A soft knock was heard and a kind-looking nurse peeped in to inform her patient.
"Mrs. Harper? You got a visitor."
"Do I?" Two, large grayish-green eyes squinted as the elderly woman smiled in response. She laid on her back and requested for the pillows to be fluffed up so she could sit up and entertain her guest. "That's wonderful...thank you Carlotta."
Her visitor stood outside her room momentarily, his fingers adjusting his tie before being ushered inside by the attendant.
"Hello Pet, been a while."
A soft gasp escaped the elderly woman who sat on her bed, her snow-white hair framing her face delicately as she continued to stare at him in bewilderment.
"Is it really you?" Felicity stretched her arm and offered a hand for him to hold, beckoning the young man to get closer. "Dante I've missed you, you ass."
She looked delighted to see him which made the cambion smile ruefully. How can she be so happy to see him when he disappeared for so long? He sat on the bed facing the now aging werecat as he gently caressed her hand that he wouldn't let go of.
For a while, the pair just stared and smiled at each other; Felicity looked frail and delicate and yet with the wrinkled skin and age spots, she exuded a youthfulness with every Cheshire grin she threw at him. And it made the cambion's heart ache. He looked atleast fifty years younger and had grown out of his boyish looks. No longer sporting his shirt and jacket, Dante Sease looked immaculate in his three-piece suit and yet seeing her again returned him to their Briary days.
"So...Mrs. Harper?" He asked with a quirked brow. Dante's voice sounded jealous.
"Oh yes," the werecat nodded as she enjoyed his reaction with a playful glint in her eyes, "Mrs. Harper--I married Zachariah, you do remember him right? He also turns into a cat." She chuckled softly.
He barely recalled the guy but his fist was already clenched. Felicity however, did not seem to notice and continued on.
"He was such a sweet guy, y'know? Really different from you and Finny. Zach was too quiet and reserved for my taste but he did his best to please me and take care of me. I loved him dearly." There was no hint of bitterness in her voice, "You were sweet in your own way too of course, you were a special kind of sweet to me." She patted his hand and Dante suddenly remembered that they were no longer teenagers and time had moved on without him.
It was then that he finally took the time to notice his surroundings. On her bedside table were framed photos of Felicity in different stages of her life: her wedding photo, one of a newborn and then an old Felicity with a blonde, teenaged version of his beloved werecat right beside her.
"I do, and grandchildren." She smiled softly as she turned to look at the same photo he was gazing at. She paused for a moment as if she remembered some things before facing Dante to add, "They're all wonderful."
The cambion merely nodded and returned to gaze at Felicity. He still held her hand and he didn't want to let her go. He wanted to know everything that he missed out in her life.
"Have you heard from Finny? Do you know that we still got in touch after he graduated from the academy?" She had a glow about her when she talked of his selkie mate that he abandoned, "He's back in the island with his wife and kids--they're all selkies like him."
Pansy had a whole litter of pups? The news of one of his best mates settling down for good and actually being able to curb his fuck-everything-nature made the young man grin and nod in approval.
"Good for him. He must be fucking smitten eh?" The cambion remarked, unable to hide that tinge of envy in his tone.
"Love can do that to you," She replied with a soft smile. Her mind was elsewhere, perhaps back to when she and Finnian would still hang out at the academy or meet for coffee after graduating or whatever it is humans do when they catch up.
So both his best mates settled down and had kids. Dante can only imagine his Pansy taking care of a child, let alone a whole brood. Did they bully him like the cambion did? And Felicity, was she as caring to her child as she was with him? He felt regret that he waited this long to let her know how he really felt, that he disconnected from her and Finnian, that he missed out on their lives, on their adventures.
"Listen, Pet..." Dante began as he squeezed her hand to bring her back to the present, "I--"
It was her turn to squeeze his hand. "If you're going to apologize for disappearing, you don't have to. It's been decades Dante and I'm too old to hold any grudges or feel hurt." She smiled though her eyes looked a bit misted, "I'm just glad you managed to see me before I kick the bucket though it's a bit unfair that you're still as handsome as ever." Felicity tried to make light of the situation by laughing but instead tried to catch her breath.
