Heya, here's the second part of this! I just want to say thank you to everyone who has reviewed and favourited this, I really appreciate it!
Now this turned out kinda longer than I thought it would. I had a word limit of 8000. And I kinda blew it by about 2500, but hey, that's life! XD
This was actually supposed to be a two-shot, but since this turned out longer than I thought it would, I realised I needed another chapter for the final part so this isnt the end folks! :D
And Sylar almost turned a little Spock-ish in the middle, but thankfully I brought him back XD
Oh and by the by, the bit with Eden McCain in is from an actual Heroes episode from the first season, and I don't own it or her or Sylar or anything Heroes related, ok? Good. ;p
Anyways, read on and leave me a review please, I want to know what you people think of this!
Enjoy! :D
Sylar stood outside Rae's house, staring up at the building that looked exactly like every other house on the street. It seemed so commonplace and normal, nothing whatsoever to suggest that anyone out of the ordinary lived there. But Sylar knew better. He didn't know exactly what her ability was, but he knew great power when he felt it. He knew great power when he craved it. And he could feel the unrelenting pull of that desire, drawing him to this house, this woman. Rae Freeman. Someone so remarkable hiding in an unremarkable world. A gift like that shouldn't be hidden, and when the night was through and her gift eventually became his, Sylar wouldn't hide it. He would embrace it, and make good use of it to further his own purposes.
He smirked to himself as he walked up the path to the front door. With a single twitch of his fingers, he made short work of the lock and the door swung open to him instantly. He looked around briefly, checking that no neighbours had seen him, then he entered the house and the door shut gently behind him at his command.
The house was completely still, not a single sound from anywhere inside as he made his way down the corridor as surefooted as a cat, heading for the staircase to the next level. No lights were on, and no footsteps came from the upper floor, so that meant that either Miss Freeman was asleep, or expecting him. And Sylar knew she wasn't expecting him. As far as she was concerned, Gabriel Gray was just a guy she'd had a drink with in a bar, and who had helped her out of a sticky situation. There was no way she knew who he really was, a serial killer with super powers, creeping around inside her home in the dead of night, ready to slit open her pretty head and steal that unknown yet extraordinary ability from her brain. Sylar felt a thrill of excitement spread through his chest, and his smirk grew wider still.
The stairs creaked slightly under his feet as he ascended to the floor above, his dark brown eyes taking in every inch of the environment. He was on the landing, surrounded by numerous doors, all fully open except for one, which was ajar only by a few inches. Moving closer to that door, Sylar could vaguely make out soft breathing sounds coming from within, and the occasional rustle of skin against fabric. Reaching out with one hand, he slowly pushed the door open telekinetically and stepped inside.
Rae was sprawled out on her back on a double bed at the opposite side of the room, the silky white bedsheets draped freely over her body. As Sylar silently approached her, she mumbled something under her breath and turned over onto her side, facing him. Her long chocolate-coloured hair was tied back from her face in a loose ponytail and her eyes fluttered beneath her eyelids as she slept on, completely oblivious to the fact that she was seconds away from being murdered by Sylar, the supposed 'good man' she knew by the name of Gabriel Gray.
He leant over her, lifting a hand to her face and brushing a stray lock of hair back from her forehead before he'd even realised what he was doing. She twitched slightly, wrinkling her nose, and then a slow smile spread across her face as she unconsciously nuzzled against his hand.
Sylar eyebrows raised in surprise at this and he quickly pulled his hand away. Rae frowned in her sleep and turned over again, this time with her back to him. Sylar stood there uncertainly, glancing from his hand to Rae, then back to his hand again. There was a brief moment of pause in his otherwise unyielding thirst for power and all he could see was those beautiful azure eyes of hers in his head, that stunning face of an angel with flawless golden skin and full pink lips, her pretty pouts and scowls, that sunny laughter and the warmth and sincerity in her gaze, and most of all, her lack of fear towards him. He'd never known anyone like her before. Even when he was romantically involved with Elle Bishop, he'd known she was afraid of him. Her eyes gave her away every time he got close to her. Maybe that's why he ended up killing her. But Rae… Rae was different.
Sylar frowned deeply and closed his eyes for a few seconds, trying to get his head straight. No. Rae wasn't different. Rae was just like every other woman in the world. The only thing special about her was her mysterious ability, and when he took that from her, she'd be just as insignificant as everyone else. Just another corpse in the grave. But even then, he knew that he'd feel guilty later, just has he had done after the murder of Brian Davies. Rae had affected him in a way that she probably didn't even realise. But it didn't matter now. Rae Freeman was about to die.
Sylar opened his eyes, the cold dark brown depths filled with nothing but lust for power and determination to claim it as he poised his fingers, ready to remove the top of her skull and add yet another ability to his ever-growing arsenal…
Only he never got that far.
The bed was empty.
Sylar blinked once, frowning in confusion, but before he could even straighten up, he was grabbed roughly from behind and a knife suddenly appeared at his throat. The sharp edge of the blade dug uncomfortably deep into his flesh, not deep enough to kill him, but deep enough to make him bleed. To say he was shocked would be one Hell of an understatement.
"You've just made the biggest mistake of your life." A voice hissed from incredibly close to his left ear, the tone deadly and low and unmistakably female…
"Oh, I doubt that." Sylar responded smoothly, as though he had knives pointed at his throat every day of the week. He hid his previous surprise well beneath his calm hypnotic tone. The hand holding the weapon to his neck was remarkably steady, not even the slightest tremor, as though she pointed knives at people's throats every day of the week.
He moved swiftly before she had the chance to reply, grabbing the hand that held the blade to his throat and pulling it up sharply above his head as he spun to face his feminine assailant. Familiar twin pools of cerulean blue suddenly came into view. He stared slightly down at her, their faces literally inches apart as Sylar continued to hold both their arms up in the air. The knife was still in her hand, but she couldn't use it on him now. Not that she wanted to. After all, she didn't know who he truly was. Yet.
It was dark in the room, but not dark enough for either of them to be unable to see each other. Recognition instantly sparked through her eyes and they widened as she realised who she was standing in incredibly close proximity to, and also who she'd just threatened with a knife.
"Gabriel? What are you doing here?" She said, sounding as surprised as she looked. Then the obvious struck her and her eyes narrowed as she stared at him, her eyebrows furrowing into a deep frown not unfamiliar to Sylar's own from a few seconds ago. Sylar internally chuckled. Even when she frowned, Rae Freeman was still breathtakingly beautiful. Strangely, he felt the urge to pull her ponytail out to release that silky cascade of russet hair, but he resisted.
