Page 228 of Savior
“Maybe it’s not my arm I want you on.” I can hear that familiar sneer in his words, and when I glare up at him, he’s wearing a teasing smirk.
“Keep dreaming about that!”
“If only I could stop.” He mutters.
The staircase leads us up to the darkened lot behind the establishment. It’s private back here, too. Only an ally, between this brick building, and the one running parallel to it. He pushes me towards a rusty folding chair and orders me to sit, moving to stand down-wind from me before he pulls out his pack of cigarettes and zippo. This time, I’m able to read the engraving on it.
“True Love? As if a man like you could comprehend anything about true love.” I mock him, tilting my chin up at the zippo. “I doubt you’re even capable of the emotion.”
He lights up, pulling a long drag as he tucks the pack and lighter back in his cut pockets. “I know enough to know, that like smoking, it’ll eventually kill you.” He coolly replies. “I know enough to know, that men get the short end of the stick, when it comes to truelove.”
His words surprise me. “And how did you come to that conclusion?”
“Men fall harder. Deeper. Faster. Would your fool of a fiancé survive losing you? The answer to that, my dear, is no. He may go on existing, for a while. But he wouldn’t be alive.”
“Was that the plan? Why you threw in with Jack? You’re going to kill me to kill Dean, slowly?”
His eyes shift to me again. “I’ve already given you my word on several occasions, no harm will come to you. Not by my hand, or anyone else’s.”
“Your actions tell a very different story, Legion. And if you actually mean that, you must realize, if you hurt Dean, you hurt me.”
He turns slightly from me, to face the back of the lot, looking towards the river walk. There’s a small glimpse of it just visible beyond the corner of the brick building this lot sits beside. “I’m aware.” He growls as if he resents the fact, crossing his arms, then lifting the cigarette to his lips again.
“So, you won’t hurt him?”
“No.”
I want to allow myself to feel relieved, but I don’t trust him. “What’s changed?”
He turns to look at me as he replies, “A fuck of a lot.”
There’s a tension growing between us now, that wasn’t there a moment ago. He stares at me, breathing in that smoke, like it’s oxygen to him. It’s as if he’s trying to work himself up to something.
“Know this…” he begins to say, turning to fully face me now. “I wouldn’t hesitate. I wouldn’t be conflicted. If I were facing the choice between anything, or you… Your happiness… Your safety… Your anything. There wouldn’t be a choice. There wouldn’t be a second thought. I’d choose you. Over anyone. Every time.”
“Legion, what are you talking about? Where is this coming from?”
“I’ve asked you repeatedly, not to call me that.”
“Fine… Damien… Damien what?”
“Damien Cain.”
I nod. “Alright, Damien Cain…” I feel like I’ve heard that name somewhere before…
That longing look flickers momentarily behind his hard eyes. “This is over now… Because I choose you. Because I choose you, Vanna… He lives. I’m not his enemy anymore. Though he still has many… Many who will try to hurt you both. I’m going to stop them… I need you to trust me.”
“What?”
He drops the cigarette and snuffs it out with his boot. “Trust me, Vanna.”
My mind is reeling with disjointed thoughts. “How you can think that’s even possible, after everything… After what you tried to do to Dean… How you can even claim that what you do, protects women, how you can expect me to believe anything you say, after pairing Jack up with,” I almost choke on his name… “Aaron Hopper!”
With a flash of angry regret in his eyes, Legion rages, “Aaron Hopper was a miscalculation I regret more than anything I’ve ever had a hand in! And believe me… that’s saying a lot… He was supposed to keep Jack Nero from killing you. That was the arrangement. If I could raise him back from the dead I would, just to fucking kill him myself! I didn’t care what happened to your precious Keegan! If Jack would have put him down, so be it. Would have made my life a whole lot easier.”
“So, it really was you, more than it ever was Lucinda...”
“I would have found Jack Nero without her. Lucinda, that duplicitous gash, just happened to be the one to point me in his direction, before I even began to dig into your past. I took full advantage of her jealous nature. I tried not to care… To keep moving forward with the plan… but I couldn’t fucking shake you… I can’t shake you!” Legion glares at me again. “For a little Witch afraid of her own fucking power, your magic is still a potent poison!”
