The Pendant

She leapt onto her balcony just as her flesh started with the familiar tingle of predawn. She stepped across the threshold and pulled the heavy drapes closed. Her fingers danced along the center seam snapping them together with the snap buttons Chris had sewn on all the drapes. She went around the apartment making sure all of the drapes were secured tightly before she opened the small fridge in the bedroom. She pulled out a blood packet and felt her stomach growl. She was overly hungry. If the blood hadn’t been so cold she would have eaten it right there but she couldn’t stomach cold blood. To her it reminded her of death.

On the way to the kitchen she glanced at Chris’s sleeping form in the bed. He had a book lying across his chest. He had tried to wait up for her. A small smirk crossed her lips he was the most attractive human she had ever seen. His short brown hair was tussled with sleep. His azure eyes were covered by the soft skin of his eyelids. His sideburns met with two day scruff that gave him a worn and rugged look. His full lips were moist and pink. They were slightly parted and a gentle snore left those beautiful lips.

Her eyes traveled to the pulse that beat along his neck. She could hear the blood race throughout his veins. Her eyes rested on the two small circular scars on his neck. Her face twisted in disgust as the memory of those scars washed over her.

¥

“Let me see her!” Chris tried to push past the guards that stood outside her door. He could hear her screams from behind the closed doors. They sounded more like a rabid beast than his beautiful Purity.

“Son if you go in there I can’t promise you will come back out. She’s not who she was.”

“I don’t care man. That’s my girlfriend in there. She could have developed another head and I would still love her.”

“You don’t seem to understand that was your girlfriend. Now she…it is something else.”

“You’re wrong. She’s still Purity somewhere in there it’s still my girl.”

The guard cocked his head to the side and smirked and held the door for him, “then be my guest. Go give your girl a hug.”

Chris pushed open the doors and was assaulted with the smell of bodily waste and blood. He watched as Purity’s eyes followed his every movement and her howls stopped. Her soft features seemed to harden as she stood in a darkened corner. Her gentle green eyes had been replaced with the dark glow of red. Her face was distorted, where her gentle brow use to be the bones had shifted giving her a hardened look. Her body was covered with healing cuts and bruises.

Chris did not shy away or turn in disgust as he looked at her. He simply slowed his pace towards her. He could see her look at him and snarl. Without warning she ran forward poised to attack. She stopped and jerked backwards a few feet in front of him. Only now did he realize that she was chained to the wall by her neck, wrists, and ankles.

She growled and pulled at the chains trying to reach Chris. He watched as some of the plaster cracked as she pulled on the chains. She stopped her struggle and sniffed the air, her face filled with a knowing expression. She turned back to the wall and grabbed one of the chains in both of her hands and pulled. It tore from the wall sending bits of plaster all over the room. She did it again and again until all of the chains were free from the wall.

Purity looked at him once she was free. She slowly stepped forward. “I can smell your fear,” she growled at him. His eyes widened and she leapt at him. She held him tightly in her arms as she bite into the tender flesh of his neck. He moaned in pain as his hands snaked around her and into her soft hair.

“Take all you need baby,” He mumbled feeling pain with each word. His breaths started to come in shallow pants as she continued to feed from him. “I’ll always love you.” He whispered to her as his vision started to fade into black.

Purity let go of him and stumbled backwards. He fell to the floor in a heap grabbing at his neck. She was staring at him in utter shock. “No…No…” she fell to the floor and grabbed her head and screamed in pain. Her body shook as her hand dug deeper into her hair. Her screams became louder and a thin layer of sweat covered her body. Her skin seemed to crawl with pain.

Without warning she sat up head pointed towards the ceiling light beamed from her eyes and mouth as her body convulsed again. She collapsed in a pile on the floor panting for air. Chris rushed to her side.

She looked at him with her soft green eyes; the demon had slithered its way back into the recesses of her body. Chris pulled her into his lap and stroked her damp hair out of her eyes. “I thought you had died Purity.”

“I did.”

¥

She shook her head as if to get rid of her memories and left the room. She entered the kitchen and tossed the blood pack into the microwave. Setting the timer on the microwave she turned and headed towards the bathroom. She needed to remove the irritating bullet from Wallace.

She shrugged off her coat and shirt top and laid them across the back of the toilet. She opened the medicine cabinet pulling out all the supplies she would need to remove the bullet from her chest cavity. She didn’t bother looking in the mirror as she closed the door she would not be able to see anything anyhow.

