Bran caught her body as it fell, eyes golden and lifeless as he had intended them to be. And a light smile gracing lips that at the last had shown a crushing sense of self defeat. He couldn't say it had been an execution. It had been more like suicide. His foot crunched on something even as he lifted her into his arms, and he watched dispassionately as the Night Blade crumbled; from the blade to the hilt. As if the very centuries of its existence had finally caught up with it and turned it to dust.
He knew he should have been feeling triumph, relief, sorrow; anything but this complete void of emotion. He felt, he realised. As if his soul had been ripped out.
Perhaps it had.
Then he felt a hand upon his back and turned. Ruby stood there, flickering at the edges but there looking older and wiser than any fifteen year old had right to. "This is not the end Bran FallenStar" he stared at her, not in disbelief because he wasn't feeling anything but merely waiting his eyes were older than the stars. "No?" the normal unidentifiable lilt was gone from his voice, it was flat and tired "No, take her to the Dawn circle, bring her back Bran, teach her to live!" then the shade glanced over her shoulder as if in fear "I will pay for my own sins, why should she pay them with me?" Then she was gone.
Bran looked down at the woman child in his arms and thought fast. How? Then he spied the black star that surmounted her flaming hair. Necromancers stone. It wasn't a thing Lynx would have worn, but Ruby had been a witch. Yes maybe just maybe..... His thoughts were doomed to interruption then as the door behind him crashed open.
"Lynx?" there was a man in the doorway calling her name, even by the meagre starlight he could see hair the same shade as his own. He turned and the boy saw him, the hissed intake of breath was understandable, even laudable but he had the idea that he was going to launch himself at him and he really didn't want to drop Lynx. "Who are you?" the man blinked and then shook his head "Ash, Ash Redfern" his eyes were riveted on Lynx "How did you knock her out?" Bran shook his head, the boy was a vampire and he didn't know. "I didn't"
Ash nodded something old and hard invading his muscles "I thought not, put her down please" Bran blinked twice, his emotions may have disappeared but he had thought his mind was working "Why?" he heard breath hiss back out through Ash's teeth showing absolute icy fury "I'd like to take her home for burial, I don't want her body damaged while I kill you"
That definitely gave him pause for thought. "I can not allow that" he saw the flickering changes run through Ash's eyes until they were a deeper black than even his own. "And why not?" Bran considered thinking fast, how much to trust this boy. "There is still a chance to save her" he watched Ash shake his head "Even the ancient dragons couldn't bring back the dead" Bran laughed hollowly "No, they could only bind the living" he continued before Ash could move "But this isn't a Drake spell, and the hope is slim"
Ash Redfern stepped forward so that they were close together, Bran was the taller of the two but Ash had ages in his eyes that matched the ones that had darkened Lynx's "What has to be done?"
For a second he slumped in relief but then straightened cradling his soulmates cool form against his chest "I need to find the Dawn circle" Ash laughed, a choked sound "At the last she has to have Daybreak's help" Bran's eyes widened "Of course, how are we going to get there?" Ash looked at him "We'll take Lynx's Porsche to the nearest airport and then we'll borrow Theirry's jet to get to Vegas"
He strode to the door without a single question but Ash touched his shoulder "Let me take her when we get there" their eyes came together like a blow "Why?" one side of Ash's mouth turned up in something that should have been a smile but wasn't "So that when Theirry sees her you can stop him killing you" Bran's eyebrows rose, not in surprise but in deep sarcasm "My lady was a busy girl I see" and before Ash could reply he was out of the door and striding down the street.
***
Redfern curiosity was warring with very real grief in Ash's mind as they drove at ridiculous speed out of Ryars valley and towards the airport. He felt guilty about being curious at all about the tall man who was so obviously FallenStar, but he was, and he had to break the terrifying stillness caused by the silent body that had once been his friend.
"What are you?" it was only after he had asked the question that he felt slightly rude about asking it; it seemed however that FallenStar wasn't going to take offence. "Not who?" Ash shook his head "No, what, I know who you are, Lynx's soulmate FallenStar" the man nodded taking the corner out of Ryars at 130mph and Ash winced at the thought of the amount of Lynx's equipment they'd left behind, all the man had taken had been the computer and her throwing knives.
