Loving Merritt Forever

Loving Merritt After 39

Merritt and Xi had their second meal, a few hours before sunset. Having each read everything Marisol had delivered. Both talking through what they had read, comparing notes of things they had found important.

"I'm scared to find out what Marisol wants me to do tonight." Merritt admitted. Keeping to herself how her last day alive kept reappearing in the files Marisol had brought over.

Xi inflected his head. "You should always fear the unknown. I am no warrior but I will guard your back." He promised her. Xi did not know what to make of the kind and gentle vampire. He had always been told her kind were dark, vicious monsters. Needing to kill and feast on life blood to stay alive. He had never known any woman ever to be so kind, so thoughtful to the needs of a man, especially one as low and unremarkable as he found himself to be. One genetic benefit had been his only asset. One that did not matter in a world that was touched by the sun.

The two washed what needed to be washed, tidied the small home and packed away the files once again. They didn't talk as they worked, each had far too much on their minds. Merritt and Xi taking to their rest for the daylight hours. Dreams of all they had learned bouncing around in their subconscious the entire time the sun was up.

Merritt woke already screaming. Asher and Levi had both been calling out to her from the darkness. They both were pleading with her, to find them, to save them. It sounded like they were being cut apart, crying out in pain, begging for Merritt. It was like she could feel them once again. It all been so real. Merritt's eyes opened as Xi was cresting the ladder that was needed to get to the library where Merritt took her rest.

"I had a bad dream." Merritt said, not thinking anything more of it. Awake, she once again had the awful, empty feeling, all her ties had been taken from her, and she was alone. Merritt stretched, out of habit still more than need.

Xi looked like she had seen a ghost. A truly haunted expression on his face. "You're lying? No, not lie, the untruth that people find entertaining?" He stumbled over his words, Merritt's head cocked to the side. Not understanding what he was trying to say until like a lightbulb.

"You mean funny? A joke?" She asked Xi, he nodded. "No? I had a nightmare right before waking," Merritt stopped mid sentence, looking at Xi as he looked more afraid not less. "It was just a bad dream, nothing more." Except Xi only grew more afraid each time Merritt reaffirmed what she thought was something benign.

"Vampires don't dream. Never. Some demons dream walk." He told her, further explaining that to dream walk was to find a unifying universe, walk the plane of eternity, or even steal into the dreams of others. Xi himself did not have the talent, and women who could, well they did not talk to him in the underground.

Marisol appeared just as Merritt joined Xi on the ground floor. "She says she had a nightmare." Looking at Merritt sheepishly, "She screamed as her rest ended," Xi told the demon woman who was clearly the most in charge person. A lifetime of obeying and trying to please powerful women was hard to overcome. Xi did not understand how he felt about Merritt, she was an entirely new experience, Marisol however was simple, she was a matron. At least of middle importance. Which meant the threat he feared needed to be reported to Marisol as soon as she appeared.

Thankfully, unlike Merritt, the Succubus knew that this was a very bad omen of things to come. "What was in your nightmare?" Marisol asked, as the bags of blood and a single meal for Xi were placed on the table. "Tell me everything about this nightmare." The way she said nightmare, finally made it sink in to Merritt that Xi had told her the truth, she shouldn't have dreamed. He came from a place that worshiped, and tried to control little demons all the time. Apparently it is a tiny demon that takes single socks from laundry.

What she experienced was something different from what she knew dreams to be. Merritt described what she had heard, what she had felt, the oppressiveness of the darkness all around her. How real it had all been, every sensation was exactly right. Neither Marisol or Xi made comforting faces as they silently listened to every thing Merritt could think to describe her experience.

Silence hung in the air like a cloud. "I do not like this." Xi said. "Too much strength. The Matrons would worship a demon this strong." A dream walking demon was one with great strength, a family that met such a demon would almost certain to rise to the top of society swiftly. If they could work with it that was.

"Yes, tempted witches are always a problem." Marisol said before she pursed lips. The plan had been well thought out. Trying to decide if she should red light the mission considering this new information. Deciding that the needs of many over the need of one would win. This demon was currently bound in some way, still they had not been able to find it physically searching, or through scribing. The demon was linked to or wanted Merritt, and Marisol needed bait.

Marisol would have called everything off if she knew the true date of Merritt's death. As it was, Merritt had been reported as kidnapped, her exact date of death unknown in the records. As it was, only Merritt knew. The hunt was authorized, weapons armed, bait obtained. Even Xi was armed with two short swords on each hip and spare blades strapped everywhere he could. Using all of the battle and protective gear he had taken with him on his long walk to the surface.

Relics of a people who would die with him. Xi felt a need to try and do something that would have brought him some measure of acceptance back home. Helping a vampire, who was technically a demon seemed as close as he could to following the ways of his people in a way that did not feel awful to him. Especially with his new understanding of the world, and where he fit.

No one aware of the all dangers they currently faced, Marisol teleported herself, Merritt and Xi back to the area Levi knew he had been driving towards when he found Merritt in the woods. Where all the search parties had started. Of the four pairs of Elites sent to investigate now; Only one pair had returned. Reporting where they had searched. They kept detailed records, body cam footage, had been wearing satellite tracking and monitoring devices. Everything to try and capture any information.

The problem was, according to the satellite data, the pair that had returned, had walked over the same space where all data recording stopped for the first two pairs who had been sent in on different nights. Worse, according to the team they had sent in to explore in tandem, hoping having two teams working would change the results, The pair that emerged from the woods,had crossed paths with the team they were working with. While their data recorders were still functioning. The pair that returned, should have seen the others, the files from the body cams were scoured over, every single pixel investigated. The other team was not where their data recorders said they should be.