Chapter 27

The fresh layer of ice and snow crunched under the treads of his brown leather boots as Haldir stepped out of the mist behind the Inn where he first held Morana in his arms barely a week ago.

When he rounded the corner, he glanced over at the medical center and checked the sky for the time. He knew she was still elbow-deep in whoever the poor soul was she was fighting for, but just seeing the place she worked made him feel close to her.

A man with mirrored sunglasses leaned crossed arm against the concrete block building, and when Haldir finally spotted him, he tipped his chin to the Immortal.

Squinted blue eyes sized up the stranger who looked at him, and he flashed him his toothiest smile as he gripped the inn door handle. It wasn't a curious thing to find new faces this time of year when the reindeer hunting was at its finest. But the way he stared Haldir down made him pause. Wiggling fingers crawled along the wall as the man walked beside it, and when he rounded the corner, Haldir noticed a truck's engine turn over.

Pete wiped down the teak wood counters when Haldir came through the door. "Morning Pete."

The dishrag sailed through the air and landed in the sink. A fresh coaster slid onto the bar, and Pete pulled a glass from behind him. "So, what brings you to this fine establishment this morning? Shall we have the lager or the vodka?"

After he unzipped his jacket, Haldir sat down and leaned back to take a peek out the window. "Just here waiting on a woman. She hasn't called for me yet, has she?" He fished a pack of cigarettes out of his chest pocket and gave them a snap until one popped out and landed on the bar top.

Through the puffs of smoke between them, Pete's face wrinkled as he sighed and fell back into the counter. "Oh, no, you don't know, do you?"

A warmth started in his back as the adrenaline dumped into his system, and he was trembling by the time the surge got to his chest. "Know what, exactly?"

He'd seen them together many times over the years, and Pete felt a bit sick to have to be the one to tell him. "Bose fell off his boat without his suit on. Your lady is over there working on him now."

Red eyelashes wove together as Haldir shut his eyes. "Dammit. I thought he was grounded."

Pete opened the washer and emptied last night's glasses. "Harbor Master lifted all the restrictions last night. The waves were quite frightful this morning. Makes for right good fishing, though. Those boys just can't resist it no matter how dangerous."

He was still working off his foggy-headed morning stupor, and Pete snapped his fingers when he remembered. "By the way, someone was here looking for you last night. Man in a black pick-up truck."

It wouldn't be the first time someone came in search of his help, and he barely blinked an eye at Pete. His cigarette smashed into the ashtray, but Haldir took another look outside. "Looking for me?"

A white towel wiped out the cup in Pete's hand. "Aye. Was quite interested in you. Asked lots of questions. Where you lived. Where you were. If you had any family here on the island."

"Family?" For ten years, Haldir hid his children away from the world, and even though they were safe on the other side of the universe, he still hesitated to talk about them with anyone. "What did you tell him?"

The palm of his hand came up in front of him, and Pete shook his head. "Nothing, but he got quite chummy with some of the miners, bought them drinks, and chatted them up. You know how those boys can be, Haldir."

The barstool squeaked as Haldir looked back over his shoulder toward the stairs. "Is my fan club staying here at the inn?"

"Nah. Said he and his mates are up on the glacier at a hunting cabin." A business card fell from a stack of papers when Pete flipped through them, then he held it up to read it. "He gave me something for you. Said you'd understand what he was here for. Mitchell Riley, Jr. Supernatural Creature Sports Association."

After all these years, and all the people he and Tessa killed, he still remembered the name. There was no air left in the room, and time stopped. He noticed every fleck of dust that floated around him. They drifted in the sunlight, and when they finally reached his face, he understood everything. "Morana. Oh, God, no. Please."

Shards of glass covered the floor as the pint Pete was holding exploded when he flinched at the gunshot. "What the hell was that?"

It was still reverberating between the structures outside as Haldir threw the door open, and when he found the pile of people at the hospital entrance, his feet beat against the permanently frozen ground. "Morana!"

Though it was only fifty yards at best, no matter how hard he moved his legs, he couldn't get there fast enough. Percy tugged at James' arms to drag him in the door, and when Haldir fell to his knees beside her, Mory cupped the wound in her palms to shield him from the horror of what was happening. "Don't look at it."

Every molecule of her body shivered under his hands as he shoved them under her body, and her squeaky voice barely got through her bloody mouth. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for you to see this."

His hot breath lit up the air as he huffed the couple of feet to the door, and when he got inside his knees gave way.

