Incarnations

The Awakening Trilogy (Book 3)

Christine M. Butler

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Birthrights

Revelations

Incarnations

***

All matterials within are copyright protected.

2012 ©Christine M. Butler

Smashwords Edition

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BLOOD THAT BONDS

Jaxon was on the move again, watching out for dark
corners as she stuck to them herself. It was time she found a place
to settle in for some rest, but she wasn't exactly sure where she
was anymore. Since meeting Caislyn, everything in her life was
turned upside down. There was always someone hot on their heels
trying to harm them, because of some stupid prophecy neither of
them understood. They had spent the last few months of their lives
on the run, from their home in northeatern North Carolina in the
United States to Ireland and the Gypsy camp somewhere in Eastern
Europe. Now Jaxon was on her own, roaming through yet another
little European town she'd never heard of before. On these dark
nights, it sometimes felt as though the towns rose up around her,
ready to swallow her whole. The only boon to her existence was that
she was no longer the hunted. She was the hunter now, and she
preferred it that way.

Jaxon had left the Eurasian border countries three
bodies ago. The minute she let herself think about the people she
killed the guilt crept in, and she had to fight to block it out.
The blood lust was stronger than she had anticipated. She only
meant to feed from the poor street person last night, but she
hadn't been able to stop feeding until she had taken every last
drop of his blood. Jaxon physically shook off the revulsion that
wound her stomach into knots while also calling up that hunger that
dwelled deep inside of her. She needed to focus right now and
thinking about what she had been doing to survive was going to be
counter productive. She needed a place to rest. Having given up on
hotels, and their questions about passports, she started looking
through the more derelict parts of town for an abandoned place she
could squat in for a night.

It was in one of those darkened windows that Jaxon
happened upon a man, dressed in brown robes, standing before the
soft glow of candlelight. A wire tripped in her head, the one
signaling the righteous path she had chosen to take. She would
cleanse this world of the Brotherhood if it took her last bit of
humanity and the last breath of life she had to do it. It was a vow
she made to herself, to make them all atone for the sins they had
committed against both Caislyn and herself. For taking their
parents, and ruining their lives, the brotherhood would pay in
blood, pain, and death. Jaxon stood for a moment taking in the
scene before her. The man was overweight by about fifty pounds,
balding with wisps and tuffs of hair forming an unruly halo around
his otherwise balding head. He appeared to be alone in the house
and was just getting ready to turn in for the night by the looks of
it.

Jaxon had to think quickly. She knew she couldn't
kill him inside the house, too many bits and pieces got left behind
at crime scenes and she didn't want any of the others to know she
was coming. He needed to be lured outside and an idea was forming
in her mind, one that would see her bring down another member of
the brotherhood. Jaxon pulled the hood to her sweatshirt up over
her head, and rounded the corner of the house, before walking right
up to the front door. The moment she started banging on the door
she put on her game face and started crying out frantically.

"My sister! Please, someone... you have to help me!"
Her palms were already turning red from the banging she was doing,
but she had to look desperate enough for help to draw him out. As
the man came to the door and took note of her panicked expression,
she ramped her performance up a notch. "Please, she's just over
there. I think it was a... a... vampire. He tore at her throat
before I could get to them, but I think... he ran off. Oh God,
please help me get her to safety."

The man ran in the direction she had been pointing,
brown robes flying in the wind behind him as he went. "Where?" He
questioned as we got to the edge of the forest.

"Just over there," Jaxon pointed and before the man
could turn to tell her he didn't see anything, she was on him, no
longer the helpless girl that banged upon his door. Now, she was
the vicious killer exacting a revenge he would never even know
about.

She was on him, tearing at his throat in much the
same manner her imaginary sister had just been attacked. Jaxon
stifled a laugh as she sank her fangs down harder into the man’s
throat. She had the presence of mind to pull back just before he
died and she looked down into his desparate eyes, “do you know why
this happened to you?”

The man barely moved his head, but it was enough for
Jaxon to perceive the “no.”

“Your brotherhood took everything from me, and now I
am taking it all back, one brother at a time. Lucky you! You got to
be first.” She said nothing else only noted the panicked expression
in his face as she smiled down at him before sinking her fangs in
and finishing the job.

It was over in minutes as Jaxon wiped the remnants of
his blood from her mouth, feeling the blessed zing of another's
lifeblood coursing through her veins. She turned to the sound of
clapping hands. A woman stood in the shadows of a tree, amused with
Jaxon's performance.

"Now that, was a thing of a beauty." The clapping
continued for a moment, "brava little one!"

Jaxon was down in a crouch, ready to pounce if
necessary. She was eying the woman, who stood clapping,
suspiciously. "Who are you?"

"Well, I was the woman that was going to kill that
despicable creature there, until you beat me to him of course."

"Why?" It was a simple question and Jaxon didn't
really care about the answer, she needed time to think. The woman
before her was obviously a vampire, and quite possibly not of the
friendly variety.

"The brotherhood disgust me." She actually spat on
the ground, as if adding insult to injury for the dead man. "You
ravaged him for me, and now I must be moving along. There are more,
and they need killing."

"I couldn't agree more." Jaxon said as she stood
straight and then held out her hand. "Jaxon." She said simply by
way of introduction.

