The light exploded out of her fingertips as the first vampire reached for the door of the cupboard. The wooden panelling disintegrated around her, exploding outwards into the room and catching her attacker fully in the chest. He roared in agonised pain as his comrade darted swiftly aside, saving himself while his friend died. Hissing, the survivor turned upon Liz, who sat in a pile of rubble coughing violently.
"YOU." He stalked forward and grabbed her, choking the incantation that had begun to form on her lips.
She screamed, well, gurgled, kicking and raking her nails down his arms and his face. His tongue licked along his lips as her fingers scratched down his face and without warning he snapped at her fingers, nicking her slightly. It drew only a tiny amount of blood, but his eyes brightened perceptively at the smell.
"You know, you killed my friend. When a friend like that dies, someone you've known for centuries, you tend to want to comfort eat." He grinned, dragging his eyes over her body.
"You'll make a nice, warm bit of comfort food" He sniffed her hair, freshly washed that morning with her favourite fruity scented shampoo. Chuckling, he wrenched her head to face him.
"You smell like orange and pineapple" A tongue darted out to taste her cheek as she recoiled in disgust.
"I like pineapple-aaargh"
He crumpled on the floor in a surprised heap as James drove the knife into him again. Liz gulped in mouthfulls of air, savouring the sweet sensation of oxygen pouring into her aching lungs. Her chest complained again as James brought her into a crushingly pleasant hug before drawing away quickly to examine her for injuries. She leant against the wall as he examined her for cuts with his eyes and fleeting touches from his fingers. Finally he was satisfied.
"Liz, come on, lets get you sat down." She slid, leaning further onto the wall as she finally started to shake. James moved next to her, catching her as she slide further and gently lowering her to the floor to sit in his lap. She allowed him to do it, so relieved to be alive that she didn't follow her usual instincts of pushing away the scary sorceror. His right hand ran through her hair soothingly, his left tossed the knife down next to them and wrapped around her midriff.
"I didn't quite mean sit here," his voice rumbled through her from where his face rested above her head, "but this works."
The laugh tore out from her dry lips. It wasn't funny, but she laughed until she coughed, then she coughed until her throat was raw and rasped quietly. Thank god for people like James.
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James' point of view
I couldn't believe my luck. Well, thats horrible to think like that, but i still couldn't help but feel like this was a good thing. After all, Liz was fine, in shock, but fine. I was worried about her, of course i was. I mean, she must be really shocked if she's letting me this close to her. Letting me hold her. I sighed. Who the hell was i trying to kid? She was in shock and as soon as she snapped out of it, or when Luc got here, i was going to go straight back to being ignored by her. Only talked to by her when she needed something. Never thanked for it. Never expecting thanks. She drove me crazy, this woman i was totally in love with, because i could never say no. I could kill vampires using only a knife, bend demons from the pits of hell to my will, but when it came to the short, fiery blonde woman crying into my neck, i was completely undone. But i knew that i'd still take it, this small blessing of her noticing me for once. Despite knowing that soon she'd just reject me again, i couldn't harden myself to that knowledge, couldn't help myself from being insanely happy at just holding her like this as she showed all of her weaknesses. I am an absolute idiot.
Finally, after maybe half an hour she stopped crying, turning her face upwards to me with a smile.
"Thankyou." The simple word, the one she'd never said to me was so delicious that i knew i'd savour the sound of it for days. I returned her smile fully, shifting my arms about her.
"We should probably move out of here. Back up will be here sometime and the clean up guys will follow." She wrinkled her nose, nodding.
"Sarah is going to kill me." I chuckled quietly at her statement and she raised an eyebrow inquisitively.
"Just laughing about the fact that you just nearly died and you're worrying about someone else." Her expression blankened slightly as i mentioned dying and i instantly regretted bringing it up. Standing quickly, i pulled her up with me, drawing out a startled yip from her. She kept her feet light upon the ground, eyeing the pool of blood warily. I rolled my eyes and slid my hands under her bum. She turned to glare at me, sharp words forming on her tongue until i lifted her slightly, resting her on my hip as i carried her out and into Sarah's living room, before remembering that her living room was in chaos as the carpet was sorted.
