Exitus - 12. Part I, chapter 12

- XII -

All four of them stared at the tall woman by the door with identically huge eyes. Suddenly, Salamander blinked and his right hand flew up, fingers glowing very dangerous crimson.

“You have three seconds to tell me who or what you are,” he said evenly without looking away from her scared and confused expression. “One...”

“Julian, what are you doing...?” she muttered, staring at his hand.

“Two...”

“It’s me, I swear it’s me...! I know what it looks like, I know that!” she jabbered feverishly. “Julian, please...! I will explain everything, I swear...!”

“Three,” Salamander said quietly, and his hand exploded with a vicious crimson blaze that enveloped the woman’s entire body, sending her flying forward through the front door of the house.

Desmond stepped aside just before she smacked into him, and she staggered pass him and fell on the floor facedown, her expression scared and painful. The blond slammed the door shut and whirled around, his both hands glowing the same shade of deep red by now. He looked at Desmond.

“What is she?” he asked quietly, and Desmond looked at him, unable to speak for a second.

“It’s her,” he said numbly, and the blond froze again without shedding the gleaming light off his fingers. “Bloody hell on wheels, it’s her... She is not lying, and...” Desmond stuttered and looked at the incapacitated woman. “It’s her...” he said again in the same numb manner.

“That’s impossible,” Julian said very quietly, and Desmond just looked at him without saying anything. “How...?”

“I think that if you take the stream off her, she might tell you,” Gabriel muttered without taking his eyes off the woman on the floor.

The blond blinked at that and closed his eyes for a few seconds. Finally, he took a deep breath and opened his eyes. He stared at the incapacitated woman, and suddenly, the crimson glow was gone, and she produced a strained moan.

“Holy fuck,” Desmond whispered almost inaudibly and glanced at Raven.

The smaller man’s expression was unreadable, his bizarre-colored eyes very dark. He watched the blond without blinking, and after Julian never glanced at him even once, he silently turned around and walked away, heading towards the glass door leading into the back yard. Desmond looked at Salamander, whose expression was darker than ever.

“Get up,” the blond said quietly without stepping closer to the trembling figure on the floor. “Get up and speak. I don’t care what he said; I want the truth.”

Desmond glanced behind his shoulder. The glass door silently slid closed, and there was nobody there. The ex-assassin sighed and cursed silently in his head. “This is impossible,” he thought. “But bloody hell, this certainly explains that damn dream...! It is her; I don’t know how, but it is her... Holy shit...! Nex, where the hell are you?”

The woman slowly pulled herself up on all four and shook her head.

“Julian...” she whispered when she looked at the frozen blond. “I know what it looks like... It’s me, I swear... I don’t know exactly how it happened...” She gulped some air. “There was a rip between two planes,” she said quickly after Salamander’s eyes grew even darker. “Someone had caused the reality to unseal itself... There was an exit... I saw it, I went there... I didn’t know that it would take me back here, I had no idea...! Then something else happened...” She gulped more air. “There was this light... This amazing black light... It was beautiful, but it was also terrifying... Then it disappeared, and so did the exit... I didn’t escape; I never made any deals; I didn’t use black magic, I swear... It just happened...” she finished in a whisper.

“That’s how he escaped Stratum Five,” Desmond thought numbly. “He managed to rip a hole between two realities – this one and the one beyond... Holy hell, it is her...! When the entire ordeal happened, when he took off, she simply tagged along...”

Apparently, Salamander was thinking something along those lines as well, because his eyes weren’t as dark anymore.

“I am not lying,” she whispered again, and Julian locked the door.

“Maybe,” he said coldly. “You are not leaving this house until I make sure of everything.”

“Of course,” she muttered, and slowly got up, her expression miserable and insanely happy at the same time. “God, I missed you so much...”

She took several shaky steps towards the blond but he stepped away as soon as she got closer.

“Walk upstairs,” he said as coldly as before, his expression unreadable. “The second guest room.”

Desmond had no idea whether the blond had his mental barrier up or not, but he didn’t risk getting into his head, knowing that right now, Julian would probably unleash that nasty spell on him as soon as he felt even a shadow of an alien presence in his mind. He watched both of them walk upstairs, and then he looked at stunned Gabriel.

“Rayhe, she wasn’t lying,” he said quietly.

“How is that even possible?” Gabriel wouldn’t move, as if he were rooted to the floor.

“That’s how that damn half-breed managed to escape from Stratum Five,” Desmond leaned on the wall. “Remember when Nex said about him being able to slip from one reality into another without any streams or portals? He ripped a hole, slipped through, and took her along.”

