Crystal and the Damned - Possession (12 page)

The lights had been dimmed, and only the television was on, shooting luminous flashes around the room. He went toward her, thinking that his guest had not heard him because of the noise of the show she was watching.

Dimitri found her asleep on the sofa, curled up like a little kitten, the remote control in her hand. Crouched in front of the sofa where Crystal had dozed off, he
felt an infinite tenderness steal over him as he examined her pensively. Her elbows and knees were completely scraped up.
What has she been up to now ?

She sighed in her sleep and sank more deeply into the cushions. Gently, he took the remote control from her hands and turned off the television. Crystal moved but did not awaken.

One of the heavy locks of the young woman’s blond hair fell over her cheek. Dimitri pushed it back behind her ear. Crystal half opened her eyelids.

“Dimitri ?” she said in a tiny voice.

The Prince’s heart leapt in his chest. At that instant, finally, it was no longer desire, but love. He gulped, choked with emotion. When she said his name like that, like a young woman lost in the mists of a sleep far too heavy for her, he could leave everything behind him. Give up everything. For her.

Lovingly, he stroked her cheek, noticing with an inexplicable emotion that his hand covered nearly half of Crystal’s face.

“Sleep, my angel,” he murmured in a voice made raw by the violence of his emotions. One last time he clenched his jaw, trying to beat back the love which had overpowered him. But it was an empty attempt. He didn’t want to fight it anymore, he didn’t want anything but her. On his knees in front of the sofa, a monster brought down by passion, he contemplated her for a long time. A time out of time, far from reason. She was beautiful enough to drive a man wild.

Crystal moaned softly in her dreams. A smile brushed the Prince’s lips, and his face softened.

He put his arms under her body and lifted her up. Unconsciously she clung to him. Her head rolled against his shoulder.

Dimitri lay her down on the bed and began to take off her shoes. Crystal woke up and pulled herself up on her elbows, her face drowsy.

“What are you doing ?” she groused.

Her Prince flashed her one of his very special smiles. His smile from the corner of his mouth. A jaw-dropping surprise of a smile. Then he crawled over her on all fours, with the agility of a cat.

Crystal did not move – still on her elbows, she looked at him coming toward her, until their faces were only an inch or two away from each other. God, he was sexy. She was going to have an orgasm on the spot if he kept up this little game. Feeling him above her, his oh-so-virile body about to touch her, his warmth awakening every speck of her skin. Never had she wanted to, but now how could she refuse ?

“You don’t want me to take you to bed, treasure ?”

“Hmmm... yes, but I want to sleep.”

Dimitri stared at her, his eyes supercharged with desire.

“As you wish, kitten.”

“I’m not your kitten,” she resisted.

The Prince raised an eyebrow full of challenge and turned over, rolling onto his side. With a powerful hand, he took her by the waist and drew her body against his while sliding his other hand under the back of her neck to imprison her in his arms.

“Oh yes, you are my kitten, my adorable little kitten,” he cuddled her with the voice people use for speaking to a small child.

“Stop”, she protested, glowing nonetheless.

Dimitri slid his hand into Crystal’s hair and raised her face toward him. She had capitulated. He softly kissed her forehead, the tip of her nose and then her cheek very close to her mouth, and left his lips there, pressed against her face.

Surrounded by the scent and warmth of her Prince, she suddenly had a desire to cry. Only now was she learning about love. Like sadness that one remembers without ever having experienced it ; like regret for what one has never lost.

“You don’t want to sleep with me, baby ?” Dimitri asked.

Then she remembered all the nights when she had not slept, the nights of solitude spent listening to the same songs, haunted by the memory of a passion that had never existed. She had waited all those nights ; she had waited constantly, spending sleepless nights waiting for the man who never came.

“The only thing I want is to sleep against you,” she sighed, alarmed by the confession that she was making as much to herself as to him.

He pulled her more tightly against him, seeking to reassure her. She seemed so troubled all of a sudden that he wanted only to protect her. It turned out to be simple, really, to cross the divide between selfishness and devotion. It was the most unimaginable thing he had ever accomplished. So simple to give his soul, so simple to fall. He had never been ill, but now he understood. Crystal snuggled up to him. She offered him innocence.

