The Corollaria (16 page)

Except, tonight, it felt different. Charged.  He could smell the subtle smell of her soap and laundry detergent that clung to her flannel pajamas.  He was hyper aware of her shifting body, her hair that tickled his chin, her soft sigh.

Luke shook his head. He tried to regain some control of his thoughts.  This was Emily.  Just Emily. He focused on the movie.

When the credits rolled, Luke snorted at the ridiculously cheesy ending.  “Really, Em?”

When she didn’t answer, he looked down. Her cheek was pressed to his faded t-shirt, her long black lashes curled against her skin.  He swallowed hard against the unnamed feelings stirring inside him.  A stray strand of blonde hair had escaped her ponytail. Luke gently plucked it up with his fingers and carefully tucked it behind her ear. 

Luke laid his head back against the s
ofa and closed his eyes. He lied to himself that he was too tired to move.

Was he lying to himself now? Why was he so afraid to admit his feelings for her? To love her?

Some of Luke’s anger and irritation faded. While he was mulling this over, distracted by more thoughts of Emily— kissing her, his hands wrapped around her subtle curves—Curtis and a couple of other Hunters came running up to where Luke and Carson were guarding the entrance to the city.

Carson phased instantly, unashamed by his nakedness. The moonlight wash
ed his tan skin in a subtle glow.

“What is it?” Carson asked, his eyes meeting with Curtis’s dark anxious ones. Curtis, Luke noticed, looked different. He was dressed all in black, a dagger sheathed at his side, a fire alight in his eyes.

“They’re coming,” Curtis warned.

It was only moments later that a horrible screeching sound pierced the night air, and blackness engulfed the area. Luke’s eyes widened and he hesitated for a split second before charging forward, following his brother as a horde of monsters descended into the valley.

~000~

Just before midnight a large explosion rocked Emily from her bed, and she tumbled onto the floor. She stumbled out of her room, down the hall and out the front door. The streets were suddenly full of people, screaming and running, bright explosions of light cracked against the sky.

Before she knew what to do, she was being pulled along. Jenny’s hand curled around hers and she pulled her against her side.

“We gotta get out of her
e!” she screamed. Emily shook her head, trying to jerk her hand away.

“Luke,” she managed to say, but Jenny couldn’t hear her, just kept pulling her along through the crowd. Suddenly, Emily
was pushed against a stone wall. Her hand broke from its grasp with Jenny’s and she fell into an alley, dirty, broken and scared.

~000~

With one quick flick of his wrist, Curtis sliced through his enemy’s throat with a ruby encrusted dagger. The sharp golden blade shimmered with a stain of fresh red blood in the fast approaching dawn. With a gurgled cry, the thing, the demon, fell to its knees, hands grasping at its slit throat. Curtis’s dark eyes were unforgiving, as he stabbed the blade through the monster’s thick skin with a sickening crunch, pulled it free and kicked his enemy to the ground, his heavy boot colliding with its chest. 

Curtis
searched the scene before him, full of fallen comrades and slain enemies, for Luke. He knew he had left to go back for her as he quickly looked out across the green valley. The city rose up behind him, the air was filled with the scent of smoke, rotting flesh, and blood from the long night. He could hear the cries of the people below, the final beats of hearts as they failed, the sharp intake of breath. He closed his eyes, his ears scanning the distance for any sign of Luke. Or Emily. Still nothing.

He had to go back. He had to make sure she was safe. Curtis glanced again at the horizon, the faint shimmer of an approaching dawn just barely aglow, pushing at the purple darkness.

He was weak from not feeding on anything but animal blood for the last several days. And the impeding light of the sun was already sizzling on his skin. He leapt over fallen bodies, and ran back towards the city, his jaw clenched. He stuck to the shadows.

              Luke may be Emily’s destiny, but somehow he knew suddenly what his was. He had to save her. A sudden intense feeling of dread and urgency filled his gut and he ran faster, slicing through the air with his dagger at any monster that dared to come at him. Only one thought crossed his mind as he entered the city full of burning buildings and people screaming.

