(Playlist: Slide- Goo Goo Dolls, Not Strong Enough- Apcolyptica, You Found Me- The Fray, Good Enough- Evanescence, Lullaby- Nickelback, Bully- Shinedown, Push- Matchbox 20, AND AT THE END, A Thousand Years- Christina Perri & Iris-Goo Goo Dolls)

Beautifully Dark Places
Chapter 6
Soul Stealer

I woke up to hail banging against the windows of Susan's home. I was unsure of what to do at first. I could hear Susan yelling down the hall, something about how the weather was getting bad. I pushed the thick blanket off of me and jumped out of bed clumsy. Rain was beating against the weathered tin roof, making a horrid racket. I walked quickly down the hall, only to find Susan lounging on the couch with Boris sitting beside her. I glanced at the wooden clock on the wall furthest from me; it was three in the morning, and Boris was over?

"Look who came to watch the show!" Boris grinned at me, showing his perfect white teeth. Susan glanced over her shoulder at me, but said nothing. I walked over to the door to peek out the window beside it. I pulled the white lacy curtains aside; the street was dim, but not totally black like it was at home in this kind of storm. I looked back at Boris.

"What's up with the weather?" My voice was still laced with sleep; I yawned. "I didn't know it even rained here."

"Of course it rains here!" Boris waved his hand, and suddenly the banging against the roof stopped. My mouth fell open. "But, it doesn't if I don't want it to."

"How… You… Wha-?" I looked back out the window. It was still raining, but it was much lighter, and it started about fifteen feet from the house. Boris just reclined back in his seat.

"I needed to talk to you." He blinked back up at me, thick lashes casting a shadow over his eyes.

"Oh, great, you too?"

He laughed. "About Nolan." He looked at Susan and nodded. "Suzy wanted to talk with you as well."

I sat down as the two of them debated who wanted to talk first. Eventually, Susan snapped and forced Boris to begin. He sighed as he positioned himself for a long story-telling session, like how Emma used to do when we had camp outs. He started, "We wanted to talk about Nolan, since he seems to be warming up to you." Susan nodded in agreement; Boris continued, "Nolan has a very complicated past, and he's not just a jackass for no reason."

"You see, Kymma, a wizard's school is determined by parent's school. Our parents were two lives." I raised my eyebrow in confusion; Susan confirmed my suspicion, "My mother cheated on my father with Nolan's father. I honestly don't know who his father is. And, since cheating isn't a common thing here in Wizard City, Nolan has been shunned his entire life, up until about five years ago, when he was fourteen and met Malorn and Boris."

Nolan's nineteen? Boris broke through my thoughts. "He's a bit of jerk now, because of being picked on so for long. It's not something he can really help, but…" Boris shrugged, "kids are mean."

"Yeah," I agreed, recounting the number of times people had chalked up my problems to 'kids are mean'. It was an unfair statement.

"I wish I could have done something to help him out," Susan whispered, twirling her hair with her finger. "I used to walk with him to Myth school every day and just see kids cutting him with their looks. I never understood why, even though I knew it was weird that he was a conjurer. I didn't pay a lot of attention to it. I loved Nolan." She whispered.

"Nolan didn't ask to be picked on, and being an ass was his only defense against it, but when he got older and the kids grew up and became more mature he should have stopped. But, Nolan didn't ever stop, and he became a bigger bully, to a certain degree, than those kids ever were. I've seen him get kids expelled over stupid stuff, just because he could."

"So, you're saying that Nolan's just a jerk?" I asked, bewildered that his closest friends would say that.

"No," Boris replied, "I'm saying Nolan's a nice guy under all those defense mechanisms, but if you get past all those, and you hurt him anyway…"

"There won't be a nice guy left in him. You'd crush the last piece of a soul he has left." Susan finished for him. Her light green eyes had gone impossibly dark, and she glared at me. She was a little scary in that moment. "I'm telling you now, Kymma, if you hurt my brother, I will rip your heart out and feed it to the gobblers."

Boris looked at her in bewilderment. Apparently this conversation had taken a turn he hadn't anticipated. "Susan, Kymma wouldn't—"

"You haven't seen her with Malorn, Boris."

I held my hands up, raising the white flag. "I'm not getting involved with—"

"I know you like the both of them; I can see it in your eyes." Susan spat at me, "I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that, but you need to decide before you break one of them."

"Are you done?" Boris asked, Susan nodded. She was smoothing down her skirt when Boris stood and held his hand out to me. I took it and he pulled me out of my chair. Within minutes, he ported us.

