Hey guys, welcome back to my channel. Just kidding. This is the final chapter before the epilogue, I hope you're ready for what's in store. TW FOR VIOLENCE.
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Fire caught onto the most flammable items inside the castle first, flourishing quickly to swallow up the expensive rugs and the curtains bellowing out to the floor in front of the tall windows. Blackness swirled along the ruined fabric and scorched the ground it touched, skipping over the broken glass strewn across the floor from vampires dropping everything in their hands and escaping as soon as possible. Frank could smell the blood mixed in with the heavy scent of ash thickening in his throat, making him cough into his fist as he charged into the building. He struggled to track Lindsey and Jamia's scent, knowing they must have been hiding somewhere, and he stole a precious moment of time to think the way Lindsey would if he planned an extravagant escape. Panting, he shut his eyes, holding the stake so tight in his hands that his skin stretched over his knuckles.

Lindsey hid her coven of vampires underground, inside the catacombs under a lavish mansion slowly rotting from age, but the appearance of abandon was only show to persuade those passing by not to enter. Although the castle was sprung to life tonight, Lindsey wouldn't be so foolish to shelter herself in a room stowed away in one of the towers; she would make her way into a place were she intended to stay hidden for as long as possible.

Frank's eyes snapped open. He surged past the shards of broken glass, dodging the fire, nearing the staircase until he caught of a whiff of a disturbingly familiar scent breaking through the overwhelming smell of fire. Frank trusted his instincts and followed the trail to the bottom of the staircase where it seemed to end. The orange lighting and that of the brilliant chandelier swinging dangerously overhead casted a glow onto a small door hidden under the stairs, a smear of blood streaking across the bottom of the doorknob in the slightest amount, no human would be able to detect it. The scent of both female vampires clung to the door like a sickening perfume fumigating Frank's lungs. He yanked the door open with force, shattering the lock from the strength of his arm pulling at the knob. Shoving the door away, Frank was not faced with a measly broom closet as one might have imagined.

The doorway led to pitch darkness, an abyss containing a splintered wooden ladder descending downwards into the black smelling of molding and rainwater. Layering over the unpleasant scent was the smell of the two vampires moving downwards into what must have been yet another catacomb Frank was forced to venture into. Contamination must have lived in the underground due to the age of the castle, but cobwebs and black mold wouldn't stop Frank from doing everything in his ability to track Lindsey down and plunge a stake deep into her chest.

Frank tucked the stake into the pocket of his blazer and lowered himself down onto the first bar of the ladder with care, making sure his foot wouldn't slip before he guided his steps down the questionable item with his fingers gripping as tightly as they could to every surface he could find balance in. The darkness he descended into was deathly quiet compared to the bright chaos taking place above ground. Unease slipped into the bottom of Frank's stomach, twisting his insides into fearsome knots he attempted to keep down or else it would overcome him. Being renewed into a stronger form of existence didn't completely erase his human traits, his wide quantity of fear brimming over every other rational feeling raking up his blood. His breath shook as he struggled with himself, shakily moving himself down the groaning latter with a silent fear that it would snap and send him falling to whatever laid at the bottom. The grating of the wood underneath his palms would have easily penetrated his flesh if he didn't loosen his grip quickly enough as he moved down, averting from twisting his fists.

Dim light suddenly swelling up towards Frank filled him with extravagant amounts of relief just as his restlessness began to kick in. Peering down, he saw stone flooring surrounded by walls of the same material, puddles caking around the dingy ground. He quickened his pace until he reached the bottom, hopping down from the ladder when he realized he'd wasted enough time trekking down the length of it with fear pounding in the remnants of his humanity. Frank spun around and found himself inside of an abandoned catacombs coated in spiderwebs, ridden with leaks coming from the fissures ripping through the high ceiling above. The molding came from the water dripping onto the walls and the flooring, a neverending leak collecting into murky puddles eventually turning into a pungent, thick substance. The lighting came from lanterns hanging randomly along the walls, some fallen to the floors ages ago and shattered with broken glass stained by time. The flames bursting inside the faded glass must have been kissed by the flame peeking out from Lindsey's lighter, that being the only explanation for it.

