Pain and heated anger flared in his chest. “Dead,” he spat, feeling his eyes sting at the reminder that he was now alone. The only consolation he had was Talon. Killing Talon. Killing his woman.
His lip curled, imagining their blood seeping through his hands.
“That is a shame,” she said archly, lifting her hand higher to brush her hair away from her face. “Although I am loath to say this because of his wrong towards my sister, I will consent that I am...sorry for your grief. I assume that this is the reason you have requested a meeting with me.”
Auro nodded his head, looking her straight in the eye. “I know you have the power and the desire to find Talon. Help me kill him,” he suggested, smiling at her with dead eyes. Nothing he could do or say would ever be lively again. Without his brother, he was nothing but a shell that was filled with nothing but the need to avenge and kill.
“Because of your timing, I will consider your request. I have given Talon enough pain to recompense for his wrong against me. I must ask; has he found his lady love?” A soft brush of the chiffon against the ground, sifting through the dead grass, signaled her movement closer to him.
Her voice, more melodic than before, carried over him, lulling him. He watched her with fascinated eyes. Was she coming so close to him, to brush her hand along his arm? To give him a taste of her earthly power? His heart, if he had had one, would have been pumping with anticipation.
A soft light surrounded her. Everything about her was soft, he realized dimly. Her hair, her eyes, her skin, her movements. She was as old as the earth, as graceful as the wind.
And right now, her hand was on his shoulder. His body froze as tendrils of power and amazement surfaced, rising deep within his deadened body. Nothing had ever been so fulfilling, so real -- nothing except his brother.
He let out a hoarse cry as her hand began to burn, seeming to go through his clothing and straight to his non-existent soul. “What... what are you doing to me?” he gasped, breaking every rule that had ever been given to them about the witches and grasping her wrist. As it became unbearable, a bloody tear streamed down his cheek -- and still, she did not let go of him.
“I am doing what I should have done so long ago. You and your brother will have eternal rest -- I will take over from here. But I will need your body...” A peaceful smile lifted her lips, and it was so becoming and beautiful, that he almost smiled back.
That is, until, her eyes shot to black and nothing but a white pupil remained. It was then that the great Auro, so fearless and unbreakable, began to sob and, ultimately, die.
“You have taken my kindness to you for granted... You wish to bring a man that has already been cursed with loss and pain... And most of all? You wish to use me.”
Her voice became indifferent, so opposite of her previously caressing voice. He could no longer feel the pain -- there was too much of it to account for. Instead, he listened with tears streaming down his face, body crumbling before her.
“Do not worry,” she whispered, hair falling around her glowing face as she knelt before him, touching a tear of his. Her polished fingernail raised to her lips, and a pink tongue darted out to taste it. His body convulsed as fire flashed through him. “I will grant your request -- with a price. The woman will die, but Talon will have the choice of what to do with you. He will either give you rest with your brother, or a lifetime of torture at his own hands.” A small smile had her flawless face shining even brighter.
Smoke started to curl around his limbs and hers, once again cloaking her in a black mass of swirling tendrils. Her face was the last thing he saw before she vanished from his view completely, the only thing remaining a single black diamond. It was what he had used to call her, and it was what she left behind -- only when she had the intention of returning.
Except, her lilting voice remained in his head, even as the will to live faded. “But I doubt he will be so generous once he learns that you