suit in blue

If there was a way to slip the choke chain, he hadn’t found it yet, and God there were some times he wanted to. The fact that it was now Elias’ fist wrapped around it, preparing to yank him back at any time had just been making it chafe all the more. There was so little wiggle room now after decades of being able to take a time out whenever he’d needed one. Head to another city to catch up with his brother? No problem, especially if he was still bringing in the souls. Mouthing off a little to the boss, maybe there’d been some stink eye, but Death hadn’t looked like he was ready to bury that scythe in his back if he went just a little too far. It was all different now, though.

All day Damien had been reminding himself not to rock the boat. He’d gone every time he was buzzed, not hesitating even though there was always that voice in the back of his head that was ready to shriek back off if he arrived to find one of the infected there. Being dead meant it had zero chance of infecting him, but he was still clinging onto the idea that there was a chance he could take this back to Aurora.

”Enjoy your afterlife, pal.” Damien shot the old guy a wry little smile as a demon appeared a dozen feet behind him. The newly departed spluttered, trying to run after him, but it was years too late for that. He’d seen the guy’s wife sitting next to his body, a bruise on her cheek. Anything this guy got down here looked deserved. If there was any justice any bruise he'd ever put on his old lady would be stamped into his flesh a thousand times over.

”Wait, please, there’s been a mistake…”

Nah, the only one he’d made in this was not disappearing immediately. Damien lifted his chin towards the demon now clamping a hand on the guy’s shoulder. ”I’m sure your new buddy’ll be happy to talk it through with you. I’ve got a date.” He threw the guy a wave and then vanished.

If there was a reward for being a good little reaper it would be a few uninterrupted hours tonight. He wasn’t leaving Aurora hanging when they were supposed to be having a date night. The bell would be ignored then. He’d earned this after the last couple of months of non-stop cleanup.

A quick shower rinsed away the grime of the day. A fresh suit, a black shirt left open at the collar. His glasses slid back on, a check in the mirror showing a guy who knew how to dress. Forget frayed jeans and t-shirts that looked like they’d been kicking around in the back of the closet for a decade. Damien’s lips curled into a smile as he stepped back from the mirror. Aurora always dressed perfectly, heat sliding through his chest and down into his gut whenever he set eyes on her.

Seconds later he was disappearing from his apartment, appearing just inside the apartment door. He hadn’t even blinked when he saw the splinters fringing the carved line in the floor. It got worse from there, the trail leading to a pool of blood on the wooden floor that had his throat going dry. The apartment was in shambles around it. Furniture tossed, Aurora’s belongings scattered like autumn leaves. Fear had his throat going dry, his chest tightening. ”Aurora …” His voice was tight, ready to rise into a holler as he rushed through the room, but then she was there. The iron band around his chest loosened slightly, but his eyes still glittered with that steel shine of the anger that would’ve exploded out of him if the worst had happened.

”It doesn’t look it,” he managed to choke out, his gaze running over her like his hands would’ve done if she had come close enough. ”Son of a bitch. Klaus? What did he want?” He’d bury that axe in the back of the hybrid’s head the same way the scythe would’ve stabbed him in the back for laying hands on Aurora. Damien’s brows shot up as she explained it was Elijah. Fuck.

Damien moved close, reaching for Aurora’s hands to draw her up from where she’d been putting the towels down. ”How the hell did he come up with that theory? Why would either one of you have done something like this.” Tristan maybe, but not her. Sighing, he caught Aurora’s face in his hands, his thumbs resting lightly under the tip of her chin so he could lift it and look at the smear of blood beneath. ”Did he hurt you? Is this your blood or his?” Either way it could mean that the infection he’d been fighting so hard to keep away from her had been brought right into her apartment. The Originals were probably never gonna die from this, but they could make sure every single one of their enemies did.

Tagged: AURORA DE MARTEL * Word Count: 842

Maybe Elias had been right about the old Death. He’d talked a good game, but when it came to the natural order, what had he actually done to get back to it? The Mikaelsons had been the biggest abomination when it came to what was right in a thousand years and yet every single one of them was apparently still walking the earth. If he was gonna believe the whispers there probably was a weapon out there that could take them down, maybe even his own touch, but there was no guarantee it’d work. So far none of them had pushed him far enough to try, not even Tristan who was sitting perched on that next step down the ladder, but this might finally have been enough.

While he’d been off following orders like a good little Reaper, one of them had come here and laid hands on Aurora. Anger sizzled beneath Damien’s skin. The last time he’d felt anything like it had been when he’d seen what that son of a bitch had done to Connie. The car wrecked, him in the wrong and her … Damien stared at the smear of blood on her throat as Aurora shook her head to deny that it had been Niklaus. There’d been more blood with Connie, so much blood and broken glass and a body that didn’t miraculous heal the moment it was damaged. Still, the thought that someone had laid their hands on her started to fray all the self-control he’d been holding on to for decades.

His touch could have been harsh, snatching her up from where she’d been cleaning up, biting into the skin of her jaw as he tried to get a look at the remnants of the damage done. He was certainly angry enough for it. Instead he went in gently, all that anger shrinking down inside of him until it was like an icicle in his chest that he could tear free and stab straight through Elijah’s heart. ”So it’s bullshit someone’s planted in his head. Someone else did this and you’re being made scapegoats for it.” Blame the de Martels, have the infected all rushing here for a little payback. That was a smart plan, one he hated.