I would never be used to the feeling of being ripped to pieces and reassembled. It was an unnatural thing, but so was most everything here. I kept my jaw clenched together the entire time, making an effort not to scream. I was getting better at pretending to be a wizard, even if I would never be one.

"Up you go," Boris smiled, pulling me to my feet. I opened my eyes to darkness and an incredible headache. We were in a cave, I could tell that much by the wind whistling in my ears and the cool moist feeling of the rock walls. The air was heavy with the familiar hot, sticky feeling of a summer night's rain. We must have been above ground, because the cave was relatively dry. I could make out the shapes of Malorn and Nolan.

Malorn was in his battle gear: an all-black armor outfit and a long broadsword that had shadowy tendrils waving off it. He had a big dragon ring wrapped around his ring finger that glimmered every few minutes, and a strange looking metal helmet. Nolan was also in his battle gear, though his was much different from Malorn's; he wore a yellow chain-mail tunic with light blue trim, clunky silver, metal boots, and—to my disappointment—a silver and blue, winged helmet. His hands were firmly clenched around a bow that emitted blue light. Nolan also had a strange little red ball floating around him.

"You never change, Boris." Nolan observed, shaking his head with a sigh. "You're no fun."

"I have no one to impress." Boris shot back with a little smirk at the shocked look plastered on Nolan's face. Boris must have been saving that comment for a while.

"Let's go." Malorn said with a quick eye roll. Boris whispered several words in a foreign language that reminded me of Latin. A pair of doors that I hadn't even noticed swung open with a loud creak as he finished his chant. Malorn and Nolan walked in first, with me third and Boris bringing up the back.

"Woah." Nolan whispered as we all piled into a large open area. There were six large, gleaming crystals. They were about eight feet tall, four feet in width, and were spewing colors into the air.

"Where are we?" I asked gently, as if a loud sound would shatter this beautiful image.

"These are the crystals that give us our powers." Nolan breathed from beside me. I glanced at him, and found myself unable to look away. His face was colored by the lights of the crystals, turning him random colors as if he was a replica of a club floor. He looked at me from the corner of his eye, and then turned to me. I could feel my heart skip a painful beat. I could see Boris and Malorn inspecting the yellow-emitting crystal from my peripheral vision. For a moment, I could see myself staying there with him. I could imagine Nolan leaning down to kiss me again, and me not running away this time. But imaging things like that were dangerous.

Nolan stopped clenching his bow so hard, and dropped his arms down to his sides. He reached his free hand up to my face and brushed an escaping piece of hair out of my eyes. His hand touched the side of my cheek gently. It made chill bumps run up my arms.

I actually couldn't move.

"Look at this thing!" Boris yelled from the yellow crystal. I jumped a little and looked over at them. Malorn was watching us wordlessly while Boris inspected the Myth crystal. Nolan's hand fell away from my face, shattering the tranquility that had hung over us for a moment. I looked back to him, but he had already started over to them. I followed him, watching my feet as if they were the most interesting thing in the world.

"What's wrong with it?" Nolan asked, clearing his throat.

"I don't know, but it's dark." Boris's statement was correct. While the other crystals burned clearly and with pure color, the Myth crystal was barely a flicker with darkness swirling around inside of it. Nolan reached his free hand out to touch it, making the twisted vine ring he wore turn bright from the heat. He cussed under his breath as he yanked it off his finger.

I reached out to it, feeling the cool, rough texture of it under my fingers. I could hear Boris and Malorn gasp as I watched the darkness swirl around and up to my hand. I resisted the urge to pull away from it as the darkness crawled out the crystal and wrapped around my arm like a parasitic vine. Malorn yelled something and started toward me. Boris restrained him, and nodded to me. Nolan had cautiously walked over beside me, keeping an eye on Malorn. Boris couldn't restrain them both. Nolan watched the tendrils wrap around my arm and curl up toward my throat.

"Does it hurt?" He whispered, looking from the darkness to my eyes, and back to the darkness. I shook my head slightly, but didn't say a word. The shadowy vine wrapped around my neck, but not as tightly as I feared. Nolan grabbed me and pulled me away from the crystal. It glowed with its normal yellow color, without a spec of black. The shadow pulled away from me, with a noise that was similar to a hiss, and poof! was gone. Boris let go of Malorn, who recited a long string of curse words at his Storm-wielding friend.

I was tired, and felt like I had caught the flu. My muscles ached and I was extremely cold, even with Nolan's arm wrapped around me. Malorn walked over to where I was standing against Nolan with my arms pulled against myself tightly. His hand flew up to my forehead, supplying me with a fresh source of heat.

