A/N: Yea, I know. It takes me awhile. But at least I do update. I promise, I'll finish the story… I just don't know how long it'll take. :). But hey, if you want to push me a little harder, give me nice, long review, and I'll return the favor with a nice, long chapter. Mua ha ha. I'm mean. I know. No but really, thanks for everyone's reviews. It's what motivates me at 4 a.m. when I'm supposed to be studying for school! Ha ha.

WARNING: Eh. Standard warning. Blood. Lust. Etc. Hence the "M" rating.

Crescendo

Chapter 5: Now and Forevermore

"Darien… I think I'm in love with you," Serena said softly.

He looked down in into those beautiful pale blue eyes, drowning in the emotions swirling through their depths. This was the moment he had been waiting for his entire life. What he had hoped for. What he wished for.

It was finally granted.

Serena's thin, gauzy white dress swirled around her ankles and her silver hair fell tumultuously down her back. She reached up and entwined her slender arms around his neck as she pulled him down to her mouth. Just a hair's breadth away from his lips, she whispered, "Actually, I know that I love you."

Her scent overwhelmed him, as he took in a deep breath and savored the feeling of her soft, fragile body molded against his own long, hard one. Every dip and curve seemed to melt against him just as her mouth melted into his.

Her dainty tongue slipped into his mouth and teased his own, filling his senses with her taste. The kiss was long and slow, and he savored every minute of it, imprinting the memory of her taste and scent into his mind. When their mouths broke apart, Serena walked forward, forcing Darien to walk backwards, until the back of his calves hit the soft cushion of an armchair. She gently pushed him down, motioning for him to take a seat. He did so without breaking eye contact, his body taught with arousal and desire. She slowly slid the hem of her dress up to her thighs and climbed up onto the chair to straddle his thighs.

"Serena-"

Shhh, Darien. Let me do this. I want to. I need to, she purred seductively in his mind.

Serena ground her own heated core against his arousal, and he knew without a doubt that this slow, agonizing pleasure was as much of a torture for her as it was for him. She whimpered softly in her throat, the sound shooting through Darien's body like an arrow.

He couldn't take it anymore.

Grasping her hips, he brought the movements of her seductive bump-and-grind to a halt.

"No more," he gritted out between clenched teeth. He began to stand up to carry Serena to the nearby bed, but suddenly realized that his entire body was frozen in place; that he couldn't move.

What the hell? He looked up into Serena's face and saw that she was no longer smiling. Rather, her eyes were dead and flat, with silent tears tracking down her ghostly-pale face.

Darien struggled to get up, but it was impossible. Even with all his strength and powers combined, he couldn't even budge an inch. While he struggled against his invisible bonds with the beast in him roaring in outrage, Serena had slid off his lap and began walking silently away towards the door.

"Goodbye Darien." There was no remorse in her voice, no sadness. Just an empty shell with a toneless voice.

"NO!" he roared, and the doors and windows disappeared in a flash, thrusting the room into near darkness, save for a few candles and dimly lit lamps around the room. His heart racing, he struggled even harder to get up. Then, as quick as blink, he saw Serena again, yet she was now trapped inside a huge, beautifully ornate bird cage that was set right before him, so close that the door was not one inch away from his foot. Silver leaves and vines twined around the bars with jewels and precious stones melded into the delicate design.

Serena sat on a plush, scarlet-colored lounge chair, her head bowed and her hands buried in her lap.

"Serena! Release me!" he roared. He felt his wings burst out, the razor sharp feathers slicing through the armchair's thick cushions as they spread apart in their full glory and tore the chair's entire back into shreds. Yet when he tried to move them according to his will, urging them to demolish whatever invisible forcing was holding him back, he realized that they too, were just as frozen as the rest of his body.

The entire room was swirling in chaos as the dark cloud of his power emanated from him, destroying all in his path. He tried to break open the cage that Serena was trapped in, yet every blow and hit he inflicted onto the cage made no difference; it remained as beautiful and untarnished as before.

Finally, Serena stood and stepped forward, her arms dangling lifelessly at her side and her head still bowed until her face was all but touching the bars of the cage. He noticed a sharp glint of metal from her side and realized that in her right hand, she loosely gripped a long, slender sword, the point glinting wickedly. Slowly she lifted her head and stared dead straight into his eyes. The look of loathing and pain he saw in them punched him in the stomach, forcing all the air out of his lungs.

"Serena. Oh no." He realized what she meant to do and a feeling of absolute horror and fear overcame him. This was not supposed to happen. He was not supposed to be so powerless. He had to stop it. He had to. He stared on in horror as Serena swiftly lifted the curved sword, the point just a foot away from his face. "SERENA! NO! STOP!" he thundered.