"I'm Bran FallenStar" came his voice after a few seconds, Ash nodded and then waited "I was human once" that made him blink "You can't be a made vampire, no made could have beaten Lynx" a shudder ripped through the man next to him "No one beat Lynx Redfern, ever" it was a harsh whisper that made Ash sit up "You obviously did, or that" he jerked his chin in the direction of the back seat "Wouldn't be there"
For a second he thought he was in trouble when every one of FallenStar's muscles went tense and then they slid back into slackness "I will not go into that, I will repeat the sorry scene only once." There was no temper not even irritation the flatness of his voice was disturbing, it gave Ash a terrifying look into what could happen if Mary Lynette continued to remain human and one day died. She wasn't an old soul and he had no idea whether she would return or not.
He was startled out of his musings by FallenStar's voice "I was human" he turned and nodded showing that the man now had his attention "Then I was changed by a rather high ranking shifter" something approaching sarcastic humour twisted the corner of his mouth "Just before Dragon Death"
Ash was slammed backwards into his seat as if FallenStar had just put on the brakes. He was sitting in a speeding Porsche with a Dragon. No wonder he had been able to take down Lynx he probably just fried her with black fire. But made, that had only been a rumour, he wondered how it was done but as they slammed into the airport at a steady 120 he decide against asking.
***
The journey to Vegas had been quiet, after they had used their combined brainpower to smuggle Lynx's body onto the plane. Ash would have quite easily distracted the attendant for the entire flight but FallenStar had given him that dead black stare and he had simply blocked them from her sight using what he jokingly called 'my Jedi mind tricks' Now they were five minutes from Theirry's mansion and Ash was worried, FallenStar wasn't what most people would call stable and he was taking him, a Dragon no less into the heart of Daybreak territory.
In the end though he had no choice, if he hadn't told FallenStar then he suspected the Dragon would have simply left the cab and threatened the local shifter population into spitting out the facts. Ash Redfern had to admit defeat. Now however looking up at the black rose facade of Theirry's mansion he wondered exactly what they were going to do.
***
It probably would have comforted him to realise that Bran was having doubts of his own. Not about the validity of his mission, he couldn't bring himself to question that but as to the people he was bringing the question too. As the door opened his doubts multiplied at the sight of the young looking made vampire that answered it "Mister Redfern, a surprise, with guests?" Ash it appeared had not retained his earlier good mood "Cut the crap and let us in Nillson" he paused for a moment and then continued "And send a message to Theirry that I need to see him in the library a.s.a.p." then he pushed past and strode across the hall looking for all the world like the assassin he had once been.
Bran followed carefully carrying Lynx, he still couldn't think of her as dead. Not when there was still a chance. He ignored the young vampires shocked face and followed Ash across a white tiled expanse of floor and through a beautiful antique wooden door. The artist in him took notes while the rest of him looked on uncaring.
He and Ash sat on red leather reading chairs in that book lined room for what felt like an eternity. Original Shakespeare folios stared down at him alongside the latest Anne Rice novellas. In what seemed to be the fiction section. He had been about to stand to pace a little in old habit when the door swung inwards; it was not the Night Lord he had been expecting but a girl, perhaps a year or two younger than Lynx with a wine coloured birthmark and grey eyes nearly as old as his own.
"Ash, what's.....?" her voice trailed off as she saw his soulmate lying on the sofa, she could have been sleeping if her chest had risen once in those silent seconds. "Oh great goddess, surely you could have spared him this" Bran was given no time to ask who or what when the vampire walked in.
He screamed power, and not power through blood and destruction, power through sheer age. This he suspected was Theirry Descoudres "Spared me what love?" he looked at the girl who Bran was now certain was Hannah; if his recollection of their love story was correct, with a question in his eyes.
She remained silent as if desperately searching for an answer, he felt an echo of pity for her and stood instantly drawing eyes if only for the uncanny similarity between the two men. Bran stood taller but carried none of Theirry's serenity for all he carried more years. Bran also possessed sharper more defined features. Perhaps there was no real similarity bar the lightness of their hair and darkness of eye, but shared experiences mark just as deeply as genetic difference.
