WAR OF HEARTS • hayley marshall

44 | FOREVERMORE

Khalia sits by Hayley’s body, still doing nothing but holding her hand.

Suddenly, Hayley awakens with a gasp and grabs her throat. That cold and wilted feeling suddenly soars with warmth and life, the presence in the back of Khalia’s mind like a living thing. Then, it vanishes again, that warmth that made her off kilter world realign itself. Just like before Hayley passed, there was no trace or evidence of whatever it was. But Khalia knows now, it is there, and it is real. Even if she didn’t know what exactly it is.

As Hayley sits up, she's overwhelmed with flashbacks of being in labor, the baby being born, Klaus being pinned to the wall, and Monique slitting her throat. She realizes that the baby is still alive, but has been taken by the witches. She looks around and spots Khalia – who was staring at her with teary eyes, mixed with disbelief.

“Sweetheart?” Khalia calls to her, voice sounding choked and full of hope and disbelief. “Please tell me this is real, that I’m not dreaming.”

“Khalia,” Hayley calls back, heart aching when she noticed the tears falling down Khalia’s cheeks. Then she felt that pull of hunger towards her baby. “We have to find her, the baby. I can feel her.”

“Yeah.” Khalia agrees, letting of Hayley’s hand that she’s been holding all this time. Hayley gets off the sacristy but is a little unsteady on her feet, swaying dangerously before Khalia caught her. Both girls inhaled sharply, because wherever they came into contact with each other, the skin was so sensitive to the others touch that it caused a shiver to run up their spines and goosebumps to rise on skin. A fire ignited between them, just like the fire that was always between them, but somehow this was much more intense.

They sprung apart as if they’d been burned, and in a way, they had been. They had been burned by one another, claimed and branded as each other’s and would never again be able to be any one else’s.

Adverting their eyes from each other, the emotions too much for right now, Hayley sped away and Khalia followed as they went to find her. That’s when Khalia noticed it – Hayley’s speed. Werewolves aren’t this fast, only vampires are. Then it all fell together for her. Rising from the dead, neck healed, her sudden speed – Hayley is a Hybrid in transition.

Khalia was torn between joy that Hayley would be with her forever, and dread that Hayley would now go through the worst possible thing imaginable. Turning into a vampire is not an easy thing, there was so much you needed to learn. Control of your bloodlust, control of your vampire powers, control of your emotions so that you don’t vamp out in the middle of a restaurant or a mall – not that many vampires frequent either of those establishments.

They arrive at the cemetery and Khalia sees that Klaus and Elijah are breaking their way through tombs. Confusion filled her. What the hell were they doing? When they reach a room full of candles, they stop and catch their breath. Hayley was by her side, silent while looking dazed and exhausted.

Elijah sighs as neither of the brother’s notice their sister or the newly turned Hybrid. “We've passed through here twice already. We're running out of time.”

Her oldest brother punches through a wall in anger and frustration, and Khalia would have made a comment about his temper, but this was not the right time whatsoever. “Then we move faster.”

The Original Hybrid marks the wall with a third tally using a large rock just as Hayley finally speaks up from besides Khalia. “Or smarter.”