Bat Country

The next night, Alexis awoke to a collapsed hole full of loose dirt. She instinctively began to claw her way upwards. It was obvious Brian was no longer in the hole with her, but he was alive and she wanted to see him.

Finally breaking the surface, Nikki and Andy were talking to each other quietly before they both turned their heads to look at Alexis as she shook herself free of dirt upon reaching the surface.

"Where'd he go?" Alexis asked, trying to get remaining dirt off of her.

"He took off. Wasn't in any hurry, just said he was going to go wait for you." Andy replied.

Alexis nodded and walked forward, following Brian's scent. "I'll go talk to him and we'll get away from here."

"We'll meet you at the old asylum. There's things I need to get out of there before we go anywhere else. But I agree that you should go talk to him. He wasn't all together, and his motivation is crushed. Give him a new direction to go." Nikki told her. "Figure out what he needs and give it to him. I would prefer he did not run from me the way he ran from Matthew."

"Jimmy." Alexis sputtered, wiping dirt from her mouth. She figured this must have been why Brian hated living as a rogue.

"Hm?" He asked, a little dazed, leaning up against a tree.

"Thank you for helping. You've known him longer than I have. I hope you realize he will need you as well."

Jimmy smiled. "I don't know anything about him you don't. But I'll be here."

Alexis nodded and finally took off after Brian's scent. She followed it for awhile. He wanted a quiet space, that much was obvious. He had gone so far off any human trails that he wanted to be in a spot no one would interrupt him.

Finally she stopped when she saw him standing on the edge of the ravine she had never seen before. The ravine curved sharply and he was somewhat hidden by the line of trees.

Alexis stood around twenty feet behind him aching to go and hold him, but she didn't know if he was even in a mood to be touched.

"She's free, Alexis?" He asked, without turning to look at her.

Alexis herself wondered if Isabel held any resentment about being a vampire, or did not desire that life by the time it was over.

"I made her, we had gotten closer. It was not perfect, but I was doing my best to get it there, and at the end of her fucking existence, she was free? Was she that sick of it? She told me that she would have wanted this regardless of how I made her. Why would she be free?"

"Brian, it was not you she was happy to be free of." Alexis told him softly, taking another step forward.

"They killed her, and she was glad for it? Alexis I didn't realize how much I wanted to be alive until I found you and I'm fucking two hundred and fifty years old. She was so young, she had a long time ahead of her. If she felt suicidal, I would have thought finally changing my mind on that would have sent a positive message. What could she have wanted to be free from if it wasn't me?" He finally turned to her and Alexis saw what Nikki was talking about. Brian looked totally devastated.

Alexis looked down for a moment before glancing back up at Brian. "I think she was referring to Matt's nest. We got her. We took her away from him, from Thor. She was out of it, Brian. It's possible she was just happy that we succeeded. It didn't even look like she knew she was dying."

"He injected her with liquid silver." Brian's lips curled in disgust. "I couldn't even help her. Even if I freed myself, I could not help her. He silvered me to a chair and cut off my fucking fingers and made me watch. He cut off my god damn fingers, Alexis." Brian was agitated and he pulled up his bottom lip into a scowl.

"And so I will make them pay for it." Alexis told him with confidence.

Brian turned to her. "I need peace, Alexis. I need to not fight anymore. I got out, and if truly, that is what Isabel was talking about, I won't give them the opportunity to take me back there and make a failure of our efforts."

Alexis was suddenly confused. "You don't want them to pay for this? They killed Isabel, and nearly killed you!"

"Alexis, Rev is still with me, thankfully. But I've already released him. I will never get as close to him as I should have been. I'm pretty sure he'll be leaving to go on his own soon. The only one I have left is you. I can't give them the opportunity to take us away from each other. Yes, in order to keep us together, I will let them go unpunished."

Tears budded in Alexis's eyes. "You are not serious. You would just hope they'll leave us alone?"

"I am, and I do." He told her softly, stepping forward and taking her hand. "I could not do without you, Alexis, and I don't want either of us to be lost fighting them."

Alexis ripped her hand out of his, tears suddenly falling heavily. "I should give them the opportunity to come and snatch you again?! They took my friend and your child, and they almost took you from me too and you would have me let them go unpunished?! I must avenge you both or else surely I will go mad!" Alexis took a long, choppy breath, wiping her dirty face.

Brian stared at her for a long time and then nodded. "Then swear to me when the time comes, you will destroy them both and end this."

"I swear it, Brian. They will regret all of this, and should they even try to take one of us, they will not live to regret it." Alexis hissed.

"I know they won't." Brian said, pulling Alexis in for a tight embrace.

Alexis wrapped her arms around him and held him close, stroking his back as she kissed his cheeks over and over, happy again that she still had him.