Loving Merritt Forever

Loving Merritt After 17

Asher has been prevented from doing any actual harm by people who had prepared the trap, Merritt was told. Levi kept his voice even as he revealed that every single moment since Merritt had entered the dungeon basement where Asher took his punishments, had been observed, monitored and planned for. This was a test. Levi gave his reasoning. Staying so calm. As though he had not just split Merritt's happily ever after apart with his actions.  Asher had failed to behaved, or continue to be bound to Merritt. He was a liability.

The council, for a rather steep price, had supplied the team required, right down to the human bait who hadn't ever been in real danger. Unbeknownst to Merritt or Asher, the entire building was now empty, save for themselves. The building had been secured, Asher was currently contained in a casket sized metal box. Purpose built to hold him in punishment. Levi undid the lock on Merritt's wrist. Rage growing as he looked at the hand she had mangled trying to stop Asher when he did not deserve such effort from her after he broke the bond to her as her sired.

Merritt tucked the near degloved and misshapen hand behind her back. "He's safe?" Merritt asked. Her sense of Asher felt wrong, she hadn't noticed entirely while she had been panicked. Her brow furrowed, her demon went silent from the mournful song it had been singing. The ever present noise in her head going quiet made Merritt anxious. "He doesn't feel right in my heart anymore?" He was there, but muted. Instead of being able to sense his mood, state of being, it was more like knowing a small match was lit in a vast dark room. So much less than it had been only moments ago.

"Little dove, when Asher refused to obey your command he broke his bond to you." Merritt felt her eyes go wide, time going still as Levi's words washed over her. The gravity of what had changed. It was irrevocable. 

"He said he was mine, forever?" Merritt didn't understand. Asher and Levi had both explained to Merritt that Asher had known Merritt was dated to him, their love was the will of the Goddess who loves and protects all wolves. Then Merritt's demon had done everything they could to try and ensure Asher would stay Merritt's. It had worked, against all odds, Merritt in her first moments as a vampire, sired her own vampire. "Asher is mine?" Her voice low, gone all the confidence, she had gained in her undead life.

Levi's heart grew first blue at sweet Merritt as her heart broke as the truth of the situation fell upon her. Then it turned to rage. All Asher had to do was listen to his maker. To listen to Merritt and stop following the suggestions of his demon. "He is still yours, as long as he exists he will be yours. His demon is stronger than yours and they no longer heed you, no longer share their emotions with you. Asher's commitment to you was not strong enough. He has severed himself from you." Levi said, slow, even measured words. Making sure Merritt fully understood. In doing this, Asher had made himself more dangerous, not less. One taste of fresh blood, and hours of torturing had only made him more reckless, more willing to act against Merritt to satisfy himself and his own desires over hers.

Asher had once been willing to risk everything he was for Merritt. To die trying to save her. It seemed that part of his heart did not cross the divide between being living and vampire. Levi was so disappointed. How could anyone ever want less Merritt. Everything turning to rage inside him on her behalf. She wouldn't sever their own bond. She was his good girl. Before, after and always.

Merritt needed a moment, still holding her hand behind her back. Hiding what she had done to herself from Levi's eyes. Knowing it would upset him to see what she had done and that he would ultimately blame Asher. She tried so hard to find Asher in her heart again. To make it feel like it had before. "He doesn't want to be mine?" A single blood tear welled from her eye and traced a crimson trail down her cheek. The first tears she had cried since the day of her turning. When she had thought Asher dead and gone.

Levi stopped, turned and took Merritt in his arms. Searing her lips with his own. Using a black, demon nail on his thumb to open his clavicle, guiding Merritt to feed from him, deepen their bond, help her hand heal more quickly. When she pulled back, licking Levi's black blood from her lips with a delicate swipe of her tongue. Levi spoke again. "He is yours, you made him. He owes everything to you." Levi impressed his words onto Merritt. "Learning to tame his demon will take time." Levi promised again.

Levi had not felt what Merritt felt as Asher locked her up before he ran away. Merritt kept her concerns to herself. She knew Levi was mad at Asher. Would be until at least Merritt's hand showed no sign of the hurts she had experienced today. Merritt did not want to make things worse for Asher, nor did she want to actually voice her fears out loud. That would make them real.

"I shouldn't have let him free." Merritt was completely ready to blame herself for what had happened. Still hiding her currently very itchy and unsettled feeling hand as it knit bones back together and tried to quickly grow fresh skin.

"I knew you would sweet one, I am only sorry I could not tell you before." Just as Merritt had been tested, Asher too needed to pass certain tests. Asher's life would be far less exciting than it had been. If he had ever thought the apartment was small, he was going to learn to truth of how little space he needed to be afforded.

"I could feel him, I knew he wasn't settled enough to be free. I ruined everything." Merritt's demon resumed humming a lament in Merritt's head.

It was already full night. Asher was safe. He had not been put down by the council. "I want to take a walk," Merritt said, moving away from Levi. Grabbing a jacket on her way past the coat hanger of her apartment. Flicking the oversized hood over her head. Heading out the door into the city. Quickly making her way out of her current neighborhood. Heading across the city on foot. Barely paying attention to her surroundings.

One poor, desperate man did try and rob Merritt on her long walk. He was quickly shown the true order of the world, and wouldn't likely be bothering anyone else for quite some time. Merritt only injured him enough to inconvenience him, not maim. She hadn't even fed from him. Eventually Merritt made it to her destination. An older subdivision of the city. Cut off from expanding by a river that separated the neighborhood from the lucrative shopping district, forever an obscene long drive around what would be near instant as a crow flies. Though the refuse did not have the same travel issue, much of the runoff garbage from the industrial area made its way to this side of the river. Littering the thin poplar groves that lined the river banks.

Merritt sat down on the curb on the darkest part of the street that would let her look at the home she wanted to see. It had been sold again since she had last seen it. Someone had planted new gardens in the front yard. A dwarfed weeping willow of some kind in the front yard that had not been there before. The lawn was well kept. The house had a new front door, a beautiful stained glass mosaic flower as the window. The door a pretty teal green, to go with the fresh light gray colored siding.

It looked far better now than it ever had when she had lived here. Her parent's home. The one Verity had made her sell when she had wanted to stay and live in the only home she had really known. 

There were many upgrades since Merritt had last seen the property. New gutters and drain pipes, the walkway to the front step had been redone Merritt looked at the home she had grown up in. Not really understanding why her feet had brought her here. She hadn't ever been happy here, there weren't happy memories to want to relive. Merritt was glad the windows had heavy curtains over the windows. She didn't want to see the people who lived in her parents house. Didn't want to know what they looked like or anything else about them. It would be better that way. Merritt knew she wouldn't ever be back to this house. No matter how long she lived.