Angel of Death (con't):

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PART 32:

Chris Ashkia sighed contentedly as she snuggled closer into Colin Desidro’s shoulder. She wasn’t just snuggling because she wanted to be close to him--she was also very cold, since the windows were all broken, but she WAS glad to be with him. She was also very happy that they had the room all to themselves.

In the beginning, Kavan had suggested that everyone stay in one room together for the night. After all, there was safety in numbers and it might be warmer. But the need for the soulmates to be alone had won out. The argument had been, who knew if any of them would survive this Final Battle? The soulmates should spend as much time together as they could now, while they still had each other. Sure, it had been a fatalistic outlook, but it had also been the truth.

"What are you thinking?" Colin whispered.

Chris had to smile at that. "You know what I’m thinking."

"And you couldn’t just humour me? Pretend I couldn’t read your mind?"

"Would you like me to?"

He thought about that for a moment, then shrugged. "Nah, I just want a kiss."

Another smile was the answer to that remark. "A kiss in the dark can lead to many other things," Chris pointed out.

Colin sighed heavily. "Not in this freezing cold weather," he replied sullenly.

"Ah, well then, I shouldn’t begrudge you a kiss, should I?"

"Absolutely not!" Colin said in mock indignation just before Chris’ lips met his.

"I love you, you know that right?" Chris murmured, lips still lightly touching his.

"Yes. And I love you just as much."

Looking into his beautiful eyes, Chris felt a shiver of premonition.

"Are you cold?"

She shook her head. "No," she answered, then added quickly, "Colin, if I don’t make it through this, always remember that I loved you, promise? If nothing else, know that I loved you."

"Of course, but we’ll get through this together. I promise."

Chris nodded her agreement, but inside, she only wished that she had his conviction.

@~~>~~>~~~

"Do you think we’re going to survive this?" Rashel Jordon asked as she helped Quinn lie down without hurting his wounded shoulder.

Quinn’s dark gaze met hers squarely and he asked seriously, "All of us?"

"I guess."

Sadly, Quinn looked away and out the broken window. "Truthfully, no."

"I thought as much."

Quinn shook his head helplessly as he sat up again, wincing because his shoulder still hurt. "It’s like a war, Rashel. And in war, people die, that’s the hard reality."

"I know. I just asked to make sure you did too," said Rashel, also sitting up and putting her arm around his waist.

A harsh laugh sounded from Quinn. "You don’t even have to doubt it, love."

Rashel nodded. "You’re right. But if these might be our last days together, I want to make the most of them. I want to spend them with you. I love you. There aren’t many people I can say that to these days, you know."

"Same here," Quinn answered with a wry smile. "But tonight, let’s just get some sleep. I’m tired."

Silently, Kavan stared out the broken window at the stars. He couldn’t sleep, not with all these miscellaneous thoughts floating around in his head. Of course, his biggest problem was two that kept drifting back, no matter how he tried to expel them.

"Ash?" he said quietly.

"Huh?" the vampire grunted, shifting to face Kavan in his half-sleep.

"What did it feel like, when you met Mary-Lynette?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Well, I probably won’t be alive to meet my own soulmate."

To Ash, that sounded positively suicidal. Abruptly, he sat up and exclaimed, alarmed, "What do you mean?"

"Oh, no, I just mean that who knows how this is all going to turn out," Kavan reassured him hastily. After all, it wouldn’t do to make people think he was some depressed guy who wanted to kill himself. Panic would soon ensue.

Now that the danger had been dealt with, Ash lost interest. "Oh, it was a surprise. I was in denial for the first few days, I mean, who would have guessed that I would have a human soulmate..." he drifted off, falling back into sleep.

With a sigh, Kavan turned back to the stars. He wished he could be like Ash, able to just sleep. But he just continued to stare out at the dark sky, wondering, if somewhere out there, his soulmate was watching it as well.

LeAnne Wong sat on the edge of the bed, staring out at the city of Brisbane, hoping that somewhere beyond the skyline, her friends were safe, or at least alive.

Her soulmate, Braeden Soterios, quietly stepped out of the washroom, where he had just finished taking his shower. Sensing his presence, LeAnne turned to see him, clad only in a towel. "Well, don’t you look scrump-didily-umptious?" she commented with a smile.

"Scrump-what?" he asked with an innocently puzzled frown.

