Chapter Thirty-four
Prue's eyes kept staring after the spot she had last seen Bobby disappear. "He loved me and Brendan both, Hank, yet he let Mother send him away? Why?" She dashed the tears angrily from her eyes.
How she longed to be at home safe with her Mother well so that she could ask her questions and get truths! She would make things better. Her heart ached for both her Fathers, but she didn't know what to do to help them or to ease the pain in her heart.
Snow was falling all around. Alarm filled her. They must seek shelter, or they would all freeze. She looked around the small group only to realize that Vin and Rahne had carried the children away for the first time. Shock and panic reflected on Kurt's and Piotr's faces. Speaking loudly enough that she hoped the others would hear her and come, Prue said, "We must seek shelter from this storm, or we will all freeze. Hank, isn't your house close to here?"
"It is," Hank answered softly when he had finally stopping howling. He forced himself to his feet and dragged his hands over his eyes in a futile attempt to stop his tears that kept falling in as great a number as the snow surrounding them. "Take them on to the house, Prue. I'll be along." He barely glanced at her as he whispered, "And for what it's worth, if indeed it merits anything at all, I am sorry for the pain through which I've put you." He hobbled away into the snow, his head sinking back down though he could never reach the bottommost depths of his own personal Hell to which his heart had now dropped from his beloved Bobby's abandonment.
She barely had time to react to his words before he was gone! "We must get to Hank's house and out of this weather. There is no telling when it will stop. Follow me, every one."
Kurt, leaning on Piotr heavily, hobbled along as best he could, his tail wrapped around Piotr's waist for extra stability.
Piotr smoothly lifted Kurt into his arms and followed Prue. He glanced back once and saw that Rahne and Vin were coming with the children carried in their arms. Rahne had been paying just enough attention to their conversation to know when they began to move again and so had alerted Vin that they needed to follow them.
Vin shook his head in silent amazement. The boys were never going to believe this! Catching a snowflake in his hand and gazing at it through blue eyes full of wonder, he shook his head again and silently admitted that he wasn't sure if he truly believed it or not. In fact, part of him even now was waiting to wake up!
Will began to pace as snatches of memories from the previous night flickered through his mind. Each was as impossible to keep in his mind as it was to keep grains of sand in his hands without eventually having them seep through his weary fingers. "An' he shot me last night," he muttered. "And I hadn't been too long gotten the arrow out when I came across somethin' weird in th' woods . . . a man . . . a man in a top hat and a talkin' cat . . . There was a door way . . . in a tree . . . " He shook his head. "That can't be right!"
He sensed movement behind him and whirled, his sword at the ready and eyes filled with wild desperation.
Gibbs listened to Will while keeping an eye on Jack, who was finally pulling his pants on while still seemingly oblivious to both Will and Gibbs. "My poor boy's not been right in the head since the night we lost ye, Will. A mean, coldhearted bitch stabbed ye in the heart. Ye literally bled to death while Jack held ye, weeping unashamedly because of his love fer ye. We had to pry ye from his arms after ye died to bury ye. Yet here ye stand in the flesh, alive and well but not knowing us! I don't know what's going on here, but I think maybe we've all been given a second chance to live and be together again!"
"This man with the hat, he must be some kind o' Sorcerer who has worked a spell on us," Gibbs continued. "I ask meself why, but no answer comes. What could he have gained from it?"
"I don't know." Will frowned as he continued to warily watch the men who he was slowly beginning to consider might not be the Demons he'd originally thought them. "But if ye were Demons, an' this was one o' her prisons, she'd have me Dad here. I . . . " He frowned as he struggled to remember the previous night. "I fell through somethin' . . . that doorway, I think . . . an' I landed here, on th' Pearl. Ye said somethin' last night . . . somethin' 'bout me Da . . . It didn't exactly make sense . . . Not that any of this makes sense, because it sure as bloody Hell doesn't . . . "
He looked again at the handsome Pirate, his shimmering brown eyes full of compassionate sorrow. He had been hurt so badly by the death of this world's Will, and it was clear that he was still aching to be reunited with his love. He almost wished that he could be his Will for him, but he did not know him. And this still could be a trap.
