Oi oi People!
_Arizonaaaa has this chappy's dedi :)
Right, so after this story got plagiarized I thought stuff wattpad. I don't trust it with ANY of my shit anymore. I just wasn't gonna update any of my stories. And true-say having skimmed a bit of the last few chappies back I feel like it needs a re-write anyway, work still to be done...but still...
Then that girl decided to post again and I thought, why am I gonna let this chick win? She got her account back, everything back, and I just thought fu*k this bitch, I WILL update. There's no real punishment on wattpad so I'm more than a little disillusioned with this place. But I did think if that **** (yes this word is too bad to print but that's how I feel) can still update after all that, then I'm not gonna let her stop me. But if that crap happens again and some other dickhead tries it, I'm done with this place. I will be saying F U Wattpad, Sayonara.
**I want to send a special shout out to pllumsauce who made a poster for this story. I love it and I want to share her work and show it to the WORLD!! I've just put it in the side for you all to see :) Much love to you pllumsauce, it was such a lovely surprise and put a huge smile on my face :D WHOOP!! **
Chapter 30 - The Fire Within
If Nera wanted to shake me to my very core with just one simple sentence, she'd done it.
I watched as Nera's eyes pinned themselves to every possible section outside, locking tight as though to miss even the smallest thing would cause something unimaginable. Her eyes combed through the darkness like a seasoned marks-woman, as if she knew her target and could pull him out of even the tightest most minute of places.
"What are you saying?" I said with a forced calm, but briefly wondered why I asked. I think I knew what she was saying.
Her hands showed me the kind of trigger-fingers that just itched for a target. She acted as though she was ready, she clearly anticipated the worst and I could see she was expecting complete upheaval. That worried the shit out of me.
I didn't know what the worst could possibly be, but there was something about Nera that made me wonder where exactly she'd been hiding all this time. There was something about her that was screaming at me that not all was what it seemed, that she hadn't just been hiding somewhere for her own safety; she'd been acclimatizing somehow. Her stronger build, her fighter instinct, the command she had of her weapon...it all told me...something, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
Or maybe I could.
She'd adapted.
This "new kind of world" she'd spoken of earlier had me believing that if I was going to survive this as she had, I would have to adapt, because Nera, well, she'd most certainly adapted by the looks of it. She didn't seem at all shaken by all that was presenting itself to us, she didn't even seem fazed, just...curiously adept and she'd clearly come equipped with a new skill-set she'd attained from someplace unknown.
Nera said nothing to me as she crouched in an attempt to reduce her visibility at the window. She just kept focused, her eyes peeled like the sniper she resembled. She raked every inch of space ahead of her, and I followed the trail left by her line of sight to see if I could spot anything too, to see what she was trying to see. The trees branches moved as if an essence other than wind was writhing through its leaves, resembling the ever increasing eeriness and disquiet of the night.
"Ne—"
"Ariel," she said with a touch of frustration, her hand motioning to silence me, "Please, just gimme a minute. I need to assess." Her steely gaze scoured over the area like she could see in the dark and for a crazy split second I thought she could.
But I couldn't help my curiosity, my growing fear, or my questions. And despite her objection, I needed to know what the hell was going on. "Assess what? Nera, what?"
"Where there's one there's always a load more behind them." Came her quiet voice against her focused gaze.
But I could only think of one possible threat that came in many numbers. "Legions?"
For the first time since taking hold of her weapon, she looked at me. It was only a side glance that glittered with interest, but it came with a curious arched brow attached. A perfectly groomed one at that. "How do you know about legions?"
"I got attacked by one." I said. "Well, two actually."
She shifted focus back out again, her steady breaths were calculated and paced as if forcing it on herself. She lowered her eyes only just which gave me the impression she was thinking about what I'd just revealed to her. She didn't say anything after that.
I decided to walk a little closer to the window, but Nera swiftly put her hand out backing me away, but I could still see out, I was just in the shadows so to speak. I did as was motioned and held myself back.
The figure outside was still there but stood strangely still. A cough was about to make its way out of me but I was afraid to even move let alone cough. The figure had me lost in a train of thought that had me cataloging events in my brain, conversations I had, warnings I'd been given.
Nothing...nothing made any damn sense to explain what was going on right now, and I shook my head at the floor as if every part of my confused mind was staring at me from it. Dante's familiar figure was outside, yet Nera was not preparing for him, but why would he come here?
"Why would Dante come here knowing...I mean..." I quietly voiced it not realizing I'd said it loud enough for Nera to hear me and respond.
"Because he wouldn't." she said.
Alarmed, her words swum around me. I had to repeat what she said at least twice over in my head before it finally sunk in, and even then I don't think it really did.
