Dantalion appeared in front of me, and I looked straight through him, trying to decipher if it was real or one of my visions. I wanted to tell him I missed him… that I loved him. Instead I hid my emotions.
"How's your new found immortality, phantom lover?" I smiled teasingly.
"You're the phantom," he teased back.
"No… I'm pure flesh and blood," I assured him.
"So what am I made of?" he questioned me.
I looked away, holding back tears. "I think you're a manifestation of a beautiful soul that's really just an illusion…not really here."
"So beautiful with words…"
"I could be beautiful with you," my voice empty, fading.
"You are with me."
I wrapped my hands around my body in an imaginary hug, the kind you never want to let go of. The kind that consumes you whole and your heart skips a beat. I imagined his body hot up against mine, his heart pounding, one soul, one lust. The kiss that started out slow and transformed into something passionate and real, where the obsession began and lured me to where I should have never gone. My memories dissipated, remembering where I was, standing alone, staring blindly at the water.
"No, I'm not with you," I reminded myself. My body was eternally cursed from a normal life. The passion that left me blind - vacant - hypnotized, calling me back like a lover every time, tasting for more obsession, only now, Rowan wore the mark of a demon in his place. I stared at the newly etched brands replacing Dantalion's on my arm and saw something darker, something truly evil. Rowan tried to shake me out of the hopelessness.
"I know you miss him," he startled me out of my vision.
"Yes… I miss him…not a minute goes by that I don't think about his sacrifice for me. But he belongs in a world that isn't mine. It never was."
"There are always sacrifices to be made, but in the end, they're worth every risk, every breath… like it was your last," Rowan preached.
"He was supposed to protect me…a guardian… to manifest human form. But now Dantalion uses you."
Rowan's dark hair fell longer now, the blackness of his piercing eyes glaring at me… He had a raw defiance I never saw before.
"I'm gonna have to shape shift out of this love triangle! I refuse to be a part of it!" he sneered. "He's got me governing his thirty six legions, and it was me who went back to the Courtyard to save you from Satan and Belial. I know about the Summoning… the Four Kings of Hell want to reclaim their realms. With Dantalion back as Guardian, it's up to the rest of the demons to make sure that doesn't happen. To be honest, I'm not sure they won't just join them."