Day 1: Acoustic Funeral (for Love in Limbo)

Good morning, everyone.

I'm sitting in the living room, drinking coffee and switching between Ellen, the View, and Supernatural.

When it comes to the Galoria Hunter series, my mental block has been winning the fight. That's why I've been focused on a completely new WIP, which I've been calling Robot Pirates.

Now Robot Pirates has my brain doing a proverbial tailspin.

I've come up with a solution to my block though. Starting with HIM's Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice, I will listen to one song every day and use it as a prompt. I'm doing it alphabetically so my first one was Acoustic Funeral (for Love in Limbo) and it inspired a Sarah/Sampsa from Sarah's childhood.

I think I should post the results here and hopefully I will keep up with this blog decision. ;-)

Here is the results of Day 1:

The snow was fresh, powdery, and blindingly bright. It was exactly what I wanted when I was begging Sampsa to take me to Rovaniemi for the winter. I squatted down and ran my hand through the snow, enjoying the icy numbness that enveloped the right side of my torso. I’d always hated the cold, but there was something about Finnish winters that I couldn’t get enough of.

Something moved behind me and a mischievous thought crossed my mind. I grabbed a handful of snow and packed it as tightly as I could. As I jumped up and turned around, I threw the snowball as hard as I could in the direction of the movement. It smacked Sampsa on the side of the head and burst into a cloud of icy dust.

My satisfied smile waned a little when he turned to look at me. His black turtleneck was now a gray-ish color from being completely covered in the same snow that was still dripping out of his hair. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing.

“You think this is funny?” he asked, walking toward me.

Realizing that he was coming for revenge, I turned and started running. The vampire gave me a couple seconds to think I’d gotten away before he grabbed me around the waist and lifted me up off the ground.

“Apologize,” he said. I shook my head. “You threw a deadly weapon at an unarmed man and you can’t even apologize for it?”

“Niko told me to do it,” I lied.

“Oh, Niko told you to do it? In that case,” he mumbled before falling to the ground. He still had a hold of me so I didn’t fight as I landed on top of him. Before I could think about getting away, a handful of snow fell onto my head.

“Sampsa!” I shrieked, shaking my head to get the snow out of my face.

“Vengeance, vauva.”

“I thought that was revenge.”

“No, revenge is something done in response to something that didn’t happen to you directly. When you’re looking for justice for something that happened to you- that’s vengeance.”

“Jeri says that revenge isn’t a good thing,” I told him, playing with his fingers.

“Jeremiel is probably talking about when someone tried to get revenge for someone who doesn’t truly deserve it, which is what’s happening now. You shouldn‘t seek revenge simply to seek revenge.”

“You should seek revenge for someone you love.”

“Precisely, sweetheart.” We lay there for a long time, staring up at the gray sky. Just as that sky opened to allow more snow to fall, Sampsa’s arms tightened around me, almost painfully. ‘Hush, vauva,’ his voice whispered in my head.

I heard footsteps coming from the left, but I didn‘t get to see who it was because Sampsa pretty dumped me onto the ground behind him. He kept a hold on my right hand and from the fact that he was shaking, I knew that whoever was standing in front of us wasn’t friendly.

“Is this her? Is this the vauva I’ve heard so much about?” I’d never heard anyone other than Sampsa say that word before, but now I know that I only like it when he says it. “Come, Sampsa. It’s time to go home. Zane misses you.”

“I’m not leaving,” Sampsa said firmly, squeezing my hand.

“That wasn’t a request, Sampsa. Come now.”

‘Sarah, don’t do anything brave.’

‘What’s happening?’

‘Please, vauva. Promise me you’ll stay out of this. Promise!’

‘I promise.’

‘No matter what happens I want you to know that I love you.’

‘I love you, too, Sampsa.’ A tear rolled down my cheek before I could stop it.

“Sampsa Auvo, get up.” The man’s voice was calm, but it held something that was far from calm.

“I am not going with you, Cyprin.”

“You’d rather stay here with your little pet? That is very disappointing. You’re Zane’s favorite, you know. He’d be very unhappy with me if I left you here without some sort of punishment.” I was now squeezing Sampsa’s hand more than he was squeezing mine. “You’ve disobeyed me far too many times to be ignored and I’ve come up with the perfect punishment.”