Frank could smell the fading trail of the two vampires overlapping the smell of all else festering in the catacombs feeling too familiar for comfort. Lindsey must have viewed the underground differently, the familiarity bringing her a sense of homeliness where she'd built her tiny empire underneath a mansion in Jersey. Frank started moving forward, tracking the scent, letting it guide him through the twisting tunnels buried under the castle. The chill here was far more bitter than the cold of the nighttime above, coldness trapped between unfeeling stone walls and possibly hundreds of years of abandonment. No one in their right mind would ever want to venture into the darkness he'd climbed through if they were a mere visitor, a tunnel of black leading to no visible bottom unless the ladder was climbed. Embarking alone shook his resolve, but he'd never wanted to bite the bullet more than ever, forcing his legs to pump themselves quicker when at last, he could hear the treading footsteps coming from two vampires in the distance.

Frank froze up before turning around the corner beside him, silently hovering to pick up the words being spoken by Lindsey and Jamia in the hallway they stormed through.

"They'll find us!" Jamia cried, her voice echoing across the stone walls.

"They won't." Lindsey snapped, but Frank could hear the bridge of insanity forming her syllables, quivering anxiousness coloring in the gaps between the truth she attempted to grasp. "Not under here, the fools could never make it through the tunnels."

"They almost had us in in the maze, Lindsey, what makes you believe they can't track us down here?"

"I saved your life! Some faith would suffice for your lack of gratitude!" Lindsey's voice was nothing short of cruel, snapping towards a vampire concerned for their well being.

A pause dragged on as they embarked, leaving Frank to hold his breath. He silently peered around the corner until he caught sight of their forms in the distance. Jamia's wrist was in Lindsey's iron grip and she appeared feeble in the presence of Lindsey standing tall before her, a lengthening shadow hovering in front of her.

"I love you."

"Good. If you truly do, then keep moving." 

The response was from a woman built from the black rivers of venom, holding no true love in her heart no matter how tenderly it was doused upon her by a woman who Frank believed was still pure deep inside her heart. Manipulation blinded her human eyes as she took the form of a creature never suiting her gentle personality and her brain was swiped clean of all sense of good unless it somehow involved placing Lindsey on a pedestal as a gracious queen rescuing poor souls from the darkness. All Lindsey had done was slide her fangs into Jamia to prevent her decay, to use her against the vampires she spited if an army wasn't her choice of style. It triggered a ticking bomb built into Frank's chest, installed the moment Jamia was yanked from his grip by evil forces, and the explosion announced itself in a form of pure rage bringing shades of crimson into his vision, he could taste it like rustic, rotting blood on his tongue, and so he'd spit it upon Lindsey's corpse when she was dead at his feet.

Frank was flying before he could fully drink in that he was lunging for the woman set in his vision, rapidly entering his line of sight more and more as his fangs split out from his aching gums and his hand was poised around the stake held tight in his hand. Sensing his approach, Lindsey whirled around, her eyes glowing with an impossibly bright shade of crimson suddenly overtaking the normal darkness of her irises, and she lashed out with a cry ripping free from her throat. Frank's fresh transformation permitted him quicker senses, adrenaline, and his hand immediately captured Lindsey's wrist before she was able to strike him. In a nearly crushing grip, he pulled the vampire's arm with enough force to slam her against the ground. Jamia cried out near him at the expense of her shock.

Lindsey sprung to her feet in an instant, her wrist crooked alongside her twisting fingers, and she bared her teeth as she clicked her bones back into their place with a deep flinch.

"You're supposed to be burying a body, you imbecile." Lindsey's strained out, gnashing her teeth together.

"I will be once I'm finished with you."  Frank launched towards her again, the stake poised for her chest in his hand, only to feel the force of a body colliding with his side, toppling him to the ground. Winded, Frank glared up wildly at the vampire pinning him to the growl with a strangled growl emitting from her throat. His eyes met Jamia's filling with rich crimson, flashing with the promise of murderous rampage as she gripped his shoulders tight, yanking them up, and slammed his head against the unforgiving ground beneath him. Frank's fang slid deep into his bottom lip and a burst of blood began to drip from the stinging wound, a faint spell of dizziness coming from the impact of his skull against the hard floor.

"No." Lindsey bellowed, ripping Jamia away from Frank as if she were nothing but a measly ragdoll to be discarded. "You will let me finish him off for good on my own, do you hear me?"

"Lindsey!" Jamia sobbed as she was thrown aside, the brightness in her eyes dimming, but Lindsey merely snarled at her, causing the vampire to curl up against the wall with another level of paleness competing with the white skin of all other vampires. She looked upon the dueling vampires in fear, unable to make another sound.

