Disclaimer: I don't own the Night World
BeLIEve
September 2012
She was lost in a land swathed in fog. She couldn't even see the ground beneath her. The fog was thick, but light, like a feather brushing her cheek. And the place seemed to be tinged a very light lavender. That was when Emerald decided that this was a dream.
"Emerald!" A familiar voice called. Emerald started and turned, looking where the voice had come from. "Emerald!" they called again, this time on the opposite side.
She swatted at the fog, like they were simply vines blocking her view of something. "Storm!" she yelled back. "Storm, where are you?"
A scream pierced the air and before Emerald had given them conscious command to, her feet were moving in the direction Storm's scream had come from.
"Storm!" she called again, desperate to get to him before he could be hurt anymore. "Storm, I'm coming!"
There was another cry of pain but it was coming from somewhere behind Emerald. She came to a screeching halt and turned, but the fog was unrelenting, not letting her see more than a few feet in front of her. Yet another scream and she turned to her left.
Where was he?
Emerald was starting to become desperate, her breathing heavy and labored as she searched in vain for Storm.
"Storm!" she wailed. "Where are you?"
It did no use to run, because he seemed to move around this strange foggy, purple-tinged place. Or, at the very least, his voice seemed to echo, bouncing around, making finding him only that much harder.
"Storm." she cried weakly, stumbling forward, her heart growing heavier as she continued. There were no more screams. "Storm—" Her foot caught on something and she went tumbling forward onto the ground, knocking all the air from her lungs for a few seconds. She lay there, for a moment, desperately gasping for air that her lungs would not take. When airways finally opened up, she blinked away the haze and her bleary vision.
"Storm, wh-where—?" she gasped softly, pushing herself to her knees and looking to her right.
"Emerald," His voice was so close it made her jump.
Heart pounding, Emerald stood unsteadily and looked over to her left where she saw a shadow behind all the fog. Not even thinking about the fact that it could be some sort of trap she stumbled toward it, coming to a stop and dropping her knees when the figure came into view.
It was Storm all right, but he'd been tortured and it hurt just to look at all the wounds that were inflicted upon him. He was on his knees, his hands bound behind his back.
"Oh my God." she whispered, tears brimming her eyes, shuffling up to him, gently taking his head in her hands. His top lip was swollen and open, his nose was trickling blood; he had cuts and bruises on his face. His clothes were torn and ripped from being stabbed and slashed. "Oh my God." she repeated. "What-what have they done to you?"
"Don't trust anyone." he whispered, his voice raspy and rough.
"What? What are you talking about? Storm—" Emerald asked breathlessly, dropping her hands.
"You can't trust anyone but Carter, Sky, my dad, and Echo." His voice rose as did his urgency. "No one else. Do you understand?"
"Storm, what's going on? What—?" Emerald broke off, her mouth hanging open in a horrified O as Storm's blood splattered onto her face and the front of her shirt because of a large spear piercing straight through his chest, right through his heart.
Storm opened his mouth, some blood dribbling out the corner of his lips, "I love you." he mouthed right before the chain connected to the spear pulled him back into the fog.
"No!" Emerald shrieked bolting upright in bed. She was breathing hard, her pulse pounding. She looked around the familiar room at the same time her hand reaching for Storm who usually slept beside her, but he wasn't there. Nothing but any empty space and cold sheets. She instantly went into panic mode seeing Storm's bruised, cut face. "Storm!" she called, throwing off the covers and standing up. "Storm!" Her voice rose an octave higher and she thought for sure her heart was going to burst from her chest.
Emerald fell back against the bed, her knees buckling, thinking the worst happened when suddenly: "Emerald? What, what is it?"
Emerald's head snapped up and she looked over to her right at Storm who was wearing nothing but jeans, his oddly colored cherry-wood hair sopping wet, having just finished with a shower, his electric blue eyes filled with concern. Tears flooding her own eyes and spilling over she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck tightly.
"Are you okay? What is it?" Storm asked worry coloring his voice, as he held her to him just as tightly as she was holding him.
"I'm fine." Emerald breathed, her heart slowly declining as she relaxed at the knowledge of knowing that Storm was all right after all. "I-I'm fine."
"Are you sure?" Storm questioned. "You sounded pretty… scared."
Emerald pulled back slightly so she could look at him. Storm reached up to wipe her tears away.
"It was just a… a bad dream." she mumbled, not even wanting to think about it. Storm just nodded before pulling Emerald back into his arms knowing that she'd talk to him about it when she was ready.
They stood like that for a moment, savoring each other's company before they finally pulled away. Storm was about to finish getting dressed and dry his hair but Emerald grabbed his hand and pulled him back toward her, stretching up on the tip of her toes—because he was a head taller than her—to kiss him. Before he could escape to the bathroom again, though, Emerald pushed him back toward the bed making him sit down hard.