With a roll of her hazel eyes, LeAnne waved that off. "It doesn’t matter."

"Is something wrong?" Braeden asked, sitting beside LeAnne on the bed. His arm was pressed against hers and she shivered.

"Cold?" he asked with an amused smile, for he knew exactly why she had reacted that way and it wasn’t because of the cold.

"Oh, you’re such an ass, Soterios."

"I try."

"Humph," LeAnne puffed, crossing her arms and looking the other way. "How can you even think of joking at a time like this?"

"At a time like what?"

"Like this! We don’t even know if the others are alive and you’re flirting!"

Braeden slipped his tanned arms around LeAnne’s shoulder and leaned his chin on her shoulder. His dark wet hair fell into his eyes, giving him a childish look. "The way I see it, if we don’t flirt now, we might not get to later. There are no guarantees that any of us are going to survive, let alone win. I don’t mean to sound fatalistic, but that’s the truth of it. And we might as well enjoy our time together while we can."

What he said made sense, but that couldn’t ease LeAnne’s worrying. "Still..."

"Still," Braeden echoed with a sigh, "You’re too caring to just let go and forget about them for a while. I love that about you, sunshine, but sometimes it can get so agitating."

"Sorry."

"Don’t be," he replied, planting a kiss on her cheek. "You wouldn’t be you otherwise and the only person I will ever love is you, sunshine."

"I’m worried."

Morgead Blackthorn looked up from the motorcycle magazine he was reading. "You’re always worried," he pointed out to his soulmate, Jezebel Redfern.

Jez stopped pacing the green-carpeted floor of their hotel room, right beside LeAnne and Braeden’s, and frowned at him. "I am not!"

"If you say so," answered Morgead incredulously, turning back to his magazine.

"Oh come on, Morgy, I do NOT always worry!"

"Hey, don’t call me that!"

"What? Morgy? Morgy, Morgy Morgy!"

"Ugh! You’re going to pay for that. Jezebel!" Morgead growled, leaping up from his chair and tackling her. They landed on the bed, but neither noticed at first.

"Don’t ever call me Jezebel!" she cried, punching him in the shoulder.

Amusement glinted in Morgead’s jade-green eyes, chasing away the annoyance. "Then don’t call me, Morgy," he whispered right before he kissed her.

At that same moment, Donato banged on the wall separating their room from his and Jamal’s. "Will you guys be quiet? Jamal’s trying to sleep!"

"He’s the only one," Morgead commented dryly, before he picked himself up off the bed. "It’s only noon!"

"We don’t have to be loud to have fun," Jez pointed out, slipping under the covers.

Happily, Morgead saw what she meant and joined her, making sure to stick his tongue out at Donato’s wall before disappearing completely under the sheets.

* * * * *
PART 33:

"I feel sick," Nick complained as he flopped down on the four-poster bed. A cloud of dust rose up from the mattress, bringing a cough from both him and Amaya.

"That’s what you get for using all your energy at once," Amaya reprimanded diplomatically, getting Nick to lie down again. "It was a dumb thing to do and you know it. We might have a truce for tonight, but that’s just temporary. We’re going to have to fight again tomorrow and I’m not sure you’ll be up to it."

As Amaya slipped him under the covers, Nick shot her a look of innocence. "Whatever do you mean, dear lady?"

She offered him a poisonous glare in reply. "Don’t push me, Corona. I’m in no mood to jest."

Immediately, Nick looked chagrined. He really should be more caring and he knew it. After all, he wasn’t the only one who had been hurt. "How’s your leg?" he asked with genuine concern, taking her hand and pulling her down to sit beside him.

"At least I’m better off than you."

"Quite true," Nick agreed. "But that doesn’t mean your wound should be put on the back-burner."

Amaya shrugged, lying beside Nick. Their bodies fit perfectly together, like they had been two being cut from a single unit, which, in a way, they were. Just being close to him, having his arms around her, made some of Amaya’s tension flow away. "It was just a little knick. I’ll be fine by morning."

"And so will I," Nick said with confidence, though his fatigue was betrayed by the rest of his body. It was beginning to quiver simply with the effort of staying awake.

With a sigh, Amaya turned to face him. The cut on her leg was disturbed by this and she winced.

"Don’t," Nick said, pushing her onto her back. "You’re only going to hurt yourself more. Get some rest."

