A painful image crashed
into his mind. Tears raining down her cheeks,
such...
pain
in her
eyes. Losing her job shouldn’t have been so much of a terror for
her, right? He understood that his work was his life, but it
had to be
. He didn’t have
a choice -- she did. She’d only been with him for several years,
maybe long enough to get attached but not obsessed. She was still a
young woman, young enough to get a life and have children and...
marry.
At the thought, his body hardened and
jealousy ran through him. His fists clenched. Lucian was quite
fucking sure that any guy with enough balls that came up to her
would quickly lose them
Soft steps. His name was called.
Lucian turned around and stared, wondering where the hell she was.
And then she was right in front of him.
Sprouting.
Fucking.
Wings.
“
What the
fuck?
” he barked, jerking
backwards. His hand automatically went to his belt, where his gun
and blade were holstered. Her hair was pulled back from her face,
bright blue eyes sparkling with fire and an inner knowledge that
had him backing away even more.
Black wings, almost the size of his
chest, sprung proudly from her back. His jaw clenched at the site.
The darkest, more solid part of the wings were close to her back.
The more they extended outwards, the more they became almost
invisible. In the sunlight that shone behind them, they seemed to
glow and wave, and as if it had never happened, disappear
completely.
Devlin took a cautious step forward,
even though her eyes were anything but hesitant. Lucian tightened
his hold on the Beretta at his hip. “You know, Lucian. I used to
really like you,” she said lowly, emotionless eyes peering upward.
He snapped his gaze in that direction, wondering if any more demons
were going to come as back-up.
Now that he knew, he could smell the
soft scent of evil that permeated the air around her. It came with
every demon, some being strong enough to hide it well enough to be
considered human. Lucian had thought she was just unique. In their
world, some people had no specific race, just labeled as unique or
different. Often enough, they weren’t so special that they had to
be introduced to Lucian’s world. They had a guardian, someone to
make sure that they stayed out of harm and didn’t reveal anything
too damaging, and that was it.
Lucian had been dumb enough to believe
that Devlin had been unique. Thick tendrils of betrayal flowed
through him, the stench as rotten as a decaying body. Disgust for
the woman he had once desired flowed through him freely, and she
must have known it. Her nose flared and her gaze shot back to
him.
“
Enough that I almost
betrayed the only man that ever treated me right,” she continued,
backing him into a corner. And... yup, there went the jealousy.
Right out of his head and into his dominant hand. In less than a
second, he had a gun pressed to her neck and her luscious body was
pressed to his.
If she moved back even an inch, he
would fire. And she knew that also.
“
You were our little
sneak,” he accused darkly, rage flowing freely now.
Her head nodded, and her chin kicked
into the air with haughtiness. “I’ll do whatever I can to protect
him. And now that you’re here?” She paused, smiling wide enough to
reveal small little fangs peeking down from her gums. “I can do
just that.”
Her body shot into action,
slamming against his. Lucian dropped to a crouch, pulling out the
Beretta and aiming. Wings -- those damn
fucking wings
-- sprung from her back
and she was airborne with a great spring. Lucian didn’t notice he
was roaring until it became loud enough to hurt his own ears, and
before he knew it he was flashing onto her back. Like a snake with
prey, he wrapped his arms around her neck and tried weighing them
down to the ground. Her wings bat against his body as she tried to
stay afloat.
Silver flashed, and then a sharp pain
in his thigh had him hissing. He unleashed his blade and dug it
into her back. Devlin let out an inhuman screech and they fell to
the ground, spiraling. He only had a second to flash away from her
and onto the ground, several feet away from her body. Blood
trickled from her lips, and for a second, he thought he had
won.
“
No fight?” he asked,
shifting the weight of his feet. God, he wanted this. He wanted to
tear her apart. She had betrayed him, after everything he had ever
fucking done for her. And his team...his men. His only
family.
She was going to pay.
“
You’ve watched me train
before,” she snarled, rising to her feet. Her shoulder looked like
it was cranking to the right, which was the wing he’d damaged. He
knew that even though she was a demon and her body could handle any
amount of pain, the wings were the most sensitive part. Their
greatest weapon and their weakest point.
“
And?” he asked, throwing
his jacket aside. It was causing him a lag in movement, and he knew
for a fact that Devlin was a bitch in battle. She played rough and
dirty, and didn’t hold back on the cock shots.
Blood red eyes stared him, seeing past
his soul and straight into his future – his death. Grimly, he
accepted the fact that unless anything happened to intervene,
neither of them were going to make it out the fight
alive.
Heat boiled through his arms and legs,
coursing through his body and going straight through his hands.
Instead of melting the metal as his power would have, it caused the
bitch to flame up and in less than a second, Devlin was
screeching.
And throwing herself at
him.
He dodged out of her way and slashed
the knife across her bicep, barely missing the her frosty wings. He
knew enough from fighting with demons that if their wings were
damaged, they emitted a coldness strong enough to freeze an arm
until it burst apart.
“
Fuck,” he cursed, turning
around, only to be kicked in the side. His body slammed against the
wall. He brought up his fist, throwing the knife with a
death-letting accuracy. It slammed into her shoulder, but she kept
coming at him. Her fist connected with his face, and for a brief
second he wondered why she wasn’t using her wings.
The question caused him a dangerous
pause.
Bam
.
The wall blew out behind him, and
once-a-fucking-gain he was tossed – straight into Devlin. She
screamed, her body trapped under his. He felt the crush of rubble
and large bricks as they landed on his back. Furious, he pushed
with his knees and, while stealing the now-bloody and cold knife
from her chest—jumped over a large piece of stone.
