Chapter 25 - Fusillading Roister of Dahlias

I wasn't surprised that she had seen through my ruse. I even saw her next move, ready to finish me as her right arm stretched wide and then headed towards me. Even in this state of heightened awareness, I knew I'd never be able to get my body to react quickly enough to dodge. She moved with such celeritous precision that her claws would reach me long before my eyes could acknowledge my reactive flinch-before even the small shockwave generated by her movement could touch me.

And just like that-it was over. The claws of her right hand found purchase about the back of my neck and then...the tension left her grip as she let those draconic fingers rest firmly, but gently, cradling my neck as the serrated kitchen knife drove into her chest, releasing a fountain of her boiling blood onto my face and down my arms. Her eyes fluttered slightly as the blade ripped a bloody path to her heart, seeming to rupture a lung in its passing as a blast of searing air joined the river of blood, running as a scarlet river from her sundered chest.

As my thrust carried us both upward slightly, she pulled me backwards to the ground, leaving her arm still gingerly holding my neck as we descended towards the cool, dew-covered grass of early evening. As we hit the ground, she positioned me slightly to her side somehow ensuring that I would not land upon the handle of the kitchen knife.

My eyes immediately went wide in stark disbelief. Feeling the hot blood wash over me, I looked down to her painfully beautiful face to find that my vision had cleared completely. Instead of a face twisted by pain and rage, I saw a beautifully dignified, somewhat aged, woman smiling back at me with eyes awash in tears.

"Hahh. Didn't see...that one...coming," she said between painful gasps as she managed to force her continued smile.

How? This wasn't supposed to happen. She was supposed to kill me-throw me to the ground and monologue on the greatness of her mistress before crushing my skull under her talons. The distraction would have been enough for Del and Risa to escape. Or she would just humiliate me-raping me in front of my companions, helpless to respond, before delivering me to Karisa with a fine ribbon. I might suffer, but they would be fine-free to find someone, anyone, else in the remaining potential eternity of their ageless lives.

Sadness started to overcome me. She let this happen-allowed me to pierce her heart with this crude piece of metal, a crude shard of steel so undignified that its last murder was likely a ripe tomato. This couldn't be the same beast that had ruined lives, that had nearly destroyed Belle's happiness-that had made Risa cry.

"You're lying! Why didn't you dodge!? I know you could have!" I screamed out as I began to tremble.
Her smile only breaking long enough to cough up a large quantity of blood, she answered, "The young mistress...wants-will have you. I was...ordered not to-No, I...did not want to hurt you."
"So you let me-Why?!" I screamed out as my tears poured from me.
"I wouldn't lower...myself to harm a...human." Coughing hoarsely, she unintentionally spit a fine mist of the nearly burning vitae across my face as she shook her head in a negative response to her own statement, "No...it's-My heart is full of death...too much death. My beloved is-I…I'm tired."

"Why couldn't you just walk away...go somewhere else...live your life!?"
"I...still love the mistress-her daughter. I wanted to see...protect her."
"But Karisa-!", I began as I immediately felt her powerful claws around my throat, soft even in their impossible strength.
"You have...no idea! I will not have you speak of her in ignorance." she finished powerfully before she relaxed her grip, the momentary flash of anger in her eyes vanishing with her renewed strength almost as quickly as they had manifested.

None of this made sense anymore. Why would Karisa want me in the first place, and how could she think that hurting Risa was going to help her cause? Why did she send Ixi after us? Someone like this would never hurt so many people, would they? Why did she have to get hurt? Why did I just assume she was going to hurt us? This was supposed to be monstrous servant of the evil Karisa. Why did she have to be...a person?

"Why do...you cry, human? I am not your mate. I...am just an enemy, a...monster."
"That doesn't matter, please. You aren't-just...you're a person! You could choose to be anyone you want," I stammered out between shuddering sobs, not certain that I was even making sense anymore.
"Then I demand-No...You must...I mean-I have always wanted." She kept starting and hesitating as if completely unsure of what she wanted to say or how to say it. "Just once...then…would you let me...be a woman? I demand-no...would you kiss me? I...have never had a kiss from a hero."
"I am not...a hero. You-Damn it...I'm just a murderer…"
She only smiled, saying, "She...does not know it, but you...protected my lady from...herself. You crawled out of a bottomless darkness. You must help her, you are the only one...that can. Please…"

I saw her fading quickly as the weakening flow of her life's blood poured from the knife wound onto the ground and into her painfully gasping lungs. Her look changed completely from the angelic martyr to the frightened girl, her fearfully darting eyes threatening to betray the point of her sacrifice. I wasn't going to deny her last request-I was no hero, but I could pretend for once if it would grant her peace.

