So sorry for the long wait!! I was a bit busy but now that vacation's rolled around I've had some time and I wanted to update this. This is the first dual-POV chap and it features Dante and Sophie, also this kinda has a cliffhanger in the beginning. So don't get confused it's just a flashforward and the flash back to the present.
Well, enjoy.
Chapter Eleven: You Are Worth It
Dante
No! I screamed mentally, the pain flowing through my veins like liquid fire and I bit my lip to restrain from screaming out loud.
"Stop, please!" Zhalia begged, gaining the attention of Klaus who turned to her with ice cold eyes. I knew where she had learned the icy glare she threw when she was furious.
"Zhalia, I'd rather die-" I started when she cut in.
"And then what? Klaus is a man of his word." her eyes locked to her dark foster father before looking towards me. "You're no good to anyone dead."
"Zhalia." I entreated knowing full well what she was going to do. I couldn't lose her- I couldn't not after what had happened, what nearly happened, and-
"I'll make a deal, Klaus." Zhalia said, cutting through my thoughts.
"Of course, my dear." the elderly evil Seeker grinned evilly.
I shook my head and struggled, but the web that bound me only constricted holding me tighter. I could barely breathe.
"You free him, unharmed, and he gets to the Foundation unhurt and in one piece. I will go with you, back to Vienna." she said as she dropped down to her knee in submission, her eyes downcast and her hand on the earth.
"Not Vienna." Klaus hissed, "Prague."
I saw Zhalia's eyes widen as her head was bowed and we both knew what that meant.
"Klaus, take me to him. You know what he'll do to her!" I yelled and I saw a glimmer of emotion in Klaus's eyes. "You look at her like you would your daughter. Please, don't send her to her death!"
"I already had." Klaus said looking to me. "The day I sent her to infiltrate the Huntik Foundation, I sent her to her death."
He really loathed me and I saw it as he summoned a Venomhand spell to his fingertips and approached me in a threatening manner.
"The Zhalia I looked to as my daughter died the day she saved you in front of the Organization's eyes." he shouted, enraged.
He was talking about the battle in the middle of the Foundation's safe area. He was there?! I asked myself, running through my memories of that day but not remembering ever seeing him in the shadows of the trees where I knew Wind and that dragon were hiding or in the heavy frays that were attacking individual Seekers. It was impossible-
"Invisibility was something I've tampered with for the longest time." Klaus said, to ease my curiosity as he brought the deadly spell closer to my face. A touch of that long enough to the temple could render me comatose.
"I could have killed you earlier, but Zhalia stopped me." I replied, in a raised voice as I gestured to Zhalia who was watching wordlessly as we conversed as if she wasn't there. However, trepidation filled her eyes and I knew that nothing was getting through to her.
Klaus grabbed my neck and the spell, which was a poison, started weaving its way through me...slowly starting to kill me. I choked.
"You killed her. Her death's on your hands, not mine." he hissed before he let me go and I gasped for breath. I looked beyond him to see Zhalia staring at me with crestfallen, fearful eyes. The light brown were dull and tainted. Not bright and...
"Free him." Klaus spat at one of the Suits. The man willingly stripped the spell from me and I collapsed to the ground my muscles stinging from the constriction they endured. I took a moment to collect myself, to activate the borders of my mind from any mental attack, to prepare myself if I needed to defend myself.
I was about to spring on my feet, betray my word to Klaus, not caring if I died only thinking that I'd save her. But that dim voice that governed me a long time ago broke through, as if reinforced by something...or someone. Keep your word and keep your head. Think, Dante Vale! You can't save her if you're dead! My voice of reason screamed at me, stilling my body.
I felt Zhalia, her presence striking the edge of my borders, her new skills making her more like a telepath than anything else. I let her in and let her aura warm me. If there was such thing as a tender mental kiss then that's what she gave me and I heard her voice, tired, faint, and weak: Go, Dante.
There was no 'I love you' because we both knew how cliché those words were and that us saying them was almost out of our characters. However, we knew how we felt for each other.
Go.
I stood and glared at Klaus before turning a tender glance to Zhalia.
Go.
"I will kill you." I swore, staring back at Klaus.
"No doubt you will, one day." Klaus replied as if he knew that I would be his death. "Now, leave, before I change my mind."