Lorne lay very still, even though he knew some one was pulling the sheet off of his bed. He hadn't a clue for what purpose they were taking his sheet, but he wasn't giving himself away. He felt hot breath on him and still didn't stir.
She stood with her hind legs on the floor and her front paws on the bed, her eyes narrowed in a mixture of silent threats and wariness and her tail swishing slowly from side to side. She kneaded the bed softly as she stared down at the green Demon. She knew he was awake and was determined to reveal his true state to her family. Leaning forward, she blew her breath against his face, but he did not stir. Then, with a soft gentility that was completely unnatural to her, she brushed her whiskers across his face several times. She did not like being so gentle with this Demon who she knew they could not trust, but she knew that if she was rough with him, her beloved mother would accuse her of awakening him rather than realizing that he had not been truly been asleep at all.
As the three on the floor watched the eldest female's maneuverings, Crys shaking his head slightly, the little male suddenly shifted his leathery wings. "Coo coo," he murmured, and Crys raised his head, his own ice blue eyes narrowing in response. The air was shifting; something was wrong . . .
Lorne felt the tickles on his face and tried not to laugh out loud but ended up sneezing. He opened his eyes and looked over at Crys. "Why haven't you come to bed yet, boy? I told you that I would not hurt you. Do you not believe me?" He felt the air shift and wondered what kind of unholy mess was about to hit them.
Crys looked at the friendly Demon with wide eyes even as those around him went into instant alert. One yipped while another gave a soft growl. The female who'd proven her point glared directly into Lorne's face, though he could not see her, and growled low in her throat, sending hot air washing over his face.
"You were awake!" Indignant heat rose into his cheeks as Crys jumped up to his booted feet. He stumbled back as his invisible, male companion flew through the air and over to the window. Crys appeared to forget the Demon as he was called to the window. He walked over, peered into the night, and felt his blood run cold. "Goddess!"
An entire army seemed to be trooping through the town only a few buildings away from where they were staying. Trolls; hobgoblins; larger, full-blooded goblins; animated skeletons; Zombies; Werewolves; and Vampires all converged on one building. "What is the building," Crys demanded of Lorne, "that sits four buildings down on the other side of the road?"
Lorne did not deny the charge that he had not been asleep. Instead he asked, "What's going on at Blanche's now? She runs a saloon and brothel."
"Trouble," Crys stated darkly. He slid open the window. "I've got to go."
Instant whines, mews, and coos filled the air. He shook his head. "I'm sorry. I've got to. You know I must do what is right." He began to hug and kiss each little body that pressed against his own.
"Crys, you can't go over there, lad! It's a whorehouse, and they will gobble you up!" Lorne ran over to the window just as humans began to be thrown out of the windows and doors by some unseen forces to the waiting crowd of what appeared to be every kind of monster imaginable. They fell upon the hapless humans, who had not recovered enough to run away, and were devouring them.
"DAMN AND TARNATION! COCO IS OVER THERE! Let me get my boys, and we'll all go over there." Making a mad scramble to grab Crys's arm, he barely managed to do so when something bit him in the seat of his pants! Lorne swatted at the unseen being, and his hand encountered fur! "DAMN IT, YOU ALMOST BIT ME STRAIGHT IN THE HEART!" he moaned.
"Victor, I was the fool, the idiot who let ya go! I should've told ya th' truth - that I can't live without ya! I'm sorry 'bout the girl haunting ya. I'm sorry fer lettin' ya think I didn't love ya even for one single moment when it was never the truth! I never stopped, an' every day, the pain increased more until I thought my heart would jump out o' my chest an' beat me t' death!"
