Dark Entries. [Surprise!RP for Dealing Death]

[lothoro]

Budapest, 2084


Of what dreams do we wait
Of what silent....

Oh, please. What a load of crap, I thought, shifting through the papers on the desk. I did not often enjoy rifling through my victims things. I cared to know as little as possible about who they were as people...or monsters. I was given a name, sometimes a picture and a location. Sometimes, I was given a time. Like a shadow I would would appear, kill, and vanish into the folds of life whether it be day or night. Their curse is not my own. It makes me sigh to think that, to realize that 'they' have been dead and gone for centuries. Who is left from either Ordoghaz or The New World Coven? I do not know. I have not seen any evidence of their survival since the death of our Monarchs. One at my hand. Whatever knights that were left had either been hunted, exiled or killed in the ensuing wars of the Underworld. Rest their souls. After all I had done....seen, I took my leave of their world and ambled on in the torturous world, living too long to be happy and yet, too proud to take my own life. After all, there comes a time after countless centuries that life loses it's luster. There's only so much wonder in seeing the seasons change over and over again. I am the world's cynic. I am there. You just aren't likely to see me as I am a ghost whose memory is stuck in another time entirely. Unless, of course, it is time to swallow your last breath. Then I will ead you to the underworld.

Yes, I. I am now a man for hire when you need something...or rather, someone, taken care of. No questions. No honor. Not anymore. I am like any other animal. I feed, I fuck, I survive. I search through people's papers (paper? Who uses paper anymore?) when I am waiting for them to come to their high security homes so that I could kill them. I hear their footsteps before I hear the electronic lock open.

Welcome home. Those who are about to die, I salute you. 

Comments

[lothoro.livejournal.com]

He eyed the chair she motioned to, taking notice of it long enough to forget the box for now. Indeed, he sat, steepling his fingers in front of him as if he was considering the facts or weighting the options.

"Your heart." He shrugged and rolled his eyes. "A bit too melodramatic for me. But I ask no questions." His gruff voice added. It would have been done without a single afterthought. Who was he to question what the whims of those who hired him were? It mattered very little to him at the end of the day. Except that this wasn't just anyone, now was it?

"I would not know. I know only my target. I don't inquire into the specifics." Lothoro peered out at her inquisitively. "It was one of my more...personal requests. Most of the time they simply want irrevocable proof that the person is dead as a doornail. I'll leave your imagination to discern what that could be....but a heart? Mmmm." He smirked, "that sounds personal.

[dealing-death.livejournal.com]

She leaned back casually, her head resting on the back of the chair. For a moment she closed her eyes as he explained what they wanted.

"My heart." Selene said flatly. That was personal, he was right. It wasn't her head, they didn't want visual proof that it was really her. "That will be a bit of a problem then, won't it?"

Lifting her head from the back of the chair she met his golden eyes and sighed. "You have always had my heart."

And for the wrongs she had done to him he could take it. She'd fight. But Selene knew in the end she didn't have the will to kill him and would lose the fight. Surely she had enough training and stregth to survive but she did not have the heart to kill the last remnant of her family.

"It does sound personal. What will we do about it?"

[lothoro.livejournal.com]

"Mmmmm." He started to say but it got stuck in his throat by the words that followed. And although he felt like he couldn't breathe, he did not tear his eyes away from her. No, he did not even move. His lips twisted down and the corners twitched a little as if the many differing sentences were as diverse as his thoughts and one couldn't fight its way to the surface.

"Perhaps, then, you are in want of it back? Although, should what you say be true, I am unlikely to give it back. You see, I had always selfishly thought, Lady, that it belonged to me."

For a moment he paused. "And here, again, another wants it." There was no bitterness to his voice or anger. Indeed, his voice was matter of fact. Even though through some small crack he allowed what he felt to escape, it was hard to read into it with the way he had spoken.

All the while, his eyes had been on her.

"Is there no one you could think of who would wish you harm and command the will of...supernatural things?" His head lolled back for a moment as he massaged his neck. Getting up, he paced to the window.