Frank took advantage of Lindsey's distraction to wriggle across the ground, twisting his fists around Lindsey's ankles and knocking her feet from beneath her to send her nearly crashing to the ground if she didn't land with agile grace, an animalistic look tearing across her features. Frank lithely leapt to his feet once he felt all dizziness pass and he moved to reach for Lindsey, but her movements were nearly blurs as her speed was far more impressive than his own, he soon realized she was also provided with advantages he didn't have. He found his arms being tightly gripped, nails digging into the soft flesh, and he was roughly pinned against the wall in front of him, the side of his face smashing against the rotting foundation.

"Your lover left you to me all on your own, how pathetic. He must have wanted you to be killed." Lindsey taunted against his ear, her nails sinking deeper into Frank's flesh until the skin was splitting and blood began to roll down the length of his arms. He cried out from the blistering pain, his face smothered against the concrete, and a moment of panic crossed him.

"I wanted to kill you myself," Frank snarled, gripping the stake in his trembling hand, "not even Gerard could hate you as much as I do."

"And how could that possibly be?"

"You've taken everything from everyone that has ever meant something to me." Frank grinded his teeth against the pain shooting under his skin.

Lindsey's mocking laughter echoed across the catacombs, shrill in Frank's ear. Ripping her hands from his arms like the exiting glide of tiny daggers, she retrieved his form to slam him against the wall brutally by his throat, sending waves of pain and vertigo through Frank. He almost lost a grip on his stake, but he refused to let himself be belittled. He thrashed, his knee making sharp contact with Lindsey's stomach in two blows making the vampire curl in on herself instinctually. Frank turned his head and sank his teeth deeply into Lindsey's wrist to cease her grip, the thick stream of blood touching his tongue only greatening his satisfaction at the cry Lindsey released. He could taste her flesh as he ripped it from her wrist with his teeth, spitting the foul chunk onto the ground and feeling blood  spilling from his lips. She wildly retreated, giving Frank the opportunity to swipe towards her chest with the stake poised correctly towards it. She flinched away from him through her pain, but the tip grazed just below her throat, and though it remained shallow, blood dripped from the fresh line of a wound instantly against her pale skin.

Frank cried out in frustration. He swiped again, finding her naturally dodging each of his movements, until anger quickened his movements, and the sharp tip of the stake penetrated her side the moment he began to understand the strategy of her movements. Lindsey howled with pain, tumbling backwards as tears of blood immediately pooled in her bright red eyes. Frank smirked at the blood spilling from her wound as he ripped it from the hole in her side beginning to soak through her dress and the tattered rip ruining it.

"You're a fucking monster who deserves to die this way!" Frank's rammed his foot against Lindsey's wounded side until she went tumbling, gasping, her hair falling from its perfect arrangement to cradle her bewildered face.

"I've wanted to kill you since the day I met you, and now, I can finally see you pay for everything you've done." Frank fell onto his knees in a fluid movement and didn't care for the stinging sharpness of rubble piercing through his clothing. All he could address was his rage, his thirst for blood being spilled, and how pathetically afraid Lindsey appeared for the first time in her villainous reign; her eyes locked with death blazing in Frank's gaze.

Frank pinned the struggling, bleeding vampire to the floor, bashing her head against the ground for weakness to enter her struggle. Lindsey wailed, the sound strangled, and her nails clawed desperately at the healing wounds at Frank's arms. Frank straddled her quickly, his breath coming out in quick pumps of air as he wrapped both of his hands along the cool stake in his shaking hands. He tasted victory on his tongue, seeing the wideness of Lindsey's eyes gazing up at him utterly helplessly, and he raised the stake high above her heaving chest with the plan to drive it deeply into her heart.

"Frankie, no!" A familiar, sweet voice rang out along the lengths of the catacombs. The words bounced across the walls and deeply lashed out against Frank's chest rapidly moving up and down, traveling into his skull, and he froze all over at the sound.

His head snapped to the side, locating the voice he thought was lost to the darkness. He found Jamia in her vampire form still sprawled across the floor, but she began to helplessly writhe, beginning to crawl and stopping herself as she remembered Lindsey's command. Tears of blood spilled like rivers down her porcelain face and she reached out to Frank, shaking her head slowly through her sobs.

"Don't kill her, Frankie, please!" Jamia's plea at the end was almost a pained scream, making Frank flinch. "You'll never see us again if that's what you want, but please!"