"Zhalia-" I whispered taking a step towards her but stopped as her voice in my head streamed, GO!! I flinched, but all I had to do was say her name to send water to her eyes.
I turned my back and whispered, "Hyperstride." I was gone within a blink running through wreckage and ruin, praying to God that I get there and back to her before the Professor even saw her...or worse.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
48 Hours Earlier
I carried her through the shield as the battle tapered around us. Sophie was clearing our path. I yelled for Lady Alyssa to help Zhalia who was lying limp in my arms, her head leaning against my chest. I had sealed the wound at her chest, but that was not enough. She would die if she didn't get a healer's touch within the next handful of minutes.
"Come!" Lady Alyssa shouted as she gestured for me to follow her into the house.
I navigated the hallways, passages, and doors with ease, taking care not to get Zhalia hurt in the process as I rushed through the large manor. Lady Alyssa led me to one of the healing chambers in the very far corner of the house on the first floor.
I lay her on the bed and left her side to let Lady Alyssa tend to her. I could still hear the shouts outside and knew that they needed my help. The battle wasn't over, at least, not yet.
"Go!" Lady Alyssa said, when she turned back to me. "They need you out there, Dante. I will be fine with her in here."
I nodded to her, unable to summon any words to speak, before I ran outside and out of the shield. Cathy and Sandra, who were attending to a nearly faint Lok and several others along with Metz still remained in the shield, and when they saw me only one person's face was filled with fear.
"Dante!" Metz yelled as he saw it in my amber eyes. "Dante, don't!"
But it was too late. Revenge was burning deep within me and though I was able to control my emotions, whatever I was becoming was taking complete control of me.
Hunger. That was what Rassimov had called it. Well, it was deadly.
I lashed out with fire spells, the ones that came most easily to me whether they were dark or light, whether they within my power or were just a small amount out of reach. I summoned Caliban and Metagolem to help me along with a new Titan, a great dragon known as Titanus. Time meant nothing as I attacked, taking out high Suits as they thought to challenge me. I didn't care for those that ran into the forest or took off, only for those that dared to come after me. I looked for Shauna or maybe Wind to challenge them, but they didn't show. I finished off my challengers, breathing hard when I was done. I think I cracked one's neck in the process when he was trying to kill Sophie.
"Dante." Sophie called out, as if scared. No, she was scared. I could hear it in her voice.
I turned to her slightly and she gasped as she approached me. Her eyes locked with mine.
"What's wrong?" I asked, my voice dark and scratched.
"Dante, you're bleeding." she whispered as she reached up to my brow to trace a large gash above my eyebrow. But I ignored it, the pain wasn't enough to make me feel anything. I wiped the blood away. "And... your eyes."
I stared at her intently and I saw her flinch.
"Sophie?" I asked, gently. "What color are my eyes?"
"Black with an electric blue hue." she told me, when I felt exhaustion hit me full on. I couldn't answer her, or tell her who that reminded me of.
The cost of my anger, hunger, vengeance, and usage of power took its toll on me and I fell to my knees. The energy that I had used registered late and took whatever I had leaving me in pain.
"Dante?!" Kevin and Ian were by my side and helping me. Titanus, Caliban, and Metagolem disappeared into orbs of energy and disappeared into their respective amulet. Their thoughts coming to me through the Bond we shared.
Dante? Titanus asked, Are you alright?
Don't waste your energy, Dante. Caliban warned me.
Be careful, Dante. Metagolem cautioned.
I assured them all that I was alright, but doubt emanated from them. Kevin helped me to my feet and I leaned on him.
"C'mon, you're no used to anyone exhausted and beat." Kevin joked with a smile.
"Kev." I managed to get out. I felt faint. "Kev, I need to go see Zhalia."
"We don't need one more body for healing." Ian replied as he helped me on my other side.
"I don't need healing. I'm the one who's going to be healing." I replied.
"I'll go with Lok." Sophie said taking leave of us as she ran over to Lok, who was being helped to his feet by his mother and Cathy. His eyes were half closed and I knew that I shouldn't have told him about his ability, which I had seen him use. I hadn't taught him the skill to handle it and that was dangerous- damn my dangerous lapse of judgment!
"Should we be worrying about those two?" Kevin asked me, but I shook my head.
