Smack!

Ashley woke with a start. Confused, he had only a few seconds to look around to where he was, where his body was laying and what his body was laying on before a sharp, stinging blow swiped across his cheek.

"Get up!" hissed a gravely female's voice.

Ashley shook drowsiness from his head and scuttled backwards, his hands slipping on smooth, wet rocks as water splashed up along his back. Where the hell was he? Where's Andrew? His hand slipped out from under him and he landed in a puddle with a splash. Only then did he realize he was laying in a rocky stream.

Blinking wildly, Ashley rubbed his face to clear his vision. Slowly, a figure standing above him came into focus. A woman, he recognized, with long, dirty brown hair falling over her bare shoulders. She wore a tattered white dress, black chained jewelry hung from her wrists and neck. Her face was shadowed as she looked down on Ashley. "Get up!" she growled again, holding out her hand to him.

"Who are you?" he asked, taking her hand. She hoised him up out of the water with a gentle but strong tug. "Where am I?"

"You're in the transformation coma. You know. To become a vampire." she replied bluntly, facing away from him. "Follow me."

Ashley shook water from his hair and attempted to follow the stranger, who stepped over the smooth stones with ease, as he stumbled and slipped along them, most likely scraping the hell out of the pads of his feet. He took in the surrounding, bare trees crossed one another and twisted, vines knit the dead woods together like an unevenly stitched scarf, with only a few leaves and bits of grass to show life. The sky was a murky light grey, casting shadows of blue and grey along the surface of whatever place they were in. The cool water ran around Ashley's ankles, furthering the struggle of following the girl.

They came to a fork in the river, one path going off then having a sharp turn further into the woods. The other curved elegantly toward a clearing, from what Ashley could see, and formed into a small lake that rippled gently against soft, powder like brown sand. The woman stopped, her back still to Ashley, she asked "Which way?"

He looked down at his scraped bare feet, longing to sit down and get out of the water. "To the pond, I guess."

She turned her head ever so slightly, "Are you sure?"

"Um. Well, my feet...you know..."

Without word, she looked forward again and began to the pond way, a gently breeze buffering her white cotton gown and sending a few loose strands of hair on her shoulders upwards. Ashley couldn't help but stare at her pale shoulders, lightly shadowed by her hair that swayed as he walked, the length of her grey-white dress as it just barely touched the water. She was really pretty, he realized, very pretty, with the elegance of a bird, maybe even a snake, or both- she walked with grace, like nothing he'd ever seen before. But he wasn't attracted to her, no, he could only admire her. The way her colorless feet stepped lightly along and sunk slightly into the sand as she led him to the small clearing. "Sit down. You're hurt." she ordered, sweeping a hand out toward a large rock sitting off to the side.

Ashley obliged, lowering his wet body onto the rock. It was only then did he realize he was wearing different clothes from what he was earlier. Was he even wearing clothes earlier? She knelt down by his feet and lifted one of his bare feet onto her knee, with a flick of her wrist, she summoned up a rag and began to wipe his foot. He watched the rag slowly began to turn dark red with his blood. "You don't have the thick skin on your feet." she said, rinsing the cloth in the water. "You wear shoes too much."

"W-what?" he tried to get a glimpse of her face, covered by her dark bangs, all he could see was her dark red lips. "Who are you?"

She didn't answer, instead she ran her fingertips over the bottom of Ashley's foot, the scrapes melted shut like candle wax. "Walking barefoot makes the skin rough, so you don't get hurt as easily."

"I'll make note of that." Ashley rubbed his healed foot as she worked in the other, rinsing the blood off and healing it with some kind of magic. It was odd, but Ashley didn't question it, it seemed to be normal. Like using a pair of scissors. When she was done, she stood up and sat next to him on the rock. Her hair still covering her face.

They sat in silence for a while, watching the black birds flutter along the tree tops, calling to each other over the large span of wilderness. There was a strange, calming effect to the Gothic scene like something straight out of a Edgar Allen Poe novel. Ashley ran his fingertips along the rough surface of the rock, "Where are we?" he asked again.

"The woods surrounding Vlad's Citadel." she replied, an unreadable accent lacing the last two words. "Spirits like to come here. It's peaceful."

Spirits? Does that mean....

"You're not dead, Ashley." she replied softly. "You're just changing."

"I know. But why am I here? I thought I was just asleep?" he scratched his arm, able to feel his nails against his skin, one of the tests to tell dreams from reality. "Did the process go wrong?"