She ignored him, and brought down the lethal point through flesh and bone. Darien shouted in pain and outrage, and all around him, the room exploded. The walls began to crumble and room shook. He fell to his knees as his body was suddenly released from its immobile state and he gripped the bars of the cage, looking up into Serena's eyes. She too was on her knees, and the look of triumph and satisfaction on Serena's face was terrifyingly yet poetically stunning.

"Serena, why? I gave you everything you wanted. Everything anyone could have ever wished for." His voice was hoarse and his body was going numb with pain. The blood began to pool, the crimson color cruelly beautiful in its cold purity.

Serena reached out with her long, slender arms through the bars and brought Darien's head closer. Bringing their heads as close as the bars would permit, she gave him one last, soft kiss.

"Never yours," she whispered.

He watched in broken horror as bloody tears began to stream from her eyes. The arms that clutched his head loosened as he watched the life leave her body and his heart die. The knife she had plunged into her stomach protruded from her back, the blood pouring so steadily that it began to stream over the edge of the cage and pool at his knees.

For a few moments, he stared disbelievingly. It wasn't possible for her to die. As a vampire, wounds like this, while painful, were not fatal. He tried desperately to find his link to her, the link that bound her heart to his, but it was gone. As if it had never even existed. As if Serena had never even been born.

No…

Serena's body had begun to fade, her image so blurred and transparent that he could see the other side of the cage through her. Not only had he lost her heart, but now she was completely disappearing physically, as if he was not worthy of keeping even a single reminder of her. He tried to break open the cage fruitlessly, the silver bars as indestructible as they had been before. When he reached through to grasp at her body, his fingers slipped silently through her image, gathering only a handful of mist that disappeared almost immediately.

He felt his mind shut down, the last remnants of his humanity die. He stared and stared at her until only the faintest wisps of her image remained. Finally, she faded completely. Not a drop of her blood remained, and the sword that ended her life had faded with the body. The silver door swung open silently and Darien stood up to walk in.

Inside the cage, he knelt down, picking up several blood-red, flawless rubies.

Her tears were all that she left for him.

When Darien opened his eyes, the sense of relief and gratitude that rushed through him was electrifying. The vision-

No, dream.

Dream had felt so real that he could still feel the soft press of Serena's lips against his; the weight of her tears in his palm.

'Never yours' she had whispered before her death.

Well then, I'll just have to damn sure, that becomes mine; until she wants to be mine. Until she can't live without being mine.

Whatever it fucking took. But one thing was certain.

He would never let her go. Ever.

"Mr. Tremain, when can we expect the return of Mr. Shields?" a fretful man in a boxy suit asked nervously. The small man wiped his sweaty brow and nearly cringed beneath the piercing black stare.

Or glare, the man thought nervously.

"It's just that he has quite a few important meetings schedule, as well as a function to attend tonight, and none of the staff has seen or heard from him for more than twenty-four hours," he rambled on nervously.

"Reschedule the meetings. Or divide them amongst the partners. We'll take care of it. And send Mr. Shield's regrets and a large contribution to the charity benefit tonight. That is all." He turned around and faced the large windows that looked down at the busy streets of New York.

"But, but-" the nervous man stammered.

"But?" The large man didn't turn around, but the message was clear: we're through. Get out.

"Nothing!" the assistant squeaked, and he scampered out of the plush, expensive office.

Only when the nuisance had left and the door locked behind him did Nephrite relax. He turned around and sat in the high backed chair, closing his eyes. A sudden additional presence in the room alerted his senses, but he didn't open his eyes. Instead, a tired, yet happy smile slid onto his face.

The blinds in his room silently lowered, the flaps closing to conceal any bit of sunlight that streamed into the room, but the lamps remained lit.

The familiar scent of chocolate and caramel reached him, and he groaned in satisfaction as a tall, curvy woman slid onto his lap and gave him a soft, teasing kiss.

"You're so mean. Everyone here is clearly terrified of you. But I think you prefer and enjoy it that way, don't you?" Her husky voice was teasing and low, as she ran her fingers through Nephrite's dark hair.

"Lita my love, I highly doubt that anyone is more afraid of me than they are of Darien. I think I'm doing the people of these meetings a favor by sparing the piss-in-your-pants-because-you're-so-scared presence of His Highness." Nephrite, wrapped his arms around his mate, and buried his face in Lita's long, auburn tumble of hair. "God I really needed this. Need you."

"I could tell. What's going on? What happened?" she asked concernedly, settling comfortably in his lap.

"Stop wriggling around if you want me to tell you," he growled playfully, his body reacting in a not-so-playful way.

