Blood Secrets: Tales of the Children of the Moon

Chapter Twenty-Two: Choice....


A sleek black mustang screeched to a hault outside of the Seattle Warehouse where Kuza and his group were hiding, a few other cars, a silver Jeep included, following close behind the first car. The driver of the mustang opened the door and out stepped Faith, Manson close on her heels, stepping out of the passenger side. Soon after Andy, Midnight, Ashley, Kitty, and Ghost all piled out of the silver jeep that was Vixen's car, while Chris, Ashley Costello, and the rest of MIW and NYD, as well as Jinxx, Jake, and CC, all piled out of the cars that had been behind them. Chris had recieved a text from T.J. earlier that they had found Kuza's lair and were planning on infiltrating the building. As soon as he had recieved the message, he'd rallied the troops and they had took off for Seattle. Now they were here and were hoping that they werent too late not to try and help.

Andy walked up next to Faith, his father's old long barrel colt in his hand while he held its twin- Vixen's colt- in Vixen's borrowed shoulder holster that she had custom made just for the colt. Fath glanced over at Andy and growled, still not comfortable with the Alpha werewolf, but at the point in time willing enough to work beside him to save her apprentice. "Alright, split into teams, cover every entrance, we move in on my signal," Faith said, glancing back at the group before she took off for the entrance to the building, Andy, Kitty, Ashley, Ghost and Manson on her heels. Chris, Ricky, Angelo, and Ryan took off for the west side of the building. Ashley Costello, Nikki, Jeremy, Tyler, and Nick took off for the east side, while the remaining people- CC, Jake, and Jinxx took off for the back, effectively covering every exit. Faith watched as each group of Supernaturals took their places. She watched the vampires of the group- The one's like Chris, Ricky, Ashley Costello, and Nick Rossi- baring their fangs, their eyes glowing a deep red as their powers flared. She watched the werewolves- the one's like Ryan, Angelo, Jinxx, Jake, CC, Jeremy, and that guy Nikki Misery- all shift forms and bare their fangs, their hackles raised. What surprised her was when Balz and Tyler shifted their forms, fur covering their entire bodies, the ears of a wolf replacing their once human ears, their faces contorting and extending to become a muzzle much like a wolf's...to be exact both Balz and Tyler's forms made them look just like wolves only those two were standing on their hind legs, just like a human. Faith guessed that the two men must have been hybrids of some kind, although she didn't really know. She hadn't taken the time to get to know any of the people around her after finding out that Vixen had been taken.

Once Faith knew that everyone was in place and ready to enter, Faith turned to Manson, who stood protectively behind her, his own vampiric form showing. She nodded to him, knowing he would send the signal through the mental link before she slid the giant metal door of the warehouse open and going inside.


When Andy ran into the warehouse, behind Faith and Manson, his colt raised and ready to fire, he was surprised to find the place littered with bodies. Immediately his mind went to Vixen, wondering if one of those bodies was her's and fear ripped through his mind. He broke away from the group, running over to a group of bodies and searched each one, looking for the flowing red and black hair that was all Vixen. He sensed Kitty and Ghost come up behind him, worry radiating off of them as they searched the piles of bodies as well. "She doesn't seem to be any of these," Kitty whispered, glancing at Andy. "That's good...right?" Andy just nodded.
The sudden sound of a gunshot brought all of the groups attention from the bodies before them to the long hallway. "ANNABELLE!" They heard someone scream. Ghost's eyes widened. "That was T.J.!" He said, before taking off down the hall, shifting into the half white, half black furred wolf as he ran. Andy and the other's quickly followed the wolf, only to be surprised by what they saw.


As they entered the large open space of the warehouse at the other end of the hallway, where they had heard T.J.'s scream, they saw Vixen, Ronnie, T.J., as well as two other girls standing over the limp body of a young girl with red hair. A man stood at the other end of the open space, one hand held against a wound in his chest, the other holding a pistol that must have been the one the group had heard being shot. Another man that Andy recognized as Kuza, stood off to the side of the other man, holding a bleeding wound on his stomach with one hand, while the other held the arm of his bassist Franccessca in the other, the grip so tight, Andy thought the woman would probably end up with bruises after he released her. "YOU SICK SON OF A BITCH!" Vixen screamed at the man with the gun as she knelt beside the red headed girl on the ground. "I hope you burn in Tarturus for this! For all of what you've done!"

