Two fucking days since he had lost his
soul.
He grabbed the edge of the door,
holding himself up. The ground seemed to be getting closer, though,
and soon enough it was attacking him like a bitch. Fog was swirling
around his mind and it was everything he could do to pass out on
his doorstep.
By then, the only thing he wanted was
to sleep, because when he slept?
He got to hold Jamie. Got to kiss her,
see her, feel her. In his dreams, she was right there with him,
holding his hand, laughing with him, smiling at him with those
beautiful pale eyes of hers. Everything about her was just...real
-- but only in his dreams.
Lucian had gone into
depression. Zyn had locked himself into his temporary room. Talon
was...close to dying. He could feel her slipping away from him. At
first, it had seemed as if she were still next to him,
still...
with him
.
Now, though, it felt as if he was losing her with each passing
second.
Talon grabbed the handle of the door,
pulling himself up. It took all of his strength to push the door
open, to crawl into bed and not sob. But he managed, and when his
eyes closed, he saw Jamie and her loving smile.
Mike stood over Talon’s bed, knowing
that when he got back, Kevin was going to bitch in his ear about
leaving and interfering and all of that other boring shit. He could
really care less, though. At least right now. Jamie was floating
limply next to him, shoulders hunched, face pale and void of all
color and emotion.
“
Can I...go to him?” she
asked wanly, her voice sounding older than Mike actually
was.
He nodded. “Just crawl into the bed
and sleep. When you wake up, everything will be normal and you
won’t be so weak. I’m very sorry that I had to do
that...”
She turned her head to the bed, moving
a foot slowly. It took her ages, but she made it. “Don’t...say
sorry. Sleep. Him. Please...” Mike nodded, helping to lift her into
place. Her form was nothing but a ghostly apparition, barely
visible. He wouldn’t have known she was there if she hadn’t been
moving, blurring the scene on the other side of her.
“
Don’t ask Talon for
anything but his love,” Mike commanded, glaring at her sternly. He
was never going to forget her almost inebriated state, and her
obsession with purple. She didn’t even nod, just fell asleep,
curling into Talon’s back.
He was faced towards the wall opposite
them, his body stretched out, reeking of beer. Mike grimaced,
sending out a small notion to wake him up with a clear mind. Things
had to be explained, and quickly. He didn’t have much time till
Kevin began to bitch at him, and he would rather not destroy the
earth with their useless fights.
“
Hey, budddddd,” Mike said,
snapping his fingers. Talon stared at him with unfocused eyes, and
then jerked.
“
What the fuck.”
He jackknifed into a sitting position,
snapping to attention and reaching under his pillow.
Mike frown. “Bad boy. I just did you
the favor of your life and you’re about to kill me.”
“
The hell are you talking
about...” Talon growled and pulled out the blade, holding it with a
steady hand and climbing off the bed -- and straight through his
sleeping Jamie. Mike couldn’t help but laugh when she made a little
sound and batted at the air, falling deeper into sleep.
Talon’s eyes snapped to the direction
of the sound. A gust of air left his lungs in a rush. “This has to
be a dream.”
Mike shrugged, lifting his hand out
for the dagger. Talon didn’t have to place it in his hands -- it
was there the second he asked for it. “If you want it to be, I can
wake Jamie up and tell her all of her hard work was a waste and
just let her die...”
“
No
,” he barked, backing up till his feet were against the bed,
poised over Jamie’s body.
He smiled. “Alright then. Sit down and
listen to what I’m going to tell you, because I’m not going to say
it twice -- mainly because I don’t have the time, and it’s
boring.
Talon swallowed, staring at Jamie’s
form. He made no move to get close to her, didn’t even reach out to
touch her. Mike wondered about it till he realized that Talon was
shaking, great tremors wracking his body.
“
How... How is she here?”
Talon asked lowly, still staring at her as if she were a ghost --
which she was.
“
See, that’s what I need to
explain to you. First off, she can’t have children when she’s
solid. It’s impossible and if you did, it would mean the end of the
world because of one pissed-off super-baby. Second, you have to
wait till she is completely solid to wake her up or everyone is
fucked -- including myself.”
The only thing Talon could manage in
response was a sound in the back of his throat. Mike continued.
“That witch, Amenia. You knew her, right?”
Talon nodded.
“
Ah, that’s great. So did
Auro and Lyne.” Mike paused a second, to see if he would say
anything. Apparently this was old news to him. Mike shrugged and
sat down on the bed, right next to Jamie. Talon was too stunned to
say anything about it.
“
Now, when Lyne killed his
wife, do you remember much of what happened after that? I do, it
was like watching a elephant stand on the edge of a cliff. Lyne and
Auro called on her sister -- which happened to be a witch. And her,
being the malicious bitch that she is, was all too happy to ‘curse’
you. But there was more to it than Auro and Lyne’s side.
“
See, they couldn’t be
fully immortal until they had you at the peak of your powers. So
they hunted you down, waiting till they had the right time to steal
you from your wife -- and complete the curse. Jamie has been with
you since the beginning of time. You guys just died too soon to
leave a legacy behind and become immortal.
“
So Auro and Lyne waited,
and failed, to grab you both at the right time. Their powers were
quickly depleting and they were becoming desperate. I think that
right when Auro realized his brother was dead, that if he found
you, he would bring his brother back with his newfound powers. Or
at least, that’s what I would have done. Auro was, sadly, always a
bit dense in the head when it came to things like that.
“
Anyways! So we go on our
merry way down our story and we find Auro -- alone. And in
desperate need of help. So of course he calls on the only being
that can actually help him -- which is the woman that murdered
Jamie -- oh boy, I forgot to tell you something!” he chirped,
clapping his hands.