Amaya snorted, staring up at him accusingly. "Why don’t you take your own advice for once, Corona!"

"Will that convince you to get some sleep?"

"Yes."

"Fine," Nick said, putting his arms around her again. He placed his head on her shoulder and his golden hair tickled Amaya’s cheek.

She breathed in deeply, remembering his scent of ivory soap and something faintly exotic.

Right before he was lost completely to the realm of sleep, Nick murmured into her ear, "I love you, Amaya. I love nothing more than I love you, nothing."

"Go to sleep, Angel," Amaya whispered, pushing the hair out of his eyes and planting a kiss on his cheek.

Contentedly, Nick snuggled closer to her. Long after he had fallen asleep, Amaya stayed awake, simply burning everything about him into her mind. The unruly shock of gold that kept spilling onto his forehead, the long, dark lashes that looked like ebony crescents on his face, the soft curve of his lips. His body against hers was a comforting weight and she recorded that too. His skin was smooth, soft and warm; Amaya wondered how much longer that was going to last. Tonight, even when they were outnumbered and losing, Nick had not seemed scared, he had not seemed to realize that this could be his end. Oh, Amaya knew he understood the situation in his head, but not in his heart. Despite all the evil and treachery he had seen, he still retained some of his naiveté, still believed in his own immortality. Teenagers don’t fully realize their mortality, it was said. So it was with Nick.

Amaya didn’t know how to make him see the light. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to do that. Lovingly, but sadly, she gazed at Nick a moment longer before closing her eyes. "I love you too, Angel," she breathed before she, too, feel into the abyss of sleep.

Maggie and Delos were both asleep when they were awakened by a scream.

There was confusion for a few moments before Maggie realized that it had been Delos who had shouted. "What’s wrong?" she asked worriedly.

Looking dazed and confused, Delos shook his head to clear it. "I-I had a premonition, I guess," he replied, voice shaking.

Maggie frowned in bewilderment. "But you’re a vampire," she reasoned. "You’re not supposed to have premonitions."

"I don’t know. Maybe I’m not as pure a Redfern as Hunter thought I was."

"What was the dream about?" Maggie inquired hesitantly, not sure she wanted to know. She hadn’t seen Delos this shaken for a while.

"It, there was fire, blue fire, and chaos. There was this feeling of pure fear, uncertainty, but it was mixed with joy and the absolute conviction that the world had both gained and lost something of great value."

Maggie raised a skeptical brow. "You dreamed a feeling? Maybe you should go see Destiny. Now." She felt his forehead. "I think you’re coming down with something, Redfern."

Delos laughed a bit nervously, then reassured both her and himself, "I’m sure it was nothing let’s just get some rest. We’ll need it for tomorrow."

When Delos had awakened, so had Destiny. However, she did not wake up screaming like him. She had been having premonitions her whole life and was used to them coming at all hours, day or night.

Still, Marcellus and Delano, who were sleeping on cots beside her 4-poster bed (it seemed that was the only kind of bed in the whole castle), were instantly alert. Ah, vampire senses, what a mixed blessing.

When they had chosen rooms, Destiny had tried to convince Marcellus to take the bed. After all, he was the one who was injured. But he had politely declined each time and Destiny had no energy to make him. Both he and Delano had insisted she get the bed, so that was the way of it.

Now, the two guys were sitting up in their cots, blinking the sleep out of their eyes, while Destiny tried to make sense of her dream. There had been the Blue Fire, and the end and beginning of something big. That vague memory was all that remained in her mind, but it was enough to tell her that she had dreamed the Final Battle. And that it was going to have grand implications on everyone.

"Is something wrong, Destiny?" Delano questioned while Marcellus slowly made his way towards her.

Taking one look at her face, Marcellus stated, "Premonition." It was not a question, for it held no room for dispute. He had lived long enough and known enough witches to recognize the look.

Destiny nodded and it didn’t take long for her to explain her dream. There wasn’t really much to say.

"But that doesn’t give us any real answers," Delano pointed out after she was done. He was now sitting on Destiny’s left while Marcellus was on her right.

Marcellus agreed with the Lamia, a first it seemed. "We knew there were going to be big changes after the battle. We don’t know if they’ll be for better or for worse. We don’t know who’s going to win."

