Chapter Luka's Raver

VvvvvV

Merle Greyson glanced over his shoulder once to make sure Jon and Bethany were away. He knew he needed to distance himself from his sealed one so Morgana could not use an innocent to kill Jon the way she used Viktor to kill Braunwen. He let his aura shine like the morning sun, he used his light to dissuade them from attacking. The vampire Ravers backed away from the blinding light of the Angelus Fae and fled the opposite direction from where Jon and Bethany were fleeing.

When he returned to the airport, the vampires were cornered. Samantha, Viktor, and Luca were fighting desperately against the horde of werewolf Ravers. It was obvious to Greyson there were three or four groups who had come for the chance to have fresh prey because they were fighting each other as much as they were fighting the three Vampires. Luka was suddenly knocked down, and three of the mutated wolves began biting him, trying to tear him apart. He screamed in agony, but before Greyson could intervene, Sam threw herself against the attacking werewolf Ravers, wielding two swords like the Saxony warrior queens of old. She beheaded two and stabbed the third driving him away from Luka. Greyson landed beside Luka as Viktor knelt over his grandson.

Greyson held out his hands and created a bubble of soul magic around them as a shield, "Over here, Sam!" The Ravers threw themselves against the shield but couldn't get through.

"Get him outta here, he has a baby at home," she shouted, and she killed another werewolf Raver. "You can't catch me," she screamed as she sprinted away from them. Her vampiric speed quickly out pacing them. All but two of the werewolf Ravers chased her.

Viktor watched her going in horror and inhaled to shout at her, but Greyson touched his shoulder to keep him from drawing the Ravers back to them. "It is her choice and her time. Let her die in the manner she finds most honorable... I need to heal Luka."

Nodding, Viktor tightened his grip on his sword. "I'll take care of these two."

The moment the glowing shield vanished Victor decapitated one and then in two steps, he decapitated the other, moving so fast neither of the Ravers reacted to defend themselves.

As Luka stopped bleeding, he started shaking almost like he was convulsing. Greyson touched a tarry goo in the wound, then looked at the Raver head lying next to him.

"Viktor, don't touch them."

Viktor stood suddenly from where he bent to examine the Raver's teeth and backed away, asking through his respirator mask, "What is wrong, ancient one?"

"The sticky residue on their muzzles, it is what is left of the Dust of Rage syrup. They've been eating or licking it. It is why they are still so homicidal. The Rage is an addiction." Greyson touched Luka. He began to shift into his predator even though he was unconscious. "Luka has been exposed. We need to find a secure place to lock him in until The Rage passes."

The Angeles picked up Luka then gave Viktor a hard look. "I can't carry you both. Keep up, I'll get us to somewhere safe but if we are attacked again..."

"Save Luka," Viktor answered resolutely. "He is the best of my family and coven. His lovely beloved is waiting for him with their first born."

Greyson nodded, then spread his four wings and flew in the direction he sensed no threats. Miles away, he felt Samantha cornered and grieved her death, knowing she craved death in her guilt over killing her beloved and her sister. He knew Kylee would be raised well by Bethany, but he wished she had found a way to overcome instead of succumbing. After half an hour. Greyson flapped his wings powerfully and the glass windows ahead of him shattered inward. Stepping on to the twentieth floor, he carried Luka to a vault used to hold coins and precious gems. Only unconscious because of Greyson's magic, Luka thrashed in his arms, and it was becoming too difficult to carry him. The Fae was just closing the vault door when Viktor arrived.

The vampire looked worried as Greyson revealed, "I need to let him go through it. It will change him, but I believe he will recover. I need something with his beloved's scent on it to anchor his sanity."

"Can you really save him?" Viktor did not attempt to hide hi horror over the vampire Ravers and the thought of his grandson becoming one.

"I will help him but only he can overcome it in the end. Amelia's scent will remind him that there is more to the world than the blood lust and Raver Rage."

Viktor nodded. "I will make a call and have it brought..."

"No... Just have it prepared, I will send another Fae to bring it to us."

VvvvvV

Bianca stepped out of the traveling mirror into a high rise apartment in Montreal. The occupants slept as she walked to the large plate glass window and stepped through as if the glass wasn't even there. Spreading her wings, she flew toward the Rougemont Coven. The moon was setting when she landed. Amelia walked out bravely as several vampires gathered, bowing respectfully. The Latina was wearing a backpack.

