Eyes Up, Guardian

Chapter 16

"Tessa!" He scrambled to his feet, oxygen flooding into his lungs as he rushed to her. His blood roared in his ears as he grabbed for her. He'd killed people in the crucible with hits like that, fully armored too. Luckily it hadn't hit her right, she looked up quickly, blood already streaming from her nose, her right eye already swelling.

"I'm so sorry, are- are you okay?" He stammered, grabbing her arms, "You're bleeding-"

"Stop, stop-" She said quickly, grabbing his arms as he grabbed hers. She was on her knees, holding his arms firmly, her nails digging into his skin as she clutched at him."I need to know. The dream, did you-" She looked wild, her eyes were wide, she was panting for breath, her entire body was shaking heavily, trembling from adrenaline and fear.

The recognition in his face was what stopped her. Her face fell, as if she'd been hoping it was just a bad dream, a figment of her imagination, just as he had been hoping. Her grip slackened a bit, and she slid back, sitting on her feet, staring down at the floor, through the darkness.

"Damian," She said after a long moment of silence, still holding his arms, as he was still holding hers, unconscious, or simply unconcerned by the blood dripping from her chin to the floor. "I feel like I'm suffocating."

In response, he swept his light into her. He felt her weight shift forward as she held his arms a bit tighter and leaned a bit closer to him. The light flooded over her, filling the whole room as it rippled around them, pulling her into his embrace as though he was carrying her to safety. He could feel the lack within her, as though her light had fled, leaving only a bit left for her and Echo. But it was different than last time. There was no unification between her and the light. The light felt cautious, upset, afraid, even angry, but not at Oryx. It was angry at her. But she just felt drained. Pain, fear, exhaustion, fatigue, but as his light held her, he felt relief within her, and it took everything in his power not to draw her into his arms and hold her. He pulled away, pulling his light away from her as he felt his own emotions tumbling. Oryx had nearly killed her in front of him, and what had he done? He could still hear her screams in his ears. He had still heard them when he'd hit her, and now her blood was on his hands.

"You still have some light," He told her, moving to stand. "But whatever happened in that dream..." He trailed off. "You're light is changing. We need to call Ikora. If Oryx did something to you... to your light..." he shook his head, dropping her arms and standing up, turning for the bathroom door. He ducked inside, grabbing a cloth and tossing it to her before grabbing another and wetting it in the sink.

"Sit over there." He said, pointing to the bed. "Kylie will get Ikora, we need to worry about stopping your nosebleed." He squeezed out the wet cloth and headed back out. She'd gotten up and sat down on the edge of his bed, holding the cloth to her nose. The blood on her face was already drying, red covering her mouth and chin, her hands, her clothes, some had even dripped onto her bare feet. He sat down beside her and took one of her hands in his own, scrubbing the blood from it with the wet cloth.

He washed the blood from her hands and face, and eventually the nosebleed stopped. He gave her ice packs for the swelling and apologized to the point where she had to tell him to stop, and ten minutes later, Ikora and Cayde stood in the dimly lit bedroom.

Damian was in the bathroom, the door open as he scrubbed the blood from his own hands.

"So tell us about the dream." Ikora said from the bedroom. They'd explained to her the basics, but nothing in detail.

"Well," Damian said, turning off the sink and coming to lean in the door frame, a towel in his hands. "My experience is going to be different from Tessa's, but from what I remember, it started off when I was being attacked by thrall. My light formed a shield around me," He explained, "A healing rift, so the thrall could attack me, and I could feel it, but it wasn't hurting me." He caught his lower lip between his teeth and bit down on it before continuing, "I could hear Tessa screaming." He said, "But at the time, I thought it was just a dream. It was so dark I couldn't see her, and I tried to go to her, but the thrall wouldn't let me move.