Thirty Five
11 November, 2001, 60 miles West of Chamdo, Tibet
In the wee small hours of the morning, with nothing but Wilson to light up the room, Loki’s eyes opened. Jade looked down at him. There were no tears in her eyes now. Lit in profile by the cloudy red glow, she looked quite demonic.
“The same reason,” she said calmly, “that I came to you for help is why there will be very little left of you if you don’t answer me honestly.”
Loki raised an intrigued eyebrow. “What kind of demon was your father?”
Jade brought her right hand out of her shadow. Her fingers lengthened and thickened, her skin becoming scaly. Serrated spines poked out of her knuckles and hooked claws replaced her nails. “The messy kind,” she replied.
Loki nodded appreciatively. He indicated the transformation of her hand. “Can you do that with your whole body?”
She cocked her head slightly. “Do you really want to find out?” Her hand was threateningly close to his neck.
“Honestly?” He inquired with a small trace of humor, “No, not really.”
“Start talking,” she commanded, her fingers circling his throat, her sharpened knuckles pressing under his chin.
He swallowed. “Boy is born. Boy grows up. Boy is introduced–”
“About my soul,” she hissed, her pupils becoming slits, dividing her irises in half. Her claws dug into the flesh around his trachea.
“Ah,” he gurgled, his voice almost comically higher. “Well —honestly— I know you’ll never find it if you kill me... and even if you did find it, I doubt you’d find it very useful. This–” his eyes glanced down to her hand, “-is exactly why it wasn’t in you to begin with.”
Around his throat, Loki felt her hand become small and soft again. Her eyes, becoming human, looked at him with festering resentment. After a pause, she released him and stood straight beside his cot. He groaned and sat up, swinging his legs over the edge and planting his feet on the floor. He noticed Oz in the background, his one side illuminated in red. Both wore robes like the monks’ and both looked very irate.
Loki rubbed his throat, glad there would be no embarrassing scars. Oz stepped forward. “What do we do?” He asked, covering the spite that welled up as he looked at the conjurer. “And no more games.”
Loki folded his hands in his lap. “Okay then. No more games.” He pointed to the table. “That vial,” he said with all trace of humor carefully eliminated, “contains the most lethal poison magic can conjure. One drop can kill the heartiest troll, the healthiest demon,” he gave Jade a pointed glance. She had already approached the table and was examining the vial in the red glow of the Now Sphere.
“To prove you willingness to harbor a soul–” Loki went on as Jade uncorked the vial, “–you must allow Oz to drink it.”
Jade, who without hesitation had been about to down the entire substance now paused. The small glass bottle glinted red in the light. “You can’t be serious,” she said with the first traces of that pure and vivid emotion Loki knew so well.
“I can be perfectly serious when I choose to be,” was his response. Not that I’m choosing to be, now, he failed to add. He turned to Oz who had a startled and confused look on his usually worried face.
“I have to drink it?” He asked. The confusion was born more from having been unexpectedly included in this affair rather than having been simply asked to die. When his confusion did not soften Loki’s look of resolve, Oz strode forward in one motion and seized the vial from Jade’s hand.
“No!” She snatched it back. Gently, he took her hands in his.
“Let me do this,” he voice was calm and rational, whereas hers was pleading.
She was shaking her head in the red light. “No,” she said with finality. “If that’s what the damn thing costs, I don’t want it.”
Loki raised an intrigued eyebrow. Interesting. He shifted to a more comfortable position on the cot to watch the dramatic exchange.
“Think about it,” Oz was saying, “I love you,” he said with conviction. “It was because of him that I changed, not you. I know you could never do anything to hurt me like that.” He recalled the reason he had been forced to leave Willow. His emotional connection to her had been so deep that any trace of passion against her instead of for her would make him change. He had been careful to prevent such a connection to Jade. But he loved her all the more because he knew he could. Two pairs of hands clasped the tiny vial. “I want us to be together — for the rest of our lives.” His eyes were sad. “But that won’t be forever.” He looked down at the small glinting thing they both held. “If forever needs to be now, then it’s worth it.”
Her look of denial and desperation slowly softened as they locked eyes. That bond was there, Loki was positive now. It was nothing unique between specters. Just a kind of love he had never really known. Not even with Niki.
Slowly Jade nodded then looked down to their tightly clasped hands. A look from her eyes made Oz remove his hands. Loki leaned forward to see what would happen. This was all very interesting.
Jade slowly brought the vial to her lips and took a long sip from it, letting the liquid slide under her tongue. She leaned forward and took Oz’s face in her hands, bringing his lips to hers. As they kissed, he drank from her mouth and she swallowed what she could.
Loki made a gesture of wiping a tear from his eye, then made and exaggerated sniffle. The sweet kiss of death — classic.
But when they finally broke from their kiss, it was Jade, not Oz who dropped to her knees with a cry of agony. Oz held her shoulders as her face twisted in pain. Finally he had to let her go as she writhed and convulsed on the floor.
Oz turned on Loki in the dim light. “What was that?” He demanded. “I don’t feel anything!”
“Well,” Loki shrugged, “you should feel a bit more hydrated. That was some top quality water.” He smiled as Oz glanced down at the half empty vial. His eyes moved to Jade who was now moaning, her eyes and mouth beginning to glow. “Besides—” Loki said with satisfaction, “you’re not the one getting a soul shoved down your throat.”
Oz dropped to his knees and lifted Jade into a sitting position, the glow diminishing. “Jade,” he said gently. Her bleary eyes found his in the dim light. “How do you feel?” He pressed.
She opened her mouth but for a moment couldn’t form words. Finally, when she had shaken her head to clear the odd sensation, she spoke, her voice hoarse and tired. “Is this how you feel?” she asked, puzzled, “all the time?”
Oz held her and turned to Logan, who shrugged compliantly. The young man looked down into her eyes as he held her. Was there something else there? Something he’d never seen before? Then she closed her eyes and he his and they sat together, wordlessly in the red glow as, through the slitted window, the sun began to rise.
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