ANEW ||

The Merge

Rayne sat on the floor of her living room, on the old carpet from her mother's house. The mother that had been murdered, hung from the ceiling fan in their childhood home. The red carpet had long been cleaned of Miranda's blood. Sometimes Rayne thought she could still see it, the darker drops of dried blood mixing with the rich red of the rugs fibres.

Maybe she saw more of them today because she only had one eye looking through the lies and layers in her vision.

She'd been sitting here since she woke up. Her face throbbed, even with Petina's healing balms. The scar would stay, given the magic that was used to inflict it, but she didn't expect it to be an open wound for much longer. Petina and Matzu were gifted beyond measure.

Rayne rubbed a hand over her good eye, the skin tugging at the ruined flesh. She dragged herself to her feet, a noise sounding near the open windows. Her wings flew from her shoulders, her arms coming up and readying to strike.

Hellion stood on unsteady feet, and Rayne felt her lip curl back in a snarl.

He'd done what Elijah and Alaric could do, the vanishing in one place to appear in another a moment later. She'd seen him do it before. "Rayne," he said, his words filling the silence between them like poisoned gas.

"Get out," she snapped, staying in her defensive position.

"Rayne please," he begged, taking a step towards her.

White light pelted the centre of his chest. The blast rocked him off his feet, sending him souring out the window where he landed two stories down on his back in the dirt.

He rolled trying to catch the air that had surly left his lungs forever. It took him whole minute to regain himself. Hellion dusted himself off and glared at the open window.

He jumped again.

This time he appeared inside the window but in front of the beam in her living room. She'd known he would come again. Her fingers closed around his throat, slamming his body back into the beam. It nearly knocked him off his feet.

"Get out," she said again, softly.

Hellion's gaze narrowed on her own as he took a step away from the wall. He rose to his full height, towering over her and batted her hand away as if she were nothing. "No."

Rayne stepped back, her remaining eye meeting his chocolate brown gaze. The blue spec looked brighter today. She turned her back from him, her wings tucking back under her skin in one seamless motion.

"Can we talk please?" he asked, speaking mostly to the back of her head.

She scoffed. "Do I have a choice?"

She turned just in time to see the entirety of his male bravado leave his body. His eyes filled with pain as he looked at her. She didn't care.

"I want to apologize," he said.

"For what?" she snapped. The skin of her face pulled at the glare. She felt her still healing face pinch.

"Everything."

Rayne rolled her eyes. "Get out."

She began to move away as Hellion's fingers closed around her wrist. He spun her to face him, taking one step forward and then another, until her back pressed gently into the wall behind her. One hand came up to rest beside her head as he leaned into her. His body was so close to pressing into her own.

A shallow breath left her throat as suddenly, every nerve in her body became fire.

"I am sorry for everything. I understand why you kept the truth from me. I understand you hate me, and I will understand if you can never forgive me." His body pressed impossibly closer. "Im sorry for hurting you and I am so sorry for -" he trailer off, his gaze locking on to the brutal mark across her face and eye. "I will never forgive myself."

She didn't flinch away from him as his fingers trailed along the ruined part of her face. She kept her back straight, her gaze as steady as she could. Finally, he pulled away.

"I forgive you," she said, her gaze dipping to the floor. "But I will never trust you again."

Hellion's gaze pressed into her skin, willing her to meet his gaze. He moved back to stand before her. "Why?"

The question was simple and Rayne wondered why the answer wasn't as simple. "Because the next time your sister comes for me or my family, you will not stop her."

"How do you know that? Rayne you can't possibly think that I would let her do anything to you ever again?"

Silence stretched between them.

And then something on his face changed. His body pressed closer once more, his fingers curling around her neck and into her hair as he pressed his lips into her own. Electricity erupted under their skin. His lips moved over her own, his fingers pulling at the nape of her neck.

And then Rayne began kissing him back. The hunger raged inside her, pleading with her, for him. Her fingers tangled in his shirt and it bunched in her palms. His thumb ran along her cheek and something deep in her gut pulled. Hellion's kiss broke for a second, the blue in his brown eyes bigger now as that sensation inside her tugged again. Rayne struggled to place the sensation, to understand the sensation in her very bones.

"I love you," he said.

Rayne understood then as air rushed from between her parted lips. The tug happened again and Hellion's eyes flare blue.

"I am on your side." He said against her mouth. "From now until the gods fall from the sky."

He kissed her again, the tug inside her never stopping. His hands were on her hips now, his fingers digging into her pale flesh under her shirt.

"If you will have me?"

Rayne swallowed.

Suddenly she felt so heavy. Did she want this?

Because what Hellion was asked for was the one thing she'd spent years hating. Because the tug inside her was the life line his sister had undone. Because she could feel his own right beyond her skin, waiting.

Rayne closed her eyes. She had hated it, every miserable second tied to that male. She'd despised mates.

And yet, she'd never felt more alive than in the moments she was with him.

"Rayne" he breathed, his breath on her cheek. "This is how I can prove it. This is the only way. I will understand if you say no, and nothing will change. I will never let her harm you or your family ever again. And that promise stands with or with out my offer.

"And I don't offer this lightly, hell I'm not even sure I can do this. But if I can, I want it with you. Everyday I want you, I crave everything that is you with ever second of every day.

"And if I can figure this out and you change your mind then I can always undo it. I will do that for you I promise. I -"

"Yes," she said against his mouth. It was easier than she thought. He was easier, he was everything.

And as Hellion pulled Rayne's shirt over her head, she felt the twisting of him and her together. That thread that had tied her to another male, came alive once more. It reached for Hellion, and his reached for her.

The Merge made them into one.