"You should vanish, Selene. I will get him Emiliya's heart."

[dealing-death.livejournal.com]

His eyes never left hers, hers never left his. Even though there was a moment when she wished he would leave so she might cry her eyes out.

"I have no need for it, I haven't since the day we met." She swallowed thickly, closing her eyes and looking away for the first time. "You take better care of it then I ever have." Her voice was low and remorse.

Regrets. She had few. What she had done to him had haunted her for more nights then she cared for. Selene always thought it would pass, fade....that she would forget the look in his eyes when he learned of her betrayal. But she never had. "Fate has placed it in your hands and there, good Knight, it shall remain."

There were many who would see her dead. Men along the way who she had used in some way or another. Men who laid claim to her only to learn they had no place and meant nothing. Being at the top meant there were many below you chopping at the rungs of the ladder to knock you down.

"Command supernatural things?"

Now she was more curious. Was this the work of the Ventrue prince? Or worse?

"Vanish?" She chuckled. "You of all men should know I will do no such thing."

Selene rose from her chair and came up behind him. Her fingers were laid across his shoulders lightly, barely a touch as she was still frightened of how he might react to her touch. "I saw you look at the box. Do you wish to see what is inside?"

[lothoro.livejournal.com]

His silence was the better choice. Words would fail him. Nothing muddled his mind more than their history, his anger and something that pounded through his heart and made it course more than the blood running through it. He was was not sure that there was anything to say, really, that would have any effect. They both had their regrets. But when she knight, he was reminded of his and through the tightening in his jaw he visibly cringed, only hiding enough of it as not appear affected.

"Hm. I was not being metaphorical when I said shadows. The servant that called upon me on behalf of his master was, quite literally, a shade."

A quick billow of a chuckle erupted in his throat and stayed there. "No, I thought not, indeed. However, that presents a problem now, doesn't it? After all, should he learn of my...failure, I am certain that he will not stop until you are dead. And I am also sure, that you have more pressing thing to attend to than the burying of bodies of those sent to kill you."

He eyed the box again. "Could be tedious." His voice was now lazy, calm and only his body lightly coiled beneath her fingers. Once it would be because it was her--for better or worse. Through love and hate. No, not hate. Hurt.

Now it was because he allowed no one to get close to him--occupation hazard. He looked down at her sleek nimble fingers but made no move to remove them or move away. Again, he considered the box. It made him nervous. He had no clue what was inside and despite every part of him wanting to examine it and its contents, another part screamed for him to resist.

"Hmmmm." The low guttural sound was full of consideration. "It's ornate. The cravings remind me of the coven's crest...but different." Perhaps that is why he could bare to look inside. What secrets she might keep? What trinkets or memories?

"I-I don't know." Yes. No. Both. It was a very honest answer that spoke of potentially knowing, not what was inside, but what it could relate to. And that confused him enough since he did not know what he would do.

[dealing-death.livejournal.com]

"Then it would seem I need to find out who the master is you serve. And kill him before he can kill me." Selene remained where she was standing behind him. It had been so long since they had been this close and he hadn't moved away from her.

It reminded her of times much more simple. A time when she had love and family. "Shadows. Can you find out more about them? My offer stands, I will pay you double whatever they are offering. Help me find who wants me dead."

Because she was a creature of survival. She would not go down so easily, he was right, there would be a pile of bodies to clean up.

The box in question sat on display along side several ancient Hungarian texts and an ornate vase filled with dark flowers. Inside were peices of the life she had lived. Of the loves she had lost. The mother and father she buried. A ring. A brooch. A lock of hair. Scrap of leather. A note so old the paper was falling apart. When she missed them most she could be found sitting in one of the leather chairs, box in her lap, peering through the items, lovingly letting her fingers touch each of them as if feeling them would make it real. Would make her life feel like less of a dream.

Just like feeling the muscles of his arms tighten and watching the light in his eyes was doing. He was not a dream, not imagery she conjured up in her head, he was real.