The man grinned wickedly at Vixen and Andy felt the rage of his alpha reach a new peak at the look. "I am flattered by your words little Vixen," the man growled, giving Vixen a lustful stare that made Andy want to rip the guy limb from limb. "A sick son of a Bitch I may be, and Burn in Hell I might, but not before I get my hands on that ring!" He chuckled maniaclly. "Until we next meet little one," the man made a mock bow towards Vixen, before turning on his heel and heading down the hall, Kuza and Franccessca following. No one followed after the three. Andy knew that his pack mates, as well as Chris and Ash's, could handle the three without them. His main concern at that moment was his mate, who was currently trying to stop the bleeding that was coming fast from the wound in the red head's chest. After a moment of staring, Andy finally made his way over towards Vixen, calling out her name as he ran towards her.


Vixen's head snapped up as she heard Andy's voice, her eyes widening in surprise at the sight of him, as well as Faith, Manson, Ashley, her brother, and sister, all who were following close on Andy's heels. "Andy? Oh my god!" Vixen cried out as Andy reached her, pulling him into his arms as he collapsed on the ground beside her. Andy slammed his lips against hers in a rough, demanding, yet passion filled kiss as he held her close to him, not wanting to ever let her go now that he had her back. They didn't even notice that Ronnie had knelt beside Annabelle and T.J., looking closely at her chest wound. Ronnie looked over at T.J. and sighed. "There's only one way she can be saved man," he whispered to him as T.J. pulled Annabelle onto his lap, smoothing her fiery red hair away from her beautiful green eyes. Tears streamed down T.J.'s face as he nodded, before he pulled out a switchblade from his pocket. He flipped it open and placed it against his arm, intending on opening a vein and feeding Annabelle the blood that was infused with his wolf spirit- Knowing that if he did such an act, it would change Annabelle for the rest of her life, making her one of his own kind- but Ronnie placed a hand on top of his own, stopping the act. T.J. looked up at his friend, glaring at him, asking with his eyes why he was stopping him from saving his Irish Rose. Ronnie shook his head.

"The wound is too great for a werewolf transition bro," Ronnie whispered, tears of sadness filling his own deep brown eyes. "She wouldn't make it through." T.J. shook his head in denial, hugging Annabelle, who was quickly losing consciousness, and started rocking back and forth with her. "No. No, no, no, no,NO!" He yelled, reclaiming both Vixen and Andy's attention. "There has to be SOMETHING we can do to save her!" He turned his attention to Vixen then, his own brown eyes eyes pleading with her to help. "V...please," he whispered. Vixen disentangled herself from Andy, and crawled over to T.J., looking down at Annabelle, whose eyes shown as a dulled mint green as she faded from them all before their eyes. Vixen sighed as she took a quick stock of Annabelle's injury, assessing the damage and thinking of possible solutions to keep her from slipping from this world and heading to the Otherworld. She finally looked up at T.J. after a moment. "There's only so much magic can do honey," she whispered, placing a hand over Annabelle's wound and beginning to chant. T.J. looked at her with pain and confusion in his gaze. "What the fuck does that mean?" He cried.

"It means that her magic can only go so far to keep her alive T.J.," Ricky said, appearing out of nowhere with Chris and the others. Ricky looked as if he had been through a meat grinder. His shirt was in tatters, his jeans were more ripped than normal, and claw marks and gashes covered every exposed part of his chest. Chris and the other's didn't look much better by the looks of it. T.J. briefly wondered if Raymond, Kuza and Franccessca had run into the three groups as they made their escape and that was the reason why they looked as if they had gone through a war, but his attention quickly turned back to the Irish Rose in his arms as she coughed, a cry of agony slipping from her lips as she did. "Annabelle? Luv? Sweetheart it's going to be alright, we're going to fix you, I promise, just please luv, hold on," he whispered, staring into her dull jade eyes.

A moment later the chanting that had been coming from Vixen stopped and she looked up at T.J. "I've done all I can honey," she whispered, her blue-grey eyes shining with sadness. "The only other thing we could do to save her at this point would be to..."

"Turn her into one of us," Ronnie finished for Vixen, only saying "one of us", to emphasis that he was talking about making the girl a vampire like Ronnie. T.J. stared at his friend before he shook his head. "I won't make that descision for her," he whispered. He looked down at Annabelle and tapped her cheek gently, getting her attention- or what he could of it with her fading away before his very eyes. "Annabelle, my Irish Rose," he whispered, leaning in close to her ear so only she could hear. "V has done all she can and it's still not enough. There's a way we can save you but I won't make that choice for you. I won't take away this choice from you. It's a choice that will change your life...forever. But it seems to be the only solution we have right now."

