Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans.
Coyote – Chapter 6
With trembling hands, she read Victor's handwritten note again in the dim light of her small room. The paper murmured the anxiety that had flowed through him as he planted words on it.
She pressed her tongue against the roof of her mouth until it ached. Her body drew itself up as small as possible, crumpling the note clutched in her hand. So you don't believe it's real. I know why you sent me away. She balled her hands into fists, and the sound of mangled paper scraped her ears. The buzz of life on the ranch was blurred and flawed now. Fissures ripped through the warm circle woven around her, as if in response to her grief.
"Is this not real?" she spat out between locked teeth. Her eyes burned with stinging salt as she lost her battle with frustration. "Damn you, Sebastian. And damn your father, for doing this to me. For giving me a curse I'll never control. Every time I think I've got some kind of hope, you take it away. Wallace. Richard. And now... I'll never know if someone's love for me is real, will I? Why? Why did you do this?"
Burning fingers shredded Victor's letter and hurled the flakes of paper onto the floor. "Why?" she sobbed. "Why did you do this to me, Blood? Why, Azar? Why, Trigon?"
She sank back into the chair, her hair bound between her fingers.
"Why am I this?"
"Why?"
(break)(break)
Days washed over her as she recovered her strength once more. Long hours stretched out in an ocean of time as she tried to adjust to life outside the rhythm of the tower. The ranch had its own rhythm, which had been interrupted by her sudden arrival. The disrupted flow adjusted around her and continued once more as Karen took her under her wing, bought her new clothes, showed her the proper way to ride a horse, and somehow continued to hide the presence of any communications equipment whatsoever.
A week of brilliant sunsets melted away, and there was no word from the tower. A week of landscapes touched with a crimson and tan paintbrush, and there was only silence from the west.
She had half a mind to reach into the distance with her powers to find any trace of her beloved, but the other half restrained her, remembering the nightmarish results of every other time her subconscious had taken that effort over.
Parked on the front porch, she reached over to scratch Old Bill behind the ears. A long, sloppy tongue rolled out the side of his mouth, and he panted happily in the late evening shadows.
"Maybe I was too insane for him, after all," she confessed to Old Bill.
(break)(break)
The blanket of night settled over the ranch. One lone figure joined the ticking of the clock over the fireplace in invading the hush of the house. He hovered in the study on silent feet. The soft light of the ever-lit lamp spilled from the corner of the room and lapped at the edges of his shadow-clad body.
One bare hand reached for the worn wood of the frame that the girl had stroked with her fingers. Shining black eyes reflected in the glass between the creases of the images of the old man and the young boy.
I miss that man, the dark figure hissed to itself. I miss what he was. What he meant. Without him, I am so alone.
Those obsidian orbs turned to the photograph on the table nearby, so new that the corners were still sharp. The Dawn Child astride a horse, mouth drawn into a tight frown of focus; even a simple ride in the sun seemed a serious venture to her. Quiet pools of violet seemed to study him right back from behind the safety of the photo's gloss. At least they seemed quiet on the surface, but beneath...beneath...
Soon, I won't be alone any more.
He caressed the frame again. Traces of her apprehension and wariness lingered there. He savored their flavor as the tic-toc-tic-toc of the mantel clock counted a gentle cadence of minutes into the otherwise silent room.
The hulking form of Old Bill bounded up next to him. His long tail beat the air with delight. The figure scratched him behind the ears and whispered a hoarse Pilamaya aloh to the eager canine. Then the dim shape waded through the edge of the light and slipped out of the study.
Not quite as satisfying as dread. But it will do. For now.
(break)(break)
A/N: The Brother Blood incident is detailed in the TPB "Teen Titans Volume II: Family Lost".