She let her hands move from his arms to sneak under them and wrap around his chest. Her face pressed against his back and she took in a breath. "You are real. And not lost to this world. I'd lock you in that box if it were bigger."

[lothoro.livejournal.com]

He did not react to those words. Over the years he had served many masters, each who could provide what he needed at the time that he needed it. Money wasn't the only comfort he sought, most likely the least of interest in actuality. But those with the power to keep him invisible to the world and beyond? They bartered a price he would not refuse. He was strategic in his contracts, accepting those that provided the most secrecy--his and theirs. After all, in hell, they could even hear whispers.

He knew about the shadows. All too well. They belonged to a clan. But that did not mean they were commanded by them. Like others...like him, they took contract work as well or were ordered to. After all, shadows make the best spies.

"Keep your money. I did not barter for that." No. But for a ritual item that would finally seal the door that was ripped open to the Otherworlds? Yes. He did. And to keep Selene alive would mean that he would not get it. That last piece of the puzzle that would put an end into a nearly century old conflict that he had kept to himself once that it was thought to be over. The Historian was a keeper of history, of voices. However, one of those voices was not his own. It whispered. Plotted. Threatened and cajoled. It was a shadow too...for now.

His reflection look sullen in the window he peered out of. Help her?

The sigh strained his throat. He slid a finger along the mouth of the box but did not open it. Instead, he struggled to understand what was happening. She had pulled her arms around him. It was unexpected to him although he did not move away. It felt familiar and comforting in one way. In a way that was bad for someone trying to annex anything to do with the coven or fami--members.

But it felt like family. The last strand of something that was never forgotten. He wrapped his arm over her hand and gave it a little squeeze. It felt slightly mechanical but it was an effort well worth battling through.

His billowy laugh rang amused and hollow through the room. "I suppose that is another way of telling someone that'd you would like to see them in their coffin." He was joking. "And look where that sort of thinking got William." A memory so old that it was a mere page in his mind. Turning, his hands reached out to hold her shoulders and gently rubbed them under the pads of his thumbs.

It was a bittersweet moment. A moment where an burying of the past was announced without saying a word. But what that really meant to a man who had willingly given up humanity? Only time knew.

"I am to meet my contact upon the third night after the full moon if I were to succeed. There are ways to capture shadows...the problem is...they obviously don't talk." He thought on that a moment. "At least not to me."

[dealing-death.livejournal.com]

"What is the price? I have contacts, you should know my hand can reach very far. If you have need, perhaps I can fill it."

While he struggled to understand her actions or what was happening here, she did not. Selene had dreamt a day would come when the anger between them faded enough that he would not recoil at her touch. Nothing had ever hurt her more then when he moved from her like she was a viper ready to strike him.

That made her laugh. A big smile on her face she chuckled at him and shook her head. "Not a coffin, love, just some place for safe keeping. So you might not get so far from me again."

Me. Not us. Not the Coven. But me she had said it, there was no taking it back.

"Who do they speak to?"

[lothoro.livejournal.com]

"An item. A very old ritual item. Not within the reaches of mortal men. And hardly within the understanding of most immortals." He had a faraway look in his eye as he thought of it. Only decades of research brought him even a trifle of information on the matter and a few more finally cracked the veil of a world that had once ensnared them. Once you look through the looking glass, it looks back.

He wanted an end to it all.

Even if it meant admitting that he had lost Matayas and Amelia to their fates. Entwined in a endless battle on opposite sides. Never to reunite. Never to find peace.

He grunted and managed a short chuckle. Head nodding he patted her hand.

"I was never really far...at least not in thought." He muttered so matter-of-fact that the revelation almost seemed a trifle matter. And maybe it was now that so much time had passed and men change into monsters.

Lothoro's hands slid down her shoulders to her hands. "Mmm." He nodded. Good question. "To the ones that can hear them. Their blood masters. Probably the one who hired me to kill you, actually."

