In one swift, fluid movement Ash sidestepped the werewolf's airborne body. His arm shot out at the last second grasping the animal's fur and jerking her backward. Her body flipped to the side knocking her to the ground, her back skidding across the loose gravel.. She rolled over, snarling, drool hanging in long strands over her lips. A pink tongue darted out over her teeth as if she could already taste Ash's flesh in her mouth.
"That's a beautiful look on you." Ash said watching the werewolf's pupils dilate in rage, "Drool is the "in" look this year."
Petra snapped at him her jaws sounding like steel traps. They circled each other. Ash blinked. Petra used the brief distraction to lunge again. The world tipped backward as Ash lost his balance to the massive werewolf snapping at his hands and throat while standing on his chest. She picked him up and slung him across the road. He landed head first and flipped over several times.
Before Ash could move she was standing on him again tearing at his throat. Gravel bit into his back. More power surged through him on the primal waves of pain and fear. His mouth twitched and he willed the vampire power, trapped in his blood to come forth. something gave, but it wasn't enough to return his power. Instead, it drove his anger. Adrenaline surged through him. Fight or flight. His instincts said fight.
Ash caught her lower jaw with his bare hand. Ignoring the agony of Petra's teeth ripping through the flesh of his hand, he forced her jaw down toward the ground. Using his free hand, he grasped the nape of her neck and snaked around her head until he had hold of her snout. Petra tried to back away, her paws sliding through the loose gravel, but Ash wasn't letting go. Using her body for leverage, Ash braced himself and with the last of his adrenaline induced strength, Ash threw his weight into twisting her head,snapping her spine. Petra stopped struggling. Her body twitched violently. Drool spilled over him and Ash's stomach rolled.
He struggled to free himself from the weight of the paralyzed werewolf that pinned him to the ground hoping she shifted soon. Mark peeked out from around the plane and scrambled to help Ash. Petra slowly shifted back to her human form, struggling to breathe. Thick rasping sounds came from her chest. Her eyes glazed over with a translucent white haze, drool and blood oozed out the corner of her mouth.
"She isn't dead." Mark said watching Petra's chest rise and fall in a ragged tempo.
"I know, but she'll never shift again, or walk. She's no danger anymore." Ash eased the tiny boned girl off of him and pushed himself up, swaying dizzily.
His head throbbed from one too many contacts with the ground.
Mark's eyes fell to Ash's injured limbs. Bone and muscle were visible from the wounds on Ash's hands and forearms. Ash swung around looking for Lyrhae who had managed to break into the van. Mary Lynnette held her at bay with the letter opener.
He and Mark started in the van's direction when the sound of brakes caught their attention. A brown station wagon slammed into the plane's fuselage knocking it into the van with an explosion of glass and flying metal.
"NO!" Ash screamed watching the van disappear over the cliff with Mary Lynnette and Lyrhae inside. The sound of crunching, twisting metal moaned through the mountain side.
Sick fear swam through Ash as he peered over the cliff at the van lying on its top at the bottom of the ravine. He could still sense her, she was alive.
Thin lines of smoke curled up in the cool morning air and then the van exploded. Mark curled his knees to his chest and wept. More brakes screeched from the road and he and Mark heard Rowan shout.
"What happened?"
"The van went over the cliff!" Ash called back, trying to find a good way to get down to the wreckage.
"Oh dear goddess." Kestrel prayed and plunged heedlessly down the cliff, Jade and Rowan following her. Thea ran back to Thierry's car and dialed 911. She grabbed her first aid kit about the time Jade and Mark crawled inside the airplane and reappeared with two solar blankets and another first aid kit.
Ash felt Clarissa's gnarled hand on his shoulder as they watched his sisters wind their way down to the wreckage. Rowan stopped, looking to her left at some bushes.
"Ash! She's alive!" Lifting Mary Lynnette from the brush, Rowan started back to the road smiling the whole way listening to the whoops of joy coming from overhead. Mary Lynnette's body hung limply in her arms. Blood stained her shirt and dripped down Rowan's legs. Rowan knew there was probably no way to save her, but put on the show of her life anyway for Ash's sake.
"Put her here." Clarissa ordered, pointing to the blankets Mark spread on the ground.
She and Thea worked feverishly over Mary Lynnette's still form. Clarissa raised tear-filled eyes to Ash and shook her head.
"There's nothing to be done."
"What about vampire blood?" Jade whispered.
"She's too far gone." Thea's voice cracked.
Ash gently brushed the blood soaked matted hair from Mary Lynnette's face. Luminous brown eyes stared past him into the clouds. She blinked once and looked at Ash.
