Since this fic is filled with gifs from Dracula, the new cover is a picture of Dracula and Mina, it's more fitting that way. Also. Be prepared.

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Swells of pure frustration towered over the frantic search for something unknown in the terms of humanity and the hidden loophole inside of nature succumbing to immortality. The sound of combined breathing and the swaying of a party in the distance became a grating noise causing advanced irritation which, unfortunately, couldn't be drowned out with the ever so sensitive ears of a vampire. Swimming across the tides of desperation was the sinking of bodies barreling towards the treasure buried beyond recognition, blindingly searching with the sense of smell and hearing, yet somehow, the epitome of mystery digging into the fissures of a sore heart aching for relief. Frank had never once in his life felt as delicate as a china doll inching towards the edge, panic setting in like electricity sinking under his skin achingly slowly with the intentions of shocking his insides into a frozen state of lifelessness. Frank wavered time and time again while meeting dead ends, ultimately coming face to face with a cool numbness, up until the very moment his faith collided with his dissolving determination.

The wafting scent underneath his nose belonged to neither vampire he came close to tonight. It held a foreign sweetness to it that Frank could only identity to the scent radiating off of a vampire, but as he inhaled, the familiarity hidden underneath the first initial scent set Frank into a frenzy. He took off, bounding towards the scent, wildly cutting through every path in the maze until he heard the source of the scent he'd been seeking out all evening.

When he found where she was hiding, the path had been cut off by another hedge, a dead end in the twisting maze. He could practically smell the despair he captured in visual alongside the scent clinging to the vampire huddled with her back against the green at the end of the path.  Her knees were drawn to her chest, and though she shivered and sobbed harshly enough for her entire frame to vibrate, she was dressed in a silk red slip gown, a jacket of leather covering her upper half, and porcelain cover stockings concealing the skin at her legs. Her hair was curling close to her ears, shorter than Frank remember, but as ebony as he recalled. The choppiness of the style told him cutting her hair was a messy ceremony, perhaps one done against her will. Frank swallowed hard at the thought of anyone hurting her.

Seeing Jamia flooded swelling relief into the cavity of his chest where previous aching shriveled up inside him to rot. All the grief he endured, the tears he shed mourning the loss of his dearest friend, none of it seemed to matter any longer when he stared at her, alive and breathing . . .

A vampire.

Frank felt bitter chill traveling through him as he realized the scent of a vampire radiated from Jamia. Her skin was as white as the moon, and the underlying note of human blood clinging to her clothes taunted Frank. Frank may have seemed hypocritical when he was once a human turned into one of the creatures of the night, but he flashed with anger on the inside to see Jamia's humanity had been stolen from her. Without a doubt in him, he knew Lindsey had done this, leaving Jamia abandoned and afraid in the middle of the outdoor maze.

"Jamia?" Frank called out to her hesitantly. He wasn't sure how to approach her, watching his best friend curled up tight during an emotional breakdown. He didn't understand the reason behind her tears, some part of him dreaded to find out.

Jamia looked up the second her name was called. Her eyes flashed a violent crimson red Frank had seen before in the stare of ravenous vampires, the vibrant color conquering the whites of her eyes. Frank flinched, forcing himself to remember she wouldn't attack unless he was a vessel made of human blood. Jamia didn't look starved to the point of insanity, her expression was etched by the cruel, selective hands of sorrow, blood streaking down her cheeks and dripping towards her chin. He never wanted to see her this way.

"Frank?" Jamia whispered. Her voice smoothed over in her new life of immortality. Her voice had always been something pleasant, soft and sweet, but she could have lured in any human being now if she spoke with words of kindness. Her eyes widened when she saw Frank slowly approaching her, the crimson in her eyes collectively dimming.

"Jamia, oh my god." Frank breathed out. He closed the distance between them, sinking down onto the cobblestone grounds so cold in the dead of the night, but he didn't dare reach out to touch her while unsure of whether or not she was in a well enough state to handle it. His throat tightened up with emotion as he looked at her, seeing the remains of his human friend in the softness of her features. Jamia was alive, and he'd missed her terribly.

