Las Palabras De Amor {Cassie}

[Dacian]

[atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v36/Tigeress/Random/postscripts/daci.png][bg=000000][atrb=style,background-position: top; background-repeat: no-repeat; padding: 220px 65px 65px 65px;]Dacian found the angry banter easy to retaliate to. They had fought verbally before, and somehow they managed to return to civil ground eventually. Dacian was almost enjoying it, until her voice started to waver. He felt what might have been a flush of guilt, but it was quickly frozen in his chest by the jibe she made next. If he had enough sense to think how his words might hurt her, he might have realised he deserved it. In typical fashion however, he responded viciously. “And I would be dead no thanks to you! I was so bloody still because my bloody neck was broken! But you were too busy pretending to care that I was dead to even bother checking I was actually gone! You couldn’t even look me in the eye, could you? I could still move them. I watched you walk away and leave me to burn in the sun.” He hissed, not enjoying in the least that feeling those memories invoked. It rivalled or even surpassed the most frightening experiences of his life. Watching Cassie walk away, he really thought he was going to die. He’d been advancing as he ranted, and Cassie had retreated, further proof she didn’t care for his company. His own vision was precise in the dark. His pupils were blown wide again after their encounter with her blinding wand light, and he could see every indiscernible emotion flitter across her face. He was fairly sure the prime one was anger, and he glared defiantly. Cassie might make an attempt at anger, but he was much better at it. He had a lot more fuel for his fire. Like the fact that Cassie was rejecting him again, even after what he’d done for her. He was really wondering why he’d put himself through the torture of seeing Cassie again. So far all she had done was throw things at him and make him relive painful memories. Not the most glorious of welcomes. And as she thought he’d be better off dead, there was no more reason to stay here. He was almost ready to turn on his heel and leave her in the dark alley when she just had to turn, slip and fall. He was lunging to catch her before he knew it, but he was still stiff from his injuries, and he didn’t manage to catch her. The slap of palms on stone was loud to his ears, and he flinched, all pretences of anger forgotten as real guilt clouded in. He’d promised months ago that he’d never hurt her, and at the blossoming smell of blood, he knew he’d broken it again. He’d been suppressing the events of that horrible December night, and her screams of agony at the hand of his enemy. She was too young to know that level of pain, and Dacian was on his knees on the cold damp ground, reaching for her before he realised. He gathered her up, gently lifting her from the ground and cradling her in his lap. The frightening scowl was gone from his face now, if she could even see it, and he held her tenderly. “I failed you again,” he murmured, finding her wrists with the hand he was not using to hold her and brought her hands to his lips. He gently kissed the frozen digits, and unable to resist, he nuzzled between her scarf and her neck and drew a deep breath. He sighed the still cold air out slowly, and two words sounding suspiciously like ‘I’m sorry’ might have come with it.

[Cassie Vimes]

There was nothing she could do, but continue to retreat from Dacian, hurrying away as though each harshly spoken word was knocking her back. She wanted to protest, to yell at him that she had cared and that losing him had almost broken her. However she found a lump clogging the back of her throat, making it impossible to speak as she fought desperately to stave off tears. Why should she care when it only led to so much pain? She’d lost him once and she could do it again. It would be better if she never saw Dacian again. That didn’t stop tears from welling in her eyes and as Cassie slipped and fell she began to cry in earnest.

It was almost surreal to be in his arms again when she had just started to come to terms with the idea that she would never feel his embrace again. It felt unlike the hold of any man she had experienced before and she could tell he had just spent a good while indoors as his skin might not have been warm to the touch, but it was still a marked improvement on the frozen cobblestones she had just been lifted from. That didn’t mean she was just going to let him gather her up without protest, though. The pain of his bitter accusations was still as fresh as the tears on her cheeks and Cassie drew in a deep shuddering breath as she struggled to push away from him, feeling the sting of her grazed palm as it pressed against his shoulder.

”Let me go!” She cried, but she could already feel the fight draining out of her as a sob shook her shoulders. Dacian’s grip was tender on her wrists and she didn’t struggle as he guided her hands to his lips, his head then twisting to bury into the crook of her neck and reminding her why she had ever cared to begin with. ”You never failed me.” Cassie said quietly, all of her earlier fears of being out, alone at night all but forgotten. She wasn’t alone any more. ”You saved my life.”

[Dacian]

