The Miracle

“So what you’re saying is…” Muninn began… again.

Bonnie had explained it multiple times now and felt as if the Blonde Vampiress was purposefully playing dumb..

“…you, a seemingly fully qualified medical practitioner. Want all of the medical equipment in this room removed. Medical equipment which we had to painstakingly steal from several heavily secure hospitals mind you…

“God I don’t miss taxes.” Belle murmured.

“What are taxes?” Rose asked, looking strangely puzzled.

“…and fetch you some candles, chalk, a box-cutter and a bottle of Jack Daniel’s?”

“And a lighter, can’t light candles without a lighter, oh and candles, damn I nearly forgot that one after giving you the list, five motherfucking times.” Bonnie said, rubbing her temples.

“It’s not that I can’t understand a list, I just don’t get the purpose of those items.” Muninn explained.

“Look, Rose gave me the impression that my requirements would be met with discretion and respect for said discretion.”

“Because that isn’t even slightly suspicious?” Muninn said.

Belle zipped like a blur into Muninn’s space “Come on Moonie, I know you’ve had a bad night, trust me we all have. But Charlie asked specifically for her, this may be our only shot at getting him back on his feet. Just have Hughie grab some of it on his way back? Please, pretty pretty prettiest please!?”

Moonie glanced at Rudy who was lent against the wall, sucking dried blood from between her sharp fingernails “Why does it always have to be me as the odd one out, we have to all agree unanimously, remember? Rudy could you at least chime in?”

Rudy hadn’t moved since her half hearted introduction of Muninn to Bonnie, only taking a strange enjoyment from her oral-manicurial routine. But as Muninn spoke to her, Rudy shrugged “Rudy doesn’t know about all that, but get this, if you battered and deep fried one of those werewolves testicles, do you think it would be tasty? Like a Popping puppy chicken nugget? Blood god… we could start a vampire fast food chain… we need a business plan.”

Everyone merely blinked in pause.

“D-Did she just say werewolves? God damn werewolves exist too!?” Bonnie said, greatly fascinated.

“See, she’s kosher, she saw my horribly mangled mug, nearly shook hands with a bloodthirsty Ghost and just found out that werewolves exist. Not one panic attack, she's cool, Moonie.” Belle promised

Muninn huffed “Hey, Bonnie was it? I’m sorry, it’s not that I don’t trust you… well, actually yeah it is but, we’ve had our fill of nasty surprises so far tonight. You can imagine my hesitation for just letting some random wet nurse alone with a bunch of items which scream ‘the exorcist’ IRL.”

Rose stepped forward “Muninn, You are right to be cautious. But we must bring him back, at any cost.”

Moonie intensified slightly “Rose… I don’t exactly agree with what dick and dom over there think…” she pointed at The Ghost still holding the half unconscious Phantom in the corner, who in turn flipped Moonie the bird bitterly.

“…but to some degree they aren’t exactly off the mark here. I… I am always happy to help you, and I am so happy for you and the kids but… I do at times have my doubts, if you could really let go of your job as an inquisitor, for the sake of our master. When Charlie told us what you did he was torn to shreds about it. That’s not even mentioning how your colleague very conveniently showed up tonight. You can’t just walk back in on us, with demands, as if nothing happened.”

Bonnie screwed up her face peering back at Charlie who continued to breathe weakly into his oxygen. What the hell did she do to him that garnered this much distrust?

Rose reached out to Muninn and with tender hands took her wrist and placed them just below her navel “You don’t have to forgive me, Muninn, I know that I will never forgive myself for my part in Roman’s death and Charlie’s rebirth. But these children, they have no say, no involvement. And they need their father.”

Her fingers constricted tighter “I don’t care about the mission anymore. Even if you are just a lowly blooded. I do care about you all. Did you yourself not say that we are all family now? the children will need you too.”

“Wow… that, that was actually almost really sweet.” Belle said nigh on teary eyed.

Muninn’s lips collapsed into her mouth, as she fought against her instincts “Ugh, I have no idea why I like you, Inquisitor. Fine, fine. I’m guessing Cleo is on another one of her tantrums so… I’ll give Hughie a call and… have him pick up the stuff.” She turned as if to walk off but…

Bonnie scratched the back of her ponytail “Can I just say tha-“

Muninn appeared before her like a stranger emerging from the dense fog, her skin white as ice, the still dark veins beneath throbbing as her crimson eyes looked deeply into her.

Gently her fingers, each a satin icicle, caressed her face encapsulating her so deeply that as she pressed her pink lips on Bonnie’s she forgot all fear, all hesitation and felt her thoughts melt away into the long, dead kiss.

Flashes of white and springing stars sparked behind Bonnie’s eyelids and as Muninn very abruptly pulled away from Bonnie, her vampiric visage melted away into the soft features she had earlier. “Don’t thank me, Bonnie Murphy. In truth I am the one who should be thankful, you’ve got a noggin like an iron box I’ll give you that. But you really have no idea what your getting yourself into here. Make sure that he wakes up, unharmed and unchanged, then we can talk.”

And just like that Muninn was gone.

Bonnie remained stiff as a board, licking her lips, tasting the raspberry scented balm left behind and smiling “I think that went well.”

“Damn straight, now, I’m off to go get some investors for the ole Puppy Pops!” Rudy said.