"Come home; give me a second chance t' make things right with ya." Logan was close enough to finally be able to get his arms around Victor, and he did so hurriedly in a hug so tight that Victor would have to fight to get him to let go. "Together ya an' I can get outta this mess, go somewhere new, an' start over." He held on tightly to Victor from behind, his lips longing to touch Victor's and his soul yearning from the separation and the rejection Victor was about to hit him with...
The tears finally fell. Victor unsheathed his claws on one hand and raked them across his eyes, but still they came as his heart sang with Logan's words of love and his blackened soul was finally pierced by the beautiful light of that love. "I'm weak, Logan," he growled softly, turning in the arms that felt so wonderful around him, the arms that completed him at long last. He shook his head sorrowfully as he gazed down into his eyes.
"An' I don't think I can ever do what we did again. I can't keep robbin' banks when that could happen again at any time. That's why I took to bounty huntin'. At least this way I know I'm goin' after the right bitches." His eyes sparkled with tears as he gazed down into Logan's soulful orbs. "Tell me now," he demanded softly. "Do ya still love me?"
He yearned to be completed again; knew that only Logan and the love they shared could fill his aching heart, soul, and very being; and would have fallen to his knees before him and begged him like a whipped pup if he'd thought it would do any good to make him love him. But Victor knew that that was impossible for Logan was too strong of a man to ever be able to love the weakling he had allowed himself to become, and although he'd tried at every turn to beat the weakness out of himself, just as his father had so long ago before Logan had found him and pieced him back together, Victor had come to accept, at long last, that that weakness was a part of him as much as his claws.
There was nothing he could do about the way he was, and Logan would not, could not, love this side of him. He waited, trembling inside, for the answer that he knew would come, the answer he didn't want to hear but must, the answer that would condemn him to spend the rest of his life in the Hell on Earth he'd been suffering through ever since Logan had left him on that fateful day that seemed so long and yet had been only a little over a year past.
Cole looked at Elvira and then laughed. If she only knew the half of it! He heard her words and Salem's sorrowful answer. "My Lord Salem is more than magick; he is still powerful and much revered. He has many followers, and I count myself one lucky man that he cares for me. He will care for you if you will let him." Relaxing, he sat cross-legged on the bed, waiting for Salem's orders should he give any.
Delvira's attention had swung fully back to the small, black cat sitting by the bed when Cole had began to talk of his lord Salem. Her black eyes filled with such shock and awe that they shimmered in the darkness. Then she fell to her knees before the great Wizard about whom she had heard and read so much. She bowed her head in supplication.
The Fieries began to hobble through the portal at that time. They gasped in shock as they saw their Queen on her knees. They were so stunned that they dropped the charred remains of their sister and gawked openly. "On your knees!" Delvira ordered. "On your knees to your King's King!"
They gaped at her, but when she barked, "Now!", they, too, fell to their knees. "What's wrong with her?" one whispered.
"I dunno," answered the one nearest to him.
"She's lost it," a third said.
"Maybe even worse'n poor Faith," a fourth commented.
"The King'll put a stop to this nonsense!" a fifth announced assuredly.
"King's King?" muttered yet another.
As the Fiery nearest him made a degrading sound with his orange beak and tongue, another cried out, "Like that's gonna happen!"
"Nobody Kings Jareth but him!"
"Yeah!"
A few began to giggle. "Dunno what they did to the Queen, but they're gonna get it!"
"My Liege," Delvira spoke to Salem, "forgive the banter of my subjects. You see, when the Gods made them, they neglected to inject their brains."
"Ha!" Salem laughed, grinning. His tail whisked through the air. "Tell me, dear lady, you're clearly not who you seem. Who are you?"
"My name is Delvira. Elvira is my identical twin sister. I have the honor of being married to a most wonderful man who has searched long and hard for you. I am certain you remember . . . " She looked up with a smile as the man of her thoughts and heart walked through the portal. She twirled to her feet in an elegant whirl of soft, black silk and creamy, pale white flesh. Realizing that she was still holding her athame, Delvira quickly returned it to its place on her sash and placed her hands caressingly upon her husband. "My dearest Jareth, we have found him at last!" She gestured with a hand back to the cat who sat, grinning from one of his pointed, furry, and black ears to the other. "There, my love, is your Salem Saberhagen!"