"Emerald," Storm chuckled. "I need to get dressed."
Not answering, she put a hand on his chest and pushed him back onto the bed, before climbing up onto the bed and straddling him, leaning in close, their faces inches apart.
"You're not going anywhere." she told him, smiling mischievously. Her long, dark, raven-black hair falling over her shoulders brushing Storm's bare skin feeling as smooth and light as silk.
"Emerald," Storm sighed exasperated, but with a smile on his face. "We have a double date with Carter and Sky, remember?"
Emerald waved her hand passively. "We don't even eat. They can wait a little longer, don't you think?"
"It's already ten after nine. We were supposed to meet them at nine." Storm reminded her.
Emerald began to pout. "But I feel like I never get to see you anymore with school and then work. And we never get any alone time anymore."
These past three years had been a tough ones, with Emerald flirting with death multiple times, bumps in the road in terms of her and Storm's relationship, fighting her father, Jonathan, and on top of that doing favors for Lord Thierry and his Circle Daybreakers because of said father and relationship problems in the first year, and then hunting down—but ultimately failing—her father. It was a long three years, and Emerald had missed more school days than she could count in that first year, plus the two years she'd used to look for her father.
Being a vampire and all she didn't age, forever at the age of eighteen, which wasn't that appealing. She'd been hoping to make it to her twenties because that was probably the oldest any vampire hunter had made it. Not only would she have a notorious reputation as The Vigilante but she'd also be the oldest to survive. Anyway, she'd made up her whole junior year over this year's summer, but was now going through the slow, painful process of senior year in full.
After she had come back from her father hunt, Storm moved out of his father's house and into a one-bedroom suite at the Marriott. Emerald, who had been living at the Marriott since she was fourteen (it was called an Emancipated Teen), also had a suite. At one point she'd loaned it out to a friend, Sky Masterson, but now he had found his own fancy penthouse apartment and had given Emerald her keycard back, but Emerald mostly spent her time in Storm's suite, going up to hers to feed and check on her two cats, Artemis and Apollo, and her tarantula, Tigress.
Storm was taking night classes at a local college and was working on getting his master's degree in Psychology. They both had jobs. Emerald's was waitressing and Storm was working at a store that was run by a witch Storm had befriended while Emerald was away on her hunt.
And it was true, they'd made breakfast plans with Carter, who was just a human and Emerald's best, most trusted friend, and her soulmate, other half, boyfriend (whichever term you pefered) Sky. Sky was a shifter, his animal: a tiger. He was also the cousin of Galen Drache who was the heir of the First House of Drache which was the most powerful shifter family in the Night World.
"Well, I can't—" Storm started, but Emerald silenced him with a kiss. It was fairly easy for Storm to forget what he was going to say, fairly easy for Storm to forget that they had plans this morning when Emerald's soft, warm lips were pressed against his.
The kiss deepened and became more heated as Storm reached up and ran his fingers through her hair, his other hand slipping under Emerald's shirt, gently tracing her jagged scars that ran down her back; the scars Emerald obtained from her father at fourteen.
There was a rush of air and Emerald found herself lying on the bed with Storm hovering over her, their kiss not faltering at all. But this gave Emerald a chance to knot her hand in Storm's still pretty wet hair, one of her arms coming around his neck and pulling him closer to her.
There was a knock on the door and Storm pulled back momentarily to look at Emerald. They were both breathing hard.
"That would be them, come looking for us." Storm said.
Emerald shrugged. "Ignore them." she replied pulling Storm back to her to continue kissing.
"We know you're in there!" Sky's muffled voice came, knowing that with both of them being vampires they'd be able to hear him.
Storm pulled back again.
"You're not going to ruin this moment and neither are they." Emerald told him, pulling him down for another kiss again.
"Guys, come on! You called us!" Sky yelled again. And that was true, too. Because it seemed like everyone was busy with things: Sky with his duties as being the cousin of Galen Drache and Carter with college, getting her master's degree in Dance and Film.
"He's got a point." Storm pointed out.
"Just another minute." Emerald asked. Just then the door to the bedroom opened. Storm quickly got off of Emerald and Emerald sat up in shock and disbelief and embarrassment. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed.
Sky had his eyes covered and Carter must've been waiting in the living room for neither Emerald nor Storm saw her.
"I'm not looking." Sky assured.
Emerald stood, angry. "How did you get in here?" she demanded. "And have you ever heard of knocking?"
Sky chanced a peak and when he saw that there wasn't anything revealing he lowered his hand and smiled at the two lovebirds. "Remember you gave me that extra keycard." He pulled it out for them to see. "And we did knock, but you didn't answer." He shrugged. "So, ready for breakfast?" he asked, sticking his hands into his pockets. Today he was relaxed, with jeans and polo on, his short red hair slightly disheveled, his spinel-blue eyes glittering with amusement.