"How did you get in?"
"I'm good at breaking and entering." Sylar replied with a smirk, artfully dodging the question by telling her half the truth. He was good at breaking and entering, but it was how he was good at it that he kept to himself for now.
Rae raised an eyebrow at him pointedly, but then her attention was diverted as she noticed something odd and fixed her gaze instead on Sylar's throat. He knew what she was looking at. He could feel the thin cut left by her knife as it healed, his flesh knitting together until nothing remained but a smear of blood across his throat.
'Thank you, Claire Bennet.' Sylar thought to himself. Without that incredible and valuable ability he attained from the blonde cheerleader, he would've been killed a thousand times over. Considering how all the people Sylar has met have tried to finish him off some way or another, usually attempting to stick various kinds of sharp objects into the back of his neck. His Achilles' heel, as it were. But not for much longer.
Claire Bennet was special too. So special. He'd craved her ability for such a long time, and when he finally took it from her, he'd never felt so alive. Of course, in her having such an ability, she was the first and only one of Sylar's victims to live after he'd taken their powers from their skulls. At first he'd thought that Claire Bennet would be perfect for him. What with his murderous tendencies, and her being unable to remain physically hurt. It seemed almost logical, he thought. But God, the fear… the amount of pure undiluted fear in her eyes. So euphoric. Sylar was able to manipulate her so easily. And he found it so damn fun. Claire was nothing but a scared little girl, putting on a brave front even when she knows she's way out of her depth. She despised him, and taunting her was almost a hobby to Sylar. But he knew he needed more than that. He and Claire could never be. There's only so much fear Sylar can take before his control breaks and his desire for power takes over. Too many people have found that out the hard way. Luckily for the cheerleader, she survived. Elle Bishop, on the other hand, didn't.
Rae Freeman pulled her hands back a little and Sylar let go, returning from his thoughts. Her knifeless hand came down and went straight to the small streak of carmine marring his skin, gathering the liquid on the pads of her fingertips. Rae studied the now unmarked flesh of his neck then brought her hand up in the space between them and examined his blood, rubbing her fingers together in the exact same way he had done back in the alley.
"Rapid cellular regeneration." She murmured to herself. She looked back up at Sylar, something more than there had been before swimming in her sapphire orbs. You're just like me. Sylar didn't need to be telepathic to hear the thought echo through her mind. The expression on her face made it obvious.
Sylar let his smirk grow wider. Rae nibbled her bottom lip in contemplation before she brought her left arm up into view and held her knife to the soft tanned flesh with her right. Sylar watched as she sharply slashed the blade across her forearm and grit her teeth against the twinge of pain, blood immediately surfacing and dribbling down her skin for freedom. It was Sylar's turn to frown once more in confusion, but he said nothing as she wiped most of the scarlet mess away impatiently before she pressed her fingers to the wound, daubing Sylar's blood the entire length of the cut.
For a few seconds, nothing happened. Rae was still bleeding. Then she gasped and they both watched as the flesh around her wound joined together and sealed itself, leaving no mark but drying crimson in its wake.
"Wow." She breathed in awe, staring at her once again flawless skin for a moment before she absently reached down to pull the sheet from her bed. She cleaned the blood from her arm with it and tossed the stained silk back onto the mattress, straightening up to return her eyes to meet his.
"One of my many talents." Sylar said, inclining his head to her with an almost smug little grin. A smirk of her own spread across Rae's pretty face.
"I bet you say that to all the girls." She grinned. She brought her fingers to her lips slowly licked the remaining splodges of carmine liquid from them, her eyes fixed straight on his.
The move was so unexpectedly provocative that Sylar felt his brain throw on the brakes for what must've been the fiftieth time this evening. His train of thought came to an abrupt juddering halt, all thoughts of desire to claim Rae Freeman's remarkable secret power wiped momentarily from his mind. Just like when she'd hugged him in the bar, Sylar found himself frozen uncertainly to the spot, undoubtedly frowning again at his own confusion.
A sudden burst of white brought him swiftly back to his senses and he recoiled slightly, bringing his arm up to shield his eyes from the startling brightness. When he brought his arm back down and squinted until he could tolerate the light, he found Rae still standing in front of him, smiling serenely as though nothing had happened. Sylar glanced upwards to find the light bulb was blazing with artificial glow, then he looked over at the light switch by the door. It had been flicked. Someone had turned the light on. And if the innocent expression on Rae Freeman's face was anything to go by, he had a pretty good idea who.
Was that her power? The ability to manipulate light? No, that would be too obvious. He would've seen that if she'd used it in the alley. Perhaps she was technopathic like Micah Sanders, able to control electrical technology. That still wouldn't explain what happened earlier when she literally reduced those five thugs to little more than a river of red liquid. Or… could she possess the gift of telekinesis like Sylar himself? No. That's not possible. He would know if it was telekinesis. Sylar could feel his hunger growing, craving and bloodlust starting to spiral higher and higher, filling every pore of his body with fire. Whatever her ability was, he craved it so badly that it was hard to think of anything else but opening her skull to steal it for his own.
"How did you find me here?" Rae asked, drawing his attention back to reality. Now that light had filled the room, Sylar could see her perfectly. Obviously she had changed out of her previous clothes before going to bed, and now he saw she was wearing a black silk nightie that clung to every curve and ended somewhere around mid-thigh. A lot more of her sunkissed skin was on show, not to mention a more than generous amount of her shapely legs. Quirking one of his eyebrows, Sylar tilted his head as he smirked at her in a way that was a strange mixture of curiosity and arrogance.
"Who is Anna Lucia?" Sylar responded easily, answering her question with a question of his own. Rae Freeman's eyes widened as realisation swiftly kicked in, and then those unfathomable deep cobalt orbs narrowed once more.
"You followed me." She said, her voice almost a growl. It was a statement, not a question. And the expression on Sylar's face confirmed it to be true. He saw anger flare briefly in her azure eyes before she looked away, avoiding his gaze as she stared instead in the direction of her bedroom window. Sylar kept his hypnotic brown eyes fixed unblinkingly on her, a subconscious part of his brain taking in how delicious the elegant curve of her neck looked at this angle. That thought was instantly crushed mere seconds after it had first surfaced, but Sylar couldn't deny it had been there. Not that the offending subconscious part of his brain wanted him to deny it.