"Look, " Nera said, grabbing at my top and pulling me only just to the window, "You see that figure there? It looks like him—It really does—but ask yourself; you really think Danny would be so stupid as to come here for you? After everything? After all the threats and all that he'll become? What do you think he's gonna do? Whisk you off into the sunrise and drive you to the edge of nowhere? Danny can be reckless, but he's not that reckless."
I couldn't tear my eyes from it, my heart both sunk at the lost hope and became uneasy at the same time. Nera noticed, her eyes softened somewhat too.
"It must be so damn painful to know that's not him, you so want it to be. You're emotional and unfamiliar with all of this. It's understandable that you had your hopes up."
She was right. I was both emotional and unfamiliar. No place for that here, I concluded. I had to get my shit together, but I was sure that at one point—before all these changes in Nera had taken place—she'd been the same. I mean, she spoke like experience had taught her that.
Seconds passed before I heard myself breathe, I lowered my eyes and pulled myself back even more, one defeated step after another, turning away from the window and walking a few paces before stopping as I heard her again.
"Demons can take any form, Ariel." she said slowly, "Not all of them, but the Firsts can. That form out there is meant to tempt you. And he knows exactly which one to use. "
I spun around, "Who knows? Who's 'he'?"
"A First. I just don't know which one of them it is."
"But Dante's a First." I muttered.
"I know."
"Then where is he if that's not him?"
She almost acted as though she hadn't heard me, but soon decided against ignoring me. "That's the thing; I get the feeling that..."
My gaze pinned itself to her when she stopped and I startled at what she could possibly have finished saying.
"What? C'mon Nera, you can't start saying something like that and then not finish. This is torturing me."
Even though I got the feeling she wouldn't continue, she sighed, her eyes were suddenly flat, "If he comes it will be because of that figure, not because he is that figure. Now seriously, let me do this. I know what I'm doing."
"But—"
We both turned as our conversation was broken by the crash of sound coming from downstairs. Nera's eyes widened and she slowly rose, temporarily distracted.
The noise got rowdier and rowdier, loud raucous noises of strain and battle tore through the air accompanied by what could easily be described as demolition. Furniture could be heard either being thrown all over the place or having bodies thrown all over it.
The shattering sound of glass and crushing sound of movables and possessions being decimated by warring bodies stormed around my ears at alarming volume. Fear and panic rushed through me and I backed away from the door. The deafening roars and even more vicious tones in the words were being violently flung around the chaos.
"YOU THINK YOU CAN PULL THE WOOL OVER MY EYES, DO YOU!"
My eyes widened at the voice and I turned to Nera. All colour had drawn from her face as she visibly numbed at the voice. When we caught each others reaction, Nera didn't waste any time. She moved from her weapon as instinct took over and made it past me before I even had time to react.
But I managed to just about grab her, stopping her as I yelled, "You can't leave!"
"Let me go!" she warned in obvious panic.
"Fuck no!"
But Nera was too strong for me. Wherever she'd been all this time she'd been building her frame, increasing her strength and it showed. Pushing me aside and running past me I felt myself fall backwards against the rigidness of the bed frame. I wouldn't even give myself a chance to feel any pain, I just had to get up and stop her before she did something stupid. I couldn't even imagine getting in the middle of what was going on downstairs.
Quickly scrambling to my feet and running as fast as my determination would take me, I was surprisingly fast enough to catch up with her. Before Nera could even hit the top of the stairs, I yanked at her with all the force I could muster and pushed her hard against the wall, palming her shoulders as I pressed them down.
"Move!" she screamed in my face.
"Nera, for heavens sake think about it! Malcolm and Nate are down there and if you walk in on it at any moment you may accidentally find yourself in the middle of it or on the end of a finisher. You don't think Malcolm can take care of himself? Nate doesn't even know you're back!"
She puffed hard against me, her harsh breaths a display of her anxiety and panic. "How did he know we were here?" she asked, her eyes locked with worry, her face flushed. "When Nate's like this he's a damn mercenary. And what's to stop Malcolm from hurting him too? They'll kill each other. I have to do something." she pleaded. I could feel my grip loosen when she said that. "They'll hurt each other, but they won't hurt me." she finished.
I had to concede that she was right; she had a stake in both of them; brother and husband. It was so misplaced to imagine what family gatherings would be like should they clear the air, there would still be this hostility around them—no matter what—that they'd just put aside for the sake of Nera and Seb. I sure as hell wouldn't want to be around for that.
The pain in Nera's voice, the fear...it was potent. We both simultaneously turned to the stairs when we heard another booming sound, and Nera took the opportunity the distraction offered her to push me before bolting. I couldn't reach her. I stumbled backwards, my foot only just twisted but I saved what could have been a twisted ankle just in time, and watched her take to the steps like they were on fire.