"Frank, I thought you were dead!" Jamia cried, her tears gushing from her eyes with another reason behind them. She reached out and clasped Frank's hands in her own, blood smudging onto his skin that came from her fingers wiping at her tears. "You left and you promised you'd come back, but you never did! I thought he killed you, I went to the mansion and saw it was destroyed."

"I know you did, I can't imagine what that did to you." Frank clung to her, tears of his own rising in his eyes. "He saved my life, the mansion started falling apart and he took me away from it. So much has happened, I don't have time to tell you now, but you need to know that I'm okay and you will be, too."

"She turned me into this--" Jamia sobbed, falling apart as she threw her arms around Frank's neck. "She took me away and she turned me into a monster, I never wanted this! All I wanted was to get away from vampires, and now I've become one."

Frank's heart cracked into dozens of pieces, the residue falling into the bottom of his stomach. He held Jamia close, soothing her as a stray tear fell from one of his eyes. "I know, Mia, I know. I'm going to save you from her, I'll take you with me and Gerard and the rest of our coven--"

"What?" Jamia pulled back all of a sudden, her eyes wide with horror. Her eyes captured the blood tear tracking down Frank's cheek, a shuddering breath sucking in past her lips.

"I love him, J." Frank whispered. "He protected me, he was kind to me, and I fell in love with him. I know you must think that's fucked up with how little you know, but I swear, I will explain everything. We need to get you out of here first before Lindsey finds us." He started to get up, tugging Jamia's arm.

"Frank, no!" Jamia yanked her arm away, scooting away. "Lindsey is everywhere. If you take me from her, she'll hurt you!"

"There are others that came here with me. Four against one." Frank knelt down in front of Jamia, carefully reaching forward to hastily wipe her tears away with a swipe of his thumbs across her face. "You have to trust me. That's the only way I can get you out of here and get rid of Lindsey once and for all."

"But . . ."

"What is it?" Frank's brow scrunched with confusion.

Jamia only stared at him. Her eyes shed no more tears, her melancholy troubles dissolved after she'd discovered Frank was the one calling out for her, but something was horribly out of place in her dark stare. It split through Frank's bones and resonated inside of them with an odd chill he never imagined he would feel in her gaze. Unease slowly built inside of him as she slowly lifted herself off of the ground with astounding grace. Patting down the wrinkles of her dress, she lifted her hands once they were done smoothing out her clothes to wipe away the excess tears, smudging blood all around her porcelain pale face. She was a being of pure beauty, but her sudden shift in demeanor had Frank's breath stilling in his lungs.

"Jamia?" Frank asked, higher pitched than the normal tone of his voice. He could sense something thickening in the air that he couldn't place his finger on, perhaps it was eerie in the way it crawled under his skin, searching deeper and deeper. Jamia looked past him, at the ground, as if she was expecting something, and Frank wasn't sure he wanted to know what she waited for.

Horrifyingly, Frank felt a blistering pang of pain in the middle of his abdomen. The suddenness of it wracked through his being and made him fold over instantly with all of the breath he had inside of him coming out in a pained cry. Immediately, he wrapped his arms around himself, feeling for any sort of wound, but nothing came from him. In the distance, he heard chilling laughter, sounds of pain, and the hurt inside of him ebbed away slowly. It meant the pain wasn't his own, but the ghost sensation of it coming from the vampire he was linked to in every way.

Gerard was hurt.

Gasping, Frank snapped his head up, just in time to hear Jamia giggle before she streaked past him in a flash of moment. He whirled around to find she was gone without a trace, her laughter soon blending in with the familiar sound of giggling belonging to the devilish vampire Frank loathed with every atom his body was created with.

"Gerard!" Frank cried out. In a blur, Frank took off, forcing himself to move through the lingering curls of pain petting his insides. The ghost of Gerard's danger haunted him and he couldn't stand around with shock chaining him to the ground, every thought bouncing in his mind urged him to find Gerard and save him from the jaws of whatever gripped him so tightly. His desperation and horror grew with each dead end he found, taunting him into a state of pure panic. At last, he captured Jamia's scent fading off on the paths turning sharply at each end, and he followed it with hope that it would lead him to where Gerard was.