"Anna Lucia is a friend of mine." Rae sighed suddenly. Sylar hadn't been expecting her to reply and was surprised when she did, although he hid it well beneath his unreadable features. "One of my very few friends. We've known each other for a couple of years. Maybe even longer, I don't know, it seems like forever. She helped me out through a rough patch and I suppose I've been indebted to her in a way." Rae's expression suddenly darkened, a sharp contrast to the brightness of the room. A cruel smirk played at the corners of her mouth. "Well, up until about an hour ago, that is. I think I've repaid my debt now, don't you?"
Sylar felt a small prickle of unease trail his spine, remembering the inhumanely cold laughter that had issued from Rae's mouth back in the alleyway shortly before she committed five simultaneous unexplainable murders. And seeing the look on her face no more than a good few inches in front of him, Sylar couldn't help but think that maybe he wasn't the only dangerous superpowered being in the room. In fact, there was no maybe about it. She was undoubtedly as dangerous as him. Or possibly even more so. Sylar had no idea what she could be capable of. The alternating warmth and iciness of her deep cerulean eyes gave nothing away except the fact that Rae Freeman was as unpredictable as they come.
"Anyway, she was attacked about two weeks ago, and she was a mess when I went to visit her in hospital. She didn't want to say what happened to her, but I managed to convince her to tell me. And she told me everything. They spiked her drink with Rohypnol. The date rape drug, right? Then they… well, you can guess what they did to her." Rae's lips pressed tightly together into a thin line, and Sylar could only imagine the images running through her head. Because they were the same images running through his at that moment. The 'they' she spoke of, without a doubt being the five men from the bar, taking advantage of a drugged young woman. Sylar's hands curled into fists.
"She might've been drugged, but she remembered all their faces clearly. Well, she could hardly forget, considering what she went through. When she told me, I recognised them too, since they're regulars at the bar. They show up there every couple of weeks. I knew if I waited long enough, they'd be back. And I took advantage of that."
"You used yourself as bait." Sylar concluded, his fists unconsciously clenching tighter by his sides. Rae looked up and smiled ruefully.
"I suppose you could say that." She shrugged, obviously showing no concerns for her own safety. "Although the one thing I hadn't bargained on was meeting you tonight, Mr Gabriel Gray. And isn't it just typical that they chose tonight to take the bait. Ruined the best evening out I've had in a long time. But hey, I got what I wanted."
She paused, tapping a finger lightly against her bottom lip in thought.
"Actually, I guess it was a good thing you were there, Gabriel. They must've been more sober when they drugged Anna Lucia, or they would've done the same to me tonight instead of a direct confrontation. Either that, or they wanted me alone. Lucky for me, huh?"
Sylar was silent for a moment, and then something quickly occurred to him.
"If I hadn't been there," he said, inclining his head to her, "When they came over, would you have let them drag you away like they intended to?"
Rae's smile grew by a couple of molars.
"Am I really that obvious?" She replied impishly, toying with a stray strand of hair that had come free from her ponytail in such an innocent way that Sylar found himself yet again doing a double take. How could this woman before him be the same woman from the alley? It didn't seem possible. It was like there were two Rae Freemans', the warm and friendly young woman he shared a drink with at the bar and the cold heartless killer who had laughed so callously at the slaughter she'd left in her wake. Strangely, he found himself more curious and interested than ever.
"You killed them." Sylar said.
"I killed them." Rae smiled back.
"How?" He couldn't stop himself asking. The urge within him was growing evermore stronger by the second. He was so close to her, so close he could just reach out and take her power right now. She'd never see it coming until it was too late. She would be dead, and Sylar would leave with what he came for. So why didn't he take such a perfect opportunity that was literally staring him straight in the face?
Rae laughed softly, letting herself drop back down onto the bed. She slouched back on her forearms, her tanned legs dangling over the edge, grazing the fluffy carpet with her toes. She stared up at Sylar, her eyes sparkling as she twirled the knife in her hand, a deadly hypnotic fan of silver.
"How did you heal yourself?" She grinned pointedly. Sylar felt his lips quirk up in amusement. Rae had flipped the roles. Now she was answering his questions with questions.
"I'm special." He answered, still smirking.
Rae's grin widened and she tilted her head back slightly, showing him more of that deliciously elegant neck of hers. A lesser man might have swallowed thickly in anticipation. Sylar, on the other hand, didn't react. Just because he knew she wanted him to. It felt like a small victory in a way.
"Then I guess that means I'm special too." Rae said. She gave as little away as he did, and Sylar felt a spike of irritation, but it was a strange kind of amused annoyance. Or annoyed amusement, depending on which you preferred. He was starting to think that he'd definitely met his match in Rae Freeman.
Evidently he wasn't going to get anything out of her this way, so he decided that it was time for him to drop the pretence. That familiar thrill of wicked excitement spread through his chest at the thought of seeing the look on the mysterious Miss Freeman's face when she realised who and what he was. He knew he'd enjoy watching that euphoric fear fill up in those tranquil cerulean depths. Sylar vowed he would make sure Rae experienced the true meaning of pure fear before she died.
"Oh, I know you're special." Sylar said, his voice turning into a silky smooth purr as he started slowly towards her. Unsuspecting, Rae smiled and stood up from the bed, leaving her knife behind on the mattress as she walked to meet him. Sylar bit back a vicious grin. This was almost too easy. In less than a few minutes, he would have his hands inside her skull as she bled out on the floor, leaving her wondrous ability ripe for the taking. His hands twitched eagerly by his sides.
"In fact, that's why I'm here. You're so special you've managed to catch my attention, Rae Freeman. You and your ability will be of great use to me." The greedy glint in his eyes must be recognisable to her now they were practically nose to nose, and yet if she noticed, she didn't let it show and neither did she move away to a safe distance. Although being in the same room as him, there wasn't really a safe distance to move away to.
Sylar leaned closer, indulging in the urge to trace her jaw line, softly caressing the supple golden skin beneath his fingertips. Rae shivered slightly at the contact, her eyes sliding shut as she moistened her full pink lips with the tip of her tongue. His mouth found her left ear, and hovered inches from it.
"My name is Sylar." He whispered, the hushed tone of his voice sinister and ominous.
Rae Freeman's reaction was immediate. Her entire body froze, a muffled strangled gasp forcing its way from her throat though she managed to smother it before it completely left her lips. Sylar's hand fell to her shoulder, his grip tight enough to warn her not to pull away from him. His mouth was still at her ear, his head still beside hers. He could feel Rae's slightly faster and deeper than usual breathing against the junction between his neck and collarbone as he rubbed his cheek against hers, his stubble scraping along her flesh.
"I take it you've heard of me." Sylar murmured, a tad unnecessarily. He was pointing out the obvious, after all. Rae nodded once, unable to find her voice at that moment in time. Sylar's grin widened.