Not even halfway down, she immediately backed up against the wall when Nate's body came flying against it at the bottom. He cried out in a pain so severe I winced for him.
"I've been meaning to do that since you drugged me with roseling all that time ago you fucking prick." I heard Malcolm say viciously.
Nate got up, which I'll admit, startled me. The force of that throw would have broken any normal persons back. But he just rose, albeit with some effort, and stumbled a little before reaching into the side of his boot, "Ah," he said slowly, "You remember that? Yeah...yeah; you got me."
The slice of reflective light that lined his blade slid across my eyes. Nate's intricately carved knife was now swiftly held aloft and about to be flung at Malcolm, and it was then that Nera yelled out his name.
Nate eyes spooked as her voiced pierced through the air and seemed to turn it to stone. His stunned eyes shot to her, wide and disbelieving.
He stared at her for a time and it was a moment before he finally blinked. Letting his eyes run over her, he almost looked like he was in denial.
She soon stepped down, never once taking her eyes off him too, but his shock was soon masked as he covered it with an intense and uncontained anger.
Emotion now devoid, he addressed her, "Well, look at you." He said slowly on labored breaths, "You've put on weight. Thought you'd be dead by now."
"Oh, was that a hello? Well, hello to you too, Nate." She said with contempt, moving past him and toward Malcolm.
Malcolm had the look of fire in his eyes, the kind of dangerous glint I never thought I'd ever see in him. The colours of his eyes were a faded glow. I'd assumed they were brighter and more fervent when he'd been fighting. For the first time ever, I had kind of seen his inner demon. As I silently peaked my head from around the wall and just under the arched top of the stairs, I saw Nera look at me and quickly shake her head. I ducked my head back, pressing my spine against the wall, my palms flat behind me as I paced my breath. Instead, I listened.
"How the hell did you get into my house?" Malcolm said, venom dripping from every syllable. "You know, I should have gutted you time ago. Way back when you tried to kill me for marrying Nera."
"I'm not even addressing you anymore, I wanna talk to my sister. Preferably without you."
"You think I'm leaving her side?"
I heard Nate huff. "What's with the hair?" he was definitely ignoring Malcolm now. He had to be talking to Nera. "Turned to the dark side already, have we? This bastard corrupting you still? Bet you've changed more than just that."
"Oh shut the hell up, Nate, nobody wants to hear it."
"Nope, guess you haven't."
"Let me warn you now; you touch my husband and—"
"Your husband?" he let out an incredulous laugh. "He's not your husband Nera that shit isn't even legal! There's no such thing as a human-to-demon marriage license. You might as well marry a wild boar, he's not even human. For shit sake, get a clue!"
I heard Nera tell Malcolm 'no', as if he'd moved towards Nate.
"How dare you?" she said, her voice sounded shaky and offended.
"Easily. It's the damn truth." Nate spat out. "You don't like it? I can't help you with that. No one will recognize you two in any damn city in all the land."
"Don't even think about it." I heard Nera warn her brother. Maybe Nate was advancing towards them now? I didn't know...but she continued. "I told you, you come anywhere near him again and I'll—"
"You'll what, huh? WHAT!"
I jumped at the volume. Whoa. He could have shaken the walls with that.
"You should have stayed where you were, Nera."
"I had to come back." She said after a moment.
"For what? What could you possibly have left here anymore? Besides this freak of course."
"Listen," I heard her say, "We've got bigger things to worry about right now. Get yourself in check, Nate, because—"
But my mind soon cancelled out the voices when I spotted something on the floor. A leaf from the plant in my room. It wasn't there before, and I looked around almost hesitant to pick it up.
I soon walked towards it, pausing for a moment before spotting another one only meters away. Walking up to that one I noticed one final one at the door to my bedroom. I hesitated ever so slightly, but started to slowly advance towards it. My heart quickened its beats, my breaths were near enough audible in my ears, and my eyes never left the floor until the head of a shadow on the carpet came into view, laying slanted against the very low light offered by the window.
My feet froze and I blinked several times before my eyes trailed the shadow till it hit a pair of boots. My heart jolted at those boots and after stopping to catch my breath, my gaze continued to run upwards along the dark trousers, the hands at either side of him, the equally dark top, until I hit a pair of startling eyes and tousled almost-black hair.
I gasped, but he stepped towards me and pulled me to his chest, silencing me before any noise could escape.
He cradled my head in his hand and rested his cheek over the top of it as the other hand came around me. I held him back too, I could have squeezed the life out of him with how tight I held onto him.
Dante floored me. I was stunned into silence and can't even bring myself to speak other than to keep my breathing as still as I could. The sound of my own breath was so loud in my ears I was afraid even that would alert the others downstairs that he was here.