There, in that bed, the young woman’s head resting on his torso, he caught a glimpse of love. His love for her, the words they did not say, the tones too far away to be heard. He wanted to sink with her so slowly that he would feel like he was dancing with her, every second, more and more intensely.

He hugged her even closer and kissed her temple while she fell asleep in his arms, content.

A moment out of eternity, time stopping for their song. A moment stripped of doubt.

The morning light brightened the room, piercing the velvet curtains and bathing everything in a soft light.

Before even opening her eyes, Crystal breathed in Dimitri’s scent. She felt his warmth, his arm wrapped around her. The young woman opened her eyelids. Facing her, leaning against her, the Prince was asleep. Not moving, she looked at him dreamily. In his sleep, the monster resembled an angel carved out of stone. His sculpted features, his leonine features... and he had been so sweet last night, this magic night in which all of Crystal’s problems, all of her anguish, had disappeared.

But with daylight came a return to reality. Dimitri was Evil itself, and she was destined to fight him.

With the tips of her fingers, she brushed the Prince of the Underworld’s lips before extricating herself from under his arm. Making as little noise as possible, she escaped from the bed and arranged her crumpled clothing. Standing in the middle of the room, an annoyed grimace on her face, she looked for her shoes.

“What are you up to, kitten ?”

Crystal jumped. Leaning on one elbow, Dimitri stared at her with his usual
extremely irritating
little arrogant look.

“I... I’m leaving. I wanted to do it before you woke up, but I guess I messed that up,” she explained nervously.

“It’s not nice to sneak out like a thief, kitten,” he teased. “I thought that after a night of being your big cuddly stuffed animal, I would have the right to....”

The young woman’s face hardened.
Good God, how could she still be such an idiot ? They hadn’t been close last night.
It was just a dream that the Prince had deluded her with, hoping to screw her.

“You have no right to me, Dimitri. I will never give you any right to me. Last night I was just tired.”

“Tired ?” repeated the Prince, suddenly angry.
Hadn’t she learned anything ? How long was she going to lie for ?
“Tired,” he repeated. “How can you say that ? You gave yourself last night, and so did I.”

She raised her chin.

“Oh yeah ? Well, I have bad news for you : you were the only one.”

“Don’t do this, Crystal,” Dimitri warned her.

“Or what ? What were you hoping for ? That I was going to love you simply because I collapsed in exhaustion at your place ? That I was going to sleep with you ? I will never be your lover ! Get that through your thick skull !” she nearly
shouted, trying to convince herself. She wanted to hurt him, to destroy him. To destroy everything so that nothing remained of the accursed desire blazing between them. So that he could never reach her again and so that she would never again feel so weak. “You want to know why you will never have me ?” continued Crystal, whose heart was racing. “It’s because there’s someone else. Yesterday, when I sought refuge in your arms, it was him I was thinking about.”

In the bed, Dimitri sat up. The monster’s nostrils flared. And the absolute immobility of his body made him a thousand times more frightening than if he had given in to his fury. Within him, something froze.

“Get out of my home and never come back,” he ordered her with horrifying calmness.

Crystal rematerialized directly in front of the door of the Park Avenue apartment. Unable to go in immediately, she rested her forehead against the wall. After the dawn of love, hatred had surged up between her and the Prince of the Underworld, with a ferocity previously unequalled. She had felt it in Dimitri’s reptilian composure. Hatred, sudden and inexplicable, was devouring her. There was nothing left for her now. Falada had betrayed her with Glory, and her Prince had done nothing but manipulate her. He had not shown the slightest feeling for her ; all he wanted was to screw her, or maybe, or maybe... she was kidding herself.

Crystal pulled the keys out of her pocket, opened the door to the apartment and turned toward the white living room, from which she heard the murmur of conversation.

Miranda and Cornelia were eating their breakfast. The drama that had shaken the young woman’s night had not reached them. The two Paladines were unbelievably normal, acting just like themselves. Of course, they didn’t know anything. They were in their own world, and this last thought warmed Crystal’s heart again. She dropped down on the sofa between her two friends. The only people she could trust.

The coffee-colored warrior seized her cup, took a swallow of green tea and gave the young woman a wink.

