Incarnations by Christine M. Butler Page B

back to Gregore.
    "Caislyn, you know what I meant."
    "I'm not sure I do, why don't you spell it out for
me?"
    "It's him or me, now. You have to choose." She could
feel him standing just inches behind her. She longed to lean back
and let him pull her close. She wanted so bad to have him wrap his
arms around her and make the rest of the world just disappear, but
there were other things to consider. She was going to need Jaxon
back in order to figure out how they could live without always
being in hiding. There was so much they had to do. And now, her one
hope of getting Jaxon and helping her was sitting on this
precipice. "How can you tell me Jaxon isn't important? Without her,
without figuring this prophecy out, we will always be on the run.
Is that how you want to raise our child? Fleeing from one hiding
spot to the next, hoping that we don't get caught?"
    "Cais," Gregore was pleading with her, but she knew
he wasn't going to listen to reason himself.
    "I can't just send Ash away, Greg. What if it turns
out this is his baby? What then? I will always be linked to him
too." She could hear him sigh, and the shuffle of his feet, but she
never thought for a moment she would hear him walking away, until
she did.
    ***

SNAPPED
     
    "Seth!" Brigid screamed out, "NO!"
    "What have you done?" Jaxon questioned.
    Seth turned and looked from one girl to the next. "He
had to die."
    "No," Jaxon said, "he had to tell us why he thought
Caislyn and I needed to die."
    "He was playing with you, Jax. I don't know what kind
of mumbo-jumbo you thought you were doing to him there, but it
probably wasn't actually working. He told you what he wanted you to
hear. He's always been clever like that."
    "Seth, you don't know that," Jaxon countered.
    "And now, we'll never know," Brigid added. "I can't
believe this, Seth. I've been plotting my revenge on Marc all this
time for our family and you come in and take it right out from
underneath of me."
    "Really?" Jaxon yelped. "Really, that's what you're
worried about? Not why he wanted Caislyn and I dead, but your
vengeance?"
    "Um, Marc's a lunatic, I agree with Seth on that
point. He probably only told you what he thought would elicit the
biggest response. Some of it may have been truth, but you have to
know that there's a good possibility that none of it was."
    "Is that what happened to our family, Brigid?" Seth
was suddenly still as he asked the question. Jaxon just stood glued
to the spot, and Brigid began fidgeting.
    "Seth, I didn't know." She looked up at him with
pleading eyes. "I swear, I had no clue what he was. And yes, I fell
for his lies."
    "So, our entire family died, and we were both made
monsters because of your little crush on that," he pointed to what
was left of Marc on the ground.
    "Seth," Brigid began and then stopped. She sucked in
another breath and tried again, "I'm sorry. I've spent every day
since wishing I could take it back. I was with him, in the field
beyond the stream. I didn't know. I didn't know that he had sent
someone else to butcher out family. I had no way of knowing he just
wanted me as one of his trophies, his toys." Brigid sat back down
on the couch and hugged herself. Jaxon could see the far off look
in her eyes, and with her gift of empathy she knew that Brigid was
reliving everything.
    "I don't blame you Brigid. We knew nothing of this
kind of monster then." He looked up at Jaxon then, "we really need
to get you back to Caislyn. All this stress with you gone isn't
good for her. She's been training like crazy. Gregore is flipping
out about Ash, and about her working so hard to find you. She
didn't sound too good the last time I talked to her."
    "I'm sorry, but I can't go back. I have to go find
Caleb." Jaxon turned her back on both Seth and the mess that
surrounded them, because the blood was just too much. It wasn’t
like the blood of humans, it smelled tainted, but it still brought
forth the lust that she still wasn’t able to control.
    "Wait, what? You can't do that,