Relief didn’t really start to bleed in until he was touching her. Damien let out a slow breath as Aurora leaned into his touch. Maybe the virus had infected her, there was no way to tell now, but the other wounds were healed, the only evidence they’d ever been there was all this damn blood. ”He came at you with an axe? Jesus Christ.” Fear spiked back, his thumbs lifting her chin again as his gaze raced down her. She could’ve been dead. He couldn’t take her head or her heart and he would’ve come back here to find the woman he loved cold on the floor, not even her soul left to tell him why he’d lost the best thing he’d ever had in his life.

If he that same axe pressed into Elijah’s throat, maybe he’d stop to listen. One wrong word and it’d be driven back through his neck. Decapitation probably wouldn’t kill him, but he certainly wouldn’t be Elijah Fucking Mikaelson anymore if his body was buried here and he left his head at the bottom of the Marianas Trench. ”He’s crazy,” Damien panted, slowly easing his hands down to Aurora’s shoulders to squeeze lightly. ”If this was your brother and his aim was to get rid of them all, why would he just hand over the cure?” Because his little sister was one of the only things he gave a shit about. The one thing the two of them had in common.

They weren’t exactly looking for the cure, for the moment it was more just a cleanup job, but now he wanted to his hands on it just to cram it down Elijah’s neck. Damien panted out a breath as Auroa’s hands found his chest, a weight to hold his spiking anger at bay again. ”He put his hands on you,” he growled. For that he wanted to break every single damn finger. ”You want me to just sit around and wait for the next time he loses it enough to come looking for you here again? I can’t. Baby, I can’t sit by and wait for him to come and hurt you again. I know you don’t wanna leave town, but you can’t stay here.” Elijah had walked out leaving a bloody mess behind, there was a chance it was gonna be worse next time. ”Come stay with me until I can find a way to get him somewhere secure for now?” Leah would tell him to fuck off, but maybe he could talk Cory into handling this. Stash Elijah in one of the stones, then, fuck, sit waiting to see if he’d managed to infect Aurora.

Tagged: AURORA DE MARTEL * Word Count: 818

Knowing that someone was immortal was different to seeing the blood on their skin and being able to convince yourself that they were fine. Maybe if he was like the Mikaelsons – in their right minds – he would have been able to believe Aurora was fine the second he’d seen the aftermath smeared over her skin. He wasn’t though. He’d seen his little sister hurt so badly that she’d never regained consciousness, that bright light that had been Connie snuffed out decades too early. He’d seen his brother rise from what he’d been sure was the dead with blood on his skin, his body a glove puppet for something that had crawled out from the bowels of Hell. There was no way in Hell he was gonna watch the same thing happen now to the woman he loved.

Damien scoffed at the explanation that Elijah had thought that the virus was made to target his family specifically. Paranoid much, although maybe after a thousand years of running from everyone who wanted him dead, it might not have been a bad excuse - if there was anything capable of killing him. Would Elias with his new found power try and do that now or was he too much of a coward? ”One of these days he’ll learn not everything’s about him and his family. There are plenty of people out there sick with this thing that aren’t related to them.” People who wouldn’t survive it if people decided to put an end to the problem by killing them before the reapers could gather them up somewhere safe until they had a cure.

If there was a cure for this and it was in Tristan’s hands, his sister would’ve been given it already. Tristan had crushed his sister with his protectiveness for years, but he loved her and there was no way on earth Tristan would’ve risked Aurora’s life, not even to try and destroy the Mikaelsons. The man was an asshole, but not a suicidal idiot. The tension in his body eased muscle by muscle as Aurora settled her hand over his. Damien let out a long breath, letting her chin fall again before he puffed out a laugh. ”That would’ve been more likely than the pair of you coming up with some scheme that would destroy you right along with him. Did you cut him?” Tristan had probably slithered away somewhere then, leaving his private army of vampires behind to watch over his sister. They’d probably followed her to Elijah’s place, leaving her to what they’d have called her madness, figuring they could just report it back to Tristan later when they should have been watching out for her instead.

”He’s not in right mind,” Damien muttered. If he had been and was truly trying to get to Tristan, Aurora might not’ve been standing with him now. The Mikaelsons rarely showed restraint, even with ancient enemies. If he’d come here to find … He swallowed hard, trying to push the heart breaking possibility out of his mind. ”The fact that he thought differently shows that the virus is screwing up his thinking. It’s gonna keep doing it unless he does find the cure.” Original Vampire or not, his brain would keep deteriorating, his decisions growing more erratic until he wouldn’t be able to stop himself.

He’d have taken Aurora halfway across the world and risked being yanked back by the new Death to keep her safe, but Aurora wouldn’t let him do that and Damien knew he just had to accepted it. His hands slowly slid his hands down from her shoulders until he could settle them at the small of her back, drawing her in close enough that he could feel her from chest to toe. Damien nodded after a moment before the corner of his mouth kicked up. ”In a way you are, and I will be too. You. Staying with me’s gonna be good enough for now. None of them know where I am.” They couldn’t without knowing who he was and that was the biggest secret right now. ”You want me to finish cleaning up in here while you pack? Then we can have our date.” The Mikaelsons weren’t gonna take one of the few people he loved from him, like Tristan they could try, but he wasn’t the push over he looked to me. Love had put a fire in his belly and Death himself (the old man) had given him powers he’d never dreamed of before.

Tagged: AURORA DE MARTEL * Word Count: 751