16. Deep Oceans

Antony's POV

Even though Ash was still pretty out of it from whatever had knocked him out, he still tried to surge up when they took Alex. "You can't take him," Ash slurred while hauling himself across the stone floors. However, by the time he even got close to the metal bars, the door had slammed shut in his face. As if all of the life had just been sucked out of the kid, he collapsed into a heap on the floor with a loud whimper.

I was pulled back from the bars by Jackson, and I saw his face press against the metal. "You need to breathe," he instructed gently. "I'm sure that nothing will happen to him."

"Why the hell are you even here. You just want him dead anyways."

I could feel Jacky's hurt through the bond, so I hugged him slightly from behind. "He doesn't mean it, he's just hurt," I breathed.

"No, I'm serious! I'm so damn tired of the two of you sabotaging my relationship! As soon as I'm done dealing with one of you, the other own starts spewing bullshit! I don't want to hear it anymore!" Ash ranted. I saw his shoulders shaking, yet I knew there was nothing I could do about it. He's right... Around and around in circles. Our lives are just a huge cycle of pain that bars all of us from being truly happy, and I'm the centerpiece.

If I had never overreacted almost 26 years ago, I would have never sent Jackson into a stupor. If I hadn't then let those opinions influence my relationship with my son, there would have been no war. Everything that's happening is my fault!

I felt a rough flick between my eyes, and I rubbed it while looking up at Jackson. "I know what you're doing... Stop it. Not all of this is your fa–"

"No, actually, it is his fault. If he didn't go running around destroying shit–"

"You wouldn't be alive, so shut u–"

"Don't tell me to shut up! You need to fight for what you want every once in awhile!"

"Have you ever considered that I don't know ho–"

"Exactly, so you end up like the rest of us as a puppet in the Antony show!"

When I looked up into Ash's blue eyes, I could see nothing but pain, and I took the impact almost directly to my heart. "I'm sorry that I'm not good enough," I whispered before curling up in the opposite corner. I could hear the father son duo yelling at each other, but nothing could distract me from the pain. It swirled around in my head, and I reminded myself of a turbulent ocean.

I stood on the edge looking down at the whirlpool of the waves. With a rock pushing at my back and the waves in front of me, I have no where to go. I feel myself go over the edge of the cliff into the frothing white waves, and I just let myself. When my body hit the water, I tried to struggle against the waves, but they just shoved me down. Eventually, I had to give up, and I let myself sink. My eyes were stinging from the salty water, and my lungs were burning with the need to breathe.

"You're nothing, Tony," a voice to my left declared. When I turned to look at it, familiar chocolate brown eyes stated back at me, yet they were so much colder.

"You ruined my life," Alex whispered into my right ear. The ocean wrapped tendrills around me helping to drag me farther beneath the waves. My vision was beginning to turn into blurs and different shades of blue, and I couldn't even see the moon above the waves.

"Breathe," someone commanded, but I couldn't. I couldn't just let myself go like that, or the waves would drag me down until I was trapped forever. "Come on, just breathe," the voice begged once more.

I guess... I guess it's time to let myself go. Everyone would be happier this way... I inhaled deeply, but strangely no seawater made its way into my lungs. I became increasingly aware that I wasn't in a deep ocean, but rather in a dank prison with my head in a soulmate's lap as he stared down at me. "Tony," he sighed before pressing me tightly against his chest. Over his shoulder, though, I could see Ash scoff and turn away from me. "I'm so glad that you're okay. I was fighting with my son, and when I looked over, you were fidgeting without breathing."

"I'm fine. Hey, why is Ash glowing?"

Ash's head jerked up to look at me, and I could see the nerves in his eyes that had turned slightly red. "I'm glowing?"

"Yeah, it's like... Red?"

"Shit!" Ash stood up from his position on the ground and promptly began pacing back and forth across his tiny cell. There was hardly enough room for him to walk five steps in one given direction, but he was working with what he had.

"What does it mean?"

"Alex is in danger." Suddenly, he dropped onto his knees while holding onto his head. "Lots of danger. I'm breaking out of this cell." Then, I watched as he pulled the bars out of his way like they were made of thin plastic before stepping through the gap. As soon as his feet touched the outside of the cell, he took off down the corridor.

"Why didn't he do that earlier?"

"It's some weird thing. Basically if Alex is in trouble, he gets some power that will let him get to his soulmate. I don't know exactly, I just know that I got burned once from locking Alex up and using him as a coven blood donor." Jackson pulled up his t-shirt, and I saw a pretty serious burn on the skin of his otherwise flawless stomach. Now may not be the time, but once we get out of here, I'm going to show him exactly how much I like his muscles.

"Wait, blood donor?" I fixed him with a glare, but the sassy vampire just rolled his eyes.

"Like you never attempted to kill my son? Or I guess make your offspring kill my son? For that matter, you never tried to kill your own child?"

At that moment, the world came crashing back down onto my shoulder, and there were once again tears in my eyes. "I get it. I just can't do anything right."

"That's not what I meant!"

"That is exactly what you meant."

The doors at the top of the stairs clanged open, and an extremely battered Ash was thrown down the stairs so that he hit every single step. At the bottom, a loud groan emitted itself from his mouth, but he was kicked up onto his feet nonetheless. Thicker bars were put on his section of the jail, and I could see the depression lingering in his gaze. It was impossible to miss the way he grasped at bars like they were the cure to a mysterious disease, and I crawled up to the place where our cells touched each other.

"I know you don't like me, but talk to me."

"No."

"Please. I've been in your position before, and you can trust me. I won't tell anyone else about what you say."

"Fine."