Forever Here

by Harold Wall

  "Lord Thierry, I'd like to request that I take Emerald for a few more days." Storm said in the calm voice he'd imagined after he had gotten permission to enter. "This tactic,

  obviously, isn't working either."

  "Yours didn't the first time, what makes you think that it will now?" Thierry countered.

  "What other suggestions do you have?" Storm asked meeting Thierry's dark eyes challengingly. "You can't kill her. I'm telling you only she and Jonathan know where Hannah and

  Rashel are. And Jonathan is smart enough that he's not going to go out looking for Emerald. You won't find them. Just let me try again. I really think it'll work."

  "You still haven't told me why, Storm." Thierry stated.

  Storm's hands balled into fists. He'd tried his hardest to not think about what they'd done to Emerald, but now it looked like he didn't have a choice. "You've worn her down, Lord

  Thierry. I think I can get through to her if you'll just let me try. You've had your chance, it's my turn again. But… but I need you to let me take her into my room, at least."

  "No, I cannot risk her being out of that room. I will not risk anyone else's lives. I'm letting you have another chance, but that is where I draw the line." Thierry said as soon as the

  words were out of Storm's mouth.

  "Sir, I know that it's risky, but how can you expect me to get through to her with her tied up like that. She's already done enough suffering." Storm argued trying to keep his voice

  level. "Do you want to get Hannah and Rashel back, or not?" he finally asked quietly hoping he'd hadn't gone too far.

  Thierry thought about this for a long time but finally looked back at Storm and nodded once. "Okay, but I'm only giving you one day." Storm started to object that one day was way

  too short, but Thierry quickly continued. "I really don't have time for all of this. I need to find Hannah." His voice became desperate as he said those last two sentences.

  Storm struggled to repress the urge to start arguing again. "I know." He managed to choke out. "Thank you." Storm said before quickly heading down to the room Emerald was

  being kept.

  He quickly slipped past the two guards on either side of the door and went inside, keeping his eyes trained on the ground, preparing himself for the state that Emerald might be in.

  The room reeked of blood, making Storm gag, his eyes water.

  Gritting his teeth and taking a deep breath, he looked up. It wasn't bad in the dark and from afar. Her shortsleeved, white blouse was ripped and cut. A thick, black liquid ate at the

  white of her shirt. Emerald's head was turned to one side, her hair creating a thick, ravenblack veil in front of her face. She seemed to be sleeping… or something of that nature.

  Storm swallowed hard and slowly walked forward pulling his switchblade out. As he came around to Emerald's left side, getting ready to cut the ropes binding her, she seemed to

  sense him. Her eyes opened, glowing in the darkness of the windowless room. When she spotted him her lips pulled back as her canines elongated into fine points, her eyes flashed

  silver and her expression was that of animosity and hatred. A low, slow growl rumbled from deep within her throat.

  It would seem that she had reverted to her completely primal side to deal with the pain.

  Storm froze and looked at Emerald with solemn eyes.

  "Emerald," he said quietly. "It's just me. It's just Storm." She hissed. "I'm not going to hurt you." he coaxed. "I'm just going to cut the ropes." Emerald's face stayed the same.

  Storm stepped closer to her against his better judgment. "I promise I won't hurt you." he said firmly, pronouncing every word carefully.

  They stared at each other for a moment before Emerald finally relaxed, her eyes reverting back to emerald green, her teeth shrinking back to normal, her shoulders slumping.

  Emerald's eyebrows furrowed in that of pain and suffering and she turned her head away.

  Storm let out a breath and went to cut the ropes around her wrists and then the ropes holding her to the pillar. As soon as the ropes fell away, Emerald stepped away from the

  pillar, walking forward a little with a slight limp. Storm went to help her but she shoved his hand away and continued to walk forward.

  Storm quickly walked ahead of her and opened the door. The two guards that were standing in front of the door followed them as they walked back to Storm's room. Coincidentally

  as they entered the foyer and were heading in the direction of the stairs, Quinn was descending them. Emerald spotted him and she changed in the blink of an eye, crouching low

  and snarling.

