by Lola Gabriel
“Finley, please. Can we not do this here?” Pyre asked.
“If not here, then where? And if not now, when?” she replied.
“When I get out of here, I want to show you something. I want to tell you something and explain something to you. Then you can decide if you still want to go or if you want to stay. Okay?”
“And whatever I decide, you’ll respect that?”
“I will respect your decision, even if I don’t like it.” Finley pursed her lips and nodded.
“Fine. I’ll go with you. I’ll hear you out, but it better be good,” she said and walked to the door.
“Thank you for coming,” Pyre said, and she looked at him over her shoulder.
“I had to see if you were okay.”
“Oh, and Finley?”
“Yeah?”
“I meant what I said. I do love you,” Pyre admitted.
“I know,” Finley said. “And I love you, too, but that’s not always enough.”
Pyre nodded grimly as Finley left his hospital room and closed the door behind her. A tear ran down her cheek, and she quickly wiped it away.
“Hey, is everything okay?”
Finley saw Eric standing a few feet away. “Hey. I thought you'd left.”
“Do you mind if we talk?” he asked.
“Sure. I don’t have anywhere else to be,” she shrugged.
Eric and Finley were seated in the small hospital cafe at a table right by the glass window, and Finley looked out at the city lights.
“So, you’ve known Pyre for a long time?” she asked.
“Almost ten years now,” Eric answered.
Finley wiped the moisture from under her eyes. “And in those ten years, has he bottled up his feelings at all?”
“Oh, yeah. He tends do that. He likes pushing people away because he thinks it’s better for him to be alone. He would never openly admit it to anyone, or himself, but he is pretty lonely.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“He acts like a tough guy, pretending things like that don’t bother him, but they do. Bottling up feelings and emotions is not healthy, and one way or another, he’s going to explode,” Eric pointed out.
Finley scoffed as she ran her fingers along the rounded edge of her coffee cup. The taste of it made her want to gag, but for appearances, she pretended it didn’t bother her. Eric studied her for a minute. She felt his eyes on her and forced herself to take another sip of coffee.
“You don’t have to pretend that you’re not in agony right now, Finley.”
Finley frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Pyre told me about you, about what you are.”
Finley swallowed hard and stared at him in disbelief. “He told you?”
“Yeah, and I know what he is as well. I’ve known for a long time,” Eric said.
“But you’re a human,” Finley stuttered. “How did you get him to tell you? He doesn’t tell anyone anything.”
“I didn’t get him to tell me. He told me all on his own, believe it or not.”
“That doesn’t sound like Pyre at all.”
“Look, I know it can be frustrating, not knowing what goes on in Pyre’s head or his heart, but the only advice I can give you is to be patient with him. He’s a tough nut to crack,” Eric explained.
“What if I don’t have time?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I know Pyre isn’t a fan of my kind, and I can see that I make him miserable. I don’t want him to be miserable, Eric. I promised to help him get some stone from some vampire ruler here in Miami, and afterwards I would leave him alone. I wanted to see my family and forget about everything that happened the past week.”
“And that includes forgetting about him and everything you two have been through together,” Eric pointed out, perplexed.
“You make it sound as though we’ve been together our whole lives,” she sighed, tucking her blonde hair behind her ears.
“From what he’s told me, that’s exactly how long it feels to him. He’s not taking it too well,” Eric told her.
“Why can’t he tell me these things? Why is it so hard for him to just be honest with me and tell me what he feels?” Finley demanded and wiped another tear which rolled down her cheek. “It’s not a shame to feel things or express them. It doesn’t make him weak, but somehow, he thinks that.”
“Look, I know it’s not an excuse, but Pyre’s been through some rough times. People have used him so many times that he’s blocked off the ‘feelings’ part of him completely. He never opened himself up to anyone, except me, and even that was the bare minimum,” Eric confessed to her, his tone serious and sincere. “But this morning, while I sat with him, there was something different about him. He told me about you, and there was a fire in eyes that I’d never seen before. He told me that you wanted to leave, and he understood that. He hadn’t been the most gracious of people towards you, and he didn’t blame you for wanting to get as far away from him as you could. He does love you, Finley, more than you realize. He just finds it hard to say and show it. You managed to do what no one in his entire life could. You broke down his walls, and it made him feel vulnerable and exposed.”
“He doesn’t have to be afraid, though.”
“He is.” Eric nodded. “And I am sure that you are as well.”
“A little, but being with him takes all that away. I feel safe with him.”
“Then tell him that and make a decision.” Finley nodded and wiped her face. “But whatever you do, please don’t give up on him.”
“I won’t be able to, no matter what,” Finley whispered.
She spent the rest of the day in the basement in Pyre’s house, gathering her thoughts and trying to figure out the best solution for both of them. She had come to two conclusions on what to do, depending on how the evening went with Pyre. It depended on what he wanted to show her and what he wanted to tell her. Her decision to stay or to leave rested solely on whether Pyre could open up to her. She desperately wanted to be patient with him and give him time to open up to her out of his own, but she didn’t have that time. She needed to know whether she was wanted or not. She needed to hear it straight from him, in his own words.