[dealing-death.livejournal.com]

When his hands came to find her she laced them delicately together. Hers were so small in his, she had always marveled at how strong she knew herself to be, yet he made her feel dainty. Not meek, or meager, just very delicate.

"What might I do to keep you closer for good?"

Yes, someone wanted her dead. Had sent the great love of her life to kill her even. Yet her mind was filled with dread over him leaving, not trying to fulfill her contract.

"How might we remedy this situation?" Her eyes were serious as she looked up at him. "What is this ritual item for? I am strong enough, Lothoro, tell me. Losing you, losing them.....it was more then I ever thought I could bear yet stregthened my spine and gave me purpose. You can tell me....tell me anything."

[lothoro.livejournal.com]

His eyes looked at from hooded lids and slightly parted lips that curled into a smile. "How do you know that you truly care to?" After all, she hadn't the faintest idea of who he had become, what he done or undone. Her memory of him was of a man...once. Her memory was of a knight. Someone who still believed in honor and hiding in the shadows from a mortal world that had since felt his fangs and then his cold hands. After all, why create more monsters?

"How do you know that you are not yourself speaking to a shade of someone you once knew?"

Within his throat a deep resonating sound of though echoed throughout.

We. We. Was that a path that he wanted to travel again? To work with her this time. But it did have a certain appeal. After all, was it mere coincidence that he was sent to kill her or did his employer craft this meeting with some intention he was not aware of?

Brow raised he looked over her, seriously considering what he would tell her. To lie seemed a better option. Instead a toothy grin brought out a spark in his eye. "To finally close the doors to the Underworld. Be be rid of that vagrants voice once and for all." He said, his words slightly twisted in his mouth like rusted metal left in a fire to burn. Whether she would believe him or think him lying was another matter. And, he decided, he doubted she would realize what that meant.

It might, he rationalized, put them on opposite sides of the fight. Which, he thought, might actually work considering what he had to do.

"Remedy? Remedy." He said darkly, fingers clasped within hers tightly almost in a battle of wills. In his eyes shone an old emotion as he tried to convey a message. Shadows lurked everywhere. In his eyes was the look of a man who had once playfully sparred with her in the woods a very long time ago. That look was disguised with a hard veneer of duty. Not to the coven. To his contract.

He pushed her back, a threat of a fight to come.

Remedy. There was only one way to fool shadows. Give them what they want...or make them think they were getting what they wanted. His heart thumped faster in his chest.

[dealing-death.livejournal.com]

"We are the rings of a tree trunk. So far engrained and part of each other that I would know if you were not the man I knew, the man I love."

After all, she had been taken captive by a God and he had stood fast and seen that under it all she was there. If he was but a shade of the man he was, fine, all she needed was to shine the light upon him and reveal what she knew was there.

Selene had seen enough in the last dying memories of her mother to have an idea of what he may be speaking of. An idea. Not truth. That she needed from his lips. Her eyes closed and she fought tears she wished not to fall. "My father. You wish to confine him to...." Hell. She couldn't say it. But she knew enough. From memories that were not hers and horrible nightmares that plauged her still. "To where he rests.....

Why?"

That was the part she did not understand. Though there was the dream. The one she had so often of Amelia hanging from a noose in the woods and Matayas being the monster hidden in the trees. What was he not telling her?

"Please. I beg you. Do not be coy. Tell me what I do not know....but feel. Make it make sense."

She couldn't hear the sound of his heart thudding over the sound of her own. Selene did not want to fight him. Knew if anyone could kill her it was Lothoro. She stumbled back when he pushed her away and reached for the knife at her back. "I suppose we have chatted enough then....."

[lothoro.livejournal.com]

"Because if I do not. None of us will ever rest when our final repose catches up to us." Lothoro looked pointedly at her as if to try to make her understand. "Matayas' destiny began when he died not when he lived. But he is...not the man that served your mother. He is not a man at'all. But a demon. Of the highest rung. And it is with each of our deaths that he orchestras that he wins a new solider in the battle against heaven. Against humanity. I cannot allow...I will not allow that to pass. I failed him in life." He added tightly. "I will not fail him in death."

