Same Band... New School... New Species?!

Same Band...New School...New Speices?! - 19

Pressure on my chest. Air forced down my throat. Life exploded back into me like a cannon going off. My heart thundered back into life and my lungs dragged in sweet air, yet I still coughed, like my body was rejecting the air, like it wanted to die. I wasn't giving up. I didn't remember what happened, I didn't know where I was or who the person rubbing my back was, but I knew that I wanted to live. I had to see my brothers again...

"Crystal!" my name in a deep voice was the first thing I heard when my ears started to function again.

"Yeah..." my voice was scratchy and harsh, but it was my voice... I was alive. "Who are you?"

"Darren Cross."

"Do you always answer that question like that?" I murmured, leaning further against him.

"Yes."

I was aware of going up, then there was movement. I opened my heavy eyes and looked around, but everything was gray shapes and lights. My head hurt and I was dizzy, there was something very important that had just happened, but I couldn't remember what it was.

"I want to see my brothers," I murmured, closing my eyes again. I realized that he was walking, carrying me bridal style. At the brisk pace he was managing it was like I didn't weigh two pounds to him.

"I'm heading towards the hotel you were last at," he told me.

"How do you know where my last hotel was?" I snuggled against his chest. He was warm...

"I've been following your progress since you came to Rome."

"That's creepy," I murmured.

"Not if you knew who I am..." he said quietly. I don't think he meant for me to hear it, but I did.

"Who are you?"

"Darren Cross."

"Hmm," I smiled. "You do always answer that question like that."

"Yes I do."

"Hey Darren Cross?" I yawned, suddenly exhausted. I guess near-death experiences really take a lot out of you. "What are you?"

"What do you mean?" his voice was impassive.

"Are you a human?" I asked, opening my eyes to look at him. He was a little more in focus... but I still couldn't see his face. It irritated me that I still didn't know what he looked like.

"No."

"Then what?" I blinked, then gave up and closed my eyes again.

"I'm a mage."

"A what?" I asked blankly.

"You seen Harry Potter?" he laughed.

"Yeah... you're a wizard?"

"Sort of, but I don't use a twig to focus magic and I don't wear dresses or pointy hats."

"Oh, cool..."

"Crystal, just go to sleep," he sighed.

"Ok..." I drifted off instantly.

 "Crys!"

"She's pale..."

"She'll be fine."

"I said shut up Darren Cross, you are not going anywhere till Crys verifies your story."

"Come on Crys."

"Come on love... wake up..."

"Hmmnhmm..." consciousness slowly returned as I listened to those familiar voices. I was too out of it to put a name to the voices, but I knew their faces. Knew they were close to me... my brothers. My brothers!

"Crystal?!" Nix was right at my side, hand on my cheek. "Crys, love can you hear me?"

"Nix?" I murmured, trying to open my eyes.

"Yeah, we're all here," he brushed my hair out of my face and pulled me up into his arms.

"Man- I'm like a limp noodle..." I took a deep breath and opened my eyes.

"Thank God you're okay..." Sparrow murmured and that was all the warning I got before I was enveloped in a tight group hug. I couldn't do much else but lie there and be happy that we were all together again.

Eventually everyone pulled back, but stayed very close. I realized that Ink was a little ways away, standing by Darren Cross with a knife touching his mid-section, just above the liver. Ink hadn't forgotten where to stab for optimum damage without instant death...

Finally I got to see Darren Cross' appearance. He was tall like I saw, but so was Ink, Nix and Lyle, they were about the same height. Darren Cross had mid-brown hair with light and dark highlighs, styled and to his ears to look like he hadn't wasted any time on it, though he probably had. His eyes were bright, bright blue, like someone had nicked a bit of sky for them. He was damn nice to look at too, with definite male-model features and a sculpted body to match. Come to think of it all my brothers were probably male model material... but I've been around them so long I just never noticed...

"What happened?" I murmured, leaning back against Nix's chest. It was soothing to hear his heartbeat... it reminded me of when a little bitch beat me up and Nix just held me for two hours afterwards.

"I got you out of the school," Darren Cross drew my attention to where he stood by the wall.

"Crys, who is this guy?" Frost asked, smoothing my hair like he couldn't really believe I was here. "We just want to be sure that he's not lying before you tell us everything that happened."

"He got me out of the school," I told them. I remembered that much.

Wait... I died. I had an asthma attack... and I died. I remembered the CPR, and my heart restarting. I took a deep breath and calmed myself down, I could not afford to get all emotional now, I was alive and with my brothers, that was all that mattered.

"He saved my life," I murmured, not bothering to point out that it was his fault I had nearly died in the first place.

"Good enough for me," Ink flipped the knife closed, put it in his back pocket walked over for a huge hug of his own. Ink is hardly the most touchy feely of my brothers, so he must have been really worried to give me a huge squeeze like that.

"Hey," I smiled as he pulled back and put his hands on my face, squishing my cheeks together to make an attractive fishy face.

"Don't ever do that again Crystal Chimes."

"Promise," I made a fishy-face smile and Ink laughed, letting go of me.

"Now," Lyle looked me in the eye. "From the second we got into this hotel room two days ago, what happened?"

So I told them everything that happened to me. And they did not look at all happy. In fact they looked downright vengeful.