A/N: Onwards we go. I'm trying to get a few more parts of this done today and tomorrow as it's Faebles this weekend in London so I won't have any time to write (sorry, not sorry). Thanks again for all the feedback, on here and on Tumblr (link in my bio) you guys rock. In this part something happens that causes Tamsin to really question her resolve.
x-x-x
Bo was out, Kenzi was out, Tamsin was wasted. The house was so quiet. Too quiet. Even with the music blasting downstairs it was still getting too much for Tamsin. When she was alone she had time to think, when it was quiet she had to listen. As the two sides of her mind were arguing, Tamsin lay on her bed, bottle of vodka in her hand. The room was dark apart from the fairy lights.
A car screeched up outside, causing Tamsin to furrow her brow as she sat up. She heard the front door crash open.
"Tamsin!" she heard Dyson yell.
The Valkyrie sighed. Dyson's worry clearly evident in his voice. She knew what that meant, Bo was hurt.
As much as she wanted to move, as much as she wanted to run down the stairs and be Bo's hero, she couldn't. Sex she could do, meaningless healing sex with any other Succubus wouldn't be a problem at all, but it was Bo. As meaningless as it would be to Bo, and as much as she could pretend it wouldn't be more than that, to her heart it would be.
She put the bottle down on the bedside table. Resting her elbows on her knees she put her head in her hands, as she heard someone running up the stairs.
As the door to the loft stairs opened she knew it wasn't Dyson, the footfalls were much too light. It was Lauren.
"There you are..." Lauren said, catching her breath as she rested against the banister.
"You're pretty unfit if that leaves you out of breath..." Tamsin said quietly.
"Tamsin..." the doctor started to say.
"Please don't..." Tamsin said.
"It's Bo, she's badly..." Lauren continued.
"Please don't ask me, Lauren." Tamsin replied, her head still firmly in her hands.
"She refuses to feed off Dyson, we can't just grab someone off the street..." Lauren said calmly, knowing getting angry with Tamsin wasn't going to make her agree to healing Bo.
Tamsin didn't say anything, she just sighed as she looked up at the wall opposite her.
"And she won't feed off you..." Tamsin said, "you and Dyson just decide to see if you can hurt me even more?"
"Kenzi actually suggested it. Your Chi is more powerful than most, it won't take a full feed." Lauren said, "Tamsin please."
"I can't... I'm sorry." Tamsin replied definitively, "tell Dyson to kiss her, she's a Succubus, she'll start to feed eventually..."
She clenched her jaw as Lauren nodded a little before going back downstairs.
As soon as the door closed she closed her eyes and lowered her head. Her heart was aching. She knew that any Succubus will eventually start to feed with sexual contact, even unwanted contact, it was in their nature. Bo would feed off Dyson eventually. But could she live with that. Bo didn't want to feed off Dyson, Tamsin didn't know why, probably something to do with Lauren. Could she be responsible for someone forcing Bo to do something she didn't want to do.
"Oh Hell..." she said grabbing her bottle as she quickly headed downstairs.
x-x-x
She stood up and picked up her t-shirt, putting it back on before she grabbed her bottle off the table.
"Thank you..." Bo said, pulling her trousers back up as she stood up and examined her stomach for any sign of the wounds from earlier.
"Yeah..." Tamsin said, walking around the back of the sofa as she headed to the stairs.
Dyson had long since gone. Lauren and Kenzi had taken refuge on the stairs. Tamsin walked past them, looking at neither.
"Tamsin." Kenzi said, reaching for her arm.
"Not now Kenz..." she said, pulling her arm out of Kenzi's grasp and heading upstairs.
x-x-x
She fought back the tears as she climbed out onto the roof. That was one thing she loved about the loft room at the Clubhouse, the ledge she could sit on. Taking a drink out of the bottle she sat and looked out over the vast city lights. She heard movement behind her.
"I'd kinda like to be on my own..." she said.
"Which is why I'm here," Dyson said with a little laugh ad he sat down next to her, "this is higher than it looks."
"What's the matter pup, scared of heights?" Tamsin asked, taking a mouthful from the bottle before she offered it to Dyson.
"Not usually, but being anywhere with a big drop in your company is bad news," he said, taking the bottle before he continued, "last time I was anywhere near a drop like this with you, you drove me over it in your truck."
