Chapter Text
Chapter one
For Calliope Burns, things had been going exceedingly well.
She was currently in the lead when it came to monsters killed between her siblings, she was excelling at school more than in any other town now that they’d officially been in Savannah longer than anywhere else.
At the top of the list, she was in the best relationship of her life.
Before Savannah, she never would have even thought that it was possible that it could be with a vampire, but then, everything she’d ever been taught up until that point told her that vampires shouldn’t be capable of smiling so radiantly.
She’d also learned that her family would never be okay with having a non-human in their home, but that was long since proven wrong.
Their meal had been repeated many times at this point and, that night, Cal was excited that it would be followed by a trip to the movie theatre with her girlfriend.
It was set to be a perfect night, but that was dashed, Cal becoming more sullen with each minute that passed without the appearance of her favourite vampire.
At half an hour late, Cal finally broke down and called Juliette Fairmont, distraught to receive her voicemail after only a couple of rings.
That had never happened before!
The text that followed didn’t help.
‘Sorry, some family stuff came up. Can’t make it- Juliette’
Rather than reassuring her, it made Cal’s stomach twist in disappointment with a sprinkle of suspicion.
That didn’t sound like Juliette and her parents were out of town. She was staying with Oliver though and a problem with her brother could constitute ‘family stuff’, right?”
Depending on the severity of the issue, the abrupt message could also be explained.
That didn’t stop her from violently spearing a green bean as if it were personally responsible, however.
“Calliope,” Talia sighed, “I’m sure Juliette will make it up to you. Just eat your food.”
Cal drew her bottom lip between her teeth, bubbling worry swirling around her body, affecting her appetite significantly.
All the same, she did what her mother instructed.
In all likelihood, Talia was right. She would see Juliette at school the following day and she would explain what was hopefully a story too long for a text message.
She sent a quick message back expressing that she hoped everything was okay and then proceeded to eat only as much as would allow her to be excused from the table.
For the remainder of the night, she checked for a reply that never came in between bursts of training.
When it reached midnight, she finally gave up in the vain hope that she was tired enough to fall asleep.
For an additional twenty minutes, she scrutinised the messages Juliette sent her earlier and thought over every interaction they’d had at school.
It was all in the realms of normalcy for their loving relationship.
She discarded her phone upon realising that she spent about five minutes staring at Juliette on her lock screen. She was not this clingy girlfriend who took cancelled plans personally.
She could be disappointed without thinking that there was something seriously wrong with Juliette, couldn’t she?
It was holding onto this thought that allowed Calliope to close her eyes to really try and sleep.
At the very least, it would get her closer to confirming that Juliette was okay.
S
Calliope didn’t feel any better the following morning, she woke up to no text messages.
After chewing her bottom lip for a solid minute, she went about her morning routine with the only difference that she was abnormally silent during breakfast and left earlier than usual.
This led to ten minutes of waiting at her girlfriend’s locker.
Her stomach dropped as Ben Wheeler turned the corner alone, wearing an expression that reminded her of exactly how she felt.
Her heart jumped into her throat as he rushed up to her and demanded, “Isn’t Lettie with you?”
Cal shook her head and replied, “I assumed she would be with you.”
“She didn’t show up for her ride or answer her phone. I assumed she got…distracted,” he said, gesturing towards Calliope.
“She didn’t show up to dinner last night,” Cal replied, making short work of grabbing her phone to show him the text message.
“Something’s wrong,” Ben determined and Cal swallowed against an onset of nausea.
“I was afraid you’d say that,” Cal said, bringing her shaking hand to her forehead.
“So what are you going to do?” Ben demanded, snapping her out of the start of a panic spiral as her mind was about to start coming up with possible scenarios for where her girlfriend could be.
Ben’s prompt got her to think as a member of the Guild, the first step was to get more information.
“We should go and talk to Oliver.”
S
Oliver Fairmont’s car was silent.
Calliope was grateful that he’d rushed to Lancaster Academy to pick up her and Ben, but she didn’t feel any better.
He didn’t know where Juliette was either, giving a whole new perspective to the text message. Cak was now sure that Juliette couldn’t have written it.
The question was, who did? Who would have the audacity to think that they could hurt a Legacy Vampire?
The trio agreed that there were two people in Savannah who were uniquely qualified to provide an answer to that question.
This was how Cal found herself marching towards her front door only an hour after leaving for school.
She opened the door and Ben passed the threshold, but before she could call for her parents, someone cleared their throat behind them.
Oliver stood on the other side of the door and spread his arms, Ben furrowed his brow.
He got the answer to his unasked question though as Cal said, flippantly, “You can come in.”
At the same moment, Jack and Talia appeared, probably drawn by the unusual noise, in time to see the Legacy Vampire enter their home.
“What the hell, Cal?” Jack demanded but softened when his daughter turned and he saw the abject worry on her face.
“What’s going on, Cal?” Talia asked, coming over to her daughter for a better look.
“It’s Juliette,” Cal admitted, her voice strained, “No one has seen her since yesterday, I think…something’s wrong…”
Genuine concern passed over Talia and Cal released the breath she’d been holding. A huge factor in her worry was the possibility that they wouldn’t care.
“Tee, can I talk to you over here for a second?” Jack asked insistently before his wife could start gathering information.
Cal bit the inside of her cheek, their conversation was not as hushed as they thought.
