Disclaimer: I haven't read the books, so everything is based in TV!verse. Rating may change in future depending on how far I go with this. Reviews are appreciated.
Alek watched as Chloe shifted slightly in her position on the couch, even with the wounds shrinking before his eyes she winced a little from the pain the movement caused, frowning in her sleep. Some discomfort was to be expected, he didn't know anyone else who could take dying so well.
Dying.
The word bought him back to the picture that had been circling around his head ever since they'd found her. Chloe, dead on the ground, the slashes marring her body jumping out an obscenely garish red. And the moment, the wrenching moment when all he could do was offer deals to the Goddess and try not to breathe. How much time had they had with her, how much damage? Let this be the second death and not the last. The feelings were still there now, the pounding rage that coursed with each heartbeat, the cold sleek certainty of revenge to come, mashed into a ball, encased in a hard fist and lodged in his chest.
But Chloe came first. As much as he wanted to track down the Order's pet bastard and leave some slashes of his own, getting Chloe out had been the priority. Jasmine and he had gotten her home, even though it had meant the new assassin escaping. They would get him back, the Mai had their own pets at their disposal. Jasmine had gone to join her mother on the hunt, but Alek wouldn't, couldn't, leave her now. Even here, in the safety of Valentina's apartment, he didn't quite dare take his eyes off her. As if she would disappear if he looked away. And from the fact that Jasmine hadn't even offered to stay in his place, he probably wasn't doing as good a job of hiding it as he should be.
They couldn't continue the way they had been, with the Order circling ever closer, getting increasingly bold with each attempt. Contingency plans had been discussed of course, but Chloe was so young, so new to the changes in her life, and so close to the humans she'd be raised with. Maybe that was part of what made her able to fulfil the prophecy of being the Uniter? Maybe it was fate? Alek didn't know much about fate, save he'd be screwed by it a few times in his life. He wasn't totally against the idea of screwing it back if it meant keeping the girl in front of him safe. After tonight, after the rising violence of the last couple of months, he doubted any of the Mai would argue with the idea.
Almost any. Chloe, he was betting, would have more than a few arguments to make. She always did. Maybe that was why he...?
He didn't finish the thought. Better to gather the remnants of his mental energy to use planning out his approach to this, it was going to take a lot of suave and not a little bit of brute force to get things moving.
He looked at her again. A moment more. His thoughts couldn't quite hold their pattern, his senses still working overtime trying to bring him down from the hyper-alert state he'd spent most the evening in. He would figure out plans later, all that was important for now was him and her and this dim room, and the fact that she was breathing in it.