Chapter 23
Dreams Are the Sweetest Truth
(The end)
I looked at Damon, he was facing away from me again. His black wings were folded neatly on his back barely visible, his long coat lifting around his ankles in a dry breeze. A grimace was set in his perfect stone face. Did he think this was the end? Save me and sacrifice himself, was I worth it? Did he have any other options at this point?
Why was I always the problem?
Guilt washed through me. I'd hated his plan and had made it seem like I'd hated him. I wasn't going to leave without letting him know how I really felt. Not like last time.
I turned and charged Damon, hitting him from behind and wrapping my arms around his middle. He didn't give or stumble forward, he didn't say a word, or respond in any way. I knew he was still a little upset with me. "I love you Damon. I'd spend eternity in Hell just to be near you."
"Once you leave there's only one way back and no guarantee of what or who will be standing. I might not win." He whispered hair falling into his face as he titled it down doubt evident in his eyes.
"And the sky might fall!" I cried. "You never know what'll happen until it does, until you try." I wasn't going to get my way the least I could do was have confidence in him. He didn't respond. "I'll come back to you if it kills me, I'll come back just to know. Hell is nothing compared to me living without you when I could be with you every day!"
He loosened my arms and turned around in my grip, so that now I had my head buried in his chest. He tilted my head up and locked eyes with mine. His scarred blue eyes met mine with his normal coldness, but there was so much more emotion there then just that. "I want you safe always." With that he brought his lips down to mine in a sweet kiss, and I knew, for sure, that he loved me too.
My heart was his, and his heart was mine, just as it had always been. The sky might fall, and the world might end, but I knew for sure that nothing was going to keep me from him. Nothing else was more important, and all the demons in Hell wouldn't keep me away from its one angel, my angel.
As quickly as the kiss had happened it ended, and he pushed me away. "Go." I glanced behind him, they were closer now, you could hear their relentless pounding on the door. I kissed him one last time on the cheek and drew back to where Dilyn was still struggling with the gate.
"Almost." He wheezed scratching out the last few patterns with the horn. Without warning a bright light appeared in the gate, the image finally staying still. "Come on it won't hold it for long." He grabbed my hand and dragged me through the opening.
Behind me I herd the heartbreaking clash of metal on metal. The hollow sound rang through me, freezing my very core. The demons had arrived, Damon and Miles were fighting off the first few arrivals. Suddenly I changed my mind and was determined to drag him through along with us. I made to run for them, but Dilyn held me back, "Naomi, there's not much time. There is no other choice, he wants you safe. You don't belong here."
"No! I change my mind."
"Miles!" Dilyn called my brother away, he glanced guiltily at the prince and followed us out.
"I want to stay." I cried, "I change my mind."
"Too late." And with one tremendous yank and a push from behind, I stumbled after Dilyn and out of Hell Miles close behind. The last sight I had of it was Damon weapons at the ready and sneer on his face demons surrounding him, Zak smirking from the doorway. Ready to duel his brother to the death for control of an empire Damon didn't really want.
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"No!" I cried trying to dive back through the portal, missing as it evaporated taking with it any hope I'd had of going back thorough. I smashed into a chair propelling it backwards from force. As it skidded to a halt I rolled off it groaning as a headache began to take form. "Damon, DAMON!" I screeched. "Reopen it! I change my mind, I want to go back!"
"Naomi, I can't, I won't." Dilyn sounded tired and a bit understanding. "He chose this, we chose this, you…agreed to this."
"I take it back." I yelled, tears streaming down my face, "I take it back." I collapsed into a sobbing heap. How could I have left him to that fate? What was I thinking, there could be no way he could have beaten so many.
There was a faraway sound of anxious running, we'd ended up at Raya's house, her living room to be more exact, the same place we'd left from. Raya appeared in the hall that branched out to the bedrooms, Saffy close behind.
"Oh God, your back, your back." They ran into the room and stopped when they saw Miles standing awkwardly by my crying form. Raya gasped, "What happened?" She took in a quick look of the room. Had she been expecting us to bring Damon back?
Dilyn stood watching me for a second more before answering. "We left him behind, there was something he needed to finish. He can't…come back." He sat and rubbed his tired eyes.
"Oh Naomi." Raya came over and tried to comfort me, I shrugged her off.
"I should have stayed. I want to go back."
"You can't. He wanted you safe. We don't belong in Hell Naomi." Miles lectured.
"I don't care, I'm going back to him."
"Don't worry, he can take care of himself." Saffy came and sat in front of me. "You'll see him again." I shook my head.
"He's gone, he's gone."
"Shhh, calm down." Raya soothed. "It's over, no more regrets, you did what you wanted to."
"I wanted to be with him, have him back! Now I left him." I sniffled.
"It's over, it's over." She whispered as I finally gave into her embrace.
"I want to go back." I muttered one last time. "I need him."
"I know hun, but he wanted you here."
"Raya, I love him, I love him."
"I know sweetie. And you will always have that."
I started to cry again. It had all been for nothing. "I want to die, I want to go back."
"Don't be so quick to jump on that wish." Dilyn said, "There is one way back, only one way, and Naomi, you don't know what's happened, and once you die you're dead. Is what might be worth the risk?"