"Bran FallenStar I presume?" the old Bran would have laughed now he merely inclined his head in an uncanny echo of his soulmate, equal to equal "Theirry Descoudres, I am afraid I come on the wings of bad tidings" for a second the Night Lord almost smiled "Mention of your name has always brought bad tidings" he shut his eyes for a moment against tearing pain that refused to leave him and then made a careless seeming gesture towards the woman on the couch.
Whatever he had expected it had not been this, this nonchalance. And he raised a question eyebrow "I had almost expected it, when Ash didn't return after she wrote and told us she had sent him" then Bran saw the deep and fathomless grief, almost that of a parent for a child and his respect for the man grew. It made the next thing he had to say much more difficult "I always prayed she wouldn't find me, for this reason if for no other. But I am informed she has a final chance"
He watched the Night Lord's face as sudden fury worked over it and remained burning in his eyes "You killed her?" he saw Hannah reach out and observed the slight movement he made to stop her touching him "I did, it was necessary" he heard Ash choke behind him "You told me you didn't!" Theirry's eyes flashed back to him and he saw a hope there that he didn't want to break even as he slid back into the chair "Still keeping faith with the soulmate principle Lord Descoudres?" he saw him wince and realised that the fact he had been Lynx's soulmate was what he had been trying to hide from Hannah.
He couldn't spare time now though, as far as he knew every second could count. "We were fighting, over the Night Blade" he saw three pairs of shocked faces and waved their concern away "I didn't covet the thing, I made it, it was my responsibility to destroy it" he saw understanding flash into at least one pair of eyes in the room before he continued "I mocked Lynx with not knowing enough of what she carried to defend it so fervently." Deep sorrow marked his face for a moment before it passed back into the expressionless mask it had been since his supposed triumph.
"I had momentarily forgotten that she was soul bound to the blade" then he shook his head in savage denial of his last words "I knew, I hoped that by taunting her she would put it aside and let me destroy it." He paused for a moment as if he had to struggle to put that last moment into words "She beat me" something like pride lit his eyes emerald green for a moment "I truly though I was going to die, then something seemed to leave her. It was if that blazing light that kept her moving had gone out" he shook his head, "I'd managed to get my weapon up to her throat and she looked at me for a moment" his voice stopped for a moment "And then she told me exactly what to do" his lip curled up at one corner "And I did it, for the greater good I told myself" he met the Night Lords eyes with a look of self condemnation "And now I find that I can't give a damn about the greater good"
***
There was a still pause where the only breathing in the room belonged to Hannah before Theirry could gather enough of his scattered wits to speak. "You spoke of a chance" he let his words die, he alone out of those in the room could understand FallenStar's terrible guilt and grief at having killed his soulmate, and he had no old soul promises to keep locked in his heart. He returned his mind to the present as he spoke again "Yes, the soul that was bound within the blade told me that 'the Dawn circle' with my help could bring her back" Theirry used his mind working through all the possibilities within centuries of Night World knowledge before he stuck on the final possibility.
"The Dawn circle would have been her name for Circle Daybreak witches, but how are you to help?" He watched FallenStar shift slightly before taking from the pocket of black jeans a black sapphire. "This was in Lynx's hair when she, when I" he shrugged "I suspect your witches would find it useful.
Theirry understood, it was the Necromancers stone he had paid for as a gift. He accepted it from FallenStar with something like relief, he would give it into the hands of Mother Cybele and if there was a chance, even the slightest he suspected she would find it. As he turned to leave Hannah finally spoke.
"Your Lynx's soulmate and yet you killed her, you forged the Night Blade and yet you don't look a day over twenty five, what are you Bran FallenStar" that oddly sad half smile tugged at his mouth again as he answered "Great lady, I am but a humble shape shifter within your home" that deep sarcasm Theirry pondered would have done his soulmate proud, even as Ash laughed. FallenStar then looked more serious "I was adopted, against my will mind you, into the house of Drache some five hundred years before your soulmate was born. I am a Dragon" He saw the slightly shaken look on his soulmates face as she contemplated the man in front of her and then she smiled apparently satisfied and left.
Theirry turned to do the same but FallenStar spoke in ancient Latin from behind him "I swear guest right in your home, to lord and lady I am bound in defence until the sun sets on my time here" then his tone became less formal although the Latin remained the same "And if you can aid my lady then my debt to you is eternal" Theirry continued to think on that as he exited the room, having a Dragon in your debt was not a bad thing. And in the times to come it would be more than useful, if only they could accomplish the impossible.
