Chapter Four

"Yes, you need sleep," Carden said softly and began to take my annoying clothes off to tuck me under the covers. 

I fell asleep in those words.

Dream

I was in the forest that must have been outside of the mansion. I was running and I wasn't sure form what but it was coming for me and it was out to kill. I had the feeling it was out for my blood as well. I was by no means fast as most vampires but I was faster than most humans would be running but it wasn't good enough for the monster out for my blood.

As it comes down on my legs I screamed.

Ending of a dream

I was actually screaming bloody murder as I awake. Even though I was awake I couldn't stop screaming. Carden was awake and trying to calm me down to stop.

The screams kept coming and Blake comes in leaving the door open and soon Beck and Grant were in the room as well as I kept screaming bloody murder.

Blake took one look and I and she bother and then came and hugged me from behind and my bothers joined hugging my side and front and Carden continued whispering calming words in my ear as he held on to me.

I screamed for maybe a minute more till my mind and body was mine. Then I just sat in silence.

"Tell me what your dream was."

"There was someone who was after me and I kept running into a forest that must be outside. Well I was running I tripped on a log or just tripped and the mystery thing came after me. I was screaming and I woke to realize I was really screaming."

No one said anything for a while.

"I know that I don't want to dream if that's what real dreams are."

"Blair-Boo real dreams are like the one you had are nightmares they are few but they happen to us all," Blake said.

"I think I remember having one when I was little and when I woke to find Stefan gone and Carden was there and I hated him more than I did my dream." They all laughed except Carden which gave a grunt.

 I got up and went to the kitchen and made food and more food and sat and ate it all. I was starting to realize with all the sleeping I had not eaten the past couple of weeks and when I was done eating that batch I made another. Carden just stood in the doorway watching me make food and for like ten people and put it away in my small body.

"If you were a human and I had sex with you someone might think you pregnant with the way you’re putting that food away."

"I don't think I want to commit myself to you," I said after a mouth full of food.

"I am not going to rush you. If I die you won't want to die with me, you won't feel my emotions you won't have to deal with my darkness." Carden's deep voice had was a soft whisper of bass to my ears and held such sadness.

I finished eating my fill of food and put what was leftover in the fridge. "You knew you would have to bring me here and you didn't know how long and you brought food so I could eat because you knew I don't drink blood like the rest of you so I'm guessing you kept that out of my sight just like my parents and brothers did. Then I start to think you have a game in the forest in the back yard like in my dream."

"You never saw outside so how is it you know what's outside if it's your dream I'm worried about your safety and I think we should move."

"I'm not going to leave here because you'll kill them. If it keeps me alive longer I'm not committing to being your beloved. Even if I do die then you live you might be able to find a more suitable beloved. I started this what if by dying I end it?" I come and stood in front of Carden

"I want a room away from you."

"I can't let you. You don't want my darkness to stop being at bay. If I'm away from you for too long I want to cause pain to others that don't even deserve it. Please don't make me that monster again."

"So when I was little you wanted to hurt me, you lied even then?"

"I wanted you. To mark you as my beloved that would have hurt you being so young it wouldn't have worked in your best interest. I don't go that young for some reason. I've thought about why I can't, the only reason is I didn't have the innocence to be young anymore. That's why I went to my bat's form." 

"I still can't be around you Carden. I need my own room."

"Will you take one with Blake. At least I will know you were guarded to my liking. Please if you are going to make me cruel don't make me leave you defenseless."

"Fine." I walked off to join Blake in her room.

When I went to knock on the door she was already opening it. "Please don't do this to him, please."

"Blake, I need this if I keep being around him I'm not going to be able to figure out my dreams."

"Fine if you're not going to change your mind then I hope I made the room perfect for us to have as much space as we need and enough to feel close." She let me look inside and all my things were already in the places I would have put them.

"I knew you were going to be joining me when I come here with my brother so I had it done but when I felt you made you chose I went and got all your stuff."

