At around two in the morning, Crystal had ended up getting out of bed and, still wearing her babydoll nightgown, going into the living room for a drink. She was sitting pensively on the couch when Falada came in.
“You’re not sleeping,” he observed. “Neither am I. I’m supposed to be watching you this evening. That’s what happens whenever the girls leave.”
She did not deign to answer. Since he had dumped her on the Island of the All Powerful to follow Glory, she had refused to talk to him. It had been a week since she had run away, and she still had not addressed a single word to the Paladin. What’s more, she had obstinately refused to say where she had fled to. She wanted to keep at least some freedom. And of course she did not want to broach the subject of “Dimitri.” She had spent only the one evening with him at Juliana’s, but the memory of their conversation, the memory of the man had branded her as if with a hot iron.
In the living room Falada paced back and forth. He was so good-looking. So much himself. He stopped in front of the stereo system and smiled gently at Crystal.
“Are you upset with me, little flower ?”
She quivered at the use of the pet name. God, she loved this guy enough to hang for him. To damn herself for him. Moreover she had done it – become Damned – for love of him. To be in his world, to be near him.
“Why did you leave ? Things were going so well down by the water.”
“Duty,” the Paladin exonerated himself. “Not to mention, if I had stayed with you on that beach, I’m sure I would have ended up....”
“Lost,” Crystal finished his sentence. “Lost like I lost myself for you. But the difference between us is that I’m not afraid.”
Floundering, Falada reached out a hand toward her.
“Just one dance,” he conceded, turning on the music.
Slowly, her eyes shining, she stood up, already enveloped in the sweetness of the slow song he had put on.
As if in a dream, she moved toward him and clumsily slid her hand into his. Cautiously, he put his arm around her slender waist, drawing her toward him.
As if we were making love, since that’s impossible for the two of us, the Paladin mused, letting Crystal mold his body to her delicate curves. Letting Crystal marry a part of his soul. Glory still existed, but she was far away. He had the right to dance with the young woman, since there would never be physical love.
Still, she rested her cheek against his and he let her. He kept it there.
They revolved slowly around the living room, glued to each other. Crystal felt as though an endless summer stretched before her closed eyes. And she trembled with absolute happiness ; the happiness of an idyll bathed in the colors of the rising sun.
Her head buried in Falada’s neck, she let her tears flow, and when she raised her face toward him, she believed she saw the same tears of emotion shining in her Paladin’s eyes.
Each night in her dreams Crystal saw him, and now finally she was feeling him. He was no longer far away, he was no longer somewhere else. Falada was there.
Little by little, following the same path as their gaze, their lips drew nearer to each other. I will always love you, she thought at the moment when their mouths touched.
She leaned her head back to receive their first kiss. Their first true kiss. One second. For one second the universe was perfect. The warmth of their lips pressed together. She opened up to him, parting her lips to let him in, and their tongues brushed against each other. They were on the point of coming together even more closely when....
The front door of the apartment banged open.
Surprised, the Paladin and the young woman separated from each other. They exchanged a look and Crystal saw a flash of guilt in the eyes of the man she loved.
Falada abruptly removed his hands from her. Disappointed, she turned away without a word and made her way into the hall to see what the girls were up to. Why were they still in the entryway and not coming into the apartment ? Their unexpected return had already ruined everything, in any case !
Entering the hall, Crystal gave a cry of terror.
Helen and Cornelia, covered with blood, were supporting a half-unconscious Glory. An ugly-looking wound gaped in her stomach.
Falada, who had followed the young woman, shoved her out of the way and ran to Glory. The girls released her and he gathered her up in his arms.
“Take her into her room ; we have to wake up Miranda. Right away !” Cornelia yelled.
Petrified, Crystal saw her Paladin carry Glory away. He was acting like a man in love. Shaking off her shock, the young woman crossed the apartment. She woke up the sorceress, who was deeply asleep with Killer Teddy, her teddy bear, in her arms.
“Quickly, Miranda !”
The Paladine woke up completely and when she understood what was happening, jumped out of bed. She pulled Crystal to Glory’s room.
Falada had laid her down. He was holding her hand and caressing her hair.
The dollfaced blonde seemed more dead than alive. Her body shook with slight spasms and she seemed unable to see. She was murmuring incomprehensibly in a foreign language.
Miranda burst in and pushed past Cornelia and Helen, who were huddled in front of the bed. She thrust the Paladin aside, sat down next to the wounded woman and put her hand on her forehead, which was covered with feverish sweat. The little sorceress ordered :
“Everyone out !”
The girls obeyed but Crystal moved closer to Falada. He remained standing there, his face as white as that of a corpse. Torn between jealousy and anguish, she took him by the shoulders and drew him gently out of the room.
“Come. Let Miranda work.”
Passive, the Paladin let himself be led into the hall. Crystal closed the door behind them, and clumsily clutched his sleeve to keep a mental link with him. But he didn’t even see her. Jealousy assailed her once again, immediately followed by a wave of disgust for her own thoughts. How could she be envious of the affection that Falada had for Glory when she seemed at the gates of death ? Only Glow was important. Only the fact that she was alive.... At that last thought, Crystal felt her throat contract as tears came to her eyes. Glory can’t die. Not her. Anything you want, but not her. Please, not her.