"They're teenagers." I answered. "What could they possibly-"
I stopped myself. "Ian, keep an eye on them."
"Oh, his mother will make sure of that." Ian said as the three of us looked towards the leaving group to see that Sandra followed Cathy, Lok, and Sophie intently.
"I need to see Zhalia." I reminded them as I staggered forward, but the two of them supporting me on either side held me where I was as Metz approached being wheeled by Lady Ess.
"Dante." he said warningly as he nodded to Kevin and Ian saying "Thank You".
"Oh, you backstabbers." I hissed at the two of them as the two left me to stand in front of my mentor, who usually I'd be glad to talk to, but not at the moment when all I could think of were light brown eyes, fair skin, and long locks of ocean blue hair...her pulse fading.
"Dante, you can't let go of yourself, especially out of revenge and anger." Metz reprimanded.
"I know that." I snapped when I realized that I was being rude to the man that practically raised me as his son. "I'm sorry, Metz. But I have to do something. Then you can berate me all you want."
I said it with a joke in my voice but there was no smile from Metz.
"Very well, do what you want, but I have to talk about something with you." he said as I walked past him only to freeze, the Professor's words haunting me. I turned to him, halfway.
"I need to talk to you as well. About the Professor...and me." I said, seeing the shock registering in his face before I walked away, following the path I had taken earlier when rushing with Zhalia through the manor. I navigated through people who were standing and others who were conversing with each other until I reached the room where Lady Alyssa was with Zhalia.
"Zhalia." I whispered as I walked up to the bed. She was completely pale, her eyes closed, her face ashen, her expression calm, and her lips taking on a bluish hue as if she were-
"Dead." Lady Alyssa said as she stood, turning to me with guilt. "I'm sorry, Dante."
"No." I muttered as I rushed forward and took Zhalia's cold hand trying to feel for an aura, as I let my powers explore her mind, something I learned to do on my own. But the faint sign of life was distant. "Zhalia, I told you, I won't let you go."
"Dante, don't!" I heard Sophie yell from a distance as she ran in, Lady Alyssa asked what would I do. It was then I heard Metz's objection, but it was too late.
I was pouring my energy into it. Into calling her back-
I immersed myself in her mind and let go of the world I was in.
Everything was dark, abyss-like even though there was a faint light like a star in the distance. It was then that I realized it was a silhouette...of a woman.
"Zhalia!" I yelled as I ran forward, though I felt as if I made no progress and that she was fleeing. "Zhalia! Please! It's me!"
I stopped running when the ghost turned to me and appeared right in front of me.
"Dante." she whispered as she reached out as if to touch me, but her fingers went through my cheek. In horror, she looked at her fingers and then to me. "What-"
"You have to allow me to heal you, no matter what." I told her. "And you must remain here. I will call you back."
"Call me back?"
"You're dying." I whispered to her, surprised I was able to say it straight to her. For a moment, she was crestfallen. "But I will save you."
"What're you going to do?" she asked me, but I didn't answer.
"Just tell me to heal you, please." I told her as I reached out to her, "I can't lose you, Zhalia. Please-"
"Heal me." she said.
I withdrew from her mind and placed my hand on her temple. My energy left her and flowed into her.
"No!" Sophie and Metz yelled as electricity in the form of orange bolts struck out from my fingertips. I heard Lady Alyssa gasp. I screamed as I felt something tear from within me, as if I was losing something. Little by little I tore myself apart feeling her come back to me. I felt her pulse and then her breath against my hand.
I wanted to say something but I couldn't my throat was too dry. I cried out mentally hoping she would hear . Her body was healed but her soul needed to return.
Zhalia!
It was my last thought as I collapsed, striking the floor hard.
"Dante?!" Sophie, Metz, and Lady Alyssa yelled right before I lost myself in the same abyss Zhalia had been in a moment before.
Sophie
Damnit! Goddamnit! Double damnit! I swore aloud and mentally garnering some strange expressions from those in the room.
I rushed to Dante's side as Kevin and Ian rushed into the hallways from wherever they had come from.
"The hell?" Ian asked as they crowded the doorway.
Lady Alyssa rushed to the bed and pressed her fingers against Zhalia's pulse. "I don't believe it."
"What?!" Kevin asked from the doorway from behind Metz who was between the door posts blocking anyone from entering or leaving.