He knew he should have been feeling triumph, relief, sorrow; anything but this complete void of emotion. He felt, he realised. As if his soul had been ripped out.
Perhaps it had.
Then he felt a hand upon his back and turned. Ruby stood there, flickering at the edges but there looking older and wiser than any fifteen year old had right to. "This is not the end Bran FallenStar" he stared at her, not in disbelief because he wasn't feeling anything but merely waiting his eyes were older than the stars. "No?" the normal unidentifiable lilt was gone from his voice, it was flat and tired "No, take her to the Dawn circle, bring her back Bran, teach her to live!" then the shade glanced over her shoulder as if in fear "I will pay for my own sins, why should she pay them with me?" Then she was gone.
Bran looked down at the woman child in his arms and thought fast. How? Then he spied the black star that surmounted her flaming hair. Necromancers stone. It wasn't a thing Lynx would have worn, but Ruby had been a witch. Yes maybe just maybe..... His thoughts were doomed to interruption then as the door behind him crashed open.
"Lynx?" there was a man in the doorway calling her name, even by the meagre starlight he could see hair the same shade as his own. He turned and the boy saw him, the hissed intake of breath was understandable, even laudable but he had the idea that he was going to launch himself at him and he really didn't want to drop Lynx. "Who are you?" the man blinked and then shook his head "Ash, Ash Redfern" his eyes were riveted on Lynx "How did you knock her out?" Bran shook his head, the boy was a vampire and he didn't know. "I didn't"
Ash nodded something old and hard invading his muscles "I thought not, put her down please" Bran blinked twice, his emotions may have disappeared but he had thought his mind was working "Why?" he heard breath hiss back out through Ash's teeth showing absolute icy fury "I'd like to take her home for burial, I don't want her body damaged while I kill you"
That definitely gave him pause for thought. "I can not allow that" he saw the flickering changes run through Ash's eyes until they were a deeper black than even his own. "And why not?" Bran considered thinking fast, how much to trust this boy. "There is still a chance to save her" he watched Ash shake his head "Even the ancient dragons couldn't bring back the dead" Bran laughed hollowly "No, they could only bind the living" he continued before Ash could move "But this isn't a Drake spell, and the hope is slim"
Ash Redfern stepped forward so that they were close together, Bran was the taller of the two but Ash had ages in his eyes that matched the ones that had darkened Lynx's "What has to be done?"
For a second he slumped in relief but then straightened cradling his soulmates cool form against his chest "I need to find the Dawn circle" Ash laughed, a choked sound "At the last she has to have Daybreak's help" Bran's eyes widened "Of course, how are we going to get there?" Ash looked at him "We'll take Lynx's Porsche to the nearest airport and then we'll borrow Theirry's jet to get to Vegas"
He strode to the door without a single question but Ash touched his shoulder "Let me take her when we get there" their eyes came together like a blow "Why?" one side of Ash's mouth turned up in something that should have been a smile but wasn't "So that when Theirry sees her you can stop him killing you" Bran's eyebrows rose, not in surprise but in deep sarcasm "My lady was a busy girl I see" and before Ash could reply he was out of the door and striding down the street.
***
Redfern curiosity was warring with very real grief in Ash's mind as they drove at ridiculous speed out of Ryars valley and towards the airport. He felt guilty about being curious at all about the tall man who was so obviously FallenStar, but he was, and he had to break the terrifying stillness caused by the silent body that had once been his friend.
"What are you?" it was only after he had asked the question that he felt slightly rude about asking it; it seemed however that FallenStar wasn't going to take offence. "Not who?" Ash shook his head "No, what, I know who you are, Lynx's soulmate FallenStar" the man nodded taking the corner out of Ryars at 130mph and Ash winced at the thought of the amount of Lynx's equipment they'd left behind, all the man had taken had been the computer and her throwing knives.