They were so still. Both at the ready. But Lothoro was watching the shadows as they milled about. Shadows that belonged to his employer, perhaps? Perhaps. Shadows that could inform on his progress?

But how to fool them, he wondered? Without either of them dying. Of course, he couldn't half wonder to think that this was somehow Matayas' doing. But would someone like Matayas be stupid enough to think that he would kill Selene?

Regardless, he lunged at her. No weapon. The feel of her skin jolted him. It had been so long that he had touched her. Sometimes you did not need a weapon to kill someone. Even though he twisted her arm uncomfortably around she that she twirled around so that her back was insufferably pressed against him, the pad of his thumb still brushed softly over her wrist as he held it.

With her ear so close he could whisper, "do you see them?" He had no idea if she could...or if they were really there.

Before she could reply, he shoved her forward, making ready for her attack.

[dealing-death.livejournal.com]

"Then you will let me help you." He always was so angry with her when she walked away, because Selene always did. She had walked away from him far too quickly. But this time, she wouldn't. "He is my father Lothoro." Selene hissed as she was spun around and hauled against his chest. "But I will do what I must to protect us, you must....

See them? Selene's dark eyes darted around in the dark. In the shadows she saw quick movements. Strange slithering forms. Jesus.

All she could do was nod. Nod and try not to cry. One of them had to die this night. It would not be Lothoro. Selene would not hold him once again as he died.

Stumbling forward she caught herself and turned on him, eyes closed. Ready. She looked calm as if she had been waiting for this moment all her life. "Do as you must, I will not fight you."

[lothoro.livejournal.com]

Well that was unexpected because he expected her to fight him. His eyes danced among the shadows and then back at her. Back to the shadows and back to her. For a moment he had no idea what to do. Eyes locked on hers he looked feral as he paced in place simply shifting his weight from one hip to the other. A amused laugh erupted from a tight throat. He nodded softly, lips pressed together in consideration. "Impressive." Goddammit Selene.

And then he lunged at her, tackling her at the waist and sending them sprawling over her desk before the momentum slid them across it and down to the ground in a heavy thud. He flipped her on her back and pinned her wrists over her head before moving them to her shoulders and giving them a soft jolt into the floor. The desk offered a momentary screen to the shadows who were moving to peek past it.

"What the hell are you thinking?" He hissed out. "FIGHT me." With another shake of her shoulders, he barked out, " Fight me!" With caution, he looked behind his shoulder to see where they were. Those errant beings...

[dealing-death.livejournal.com]

She grunted, a hiss of air forcefully pushed past her lips as they crashed hard to the ground. Her small body took the brunt of the fall and was trapped by his weight.

Selene shook her head as he shook her shoulders, this time the tears spilling from her dark eyes. "I watched you die once." She wiggled under him, making an attempt to get away, not fight. "Then again when I betrayed you. I will not do it again." Looking him in the eyes she was serious. There was no doubt. "Just do it already! Kill me!"

[lothoro.livejournal.com]

"R'aaaaaah!" He yelled out in rage, his fist drawing back and punching the ground next to her head in frustration. The floor cracked in tiny lines, fracturing the marble like fate had fractured their life lines, their hearts. Lothoro's hand sunk into her hair, finding the back of her head and cupping it as he pulled it up to his ear. Fangs grazed her neck as his breath steamed against her pale throat. It was almost easy to taste her skin through its soft scent. A show, yes. This was a show. But it was becoming dangerous for both of them.

Don't be foolish now. He gave her a little jolt. "Not the Selene I knew. FIght me." Then lowering his head he whispered into her ear, lips brushing against her lobe. After all, even whispers could be overheard. "Should you not wish to watch me die than you'd had better fight. Shadows know nothing of mercy and the killer in me seems to have only that to spare right now."

With a growl, he lifted them up, grabbing her by the lapel of her shirt and sending her across the room. "Fight me, Selene. It's only fair." Lothoro had to pull out all the cards. She had to get angry enough. He grinned toothily. "After all...I did kill your father."