Frank could feel her desperation inside of his heart. If she didn't love Lindsey as a mate, then she loved her as a dear friend who she truly believed was her savior despite the truth being twisted before it was fed to her. He could taste the horror he witnessed almost moments ago, the torture of thinking the one he loved the most would be ripped from his side and killed in cold blood by the enemy. In Jamia's eyes, Frank was her mortal enemy now, he abandoned her and allowed her to be thrust into the chaos of the vampire world when he only thought he would return to her with peace in his mind. Looking into her eyes now, he found that there was humanity remaining inside of her, but all of her faith was placed into the horrific creed of Lindsey. By killing the vampire, Jamia would never find it within herself to forgive Frank for all he'd done, all he would continue to do just by breathing.

Frank hadn't realized the space of time between nearly killing Lindsey and having his attention stolen away by the appearance of human Jamia was enough to lose everything he'd been fighting for.

Lindsey used all of her strength to lift her upper body from the ground no matter the agony it brought to her wounded side to crash her skull against the front of Frank's. The interruption of bursting pain throbbing behind his skull made Frank careen backwards, blood immediately beginning to trickle from his nostrils due to the force hitting a tender spot. Lindsey kicked out from underneath Frank and shouldered him onto the floor in the second he took to reel from the shock and the blow. His gasp formed into a choked cry of pain as Lindsey cracked her fist against his cheekbone and his head snapped to the side. He was pinned, and above him, Lindsey was practically foaming at the mouth with fury possessing her, causing the tremble in her frame pressing all of the weight of her strength against Frank.

"I will never understand how Gerard wouldn't give into me, but he could love such a worthless, stupid insect." Lindsey spat against Frank's throbbing cheek, her lips pulled back over her gleaming teeth bared towards him. "First there was Charlotte, then there was you. I knew I should have killed all of her descendants."

"Accept that he never loved you, Lindsey," Frank shook his head slowly, blood trickling from his nose and falling towards his lips and quivering in droplets like the liquefied formation of his resentment. "And he never will." 

Lindsey's eyes filled with glowing red speaking so familiarly to Frank when he looked up into them. Suddenly, he could almost feel the chill of unforgiving winter seeping into his bones, he could feel the ghosting sensation of murderous hands and the paralyzing fear from watching fangs burst free from gums in preparation to feast on his blood. He felt feeble, the age of seven once again as he found himself looking at death in the eye of a vampire, and nothing could prevent the rawness of terror kickstarting his heart no matter what form he took on now. He was gasping, trying to erase the memory, but it was so present, so vivid. He watched Lindsey snatch away the stake and pull it into her hands so her pale fingers spread along the steel, prepared to plunge it deep into the cavern of Frank's chest. He tasted Gerard then, he shut his eyes and found the warmth of his olive colored eyes greeting him before death truly twisted his entire being into a mangled corpse, and he prayed that if  he was torn into by his enemy, then he would float into the valley of death with the memory of his mate forever beating like a second heart inside of him, to mingle with his blood until they met again.

Frank was jolted from his journey of surrender by the weight above him being removed in a smooth second. His eyes snapped open in time to ear a blood curling scream echoing across the stone walls, the sound of struggles and heavy breaths, and the breeze fluttering past him carrying the scent of vampires he'd never felt more relieved to smell as he laid frozen on the floor. Sucking in a large breath, Frank immediately sat up in alarm, his gaze snapping across the room and finding a sight he hadn't expected to be met with. Lindsey, crawling across the ground with blood spilling from a fresh wound in her stomach, reaching for a bloodied stake tumbling across the ground. A flash of darkness approaching the winking silver turned into the form of Gerard, vibrant with rage and the beauty of an archangel. His hands were smeared with blood smelling strongly of Lindsey's. Jamia leapt forward to rescue her dying vampire, but she was captured--Mina and Aura held her by her arms, holding back the thrashing vampire baring her fangs and screaming until the grating of her vocal chords began to rasp from the strain.

"Gerard!" Frank cried, relief breaking his voice filling the room.

His vampire, his beloved angel, was filled with vengeance he'd never witnessed in him before. Gerard could never resemble evil even as his crimson eyes dripped with bloodied tears and his fangs were bared for the world to see, his hair a brilliant halo of tangled black waves surrounding a porcelain pale face. He didn't glance at Frank. He reached down to retrieve the stake Lindsey frantically reached for in her last attempt of survival. Lindsey wheezed, blood dribbling from her smudged crimson lips, her nails raking against the ground so roughly they split and broke. Gerard curled his fingers into her hair with an unforgiving grip and roughly dragged her across the ground, blood spilling across the stone in a bright current, and forced her onto her knees before him. Frank's chest clenched heavily at the sight of Lindsey, feeble and weakened as she struggled to breathe through the wounds imbedded into her torso, deep enough for her to bleed out from, but it didn't seem to nearly be enough for her life to end at long last. Frank choked on oncoming tears of emotions overwhelming him as he felt blood seeping from the back of his head, grateful that at least it stopped dribbling from his nose. Gerard was an angel of fire, of revenge, and Lindsey was belittled into nothing at the expense of her defeat.