Talon sat down on the bed -- hard. And
yet he still didn’t touch Jamie. “What would that be?” he asked
numbly.
“
Jamie is Zyn’s daughter --
they both know that now, but don’t mention it.” He held his fingers
to his lips, grinning at the look on his face. “Yeah, I know right?
Anyways, so, before, when Jamie was seventeen, she was killed by
a
fryst
, and you
know how painful those things can be, right?”
Talon tensed.
“
Well, if it hadn’t been
for the fact that she was already maturing into her powers with the
presence of daddy-dearest, she would have stayed dead. I guess she
just doesn’t want to die or something, because she came back in a
whole new body -- same as before, but...different. Fixed. Not that
big of a deal. Somehow, Zyn believed she had stayed dead. He found
her right when she was dying, too. Poor guy.
“
Back to our story. Jamie
dies, comes back to life at the cost of her powers, and lives a
normal human life until she meets you. That’s where everything
takes a turn for the worst. If it hadn’t have been for that
incident in the forest that killed her, she never would have had a
shot at coming back this time.
“
I took the witch’s
essence, and gave it to Jamie. Yeah, there was a lot more that went
into it and trust me, I’ve never heard a woman scream so loud or
so
much
in my life
--” Talon growled, and he stopped. He tapped the man on the
shoulder and chuckled. “Okay, Terminator. Basically saying, if she
had had any sort of paranormal essence in her body, I wouldn’t have
been able to do jack squat.
“
The body had to be pure of
other races, and Jamie’s, fortunately, was. The witch's essence is
settling in nicely, but we just have to take care of one small
thing before I leave you...”
Talon didn’t even bother to
talk, just stared at him with haunted eyes. Mike pulled out his
pocket watch, placing it in Talon’s hands. “This is Jamie. When
she’s solid, I need you to give this to her and as one, you have to
open it. If you want to live with her for the rest of your merry
days, this is how you do it. Don’t tell Zyn she’s alive, and
do not
let him leave this
damn place.”
Suddenly, he narrowed his eyes on
Talon. “I’m soooo getting you a mansion for your wedding present.
Make sure to send me an invite!”
And then he was gone.
“
It’s been two
weeks!”
“
I don’t care. Stay the
hell out of here or I’m going to send you to Timbuc Tu.”
“
That’s my
daughter
, boy. Let me
fucking see her.”
“
That’s my fiancé, asshole.
I said
no
.”
There was grumbling. “I never heard
her say yes to any proposal, so technically she’s free
game.”
Jamie stretched, blocking
out their conversation. She was so
tired
, she thought, looking around
the room with unfocused eyes. Where was she? The walls were a deep
cream, not purple -- she jerked up in the bed.
“
Mike?” she called, staring
around her. There wasn’t a spot of purple in site, not even the
let-loose man that had saved her. She was tangled in the sheets, a
thin night shirt covering her chest, and there was a bowl and rag
on the other side of the bed, placed neatly on the
nightstand.
The voices from the hall
stopped abruptly, and then the door was shoved open to reveal
Talon. His hair had grown to almost reaching the bottom of his
ears, and he had a thicker beard than she remembered. All in all,
he reminded her of that man from
Cast
Away
. Her hands curled around the thick
duvet unconsciously, and her heart thundered.
“
Was that --”
Talon slammed the door shut, right in
the guy’s face. She looked over his shoulder, snapping to reality.
The voice had sounded somewhat similar to her, but the look on her
man’s face stopped her trail of thought. Her cheeks heated, and she
cleared her throat.
“
What’s with the bowl of
water?” she asked. His eyes closed, as if he were savoring
something.
He was so quiet, she thought he hadn’t
heard her. “Talon? What’s wrong?”
And then he was striding to the bed,
not even bothering to take off his shoes. Thick arms wrapped around
her waist and before she knew it, she was being crushed to his
chest and his face was in her neck, breathing her in. “God, never
leave me again. I thought I was never going to hear your voice
again...”
She pressed her cheek to his head,
running her hands over his shoulders and neck, feeling him. Tears
burned her eyes. “I would have done anything to be with you
again.”
“
I was so close to
just...letting myself die. I didn’t care anymore. Jamie,” he said,
pulling back to stare into her eyes. “I love you. Alright? I’ve
never said those words to anyone but my mother, but I
love
you. So much that it
fucking hurts, and losing you is something that I can
never
go through again.
Don’t put me through that again, or I swear the next time I’ll
just... cease to exist.”
Jamie’s throat clogged. As she stared
into his eyes, she saw the world. Their world. Their life. As one.
She held his face, loving the feel of him under her hands. They
were as close as they had ever been before, and they didn’t need
the lack of clothes to make it as intimate as it should be. A tear
rolled down her cheek. “I love you, Talon.”
He went stock still, as tense as a
rock, unmoving. And then he blew out a huge breath of air and
crushed her to his chest. She felt something hot and moist touch
her temples, and realized it was his own tears. “You’ve turned me
into such a sap,” he murmured, caressing her back, sending heat
through her body.
“
As long as you’re
my
sap, I’m okay with
it,” she said shakily, laughing through her own tears of
joy.
He was silent for the longest time,
and then he set her down. Got off the bed. Braced himself on one
knee.
“
Jamie, I don’t have the
ring yet, or I would do this the proper way. I was too busy
grieving over you and trying to take care of you to get it, but I
swear that when I
do
? It will be the most amazing thing, it’ll almost match to
your beauty --”