[dealing-death.livejournal.com]

The Selene he knew didn't deserve his mercy. She deserved his wrath. Not only had she betrayed him, she had put him directly in Tristan's path.

When he threw her her body took out vases and other collectibles in the room, landing with a thud against the wall that cracked the sheet rock. Pushing her body off of the floor she growled, wiping blood from her lips.

"Liar!" She bellowed at him, anger and hurt rising from her chest like bile to form the single word. He couldn't have. They were like brothers....her heart felt frozen, she was certain it had stopped beating. But for only a moment.

A hard kick sent onf of the chairs skittering across the room. With a furious growl she flipped the coffee table away. So this is how they would end. Really, truly end. Angry as she was Selene couldn't stop the occasional tear from rolling down her cheek. "How dare you...." She wasn't sure how to finish that sentence.

Instead she lunged at him, teeth bared, eyes glowing.

[lothoro.livejournal.com]

Lothoro ducked as the coffee table was sent into the air, the edge as sharp in it's flight like a guillotine. It crashed behind him against a shadow that felt no pain. That would be nice, wouldn't it? As it were, their unlives had been little else but that. Oh, not to be melodramatic for sure, but if you fought Lycans for a living, if you know of the coven's history, than clearly, you knew of pain.

Like the type written over Selene's face, masked by a glowing anger. Yes.

"Oh. Hm." He started lazily. "Did you not know that it was I whom pulled the trigger?" It wasn't that simple. It had never been. But in a way it was. It was exactly what had happened and in his mind, little else mattered. The 'why' of it, the 'reason' got lost in the throbbing soundless echo of the guilt. Even that guilt grow hollow and numb with time...and the monster's taunting of him if indeed it was a monster and not his own mind.

The force of her lunge sent him spiraling back down again with her on top this time. His teeth rattled in his mouth as his head hit the ground.

Good. Yes, good. "I dared. I only wish I had done it sooner." He grunted out through clenched teeth. Twisting to his side, he brought his elbow back and then sent it flying against the side of her face to throw her off-balance.

[dealing-death.livejournal.com]

Before she could strike him she took the blow to her face, whipping her head to the side. Snapping her head back, long dark hair hiding most of her face and the quickly fading mark he had left on her alabaster skin she glared at him. Selene was never one to hide how she felt, especially from him. There was nothing but the worst sort of pain and anger in her eyes.

Was this how he had felt the night she told him about Tristan? Selene had never felt so betrayed. Her hands were around his neck, she gave his head a hard shake smacking it into the floor before she started to apply pressure to strangle him. A sob welled up in her chest and tears fell but she didn't let go. "You dared to stand in his tomb and mourn...." Her voice was shaking as her hands got tighter. "H---how could you have taken him from me? He was all I had left!" Yes, she knew it was Matayas that had killed her mother, but she did not know why. He was still her father and without Lothoro, she had been left very much alone.

[lothoro.livejournal.com]

The jolt made his vision blur. He could almost feel the fracture along the back of his skull but it healed fast enough--thanks to her. Ironic considering that she was trying to kill him now, exactly what he needed. Her surprise, however, took him by surprise. He was certain that he was riling her up by mentioning Matayas, but he had thought she would have known. He had been sure that she would have inquired into their deaths. Lothoro's brow furrowed. So the knights had told her nothing. Nothing.

They told her nothing of demons. Nothing of Amelia's demise or Matayas'? Why? To protect him of course. The oldest order within an order. It learned to survive by protecting one another. Somewhere guilt nibbled away and was pushed to the pit of darkness churning within his soul. Where had he been when they were left alone? Forsaken them. All of them.

He wanted to shake her. Wanted to tell her everything that happened that unholy night. No, those months previous. When Amelia and Matayas had lied to them. When they had gambled on winning only to lose everything.

But that would not have served his purpose.