Her scent didn't lead him to where Gerard may have laid, but with his ability of sensitive hearing he was able to track down the sound until he reached the open square that was the center of the maze. There, Frank was struck by the strong smell of blood before he could asses anything occurring in the square of space. He spun around, his chest collapsing in on itself with thickening anxiousness choking him slowly. His eyes found Gerard crumpled on the floor on his knees, clutching his stomach tightly with heavy breaths of pain escaping him. Blood was flowing over his pale fingers, dripping onto the stone floor in crimson droplets spreading out like rose petals. Aghast and going cold, Frank darted across the space between them and dropped down onto his knees in front of his vampire.

"Gerard, no." Frank's voice trembled, finally feeling the cold in the air for the first time that evening. Gerard looked up at Frank through his dark hair falling into his face, his expression construed of pain and defeat, sad olive colored eyes silently apologizing to Frank for reasons beyond his mate.

"Don't you dare blame yourself for this." Frank's shaking hands clasped Gerard's and the warmth of blood staining his fingers made his heart shatter. "Who did this to you? What happened?" Now that the wound was uncovered, blood flowed freely from where the weapon cut through Gerard's clothes, one that Frank couldn't stomach looking at directly. He swore softly, his stomach flipping.

"Who do you think did it, my dear?" A sickly sweet voice cut into the close exchange between Frank and his wounded vampire. The chill of it could have competed with the lowest temperature freezing over the land, smooth and sharp as knives at the same time in a combination fearsome enough to make any vampire shiver all the way to their core. Frank knew this voice as much as he detested it, his hatred growing the moment he heard it again.

Frank slowly turned his head to face his worst enemy standing in the center of the maze, beside Jamia who clung to the vampire's side with a grin curling her lips upwards. Lindsey's blood red smirk matched the red velvet dress hugging her curves and showcasing her pale skin, her teeth as sharp as the fangs belonging to a spider which seemed fitting considering the webbing of her black lace sleeves, the black widow pendant glistening just above her cleavage. The blood dripping from her fingertips was enough to confirm Frank's assumption, the sharp silver stake gripped tightly in her hand, also stained with the redness of Gerard's blood.

Seeing Jamia with such an enraptured look in her eyes whenever she looked at Lindsey, the glint of insanity when she turned them towards Frank and Gerard, it was more painful than the blow he'd felt in his stomach from the secondhand sensation of Gerard being stabbed. Frank held Gerard close, fluid anger injecting into him as he listened to the pained gasps his vampire released against his neck.

"You're a fucking monster." Frank spat out towards the smirking vampire watching them.

"I would take that as a compliment if it weren't for the look in your eyes. Almost makes me think you're going to kill me." Lindsey laughed lightly, wiping some of the blood from the silver stake with careless hands and tossing it to the ground. It rolled towards the entrance of the center of the maze, blood dribbling onto the floor.

"Why did you bring Jamia into this? She didn't deserve any of it, and look what you've done to her." Frank's heart flared with pain watching Jamia sneer at him in distaste, a shadow glued to each of Lindsey's movements.

"I think the girl would beg to differ." Lindsey turned to look at Jamia, a look of false tenderness written across her face. "Why don't you tell Frank what you've come to realize recently, Jamia?"

Jamia nodded, her eyes shining like glistening blades, and her stare cut through every layer of Frank's body. She stepped forward, her mouth curled into a grimace of hatred Frank had never seen her project before.

"How was I supposed to feel when you left me all alone like that, Frank?" Jamia spoke with such venom, it burned Frank the point of physical pain. "You ran away to be with your precious vampire, you didn't care about how I felt. You left me for someone who could never love you or know you the way I did."

"Jamia--" Frank croaked, but she continued on with heightened anger after he tried to interrupt.

"You're so stupid, you never realized how much I loved you! I was in love with you. In the time you've been off frolicking with your vampire and abandoning everything and everyone who's ever cared about you, Lindsey took me in. She told me the truth about everything, and she's loved me more than you ever have. She takes care of me, she talks to me, and that's something you never had time to give me anymore! I hate you, Frank Iero, I hate you for making me think you had been killed when in reality, you left me for someone you didn't know."

