Crystal and the Damned - Possession (15 page)

Crystal had not dematerialized to return home. She had walked. Because she liked to. Because it allowed her to think. Like those people who take their cars out and drive all night on isolated roads ; on roads where one is finally alone with oneself. But in spite of her efforts, she could no longer think. Her all-consuming night with Dimitri had short-circuited her brain.

Weary, she threw her keys on the chest of drawers, arranged her tousled hair in the entryway mirror and went into the living room to serve herself a drink.

Gulping down a well-deserved mimosa, she contemplated the day, looking out the windows. There were mornings like this. Mornings that unavoidably followed nights without sleep, nights of desperate love. Mornings that necessarily brought sadness.

Beatrice entered the room and greeted Crystal a little timidly.

“Hello. Where are the girls ?” the latter enquired.

“Glory and the others left to hunt down I-don’t-know-what and Cornelia is at... well, she said that she was going to
hit the sack with her woman
, to use her own words,” reported the new Paladine, visibly impressed by such audacity.

Crystal stared at her with apprehension, then seemed to make a decision.

“So much the better. It’s fine that no one is here ; the two of us will be able to have a talk. Do you want to have a drink with me ?”

“Of alcohol ?” Beatrice grimaced. “You’re starting early, aren’t you ? Wouldn’t you rather have me prepare a couple of nice cups of coffee ?”

“Yeah, that’s not a bad idea,” the young woman approved. “With three sugars, please.”

The new girl disappeared and came back in a minute carrying a tray as perfectly presented as if it had been made up by an expert butler. Crystal suppressed a feeling of pity ; the poor Paladine was really going to a lot of trouble to be accepted.

After having asked her nicely to sit down on the couch, the young woman drank a mouthful of coffee and put her hand on Beatrice’s knee.

“I know that Cornelia is making life hard for you, that Glory is as demanding as a Nazi overseer, that Helen is contemptuous and that Falada ignores you, but you are one of us. You were chosen to be a Paladine for your exceptional abilities and you shouldn’t feel down. You have time to prove that you are equal to the job. Don’t do anything imprudent to try to get them to respect you. They are all crazy, egocentric and unbearable and they consider themselves the kings of the
universe, but fundamentally they are good. They would give their life for you. So it’s not worth making a big deal about it.”

“I don’t understand : what are you trying to tell me, exactly ?” the new girl asked, blushing.

“Don’t do something dangerous just to show that you have talent,” Crystal finally said, burying her nose in her cup.

“Yesterday, before you fainted, you saw something about me, is that it ?” Beatrice hesitated, alarmed.

“Yeah,” Crystal admitted. “I had a vision. I saw you in a bad way
(corpse)
. But don’t panic ; I’m convinced that this kind of premonition happens so we can avoid the bad things,” she ventured to reassure her while finishing her coffee in order to keep her composure.

The new girl ensconced herself on the couch.

“And yet evil is everywhere. It is in each of us, where we least expect it. It dominates our lives.”

“You’re even more optimistic than I am,” the young woman said ironically, taken with a sudden coughing fit.

“I must take after my mother,” Beatrice told her. “You know that she was a potential Paladine before me ? She spent years and years working her ass off to get your father’s attention. She even left me to achieve that. But it didn’t happen. She
never managed to become one of
yours
. It’s pathetic when you think about it : giving up your own child to maybe manage one day to... to what, in the end ? To become Glory’s little lapdog ? To be subjected to your good buddy Cornelia ? To devote yourself to a spoiled little princess who has everything without even asking ?”

“I’m not a... what’s....” Crystal was unable to finish her sentence. She grabbed her chest convulsively and breathed in air with difficulty. She felt the world spinning around her.

“I... I don’t feel....”

Beatrice showed not the slightest reaction.

“You don’t feel well ? Oops, it must be because of the coffee. Or more precisely the poison that I put in your coffee,” she burst out laughing.

Crystal fell to the floor on all fours and tried to vomit without success. Her stomach contracted in vain. Her head was burning.

The new Paladine bent over her.

“Are you sick, princess ? You all take me for a poor fool, don’t you ? A real dumbass. And to think that I’m the one to kill you. Oh, poor C-C-Crystal, she’ll never be the All Powerful, she’s going to die stupidly, poisoned by the most pitiful of her Paladines !”

