after the glitter fades

Could you really afford to split hairs when your events usually produced a high enough body count to require every damn reaper in town to show up? Probably not, but Damien suspected Hector would try all the same. The man liked to make rules, to try and stamp them on his places. Unfortunately, when you broke them yourself, you honestly couldn’t expect anybody else to follow them either.

Damien buttoned the collar of his shirt, his lips pursing as he gave himself one last look in the mirror. Last year’s celebrations had seemed bad at the time, but at least he’d been able to see Aurora first. Zipping away from the square, making sure they were definitely out from under her brother’s thumb when they’d cleared out the bank vault. This year it was like he was penned in instead. A brother who would’ve preferred to see him dead – if he could actually work out how to do it – on one side, and Death on the other.

He yanked on his suit jacket and moved out into the living room. Death was usually more hands off, not an absolute dick if you could talk him around. Maybe some of them had been taking liberties here and there, but rarely had they taken it too far. Tonight the rules would probably be enforced. No fucking around, no missing a situation where the body count had a chance of ending up high – even with the rule that people apparently weren’t allowed to kill each other and they were meant to be paired up with someone of equal power. Both were bullshit. Last year had to have dropped the population of the town by at least 50.

With barely a hitch in his step Damien disappeared from his apartment and reappeared in the warehouse. The place was already filling up – like none of them had a fucking clue that there was a virus running rampant around town, infecting people just like them. He could’ve appeared in the cage and screamed for them all to go home, but the ones that did bother listening probably wouldn’t give a shit. This was a chance to party and people were already doing just that. A pop-up bar was already crowded, people wandering away with drinks in hand, heading towards the cage as the next fight kicked off.

A roar went up from the crowd, people shoving forward like they could get up in the cage with them to indulge in a little of the blood lust. Damien glanced at it, expecting to find two macho assholes, trying to prove who had the biggest balls here – a ridiculous way of getting the measuring tape out of you asked him. The lights in here were focused on the cage, all the better to see people kick the crap out of each other – all the better to show off the flash of red hair.

”You’ve got to be shitting me.” The words slipped out sharply as he blipped again, appearing in the centre of the cage this time. He threw a hand back in Aurora’s opponent’s direction, holding her off as he glanced up at the commentator. ”Gladly.” His voice was ice cold, same as the feeling growing in his chest as he grabbed Aurora’s hand and left just like he’d been told to.

Out in the woods – away from everybody else (all the better to keep virus fucking free) – Damien grabbed for Aurora’s chin the minute they landed. The blood had stopped flowing, but he was lifting her chin, brushing his thumb across her top lip all the same. ”I tell you to be careful of whatever the hell’s turning people crazy in this town and you walk right into what’s probably germ city. Why? Are you trying to kill me?” Again. Because the people he loved seemed to do it to him over and over and over – Connie hollowing him out when she’d gotten into that car, Sonny actually leaving him dead, now Aurora walking around and ignoring the one thing that might actually kill her.

Tagged: AURORA DE MARTEL * Word Count: 695

For centuries Tristan had protected his sister by locking her up – it wasn’t like she could get her heart broken or become a pawn to get at him if she was held behind closed doors. He’d imagined it being as torturous as it must’ve been for Connie – even if the doctors had promised them all that she was incapable of feeling anything – being aware of everything but unable to move the way you wanted to, unable to control your own life. Damien had sworn that he would never do the same. All of the trips they’d taken before had happened with Aurora’s approval. This was a grab and go instead and the words it’s for your own good stuck in his throat.

Could Aurora have taken her opponent down? Probably. She’d been fierce the entire time he’d known her, killing men twice her size without blinking. Aurora could probably have done it even without being a vampire, but the extra strength that brought turned her into a true warrior – just not an invincible one. God, maybe he should’ve taken her to see Hector falling to pieces instead. Bodies strewn around his apartment like garbage left for someone else to pick up. She probably wouldn’t have seen a damn thing wrong with killing people, but seeing Hector unhinged? Surely that would start ringing the alarm bells in her head.

Damien’s laugh rolled out of him, dry and tired. He would’ve dug his fingers into his eyes if he was prepared to let go of her yet, but he was still checking her over, like he’d missed some damage. ”He’s not okay, trust me. I’m the one going in and out of his place, picking up the souls of all the people he’s killing. Hector’s getting sloppy and we both know that’s not him.” The one was as buttoned up as a straight jacket, all tightly wound emotions. If he’d thought he was bringing trouble sniffing at his door he would’ve shut it all down, started being a little more careful, but it was the opposite.

”It’s vampires too – and shifters, warlocks, anybody except for the humans.” They were the ones dying instead. Damien tried to returned Aurora’s smile, but worry still left the muscles of his forearms rigid as he held onto her.