"Can you take me home please?" Her voice was small from where her head was resting on my shoulder.
"Sure" I whispered back, putting her down. She threaded her hand through mine and we left the flat just as the first back up team arrived.
In the car, the silence was almost defeaning. It hadn't taken long, really, for her to come to her senses. She looked away from me, eyes searching the streets which flashed by the window. I tried to be subtle, but i think she knew that i was looking at her at every opportunity. My phone buzzed on the dashboard and she flinched slightly, eyes wide as she looked at me.
" Can you grab that?" I asked, eyes fixed on the road. Her slender fingers reached out and plucked the phone up. She squealed in delight.
"Its a voicemail from Lúc!" I nodded, gritting my teeth. My favourite person. She put the phone to her ear and played the message, a finger in her other ear to blot out any other noise. I really never had any sort of chance with her anyway.
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Liz's Point of View
I couldn't wait to hear Lúc's voice, even if it was just a recording, i knew it would soothe me. He was probably frantic, no doubt he would have been wondering why James had called him.
"Hey James It's Lúc, just calling you back." I grinned, loving the sound of his deep voice through the phone speaker. "Sorry i missed your call, i missed a call from Liz too, but it probably wasn't anything important knowing Liz." I froze, gripping the phone harder. "Anyway, yeah, i was busy with this girl i met down at the bar, Shannon? She's great in bed, but then you wouldn't know would you? Not like you get that much action, being a sorceror and all. I'm surprised if you get ANY being the way you are. Whatever. If you see her, tell Liz i was asleep when she called, i don't want her knowing i blew her off 'cos of Shannon. I'd say ring me back and tell me what was up, but I really don't care about what trouble you're in. I don't like you, you're a jerk. God knows why you called me and only god cares. Call me again and...well, you'll wish you hadn't."
The line went dead and a friendly female voice gave insturctions for me to repeat or delete the message. I repeated it, not believing my ears until I had confirmed it again. I deleted and threw the phone down impatiently. James raised an eyebrow.
"Something wrong?"
"Forget it." I looked at him again properly. The man who'd saved my life this evening. The man who clearly took a lot more verbal abuse from Lúc than I'd realised. I'd never seen anyone be outwardly rude to James. Lúc had always seemed so quiet and withdrawn. Now, I could clearly see that he wasn't quiet because he was thinking hard; he was quiet because he wasn't thinking at all.
We drew up onto my gravel drive and James hovered over the key. I blushed awkwardly, wondering why he didn't just turn it off. Maybe he didn't know whether i wanted him to stay, or to just drop me off and leave.
"Do you want to come in?" I blurted out
"Yes" He replied almost instantly, twisting the key to kill the engine. He got out quickly, moving around to get my door for me. I walked past him up to the porch, him trailing behind in my wake, watching the surrounding trees for movement. I let us into the house, my hand brushing over the wall to find the light switch, but finding his fingers instead. He withdrew his hand instantly and I walked away quickly, finding my way through the hall by memory. He stumbled behind me blindly, but didn't complain. I reached the kitchen and threw some water into the kettle, rubbing a hand over my eyes as the lights came on in the room slowly, activated by motion sensors. I stole a glance in the mirror at James, standing awkwardly with his hands in his pockets on the other side of the room, his hair sticking up in little tufts from where he'd run his hand through it. I smiled, then caught myself and scowled, grabbing two mugs to make some tea.
Ten minutes later, the silence could be cut with a knife as we sat on the sofa in the living room side by side but not touching, drinking hot tea. I snuck looks at him, often finding him watching me. He'd glance away quickly though, as if he'd been caught out. I set down my cup with a clunk, finally having decided to ask him.
"I Lúc always horrible to you?" He coughed on his mouthful and i hid a smile at his flustered, off balance look.
"What gave you that idea?" He took another sip, avoiding my eyes. I dove my hand into his jeans pocket, ignoring his startled yelp and pulled out his phone, accessing his voicemail inbox and playing it on speaker. His face hardened and he shrugged.