"Just give us five more minutes, please." Storm requested his voice much more calm and patient than Emerald's.
Sky nodded and smiled again before backing out and closing the door.
Emerald heard Storm slip off the bed and come up behind her, putting his arms around her waist. She leaned into his chest.
"Better get going, we only have five minutes." Storm murmured.
Emerald sighed heavily. "Yeah, whatever." she mumbled pulling away from Storm. He caught her hand though and pulled her back to him, spinning her around while doing so.
"It'll be fun, promise." Storm told her softly, stroking her cheek with his thumb before pressing his lips against hers.
"It's so good to see you again." Emerald said, pulling Carter in for a tight hug. "I feel like I haven't seen you in ages."
Carter tittered a laugh. "We've all been super busy." They pulled back and Emerald smiled at her friend. Carter was gorgeous: She was a small-ish, slight girl, with short, fiery red hair that hovered just above her shoulders. She used to curl her hair into large ringlets, but ever since she'd graduated she cut it to about chin-length and kept it straight, making her look older. And she had these amazing glowing amber eyes, with tiny flecks that looked like dying embers of a fire that would glow brighter when she was angry or excited.
"Shall we head to breakfast, then?" Sky asked.
At the restaurant, as they were sitting down the waiter was handing them their menus Sky joked: "You sure you can handle a grown-ups menu? Maybe we're going to need a kid's menu over here." He told the waiter.
Emerald rolled her eyes, just taking the hit as she had been ever since she came back from those two years away. The thing was she was the "baby" of the group, having been turned at eighteen. Storm had been nineteen, but because he was a lamia vampire he could age and grow and he had to decided to age to twenty before stopping. Emerald had told him he didn't have to, but he insisted. Sky was a shapeshifter so there was no reason for him not to stop aging, he was twenty-one now. Carter was also twenty now, too. They just wouldn't let her live it down that she was, and always would be, the youngest.
"He's just being facetious." she assured the waiter who nodded and smiled politely before heading off to seat another party. Besides, it's not like she needed the menu anyway, she wasn't going to be eating anything.
It was nice to hang out with old friends. They talked and caught up on the things they'd missed thanks to being busy with life. To them it was like any other ordinary day, like the end of the world wasn't looming. In the back of their minds, they all knew that it was coming, just not exactly when, but they decided not to let that ruin their morning together.
No, that was another thing to talk about another day, when they had seen each other enough that they could get down to more serious things. Like the fact that because of Sky being the cousin of Galen Drache he knew where some of Thierry's secret safe havens were.
Instead they talked about Sky and Carter's wedding. They shared funny stories of their adventures at work or at school. They talked about the most random things that you could think of, as normal conversation went. If you were simply looking as a bystander all you'd see were four good friends hanging out, not two vampires, one shapeshifter, and one human that were part of the Night World, where falling in love with a human and turning a human without permission into a vampire was illegal, the sentence: death.
As it neared ten, the waiter came over and quickly cleared the plates before coming back with a very small plate in his hand with a silver cover over the top and setting it down in front of Emerald.
She looked up at him with a polite smile. "Oh, I didn't order anything—" She broke off as the waiter just winked and smiled back, pulling the cover off revealing a small black velvet box that was open revealing a B-E-A-utiful ring, before leaving to give them some privacy. Everyone at the table was silent. Sky and Carter were grinning from ear to ear, exchanging a knowing look now and again, their hands intertwined under the table, while Storm sat there, next to Emerald, looking at her gauging her reaction.
Emerald was speechless. She didn't know what to say or think. All she could do was stare, mouth open, eyes wide at the small black box sitting on the white plate. The white gold band rested gently between the small slit in the foam pillow, the single carat diamond winking at her, two emeralds on either side of it.
"Storm?" she asked quietly finally finding her brain, looking over at him.
Smiling, Storm took Emerald's left hand into his.
"I love you, Emerald." he said. "And I want you to be in my life, standing by my side, for the rest of eternity." Storm released her hand and picked up the box, taking out the ring. "Will you marry me?"
"Yes," Emerald nodded feverishly, tears of joy flooding her eyes. "Yes, I'll marry you!" She held out her hand, pulse pounding, hand shaking she was so excited, and Storm slipped the ring onto her ring finger. As they embraced momentarily before pulling back for a kiss the restaurant that had fallen silent ever since the waiter had delivered the ring now burst into applause and congratulations.
Emerald was going to get married to Storm!
Wow, I updated faster than I thought I actually would… but I'm not making any promises. Remember the spastic updating thing. Hope you enjoyed!
thank-you-for-everything
~ See you at the Millennium!