Mia's Path
Come back to me

Ah, the familiar darkness and numbness of nothingness. I’ve been here before quite a few times. Crap.

I hated it.

But why was I here now, that seemed wrong somehow. I haven’t been fighting anything or anyone for some time now so how can I be between life and death again without a reason for it? Maybe it was a surprise attack, like the one we had while I had my best friend alive with me. If it was it, I guessed that this time I didn’t noticed it in time.

“Please don’t leave me, baby...”

That voice sounded familiar. I knew it belonged to someone I came to love in some way. I couldn’t remember who, though. I was trying to concentrate in what he was saying, but it was like I was underwater, and his voice wasn’t clear enough for me to understand him. I heard other voices, and I was sure I knew all of them, but who were they? They sounded so sad, I thought I even heard some crying going on at some point, but I couldn’t really tell. I wanted to wake up and tell them that I was going to be okay, and they didn’t need to worry.

It was no use; my muscles didn’t move an inch and to be honest I wasn’t sure I could feel my body at all. I was trying to focus on the sounds around me and keep strong so I wouldn’t let those people down, but the nothingness was so tempting and inviting. I was getting tired of fighting. Truth be told, I was tired to have to fight so much for every possible drop of happiness to even grace my life.

I knew I never had it easy, but was it fair for fate to be that horrible and in the end just take you away without letting you really enjoy living? I guess that’s why people said that you should live each day like it was your last. Now I really regretted not doing just that. I should have appreciated the small things better and trusted people more. I should have told my parents I loved them more often. They might not be my biological parents, but they loved me like I was their own daughter, and I should have been more grateful to them for it all.

They raised me without asking anything in return. They didn’t care I was human - or not, whatever - they just loved me from the moment they saw me. And they did their best to keep me safe and sound. It wasn’t their fault we lived in that horrible place. Abuse was no stranger to us all there and they shielded me from it the best they could. I had my suspicions that their deaths had something to do with that too. That awful person had plotted to make me feel alone and had no one to go to, so he could completely dominate and control me.

I was trying so hard to remember all their names. What were my parents’ names? How could I forget that now? But it seemed just out of reach to me, I could sense that I knew their names and faces but didn’t matter how hard I tried to picture them or hear their voice on my head, it was all foggy. I was exhausted from trying to remember them, trying to grasp anything concrete from my life. All I had now was feelings. People said that when you are dying you can see your whole life before your eyes. Well, either they were wrong, or I wasn’t dying. I honestly believed it was the former, I could feel my life essence fading away.

I had no idea how long I was like that, it could have been seconds, minutes or even days. All I knew was that my time was running out and I couldn’t get over the feeling that I was leaving something important behind. Someone, perhaps?

Suddenly things started to change, I could feel something warm. It was filling me, and it felt so good, like little warm sparkles running all over my body. That’s how I noticed how cold I was until now. I was sure that if I could have moved, I would have shivered from the cold now starting to leave my body. I felt something else.

A warm hand held mine.

It was so comforting that it almost made me cry, or I would have cried if I could. That hand just made all the sparkles on my body dance and vibrate even more, leaving a tingling sensation all over. I liked it. It felt nice, and it felt right.

“Stay with me, Mia.” I heard him whisper.

Who was him?

Drake.

I knew that voice and this time I was strong enough to recognize it.

It had to be him.

But why was his tone so sad and tired? Couldn’t he feel that I was getting stronger by the second? I felt something warm and wet on my hand. Tears. Was he crying over me? I was fine. Well, I wasn’t really, but I had a gut feeling that I was going to be fine. But how was I going to tell him that? I tried to move my lips to talk but they were too heavy and felt like they were glued together. I tried opening my eyes so I could look at him and reassure him that I was okay, but my eyelids wouldn’t obey my command. I tried everything I could think of, but nothing was having any effect. I even tried to kick at something, but the result was just the same: nothing.

I knew I was getting stronger with that wonderful warmth spreading through my body, but I wasn’t strong enough yet. Something was holding me back and I had no idea what it was. I had to be patient and wait for the right moment.

DRAKE

I fell asleep at some point, not sure when. The day had been long and after seeing Mia behave like that towards the fucker, it was all too much for my tired brain. I didn’t want to believe what Raina had told us about the fucker’s gift or how he got her addicted to his disgusting blood, but that was all I could think about.

How was I going to compete with that?

When I was about twelve years old, I traveled with my dad to some place, and we met a human under the same situation. He was a shell of what I thought he once was, just a pawn to the vampire that was feeding him her blood. The human only wanted and knew one thing: his master. That was what he called her, and it made that vampire rejoice and cackle like a maniac every time he called her that. She enjoyed inflicting that kind of mindless control over him.