I wanted this moment to remain unspoiled, this moment I felt I'd waited forever for. I didn't even know what to say to him. There were a flurry of thoughts but none of those thoughts were even remotely in sync, just a jumbled mess. How do you find any words for this anyway? What could I say other than I miss the bones of you that our hold wasn't saying anyway? What can you do but do the one thing you've wanted to do all this time? Just hold him, touch him...
I knew there were no words for this moment. I didn't think a world of words would be enough to tell him just how much I'd missed him, how much he meant to me, how much I loved this man. In fact, I thought it was probably too much for me to even admit to. He had me, and I didn't think he could ever know just how much of me he had.
I closed my eyes against him and the sounds from downstairs faded into nothingness. I was oblivious to whatever was downstairs or outside now. For the first time in a long time I felt a kind of peace in his arms just being here. He'd given me a moment to forget about it all. If time gave me even a crumb of the clock, then hell, I would only make that crumb last a damn lifetime. Shame, that could never happen. I wanted to hold him for as long as it took to make it a memory because I could never determine which embrace would be the very last one we had.
But now I could feel my body literally start to weaken and my arms start to limp. He felt so hot under my fingers, literally hot, like he was embers inside. It radiated through me in waves and I'd held him for so long wrapped up in my thoughts that I'd been oblivious to what his contact was doing to me. He hadn't felt like this before. He'd always been quite warm, but now...he practically burned.
His body heat seared through his skin and seeped through mine, I could soon feel my own body heat increase in response. I shifted a little uncomfortably against him and Dante pulled back a little to look down at me. I could feel his hands go through my hair, pushing it back and tilting my head up to his. Through half-open eyes I could see the concern in his now.
He then touched the back of his hand over my forehead before he pulled away completely. I stood there with my eyes draping closed and wiped over my own forehead, pulling the neckline of my top down a tad and fanning the fabric at my collarbone.
"Ariel?" I could just about make out his voice. Definitely his voice. For a split second I thought I'd been dreaming, but this feeling was definitely no dream. I could feel myself dipping in and out of sorts, like I was losing all conscious thought.
"I...I'm sorry. I...didn't realize..." he stuttered. "I'm like a burning vessel now. It feels normal to me so I forget easily. Baby, I'm—"
"No..." I hazily said, but quickly knew something wasn't right. Wiping at my brow while blinking with bleary eyes and feeling my pulse race, I felt a sudden thirst for something cold. I touched my chest with slick, clammy palms and felt completely uncoordinated. The room started to blur before I felt very swift heated hands steadying me, lifting me.
"Come here..." he very quickly said, as he swiftly picked me up, laying me steady on the bed and leaving me safely there.
As I slowly blinked up at him I could see through my cloudy haze that he wanted to touch me. He was just about to touch my head but withdrew, turning away and cursing. He looked over me and I could see how distressed he'd become but instead, he just knelt down beside my bed instead.
"Dante..."
His elbows on the bed as he clasped his hands together looking at me with eyes that looked conflicted. "Hey, magpie." He said, just above a whisper.
His eyes ran over me swiftly. They were stung with fear, a fear I knew was for me.
"It's fine." I said, matching his tone. "I'm just hot that's all. I mean, you are...you feel like...like an open flame...or...walking hellfire." I had no idea how he could withstand that temperature. But then again, it was his nature.
He smiled but he couldn't hide the concern taking up residence in his gaze as he met my own.
Our locked gazes were soon broken when I diverted mine to look over him. In this short space of our time apart he'd physically changed and it had been drastic. It was evident he hadn't been looking after himself or that possibly the effects of his mark was taking its toll on him.
His hair was all over the place, a dark shaggy mess, his eyes shadowed, surrounded by hollowness and the look of fatigue, but those startling eyes were made all the brighter for the surrounding darkness. I didn't think anything could make those eyes any less amazing and couldn't help but think they were surrounded by an abyss of sorrow and despair, even though his eyes could resemble a chasm of hope and promise at times.
Despite all this I still reckoned he could never really look bad. Never. Well, he looked bad but...he didn't if that makes any sense?
"Gosh, look at you." I said touching his face with a weakened hand, "You look a right state."
He sneaked a smile against my palm, "Trust you to give it to me straight."
I touched over his beard, his face, his eyes which he closed as I did that and shook my head. He'd still felt strong when he carried me, his whole being did, but he looked like a shadow.
All I wanted to do was keep him safe but I didn't know how. With everything he was he still looked so damn vulnerable. I could feel tears form over my eyes as they pooled my vision, but he shut down on his eyes as he saw them.
