Amor Magicai (A Discovery of Witches)

Shared loss

Just to anyone who has had to experiences what Anthea has in this chapter I mean no upset or discomfort and you can skip past it if you want, I'll mark were it starts and ends in case you do need to skip. I am only using this as a plot device for future chapters. Hope you enjoy.  

.......

The next day I woke up and went about my morning routine, having breakfast and then getting a shower. Once I was dressed I threw on my boots and left for work. Arriving at the lab I was immediately greeted by Marcus holding two cups, one I guessed was my tea.

Taking a sip I placed the cup on the table and started working on my computer. Looking over the charts I asked Mathew to email me, I felt a presence behind me. "You know I can feel you breathing down my neck Marcus?" I swivelled around and found a rather bashful look left on Marcus' face from my comment. "I just wanted to check over the labs that's all." I chuckled and turned back round.

As soon as I did the door opened revealing Matthew and Miriam. "Leave her be Marcus, she needs to get on with her work." I smirked and whilst glancing at the screen spoke. "Speaking of work don't you have an actual job to be getting to." I herd a curse fall form his lips as he grabbed his coat and ran out of the lab so he wasn't late for work.

I chuckled and stood up greeting Miriam with a hug and Matthew with a smile. Miriam dragged me over to her work station and got a needle and vile from one of the draws. She had messaged me last night asking if she could test my blood, just for an experiment, and me not thinking much of it agreed.

Once she was finished I spoke to both of them. "So what's on the agenda for today?" Matthew took my hand and led me over to his computer on the other side of the lab as Miriam went over to hers which was just opposite. Looking at the screen I saw two lay outs of DNA, both seemed to be of the same type but there was a difference I couldn't quite place.

Still having my eye's glued to the screen Matthew spoke. "This DNA was taken from two vampires both at least a hundred years apart." I looked up at Matthew with my lips in an oh shape. He looked down at me and continued. "What difference can you see?" I looked back at the screen and looked harder than I did previously.

Grabbing the mouse I decided to enhance the image and then I spotted it. "There's a decrease in the mutated chromosomes." I was shocked I could even spot it with how small a difference it was, but now that I had you could definitely tell it was there. Looking at Matthew I caught him with proud look on his face. "The decrease seems to be the cause of vampires being unable to sire their own."

His comment made me realise I didn't have a clue how vampires sired or even if it was possible for vampires to not sire. "Your wondering how a vampire is sired, aren't you?" I was shaken out of my thoughts by Matthews comment. "How did you-" he smirked before interrupting me. "You make it quite obvious when you have something on your mind." I was about to argue until Miriam gave her two pence. "He's right Thea." I shook my head and gave Miriam a playful glare to the top of her head.

Matthew sat beside where I stood and pulled up a chair with his foot behind me so I could also sit. "Well to answer your unspoken question first the vampire must drain the blood of a human and then make the human ingest the vampires blood and so the rebirth is complete." To me it sounded almost barbaric but I guess in certain cases, say if the human was dying, then it would be much more warranted. Thank God that would never happen to me.

"So once the human becomes a vampire then what ,you become a mentor to them or something." A chuckle escaped Matthews lips and I was curios what was os funny. "What?" I said with confusion but also slight playfulness. "Instead of a mentor, we become a parent to those we sire." My hands reached out infront of me making a pause motion. "So wait, they become your children," I paused for a second thinking and then it hit me. "Do you have any children."

He nodded and then started to explain. "Yes, Marcus is one of a very small, barley existent, amount." I didn't feel any different about Matthew and Marcus' relationship because technically they were family by blood.

I thought I was done asking questions but then I realised I had missed out the biggest of them all. "How old are you Matthew?" He didn't answer me but instead stood up and grabbed his coat. "Where are you going." I was confused why he was deciding to leave in the middle of our conversation, had I said something wrong?

Putting his coat on he answered. "I thought we could go for a drive." I stood up ready to argue but once again I was interrupted. "It will also give you plenty of time to ask all your questions." I turned to look at Miriam and gave her a look asking if she was alright with us leaving her. "I'll be alright, it will give me a chance to study your blood." I nodded and turned back to Matthew. "Ok, looks like we're going for a drive then."

I grabbed my keys that lay beside my computer and then the both of us made our way out of the lab and to Matthews car. I sat in the passengers seat and once Matthew had started the engine I asked. "So where are we off to?" He turned his head to me with a smile. "My house."

...

We had been on the road for at least half an hour maybe longer until we came to a wooden gate. A padlock was sealed over the front of it, preventing anyone form getting past. Matthew stopped the car and got out unlocking the gate so we could drive on through.

Once the car was parked up outside Matthew helped me out of the car and we made our way inside. The moment I walked through the door it felt like stepping through time. "Wow. Matthew your house is beautiful." I stood there looking around in aww at the old painting s and book shelves plastered around the entrance and living area. "Thank you Anthea." He placed his coat on a rack by the door and came and stood beside me. "I haven't been here in a while, what with my rooms in Oxford."

I walked further into the living area and found a painting of a woman, she didn't look much younger than Matthew. "Who is she?" Standing beside me once again I waited  for my answer. "She is my sister, Louisa." I could't help but smile. "She's Beautiful." Matthew almost seemed disinterested so I sat down on one of the coaches and started asking my promised questions. "You promised to answer my questions, so how old are you?"

Matthew didn't answer immediately as he came and sat down beside me. Once he was comfortable he finally answered. "1,537 I believe, my mother Ysabaue was the one to turn me all those years ago. I had..." He took a sharp intake of breath, I stretched out my hand grabbing his arm in comfort realising this must be hard for him. "You don't have to tell me this if you don't want to. I don't need to know." He sighed and turned to me, I could see the trust in his eye's and I was shocked that it was for me.

"No, it's alright I trust you Anthea. When I was human the village me, my wife and son lived in was swept with fever. Neither of them survived, yet I did. On the day it would have been Lucas' birthday, in my moment of weakness, I through myself from the church scaffolding but Ysabaue saved me and made me what I am today." I was stunned and devastated at the same time. Stunned that Matthew felt he could trust me with such information and devastated because of what he had to live through.

(Sensitive)

I took a large intake of breath trying to calm myself and I rubbed Matthews arm to give him some semblance of comfort. "If it helps in anyway I know how you feel. I lost my sister when I was 10, Lena, she was only two years older than me but she meant the world to me and my parents." Matthew's eye's filled with sympathy as I continued. "She was caught in a car collision on her way home from school, by the time she got to the hospital it was to late."

(End) 

Neither of us said anything both to engrossed in the others loss and all I felt I could do was give Matthew the comfort I knew he and I both needed. We sat there together, my head laying on his shoulder and his head on mine, both in comforting silence.