"Kill me. Please" Lindsey's strangled, broken voice sounded so different compared to the normal, wicked tone of it. She looked deep into Gerard's eyes, breathing raggedly as she bled. "If anyone was meant to kill me, I prayed it would be you."

Gerard's loud breathing trembled deeply at her confession. Her lies didn't run through her voice or slither through the cracks, she sensed her moment of ending at the back of her throat and she would never survive if she escaped now. All of the vampires in the room aside from sobbing Jamia stared at her in shock, beginning to watch the vampire unravel from her evil to expose who was hidden underneath.

"You should have said so long ago and I would have taken honor in killing you." Gerard's velvet voice ripped into shredded pieces of gossamer, falling to the ground in blood soaked tendrils. "Not for being the one you chose to do it, but for being the one who finally ended your miserable, vile existence."

Lindsey sobbed, shuddering, whimpering from her pain and her internal suffering unfolding as if her wounds allowed her secrets to bleed out with her. "I loved you, I needed you, you drove me mad!" Her cries of agony could have been heard for miles. "Everything I've built, all the vampires I've created, they were for you."

 Frank's insides went so cold, still, and he couldn't breathe.

Gerard shut his eyes tight. Blood rolled down his cheeks, tears shedding because through it all, Gerard could hate Lindsey with a passion overruling all else, but he would always feel when he shouldn't. Frank's eyes pooled with tears of his own, his eyes slowly falling onto Jamia who had crumbled onto the floor, smeared with blood tears all over, shaking brilliantly as Mina and Aura restrained her tightly with expressions mirroring Gerard's.

Gerard moved at long last. He ceased his grip on Lindsey's hair, pushing her aside. She crumbled to the ground, weeping and slowly wrapping her arm around her bleeding torso and the rags her dress had become from the struggles she experienced tonight. Gerard hovered over her, waiting for her to tilt her face up to meet his eyes. Gerard's expression was agonized, Frank could feel the great pressure of his pain inside his own chest, making him choke on a sob.

Lifting the stake, Gerard gave Lindsey one long look into her eyes. She was hopeful, pleading him to end her suffering that went beyond the blinding pain of stab wounds. Taking a deep breath, Gerard tightly shut his eyes, letting the breath out in a whimper, and his arm forcefully came down to plunge the stake into Lindsey's heaving chest.

The sound of the stake entering Lindsey's chest and pushing past her ribs to enter her heart was a gruesome noise, but Frank's stomach only twisted at the screams he would be sure to hear whispering at the back of his mind for the rest of his eternal life. Lindsey's howl as she was given a final blow, and Jamia's excruciatingly painful scream as she felt it all inside her own chest, doubled by the shattering of her heart as Lindsey was finally killed. Frank covered his ears to block out the noises, but his ultrasensitive hearing couldn't be phased by the action that would work if he was still human. His heart pounded and writhed at the sob Gerard trembled with, falling onto his knees to rip the stake out from Lindsey's chest to drive it inside again. The smell of her blood was all that Frank could breathe and the sounds of her twisting, pained writhing barely went over the wet noise of her blood dripping rapidly onto the ground. She was in a pool of blood from all else she'd been struck with, leaving her body dying slowly on the ground until her movements slowly ceased. She choked on her blood, gasping, but her lids began to grow heavy.

"I love you." She whispered, corroded by death.

Gerard ripped the stake free from her chest. He reeled his arm back and threw it against the rotting wall of the catacomb with a fresh splatter of blood sprinkling the stone once it hit the surface. It tumbled to the ground and Gerard rose from his knees, staring down at Lindsey's twitching body with burning eyes.

"Love sees no evil." Gerard whispered, eerie and broken. At long, he turned his head, his gaze capturing Frank's from the distance between him and the scene of gore. Frank nodded slowly, though he trembled as if he'd been the one to kill a vampire that evening. It was his way of agreeing with his vampire, his beloved mate who he could never see becoming so cruel to obtain his eternal love. He felt hollow, cold, but the moment would soon pass. He told Gerard as such with his eyes and hoped he would believe it, too.