She sat on the edge of the tub, took the long medical tweezers, and poured rubbing alcohol on them. She took several deep breathes before she inserted them into healing wound. Jade hissed in pain as she dug around for the bullet. She felt the ends of the tweezers tap the bullet and clamped them down around the projectile. She pulled the bullet out of her chest, her breath caught in her lungs. She felt mildly light headed but continued the process. Setting the tweezers and bullet down on the edge of the sink she poured alcohol on a wash cloth. Now that the bullet was out she would have no problems healing. She cleaned the wound and the areas surrounding, removing any red tint to her skin that the bleeding may have caused, and revealing her porcelain skin. She pulled on a t-shirt she found in the hamper in the bathroom after she laid the bandages over her wound.

By the time she got to the kitchen her dinner was ready. She tore it open with her teeth and drank it down. The warmth filled her veins and she could already feel herself healing. By nightfall her injury would just be a memory. She smiled a satisfied smile and headed back for the bedroom.

She slipped off her boots and leather pants, replacing them with pink cotton shorts that clashed with her black ACDC t-shirt. Not that she had ever been one to worry about fashion, but the concept of bright pink shorts and ACDC just made her chuckle.

She slipped into the bed and under the covers. She breathed in Chris’s scent as she snuggled into the comfort of their bed. He rolled over and hugged her close to his body. He nuzzled his face into her neck and she giggled.

“Missed you Purity.” Chris said his voice full of sleep. He leaned up and nibbled on her ear. “Anything fun and exciting happen tonight?” Chris shifted forcing himself to wake up just enough to carry on a conversation with Jade.

They had fallen into a comfortable routine based on each other’s sleeping patterns. Chris would wake up for a little bit when she came home and she would wake up for a little bit while he vented about his day. Since each came home hours before the other needed to get up it just made the most sense.

“I’m going to be leaving for a while.”

“Where?” Chris’s voice filled with a concerned panic at the though of Purity leaving.

“I have no clue. Liam found some information about an old necklace. He thinks Timothy Highren is involved and wants me to get to the necklace before him. I’ll find out more tonight, Liam is setting up a team for the mission.” She pulled her cool body closer to his for the warmth he produced, her eyes feeling heavy with sleep.

“I don’t have to tell you I don’t like this do I?”

“No you do. I don’t like it much either but what choice do I have? The necklace contains supernatural powers, who better to go after a supernatural power than a supernatural being. It doesn’t look like I get to deny this any more Chris.”

He sat up with a renewed irritation. “You weren’t denying it before. You are out there every night trying to clean up this city. Why can’t that be enough?”

She rubbed the bridge of her nose and sat up with him. “Chris it has to be me. I can’t feel ok with someone else doing it. They could get hurt or die.”

Chris started pacing the floor, his hands running through his brown hair. “So you’ll put yourself in danger?”

“Your danger isn’t my danger Chris. I was shot today and the worst that happened to me was another ruined shirt. Then I went half way across the city via roof top with a bullet in my chest. Guess what I was annoyed ‘cause it was itchy. Your concept of danger is not the same as mine. That bullet would have killed you, for me I just add it to my ever growing collection.”

He sat on the edge of the bed with a sigh, burying his face in his hands. “I just worry. I don’t want you to get hurt or die. Purity I love too much to lose you.”

“Hey,” she gave him a little smirk and wrapped her arms around him, “good news I died once and it seemed ok no real long term damage.”

“It’s not funny.”

“A little bit it is.” He turned and looked at her and couldn’t help but chuckle. “I may or may not see you tomorrow; I don’t know what kind of timeline I am working with here.”

“What ever.”

“Why are you being this way?”

“I’m always supportive boyfriend. Every now and then I get to be worried or angry boyfriend. Let me have that alright?”

She nodded and laid back down enjoying the feel of the soft jersey sheets, “well when you are done brooding come back to bed.”

He chuckled and laid in beside her. “I don’t brood.”

“Yeah ok, just keep telling yourself that honey.” She chuckled lightly before drifting off to sleep for the day.

Chris ran his fingers over the cool flesh of her face. She let out a gentle moan before she rolled over on her side facing away from him. He smiled and leaned over and kissed the soft flesh at the nape of her neck. “Purity you gotta get up it’s almost dusk.”