"Still hung up about that huh." she said with a laugh, nudging him a little.
"What you did earlier..." Dyson said, "for Bo..."
He handed her the bottle back, as she nodded a little.
"Why did you change your mind?" he asked.
"Ask yourself this, Dyson, if you were in my position, what would you do... Would you sit upstairs as someone forced Bo to feed from someone she had refused to?" Tamsin asked, clenching her jaw as she sighed a little, "I could never live with that..."
"So you heal her and now what?" Dyson asked, looking at Tamsin, "I don't even have to ask how much it hurts..."
"I did what I had to." Tamsin replied.
"Well I really appreciate it..." Bo said, coming out onto the ledge.
Dyson watched as Tamsin visibly tensed up at the sound of Bo's voice.
"Can you give us a minute, Dyson?" Bo asked, "I need to talk to Tamsin... Alone."
Tamsin looked at Dyson, he had a look in his eyes that told her he would stay if she needed him to.
"It's okay..." she said quietly.
He nodded and stood up, reassuringly giving her shoulder a little squeeze before he went back inside.
Tamsin put the bottle down and gripped both hands onto the ledge, to keep herself from running.
"Though from here I'd fly... Quicker..." she said quietly to herself.
"What was that?" Bo asked walking closer to where Tamsin was sitting.
"Discussing with myself the quickest way to get out of here..." Tamsin replied, "are you going to sit? You're making me nervous back there..."
"It's a little high for my liking." Bo said with a little laugh.
"You climb a mountain for a shoe, yet this is too high?" Tamsin asked with a laugh of her own.
"I did fall from there." Bo said sitting down next to Tamsin.
"Oh yeah?" Tamsin asked, glancing over at Bo, "you didn't tell me that..."
"After I got the shoe," Bo said, looking out over the city, "when I was climbing back down, and lost my grip and my footing... If three creepy guys who wanted to take me home and 'take care of me' hadn't come along, I'd probably be dead."
Tamsin laughed a little. She noticed how the moonlight danced across Bo's face, sighing a little as she saw a darkness is Bo's eyes. Something was going on with her, whatever it was Tamsin knew it wouldn't be good. The Valkyrie suddenly felt a sense of awkwardness between them as they both realised just how normal their conversation sounded.
"Tamsin, listen..." Bo started to say.
"Do you want to tell me what's going on with you before we have that talk..." Tamsin said, looking back at the city, "I'd rather know before we both end up pissed off and I grab this bottle and leave."
"How do you always know when something is bothering me?" she asked, looking at Tamsin, studying her features.
"Because I actually pay attention..." the Valkyrie replied, furrowing her brow slightly, "I care enough to notice... When there's something bothering you... When it's something that isn't going to only effect you... It's in your eyes, Bo."
Bo didn't say a word, though she did feel a small swell in her chest as Tamsin actually used her name.
"That's the first time in two days that you've actually used my name..." she said, "we were back to Succubus for a while there."
Tamsin clenched her jaw, gripping down harder on the ledge.
"Right... You asked what was bothering me..." Bo said, looking away from Tamsin, "Zeus... She showed me this vision of what will happen if my father gets his way..."
"What did you see?" Tamsin asked, genuinely interested.
"Darkness, everywhere," Bo said, "like the colour had literally drained from the world... It was more than just what I saw though... It's what I felt... Nothing. Like, at all."
"Shit..." Tamsin said with sigh, "did she tell you how to stop it?"
"She wants to carve the mark off my shoulder," Bo said with a little nod, "apparently he uses it to feed... That's the start, she wants me to work with them..."
"So they want to use you to stop your father," Tamsin said, "then they want you to rule over the Earth with them... Something isn't right about that..."
"A lot isn't right about that... That night, when we... When you left," Bo said, "I was visited by three oracle's, searching for my truth... In their vision my father spoke to me... He basically told me that the only way to stop The Ancients is to open the box..."
"The box you got for your birthday?" Tamsin asked.
"Yes," Bo said with a nod, "opening the box will release him into this realm... Only our power together can stop The Ancients... The only thing that can kill them is family..."
"Opening the box releases your father..." Tamsin said, quietly as if talking to herself, "your father will end the Ancients... The world will end in darkness under his control... No way..."