"She's- she's alive!" Lady Alyssa exclaimed, "But how?"
"Among the dark powers is an extreme measure and form of healing." Metz explained solemnly as he looked at me. "Isn't that right, Miss Casterwill?"
"What has he done, Sophie?" Lady Alyssa asked, her eyes staring straight at me.
I hesitated before I answered, "It- It's a radical form of healing. You see, Casterwill believed that when death came- death came and there was no one to argue with that. However, the Nullifiers desired to bring back all of their fallen people and had specific people to do so. The process was so terrible that only the tradition survived and not the people themselves."
"Why?" Ian asked, looking at Dante though he was asking me. "What does it do to them?"
I heard commotion from the hallway and craned my neck to see that Montehue and Tersely were right behind the other two Seekers.
"What's going on now?" Montehue asked as he elevated himself to the balls of his feet to see over both Ian and Kevin and saw the scene. "Well, do something, lass! Heal him, do somethin'!"
"There is nothing we can do." Metz replied calmly. "Dante has done something that only he can reverse and fix. He is stuck within a construct his mind will build to make sure that he recuperate in power sense, in a mental sense, and in a physical sense. We can do nothing. He can only be woken by a powerful spell equal to whatever he performed."
I nodded in agreement as my hand brushed against his forehead. Something flashed in my mind and I cried out.
The Professor. A blade. Zhalia. Death. Blood. Lok. Me. The Legendary Titans.
"Sophie?" I head Lady Alyssa shout as I withdrew my hand, as if I had been burnt.
"I'm alright." I answered her as I touched my temple. "I just-"
"Had a vision?" Metz asked as he held out his hand. I gave it to him and stared into his calm, placid eyes. "The Casterwills especially the women have a strong sense of Sight, a precognitive ability that rarely is passed onto the males of the same family. Those of the Patronus line are affected the same way."
"Patronus." I muttered remembering the little history lesson that Dante had given us before we had arrived here.
"Sophie, what's wrong with Dante?" Tersely asked as Metz moved forward allowing for Ian, the larger between him and Kevin, to make his way through and lift Dante onto his shoulders.
"Put him upstairs in his room." Metz instructed as Ian left with Dante and everyone else turned their attention to me.
"The Nullifiers didn't care about the consequences of their actions, if their bodies were withering away or if their soul is fractured and their sense of being stretched." I said, "Casterwill had firmly disapproved of this method of healing but there are times in history where noble Seekers have used this method. It's neither good nor bad as it is a healing process but the effects it has are things that can't be taken lightly."
I looked back towards the unconscious Zhalia, who looked peaceful and was breathing. If she only knew what Dante had done for her and what he had done to both of them-
"The healing process affects both the healer and the healed." I said, my eyes meeting Metz as he was the only one that knew the process. "The healer gives up his soul, his life force, and drains himself of nearly all of his energy to save the person he is trying to heal, as this is only successful and worth it if it were some sort of fatal wound. A part of the healer then remains with the person he has healed. There is now a magical bond between the two. However, it works both ways."
"What?" Metz asked as he looked up at me with confused eyes. "Really? I had not known that."
"Known what?" Lady Alyssa asked, as did the others who stared at me with query gazes.
"The healed has to allow the healer to go on with the healing." I explained.
"Which means-" Kevin started.
"That Zhalia must have allowed Dante to heal her." Ian finished, the two of them like attuned twins.
"I doubt she knew about it!" I said, quick to her defense. I couldn't see Zhalia, who was ready to give her life up and herself up on the battlefield earlier. "She was ready to give her life-"
"I don't think she was aware of what he was asking her." Metz said, his hands up in a gesture that was telling me to calm down.
"What does that mean for me and Dante?" came a new voice to the conversation.
We all turned to the bed to see Zhalia trying to push herself upright. Lady Alyssa and I helped her up and she caught my arm. She looked better than she had when Dante had carried her off the front lawn earlier. The color had returned to her face and the only proof that she had nearly died moments ago was the blood stain on her shirt from the blade that had pierced her right below the ribcage nearly an hour ago.
"Sophie, what did he do?" she asked, worriedly, and I guessed she had heard parts of the conversation preceding.
I hesitated in answering, "He's bonded his soul to yours in order to save you. There's now a bond between the two of you."