  The guards behind her quickly grabbed her arms and held her back as Quinn continued down the stairs. Storm fought to keep his feet planted to the ground. Getting into a fight with

  Quinn now would make things worse than they already were.

  As Storm stood a few feet in front of the guards and a growling Emerald with contained fury, Quinn walked right up to Emerald, his eyes blacker than a black hole, his expression

  flaring with rage. He pulled out a stake, putting his free hand on Emerald's shoulder right before shoving the stake into her, right beneath her ribcage. Storm ground his teeth and

  looked away not being able to bear the sight.

  "That's for Rashel you sick monster." Quinn hissed in her ear, pulling the stake out and walking away.

  Emerald jerked her arms out of the guards' grip and continued forward like nothing had happened. But she was breathing harder and her limp had become more pronounced. Storm

  hovered behind her, ready to catch her if she collapsed because she was looking sickly pale and she walked like she could barely hold herself up. However that wasn't necessary

  because she made it all the way to his room.

  Emerald entered and Storm quickly followed, the two guards now situating themselves outside his own door. That majorly sucked.

  With a sigh of resignation and the feeling of failure already, Storm closed the door. He turned around just in time to catch Emerald before she hit the ground. Her breath was

  shallow and up close her wounds looked worse than Storm had originally assessed. He'd never seen her like this before, not even when she had dislocated her shoulder. It

  absolutely broke his heart to see her in such a state.

  With another sigh he picked her up into his arms and went to gently lay her down on the bed. Then he quickly went to get a bowl of ice cold water and a washcloth. It wasn't going

  to do much and in this case he couldn't really do much, but he felt obligated to at least clean the wounds as best he could.

  Storm pulled up a chair to the bed and set the bowl of cold water on the bedside table before dipping the cloth in, getting it nice and saturated and wringing it out. He carefully

  pulled back some of Emerald's torn blouse and pressed the cloth to one of her cuts. There was a sharp intake of breath before he saw a flash of white—his wrist was now in an iron

  vice.

  His jaw locking shut, his eyes strayed up to Emerald's face. Her lips were pulled back a snarl and her eyes glowed silver.

  "I'm helping you." he told her quietly, through his clenched teeth. Her grip on his wrist didn't lessen. "I already told you, I'mnotgoingtohurtyou."

  There was another moment of tense silence before Emerald's hand receded and he let her head fall back onto the pillow, her eyes closing, her chest heaving in pain.

  Storm let out a breath and continued to gently clean the blood around her cuts and stabs. This was going to the hardest 24 hours of his entire life.

  I broke every speed limit trying to get to MaryLynette as soon as possible. The nearer I got to her, the more I began to realise just how much of a mistake I'd made. It hadn't been

  that long since Mare's attack, she might not have fully recovered. Mark had said she hadn't been feeling well, but I had no idea just how unwell. I hoped that if things had been too

  bad I would have
noticed something was off. Still, I couldn't be sure.

  "What are you gonna do when we get there?" Quinn asked at last. We'd sat in silence the entire journey, trapped in our own individual bubbles of thought. I shrugged, unable to

  conjure a proper answer. I hadn't spent too much time thinking about what would come next past the point of pulling MaryLynette into the tightest hug I could imagine.

  "Come on, Ash. You need have some sort of plan of action. Obviously the safe house is no longer an option, Jez and the others will be long gone by now. Are you going to find

  another place to send her, are you going to bring her back to the mansion, are you going to set up some kind of security system?"

  "I don't know," I snapped, my hands clenching the steering wheel in frustration. "Well you need to," Quinn replied, leaning back into his seat.

  "No, what I need to do is find my soul mate and make sure she's okay. And then I need to get down on my knees and beg for her forgiveness, which I most definitely do not

  deserve after everything I've put her through. I just hope to the goddess that she's a better person than I am."

  "Don't worry, we all know that she's a much better person that you are already. You don't need the goddess for that."