Frank was frozen up. Clinging to Gerard, he felt his vampire breathing quickly, grunting in pain, and he heard Lindsey chuckling in amusement over Jamia's scathing words. A dagger imbedded itself deep into his heart, the blade twisting, and he'd never imagined this sort of resentment could have been made permanent in Jamia's soul. In that moment, he felt cruel, truly and disgustingly cruel, never once realizing how his decisions could have affected Jamia. His best friend, the one he fought so hard to rescue, would more than likely never forgive him for the selfish hastiness of his choices, and for that, he would never forgive himself either.

"Mia, I'm so sorry." Frank bowed his head in shame. "I never stopped caring about you. This whole time, I've been looking for you, I was so relieved when I found out there was a possibility that Lindsey hadn't killed you. I swear to you, Jamia, I was going to come back, but I didn't think through what might have happened if I found Gerard. But, you have to hear me out, I love him, I love him so much, and I need you to believe me when I tell you that him and I were meant to be. I can't regret what we have."

In his arms, Gerard whimpered, his lips brushing Frank's throat. Frank looked down into his eyes, then found blood was pooling on the ground near their knees, spotting his clothes, and he realized time was running out. Vampires didn't hold as much blood in their bodies as humans did.

"I don't care to hear about your excuses." Jamia's eyes flared as she slowly made her way back over to Lindsey who watched with intense amusement.

"She's brainwashed you, Jamia, she's manipulative! You can't trust her--"

"You don't know the first thing about Lindsey!" Jamia's voice boomed, colored in red shades of harrowing acid, pinning Frank down and making him stop himself from saying anything else. He held Gerard tight, bringing his wrist to his mouth, his fangs elongating with an aching snap to slash the tips across his skin to feed the blood to Gerard.

"Vampire blood doesn't heal wounds of silver, Frankie." Lindsey tsked softly, cocking one hip out and resting her hand on the curve. "I made sure he wouldn't be able to be healed so quickly."

"Why not just kill me?" Gerard growled, as weak as he sounded, just as Frank paused with dread slowly dragging him under.

"Because you both needed to learn a lesson." Lindsey snarled, her fangs gleaming when her lips pulled over them, and her eyes began to fill with rich crimson. "This is what happens to people who don't listen, who disobey me, and you have betrayed me! You understood my circumstances, and yet you defied me."

"I could never love a monster, Lindsey." Gerard turned to stare at her through his hair tumbling all around his pallid face. The coldness radiating from him aimed towards Lindsey. unleashing itself into the open. "You have always been one in my eyes, from the moment your filthy fangs sank into me and stole every bit of my humanity against my will. You forced me to kill my first love, you drove me into hiding and abandoning everything, you've ruined my brother, and you tried to take Frank from me. Is this what love is to you, something you force by breaking a person apart?"

Lindsey seemed hollow, in that moment between the shifting of events. Her eyes ran with an emptiness that compared to a void punched inside of her, never being filled by her greed causing her to be violent during her pursuit for the things she wanted. Frank thought it was a vulnerability, something momentary that would open up the opportunity for him to lunge for her, but she snapped into an obliterating mistress of anger, the gates of hell opening in her once empty eyes.

Reaching down, she grabbed the stake laying abandoned on the ground. A sound of vexatious danger ripped free from her chest, and as she sprang forward, Frank cradled himself around Gerard in a protective stance; Gerard couldn't be healed, Lindsey's target would place a similar tragic wound inside Frank, and if he was meant to die tonight, he would die with his love, and the thought was more soothing than it should have been when he saw the promise of death in Lindsey's manic eyes.

Frank snapped his head up at the sound of bodies colliding in the moment he thought he would feel blistering pain. He watched with wide eyes as Lindsey skidded across the ground from a forceful shove stopping her from digging the tip of the stake into Frank's back. He looked around frantically to find Mina struggling with Lindsey trapped underneath her. Lindsey flailed underneath Mina's grip and managed  to strike her, forcing Mina's head to snap to the side with a fresh line of blood dripping across her cheek, but in return, she pinned Lindsey's wrists and bared her fangs as a warning if Lindsey tried to fight back. The stake was ripped free from Lindsey's hand, angled and aimed towards her throat, but Mina was suddenly tossed away from Lindsey's struggling form, tumbling towards the ground and being pinned to the stone by another being. Frank quickly realized it was Jamia, yelling out in pure rage inches away from Mina's face. Frank quickly shot up in horror as he watched Jamia bare her fangs, lunging for a vulnerable spot at Mina's neck where the woman was thrashing for freedom.