"Thanks, so can you tell me what's trying to kill me?" I explained my dream to her and she thought about the possible creatures it would have been but was coming up short with the right thing. We soon called it a night since we talked for most of the day. As I laid in bed Carden came to the room but Blake talked him down and sent him on his way to his own bed. I didn't want to cause him so much pain but I would cause him more if I kept having these dreams and at least if I was with Blake then she wouldn't worry she would help me out.

Dream

As it comes down on my legs I screamed. Its nails or claws digging into my flesh. It went for another rip at my legs I turned trying to kick away from it.

"You won't be out of reach for long. Girl!" It growled deeply at me.

"You won't get me they'll kill you first," I yelled as I kicked it again this time in the face knocking back the hood to revile a glowing face of tattoos. Bright gray eyes with a ring of even brighter green around the gray. I could feel my body moving to kick him in the balls and run towards the mansion and into Carden's arms as Blake spotted the tattooed man I felt the same pain as he did and was on the ground as same as him.

End of Dream

"Blake?" my voice came out hoarse as if the pain that was caused just happened not as if it was just going to happen.

"Blake" I said again this time she was above my face.

"I had-"

"I know, here drink this it will help with your throat. I should have known!" Blake seemed to be cursing to herself. Carden was quietly sitting on her bed looking worried as he did in my dream.

"That man you come up against in your dream is an in-between just like you but he as joined up with a witch that has enhanced his vampire abilities and somehow he is tied to you. Meaning if we cause him to the pain we cause you pain."

"They must have formed underground to stay alive being killed by both their own kind and humans. Blair-Boo must have a key role in their plans to come after her. So theirs them and then the ones out to overthrow the royals. This doesn't help anything it just makes it worse. Those underground in-betweens are coming for Blair-Boo for whatever reason if it is to get her to join I can't have her going with them when we are being attacked on another front." Carden said finally breaking his silence.

"What if I go with him now that I know he's there in my dreams I know where he is here. They might be able to help us and I'm sure they want their lives secured in the vampire community even if it's not with the rest of the community like my family is I'm sure we can all get what we want," I said getting up out of bed to find that the back of my legs had the same glowing tattoos as the man did all over his face. The tattoos had more designs around the key tattoos that the man had.

"Blake, look" Carden said pointing at my legs. The designs went all around my legs and up to mid-thigh.

"I've seen these before when we lived in Egypt but it wasn't a common language then and was viewed as a power against the gods. The Unlawful Language is what it was called then, people were hunted down and killed when they were found with these marks."

"We did have in-betweens even back then. Oh, Belladonna their queen looks just like Blair-Boo even the name is closely related to what your parents wanted to call you. Why you’re connected to that man, back then it was said that the reason in between was more like humans and less like vampires was because they were split and when they were with their other half they could do things, not even us royal vampires could do. For example they formed the pyramids, moved mountains, and made sea creatures swallow ships whole for their own revenge and gain. The man’s name was Sarin, he had tattoos on his face more cleanly than yours and had closer to human-like eyes with bright gray and an even brighter ring of green around that. I had seen his tattoos once they go down his neck and end slightly below this rib cage."

"Was Belladonna your beloved back then?" I asked

 He sat in silence for a very long time in which I got dressed in a black dress that ended were my tattoos started. I put on my beaded barefoot sandals and went to leave the room when Carden grabbed my wrist.

"Yes, she was but she already died when I found her. I blamed Sarin for your death but he said, "You should have come sooner. She was calling for you. You're of a stubborn mind." He had to leave to avoid being killed like you. That man might actually be Sarin, I tried to track him but he would give me the slip. I have to keep you this time. Sarin was the other half of you and was my beloved too. However without Belladonna he didn't want to be around me, were both men without our women."

"Let go of my arm." He did and I went to the back of the mansion. There was a window on the very top of the wall I went down the hall some and ran at the right side with the window and jumped up zigzagging up the walls to the window and out on to the grass with a painful thump. I got up to see the forest I scanned the tree line to find the man in front of me. With a blink of an eye he was in front of me.

