Faded Fragments
part 13
"You're not going to take me," she hissed through clenched teeth.
"You don't exactly have a choice, little lady. The night's young, and I've got nowhere to go. Pretty convenient that there just happens to be a little wicca all by her lonesome so early into the evening, doesn't it?"
"Did anybody ever tell you that if you scream loud enough, the whole neighborhood will hear you?"
He shook his head, merely offering her a fairly decent shrug, as he pulled back his lips to reveal a wide grin. "It wouldn't be wise though, would it? I'd take you, before you could utter a single breath, let alone cry your little lungs out. Of course, that's a pretty interesting theory in itself. Maybe if I rip them out, you'll die an even quicker death."
She charged him then, throwing herself entirely headfirst into his space, as she brought her arm back, executing a deep hit with the bottom of her palm, shoving it directly into his nose on full impact, hearing the sharp, intense crack of bone, as she regained her stance, fists prepared and directed outward once again. Clutching it with both hands, he let out a wild, almost barbaric yell, drops of blood already on their way to the pavement, as he pivoted to avoid a repetition, his eyes bulging, until they nearly felt ready to pour out of his head. His mouth had drawn back into a sharp sneer, a line of blood smoothly drawn across the top, as if painted there unintentionally, his fingers now covered in it, as he came after her of his own accord, his hair standing on end, letting the rage consume him.
Phoebe dodged him, jumping out of reach, watching as he nearly fell into the brick wall of the corner building, the close call nearly making complete work of his skull, as he whipped around, heaving a roudhouse kick in her direction, offering a low, piercing growl in his throat. She went down, clearly unanticipating the move, as she felt the wind being kicked out of her, her breaths coming in ragged gasps, as she fought to regain the air. "What's the matter?" she choked out. "Fall short on magic, did you?"
"I want to see you bleed," he hissed. "And when I get a hold of you, I'm going to make sure-"
"No, see, I really think the lady wants to be left alone," a voice echoed in the dim streetlight, closely gathered amongst the shadows, as it calmly brought itself into full view, the lanky figure leaning himself against a tall, bright yellow lamp, his blues cloaked with danger.
"And who's this?" he choked out, laughing. "Your damn savior?"
"I don't have a savior," she snapped back. "But even if I did, I doubt he's going to be seeing anymore of you today." She angled herself, thrusting her entire upper body forward, as she moved her left foot. The arm shot out directly in front of his ribs, blindsiding him, as she kept her other hand at bay, finishing out with a tricky kick beneath the worn boots he wore, knocking him flat on his butt, as he rapidly withdrew himself to the open ribcage where bones had already cracked and sliced him open from the inside. His eyes became glassy in their texture, as they inched back into his head, unconsciousness filtering in to claim the damage as its own. His body lay completely limp, defenseless and open to contact.
Dusting her hands off from the day's work, she reclaimed her bag upon the stone walkway, throwing it nonchalantly over her shoulder.
"I don't mean to pry, but-"
"Look, I can take care of myself, okay?"
"Yeah, I more or less gathered that. Where'd you learn to fight like that?"
"Are you always this clichéd?"
He carefully spread his hands out, gesturing to her, as he smiled. "If you can't dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your bullsh-"
"Oh, the clever guy strikes again. Hats off to you, smartypants."
"Are you always so tough to get along with?"
"And you don't exactly have a project under your belt, so why should I care?"
"Yeah, and I sensed that you were in trouble."
"You wha-"
"Is that Jake?"
"Jake...."
"Playing dumb really isn't your forte, is it?"
"Stalking is not an option. I'm going home now, if you don't mind, and I happen to have a very good-looking, gorgeous hunk of a man who cares a lot about me, waiting there for me. So when that creep regains consciousness, send me a card."
"Phoebe, wait."
"Why?"