"Jareth!" Salem cried, leaping to his feet and rushing to twirl around Jareth's leather-clad legs. "You sly, old Goblin! When did you tie the knot?" He purred.
Will forced his gaze back to Gibbs' eyes. He tried to keep that thought firmly in his mind, but the way Gibbs looked up at him reminded him far too much of his own Gibbs. The two were mirror images of each other. Both this world's Gibbs and the Pirate called Jack seemed so truthful and so full of hurt, but what if it was a trap? And then it dawned on him. The answer was obvious. If they had a chance to hurt him, and took it, they had to be Demons, and if not . . .
But what if they killed him before he could avenge his family's murders? Will sighed and hung his head. He was so tired of running, so tired of living alone, of suffering the heartache and misery that he could no more stop than he could stop his own breathing. He had vowed to avenge his family or die trying . . . and he had been trying, been hunting the Hunter and trying to find a way to get to the evil, heartless bitch of a Queen who'd caused his family to be murdered when they'd done nothing to her for more years than he could even remember any longer.
In his moment of indecision, Will's fingers unclenched, allowing his sword to slip from his fingers and fall, clattering, to the deck. Now was the time. Now he would either be killed, or . . . Or what? Will wondered.
What indeed? This was a new world, but he could hear Gibbs' voice in his head again as he told him that his father was dead in this world too. But Gibbs, or at least this world's Gibbs, was alive. What would his father think of him if he tried, for the first time since he'd been shot down in front of him, to live? Would he hate him? Could he ever understand?
Had his beloved father not gone against his cries and ignored his begs and pleas to let him stay with him by throwing him overboard in a feign and desperate hope that he might survive? But was that survival only so that he could avenge their murders? Nae!, Will cried inwardly. Nae, his father could never be like that!
Or could he?
Crys gave Lorne a strange look indeed as he hollered about his heart. "Keep him here, babies," he instructed. "No, you'll not be coming this time, Cindy. If you come, Elvira will come, and she's not ready for that yet! As for him, he won't stand a chance if he gets over there! They'll eat him before he even knows what hit him!" Cindy's quick bite on Lorne's rear had freed her arm from the Demon, and now Crys jumped agilely off of the roof.
Lorne looked anxiously around the room but still couldn't see anything. However his butt hurting like Hell was living proof that something or some one was in the room and had just taken a bite out of him! He backed slowly towards the door and had reached it before it dawned on him that Crys knew Elvira. So just where in the Hell was Elvira? Had someone put a spell on her to make her invisible?
He had to get to Crys before some one munched on him for dessert!
He thought he had made it, but just as he opened the door, it was slammed. He ran to the window and tried to get it open, but something with wings beat him away from it! "What the Hell is in here?" he demanded. He was trapped and could not help Coco or Crys!
The smallest of the three, the only boy in the group, looked at his sisters. He had wanted to fly out of the window and follow their beloved Crys, but the window had been shut before he could. Now he had to help his sisters keep Lorne from getting himself killed, and yet, although the green Demon clearly was no fighter, he was determined to go to the fight.
Despite what his eldest sister thought, the little fellow knew the Demon was not all bad. He had taken them and given them food and water and Crys the opportunity to share his bed without making any inappropriate moves. He had defended them, as best he could, from the ass called Derek, and with his butt hurting, he still had not swung out at them. He glanced at his siblings, one of whom whined and the other of whom shook her head, lashed out with her tail through the air, bared her teeth, and growled.
He knew they would be mad as Hell if he revealed himself and that the lioness might well threaten to eat him if he dared to show them, but yet he believed, with all his heart, that Lorne was not a bad guy. Still they'd trusted no one but Crys and Jack for years, and none would believe their story. If they did dare to speak him, it would endanger any one to whom they told it.