"Bond?" she asked, as if nervous about it.
"I don't know how to explain this." I answered her honestly as she stared at me, hard. "But you and Dante are going to have to discover that on your own. Though I hear, it's kind of a telepathic bond."
"Where is he?" she asked as she made a gesture to move, but Lady Alyssa and I, sharing the same thought stopped her.
"You need to get some sleep. This healing process is going to do things to you both, and I think it's best to keep you two apart for now until we know what will happen." Metz said, saying in union the former sentence with Lady Alyssa and me.
"No, I need to-" Zhalia started as she moaned slightly and fell against the pillows as if she fainted.
"Zhalia?" I asked as I leaned close to her. "Can you hear me?"
"I need to talk to him, Soph. Please, just tell him-" she started when I interrupted her.
"He's out cold, Zhalia. He drained himself healing you." I said not bothering to explain the gravity of what he had done. "When he's awake I'll tell him you asked for him, okay?"
"Thank you, Sophie." Zhalia whispered as she closed her already fluttering, exhausted eyes.
When she was asleep, I turned to the others. Lady Alyssa was in a hushed conversation with Metz while Ian and Kevin looked in my direction.
"So what does this mean for the rest of us?" Ian asked aloud, voicing the question all of us wanted answered.
Suddenly, I gasped, feeling something cold washing over me. I fell to my knees holding my head in my hands as something rang through my head, ripping it apart, something terrible and large- a presence I had felt ripping from somewhere else, crossing a barrier that is to remain closed. I had felt the same presence the same night when-
"Dante." I gasped as I scrambled to my feet and pushed Kevin out of the doorway scrambling for the stairs.
I was rewarded with a sight that scared me. All Seekers on the floor were unconscious, lying on the ground as if hit by an explosion, one that had been aimed- for now- to only knock them unconscious. Echoes of footsteps followed me but I moved fast to the room at the end of hallway in specific.
I blasted the door down with a force blast because I knew it would be locked somehow. It was then that I saw him...the Professor, young as he was supposed to be. His hair was copper brown, tainted with red, his eyes were black with a golden hue, and he looked decades younger than when we had met him that night as a ghost. This time, however, he seemed real enough.
He was holding his hand outstretched in a vise grip as if he was holding something in the air. Meanwhile, on the bed, Dante was pale.
"Let him go!" I demanded in a scream as I threw the hottest bolt flare I could at him. It struck him in the shoulder but it did nothing but attract his attention.
"You will not stop me this time, Miss Casterwill." he snarled at me as he wrenched his hand back and Dante jerked.
"NO!" I screamed knowing why the Professor looked youthful and why Dante was getting deathly pale as the moments passed. "You'll kill him!"
"Kill him?" the Professor asked me incredulously as I heard Kevin and Ian rush in behind me. "I could never kill someone of my own flesh and blood."
He slipped down his left sleeve to reveal a mark that was so familiar. It was faint, as if it was a part of him for a such a long time was fading, like a bad memory.
"No." I muttered as Ian and Kevin started launching the most powerful spells they could think of without hesitation, their priority not information but safeguarding their friend.
The Professor was blown back at the impact of their spells with him, and disappeared in a mist of smoke in a yell of what I assumed to agony. There was nothing else I could do but run forward to Dante, my hand flying to his forehead.
"Dante?!" I shouted as I shook him by his shoulders. I could sense his soul and his pulse, he was alive- barely. "Dante?! Open your eyes if you can hear me!"
"I'll go get Metz." I heard Kevin say as Ian was at my side, his fingers against Dante's neck searching for a pulse.
"I can barely feel it." Ian stated as he looked at me, his eyes darting.
"His pulse is fading." I shouted, "We're losing him!"
"Get back!" Ian instructed as he slightly pushed me aside. I backed away accordingly and stood by to watch, feeling helpless even though now was when I was needed most. "Electrosis."
Orange bolts of lightning shot from Ian's fingertips and struck Dante in the chest. I exchanged a worried glance with Ian as Metz and Kevin entered the room with Montehue and Tersely close behind them.
I saw something that made my heart calm. Dante's chest rose and fell with deep breaths.
"What happened?" Metz asked distracting Ian and me as we turned to him.
"The Professor was attacking Dante while he was unconscious." Kevin answered but I interrupted him.