“So, out all night, sweet pea ? You finally get it on with that dude that was messing with your head ? Not too tired for training, I hope ? Mimi has concocted a course for you that is seriously going to bust you up ! If your boyfriend didn’t wear you out too much, of course.”

“What’s he like ?” Miranda asked with interest, gulping down a croissant. “What’s his name ? We want to know everything.”

Crystal rubbed her eyelids. It was horrible, lying to the girls.

“I left him before we even did anything. He was really a bastard. But I....” The young woman became confused, suddenly remembering the episode with the
mysterious mirror at Dimitri’s. That mirror where she heard a voice that was both familiar and unrecognizable. “I was wondering. Do many of the Damned Ones have magic mirrors ? You know, like Helen’s ?”

“Viewing mirrors,” Miranda explained. “Only the powerful Damned Ones have them. They are very expensive and they’re rare. But they have extraordinary properties. Not only do they make it possible to communicate at a distance, they allow you to observe certain things from far away, and the black mages claim that you can also manipulate people through them. Helen bought hers from a human. Of course, he didn’t know how to use it at all. I can tell you she is completely hooked on it. She spends her life....”

The sorceress didn’t finish her sentence. Glory and Falada appeared in the living room followed by Beatrice, her head lowered. Apparently they had dematerialized to escape a deluge. They were as soaked as if they had taken a shower fully dressed.

“We reenacted the Titanic ; Beatrice seemed to think that drowning herself in the Hudson was an effective means of making our informers talk,” declared the Paladin, masking his annoyance with great difficulty.

Crystal raised her eyes to him. She didn’t utter a word, but her attitude spoke for her. Falada knew that she had been angry since they had kissed,
but to that degree ?
Wondering, the Paladin silently examined her. She turned her face away.
Surprised, Falada moved closer to her and discreetly put a wet hand on her shoulder. She shrugged it off and turned her attention back to the rest of the group.

“I love Titanic, I cry every time,” Miranda chattered. “That Leonardo, he’s irresistible.”

Cornelia lit a joint.

“Whatever. Don’t tell me you fantasize about that little bonbon. Gone with the Wind, now that was a movie !”

“Could we please stop with the stupid comments for a minute ?” stormed Glory abruptly. “You’re making me tired.”

Seemingly unbothered by the unpleasant silence she had just imposed on the living room, she paced a few steps. Red spike heels against a white carpet. Dollface took off her coat and threw it over the arm of a chair.

“Delighted to have your attention”, she scoffed aggressively, challenging all of them with her gaze. Beatrice moved back, and even Cornelia abstained from making one of her usual comments. Glory was on edge, and none of them had any desire to expose themselves to her wrath. She grabbed Cornelia’s cup of tea and, under the dumbfounded eyes of the whole troop, she squeezed it in her hand until it shattered. A little blood ran from her palm, red.

“We are not overexcited junior high schoolers,” she fumed. “I’ve had enough of listening to you talk about Brad Pitt, your latest lunch or the sweater you bought
yourself yesterday. Killing poor second-rate dirtbags and joking around all day – do you really believe that’s enough ? Our enemies are getting stronger. Death and betrayal await us at every turn. So I want....” The Paladine stopped her little speech short. Crystal was looking her up and down with a murderous expression on her face. “What’s the matter with you ? You don’t like what I’m saying ? You’re the one most affected by the latest news.”

The young woman felt the anger rising in her throat. Glory had one hell of a nerve, preaching about betrayal while she was secretly dating Falada. While she and the Paladin had been shafting Crystal for months. She was on the point of giving her oh-so-perfect best friend a piece of her mind when the telephone rang.

The fashion doll, distracted, picked up the handset. But Falada, who had continued to observe Crystal, gestured to her : “What’s wrong ?”

She did not deign to speak to him but rather stared at Glory, whose face fell as the person on the other end of the line spoke. When she finally hung up, the Paladine gravely contemplated Crystal.

“And that’s what I was afraid of. When I get irritated, I have reason to be.”

“Glow ? What’s happening ?” the young woman panicked, forgetting her anger for the moment and feeling her heart pound with irrational anxiety.

“It’s your father,” she finally answered. “He’s dying.”

Crystal felt herself fall onto the sofa as the room whirled around her amidst the hubbub of exclamations from Falada and the girls.