"So that means you know what I want from you." He continued, his mouth finally meeting the soft skin of her neck, feathering light kisses to the length of her jugular vein, feeling the pulse pound beneath his lips. She nodded again and Sylar chuckled deeply into the column of her throat.
Suddenly, Rae completely relaxed against him. Surprised, Sylar pulled back a little, wondering if she'd fainted. He was even more surprised when her arms encircled his waist, pulling him closer to her, and this time it was her mouth at his ear.
"What makes you think I'm going to let you take what you want from me?" Rae purred, nuzzling against his firm chest. Sylar moved his head back so he could look her full on in the face, and he frowned as he noticed the playful twinkle had returned to her eyes, and the teasing smirk that spread wider as he watched. This was unexpected. This wasn't supposed to happen. Sylar wanted her fear, he wanted it so much that he was prepared to do just about anything to get it, but he smoothed his expression back into its usual unreadable position.
His hand moved from her shoulder to the underside of her chin as he tilted her head up. Her throat was inches away from his fingertips, and knowing that he held the choice of life or death literally in his hands made Sylar feel completely in control.
"What makes you think you'll be able to stop me?" He replied, his voice barely more than a deadly whisper. Rae smiled up at him.
"I'm special, remember?"
Sylar couldn't hold back the smirk that played at his lips. He opened his mouth to answer her, but found himself silenced by Rae's finger as she pressed it to his lips.
"Shh," She murmured. Sylar's anger flared for a brief second and it must've shown in his eyes because Rae chuckled softly and rubbed the pad of her finger along his top lip.
"How about we play a game? If you catch me, you can slit open my skull and steal my power. As for the rules, anything goes. How's that for a deal?"
Sylar hesitated uncertainly, resisting the urge to shake his head in confusion. She wanted to play a game? With him? Well, how she could call it a game was a mystery to him, since it was closer to suicide for her. What was the use prolonging the inevitable? Rae Freeman wasn't going to escape him. She couldn't. There was no possible way for her to leave here alive. And the stakes… she was basically giving him permission to separate the top of her head from the rest of her body. Speaking of which, how did she know that was how he took powers? Yes, she had heard of him, but how had she heard so much? Or perhaps an even more chilling thought: how much more did she know? Sylar was actually beginning to wonder if she was mentally unstable. That was the only rational explanation he could think of.
"What do you get out of this game?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at her. Rae shrugged nonchalantly.
"It's a game, Sylar. I'm doing it for the fun." She sighed as she said it, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. Rae Freeman must be seriously messed up if she thought playing a game of life-or-death with a superpowered serial killer was fun.
'Fine.' Sylar thought savagely, 'She wants fun? I'll give her fun. My kind of fun.'
Before she could even blink, Sylar's hands slammed around Rae Freeman's throat and lifted her up into the air so her feet dangled helplessly a good few inches off the ground. She gagged in his chokehold, scrabbling at his hands with her sharp black-painted fingernails. Sylar grinned cruelly up at her. There was no way she was getting out of this one.
"Game over." He sneered, tightening his grip even more. Sadistic pleasure surged through Sylar's veins and the light bulb above their heads exploded in response, plunging the room once more into darkness. Rae panted and gasped, writhing furiously to free herself. But it was all in vain. Nothing could save her now. Rae Freeman was dead to the world.
Soon she fell still. Too soon. She couldn't have died that quickly. Against his better judgement, Sylar loosened his hands a little from around her neck.
Rae's eyes immediately shot wide open, the previously sapphire blue irises now that sinister shade of dark shadowy grey he had briefly witnessed less than an hour ago. The effect was much more disturbing up close as he could plainly see hazy tendrils dancing and flickering across the black pupils like thick wisps of smoke. Rae smirked at him, succeeding in making herself even more frightening than before.
"Oh no, Gabriel," she spoke, her voice alarmingly clear and cold despite his hands still restricting her airway, "We've barely begun."
Sylar could do nothing more than stare in complete shock and disbelief as Rae's secret ability was revealed as time seemed to crawl almost sluggishly by. Her golden brown skin began to turn black, inky tendrils of the purest onyx creeping along her flesh. Even though the dim eerie glow of moonlight shone through the bedroom window, the room seemed to turn even darker, shadows stretching along the walls and floor, all straining to reach the middle of the room. To reach Rae Freeman.
Rae's wide white grin was prominent on her face now that her whole body had turned black. Even her long mane of russet hair had darkened to ebony. Her eyes were still that unsettling unnatural grey colour and they were fixed unblinkingly on his wide brown ones. Sylar repressed a shiver. The whole room was freezing cold.
Without warning, Rae completely disappeared, leaving a shadowed copy of herself still gripped in Sylar's hands. Before Sylar could even stop to think what the hell just happened, his hands sank straight through where her neck had previously been and the silhouette broke apart, sending wispy black smoke spiralling out of existence in all directions.
All of this happened in a matter of seconds, and though he had witnessed the entire thing, Sylar couldn't believe his eyes. Rae was gone. Where? He had no idea. The only thing he did know now was exactly what her remarkable ability was. And if it was even possible, he hungered for it even more.
Sylar felt a swirl of icy cold air behind him and suddenly a contrastingly warm and unmistakeably female body pressed up against his back. He could feel her breathing against the back of his neck as Rae leaned forwards a little more, once again finding Sylar's left ear directly before her lips.
"Are you afraid of the dark, Gabriel?" She purred in his ear, tracing the outer shell with her tongue, "You really shouldn't have turned out the lights…"
She paused for a second, and Sylar could almost sense her glancing upwards at the remains of the light bulb.
"Although you didn't really turn it out, did you?" Rae mused aloud, "You sort of… broke it."
Sylar didn't have chance to answer, or even move to seize hold of her again as she let out a delighted laugh and her warmth left him as she once again faded away into the darkness. Even though he knew she was no longer there, he spun around anyway, his dark brown eyes darting around the room as he searched for any slightest clue or sign of the mysterious Miss Freeman. Nothing. He felt fury rapidly swelling up in his chest as he swept his glare accusingly across the empty space. She was gone. How could she be gone?! It wasn't even possible that she could escape him! No one escapes Sylar!
He cast his gaze over the bed and noticed something was missing, and it hit him instantly as to exactly what it was. Rae's knife. Like it's owner, it too had vanished without a trace. Into thin air. No, not thin air. Into the shadows.
The sound of a door slamming made him whip his head around to the source so fast that he almost gave himself whiplash. The bedroom door was shut, but only because Sylar himself had closed it when he'd first entered the room.