"Rest now, brave Ixi. If there is a way, then I swear that...I will find a way to help Karisa. May you find only peace in the next world." I said, forcing down my sadness to keep my tone as even as possible, not even having a whisper of an idea on how I could help her mistress-if Karisa wasn't already beyond any hope of salvation.

With that I leaned forward and kissed the dragon, taking in the coppery taste of blood and bitter sulfur that laid heavily upon her lips. She poured the last of her strength into the twisted embrace with her own killer as her forked tongue danced across mine in a desperate longing, her soft lips quivering in pain or emotion.

Finally pulling back from our blood-touched kiss, she let out a slightly gurgling sigh of joy before uttering between her rasping coughs, "Thank you, dragon...slayer. I...could not have imagined...a more perfect...first kiss. I *cough* was ordered to protect...Risa at all costs. Two thousand...years with...an unpaid debt."
Quickly grasping her hand I vowed to her, "I would give my life to protect her."
She smiled, her teeth stained crimson, as she placed her free hand gently upon my cheek, "I know...just help...let go the rage and...sadness. Find…Jo-", she began another coughing fit, unable to finish her statement as she placed a small key into my hand.
"I...will, somehow. I promise."
"Go, dragonslayer...protect Risa...from...her…", the last words came out as little more than a gurgling mumble as the light slowly left her eyes, her arm falling limply to her side as her claws left three deep, burning scratches down the side of my face and neck in their passing. Even now, her face remained frozen with the same beautifully haunting smile.

Quickly losing my tenuous grasp on the resolve I'd had a moment before, I screamed "Del! Help her please!"
From directly behind me, I felt her small arms pulling me backwards a moment later, away from the fallen dragon.
"What are you doing!? Save her like you saved me! She's...I…", my shouts came out as broken shrieks.

Del calmly and silently pulled me into her embrace as she stroked my hair, easily overcoming my feeble attempts to struggle free.

Having lost all composure, I was wracked with rattling sobs as I clung tightly to Delilah's body like a lost child. I wasn't prepared for this kind of pain. I'd never truly hurt anyone else before-and I had never felt so empty, knowing that my irrational fear and misjudgement had actually killed someone.

"Is...is Risa okay?" I managed to get out.
"She is fine, love."
"I-Yuki told me not to hurt Ixi...I'm a…"
Pulling me in more tightly, Del interrupted me, "You were trying to protect us."
"But I killed her!"
"Joe," she began softly, "You know as well as I that she allowed herself to die. Would you call the bridge from which you leapt a murderer?"
"It was my fault! I thought-!"
"You made your choice and you must live with the consequences."
"But Risa said...Ixi is…"

I suddenly felt Risa's warm embrace as she nearly tackled me from Del's grasp, saying, "What's wrong with you? What were you thinking?!"
Hearing Risa's voice brought a renewed disconsolateness, "I'm so sorry Risa-I thought that...I could distract her from you. I didn't want to die, but...I couldn't let her take you."
Feeling Risa's warm lips against the back of my neck calmed me slightly for the moment as she tearfully intoned, "Please don't ever do anything like that again...I don't think I could handle it if-just don't risk yourself for us."

It would have been impossible to calm my tremors, knowing that a life had ended-and that I was the instrument of its theft. Each time I thought the grief had begun to pass, Ixi's serene smile would project in my mind and force me back into the pit of despair.

The stories I'd read that told of brave and noble dragonslayers were nothing but a feculent deception. Those stories always talked about the exalted glory to be had in felling such a beast, but all I felt was her still-warm blood covering my arms, the echoes of her last pain-filled gasp still ringing in my ears. The broken shards of my heart refused to even attempt crawl back together, knowing that my hand had removed from the world one of the most magnificent things upon which I had ever laid my eyes.

As we huddled together, Del finally broke the silence as she asked, "You can see again, can't you?"
"Uh huh"
"Your cerebral schism has been resolved. Your fear and pain forced you to remember how to see-reawakened the parts of your mind to which your sight had fled."
"O-okay…" I stuttered out, then added, "But...Selvirin…"
Apparently moving with Ichigo Kurosaki level speed-of-plot, I heard the dark velvet poison of Selvirin's voice ring out in response, "Thinking of me? This man is far, far too sweet. Are you certain he's the same person? No matter."

Picking the three of us up and placing us on to her wide, arachnid back she then said gently, "I shall take care of her body. You three will stay with me tonight. Luckily, the dragon thought my home much closer to the graveyard."

I didn't have it in me to resist anything and my companions voiced no complaints as Selvirin carefully picked up Ixi's body and made off at superhuman speed towards the interior of the forest. While we were under way, I saw Del lean forward to whisper something to the spider which earned only a raised eyebrow and somber nod in response.