"I'm Amelia and I am going with you."

Bianca smiled sadly and shook her head. "I am afraid that would take too long. Greyson is with your beloved and will bring him to you once he is healed. Please, I need the items with your scent to remind him of who he was."

Amelia swallowed, then asked bravely, "Is he really a Raver now?"

"I do not know," Bianca answered honestly.

Pulling off the backpack, Amelia handed it to the Fae, and begged, "Please, tell me where he is and I'll go to him. He needs me."

"He needs you to take care of his son." Bianca glowed golden, bathing the area in soothing light. "You must resist your urge to go to him. If you try, you will only orphan your child and condemn your beloved to a life of madness and grief. Your hardest test is starting."

"What test?" Amelia feared the answer would be to lose her beloved, but the Fae revealed something much more difficult for her temperament.

"To wait and do nothing." Bianca spread her wings and flew away into the darkness.

VvvvvV

Luka clawed at the walls, trying to escape. He never thirsted as he did now. The Fae came and went, but he did not allow Luka to attack him or feed. He could feel the sun rising beyond the thick walls as he curled in the corner. He clutched a scarf to his face in his withered hands with their dagger-like nails. Breathing in her scent as he fell asleep.

Her...

She was all that mattered as his nightmares reminded him of a time when he fought his way through hordes of werewolves and vampires gone mad and trapped as their monsters. He was different then, but he couldn't remember how. Luka only knew that she meant everything to him. He opened an eye and stared at the plastic blood bag with a pupil slit like a cat's. He knew it was food, but it wasn't what he craved, warm and fresh and pulsing over his tongue with every beat of her heart. She had saved him so many times before, but she didn't come this time.

'Are you going to let her gift to you go to waste as you have the last three?'

Elongated fangs bared, he sat up glaring around his prison. He was alone.

'You don't have to be... Drink and heal. Come back for Amelia. She loves you.'

Starving, he reached out. The plastic felt alien and repulsive, but he was so hungry. If it was from her, he would drink it. He decided as his memories played the sound of her laughter and her telling him how much she loved him. A two-inch-long pointed fingernail pierced the bag. He carefully drew it out. Sniffing the crimson liquid, he touched the drop to his tongue then sucked the rest from his nail. It was the blood of his queen. From his throat came the sound of a groan or perhaps a purr. Unable to bring himself to suck from the vile plastic, Luka repeatedly poked his long nail through the hole and withdrew one curled nail-full at a time. It was the perfect blood. Cooler than he liked, but it still slacked his hunger. Succumbing to his thirst, he sucked the bag until it was empty, then he tore it open and licked every drop of his queen's blood from the inside. Less miserable, he fell asleep and dreamed a real memory and not a nightmare. He even remembered her name.

Amelia screamed a battle cry and grunted as she pushed. Her sweaty hair clinging like dark vines to the sheen of her skin was glorious as she fought through the birth of their son. Baring her teeth, her breath hissed through them. He stood in front of her as she clung to the bars behind her head with her legs spread wide. They were hiding in the old prison in Beuna Vista. Greyson was gone and with her mother and grandmother killed by Ravers, he was the only one to help her.

"He's... coming... now." She gritted out. She wouldn't let him share her pain because he was still recovering from being attacked by Ravers when their home was destroyed.

He touched her knee and almost cried out as her labor pain punch him in the gut. She kicked his arm away.

"Don't touch me!" She snapped then let out a stream of profanities in Spanish before gasping out. "Just catch him."

"Aaaahhhh ayyyyeee!" She screeched as she pushed through the contraction and their son's head came out. Luka cradled it in his palm, warm and wet and so small. He never realized how small babies were.

Sobbing, Amelia prayed then inhaled deeply, hunching over despite holding to the bars behind her head. "Don't... Drop... Him," she hissed at him, and he did not dare disobey as she pushed.

The third time, their son slid out and into his arms. Steadying the baby with his cast, he cursed that the Raver bites slowed his vampiric healing as he cut the baby's cord with his fangs according to vampire tradition, getting the first taste of his son's blood, mixed with his mothers.