“She wasn’t in Stratum Five,” Gabriel finally was able to move, it seemed. He walked closer to Desmond and leaned onto the same wall.

“No,” Desmond agreed. “But apparently, that son of a bitch decided to go through the land of the dead...” He shook his head. “Have to give it to him,” he muttered. “That was a hell of a smart move... She happened to slip through the hole before he closed it... Holy hell...”

“Wait,” Gabriel frowned. “Raven would be aware of this...”

“No, he wouldn’t be,” Desmond interrupted him quietly. “Salamander died on Saturday morning; Raven didn’t come back here until noon on Sunday, remember he said that? He wouldn’t know.”

“It’s Saturday night,” Gabriel whispered, and Desmond nodded.

“Exactly.” He frowned for a few seconds as if pondering something. “It makes sense,” he finally said very slowly. “It makes sense and it is absolutely absurd at the same time... Nobody can come back from the dead, it’s utterly impossible!”

“That damn stream probably caused it,” Gabriel muttered, wrinkling his forehead with a frown identical to the one Desmond was wearing. “Nobody knows fully what black streams can do...”

They stood leaning on that wall for another minute without saying anything when the blond came downstairs.

“I need you to keep listening to everything she is thinking,” he said quietly, staring at Desmond without blinking. “I don’t care what you do, but stay awake for the rest of the night. I made sure she doesn’t leave that room,” he nodded curtly. “But I need you to keep listening to her until tomorrow morning. By then, I will figure something out.”

Desmond nodded without saying anything, and Julian quickly looked around, a small frown on his forehead.

“He is in the back yard,” Desmond said, and the blond shot him a quick look. “I wasn’t in your head,” Desmond sighed.

“I know,” was all Salamander said before heading towards the glass door.

“Let’s go play cards, Rayhe,” Desmond said with a heavy sigh and peeled himself off the wall. “We have a long night ahead of us...”

Gabriel didn’t say anything to that; he just let out an identically heavy sigh and followed Desmond upstairs.

****

...“I think that if you take the stream off her, she might tell you,” Rayhe said quietly, and Raven blinked at that.

When Desmond numbly muttered, ‘This is Vivienne,’ ten minutes or so ago, at first, Raven thought that it was either some twisted joke or a very vivid hallucination that Specter experienced all of a sudden. Then he looked at Julian’s expression and forgot how to blink. It was not a joke, nor was it a hallucination, he realized after seeing the blond’s eyes. Salamander looked like someone just drained every single ounce of air out of him. It was Vivienne, he thought numbly and shifted his gaze towards the unexpected visitor.

“It’s something else,” he thought immediately. “She’s been dead for ten years...! Dead do not come back... It’s something or someone else... It can’t be her...!”

That was when Desmond said as numbly as he did before:

“It’s her...”

After that, Raven stopped listening. If Specter said she was the real deal, then that was the very precise case, he knew that. There was no way in hell someone could trick Desmond’s lie-sensing detectors. “It’s her,” Raven thought almost indifferently.

He had no idea how this was possible; the only thing he knew was that Julian’s only obsession has managed to come back from the dead, and that the blond looked stricken right now. Stricken and feverishly hopeful.

He stared at Salamander without blinking, and when Julian wouldn’t as much as glance at him, he knew the verdict with excruciating clarity – there was no question about any sort of competition. Vivienne was always the only one, he knew that. Never mind the fact that Julian said he loved him; Vivienne was out of the picture when it happened. Right now, she was back, and that picture has changed drastically.

“Kill the bitch!” his inner voice shrieked desperately, and he looked at Julian again.

The blond looked belief-free, very stiff, and painfully hopeful.

“No,” Raven thought numbly. “I won’t do that... He would be unhappy if I did that, he would be very unhappy if he lost her again, after she managed to come back... I will never make him unhappy... If he is happy, then it doesn’t matter whether he is with me or with her; if he is happy, that’s the only thing that matters...”

He fixed his eyes on Salamander and gritted his teeth when he received nothing but indifference in return. “She is the one he needs,” he thought dully. “She is back, and she is the one he needs right now...”

He stood still for a minute or so, his entire body trembling from a very painful sensation of loss. “Kill the bitch,” his inner-self said desperately, and he closed his eyes for a few seconds.

“No,” he thought without making a single movement. He gritted his teeth and looked at Julian again, noting Desmond’s cautious glance, which he ignored “Can’t blame him, really... He never got any real closure... He never broke up with her; he never told her to get lost... She was killed ... She just disappeared from his life, and he never got a chance...”

