Summary: After surviving an attempt on her life, she discovers there are worse fates than dying. And they’re all ice cold.
Warnings for this chapter: a few swear words here and there, some mentions of violence
Links to previous chapters: one // two
Nik Ryder, ace Nighthunter, cursed and limped back to his apartment after a long night. Damn feral threw him against a tombstone before he managed to stake it through the heart. Whatever, each feral he hunted came with a pretty penny from the new local vampire kingpin, so he couldn’t complain. He ran a hand through his hair, the usually blunt edges longer and softened and thinned over time, as he went to open the door of his loft. Sunday night crept up slowly to Monday morning, and he estimated that he had at least a few hours before he had to go track down a ghoul terrorizing a tourist boat. Absentmindedly, his thoughts drifted to his next few jobs of the week, his schedule nice and packed the way he preferred it to be.
But as he was turning the key and opening the door to his dark living room, his deft ears picked up on a soft rustling sound originating from the couch. His right hand automatically flew to his crossbow strapped to his back, and he loaded and cocked it expertly as he stepped into the darkness cautiously, preparing himself from whatever monster that somehow managed to break into his place. He elusively side stepped a broken plastic curtain rod on the ground to get to the light switch. The veteran Nighthunter flicked the lights on and pointed his weapon.
“FREEZE!” But he dropped his crossbow with a loud thud. Shock painted his rugged, tired features and his mouth dried at the familiar chocolate brown eyes opening and meeting his.
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She dropped her bat. Leah groaned and pinched herself hard on her forearm. This had to be another bad dream. It was definitely not the first time she saw her father in a dream.
“Leah, this isn’t a dream.” A wise, comforting voice tilted out of the Fae in front of her. He looked exactly as she remembered him in Lamrian. Tall, regal, exuding an aura of kindness and inherent goodness...and he was supposed to be dead. But there he was, standing in the middle of her small, messy apartment in the middle of bum-fuck-where-the-hell-do-you-live-again Wyoming. His robes even glimmered lowly under the artificial white light of her living room, no evidence of a Bloodwraith attack left. He held his arms out wide towards her patiently.
“That’s what you said in the last dream too…” she replied quietly, taking a few careful steps towards him. As bewildered as she was, she was always respectful in her dreams of him, especially when they didn’t involve his death being replayed over and over again. A part of her never wanted to wake up whenever she got the pleasant ones. To her surprise, what she thought was an apparition reached out and enveloped her in his warm arms, and she knew instantly from the wholeness in her chest it was real. Her arms found his waist and she hugged him back desperately, tears running down her face for the second time that night. They stayed that way for God knows how long. Her father simply held her and let her take all the time she needed, and she was grateful for that.
“But...but I don’t understand.” Leah finally pulled away to meet his gaze. “You’re dead. Wait, does this mean I’m also--”
“No, you’re not,” Lord Elric reassured, wiping away a few tears from her mascara-stained raccoon eyes. “But I did come back here as a final gift to you, albeit temporary.”
“Does this mean you’re a ghost?”
“No, we Fae are different. I’m here for a quick visit. I’m touching you, aren’t I?” A rare smile passed over her features before she started crying again, more emotions in her chest that one night than in the previous three months.
“I’m so happy to see you.” They sat down on her old, lumpy couch. It was strange to her, seeing a Fae lord sitting in her small living room on a couch the most unappealing shade of beige possible, even if he was her father. He sat up straight and addressed her, never letting go of her hands.
“It brings me great joy just to see your face again, my daughter. I needed to come see you tonight.” She winced at his words, wishing that she hadn’t gone out that night. Her father deserved better than seeing her in some trashy club dress that she hadn’t bothered to take off before flopping on her bed alone. She ran a hand through tangled, dirty hair in a pathetic attempt to smooth it out.
“But, Father…why are you here? Wouldn’t it be a better use of your time visiting Lady Thalissa or anyone else watching over Lamrian?” Leah questioned, guilt threatening her consciousness for the billionth time since Lord Elric died and left Lamrian for Lady Thalissa to get back on its feet. Her kind, loving stepmother was unfortunately on her long list of people she couldn’t face.
“I’m here because I wasn’t able to be your father for very long on Earth, but I’m now able to be your father for a little bit now.” A warm yet sad smile was etched on his face, and his gaze became reproachful. “May I offer you some guidance? You seem lost.”
Leah sighed; her life was such a wreck that her father literally came back from the dead temporarily just to tell her that. Great. “You’re not wrong. This probably wasn’t what you had in mind when you found out you had a daughter. I didn’t tell you that my life is really just a useless degree and a dead end job in Wyoming and that I don’t really speak to my mother, so she doesn’t know that I know about you. I’m sorry for disappointing you.”
“Leah, you’re my daughter and I love you. You could never disappoint me.” Elric stroked her hair, affection crystal clear in his actions. “I don’t care what job you have, as long as it fills you with joy, and I can see this doesn’t. And I loved Jacqueline, but I can understand why you’re not ready to speak with her.”
“This job...hell, this entire life...doesn’t give me joy. And I don’t know what to do about it. I don’t know what I wanna do with my life! It’s pathetic; I’m 25 and have absolutely no direction as to where my life is going!” At that point she knew she was most likely still drunk, since the words spilled out like a waterfall. “Oh and can I just say that you’re the only one that gets this isn’t just about Nik? I was already thinking of leaving my job even before I went to New Orleans! My life doesn’t revolve around a man!”
Elric nodded, listening intently to her babbling. “So then what changed?”
“I died.” She hated saying that. “I literally died. And I don’t exactly know how I came back to life. I’m getting really tired of my existence being a mystery. I’m just...tired. I wanted to go back to my life before I found out monsters were real, but I feel absolutely nothing.”