"Pleased to meet you, but I'm going to forgo the
pleasantries." She nodded to Jaxon's hand, still smeared with the
blood of her victim. Jax shrugged and stepped closer. "So, tell me,
was that personal or just a hearty meal? It looked as though you
were speaking to him when you first walked up."

"Personal." Jaxon looked back at the body momentarily
and the hatred she had for the brotherhood showed through her still
solid black eyes. "Very personal."

"Ah, then it seems I have found an ally. We have a
common enemy and goal it seems. Let's go get you cleaned up and
have a chat, shall we?"

Jaxon nodded and turned to follow the woman. She was
very obviously a vampire, but there was also something else that
Jaxon couldn't quite put her finger on that was so familiar.

"I'm Brigid, by the way." There was a certain lilt to
her voice that Jaxon couldn't quite place, an accent that she
hadn't quite been able to shake. The woman turned her back to Jaxon
and walked away in smooth confident strides. She was actually a
little shorter than Jaxon with straight, dark hair that cascaded
down to the middle of her back, dancing in the wind as she
went.

"Good to meet you, Brigid." Jaxon looked back once
more at the body, then she moved forward following Brigid into the
night.

~*~

Jaxon was looking around the room Brigid brought her
to. It was a cozy little space with a couch dead center, book
shelves surrounding the walls, and a fireplace off to the right
that took the chill out of the air.

"So, I know why I want those bastards dead, but I'd
be interested to know your reasons." Brigid's accent again reminded
Jaxon of something, someone. She couldn't quite place it, but there
was something niggling at the back of her mind, even as the
memories of what the Brotherhood did to her mother pervaded her
emotions.

Jaxon looked up at her, the pain evident on her face
before she was able to mask it.

"Ah, I see, they took someone from you too." She
stopped pouring the drink she had been occupied with and looked off
into the distance, "they stole my life long ago. Not directly, mind
you. They wouldn't dare have a vampire among them, but they were
responsible none the less. My life forfeit would have been
something I could have gotten over, but they took my entire family.
That is something... well, no need reopening old wounds. Let's just
say, I have yet to settle the score completely."

Jaxon hadn't planned on opening up to this stranger.
She hadn't envisioned saying anything at all, and yet her mouth was
betraying her, and even as she realized what was happening she
couldn't stop the flow of words. "They took my life, my best
friend's life. Her parents, my mom, they are all lost to us now
because of these parasites. They pulled my mother apart,
mercilessly, drawn and quartered... laughing while I watched."

Brigid sucked in a breath. "You are still lost to the
pain as if it just happened," she said in a quiet voice.

"It's been less than a month." Jaxon whispered as she
sat on the couch, emotion weighing her down.

"Less than a month?" Brigid was startled by that.
"When you said she was drawn and quartered I thought perhaps it was
another lifetime. I hadn't known them to use such, old methods, in
many years."

"Well, maybe they're just pulling out the old tricks
for the witches then."

"Witch?" Brigid sniffed into the air, then quick as a
flash she was beside Jaxon, looking at her, really looking. "I
thought you vampire when I watched you kill, but it would seem you
are not at all what I first thought." Brigid shifted her weight and
stepped back. Jaxon could feel the cold wash of fear flooding
around her.

"I won't hurt you," she said to Brigid.

"What exactly are you? Not Fey, not witch, and not
entirely vampire." She was done with the guessing as she took
another cautious step away from Jaxon.

"I'm witch and vampire by birthright." Jaxon looked
up, eyes still nearly full black. She turned to the candle on the
table in front of her and held her hand out to it, driving the
emotion in that she knew would produce a flame, just a little of
her hatred to burn bright. "I am one of the chosen, hunted because
of the prophecy these brotherhood assholes have spread throughout
the world. And I vowed that I would cleanse this world of their
kind before anyone takes me down."

A rueful smile played across Brigid's lips, "then
your secret is safe with me, and we shall cleanse this world,
together." Jaxon could feel the truth, the passion in those words
and she was able to relax back against the couch and rest for the
first time in a long while.

Before she knew it, Jaxon was asleep on the couch,
not the least bit concerned about the stranger who brought her
here. Instincts kicked in, the ones that told her she shared a
common bond with this woman, one that would trump any bounty that
may be on her head. Jaxon slept, and for the first time in a while
she didn't feel that tingling presence that was Caislyn trying to
force her way inside. She began to wonder if Caislyn had given up
on her, or if something worse had happened.

~*~

He found the path she had taken, her presence still
lingered here. Seth looked around and noticed the disturbance near
the bushes along the treeline, and then he smelled blood on the
air. The scent was still thick, but it was diminishing. It had been
hours since the attack happened. He slowly approached the scene
just off the road, a little ways into the treeline, where the
balding, overweight man in the brown robes lay silent in his death,
throat shredded to peices.

“Jaxon, still on the warpath, I see.” Seth took the
time to pick the deceased brother up and get him further into the
woods where he was less likely to be seen by anyone. There was also
the hope that the body would be eatten by animals, covering up the
tracks for him. Seth had made a decision with the last body he
found ravaged by Jaxon. It was taking too long to cover her tracks
for her and he was beginning to lose her trail here and there, only
picking it back up by chance this last time. He couldn’t afford to
lose her again, not when he had gotten this close.

***

LESSONS UNLEARNED

"Concentrate Caislyn, imagine what you want to be
there. See it in your mind, then make it be."