TRIGGER WARNING: Hints at suicide and talk of self-harm.
Lost
Throughout the fight, Emerald had been analyzing the Night people's fighting styles. The werewolves worked better as a pack, and one was down and out for the count thanks to Sky. They also were the ones who attacked first, the distraction. So, thinking they'd probably stick to the distraction strategy because it worked the first time, Emerald assumed they'd come at her first, probably from both sides.
The other three were a bit harder to figure out because they'd barely fought. Only the one who had wielded the needle with the drugs had done anything, while the other three—including the brunette—had simply stood back and watched. They'd jump in when needed, Emerald was sure. She needed to figure out who had the needle, though, that was crucial. It didn't matter how much she was hit or bitten, so long as she was conscious but if they managed to get that drug into her system, it was game over.
Honestly, though, she wasn't sure why she was doing this. Storm was gone, lost forever. She was numb with grief, why should it matter if she were to be caught by Thierry? The brunette said that he didn't want to kill her, so why was she fighting so hard against his workers? But maybe that was just it, maybe because her soulmate was gone, she no longer wanted to live. She didn't want to extend her stay on this hell-hole people called Earth without Storm any longer than necessary.
She knew just the man who would be able to take her away from here relatively quickly, she hoped, and who wouldn't be opposed to it. As much as she didn't want to be alive right now, she didn't think she'd be able to do it herself….
Maybe that was why she was currently facing up against six other Night People in a short-lived battle, so she could escape and end her sorry existence.
The brunette smiled and chuckled humorlessly at her cheeky comment but no one moved. Emerald braced herself, but made sure to make it look like she was unsuspecting. Her eyes watched all of them carefully looking for a twitch in the hand, or a slight nod of the head.
Like she'd anticipated, the werewolves attacked first, from either side of her. Their approach was slow as they growled and snarled at her. She looked back and forth between them preparing for them to leap at her, keeping her senses open to a third attack, just in case.
The werewolves launched themselves at Emerald at the same time, pausing a millisecond before to ready their bodies for it. She hit the floor and they sailed over her. Also as anticipated, a third came at her with a needle in hand. She grabbed the woman's wrist that was holding the needle and twisted sharply, breaking the radius. The woman cried out, dropping the needle and Emerald took this time to swing her fist into the woman's temple hard enough to knock her out.
Unfortunately, this had been enough of a distraction for the werewolves. They attacked from behind Emerald at the same time, hitting her shoulders hard enough to knock her to the floor. She did a face plant into the carpet and turned her head to gasp in a few breaths as the fall had expelled any and all air from her lungs. They then stood with both front paws on her arms, teeth grazing her shoulders as a warning.
Emerald craned my neck to see one of the other three walk up to her, picking up the needle the other had dropped.
"Kind of pathetic for the kind of reputation you have, Vigilante." the brunette commented.
Emerald scoffed before summoning all the Power she could and blasting it outward. Both werewolves yelped and went flying off of her, one crashing into the wall and falling to the ground like a limp rag doll, the other smashing into a glass table with another yelp before struggling up but limping when they did, and in no way about to attack.
The third who'd been approaching her had been knocked back as well, but Emerald had little time to think of this before she sprung to her feet and kicked them, as they struggled to their own feet.
Three down, two to go.
"You haven't seen anything, yet." Emerald retorted glaring directly at the brunette, who was scowling.
The woman standing next to him transformed into a cheetah, her tail lashing back and forth, green eyes like Greek fire.
The only problem with fighting with her animal form was that Emerald had learned from fighting with those two werewolves. Sure they weren't the same kind of Night Person, or even in the same family, but they sure acted similar when attacking their prey.
Smirking a bit, Emerald prepared for the attack, making sure, again, to keep her senses open to any attack that could come from the brunette. But she didn't think he would attack just yet. He would only fight as a last resort.
Emerald watched the shifter's muscles tense right before she sprang. This time, though, instead of hitting the deck Emerald made sure the shifter's paws hit her shoulders. It wasn't the most pleasant experience, because she was, after all, a cheetah, but as soon as they hit the ground Emerald brought her feet under the cheetah's belly and pushed her off and over. As Emerald did this, she grabbed one of the shifter's paws and pulled sharply and swiftly, hearing a satisfying snap as bone broke.