"I'm Bran FallenStar" came his voice after a few seconds, Ash nodded and then waited "I was human once" that made him blink "You can't be a made vampire, no made could have beaten Lynx" a shudder ripped through the man next to him "No one beat Lynx Redfern, ever" it was a harsh whisper that made Ash sit up "You obviously did, or that" he jerked his chin in the direction of the back seat "Wouldn't be there"
For a second he thought he was in trouble when every one of FallenStar's muscles went tense and then they slid back into slackness "I will not go into that, I will repeat the sorry scene only once." There was no temper not even irritation the flatness of his voice was disturbing, it gave Ash a terrifying look into what could happen if Mary Lynette continued to remain human and one day died. She wasn't an old soul and he had no idea whether she would return or not.
He was startled out of his musings by FallenStar's voice "I was human" he turned and nodded showing that the man now had his attention "Then I was changed by a rather high ranking shifter" something approaching sarcastic humour twisted the corner of his mouth "Just before Dragon Death"
Ash was slammed backwards into his seat as if FallenStar had just put on the brakes. He was sitting in a speeding Porsche with a Dragon. No wonder he had been able to take down Lynx he probably just fried her with black fire. But made, that had only been a rumour, he wondered how it was done but as they slammed into the airport at a steady 120 he decide against asking.
***
The journey to Vegas had been quiet, after they had used their combined brainpower to smuggle Lynx's body onto the plane. Ash would have quite easily distracted the attendant for the entire flight but FallenStar had given him that dead black stare and he had simply blocked them from her sight using what he jokingly called 'my Jedi mind tricks' Now they were five minutes from Theirry's mansion and Ash was worried, FallenStar wasn't what most people would call stable and he was taking him, a Dragon no less into the heart of Daybreak territory.
In the end though he had no choice, if he hadn't told FallenStar then he suspected the Dragon would have simply left the cab and threatened the local shifter population into spitting out the facts. Ash Redfern had to admit defeat. Now however looking up at the black rose facade of Theirry's mansion he wondered exactly what they were going to do.
***
It probably would have comforted him to realise that Bran was having doubts of his own. Not about the validity of his mission, he couldn't bring himself to question that but as to the people he was bringing the question too. As the door opened his doubts multiplied at the sight of the young looking made vampire that answered it "Mister Redfern, a surprise, with guests?" Ash it appeared had not retained his earlier good mood "Cut the crap and let us in Nillson" he paused for a moment and then continued "And send a message to Theirry that I need to see him in the library a.s.a.p." then he pushed past and strode across the hall looking for all the world like the assassin he had once been.
Bran followed carefully carrying Lynx, he still couldn't think of her as dead. Not when there was still a chance. He ignored the young vampires shocked face and followed Ash across a white tiled expanse of floor and through a beautiful antique wooden door. The artist in him took notes while the rest of him looked on uncaring.
He and Ash sat on red leather reading chairs in that book lined room for what felt like an eternity. Original Shakespeare folios stared down at him alongside the latest Anne Rice novellas. In what seemed to be the fiction section. He had been about to stand to pace a little in old habit when the door swung inwards; it was not the Night Lord he had been expecting but a girl, perhaps a year or two younger than Lynx with a wine coloured birthmark and grey eyes nearly as old as his own.
"Ash, what's.....?" her voice trailed off as she saw his soulmate lying on the sofa, she could have been sleeping if her chest had risen once in those silent seconds. "Oh great goddess, surely you could have spared him this" Bran was given no time to ask who or what when the vampire walked in.
He screamed power, and not power through blood and destruction, power through sheer age. This he suspected was Theirry Descoudres "Spared me what love?" he looked at the girl who Bran was now certain was Hannah; if his recollection of their love story was correct, with a question in his eyes.
She remained silent as if desperately searching for an answer, he felt an echo of pity for her and stood instantly drawing eyes if only for the uncanny similarity between the two men. Bran stood taller but carried none of Theirry's serenity for all he carried more years. Bran also possessed sharper more defined features. Perhaps there was no real similarity bar the lightness of their hair and darkness of eye, but shared experiences mark just as deeply as genetic difference.
"Bran FallenStar I presume?" the old Bran would have laughed now he merely inclined his head in an uncanny echo of his soulmate, equal to equal "Theirry Descoudres, I am afraid I come on the wings of bad tidings" for a second the Night Lord almost smiled "Mention of your name has always brought bad tidings" he shut his eyes for a moment against tearing pain that refused to leave him and then made a careless seeming gesture towards the woman on the couch.