Aura surged into the center of the maze just in time to knock Jamia off of her best friend. She grabbed Jamia by her throat with formidable crimson red eyes, lifting her off of her feet with a strength Frank had no idea she possessed, and tossed her aside as if she was nothing but a pesky ragdoll planted in her path. Frank heard a sickening crack when Jamia landed on the hard cobblestone, followed by an enraged scream of agony piercing through the night. Lindsey scooped Jamia into her arms to service her when her leg twisted in the upmost gruesome fashion, and they escaped.

But not before Lindsey retrieved a lighter from the inside of her dress, the item glistening in the moonlight with a dangerous shimmer causing Frank's stomach to plummet. He dived forward, reaching for the lighter held high in Lindsey's bloody hand, but the flame blooming at the tip of it caught onto the brush holding the maze together. The flames licked against each of the leaves, the branches, a rapid chain wrapping around the entirety of the bushes surrounding them and scorching the floor of the entrance to corrupt it with burning fire. Lindsey and Jamia escaped before the fire could touch them, leaving Frank skidding across the ground and landing mere inches away from the flames. The wild colors of orange and red collided together and danced mockingly in a square around the vampires, trapping them, the heat radiating in quick waves that would soon form into thick clouds of smoke choking them.

"Frank, we need to help Gerard!" Mina cried out from behind Frank, her voice barely rising over the crackling of fire.

Frank whirled around to find her and Aura kneeling beside Gerard, easing him onto his back on the ground with careful movements. Gerard was groaning at the effort placing pressure on his leaking wound, the pang making its way into Frank's own gut. Alarmed and fearful at the same moment, Frank went down onto his knees at his vampire's side. Mina tore a streamer of her dress away to pressed the fabric against the wound, attempting to stop the bleeding, but the blood soon began to soak through the delicate material.

"She stabbed him with a silver stake, I can't heal him." Frank informed her with despair creeping into his heart, creating fissures that would soon be on their way to shattering his heart completely if Gerard couldn't heal from his fatal wound.

"You need to try." Aura looked up at Frank, the reflection of the fire dancing in the fierce green of her eyes lined with bloody tears showing she hurt over everything occurring tonight as well. Her hair was askew, as was Mina's, their dresses rid of their neatness.

Frank looked down at Gerard, the heaviness of his lids and the almost silvery whiteness of his skin after he slowly began to bleed out. His chest clenched heavily with pain as he looked at the fire edging towards them, finding no escape in the ring of it as the bitterness of black smoke started to tickle his throat.

"We're going to die." Frank looked up, hating to speak the words out loud and sounding completely hollow. The bleakness saturated his silenced belief that the night wouldn't be so kind to them and deliver them home without so much as being scathed. Despite soothing words and delicate promises, none of them prevailed, something Frank should have been braced for the moment he stepped foot inside the castle.

"I know." Mina whispered, barely audible in the middle of chaos. "But don't let him die this way. The least we can do is try."

Frank looked down at his vampire, his mate, his true love he'd been so fortunate to find after a lifetime of searching for him. Their connection had been instant from the moment he first met the vampire, blossoming into something far more intense as the years went by, and remaining identifiable until he felt what it was like to be held in his embrace. The kiss of a dark angel stained his lips forevermore. Gerard looked up into his eyes, his chest heaving with silent pain, but he didn't plead for a savior. He told Frank everything he needed to know before the flames swallowed them whole.

