by Avery Duncan
He didn’t notice her silence until he saw the glazed look in her eyes. “Scesia?” A low glow came over her eyes, and they shot straight gray. He reached over, grabbing her hand, shaking her. Alarm laced his voice.“Scesia? Stop, this isn’t funny.”
“She is going to die.” He froze at the deep, inhuman voice that came from her closed lips. Her back was jack-straight, eyes locked on his yet obviously not seeing anything, and they were slowly turning into a glistening black. A red tear dripped from her black-hole eyes, and a second later, she was gasping for breath.
“Who?” he demanded. He’d seen this happen before, when he’d been a child playing in the field with his brother. Zyn had left to get a wooden sword, and he’d run into Scesia. Back then, they’d still lived in the Scayth, and he had thought that nothing would ever happen to his family.
The second she’d seen him, her eyes had done exactly as they had right then. Except then, she had said, “He is going to die.” When he’d ran to his brother, the household following them with her mother sobbing and calling his name, they had found Dyvl torn up. Bloody. Dead.
“Zyn, you must leave. Take the food with you, but leave. Search for her -- your daughter. Reach deep inside of yourself and find her, you don’t have much time!” Scesia grasped his hands, pulling him to his feet. His body was rock hard, shocked.
“She’s dead...” Even as he spoke, he was already searching. Already dying on the inside. Already realizing that he might not ever see the daughter he had thought long dead. Scesia could be wrong -- hell, he had seen her die before his eyes in that dark forest, yet she was rarely wrong. Never wrong. Pain tore through him, and then the belief that after everything, he might get another chance.
“No! Find her -- before it’s too late. Oh god, Zyn. If she dies, everything is over. Amenia will --”
He didn’t hear the last words she said.
Zyn was gone.
Jamie shot after Talon in an almost blind state. He was laying close to Lucian, blood pouring from his forehead. His eyes were closed and she knew he was unconscious. Panic assailed her like a house on fire. The car was down the street -- they’d rounded a corner that had taken them close to the rec-center, even closer to the car.
She saw a flash of metal in her mind, and pushed it aside. She had to help them before the fire reached them.
Jamie was blind to why the building had lit on fire, didn’t even care. Her lover was in danger, and so were his friends. She flung herself over the crushed rock and, ignoring the pain in her feet from the contact with bare ground and gass, started dragging Talon. A ragged groat left his lips as she pulled him, dragging his body across the rubble.
God, she wouldn’t be able to do it if his shirt kept catching on things -- his jacket. She could pull him on his jacket. Jamie hopped over some glass, gasping when it caught on her leg. She ignored the small trickle she felt and climbed through the hole.
She realized, too late, what she was doing. The building was on fire and she was going back inside to grab his jacket. But she didn’t want to bring him more pain by dragging him through rocks, and the closer she looked through the hole, the less fire she saw.
In fact, the building was just full of smoke.
Dazed and more confused by the second, curiosity got the best of her and she continued inside of the building. She stared around her, coughing through the smoke. Just several feet away, she saw his jacket. Crawling close to the floor, she grabbed the edge of it and yanked it to her, knowing that when the heavy weight fell into her lap, it had been the right thing to do. There was something heavy in the pockets, maybe a cell phone or a gun.
Snap. Something small and blonde shot in front of her face, and then a bright burst lit up in the corner of the room. Her heart stopped. The smoke got even more dense, making it hard to see what was happening. Instinctively, she started backing towards the entrance of the hole, keeping a strong hold on the jacket.
Her hand itched inside of it, wrapping around the cold metal. Yup. She’d been smart, she thought as she took out the gun, clicking off the safety. Her mother had taken her to gun safety classes, and Jamie was grateful she hadn’t put up much of a fight when she’d insisted that her daughter take self-defense.
When she got to Talon again, he had moved onto his side, his brows drawn over yet still dead to the world. She slipped the jacket under his body, cursing the whole time. God, he was so freaking heavy.
“What do you eat?” she hissed, grunting when she rolled his body onto the jacket. She shoved a hand through her hair, feeling hope. She could get them out of this, she thought. It was just an explosion, and besides the fact that the most dangerous men in the world were currently unconscious, nothing was relatively fatal.
Jamie didn’t get a chance to start pulling him again. A trail of fire shot through the hole, bursting through the smoke, and slamming right past her head and into the wall. And kept going. And going. And going. Her head snapped away from the layers of holes through about twenty walls, and into the direction it had come from.
“Oh shit,” she said, reaching for the gun again. Talon wouldn’t get pissed if she went trigger-happy, would he? She ignored that and focused her gun on the tall, thin figure that was moving with grace through the smoke, nothing but a thin outline.
“Don’t shoot,” a murmur said at her ear. She wiped her head to the side, seeing nothing. Heart pounding, Jamie turned her eyes back to the hole and saw nothing except smoke.
She froze, stopping even the sound of her breathing. All she could hear was the city, the low groans of Talon and Lucian, and her own pounding heart. A car honked in the distance, and an eerie rumble sounded through the sky.
The sun was covered by clouds, casting down dark lights and shadows. They moved, surrounding her. She had a horrible feeling that the shadows weren’t caused by the sun.