"Well...it would seem that you are not very good at keeping paternal figures around." That was below the belt and he knew it. Threading his arms to the inside of hers he whipped his head forward into a headbutt. "However, if you miss him so much, why don't you join him in hell?" The knife came out of his waist band and cut across air toward her.

If she couldn't act the part of fighting than he would make her angry enough to fight.

[dealing-death.livejournal.com]

Selene was shocked by what he was saying to her. This was not the man she knew and loved. The man that had protected her from the shadows when she was too meager to do it herself. He had killed her father and was hell bent on sending her to see him.

She felt the knick of the blade as it touched her neck. Reached a hand to her throat. None of the horrible things he wanted to yell at him came out of her mouth, just a gurgle of blood as it spilled from her lips and poured over the hand clutching her throat.

Through one final breath she whispered that she loved him, then collapsed in a heap against his chest, blood pouring quickly from the 'Italian smile' he had given her. At least she died with a smile, she thought as the world went black and her body fell limp, dead, against him.

[lothoro.livejournal.com]

He had to still his heart with heavy breaths in order to carry the part he played. A murderer. A traitor. His throat with tight with his actions. The warm blood--Selene's warm blood--flowed over his hand. It was hot with accusation.

But her words might as well have killed him even though he was the one still breathing. Lothoro had to keep his lips pressed together for a moment to keep them from trembling. This woman...

Blood coated everything. His heart pounded faster in his chest as hers slowed down. To the shadows he only looked like a killer. A man doing his job--reserved, collected, cold. Nothing was further from the truth.

But he left the blade there, in the flesh, pressing down to keep the wound from healing until he heard nothing. It was only when the blade rattled against the floor that the shadows were satisfied.

Picking up her body, her limp arm fell down, the shadows watched as he placed it across her chest. They scattered into the nights so quickly that Selene's home seemed to be filled with sunlight.

But she could not stay here. A murdered mayor would draw too much human attention.

It was some time later that he set her limp body on an old leather settee in front of a lit fireplace. The apartment seemed distinctively his own yet without that feeling that he planned on staying very long.

Setting her down, he pushed tendrils of hair out of her face.

Biting into the rivers in his wrist, he watched the blood well up and then dripped a few drops onto Selene's pale wrist.

Lothoro wasn't much for praying, but he sure as hell invoked every deity on high for this one.

"Selene." He had no clue what he wanted to say next, what she could possibly want to hear from him now. "I never stopped loving you." He muttered as he lightly stroked her cheek. It did not really matter, did it? After all, with who he was now...

and what he did.

"come back. You are the last one of us left. Come back."

[dealing-death.livejournal.com]

For what seemed like years she flitted in and out of shadow and light. The memories of her life and those that had passed by her lips flickered through her mind. She wasn't aware that she had been moved. Or that she was even still alive.

Death had reached for her and she had willingly given up her hand to be lead, finally, into the after life. There was a voice, a soft, wonderful voice she had dreamt of since she could remember.

"It is not your time child. Wake up. Wake up." And there she was, seven years old, in the barn of the man who raised her. The pale, beautiful woman holding her hand telling her to be strong. If her heart were beating it would have floundered feeling as close as she felt to her mother just then.

Hours later her eyes began to move and flutter behind closed lashes. A voice that was barely above a whisper cracked the still air. A hand grabbing her lost loves hand. "We are the last. We. And I have never stopped---loving you."

[lothoro.livejournal.com]

He nodded in reply with emotion rolling behind a tempestuous dark sea in the pools of his eyes. She would be alright. She would live enough for them both. "I do...apologize for hurting you. Had I known it was you they were after I would not have been so quick to take the offer. But once it was done...they had to think you dead. It gives us...time."

It was easier to talk of business. Anything else was confused and muddled in his mind. Still, he knelt before the couch so that he could comfort her while her wound healed even though there was some rigidity in the movements. She knew the truth of his heart now. And he wasn't even sure that it mattered.

He pulled a blanket over her and rose to sit next to her. "Rest now. We are safe here for a while."