As I looked to my two companions I realized that this was probably the first of many more painful experiences we would have to endure as we continued to face the wrath of Karisa's vindictive anger. With my sight restored, I also had no further excuses to run or hide from the important thing I needed to say to Del and Risa and I didn't want to risk falling into another situation in which I was unable to say those words.

"Only the finest for the dragonslayer and his two companions!" Selvirin cheerfully remarked as she set us down within a gorgeous glade, deep within the forest. A small brook chased through the center of the clearing, babbling merrily, as the cresting moon let its alabaster light spill its bounty through the large opening in the otherwise dense forest canopy.

"Please don't call me that." I asked, plaintively.
"Your request is...rejected, dragonslayer. She named you such with one of her last breaths and it would be cruel to deny one of her final desires." Selvirin stated directly.
"I...fine. It just makes me feel cold and empty when I think about it. It's like being called a murderer as though that were something of which to be proud."

That statement earned me a very curious look from Selvirin as she replied, "After our first encounter, I assumed you were just an overly cruel human with a hatred for monsters. I thought your apology nearly a year later was just to salve your own guilt."
"No, I-"
"I believe I understand now-you meant every word of that apology. You...are simply not the man that stumbled into my web that night."
"I'm sorry, Selvirin."
"Don't be. You are a far sweeter prize to have caught anyway. Fate is cruel to reveal you to me now," she remarked with a hint of wistful dysphoria creeping into her dangerously fanged smile. "For now, however, I have much work to do if I'm to finish tonight. Make yourselves comfortable and I'll see you…" she remarked with a gentle poke to my chest, "...tomorrow"

Selvirin skittered away, gingerly carrying Ixi's lifeless body, leaving me alone again with Del and Risa, suddenly feeling a swell of confusion daring to overwhelm my otherwise sorrowful state.

"Del, what was-"
"I felt that it would be impolite to deny her the chance to catch you as long as she was willing to wait until tomorrow."
"Impolite!? Are you fucking kidding me?! My sight is back now! We don't need to-"
"I have asked another very important task of her that will be to your future benefit."
Several choice words leapt to my tongue, ready for immediate hateful deployment that only escaped as an unintelligible growl.

Fixing me with an almost desperately serious look that somehow stole my anger before it could erupt, Del quietly added, "I know this upsets you, but please trust-"
"Fine. I at least get to run though, right?" I answered, trying to at least keep an edge of annoyance in my voice as my rage evaporated.
"Of course," she replied, as though the rules of this situation had already been clearly decided and I simply hadn't been paying attention.
"Then let me say this to both of you now-Del", I said as I pulled her close and raised her chin slightly, bringing our lips together. As I released the unexpected kiss I took a deep breath while I kept her delicate chin held in my hand and said, "Delilah…"
"Yes, Joe?"
"I...I love you."
Her face flushed with color as her eyes tried to escape mine. She finally managed to pull away and started trying to hide her face with her hands.
"And Risa?"
"Oh sure...you tell her firs-" she tried to say before I interrupted her with a kiss.
"I love you, Risa. And…" I began, trying to keep the bloody train wreck of my emotions level, "And-I want you to be my wife."

I thought my heart would explode as I felt the long-forgotten burning rush of heat pour from my core to my extremities as I let my feelings be exposed to my companions. I still couldn't get Ixi's death out of my mind, but I needed Del and Risa to know how I felt. If I hadn't already resolved to tell them once my sight was returned, I might have worried that I was simply trying to use one emotion to escape another. Now though, I knew that I couldn't risk them not knowing in the event that I didn't make it through the next conflict alive.

Not expecting a response from either of them, and certainly not demanding one, I gave them each a smile and laid myself upon the soft bed nearby, concealed under a gorgeous woven curtain against the elements.

Within moments, Del and Risa had taken their respective places at my side.
"You know, Joe…" Risa began tentatively.
"Mmm?" I asked.
"Yes...ah," Del also seemed reluctant.

My mind started to race with all the possibilities. Had I done something wrong? No, I had done something wrong. I felt a powerful sinking sensation and the onset of a cold sweat. Maybe they just couldn't see themselves with-

Risa finally cut into my racing mind, "You talk in your sleep so…"
Del continued her thought, adding, "You have told both of us dozens of times over the last few days. Last night alone whispering it as a mantra nearly two-hundred times."
"Ah..." I remarked, feeling like a heel for even trying to keep such a secret, and more than a little embarrassed at the ridiculous honesty of the sleeping me.
"But…", Risa added as she looked over at Del.
"I love you, Joe", they finally spoke in unison.

That was enough to wash away any lingering doubts. It felt exactly as it had in my memory. The incomparable warmth that ran through my center assured me that it hadn't just been a fantasy and also, mercifully, offered me a temporary reprieve from the dragon-born sadness.