Beautifully Damaged

30. Reawakening

"No one can help her."

Those simple words crashed into Alex, threatening to drag his hope down to the deepest trenches in the ocean. His eyes flickered uneasily to the girl on the floor, the girl that had been destined to die as soon as she had begun to live, then back to the tall, dark boy in front of him. How could anyone be so heartless?

Despair swelled in Alex's chest, crushing his lungs and tugging at his heart.

Hopelessly, he stifled the urge to reach for her. "You don't have to let her die," he persisted.

Alex steeled himself for the inevitable, for the answer that would surely seal both Blaise's and his own fate.

What Alex didn't expect was the slight quiver in Drake's façade as the demon had glanced toward the girl behind him. He had let his stubborn purpose waver as he laid his eyes on her.

It couldn't be.

"You love her," Alex accused, his voice but a whisper of disbelief.

Drake's dark eyes swung back to Alex, struggling to regain the composure they had so professionally assumed just a moment before.

"I'm not capable of love."

There was that shiver, again, the slight falter in the words. It was the telling of a lie. Alex knew the look in the demon's eye, because he had seen it in the eyes of others since he had lived his own life, and since he'd been charged with watching over countless others. He knew that it had been splintered unwillingly through his own eyes when he had looked at the same girl.

That look was the only hope Alex had.

"You're a coward," he spat.

Drake's eyes widened with the raw shock that Alex's hid at his own daring.

"You'd rather blame this all on something else and pretend you're not," Alex continued. "But I know it, and you know it. Do you want to know who else knows it?"

The muscle in Drake's jaw jumped, twisted uncomfortably with barely contained tension. "Don't," he warned.

"Blaise Anthony will soon know it, too."

There was only a split second of defeat, of regret, before rage and desperation tore through Drake's body. Alex knew, in that moment, that he had crossed the line.

Drake lunged for Alex, and the fight began.

            ***

A familiar exhilaration stole into Drake's veins as he grabbed Alex, the wayward Angel that futilely had attempted to save his once-dead charge, by the shirt. The pure light in his aura weakly flickered against the power surging from Drake's hands. Crackling energy poured from him, rushing to absorb the life force from the angel's body.

It was so easy.

The angel's eyes widened as he realized that he was no match for darkness, not in the state he was in now.

Drake cast Alex away from him, slamming him into the side of a student's car. A sharp smack lit Drake's nerves, reawakening the demon in him, as Alex collided with the metal of the car and slid to the floor.

Alex pushed himself back to his feet much faster than Drake had expected, and barreled into him.

The force knocked the wind out of him as they fell to the floor. Sharp pain sliced through Drake's skull as it hit the ground with a crack. His head swam and his vision blurred as Alex climbed off of him and disappeared from Drake's vision.

Struggling to his feet, Drake blinked the haze out of his head and regained his balance. Standing over Blaise, with his hands over her forehead and her heart, was Alex. The light of his aura pulsed around him, more strongly than Drake had ever seen. His eyes burned with the image and he stumbled away in shock.

The absence of Blaise's aura should have meant that she was dead. It should have meant that Alex's magic couldn't have brought her back.

Drake shielded his eyes as he felt his resolve weakening and his soul lightening. Alex's aura was like the sun; it seemed to be the only thing holding the universe together. It made the lightning that flashed around them seem like a nightlight compared to the brightness of good.

Drake knew that there were holes being punched into his own darkness- or that the giant black hole that his soul had become was being filled in by light, as darkness was only the absence of light. The urge to destroy was painfully being peeled away from him, even as he staggered back to escape the rays of light.

All the hatred, longing, despair, grief and bitter feelings in him were being torn out of his grip as he fell to his knees. Everything that made Drake himself were being burned in the presence of the strength of an angel, revealing the vulnerable layers of him that had once been his own source of light.

The hope that was growing in his chest was unbearable.

Drake had fueled himself for so long by holding onto every disappointment and negative feeling he'd ever had, that when it was ripped away from him the world spun.

Weakness swirled in his muscles as he sat back on his heels. Rain ran like tears down his face, soaking his clothes.

For a split second, the colors in the world brightened and deepened, revealing a reality so much more beautiful than Drake had remembered or even believed possible. Instead of focusing on the burning inside of him, Drake could see his surroundings.

How could he have tried to rob someone of this livelihood?

His mind murmured with the residue of darkness as Alex's power surge petered out, leaving the thousands of shades of grey in the clouds staring down at Drake.

In the last minutes of Drake's existence, everything was soaked in clarity.

***

I wasn't sure how long I waited for something to happen, or for someone to decide whether I was allowed to live or not, but it felt like an eternity of silence. The threat of death no longer frightened me. Rather, it had become a constant companion as the countless seconds ticked by.

An acidic burn in my chest was what finally shook me out of my stupor. It was joined by the very same sensation in my forehead.

"What's happening?" I yelled breathlessly, clutching at my heart.

The voice of Death didn't answer me, nor did the weight of its presence force me back to my knees. Panic clutched at my throat as energy rushed into my veins, spreading fire through my body.

I was torn out of my dark prison, yanked by an invisible force that lit my nerves with electricity and made the hair on my arms stand on end. It was like I had hit a brick wall when I finally snapped back into my body. The weight of my body slammed back onto me, but it didn't stop me from bolting upright with my eyes wide open.

Steady, weary grey eyes met mine, only moments from my own. I gasped, struggling for air. My body was shaking uncontrollably and a bout of weakness almost had me lying back on the puddle-ridden tarmac.

Despite my quivering sobs, pale skin and blue lips, Alex's eyes were awash with relief.

He pulled me into his arms and I cried into his neck, almost as much with relief as with fear.