She let out a strangled snarl of pain. Now that she was out of commission Emerald could finally focus on who she needed to. She did a kick up just in time to see the brunette pick up the needle and grip it in his hand, ready to stab her.
"You can leave now and save yourself the trouble." Emerald coaxed him.
He clenched his jaw. "Not a chance," he snarled back. "I came here to do a job and I won't leave until I've finished it."
Emerald chuckled without humor. "Oh, you'll be leaving here all right, but not with me."
He came at her and the fight began, dodging and weaving as he stabbed and slashed at her with the needle. This went on for a few minutes before he made the mistake of going for Emerald's neck at an angle from above. She easily blocked with her arm, sliding it down to grab his wrist, while her other free hand reached out and grabbed a hold of his neck. She then stepped forward, hooking her foot to the back of his ankle and leaning forward, throwing him to the ground.
Before he could recuperate, Emerald put her knee firmly on his other wrist, kept her hand at his throat, but started to turn his hand that was holding the needle toward him. Then it became a struggle of who was stronger. He was pretty strong and put up a good fight, but he had no leverage and the needle slowly inched toward him. When it was an inch or two away from his neck, Emerald pulled her hand that was holding his neck away quickly before slamming it down onto her other hand. Not prepared for the extra energy, the needle sunk deep into the brunette's neck, warranting a hiss of pain from him.
"You tell Thierry to go to Hell," Emerald spat before depressing the plunger. She got off the brunette and watched him yank the syringe out of his neck and try to stand up but just as the drugs had kicked in quick for both Carter and Sky, they kicked in quick for him. His eyes drooped, he stumbled toward Emerald, but hit the floor inches from her feet completely out.
She looked around the room, everyone was still breathing… well everyone except for—
The cheetah was glaring at Emerald ferociously, chest heaving.
"You might want to get your… wrist looked at. I think it's broken." she commented. That shifter growled at Emerald, low and slow promising revenge (though, hopefully Emerald wouldn't be here if/when she recuperated enough to do so). "Make sure he gets that message to Thierry for me." she said sweetly before giving the shifter a sloppy two-fingered salute and exiting the building.
People bustled on the sidewalk as usual, like nothing had happened. And to them, nothing had. They were too busy with their New York-minute lives to notice anything unless it was happening right under their nose. Even then, sometimes it didn't register.
With the fight over with and the adrenaline—or the vampire equivalent—tapering off the stinging, aching, ever-lasting pain returned. It almost took Emerald's breath away and it reminded her of her next goal: To find her father.
Storm awoke with a choked gasp and the sound of Emerald's screams before sitting up and going into a coughing fit.
Someone let out a relived breath beside him. He looked over to see Valerie.
"Oh, goodness, you had me worried there for a second. I thought you weren't going to wake up." she said, a hand on her heart.
"What did you give me?" Storm asked in a deadly quiet tone.
Valerie swallowed hard. "What, you mean… to wake you up?" she asked breathlessly.
Storm stood up and Valerie followed quickly. "You know exactly what I mean, Valerie." he growled, eyes flashing silver as he took a step toward her. It felt good to be a vampire again. Being human for the first time was a cool experience, Storm admitted, but he much rather liked being a vampire than a human.
Valerie held up her hand and took a step back. "Now, Storm, just… just calm down—"
"I died, Valerie! Lest you forgot! I don't remember that being a part of the… agreement we had." he snapped, starting toward her slowly, hands fisting and un-fisting at his side.
Valerie mirrored him, taking steps back, heart pounding in her chest.
"Gus, Kelly!" she called over her shoulder, her voice an octave higher. Two other vampires came rushing in and grabbed Storm's upper forearms, restraining him from getting any closer to Valerie, who now stood a little farther than arm's length away from Storm.
He struggled against them, but wasn't angry enough to break free. Yet.
"You're right, Storm, but it was a part of the agreement. Just not… the part that you knew about." Valerie answered, causing Storm to snarl and lunge forward. Gus and Kelly struggled to hold him back, but he wasn't really trying. (Again, yet.)
"We were afraid you wouldn't continue along with the agreement if you knew what we had planned to do." Valerie started explaining quickly. "We thought that Emerald would've been easier to take in if she thought you'd… passed. The-the grief and the pain from losing her soulmate was supposed to have subdued her."
