A/N: Just the start of a little bit of Chloe backstory for @lilhan Honestly I couldn't do any of this without the constant support and encouragement from my besties. i love you awesome nerds. @chloes-yellow-cup @kimmania
It had been hours since they had last changed carriages and a whole day since they dropped the bloodless corpse into a dusty ravine far from the road. Aubrey had healed some, enough to be able to move, if somewhat stiffly, but not enough to entirely repair the damage to her head and face.Â
Beca had found them a shop that had seemed more like a grand carnival with many lights and strange clown characters dressed most outrageously. Aubrey had stayed hidden in their coach watching with interest while Chloe had gone to gather supplies and another ride.
"Are there many of these markets?"
"Walmart? Yeah. They're kinda everywhere."
She was silent a moment, watching a man place a silvered odd shaped helmet on his head. He patted himself down before applying deep red lipstick in a smear across his lips and black under each eye.
"Do they all have performers?"
Beca looked out the window of Suburban they had switched to and chuckled. She shook her head, unsurprised at the unusual man.
"He isn't a performer, he's just a regular midnight Walmart shopper. There is a whole community dedicated to the weirdos that come here."
Beca's soft laugh at the use of the unfamiliar word pulled her attention from the streams of people wandering from their coaches to the marketplace and back. Aubrey settled back down, both confused and astounded by the world humans had made for themselves.Â
It was a quiet companionable moment before Beca sat up quickly and turned her head to peek out of the front window. Aubrey focused on the slow roll of carriages as they parted to reveal Chloe bathed in a halo of light striding toward them, her rolling gait drawing their eyes to her hips. Beca swallowed audibly and sat back with her legs extended along the bench seat.
"She's reallyâŚya know?"
Aubrey's lips twitched in a small smile amused that Beca had sensed Chloe even before she had. It was clear the bond between them was solidifying with each passing moment. It was beautiful to behold but heartbreaking at the same time. She knew tasting Beca's blood would be the catalyst but the bond was not blood magic alone. They cared for each other. More than Beca would perhaps admit.
"Yes. Yes she is. You should have seen her at the Minotaur Maze. She was breathtaking."
Beca turned and looked at her, her eyes dark with curiosity. The unasked questions hung between them until Chloe tapped lightly one the window. Beca rolled it down and eyed the bags hanging from the smiling vampireâs hands.
"Are those Mike and Ikes?"Â
"I saw you eyeballing them at the last gas station."
Beca took the bags from Chloe through the lowered window and tore through them to find the treats she craved. Aubrey smiled at the innocent joy in the necromancer's face as she popped a small colored candy in her mouth.
"Bro. I could almost kiss you right now."
Chloe raised a brow and leaned into the window with a predatory smile. Beca's eyes widened and she leaned back.
Chloe's laugh was light and carried on the air. Aubrey closed her eyes to savor the sound of their banter and the soft reassuring beat of Becaâs heart. A woman could find herself content for all her days with those sounds surrounding her.
"Hey, how did you pay for all this?"
Aubrey opened her eyes in time to catch Chloe's smile turn from sly to brightly amused.Â
"You have a credit card?? Won't that leave like a paper trail or something?"
"I didn't say it was mine, Beca."
There was silence then Beca's aggrieved sigh.
"Damnit, I'm actually kind of impressed."
Chloe preened at the look Beca gave her then turned her attention to Aubrey. The intensity in her blue eyes softened and she reached into the window to caress the unburnt side of her face.
"Are you sure you donât want me to find you someone to eat? You need to heal my love."
Aubrey leaned into the gentle touch, her eyes closing at the soothing cool of Chloeâs palm. She wanted to feed and badly. It gnawed at her insides, and raced like fire through her veins. It would be unbearable if not for Beca keeping her distracted. It allowed her to remember her vow never to take an innocent life simply because she could. No matter the consequence of not feeding.
"I'm alrightâŚfor now. Is it time to change coaches?"
Chloe nodded once and looked around. They were too exposed, and there were too many prying eyes and Aubrey didn't want to be seen in her current state. Though she supposed she would become another of the weirdos.
"You two stay at the car but be ready to go when I come up the row. I'll go find us a new ride."
They slid from the back of the carriage and Beca handed her a short hooded cloak. Aubrey held it up to her chest and looked with uncertainty at Beca. The other woman set the bags down and gently took the cloak from her hands.
"This cloak is very short."