"Don't let me see that, please. Not now." he said, conflicting emotions stung his tone. He kissed the hand I had over his face, the only part he felt safe enough to kiss briefly, I could hear him beg my eyes dry.
I soon realised that he was right. How could he stay strong if I wasn't? I swallowed softly, blinking tears away and trying to breathe steady in an attempt to pull myself together. The only way I could do that was if I stared at the ceiling.
"Why did you come?"
"Because I don't think Malcolm can do this on his own."
"Do what?"
"Protect you. It's bigger than I thought. This whole thing is bigger than him, he's gonna need me. You're gonna need me. And after this is done--"
"After this is done? You think we're gonna survive this?"
"I don't know about we, but I'll be damned if you don't."
"Don't talk like that." I didn't like what he was implying.
"Like what? It's the truth." he said. "When you make it, I want you to live the hell out of your life. Make everything I do for you worth it."
"My life? But...I can't imagine you not in it." I said to the ceiling.
"Try." he whispered, his voice hollow. "You can't be a part of this anymore. I won't allow you to be."
I tried to focus on the plain white above me, but I could see Dante was watching me in my peripheral vision. I had his complete attention right now.
I didn't want to say it but..."You're right, I..." I couldn't finish that sentence. I knew I wasn't ready for this...world, but I also knew I wasn't ready to go back to my old one. It was like trying to reintegrate but not knowing how to forget everything that took me out of it in the first place.
Despite everything that I said to Malcolm and Nera about going back to the way things were, part of me knew I couldn't just slip back into old routine, it was wishful thinking, I was simply just willing myself to do it.
I had to weigh it all up, I could survive in my old world, but this new one... I sighed and spoke again, "The Legions, Hall...I was speaking to Nera about it and all I could think about apart from you was how my whole life took a backseat to all this. You're right, I can't be a part of this, I'm not familiar with all this. I'm not like Nera." I took a deep shaky breath and I was afraid of looking at him. If I saw his eyes it would kill me.
"Don't say anymore."
I turned to him now, the weakness in my body still present as the reverberating heat wouldn't let up. It felt like a virus inside me.
He got up now. "Look, it's okay." he said quietly. "You're thinking about your life and you should be, and..all I've been doing is trying to adapt to all that would be my life now. After all, there's nothing left...anything that could possibly mean anything to me, I don't have anymore."
I swallowed at the grief in me to hear that. I still couldn't look at him. This, right here right now, was just a fleeting moment, it would be short-lived. We weren't here as a couple, we were here as two separate people. There were no illusions of what we could be because we were no more. This thing we were facing now was about trying to survive. You could say our destinies were fated apart, and we just had to accept that, except...Dante couldn't.
"That should make it easier, right? Losing everything?" he said. "You'll have your life because you belong here, it's just...I don't belong there anymore. It's a little hard to take, you know?"
I nodded. I knew he didn't belong there. He could have been trying to live in water if he went back, it was that alien to him now.
Instinctively, as he came over kneeling as his hand near enough held mine but I jerked a little and he startled at the movement, stopping himself just in time.
The look on his face...I wish that wasn't what I saw when I finally looked at him.
"No," I protested, "It's not your heat or anything, it's just.." strange reflexes.
"No, it's okay...I get it. I just...I forgot, I just couldn't help myself." He rose to his feet as if chastising himself and walked a few paces then he just stopped, seemingly thinking. I noticed the heat in my body was lowering now, I started to feel myself more consciously again, and as my gaze drifted over to the window behind him, there was a question I had to ask him.
"Was that you outside? Nera told me it wasn't."
"The figure?" He turned and shook his head. "No. That's why I'm here. The figure outside is targeting you and I'm pissed that Hall would stoop so damn low." He said pacing, he stopped in agitation and put his hand to the back of his head as he bowed it.
"It didn't matter." he muttered to himself. "None of it mattered." He sounded frustrated, but he was making no sense to me right now.
"What are you talking about?"
"This. This whole thing...leaving you, it didn't matter. Hall has his plans regardless. There was never any option. He only did all this to keep me sweet, to stop me doing something he couldn't control. He got what he wanted, but it wasn't enough. It was never enough. He's trying to get rid of you but I can't let that happen. I have to figure out a way to stop him. But I'm telling you now, magpie, it's not gonna be easy."
I motioned for him as my temperature eased and sat up now. "Come here."
He hesitated but came to me regardless. He knelt down by the bed again and I held his head to my chest, my hands tangling in his tousled hair. I cradled it to me, smoothing my palm down the back of his neck. Yes, still hot, but I was careful, only light fleeting touches made its way over him, even though I wished I could give him more. But when I touched him there where his mark started, he didn't react like before and I realized it no longer hurt like it did. I pulled back the top of his shirt and could see that the mark was no longer raised, it was flat, and was now more intricate than before. The colour was wound-like, akin to a patterned, labyrinth-style bruise.