  "Gee, thanks for your support," I snorted, glancing over at my companion. He only grinned, mischief glittering in his dark eyes.

  "Oh, and by the way," he started, turning to face me fully. "You're seriously going to start losing some street cred if you keep saying stuff like that."

  "Like what?"

  "Like, and I quote you directly on this, 'I need to get down on my knees and beg for forgiveness.' It's not cool," Quinn finished, shaking his head in mock disappointment.

  I raised an eyebrow at him, pushing back the smile that was threatening to adorn my face. "Oh, I'll start to try harder. It's not as if I have anything bigger to worry about."

  "Hey," he replied, holding his hands up in the air, palms facing me. "That's all I'm asking." I nodded and rolled my eyes, turning my gaze back on the road.

  I'd typed the address Quinn had given me into the GPS, and according to the little machine, we were nearly there.

  "Turn left in 10 yards," the automated voice spoke. From the corner of my eye I saw Quinn shift uncomfortably in his seat, his eyes settling into a glaring frown.

  "What's gotten so many ants in your pants?" I asked, my eyes flicking briefly to his stiff posture before turning back to the road ahead. "Nothing", he replied shortly, although he

  didn't relax an inch. I only rolled my eyes at his lie, unwilling to fight him on it.

  "Turn left in 2 yards", the GPS spoke again, followed by a grunt from Quinn. "Doesn't that thing give you the creeps?" He asked gruffly.

  I raised both of my brows in disbelief, holding back laughter. "Really?" I asked, unable to keep the mocking out of my tone. "The big bad John Quinn, scared of a GPS?"

  "Hey! I'm not scared of the damn thing. It's just the voice is unnerving."

  "Oh my Goddess!" I felt my face split into a huge grin, so big that it could challenge that of the Cheshire cat. I was already picturing the years I could spend taunting Quinn with this

  precious nugget of information, and whether it would be best to tell the world or to keep it to myself. One thing was for sure; he would never live this down. Ever.

  "Stop grinning like that," Quinn snapped, his voice growing more irritable, only making the situation all the more satisfying.

  "I can't believe that you were worried about me losing my street cred, when all along you've been cowering in fear over a robot voice. Wow, the hypocrisy is stifling," I continued,

  shaking head so that my hair tickled my forehead.

  I could almost feel the daggers that Quinn was shooting me, piercing every inch of me. "First of all, over exaggeration much? And second, you have to admit that that empty,

  hollow, soulless, tin voice is completely unnatural. Who in hell thought that it would be a good idea to use it in a product meant for mass production?"

  "Well word on the street is that Satan has recently gained interest in the navigation services industry."

  "Shut up," Quinn grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest like a moody child. "Oh I would, but this is golden," I replied. "Anyway, how is all of this coming from the King of

  Soulless himself? Isn't your own kind supposed to call to you or something?"

  "Are you suggesting that I'm a robot?" Quinn asked, giving me a sideways glance that screamed distaste. I shrugged by shoulders in response. "I don't know, man. I can't ever

  remember seeing you swim or go near water. Maybe you're afraid of damaging your circuit."

  There was a long pause whilst Quinn just stared at me as if maybe I'd finally lost the plot and gone insane. After a long moment of silence had passed he spoke up with a

  questioning tone. "When have you ever seen anyone at circle Daybreak, or anyone in the Night World for that matter, swim?"

  I rubbed my chin, pretending to be deep in thought. "It must be a conspiracy!" I said at last, my voice bright with faked discovery.

  I was shot a disapproving glare that seemed to say: "grow up", causing me to snort another laugh. It had been too long since I'd wound Quinn up like this. I'd missed it, but clearly

  he hadn't. "You are a child, Ash," He muttered so low that if I didn't have vampiric hearing, I never would have picked it up.

  "Everyone's a child next to you, old man," I returned, turning my attention back to the GPS, but not before muting it.

  The red dot that marked our final destination popped up on the screen and we both immediately fell into a serious state.