Crystal was suffocating, a bitter pain tearing through her insides. In her suffering she saw Beatrice stand up and tower over her from her full height.

“Check and mate, bitch. I play for the bad guys ; I work for the Prince of Hell. He’s not succeeding in assassinating you, no worries ; B-B-Beatrice will take care of you for him ! I’m going to go down in history when the darkness seizes power....”

“In your dreams,” the young woman groaned, beginning to drool.

“Why ? Do you imagine that Good will triumph ? What rotten luck, that’s as much a lie as my stuttering and the rest. The God of Evil, the eternal, the great Prince Dimitri will sweep you all away. His followers are legion. For his Exaltation, we are killing your father and you, poisoning you both. For his Triumph, we will exterminate all the supporters….”

“That’s not why you’re dreaming,” Crystal choked, collapsing on the carpet. “Dimi... is going to massacre you. He – he’s crazy about….”

The Paladine answered her, but she no longer heard except from very far away. Perspiring fat drops of sweat, she felt like someone was driving needles into her, all over her body. She tried to fight, praying for something to happen, for someone to deliver her from the pain....

A slight explosion echoed in the room. Crystal hardly sensed it, but Beatrice whipped around.

Prince Dimitri was standing before her in the flesh, in the middle of the living room, where he had just rematerialized. The Paladine ran to him and fell to her knees.

“Master... look, I obeyed your orders, I succeeded, she’s dying.”

“Those were not my orders,” he said in a voice that sounded as though it came from beyond the grave. “You are answering to someone else. I only just figured it out.”

Beatrice raised her head and opened her eyes wide. Dimitri grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off the floor.

“My only regret is that I don’t have time to torture you.”

Savagely, he increased the pressure of his fingers, and Beatrice’s bones snapped. Her neck broken, she immediately fell down dead. Her corpse made a muffled sound as it hit the thick carpet.

The Prince hurried to Crystal, whose small body was curled up. He quickly took a phial from his pocket, popped off the cap with his thumb, and put his hand under the young woman’s boiling hot neck. She gave a heartrending cry and tried to curl in on herself again. Without compunction, he seized her by the hair and forced her head back, carrying the flask to her dry lips.

“Drink. DRINK IT !”

She moved her head, her lips white and clenched. She refused. Dimitri pulled his lover’s head against his body.

“DRINK IT, CRYSTAL !” he panicked, incapable of maintaining the control he had always exercised over himself. He had never been afraid. He had never felt this oh-so-human feeling. But the young woman’s agony washed over the room and into him. For the first time, he understood the meaning of terror.

His beloved uttered a hoarse moan. The Prince took advantage of it to wedge the phial between her lips, forcing her to swallow its contents.

Crystal struggled, but he held her firmly. Her whole body started to shake and she doubled over as if she were being tortured. On his knees, Dimitri slid one arm under her shoulders, drew her gently against his torso and protected her with his arms.

He waited. He felt the spasms shake the young woman’s body, her breathing jerky as she tried to expel the pain. He caressed her head and pressed his mouth against her hair. She was saved.
She would live.
Relieved to a degree of which he had not known he was capable, he cradled her.

“Everything is all right, my heart, it’s going to be okay... I’m here.”

Little by little, she felt the pain slowly become milder, and her mind became clearer again. She opened her eyes, still trembling. The Prince held her tightly,
clasping her in his arms. He looked at her and stroked her face with one hand, the other still supporting her.

“Beatrice poisoned me, she was the mole,” Crystal gasped, her throat as rough as sandpaper. “She was working for you. Did you tell her to do it ? To kill me ?” she whimpered.
They weren’t playing anymore.

“No, kitten. No ! It was a counter-order. Don’t cry…. Even if I am destroying your father, I would never hurt you. I care about you so much, my little kitten.”

He held his breath, and so did she. The whole world seemed suspended at those words. Dizzy.

Crystal stroked her lover’s cheek.

“Don’t say that, please.”

Dimitri pressed his lips against the deathly pale hand of his lover. This wasn’t a love song – they turn out happy and this would end in tears.

The young woman pushed herself up and kissed him with all her heart. Her heart, which she had always kept closed against him.

