Min and Mordecai were looking over scrolls in the kitchen one morning three weeks later when Aurelia came hobbling into the room. Mordecai noticed her coming, and rushed to her side. He helped her to the table and pulled out a chair for her to sit in. "How are you doing today, Lia?" he asked, using her pet name.
"I’m better this morning, Caicai." She got an impish grin on her face after using his pet name, too. Min looked at them both, raising one eyebrow, and went back to looking over the scrolls. Colette, who was flipping through channels on a small TV across the room gagged.
"How far have you guys gotten in translating the directions?" Aurelia asked.
Min glanced up, replying, "Pretty far. We’re almost done. You feel like you're ready to go out and look for these things?"
Aurelia nodded. "I’m more than ready. I’m getting anxious. I haven’t had any attacks lately, and I think Erich’s up to something."
"Besides," started Mordecai, "Aurelia’s almost all healed."
"Yip’pie…" came a sarcastic call from Colette. "Now we get to go out in the hot desert sun and look for a rock… I’m thrilled."
"No one said you had to come, Colette." Min replied casually from out of the stacks of parchments.
"Well then, let’s go." Mordecai said.
"How are we going to get there, Hun?" Asked Aurelia, incredulously. "We need supplies, too."
"When you’ve been around as long as we have, it’s pretty easy to amass large amounts of funds, Lia."
"Speak for yourself," retorted min, "I’m only 63."
"What?!? You’re just a baby! I figured you had been around longer… oh well, it doesn’t matter. I’ll make some calls and have the stuff ready tomorrow. That’s when we’ll leave. C’mon, Aurelia, let’s go pack." He said, helping her out of the room.
"Suuuuure…." Called Colette, "I bet that’s what you’re gonna be doing…."
"They already left, Colette." Said Min, "Do I sense a tinge of jealousy in your taunts?"
"Shut the hell up." Colette turned up the TV till it was blaring and then in a fury, stomped away.
Mordecai shut the door to his room behind him. "Lia," he began, "I’ve been reading about the Blood Stones in those parchments a lot…"
"Yeah?" Asked Aurelia, who was sifting through drawers for clothes.
"Well… it says in there that with the power of the chosen one… a vampire can become mortal again… and that a mortal can become immortal…"
"Yeah?"
"Well…? What do you think?"
"What do you mean ‘what do I think’? It’d be great, but you can’t possibly expect me to decide anything. You don’t even know if we’ll find the Stones or if the parchments are even telling the truth."
"But what if they are telling the truth… and assuming we do find the stones." He asked, rushing to her side and holding her hand. "What then?"
"Then… we might consider something. But you can’t possibly expect me to say ‘hey… let’s both be immortal, so we can spend eternity together!’ It doesn’t work that way. I don’t think I can… I’m the ‘Chosen One’ remember? I don’t even think I’m allowed to be immortal."
"Who’s going to stop you?"
"Who said I wanted to!?!?"
"Why wouldn’t you?"
"Caicai… I don’t want to live forever. I don’t want to be around to see everything I know and trust wither and die. I don’t want to have to move from place to place just to hide that I don’t age at all. I just don’t want to, honey. Please… understand." She put her hand on his cheek. "Please…"
"Yeah, yeah, I understand." Mordecai replied, hurt, "You don’t want to be an evil, cursed vampire, is that it? You don’t want to be a demon that lives by night, huh? Well, I got news for you, it’s not like that."
"I know it’s not like that! I know because and I grew up with Min. I love you. Now stop this!" She hobbled over to his side and said softly, "Please."
He turned around to face her and held her close. "I know. Sorry. I’ll make the calls and get our stuff. Pack lightly, Lia. It’ll be a small plane. Love you." He leaned down and kissed her.
Colette, was crouched at the door, smirking and listening to the two argue. She suddenly lost her smirk. She slowly stood and went to her room where she locked the door, curled into a little ball, and cried.