Destiny shivered at the thought of having such dangerous information. Immediately, both Marcellus’ and Delano’s arms were around her. The former’s around her shoulders while the latter’s around her waist. They exchanged glares over her head while Destiny shrugged both of them off.

"All I know is that people we care about are going to die," she said, interrupting their staring contest. "And even that I wish I didn’t know."

Marcellus looked out the window and pointed out, "It won’t be long before dawn. We better get some sleep."

Everyone agreed, but before he got off the bed, Destiny stopped Marcellus. "Let me check that bandage first," she said, lifting the white linen dress-shirt Delos had pulled out of some musty closet. It had fresh blood-stains on it, which was odd, considering Marcellus was a vampire.

Although Keiara had intervened fairly quickly, the Night People had still managed to do a lot of damage. There were claw marks down Marcellus’ chest and a few on his thighs. His right arm had been half ripped out of its socket and he definitely ha d a sprained wrist. Any human would be left with mounds of scar tissue all over their arms and torso; Marcellus might come out of this with a dainty little scar here and there.

However, the claw marks across his chest had re-opened. Destiny didn’t know what to make of it. This wasn’t supposed to happen. The injuries should look days old by now. It was almost as if, the closer they got to the Millennium, the weaker the vampires and shifters became. Her own witch fire was getting harder to conjure.

After changing the bandages while trying to ignore how much she wanted to pull Marcellus close to her and kiss him, Destiny sent both him and a glaring Delano to bed.

But, half an hour later, though she was tired, Destiny could not sleep. And funny, it wasn’t because of her dream, it was because she missed the feeling of Marcellus’ and Delano’s arms around her.

* * * * *
PART 34:

Monaco immediately felt claustrophobic as he stepped off the air plane and into the airport. Airports were always busy, but this was ridiculous!

"Well, don’t you look thrilled," Lupe Acevedo, a tall, golden-eyed young woman with golden-brown hair, teased him as she came up beside her childhood friend. She had known him for years, even before he was changed into a vampire by some rogue. Of course, it wasn’t until he had been changed that Lupe had let him know she was a werewolf and introduced him to Thierry and Circle Daybreak. She wished she hadn’t waited. Maybe Monaco wouldn’t be a vampire now if she had told him straight out. Then again, maybe it wouldn’t have mattered.

Monaco shook his head, trying to clear it. "I’m tired, I’m still hurt and not we have to go through this!" His gesture encompassed the throng of people going every which way. They shouted to each other in Mandarin, Cantonese and other Chinese dialects, but not English or Spanish, the two languages he spoke fluently. "How are we going to get through this? I don’t understand a word!"

"Well, I don’t either," Lupe admitted, "but Elizabeth’s bound to show up soon." By Elizabeth, she meant Elizabeth Chen, their Chinese interpreter. Lupe had met her twice and she seemed nice enough, if a bit scatter-brained.

Behind Lupe and Monaco, the rest of Iliana’s back-up got off the plane. They looked as weary as Monaco and Lupe couldn’t fathom why. She had been told that China was an amazing place to visit and couldn’t wait to see for herself. Sure, Beijing wasn’t all that clean, but they would only be there for a few days before heading off to the Great Wall. "Oh, I’m SO sorry!" a little Chinese woman of about 23 came bustling up to them. "I was held up in traffic. I’m not too late, am I?" Her English was perfect; she had been born in New York and had been sent to China by Circle Daybreak when she joined.

Lupe approached Elizabeth and they shook hands. "Oh, no. You’re just in time. We just got off the plane." She then introduced the other Daybreakers.

When Lupe got to Monaco, he said pleadingly, but with a smile, "Can we just go to the hotel now?"

Elizabeth smiled up at him, obviously finding his face to her liking. "Of course," she said. "Just follow me."

At the hotel, they checked in and took the elevator to the third floor.

"Why is everything so quiet?" Monaco speculated with a frown.

Elizabeth, who had been flirting with him the whole ride there, slipped her arm around his and said, "I don’t sense anything unusual."

Lupe strained her hearing and understood what Monaco was talking about. You could hear a pin drop on this floor. "You’re right," she said to Monaco, ignoring Elizabeth’s comment. She found, strangely, that she was annoyed with the girl. Shamelessly flirting with the first good-looking guy that came your way was just puerile. Or maybe it was just because she was doing it to Monaco. If it was the latter, that meant that Lupe was consumed with petty jealousy and she would rather not think of herself that way.