Sliding down the bars until she sat in front of him, Amelia cried, "We did it."

He seized the back of her neck and kissed her sobbing lips. "I love you, my soul."

"I love you, my shadow." She went from flushed to pale as she passed out.

"Amelia!" Luka shouted as he woke. Trembling, he rubbed his hand over his face then he froze, staring at the human fingers of his mortal form. The door of the vault slowly opened. The Angelus Fae Greyson stood next to his grandfather Viktor.

"Welcome back, Luka. I knew you could do it," Greyson greeted him with a smile.

"Where is she? Where is my Amelia?" Luka demanded harshly. His need to be near her, tinting the world red.

"Easy, grandson. You must overcome the Raver Rage first, as the werewolves under Greyson's care did. Only then will it be safe for you to return to your beloved and son," Viktor admonished him.

Part of Luka wanted to argue, part of him wanted to attack them for keeping her away, but the more rational side of his nature won. Closing his eyes, he took several deep breaths and suddenly realized how badly he stank. "How long until I won't hurt her as Shalom was hurt? I won't do that to my beloved. She must be kept safe, even if it is from me."

The ancient Fae and the old vampire grinned at each other.

"I think sooner than we expected," Greyson assured him.

VvvvvV

At Rougemont Coven, Canada...

Amelia spent every day waiting for them to bring Luka to her. To deal with her nervous energy when she wasn't feeding their son, she worked on cleaning and completely restoring the estate, always with her six-month-old child in a sling on her back or against her heart. First with the help of the lower ranks, she cleaned the entire mansion and all the surrounding houses, then she made the vampires carry the furniture to other buildings and made them paint the walls and polish the floors or clean the carpets with the efficiency and determination of a general preparing for war. Soon, most of the coven members were helping. She finished the project in just over a month and was most surprised that the eldest and highest ranked vampires allowed it, some even worked with her, but she shrugged it off as being the beloved of Viktor's only remaining grandson.

After five weeks, the estate of the Rougemont Coven looked new, then she wandered on the grounds which were meticulously kept by an ancient vampire named Petré who told her about the building of the Gardens of Versailles. She enjoyed the giant greenhouse with its Art Deco metal work and glass panels once it started getting colder but now it was where she spent most of her time.

Sitting with her hand over her abdomen, Amelia worried about Luka as she seemed to do every moment of every day. This month away from him was worse than the last one after the Revelation Night. Rocking her sleepy baby, she stared up at the heavy clouds and snowflakes dancing along the outer glass. She felt him watching her and turned her head to look. His predator was staring at her hungrily. He looked different, more terrifying, like the vampire Ravers she had killed in the Quarantine Zone. He hissed at her quietly.

Standing to face him fearlessly, Amelia lifted their son to her shoulder and then lifted her sweater to show her stomach. "Are you going to come and kiss your son and meet your daughter?"

In a moment, he was towering over her, panting, and she felt the terrifying thrill that he might attack her. Tucking her sweater under the edge of her nursing bra, she slipped the knife she always carried into her palm under her son. Slicing her thumb, she held it to his open mouth, leaving a line of crimson on his pale lips.

"Taste, my shadow."

His Raver sucked her thumb for a moment, then collapsed to his knees. Wrapping his arms around her legs, he shrank into his mortal slowly. Enduring the whole painful shift with his cheek pressed against her lower abdomen. Within his beloved's body, he would feel the first fluttering heartbeats of their second child. It was real, he was home, she was here with him at last.

"My soul, my queen," Luka murmured as Viktor and Greyson rushed into the arboretum with three armed vampires. They looked shocked as she ran her fingers through his hair.

"My apologies, Amelia. When we came in the front door, he smelled you and his Raver took over. We lost him for a few moments, but Petré knew where you were. He didn't hurt you, did he?" Viktor asked.

Amelia favored the male vampires with a withering glare, announcing confidently, "He wouldn't dare."

Luka stood slowly without acknowledging his grandfather or his coven mates and kissed his beloved with their children between them. He felt his fangs elongating with the need to change her then his head was jerked back as she pinched his ear painfully.

"Put those away. There will be no changing me until after we have five children. Do you understand?"

"Anything you wish, my beloved," Luka vowed. "Anything."