"So you chose to come out and face me after all, B-girl."

"Blair-Boo, but I guess Belladonna could be fine for you, Sarin." The man was taken aback. He took off his cape.

In doing so I saw all the tattoos Carden mentioned down to slightly below his rib cage.

"Blair-Boo, ah to see you alive again is a blessing in of itself." He pulled me close to him and gave me a gentle kiss on the lips. With that one gentle kiss I fainted.

Past Egypt

"Sarin please for the god’s sake stop pacing I need to concentrate. I'm so close so please, stop."

"I will for you my other half." He comes and stood behind me. His closeness was the most soothing thing these days with being hunted down by vampires for not following human language laws. Laws that were stupid, if it wasn't for that law the in-between would have never been put in the spotlight of death.

I needed my mind clear. I had cleared my mind and was now inside Carden's mind or at least outside of it. He wouldn't let me in and I'd been beating at his wall for months if it took to much longer it would be going into a year.

Carden only really broke it down when I was pressing the feeling of being whole with his beloved. So I used all my strength to convey that feeling to have him let me in. The wall dropped.

"Who are you and why are you plaguing my dreams?"

"I'm, Belladonna your soul mate, beloved! I'm not trying to plague your dreams at all I've been trying to have you come to me. To mark me, for the three of us to be whole. I want to be whole as much as the both of you."

"Both? You’re with someone else. Your tainted I'm in a potion of power I can't have a beloved that is tainted."

I laughed at him and his small mind to think I was tainted, "I'm not tainted I am just special. Special in ways your mind can't begin to comprehend but never the less I need you to come to make us all whole. We wait for you at the mouth of the Nile."

"You’re in Cairo! That's three weeks of travel if I go safely and three days if I go fast and wish death on myself."

"We need you here as soon as possible. There is harm coming upon us we can only run so far now. If we go any farther away from you we won't be able to join again for very many centuries. We have a chance to change the world for all parties involved." I could feel the tears running down my face and Sarin wiping them softly ways from my body.

"I will come."

"I will take my leave. See you again when you arrive in Cairo."

I woke from his sleep in Sarin's lap as he finished wiping the tears that had come during my plea to have him come. "Did it work, is he coming to mark us. To be one with us, Belladonna?"

"Yes, he has. We have three weeks to evade the vampires and humans for having our language on our bodies."

"You know as much as I do we can't last that long. Not without his backing us. I don't see why you couldn't have just told him to revoke that law to end it to keep his beloveds safe. We need to be mated to him as much as we need each other." He kissed my hairline to calm himself and to breathe my scent in. 

"I've told you before if I tell him he won't come and mate us, he won't have the drive to revoke that law to save us. Please Sarin it's three weeks and that nothing compared to the many months we've been avoiding them for."

"Fine but you know as well as I that we have to stay on the move we could go to the poorer side of Cairo that way we can at least keep our of their reach."

***

"Sarin you said you would." Sarin was running his hands along my body under my gown.

"I need this and if I need it you need it. Come now and enjoy the recharge that is our bodies married into oneness." He said as he undressed me

"I don't think this is a good idea Sarin we need to move again, Carden is close." He grunted and pulled off my legging. The hot dry air on my naked body was in itself a pleasure.

His hand was softly prodding at my women hood and I was all Sarin's to have and please.

***

Sarin was arguing with an old friend. Really trying to get us moved again was one of the hardest things when being hunted. Carden was close enough to feel the pull of us, the drive to go faster. He might be here in two days.

"He finally said we could use a campsite just outside of town by the sea but that's adding a day to Carden's travel you really shouldn't. So I talked him in moving us just out of town close to the Nile which should put us close enough to shave some time off his travel."

I nodded as Sarin helped with our few things and started towards the Nile to make our temporary home.

***

"We've been found out we need to go. We can't we just got everything settles with the safe haven. We even have more of us collecting in one place. We are stronger that way!" 