"What?" Bo asked looking intently at the Valkyrie.
"There's a story, a very old story, from before my time," Tamsin said, "humans call it a myth, the Fae never really believed it..."
"What story Tamsin?" Bo asked.
"Pandora's box..." Tamsin said, arching her eyebrow a little, "Pandora was given a gift by the Gods, a box, she was told by the Zeus not to open the box..."
"But obviously she did, I've read the story," Bo said, "raised human remember..."
"I know... When Pandora opened the box she released pain into the world..." Tamsin continued, "some even believe that's how the last rein of The Ancients was ended..."
"But it didn't happen, right?" Bo asked.
"I'm not sure what I believe anymore... About anything," Tamsin replied with a laugh, "That's being around you, it makes me question everything I know to be true..."
"Who were Pandora's parents?" Bo asked, not ignoring or discounting what Tamsin had said, she just put it to one side for a while as she knew if she responded it would end the conversation.
"Most people believe she didn't have any, not in the technical sense... But that does vary depending which human mythology you're reading, " Tamsin explained, "Nothing as perfect as her ever existed... So Hades... Created her..."
Bo swallowed hard, she heard Dyson yell he was leaving. She looked back to the window before looking at Tamsin again.
"Go..." Tamsin said with a little smile.
"We'll finish this later?" Bo asked as she stood up.
"Sure..." Tamsin replied, forcing a smile onto her lips.
As Bo walked back to the window Tamsin turned around again and looked over the city. Bo stopped and looked back at her, about to say something she stopped when Tamsin started talking.
"Eyes both brown and blue," Tamsin said quietly, "heart strong, yet gentle. Virtuous, yet a Succubus... Neither dark nor light, but both... Everything is an opposite... A contradiction of the other. Yet fits together perfectly... She really is the one..."
Instead of saying anything, Bo went back inside to say goodnight to Dyson, hoping that things were starting to get back on the right path with her and Tamsin.
Tamsin's mind was even more clouded over than before. Something flashed into her mind from when she was a child. She and her fellow Valkyrie's were sitting around the campfire one night on a training mission.
"I can't wait to fall in love..." one of the other girls said.
Tamsin rolled over, her back now to the other girls as she laughed.
"What's so funny Tamsin?" Stacey asked.
"Love..." Tamsin said, laughing again as she turned over and sat up, "we're Valkyrie's, we're warrior's."
"I heard one of the Elders mention that if you wish on a star, for what your perfect love would be, the universe will bring them to you when you are worthy." Stacey said.
"Love is a weakness." Tamsin replied coldly, "it will get you killed. And that's just a stupid bedtime story they tell cry babies to make them sleep."
"It's a clear night," Stacey said with a smirk, "let's all wish on stars..."
"That's ridiculous." Tamsin said with another laugh.
She watched as they all wished on stars, most of them for someone strong, brave, worthy. They all looked at Tamsin.
"Come on spoil sport," Stacey said, "if it's just a story, what's the worst that could happen."
"Why, I don't need anyone else to complete me, I don't need love..." Tamsin said.
"Oh, you're so special..." Stacey said, "big brave TamTam won't make a wish."
"Okay, how's this..." Tamsin said, resting her head back on her the saddle pack from her horse that she was using as a pillow, "someone who is the total opposite of me... In every way... Someone who is loyal to the point of being almost virtuous, but someone who knows how to have fun, you know..."
A few of the other girls giggled as Tamsin smirked.
"An Incubus maybe?" one of them asked, smirking.
"Or a Succubus, either would be fine," Tamsin continued, a few of them nodded in agreement, "someone who believes without question what they're fighting for... Strong, emotionally as well as physically... But someone who can also be soft and loving... Eyes, brown and blue, and someone who isn't Light or Dark, someone who believes in something more than that..."
"Light and Dark, that's impossible, nobody has ever done that." Stacey said shaking her head, "you could at least make some of it achievable, a person like that can never exist."
"Well if this wishing on a star shit is really true, they will," Tamsin replied, turning back over away from them, "If not I guess you're wrong."
"Or you'll never be worthy." Stacey said.
"Well... Shit." Tamsin said as she took a long drink from her bottle, "maybe that airhead was right..."