Jamie pressed close to Talon, fisting his shirt in her hand. She had never doubted that she would give her life for him, but now, as she stared at the hole that was oozing black smoke, she desperately wished he was awake and would save them. For some reason, she felt like she wasn’t going to be good enough for the both of them to survive.
Another shot came, this time leaving a trail behind so hot that she felt it on her face several seconds after it had passed. Shutting her mind down, numb to fear and the pain in her legs and feet, Jamie got to her feet and aimed the gun with a steady hand.
The figure appeared in front of her vision, still inside of the hole. Why was it hiding?
“Do not shoot me, darling. I’m only here to help.” The voice was deep, soft. Beautiful and ethereal. The gun lowered slightly, but Jamie shook herself out of it and pressed forward.
“What the hell did you do to him?” Jamie hissed, taking a step forward.
“I did nothing, it was the fall that took him out. Come here, darling. I want to see the woman that everyone is making such a fuss about.”
Jamie paused, but after a short second, listened. Her feet made soft scraping sounds as she crossed the rubble, but that was the only thing to be heard. The city seemed to have died down, and even the men behind her were quiet.
Through the smoke, she made out a pale haired woman with a long slender neck and chillingly calm eyes. Her hands were folded in front of long white robes, and her feet were barely visible. She was barefoot, also. An aura surrounded her, and it shocked Jamie that it was visible. A low, glittering white light was surrounding the woman.
Jamie could only imagine how she looked. The woman, with eyes as dark as the midnight sky, gave no outward judgment. Instead, her thin eyebrows lifted and a small lifted her lips. “Ah, so this is the heir to the throne. How beautiful, indeed...”
She ignored the throne comment, choosing to use all of her strength to stare the woman in the eyes. It was hard, but she managed. Ice coursed through her veins, chilling her to the bone, as those inhuman eyes took in her appearance.
“I understand why Chris was so admitted to keep you by his side, now,”
she commented absently, lifting a white-as-snow hand to touch Jamie’s cheek. The contact made her feel as if someone had pressed ice to her face.
She froze, mouth opening on a soft gasp. Chris...
“Yes, it is a shock,” she said quietly, nodding her head. “I came to him in his dark hours of sleep, and... Did you know that he is such a broken man that he has latched onto you to survive? It was quite moving, what I found in his mind. He believed the only way to keep you was to abuse you. He felt as if he were going insane, you see.”
Jamie’s head started to shake back and forth, but the woman’s hand on her face stopped her.
“Do not worry. With such a poor, tormented man, I have taken it into my hands to give him solace.”
She felt her heart stop, disgust and fear colliding into her mind as one. “And that would be?” she asked in nothing but a breath of air.
The woman, with her perfect lips and perfect teeth, smiled. “Why, eternal peace with the one he longs for, of course.”
Jamie felt the earth sway under her feet, and she listened with growing terror as the woman continued to speak. The way she spoke, the images she put into Jamie’s head, was going to kill her. God, she made it sound as if Jamie and Chris were meant to be together. As if Jamie was meant to live a life of pain. And without Talon...
“No!” she cried out, jerking away from the woman’s touch. “I won’t go back to that thing. You can’t take me away from Talon like this -- he’ll kill you.”
So convicted with what she was saying, she didn’t notice another dark figure walking behind the tall woman. “I won’t have to take you from anything, darling. See, I brought him to you. And once Talon is awake, he will get to see the woman he loves more than anything in this world and the next, die. At the hands of her previous lover.” For the first time, the woman showed emotion other than a calm knowingness. Her hands clapped together and she smiled with giddiness. “Oh, this is better than those human TV shows!”
“Wake up, Talon.”
The calling reached him deep. It was like a floating note around his head, like magic and beauty all wrapped in one. His eyes opened on their own. The first things he saw, he could barely make out. His eyes were blurred from his sleep, and for a second he swore he was still with Jamie, but at a hotel or something.
Except, they weren’t even in a room with a bed. Or a naked Jamie.
He searched with frantic eyes for her. There was no one around him, not even the woman who had called to him. The ground he was laying on was cold and hard, like marble but rough. There wasn’t enough light for him to see past his feet, and the more focused he became, the more de ja vu ran over him like a semi-truck.
He moved his arms, trying to stop the wave of coldness that ran over him.
When he heard the shackles, though, he froze. And almost screamed with inhuman rage. Wrapped around his ankles was familiar chains that linked to were linked to the wall behind him. A small, barred window was placed neatly in the center of the room, with not even the light of the moon to show him much.
A frost had shrouded the room, and specks of snow were lightly dancing their way in front of his face. Only the light of the stars gave him a sliver of vision, and even that was barely enough.
There was a weight around his neck…his bare neck.
Chains rung with a metallic clang as he brought his arms up to his chest, feeling for clothing.
There was none.
For possibly the second time in his life, tears stung his eyes and he realized that, once again, he was trapped. His head fell back as his roar of fury echoed through the room, completely desperation. He couldn’t be here, not again. Not again.