"This-" He paused a moment, toying with the scruffy mass on his face, as his gaze saddened considerably, a deep pile of longing creeping into it, as he offered a prolonged sigh, tightly shutting his lids. "This may seem trivial to you, and that's understandable. But you have no idea what the hell you're doing with your life, or what you're throwing away, and I'm not going to have you-"
"You don't own me, Cole. And just so we're clear, I can make my own decisions just fine, thank you. So if you've still got stars in your eyes from swooning over that little act of me brushing up on my kickboxing, live with it, and move on. High school crushes are so yesterday."
He watched her start to walk away, her shoes narrowly missing a crack in the pavement, as she came close to losing her balance. "Then why can't you stop thinking about me?" he called after her, arms crossing the chest of his gray sweater, as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his lips twitching out of the slightest hint of amusement.
"I beg your pardon?" she returned, not bothering to look behind her.
"First you think I'm one of them, and then you don't want a Goddamn thing to do with me when you find out I'm not. But you can't tell me you haven't thought about me all day."
"Yeah, and why is that?"
"Because I know you too well. Maybe even better than you seem to think you know yourself."
"You don't know any-"
"I know that what you're going home to isn't some guy who's going to make you happy. I know that while you're busy trying to convince me you're not grateful I came here tonight, you can't seem to figure out what would've happened if that guy would've taken you down and destroyed everything you've worked hard for."
"What are you talking about?"
"Your powers might not make you now, but sooner or later you're going to get tired of forcing yourself to be someone you weren't meant to be."
"My powers...if I ever had any, wouldn't exactly make me the kind of woman Clay wants in his life, would they? They're not something any man would accept as a normal substitute for a normal life."
"And this Jake is going to come after you again. You do realize that, don't you?"
"So I'll deal with him," she said, finally facing him again, hands slanted roughly at her hips.
He studied her another moment, raising his brows slightly in a gesture of courtesy. "Could I at least walk you home then?"
She quietly pursed her lips, tilting her head to the side, as she considered. "Not exactly the best course of action, if you don't want to get beaten to a pulp by a pretty jealous guy."
"Point taken. But, be that as it may, I'd still love to take my chances."
"Look. Cole. I'm fine. Okay? Fine. There's nothing more you can do here tonight, and...and what you saw...whatever you think you saw, you're going to wake up tomorrow morning and forget it ever happened, alright? You're going to pretend you never even saw this."
"And I can't do that," he countered, taking a firm step toward her, his hands outstretched, as the shadows continued to play over his scruffy countenance.
"Why? I'm nothing to you. Despite what you may have thought or think, I'm nothing."
"You don't give yourself nearly enough credit," he noted calmly, a soft smile creeping up over the edges of his expression. "Let me walk you home."
"He's not going to come for me again. Not if he believes this creep executed the kill and did his job."
"Which still begs the question- why are they after you, and what have you done?"
"I didn't do anything," she uttered rather impatiently, hands set upon her hips, as a bout of anger fought to consume her. "Just because someone is after you for reasons unknown, people assume you did something to provoke that kind of attack. Well, I've got news for you, buddy, I did nothing of the sort. Nada. Zilch. Zero."
"In that case, did you ever hear of a restraining order?"
"Yeah. As a matter of fact, I'm about to get one on this tall, dark, and annoying guy who's following me around right now. Imagine that, hmm? He just won't go away."
"I'm only trying to-"
"So you keep claiming. And we'll keep the appointment, okay? Just dont....don't....you don't want to be in my life, Cole. There are obstacles at every corner, and frankly, I don't feel quite as chummy as I used to discussing them with people I barely know."
"But we're making progress, aren't me? I mean, in a nutshell?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Phoebe...."
"You tried to pick me up, in my own office. That's not progress, that's unwanted attention. As far as I'm concerned, any progress that was made was strictly in your hands. Are we clear on that? You initiated this, and merely dragged me into it for your own comfort zone."
"Did I?"
"You did," she stated bluntly, heaving a sigh.