"That's stupid Belladonna! We need to move I don't care if he will be here today we need him here now so make him come faster our lives depend on it even the small group out there what we have collected doesn't stand a chance of living very long if this law isn't lifted." Sarin was mad with me that I wouldn't leave and stormed off to calm down. 

I sat on my pillows to try and clear my mind to sent a message to Carden when shouts outside the tent tore through my thoughts. Then as I opened my eyes a vampire with no feeling what so ever for life ran a sword through my heart.

*End of past Egypt*

"Sarin what did you do!" It was Carden "She's been like this for too long and you’re getting on my nerve."

"Shh," Blake said, "She's waking to your angry words and might want to go back to past Egypt."

I sat up and Sarin came and sat on the other side of the bed to hold me. His warmth and scent bathed me in calmness and a feeling of being a whole vampire.

"Thank you."

"No need for thanks when your a reincarnation of my other half Blair, I'm the one that needs to apologize for so long ago for that fight we had before they killed you. I was jumpy and I was despite to keep us safe."

"I know you were. I was killed trying to get a hold of Carden. Once I was done with that I was going to go find you and tell you I was stupid to think we could fight them off to stay where we were. I never had the chance for either one though, since I was killed by a vampire."

"I killed them, Blair. I started hunting them and I killed off that whole coven of in-between killers." Sarin said with an evil grin.

I laughed I couldn't help it. Like it was something I did yesterday. I was an in-between that was whole again. I could feel great power flowing through me and coming off me in waves and I could sense Carden's and Blake's power as well. Grant and Beck started to come in but took a step back before they force themselves in.

"Sarin these are my brothers in this life. Beck is the first twin and Grant is the second." They waved hello and then sat near the door of the room.

"Hello, I'm Sarin. Blair's genetic another half. Although when I knew her before her reincarnation as Belladonna."

"So you’re the reason she has all these fainting spells and doesn't drink blood," Grant said gruffly

"Nice to see you’re so watched over," He said to me

"Hmm, as far as I know, all in-betweens get them. In some cases they are born into the same family and are just fine. For example the two of you are twins and you have a bond that you share. So in their case they are closer to being vampires when in the same family more of a bond that goes down to blood even. In our case and many others we don't have that additional bond of blood. We have to relive our life over through dreaming we don't remember the way humans or you guys do.

"In Blair-Boo's case she is reincarnation and I'm not so I have to be careful of how I interact with her because I can show her our past life together. This time she saw what lead to her death but I can show her so much more if she is willing I'm not going to force the dreams on her like I did this time."

"Hold me, Sarin," I said to him he moved behind me and scooped me up into his lap. He was careful not to touch too much of my skin. I guess so he didn't force a dream. I could hear Carden softly growling. Before he came and moved his sister to take her spot.

"Well nice to meet you Beck and Grant, even you Blake," to Carden and me "Let's go to Carden's room. It seems more fitting anyways."

I got up even though I didn't want to leave the closeness of mine and Sarin's bodies. I also reluctantly went back to Carden's room. Even though Sarin didn't really end up being a threat I couldn't stand the thought of being in his room or even his beloved. Now with Sarin here I was fighting every white fire burning flash I got as he brushed up against me as we walked to the other side of the mansion. It wasn't soon enough that we made it to Carden's room that I ran into the bathroom and locked myself in there to cool down.

I had splashed cold water on my face five times now and after each time I told myself I'd go back into the room and talk about whatever Sarin had to say. However every time I put my hand on the door I couldn't bring myself to walk through the door.

"Blair if you don't come out we're coming in," Sarin yelled through the door.

"Don't you dare come in here while I'm having nerves break down." I could hear my voice give a strong angry echo through the door.

"Oh calm down there, never mind stay in there as long as you like." Sarin said and I could hear him walk away.

I ran the bath on cold and undressed and slowly got it. I put bubbles in so I could calm down. I slowly started to relax my toes and then up to my leg and then my fingers and so on and soon I found myself asleep in colder water.