"Somebody, help!" Two fingers rested on James' neck as Percy searched for anything at all, and when he looked up, he pointed at Haldir. "Pressure. Put pressure on her wound."

Both his freckled hands slapped on top of Mory's, still blood seeped through them with each beat of her heart, and he was awestruck, and his mouth hung open as he looked at her. Whatever he expected to kill her, he never thought it would be his past, and he had no words at all to comfort her at the end. Her lips faded quickly, and her head shook, and her teeth chattered. "I didn't want you to see me die. I'm sorry."

The stretcher wheels and the sound of sneakers on the floor came from the hallway, and as soon as Neville got to them, he and Percy tossed James' limp body on the clean white sheet.

Her breaths were quick and shallow, and the color was gone from cheeks. "Marry me now. Say the words. Please."

Two young nurses returned with a stretcher, but Mory's fingers waved them off. "No honey. You go see if Percy and Neville could use a hand. I'm going to hang out here."

His hand gripped the knife handle at his hip, and Haldir nodded away to the hall. "Go on. I got her."

The blade of the knife that Daniel gave him years ago sliced through his hand, and he hissed at the burn of it. The blood squished through his fist and dripped to Mory's lips, and she lifted her chin to catch it all. The night by the fire came back to him and he realized that he wasn't really alone when Daniel's voice in his ears guided him. "May the Fate's accept this sacrifice."

Little honks and clicks came from Mory's throat as she struggled to swallow, and Haldir's lips smashed against hers. Th heat of his words against her lips brought a smile to her face as his kisses chased her pain away. "I am my beloved's." He licked her blood from his lips, and his thumbs caught her tears as he smiled back at her. "And you are mine now. You will always be mine, Morana Osulf. Always."

Her amber eyes lost focus, and her fingers patted at his chin as his face disappeared from her failing vision. "I love you." A change came to her breaths, and her body ceased its shaking, and the blacks of her eyes consumed them as she whispered her last words. "I love you, Haldir. Thank you for loving me."

When his lips met her mouth, he captured her final breath, and as the whole atmosphere of the room got lighter, he whimpered into her ear. "I love you, too. Until the end of all things."

The tips of his bloody fingers traced the tracks of her tears, but there was nothing left. His body was heavy, and the hole in the center of him reopened as well. Not even the spark of her touch remained in her skin as he grazed it and looked for one last shock. And he understood, wherever her soul was now, it wasn't beneath him.

His fingers were soaked with their intermingled bloods, and he patted his lips as he lifted his eyes to the lights above him. And as the soft hum of the light bulb tinkled and flickered with her desperate attempts to reach him one more time, he laughed through his sobs and waved back at her. "I love you, too."

The world was too cruel for her, and Haldir covered her eyes to close them so she wouldn't have to see it anymore. "No more darkness, my love."

Like the night he claimed her in his bed, he gathered her limp body in his arms. And with his teeth clenched, he yanked and snapped his knees until she was against his chest.

When Percy heard the squeaks of his bloody leather boots against the tile, he looked up from the floor he crouched on. He pulled the stretcher from the wall across from him and ripped the bloody sheet away, then grabbed another from the server. "Lay her here."

Even though she laid against the hard mat, Haldir couldn't bear to leave her, and he straightened her messy hair. "What about James?"

Percy shook out another sheet and covered her legs. "No. She was standing in front of him. It was one shot through the aorta for the both of them; neither one stood a chance." The shoulder of his scrub top brushed across his chin to wipe it. "That motherfucker is a marksman, Haldir."

Her lips were like wax with no warmth or softness to them, but after he savored one last taste of them, he crossed her hands over the walnut-sized whole that stared back at him. His voice was raw and raspy, and he patted at the air above her. "You folks clean her up good, please. I want to see her again, but not like this."

"Of course. I'll have the nurses start straight away." He paused twice before he placed his hand on Haldir's shoulder to comfort him. From the day he stepped foot on the island, he heard many tales of the Immortal, and part of him hoped at least some of the not-so-favorable things were true. That there would be some kind of terrible justice served for his friends who died so needlessly. "What are you going to do, Haldir?"

His sticky hands slid through his hair as he closed his eyes to Mory and pushed the hand from his body. "I'm going up on the glacier to see what's up."

His crimson-stained boots stomped down the hall, and he collected his knife from the floor. "Somebody wanted my attention. Well, now he has it."