He danced from talon to talon as he weighed his options. He gazed back outside the window and was just in time to see Crys get hit from behind. His roar echoed through the room, and with one single thought, the dragon lifted his mask from his own self, while keeping his sisters still hidden. Even as he was revealed in sparkling lights, the small, blue dragon belched forth flames that exploded the window pane and flew through the shattering and melting glass.
Even as he winged his way to Crys, however, the Troll that had jumped the blonde from out of the shadows while he had been distracted fighting dodging a Werewolf and slicing his sword straight through a hobgoblin turned into ice and shattered into a million pieces.
Up in the room, the lioness roared and again latched on to Lorne's rear end while her sister urgently yipped at her to be careful lest she damage his heart. From a mouthful of green trousers and butt, her tail cutting angrily through the air, the lioness heatedly informed her sister that that was impossible for no living creature had their heart in their butt! The wolf argued vehemently, in yips and barks, that it was, too, possible for anything was possible and they certainly knew that better than any one else.
Lorne's mouth flew open in shock at the small, blue dragon who flew out the window after burning it up. Lorne knew no one was ever going to believe this! He tried pulling his butt away from the teeth that were holding him firmly in place. What was it? Lorne wondered. Could it be another dragon? "Please be careful with my rear," he pleaded. "My heart is in my left butt cheek!"
He managed to get to the window where he could see what was going on below. He knew he wasn't a fighter, but he would have tried to rescue his friend, Coco, and Crys. "It's not fair, guys; you gotta let me go! they need me!"
Gibbs walked over, picked up Will's sword, and handed it back to him. Now that the danger from Will was over, Gibbs breathed a sigh of relief. "When's th' last time ye had something t' eat, Will? Keep an eye on Jack; make sure he doesn't do something stupid like hurt himself."
Gibbs glanced over at the bed where a half-clothed Jack was searching through the covers for something. He had about made up his mind to ask him what he was looking for when, with a triumphant shout of joy, Jack leaped from the bed, holding his prize up where the sun shone upon it, blinding them all for a minute. Jack walked over to Will, holding out the necklace that Will had not even missed having on! "Yours!" Jack said with a grin.
Will's mouth had already been hanging agape from the shock of Gibbs' kindness when Jack offered him the necklace. His jaw fell further open, and tears filled his eyes. His hands shook. He sheathed his sword before he could drop it a second time, and this time fully without intention of doing so. His fingers brushed over the necklace. "I . . . I . . . " He stuttered but could not speak.
With shaking hands, Will pulled his jacket and shirt open so that his own matching Pirate medallion could be seen. The morning sun glistened upon the gold. "I . . . " Then it all came flooding back to him. He remembered the previous night, and he heard again everything that Jack and Gibbs had told him of the agonizing loss that they, too, had suffered. He tried to smile through his tears, but his smile faltered. "I . . . I'm so sorry . . . " he whispered.
He gazed into Jack's soulful, kohl-rimmed eyes, tears glistening in his own brown pools. Here was a man who had loved him, though it had not been he himself. He had loved him with the power of a love like that that was sung of in legends, and yet he had lost him. He had had taken him from him, his life stolen from within his very arms by a cold-hearted bitch like the one who had taken his family from him, perhaps even the very same one. His pain shone in his eyes, and Will knew that he was still hurting: still hurting and grieving terribly for the man he had been in this world. "I'm sorry . . . "
He wished that he could be that Will, that he could take the agonizing heartache and misery from Jack's deep, beautiful eyes and replace them with the happiness and love that must have sparkled in them before, but he could not. He was only himself, a man who was hurting just as terribly much for his family whom he had lost years ago and would never see again, but he could no more give Jack his Will back than he could resurrect his family. He blinked back tears as he gazed into Jack's dark, satiny eyes and realized that he could easily lose himself within his enchanting orbs forever more.
Jack smiled and touched Will's face tenderly and softly as though he was afraid that he would break him.
