Kiss of Osiris

Chapter Twenty-Three

The nightmare had ended. Al and Evee tended to their wounds and hobbled their way out of the church. They took the Staff of Osiris with them. Al took one last pained look at Lucifys his "father" then turned away. Evee made use of her thief training to hotwire a car. They made their way home.

...

They took the next couple days to simply recover and recuperate. So much had happened that they needed time to process everything and heal.

Al seemed really moody and broody. Evee reflected on the things that had happened.

Al finally did snap out of his funk and became his usual playful self. Evee was feeling great. She had dropped a cup and caught it before it hit the ground. Al was trying to write a musical, it was terrible, but Evee encouraged his creative side.

After more teasing and prodding Al reaffirmed his feelings for her. He loved her madly. She liked the way his face went beet-red whenever he said he loved her. She liked when he got all flustered whenever she cornered him and teased him about it. Life was good.

The light snow outside fell like manna from heaven, in lazy little circles. They were cuddled on the couch, nestled in an avalanche of blankets to keep out the night chill. Evee was nursing a hot chocolate and a good book. Al had eaten approximately two dozen cookies and was dozing in and out of consciousness. Evee had tried her hand at the domestic life, despite completely burning the first batch, the latter batches of cookies were more edible.

At least according to Al. 

She suspected he was just being nice and forced himself to eat her horrid cookies to make her feel good. She appreciated it but wondered if that was a good idea. Perhaps her horrible cooking would accomplish what scores of others had tried to do before. The death of a vampyrus. Al would do that, die from her cookies, just to spite her. She looked at him with a huff but Al was too much in a food coma to notice.

She got up to clean off the cookie pan and put the rest of the dishes away. She thrust her hand into the mess of soap and suds.

Ow!

A blinding pain erupted as she pulled out her hand. A hidden kitchen knife in the soap bubbles had pierced her. Deep red blood flowed from her wound. She swore and quickly put a clean towel on the wound to stop the bleeding. Al would have a cow.

She went upstairs into the bathroom to look for something to stop the bleeding and maybe look for some gauze and bandages. To her surprise when she ran her bloodstained hand under the water to clean it, she couldn't find the wound.

She stared blankly at it. Did she just imagine it? She had felt woozy the past few days. She hadn't been sleeping well. Must finally be cracking. I'm living with a flipping vampyrus and been through some truly crazy things. I should be surprised I haven't evolved into a full case nutjob already.

She shrugged and went back downstairs. She had been having a recurring dream of a golden casket, and being buried alive. She would scream but no words would come out. She would only see the bright gaze of a full moon, and the shock of horror as she looked down at her skin, now an electric blue...

Then the dream would end.

I probably need a psychiatrist or something. However, this is all I need right now. She looked at sleeping Al with deep love in her heart. He had dozed off from cookie overload and was snoring loudly. She considered dropping a cricket into his open snoring mouth just to mess with him but decided against it. She felt serene watching his peaceful sleeping face.

She nestled closer to him and laid her head on his chest. A slow smile spread across her face. She had found it. True love. And a lifelong companion. She didn't know what the future held but she was sure that they had plenty of adventures left ahead...

The moon glowed brightly above as the lovers lay dozing on the couch. Not a care in the world. Crumpled leaves rustled as the wind picked up and a flurry of snowflakes drifted lazily by like butterflies of ice.