  A mixture of excitement and dread stirred in my stomach, making me vaguely nauseous and a little lightheaded. All I wanted was to see Mare, to see that she was okay and in good

  health. But I also knew that even though I'd been lucky enough to escape the wrath of my sisters, I wouldn't be able to avoid MaryLynette's anger. I could only imagine what her

  emotions towards me would be. I still stood by my decision that sending her away was what was best for her at that particular moment, and if the option to send her to the safe

  house was still on the table I may have even considered sending her away again. But that offer had rolled away the second Mare had separated from Jez and the others.

  The only thing I could hope for was that MaryLynette would take it easy on me seeing as I was her soul mate.

  My breath caught as the car ground to a halt in a run down parking garage. Fluorescent lights flickered as Quinn and I stepped out of the car, a thick layer of grime letting them

  provide nothing more that a muddy glow.

  "This place is a dump," I muttered, falling into step with Quinn as he noiselessly navigated his way through the parked cars.

  I could feel unseen eyes pressing into me, causing the back of my neck to tingle with the knowledge that we were being watched. The constant whir of cameras filled my ears,

  pounding on my eardrums and making my skin crawl.

  Eventually we came to a rusty metal door that looked as if it would be more at home in a dungeon than a parking garage. We both stood there for a second, unsure of how to

  proceed. I was considering opting for a simple knock when a speaker burst into life right beside me.

  "Hey, diddlediddle," the voice through the speaker said. Even though the voice was warped and full of static, I would recognise it anywhere. "Rashel, I know that's you. Open the

  goddamn door!" I yelled, resisting the urge to kick the metal door in frustration. My response was only met with silence.

  I was roughly pushed aside by Quinn as he shot me a glare with a huff. I held my hands up in surrender, taking another small step back. "The cat did a piddle," he growled into the

  speaker, again cutting me a sideways glare. I couldn't even tell what I'd done to piss him off this time.

  "Chill, man," I said with a smirk, bumping my shoulder into his.

&nbs
p; A series of clangs and bashes sounded from the other side of the door, and I could picture the multitude of bolts and locks that would need to be opened before we could gain

  entrance. Circle Daybreak weren't exactly known for their lack of security measures. At least I knew that Mare would have been safe for the night. That knowledge filled me relief.

  "Well look what the cat dragged in," Rashel drawled as she cracked the door open just enough for her emerald eyes to pierce me like daggers. If I hadn't been at the receiving end

  of that look before I may have flinched, but instead the corners of my mouth lifted into a crooked grin. "Hey, I thought you were the only cat around here," I quipped.

  "Don't smart mouth me, Redfern. I don't have the energy." I only lifted an eyebrow at her remark, unable to imagine a scenario where Rashel didn't have any energy. After all, she

  wasn't the most feared vampire hunter known to man for being lazy.

  I slipped through the gap of the doorway without another word, coming to a stop in a dingy hallway. It wasn't as bad as some of the Night World clubs I'd been too, but it was still

  pretty mank, even by my standards.

  The door clanged shut behind me and I paused in my observations to turn and face my companions. "So, it's a nice place you've got here, but personally_", I dropped off mid

  sentence as I realised that my words were falling on deaf ears.

  Quinn and Rashel were wrapped in what looked like a suffocating tight hug, his face buried in her midnight hair. My heart melted slightly at the sight, whilst at the same time

  tightening in chest so that it was difficult to breath. As much as I wanted to believe it, I didn't think I'd be getting such a warm welcome from Mare.

  I averted my gaze elsewhere in an attempt to give them some privacy in their reunion, but it was difficult in such a small space. After a couple of moments, Rashel landed a quick

  kiss on Quinn's lips before swivelling on her heel, pushing past me and saying, "Follow me."

  The look in Quinn's eyes told me that he longed for more than just that one chaste kiss as he gazed after his soul mate. I nudged him forward a notch, spurring him into motion.

  "Think of your street cred," I whispered in his ear, as I gave him another nudge forward.