Chapter 19 #2
Thorne doesn’t hesitate as he lets Callahan go and disappears like a crack of lightning. A lingering scent of copper and ozone accompanies twisting shadows from where he was just standing.
Finding your fated, it’s like a piece finally clicking into place with your soul. It’s feeling at peace even though you didn’t know you weren’t already there. And losing your fated. . . that’s having your soul ripped apart.
Looking up at the mage and vampyr, I know they’re both clueless about what to do next, but unfortunately I’m with them.
I try searching the shelves of my memory about anything that could help us figure out what happened.
Unless she was able to somehow teleport or fold or shadow twist. But none of the techniques from those forms of transportation would leave ashes behind.
The only way I know for a being to be replaced by ashes is if a vampire is exposed to sunlight for a certain period of time. Eventually they are reduced to ashes. But there was no sunlight exposed. There wasn’t even any warmth hinting at a sun summoning spell or a golden runic casting.
There is no explanation I can find for what has happened.
There isn’t –
She can’t be gone.
Beings can’t disappear just straight out of thin air. There is always a remanent of magic or aura or energy or –
Unless she is dead.
But even then there would be some sort of lasting feel of something. No one can completely hide their aura without some sort of fluctuation. It’s impossible.
I was given so many answers, all but the ones I need. For twice in my life I don’t have the answers. I don’t know what to do. I don’t –
“What the fuck is going on?”
Something – something within. . . or maybe between or after. . . it skips. A fracture line, a hiccup, a choke, a misstep, a single ripple. . . it. . . changes something.
I’m greeted by pale pink eyes fanned by long lashes and a single dark brow arched high.
Something within rumbles as I trace every feature on her face and then down.
Her uniform shirt is only held by one button, exposing slivers of skin from her chest and stomach.
And that thing within roils with a force that begins to make itself known to more than just me.
There are more scars and bitemarks on her. More than just on her legs. Legs which I can see because she’s only in her skirt and not her tights which normally cover them.
Callahan pushes out of my arms only to immediately crumble to the floor. He crawls – actually crawls – to her and wraps the edges of her shirt around her middle before burying his head into her stomach. His arms circle her hips as he sits back onto his heels and pulls her with him.
She makes a tiny gasp as she plops down. Her hands going to his shoulders to steady herself as her thighs spread and her knees land on either side of his waist.
Pale pink eyes snap to mine with alarm as she ping pongs her gaze between the other two who are still here. I had forgotten about Mr. Ruleten and Ms. Waterstone. The former who’s shocked state hasn’t wobbled and the latter who slides to her knees as she stares open-mouthed at her roommate.
“What the hell is happening right now?” she whispers with trepidation. Wide eyes sliding back to Callahan as he squeezes her as if he’s never going to let her go.
“D-don’t e-ev-ever leave,” Callahan sobs.
Slowly, some sort of realization dawns on her because a mask slips over her face and body as she hesitantly turns her gaze to her bed.
To where pieces of ash still drift. She hadn’t reappeared where she last was, which was closer to the foot of her bed.
Instead, she appeared right in front of her desk.
Taking a step towards her, her eyes snap to me and a flutter of fear flashes in her eyes.
So, so many secrets.
“What happened, Mavyn?”
My tone is darker than I intended it to be. My voice lowered and power still thrumming through it. I can physically see her walls building as she neutralizes her face. Then she pushes away from Callahan and he whimpers as the contact between them is lost.
I glance down at all her scars and she stomps over to her wardrobe. Pulling out a long, thick robe, she puts it on before leveling me with one of her signature glares.
“You tell anybody what you saw on my body and I will report you to the Mage Board.”
So much threat in her words, and yet it’s for nothing.
“I have not done – “
“I saw your true devil,” she grits. The color in her eyes fluctuating for a split moment. And damn me but my body flinches. She takes a step back and straightens at it. “You say, think, breathe, out in any way or form nothing to no one or thing.”
Rage burns at the command but also at the wanting to submit. The speck of wanting to bow my head for her.
I decimate it. Instead, gritting my teeth and hiss out an ‘I understand’. Because it would not take much to convince the Mage Board of her truth. Even if I was able to rebuttal it, any devil able to enter minds would be able to see the truth. For both me and Callahan.
Though, I wonder how it was possible she saw it. My true devil only made a flicker of its presence known when I had first seen the scars on her legs. I kept it locked up after that. I kept my control.
Unless she just played me. She took a wild guess and I confirmed it for her.
The fucking brat.
Just then the scent of copper and ozone sparks and Thorne returns with Castiel. Both looking distraught and now confused as their eyes zip between me, Callahan still on the floor looking mourningly at the bloodsucker, and her.
She puffs out a breath and glares at all of us. “Why exactly are you all in my room?”
She’s got to be fucking kidding me.