Compassion Be Damned

by Rebecca Royce

  Instead of looking around, I knelt. This place was so barren. The Sisters did their best to grow food and the locals had some tricks, but this land should be fertile. It wasn’t. Everything was dead or dying.

  As I stood there, centered between leaving and staying, I suddenly understood. I could fix it. I could make this place as it was. I ran a hand through my hair. This was my job. I was going to bring the earth beneath my feet back to life.

  I could… create rebirth. And even as I knew I was going to do it, the knowledge that I possessed this ability scared me stiff.

  Chapter 12

  Jett

  There she was. Seeing Krystal meant I could breathe again. Or at least it felt like I could. From the moment I’d come back from the curse banging around in my head and heard Titus’ very bad news, it was all I could do not to tear the world apart to get to her. She belonged to us, and whatever we had to do to keep her alive and healthy, that’s what we’d do

  Someone or something in the universe agreed with us about how special she was, otherwise she wouldn’t still be here. She’d found us and we weren’t going to let her go without a fight. Fortunately, we were really, really good at that.

  She glowed with power, all of her attention fixated on the ground. That seemed… odd. What was she going to do? I didn’t know, but before I could figure it out, I was running. I didn’t know why, but I didn’t want her touching the ground.

  Not yet. Maybe never.

  “Krystal.” I shouted her name.

  I’d taken off to get to her, and I was well ahead of the others. They’d soon be here but not in enough time to stop her from doing whatever she was going to do.

  Her head shot up. “Jett.”

  I heard relief in her voice. That was good. If she’d been afraid of me—which I wouldn’t have blamed her for—it might have killed something inside of me. I grabbed her, stopping her from touching the ground.

  She fit in my arms like she’d been made to be there. Above me, Reed, the raven, cawed loudly. He flew away, not stopping at the Sisterhood now that he’d gotten here. He’d spoken to Titus. Our number One could figure out what the deal was. I had Krystal.

  “You’re okay?” Her voice shook, and I could feel a slight amount of heat coming off of her body. Her powers were on, and they were riding her. I didn’t want to have to drag her away like we’d done with the demon, but I would before I let her touch the ground the way she was going to.

  I had to trust my instincts and right now they were screaming no.

  “I’m okay.” I had to answer her, which meant I had to think. “Don’t touch the ground. I can’t explain it. But please, even though you have no reason to right now, trust me. Don’t.”

  Her voice was low and her body vibrated with what had to be unused power. “Jett, I can fix the whole world. I can make it fertile again.”

  Yes, she could. I blinked at the surety of my own thoughts. I’d always known things. Maybe it was whatever otherness made us guards. I didn’t care. “Don’t do it, yet. Not yet. Please.”

  She sucked in a breath, and the vibrating ceased. “I can’t usually control it but since you asked me to this time I could. Doesn’t make sense. I don’t care.” She lifted her head, and I kissed her. Again and again.

  Finally, when I let her breathe she smiled at me. “They told me that Divinity walked with my guards. Do you think that the curse is gone?”

  I cupped her face. “It’s gone.

  “Hey.” Titus’ voice had me turning around. I was going to have to share her. He arrived, out of breath. “How did you move that fast? I’ve never seen that before.”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. Let’s just be glad I did. Her powers were on and… I don’t know. I didn’t want her to use them right then. I stopped her. They turned off.”

  I expected her to leave me for Titus. In fact, she should have. They’d all just arrived, panting and confused about what I’d done. I couldn’t exactly explain. Maybe Divinity had been walking, or in this case running, with me right then.

  But she didn’t let go, her head pressed into my chest. “Jett. I don’t feel well.”

  My heart fell into my stomach. We weren’t losing her. Not just as we’d gotten here. I could fight anything but illness. I scooped her up. Someone inside the Sisterhood would have to know what to do. They just did.

  Krystal

  I woke up in a bed, a bigger one than the one I’d gone to sleep in the night before. But then again, I’d already woken up from that sleep, hadn’t I? What was happening? A low light filled the room, from a lamp across from where I lay. Was it nighttime?