"Where is she?" Storm asked carefully. Valerie took a deep breath and avoided Storm's gaze but didn't answer. "Where is she?!" Storm snapped, lunging forward again, making Valerie jump and take an involuntary step back. He desperately looked around the room to see if there was any sign of her presence here. There had obviously been a fight, but there were no bodies. That was all he could tell though.
If he focused on the chord he could only feel her faintly, for it was still repairing itself from having snapped from his death. If he focused hard enough echoes of Emerald's screams rung in his ears, but he wasn't sure if they were past screams or present ones, which scared him the most. If she was in pain right now, suffering right now, he had to help her!
"Valerie, tell me where she is, please," Storm finally said, his voice softer, almost ragged from thinking about the possible pain Emerald could be in right now.
Valerie closed her eyes and made an annoyed, frustrated face before continuing through gritted teeth, "As per her usual, she acted… just the opposite."
The anger he'd been feeling rose up in a wave.
"Where. Is. She?" Storm questioned again, through gritted teeth, pronouncing every word slowly and carefully.
Valerie paused a moment before finally opening her mouth to answer, only before she could a tsunami of pain hit Storm. Unexpected and purely agonizing, his knees buckled and he let out a scream. Gus and Kelly still kept hold of his arms as another blast came, forcing a cry out of his mouth again. But just as quickly as the pain had started it stopped.
Desperately, Storm searched the chord. It'd stopped repairing and all he could get from Emerald were wisps and whispers. Nothing he could really go off of. Nothing… tangible—so to speak.
"Emerald," Storm whispered, feeling panic rise in his chest. "Oh no." He gasped, pulling away from Gus and Kelly before getting to his feet and sprinting past Valerie to the door. He nearly fell down the steps onto the sidewalk and into foot traffic. Disoriented by all the people he stumbled back and forth as people from both directions pushed and shoved him, spinning him around and around, cussing and cursing at him for being in the way.
With a frustrated groan, he squeezed his eyes shut and froze in place. The people still pushed and shoved but he didn't move, almost like a statue. He concentrated hard on what was left of the chord before he went flying down the sidewalk, letting it guide him to wherever Emerald was.
It wasn't exact but it was in the area, and when Storm raced past a red door, he knew. Coming to halt and jogging back to the red door he made his way up the few steps—and then what? He turned to look at how many people were on the sidewalk before turning back to face the door.
He couldn't just… kick it in, there were too many people. But it was surely locked, right?
Storm lifted his hand hesitantly, knocking on it a few times.
"Emerald," he called, straining to hear if anyone inside responded. He opened him mouth to call for her again, but then thought that if she hadn't answered the first time, it wasn't likely she was going to the second time.
Looking over his shoulder for the second time, he reached up to grab the door handle. It turned easily in his hand, the question was, was the deadbolt locked? To Storm's surprise, the answer was no. The door opened without resistance. Pausing he braced himself for what he might see or what may ambush him, before pushing the door open. It swung open wide with a gentle swish, but nothing attacked him. He took a cautious step over the hearth and still nothing attacked him.
"E-Emerald," he called again, looking around the foyer. He was met with silence yet again. Keeping cautious he made his way down the hallway that opened up to a living room and a kitchen area. He looked around at the minimal furniture that decorated the living room. A carpet, coffee table, sour apple green couch and two chairs. But something felt off about this house… everything was… clean. Too clean, sterile almost, the thought alone making a chill run down Storm's spine.
Storm then looked to his left, into the kitchen but what caught his eye was another room past the kitchen. The door was open and inside he could see what looked to be a dais, or something of the like. And on that dais was—
"Emerald," Storm breathed, running over there and nearly falling when he stepped into the room, for it was a few inches lower than where he'd been standing before. He caught himself on the dais, and pulled himself up to full height. His heart sank and his stomach tightened at the sight of Emerald. Storm swallowed hard and went around to the right side of the dais.
She looked… dead. Her skin was almost chalk white, her eyes were closed; she wasn't even moving as far as Storm could tell. He couldn't even hear her heartbeat, even with his heightened vampire hearing. His own heart skipped a beat as he bent over to put his ear next to Emerald's chest, listening hard, and was relieved, for the moment, to hear a heartbeat. It was faint and slightly ragged but still there. Just to make sure he wasn't hallucinating, he put two fingers against the veins in her neck. Again, he felt a pulse but it was unsteady and faint.
Storm caressed her face, brushing some hair off her forehead.