Another slam. Then another. Listening, Sylar realised that it wasn't just a single door being opened and slammed shut again repeatedly, but several in swift procession, one after another. And judging by the subtle change in pitch with each door, the sounds lead through the hallway and down the stairs. Narrowing his eyes dangerously, Sylar strode across the room, forcing the door open telekinetically so hard that it actually tore away from its hinges and splintered against the wall opposite.
All the doors that had previously been open were now closed, but Sylar paid little attention as he made his way purposefully down the staircase from which he'd first came, the look in his eyes so fierce that if anyone happened to come close enough right at that moment, they'd undoubtedly literally burst into flames.
"What I wouldn't give for that ability," He thought as he reached the bottom of the staircase and sent another door flying from its frame without touching it, "What I wouldn't give for her ability. Rae Freeman, you won't live to regret taunting me.
Sylar walked into what was obviously the living room and his gaze was instantly drawn to a two-seater leather sofa that was directly in front of him. Sprawled casually across it was none other than the subject of his fury, gently tipping the blade of her knife with one finger. Her skin had turned back to its original colour, as had her hair. She appeared almost harmless from this angle, her head tilted forwards as she studied the blade in her fingers. As she realised she was no longer alone, Rae looked up at Sylar with a mock sad expression on her face that would've been convincing if it weren't for the impish smirk twitching her lips.
"What took you so long?" She inquired, pulling herself up into a sitting position and crossing one long tanned leg over the other. She leaned forwards, her knife held loosely in both hands where they rested on her lap. Sylar saw that her irises had not yet returned to blue and were still that foreboding shade of grey.
"Have you worked it out yet?"
"You can manipulate shadows." Sylar replied, a rush of anticipation racing along his spine that was somewhat dulled by his anger. 'And soon, so will I.'
"Yup." Rae smiled as she stood up on the sofa cushions and, with a remarkable amount of easy grace, climbed up onto the back, "I'm a walking case of Nyctophobia. You don't want to meet me down a dark alley." She giggled almost girlishly at the obvious insinuation behind her words, "You even saw the results of that yourself, didn't you?"
As she grinned down at him, Sylar suddenly recalled part of their earlier conversation at the bar.
"Amara, my sister, oh she had such a fear of the dark. Pretty ironic, actually."
Those had been her exact words. At the time, he hadn't understood the irony, nor had he dwelled on it since he'd been so focussed on trying to figure out the unusual fearless woman who sat before him. And now, as she stood before him, balancing perfectly on top of the thin hard ledge that formed the back of the sofa, Sylar realised that he hadn't been the only one hinting about his powers back there.
Rae lowered her body into a crouch, keeping her eyes on his as she pulled the bobble free from her hair and then retied her ponytail a little tighter than before. Sylar couldn't help but notice just how catlike Rae Freeman was with her movements, slinky and elegant with a sense of balance second to none. Even the gleam reflected from the moonlight in her grey eyes was feline. She certainly seemed like the kind of woman who always landed on her feet. But one cat feature she didn't have was nine lives. She only had the one. Soon to be zero.
"So, Sylar… Are you going to play my game with me?" Rae smiled pleasantly, as though this wasn't a life-or-death situation she was so eager to get herself into. Sylar's anger was starting to subside now, and his amused annoyance had returned. Although it was more amusement than annoyance, and growing even more so every minute that passed.
"I'm afraid I have to decline." Sylar responded as he stared up at her from beneath his eyebrows, inclining his head towards her with his smug smirk fixed back in its rightful place. His hand rose up slowly from his side, two fingers pointed straight at Rae Freeman's forehead, ready to slice.
Rae's features turned from mischievous to predatory as she handled her knife expertly in one hand, looking for all the world like a lioness poised to attack. An armed lioness. An armed lioness with superpowers. Somebody was about to get hurt, and Sylar wasn't completely certain if it would be Rae or him.
"I'm afraid you don't really have a choice." She hissed, baring her teeth at him in a feral snarl as her arm snapped back and then flung forwards, sending the knife ripping through the air towards him with deadly speed and precision. "Think fast!"
Luckily for Sylar, he managed to halt the knife in midair with his telekinesis, the sharp point less than an inch away from the centre of his forehead. If he hadn't done as she said and 'thought fast', the blade would've speared him straight between the eyes. Even with his stolen ability to heal himself, that would've hurt like the mother of all mothers.
Sylar looked up over the floating blade, only to find Rae had disappeared again. A spurt of frustration made his jaw tighten, but when the sound of soft laughter came from somewhere to his far left, he merely turned his head towards the noise, his face impassive apart from one raised eyebrow.
It was strange how Rae reappeared. Although it couldn't really be classed as 'reappearing' as it was much more like 'emerging'. As she stepped forwards out of the shadows covering the wall, black tendrils receded from her flesh like live vines, reluctant to let her go. It almost seemed like it took a lot of effort to escape the clutches of darkness, judging by how her back arched slightly and her fists clenched as she pulled herself free. It looked like she was trying to walk through thick tar. Sylar imagined that was probably what it felt like too.
"Impressive." Sylar said approvingly. Rae grinned and leaned back against the wall.
"I could say the same." She replied, gesturing towards the knife still suspended in the air in front of him. Sylar glanced at it, then his gaze returned to her, his smirk doubling in size.
"This is nothing compared to what else I can do." Sylar purred smoothly. Rae smirked and opened her mouth to reply, but whatever she'd intended to say swiftly turned into a loud cry of mixed shock and pain as she jerked sharply to the side to avoid her own knife as it was sent back at her at double the speed. Unfortunately for her, she'd moved a split-second too late and the blade impaled itself through the flesh and sinews of her right shoulder, effectively pinning her to the wall behind her.
"You son of a bitch!" She hissed through teeth gritted in pain, both her hands flying up to the hilt that stuck obscenely out of her body. Blood surfaced and trailed rivulets down her arm, spreading across the black silk of her nightie at that side of her chest. Her palms and the knife handle swiftly became slippery with the crimson liquid as she tried vainly to pull the blade from her shoulder.
Sylar's smirk was now so wide it was surprising it hadn't ripped his face in two. He let out a throaty chuckle as he started towards her, purposely taking his time. His brown eyes were fixed unblinkingly on the scarlet fluid that leaked from the wound beneath the hilt. Rae Freeman wasn't going anywhere now. She was securely trapped against that wall by her own knife. Sylar savoured the moment as he approached her, waiting for her to lift her head and look at him so he could finally take pleasure in the fear in her eyes.