"No, no." Jamia mindlessly mumbled. Rapidly shaking her head, she broke free from Mina and Aura, crawling across the filthy ground on her hands and knees. "No! No, Lindsey." She fell onto the floor beside her creator who breathed her last breath before falling limp inside the mess of her own blood seeping into the cracks of the stone below. She lathered her hands in the blood, lifting them to her face to gaze at the dripping crimson with horror obscuring all of her features. She wailed, smearing the blood on her cheek as she tried to breathe through her cries. Throwing herself atop of Lindsey's body, she cried into her unmoving chest, wrapping her arms around her, covering herself in thick blood and caring little about it. She would have crawled inside of Lindsey's open chest and curled her body to sleep inside of it if she could, her wishes were visible in how her trembling fingers brushed the wounds. Frank couldn't look at the sight of intimate mourning, torturous pain radiating from each one of Jamia's pores. He screwed his eyes shut and turned away, laying still on the ground, trying to block out the sobs escaping Jamia's throat.

Frank felt a touch so tender on his cheek, it could have counted as a kiss. When it glided down to his chin, he discovered it was fingers placing comfort deep into his skin, no matter how heavily horrified he felt. He slowly opened his eyes and found his vampire gazing at him with boundless guilt in his eyes, his expression crumbling as he examined the blood and the damage caused to his lover. Frank wept immediately at the sight, shivering like his bones willed him to, and he realized he wasn't as strong as he thought he was.

"My sweet," Gerard rasped, his chest quivering. "It's over now."

The curtain had closed, the evidence of the massacre was there before him, but Frank couldn't find immediate relief. His skin felt tight and he was on most levels indestructible, but becoming a vampire hadn't robbed him of humanity, of feeling sick at the sight of a corpse, of being afraid of what would occur after the news spread that Lindsey was dead. She was dead, no breath came from her lips, no vampire would ever fear her presence again. He would never feel the burn of hatred for her running in his veins again and neither would his dear vampires he longed to protect, just the same as they'd protected him. They'd finally been given closure.

Frank glanced over at Mina and Aura. They sat beside Jamia with mourning visible in their eyes, but their shoulders were hunched in relief, feeling all the ties had been cut now that their nemesis would never mock them again just by walking the earth. Blood stained their gowns and continued to seep higher onto the fabric. His chest constricted as Gerard pulled him forward to tenderly kiss his forehead, stroking the healing  back of his head with a feathery touch to avoid hurting him. Frank leaned into him and embraced his vampire, inhaling his scent deeply, attempting to bring himself home through it.

"She was going to kill me and all I could think about was you." Frank whispered, pressing his face into Gerard's neck and growing dizzy from the smell of warm blood beneath the skin, the bitterness of Lindsey and his own scent.

Gerard said nothing, he only held him tight, peppering kisses onto any surface of Frank that he could touch with his lips, failing to hide how he shook in Frank's embrace. Frank consoled him with kisses to his neck, stroking his hair and gently beginning to rock him until it was Gerard melting into his arms instead of the other way around. His vampire nestled into the crook of his neck and clung to him with renewed desperation.

"It's okay." Frank whispered quietly enough for the words to only reach his vampire. "You did it, Gerard, I'm so proud of you. You did what no one else was able to do for years."

Gerard breathed shallowly, but he nodded slowly nonetheless, puckering his lips against Frank's throat to kiss him slowly as he fought to claim all of the calm Frank gave to him by his soothing gestures and voice. He'd seen Gerard be vulnerable, but not to this extent, and Frank decided he would always shelter him in times of need such as these because it made his love for him extend to indescribable lengths.

They held onto one another until the sound of igniting fire caught their attention. They looked up in time to see Mina had set fire to Lindsey's body, the vampire's match held in her hand. Aura stood beside her somberly, watching the fire licking over Lindsey's remains and engulfing her. Jamia had crawled away from her body to curl up into a ball against the wall, tucking into herself, her eyes vacant of all expression as the blazing shades of orange danced across the catacombs. She was smeared with blood and in her hands was a strip of black fabric, secure inside her fists; a piece from Lindsey's dress she kept for herself. Frank took in a shuddery breath and swallowed hard, feeling guilt as he witnessed Jamia grieving over the loss of her creator.

"She loved Lindsey." Frank whispered to Gerard. "Even if she was brainwashed, you can see her love was real."

"In time, Lindsey's effect will fade, and she'll realize the truth." Gerard's lips brushed against Frank's skin, making the latter shiver. "It . . . it was the right thing to do."