Devlin didn’t follow him.
Smoke curled out of the building that
had blown up on them, and he had only a second to whip around
before a large, hulking body shuttled its way through the crushed
stone. The large bang was deafening, startling. He saw familiar
silver eyes, quickly turning to a dangerous onyx, before he was
looking towards the building.
“
Jamie,” Talon tried to
shout. His voice was rough and panicked, and Talon barely
understood what he was saying before he was unconscious.
“
Oh my fucking god,” he
groaned, getting ready to save his friends love, and die at the
same time. Whatever was going on in there, it wasn’t good. Evil, so
dark and black, was pouring out of the building in oily waves. He
had no clue what was happening, but he knew that he’d been
betrayed. And set up. And everything was going to fucking
hell.
He only made it through the large,
gaping hole of the rec-center before another blast echoed and
collided with him.
The last thing he heard was Jamie’s
cry of pain, Talon’s unconscious shout, and a small whimper from
under the rocks before he was also dropped the fuck out of the
world.
~*~
“
She’s in
danger
.”
The soft voice carried over him,
through him. Curled in his gut. Sunk into his soul.
Zyn turned around, seeing nothing but
empty air and trees and a telephone. Emptiness.
“
Who’s there?” he asked
into the forest, feeling the pull and lure of it as he had from the
beginning. From the beginning of time, the forest had been his only
solace, his only home. It was what called to him in his darkest
days, what comforted him in his sorry excuse for a life.
“
You need to go to her.
She’s in danger!”
the voice said, more
insistent than before. It was feminine, yet strong. Controlled. As
beautiful as a lullaby.
“
Who is?” he asked to the
voice, lifting his face to the sky. Nothing was there either.
Leaves rustled softly, small drops of moisture falling from their
high thrones of beauty. Besides one thing, nothing else had
enchanted him as much as the forest had.
But she was gone.
Missy had given him a twenty dollar
bill, a smile, and a nod toward the diner. He promised to repay
her, and could only imagine the look that would come over her face
when she opened her purse. The baby had slept the whole way to the
diner, and it had been all he could do not to sit there, stare, and
cry.
He’d never gotten to see his daughter
as a baby, so innocent and untouched. He’d never gotten to see her
first steps, her first word. He’d known nothing about her till she
entered school. Every award she received, every performance she’d
done, he’d seen. Revealed. Regretted. Loved. She would look so
happy, so carefree. So smart and intellectual, just as a woman who
was heir to the throne of their world was meant to look.
And he’d lost her. Because of his own
foolishness. Because of his own selfish need to make her know that
she was his blood, that he loved her. That someone cared for her as
they should.
Zyn turned away from the forest and
stared at the diner. He could hear the graceful steps of a deer a
little ways behind the diner, searching through the brush and then
loping away.
“
You freaking idiot! Your
daughter is in danger!”
Zyn froze.
“
Are you going to listen
to me now?”
the voice asked. It was much
closer than before, much more clearer. And
much
more angrier.
“
My daughter is...dead,” he
said numbly, walking away from the voice. The twenty was just a
folded up paper in his hands, but it could get him something to
eat. Something to gain strength with. He’d promised Lucian that he
would come back, would take care of things.
How could he do that when he couldn’t
even take care of himself? He thought of the deer, and felt his
stomach clench. It was time that he fed. Cleaned up. Got back on
track.
His large, thin frame shuddered. Not
with cold or hunger, but with trepidation. For the future. The
past.
Inside of the diner, only a few people
sat among the tables, with the rest of them behind the counters,
cooking and talking and laughing. The second he stepped inside,
though, it became dead silent.
Awkwardly walking to the counter, he
sat down and looked at the menu. The void in his mind was nothing
but a normality. He could forget about things in a second if he had
to, was used to doing so. But that voice, the female voice with
such anger in her voice, was haunting him.
“
I’m sorry, sir. I’m going
to have to ask you to leave.”
Zyn’s head snapped up in the direction
of the voice. A large guy, dressed in an apron with grease stains
and in checkered pants was standing in front of him. He held a
spatula, a plate of fries and burgers, and standing behind him was
the whole staff.
“
Why?”
The cook blinked and then looked at
him as if he were stupid. He cleared his throat awkwardly, and then
gestured with the greasy spatula. “No shirt, no shoes, no
service.”
Zyn stared at him.
He shifted on his feet uncomfortably,
eyes flickering away from Zyn’s and then back. “Listen, man. I
can’t serve you, so there’s no reason for you to be here. You’re
making the Misses uncomfortable,” he tried, his deep voice even
more awkward than it had been before.
Zyn stood up slowly, hating that it
felt like needles were being shoved through his joints. Now that he
was ready to come back, to take his place in the world once again,
all of the pain that he had felt in the past ten years was coming
back like a burning flame.
“
Is he?” a quiet, scratchy
voice said from the corner. The cook’s eyes shot over to the
window-seated booth before landing on Zyn.
“
Ma’am...”
“
Give me one of everything
on the menu,” she said. A thin figure peaked up from the booth,
frizzy hair and bright blue eyes connecting with his.
The staff began to disperse, walking
away from the cook, who stood his ground -- or tried to. Denying
her would be a big loss of money, he thought absently, sitting
across from her.
“
Now, boy,” she said,
sounding not in the least condescending as she completely forgot he
was there and started talking to Zyn. “It’s been so long, I had
almost forgot how tall you were,” she said quietly.