"Did you really think you could bait a man like me and get away with it, Rae Freeman?" Sylar inquired, coming to a halt less than a few feet in front of her. He leaned forwards, placing one palm against the wall at the side of her head while he used the other hand to tilt her chin up to meet his gaze. Rae's eyes flickered with pain, and the briefest infinitesimal flash of apprehension that darted through the grey orbs made Sylar's heart leap to his throat with triumph.
'Yes… now you're scared, Rae. I've got half of what I wanted.' He thought. 'Now for the rest…'
Sylar lifted his hand for the second time and aimed two fingers at Rae's forehead, grinning widely down at her. She glared defiantly back, and Sylar couldn't deny the spark of simultaneous respect and regret that jolted through his brain.
"I wish…" Rae spoke unexpectedly, panting a little as she still attempted to yank out the blade from her flesh, "I wish I had a gun right now. You can't take abilities from corpses, can you, Sylar? I'd splatter my brains all over this room if I could. Just like Eden McCain. Remember her, Sylar? You should. You tried to steal her power of persuasion, but she killed herself before you could. Remember that?"
Sylar faltered at her words, his mind unintentionally flashing back to a time he'd long since tried to forget, back to his imprisonment in the Company, Primatech.
Sylar looked out through the large glass panel at the front of his cell, staring up at the small, dark-haired young woman who held a gun loosely by her side. She glared back at him, her hazel eyes burning with hatred.
"I'm going to take this gun, and I'm going to put it in that slot. And you're going to take it and you're going to blow your brains out." She said, her words rich with persuasive power that made Sylar mentally waver for a moment, a voice in the back of his mind, her voice, urging him to do as she said. But he wasn't about to let this woman force him into committing suicide. Not now, not when he'd barely begun harvesting all those wondrous abilities that others didn't deserve them, and he was more than happy to take their gifts into his own worthier hands. This woman, barely more than a girl, didn't deserve her power. She was broken, like one of the timepieces that needed to be fixed by him, Gabriel Gray, the watchmaker's son.
Anger suddenly surged through his veins as he realised something, and his lip curled as he narrowed his eyes.
"You knew, didn't you?" He spat viciously. He didn't give her chance to reply before he flung his arm up in the air and she was sent speeding through the glass, landing half-in, half-out of Sylar's cell. She tried to pull herself up, but Sylar's hand swiftly found her throat.
"You knew what I was and you let it continue." He growled. She gasped in his grip, her eyes wide and swimming with so much fear, Sylar almost felt like he was drowning in it. Small slivers of glass peppered the right side of her face, blood oozing down her skin.
"In a way, you helped me." He chuckled nastily, tightening his fingers around her neck. "And after I've consumed your power, you'll help me even more."
The woman struggled to breathe, but with some last reserves of strength and determination she brought up the hand that still clutched the gun and aimed it at Sylar's head. Sylar glanced at it, then returned his cold gaze to her bloodied face, enjoying every minute.
"Eden, you know that won't hurt me." He sneered. Eden drew in one final shuddering breath and quickly turned the gun on herself before he could intervene. Sylar's expression was one of total disbelief as the gunshot echoed around the room, and what remained of the broken glass panel was sprayed with dark crimson liquid.
Sylar was brought back to earth by the sickening sound of metal against flesh and he managed to grab Rae's wrist before she plunged the blade slick with her own blood into his blackened excuse for a heart. Obviously she had used Eden's name to make him relive the woman's death in his head so he would be distracted enough for Rae to remove the knife from her shoulder. She glared at him now, her eyes as cold and grey as steel. And Sylar was glaring straight back, all previous vindictive enjoyment and amusement gone without a trace.
"How do you know about that?" Sylar all but snarled at her. She seemed to know everything about him. And Sylar wasn't playing games with her anymore.
"Because I was there." Rae shot back, a smirk reappearing across her beautiful face as Sylar stared incredulously at her, his eyebrows furrowed into a harsh frown.
"Liar." He hissed, though his fingers pressed against the pulse in her wrist told him the opposite. It stayed perfectly even, no sudden rush to indicate her dishonesty. Either Rae Freeman was an excellent liar, or she was genuinely telling the truth.
"There wasn't only that one cell down in the Company's basement, and it wasn't the only one occupied either. I was there. Me and a few others, all locked up in that Hellhole. Just because we never met each other, doesn't mean I never heard of you. You were sort of infamous in there at the time, and one of the main topics of gossip. All the guards talked about you. And I just so happened to overhear most of the conversations."
Sylar still held onto her wrist, and he could feel her forcing her strength into that arm, trying to bring her knife down to meet his flesh. He tightened his grip warningly and shot her a deadly look, but that only made her smirk spread wider.
"They caught me about a week before they caught you, and I escaped a week after you escaped. Because of my ability, I'm capable of just about anything even with the smallest of shadows. Even when they flooded my cell with light, they couldn't completely get rid of the darkness, so they had to keep me weak to keep me prisoner. I was drugged most of the time, only lucid when they wanted to talk to me, or when they wanted to do their little tests on me. And even then, the man with the horn-rimmed glasses always brought that damn Haitian with him, so I couldn't escape even if I wanted to. I hated that place. I felt dead."
Rae broke her gaze from his for a moment, her knife-free hand pressed against the wound in her shoulder to stem the bleeding. It didn't look to be making much difference, judging by the red streaks seeping out from between her fingers.
"They called us dangerous. People of the worst sort." She laughed bitterly, "Hell, we weren't even people to them. We were locked up in there because we were a threat to society, and the world wouldn't be safe with us walking the streets. That's why you were there. And that's why I was there."
She stopped there, averting her gaze from his. Sylar kept his eyes trained on her face, his brow creased slightly as he fought to hold back the question he wanted to ask. 'And why were you there?'
Rae glanced almost reluctantly back at him and she must've seen something in his dark brown orbs that made her understand the unasked question because she heaved a deep sigh and readjusted her grasp on the hilt of her knife.
"I murdered my family, ok?" Rae scowled in irritation. "It wasn't intentional, it just sort of… happened. My ability is so incredible, and although I can control it to an extent, sometimes I can't. When my emotions get the better of me, I can't hold back."
Sylar understood that concept. Maya Herrera had had a similar problem with her powers surfacing whenever her emotions took over her, usually resulting with people near her dropping dead where they stood. Sylar himself had taught her to manage her emotions and her power. Granted, he had only done it to make sure he would be able to control her ability when he took it from her, but that wasn't relevant right now.
