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Saint George’s Cathedral lies in ruins but Eden is safe.
You hold them very close but you don't breathe, you don't even look at them where they are burrowed under your chin and into your chest. They have grown quiet now, out of tears.
Your wrecked arms feel more like cold iron bars than parts of you. You're sitting on the cold stone steps that lead up to the altar, the stained glass pieta mostly intact above you and you feel like a hellish mimicry of the Virgin Mary holding Jesus after the cross. And you know, irrevocably, that a mother would never look so holy holding her dead child.
You can't let anything hurt them again.
Rose can't stop a vampire. You could barely stop Lucius, and all it would've taken was a second. For a throat torn. A neck snapped.
You shut your eyes and will your fangs away unsuccessfully.
Iliya keeps near you, he’s back in one piece physically but he moves slow. He’s thinking a mile a minute, running damage control, collecting evidence to keep out of police hands. He’s thinking about Judith, about the people he cares about, wondering if he himself has been careful enough.
Tracy looks more wrecked than you. She’s still. Perched on the roof of the confessional booth, letting her bones and bits find their way back to the right place. Her eyes aren’t still though, they’re darting everywhere but always come back to you. The both of you. You listen in to her thoughts. She thinks the only way to save Eden now is to destroy them. To give them someone new to wear and somewhere new to be, somewhere far, far away from you. And it hurts because she’s probably right.
Freya drifts around, carefully picking her footing amongst the debris, looking at the corpses she raised. She sometimes pauses to look down at their faces or close their eyelids. Her thoughts exhausted and introspective.
Nathan holds an instant ice pack to his throat and just watches. Eden, mostly. This bright and alive kid, clinging to their cold and bloody dead mother’s body. You wonder if he's reminded of his wife and daughter. You wonder if you'll ever know how he feels.
You’ve made up your mind.
“Are you still friends with Alek?” you ask Eden softly.
Eden pulls their head from your chest, “yeah. He's my best friend.”
“Whats his family like?”
“Big but they're all really nice to me. They eat a lot of takeout.”
“I think it might be good for you to stay with them for a while.”
“Don't send me away.”
“Eden, look at me,” they do. “You are the best thing I have ever done.” Their bottom lip wobbles.
“Something really bad happened to me a year after you were born. And I tried, very hard to be there, and I think that harmed more than helped-”
“No, no, don't leave. Not Again.”
You look down at them now. So old and so young at the same time. Twelve years. Will you watch them die?
“Eden. Listen to me very carefully. I gave birth to you. Eleven years ago I was murdered. And I love you more than anything in this world or the next. These things will never ever change.” They look at you with big wet eyes.
“Vampires, witches and werewolves are real." They’ve already seen which of the three you are. "Alek’s family are werewolves.”
Eden's eyes go wide.
“I’m sorry you can't live in ignorance anymore my love, I didn't want it to be like this but what I want never mattered. What keeps you safe matters. And they can.” Eden holds you tighter.
You call to nathan. “Do you still have the pack's number?”
☽ ☾
If you weren't covered in blood you could've just been dropping your kid off at a sleepover.
Instead you, a vampire, and your maybe friend, a vampire hunter, are driving into Werewolf Country, to drop off your child, human, to a pack of werewolves, your child's best friend's family.
“And you kill vampires?” Eden continues talking to Nathan from the back of the car, glancing at you in the driver's seat.
“I kill monsters who hurt other people,” he answers, voice painful, eyes closed.
“You won't kill my mum,” and it didn't sound like a question. You glance at them in the rear view mirror to find them frowning at Nathan.
The thing is Nathan may end up killing you one day. If you become a monster in acts instead of just nature he’ll be there to get you. If Nathan kills you, you probably wouldn’t even be that upset about it. Werewolves however…
“If neither you or the wolves don't kill me in the next half hour I'm driving you to the ER,” giving Nathan's choker necklace of bruises a pointed look.
He huffs. “Your mum doesn't hurt other people.”
“So what I did to Lucius in that church was just a hot stone massage?”
“The werewolves could kill you?” Eden's small panicked voice from the back-seat.
Shit, but you can’t bring yourself to lie to them. “We just don't get along. It's mutual.”
