Life after him ~ sample

Chapter 4

(3 months later, April 20th, 2009)

The two were the oddest of pairs, water and flames, heat and ice, a mafia king and a private investigator. They were truly the lion and the lamb. Of course, they realized though, as Martin Amis had once said, 'only in art will the lion lie down with the lamb.' It's just that relationships that are meant to be doomed will always be doomed. There is no way around it.

Grace had known this from the beginning, but so had he. He had known what she was meant to do, and what would happen if anything was to go wrong. They would have to forget about each other, no matter how much they didn't want to. He could still feel her red lips ghosting over his ear, murmuring the thing that he thought he'd never need : Nothing can ever be the same twice.

He knew that she would make sure that he would have to go to hell before he could ever be able to find her again. And that's why he would whisper something into her ear also, loving the way her breath slightly hitched when he did : I can always find a way, hell cat, you and I know that I can.

But as days, weeks even, passed, he was slowly losing confidence. His icy eyes stared at his refection, one that he had looked at for the last two years, as he always peered behind him, looking at her tiny body in the reflection, sprawled out on the bed.

Where the fuck are you, hell cat?

The nickname that he had given her a few months after they had met. She had scowled at him, obviously not liking it. Running a hand through his messy blackish- brown hair, Cassiel Drakemon marched towards the kitchen, his broad chest glowing in the moonlight night, as he slightly tripped over his baggy sweatpants. Looking towards the old grandfather clock, taking in the old chipping wood, he saw the time click to 2:30 in the morning. Groaning, he blindly slipped on some tennis shoes, as he opened the door to the brisk morning air.

Grace.

The only person that was not there, the only person that had been on everyone's minds lately. As he took off sprinting, rapid pictures flew in his mind, almost blinding him. Her calculating gaze, the way no one ever knew what the fuck she was thinking, the way that she would be so closed off if he brought up the most random things.

Sweat trickled down his chiseled torso, as he pushed himself even harder. His mountain like eyes scanned the morning sky, as a slight breeze sent him shivering. His muscles screamed at him to stop, but until he could get that damn vixen out of his head - or, preferably get her ass back here with him - he didn't know if he could stop.

What the fuck has she done?

From the moment that she walked into that damn office she had made his life a living hell, why was it so important to get her back? He engulfed a breath of fresh air, trying to force a relaxing breath to pass his throat. But nothing was working. If only she hadn't fucking run away. Things would be a hell of a lot easier for him!

She had to better have a good damn reason why she ran. Because he would be a hell of a lot worse than the person that had her running in the first place.

"Fuck you Leo!" He grumbled under his breath. There was only one question now: what had her running?

If she didn't think that he'd ever find her, well she has another thing coming for her.

"He's going to find me eventually, you know," Grace muttered to the man beside her. Dempsey's black hair turned towards her, his big brown eyes looking concerned. The usual scent of him, a musky one that reminded her of home, surrounded the room. Grace knew that the inevitable would surely happen, and she also knew that he was wondering why on earth she ever left if she knew that she would just be pulled back. Pulling her mocha to her chest, Grace pulled a warming smile up, trying to say that everything would be okay.

But of course it wouldn't that's why she ran away in the first place, right?

"And when he does, I need you to help me with something," she spoke softly, as if she thought someone was listening to them.

The only person that could would be Greg, though.

"You still haven't told me what made you run away that night." He reminded cautiously, careful not to make her blow up in anyway. But he had to ask himself : Did he ever really know the real her? Or was that entire class a bunch of bullshit?

Grace hardly seemed like the self centered, money centered girl that she made herself out to be. He knew that she wasn't telling him much about her life from the beginning - for Bates sometimes slipped up, and caught himself before he could say something.

Does anyone actually know what that girl has done though?

Her twin used to always say, "I can never tell if you're bullshitting or not."

He smelled her sweet scent, some perfume called Beautiful, along with something spicy, as he stepped closer. Her eyes glimmered in the sunlight, as her golden hair was coming out of it's messy bun. Taking the mug, which was slightly cool to the touch, and said "best sister ever" on it, she took the final sip of her delicious drink. It made a clunking noise on the counter as she peeked outside. Dempsey heard her softly hum under her breath, while she watched the scene outside. It was nothing magnificent, just some birds flying and trees blowing in the wind.

But as the man watched the fascinated girl, he wondered what possible hold could the place have on her. She played absentmindedly with her star shaped silver necklace, speaking with a tone that he'd never heard from her before. She sounded like she longed to be out there, as if she'd grown out there all her life.

"I used to go into my woods, never scared of anything that my parents told me was out there. That changed, but I've lived in woods my entire life. I always look into them, see the hundreds of creatures that lived there, instead of only the couple that we actually see." He briefly wondered if it was actually him that she was talking to.

"But then you think about predators and prey, why some hide, and why some choose to be seen. Maybe that's why the lion isn't ever going to sleep by the lamb," she spoke from far away. Her voice and the way that she spoke was so different from when he'd last seen her. No stutter, just a song in her voice that made you somehow trust her.

Maybe that's why people confess all of their secrets to her?

"It's a big scary world out there, Demps. You can't be ignorant about it, going through life thinking that everything is fine. But you also can't go through life thinking that your life is hell. There has to be a balance, and when that balance breaks...well that's when I usually meet people."

Dempsey thought over her words. Rubbing his day old scruff, he peered out the window, trying to find what had exactly made Grace think to say that. The silence that followed her words was deafening, neither of them knew quite what to say. Grace obviously had no idea where that little verbal vomit had come from, though it was more truthful than either of them realized.

"Is that what went wrong, then?" he asked, as he got another whiff of her scent. Her oceanic gaze found its way to him, a twinkle of something in them. A tiny smirk played against her redish pink lips, her just off white teeth slightly showing. But he could see past this look.

What was going on? Was she ever really the girl that he used to call a sister?

"Everything, Dempsey, everything went really wrong in the least convenient of ways." She muttered, before taking off somewhere else.