No matter what happened or what he said to her, Finley would always love him, and she would always carry a piece of Pyre’s fire inside her. She would never be able to forget him or the time they had spent together, and even though it saddened her to think that she would possibly need to live without him by her side, she knew that it would be for the best.
When the hospital called her to let her know that Pyre would be discharged soon, she climbed into Pyre’s truck and made her way to the hospital.
11
Pyre stopped took Finley to his backyard where he had placed a blanket on the beach. This was his quiet place, and he felt a little strange bringing Finley to the place where he usually sat for hours on nights when he felt things were getting too much for him.
The sky was still a red-purple color from the recent sunset, but the stars twinkled above her. The lights of the Miami condos sparkled down the beach, and Finley couldn’t help but relish the natural beauty around her.
“This place is beautiful,” she gasped.
As a human, she appreciated nature, and she loved watching sunsets and sunrises from the balcony of her bedroom or wherever she found herself at that given moment. She knew that her life would never be the same as it had been, and she was willing to accept it. She just hoped the people around would accept her as well, although deep down, she knew that most people weren’t as open-minded as Pyre’s friend, Eric.
Finley had enjoyed talking to him in the hospital cafe, but she didn’t expect him to know about her, or about Pyre. She was also shocked to hear that Pyre had opened up to Eric as much as he had, and she wished that he could open up to her like that.
“I come here a lot to think, to gain a bit of perspective, to clear my head, or to take a bit of time out when things get
too much to handle,” Pyre said. “Would you sit closer to me?”
“Of course,” she answered and scooched in closer to him.
“I’ve never brought anyone here before.”
“What makes me so special?” she asked.
“You know why.”
Finley pursed her lips and shook her head. “No, actually, I don’t. I would love to hear it coming from you.”
“Things are different with you around, Finley. They’re better and clearer. I don’t feel so alone anymore. I’ve always built these walls around my heart. I was terrified of getting hurt, getting betrayed, because it happened so many times before. I blamed myself for being such a gullible little prick to allow others to treat me like that. To make me feel like I didn’t matter.”
“You do matter, Pyre,” Finley whispered, afraid to speak too loudly, to disturb the impending nightfall and the quiet ambience around them. “You matter to me.”
Pyre turned to her and gazed into her eyes. “I had a good friend in Romania while growing up there. His name was Felix, and we did everything together. He was also a dragon from a noble family. He was my best friend. He knew everything about me, and I knew everything about him. We were out flying one day, and we got attacked by a group of vampires. They captured him, but Felix told me to fly away. He told me that it was okay, that he wanted to protect me. Apparently, I was more important to him than his own life.”
“You told me to go, too, at the mansion, right before you…”
“You’re more important to me than my own life, Finley, and I didn’t know how else to tell you.”
Finley stared at Pyre with sad eyes as she watched the man she loved break down in front of her and start to sob. She put her arms around his shoulders and whispered, “I’m so sorry, Pyre. It’s going to be okay.”
His tears dripped onto her skin, and she was suddenly filled with all the emotions Pyre had kept hidden away inside him. The rush was overwhelming as Pyre’s entire existence flashed before her eyes. Violence, pain, and heartache reigned supreme, and it broke Finley’s heart multiple times within a few seconds. She finally understood his reasons for not opening up to people. It was merely too painful to do so. It brought back a lifetime of feelings he didn’t want to experience again. It also made sense why he felt so strongly about the vampires.
She pressed her face against the back of his head, still holding him while he cried. His emotions continued to overwhelm her, so much so that she couldn’t utter a single word to him, but again, words weren’t needed at that moment. It didn’t feel awkward or strange. She was comforting him, and he was being comforted. That was all she had ever wanted. She wanted him to feel safe with her, safe enough to share whatever was on his mind and in his heart. And he did more than that.
He shared every single detail of his life with her, even the one-night stands he'd had, but Finley knew they didn’t mean anything to him. She saw her own face flashing in front of her eyes, and she didn’t realize that she looked so beautiful, so perfect. She had never considered herself such a beautiful woman before, but she knew that this was the way Pyre saw her. To him, she was perfect.
After a while, Pyre’s shoulders relaxed, and she felt him move away from her, out of her embrace. She raised her head away from his and lowered her arms, and as Pyre sat upright again, their eyes locked.
“What did you do?” Pyre asked, slightly breathless.
“What do you mean?” she replied with a frown.
“I feel different. Lighter. Happier. Free.”
Finley cocked her head and shrugged. “I don’t know. I saw all your memories, and—”
“You saw them?” he asked, and she nodded. “All of them?”
“All of them, and I understand so much better now.”
Pyre’s brow furrowed, and he studied her for a moment. “You’re an emotional healer.”
“What?”
“That’s your ability.” He smiled at her.
“It’s kind of cool, right?” She grinned.