Belle's powerful hand snatched Rudy by the suspenders “Ah-hem?”

“Did I say that!? Rudy meant, I'm going to check on our guest in the basement!”

“You mean, we are. Sorry Rosie, I need to-“

Rose gave a small smile “Do as you will, ‘Thrall’”

Belle returned her smile knowingly, before shoving Rudy towards the door “Please do your best Bonnie, we really are counting on you. Come on then loopy, get moving before you say anymore weird shit.”

Isabelle Harlow, Rose seemed to hold her in high regard. A pride that Bonnie detected almost instantly.

“Hey, howdy Miss Murphy, please consider my proposal, you could have a 50% stake in the business! It’s gonna be a god damn-Hoooowlll!” Rudy was pushed out of the room, Belle closed the door behind her.

Bonnie watched as the red-headed beautiful Rose walked over to the small table and chairs, taking a long huff, rubbing the tired from her eyes.

“Can I ask you something, something that maybe a tiny bit not my business?” Bonnie asked, taking the seat by Roses’ side.

“If you truly must.”

“All this talk about… betrayal, redemption, your hand in Roman’s death…?” Perhaps she was pushing her luck. Human or not this woman was clearly dangerous. Even sitting in a room with her filled Bonnie with more dread than any of the others she’d met so far.

But Rose was half slumped on the table, each cheek cupped in a pale hand, her face wrought with rampant emotions which strangely didn’t suit her.

“I didn’t kill Roman, I… I tried to tell him but… My father has always been the anchor which steadies me, the rudder which drives me and the mast which guides me. He saw my ambitions, how I hungered to ascend my rank and take the place of a sister who was long outcasted.

The mission, it would be like any other only… it would be personal. After I have had time to reflect, I think that is why he chose me to do it, his cold instrument, his ever loyal watchful eye.

He never cared that I was his daughter, that he was sending me not only to kill my own sister but… to murder my older sister's husband, Charlie’s Father.”

Her sister, Charlie’s mother? Boy if Bonnie had questions earlier - no, now wasn’t the time, she hadn’t known Rose for long, but she felt how valuable and vulnerable she was being in this moment.

“I hated this place when I left the confines of the castle, I lurked and searched for Valerica for nearly forty years, tracking her down - losing her trail over and over, and so I decided, if I could not cut her down first, then perhaps I would cross Roman off my list.

Little did I know that I’d find the two together.”

“They knew each other?” Bonnie asked.

Rose shrugged “It was a relationship of opportunity, she had a wicked desire, so did he. Each sought to use the other.

But when he delayed, tried to slink out of this cursed life which he had long abandoned, she was angry… and Blood god, was her wrath a thing to behold.”

“So she killed him? You never got to her?”

“Pft, she got to me, just before she killed him. I tried to fight her, but it just ended the same way it always ends. But this time was different in the fact that I was certain that this time, I wouldn’t survive to take another crack at her.

And so… I lied. I told her that Roman was involved, that it was our little plan all along, that he had her from the start; played her for a fool. You cannot stop a flood, but you can redirect it.” She rubbed her eyes again, as if too ashamed to ever show them again.

“She sounds fucking bonkers, girl.” Bonnie said certainly.

“Bonkers she may be, but unlike myself, she has never been a craven coward. I might as well have slaughtered the father of the Man I love more than anything myself.” She was utterly crestfallen.

But Bonnie was just as dumbfounded “You blame yourself then? Okay fair enough…”

Rose was gloomier than a Young girl with a booted sandcastle.

“Wait, you don’t seriously think that right?”

Bonnie watched Rose's cold blue eyes, sheened with an icy mist trail up to her, confused, lost. “What?”

“You do realise that if your sister, Vavarica?”

“Valerica.” Rose corrected.

“Yes, very exotic. Valerica, if she is as crazy as you say and you’re not exaggerating she would have just killed Charlie’s dad regardless if you pointed her his way?”

The Inquisitor wrestled with that for some time as Bonnie continued.

“Aye, you fucked up. But you’ve been here with Charlie this whole time, you’ve been making amends for what you did. You said you’d die for him, that you are his family. I’d bet that you’d pluck the moon right out of the sky for that kid right? Well be just that, spend the rest of your time with him making it up to him. Give birth to those inevitable pair of beauties and maybe consider that a life spent feeling sorry for yourself isn’t one worth living.”

It was as if a weight was lifted. Not the whole thing of course, but even a small portion cut from her shoulders seemed to make Rose springier, more composed. She sat up, before wiping her face clean and giving a nod.

“Miss Murphy I… Bonnie. My thanks. I suppose, it had been far too long since I had taken time to see it from the outside.”

Bonnie nodded, throwing her arms up with spirit “hey that’s what being human is all about! I can’t imagine what it was like for you to come from your da’s castle. You must have been holed up for potentially thousands of years. If you vampires are still anything like us, you would have probably been completely detached at the time, not to mention indoctrinated by your papa as well.”

Something changed in Rose after Bonnie spoke her mind. This cold, reserved figure, this monster, this princess of death itself had been cast down into humanity. As Rose began to open more and more, Bonnie couldn’t peel herself off of that chair. The both of them spoke until the seconds flew by, the minutes slipped into hours.