Lifting Victor's beloved face so that he could peer into his eyes, Logan spoke, "Yer've never been weak, my love! Confused, prideful, hard headed, quick to anger but just as quick to love, sexy! Ya turn me inside out an' make me horny as Hell from just one touch... I've wanted ya since th' first time I saw ya! I think I've loved ya forever! You were in my dreams before we ever met!"
"I was a stupid idiot fer ever sayin' those mean, hurtful things I said t' ya an' an even bigger fool fer riding away from ya. Can ya ever forgive me? Can ya love me again?" He plunged his lips down onto Victor's lips and pledged his undying love, expecting to be struck down for his many unforgivable sins against love...
Joy, love, and passion surged through every fiber of Victor's being. His heart roared in his ears as it and his soul thrilled at having his dream come true delivered to him. He didn't know how he'd gotten so lucky as to still have Logan's love, but he damn sure wasn't about to let him go this time! His hands clasped his face, his fingers and palms caressing his skin, and the tips of his claws gently grazing him. His tongue dove into his mouth as he returned his kiss with just as much passion as he was being kissed with and a hundredfold more. A howl of happiness, amour, and the primal need that accompanied the feelings surged through him but was drowned by Logan's mouth. He kept kissing him, his hands dropping from his handsome face to fondle every spot of his body that they could reach, as he backed him up against the wall. His tongue continued to dance heatedly with his; his mouth continued to ravage his as though he were drowning and only Logan could save him, which indeed only he could; his body rubbed against his; his hands swept ever lower in their caresses; and his manhood roared with maddeningly pounding blood to thrust against his!
Logan's tongue continued dueling with Victor's as his hands stroked all over his body. Victor's nakedness inspired Logan to higher heights, and he broke off the kiss to begin kissing Vic on his exposed skin. He licked and nibbled his way downward until he met Victor's sword thrusting violently forward and touching his through Logan's pants. Grasping it firmly, he dove with his mouth over the shaft and began to suck him as though he was a stick of peppermint while his hands caressed his ass.
He thought his clothes would bust as he got harder and hotter then he could ever remember being. He wished his clothes were off but did not want to take the time to get them off in his desperation to give Victor all the loving he could handle. Knowing that the being could return any moment and end their lives at a whim made him even more desperate to make Victor know how much he loved him...
Victor was awash in the sea of emotions that only Logan had ever seen raging throughout his being. Logan was the only one who he had ever loved, the only one whose loving he had ever needed, and the only one who had ever set his very soul aflame with passion just for him with the slightest of touch. Now Victor's whole body was engulfed in that fire, and only Logan could save him. Only Logan could have always ever saved his lowly hide, and Victor's heart and mouth howled with the fury, passion, pleasure, and love that surged throughout everything he was in this moment shared with a man who he thought would never look at him again with anything more than hatred burning in his sexy eyes.
Now he had been granted a miracle for love and passion burned in those same sexy eyes whose anger had haunted his every dream since they'd last parted. Logan still loved him, and Victor had never known such pure and ecstatic happiness as he knew in this moment! A roar burst from Victor's burning mouth, burning for ache to touch Logan's sweet and savage mouth again and be filled with his wild tongue and tender loving, and his claws unsheathed. In one smooth movement of his blades, he stripped Logan of his clothes, whirled him around, and pressed him into the muddy side of the hole in which they'd been thrown. Bringing him up, he slammed his mouth down onto his again as his sword stroked his.
Only Logan could fill the aching voice in his heart and soul, in his very essence, and though Victor had feared he'd be empty again for the rest of his miserable existence, he knew now that that would never happen for Logan loved him! He strove to make him feel every bit of how much he needed, wanted, and loved him, too, as his hands roamed his body, the tips of his claws gently grazing his flesh; his hot mouth plundered his; and his sword pressed harder and harder and rubbed ever faster against Logan's own . . .
Cole had jumped to his feet at the unexpected turn of events. He had rushed forward to protect Salem only to be confronted by the weird creatures who had poured into the room so rapidly. The surprise at seeing an old friend gave him a rush, and he sprang forward, hand held out, to greet his long lost "brother".