“They- They cant-”
“They know we're coming, they agreed to the impromptu indefinite sleepover but if it starts going wrong Buffy and I will just get back in the car and we'll leave.”
“Buffy…” Nathan repeats.
“And drive to the ER,” you finish.
Eden turns to you, “So if there's werewolves, does that mean there's like- an alpha or something?” They feel ridiculous.
“Yes we think so but we don't know who,” answering quickly, they aren’t ridiculous.
They pause, thinking, “I think it's one of Alek's uncles, the one missing an arm, Sergi, he's mean.”
“To you?” Eyes locked to theirs in the rear view mirror. Foot hovering over the brake.
“No, no. Just sharp sometimes. They say he got softer though after his daughter was born. She has so much energy.”
You look over to Nathan to see if he has anything useful to add. His eyes are closed. “Do you have spare witching wood?” you ask him.
“Yeah.” His eyes remain closed, but seems to be way ahead of you. “Eden can take the three in the boot. Should be good for a month or two.”
“Witching wood?”
Nathan answers. “True vampire stakes.”
Eden looks back at you. “Will that be enough? There's so many people in Alek’s family.”
“Werewolves don't need witching wood, my love, they can kill vampires all on their own.”
It's silent for a while before Eden asks. “Have you ever killed anyone?”
“No.” You answer truthfully but your knuckles are still white on the wheel. Nathan doesn't argue, and Eden accepts it.
They're quiet, thinking, rolling things over again in their mind. “You can kill crucifix guy, if you want.”
“I can?” you repeat, blindsided.
Eden continues, “I mean I think you can, I know he's stronger than you but he's tied down, it wouldn't be hard.”
“Eden.”
Nathan just slouches in the passenger seat, useless and smiling.
“What? He's a cunt.”
“Language.”
But Eden is smiling at you, unafraid, and you’re not sure if that makes you happy or terrified.
☽ ☾
You put the car in park and turn the engine off.
“I see Alek.”
You get out quickly and stand between Eden and the group of werewolves waiting across the small nature reserve. You know there are others hidden out of sight. You can’t see Minjo but you do see her youngest, Alek, he’s grown since you last saw him at the kindergarten play all those years ago, but he is still so painfully young. He smiles when he sees Eden.
Nathan gets out slower and leans against the car.
A man without a right arm and only one eye steps forward. Must be Uncle Sergi. “Hand the kid over.”
You feel your fangs against your tongue. “I need your word that you won't harm them.”
“Harm them? If anything we’re saving them from you,“ he spits out, eyes flashing gold.
You snarl, dropping the pretense of looking human, jaw open wider than it should. Moving more in front of Eden. You didn't think it would go wrong this fast. You shouldn’t have brought Nathan-
“Enough,” a low steady voice cuts through the tension.
Sergi rocks back on his heels. You audibly snap your mouth shut.
A blonde white woman, in a faded baggy shirt and jeans comes up beside Sergi and looks to Eden, “hey kiddo, you doing okay?”
“Hi Chelsea,” they wave from behind you, dirty and unharmed. “This is my mum, Sonya.”
The absurdity.
Chelsea looks back at you, gives you a once over before saying, “you look like shit.”
“You should see the other guy.”
“Who?”
“Lucius. What’s left of him is cable wired to a cross and waiting for sunrise.”
“Mum almost ripped his head off with her bare hands,” Eden adds in an effort to put everyone on the same side but they also sound… proud? Right, perfect. Mum of the year award for you.
There's restless whispers among the wolves but Chelsea's mouth stretches into a wide grin, all teeth. "You're going after the Night King,” she concludes.
“And probably die trying.”
“No.” Eden says immediately.
You turn towards Eden, but don’t turn your back on the wolves, “I'm sorry my love, I have to.”
“Bullshit,” they hiss, tears in their eyes.
You get down on one knee in front of them, hands rubbing up and down their arms, remembering when the entire length of them was less than your own arm.
“You will always be in danger as long as the Night King and I are both alive. So it's gotta be one or the other.” You look into their eyes, see the brown of your own eyes in theirs. “I promise I'm not suicidal Eden. I'm just your mother.”
“I get it just- Stop dying.”
You cough out an almost laugh and bring them into your arms and wish so badly that you will get to know them.
“I'm trying.”