Thirty

"Marry me." Francesca murmured as the sun sunk beneath the horizon.

Verain's head turned slowly to face her. "What?"

They lay together on the open soil, the forest surrounded them. Goosebumps alighted on their skin as the cool evening air moved across them. "Let's get married." She said. Her eyes held his. "Let's marry and leave this place."

"I…" Verain's lips parted but he could not form words. He stared up into her eyes, the curve of her lips and the amused expression of having caught him completely off guard.

"Don't you love me, Verain?"

"I do." An unspoken but always hung in the air between them. Her smile receded to a thoughtful line and then her eyes moved from his to the wild. His eyes moved over her body, nude in the semi-darkness, marked by the dirt and the imprint of his nails. "I do." He said again.

He sat up, forest debris falling from him and floating delicately to the ground. It seemed the whole night had become silent as she had spoken those words, as if it were holding its breath. Marriage. The thought made his blood run cold with fear.

Francesca's hand cupped his cheek and he turned his wide eyes to meet hers. "Where are you?" She asked. She had often asked and he gave no answer. He never did.

His hand covered hers. "Is this what you want?" His voice was soft.

Her dark brows drew together. "We've been together for so long." She said. "Don't you want to?"

"I…" The hesitation was like a cut to her heart but he did not remove his hold on her hand. "Yes."

She hadn't expected the word to spring from his lips and she released a sharp breath. "Yes?"

"Yes." He said again.

She pressed her lips to his, joy suffused her and she didn't take the time to notice he did not respond under the pressure of her lips. She stood quickly, he watched her expression mutate between several tense expressions and then laughing she departed into the night.

Perplexed Verain stood and walked in a daze back to the villa, unconscious of his nudity and who might be watching. "I've seen Francesca." Lux said, interjecting on his thoughts. "I suppose I should congratulate you." Though he did not.

Verain could not meet the vampire's eye as he walked past and murmured an excuse about finding something to wear.

Lux caught Verain by the upper arm, fingers like bone and ice clasped around his muscle, squeezing hard. Verain eyes snapped to the vampire's and then slowly down to the pale hand on his arm. "Do you know what you're doing?" Lux asked.

Verain glared up at him, his eyes now eerily lit. Lux released him and Verain continued to pace away from him.

"That slave." Lux said casually, turning in time to see Verain pause in step. "What was she to you?"

A shudder possessed Verain's body, he had he spent every waking moment of the last twenty months supressing memories of Elysion. The vampire's words invoked the phantom of her scent and the jasmine of the Elysion hills. He closed his eyes but it only amplified the sense of home.

"You can't pretend it didn't happen." Lux said with all the emotion of one who had experienced loss and regret. "Francesca deserves more."

Verain whirled around, his eyes bright and teeth sharp with fury. "I want to forget Elysion." He barked. It had been almost two years…two years since he had thought to shape her face in his mind, since his being had kindled to the spark that flickered dimly in his breast telling him that perhaps she lived.

Lux shook his head gently from side to side as if to say, without speaking, one could never forget Elysion.

"I love Francesca." Verain said from between his teeth.

"If you marry her…" Lux said and trailed off.

Verain's mind was already supplying the rest: it would not be fair to Francesca, to trap her into a life where she would only be half loved. He breathed a deep calming breath though his nostrils, his eyes resuming their normal shade. "I am going to marry her. We are going to leave this place."

That night he made love to Francesca in earnest, submerging himself in the feeling of her warmth, her passion, her scent. He was resolved to forget Elysion, forget what Lux had said. He worked himself into exhaustion and when he woke late the next day Francesca was not in bed beside him.

Panic spread through him, for an instant he did not know where he was. It was the awful old feeling of having lost something, or of having something suddenly taken away an act which would indefinably change life. Lux had spoken of her…he was too afraid to form her name for it would take a long time to clear it from his thoughts.

He couldn't live in the past; she wouldn't begrudge him a life here and now he was sure of it.