Annabelle coughed, blood coating her lips as she did from the internal bleeding that was happening within her body, but she gathered up her strength and looked into T.J.'s deep brown eyes. "What do you need me to do T.J.?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper. T.J. smiled down at her, thankful to whatever God was listening that she was able to muster up the strength to speak and that she was fighting the Grim Reaper- Angel of Death, Grim Reaper, whatever the Hell you wanted to call the guy, T.J. didn't care, he was just glad she was fighting him...or her. Again, he didn't know- nor did he really care in that moment- but he thought he'd mention the "her" bit, just so he didn't sound sexsist...even if it was just to himself (hey, you never know WHAT could offend those femminist chicks now a days!). "We need you to make a choice, lass," he whispered. The whole room was silent as he spoke, no one in their groups even daring to breath as they watched T.J. with Annabelle, listening to the passion and love that the bassist let slip into his tone, not caring that everyone there was hearing it at that moment, only caring that Annabelle did.

He didn't notice Ricky and Chris looking from him, to each other, and back again as they listened to their old bassist, catching the glimmer of care and love that was in his eyes then. On a normal day, Chris and Ricky, as well as Angelo, Balz and Ryan, would have done the childish thing- tauntung and teasing their old bassist, making jokes that were so childish it would put a kindergardener to shame (only their jokes would have been much dirtier but you get the point)- but under the current circumstances, they chose to put their jokes and teasing aside. Now was not the time for such a thing. Their drifting thoughts returned to the present as they picked up T.J.'s voice, thick with an Irish accent just like the girl- which confused the Hell out of them seeing as they knew T.J. wasn't Irish by any means- whispered once more, explaining the choice that the girl now had to make.

"This choice will change you for the rest of your life," T.J. whispered, tears slipping down his pale cheeks. "You won't be human any longer. You'll be like Ronnie is...a vampire," at Annabelle's shocked gaze T.J. quickly explained. "I would ask you to become like me, like Malice or even Vixen," he added pointing at each girl as he spoke their names. "But it's...it's too dangerous luv. With the wound you've sustained...your body wouldn't make it through the transition," He sighed deeply then. "The only way to save you...would be to make you a vampire."

Annabelle was silent for a moment, contemplating T.J.'s words. Finally she asked, "Will it hurt?"
Ronnie shook his head, answering Annabelle's question. "It'll be just like falling asleep after being giving some anesthesia honey," he whispered, taking one of her hands. Vixen slipped her own hand into Annabelle's other hand, Andy coming up behind her and wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulder's. "It'll be as painless as ever hun," Vixen whispered. "I promise." Annabelle nodded before falling silent once more, contemplating her choice. The pain in her chest was dulling slowly and she knew she was coming closer and closer to death but...did she want to give up her mortality- or what was left of it at least- just to stay alive? Was it really her time to leave this earth? Or was this some Higher Power's way of telling her that they were giving her a second chance at life? A second chance to live her life better than she had the first time.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Annabelle answered, coughing up more blood that had filled her lungs as she had laid there, contemplating her decision. "Okay, I know what I want to do..."
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Notes

Author's Note:
Hey guys! So sorry that it took so long to put this chapter up here but unfortunately, I got (the dreaded...) MAJOR writer's Block!!! >.< Goddess I HATE IT when that happens! Anyways, I HAD written something completely different the first time (a fight scene included in that first draft), but as my Writer's Block began to weigh down on me, I started going in a direction I really didn't want to go in on the first draft so today when I finally got my Writer's Block to GO AWAY, I scrapped the entire chapter and started from the beginning. Honestly I like this version a Hell of a lot better than the last one, although I am sorry I didn't put a fight scene in here- I think I promised I'd give y'all one in the Author's Note last chapter, and I'm sorry I didn't follow through with that (I really am guys! Please don't hate me!! *hides behind her couch*) lol. Anyways, Chapter Twenty-Three we'll find out what Annabelle's choice is! Will she choose to live, becoming a vampire and getting a second chance at her life? Or will she tell T.J. that she believe's that it is her time to leave this earth and move on to the Otherworld? We'll just have to wait and see! I'm gonna start writing Chapter Twenty-Three tonight (it's like 6:30 pm over here in Cali right now lol), seeing as the Inspiration Bug is back and biting haha.
Until next time guys! See you on the other side and Blessed Be!
- Kyrie Kerr =^.^=