"Oh for heaven's sake, stop. You get distracted so easily. Now tell me," Lita demanded.

"Well I wouldn't get so distracted if your ass didn't keep rubbing and squirming against my c-"

"Nephrite!" She let out a gasp and hit his chest in outrage. "Language! What if that slipped out in front of Lapis?"

Properly chastised, Nephrite gave her a submissive bow of the head. Then he squeezed her ass, just because she was so damn cute lecturing him like that, while she sat primly on his lap.

Lita squeaked. "Stop that! If you don't, I won't give you your present later. Now tell me what's going on."

He forcefully suppressed his lustful thoughts of Lita wrapped in nothing but velvet red ribbon placed in very strategic places, being offered to him as his 'present'. "Okay, okay." He sighed as the briefly forgotten stress returned to him.

"His Highness hasn't been seen in for more than a day, ever since he attended that piano concert. When I did manage to briefly get into contact with him, all I got was a mental image of his middle finger. Other than that, no one else has managed to get into contact with him at all. Not only that, Kunzite of all people, also hasn't gotten back to me. Ever since last night, I still haven't heard from him. And, not only that, a woman named Serena has also disappeared."

"Wait a sec. Serena, as the pianist of the concert Darien attended?"

"Yes. And also as in the Serena, Raye's best friend."

"Oh! Speaking of, I forgot to tell you this, but I finally met Raye the other day! She stopped by the bakery and ordered a dozen strawberry-jelly filled zeppole. Which is, I might add, Jadeite's favorite. She didn't know who I was, but I could sense Jadeite's presence on her. She seems like a very nice person. I liked her," Lita said happily. "There are so few women these days, it'd be nice to have a girlfriend or something to hang out with." She sighed. "Anyways, continue, continue." She made a shooing motion with her hands, motioning for him to go on.

Nephrite, stared at his wife's shining, beautiful face, her expression open and happy. Perched on his lap and her hands folded in her lap, he just couldn't resist.

"God! You're so cute and sexy!" He thrust his hand up Lita's plain green shirt and covered her bare breast with his palm. "Ah… What's this? No bra? You naughty girl." He flicked the sensitive tip between his fingers and moaned with approval when the scent of her arousal began to fill the air.

"I was… In a hurry…" she panted, her mind fogging over. "No… stop it… Tell me… Finish…"

Nephrite gently nipped at her ear and continued. "That's pretty much it. Jadeite, Raye, and I went to her house later that night to see if she had returned, but she hadn't. But her cousin, Mina was there."

"I see…Oh god, Nephrite." His fingers had begun to trail down beneath the waistband of her loose skirt. Then, suddenly, an ingenious thought came to her and her cloudy eyes sprang wide open. "Oh my god!" she cried, springing off Nephrite's lap. She busily adjusted her skirt and pulled her shirt back down. "Then Darien and Serena went missing at the same time?"

"Something like that," he grumbled. He stared longingly at his wife's bouncing… assets. So close…

"Oh stop pouting." Lita lifted up a small white box that he didn't notice before and set it before him. "It's your favorite: dark chocolate pie with raspberry-mint cream. Now, as I was saying…"

Still not completely placated but mouth watering in anticipation, Nephrite grudgingly accepted the heavenly-smelling dessert and prepared to dig in. Damn his sweet tooth.

"…so that must mean they're together!" Lita finished with a flourish. "Nephrite! Were you listening?"

"Uh huh," he mumbled around the mouthful of pie.

"Like I was saying. So Darien went to Serena's concert, where he would most certainly meet her, or at least see her. Then they both go disappearing around the same time, and they both still haven't been found. Coincidence? I think not. Praise me, oh dear Mr. Watson."

Some of her words managed to get through to his chocolate-induced mind, and he chewed thoughtfully for a few moments. "Yes, but why would they disappear together? Darien has never shown any interest in a human woman before, except for feeding. And he would never take blood from an acquaintance of one of us. Unless she was…"

His startled brown eyes flew up to Lita's smug green ones. "After all these centuries. Maybe he's really found her."

"I know! What if he has? Oh this is wonderful!"

"But still rather troubling. Even if he has found her, why wouldn't he tell any of us? I understand that he might want some time alone, but for this long? Without any word? Besides, during that brief moment of contact, he seemed very tense and nervous."

"Nervous? Darien? Hah. The day I see Darien nervous is the day I decide that asparagus is delicious."

"Hm… Perhaps. I've sent Zoicite to check out Darien's apartment and the mansion to see if he's there. He should get back to me soon."

"In any case, if he really has found his true mate, there's going to be some interesting times ahead. I wonder what kind of person Serena is," Lita said thoughtfully.

