched their heads, the way Leandra did.
"What's wrong with them?" Remy asked.
"They remember," Aldrich said. It was nothing more than a guess, but his gut told him that it was true. "The spirit... he's not killing them. He's fusing their souls back together." Talon had told him once what he'd learned from Puck. That a vampire's soul was split in two. The mortal half that shied away from the atrocity he had become, and the vampire half, which was attuned to his sire. It was the mortal half that held all their past life's memories.
"Is that... does it hurt?"
"Not physically." Another guess, but Aldrich hadn't hurt when his split soul had become one again upon his death. "But I think it'll destroy some of them." His gaze found the vampires who had collapsed to the ground. He couldn't be sure how exactly it was determined who would survive this procedure and who wouldn't, but the spirit had said something about love, hadn't he?
That was so cheesy Aldrich didn'twantto believe in it, but he could see the point. If he didn't have Remy's acceptance, the burdens of his own past might just make him want to put a stake through his own heart too. But that would mean leaving Remy, and that was unacceptable. "You would never believe it," he found himself saying. "But your so-called God of Death is a total softie. All he ever wanted was to be loved." He realized the truth of his words as they left his mouth.
"What?" Remy asked, but Aldrich only shook his head in response. He didn't feel like explaining it. How the God of Death had run away because humanity had started to fear him, the thing they themselves had created... and how that fear had in turn morphed what the spirit had created.
Maybe it was a good thing the spirit had put himself to sleep before he could have been transformed himself.
What a mess.
Aldrich stood and dusted himself off. He spotted Talon, near the house. Unsurprisingly, his old friend seemed fine. Crimson stood near him, also untouched. No surprise there either. Crimson had always been more mortal than vampire. Silas should be okay too, and that covered all the vampires he cared even a little bit about.
His gaze found Vlad. At first, he hardly even recognized the man. He looked different now, younger somehow, with a prominent white streak in his black hair that didn't seem to belong.
"It's Cyril," Remy said when he noticed where Aldrich was looking.
"I was Marcus before that," Vlad said, his eyes finding Remy. He was kneeling on the ground. "Odd, isn't it? All these identities. I've lived a very long life. Too long."
"No such thing as a too long life," Aldrich commented. After his recent brush-up with death, he felt very strongly about this statement. Neither Remy nor Vlad paid him any attention, though.
"You remember now, don't you?" Remy asked.
"Everything," Vlad said, and still, he was looking at Remy, almost as if he might be seeing someone else in his place. It unnerved Aldrich. How dare this coffin-cobbler talk to Remy as if he hadn't been trying to kill him minutes ago?
Why wasn't he one of the vampires killed by the spirit's doing?
Just because he'd been in love centuries ago? If it were up to Aldrich, that wouldn't count.
"I'll take my leave," Vlad said, rising slowly. "I'll make sure you won't be bothered again." He paused, letting his gaze sweep across the yard. "I'm truly sorry for everything that has happened."
"Tell that to the dhampirs you killed," Aldrich said. "How's it feel, murdering your own progeny?"
Vlad glanced at him, but didn't respond.
Remy stepped forward. Instinctively, Aldrich blocked him with his arm to keep him from getting any closer to Vlad. "Where are you going?" Remy asked.
"You won't see me again."
For some reason, Remy wasn't satisfied with that response. "You're going to kill yourself, aren't you?"
Again, Vlad did not respond. He gave Remy one last long look and then, from one second to the next, he vanished.
Good riddance, Aldrich thought.
Remy didn't seem to agree with him, though. "I think he's really gonna kill himself," he murmured as if that was a bad thing.
"Why the hell do you care?" Aldrich didn't get it. He truly didn't. "He tried to killyou."
"That wasn't him. That was..." Remy shook his head. "It doesn't matter. I just feel like I knew him. Know him," he corrected himself.