  I tried to remember what happened. My powers turned on. I wanted to fix the world. And then Jett came…

  I sat up straight. They’d come back to me and all I had done was pass out. I rubbed my eyes. What was wrong with me?

  The door opened slowly and Titus crept in. He stopped abruptly when he saw me awake, a smile coming quickly across his face. It was tinged with something. Was that… relief?

  “Hi.” He closed the door behind him, and as he got closer, I could see he had a black eye. Had he earlier? I’d hardly looked at him because the world had tilted and I’d known I was going to faint. I reached out to touch it and then stopped. Maybe it hurt and pressing on the injury would make it worse. Still, my powers turned on. I wanted to heal him.

  He winced as he must have felt the surge of energy in the room. “Krystal, you knocked yourself out overusing. Don’t worry about my eye. It’ll be fine.”

  “This is nothing. Small amount. Please. Hurts to stop.” I’d done so earlier for Jett. How had that worked?

  He nodded. “Okay. If you have to.”

  I did, and I was glad he understood. I touched his face. I didn’t even have to leave my body consciously to fix him. My energy simply smoothed out the damaged tissue and his face returned to normal. “What happened?”

  He winced. “We apologized to Mika, as we needed to do. Explained about the curse. She accepted our apology. And then Neil punched me in the face.” I gasped, but he shook his head. “It’s okay. If someone had taken you, I’d have done more than punched them even with a curse and an apology. Her five seem to have worked through it thanks to that punch. Of course, I thought Ryland was going to kill him, but everyone is settled.”

  That was good, I supposed. We couldn’t have them punching each other. Not if any of this was going to work, which of course begged the question of what to do now.

  “Titus.” My powers cooled. “I’m sorry I fainted earlier. That was not how I wanted to see you again after the way things were left.”

  He took my hands in his, kissing my knuckles. “I beg your forgiveness, Krystal. I never imagined she was still in there. She’s not now.”

  “You walked with Divinity.”

  Titus shot his eyebrows up, and his forehead crinkled just a little bit. “I did for a minute or two. They got rid of my curse and the others.” He shook his head. “They helped me for sure. How are you feeling?”

  I shrugged. “Like I overdid it. I mean, I don’t have that much experience with that, but I think that has to be what it was.” I pulled my knees up to my chest. There was something about his expression that had me slightly on edge. Titus wasn’t relaxed and just happy to be back together. What was going on? We’d been told if I got here, I could save everyone. I didn’t know what that meant, but I’d gotten here. Shouldn’t he be… happy?

  Unless he was done with me, and this was goodbye. But Jett hadn’t seemed that way. “Titus?”

  Was he going to pretend he didn’t know what I was asking him?

  He visibly swallowed. “I’m so sick of having to give you bad news.”

  “Probably as much as I am of hearing some.” I got up on my knees to be closer to him. The room seemed cold. Had it been this whole time? “Tell me. Just get the pain over with.”

  Dark circles were visible on Titus’ skin. He was tired. “I’m afraid things are more complicated than the ravens
realized. They didn’t know exactly what was going on. They knew there was one path where you got here and saved everyone. But what they didn’t know is that was because you’re only here because…” his voice faded off.

  I waited. Each second he didn’t speak built tension inside of me until I was sure I was going to burst. “Because?”

  “Because some sort of magical beings—the elves and some other things you’ve maybe seen—kept you alive to use your powers here. You were officially killed some time ago. Divinity, specifically Sister Superior, didn’t know what had happened to you.”

  I should have been shocked, but I wasn’t. How could I be when Teagan had all but been saying this for days? She’d seen me dead. But how was that possible? “How can I be dead… if I’m here?”

  “I don’t know and neither does Divinity. The best she could think was that it was really, really important you got here and the powers that are out there, the ones that aren’t related to the Sisterhood Divinity but are here, made it happen somehow. I’m sorry I don’t have more answers.”