"Regardless, she's going to have to be strong person, if she's with Darien. His is a difficult life, after all."

"I know, but still, I really hope it's true. After all this time… He deserves it." Lita sighed. "Anyways, gotta go love. Lapis should be just about waking up from her nap."

Nephrite stood up and caught Lita by the waist, swinging her into his arms and giving her a hard, passionate kiss. "We'll continue what we couldn't finish earlier tonight when I get home. With the pie," he added suggestively.

"It's a date." And with one last, promising smile, Lita disappeared in blink, with only the lingering smell of sugar as evidence of her visit.

He felt better already.

Darien had been outside, roaming through the trees as a large and powerful black wolf when he felt it. He had been racing through the trees, trying to calm down from the disturbing dream he had earlier when a powerful surge of fear and pain had radiated from his soul, nearly causing him to bend over in pain and shock.

Serena…His mind went blank in terror as he realized that these painful sensations were coming from Serena, and that his connection to her was causing him to feel the same things. Fragments of his dream tormented him, pierced him. He remembered the pain in her eyes before they went dead, the sight of her body fading before him, and the-

No more! That was just a dream!

He immediately shifted back to his human form and transported himself into his bedroom, where Serena was supposed to be resting. His wings snapped out and unfurled as his fangs lengthened and snarled. He felt the beast in him roar in outrage over whatever was causing his mate pain. He swiftly soared into the room, his body moving so quickly that his movement was like a mere blur. His menacing power spilled over and suffocated the room, wanting to fill every crack and crevice to find the enemy that had dared to trespass into his home and threaten Serena.

But what he saw simply astonished him.

Serena felt as if twin axes were being driven into her back, tearing through skin and bone. She could feel her skin being cut open and the blood dribbling down. She screamed and screamed until her voice was hoarse, until she collapsed onto her side and curled up into fetal position as the pain gradually began to subside.

She took in gasping breaths, tears streaming from her eyes. The pain was even worse than before when she went through the transition. So deep and agonizing that not even the blissful darkness would take her away. Suddenly she felt the presence of Darien in her mind, soothing her, taking the pain from her. She tried to shut him out, but the feeling of his comfort was too much to resist, and she gave in.

As she lie there, her back throbbing, she realized that her entire body was soaked in sunlight, yet the warmth felt nice and soothing. The pain wasn't from burns from the sun, but rather something entirely else.

Something white and soft drifted into her vision, the image blurring as her tears continued to flow and momentarily blinded her.

A feather…

He should've been used to this feeling of astonishment by now, considering that anything that had to do with Serena completely blew all norms out of the water. But this. Now this really, really confused him.

The sunlight streaming into the room nearly gave him a heart attack (in a manner of speaking), until he realized that Serena wasn't suffering from burns under the light. He almost didn't even see them until they twitched slightly.

"Please don't tell me I have fucking wings sprouting out of my back." Serena's voice was hoarse and still filled with pain, but she was okay. He appeared at her side, and doing a quick body scan, he saw that the bleeding had already stopped and that she was almost completely healed.

"Okay. I won't."

"Oh god. You gave me wings too? You mentioned nothing about this!" Serena was desperately trying to ignore the soothing feeling of Darien's strong hand gently stroking her face and back, but failed.

"Trust me, I didn't expect this either," he said sardonically. "But I must say, they are extremely beautiful." He made one long stroke down the expanse of one wing and Serena unconsciously preened into his hand.

"Is the pain almost gone now?" Darien asked.

"Yes," Serena sighed. Darien had continued to stroke her wings, the feeling sending nice, warm tingles up and down her spine. Oh, that feels good…Wait a sec. Reality check! You have WINGS damn it! Wake up woman!

"Wait. Stop." He didn't, but he did look down at her and gave her his attention. Serena was still feeling too weak and tired to move away so she let him continue. But only because she was too tired.

Yeah right.

"So tell me again, why the hell do I have a pair of giganto wings attached to my back? And why the hell do they hurt so fucking much?"

"I think it's because you weren't human."

"Uh, newsflash. I know that I'm not human anymore. I'm a vampire." The word still came out bitterly.

Ignoring that barb, Darien said, "I realize that. And I didn't say aren't human, but weren't human. You were not completely human even before your transition. Granted, you had mostly human blood flowing through your veins, but somewhere… You had a little extra of something. I had considered this before, because of our rather… Unusual bonding, but now I see that my suspicions were correct. Besides, wings are not a normal character for a vampire of your age."

"So then what was I?" she asked suspiciously.

When he told her, she really wished that she hadn't asked. Really, really, really wished that she hadn't asked.

"Oh, no way!"

"Yes way."