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Days passed and I'd realized that it wasn't so much that he was stuck in Hell as I was stuck on Earth. I knew of only one way to get back, it was a way I'd attempted once before, and failed at, long ago, before any of this. Even then I'd been desperate to get back to him, even if at the time I wouldn't admit it to myself.
I didn't know if there was some strange force at work or what, but Dilyn's words changed something in me. There might be another way. I was probably the only person who wanted to get into Hell. Did Damon feel the same? Was he trying to get to me?
If he'd won, if he was king now, couldn't he do something about it? I laughed silently at myself, in love with the king of all that was considered evil. It was strangely poetic.
I was kind of glad to know I still retained my control over shadows. I could bend them to my will and make portals and an assortment of weapons, but they couldn't take me back, just like they couldn't let me out we'd tried when Dilyn had failed us. I had actually convinced Dilyn to try and open another gate, he humored me and we accomplished nothing. Everything from meticulously planned two way gates to highly unstable summoning portals were all closed, why did I have to destroy that computer? Apparently it had some ancient magic that allowed all the portals to work. Now, I couldn't do anything.
I struggled with sleep, not that it had ever come easily to me in the past, but now it was worse. A suffocating dream crashed down on me at long last and I found myself in the apocalyptic hell, lost in it's unbearable desert, shadows mocking me at every turn. He was no where to be found in this haunting land, heat and sand wore down my resistance.
This was my fear, the one thing that kept me form slaying myself when I'd lost all hope. I didn't want to go back to find it a waste, to be left alone and helpless because he'd failed to stay alive in the fight. If that were to happen there would be no other escape.
I fell to my knees and ran my hands in the sand. Tears swelled behind my eyes as a feeling of absolute loss took over me. I would never find him, I was fated to be alone.
"Why the tears? Still having bad dreams Naomi?" I looked up to see who it was that was chuckling at me like that. The figure stood in the sun and I could only make out his shadowed form standing over me. He held a hand down to me and gestured for me to take it. "Come on, I'm tired of being dragged into your nightmares."
I grabbed the hand, it was gloved in a tough, but soft black leather. The figure pulled me up as if I weighed nothing at all and held me close to him.
"Damon?" I gasped.
"Who else?"
I gazed into his face that was inches above my own. He smiled infectiously at me and for a second I forgot to breath. I hugged him to me as hard as I possibly could. "Damon I miss you."
"There's not a day I don't think about you." He sighed dark wings wrapping around us. I felt safe here, forgotten by the world.
"Open your eyes." He whispered in my ear.
I hadn't even realized they were closed, I didn't even remember closing them. All the same I still found myself peeling apart my sleep heavy eyelids. I blinked and realized something was terribly out of place. I was back in my room, the bright, hot sun of hell replaced by the silver glow of a full moon and a chill night air. Not that this change of scenery mattered to me. I was still wrapped up in Damon's arms, his wings fell away exposing me to the outside world once more.
"You're shaking." He noticed as I trembled against him in delight, shock, and curiosity.
"You're real!" I cried.
"Being king comes with it's perks." He laughed at my obvious elation. "I have unchecked, limitless power. I can do anything, create anything, and bend any rule I want."
"You fixed the portals." I gave a small laugh.
He sighed, "Yes, I fixed the portals."
"Let me never wake up." I wished under my breath.
"It's not a dream. I couldn't stay away no matter how hard I tried. You kept pulling me back with those stupid dreams," He brought his head closer to mine, lips brushing the tender skin beneath my ear, "I really do hate to dream."
"Dreams." I breathed, "Are the sweetest truth."
"Now you're not making sense." He laughed.
"Since when does anything make sense." I accused lightly.
"I envy your bliss." He tilted my face up holding my eyes with a longing passion. "Promise me something…" He didn't finish, but instead brought his mouth down to mine, the simple kiss turning more lustful with each touch. I wrapped my arms around his neck and stood on tiptoes entwining my fingers in his hair pulling him closer. He smirked against my lips and his hands tightened around my waist, his wings encasing us both again. I never wanted him to let me go, and prayed he'd never have to. He broke away, what I felt was too soon he rested his forehead on mine, "Promise me that if this is a dream, you'll never wake up."
"As long as you're here I won't have to."
The End
A/N: So it's over. Well not quite. Now it's time for the third installment of the...Still don't have a name for it...
Alright I know you're all hyped up for the third one and now I give you it's title, Angel in Darkness
And now for a summary:
Damon came back and he took Naomi with him, unable to live without her as she couldn't live without him. It's been six years since he came back and two years since they disappeared and Saffy hasn't seen her since. Now 16 Saffy holds a grudge agains the sister she claims abandoned her. At least she used to think she hated Naomi until she shows up with her son Loki begging her old friends to watch him. All is not well in Hell and the couple don't want their child in danger. As it turns out Earth isn't far enough away. A group of the rebels managed to track down the young prince and take both him and Saffy hostage. To rescue their son and Naomi's best friend the tag-team group of Miles and Dilyn is brought back. Meanwhile Saffy finds herself growing close to the rebel leader.
To be written in first person from Saffy's point of view and...well someone else's, I'm still debating on who's, actually I've been toying with the idea of writing from Saffy's point of view, Naomi's point of view, and Dilyn's point of view. I hope it's less confusing then it sounds.