“I talked to the All Powerful through my viewing mirror for a moment,” Glory silenced them. “He thinks that someone is poisoning him with Black Magic. We don’t know how. I’ve been trying to find out for weeks now. That was the Empress I talked to. She has had to take over all the All Powerful’s functions : he lost consciousness an hour ago.”

“I’m going,” the young woman announced, not understanding how the suffering of the father she hated suddenly moved her so deeply.

“No,” Glory forbade her. “It’s too dangerous. The magic that is devouring him could very well affect you, too. The Empress was definite : it would be better for them to secure the perimeter before you approach the All Powerful.”

All of Crystal’s disgust resurfaced. That bitch Glory really thought she was superior. She thought she could have Falada and, to add insult to injury, come between Crystal and her father, as well. The young woman stood face-to-face with her.

“You know what : I’m going to do what I want to. You’re not giving me orders anymore.”

“Really,” Dollface faked an expression of wonder, an acid smile on her face.

“Apparently,” Crystal asserted.

The blond Paladine shrugged her shoulders and for a moment the quarrel seemed to be over. But then, without any hint of a warning, she grabbed the young woman by the throat and threw her onto the sofa. Crystal’s back bounced against the back of the sofa. Glory jumped on her, seizing the dagger wedged into her garter belt and planting the blade in the cushions half an inch from Crystal’s head.

“Keep trying to be smart and it’s your body we’ll be recovering !” she exploded. “You have not reached the summit of your power, but I have. So you’re going to shut up and obey me. I’m not going to let you go to see your father now. I’m not going to let you die !”

The Paladines looked at them in open-mouthed astonishment. Falada rushed forward and pulled Glory up. He reached a hand out to Crystal.

“Calm down, girls. Little flower, give us a few days, you can see the All Powerful....”

Beside herself, the young woman pushed him back and stood up. The Paladin was holding Glory against himself.
A couple, how had she failed to see it ?
Unaware of her despair and new understanding, Falada continued :

“Your father is probably the victim of the magic of Prince Dimitri himself. This is no joke.”

Crystal stiffened.
Dimitri.
She had a scapegoat, then. Someone on whom she could take vengeance for what the Paladin and Glory had inflicted on her.
Someone who could take the blame for all her suffering, her disappointments and her trials. She pulled herself together completely.

“All right, I’ll wait. But in that case, I’m going for a walk. I need some air. Don’t wait up for me,” she decreed, not giving her friends time to react.

And with a snap of her fingers, Crystal dematerialized, leaving a trail of white smoke behind her.

She reappeared in the Prince’s living room. She was boiling inside. Finally, she was going to be able to vent her rage on someone. And who better than on him, after all ? An enemy whom, unlike Glory, she had a legitimate right to confront.

To kick things off, she made sure not to blow her entrance. As she arrived, she made all the furniture in the room implode. The noise of the explosion made the building’s foundations shake.

Dimitri, who was putting some files away, deigned to raise his head when the chest of drawers fell to pieces. He turned toward Crystal.

“What are you doing back here ?” he questioned her, royally ignoring the state of his apartments.

Her eyes ablaze, she lifted her chin. The light of the early afternoon made her lips sparkle.

“You are killing my father,” she said. “One way or another, we’re going to end this.”

The Prince gave a sinister laugh.

“You’re right, baby. Your sweet little Daddy dearest is going to die. And after him, I’m going to waste your girlfriends.” Dimitri stopped for a moment, aiming his wild animal eyes at her. “You think you’re going to stop me by wrecking the furniture ? You think I care about this stuff ?” he growled, grabbing one end of the chest of drawers and sending it crashing against the opposite wall. “Your powers are nothing. So do not provoke me !” he threatened, advancing toward her.

Crystal waited until the Prince was close. For the space of a second, she appeared to be stretching her body toward him.
An invitation.
Disconcerted, the Prince relaxed imperceptibly. Then she struck. With all her strength, she thrust her knee into his stomach. Dimitri pulled back several feet, doubling over. Perfectly aware that this was her only chance to beat him, she leaped and slugged him violently in the face, making him fall to the floor. The young woman fell on Dimitri’s body on the floor. She wrapped her thighs around his ribs in the hope of breaking them and started to hit him again.