He was convincing himself more than anyone else he could have spoken the words to, and Frank caressed his hair with a loving gentleness to quietly agree with his vampire; it was the only thing they could have done to bring peace amongst the vampires, preventing Lindsey from causing more destruction. Gerard rested his head against Frank's shoulder, allowing himself to be rescued by bits of affection. Frank peered up at Jamia again through his lashes as his fingers tunneled through Gerard's hair to undo the knots, feeling yet another harsh tug at his chest demanding his attention. Another yank consumed him as a blood tear trickled ever so slowly down Jamia's face, mixing with the dry, smeared remains staining her white skin.

"Go to her." Gerard whispered. He sensed Frank's distress as much as Frank felt his, it was the trick of their eternal bond giving away how they may have felt in every situation. Frank looked down at his vampire at the same moment Gerard lifted his head. He gazed softly into Frank's eyes for a moment, giving a single nod, and he disentangled himself from their embrace to let his mate go to the vampire who was once his best friend.

Frank rose to his feet, helping his vampire with a grip on one of his hands stained by the blood of their enemy. Neither of them made note of it, giving a lasting look towards each other before they turned to approach different vampires in need of consoling. Frank made his steps light and slow, guarding himself in case Jamia unexpectedly snapped as she'd done when she was defending her creator. As he moved towards her, she didn't seem to realize his presence, not even when he took it upon himself to slide down onto the filthy floor beside her. There was a fair amount of space between them, but it was close enough to smell the overwhelming amount of Lindsey's blood in her hair, on her skin, staining her dress. The fire, the smoke, the blood, all of it filled Frank's head and made it spin round; he couldn't imagine the affect it took on Jamia. He took a discreet look at her from the corner of his eye. She stared into the fire with cold, hollow eyes, her expression giving away none of the grief she must have felt inside. One thing showed the turmoil of her broken heart and that was her clinging to the scrap of fabric in her fists, the last bit of Lindsey she had left, shaking around the black strip she'd ripped off. Frank swallowed thickly, his heart aching.

"I'm sorry, Jamia." Frank whispered, hoping his voice would float over to her.

Jamia didn't react to his apology. Not a single twitch came from her eyes, her focus, she continued to stare into the fire that had turned Lindsey into charred remains. Aura, Gerard, and Mina stood around the fire, holding each other's hands, watching the flames flicker by as they quietly held their emotions inside.

Frank licked his lips, tasting his own blood, and spoke again. "She manipulated you, Jamia. She did terrible things to people . . . but I know you loved her, and that love was amplified because you were bonded when she changed you. I know how strong that is, how it takes over everything." Frank's gaze floated towards Gerard, his heart swelling.

Jamia reacted then. She didn't flicker her focus to Frank, but to Gerard, for she knew who the vampire was referring to. Her lips twitched, parting to taking in a quiet, staggering breath, and she closed them again. Turning her head, her gaze caught Frank's, familiar in their color and their shape. A spark appeared behind them, brilliant pain she concealed better than anyone else Frank had ever seen.

"I wasn't in love with her, but I loved her. I felt her die. I can feel that she doesn't control me anymore." Jamia sounded like she did when she was human. Feminine, soft, but so torn apart that it scraped against the outside of Frank's heart, nearly enough to make him physically wince.

"I know." Frank choked out. "I never wanted to hurt you. But I . . ." Frank's eyes flitted helplessly over the fire, over the vampires stood in front of it, his beautiful vampire angel, and onto his hands curled up in his lap. Blood dried under his fingernails and it would be nearly impossible to clean out entirely. It would only weigh on his guilt for the time it took to pass.

"I think you fell in love with him before you even truly knew him." Jamia chuckled, almost bitter, but the hint of sorrow ringing from it smoothed  over the shape edges. "Love makes people do crazy things."

Frank thought of Lindsey, driven mad by her desperate and failed attempts to gain Gerard's affection, falling to her knees and begging to him to kill her in her last moments. He thought of Michael, how his grief over the woman he loved falling for his brother and ending her life in the fallout of it. Then, of himself, becoming obsessed with finding the vampire he dreamed about, risking his life in the end to give him closure so no evil soul would ever hurt his love again. Jamia took her part in rage as a result of love, even if it wasn't the same love running deep in Frank's entire being.

"You never did anything crazy for me, thankfully." Frank, oddly enough, had to fight back a smile as he said the words. It was humor in bleakness and he still felt hurt inside even if the curve of his lips betrayed him.