  Images of the last few days floated through my mind. I’d seen trees where there weren’t any. A purple haze. Elves. A multi-armed elephant-headed… being. Trees grew where I’d been. Forests popped up. I’d always been able to heal, but suddenly to be able to exorcise demons was new, even if I was doing it in my own unique way.

  I had the ability to fix the ground beneath my feet.

  Those weren’t my powers. They were… other.

  I got off the bed and walked to the window. My body buzzed.

  “Krystal?”

  Titus needed me to say something, but words had left me for a while. I was dead. And somehow also not dead. I pushed through the lump in my throat to find my voice. “Do you know how I died?”

  He stepped next to me, staring down at the empty courtyard. There was so little light here at night. Katrina’s Sisterhood was always lit up. Titus sighed. “The Darkness killed you. But he doesn’t know and clearly the powers involved here don’t want him to realize. The trees. The elves. Whatever else happened. They’re very powerful, these beings helping you, maybe in some ways more so than Sister Superior. At least in these ways. I mean, who knows who is all involved in trying to stop these demons from destroying the world.”

  These were big concepts and not ones I was prepared to discuss with him at the moment. “I don’t remember dying.”

  “Well thank Divinity for that.”

  Tears pooled in my eyes, and I let them fall. Why bother being brave anymore? No one was going to hand me an award for keeping it all inside and never letting it out. I wanted to—no, I needed to cry—and so I would. Period. End of story. Just like my story—which had apparently ended.

  Even though I was still here.

  “Krystal,” Titus said my name again, tugging me against him, his mouth coming down on my forehead in a kiss. “This doesn’t mean it’s the end. Who knows how long their powers will keep you this way? You could have a perfectly long life.”

  I shook my head. “Don’t pretend to be an optimist. It doesn’t suit you to pretend.”

  “It’s not pretend. You brought me to a place I don’t think I’ve ever been on this planet, which is an island called hope. I’ll hold onto it as long as I need to for both of us, and I will never quit believing. We can all remember you from before, from the other time. Can you remember us? When we were all really just energy? Balls of light and yet somehow people, too?”

  A quick vision moved past my eyes. Yes, I could see him like that. Glowing. Happy. Confident. Titus.

  “A little bit.”

  He kissed the end of my nose. “You’re my Sister.”

  “I’m dead, Titus. So what is the point of any of this? Why do this to me? Why not just let me go?”

  He shook his head fast. “No. For whatever reason they have kept you here, I will always be grateful. I will never stop believing. I’ve loved you for millennium. I’ll never stop, and after all of these years apart, not one of us is going to do without you. We had to take a shift guarding this place tonight or they’d all be in here with us now. You’re our girl.”

  I couldn’t stop myself from pointing out the obvious, even though he was being so sweet. “Your dead girl. I’m like the zombie I fought back today. I’m a walking shell.”

  “You’re no such thing.” He picked me up, laying me down on the bed, and coming over to me until we were forehead to forehead. “You are very much alive. I can feel the heat coming off your body, hear the slight intake of your breath and the way you exhale.” He kissed my lips. “I can taste your breath on your lips.”

  My heart rate skyrocketed just as he kissed me hard. Yes, I wanted this. I had known him forever, even if it wasn’t in these forms, and I loved him. He was my One. Always had been. Titus never failed me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on.

  His lips took control of my own. I closed my eyes. I didn’t have to do anything but follow in the joy he gave me. I was his, but he was also mine. I knew him.

  Right in that second, I was in his mind. He was running for his life. The authorities were after him. They were going to accuse him of stealing, which he hadn’t done. He thought it was funny. There had been years when he’d had to in order to survive but not lately. No, this had to do with the owner of the farm where he worked and the way his wife had been looking at Titus as if she wanted to eat him for dinner.

  Titus was not at all interested in being her dessert. He’d always had the feeling and maybe it was all kinds of stupid, but he’d always known there was one woman for him out there and he would wait for her. He would always wait.