“You feel...nothing?”
“It’s hard to explain. I try to feel something, anything,” she continued to confess. “But I can’t...at least, not since I came back.”
“My daughter,” Elric began and squeezed her hands. “You can’t run away from what happened. You can’t run away from who you are.”
“But I don’t even know who I am anymore! A half-Fae who apparently can die and come back to life but can’t use my damn powers?!” she replied, agitated and stone cold sober at that point.
“But you do know. You do know deep in your heart who you are and what you want, and how you’re going to get it.” Elric met her gaze again more firmly, and she squeezed his hands tighter, sensing that their time together was almost out. “It’s a matter of if you are willing to follow your heart. And I know that my daughter is strong and willing. All I want is for you to be happy; that’s all. I hope you let Thalissa know I love her and will wait patiently for her.”
“I don’t know if I can ever go back to Lamrian. It hurts too much since you’ve been gone.”
“That’s okay. But I hope you know that you will always have a home in Lamrian.” Elric’s form started to become thinner and more transparent, his hands gaseous and cold as Leah desperately tried to hold on for a little bit longer. “I love you, Leah.”
She choked on her own tears. “I love you too, Father.”
Eventually his form completely dissipated, and he returned to being only a memory in the deep recesses of her mind. Her apartment was cold and empty again, but her chest felt warm, alight with a new resolve. Leah heaved herself off her couch and opened her laptop.
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‘Leah...this is fucking ridiculous, even for you.’ The plane landed in Louisiana a few hours later. Leah hastily typed out an email to her boss that she needed to fly out of town for a sudden death in the family, knowing that it probably wouldn’t matter anyway if she decided to keep wrestling down that all too rational voice in her head and face all her fears. She checked her phone as the taxi took her to her last-minute motel, the streets of New Orleans whizzing past her like the reel of an old movie. She briefly considered texting Katherine and Cal that she was in town, but there was one stop she had to make before doing anything else.
“Best to rip the Band-Aid off first,” Leah muttered to herself after dropping her luggage off at her motel and making her way to what she heard was the best tavern in town. The door clinked open and she took a spot at the bar next to what looked like a man and a woman conversing with an equally human bartender. But she knew better.
The bartender quickly excused himself to serve his next customer, and his eyes widened in shock as he saw Leah’s face. “Leah?”
“Leah!” Ivy noticed her, squealed, and pulled her into a hug. Krom waved shyly as Garrus beamed, his hands flying to make a concoction for her. “Long time no see! How have you been?”
“Honestly…” Leah felt extremely awkward yet happy to be talking with the three supernatural beings she called friends. “Really shitty. Like, super shitty. So shitty that I’m running back to the place that literally killed me once and I don’t even have a job or plan. My life is already a series of bad decisions, so this is pretty in character for me.”
Garrus smiled and slid a pink-purple-blue-sparkle drink to her. “Well, at least you now have a drink at the best bar in town! Ever thought about bartending? That’s why you came here first, right?”
“Not that this isn’t the best bar in town,” she said as she took a sip, the alcohol immediately going to her head. “But I’m actually here for a reason. This is going to sound really, really weird considering what happened...but I need to talk to Nik.”
“My mortal…” Garrus’ handsome face suddenly looked faraway and mournful. Leah held her breath, preparing for the worst. “He’s been working...a lot. More than usual, I’m afraid. Never has time to spend with his old buddies here. And he always looks so sad, so tired.”
Ivy interjected. “We tried talking to him a few times, but he’s always so angry now too. Once I made the mistake of mentioning you and that Bloodwraith looked like a puppy in comparison.”
“He says he’s fine, but he’s clearly not,” Krom’s timid voice rang out from the next stool over, and he placed one of his stone hands over Garrus’. “He actually reminds me of me when I broke up with my ex.”
Yikes. None of that sounded good. Leah felt immediately responsible and she sagged down on her stool. Her hands found her head, and she pushed her hair back, fighting the urge to yank on her strands in punishment. “Does he still live here? I need to at least apologize.”
“Yes he does, and I think he’s coming back from a job soon.” Garrus walked from behind the bar to the stairs leading up to Nik’s loft. He pulled out a key and unlocked it. Leah raised an eyebrow.
“Uhhh isn’t that...illegal?” ‘And really creepy?’
The Fae shrugged. “We supernatural don’t really follow the laws of the human world. Now go inside and wait for him.”
Ivy and Krom each sent her an encouraging grin and she walked up to his apartment. When she closed the door behind her, she immediately noticed how the apartment looked exactly the same as how she left it, but with less upkeep. Leah wordlessly picked up a cracked plastic curtain rod on the ground, surprised that it was still in the apartment, let alone still on the ground. She smiled and set it back down, remembering the first time she woke up in his weird, wonderful apartment.
Leah sat on the same couch and practiced in her head what she was going to say to him. Butterflies soared in her stomach as she waited in anticipation. At some point she turned the lights off since the light was worsening her headache. But minutes soon turned into hours, and she was eventually fast asleep, the past few days catching up to her. It was only when she heard the shout of a veteran Nighthunter and clang of a crossbow dropping to the ground that she woke up.
Brown eyes met another pair of brown eyes that coupled with a sheepish, awkward half-grin. “...Hi, Nik.”
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A/N: Surprise, I’m alive! So sorry this took so long; school has been keeping me busy and I’m still trying to strike a balance. (I say as I post this at 2am after being at school for 14 hours today.) As always, all feedback is welcome and appreciated. Hope you guys enjoyed it and the next update should hopefully be out sooner than this one rolled out!
Babe who the hell is SCARED of you? Maybe scared of how much they wanna climb those muscles but...honey. Why is he the fucking cutest? Is it too much to ask that he and Ivy be LI’s?