He gritted his teeth without finishing his thought, and closed his eyes for a few seconds again. He looked at Salamander once more after he opened them, and after seeing no change whatsoever, he quietly turned around and headed towards the glass door that led into the back yard.

He carefully pulled the door open, making sure he didn’t draw any attention to himself, and then he was thinking about simply making his way towards the gate, when his knees shook, and he felt like he was about to collapse on the ground any minute.

He muttered something under his breath and dropped himself into a chair that wasn’t too far from the glass door.

“Oh, hell, no...” he thought furiously when he felt a warm, ticklish sensation that traveled down his cheek a few seconds later. “I am crying...? Oh, hell, no...!”

However, that seemed to be the case, because that ticklish sensation became stronger instead of ceasing to exist. He cursed through his clenched teeth and wiped his cheek with a jerky, impatient gesture. He dropped his head onto the high back of the chair, forcing those traitorous tears back behind his eyelids. “If only you had listened to Specter and let it be as he said,” his inner voice scratched the walls of his mind with a rusty razorblade of bitterness. “This wouldn’t happen...”

“I would do it again,” he muttered into the cold darkness of the night. “I would do it again, the same exact thing... I would never let it be...”

He sat in that chair for the next ten minutes or so, his inner voice finally mute, tears restricted. Finally, he let out a sigh and straightened up, getting ready to head for the gate for real this time. He cursed inaudibly when he heard the glass door slide open, and immediately dove into invisibility – he had no desire to listen to Julian’s explanations right now. It would only hurt worse, he knew that.

“Just let it be,” he thought, watching the blond who was looking around. “Julian, just let it be... No need to explain anything, just let it be...”

The blond definitely didn’t look like he would just let it be – he seemed very determined to do otherwise. Raven let out an inaudible sigh. “I guess I’ll stick around until morning,” he thought without taking his eyes off Julian. “That’s fine... Morning is fine...”

****

Julian looked around, silently cursing the darkness. He impatiently yanked on one of the smaller streams and brought it upwards, making it to flood the entire back yard with a soft, dull glow of light.

“I know you are here,” he said quietly when he saw nothing but grass and trees. “I know you are here...” He closed his eyes when there was no answer. “Raven, please,” he said in the same quiet voice.

“Turn off the light,” someone said calmly from behind his back, and the blond opened his eyes and turned around. “Turn off the light,” Raven said again, leaning onto the back of the chair where he was sitting, his legs crossed.

Julian obediently let go of the stream and walked towards that chair. He kneeled in front of it and pressed his elbows into Raven’s knees.

“I’ll leave in the morning,” Raven said indifferently, and the blond blinked rapidly at that. “Unless you want me to get out now?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Salamander asked in the same quiet voice. “Leave...?”

Raven let out a short laughter.

“Oh, come on,” he muttered, and then there was a dry click of a cigarette lighter. “You have been obsessing about her for how long...?” A dancing little flame cast a strange-looking shadow on the half of his face as he lit his cigarette. “You wouldn’t let go until you finally got Specter... Or so you thought,” there was an obvious shrug in his intonation. “And now she is miraculously back from the dead; and we know it’s her, since Desmond...” He cut himself off and dragged on his cigarette. “No need for this,” he sighed. “I won’t make your life miserable, don’t...”

“Goddammit...!” the blond interrupted him in a soft growl.

He reached towards the red glowing circle and grabbed the cigarette out of Raven’s hand, smashing it onto the ground and pushing it aside.

“You are not going anywhere,” he said dangerously. “And don’t even think of trying to disappear – I will find you and you know it...!”

“Julian...” Raven closed his eyes, his expression tired and miserable. Julian thought that he looked defeated and eerily indifferent.

“Yes,” the blond continued as if not hearing him. “Yes, there is a chance that it is indeed her. There is that chance, and it doesn’t matter. I don’t care if it is her of if it is some abomination... Well,” he hemmed. “I guess I do care if it’s an abomination; if that’s the case, then I’ll have to kill it... If it is her, however...” He shrugged. “I will probably let her stay here until she contacts her family, but that’s about it. Everything has changed and she would have to understand... And if she doesn’t...” He shrugged again. “She would have to deal with it nevertheless. The past will stay exactly that – past,” he nodded without looking away from Raven’s face.

“Julian...” Now Raven’s voice sounded strained.