Agonized by the moment, Frank's opened his veins again with a sharp glide of his fangs across his wrist. Fresh blood began to trickle from the wound and he reached out for his vampire, resting his head onto his lap for his comfort. Holding in a sob, Frank lead his wrist to Gerard's pale lips, waiting for them to part, and he pressed his wound against his mouth. He cried out softly as Gerard bit into the wound, suckling his blood with a tender bite sending a sting of pain bolting up Frank's arm. It melted into honey liquid, causing him to struggle to restrain himself in the presence of two other vampires eagerly awaiting for some sort of closure even if they all knew no such thing would be possible with a wound of silver punctured into Gerard. Frank cried silently, shutting his eyes through the rain of blood tears slipping down his cheeks while Gerard fed. Not even the sweet sensation of his blood being taken could mask the crushing despair pulling him apart, the heat of the fire coming closer, the smoke making his chest shudder with the need to cough it out of his lungs.

Gerard pulled his mouth away, lips stained with blood, and Frank removed his wrist from his mouth with blood still dripping from the wound he felt beginning to close instantly the second Gerard's fangs slid out of it. It would have amazed him, but he focused on checking Gerard's wound, holding his breath.

"Do you feel anything?" Mina leaned over Gerard with Frank, gently beginning to pull the bloody fabric she'd pressed to Gerard's stomach away. It bared the wide puncture wound, bloodied and a mess of torn flesh Frank felt dizzy looking at.

Gerard's expression fell apart as he waited, his chest rapidly rising and falling, as all of the vampires surrounding him waited for the wound to close. Moments passed until Frank's heart officially cracked, the pain lashing through his chest like an intrusion he'd never felt before. His body trembled, eyes meeting Gerard's, and his vampire shook his head in defeat.

"Thousands of apologies, my love." Gerard strained out for Frank to hear, his lips dripping with Frank's blood.

Frank frantically shook his head, a small sob squeezing out of him. He wrapped his arms gingerly around his vampire and cradled his head against his chest to feel him close to his broken heart, hoping he could mend it. He wouldn't allow Gerard to say such words on his last few breaths, feeling them pierce through the tender flesh of his damaged heart with a jabbing agony he would never wish upon even his worst enemy.

"Don't apologize to me, Gerard, don't you dare." Frank cried softly. "All you ever did was protect me since the moment we met, and . . . until the moment we part."

"There is no end to my devotion for you." Gerard breathed softly. One of his hands slowly came to rest at the nape of Frank's neck, his fingers slowly curling into his hair, caressing the skin he felt there with the pad of his thumb. "I shall always be by your side, even when death comes to claim us."

Frank sobbed softly, his cheek pressed against Gerard's silky hair he'd weaved his fingers through time and time again. He never imagined death to be as tragic as those said it was. He found it to be a peaceful epidemic if it wasn't through the treacherous grip of violence, a reaper looming over the hovering spirit of the soul ready to take flight. There was another plane of existence Frank was certain of, tranquil and luminous, where pain ceased to exist. Immortality wasn't immortal after all. Tragedy would always loom over creatures walking the earth no matter what form they existed in.

Mina and Aura watched with ancient sadness in their eyes. Both women glanced at each other, tenderness joining in on their melancholy, and Frank believed he watched their entire story flicker between them in the small moment when they held each others gazes. They whispered something to each other, something Frank didn't catch onto, and they joined their hands together, intending to never let go until the end.

"I love you forever." Frank whispered to Gerard, squeezing his eyes shut.

"As I love you. You will always be mon humain, no matter what you are." Gerard held onto Frank, but leaned his head back, his eyes burning with eternal love that would go beyond the end of life. He would feel the same for his vampire, forever and always, there was no possibility that their love would die. Frank looked back at him, then at his friends, his broken heart scarcely beating.

"Thank you. For everything." Frank looked between Mina and Aura, watching scarlet leak from their eyes as they clung to each other as the fire drew closer with unbearable heat. They gazed at him with saddened kindness, smiling gently. Mina reached out for Frank's hand which he took, gripping it tight, and Aura leaned her head against Mina's shoulder with her blood tears staining the vampire's dress.

Frank titled his head down, his nose brushing against Gerard's forehead. He placed a lingering kiss there, his lips trembling. Gerard's breath shuddered with suppressed tears and he lifted his face up for their breaths to mingle together. Frank shut his eyes and closed the gap between them to kiss Gerard. Their lips moved gently, barely parting, soft and tasting of blood, but neither one of them had the heart to stop due to the taste. Frank's tears dripped onto Gerard's cheeks, tears he delicately wiped away. Behind his lids, there was darkness as they kissed, but the sudden coloration he found through the thin skin called his attention.