“I don’t want to. I want to sleep until tomorrow.” Jade let out a deep growl of frustration and Chris just laughed. “You are supposed to tremble in fear when I do things like that.”

“Oh sorry I’ll remember it for next time. Here I warmed up your breakfast.” Chris handed Jade a coffee mug of warmed blood as she sat up in the bed.

She smiled and took a sip, letting the warmth fill her cool body. “What no eggs?” She smirked at him and quickly swallowed the rest of her meal. She stretched her body to try and get rid of the lingering need to sleep. Her long blond hair framed her face in a mess of tangles. She set the empty cup on the bedside table and attempted to run her hands through her hair. She groaned and flopped back down onto her pillow. “I’m calling off with bad bed hair.”

“It’s not that bad all you need is a shower, conditioner, a comb, and a weed whacker.”

“Fine fine make fun, but you get to comb it since I can’t see what’s going on.”

“Deal. Now go get a shower. You have to get packed and then go see Liam still.”

Jade sighed and rolled out of bed. She grabbed her empty cup and shuffled towards the bathroom, she dropped the empty cup in the sink on her way. She pulled her shirt and shorts off as she entered the bathroom and put them in the dirty cloths bin. She turned on the shower, not caring what the temperature was set to, and let the water wash over her pale skin. She went through the motions of her shower, not really feeling motivated for the night that waited.

She stepped out of the shower and ran her hand over the steam covered mirror. Even after all this time she still couldn’t get use to not having a reflection. Her thin fingers caressed the glass of the mirror, will to see herself just once more. Tears threatened to spill over the edges of her eyes, her unneeded breath hitched in her throat.

She shook her head, feeling sorry for herself would solve nothing. She growled deep in her chest and slammed her fist into the reflective glass. The mirror shattered, shards of glass danced merrily around the bathroom. She grabbed her brush from the sink, shaking the glass from the bristles, combed her hair, leaving the damp strait strands to hang around her bare waist. Grabbing her towel and wrapping it around her, Jade left the bathroom.

“Kill another mirror?”

“Yeah,” she answered her voice devoid of any emotion.

“Cool, did it put up much of a fight?” He smiled at her as she dried her small muscular frame with the soft fabrics of the towel. “My God you are beautiful.”

“I wouldn’t know.” She tugged on a clean pair of leather pants. She slid on her boots and laced them up before turning to look for a new shirt. She dug around in her side of the closet before extracting a black and red leather corset top. Jade fastened the clasps that ran down the front. This top had no lacing to worry about and somehow it made the top feel less complete.

Chris watched her get ready, his chest tightened with sadness. She use to be so alive so vibrant and now she was just a shell of the woman he loved. Sometimes he would see glimpses of his beautiful Purity but they were quickly replaced. He loved her more than life itself but sometimes he felt like she would have been better off if, no he would not think about that. Not now not ever. “You are beautiful Purity and you do know that.”

She looked up at him from her weapons chest and smirked. She pulled on her double baldric and tossed a nearly full canvas duffle bag on the bed. She pulled her duster on over her baldric, the tops of her swords jutting just above the neckline. She sighed and removed the coat and baldric. “You’re distracting me.” She pulled her duster on first this time then her swords.

“That’s the point. I don’t want you to go.” He put a small cooler bag into the much larger canvas one. “Day or two’s worth of food.”

“Thanks.” She walked over to him and lowered her head. “I don’t want to go either but we both know I have to.” She lifted her eyes and looked at him. A sad smile tarnished his beautiful features as he tilted her head up and placed a chased kiss on her soft cold lips. Her eyes fluttered shut and she leaned her head on his chest savoring the feel of his fingers in her hair.

Jade pulled away a few minutes later, grabbed her duffle bag, and headed towards the window. She pulled herself up onto the rail of the balcony before she turned around to wave to Chris.

“I won’t be here when you come back Purity.”

“I know.” She looked at him and sighed, “go find a nice girl with a pulse.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Her eyebrow shot up inquisitively. “Then what did you mean?”

“I found out today that the band has been asked to spend sometime in Nashville.”

“When do you leave?”

“Fifteen minutes.” He chuckled, “I wanted to tell you sooner but you were busy killing mirrors and all.”

“Someone has too.” She smirked at him, a gentle breeze making her hair and duster dance behind her. “Congratulations. I won’t stop home before I leave then. You better get ready.”

He nodded as she leapt from the balcony and on to the roof of a neighboring building.