"I was sixteen when it happened. Me, my brother and my sister came home from school and we found my mom and dad arguing in the front room. Sure, they'd argued before, but never like that. I remember seeing a hole in the wall, and my dad's knuckles were bloodied. He'd punched the wall instead of my mother. She hadn't held back on him though, since he had a bright red handprint on his cheek where she'd slapped him. They'd decided on a divorce less than a week before, and things had just gotten worse between them since then. They were screaming at each other, and me and my brother and sister were huddled in a corner, watching. Amara was crying, but me and Kaleb weren't. I got so angry, angrier than I'd ever felt before. And I tried to stop them. That was a stupid mistake."
Rae's hand that held the knife sagged a little, and Sylar stayed silent as he watched her blink away the tears that had suddenly welled up in her eyes. Just like before at the bar, Sylar found himself completely drawn into Rae's story. He could almost see the scene unfold in his mind's eye: a sixteen-year-old Rae Freeman struggling to break up the fight between her enraged parents while her siblings watched fearfully from the sidelines.
"I shouted at them to stop it, that they were scaring us. Dad looked like he was going to do as I said, but mom turned on me instead. She was beyond furious at that point. She called me a dirty little whore, said I was a disgrace, that it was all my fault our family was falling apart and couldn't I see how everyone would be much better off if I wasn't around. She told me that she wished she'd never given birth to me. That was too much for me. I was so overwhelmed with rage that all I could see was red. I can't remember anything that happened after that until I was woke up alone on the living room carpet, covered and surrounded by so much blood. I literally saw red then. I'd killed them all. Mom, dad, Kaleb and Amara. Being ripped apart by shadows wasn't how they deserved to die. Even mom didn't deserve that."
A single tear dripped from her long eyelashes and slid lazily down her cheek. Instinctively, Sylar reached out and brushed it away with the back of his free hand. Rae looked up at him and gave him a small grateful smile that made some, if not most, of his previous anger ebb away.
"I ran away after that and started a new life for myself somewhere far from there. Nobody came looking for me. Everyone thought I'd died with my family in some freak accident. Several years passed and I'd got myself a house, a career and a fiancé. I thought I was finally normal. I hid my powers and kept my emotions carefully guarded so I wouldn't accidentally kill anyone the same way again. I was so in love with my fiancé, but when I caught him in our bed with another woman… Well, you can guess what happened."
Sylar could guess alright. An older blood-splattered Rae Freeman standing alone in another blood-splattered room.
"You lost control." He said, a little surprised at how soft and empathetic his voice had turned. Rae chuckled dryly, smiling ruefully up at him.
"I went batshit crazy." She corrected. Sylar released her wrist and she let her hand fall back down to her side, loosely holding the knife between crimson stained fingers.
"They caught me after that. Somehow they knew all about me, my past, my ability. Everything. All I can remember of the day they took me was that I came home from work, and the moment I walked into the kitchen, someone attacked me from behind. Held their hand over my mouth until I fell unconscious. I couldn't use my power to get away because there were two of them, and the other just so happened to be the Haitian. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in a concrete cell, strapped down to a table, high as a freaking kite thanks to all the drugs they'd pumped into me."
Rae glanced down at the floor for a moment before she brought her head back up to look Sylar in the eye, the expression on her face suddenly so devious that Sylar wondered how she even had the facial muscles to pull it off.
"Anyway, that's enough of the sob stories for now." Rae grinned, all tears and sadness gone in an instant to be replaced by a familiar impish glee. "We were playing a game, remember?"
She didn't even give him chance to answer before she swung back her arm and let fly, her fist colliding solidly with Sylar's ruggedly handsome face. The sickening crunch of cartilage accompanied with a burst of white-hot pain that spread through his entire skull left no doubt in Sylar's mind that his nose was broken as he staggered backwards in surprise, almost toppling over onto the leather sofa behind him. Blood streamed down from both nostrils as he flung both his hands up to his face to crack his nose back into place for it to heal properly.
Rae hadn't moved from her spot in front of him, but her fists were clenched and raised, ready to deliver another bone-crunching punch. She'd dropped her knife and it lay forgotten on the carpet by her feet. Why she'd suddenly decided to attack him with hand-to-hand combat rather than sticking the knife in him or using her powers was a mystery to Sylar. As she said, she was 'capable of just about anything even with the smallest of shadows'. So why didn't she try to tear him to shreds with her ability like she had done to so many people before?
Her wound was still bleeding profusely, but she ignored it. Instead of slowing her down, it seemed to be doing the opposite. Rae Freeman looked to be more fired up than ever.
"That's for stabbing me in the shoulder." She told him as he straightened up, glaring murderously at her as he wiped the scarlet liquid from his face with his sleeve.
"I guess I deserved that." Sylar agreed, inclining his head to her. Then, without warning, he lunged towards her. Expecting it, Rae swung for him again, but he ducked at the last moment and caught her fist in his larger palm as it sailed harmlessly over his head. He spun her round in his arms so her back was pressed against his chest, grabbing her jaw with one hand while he twisted her arm painfully up her back with the other. Rae cried out and started to struggle violently against him. Sylar easily stopped that just by pulling her arm up her back another couple of inches, taking sadistic delight at the louder hiss of pain she gave in response.
"Don't fight me." He murmured in her ear, her hair silky and soft against his skin. He moved his hand up from her jaw, once again aiming at her forehead with two fingers outstretched. "It will all be over soon, I promise."
"The Hell it will!" Rae snarled in response, driving her elbow back into his stomach so hard that Sylar felt all the air leave his lungs instantly. But that was the least of his problems, since Rae didn't intend to just stop there. She reached up behind her when he unwillingly released her as he fought to get his breath back, grabbing hold of his head in her hands before twisting away from him without letting go. As awful as the sound of his nose breaking had been, it was nothing compared to the horrific noise that wrenched through the air as Sylar's neck snapped, leaving his head cocked at a sickeningly unnatural angle.
Sylar's eyes were blank and glassy for a few seconds before he blinked and the twin pools of dark brown cleared back to their usual cold hypnotic state. The expression on his face was mildly irritated as he took hold of his head and jerked it back into its proper place with another wince-worthy crack of bone against bone.
Rae backed away from him, her nose wrinkled in repulsion. But even she couldn't disguise the awe in her steely grey eyes.
"Now that's just disgusting." She said with a grin. Sylar didn't return it. He'd had enough of this so-called game. He'd come here for one reason and one reason only, and that reason wasn't to play cat and mouse with this unusual fearless young woman who'd had absolutely no self-preservation in her body until he grabbed her from behind and that survival instinct finally kicked in. Obviously it hadn't lasted long, since she was now back to her previous suicidal teasing ways. Who would be crazy enough to bait a superpowered serial killer capable of severing the top of their head without even touching them? Well, a crazy person, naturally. Or someone just like that serial killer. Gabriel Gray and Rae Freeman. The serial killer and the mass-murderer. Oh, the irony.