At the young woman’s side, Cornelia, engulfed by vertigo, leaned against the wall. Helen, overcome by an irrepressible need to talk, said in a monologue :
“We don’t know where Glory got her information, but she pinpointed the headquarters of the Dark Clan. They’re hiding in the old subway tunnels. We came upon twenty men. I’m not a warrior... I couldn’t defend myself, I... Glory came to save me and then, she....”
“She caught a bitch of a sword through her torso,” the warrior said briefly. “We got her out of that shithole as fast as we could and brought her here. If we weren’t fast enough, if Miranda can’t heal her, I think....” Unable to continue, Cornelia lowered her head.
They fell back into silence and waited in the hall in front of their friend and guide’s room.
Several hours trickled by before Miranda emerged from the room, looking totally exhausted. After having closed the door again, she saw them : Crystal, Falada, Cornelia and Helen. They were all there, their faces closed and anguished. The little redhead felt her heart contract before this silent union. She smiled at them before saying in a low voice, “Glory is out of danger.”
The following night, Crystal strolled through Battery Park, near the water. Even though Miranda had succeeded in saving Glory, she was still very weak. She would have to stay in bed for at least a week.
The sorceress had forbidden the entire band from entering her room with the savagery of a tiger. Which had disconcerted Crystal quite a bit : gentle Miranda was apparently not as gentle as all that. She’s in a really vile mood, alright..., Cornelia had said, not mincing her words. The young woman could not blame the sorceress. She was spending night and day at Glory’s bedside, murmuring spells and laying her hands on Dollface’s wound.
Needless to
say, she was not sleeping.
Crystal sighed, seeing a bum dozing on a park bench.
Unlike Miranda, who wasn’t sleeping, Cornelia and Helen had spent the last few hours nearly comatose in their beds. And Falada remained prostrate on the sofa in the white living room gulping down Cognac ; no one could get a word out of him.
Crystal continued to wander aimlessly through the park. Now that she was sure that Glory would be all right, all her day-to-day problems had come back to haunt her. Falada’s illogical and unbearable attitude toward her was at the top of the list, of course. But there was something else, too.
She had been depressed since she returned from running away. Her life just seemed dreary to her. How about if I tried Prozac ? Ten to one it doesn’t work worth a damn on a Damned One.
“Great,” she groaned out aloud, “I’m starting to make jokes to myself and they aren’t even funny, that’s really bad....”
“Even worse than you think !”
Crystal blinked her eyes and turned around. Behind her stood six Damned Ones masked and veiled in red. The Dark Clan. One of the Damned moved toward her, brandishing a tapered dagger.
“It’s time for some payback. You are going to die !” he declaimed.
She shrugged her shoulders, mockingly. A little action wouldn’t hurt. She moved into combat position to defend herself against the Clan warriors. The first threw himself at her and she was preparing to pull the new secret weapon that Cornelia had just taught her on him when all of a sudden, Prince Dimitri sprang out of nowhere and stepped between Crystal and her enemies.
He didn’t even have time to burn them alive ; the warriors took off running without looking back. Dimitri turned toward her.
“Did you see that ? I don’t even get to incinerate them anymore ; the pussy brigade splits first. Well, you might say I got here just in time.”
“That’s great, Batman. But I didn’t need your help. And besides that, I don’t need you !” Crystal sent him packing, heading in the opposite direction. Without really knowing why, she had a sudden crazy urge to leap at his throat. At that moment the hatred returned to her.
Confronted with so much anger, the Prince remained frozen in place ; then, internally cursing the moodiness of women, he caught up with her.
“But kitten....”
“No,” she said, annoyed. “I’m fed up with you and our little encounters. Since you aren’t going to kill me, leave me alone,” Crystal roared, passing away into the night.
Dimitri followed her slender silhouette with his eyes, perplexed. When she had vanished into the darkness, he felt frustration growing within him. This little creature was starting to drive him crazy. The little girl with barrettes in her golden hair, her little pouts.... I ought to kill her. No… no. What I need to do is fuck her to get rid of this screwed up desire for her once and for all !
10
Game of masks
New York, Park Avenue apartment, Glory’s room
“I thought we weren’t speaking to each other anymore. You’re angry because I ruined your beach trip with Falada,” Glory reminded her, readjusting the covers over her chest.
“I guess almost dying excuses you,” Crystal said evasively.
She had no desire to discuss the Paladin with her friend. Glory was not the type of person to understand desperate love stories. Plus, she hated it when people mixed work and pleasure. Crystal was ashamed of having acted with as little common sense as some little enamored idiot.
Comfortably settled in her bed, Glory greedily swallowed the marshmallows that the young woman had smuggled her behind Miranda’s back. “How much you want to bet that Mimi would have confiscated them from you and gobbled them down herself ?” Crystal scoffed. Unsuccessfully. The Paladine was still too tired to react to her inside jokes. The wound made by the sword had given way to a puffy scar, but it was disappearing rapidly. The Damned healed quickly. All the same, Glory’s skin had a yellow tint to it and she had enormous dark rings under her eyes. The young woman thought to herself that she had never seen her friend without makeup, and yet she was as beautiful as always. Incredibly beautiful. Crystal squeezed her hand affectionately.