"It doesn't hurt now?" I asked.
"No, not anymore."
I looked over him. "It looks so different. Can I see it now?"
He lifted his head from my chest and pulled his sleeve up instead. "It goes down my arm." But that's as much as he'd let me see.
It was then I heard two pairs of footsteps taking to the stairs, running towards the bedroom. Malcolm passed by the door but Nera came rushing through as if she'd forgotten about me and stopped dead in her tracks. I sat up fully now, taking in her expression at the sight of Dante. He immediately rose to his feet facing her, and Nera shot a quick look at me before sauntering over and giving him a welcoming hug. She very quickly pulled back though, her eyes travelling down his length inspecting him, her face concerned.
I knew why she'd reacted that way.
"You felt that too?" I said. "Yeah, Dante's practically an inferno."
"Inferno? You don't know what you've just said." she grinned.
But she greeted him in her usual inimitable no-BS way. "Whoa, look at the state of you though. You look like crap, Danny."
He huffed a very short laugh, "Cheer me up why don't you. And the count for being told that today would be two so far." he flicked a hand through her hair and gave it an appraising look. "I like it."
She smiled, but her gaze very quickly became somber. "You really shouldn't be here, you know."
He solemnly nodded his acknowledgment of that after a short moment. His thoughts were all over him when he did that, like they achingly weighed him down.
I saw her eyes zoom in on his arm. "How long have you got before you...? You know...go full-out demon and...stuff."
"I'm not exactly sure. It's healing, but it's not complete. It's just evident, that's all."
Malcolm soon entered, having said he'd been securing the windows and adding that Nate was still downstairs licking his wounds so to speak, but the sight of Dante in the room trailed him off.
Malcolm didn't say anything for a moment, and I watched as the two of them just stood there.
"If you're gonna tell me I look like shit, I'll just play a broken record and spare you."
Malcolm's brows drew inwards, and with a shallow shake of his head, he said, "No. I mean, you...well, but I'm guessing Nera already told you that, huh?" he grinned. He too seemed thoughtful now though as his grin faltered. "Just...how've you been, man?"
Dante pursed his lips and put on a shrug about it. "You know me, resilient as fuck of course."
Malcolm allowed himself to smile at that. "Yeah, always. Hey, what do you say after we're through with all this and kicked a few legion ass we...I don't know, toast to this bullshit being over."
"I see what you're trying to do there, Mal, making it seem like that might actually happen. That we might actually have that drink and this might really be all over but let's be real; it's not."
"Oh ye of little faith."
I had to swallow down hard when Nate appeared at the door. Dante's face instantly changed, his mood shifted, and he stood bracing himself. Narrowed eyes stared toward Nate. A predatory glance similar to that of a snake just poised and prepared to strike. It was though he were looking for the slightest provocation so he could pounce and destroy. The darkness of his nature was very clearly showing in his eyes then.
I put my legs over the bed and shakily stood up, pretending I was completely fine. I wasn't, that much was obvious, but okay, the heat was passing, my body was getting very much back to normal thankfully. Getting was the word, I just wasn't quite there yet.
"I knew it." Nate strolled in slowly, "I knew it had to have something to do with you that the legions are coming. You just couldn't stay the heck away, could you? As per usual. I told you, didn't I? What did I say to you? I said if anything happens to her and it's your fault I'd kill you my damn self, hand to God I said I would."
"Funny that." Dante replied, cocking his head slightly, "Someone else already has claims on your soul and it isn't any God."
Nate swallowed hard, he seemed surprised that Dante revealed it.
"Yeah," Dante said, "didn't think I knew about that, did you? Or if you remember I said something about that way back. You know, when you drugged Mal." he looked him over and smirked. "I see he got you back for that." An impressed look came on his face when he addressed Malcolm. "Thank you for offering me the one piece of joy I've had all night, buddy."
"You're welcome. And it was my pleasure."
"You'd bring that up?" Nate said, there was an increasing anger in his tone, like he was boiling over and was just about steaming.
"It's the truth. Your sister doesn't know about that part of you, I see? That why you're pissed?"
Nate flicked his gaze to Nera as she looked at him unsure what that all meant, and as if Nate was angry that she now knew something that she possibly shouldn't, his rage at Dante turned into a full on assault. An assault Dante caught before Nate could make contact. Nate had acted irrationally without thinking, and it looked as though Dante was going to make him pay for it.
Dante held him back. One tightly gripped fist around Nates' neck. Dante had a knack for squeezing the life out of people with this move. I'd definitely say it was a signature.
