⚜Guardian⚜

Chapter Nineteen

"What?" In lieu of a response, he pointed to her upper arm. Apparently, when the window had smashed, a shard of glass had embedded itself in her skin. So that was the stinging pain she had been ignoring. Blood began to spread, as she had stretched her muscles. Lacey felt her vision pulse with blackness. Nasuea crept into her mind, and she felt her legs weakening. She was vaguely aware if Asher calling for Isaiah as the world grew blurry. Asher lifted her in his arms, leaning his face towards hers. She knew he was saying something, as his lips were moving, but she couldn't hear anything. Isaiah yelled something and Lacey closed her eyes. She was not conscious but not unconscious, just relishing in the delicious feeling of being underwater.

"Jesu! Jesu Jesu Jesu!" Lacey heard Isaiah yell. He did something to her arm, and Lacey screamed in response.

"Lacey, it's okay, I promise it will be okay. Please please please.... Too much blood," Asher tried. Lacey heard his voice only slightly, but it was enough to make her want more. What was wrong with her? She needed Asher. Why had she ever given him up? Isaiah put something on her arm that burned. Was he setting her arm on fire?

"Asher!" Lacey screamed. She fought furiously against Isaiah's grip, but she didn't so much as move an inch.

"Lacey, I'm here," Asher tried again.

"Asher, please!" Lacey sobbed. Asher took her head into his lap, stroking her hair back.

"Shhh, it'll be over soon, I promise." he reassured her. She felt something slowly slipping away from her, and she knew that this was it. This was her time. With a despairing look, she tried to memorize every plane of Asher's face. She never wanted to forget him.

She had no one else on the Earth who cared for her like Asher did. She caught a few glimpses of her family as they flickered across her mind. The accident that got her sent to Stratfield... It had never been her fault. The fire was set by someone else. She had carried those matchsticks around since her grandfather gave her them. She had never used any of them.

Asher's face tightened, and she looked up at him, wishing she had the strength to smile. He was all he had ever hoped for in a boyfriend, and more. He was kind, loyal, protective, gorgeous, sweet, romantic, and vulnerable. When he was around her, all of his walls just crashed to the ground.

He was her knight in shining armor, her guardian, her angel.

"Ash, I can't... I'm sorry," Lacey said dryly.

"What?" Asher asked. When he heard the weakness in her voice, he slowly understood.

"No, Lacey, don't do this!" he begged.

"Really can't anymore...I love you. More than anything. Never stopped...loving you." Lacey tried. There was an increasing pressure on her chest, limiting her words. She wondered what it would be like to die. Would it be peaceful? Right now it hurt like hell.

"Alessia Alice Schmidt! You won't die on me! You will not die on me!"

"Ash, tell me...do you love...me? Did you ever...?" Lacey asked him.

"I have loved you since I first met you. You know my heart has always belonged to you." She smiled then, her world at peace. She closed her eyes, feeling her last breaths of life slowly drain away.

"Asher, my guardian angel..." she mused. She was suddenly faced with a memory where she could remember being the happiest in her entire life.

It seemed like an eternity before the door opened and Asher walked in, slightly unsteadily. Lacey heard Ari yelling after him in the hallway, but Lacey didn't care. Lacey flew to him, barreling at him instantly. Their arms seemed to wrap around each other at exactly the same moment. She settled her face in the crook of his neck, clutching him tightly enough she didn't ever want to let him go.

"Asher," Lacey sobbed. One arm remained tightly around her waist, and his other hand cradled the back of her head.

"I'm here, I'm okay," he promised. This didn't stop her tears, though. She held him tightly against her. She knew he was probably injured and healing, but she couldn't stand being away from him any longer.

"Shhh, it's alright. It's okay," he reassured softly, slowing stroking her hair as he held her against his chest.

"Jesus, he just wouldn't sit still. He would only stay restrained just long enough for us to put stitches in his head, and then he bolted like a bat out of Hell," Jeffers remarked to Leo in the doorway. Aida shot her husband a death glare.

"You're going to stress her out more," Aida snapped.

"Asher, where did you go?" Ari asked. When she finally came to where her family was standing, in the doorway of the room Lacey and Asher were in, Ari seemed to get immensely furious. Lacey completely ignored Ari, as if she didn't even exist.

"Are you sure you're okay? You aren't hurt too badly?" Lacey whispered frantically. Asher nodded against her shoulder.

"I'm fine, I promise. I just got exhausted after getting us out of faerie and I smacked my head," Asher promised. Lacey grabbed two fistfuls of fabric from the back of his shirt, leaning her cheek against his shoulder. She breathed in the heady scent of him, concentrating on the lulling sound of his heartbeat. Asher's okay, Asher's okay, Asher's okay, Lacey repeated to herself. That mantra alone helped her to calm down, and the tears slowly subsided. She wasn't sure how long she remained in Asher's arms, the one place where she felt like the rest of the world didn't even matter. All that mattered was the feel of Asher, and his closeness to her. She knew that this was where she belonged. With him she felt complete, like nothing could ever tear them apart.

Lacey felt her world slowly slide to an end, and she slumped against the floor. Death had claimed its next victim.