“Auro,” he shouted, body flinging into the air, straining against the chains that were wound against his body. “Get the fuck in here! Face me, you coward,” he snarled, feeling a rage so deep that his body became as hot as fire, blazing and destroying. A small, pleasurable pain came then, in his mouth. Fangs exposed, he bared his teeth in the direction of the door and roared again, helpless.
There was no response, not even a malicious chuckle. No, all he heard was his own ragged breathing and short, gasping sounds. He wondered what they were until he realized that it was him. Talon fell limply to the ground, eyes burning even worse until he felt the small trickle of the tear.
Jamie…
God, what had he done with her? If he had Talon, he sure as hell had Jamie. And because of his brother, he could only imagine what he was doing with her…
“God damn you, Auro!” he bellowed, punching his fist into the wall with helpless rage. When Talon got his hands around that bastard’s neck, he was going to kill him…
“I’m sorry to say this, but Auro is no longer with us,” came a smooth and golden voice from thin air. His head snapped up in the direction of the voice, chest tight with a painful burn.
“Where the fuck is Jamie,” he snarled to the voice, eyes flickering around to see where it had come from. Why did it sound so familiar? He knew he’d heard it before, and not just when it had called him to wake up.
“Right here, warrior.”
Suddenly, the room was washed in light and there they were.
Jamie, staring at him with terror in her eyes. Chris, her bastard ex-boyfriend, and…an image from the past. Amenia. Amena’s twin sister. She was in the robes that he had seen her in last, her hair was exactly as long as it had been before, and her eyes were a soulless black. Something that only happened when death was following her, ready to sink its greedy fangs into the next damned victim.
“Witch…” he breathed, and only a second later he was shouting, trying to break away from the wall. “I’m going to kill you, you fucking bitch. Let Jamie go!”
“And how are you going to kill me when you won’t even have the strength?”
Chris stared at him with one of the most pleased smiles in the world. He reached over and yanked her by her hair, causing her to cry out and fall against him. Talon stared at him, letting his hate flow between them. The cold stare was enough to make him back up, but he tightened his hold on her and once again yanked on her hair, pulling her farther back.
“The second I get my hands on you, I’m going to drain you dry and throw you carcass into hell,” he snarled, chains rattling as he twisted his wrists, about to just crush the damn things so he could get to Jamie.
“What would be the fun in that?” she asked softly, gliding closer to Jamie. Her hands, like snow covered twigs, reached up to caress her cheek. Jamie snapped at her, almost taking off her fingers. Talon growled. “It would be much more enlightening to watch your pain at the loss of this beautiful young woman.”
Talon screamed, denial coursing through him.
Chris shoved Jamie onto the ground, right in front of him. He reached out, taking her hand in his. It was so small, so delicate. So cold and scared. He could feel the tremors that were shaking through her hand all the way to him.
“Talon,” she whispered, staring into his eyes. “I want you to look away. Just turn your face to the wall. Please.”
Tears were falling down her face, yet her eyes were no longer terrified. Beautiful and blue. They were strong, so much more stronger than he was. Her eyes clear and straight. Not pleading, but telling, him to look away. Chris was behind her, laughing maniacally. He reached into his jacket, pulling out a small black gun. Pointing it at her head. Clicking off the safety.
“Talon, please just turn away. I don’t want you to watch –“
“No,” he bellowed, trying to drag her to him. Chris just sneered, aiming the gun. “Chris, I’ll give you anything, I swear – I’ll give you life, money, anything. Just don’t,” he shouted, trying to cover her body with his. Yet she was pushing at him, rejecting him, crying for him to stop.
Never in his life had he felt so weak. So helpless. Now though, as the realization came that he was going to lose the most important thing he had ever had in his life, he was shuddering. Pleading. “Chris, don’t.” He could taste his o
wn tears, could taste the pain in them.
Amenia spoke from the shadows, staring at Talon. “Your pain does not bring me the happiness I had thought it would. The way you murdered my sister will never leave me. This woman will feel no lasting pain when she dies – that is only for you.”
Several things happened at once.
There was a small flash. A pop. A startled gasp.
“Jamie, no!” A horrified, pained voice rang around the room. There stood the king, standing over his daughter. He burst into action, attacking Chris like a wild man – but he wasn’t quick enough.
“Talon, turn arou—“ Her scream was cut off.
And replaced with the last sound she would ever make in her life – a soft cry.
He watched as she fell limply to the ground, a gentle trickle of blood marking the life that left her body.
Chapter 20
Devlin pushed off the large rocks, grimacing as her back snapped and the familiar weight of her wings held her down. When in pain, they became a defense mechanism and were almost impossible to get rid of till she was feeling better. She went with the fact that it hurt like a bitch to move her arm and assumed it was broken.
It took longer than she wanted to get free of the rocks. She looked around the rubble, ignoring the pulse in her arm. Lucian wasn’t visible, and neither was Talon. She’d sensed his presence a second before passing out because of the weight of the rocks. It looked like a hurricane in the sky, and because of the fact that they didn’t even live near large bodies of water, she knew shit was going down. She put her hands on the rocks, bracing with her undamaged hand. What the hell was that smell?
“Daughter.”
Devlin’s head snapped up, alert. To conserve his energy, her father had only contacted her through whysper to set a meeting.