"You're warm." I practically purred against his hand.

He sighed. "She has a fever. We should get her to Wu."

Without much of a warning, my legs gave way beneath me. I could hear Nolan's bow clatter to the floor as he let go of it to catch me. He pulled me close to him, and I could see his head tilt up toward Malorn questioningly.

"Port." Malorn whispered, and he and Boris were gone. I could feel the air changing around us as Nolan prepared to port us.

"Your bow!" I coughed, pushing myself up to grab it. Nolan shook his head and pulled me closer to his chest.

"I'll buy a new one." Nolan breathed as the air shifted again. I struggled against him in an attempt to grab his bow. He let go of me, but sighed in agitation. "Kymma, you're sick! We need to get you to Wu!"

"No," I replied, leaning back against him with his bow safely in my hand. His arms wrapped back around me, almost protectively. "I just need to take a nap."

"No," He shot back, "Wu. Now."

I looked up at him. His blue eyes stared down at me in angst. I reached up and plucked the winged helmet off his head, letting his black hair fall back down into his face. He raised an eyebrow at me. "I love your hair." I breathed, laying his helmet on the ground beside us. He sighed and hugged me.

"You know me and Malorn have the same hair, right?"

"Mm-hmm." I replied, closing my eyes against his chest. The chain-mail outfit was nowhere near as comfortable as his t-shirt I picked out for him.

"Why'd you leave that night?" He asked gently, peering down at me. My body went stiff at the question. How could I even answer that? 'I wasn't sure if I liked you more than Malorn' or 'I didn't feel like I was worthy of being kissed'? The darkness of the cave suddenly shifted, as if it had grown progressively darker where we were sitting. I was at a loss for words when he sighed and picked his helmet back up and put in on. I sat up and looked at him dizzily.

"What are you doing?"

"We're leaving." He snapped back, plucking his bow from my hands. I couldn't keep the hurt look off my face. I couldn't stop the pain that spread through my body, either. My heart felt like it audibly cracked.

"You're not the only one who been picked on, Nolan Stormgate." I shot back, making his head snap up to look at me. His eyes narrowed. I wasn't right in saying what I said. I shouldn't have said it.

But I did.

"Who told you?"

"That doesn't matter, Nolan." I backed away from him, feeling the iciness radiating off of him in the air.

"Kymma..." He sounded like my mother before she was about to ground me. My name was warning like a rattler on a rattlesnake. I was too dizzy to stand or move farther away from him, he was already close enough to me for me to see the dots of color in his eyes.

"Nolan," I started, but he interrupted me.

"That's my history, and if I wanted you to know about it, then I would have told you." He was glaring down at me.

"I'm not telling you."

"Fine." He breathed against my face, causing the hair to stand on end on the back of my neck. I leaned away from him, not sure what I was expecting him to do. "You're not a very smart girl, Kymma."

"What?" Was that seriously the best he could? Insult me?

"Being here all alone." His eyes flashed darkly, "It's like you trust me."

Ok, now he's freaking me out. Without thinking, of course, I blurted out: "I do trust you, Nolan."

He grinned, blue eyes growing increasingly darker. "You shouldn't. I haven't given you a reason to."

He was right. He had never given me a reason to trust him. So, why do I trust him? I rolled me eyes at him and leaned forward in an attempt to throw him off and make him quit the act before he seriously freaked me out. "What's the worse you're going to do? Kiss me?"

He leaned back a little too, but still grinned. "Was that an invitation?"

I froze, not expecting that. "Uh…"

He leaned forward enough to make me stop breathing correctly. "Because," He paused and looked up into my eyes, "I could do a lot worse."

Nolan's eyes widened and he was suddenly yanked away from me. There was a loud crack. I jerked my head up to see Malorn standing over him with a look of pure disgust. A shadow slinked out of Nolan's mouth and across the floor; Boris jumped out of nowhere and struck it with a long, glowing white sword. It disintegrated. I looked between the two of them, and Nolan knocked out cold on the floor.

"You ok?" Malorn's voice was gentle, probably because I was ghost white and hugged up against a big rock.

"That was powerful, dark magic." Boris explained; he glanced over at Nolan's unconscious body.

"Is he ok?" I asked, panicking.

Malorn nodded. "Yeah, I just knocked him out."

"So… That wasn't him, right?" I asked, relaxing a little against the cold floor of the cave.

Boris sat down beside me and nodded. "Yes, it was like a possession. That particular type of hex isn't very common, so I'm not sure what it does, but those are basically possession hexes."