"Emerald," he said softly, his heart still fluttering nervously behind his ribcage. Something was very wrong here. "Come on, love, open your eyes for me." he whispered, tears forming in his own eyes when she didn't respond.
Storm could still feel the chord, thin but still there. Nothing was coming from it, though, which scared him the most. It was just… dark and quiet, now. Not even a whisper.
But what was wrong? He'd never seen anything like this and it wasn't like any human medical doctors could do or diagnose anything. She wasn't human, human sickness couldn't affect her, so what was it? Dark magic, maybe? But who could've done this? And what did they do?
Storm let out a small hiss through his teeth. All these questions just kept leading to more questions!
"Hm," someone commented from the doorway of the room. Storm looked over his shoulder, his eyes widening in shock before his face morphed into a mask of anger and hatred at the sight of Emerald's father, Jonathan, leaning against the doorframe nonchalantly. (He should've known he was behind this.)
"What did you do to her?!" Storm snarled wanting to go over and throttle Jonathan, but not wanting to leave Emerald's side.
Jonathan shrugged, having the nerve to chuckle. "She asked for it, so I gave it to her. Seemed to think I was the one who… killed you." Jonathan's eyebrows furrowed before his eyes cleared and he focused back on Storm. "Of course, if I had killed you, I would've done a much better job."
"Johnathan," Storm spat, trying to keep glued to his spot. Getting into a fight with him wasn't a good idea, not at a time like this.
"It's odd, though," Jonathan continued like nothing had happened, or that Storm was glaring at him murderously angry. "She seems… stable near you. Of course, she's going to die, one way or another, you're just… prolonging it. Making it slow. I'm sure she would've been dead by now had you not shown up."
It was true, Emerald had gained some of her complexion back, but not by much. Storm could only tell the difference because of how chalk white she looked when he'd first arrived. She still looked chalk white, but… less so. He could also see her chest rise and fall gently, slowly, barely, but he could actually see it now, he didn't have to lean in to listen or check her pulse.
"Well, I'd stay here and chat, but I have somewhere to be. You best stay with her in her last moments. It's more romantic. And dramatic. Tragic." Jonathan smirked at that last one, making Storm's blood boil. His hands fisting Storm took a step toward Emerald's father menacingly, forgetting momentarily now wasn't the time or place to fight. "Whoa, whoa, stay back, Romeo," he mocked. "I've got precious cargo." He reached up to pat where an inside breast pocket would be on a blazer, which he was wearing. In fact, now that it had been brought to Storm's attention, he noticed that Jonathan was wearing a black suit as dark as a black hole. The only color was the white plumeria flower, resting in one of his lapels.
If Storm was correct, it seemed to have an odd glowing white aura around it. Unfortunately he had no chance to examine it further or ask Jonathan because he blinked and Jonathan was gone.
Gritting his teeth, Storm turned back to Emerald, taking one of her white, limp, cold hands into one of his, the other caressing her face again, stroking his thumb across her cheek.
"Hang in there, Emerald," he whispered tears reforming in his eyes. "Just… hang on a little longer." Storm's grip tightened on her hand, his stroking stopping abruptly as tears streamed down his face and he bowed his head. "I'm sorry," he sobbed quietly, shoulders shaking. "I'm so sorry." He put his arm around her shoulders and lifted her, resting her head on his shoulder, burying his nose in her hair. He held her tightly to him, as more tears flowed. "Don't leave me, love. I need you."
Wow, it's been quite a while, hasn't it? And I apologise infinitely for that. I lost my muse for it a while back and didn't have the time to find it again because I became too busy with college and such. Spring Break rolled around and I found myself reading over my old stories involving Emerald and Storm and Co., and in doing so, found my muse again.
I'm sure as you can tell, though, I'm not exactly posting this in March and it's because I was having trouble brainstorming for this chapter specifically. By that time, I'd gotten back to college and was far too busy with classes (and, yes, another story) to really write this one. It was a lovely PM (probably one of the loveliest PMs I've received thus far) from VampyWildCat that really inspired me to crank this chapter out and get it to you.
I don't know how long it'll take to get the next chapter, but it's summer so it should be soon-ish. Also, I've finished the other story I was working on, so I can put more attention, time, and energy into finishing this one. Not making any promises or guarantees, but things might be picking up for this story. I hope you'll stay tuned!
So, to whoever's still with me, I hope you enjoyed.
And, as always, thank you for reading,
TheBrightestNight