In Dreams: One Soul

One Wins Or We Both Die

Harlee POV

Zeev showed up early, appearing outside of the customer service station since Kayla was with me now.

"Uh Kayla, I hate to ask you this, but do you mind if I cut out a little early today?"  I asked her, me eyes glued to Zeev as he walked towards us.  Her eyes were glued to him too-but for a different reason, she was practically drooling.  He had a ridiculously sexy saunter that Kayla could help but point out nearly every time she saw him walk.

"Hmmm?  Yeah...ok...  You know...that walk of his..."  Kayla mumbled.

"Yeah, you think it's sexy."  I replied distractedly.  I felt the pull of my soul, and that was all I could concentrate on.  I let it draw me towards Zeev.  I felt the smile on my face exactly mirror the one on his as he opened his arms to catch me as I rushed to him.  The pain in my chest eased slightly as my body crashed into his.  He caressed my head, drawing me closer, desperately.

"Aww, where do I get a man like that?"  I heard Kayla mutter through Zeev's ears.

"Are you ready to go?"  Zeev asked me.

"Just need my wallet and jacket..."  I replied as the jacket settled around my shoulders and he offered the wallet to me.  I peeked surreptitiously at Kayla to make sure she hadn't noticed the items materialize out of thin air.  She had her back turned.  

"Why do you think I wouldn't be careful of such things?"  Zeev asked me with amusement, then began to tug me forward.  Apparently I wasn't the only one feeling the intense draw of our shared soul today.

"No you're not."  Zeev replied to my thoughts, pulling me against him as we walked towards the door.

"Bye Kayla!"  I yelled over my shoulder and she waved, a slightly bitter smile on her pretty mouth.  Zeev ruffled my hair.

"How many days do you have off?"  Zeev asked.

"Why are you asking, all you have to do is look."  I said, shoving his hand away from my hair.

"I'm afraid to do that until we get home, the barrier is weak enough, and the last thing we need is a Demon battle in the place of your employment."  Zeev answered.

"Three."  I told him tartly.  He held open the front door to the building and we walked into the parking lot.  I could feel Zeev extending his senses to check for anyone watching as we walked down the sidewalk, him holding my hand.  He dropped the barrier at the same time he turned and opened his arms to me, welcoming me into a hug that I stepped into and, with a turn, we were in my bathroom.  He had completely covered everything with plastic sheeting.

"Nice job."  I commented, tearing out of my work clothes.  No use replacing the ridiculously pricey vest and dressy shirts and pants combo.  Zeev took them from me and they disappeared.  He gripped my arms, holding me at bay.

"I don't want to hurt-you-us anymore Harlee.  It's too painful."  He said.

"What else can we do?  It's an inevitable battle until one of us wins the rest of the soul or we both die."  I growled.  I could feel my body shifting, drawing on his True Form's strength and abilities.  I was never meant for this, I panted as the pain hit me.

"I... can't stand it anymore, and it solves nothing."  He pulled me against his chest.

"But I want my soul back!"  I screamed, clawing at him.

"And I want to give it to you.  The troublesome thing."  Zeev said sadly, holding me closer so I could do less damage.  I bit at him, and the onslaught caused his body to shift to protect itself.  Blood splattered the walls as I ripped into him, but he didn't resist me this time, and the pain of it was enough to eat me up inside.  I stopped struggling.

"Why, why aren't you fighting back?"  I panted.

"Because, this time, I thought I'd let you be the one to consume me."  Zeev replied.  I jerked back.  What had happened to him?  The darkness of his True Form swirled around the creature within.  His orange eyes glowed as he stepped forward, still not revealing his entire Form to me, but I was distracted.  Beyond the darkness I saw a light...just out of reach.  I reached for it, and the creature hissed, drawing back.

"You can't do that Harlee."  Zeev growled.  The white light pulsed, beckoning me.  A leathery arm extended, holding me back as I moved forward again.

"Harlee I will swallow you whole."  Zeev snarled, the sound devolving into an animalistic gnashing of teeth.

"You can't-I have half of your soul."  I responded and broke free from his grasp to dive into the she shadows towards the light-the other half of me, of...us.

.................................

I opened my eyes in the dark, confused.  But sighed with relief when I realized my soul-it was complete again!  That feeling didn't last long though as every bone in my body cracked.  So this was it then, Zeev was going to eat me after all.  I guess that was alright, at least my soul wasn't hurting anymore.  Abruptly I became aware of his screams mingling with mine.