As Dante's hand grasped him even more firmly by the throat, a bead of sweat trickled down Nates forehead sliding down his brow and continuing down his cheek. The colour in his face increased with heat as it shifted into a scorching reddy colour, and now, that one bead of sweat was joined by several more, profusely slickening his entire face, even his clothes were now drenching from the heat now burning within him.
"Danny!" Nera pleaded shooting up to him and stopping. "Danny, please."
But Dante looked annoyed. "Oh c'mon Nera, I'm gonna be gone soon, for one damn moment allow me to at least take a little bit of joy out of something. I can't just have a little fun before I'm no longer the Dante you all recognize? Can't I just...oh, I don't know...break his neck or something?"
Oh my days, the look she just gave him.
"Okay, fine." Dante said, holding his free hand up in defeat. "What about his leg?"
"You have got to be kidding me. Danny, he's my freaking brother!"
He shrugged, "Like they say, can't pick your family."
"For heavens sake, what is wrong with you?"
"What's wrong with me?" he blasted back. "Are you serious? You know what's about to happen, Nera. Why the hell should I give a damn anymore, huh? About you, him, anybody? I have nothing to lose. Not anymore. Don't you get it?"
"You'd do something like that in front of Ariel? You want that to be the last thing she sees of you?"
For a moment whatever colour was left in his face drained from him. He almost looked at me but wouldn't, his throat moved just a slither before he got himself together again.
"There are some things I've got to stop caring about now." he said quietly.
"It's not over yet and you're already falling apart." Nera told him.
"And so damn what? I'm allowed, aren't I? One last hurrah. Hey Malcolm, I'll drink to that at least." He never once looked at me through this entire thing. But after a moment, he huffed. "I don't know why I'm even asking, there was a time I would have just done it. Hey, I've already lost everything I give a damn about. What else is there to take? Apart from his leg?"
"What are you gonna do?" Nera said, challenging him. "Play baseball with it in your underworld?"
"Only if I get to use his head as a ball. That could be fun."
I tried to tell myself that Dante's shift in behavior was some kind of reaction to the inevitable, that he'd realized his battle was lost. That he was seemingly lost in all hope, that the light didn't seem to reach his part of the tunnel, and thinking like that allowed me to accept this a little better, but it still didn't help. Truth is, who knows how we would react if we'd lost everything, or was going to, if the meaning in our world as it stood today suddenly changed for tomorrow. If everything we knew to be what we are now, was soon to be no more. He was allowed to react. He was allowed to be angry, he was allowed to take it out on anyone he pleased, but not like this. And yeah, okay, it was Nate at the brunt of it and there was no love lost between them, but a consequence of hurting Nate was hurting Nera and she'd been nothing but supportive to me and let's not forget who she was to Malcolm. He could despise Nate all he wanted, but it was his sister I was thinking about.
At some point during the process of my thought, Dante had relented, releasing his hand from Nates' burning throat. Nate dropped to the ground and wheezed a huge intake of breath that looked and sounded extremely painful.
"Shit, look at you." He struggled to say. "You're a damn abomination."
"Not yet."
A firey glow could now be seen flickering outside, close enough to the house that there was a very clear danger. It could be seen spreading inwards toward us rapidly, and rising higher.
A voice now travelled toward us through the open window with an eery echo.
"Seems my guise didn't quite work!" The raised voice said from outside. It was a voice we all recognized, but it was me who only just took a moment to place it.
So, I guess we knew which First Nera was talking about now. Hall.
"Taking the shape of Dante wasn't quite the temptation I thought he'd be." he continued. "I thought you'd come outside, Miss Storeheart. Kudo's for not. Or maybe it's that half-bred demon and his sniper wife who advised you not to? Now, to be honest, I really wanted to knock on the door despite the fact that I could just obliterate it but I thought to hell with that, this was a lot more fun. Now, just so you know this fire is only going to grow and grow. You can choose to become engulfed by the flames if you want but be aware if you don't come outside then you will all perish inside. Obviously."
"Oh please, he wouldn't kill Danny." Nera stated.
"He's practically made of fire, so actually, he can't." Malcolm corrected. "Well, they can't do it like this anyway."
Dante took the case off the pillow behind me and wrapped his hand in it, folding it over a couple of times and took my hand, "Malcolm, Nera, do what you have to do, get the hell out of here. I'm taking Ariel. I have no doubt you can make it out together before this whole place goes down." He looked at Nate and stepped over him, it was obvious he didn't really care whether Nate went with them or not.
Breathing in the wafts of smoke clambering through the window now, I quickly pulled my top up high over my nose, the cloth already working to help create a barrier I could breathe through as it filtered the fumes but I could still smell it.