"I love you." It was curt and strained. It was a confession to a once young girl who was now an old woman on her deathbed because it took him decades to come into terms with his feelings.
"Dante," The werecat smiled ruefully as she gently shook her head. She leaned a bit to reach his face and caress his cheek as though she was soothing a child, "Thank you for telling me that after all this time." Her pale, near translucent skin blushed tenderly, "You know I've always loved you. Even when you were being stupid or angry or setting things ablaze, even during the times you couldn't understand yourself and what you felt, I loved you."
Dante's jaws clenched as he felt overwhelmed. He felt relieved from hearing her tell him that she loved him. He wanted to cry. He'd cry if he could.
"We can still catch up, Pet. We still have time." The cambion leaned in and gently pressed his lips on Felicity's forehead. She inhaled deeply as she felt invigorated from the inside and in no time she was back to her younger self.
"How did you...?" The werecat touched her face and arms, her skin smooth and taut. She ran her fingers through her vibrant red hair as she continued to stare at him in amazement, her mouth agape only to be closed by Dante when he leaned in to capture her lips.
The kiss was tender and drawn out and despite losing the roughness in his touch, Felicity and Dante remembered how everything was when they were together. She tasted just as sweet and the cambion ran his fingers through her fiery red hair. He kissed her nose, her freckles, the lids of her eyes that fluttered dreamily as she tried to grasp what was happening before returning to her precious mouth.
She smiled as she fought off tears; Felicity was back at Briary's and they were in his room. It was an autumn afternoon and he had just told her that season suited her well. She was prettiest in autumn, he said. She remembered his hands roaming every inch of her body, every curve, fold and crevice, how he worshiped her with every kiss. She remembered how warm he felt to the touch when he lowered himself to her and Dante whispered that he would be gentle. That he would make love to her and every single day after that.
But he was gone by Spring.
"We have forever to catch up," he remarked as soon as he broke the kiss to catch their breaths. "We can have forever." He was excited, like back in the day when he thought of some new adventure to do when they were still students. "We can even go see Finnian and ask him to come with us--it'll be like the old times!" He planted another kiss on her lips then he took out an envelope from his coat pocket and handed it to her. She opened it and pulled a folded paper of what looked like a contract. It was then that he looked hesitant, sad even.
"You know what I need to ask in exchange, love." His voice was soft and pleading. "Please say yes Felicity, Hell wouldn't be so lonely with you there."
Her eyes moved from the contract she was holding up to the pleading cambion to meet his gaze. Would Hell really be so bad if they were to spend their eternity there together? Her lip trembled and her hands shook as she read the contract that specified his binding to her soul, that he was hers in exchange for youth and immortality. It was then she realized that all that time he had playfully, angrily and sometimes frustratingly offered a contract to her whenever she commented on him running off elsewhere, it was because he wanted to be bound to her. That he needed her to say yes. It was the nature of demons after all to be bound by contracts although unwillingly and there he was offering himself to her. And it took her decades to realize it.
"I need to know that you won't leave me again. Promise me."
"I'm never, ever, ever fucking let you out of my sight."
"No!" She clenched her fist and hit his shoulder as she sniffed and stifled a tear, "You promise me Dante Sease! Promise me or I will tear this shit up because you are such an ass for making me wait seventy fucking years!"
He briefly laughed as the werecat laced her remarks with profanities. Seventy years had passed but it felt longer than that for him. And now Felicity was laughing as she wiped off tears as she failed to look angry at him for leaving her. But they both knew that she could never stay mad at him for too long-- he was too charming for her to resist.
"...I promise."
A few drops of blood was all it took to seal the deal and Dante Sease and Felicity Harper Clawson disappeared into thin air, well, not entirely. There were scorch marks on the floor under her bed. The aids and nurses of Steere House Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center were left baffled as one of their patients on the third floor disappeared without a trace where she was last seen engaged in a conversation with a dashing young man all dressed in black.
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