[TILL KINGDOM COME.]
–with @bebemoon & written for @flashfictionfridayofficial ‘fleeting hearts’ !! warning for alluded to nsfw, but very vague / no graphic descriptions. ~950 words
The sun was up.
Yinmei had eased her steel grip on the steering wheel, now that they were miles and miles away from the smoke-stung remains of Bilitis House. Her eye flickered and blinked up to the rearview mirror. The custom window screens were all pulled down, preventing razor-white rays of scorch-searing sunlight from smoldering down upon the passengers crowded into the backseat. Yinmei had no such luck, in the drivers’ seat – the windshield was tinted as much as was plausibly safe, but otherwise, she could only hide behind a pair of comically large sunglasses and grit her teeth and bear it.
The breeze was clear like misted glass, and the light from above fell in shining-sharp veils over the snow, refracting off the swords of icicles and hoarfrost in shrills of bright, blinding brilliance. There would be no sun, where they were going. Yinmei couldn’t decide if she would miss it or not.
It was fine. It was 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑒. Yinmei jerked her one-eyed gaze upward again; Angelika, Amaelia, and Sabine had dozed off, evidently exhausted by the night’s activities. Amare’s long, talon-like nails were curved around the antique rifle, slashed over the gilt inlay; nightfall gouged across gold. And Ysa…
The Bloodmother was as impassive as always, but Yinmei had known Ysa for centuries. There were very few secrets between them.
Crystalline sunshine pooled over the carnage crusted into the knobs of Yinmei’s knuckles, sinking between her fingers like the ocean seeping across a cluster of tide pools. The Wolf blood was flared in crimson, gleaming like serrated sparks of salt wrung out of sea foam. And Yinmei remembered what Ysabelle had said when they danced together, at Greggor’s party: 𝑊ℎ𝑦 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑡 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑠 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑎 𝑐𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑒?
The sun was up, and half their Coven was crowded into one car. If the Wolves caught up with them – sank screech-singed claws into the sleek black coat and tore out the steel–
Well, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛 they would be a gasoline-fired funeral pyre. A skid-swerve-seething mass of burning flesh and broken glass and charred leather.
Yinmei sighed to herself, letting her singular eye flit in Ysa’s direction one more time. It would be alright. So long as they had each other, they would be fine.
That was how it had always been.
*****
They met so long ago that Yinmei thought she could hardly remember it. But of course, it was 𝑌𝑠𝑎, so Yinmei’s memory was clear as the first trickles of spring snowmelt.
They hadn’t started out as lovers, or even friends. Yinmei was terribly vain back then; more so than she was now, and there was some kind of petty argument.
𝑇ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑒 details were, admittedly – a bit fuzzy. A bit blurry, like violet-petaled twilight sinking its teeth into the horizon and softening all the hard edges cut into her rib bones. But the rest of it – namely, when they wound up falling into Ysa’s (very large, and very luxurious) bed together – wasn’t.
Yinmei didn’t think she’d ever known the lily-tender, jasmine-sweet love that all the legends described; the storybook heart-all-aflutter love was not something she particularly believed in. When she had been human – it had been a long time ago, even back then – she’d married a man she didn’t particularly 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒, let alone 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒.
And...what Yinmei and Ysa had wasn’t that dew-blooming, fairytale kind of love, the kind that was supposed to fall into your lap like yards of dream-lined lace. How could it be, when they were both sharp and brittle and 𝑜𝑙𝑑, with their unbeating hearts and deadly fangs that gleamed silver like ricochet and moonrise? But sometimes, in those quiet moments that they still shared together, fleeting as shadows and silk and star-shine – sometimes, despite the fact that they weren’t calling themselves lovers, anymore – Yinmei thought it was damn near close to it.
*****
Yinmei had never left Ysa’s side. They’d traveled all over, back then, and how they’d 𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑑! There’d been slaughter and balls and revelry that tasted of storms and smashed pomegranates; berry-sweet fury thundering in the clouds. Yinmei didn’t remember it all, but she remembered enough. She remembered screaming mortals and torn nightgowns and heated whispers, all of it bright and delirious like a blood-drunk daydream. And back then, when Yinmei had been with Ysa, she could have sworn that she was still alive.
Even though they weren’t lovers anymore, and even though there had been others for Ysa, they were still 𝑡𝑜𝑔𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟. And that was what mattered.
*****
Ysabelle was the one who broke the silence.
“Do you know what happened to the rest of them?” she asked in a hushed voice, so as not to wake Amaelia.
Amaelia was Ysa’s newest fixation, and although she had her quarrels with their arrangement, Yinmei couldn’t say that she particularly minded in this moment. 𝐼 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑑𝑖𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢, Yinmei thought. 𝐼 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒, 𝑖𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑡 𝑡𝑜𝑜𝑘.
“I haven’t seen Maddelena, Cyborée, or Zammarud,” she told Ysabelle, blinking away the encroaching sun-headache. “I sent Angelika to wake them, but I don’t know if they made it out.”
She paused. “And Nessa’s probably fine. She managed to get out of the house, at least.”
Ysa nodded, and leaned back in the passenger seat. “You can rest,” Yinmei murmured, “I’ll be good to drive for another few hours, at least.”
They lapsed into silence, again. And perhaps everything 𝑤𝑎𝑠 coming to a close, the way Ysa had said – softly, wistfully, her voice like drifting satin – when they danced together at Greggor’s ball. Perhaps their world was really, truly ending in a haze of smoke and cinders and Wolf claws.
It would be alright. They were together, and it would be alright.
you’ll have to excuse me for the spam, but - no way i can pick only one! shoutout @oc-growth-and-development for the lovely prompts <3
phillip + alejandro
disaster boiz TM; phillip is @artless-whimsy oc
ysa + yinmei
old-as-dirt vampire sort-of wives <3 ysabelle is @bebemoon oc
(valé)rio + chrissy
this ship is basically chrissy constantly roasting rio and them exchanging memes/dog pix via snapchat. no we will not accept any criticism ;DD. rio is @digidream oc
forever – i got you, you got me, love you till kingdom come
–red velvet, ‘kingdom come’
yinmei didn’t think she’d ever known the type of romantic love that all the fairy tales described; the storybook heart-all-aflutter love was not something she particularly believed in. when she had been human – it was a long time ago, even back then – she’d married a man she didn’t particularly like, let alone love.
and . . . what yinmei and ysa had wasn’t that gentle, fairy tale kind of love. how could it be, when they were both sharp and brittle and old, with their unbeating hearts and deadly fangs that gleamed silver like ricocheting moonlight? but sometimes, in those quiet moments that they still shared together – despite the fact that they weren’t calling themselves lovers, anymore – yinmei thought it was damn near close to it.
old as dirt vampire sort-of wives, ft. @bebemoon oc <3333 shoutout @homesteadchronicles once again for the prompt!