"Attacking isn't the right word." I said as Ian agreed saying, "I think the Professor was sapping Dante's life force in order to cross from the spirit world into this plane. And he's succeeded but I don't understand how he was able to do that."
"Why?" Montehue asked having been the one to help Metz up the stairs with a hover spell, "The Professor's a powerful Seeker he would have been able to take the life force from any one of us."
"Not true." I inputted, "You see, you can only take the life force of someone you have a-" I paused as I turned to Dante before finishing by saying, "Blood relation to. The Professor said something."
"That he couldn't hurt his own flesh and blood." Ian finished meeting my gaze when I turned to him, "You don't think-"
"No, it's impossible." Kevin, Tersely, and Montehue caught on. However, the reassurance wasn't given by Metz, the one who had raised Dante from a young age.
All of us turned part horrified, part surprised, and part disbelieving looks at the elderly Seeker.
"Tell us that we're wrong." I said, "Tell us-"
"The truth." Dante struggled to say and we all turned to see he had staggered out of bed and was leaning on the bedside counter for support. It wasn't a surprise he was weak, but it was a surprise that he was even awake at all. "I heard everything. Whatever the Professor did, he had me in some sort of limbo. Metz- He called me his flesh and blood. Tell me that he's delusional."
I looked away for a moment when I caught sight of the Patronus mark on his shoulder. Suddenly, the mark brought an image to my mind... it was the same mark as the one on the Professor's inner wrist. I gasped, gaining Dante's attention.
"What's wrong?" he asked me as I reached out and touched the back of his shoulder, outlining the mark and meeting Metz's sad gaze.
"How?" I asked.
Dante turned from me to Metz, his head whipping to his mentor, his amber eyes wide and disbelieving.
"Simon is a changed man, not the man I knew twenty five years ago. You were four at the time when the mission with Araknos occurred." Metz confessed as he met his charge's eyes, "Your mother died in a car crash, that was the only truth I told you. Your father died the day he was cursed."
"So... My father is Simon Judeau." Dante choked out, in horror as everyone's eyes widened.
Tersely looked as if he'd faint. Montehue looked more confused than angry. Kevin and Ian were both in shock and I- well, I was just part surprised and for some reason horrified.
Dante made his way to the window and leaned against the wall, staring out at nothing in particular.
"This doesn't change anything!" I yelled, supported by a chorus of agreement. "You are still Dante Vale, the Huntik Foundation's lead Seeker."
"And soon to be leader of the Foundation." Metz added, adding some news that didn't shock any at all.
"But I am the son of the Foundation's most powerful enemy to date and I'm turning into him." Dante countered as he flexed his fingers and looked at his hand as if there was a distinguishing mark there that said he was evil or showing the fact that he had used dark magic.
"Dante-" I started when Lady Alyssa ran into the room out of breath right behind... Lok.
"What are you doing?!" I yelled at Lok, reprimanding him, knowing that he should be resting. He looked exhausted, but he still stood tall. "You should be resting!"
"Dante, something's happening to me." he gasped as he lifted his hands towards us and held them so that his palms faced all of us.
It seemed to take all of our minds off the latest revelation as we stared at him.
"What the hell?" Kevin asked.
Dante was the only one to walk forward. "What have you done?!"
"I just thought of a spell, the one you were using to fight off the Suits. I just thought of it, I never thought I'd use it." Lok said, sounding like a child trying to claim an obvious innocence.
"It took a while to put out the fire." Lady Alyssa said, the evidence of a fire evident from the scent of smoke and the black marks of soot on the clothes of the both of them.
"Couldn't this be a more interesting day?!" Tersely exclaimed taking all of us off guard, "Dante heals a nearly dead Zhalia, draining himself in the process. The Professor drains him of life force and we find out Dante's his son!"
"What?!" Lady Alyssa and Lok asked.
"There's a floor of unconscious Seekers outside the door and the first floor's a scorched battlefield." Tersely went on as if nothing happened, "And we've got bodies to worry about."
"Okay, I vote there be a psych test for everyone who's just been fighting." Kevin muttered to Montehue, right in my earshot. But I ignored them and held Dante's arm.
"What's going on?" I asked as Metz wheeled closer to us.
"Lok is a Thoughtspeaker." he said as he traced the mark on Lok's palm. I gasped as I turned to meet Lok's inquiring blue gaze. "And he's just used a Nullifier attack spell."
