Love and Death 3--COLLAB

by ~MoreaGaara

I can't describe our kiss without using the Speech; I'd have to think for years to find the perfect words if I did.  So I'll not try, for now.  All I feel safe in saying is that nothing mattered in the world but that kiss.  Not even my brother mattered, which is why I ignored his presence as he approached my pet outside the door, didn't even tell Cain--my pet--that he was there.  But Cain was happy that I was happy at last, and wasn't listening for anyone either.

Only when Michael addressed Cain and was adamantly refused entrance did I react to him.  For Michael yelled in wordless rage and threw Cain into the wall of the opposite warehouse, making Cain cry out in sudden pain.  I released IZ quickly and crawled into a corner of the room, clawing at the scars in my arms.  "Go," I told her, knowing that it was no longer safe for her to be there.  The selfish part of me wanted her to stay, but I knew only too well what Michael would do to her if he caught her.  I didn't want that to happen to her.

I would suffer it in her stead, but that was fine; I didn't matter, after all.

I watched her get up and stumble towards the back door of my house, which would let her out at the back of the warehouse in the alternate Earth she had come from, but the hand of someone I didn't know--he bore the look of someone controlled by wizardry and Michael--caught her before she could reach it and flung her into the wall opposite the door and safety and me.  He resumed his position at the door, eyes on me.  I didn't even look at him; my hands automatically scratched at the surface of my skin, but my mind was all on Michael and what he was doing to Itkalis.

He jerked her towards the front door, and I screamed in defiance, my own black aura slamming out of me.  I cursed violently as he whipped back around with IZ a living shield in front of him; the air around my head turned blue and stunk of ozone.

"You aren't going to be happy, Fairest and Fallen. I made that my personal goal when you forced death into the universes," Michael snarled at me, and I was too frightened of him still to attack.  "If she thinks your happiness is of value, then she has to be taught differently. IZ has always been an intelligent girl though, so I don't think she'll have any trouble learning the way things really are," I started to yell again, trying to keep his attention on me, but a worldgate had already formed behind him and he was pulling IZ through it.

She fought him bravely, screaming that she couldn't leave me, but the gate was closed before she could slip free.  I tried to follow, but Michael's guard dog crowded me, making me stay in the corner.  I wasn't as afraid of him as I was of Michael, but I was intimidated enough that I needed to drink some courage.

I grabbed a nearby bottle and drank it dry; then I smashed it against the arm of a nearby chair and used the shards for carving.  I used the pain to make myself angry; I drank a little more to give myself just enough of a buzz that I would dare more than normal.  The guard dog sneered at me in disgust; I knew what it was he saw.

Mine and IZ's minds had linked during the kiss, and I used that link to try and calm her down.  But she could feel me cutting and drinking, though she couldn't feel the reason behind it.  She wanted to comfort me, and that made Michael slap her several times.  He was yelling at her for her useless compassion.

I forced myself to not look when he started feeling her up, made myself concentrate on my pain and anger.  Whatever broke through, I used for more fuel.  The guard dog mumbled something deriding under his breath, and he looked away.  Perfect.

He never saw the bottle flying at his head.  It bounced off a shield that Michael had probably given him before they even reached the warehouse, but that was easy enough for me to break.  I was on him a fraction of a second later, breaking through the magical shield with my fingers and a shard of glass.  The one I had been using to cut.  I yanked him back against me and dug the fingers of my right hand against his face, attempting to dig his eyes out.  It didn't work out well, as he was wiggling around too much.

My control broke when Michael violated IZ completely.  I dragged the shard across his throat; his blood spurted out, staining the wall.  I wouldn't let him die either; the greatest curse I could bestow on my enemies was to refuse them my gift.  I threw his living corpse unceremoniously out the front door; I fragmented and sent the new section over to Cain to make sure he was all right.  If necessary, the fragment would call an ambulance and stand in as his father.  But he was not going to die so soon; he had twenty-three more years to live, and he knew that.

That taken care of, I opened another worldgate and appeared in the room where Michael was raping IZ; the same room he used to rape me whenever the mood struck him.  My anger was blazing even brighter as I watched.  I didn't even move to throw him off, I was so furious.  He was simply ripped off and flung into a wall; I wasn't sure how I had done it, though I smelled dark matter in the space above IZ.

She was covered in her own blood and tears when I picked her up, cradling her to my breast.  I used a dark matter portal to take her back to my home.  My own wounds were healing quickly, more quickly than they ever had in the past, so she stayed clean of my blood.  I brushed her hair gently away from her face, trying to calm her as much as I could.  I tried for a smile, but it came out broken; even that faded when I saw her horrified face.

"I hurried to save you…I really--" I tried to tell her, my anger fading back into simple pain.  She grabbed my hand and pressed it against her cheek still wet with her tears.  Getting wetter.  The water was hot against my flesh.

"You saved me. You didn't fail. Just…" she started, her voice thin and whispery.  Not strong, the way it should have been.  I looked back at her, my gift already telling me what it was she wanted.

"Erasure would be so much…easier," I finished.  I dimmed the lights around us, creating an artificial pool of darkness.

"I never planned to ask you for this," came her voice through the dark; she knew what she wanted.  And I would give it to her.  I would give it to myself if I could, but that was an impossibility.

"Then don't ask for it. Just close your eyes…and I'll find you this time. I won't make you look for me every time, IZ. This time I will find you and save you. Now go to sleep…" I promised her, watching her fade into sleep; I eased the fragment the rest of the way into death.

The world was her grave.  Cain I took to another world that I had recently won from Michael.  I had promised him twenty-three years, and I didn't break my promises.