Whatever he had expected it had not been this, this nonchalance. And he raised a question eyebrow "I had almost expected it, when Ash didn't return after she wrote and told us she had sent him" then Bran saw the deep and fathomless grief, almost that of a parent for a child and his respect for the man grew. It made the next thing he had to say much more difficult "I always prayed she wouldn't find me, for this reason if for no other. But I am informed she has a final chance"
He watched the Night Lord's face as sudden fury worked over it and remained burning in his eyes "You killed her?" he saw Hannah reach out and observed the slight movement he made to stop her touching him "I did, it was necessary" he heard Ash choke behind him "You told me you didn't!" Theirry's eyes flashed back to him and he saw a hope there that he didn't want to break even as he slid back into the chair "Still keeping faith with the soulmate principle Lord Descoudres?" he saw him wince and realised that the fact he had been Lynx's soulmate was what he had been trying to hide from Hannah.
He couldn't spare time now though, as far as he knew every second could count. "We were fighting, over the Night Blade" he saw three pairs of shocked faces and waved their concern away "I didn't covet the thing, I made it, it was my responsibility to destroy it" he saw understanding flash into at least one pair of eyes in the room before he continued "I mocked Lynx with not knowing enough of what she carried to defend it so fervently." Deep sorrow marked his face for a moment before it passed back into the expressionless mask it had been since his supposed triumph.
"I had momentarily forgotten that she was soul bound to the blade" then he shook his head in savage denial of his last words "I knew, I hoped that by taunting her she would put it aside and let me destroy it." He paused for a moment as if he had to struggle to put that last moment into words "She beat me" something like pride lit his eyes emerald green for a moment "I truly though I was going to die, then something seemed to leave her. It was if that blazing light that kept her moving had gone out" he shook his head, "I'd managed to get my weapon up to her throat and she looked at me for a moment" his voice stopped for a moment "And then she told me exactly what to do" his lip curled up at one corner "And I did it, for the greater good I told myself" he met the Night Lords eyes with a look of self condemnation "And now I find that I can't give a damn about the greater good"
***
There was a still pause where the only breathing in the room belonged to Hannah before Theirry could gather enough of his scattered wits to speak. "You spoke of a chance" he let his words die, he alone out of those in the room could understand FallenStar's terrible guilt and grief at having killed his soulmate, and he had no old soul promises to keep locked in his heart. He returned his mind to the present as he spoke again "Yes, the soul that was bound within the blade told me that 'the Dawn circle' with my help could bring her back" Theirry used his mind working through all the possibilities within centuries of Night World knowledge before he stuck on the final possibility.
"The Dawn circle would have been her name for Circle Daybreak witches, but how are you to help?" He watched FallenStar shift slightly before taking from the pocket of black jeans a black sapphire. "This was in Lynx's hair when she, when I" he shrugged "I suspect your witches would find it useful.
Theirry understood, it was the Necromancers stone he had paid for as a gift. He accepted it from FallenStar with something like relief, he would give it into the hands of Mother Cybele and if there was a chance, even the slightest he suspected she would find it. As he turned to leave Hannah finally spoke.
"Your Lynx's soulmate and yet you killed her, you forged the Night Blade and yet you don't look a day over twenty five, what are you Bran FallenStar" that oddly sad half smile tugged at his mouth again as he answered "Great lady, I am but a humble shape shifter within your home" that deep sarcasm Theirry pondered would have done his soulmate proud, even as Ash laughed. FallenStar then looked more serious "I was adopted, against my will mind you, into the house of Drache some five hundred years before your soulmate was born. I am a Dragon" He saw the slightly shaken look on his soulmates face as she contemplated the man in front of her and then she smiled apparently satisfied and left.
Theirry turned to do the same but FallenStar spoke in ancient Latin from behind him "I swear guest right in your home, to lord and lady I am bound in defence until the sun sets on my time here" then his tone became less formal although the Latin remained the same "And if you can aid my lady then my debt to you is eternal" Theirry continued to think on that as he exited the room, having a Dragon in your debt was not a bad thing. And in the times to come it would be more than useful, if only they could accomplish the impossible.