"No. He did it right." she pushed a few locks of her dirty hair behind her ear. "He's done it before, after all."

Ashley's heart twisted.

"J-Juliet?"

It was like a sack of rocks had been drooped in his gut. He wanted to run away now, he wanted to get away from her, she was going to hurt him and he knew it. He should've run away at the first chance he got....

"If I was really going to hurt you, I would've left you to drown in the stream." she rolled her eyes, black rimmed and atomic green. Her face was paler than it was the last time he had seen her--seen he in a dream, he realized, that was her he saw in the dream at the hotel. She was very pretty, with a beautifully wicked look to her.

She was wicked. Andrew knew,and said so, she became wicked and addicted to virgin blood. It's what got her killed, burned at the stake, and Andrew had to kill her...

"You didn't drink my blood." he gasped "I'm a virgin, you rinsed it off in the water."

Juliet rolled her eyes, kicking the water with her toes. "Just because died with that hunger, doesn't mean I remain wicked after death takes me." she mumbled. "I want to talk to you."

A crow squaked overhead and dove down from the treetop, landing in the shallow water. It flicked it's black wings, peaking into the water, splashing as it came back up half a second later. "What's there to talk about?" he asked.

"I'm not quite sure." she replied, picking up a stone and chucking it to the water. The bird took to a frantic flight as the rock sent waves rippling over the pond. "It's something that happens when a widowed vampire takes on another mate."

"Listen, I-"

"Don't you dare apologize, Ashley Purdy." she hissed, her lips pulling back just enough in anger that her small, curved fangs peaked out above her lower lip. "I have eternity blaming myself for my actions, and someone else saying sorry for it won't change anything."

"I took your mate from you." he objected.

"No, you didn't."

"He picked you first, but you died. Isn't this against the rules? Isn't there some kind of rule, like the fang ripping thing he mentioned?" Ashley felt guilt wash over him. Andrew was going to be punished, wasn't he?

Juliet slapped him again, her hands not so gentle anymore. "Shut up!" she snapped.

"Fool. You're too far gone with your own self hate that you can't realize that the whole world is NOT against you." she hissed. "For the love of God, man! Accept the good things that happen to you!"

Ashley was quiet then.

"Andrew has chosen you. I chose you. You chose Andrew. There's no other power higher than that to make you two together." she clenched her fists.

"You approve of it?"

"Why do you think I gave you that dream?" she scoffed. "I tried to tell you, but you were too afraid. But Andrew knew, oh, sweet Andrew knew right away when you explained those short details to him. He was afraid, he couldn't accept it, he was still miserable over me. The wretch he mated hundreds of years ago still hurt to think about, you know?"

"You're not a wretch."

"When I was alive, I was." she said. "He tore himself apart for almost 200 years. And then, he met you." a smile spread across her face. "The boy with the same nail paint who took pity on him at the circus that captured him. Oh, how sneaky that Ringmaster bloke was. He played prey, and got dear Andrew in a net, then put him on display." she shook her head.

"I didn't...fall in love with him...until later." Ashley mumbled.

Juliet shook her hair back. "At first I was conflicted. I wanted Andrew to myself, but I realized quickly that you're better for him. He was conflicted with feelings for you, he didn't know weather to stay widowed to me or to mate you, he felt drawn to you. Vampires have this....you wouldn't know the feeling, but they just know when they see the right one. Weather it's human or not, they know. He knew."

he knew. Ashley repeated to himself. The words echoed around his head, clambering like a box of broken glass being shook. Two powers chose him, two powers anted him to be eternally knit to Andrew, changing, to become one...

Ashley's thoughts were interrupted when Juliet touched his shoulder and pointed to the water. The birds had all gathered in the water, not flapping, but they stood there. Staring with black beady eyes. "It's time to go."

"Go?" Ashley asked.

Juliet stood, pulling him up with her. "One last thing." she said, and without giving any warning she pressed her cold lips to his. "Now go. Wake up."

Juliet pulled Ashley to the water, still covered in birds--a few landing in the water still as they waded in. Juliet separated from Ashley quickly, ushering him towards the birds urgently, keeping a distance between her and the other being. "Give him all your love." she called.

The birds took to flight. Alarmed, Ashley froze still. The birds formed a whirlwind around him, slowly blacking out his vision, hearing, and voice.

He felt himself walking along the stones again, but this time, he had perfect balance.

to be continued....