Chapter 462: Dark Times
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GAHRYE
"We need to get you out of these clothes," Kalle whispered with a wicked smile as soon as he closed the door behind them. Her fingers were already on his buttons and flying. For a moment he let her because she kept kissing whatever triangle of his skin that appeared as she got the buttons undone, and he didn't know how many more times he would feel her lips on him, and he was too weak to say no.
But once she'd pushed his shirt off his shoulders and he'd kissed her, and her hands began to trail down his chest to the waistband of his leathers, he caught her wrists. He kept his eyes closed and stopped kissing her, resting his forehead on hers.
He could feel the tension snap into her. "Gahrye?" she whispered. "What is it? What's wrong?"
He swallowed hard. "Is… um, is Elia still—"
"She's still the lion."
He cursed and brought his hands up Kalle's back to bury his fingers in her hair. He was going to kiss her—desperately—but then let her go when she dropped her head back, baring her throat. She'd put her arms around his waist, and he almost took her hands from his back, almost made her let him go, because all of the sudden…
He'd been here before.
When he was in the traverse.
This was that softly-lit room that he hadn't recognized—strangely square and mercilessly clean, it stank of the strange, sharp scent of the human world. Of little that was natural and so much that was… false.
Behind him, a large, perfectly rectangular bed squatted on the floor. And just like the memory the voices had given him, before he'd even known her, there he stood with his back to the bed, shirtless. Oh, there were little details that were different—he wasn't in those horrendous jeens, nor were his hands shoved deep in his pockets. But this was the female—his female… his Mate. She stood, pressed into his stomach, her arms inside his, wrapped around his waist.
And it was the strangest echo in his head to know her, and remember knowing her before he knew. Really knew her.
Now he knew both in his mind, and in practice, the sounds she made when he kissed her skin. Knew the look of love in her eyes, the scent of desire…
Kalle was short, barely reaching his collarbones, but she had her face tipped back so her entire throat was exposed to him—a throat that he had tasted. He knew its texture and warmth. He knew the salt of it. Her eyes, that strange mix of green and brown that changed with the light, sparkled. Her dark brown hair was long enough to hang, but short enough that it didn't catch on her shoulders. And without a word, she stared, wide-eyed up at him. "What is it? What's wrong?" she breathed. Then, when he didn't answer right away, she dropped her open mouth to his chest.
Gahrye grunted as his body responded, not only to the vision of her lips on him, but to her warm press on his skin.
"It's… Creator's Light, Kalle," he croaked. He forced himself to return his hands to her back, to pull her close. "I know so much more than I did yesterday," he rasped.
Her eyes widened. "You do?! What did you learn?"
"You can't tell anyone, Kalle—not even Eve. You haven't, right?"
She shook her head and a tiny thread of his tension unraveled. He cupped her face and held her there, looking at him. "You can't tell a soul about the Protectors," he whispered. "Or any of the other things I'm going to tell you. Only Elia can know. And us. Do you understand? There are no exceptions to that rule."
Kalle's throat bobbed, but she nodded. "I understand."
"Okay… okay… I know this is going to sound crazy, but just let me get it all out, okay?" Then he told her—the empty cave, only old scents around the cave, no Anima anywhere that he could smell. Breathing the winds and reading them, and the jolt of the Creator opening his eyes. The horror that would result if they failed—if they told anyone. And his mad rush back to the portal, his frustration that he couldn't cross and had to wait… and the settling certainty on the heels of the future the Creator had described.
He had to go back. He and Elia. There was no choice. They had to get her back there before it was too late.
Then Kalle's eyes flew wider. "Shaw," she whispered.
"What?" Gahrye bit the word off.
"He's… I got worried about you and went out to the Portal—just to watch. But he found me there and pulled me back inside. He was acting so strangely. Gahrye, he tried to cross the traverse at some point and the voices got him." But before Gahrye could take in that shock, she continued. "He told me… he said that Elia's going silent. That it's too late to bring her back. She's going to be human less and less until one day she just… isn't anymore."
"No!" Gahrye snarled.
Kalle's eyes filled with tears. "We have to save her."
Gahrye yanked himself out of her arms and rushed back to the door, forgetting he was wearing no shirt and Kalle had gotten his top button undone, until Eve's eyes widened slightly when he yanked the door open into the living room.
"Eve?" he said sharply.
"Yes. What can I do?" she asked quickly, always ready to answer to Anima emergencies.
"We need to know if the traverse has ever been taken in the beast form. Was it done safely? And if so, how?"
Eve nodded and pulled a little phone out of her back pocket. "I think… I think I know where to look for that. I'll go check that now."
"Thank you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I can't tell you more."
"It's okay, gorgeous," Eve winked. "Just take good care of her for me, okay?"
He sucked in and nodded, but she just smiled and walked quickly across the room, calling back to him to lock the door once she was through.
He followed her and did as she'd suggested, then turned to find Kalle right behind him, her eyes large and shining.
"You have to go, don't you?" she asked in a tiny, broken voice. "Like… right away?"
He nodded. He could feel his mouth pulling for the floor, the weight of grief pressing on his chest like iron bands.
"I can't… I can't go," she said, her voice hitching. "Shaw… explained. I've… they'll take me. If I even touch the Portal opening, they'll take me. I can't go, Gahrye!"
"I know, baby," he whispered and pulled her into his chest. "I know."
Kalle sobbed into his chest.
Gahrye had to swallow and swallow not to follow her into tears.
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