Without you
Ashli28
Disclaimer: None of the characters or ideas are mine, all belonging to L. J. Smith. However, the sequence of events is my own portrayal of the story and should not be copied without permission.
Author's note: I don't normally write fanfiction but I love Galen and Keller and there's not enough wrote about them: so here we go… Feel free to rate, or to express constructive criticism. However, if you're going to say something about my writing, please justify it with a reason. Rating is T just in case. If anything gets worse than that lol, there'll be warnings. Also, later, a few characters die feel free to hate me.
I've rewrote this a little, trying to make it better. if I've made it worse, tell me and I'll put the other version back.
It was a street, Goddess knows she had seen enough of them in her seventeen years of life, but there was something evil in the air of this one. Factories and warehouses occupied both sides of the road, their windows cracked; Keller could see the lack of paint even in the darkness. No one would dare live anywhere near this street, if they had a choice. The only building that looked remotely clean was the hospital, and even that was full of cracks in the windows and shoddy paintwork.
But the Panther was chagrined, not by the thought that someone might have to live there, but by the lack of Night people around. She wanted to fight, wanted to hurt some of them – some of the one' that had hurt her so deeply in the past. She wanted to har their screams of terror, almost lived for their pain…yet that didn't make the streets more full. The world was quiet, or so it seemed from where she was crouching – in the shadows – it should be an easy job, maybe she hadn't even needed to take Galen with her.
Galen and Keller. Keller and Galen. Even thinking the names out loud together gave Keller a small shiver of satisfaction; they made a fantastic team, crawling through darkness – invariably not in their human forms – running through the trees, catching the Night World monsters and then going home to reap the benefits of being two engaged shape shifters in love…
Not that she had abandoned Winnie and Nissa for Galen; they weren't as good looking, and Keller was sure they probably didn't kiss half as well, but they were the closest thing she had ever had to friends, and she was willing to take them everywhere with her and Galen. She had even asked if they wanted to go on the honeymoon with them. They had refused, thankfully.
Unfortunately, sometimes the mission called for two of the team staying at the safe house with Illiana while the other two went out and stalked the enemy, and it was generally Galen and Keller: the two fastest, the two strongest, the two shape shifters, who went out.
The enemy had never stopped trying to reach Illiana, it was in the back of Keller's mind every moment of the day.
But this time, they had not been sent down in some desperate – possibly kamikaze – attempt to keep the Night People from hurting the Wild Power. Instead, Thierry had found out from some of his contacts and spies in the Night World that the vampires were attacking the hospital for a certain Elle Panter. No one knew why, but Keller had been ordered to get together a team and get the woman out of there.
It was cruel, so very cruel, that they should have to go on a mission, just days before her and Galen's wedding, but Thierry had promised it would be the last until they were back from their honeymoon and thoughts of it kept her mind off the mission and on the gorgeous golden leopard in front of her who moved like liquid as though he had been born a leopard. Watching his…back…
The wedding, think about the wedding, she willed herself, almost letting out a purr in contentment. She had a dress: it was black, not a traditional white wedding dress, but tucked at the waist with a full skirt that reached metres around her. She liked the full skirt – underneath – she could hide anything in there. The bodice was made of the fur of another shape shifter, as were the shorts she was going to wear under the dress, so that – if she had to – she could just rip off the skirts and change. A week earlier, she had had her name officially changed so that she would be Keller Drache, not Rashka Drache, and the girls in Circle Daybreak had been fussing for weeks about how she was going to wear her hair and make-up (although she didn't care if she just let them the way they were) especially Illiana – her maid of honour, the one who had made it all possible.
Just one month ago, I didn't have him…cared only about my work for Circle Daybreak and I knew – knew – that I'd always be alone. She stiffened, but kept on prowling. After all, when had Keller ever let personal miseries affect her work?
Well, there was that one time, with Galen…and the dragon.
Oh shut it.
And why was she so upset anyway? Her mother had been wrong; she wasn't alone. It must have been the air, making her nauseous. But that wasn't really what had overcome her with a wave of depression.
It was that, although Keller wasn't feminine in most respects, and doubted very sincerely that her wedding was 'the best day of her life' that it could possibly be any better than the she had ahead of her, with Galen, but it still sent a shiver of sadness in her spine when she thought about it. On her side of the church, she would have no one – Winnie and Nissa were her bridesmaids, Illiana her maid of honour, and who else did she have? Whereas everyone in his family and everyone they have invited from Circle Daybreak would be on Galen's side. Possibly wondering why he'd ever love someone like Keller when he could have had Illiana. Beautiful, sweet, powerful Illiana. Illiana the witch child. Illiana the wild power.
If she'd had hands, she would have slapped the thought away. She had work to do, and luckily Galen didn't love her for her nonexistent popularity, he loves me because he has no choice in the matter, she darted around the corner of a human building and changed back into her human form, "stop," she whispered with an authority older than her, pressing the pin on her jumpsuit. Galen suddenly stopped darting around the street and stood still, she made her voice even lower now that she had his attention, "change and jump over the fence beside you, that will take you to the front of the hospital. Stay there and wait as backup." He changed before her eyes from a leopard to a human boy in seconds and reached for the fence. He was trained not to turn back and look at her, but she saw his arm move to his collar and he said, "Keller, I have an idea. Why don't you wait as backup?"
"Because I'm a much better fighter than you," she answered, and there was no arrogance in the comment. They both knew it. Galen was a poet, liked to spend his time in the gardens around Circle Daybreak's Headquarters – Thierry's mansion – writing and reading. And before that, he had done the same in his own mansion, much to his parents' annoyance. Keller's only hobby since her early teens had been tracking down Night People and assassinating them, and before that she was already training to be a fighter. How could he ever compare? She didn't add that if there was danger, she'd prefer to die than live a life without him, that would only receive some sentimental comment from him no doubt.
He sighed, he knew what she was saying was true, "Okay, but Keller…" he hesitated, knowing he was just being overprotective, but feeling worry for her anyway, "just…just be careful, okay? Don't look for violence."
"I will be," and she made something like a chuckle, "and I wont. I have our wedding to think about to make sure I come back in one piece."
Goddess, Keller had no idea how hearing those words made him feel. His heart fluttered in his ribcage and he could barely cope with the thought of letting her do something on her own. Something dangerous. But he was not a chauvinist and he wasn't going to act like one when she was so obviously right. For her to even consider saying something like, pulling down the emotional walls and showing him she didn't want to be alone any longer…it was something he would never had thought was possible when he had met her.
He looked around inconspicuously, hoping he wouldn't get a berating off Keller – he wasn't supposed to, but he needed it. At first he didn't see her and he panicked (what if something's got her and she didn't have time to scream before it killed her? What if she's already gone? What if…?) a flash of silver caught his eye and he looked up. There she was. She'd climbed a tree and was sitting outside at the back of the hospital, waiting for him to get in place.
"I love you," he murmured, jogging as casually as he could to the front of the hospital and stopping there. It was an effort not to race up the stairs with his fiancée, but he stopped.
"Yeah, yeah, this isn't the time for sweet nothings, Galen," she was being sarcastic, but not in a mean way, "I love you too, but I'll be in and out in a second. It's an easy job." With that, she leaned over from her branch and broke the window nearest, changing into her panther form before leaping through it.