“I get that you care about that girl, Talia, I really am starting to get it, trust me,” Jack said, “but the Guild will not stand for us devoting time to saving a vampire!”
“This is for our daughter, Jack!” Talia retorted, “Do you want her to have to grieve for her girlfriend?”
“Grieve?” Cal called across the space and her parents jumped apart, turning to find two teens with widened eyes and a vampire wearing a stormy expression.
“Oh Cal,” Talia said, returning to her daughter, “I didn’t mean…I’m sure that Juliette will be fine.”
“Yeah. The worst thing that can happen to a Legacy is to starve…they go all feral,” Oliver inputted.
“Come on, man,” Ben sighed as horror overcame Calliope’s face.
“It sounded more hopeful in her head,” Oliver said, squinting.
“We’ll find her before any of that happens,” Talia reassured.
“When did she last feed?” Oliver asked.
Cal shrugged, it wasn’t the thing at the forefront of their normal discussions except when she was desperate for blood.
“I don’t know, last week I think?” she suggested.
“Okay, that’s not good,” Oliver said, bringing a closed fist up to his frown.
“Juliette won’t lose control,” Cal insisted, sounding really insulted by the suggestion.
Oliver dropped his hand and tilted his head, looking his sister’s girlfriend up and down.
“I get that you love her, Calliope, that you want to see the best in her, but Juliette is a vampire . What would a starving human do for food?” Oliver retorted condescendingly.
“Is this you being hopeful?” Ben asked.
Oliver rolled his eyes and looked straight at the hunters responsible for his recent torture.
If they were willing to help his sister, he saw no reason to hold it against them.
“Do you believe that the Guild planned this?” he asked.
“There is no way,” Jack replied, “We don’t have any way to hurt a Legacy, They wouldn’t risk a conflict with your family. But I will check with them.”
“Good,” Oliver replied, “in the meantime, we can use you to retrace her steps.”
The vampire rounded on Cal, who raised her eyebrows, “How?” she asked.
“For some unknown reason, you and my sister have a…strong connection. There’s a way to amplify that to find out exactly what she was doing yesterday,” Oliver replied.
“Then let’s do it!” Cal said.
“Any objections to a witch in your home, Mr Burns?” Oliver asked.
Jack ran a hand over his face and replied, “I suppose not.”
S
Flowers, buckets of flowers.
That was the last thing Juliette remembered seeing and her mind automatically became distracted again, trying to identify which ones Calliope would most appreciate.
It was far from their first date but now that they had acceptance and could be together in the open, it felt like a good time to start acting like it was.
There was no reason that she shouldn’t be able to get her girlfriend’s flowers.
The reason that she didn’t scorched through her blood as consciousness returned to her with a gasp.
Pain at her wrists stacked on top of it and she knew that there was only one thing that could cause this level of agony.
Pure silver!
Her eyes flew open and her vision took a moment to clear, though it was still a little obscured by floating dust in the low light.
She tugged at the pressure on her wrists and hissed as the silver dug in above the IV stuck into her inner elbow.
The liquid silver pumping into her veins had her eyes flutter shut.
Juliette was very tempted to give in and fall back asleep, even with the unrelated burn in her throat.
The silver was inflicting more unrelenting pain than anything she’d ever felt in her young life, but pain couldn’t kill her. What would be the harm in resting a while longer? At least in her unconsciousness, she hadn’t been aware that her body was on fire.
The thought that Cal would never give in to pain had her trying to sharpen her vision.
There was no natural light so she had to guess that she was in some basement, a dilapidated one at that.
The instruments laid out across the table she was faced with all looked brand-new.
What worried her most was the seemingly endless supplies of IV bags. How long did her captors expect her to be here?
For that matter, who were her captors?
Her eyes drooped but she managed to keep them open and let out a strangled, scratchy sound from her dry throat rather than the demand for answers she was going for.
It was enough to get the attention of the people behind her.
“Oh look who’s awake,” a teenage girl announced, coming around into Juliette’s field of vision, addressing what sounded to the vampire-like another two people. When she realised that she recognised the taunting girl, she figured that it was another two hunters.
She’d seen a picture of Tess Franklin on her girlfriend’s phone.
If the circumstances were less physically painful, she would have dwelled a little longer on how pretty Calliope’s ex was.
“Tess?” she croaked.
The other teen fake smiled while perusing the tools on the table, tapping her fingers over them impatiently, probably weighing up the pros and cons of each.
“How sweet, Cal told her little vamp about me,” she said, picking up what looked like a cattle prod.
Juliette pulled at her restraints again but hissed, sizzling hitting her nose and ears.
Electricity crackled as the hunter activated the device and Juliette tried to twist away, “why are you doing this?!”
“Because someone like you took my parents away from me,” Tess said icily.
“That wasn’t me,” Juliette argued.
“No, it was your sister!”
“She’s already in prison,” Juliette said raggedly.
“And how long can that hold her? She has forever to get out, when she does I need to be ready. Consider yourself a test subject,” Tess said and punctuated her point by jabbing the prod into Juliette’s stomach.
She released a strained scream until it was pulled back, slumping against her chains.
A second later, she straightened and growled loudly, baring her fangs.
“There’s the Legacy we’ve been looking for,” Tess taunted, “Now let’s find out how to make you stay dead.”