He gathered himself and got out of bed, stretching his limbs and pulling on some clothes he walked quietly through the halls only stopping when he heard the first rumble of voices below. It Was Caravella's unmistakable bass voice.

"If you marry him you will no longer be my daughter." Caravella said with regret apparent in his voice. A small hope it would tempt her to return to him. "Can you not see that he doesn't belong here, cara, he cannot belong to you."

"I love him." She said whilst tears fell the scent, salty and dense, in the air.

"I know." Caravella nodded reaching out a hand he touched his daughter's face and wiped a tear from her cheek. "I will miss you."

"Papa." She took a step toward him. His eyes lit with momentary hope that perhaps she would change her mind, her lips trembled, her whole being wracked with anguish. "I will miss you also." She said.

He left, closing the door behind him.

Francesca felt cold. So cold. Her father's presence withdrew and all the warmth she had known in her youth, the sense of family deserted her and she was uncertain about what the future held.

Verain appeared beside her, she hadn't even sensed him approach so great was her sense of grief. She put arms around herself, uncertain of everything.

Verain dared not reach out and touch her, he knew she had to make a weighty decision of her own, she was also losing the home and family she knew. "I am sorry." He murmured. "I do not mean to cause you pain."

"You are all I have left." Francesca said. "Don't break my heart."

He took her in his arms then, crushing her against his chest. Lux's words were still ringing in his ears, his dream and her words "never come back". He would try his best to forget Elysion, he would try his best to love Francesca with the pieces of his heart that remained.

Sin's face was upturned toward the sky and she saw the silhouette of dark shapes against the cloud heralding storms. She heard a sound like the snapping of sheets and the shadows took shape the likeness of enormous angels. Siiiin. A voice hissed on the wind, seeking her out. She gasped softly.

Voris held her in his arms, for she was too weak to walk far, he held her as they watched the clouds gather over Elysion.

"Do you see them?" She asked softly.

Voris grunted. He didn't see. He didn't see.

The rain began to fall, large drops, matting her hair to her skin.

"Put me down." She asked.

Her feet touched the dirt, the rain had fallen quickly and she was sunk ankle deep into the muddy pit. Voris watched her intently, concerned and curious for it was obvious to him, if not anyone else, that this girl was marked by her gods. She seemed to be seeing something he could not comprehend; it could have been the shock of losing her friend, the smoke invading her senses causing her to imagine.

Sin was seeing a figure in the distance, she took one step and then two toward it, a being of slim light, bright against the rain. "Abba." Sin cried out and fell to her knees.

Voris put his hands on her shoulders to steady here. "There's no one there." He said.

But Sin could see. Anata was there. Skin so pale she was blue, her veins stood out, green, purple, blue shining through her flesh. Her hair was dark and slick with the rain and her…such eyes…eyes large and filled with the bleakness of the sea.

"What more can Elysion take from me?" Sin growled her face turned down to the dirt and her hair trailing the mud. She lifted tear glazed eyes to the goddess who smiled that curiously amused smile. Like the tapestry in Lucerne's chambers, the statue in Ankti's villa.

Voris took hold of her shoulders and pulled her to her feet. "Come away, Sin." He said. "We must seek shelter before the rains and earth transports us to the underworld."

She allowed herself to be taken away; Voris effortlessly took her up into his arms again. She couldn't resist looking back, laying eyes on the vision of Anata continued to smile.

It was raining hard by the time Voris brought her to the shack. It was a wooden structure, the roof sinking with age. "It's not much but it will keep you dry."

She could almost cry looking at it: it was the most welcoming sight she had seen. "Thank you." She said with feeling. Then she was on her knees and he knelt to keep her from collapsing, an old habit.

"Do not thank me, child." He said with a sigh.

"I am free now." She said, her brown eyes large and wet with a mix of hope and sorrow. "Am I not?" But her mind was filled with the vision of Anata smiling that infuriating smile and deep in her heart she knew Elysion was far from done with her.

Updated 10/03/2013

Miss S