Save Emily.

E
mily was dirty, filthy. Huddled in a dark corner, the shadows of the dank alley all but consumed her near lifeless form. Grime and blood crusted her pale skin. Her eyes burned with tears, silent rivers cut into the dirt on her cheeks. She wrapped her arms around herself, rocking and sobbing, her fingernails were caked with mud, bloody and broken, and dug into her sides. Her muddy feet were bare, and she drew her knees into her chest.  Emily’s blonde hair, streaked with dirt, darkened by blood and filth, was plastered to her face, and stuck to her neck. Her clothes were ragged and torn, and hung limply on her thin frame.

Beyond the opening of the narrow alley, flickers of fire and bursts of light burned and exploded. Sounds of metal on metal, screams and shouts, horrible screeching sounds echoed off the stone walls. All of it was muffled to
Emily though, as if she was trapped under water and hearing and seeing things through a thick cloudy lake.

Her bright unnaturally blue eyes burned with the recognition of war. The air was thick with the smell
of gun powder, sweat and blood. It permeated the air around her, suffocating her.  She shivered, the cold air finally catching up to her, as it soaked through her clothes and seeped into her bones. Emily felt dizzy and sick, the sounds and smells slowly drifting away as if she was running away, when she was just a huddled mass of rags in a damp dark corner of a narrow alley, barely twenty feet from where the chaos raged. Her stomach churned violently, threatening to heave its non-existent contents onto the stained cobblestone. 

Suddenly, there were two warm arms around her, lifting her up, one
under her knees, fingers curled around her thigh. The other arm curled tight around her shoulders. Her head lolled against a hard chest. She knew with instant recognition whose arms she was in. Even beneath the scent of blood and sweat and dirt, she could smell that distinct smell she associated with him: all clean fresh soap, and limes.

Emily
fisted her hands in Luke’s shirt, pulling herself as close as possible. The night before, the days before, his angry words, none of that mattered in this moment. She clung to him, softly whispering his name into his skin at the curve of his neck.

He had pushed and shoved his way t
hrough the thick mass of people. The sounds of battle were a distant roar now, only cries, pleading, begging fitful prayers, old women clutching their chests and wailing in the streets. Young women, with blood stained clothes stood dazed and confused, stricken with something more overwhelming than just grief—a sickening deeply seeded horror, which would forever live in the darkness behind their eyes and in the shadows of their hearts.

The wounded, bloody and dirty, dragged themselves through the narrow cobblestoned stree
ts, others rushing to their aid. Shoulders brushed past him as he carried her. His thickly corded tan arms were slick with blood, his rugged face gaunt, dark shadows visible under pale gray eyes. His light brown hair was matted, streaked with dried blood and dirt and ash. The sun was threatening to rise, the bright glowing curve of it just barely visible beyond the edge of the city. Still fire, smoke, and a burst of light still sparked out beyond the city, as the hordes of monsters were driven back.  It would be over soon. The sun would destroy the demons and vampires that the wolves and hunters hadn’t.

The thought of what could have happened to
Emily had he not found her constricted his heart painfully, and sucked the air from his lungs. He kept walking forward. His pace was slow, but purposeful. His strides were long, as his heavy black boots thudded against the stained ground. Each step was painful as he walked through the middle of the ravaged, disintegrating city.

She murmured something—something soft and tortured—against his skin, and he felt his whole body tense, his heart thumped violently against his ribcage.

He couldn’t bear to look down and see her, but the compulsion to do so overrode his survival instinct. When he looked down, those crystal blue eyes, so unnaturally blue— they were like two wide pools of water reflecting back the bluest sky he’d ever seen—looked up at him through thick, long, wet lashes. Somehow—and he really wasn’t sure how—they were both impossibly deep, like looking over the deepest part of the ocean, and as clear as shimmering glass at the same time.