The wind left my lungs as if I had been punched in the gut or blasted by a force blast. My head spun and I was dizzy. This was disastrous- no, tragic.
"What?!" Metz asked as he turned to Lok, who was lost in the conversation still focused on another point.
"You're the Professor's son?!" he asked Dante, incredulously.
"That's not a problem here!" I shouted as I took Lok's hand in mine and stared deep into his eyes, worried and alarmed, "You've used a Nullifier spell."
"What does that mean?" he asked me.
The world seemed to melt away. There was no one but Lok and me, but it was not one of those romantic moments. I tuned everyone out and tried to focus- wondering how cops and federal agents, other organizations had to deal with telling someone or telling a loved one about death. My mind settled and I felt as if I was going to cry.
"You're turning into a Nullifier." I whispered.
"What?!" He shook his head. "No, I didn't-"
"You've used a spell, Lok. It only needs one dark spell to put you on the path." Dante interjected, morosely. His voice was dark, deep and gravely serious more than usual.
"My days are numbered, aren't they?" Lok inquired as his hands tightened on mine. I could see his mood darken. It was in his eyes.
"As a Huntik Seeker?" Dante answered, the only one who could sympathize with him, "Yes, they are."
I shook my head. This couldn't be happening. We were already losing Dante to the curse of the Nullifier spells, Zhalia was a target of the Organization and causing the Foundation Seekers to flare with argument, and now Lok was another victim of the curse. This can't be.
"So, which problem are we gonna deal with first?" Kevin asked, when silence had descended on us for a couple of minutes.
No one replied for a minute until Dante answered.
"Lok, you go get some rest. Sophie, stay with him and make sure he stays in bed. Kevin, I want you and Ian to go and get Michael to do some psych evaluations on the Seekers who have been fighting, and make sure he sees you two first." If he weren't so serious, there would have been some laughs. "Reason being, I want you two to get some rest so you can be scouts for tonight. Lady Alyssa, please, heal those you can. Montehue, I want you and Tersely to set up a secure perimeter and take Annabelle and Jenna, they weren't fighting earlier so you have fresh energies to help you. Tersely, also check the vehicles and make sure they haven't been tampered with. I'll be with Zhalia."
No one hesitated once he was finished. I didn't stick around to be with Dante when he started talking with Metz. I instead took Lok and led him back to the room where he had been assigned to. His mother was there and so was his sister and once we entered, they smothered him with embraces. I was about to leave, when I felt someone grab my wrist.
"Mom, Cathy, you guys can go get some sleep." Lok said to them, hiding the palms of his hands from them. "Sophie is with me."
I saw Sandra about to protest when Cathy pushed her out the door.
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do, kiddo." said Cathy as the two women disappeared beyond the door and Cathy shut it behind her, leaving Lok and me alone in the room.
"Did you want anything?" I asked him awkwardly with a shrug of my shoulders.
"Yeah," he whispered solemnly, the smile replaced by a look of composure that I'm sure he had picked up from all the serious times we had been through together plus all the time we had spent with Dante.
"Well?" I asked him. "What do you want?"
"The rest of my time with you." he answered.
I felt my heart skip a beat and felt it race against my chest. He was suddenly a little out there, but I figured it was because he knew he wouldn't be himself within a few months. I was right.
"I have, what, a couple of months left?" he asked rhetorically. "And we might not even live through this fight against the Professor and Rassimov and whoever else." He paused and took my hands. I was speechless, for once. "I don't want to spend whatever time I have left worrying about anything life-threatening. I just want to be with you."
"Lok." I whispered, just a moment before his lips met mine.
I felt his arms encircle me a moment later and I ran a hand through his hair as I kissed him back, the other hand framing his face as I felt his hand move from my back to my face. I could feel the water spill from my eyes as realization struck me, halfway into the kiss and he drew back to thumb away my tears.
"Don't cry for me, Soph." he whispered with a sad smile. "I'm not worth your tears."
"Yes," I corrected him, taking him off guard for a moment. "Yes, you are."
My words were cut off by a kiss but I couldn't care.
You are worth it.
Poor Lok. Well, this is just getting more desperate for the Huntik team and everyone's involved.
-Phoenix ~^~