“I did let go, Raven,” the blond interrupted him quietly once again. “I let go even before I got Specter... Or so I thought,” he added somewhat dryly. “Getting Specter was nothing but finding closure. Strangely enough, the closure is still here, just like goddamn Specter,” he sighed, and Raven let out a sound that sounded like a very bizarre laughter. “I would say that I would kick her out right now if you wanted me to, but I can’t do that. Not until I make sure that she is what she seems... She has to stay here until I am absolutely positive. I am going to wait for that Hunter to finally show up and take a very good look at her. If the Hunter says she is the real deal, I will kick her out then, how’s that?”

“Julian...”

“I love you,” the blond interrupted him yet again. “Goddammit, Raven, I love you... Just so you know,” he added after several silent seconds. “I have never said that to anyone but you before; not even to her. I did love her, but I never said it.”

“Julian, she is...”

“She is nothing but a memory,” Julian lifted his arm and easily found Raven’s mouth with his hand, pressing his finger against his lips. “Memory and the past... You are the present and the future...” He sighed when the brunet remained silent. “Goddammit, Raven, do you need me to get Specter just so he can tell you that I mean it...?”

“I don’t need Specter to tell me anything when the matter is about you,” Raven said in a low voice. “I know,” he whispered and leaned forward, finding Julian’s mouth with equal ease, sinking his shaking fingers in long blond hair. “Julian, I...” Now he looked miserable again; miserable and somewhat guilty.

“I know,” Salamander murmured into his mouth and pushed him harder into the back of the chair, pulling away from the kiss. “I know,” he repeated in a low voice, and Raven muttered something in a hissing whisper when all of a sudden, there were long, very quick and insistent fingers working his belt buckle.

He grabbed onto the arms of the chair when those fingers easily defeated the buckle and the zipper, and then there was a cool sensation of October wind brushing against his heated self, making him shiver. The cold sensation didn’t last too long; it was replaced by the velvety warmth of a very talented mouth, and Raven muttered something else, letting his hands to let go of the arms of the chair and grab onto Julian’s hair instead.

It didn’t take Salamander long to get Raven’s body into a fully excited mode, and the brunet threw his head back, blindly staring into the darkness of the night while his hips started fighting for more freedom. He restricted their movements as much as he could, keeping them from slamming farther down the blond’s throat, but it was a rather difficult battle. He was in charge for right now, but he knew it wouldn’t last too long.

A bit later, he tried pulling himself out of Julian’s mouth, knowing that if the blond kept going at this rate, everything would come to an exploding finale quite soon. To his astonishment, instead of letting him out of his mouth, Julian pushed him even deeper into the chair without interrupting the quick, maddening knots his tongue kept twisting itself into, his lips and teeth adding more pressure and teasing as he kept on going.

Raven said something that slightly resembled ‘Julian,’ and the blond laughed around him, making his entire body to lift itself off the chair for a couple of shuddering seconds.

“Oh...” he said after he fell back into his seat.

Then Julian shifted ever so slightly, changing the angle somewhat, which made Raven to sink even deeper down his throat, and the brunet admired (very hazily so) the envious lack of gag reflex it seemed Julian happened to possess.

“Ju...lian...” Raven panted some foggy, twitching time later. “You... might... Oh, shit... Want to... Ah...!”

That last ‘Ah...!’ came out much louder than the rest of the scrambled words, because as soon as the blond heard Raven’s stutter, he picked up even more vicious speed, and then Raven’s eyes rolled all the way into the back of his head when that amazing throat around him started to contract mercilessly.

He yanked on Salamander’s hair with wild desperation, trying to pull him off, but his efforts were ridiculously futile. It seemed that Julian didn’t even notice that Raven was all but ripping out his hair right now. Then he did something that was almost evil – he laughed and swallowed hard at the same time, and that was all Raven could handle.

“Jul... I’m gon... com...” was all he was able to say, losing the battle to his own hips pathetically when they thrust upwards in one hard, powerful move, lifting him off the chair again, as his orgasm hit him head-on with full force.

He let out several quite impressive mutated obscenities when he felt those maddening contractions again while his entire body was screaming out in feral pleasure. He felt the back of his head press tightly into the chair, and he dug his heels into the ground, his both hands locked on Julian’s hair in a death-grip while the blond kept draining him mercilessly. He arched even tighter, inventing several more new words, and then finally, he let out a hissing, pleading moan. Only then, Julian let him out of his mouth.

“Holy...” Raven panted several minutes later, after he collapsed on the chair, completely spent. “...shit...”

Julian gave him a smile that was much smugger than usual, putting everything in order, and zipping up his pants.

“You had... never...” Raven managed, and the blond smiled again.

“I know,” he said and kissed the brunet slowly, letting him to taste himself in his mouth. “I never had,” he added a minute or so later, and Raven kissed him again.

Suddenly, Julian pulled away just a little and stared at Raven with a small frown.