That’s when I decided that I hated vampires more than any other creature on earth. How could they be so cruel to just take away someone else’s free will and mind just for the kicks of it. Yeah, she wasn’t even drinking his blood to survive. No, she just wanted to see him squirm and suffer. It was maddening and sickening and now that was happening with Mia. I didn’t know how to deal with it. The human that I met when I was young, killed himself trying to get to his vampire. She was proving to us how effective her blood could be and put him over embers and knives, making him crawl to try and cross it to get to her. She was pure evil. How could I win against something like that? Something that took away your most basic instinct of survival.

Drake, Mia needs you RIGHT NOW.

Raina’s voice was clear as day on my foggy sleepy mind. It made me wake up with a jump. The urgency and panic on her tone made me fear for the worst. I just knew in my gut that that fucker had done something to her, something that she might not recover from. My feet moved faster than my brain and I was already out of my office.

Kyle, get Tom and meet me at Raina’s place. Something is wrong. I said through the mind link and heard their affirmation the next second.

They were just as eager as me to kill that motherfucker vampire. It took me more than what I wanted to get to Raina’s place from my office. Even though I didn’t even take more than a minute, probably less, it was too many seconds too long. I should have never let Mia stay with that fucker alone. I bursted into the room where the light was coming from, and all the blood left my body. Raina was by Mia’s side, holding her lifeless hand and looking at me with pleading eyes. The fucker was right behind her, with the evidence of what he had done still dripping from his chin. I felt Tom and Kyle’s presence behind me and told them to get the - now soon to be dead – vampire.

Mel, I need you in my room, Mia lost a lot of blood. I called my sister, she would know what to do.

How much blood? Was the only question.

Enough so I can’t hear her heartbeat. I whispered through the link.

I’ll need your blood, get things ready.

Mel cut off the link and I was already making my way out of the room with Mia in my arms. She couldn’t die like this, not when we just got her back. I have no idea how she could become so important to all of us in such a short period of time, but I couldn’t imagine my life without her anymore.

Once in my room I laid her on the bed gently and kissed her forehead, praying to the Moon Goddess to let her live. I got things ready like Melinda instructed me and I didn’t even have to wait more than a few seconds for her to run into my room with a bag and a determined expression on her face.

I knew that expression all too well, it was her doctor one. She wouldn’t let Mia die, at least not without a fight. She hooked me with a cannula to take my blood and I sat by Mia’s side. I was furious with what had happened and wanted nothing less than to kill the fucker for what he had done. His days of torture were only getting bigger by the second. I had so much pain planned to be inflicted on him that I would have to pray that he wouldn’t die from it too soon. He would feel every ounce of agony he made me feel, every ounce of despair and devastation we all felt when he took her away from us.

But for now, I needed to focus on more important things at hand and that was Mia. She was receiving my blood already, but nothing seemed to change. Mel told me last time it had an almost immediate effect and now I saw no changes. Panic filling my lungs and I felt I could drown on it.

“Stay with me, Mia.” I pleaded and let despair take over me once again.

We were alone in the room by now, so I could let all my emotions flow freely. It’s not like I was a macho guy that was afraid from crying, but showing off how heartbroken I was to my pack wasn’t going to help them cope with anything. I always tried to show off a brave face, courage and resilience, even when I didn’t feel any of it. So, I had just learned to grieve and feel my sorrows alone. I took her hand in mine and prayed with all my might for her to get better. I couldn’t lose her. It wasn’t fair.

Why put her in my path like that, without letting me know for sure if she even is my mate and take her away so suddenly?

I questioned the Moon Goddess herself. How could she be so cold hearted towards our family. She had already made Kyle suffer the death of his mate and almost perish himself. My mother had suffered countless times in the hands of my father. Was that it? Were we paying for his sins? How could that be fair?

I fell asleep like that, holding Mia’s hand in mine and resting my head on her arm. I was vaguely aware that my sister came back at some point to check on her. I didn’t bother paying attention to what she said and when she tried to take the needle out of my arm, I growled at her. I didn’t care if I had to give Mia all my blood so she could have a chance to survive this. I would do whatever was necessary. Mel tried again and one more time I warned her with a low growl. If she tried something I wouldn’t hesitate in biting her hand off.

Later that day someone brought me food and water. I didn’t feel like eating anything, but I also knew that if I wanted to keep giving Mia my blood, I needed to be okay enough to do it, so I ate and drank all of what was brought to me throughout the day. Night came again and my despair only grew stronger. Why wasn’t she better yet? She should be better. I needed her to be better.

“Come back to me.” I begged in a whisper, holding her hand close to my lips.

And then everything changed.

I felt her squeeze my hand back. It wasn’t strong or anything, but I felt it.