"He was probably in a bad mood, that's all." I nodded, wishing that would reassure me. But it didn't, because what a lot of people don't realise is that "the sight" isn't just looking into a crystal ball and seeing the future. Or looking into a mirror and conjuring images. It is literally that you see things differently. I see in such fine detail, i can almost magnify certain things to look at them closely, even when they are a mile away. I can enter someone head and look through their eyes at what they see now, or what they've seen in the past. I can also tell when someone is lying, if i adapt my sight to view things that way. It's almost like an aura that hangs around them. It all sounds very much like dimestore magic, but a person's aura, or whatever, goes a weird shade when they lie, or when they're confused, unhappy, stressed...you get the picture. His aura was a tell tale muddy brown. He was lying through his teeth, although none of his expression showed it. Normally there's a little sign, a tic, which happens when a person lies. He didn't have one.
I nodded, pretending to believe him. He clearly wasn't going to tell me himself, so i'd have to find out my own way. I leant down onto him slightly, my cheek on his shoulder. Closing my eyes so that it would appear i'd gone to sleep, i reached out into his memories, flicking through them until i glimpsed Lúc.
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Lúc was sprawled on the bench across from me, Liz clutched to his side. He laughed light heartedly at something she said as she stood up to go and get drinks from the bar with Sarah. Lúc rolled his eyes.
"That woman could talk for England" he laughed, drinking down the dregs of his beer.
"Are you two together?" I asked quietly, trying to hide how badly i wanted to know. He smirked.
"Well, we're not a couple, but we are together...if you know what i mean." He wiggled his eyebrows and envy curled itself around my heart, squeezing tightly.
"I mean, its not that she doesn't want us to be a couple, it's just that i don't see her that way, you know? She's a fun girl, but that's all she is. She's not exactly....girly. More of a fiery type. Good in bed, but not for something long term."
I gritted my teeth, grinding them together in silent anger. Lúc winked at me.
"So you and Sarah?"
"We're friends." I cut him off curtly and truthfully. I looked across the room at Liz and how she moved so carefully. Not at all graceful and controlled like Sarah. Liz was one of the clumsiest people i knew, but to me she would always be the most perfect. She was also the most unobtainable, since she hated the very floor i stood upon, but i was hopelessly in love with her. Lúc swore.
"NO WAY! you like Liz, don't you? Wow..." He grinned, getting up and sidling over to liz as she approached. Twirling her around, looking over her shoulder straight at me, he kissed her hard upon the lips as she kissed back enthusiastically. My knuckles cracked as they bunched into fists. I watched in stony silence, refusing to give Lúc the satisfaction of seeing how much pain i was in. Sarah sat next to me and whispered softly
"Are you okay? Guessing that Lúc realises?" I nodded sharply.
"Why wouldn't i be okay" i sighed bitterly, watching as the couple sat down again, euphoria displayed obviously upon Liz's face. Knowing i couldn't leave early without Lúc feeling like he'd won, i settled down for an hour of torture, watching the most perfect person in the world to me get kissed by someone so unworthy of her. But most of all, it was torture because that someone wasn't me.
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When she woke up she was crying. James stirred and woke as she sobbed quietly into his shoulder, snotty and disgusting. He rubbed her back as she hiccupped, took a deep breath and then cried harder.
"Hey, its okay, you're safe, we killed him, you're at home with me"
James was blabbering nonsense in a comforting way, but she wasn't crying because she'd been attacked by a mad, pineapple loving vampire. She was crying because she'd never realised what an arse her so called "boyfriend" was and how much pain she'd been causing the guy who actually loved her. Without even thinking, she kissed James on the lips, pulling him closer by his shirt front with frantic need. He was clearly enjoying himself, but she started to break away, wide eyed as she remembered how awful she must look.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry James, I'm such a mess-" He kissed her again, effectively silencing her protests. And she didn't try to protest again, choosing to melt into his arms as he layed her back down carefully, kissing her with a soft adoration that she'd never felt from anyone, least of all Lúc.
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A/N Just a quick thank you to anyone who reads this, i seriously expected to get maybe like 9 reads? Also to the two people who fanned me, kitkatz and especially catti97, who was nice enough to leave a comment. Next chapter we'll be going on back to Sarah and Gareth on their date...I still don't know where they're going to go or what will happen though. Still, read, comment, vote, fan, whatever you guys want to do, i'm just writing this for fun :)