The corner of Damien’s mouth lifted a little further, then froze as he watched her wiping away the last of the blood from her nose. Of course, the flow had already stopped, but just the sight of it left a lump in his throat. ”You’re right, you’re not a fragile woman. You’re the strongest one I’ve ever known and you’ve had years of people underestimating that.” Including her brother. Maybe there’d been some cracks in Aurora’s mind at times, but who hadn’t broken a little in life?

Lifting his other hand to catch her face in both, Damien kissed her. There was a faint coppery tang of her blood, but it didn’t stop him. Eventually he drew back. ”I was worried, but it’s because I don’t want to lose you to whatever’s tearing people apart out there. I love you too much for that.” His brows drew together behind the dark frame of his glasses. ”How close did you get to Hector when you saw him? If this stuff really is catching…” No, there weren’t any signs of it yet. There’d been something off in Hector’s manner, but Aurora was just Aurora. The same woman he’d fallen for, it was his fears for her that were twisting things here. There was probably a better chance that he’d bring it back to her considering the filth he had to wade through on a daily basis. That meant he should’ve kept his hands to himself, but that wasn’t ever what he wanted with her.

Tagged: AURORA DE MARTEL * Word Count: 634

They weren’t murderers. There’d been plenty of bank robbers who got a little too trigger happy and added murder to their list of crimes. Those were the guys the FBI were really gunning for, quite happy to let them go down in a blaze of glory when they slaughtered them in the streets. That hadn’t been him and Sonny until that thing had got into his brother. Up until then it had been all about Connie, then the thrill of the chase, the money. His brother hadn’t become a monster until after. There was no denying that there was blood on Sonny’s hands now, but none of it had ended up on his own.

The Hector he’d been collecting souls from hadn’t given a shit that he was already up to his elbows in blood. Beyond delusional, he’d seen no problem in what he was doing. Maybe Aurora couldn’t see anything wrong in it either, but if she’d been there maybe it was different. Aurora didn’t hesitate to kill, he’d seen it for himself. She didn’t toy with her kills though, like some overgrown cat, lapping at the blood that had been spilled, shrugging off the thought that lives had been taken.

”Not like this,” Damien muttered, shaking his head. ”I’ve seen reckless and it was more than that.” He’d also seen the soulless, those who were headed for hell because there was nothing human left in them after a life of evil. There was no way he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the two, especially since he’d seen the before Hector.

There were plenty of people in the world, hell, in this town, who would happily stamp out that sort of evil. From the shadows he’d watched them do it, being a good little reaper and not bothering to interfere as hunters cut things down. If any had come for Sonny or Aurora he would’ve broken that rule too, but so far they’d been safe from the threats. Now they were facing something they couldn’t see and it’d terrified him enough to get her out of that violent little petri dish Hector had put together for Halloween.

Damien shook his head, his brows drawing further together. Worry had lodged in the pit of his stomach like a rose thorn. ”I don’t know,” he admitted. ”I don’t think anybody knows who started it or how it’s spreading.” Which mean no taking chances.

Aurora’s smile reassured him that she wasn’t angry at him over this. She understood why he’d tried to protect her. His thumb brushed beneath her lower lip, tracing the curve before he kissed her a moment later. Damien kept his hands on her as he drew back out of it, his own face lighting up as she said she loved him too. If was words he’d never expected to hear from anybody after all that time and each time he heard them warmth spread through his chest. He’d have done anything to make sure he didn’t lose her. A single touch would put Hector out of his misery if it was necessary. If he’d infected Aurora it would be necessary. He’d tear his damn heart out of his chest if that had happened, crushing it in front of the son of a bitch’s eyes.

That warmth went cold as he realised just how close Hector might’ve come to Aurora. His hands shifted, running down her arms, drawing her in again like he had to make sure whatever it was hadn’t drifted across the square to burrow into her flesh, into her mind. ”Baby, if you see him again, run away. You need to avoid this.” Her catching it would be his and Tristan’s worst nightmares coming true – and he hated that they were on the same page about anything.

Swallowing hard, Damien tried to convince himself for the moment that it was safe for Aurora to go back to town. She wouldn’t go with him yet, not if it meant leaving Tristan behind. ”Alright,” Damien said with a sigh. ”I’ll try and find out what’s going on. Promise to be careful too.” The corner of his mouth kicked up faintly. ”You want me to take you to him? I’ll stay out of sight, don’t worry. He’s not gonna find out about us now.” If there was one up side to this virus, it was that it would provide another distraction for Tristan, dragging his attention in another direction so the two of them could carry on their relationship out of his sight.

Tagged: AURORA DE MARTEL * Word Count: 757