Min finished putting away her scrolls, walked into the kitchen and grabbed a glass of orange juice. Mordecai walked in and turned off the still blaring TV. "Hey, Min, where’d Colette go? I thought she’d be in here… Her show was on."
"What show might that be?"
"Temptation Island…"
"Oh, I should have known. She’s the kind of person who would watch that crap. Probably takes pointers from it. A self-study sort of thing."
"Hey, cool it. She’s not that bad. Be nice. I’ve had a relationship with her for most of my, well… I guess you could call it a life."
"Really?" Asked Min, eyebrow raised, "I can’t see you two together. She’s the jealous depravable sort and you’re the debonair knight-in-shining-armor type. I can’t picture it." Min sat down at the table across from Mordecai.
"Aw, c’mon, Min. You can’t honestly think I’m the knight-in-shining-armor! You have no idea what I used to be. Compared me… Colette was an angel…" he said with guilt in his voice.
"Yeah… maybe hell’s angel. Anyhow, she stormed off to her room when I made some comment about her being jealous of Lia. She seemed slightly pissed."
"Oh really…" said Mordecai sarcastically. "How could you tell?"
"I think it was her choice words of ‘shut the hell up’ that really got her point across."
"Oh jeez, I’d better go talk to her." Mordecai walked out of the room and down the hall towards Colette’s room.
"Have fun." Min taunted in a sing-songy voice.
Mordecai knocked on Colette’s door. "Colette, open up. It’s me."
"Go to hell." Came the muffled reply.
"Been there, done that. Now seriously. Open up, we need to talk."
"No we don’t. There’s nothing to talk about, not with you anyway."
"If you don’t open the door, I’ll rip it off the hinges. I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again. Now please open the door!" Mordecai pleaded.
The door swung open, and there stood Colette, looking paler than usual. "what?" she groaned.
Mordecai walked into the room and shut the door. "Colette. You’re mad."
Colette laughed. "No shit. How the hell did you figure that one out, Einstein?"
"Colette, quit it, I’m serious. Why?"
"Do you even realize what you’ve done? Not only did you just drop me like some sort of accessory, you left me for a Chosen One. A Chosen One, Mordecai. That’s like… that’s like… you know what, there’s nothing worse than that! The only thing you could do to make your treachery even worse would be to stab me in the back with your girlfriend’s goddamned sword!!!!"
"Shit, Colette, quit shouting! You’re going to scare people."
"Like who? Oh, is your darling slayer sleeping? Y’know, the only reason I saved her – yeah, that’s right I saved her – is because of you. The next thing Erich would have done would have been kill you. I don’t think either of you have even noticed I exist long enough to say anything about it! I would have done anything for you. If Erich catches me now, I’m dust. I have no future. I hate to break it to you, but neither do you and Aurelia. Don’t give me this crap about becoming mortal again, because you know – deep down you know – that those stories are all a load of horse shit. You’re going to watch Aurelia die right before your eyes and you know it. As soon as we destroy Erich, she’s gone. She—"
"Then we won’t kill Erich." Said Mordecai seething with anger. He clenched his fists so hard, his nails cut through his palm. "We don’t have to."
"Ok, sure, we’ll just wait for him to find us, or we’ll hide for the rest of eternity. Mordecai, you really are a fuck head. You’re so blinded by your poor helpless flirt of a mortal that you can’t see how deep you are in your own shit. We should have killed her when we had the chance. What did she do to you? You used to be a bad-ass. Now, now, you’re willing to throw everything away… for some mortal who’ll die in what seems like a millisecond; and you know what? When she does, you ain’t gettin’ me back. Now get out."
"Colette…" Mordecai paused and then continued. "I’m… I’m sorry… I didn’t realize that –"
"Get. Out."
"Colette, just liste—"
"Get Out before I fucking kill your little princess myself and save Erich the effort."
Mordecai nodded sadly and walked out, shutting the door behind him.