Frank broke the kiss to observe what was going on. The moment his eyes fluttered open, he captured sight of a blooming light slowly beginning to wrap around Gerard's abdomen. A kick of shock made Frank jump, his eyes widening as the brightness of the light appearing to be as graceful as a thing from heaven slowly began to brighten. Gerard gawked down at his body, then he looked up, as if he detected something from afar that Frank couldn't identity, and his eyes grew nearly as wide as Frank's. The heavenly light sprouting from the center of Gerard's body flourished, rising in rays of sunshine defeating the brightness of the raging fire so close to them. The other vampires had to shut their eyes and look away from the brilliance of the event, too shocked to do anything more but tense with high fascination and confusion. The sun bloomed inside of Gerard, withholding the heat, but containing the severity of its light.

Frank forced his eyes to open the moment he felt a wave of air fanning over him, the strength of the gust of wind moving tendrils of his hair and cooling the blood tears resting on his cheeks. He blinked away the haze of crimson in time to see the traveling wind push against the fire with mighty force, cutting through the crackling flames and splitting them apart until they dissolved into nothing but thick smoke and scorched branches falling onto the blackened floor. The smell of burning wood and leaves intensified as the smoke rose into the air and latched onto matching tendrils in a thickening motion making all of the vampires cough when it entered their lungs. Frank gasped, waving the curls of smoke away with ringing in his ears now that the sound of everything burning around him disappeared.

"What just happened? What was that?" Frank asked through a coughing fit, smoke brushing his lungs he wanted to expel immediately.

"I don't know. Is everyone okay?" Mina asked, waving her arms through the smoke frantically to clear the air for a somewhat breathable atmosphere.

"Frank." Gerard's urgent voice claimed all of Frank's attention. The smoke and the pungent smell of burned greenery didn't matter after he heard his vampire call his name.

His vampire who was sitting up without pain, without blood from his wound dripping to the ground, and without a disintegrating breath of light in his eyes when he stared at Frank in bewilderment. Frank reached out for him, wiping bloody tears from his face, cradling it in his hands and gazing into his eyes.

"Gerard, are you okay? What happened?" Frank's chest swelled with anxiousness, rising and falling quickly, and he looked all over Gerard's body to inspect what may have happened during the phenomena taking place before their very eyes. He looked at his wound, seeing the bloody clothing surrounding where it was--or, rather, where it should have been.

Underneath the torn and red clothes stained with blood, Frank could only see the smoothness of alabaster skin. Unharmed, a clean slate, not so much as dotted with crimson liquid still smeared all over the floor and Gerard's hands. It lingered on Frank's hands as well, but there was no evidence the blood came from any sort of puncture wound in Gerard's stomach, none at all.

"He's healed." Aura breathed in amazement, stealing the words from Frank's mouth.

Frank stared down at the pale skin at Gerard's stomach for another long moment feeding into his shock, until he felt gentle fingers tilting his chin up, his eyes connecting with the comforting and passionate eyes of his vampire.

"A miracle." Gerard whispered to him.

Frank cried out softly in relief. He lunged towards Gerard, flinging his arms around his vampire, clinging to him tightly as he never had before. He buried his face into the side of his neck as Gerard returned his embrace just as enthusiastically, rubbing his back with soothing hands as he kissed his hair with lips soft as rose petals.

"It must have been your bond, I see no other possible explanation for this." Mina sounded flabbergasted in the background. Frank opened his eyes and saw Aura grabbing for Mina, pulling her into a loving embrace as she let out a sob of relief. Mina's eyes softened, her expression filled with love that still made Frank's heart ache, and her lids fluttered shut as she held Aura close to her. Frank was hysterically relieved to see their demise had miraculously dissolved and they would live, and hopefully, they would see to their immortal lives together.

