"Y…yes."
"Make it good."
Deidre wanted to scream at him and demand how he was able to think of deals at a time like this.
"Take Hell," he whispered again. This time, his strain was clear. "Quickly."
Tears raced down her face, but she focused on obeying him, praying this was part of some great plan of his. He hadn't won Hell after a lifetime of battle only to give it up. There was more; there always was with him.
"I love you, Darkyn," she whispered in a choked voice. Deidre closed her eyes and bit him, sucking his thick nectar into her mouth.
This isn't the end, she repeated to herself over and over, taking some solace in the words.
She drank until his body went limp and the rattling of his breath stopped. Deidre withdrew and sat back.
"Please don't leave me," she whispered in a choked voice.
A cold breeze whipped by her, and she shivered. Lightning arced overhead, the explosion of its accompanying thunder making the ground rumble. Deidre instinctively moved closer to Darkyn, wanting to protect his broken body from further harm.
She rested her head on his chest and willed him to take another breath, to tell her this was some twisted joke of his. Her insides knotted and her heart felt as if it were shattering. Fresh pain pierced her hard enough to take her breath away.
This isn't the end. She breathed in his smell and wrapped her fist in his bloodied fist, comforted by the feel of his warm body beneath. "I don't understand, Darkyn. What am I supposed to do?" And why couldn't you just tell me you cared about me? Was it that hard? He lied for a living. Even if he wasn't capable of true emotion, he could've said the words, for her sake.
Suddenly, her concerns about being in Hell for eternity, about losing the human side of her, no longer mattered. Holding her dead lover in her arms, she realized there was really only one thing that did, and he was gone, killed trying to save her from Harmony in a domain that wasn't even his.
Another crack of lightning made her jump.
Deidre twisted to see the sky, stunned. Clouds darker than night had begun to amass directly overhead and swirl steadily, the way they did before a massive tornado. Branches flailed in a wind strong enough to bend trees.
The wind touched everything except for her and Darkyn. Deidre watched it, not understanding what was going on. She was in the eye of the forming tornado, in relative calm while trees bowed to the gales around her. Smaller trees and bushes were uprooted and thrown into the forming funnel.