I
nstinctively he held her tighter, the echo of the last words he had said to her pounded in his ears, and he could see by the look in her eyes, by the crease of her brow, the flicker of emotion, that she remembered every bit of that night—even if he’d wish so badly that she would forget.

He opened his mouth to speak, but an explosion of gas and light cut him off, and he dove behind another crumbling building. The smoke was choking her, and she coughed and sputtered blood on his shirt. Even with the force of his impact against the ground, he didn’t let go. He was sure now—more than ever—he never could. Her cold fingers clutched at his shirt, and he bent down to whisper in her ear—as soft and steady as he could manage—“Stay with me Emily
.  Please.”

Luke held her close, kiss
ed her cheeks and neck softly, hoping it would help to heal her. After a moment he stood up with her still tucked against his chest, he carefully walked out into the now deserted street. He turned to his right, and stopped dead in his tracks.

Samuel stood eerily still in the middle of the cobblestone street, dressed all in black.  Emily’s eyes were wide with fear, but at least she looked a little more alert when he looked down
than she had moments before.  Luke gently sat her on her feet and the shoved her behind him.

In a blur of movement, Samuel grabbed Luke by the throat and slammed him against the nearest stone wall, small chucks of it crumbled onto the marred ground. Luke struggled in the vampire’s stony grip, his fingers dug into the flesh of
Luke’s throat.

“Luke!” Emily shrieked. She couldn’t think, couldn’t cry
, she was only horror-stricken. Pure panic shook her entire body. It was then Emily sensed something. It tickled the hairs on her neck, and a second later she felt a cold familiar hand on her elbow.

Her eyes flashed up, Curtis shook his head
, signaling her not to speak. His eyes were dark and determined. Before Emily knew what was happening, Curtis lunged forward, sinking the ruby encrusted dagger his father had given him deep into Samuel’s back. And for a moment time seemed to slow down.  A sickening crunch and a strangled noise from Samuel’s throat were the only sounds that filled the air.

Instantly the vampire released Luke’s neck and
he slumped forward falling to the ground with a resounding thud.  Luke sucked in a breath greedily before stumbling towards Emily. He grabbed her face with his hands and kissed her. Pouring all his apology, all his fear of losing her into his kiss

Curtis strolled forward, kicking Samuel’s leg with his heavy boot. It fell limply back to the ground. Curtis leaned down and wi
th one quick flick of his wrist, Samuel’s head was severed from his body.

“Curtis!” Emily chastised as she broke apart from Luke. “That wasn’t really necessary, was it?”

He shrugged, “Don’t want him coming back and starting the Zombie Apocalypse now do we?”

Emily and Luke snorted back a laugh. Of course he would make a joke right now. Slowly the sky began to turn pink with the impending sunrise, long fingers of
yellow stretching over the city pushing the darkness away.

The smile faded from Curtis’s face. H
e knew there was nowhere to run. He had probably a minute, maybe two at the most. A strange wave of acceptance and calm settled over him and he turned his head, his eyes meeting first with Luke’s and then Emily’s, a soft watery blue.

Luke let go of Emily,
and she darted forward. She flung herself into Curtis’s arms and hugged his neck as tightly as she could. Hot fresh tears fell from her eyes, and rolled down her cheeks.

“You don’t have to—”

“Shhh,” he murmured against her. He was already starting to feel the slow burn from the sun’s first rays sizzle on his skin.  “It’s okay, Em.”

“You can’t die,” she sobbed raggedly, her voice muffled by the fabric of his shirt. He held her tighter for a moment, and then gently kissed her temple before releasing her.

He ducked his head a little to level his eyes with hers.  “I fulfilled my destiny, Emily. This is what I was meant to do. But—”

He pressed a cold hand to her cheek, wiping away her tears. “—
this monster is not what I’m meant to be. I don’t want this.”

“I’m so sorry, I never—”

“Emily. Don’t,” he said softly.  “Don’t be sorry for anything. I didn’t fight for you because you were never mine to fight for.  But I’ve always loved you, Em.  Know that, okay?”