Frank's mind snapped back to reality as soon as everything occurring came to an end. Pulling out from Gerard's arms, unwillingly so when their comfort felt like heaven kissing his skin, the remaining evidence of Gerard's once fatal wound brought Frank's thoughts back towards the root of all the horrors set up in one evening. He could almost hear the bleak and sugarcoated laughter in his head, the venomous sound of Lindsey's amusement over her games of torture. She'd been the one who harmed Gerard, she brainwashed Jamia by using a vampire creator's bond to her advantage, and lead them to their intended death inside a ring of fire. The blood leaking into the tiny grooves in the ground wouldn't be enough to soak up the blinding anger filling Frank all at once. His teeth clenched together at the thought of her, his blood turning as hot as liquid fire shooting into his veins, and never before had he wished to see her rotting under the ground more than he had now that everything he ever loved was almost taken from him for good.

"I'm going to kill her. I'm going to fucking kill her!"  Frank bellowed, stunning the vampires still sitting on the ground when he bounded to his feet and retrieved the abandoned silver stake laying on the floor. He didn't care that the item was searing hot in his hand from how close it was to the burning flames only moments ago; justice was clear in his mind, landing on his tongue so he could taste the bitterness that would only turn to sweetness if Lindsey was killed.

"We'll help you find her." Gerard declared, rising to his feet in a flash along with Mina and Aura who detached themselves from each other.

"What do we do with Jamia?" Mina asked.

"Let her live. There's hope for change, I know the real Jamia is in there somewhere." Frank instructed. Frank held onto the most measly fragment of broken hope that everything Jamia said was implanted into her mind by Lindsey, persuading her to believe the most awful point of view in order to gain her affection and use her to get the London coven exactly where she wanted. He raced through the maze with the others rushing behind him, following their faded scent to reach the entrance once again.

When they escaped the maze, they all halted in their tracks. The smell Frank had itching his chest and his nose was not only the remains of smoke, but the fresh tendrils of it rising from the inside of the castle; the castle burning on the inside. He could hear the chaos caused by the blooming fire, the screams of the vampires escaping and running around the area. The fire just began, but inside glowed a threatening orange radiating thick smoke causing the many coughs Frank heard being expelled from the vampires who escaped through the front entrance of the castle.

The entire place could have been contaminated with dozens of poisonous insects and Frank would still not allow it to stand in his way. He strode forward, his hand firmly wrapped around the stake, but he stopped at the feeling of a hand yanking his arm.

"No! You will burn if you go in there!" Gerard stared at Frank like he'd lost his mind, the brightness of the fire giving Gerard's pale skin an orange hue.

"This is my only chance." Frank protested desperately. "We came here to kill her. She deserves to die for everything she's done tonight, we shouldn't even be alive because of her!"

"I cannot allow you to put yourself at risk." Gerard clenched his jaw, his eyes filled with miles of pain that would go beyond Frank's understanding if he hadn't almost lost his vampire tonight.

Frank curved his palm along the shape of Gerard's cheekbone, his touch comforting. "The fire just started and it doesn't seem to be spreading fast. I promise that I'm going to find her, kill her, and come back to you in one piece. You have to trust me."

"I do trust you." Gerard said, an instinct, warming Frank's aching heart.

Frank nodded slowly, bringing realization into Gerard's gaze. His jaw slowly loosened from its tense position and his lips relaxed from the tight line they'd formed into, returning to their doll-like shape. They slowly withdrew from each other with lasting glances, Mina gently taking Gerard's arm to pull him away or else he might have lunged for Frank during the last second.

Frank turned around, holding his breath and pushing down his need to hold Gerard as the world faded around them, and plunged into the burning castle .

_______

A/N; Don't worry, I'm jumping onto the next chapter as quickly as I can. Which I'm sad to say will be the last numbered chapter before the epilogue. I can't believe I managed to get this far with a plot like this, sometimes I get overwhelmed with elaborate plots.

So, I do hope my plot twist shocked at least some of you, a lot suspected that Lindsey might have turned Jamia into a vampire or brainwashed her, but surprise, it was both! You're all so smart, it was hard not to reply to the comments guessing either of those things.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, sorry it took kind of long! Faster updates are coming soon and the end of this book will be my main focus. I hope everyone's doing well.

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

-aprilxo