“What?” Raven blinked at Salamander’s expression.

“Holy hell,” the blond said in a low voice. “You are glowing in the dark.”

Raven snorted at that and pulled him closer once again.

“Yeah,” he muttered into Julian’s mouth. “I am radiating...”

“Let’s go to bed,” the blond laughed softly, and this time, Raven was the one who pulled away.

“You promise you will actually sleep tonight?” he asked seriously, and Julian sighed.

“For a bit,” he nodded and placed another kiss on Raven’s mouth. “Not right away though... I am not finished with you yet. Come on...”

He stood up, pulling the brunet up on his feet, and laughed again when Raven swayed slightly.

“Need me to carry you?”

“I’ll walk, thanks,” Raven nodded firmly.

“You sure...?”

“Just...” Raven slightly shoved him on the shoulder. “Start walking!”

“All right,” Julian said with fake doubt, and Raven just sighed, never letting go of his hand.

****

Gabriel lowered his cards and looked at the slightly opened window, his expression thoughtful when all the moans, growls, and small, breathless cries of pleasure that rang through the night for the last half an hour or so, have finally stopped.

“I guess he convinced him to come back,” he muttered, and Desmond shot a quick glance at the window.

“Yup,” he said before returning his attention to the hand he currently possessed. He frowned and dropped one card, reaching for another. Then he looked at Gabriel. “Rayhe, I have to listen to her goddamn thoughts,” he said with audible regret.

“What did she think so far?” Rayhe dropped one card as well.

“Same shit for the last forty-five minutes,” Desmond sighed heavily. “How bloody ecstatic she is that she is with him again... That and some crap about Lucille.”

“Who is Lucille?” Gabriel blinked.

“My client,” Desmond sighed again. “The one that ordered the hit. Apparently, they used to be friends.”

“Charming,” Gabriel muttered. “Anything about you?”

“Not yet,” Desmond said slowly. Then he looked at Rayhe. “Which is rather puzzling... I know that she saw me, and I know that she definitely recognized me... Wouldn’t you think she’d be a tad worried why the hell I am here?”

“One would think,” Gabriel agreed. “Maybe she’ll think about you later though,” he shrugged. “When the initial shock wears off.”

Desmond put his cards facedown and pressed his chin into his palm, a thoughtful expression never leaving his face.

“What?” Gabriel asked a minute later when Desmond remained silent.

“I had that dream last Friday night,” Desmond said slowly. “That means, she was out of that place by then, otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to see shit...”

“I thought it was Julian’s dream...” Gabriel put his cards down as well.

“I don’t think so now,” Desmond shook his head. “Right before I was about to leave, she came back into the room...” He looked at Gabriel seriously. “Rayhe, I can swear to God, she saw me.”

Gabriel blinked at that.

“At first, I figured that she was staring at something behind my back,” Desmond continued. “I was halfway through, so there was no way for me to see what it was... Now though...” He fell silent again.

“If she has been here since last Friday, then why did she only show up tonight?” Gabriel frowned, and Desmond looked at the window again.

“I don’t know,” he said slowly. “Shit, Rayhe...” He squeezed his eyes shut for a second and stood up, leaving the cards behind and walking to the window. “Something is majorly off,” he lit a cigarette and leaned on the windowsill.

“We have to wait for Nex to come back,” Gabriel leaned onto the windowsill as well, grabbing the cigarette out of Desmond’s fingers and taking a couple of quick drags. “That or try finding Tess,” he shrugged and gave the cigarette back.

“Bloody hell...” Desmond muttered with frustration, finished the cigarette, and flicked it out of the window. “Rayhe...” he sighed with regret, and Gabriel straightened up.

“Can’t you multitask?” he asked seriously, stroking Desmond’s neck with his fingertips.

“Yes, I can multitask,” Desmond said evenly. “But... Dammit, Rayhe...!”

“Let’s call this...” Gabriel paused for a second, his fingers never leaving Desmond’s neck, sliding sideways. “A lesson,” he said finally and dug his fingernails deeper into the other man’s skin when he got to the smooth curve of neck becoming a shoulder.

Desmond shuddered at that.

“Rayhe, that’s cheating...” he said in a strained voice. “A lesson...?”

“Yes,” Gabriel increased the pressure just a little, making Desmond to breathe out a couple of obscure words. “I am helping you to expand your horizons, to advance your ability, to... You get the drift,” he nodded.

“So helpful...” Desmond half-hissed, half-moaned, and Rayhe nodded very seriously.

“I know,” was all he said before he pulled Desmond away from the open window.