Sampsa was suddenly being ripped away from me. I wanted to go after him, but I had promised to stay out of it. The man took off at vampire speed through the trees and out of sight.

“Azzie!”

“What’s wrong?” he asked, kneeling down next to me.

“He took Sampsa!”

“Take a breath, Sarah. Who took Sampsa?”

“Cyprin,” I managed to say between gasps for air.

A scream cut through the silence and my stomach dropped. I got up and started running for the trees. I told Sampsa I’d stay out of it, but I couldn’t stand the thought of someone hurting him. I needed to get to him. I needed to protect him.

I was about to clear the treeline when Azzie grabbed me, pinning to his chest. “You need to stay here, Sarah.”

“Let go of me!” I shouted, kicking and scratching to get away from him.

“If I let you go, Cyprin will kill you. He will kill Sampsa.” I stopped as his words sank in. The angel was scared. Of what though?

“Who is he?” I asked as he carried back toward the house.

“Cyprin Revilo is Sampsa’s sire.”

My heart thudded in my chest. “That man made Sampsa? I don’t believe that. I don’t believe Sampsa could have anything to do with that… that…” I took a deep breath. “I just want him back, Azzie.”

“So do I, sweetie.” He turned around abruptly and mumbled something in Enochian.

I followed his gaze to find that Sampsa was crawling out of the forest. Before I even realized it, I was running toward him. I dropped to my knees next to him and allowed my eyes to see what was truly in front of me.

The sunlight reflecting off of the snow made the blood almost fire engine red. The crimson liquid was trickling out of his mouth and melting into the snow. Instead of letting the bile in my throat come further up, I took Sampsa’s hand in mine and helped him to his feet. Azzie forced Sampsa to lean against him and the angel carried the vampire toward the house. I held onto Sampsa’s hand as tightly as he held mine, which was hard enough that by the time we got up to the door my fingers were throbbing.

“Sarah, stay out here,” Azzie said. I was about to complain when Jeri appeared on the other side of the door. All the color left his face as he looked at the three of us.

I watched them drag Sampsa into the house and close the door behind them. I stared at the door for a couple seconds before turning away from it. The sunlight had dimmed a little so the yard wasn’t as blindingly white as it had been. A trail of blood carved the path that Azzie took to drag Sampsa up to the house.

Before I knew what I was doing, I was following the crimson footsteps. As I got closer to the trees, the trail turned into an imprint of a fallen body. Sampsa’s body. I shivered and instinctively pulled my jacket tighter around me. A rustling on the other side of the dark treeline pulled my attention away from the ground. I had an overwhelming feeling that I was being watched. No, I was being watched. I took off as fast as my feet could take me and didn’t stop until I was leaning against the door of the house.

Twenty minutes went by before Jeri let me into the house. Still not being allowed to see Sampsa, I was sent to my room. I learned very early that you don’t argue with an angel. You’ll never win.

I watched the sun set over the koi pond, which was frozen over at the moment. Even the sunsets in Finland seem… friendlier. My life had pretty much been a nightmare. My only safe haven was in Finland, with Sampsa. He was a couple doors down, possibly dying and all I could do was sit there and wait.

A nightmare within a nightmare, it seemed.

It was around 10:00 when someone knocked on my door. “Come in,” I said, not looking away from the window. The door opened and the light that it allowed in cast a shadow of a man on the wall. He was just closing the door when I jumped into his arms.

“Hush, vauva,” he said softly, holding me tightly as I sobbed. “Don’t cry. Please, don’t cry. Everything is alright.”

It took me a while but I calmed down and pulled away enough so I could see his face. “I never should have made you come back here.” He chuckled softly and I gasped without really meaning to. “Your fangs… they took your fangs.”

He took a deep breath. “They filed them.”

“Will they grow back?” He shook his head. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, putting my arms around his neck and hugging him.

“There is nothing you should be sorry for, Sarah. Not one thing.”

Today's daily prompt is Disarm Me (With Your Loneliness). I already have a couple good ideas. ;-)