Jareth stood, looking at Salem a scant second before grasping Cole's welcoming hand and then kneeling down to worship his King. "At long last, my Lord, we have found you, and we will never let you go..." Jareth lifted Salem's front paws and kissed them pledging his fealty...
Salem was stunned by Jareth's pledge, and his heart surged. He purred deeply and rubbed his head against the Goblin King whom he had secretly helped, for many years when he had been but a lad, to rule his kingdom. "Together we stand," he purred. "Together we will always stand!" His tail whipped out as he cried, "This time they shall not best us for love will always overcome all opposition!"
And had that not been the very reason why he had failed before? He had been fool enough to think that he might love Hilda Spellman, of all despicable people! Now he knew better! He could never have loved Hilda! She was a vain, selfish bitch who was as far beneath him as the worms crawling in the dirt! It had only been his blasted, betraying loins talking and weaving him underneath their own spell. He had failed because of his own foolishness as a man, but this time he was no man. He was a cat, and he and his people would not be bested by anything this time! They would win this round and save the world forever more!
Far below in the street, where blood ran like a river, a guy in the shadows stepped forward and began to clear a path to the doorway of the saloon. He was dressed in black with a long, flapping duster. He was breaking necks left and right and occasionally using a stake to vanquish Vampires. His progress was slow at first, but soon, as Lorne watched, the man went in and didn't return. {Who is he?} Lorne did not recognize him, but yet he seemed familiar.
Crys gave the black-clothed stranger a curious look as he ducked into the saloon. His senses told him that he was one thing, but if he was indeed as he registered, his actions certainly spoke louder than his blood or, rather, the lack thereof. The blonde split apart another Zombie, then jumped into the air in a spinning kick. He lashed out with his sword made of ice, smoothly off the head of a Troll just before the cumbersome beast could grab him. The head bounced through the air and landed on a hobgoblin, who squealed underneath its weight.
As other hobgoblins ran to help their fallen comrade, Crys landed in a flash of black, white, golden blonde, and silver; smoothly kicked the feet out from underneath a Vampiress; and let his momentum slide him right out from underneath the slashing claws of a Werewolf. He shot a fist up into the air as he slid away from the salivating, hairy beast, and the Werewolf was turned instantly to ice. Unlike the maneuver he had used with the first Troll that night, however, this time the ice did not shatter but simply kept the Werewolf frozen as Crys leaped back onto his feet.
He glared up at the blue dragon who was busily toasting a screeching ghoul, two huge bats, and another monster who looked akin to the Frankenstein monster created in the Mary Shelley novels, that they both knew had actually been based on real life instead of being merely a fictional account of a mad scientist's greatest discovery. Crys snagged the trailing bandage of a mummy who had been attempting to slide by their guard and yanked. Even as the mummy unraveled, he drove his sword through another skeleton, scattering its bones, and shouted at the dragon, "I TOLD YOU TO STAY WITH YOUR SISTERS!"
"COO COO!" Blue called back as he dove away from the gnashing teeth of a Vampire and the swinging, anvil-sized fist of a Troll.
"I KNOW YOU THOUGHT I NEEDED HELP, BLUE," Crys called back, turning both creatures instantly to ice, "BUT THE FACT IS I TOLD YOU TO STAY THERE BECAUSE ELVIRA DOES NOT NEED TO BE IN THIS MESS! SHE'S NOT READY! IT'S TOO SOON AFTER THE HEALING!"
"COO COO!"
"I'M DIFFERENT!" Crys' ice blue eyes flashed with his words as he shattered the Troll. "THIS IS MY RESPONSIBILITY, NOT YOURS!"
"COO COO!"
As Crys and the dragon called simply Blue continued to quarrel while fighting the monsters in the street below, the two females they'd left back up in Lorne's bedroom were also arguing quite rapidly over the green Demon's rear end. "LET HIM GO!" Elvira yipped.
