Nirus fought his chains, but the attempt was futile, any immortal strength he might earn not yet evolved. “I need drink!” he screeched in desperation.
“What have you done?” A furious voice cut through the room.
Davius turned to see Lucius in blood smeared clothing, his face an equal mix of astonishment and rage. His fist was wrapped around the tiny wrist of Delicia, who wore an equally mortified expression. The scent of a human being in the room set the newly transformed blood drinker into a frenzy, his rattling chains echoing throughout the chamber. His fat wormy tongue protruded towards her as if it were an intelligent appendage, hideous as it lapped pitifully at the air.
“Father,” she whimpered, cowering beside Lucius, who kept his hold on her firm. Any ferocity from earlier had left her eyes completely, her frail, folded body giving her the appearance of a wounded gosling more than a ravenous bird of prey. She struggled unproductively against his grasp.
Lucius’s eyes, however, were black with anger, his alabaster skin mottled by heat.
“You said it yourself, there are some fates worse than death,” Davius offered before he spat, the taste of rancid blood still lingering in his mouth.
“Let my father go!” Delicia begged.
Lucius glared at her. “Oh, please, you detested the man. You should be as angered as I am that my imprudent counterpart decided to prolong his miserable existence.”
He turned back to Davius. “And what shall we do with him now? Do you want to be responsible for the care of a decrepit blood drinker whom you despise?”
Davius wiped at his lips with the back of his hand. “We can wall him up, right here in the cellar, where he can live in eternal torment. As you can see, his defects have not been resolved in the transformation.”
Lucius deflated slightly, intrigued by the idea. He let Delicia pull herself free from detainment and fly to the door, where she began to tug at it fruitlessly. He peered at Nirus who had grown incensed with hunger, thrashing in frenzied abandon. “My word, you are right. He still looks the perfect monster.”
“Fitting, is it not?”
Lucius tore his curious gaze away to glare at him once more. “Just because you have intrigued me does not mean that I am not irate with your blatant carelessness. You have attempted what only I have done and you have done it impulsively, without any foresight. We cannot go about this world creating creatures so carelessly—we have to protect ourselves! It is bad enough I had to kill every last remaining Roman patrician, even if we are fortunate that it is during a time of civil unrest. You have created a monstrosity that we now have to properly dispose of!”
“I told you, we can seal him up here. It seems our Delicia was quite the little deviant in her own right.” Davius gestured around him.
Lucius was taken aback, realizing for the first time where they stood. “My, you are a perfect specimen,” he called back to her in bemusement.
She continued to pound at the door, her hopeless screams for rescue reaching a fervent pitch.
“As befitting the notion of locking him away for an eternal life of torment may be, we cannot risk it. What if some day, some year, even centuries in the future, he is released? There is no telling what may occur. We have to end it, and do so properly,” Lucius decided.
Davius frowned. “How can a blood drinker suffer in death?”
There was a pause, as they both realized Delicia had stopped screaming.
They turned to see the Morrigan, holding the woman up by one hand clasped tightly around her neck. She struggled powerlessly against her. Morrigan slid towards them with her prize, her glistening eyes expressing her delight.
“Let me drink!” Nirus begged from his chains.
With a smile, Morrigan complied, tossing his daughter to him like a bone to a pack of wolves. Nirus finally broke free of his bounds, catching his terrified daughter in his arms and shoving his teeth into her neck, blood pouring sloppily from his disjointed mouth as he sucked from her unrestrained.
“I have found my vessel,” she explained to the surprised Lucius, who quickly sprang into action. He wrested Delicia away from Nirus, lest he consume the fatal drop, and with a flick of his wrist, caught the wretched being ablaze. He tore about the room in panic, his shrieks reverberating throughout the press chamber. Although he could not see her, Davius could feel the presence of Gaia surrounding him once again, quietly conveying to him her satisfaction. The charred remains finally collapsed in a cloud of black smoke, a few stubborn flames fighting to survive as what was left of Nirus wheezed for breath.
Meanwhile, Lucius had given his blood to Delicia, whose body began to transform. He loomed over her as she ripped at her hair, eyes wide and frantic as her body coiled in pain. He looked at Davius. “You must do it now before the transformation is complete.”
Morrigan slid next to him, her smooth skin brushing against his. “Please, Daghda,” she pleaded. “Make good on your promise.”
Davius nodded, closing his eyes as he pulled her into his arms. He pushed all that had transpired out of his mind, letting the apparition of Gaia slip away from his consciousness. His invocation of wind picked up as his mind cleared, swirling around them and sending their robes flailing. The screams of crows filled his ears as he immersed himself with thoughts of the Morrigan, drinking in her earthy scent, allowing her to consume him. Waves of pleasure rippled through his body as he suddenly recalled the first moment he saw her, a memory that was not his, of her bathing in one of the vast rivers of their homeland. He could feel her muscular body sliding against his in the water, the metallic taste of her mouth in his.
“I will always find you,” he had whispered to her in the rain, as the last of mother’s leaves fell around them, kissing away her tears as he brushed back her raven hair.
His eyes snapped open, for the memories faded and he had returned. He grabbed the moaning body of Delicia off the floor and kissed her, breathing into her body the soul of the Morrigan.
And then, all was still.
Across the room, Nirus’s glowing, charred remains crackled and popped.
Lucius stared at Davius in astonishment. “Did it work?” he whispered.
Davius looked down at the limp body draped in his arms. The woman who was once Delicia was still.
Suddenly her eyes burst open to reveal the clearest blue eyes he had ever seen, radiating out from porcelain skin. It was Morrigan. She beamed up at him, her lips pulling back to reveal two neatly pointed teeth.
Davius hadn't the chance to speak before her eyes shifted back to brown, and he was staring again at the mortified Delicia. Surprised, he dropped her, watching as once more, the eyes snapped back to icy blue.
“What is happening?” Lucius demanded.
“She fights me,” Morrigan managed to reply, trying to pull herself to her feet before crashing to the ground as if her body was under attack. Delicia pulled at her hair, sending Morrigan back with a howl, only to re-emerge moments later. “Her soul will not leave!” Morrigan cried out in frustration.
Davius stared helplessly at the struggling creature before him. “What should I do?”
“There is nothing to be done,” Lucius replied with sudden realization. “Their souls are braiding, forever bound together for as long as their physical body shall live. All we can do is wait until their contention is over.”
As if on cue, the body went limp.
Delicia/Morrigan rose to their feet in one eerily fluid motion. They stood for a moment before delicately sweeping the dust from their lavender robes. Their face was Delicia’s, but was sculpted by Morrigan’s hard beauty, one of the eyes a soft brown, the other perfectly blue. “You may call us Morgana, for we are Delicia, but the Morrigan commands us,” she declared.