“It’s very rare. Vampires are all about self-righteousness and vanity. They think mostly about themselves. But not you. You’re different,” Pyre said and took her hands in his. “I am so sorry that I thought of you as one of them. You’re not anything like them, Finley. You are one of the very few good ones out there, and I failed to see that. I’m sorry that I made you feel like I didn’t want you here with me. I’m sorry that I pushed you away and made you feel like you didn’t deserve to be happy. I don’t want you to ever feel like that again.”
“It’s okay,” Finley whispered.
“Finley, I’ve never openly admitted my feelings to anyone before, but I can’t let you go without telling you how I feel about you,” Pyre said, emotions thick in his voice. “I love you with every breath I have inside me, with every cell in my body, and I will continue to love you for the rest of my life, and even after that. I’ve never known love like this before, and even though it is terrifying to me, you are my calm in the storm. You make me better, and even if you don’t stay, I will continue to love you more and more each day. I know I haven’t treated you fairly or given you proof of my love, and that words aren’t always enough,” he said, letting go of her hands. He reached for something in his pocket and took out a silver necklace with a teardrop pendant on it.
Finley opened her hand and looked down at the pendant as Pyre placed it on her palm. She noticed the swirling red stone and glanced up at him. “Is that the Blood Stone?”
“Yeah. I burned it after you were captured by Luka, and this was what was left of it. This part didn’t want to burn, and I figured you needed something strong and resilient in your life when you leave,” Pyre answered.
“I already have something like that, Pyre,” Finley whispered as tears streamed down her cheeks. “You.”
Pyre took the necklace and placed it around her neck, fastening in. Her blonde hair fell over it, and Finley lightly fingered it.
“It’s beautiful. Thank you.”
“It’ll also grant you the ability to walk in the daylight, you know, for you to be as normal as you can be when you start your new life.” Finley smiled weakly and cocked her head. Pyre reached for a lock of blonde hair and rubbed it between his fingers before letting it drop down her shoulder. “Finley, I know you want to leave,” he started, “and I don’t blame you for wanting to.”
“Pyre, I—”
“No, please, can I just finish?”
“Sure.”
“I know you want to leave and carry on with your life, maybe join another clan, be with your own kind. The choice is yours, and even if I really don’t want you to leave, I can’t stop you if that is what you really want. If I love you the way I know I should, I should allow you to be happy. That is all I want for you. I want you to be happy, even if that means that you’re happy without me,” Pyre proclaimed.
Finley swallowed hard and placed her hand against his cheek. She gazed into his brown and storm-filled eyes and smiled slightly.
“You want me to be happy, right?” she asked, and he nodded. “Well, there is no other place where I could possibly be happy than right here with you. You set my heart on fire, and I don’t ever want that to go away.”
“What do you mean?” he enquired.
“I want to stay here with you, if that’s okay,” she whispered.
Pyre’s eyes suddenly ignited, and the corners of his mouth curled upward. “You do?”
“Yes. I realized that you only tried to keep me safe by pushing me away. Not the most orthodox of methods, but then again, there’s nothing orthodox about the two of us, is there?” She smiled through her tears.
“Not a single goddammed thing,” Pyre agreed. He put his arms around her, pulled her close, and kissed her on the lips. Their bodies melted into one another as the stars twinkled above them, and their hearts ignited with their future ahead of them.
Finley let out a soft sigh, filled with content, and she slowly pulled away.
“I love y
ou so much it hurt, but in a good way.” Pyre smiled, a smile that managed to reach his beautiful eyes, and he lightly touched her cheek. “There is something I want to ask you, though, and I could really use your help with it,” she told him.
“Anything.”
“I want to see my dad. I want to tell him that I’m okay and alive,” she answered. “Well, sort of. I don’t know if he knows I was missing or thinks that I am dead.”
“What do you need my help for?” Pyre wanted to know.
“I don’t want to hurt him, or anyone, for that matter. I want to control myself, be like the old Finley, the one he knows, even if it’s just in front of him.”
“Of course I will help you,” Pyre assured her. “In fact, I have something for you that is kind of perfect.”
“Really?” Finley raised her eyebrows as Pyre stood and walked toward his house
She followed apprehensively behind him. “What is it?” she asked impatiently.
He walked inside and opened the refrigerator.
Finley stepped closer saw the refrigerator was filled to the brim with blood bags, and Finley’s jaw dropped.
“Are all those for me?” she asked.
“Yes. I figured you’d need those if you were going to stay. I wouldn’t want you to go killing everyone, you know,” he winked at her. “And like I said, it is perfect because I can then show you how to control yourself and not hurt your dad.”
She chuckled and turned to him. “This may be the sweetest and strangest thing anyone has ever done for me, and I love you for that.”
“I love you, too.”
Finley smiled brightly as Pyre wrapped his arms around her shoulders and held her tightly against him. She felt his heart beating against her ear and knew that it beat only for her.
Until the end of time.
Cursed Dragon