[atrb=cellspacing,0,true][atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=background,http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v36/Tigeress/Random/postscripts/daci.png][bg=000000][atrb=style,background-position: top; background-repeat: no-repeat; padding: 220px 65px 65px 65px;]There were token squirms, but she soon settled and it felt so easy and familiar to hold her. He touched his lips to her throat, grazing his teeth across the smooth warm skin. “I don’t want to let you go.” He murmured. No longer needing to fend off her protests, he laid her hands in her lap and reached to wipe away her tears with a thumb. He was looking down on her now, having released himself from the thrall of her neck. What he wouldn’t give for a taste of her, for a stolen kiss. She was wrong. He hadn’t saved her life. He’d tried, but ultimately he had failed. He’d walked right into a trap he should have seen. He should have been watching his back, literally. If he hadn’t have been hasty, he might have been successful. And then where would they be? Curled up in bed together, rather than on the icy wet floor of an alleyway? He shouldn’t have had to save her in the first place. If he’d been doing her job, she wouldn’t need saving. He lowered his head, his nose resting against hers. For a moment he might have been about to kiss her but he pulled away too soon. “The fact that I had to try and save you in the first place... is a failure.” In the pause, he looked down and followed the sleeve of her coat with trailing fingers until her came to her hand. Cradling first the left palm-up in his hand, he carefully turned it towards the dull light from the end of the alley to inspect it. The left palm was not badly hurt, but when he looked at the right, he frowned and mumbled something about gloves. Without asking permission – he would have done it regardless of her answer so what was the point in asking? – he held her wrist tightly and lifted the abraded palm to his mouth. He removed the grit first, spitting it back to the ground. Satisfied he’d gotten it all, he licked across the wound a few times, savouring the blood. It might have looked a little absurd, but when he was finished, there was barely a mark left. If his eyes could have dilated wider, they would have. Even that little taste of blood reminded him how good she tasted. He made an appreciative sound low in his throat, and reached for her left hand again. He paused, his fingers circling her write. Something was different. He tilted his head, his focus distant while he tried to determine what. It was Cassie, something was different about Cassie’s blood. He pulled her left palm to his face, drawing in a deep breath. He tested the grazed patch with his tongue, and closed his eyes tight to concentrate. Was it a disease? A hormonal imbalance? His eyes opened slowly as the truth dawned on him. No, it was much worse. The expression he turned on Cassie was the most hurt she would ever had seen it. “No...” He lurched suddenly, letting Cassie slip from his lap and onto the cold ground as he stood and back pedalled. “No.” He shook his head in denial, changing quickly to point at Cassie accusingly. “You thought I was dead, so the first thing you do is jump into Edward’s bed?” He hissed. Anger overwrote all previous emotions. He was skipping straight from denial to rage. “Oh he must have been laughing. I bet he was glad. And with you all to himself, he just had to mark his territory permanently. Was it good? Did he rut all over you like an excited puppy?” Dacian made a sound that was like gagging and he spun away as if to leave. He turned back after a step though, the same disgust ridding his expression. “I hope you’re happy together with your little bastard child.” He spat with a cruel finality. The man turned on his heel, strode down the alley and before leaving it, unleashed violence on the cold stone wall with a wordless shout and a punch that split his knuckles. He added a volley of curses, and was still spurting vulgarity as he continued on into the night. It was a treachery he couldn’t forgive. Anything else she had done paled in comparison. This was the ultimate betrayal. She had tied herself so irreparably, that there had been no point in him even coming here tonight. What could he ever achieve now? Vivian had known about this. ‘Someving hass happened’, she said. Oh yes, SOMETHING had happened! Dacian punched another wall and turned down a tighter alley, kicking refuse bags and crates that dared to block his way. Cassie was pregnant with Edward’s get. PREGNANT. It was an old concept for the vampire, and his views on his had not changed much in all his years. When a woman was pregnant, she was beyond all hope. She belonged only to the man who had put the child inside her. Cassie belonged to Edward. “NO!”

[Cassie Vimes]

The feeling was mutual; Cassie didn’t want to move from his arms. It might be cold, uncomfortable and in the most inconvenient spot in the whole of Hogsmeade, but the fact that she was with Dacian made all that worthwhile. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew she should be getting back to Edward, but he couldn’t fault her this reunion. A weight had been lifted off her shoulders and hope that she’d thought had been extinguished forever was suddenly rekindled. For the first time in a long time Cassie felt like things might work out for the best after all. If Dacian could come back from the dead then perhaps, by some miracle, she might be able to handle having a child as well.

She shook her head as Dacian spoke again, disagreeing with him, but biting her lip to keep from saying anything. Cassie wanted to tell him that she didn’t blame him for what had happened. It wasn’t his fault; he couldn’t control the actions of anybody as mentally disturbed as Cain had been (and she’d experienced firsthand just how insane the vampire had been). If anything she was to blame, she was a witch and yet when it came down to it she couldn’t even protect herself from a vampire. She should have been braver, should have done something while she was captured. Anything to prevent what had happened to Dacian. And she’d lived with that guilt for over a month.

But she didn’t want to break the truce that had fallen between them. Cassie didn’t think she could go back to arguing with him again, not so soon and they were both so stubborn that the smallest disagreement could quickly turn into a fight. So she held her tongue and let him examine her grazed palms, shifting so she was pressed closer to his chest and long past any mistrust of his actions as he raised her hand to his lips. Until he started behaving strangely that was, but before she could even begin to ask him what was wrong she was being tipped unceremoniously from his lap.

”Dacian?” Cassie’s voice wavered with uncertainty as she slowly picked herself up. Now that her eyes had adjusted to the dark she could see the disgust and anger on Dacian’s face and it instantly put her on the defensive. It seemed she was right to prepare herself for the worst as his harsh words bit into her, but she wasn’t going to stand there and take it. He was being completely unreasonable and she felt a sudden protective flare of anger for both Edward and her unborn child. ”What did you expect Dacian?” She shot back, not caring that she was calling after his retreating form. ”You left me long before Cain ever took me! Edward never did that!”

But he was gone without another word and Cassie flinched at the angry yell that undoubtedly came from him, scurrying to get her wand even if she didn’t truly believe he would come back to hurt her. Her own anger carried her at least half of the way home, mouthing every silent curse she could think of that she might cast on Dacian when she next saw him. Then the shock hit and by the time she reached the Hog’s Head she was trembling, the tears in her eyes making it difficult to see as she fumbled for the door's catch with frozen fingers.