Holding his hand, Dante's strides were so forceful I felt like I was dragging behind him as I quickened my steps to keep up. He made sure to always go ahead of me, and I could see his instinct to put himself before me in a dangerous scenario. Assessing the corridor, he hastily ran towards it and took a deep breath before he looked at me. I knew he couldn't allow himself to think about the what's or the how's of getting out of this place, he just had to do it, and he did. Gunning for the stairs, we were confronted by a front door that just couldn't withstand the force of the growing flames.
Plumes leaked through the dying wood, the door now licked with emerging flames. Dante immediately put his arm out over his face shielding against it as he backed up. Turning, we both ran though to the kitchen but here it was even worse. The fire had made its way through and was now creeping up the walls and engulfing the ceiling. The glow of orange and yellow leaped its way along every surface, spreading itself with terrifying speed as if it delighted in its billowy dance threatening to claim us next.
I could hear voices in the fire, voices just as threatening as the fire itself. They wafted around me like vocal wraiths, but they were in a tongue I didn't recognise. If anything, from the look on Dante's face, those voices were for him, a torment only he could understand.
Crouching in panic, I coughed at the density of humid polluted smoke, and immediately pulled at Dante's hand to go back. The front door was nowhere near this bad, but my instinct was to get the hell away from what looked like Hall had created a special place in hell for us both right here in Malcolms home.
But Dante seemingly was not affected by the heat, the smoke, the fire, the humidity--any of it--at all, just the voices. It was me who was suffering the heat right now, and him the unplaceable voices. Cloth to my mouth I looked up at Dante shaking my head. I didn't know what he was about to do, but I just knew whatever it was, whatever was ticking around in his head...I couldn't do it with him.
And from the look on Dante's face, I noticed that for the first time in all this time, there was the look of panic. I had a feeling he could just walk through the flame, but that his panic came from knowing that I wouldn't make it with him if he did it holding me.
I could even feel his hands burning through my palm, the cloth no longer able to consume the heat before it made its way to me. The pain of it was excruciating and he couldn't hold me any longer knowing that. In a raging panic I could see his eyes blaze in the same way they did when he lost his cool with Hall all that time ago.
Roaring with a raucous, thundering sound that pierced through everything around us, a resounding energy pierced around him and he picked me up. For only what felt like a second, all sound blanked in that moment. If I'd ever wondered what the atmosphere around me would sound like at the speed of sound, it was this: nothing. It felt as though sound had inverted and I had no idea what just happened until I was laying on the ground.
Outside.
And so was he, on his back beside me.
My body limp with the rush of our exit, I wearily opened my eyes, blinking several times as a face emerged in front of me. My gaze immediately snapped open and widened at the treacherous face. Scrambling onto my elbows I dragged myself backwards on my back screaming and only just noticed that Dante was incapacitated by...someone.
But as I scrambled, Hall simply eerily walked along the trail I was leaving behind. His walk was menacing and sure and most certainly threatening. He had that appearance of being formidable by simply standing there. It felt like those dreams where you run and run but someone always catches up to you by simply walking.
Hall was a confident fucker, and the sly trace of amusement pasted to his smirking lips at my attempt to get away only solidified that. He knew I couldn't just get away and he was revelling in the knowledge that no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get far enough.
He reached me and I grabbed at the roots of my hair with a cry after he gripped hard to my locks fisting viciously in hold and dragged me upwards to my feet. The force of the tug shot a pain so severe through my scalp, I could have sworn he was pulling my hair clean out of my head. Glaring at me, his eyes trailed down to my chest and glowed as if he could see in me that one essence that makes me human.
The feeling of being wrenched to my feet by one of the most frightening people I would ever meet had my pulse racing and my eyes glistening in fear. I just had a feeling...this was it.
There was no flash-before-your-eyes thing, all I could feel was my body shaking and my heart thrashing with the fear that my time had come as my mind chased through every possible way to get out of this. But there was nothing. Hall was apparently the ultimate of all the Firsts. And he had me by my hair; a man who encompassed the kind of danger that had me thinking he just knew that a simple click of his fingers could stop my heart. It was as though he had immense power even in something as small as his pinky.
"There was a time Dante taught me almost everything I know." he said, his dark tone breathing like a tremor through my ear. "But I'm gonna teach him something tonight. In fact, I'm gonna remind him—show him. I'm gonna show him what it takes to truly be what we are. I'm gonna show him how a real demon does things. I'm gonna show him what he's lost in himself, what he could regain again if I just rip his heart out through you. You see, as long as you exist, I don't think he'll ever truly be what we need him to be. He'll always have a fucking heart. A soul. And we can't have that, can we? When he sees what I do to you, when I make him watch, his mark will accelerate, and...man, I'm telling you," he grinned, his voice reveled in the delight from the prospect of his final words, "It's gonna be damn near biblical."