“Go now,” she implored him. “Leave, the Paladines are going to find you here.”

Resigning himself, Dimitri dematerialized. Crystal collapsed on the carpet, her forehead against the floor. She was still suffering from the after-effects of the poisoning ; every muscle, every nerve, right up to the dryness of her eyes, reminded
her that she had just come too close to a violent death. But that was nothing in comparison with the violence she felt inside. Not far from her lay Beatrice’s body.
One more lie or just another day with the Damned
.
In Hell only Dimitri remained – that was true, then.
She failed to hold back a desperate giggle.

That was when Cornelia made her appearance. Crystal raised her face and her joyless smile died on her pale lips. Her macchiato-colored friend was looking at her with an indescribable expression. A nameless expression. The young woman pulled herself up painfully and knelt at the Paladine’s feet.

“Corn....”

“Don’t call me by that nickname,” Cornelia forbade her. “Only my friends call me that.” Crystal was unable to say a single word. The warrior woman continued :

“I came back earlier than planned from Lou’s place. I heard the end of Beatrice’s speech and I was going to rush to your aid when your lover intervened. Impressive, I have to say. Glory is Mother Teresa compared with you.”

“It’s not what you think,” the young woman hurriedly defended herself. “I’m not evil. I tried to talk to all of you – especially you – about this relationship with Dimitri, I don’t know how many million times. But I was afraid that....”

“That we’d react badly ?” Cornelia anticipated her. “But why ? We only swore loyalty to your father, to you. You, who calmly screwed the monster that’s decimating us.”

“It’s not....”

Jumping in alarm, Crystal saw the rest of the gang appear in the living room. Flabbergasted, they looked at Beatrice’s body on the floor. Miranda eyes opened wide, while Glory somberly stared at the corpse of their new Paladine.

“What happened here ? I’m getting fed up with having to ask that.”

“I killed Beatrice. She was the traitor we were looking for. She tried to poison Crystal,” the warrior uttered the half-truth before Crystal had time to open her mouth.

She silently thanked Cornelia. But Cornelia did not deign to respond to her attempt. Falada, on the other hand, hurried to help Crystal stand. He kept his arm around her to hold her up. Her legs wouldn’t support her. Naturally she held tight to him while Glory inspected Beatrice’s body.

“You literally mashed her throat to a pulp. I’m no coroner, but from her position, you must have done it while holding her at arm’s length. That’s one of Prince Dimitri’s classic moves : are you competing with him now, Corn ?”

“I didn’t think, I just reacted. That seems to be in fashion at the moment.”

“Let’s go back to what’s essential here,” Helen insisted, appearing imperturbable. “Why would this poor stutterer try to poison Crystal ?”

“Beatrice was actually working for the Order of Hell,” Crystal responded. “She was also the one who poisoned my father. At least now we can stop looking for the mole.”

“Perfect, everything’s done and buried,” the historian backed her up with a little too much enthusiasm.

Miranda gave a fake, rather badly played yawn.

“Sure, why not. Let’s call the cleaners. They can clear away the corpse of the little new girl and we can finally get on with lunch. She was never one of us anyways, this creature who croaked trying to bump off Crystal,” she grumbled.

“Beatrice was a traitor,” Glory declared, as much for the sorceress as for the others. “So we’re not going to pull out our hankies. There’s no pity or redemption for that sort of person.”

The young woman shivered at Dollface’s last statement. Falada felt it and took her hand.

“Philosophize as much as you please ; I’m taking Crystal to her room. She needs to rest.”

“Just a minute, Don Juan,” Cornelia interposed. “I’ll take her myself ; the two of us have some stuff to talk about.”

Glory ruled sharply in favor of this, delighted that her guy wouldn’t be alone with Crystal.

“Yes, do that, good idea. And while you’re at it, make sure there aren’t any psychos hidden under the bed ; with Crys you never know !”

In the bedroom, Cornelia didn’t utter a word. She remained rigid, her chin down, her eyes raised.
Not a word – Cornelia of the quick repartee, Corn, who leaped with both feet with all the discretion of Robocop. Not a word.
Her wounded predator attitude spoke volumes. Crystal had always viewed her friend as a protector, never as a killer of tempered iron.