Snowflakes
Summary: Snowflakes dancing gently in the breeze, unique and fragile- falling.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Night World that belongs to the fantastic LJ Smith.
Authors Note: This is just something I wrote to get me back into writing LJS fanfiction, I hope you like it. Bex.
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Winter. It matched her sombre mood as she marched along in the snow through the fields. Her raven hair dancing along behind her to the silent dusky sounds of death. Her poppy red bobble hat the only sign of life and hope.
Death. It clung to her; it's tender talons gripping her firmly. Wrapping itself deeply around her heart. It's embrace slowly destroying her. She was a harbinger. Death followed her everywhere. It called out to her, begging her to come closer. To watch the crimson liquid splatter to the floor. To see the spark in some unknowns eyes die. To feel its dark laugh rumble in her bones.
Never again.
Death wasn't too far away in the snowy farmland she could feel it. Someone was dying all alone not too far away. It was always the same. Everyone was alone in death. It was a path you had to travel on your own and she had set so many people out on it. She who had had the brightest of futures.
Life was dancing on and through the breeze that was weaving itself around her. So close and yet so far. Grief. She supposed she was grieving for the unknowns, the forgotten, the lost. The ones who should have lived if she hadn't come.
She stopped watching the snowflakes dancing in the breeze. Funny. Snowflakes were like life. Unique. Fragile. Beautiful. But forever falling.
Amber eyes came into view, without a second thought she brought her scythe up into a guard position. The mud caked onto her travel worn tunic cracking at the sudden movement. Her hair blew into her eyes as the wind changed direction and then fell limply. She looked at the stranger. He was perhaps six-foot with short russet hair. He was rich, his clothes emphasising this about him before he had even spoken. The quality of them was exquisite. It would have taken a poor family ten years just to save up for his shirt. She wrinkled her nose.
He stank of death.
The smell rolled off him in waves. And his eyes… His eyes were cold and calculating. There was no trace of the warmth of humanity in them. There was no spark of life. Her green eyes widened. She had only heard whispers of his kind before. His kind that were better harbingers, that didn't care who died or when. Who didn't care if parents watched their children die, or if the ill suffered whilst the well withered away.
-Vampire.-
The word echoed off of the walls of her mind. She looked at the guy, and knew instantly that he had supplied the word she had been grasping for. "So you are the sorrowful harbinger." He purred, his baritone voice hypnotising. Telling her silently to place down the scythe. She ignored it.
"I am Iblis." She said, keeping her blade pointed at him as he circled around her looking for a weakness. "Daughter of the Harbingers. It is my right to walk this land; it has been my right for generations untold. I will not bow down to you." He chuckled.
"I am Loki." He replied, capturing her gaze with his own. "Your rights mean nothing to me Iblis. I existed long before the first harbinger walked this land and I will still exist long after the last has gone and been forgotten." He reached out and in a fluid, lightning quick, movement removed the scythe from her grasp and threw it away from them. He smirked seeing the first tendrils of fear enter her eyes.
She took a step back, her mind reeling. She had heard of him, a whisper within a whisper that had reached her unhearing ears. He was dangerous, like the Norse God he was named after- aptly. He was a trickster. He played games that no one could afford to loose- for the price was their lives- but many were foolish to play. She smiled at him, a grudging respect replacing her fear. "So you are Loki." She murmured.
"That I am." He agreed. He was amused. The girl before him certainly had pluck. She was the first, as far back as he could remember which was several thousand years, who had not attempted to run from him. He could feel that she wasn't afraid of him. That she wasn't afraid of death. That she longed silently for its comforting embrace that called to her. Every harbinger he had met and killed feared him because although they brought death to thousands they feared their own demise. She stood before him with no weapon but she did not cower like the other fools.
She bowed to him, and then turned away, ignoring him and began walking once more through the barren landscape. He blocked her way in a flurry of movement. She sighed in exasperation and reached out to push him away… He moved his hand to block hers. As soon as skin touched the world dissolved into sparks.
She yanked her hand away, taking a step back. Iblis snarled at him. He stared at her blankly, lost in the recesses of his mind trying to remember what those sparks had meant. Soulmates. The word resonated with hidden meaning. They were soulmates. She was his other half. Almost unbidden he could feel the coil of pain deep within her that she had buried deep within her behind her fear and anger and hate. What scared him most was he could feel…
No love. No hope. No dreams. No wishes. No fantasies.
Nothing.
All he could see was a barren landscape of pain, anger and nothingness. He looked down at her and saw pearls of shimmering light escape from her eyes and fall to the floor, crashing into snowflakes as they went. His heart ached.
She regarded him coldly, her eyes blazing with her furious indignant anger. How dare he! How dare he, who had walked for centuries beneath the sun taking life after life feel pity for her. She who was just as forsaken as he. She who was forced to walk her path alone.
He offered her rest, comfort and oblivion. She could see it in his eyes. The eyes of a wildcat on the prowl. There was no hint, no trace, of humanity in them. She shivered. Without thinking she reached out and gently cupped his face in her hand. The gentle buzzing of the sparks sending shivers down her spine and wakening forgotten dormant emotions. She stroked his face tenderly, tears silently streaming down her face. "Do you know how tempting your offer is Loki?" She murmured. Images of the thousands of deaths she had witnessed and caused flashing before her eyes.