“I love you, Glow... you’re a real role model to me. Even if you are the biggest bitch in the universe.” She smiled to tone down the depth of her declaration.
“I love you too, sweetie,” the Paladine whispered in a voice filled with emotion. “I’m sorry I insulted you on the island. About Falada, you have to....”
Crystal smoothed her hair.
“Forget it. My father and you needed him for work. In any case, it doesn’t matter, it’s not like we both want to bang him and are fighting over him or something.”
“That’s obvious,” Glory corroborated, swallowing wrong. Did Crystal suspect something ? Was she testing her ? Or was her naiveté simply really that pure ? The fashion doll regretted lying to her. She would have liked to tell her that she was Falada’s girlfriend. Tell her that they loved each other. But her instincts were to hold back. Never admit your weaknesses. Never let your guard down, even in front of your best friend, even in front of someone you think of as a little sister. A sister she had chosen. And when she reaches my level, then what will happen ? Glory heard herself thinking. To her great relief, she did not push this line of reasoning further. Falada had just entered her room.
“Hello, my beauties. I have news about the Dark Clan. The old subway tunnels are indeed their new hideout, but the passage you discovered into it is closed. They all withdrew after your attack and they’ve sealed off the entrance with a few tons of cement and a lot of spells. Helen is in the process of studying the history of the subways to find another way to get down into them, and Miranda is working away at her pendulum to locate the members of the Clan.”
“Perfect – I have to get my hands on them at all costs,” the suddenly feverish Glory came alive.
“Why are you getting so worked up ? I think the Order of Hell is just creating more and more problems for us. We’d be better off....”
The banging of the door interrupted the Paladin.
It was Cornelia’s turn to storm into the room. She stood in front of the trio, her fists on her hips. With her ripped jeans and her miniscule tank top with “Serial Killer” written on it in blood-red letters, she looked like a teenager in the middle of some crisis.
“Every man for himself, the new Paladine is about to arrive !”
“There’s going to be a new Paladine ?” an astonished Crystal burst out. “Thanks for keeping me in the loop....”
At a quarter to seven, the band was gathered in the white living room. They looked at each other without saying anything, bored. Crystal tried to improve the atmosphere.
“Maybe she’ll be nice ?”
Helen made a contemptuous gesture.
“Please.”
“Clearly, you’ve never seen a new Paladine,” Falada grumbled.
“Why ? What’s so special about new Paladines ?”
Glory stood up and took a few steps in the living room. Her turquoise eyes caught the light of the chandelier.
“New Paladines – they’re intolerable ! In general they’re ineffective chatterboxes who believe they are totally extraordinary.”
“Idiots,” Cornelia muttered.
“You know it’s not my style to be mean,” Miranda said, “but frankly, new Paladines are a real pain in the ass.”
A sullen silence fell over them. They had been united lately, and the arrival of a new person in their group was, more than anything else, going to bother them and disrupt their habits. None of them wanted to see some strange woman at the breakfast table or when they were relaxing. On top of that, Sybil’s death was too recent, too present. No one wanted someone new come and replace their former companion.
At the funeral, Crystal had crossed paths with the troop of potential Paladines. It would be one of them who would replace Sybil. To herself, the young woman couldn’t help but agree with Glory : those girls seem
ed more like hysterical chatterboxes than powerful fighters.
A noise brought her out of her thoughts. In the living room, Falada, Crystal and the Paladines stood up : the new girl had just arrived.
She was tall and thin. A brunette with silky hair and clear brown eyes who seemed very intimidated. She moved into the middle of the room and stammered, rambling.
“Good evening, my name is B-B-Beatrice,” she stuttered. “I was chosen as a potential Paladine three years ago. I am honored to be among you. It’s such a privilege ! I could never have imagined that I was going to be a real Paladine !”
At the end of the room, Helen sniffed disdainfully. Glory, conscious of her responsibilities as mentor, made an effort and approached the new girl.
“Good evening, Beatrice. I’m....”
“I know who you are ! You’re a star, a living myth, a legend.... The White Death ! The most powerful and most intelligent Paladine of all times. The only one that Prince Dimitri is afraid of. I have a photo of you in my suitcase !” the new girl exclaimed in rapture, her hands clasped to her breast.
Cornelia nearly choked on her bourbon, while Dollface gave a frozen smile.
“Listen, Beatrice, you’re one of us now, so it’s not worth... mythifying us.”
“I beg your pardon, I’m so sorry. I’m so nervous ! Defending the daughter of the All Powerful against the rebels with you is a dream come true !”
Miranda took a few steps toward the new girl.
“Have you had dinner ? We prepared a meal in your honor, nothing formal. Just to get to know each other better before you’re thrown in at the deep end.”
“Especially since the water is freezing,” Helen said sardonically.
“Someone planned a dinner ?” Falada said in irritation, disgusted. “What kind of nutjob would... I meant to say, who is the kind person who had that good idea ?”
Crystal and the Damned - Possession Page 10