  I was thrown into my body, gasping as I was out of Titus’ head and back into my own. Titus let out a soft moan, rolling off me to lie next to me on the bed. “Wow.”

  “What was that?” I grabbed onto him and in the next second gasped. His eyes were white. Bright white. Like Sister white. What had happened? “Titus, are you okay? What did I do to you?”

  His smile was slow. “It’s called co-joining. It’s a Sister-Guard thing. You love me. And you let me join with you magically. I’m connected to your power now, and we can be in each other’s heads a little bit. I learned about it today. Anne, Daniella, Mika, and Teagan all have it. They’re hoping all the Sisters find their guards and co-join. It makes them stronger. Damn, I… I love having you in my head.” He rubbed at his face. “I’m all warm inside.”

  He pulled me to him and then rolled over so he was back on top of me. His tongue pushed past my lips, and I kissed him back. He was right. I’d been in his head. This was magic, this was us. Whatever was going on with my being dead, this very second I’d never been so alive.

  Titus pulled back to place his ear against my chest. “I can hear your heart beating. Steady. You’re not dead. You’re here. Alive, like I am. All of us are just energy. Those balls of light. Looking for each other.”

  I didn’t want to talk anymore and clearly neither did he. He backed up just enough to start stripping me out of my clothes. I quickly pulled at his and soon we were tangled up in each other, trying to get undressed. It turned out to be a silly moment, and we were both laughing by the time we were naked. I should have been nervous, I’d never been naked around a man before, but I wasn’t. Instead, all I felt was… treasured.

  Titus’ eyes were still white. I touched his cheek. “Do they hurt?”

  “Best feeling ever. You gave them to me.” He took my breast in his mouth. “I dream of your breasts. I wake up hard and desperate for you, and I have to lie there for a second with my eyes closed, pretending I’m asleep to get control of myself. It wasn’t as bad when I was a teenager. I’ve never wanted anything like I do you.”

  I ran my hands over his sculpted abs. I’d never been so happy to have light in a room. I could really see just how gorgeous Titus was and how… strong he was beneath his clothes. “You’re a beautiful man.”

  He snorted. “Men aren’t beautiful, and I’m beat up worse than most.
” He pointed at his nose. “Broke it five times. It’s all kinds of crooked.”

  Whatever I would have said, he never let me, instead taking my breast in his mouth again and sucking hard. I cried out, and he lessoned the pressure on my nipple. “No, that didn’t mean stop. I loved it. The little bite of pain.”

  He smiled and increased his sucking again. My back arched off the bed. Who knew pleasure could feel like this? I’d had no idea it would be so all consuming. This seemed like the most natural thing in the world.

  And how had I ever done without it?

  Titus ran a hand down my stomach, letting go of my nipple. His gaze was hooded. “You’re so fucking beautiful and nothing is going to separate us again. Ever.”

  I believed him. There would be no more curses. Those were not thoughts I wanted right now. Instead, I wanted to focus on worshiping Titus’ strong body. I leaned up on my elbows to kiss him on his chest. He shuddered beneath my lips.

  “Krystal. I…” He shook his head. “I don’t have words. I can feel you inside of me all of the time now. I will always… love you.”

  There was that word. That beautiful word. “Titus.”

  “Tell me later. Not just when I say it. It’ll mean more then.” He scooted down the bed and then his mouth was on me. I gasped. I hadn’t expected it, not even known such a thing could be done. I closed my eyes as he found the sensitive spot I’d all but forgotten and lavished attention on it with his tongue.

  He knew how to stroke it, how to make it stand at attention and soon I ached. I was going to… explode. But I didn’t know how. I’d never successfully brought myself to completion and, although sex was the favorite topic in Katrina’s Sisterhood, I’d never had it before.

  Titus bit down and any doubt I’d had about my ability to orgasm fled. I shattered, my hips coming off the bed as I grabbed onto Titus’ shoulders for dear life. He moaned, his hips jerking on the end of the bed, before he lifted his head. He met my gaze with his white eyes.