"I did." Jamia's eyes were brimming with tears anew, causing all laughter to die and decay in Frank's throat the moment he saw them there. She looked at him with bottled up longing blended into their broken trust, the pain she endured while thinking he'd been killed.

"What did you do?" Frank asked, sounding empty.

"I let you go."

Frank flinched then. The guilt of his decisions sat heavily in his throat like it was meant to reign it for the rest of his immortal life and he wasn't sure how he would endure the many years with it. He hurt for Jamia, for her loss, for her unrequited love for him, for everything he'd broken at the expense of finding his vampire. It was cruel of him to abandon her, to believe everything would take a smooth route and promising her that before he left her in the evening and never returned. And yet, as he looked up and met the eye of his vampire, his Gerard, he didn't feel regret bubbling inside of him, awaiting to flourish and rot. He felt love when he looked at Gerard, no matter the situation they were in, and that was one quality that would never change.

"Love makes people do crazy things." Frank recalled Jamia's words, quoting them, holding Gerard's eyes while he said them. His vampire could hear the phrase, and though he burned inside, his lips twitched into a subtle smile. Frank smiled back, his heart squeezing in his chest.

He turned his head, meeting Jamia's eyes. She was agonized, miserable, but looking between the two vampires bonded in a way beyond words, Frank thought she showed a shred of understanding in her dark eyes clouded by crimson tears.

"I hope you can forgive me one day and see that I never wanted any of this to happen to you." Frank couldn't not tell her now that she was coming down from her crazed high, showing her humanity again. "I did all of this just to find you and keep you safe."

Jamia couldn't face Frank any longer and he understood her reasons no matter the sting he felt echoing all the way to the tips of his fingers. Jamia clutched the shred of fabric in her hand, slowly raising it to her lips, but not giving it a soft kiss as he would have expected. He stared at the piece of Lindsey's dress with a dry throat, suspecting what would come next for the both of them.

"All I want is to get out of this place." Jamia whispered, dismal and detached. She glanced at the fire once and flinched, turning her head the opposite direction and beginning to curl in on herself once again.

"Okay." It was the least Frank could do for her to make up for his recklessness channeling a destructive chain of events. Rising to his feet, he helped the trembling vampire up with a careful hand he immediately drew out from hers once she was situated, wanting to avoid making her pain more intense than it already appeared to be.

The vampires gathered together once movement was detected and Frank was able to offer an embrace to Aura and Mina who stood beside their troubles in order to gain the strength to take part of their coven back home. He registered the way Mina's breath trembled in her lungs and how wide Aura's eyes were, as if they couldn't grow large enough to fully absorb that Lindsey was nothing but a pile of ashen remains laying at their feet. Gerard reached for him, smoothing the pad of his thumb along the back of his hand when their fingers interlaced. Beginning to make their way out of the catacombs, Frank paused, finding that Jamia stopped treading quietly behind them. Gerard stopped as well as a cause of this, their hands still clinging to one another. Frank glanced back to see Jamia gazing down at the fabric in her hands, contemplating, her thumbs slowly stroking over it with a forlorn tenderness.

Drifting back towards the fire with the grace of a lonesome ghost, Jamia stared into the flames devouring what was left of a vampire she once loved. The colors projected onto her pale skin, her dark hair, engulfing her spirit. Frank gasped softly as he watched her toss the scrap of fabric into the fire. He felt Gerard squeeze his hand as result of his tension. The fabric was swallowed whole by the flames and it disintegrated into mere ash in the single minute that passed, melting into the collection of residue laid out across the ground. It was a part of Jamia's mourning that he knew was necessary for her to act upon, no matter how dreadful the tears running down her face seemed, no matter how shattered her heart was. She let go of the last thing keeping her tethered to Lindsey, letting it fade into nothing along with the remains of her creator.

She drifted back to the vampires waiting for her to return. Wiping her tears, she said nothing, and only continued to drift when the others wouldn't. Soon, they fell into step with her, and escaped the burning castle with nothing but memories to prove who had been the cause of the flames.

_______
A/N; And that's the last chapter before the epilogue, you guys. I'm saving my sappy last words for this fic until then, it should be done in a decent amount of time, hopefully.

I really hope you guys liked this extra long chapter, it took a lot out of me to write this because I think I suck at action scenes and I wanted to make this as intense as it sounded in my head. Hopefully I carried that out right, I feel satisfied with it...

I'll be back soon with the ending, hold on tight.

"You were meant for this love, you're my flesh and blood."

-aprilxo