Playing with Fire [COMPLETED]

8 ~ Ruin's love

He senses her awaken as they cross into his territory.

"Where am I?" she asks, her voice so soothing to him.

"That's.... a long story."

"Ruin? What.... what happened to me? Where am I? Why can't I feel my body? Am I.... dead?"

"No, but you would've been." He explains what he did and what kind of condition she was in when he found her. What Pain had done. What had happened, and that war was likely inevitable now.

"Are you ... gonna keep me here? Inside you?"

He shakes his head. "Not unless you want me to."

Silence stretches between them as he reaches his snowy home. He walks in, and Lucian immediately appears.

"Lord Ruin," he says, bowing low. "I .... what happened?"

"Gather Imogen and Maude. We need to heal Elorha."

"Yes, sir. But where is she?"

Ruin looks at him. Lucian nods and vanishes. Ruin walks to his room, and sits down on the massive bed he sleeps in, only when he wants to. For demons, sleep isn't a thing they need. Not all the time, not unless he's injured. But he can't remember the last time he slept.

"I'm sorry, but I.... I couldn't lose you," he whispers to her.

Elorha seems to have a strange, unnamed feeling at that. He sighs and lowers his head, his wings shifting behind him as he splays them out behind him on the bed.

"I didn't know what else to do, and I know it's dangerous and risky, but .... oh, hell, Elorha. I could not let you die."

"Why? Why not?"

"I care about you," he says. "And if you had died .... I could not handle that."

There's a light tap on his door. He calls for them to enter, and Imogen, Maude, and Lucian all come inside. Maude has long, white hair, her pink eyes and white face marking her as a Snow-Kissed demon, a rare one indeed. Behind her is her daughter, half Snow-Kissed herself. Lucian perches on the table to the right of the door, and the two healers face Ruin and look around nervously.

So he explains everything. Including the impending war.

"Well," says Maude. "This is interesting indeed."

"My lord, do you know how to .... get her out?" Imogen asks, eyes on the floor.

"I do, but I was hoping that one of you could tell me if it is safe yet," he says.

Maude approaches him and holds out her hand. "May I?" He nods, and she presses her hand to his heart. She closes her eyes and hums. "Hmm. I am fairly certain we can save her, my Lord. But .... she will be blood-bound to you. Forever. She will be a demon, like you. Share your power, as well as have some of her own. This process.... healing her after you absorbed her, since she was so close to death. She ... she will need a kernel of your power, of your immortality."

"Anything," he says immediately, and without hesitation. "I would do anything to ensure Elorha survives this."

Maude nods. "And, if you don't mind, tell me what she thinks of this."

"What does blood-bound even mean?"

"She's asking what blood-bound means. It is basically a powerful magical link between us. We'd be able to read each other's thoughts, if both parties consented to such things. We'd have our lives inextricably linked. We'd feel our heartbeats, our souls and breaths. We'd become one, but in a much different way than we are now."

"Do I have a choice?"

"There's always a choice, Elorha. I will not pressure you into doing this."

"So ... if we do do this, then what? What will become of us, like, what will we be? A couple?"

His heart flips. "If you'd like us to be a couple, we can. But if friends fits us better, then we shall be that."

"Alright. Let's do this then," she says.

He nods to them. Maude and Imogen both lay him down on his side. He watches Maude raise her hands up, and a blue-white light glows from her hands, and as she does that, Imogen waves her glowing red hands over his body. Maude and Imogen work for an hour, and when they're doing Weaving the special healing magick over him and into Elorha, they join hands and begin to chant.

"Lucian, come here," says Ruin, and Lucian obeys. He kneels before him, and Ruin says, "When they're done chanting, Elorha will fall out of my body. I need you to catch her."

Nodding, Lucian inches closer. Maude and Imogen's chant gets louder and louder, and then, it drops to a whisper. Bright orange and rose gold and purple lights flow all around Ruin, and he watches them swirl in the air. He feels Elorha's thoughts, her heartbeat, her breathing.

Then, there is a starburst of multicolored light that explodes from his body so violently that he is thrown back into the wall behind him. He feels Elorha be ejected from him, and when he opens his eyes after the impact of hitting the wall, he sees a girl in Lucian's arms.

Maude and Imogen rush over and help Ruin stand up, and he walks over to see Elorha. Her pale skin is aglow with immortality, and the power radiating off her is intoxicating to him. Her hair is now dark purple, and her eyes are both purple with flecks of orange within. Suddenly, her body convulses, and Ruin can only watch as she screams.

Then, two magnificent wings appear from her back. Light swirls around them, the feathered wings are purple tipped with orange and rose gold. She sighs and falls forward, and Ruin moves lightning fast and catches her. Her shirt is ripped, but Maude conjures a new one for her.

"She must rest now, my lord," says Imogen.

"You should go, but be ready, in case she needs more help," he says. "But .... thank you. For your help."

Lucian, Imogen, and Maude leave the room, and he places Elorha on his bed. He sits down on a nearby couch, and reads a book he found on the table nearby. She's unconscious right now, but he knows she will wake soon. And when she does, he wishes to be with her.