You Can't Run From The Dark

{Part 16}

~Zaire~

The next day, Zaire was getting impatient as he sat at his usual table, struggling to read. He couldn't focus, because he was sure that the little doll should have shown up for work an hour ago. He was tired of waiting, and he was getting antsy - as were his shadows.

That's it!

Zaire decided that he was going to drive by her house. He didn't bother to put the book back before he exited the parlor room. But he stopped in his tracks when he saw Talon and Eon in the foyer. Talon's hand was wrapped around the Fae's throat in front of the podium, and the hostess was nowhere in sight. 

"Talon, I - " Eon's voice was barely able to scrape out from his constricted vocal cords.

"What's going on?" Zaire snapped, his hands clenching into fists.

Eon was unable to move his head, but his bulging eyes shot toward Zaire as Talon's glare sliced back and forth at both of them, before he hurled his crewman down the hallway.

"My office! NOW!"  Talon bellowed as Eon's body thudded to the floor.

Zaire could taste Talon's unbridled rage and Eon's terror as the three of them moved toward Talon's office. Eon was crawling feebly on his hands and knees, and Talon grabbed a fistful of the Fae's suit and dragged him the rest of the way. His other hand flicked at the air in front of his door, and it swung open. Once the two of them were over the threshold, Talon sent Eon flying at his marble desk, and it fractured under the weight of his body from the force with which he was thrown. Eon's glamour faded as he howled in agony. Zaire entered and slammed the door shut behind him. He had never seen his friend like this.

Talon was vibrating with fury, and his own glamour disintegrated as he glowered down at Eon. The male's writhing stopped abruptly and his body went limp when he lost consciousness. Talon's breaths raked in and out of his lips unevenly, as he tried to calm himself down enough to explain.

"I thought that there would be enough time," Talon panted raggedly, his cerulean eyes looking wild as he turned to face Zaire. Without Talon's glamour, his unmasked gaze emanated with their inhuman glow. "I needed you to figure it out for yourself."

Talon pulled his pocket watch out, hucked it at the floor, and stomped on it - shattering it to pieces. "Time has run out," Talon growled, his emotions becoming a jumbled mess that Zaire couldn't hope to discern. "I did it for your own good, Zaire. Please understand that." The desperation in Talon's plea shook Zaire to the core. 

"What the hell are you talking about?" Zaire shouted vehemently. "Is this about that fucking mortal?!"

"She is not just any  mortal!" Talon yelled, his hand held out in front of him with the palm facing up, like he was beseeching Zaire to take something indefinite that he was offering him. "Must you ignore the truth when it is staring you right in the face?"

"What is she, Talon? A halfling? A fucking shade? She's as mortal as your goddamn tap!" Zaire bit out in exasperation, referencing his bloodletting hostess - inches away from tossing Talon into his own desk, like he had with Eon a minute before.

Talon shook his head at him with utter disbelief written on his face.

"She is your mate." Talon's words stabbed through Zaire's chest like a sword.