"Maybe Iliana will know what’s going on," Monaco suggested, oblivious to both Elizabeth’s advances and Lupe’s agitation. He strode down the hall and found rooms 307, 309 and 311. Gently, he knocked on each one, getting no response.

"I’m getting a bad vibe from all this," Lupe said, looking up and down the hall. Everything seemed deserted.

Monaco nodded, then called one of the bird shifters with them, Aleron, to him. "Go downstairs and pretend you’re Galen Drache. Tell them that you forgot your key inside your room and need to borrow another to get in."

"Yes, sir," Aleron, who really did look like Galen from a distance, said and hurried towards the elevator.

"So what do we do now?" Elizabeth asked Monaco.

In reply, he looked at Lupe.

She shrugged, trying to keep her cool. Elizabeth was really getting on her nerves. "We might as well get settled in. We can’t be standing around staring at the door when Aleron comes back."

Everyone spread out, searching for their own rooms in hopes of catching some Z’s before they had to deal with what was going on with Iliana and the others.

Much to Lupe’s annoyance, Elizabeth followed her and Monaco into their room. "Aren’t you going to get settled into your own room?" she asked as politely as she could manage.

"Oh, I just wanted to make sure Monaco got settled in," Elizabeth explained reasonably. "What are you doing here?"

"We’re sharing a room," Lupe answered, knowing how it sounded and loving it.

Elizabeth’s almond-shaped eyes widened fractionally, but Monaco soon ruined the moment.

"Oh, no, Lupe’s just staying with me to help take care of an injury," he explained quickly. "We’re not, not like that, you know. I mean, I’ve known her since we were both kids..." he drifted off, looking much more embarrassed than he needed to be.

Inside, Lupe was fuming as he let the secret out. She knew it wasn’t his fault--he had always been disgustingly honest--but she was still pissed off. His tone suggested that he cared for Elizabeth to know that he was single and she didn’t like it.

Just as Lupe was about to say something, there was a knock on the door. "Sir?" someone said from outside.

Monaco strode to the door and opened it, showing that Aleron was on the other side. "Sir, we’re in, but we don’t know what to make of it."

Brows knit together, Monaco followed Aleron back to Iliana’s room. Everything was in pristine condition. In fact, it looked like nothing had been touched. But the cleaning service shouldn’t have been in yet and besides, there was no luggage on the ground or in the closet.

"Maybe we have the wrong hotel?" Lupe suggested, although she knew that Aleron couldn’t have gotten a key in the name of Galen Drache if they had the wrong hotel.

Still, Monaco nodded. "Call Thierry and ask him if anything got messed up, would you, Lupe?"

"Sure," she said, already dialing on her cellphone.

"Sir," Aleron suddenly called from the door to the bathroom.

When Monaco approached, the blond shifter showed him a slip of paper he had found. On it, there seemed to be two addresses, written in quickly scrawled Chinese.

"Elizabeth," Monaco said, "could you come check this out?"

Of course, the human girl was more than happy to oblige. "Yes?" she said sweetly, smiling and doing almost all that girly stuff, with the exception of batting her eyelashes.

"What does this say?" Monaco asked. Elizabeth’s efforts, or any girl’s far that matter, were completely wasted on him when he was in this mode. He was all business, nothing could distract him from his goal.

For a moment, Elizabeth stopped flirting and concentrated. "They’re addresses," she answered, then pointed to the first one. "This is the address for this hotel and this room." Her finger moved down to the second address. "This is the name of a street near here. My guess is that this place has something to do with what happened to Iliana. We should check it out."

"Just what I thought," Monaco admitted, breaking into a smile. "I say we check it out right now. The problem is, being foreigners, we are bound to draw attention to ourselves. If Iliana and the others are there and the Night People took them, there’s going to be look-outs."

Lupe, who had joined the growing circle around Monaco, Elizabeth and Aleron, suggested, "Well, you don’t have to take all of us. A couple of is are Asian and more have black hair. As long as people don’t look too closely, from a distance, we should be fine. Besides, we don’t need a lot of people for a bit of research."

Monaco grinned at Lupe. "That makes perfect sense," he agreed, turning to recruit all the black haired Daybreakers. "And it means, of course, that you, my dear Lupe, will be staying here."

* * * * *

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