"Then maybe I should just take the next big step and invite Marisa out for coffee tomorrow morning. I mean...if she's free and all." He appeared to contemplate it long and hard, glancing at her, just out of the corner of his eye, without becoming the slightest bit obvious. "Of course, that also means I can spring my idea upon her, and see where she goes with it. I know she'll probably be all too happy to snap at the drop of a hat on that one. And in the long run, you will therefore lose a potential client you could have had eating right out of the palm of your hand."
"So ask her out. What do I care? A few weeks from now, she won't even remember your name."
"See, I don't know about that. Because, with all things considered, I plan to make it one hell of a date."
"And I'm going to count to ten. When I get to ten, you'd better be gone, or else I'm going to-"
"Yeah, I can see it's going to be hard to win you over in this place too," he murmured softly.
"What place? What are you talking about?"
"Does it really matter anymore?" he asked her softly.
"What was the project you thought I might have an interest in?"
"Phoebe-"
"If it's all the same to you, I'd like to know," she volunteered.
"Get down."
"Huh?"
"Get down!" He shouted it now, as he threw out his hand, watching as a bolt of lightning cruised by him on a straight path, catching the assailant behind her dead center in his chest. The man screamed out, his cry literally blinding the air around him, as he exploded into an array of fog and fumes, disippating before her eyes, as a handful of ashes swirled into a still mass at her feet. She nervously shrugged off the dust that had caught itself conveniently on a single shoe, taking a quick step back, her breath literally catching in her throat.
She didn't have words. No. Maybe words were pretty much useless right about now, and the only thing she was looking forward to was getting that single ounce of sanity back intact. Pressing a slender hand to her heart, she gazed at him, her eyes torn between suspicion and trust, as her mouth formed an appearance of surprise, her heart hammering a mile a minute in her chest. "How..." She took in a gulp of air, trying hard to calm herself once again. "How did you know he was back there?"
"The same reason I knew you were already in trouble tonight. Now...if I'm right about you, you would have found a way to fight back. Yet the only thing I've seen you use are your fists."
"Yeah, well, the news bulletin clearly states they're much more active than my powers, okay?"
"And you still figure that if you even try and use them, it'll make you what you were before."
"I have to go," she whispered, raising her chin slightly in an attempted act of failed bravery.
"You should watch your back," he advised. "You never know who's going to be lurking in the dark."
"We have enough darkness in all of us to compensate for the fact," she stated mildly.
"You really think so?" He took a few steps towards her then, inching himself directly in front of her, until their feet nearly bumped. A small smile has etched itself about his handsome features, as he laughed ever so slightly. "I'd like to think I overcame mine because of you. But then again, you always made me get that redemption without even trying. You loved me once," he continued. "Not that I ever truly wanted it from the beginning. But you loved once. And a short time later? I found myself falling just as deeply for you."
"What I am to you-" she placed her hands out, shrugging, the palms extended to him in pure bafflement. "Is someone you've only just meant. I'm sorry I don't have the answers you're looking for, but I...God help me, I wouldn't mind doing business with you, if you're really as good as you say you are. Strictly professional business, and we'll discuss that tomorrow when you stop by my office. Besides, I can't let Marisa just scoop you up, when you could just prove to be the deal of a lifetime."
"Are you asking me out, or are we just doing lunch?"
"Neither," she added, smiling in spite of herself. "You saved me tonight though. I...don't know what it is about you-" She shot him one last lingering look, before she turned around once more, regathering her composure. "But you saved me. Cole Turner."
"Third times the charm," he inquired hopefully.
"Are you hitting on me again?"
"Is it that noticeable?"
"Who are you kidding?" But she threw him a single wave, hiding another grin, as she put a hand to her lips, heading out of sight.
"Maybe you'll even find out who you are again," he whispered more to himself than to her, as he watched her round a corner, a heart shattering look tripping up his blues, as he fought to gain his own sense of self back. He meant it in more ways than one. Her identity had been erased because of a need to experience life at the fullest, and yet she'd been missing out on the best part of it. He frowned, his bottom lip overlapping the top, as he stuck his hands into the pockets of his jeans, mindlessly kicking at the conglomerations of pebbles that stood in her wake, his entire being aching to see her again. Soon.