No, he realized, she was looking through him. He heard a small whisper in his mind and strained to listen closely to her last words, "I love you."
She smiled and swallowed a gurgling sound. A tiny sigh escaped her parted lips and she was gone. He felt their connection snap. Poof. It was gone. He lifted her broken body to his and buried his face in her hair. She was still warm and smelled of the rose scented shampoo she'd used that morning.
One tear slipped down his cheek and then another. People who had stopped to help were weeping around him but he didn't care. He only wanted Mary Lynnette to wake up or maybe he was dreaming.
This had to be a bad dream, he told himself, just a bad dream and he was going to wake up any moment to find Mary Lynnette's beautiful body stretched out beside his.
He felt the coldness he'd known before coming. The hatred over the human's weakness, except he was human too. A human with no family and now no soulmate to share his world. Blackness engulfed his body and he shouted her name.
***
Quinn watched Ash turn restlessly in his sleep. He had been mumbling for hours.
"How is our paient today?" Clarissa asked, poking her head in the door
"Talking in his sleep."
"Wouldn't you just love to understand what he's saying?" Clarissa grinned an infectious, mischevious grin.
"I'm afraid to know. He looked too happy for a few minutes." Quinn gave her one of those 'ya know what I mean ' grins. Clarissa chuckled, shutting the door. She had a pretty good idea what hewas dreaming about.
Ash suddenly sat bolt upright, his eyes wide open but he obviously wasn't awake.
"What the hell?" Quinn jumped back startled by the sudden move.
Ash started to stand but Quinn put a restraining hand on his chest. Ash resisted, shoving his hand away.
"C'mon Ash you're going to hurt yourself."
"Where's her body?"
"Whose body?"
"Mare? Where's her body?" Ash pushed Quinn, sending him flying backwards over the chair he had been sitting in. Quinn stood, dazed and confused, since when did Ash attack anybody? He shook his head to clear it, where was Ash? He caught Ash as he tried to go into the hallway and successfully managed to shut him in the room.
The door fortunately was wooden. Ash hammered on the door and shouted like a mad man about Mare's body. James, and Thierry ran, Clarissa limped in their wake toward Quinn who had sank to the floor his hand on his head, elbow resting on his knee.
God, he'd just missed the opportunity of a lifetime, an excuse to beat the living hell out of Ash. The door shook furiously under Ash's assault. Of course if this kept up, he could probably still claim the right to throw the first punch. He could just hear Rashel's response when she found out Ash had turned him a flip.
"What happened?" Thierry asked, looking at the door as it jerked in its frame and thankful it was made of wood.
"He sat up and started this." Quinn nodded in the door's direction.
A tiny hand touched Thierry's arm.
"I think I can help." Bright, shining eyes pleaded with Thierry's.
He nodded and stepped away from the door that had stopped shaking. Ash had apparently calmed down.
Ash didn't acknowledge the feet shuffling through the thick carpet nor did he look up when whomever the feet belonged to knelt in front of him. He remained huddled into as tiny a ball as he could make out of his body his arms draped over his knees and his head lying on them.
What caught his attention was the sparkling silver cord that went super nova the minute two small female hands touched his.
"Mare?" His head snapped up, "You're dead." His eyes looked like two sunken gold marbles hidden in his pale face.
Mary Lynnette frowned, "I don't feel dead." Her breath whooshed out of her when Ash crushed her to him.
"How? You were dead in my arms, you were dead." He kept saying over and over threading his fingers through her hair. It was her, really, really her and he was never letting her out of his sight again.
"You were having a nightmare, a bad dream." She said leaning back to lay her hands on his cheeks.
"See, my hands are warm. You're the one who's supposed to be dead. You got staked and you've been unconscious for a week from wood poisoning."
"I'm not human?"
Mary Lynnette swallowed a giggle since he looked so serious.
"No, you're lamia through and through, you big stupid gorilla." She leaned in to him and pressed a warm kiss on his mouth.
Ash kissed her back urgently tasting her mouth assuring himself she was really there, alive and well and that he wasn't dreaming. His hands slipped under her shirt, caressing her back, pulling her close. The warmth of her flesh, the scent of her perfume, the taste of her mouth all assured him that she really was there and that he'd been dreaming. He buriied his face in her hair, inhaling deeply.
"Don't leave me again."
Sensing his seriousness, Mary Lynnette didn't argue that he was the one who left.
"I won't."
Reluctantly, Mary Lynnette untangled her body from his, "There is a hall full of people waiting for me to give the all clear signal."
"Later?" His eyes glittered with promise.
Mary Lynnette nodded, "Later." then she added "After I give you a piece of my mind for not coming back when you said you would."