With a flick of his fingers, Rae was sent flying back through the air until her body slammed into the wall behind her with enough force to make the entire house shudder. Her legs dangled a good couple of metres from the floor and Sylar held her there with his telekinesis. All her motor skills were completely overruled by his power and she could do little more than blink, breathe and talk.
Rae gasped heavily in pain and coughed, a bloody string splattering from her lips to the floor. Sylar sidestepped it without a second glance as he moved slowly towards the suspended young woman, his gaze so greedy and predatory that Rae's heart literally skipped a beat in her chest as fear clawed its way up her spine. But Rae Freeman would be damned before she let it show on her face. And Sylar could see that determination in her eyes. At least she had the grace to die with dignity.
"Now hold still." Sylar purred, grinning in warped amusement at his own words. He half expected Rae to fire back at him with one of her smartass sarcastic comments, to give him one last parting shot before he killed her, but to his surprise she stayed silent, her eyelids sliding shut over her grey irises as though she'd resigned herself to her fate.
Sylar couldn't deny it. He was disappointed. At first he'd wanted her fear, but now he found himself wanting nothing more than to see one last burst of Rae Freeman's fiery mischievous personality before he buried his hands inside her brain.
He grit his teeth and clenched his jaw to retain the disappointment, and for the fourth and final time, pointed his fingers at Rae Freeman's forehead.
And she opened her eyes.
They were blue again, that breathtakingly beautiful sparkling ocean blue that drew him in so amazingly. People say that the eyes are the windows to the soul, and at that moment, Sylar couldn't agree more. Rae Freeman's soul was bared out to him, swimming in those twin orbs of sapphire.
Sylar mentally cursed himself and shook his head, trying to get a grip. Rae watched him, surveying him steadily, no other emotion but a total serene calm expression on her face.
"I want to kill you." Sylar growled, growing increasingly angry with himself as he tried to command his fingers to slice across her head, but they didn't move. "I want to kill you. I do! I want to kill you!"
"Then kill me." Rae replied, her voice barely louder than a whisper. Her voice was as tranquil as her features and that made him even more furious and determined. Sylar shifted his weight slightly, his teeth bared into a vicious snarl as he steeled himself to try again.
"Do it." Rae murmured, blinking freely down at him. Sylar felt beads of sweat break out on his forehead as his hand aimed at her shook from the mental exertion. "Just do it. Kill me, Gabriel."
As soon as his name left her lips, all the fury and resolution escaped his body instantaneously. His shoulders slumped forwards as his hand fell back to his side.
"I can't." He whispered, his baritone voice a mixture of disbelief and exhaustion. His telekinetic hold pinning Rae to the wall broke and she fell back down to the floor below. She would've landed in a graceless heap on the carpet if it hadn't been for the warm hands that reached out to catch and steady her at the last moment.
Rae stared up at Sylar, cerulean blue meeting the darkest richest chocolate brown for the longest moment.
"I can't kill you." He said, as though the sentence was a dark personal secret he hadn't wanted to reveal. Rae smiled genuinely up at him.
"Has anyone ever told you that you have the most amazing eyes?" She asked with a slightly embarrassed soft breathy laugh. Yet another endearing trait for this remarkable beautiful woman stood before him. Sylar's lips twitched as he unsuccessfully fought back a smile of his own.
"Has anyone ever told you that you have a death wish, Rae Freeman?" Sylar countered. Rae chuckled in response. Neither of them seemed to realise that they'd moved closer together, and now Rae's hands were splayed against Sylar's firm chest as his hand rested at the small of her back.
"Only every other day." She grinned. Sylar grinned back before he reached around with one hand and gently tugged the bobble from Rae's hair, sending the long russet waves cascading down around her shoulders. Rae shot him a quizzical look and he shrugged.
"You look better with your hair down." He said. And then he kissed her.
She tasted so much better than he'd imagined, and her slim body seemed to fit perfectly against his. His hands were entangled in her luscious mane of silky brown hair and her arms slid around his neck, holding him like she never wanted to let go. Not that Sylar had any intention of letting go. The desire that pulsed through his entire body now was more than desire for Rae's power. It was desire for Rae herself.
"Say my name." Sylar purred against Rae's soft pink lips.
"Sylar…" She moaned in response, kissing him deeper.
"No… my real name."
"Gabriel…"
That one word was the sound of the leash on his restraint well and truly snapping. He let out a feral growl and picked Rae up in his strong arms, ready to throw her down onto the nearest surface and sate his desire. Rae's long legs locked around his waist and she broke their liplock for a brief moment to whisper in his ear.
"Hold on tight." She said, and immediately after Sylar felt the strangest sensation of every part of his body being squeezed simultaneously. He could still feel Rae wrapped around him, her lips lavishing sweet kisses to his in a wonderfully distracting way, but his vision was completely black. When the darkness gradually began to recede and the pair found themselves back in Rae's bedroom, Sylar realised what she'd done. And he also realised that his earlier assumption had been right. Travelling through shadows was like walking through thick tar.
The bed was straight behind them, so blatantly inviting that Sylar just had to untangle Rae's legs from around him and lower the young woman down onto the silk sheets as though she was a delicate and fragile as porcelain. He caught sight of her shoulder and saw the wound was still leaking crimson down her tanned chest. Rae didn't even acknowledge it, her sights set on nothing but the man stood before her.
Rae noticed him hesitate a moment as he stared down at her uncertainly and she rolled her eyes.
"I'm not made of glass, Gabriel. I won't break." She sighed, arranging her body into a deliberately suggestive pose accompanied with that impish smirk he loved to hate, and it made Sylar's heart jump up into his throat.
"I could break you." Sylar replied dangerously, a challenging gleam in his suddenly fiery brown eyes. Rae chuckled, tossing her hair over one shoulder and baring her delicious throat to him.
"I'd like to see you try." She grinned, sealing the deal.
Sylar smirked at the mysterious and fearless young woman that lay on the bed in front of him, and couldn't help but laugh as he thought that this wasn't exactly how he'd envisioned tonight would end.
Not that he was complaining. And obviously neither was she.
Gabriel Gray and Rae Freeman. The serial killer and the mass-murderer.
Sylar had finally met his match, and by God, he'd never felt so alive.
So what d'you think? Drop me a review and let me know! :D
Keep a lookout for part three!
See ya!
XxXxX