A girl no older than three lay clinging to her nine-year-old self's leg, tears pouring down its plump face. "Don't leave me!" The child wailed, tightening its grip. "Mummy won't wake up!" She shivered, the child's mother standing in front of her begging her to give her the child. The poor lady didn't seem to realise she was dead. The din the two were creating was awful. Two souls grieving for the other. Compelled by nature to cling to the other. Loving one another so much that they pushed and pulled against deaths barrier with life in the vein hope that they would be united. Death coiled itself around her heart, showing her the child's future. The child was to become a dignified queen who would combat the slavery that was destroying these lands. She turned to the mother, tears streaming silently down her face.
"Is your grief enough that countless thousands must suffer?" She asked. "Let her go. She has a path she must travel. Your paths will cross again, but now is not her time." She bent down and picked the child up, who struggled in her grasp like she could see her mother standing a hair's breadth away. Gently she placed her hand on the child's forehead. "Say goodbye to your mother little one." She whispered, as the child fell into a deep sleep.
-Why are you so sad about that?- Loki asked, catching her as her legs gave way beneath her. He cradled her against him as she sobbed quietly.
-Because…- She began, unaware she had been talking telepathically, as another memory swamped her.
A tall dark figure stood in front of her as the child cowered behind her. The child was five and she was eleven but she had been looking after the girl for two years. Struggling to rear her by herself as the other harbingers looked on in scorn. "You will not harm her D'Kar!" She said firmly. "I will not allow it!" He struck her hard across the face.
"You dare intervene Iblis Firewalker?"
"I dare." She said, her voice shaking with fury. She gestured to the crowd of onlookers watching them with interest with a shaking hand. "They may look the other way when you take a life that's bright and strong. That hasn't reached its time to die. I will not!" She spat on the ground. "Do you think that I do not know about your deal with the demon who has promised you an immortal life?" She laughed scornfully. "Death may not tell you her secrets D'Kar but she tells me. If you take this child you will have a cursed life." He hit her again sending her crashing to her knees. She looked up at him panting through scornful eyes.
"Do you think I care?" D'Kar asked. "Death will soon come for me and any life is better than none. One day you will understand that Firewalker." She turned her gaze from him and looked at the crowd of harbingers. The ones who were only supposed to take the lives of the ones nearest to death.
"If you let him do this then you are no better than he." She spat, as he brought his hand down hard against the back of her neck. She swayed for a couple of seconds before crashing to the floor. "If you do nothing know this. I will hunt each and everyone of you down and show you the path to death." She whispered her voice inaudible, as she lost consciousness and descended into darkness.
But they all heard.
-They killed her. She told me that herself when I found her body. They killed her so they could become immortal. The ones who heeded my warning? They slaughtered them too. D'Kar killed them slowly one by one robbing me of my revenge.- She laughed bitterly.
-You know that I…- He trailed off troubled.
"That you are the demon D'Kar made the bargain with? Yes, I knew that. I knew that you couldn't see the future of the child you had asked D'Kar for and that he had seen it but not told you." She bit her lip; "D'Kar craves power above all else. He should never have been allowed to be a harbinger but for greed and lust for power." She nuzzled his neck.
"Do you know what your future will be?" He asked softly. Curious for the first time about something since he had been changed. He wanted her to live. He knew it would destroy him when she died. She looked at him quizzically. Then sighed.
"No. No one should know their future. It is a path each walker must choose for themselves. There are people who can guide you, point you towards certain paths. But only you can choose which one is right for you." She explained, her voice containing an infinite wisdom. "I suppose… a dying man who knows its his time can just slip away knowing that he has lived but a man who fears death because he has not lived will cling to life until the last. In essence both men will have started out from the same point but their paths diverged when one chose to live for the moment and the other chose to live for tomorrow and not for today. It is a matter of choice what we become Loki." He stroked her hair.
"I know." He whispered as he placed her back on the ground, the soulmate link buzzing between them quietly in the background. She took a couple of steps away from him before turning back to him.
"Do you still want my blood?" She asked exposing her neck by twisting her hair and holding it out of the way. He looked at her speechlessly. "If you do you are welcome to take it." He took a hesitant step forward and then another until he stood before her. She reached out and took his hand and kissed it. "Please, I know you are hungry and have not fed for days."
"I cannot spill your blood." He whispered his voice twisted in anguish.
"You can." She soothed. "I trust you." He bent down and bit her.
--
He drew back hours, or minutes, later. He neither knew nor cared. The body in his arms was limp. But there was still a spark. He could feel it. She was clinging onto life for him. Knowing that he couldn't loose her- yet. -Let me go.- Her weak voice pleaded in his mind. -It is my time.-
-Not yet Iblis.- He replied, reaching out with his mind and gripping onto her tighter. -You still have to find D'Kar and kill him.- He reminded her. -Besides, you cannot leave me. We're meant to be together.- He could feel her sad smile through the link.
-This is my time Loki. We'll meet again, I promise. Next time we'll have our whole lifetime to spend together. Just promise me…- He could feel his grip on her loosening and her moving further away…
-What?- He prompted.
-Promise me that you'll wait for me and in the mean time hunt down D'Kar and kill him for me. I love you Loki, how I can I do not know. We've only known each other a matter of minutes but I do. Please, do this for me.-
-I promise!- He whispered letting go of her even though it was breaking his heart.
-Thank you…- She whispered. Then she was gone.
" A place in time
Still belongs to us
Stays preserved in my mind
In the memories there is solace
Never too far away
I won't let time erase
One bit of yesterday "