"Zeev?  ....What's...happening?"  I screeched, trying to reach him despite the agony, and realizing with a jolt that broken bones don't move the way you'd expect.  I felt my flesh begin to peel away and the blood and muscle tissue that no longer had anything to hold it in place splashed to the ground.

"Harlee!  What did you do?  Give it back!  It's part of my Heart now!  YOU CAN'T HAVE IT!"  Zeev roared, and I felt his claws digging into my skull.  Ah, I still had a skeleton, and some nerve function left.  But there was nothing to move to speak, so I screamed at him with my mind instead.

"What are you talking about?!"  I yelled, and despite my disbelief some noise managed to come from my mangled jaw.  I was prepared to die now, I was whole again, but not like this.  He wasn't going to win this easy-not after all this, not after I had my soul back!  I felt his jaws close on my neck.

"Your soul Harlee!  It's now fused with my Heart.  You can't have it back-or we both will die!"  Zeev's whole body burst into flames.  I had never seen anything more terrifying.  I felt the flames catch on me, it was hot, so hot!  His jaw unhinged and he ripped me in half while I screamed, until my soul was the only thing left of me, still screaming.  I floated in darkness, a pulsing white light, somehow I still had form, but there was something else.  I looked at my chest.  The was too much of me.  It burned.  This was wrong-Zeev was right-somehow, his Demon's Heart had gotten all wrapped up with my soul.  I felt it throb and burst into blue light.  I screeched, ripping at my chest as Zeev collapsed, clutching his head.  He reached for me, intent on swallowing me whole, but instead, something strange happened.  His memories and essence burned through me as the blue light encompassed me.  I remembered all of it-all of it he'd kept so carefully from me.  Everything I'd tried to avoid-no he had.  His fall from Grace-he chose it!  But it wasn't out of spite, no... I just wanted to stop killing.  No not me-him.

But that's what he was made for.  The killing.  And he couldn't escape it.  Then the mutations and the disfigurement after his fall as his Angelic Grace shriveled away to become this Demon's Core or Heart.  It grew bitter over time.  He was still fighting, fighting for his life now.  Heaven kept sending Angels to destroy him and the other Fallen.  I just wanted rest...

And then the betrayal.  The night he, I, WE...

We were almost killed.

The memories began to merge.  The battle and the attack on 'Zeev' and 'Harlee' melding into one, becoming a single incident in a single mind.

"What's...happening?  We groaned.  Whose head, Zeev's?  No that's ours now that we're clutching.  There was a sudden flash as the fire went out.

We gasped and stood up abruptly, facing the bathroom mirror.  We/I it was interchangeable now.

Our fiery eyes shone while our hair floated around our head.  We looked androgynous in this human presenting form-this was close to our Angelic form only...only...

"That was Zeev!"  I shrieked and then I felt the pain as our body and soul ripped apart and we landed in the floor in a puddle of blood and tissue.

Zeev POV

Harlee was huddled on the floor in a ball, what clothing she had been wearing previously was lost to her now, so I summoned a towel and wrapped it around her.  I ventured into her mind and was hit with my Angelic memories.  Damn, I'd tried to bury those from myself, I don't know how a simple human hadn't exploded under the burden of all that.  Well, I guess she sort of did, I felt a bit guilty for that.  I'd tried to shield her from it before, it should quite honestly have completely killed her, being that close to the Divine.  I scented something strange in her mind, so I ventured a little further.  Her mind was no longer entirely human.  It had been tainted by the Divine and the Demonic.  I winced.  This was going to be trouble.  I pulled back into my own mind and checked myself as well.  s**t!  How was I going to explain that bit of Grace and humanity floating around in there?  It's like Harlee's little exploration to retrieve her soul reawakened my Grace.  I flinched.  I was a Demon damnit!  I chose to Fall!  And yet, there was some small part of me that had begun to feel whole again.  I squashed that part down.  Bad Angel.

"Don't-don't do that."  Harlee placed a hand on my face.  "You deserve to be happy.  Just because you didn't want to be a soldier anymore, that...doesn't seem like such a bad reason to Fall."  I laughed wryly.

"It was to Heaven.  An Angel rejecting their Divine Purpose?  The only reason for which I was created?!  What good was I?  It was fight or die, so I chose option three: to Fall."  I smiled sadly at her and she patted the side of my face.

"How did you go from that to eating people?"  She suddenly snarled.  I sighed.

"It's a long story."