"He'll probably be up in a few days. The animus rapio drained a lot of his energy." Professor Wu stated as she wrapped a bandage around Nolan's chest from the wound Malorn gave him.

"Animus rapio?" I asked from my little perch on the bay window by Nolan's bed. I had been in his room for a few hours now, being tended to and such by Wu. The robe-wearing cow-lady nodded to me as she concentrated on her bandage work.

"Animus rapio is very old magic, used back in the ancient days when Earth was still in contact with Wizard City, that finds a host and deliberately destroys everything the host loves or holds dear." She paused and turned to me, "It was once a Balance spell, created by an outcast who wanted revenge on his enemies. It means 'soul stealer'."

I nodded to her, but didn't respond. Word had gotten out that we had fixed the Myth school's trouble, but now everyone thought I could 'suck' the magic out of them just like I had done the crystals. So, I had hid in Nolan's room with Wu.

"Everything he said and did while under this hex he did not mean, Kymma." I looked up to see Wu staring at me. I nodded, and looked back at the ground. My throat swelled in an attempt to hold back my tears. I knew Nolan didn't mean any of that, but that didn't mean I didn't see Nolan do and say everything he did.

"He might not have any recollection of it when he wakes up." She whispered, brown cow eyes fixed on me.

"Can you make me not have any recollection of it?" I was only half joking.

"I'm afraid not." She laughed gently. Wu said some other unimportant things before she walked out. I was unsure whether I should stay or not, but sitting in a room with an unconscious Nolan was better than walking outside with everyone giving me a five foot wake because of my 'magic-stealing-abilities'.

I got up and walked over to Nolan's bedside. Boris and Malorn had changed him into the only pajama like things they could find: the black t-shirt I got him and a pair of something similar to gym shorts. He was sleeping under a big green blanket on an intricately crafted wooden sleigh-style bed. His black, curly-looking hair was spread out on his green pillow case. His bedroom resembled a forest, with rather realistic-looking tree wallpaper and faux grass carpet.

"You're so beautiful." I whispered, pushing a piece of black hair out of his face. It was easier to do these kinds of things when he was asleep, because if I fell for Malorn instead, he would never remember it. Nolan never stirred. I brushed his hair down with my fingers; his hair was so silky. I couldn't imagine why any kid would ever pick on Nolan. It made me wish he would have summoned me when he was little, so I could beat the living hell out of those kids for being such idiots.

It was hard to recall how his mouth turned up in that sinister grin only a few hours ago. He seemed so innocent now, sleep made him look harmless. He didn't have his eyebrows furrowed or frown-lines from trying too hard to be serious and emotionally distant.

It was easier to see the real Nolan when he was asleep.

"I don't know why you try so hard." I whispered, kneeling beside his bed to look at his face. I don't know how long I sat there, face on my hands, staring at an unconscious Nolan Stormgate. I just know that at some point someone knocked on the door. I sighed and stood up just as the door opened. It was Malorn.

I didn't realize that I had been crying until he walked in and looked at me with something similar to pity.

"You ok?"

"No," I breathed. Malorn walked to me with his arms out. We stood there for a few minutes, just hugging, until he pulled away from me.

"Kymma," He whispered, grabbing me by the arms, "Did he hurt you?"

"Not physically, no." I whispered back. But he broke my heart into little bitty pieces.

"Ok." He breathed in relief, "Thought I was gonna have to kill him for a minute there." I laughed at the thought of Malorn killing one of his best friends.

"You know," He whispered, "I'll always be here if you need me."

"I know," I whispered. He nodded and walked out, closing the door behind him. I glanced at the clock; it was nearly eleven at night. It didn't feel like I had even been awake that long, much less like all of this had taken place in that time frame. I should probably get home.

Wait, I couldn't go home. What if the animus rapio came back for Nolan? I went back to my little perch on the bay window and rearranged all the throw pillows Susan had piled up for me. I could see a cover sticking out from under Nolan's bed, so I grabbed it and laid down on the throw pillows.

I'd kill that damn animus rapio if it came back here again.

A/N: :O That's almost ten pages! Almost four thousand words! Gosh, you guys are being so nice! I've never gotten such wonderful feedback on story! Y'all just make my day every time I read a review! So, I've got to respond to some of them :D

Firestorm Nauralagos: Thank you! I like my insane love triangle too! I have seen a ton of bad love triangles as well. I hate that.

BlackRoseNecromancer: Yup, Malorn's all touchy! Aw, thank you! I'm glad it's helped some!

Galactica Z. Stellar: Thank you! Lol, it's ok, I get all drooly, too.