"It's called a hoodie. Full length cloaks went out of fashion when we canceled J.K. Fuckface."
Aubrey didn't understand any of those words. Someone rolled by with a loud cart and she flinched away into what shadow she could. Beca carefully lifted the hood for her and winked reassuringly.Â
"Thank you Beca Mitchell."
"Anytime. And hey look, a zipper. Get a load of that action, huh?"
She looked down at the silvered tab and smiled. The vampire tugged it up and down a few times, enjoying the satisfying sound it made.
She was starving and in pain but somehow the simple magic of a zipper made it slightly more bearable. Perhaps too, the soft way Beca kept glancing at her. It made her feelâŚeverything. All at once.
"Can I ask you something?" At Aubreyâs short nod Beca cleared her throat. "You guys love each other, right? Like. Be together literally forever love."
Aubrey held Becaâs gaze as she considered how to answer. She hadnât known how deeply she still loved Chloe until recently. And in truth she didn't feel as though she was deserving enough to even admit to her feelings let alone expect that Chloe would feel the same. Certainly not now. Not with her bond to Beca blossoming.Â
"Is there a question in that statement, Necromancer?"
The other woman looked distinctly uncomfortable for a moment. Aubrey guessed she was trying to figure out what she really wanted to ask.
"How come you married someone elseâŚ"
Oh. Aubrey dipped her head and leaned back against the steel carriage. Why had she done that? Yes. She had loved Harun from the moment her eyes set upon him but before him there had always been Chloe. Aubrey was slow to answer, slow to dredge up the lifetimes of memories.
"Things were different when we were young. Chloeâs family line is considered diluat. Her mother had been born human, you see. It broke her father's pure blood line and forever marked her place in society."
Beca went wide eyed, her mouth dropping open then closing with a click.Â
"That's a lot to unpack. So she's part human?"
"Yes and no. She was born a vampire as I was. As all pure blood vampires are. But her mother was human and already with child when Einar The Lonely came upon her one night. I was told she was a slave brought from another land to serve and pleasure the invading human warriors. By the time Einar crossed paths with the caravan she had massacred her captors."
"Hell yeah. SoâŚhe turned her?"
"No. He tried to eat her." Beca's face was awash with horror. Aubrey chuckled and shrugged a shoulder. "She bit his throat out."
"Hm. Perhaps. But he fell in love with her fierce spirit and raised her child as his own. And she grew to love him too. He chose her over his status and that meant much in those days."
"So is that why you didn't pick her?"
Beca's voice was heavy with disappointment and a little hostility. She could read it all in the other woman's disdainful shake of her head and tiny snort of incredulity. Aubrey bit back a snarl as the question and Becaâs assumption that she had chosen politics over Chloe pricked at a long sore spot. One she hadnât realized held resentment still.
"I cared little about status or bloodlines. I would haveâŚ"
A vehicle flashed its lights and rolled to a slow stop in the aisle behind them. Chloe waved to them urgently from behind the wheel. There was no time to finish the thought and she had no desire to speak on it further.
Aubrey tugged Beca's arm before the smaller could dismiss her. The necromancer turned to her with blame naked in her eyes.
"What I would or would not have done then is irrelevant. It was never my choice to make Beca Mitchell. It was Chloeâs and she chose the Bloodguard."
She brushed past the other woman and climbed into the back of their new ride. The interior was fairly open and smelled of gasoline and something earthier and smokey. Short, thick curtains ringed the cabin ensuring their privacy. It was clean and there was enough room for her to stretch out fairly comfortably. It would do.Â
"Jesus it smells like a dispensary in here."
Chloe laughed and jerked a chin at the spot Aubrey had just settled onto.
"Yeah. There has to be at least a kilo stashed somewhere back there."
"So not only did you buy me candy but you rolled up in a sweet ass bus filled with secret weed?? I think I might love you a little, Red."
Beca looked guiltily over her shoulder at Aubrey but the vampire eased further into her hood and closed her eyes. Hunger that had previously only been a hollow feeling in the back of her thoughts raced forward plaguing her with its unbearable presence.Â
There was sadly a savage joy at its return. If she had her hunger to focus on she could not sit and replay the look of accusation in Beca's eyes. And although she hadnât been the first one to walk away, she felt the weight of guilt on her. Aubrey sighed softly and rolled to her side, arms propped under her head and let the rocking roll of the carriage soothe her into an uneasy sleep.
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