The big cat's response came in a growl ushered from around the chunk of Lorne's butt she stubbornly clenched in her mouth and her tail cutting through the air as fast as the blonde's sword was sending blood splattering down below. If she was to let the Demon go, Crys would be upset, and to make matters worse, when he left the room, there'd be no one left to guard and her sister would high tail it out there too.
Yet she still wanted to help. She eyed Elvira over Lorne's butt and growled an offer, "*Do whatever is needed to keep him here, and stay here yourself. Promise me that, and I'll let him go.*"
Elvira sighed. Her tail whisked through the air. She wanted to help Crys, too! In fact, she should already be down there; they both should be fighting right alongside their parent and brother! Yet if Lorne's heart was truly contained in his buttocks, one wrong move or more deeply sunken tooth on her sister's part would cause Cindy to kill Lorne. Although Cindy always acted fierce, Elvira knew that her heart was, in truth, almost as kind and generous to those who deserved her kindness as her own, Blue's, and Crys' hearts were.
But what if it wasn't in his heart? He was a Demon. He could be lying, but her nose told her the truth. He wasn't lying. She just wanted to think he was, so that she could go help Crys. Her head, tails, nose, and ears drooped as she finally gave her agreement in a soft whimper.
Cindy spit out Lorne's butt, her tail again striking through the air and raising like a flag. She grinned at her sister. "*I'll bite one for you!*" she promised and bounded out of the window.
Elvira immediately jumped on the ledge behind her, and then she screamed as a Troll as big as the saloon and almost more gruesome than anything she'd ever seen came around the side of the building. Cindy roared, but although she ran with all the speed and strength she possessed, she knew she could not make it to her family in time. Blue had flown into the building but now ducked his head back out with a curious, "Coo?", to see what had caused his sisters to scream and roar in fear. He screeched, his wings flapping like mad, as a gigantic hand slammed down in front of Crys.
Jack left the necklace laying in Will's hand as he turned to get the rest of his clothes and finish dressing.
Gibbs, realizing that Jack was not in danger from himself at the moment, called to them, "I'll bring ye breakfast," and scurried out of the room.
Jack knew Will was watching him dress. It made him nervous but he didn't give himself away. As he was buttoning the last buttons on his shirt, he looked up into Will's brown eyes and wondered what he was thinking. He was both relieved that he had found the treasure and that Will was no longer looking at him as though he was a Demon...
Will had been shocked when the handsome, beguiling Pirate had so gently touched his face, as reverently and carefully as though he were a China doll and he was afraid of breaking him, and even more startled by the heat that had spread through Jack's simple touch and seeped throughout every inch of Will's body and deeper. Now, as he gazed at him again, Will felt a different sort of heat rising through his neck and up his face. He fingered the collars of his jacket and shirt. Why was it suddenly so hot here? The Caribbean was always hot, but he'd never been this hot before!
"We . . . I . . . That is, you . . . " He blushed a deep crimson red and finally turned away. "You said that we . . . that is you . . . and I . . . or . . . hum . . . the I from this world . . . the me from this world . . . You said we were lovers?" he finally managed to blurt out. When Jack didn't answer him at first, he turned slowly back around and cast him a wary, apprehensive look from underneath his lashes.
Jack looked at the new Will, taking in his features that he knew and loved so well. He tried to find something different from his Will, but he couldn't. He appeared to be identical to his love. Finally, he spoke, "Will was my heart and soul! He was my everything! Without him, there's nothing but cold emptiness for all of my life! I don't want to live without him, and now that it's finally over, I can go to him!"
"I thought when ye came that They had sent my Will back to me, but that cannot and will not ever be. I see that now. I hope you find what ye're looking for, Will! Take care o' Gibbs, an' he'll take care o' you. He's a great friend through good and bad times. He raised me, an' he took care o' my Will."
He had been backing up the entire time as he was talking, and before Will could stop him or even knew what was happening, Jack was gone...
To Be Continued . . .