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Alexio
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When I followed Talia and the king and queen onto the beach, I never thought for one moment that anything that had happened recently would come back to haunt me. I didn't think that something that seemed so innocuous would end up being so important.
It was just a dream. It was just a nightmare that Talia had had the other night. It wasn't anything to be worried about. I couldn't have known. I couldn't have predicted this. I couldn't. And yet, I should have. I should have seen this coming. Nothing should be taken at face value when you are protecting someone that is as special and powerful as Talia Serene Gray.
For eleven years I have guarded her. For eleven years I have watched her grow and develop her powers. I know better than almost anyone what she is capable of. I should not have pushed off that dream as just a dream. I should have looked into it. I should have made sure that there was no way that it was real. Not with how much detail that Talia had told me was in the dream.
Talia had not gone into detail about what she had seen. She had used vague wording to tell me that it was a crime scene, very much like the ones that we had been to dozens of times before. I, like her, thought that it was just an echo of the trauma she had suffered from seeing all of those images.
.....
Had I known, for just one moment, that it was more than just a dream I would have done what I could. I would have tried to save that girl. Not just for her. Not just so that someone wouldn't have had to die. But for Talia too. I would have done what I could to make sure Talia didn't have to suffer from this emotional trauma.
Does that make me a bad man? Does putting my future queen above the welfare of the dead woman make me somehow evil? Well, if it did, then I didn't care. Talia was what mattered to me. She was the one that I was sworn to serve and to protect. And that meant that I would worry about her safety, mental, emotional and physical, before I worried about anyone else's.
When I got back to the SUV with Talia in my arms, I opened the back door and slid in with her on my lap. She was like a little kid again. I was holding her and comforting her like I used to do when she was five, six, and seven years old. That was around the age that she stopped showing that much emotion. That was the year that she said she was going to grow up and be an adult so that she didn't get scared or sad anymore. She has always been a strong person, but she just has such a big heart that she needs to hide it from the world.
“Talia?” I called out to her as I rubbed her back.
“I could have saved her, Lex.” She was still crying, but it was quiet and soft now. She wasn't sobbing like she had been earlier.
“Did you know where the dream took place?” I asked her. “Did you know it was here in Waterton, California?” She had not mentioned that to me before. If she did know, I was sure that she would have known that it was not just a dream.
“No. But I knew that it was in the States somewhere. I didn't know where, though.” She admitted this in a weak voice.
“Then, how could you have stopped it, Talia?” I would have helped her stop this, if I could have. But I didn't want her to blame herself because she wasn't able to.
“I could have looked for her. I could have tried to find her. I could have tried.” She was crying a little harder now.
“Listen to me Talia.” I made her sit up and look at me directly. I made her pay attention to me. “You didn't know that it was real. You didn't know where the girl was. You didn't know anything at all about what was going to happen. You could not have stopped it. And I need you to stop blaming yourself.” I was half scolding her and half consoling her. She needed to know that this was not her fault, but she wouldn't accept it if I wasn't firm with my words.
“But, Lex.” She shifted on my lap so that she could look at me better. “I should have known. It was different from the other murders. I should have known that it wasn't a memory of the old ones.”
“You still wouldn't have been able to stop it.” I put my hands on her shoulders and stared into her eyes. The way that she was sitting, she was not much shorter than me. And it also didn't help that my knees were bent enough that she was raised compared to what she would have been otherwise.
“I can't, Lex. I can't just let it go.” I saw her eyes start to darken, the water glistening in them as she was starting to cry again.
“Talia, you are strong, you are powerful, you are a queen and a goddess. You are so many different things Talia, but that does not mean that you can do everything. You have to rely on others. And you have to know when things are beyond hope and when they are not your fault. You didn't do anything wrong. You didn't have anything to do with that girl being killed. Stop blaming yourself and just learn from this moving forward.” My voice was still firm but I was trying to help her as much as I could. I cared for her and her emotions more than I ever thought was possible. She was my best friend and my only constant companion. I hated seeing her like this.
“Thank you, Lex.” She finally conceded to me as she lowered her head. She leaned forward and rested herself on my shoulder. I felt like she was hugging me, taking some sort of warmth or comfort from me. That was also when I noticed the way that we were sitting.
Yeah, I would say that it was a good thing that her parents weren't here right now. With her straddling my lap and resting her head on my shoulder, we were way too close and intimate for comfort. Well, their comfort. I didn't care since I was charged with protecting her. I was never going to hurt Talia. Not now, and not ever.
It took a few more moments for her to calm down. When she did, she shifted and started to climb off of my lap. That was a little better, all things considered. She was sitting on her own at least, so when the others came back, they wouldn't think that I was doing something wrong. I never would do anything like that to Talia. She was my Queen. That would be wrong of me to even consider.
“Talia.” I called out to her again now that she was no longer feeling as emotional as she had been.
“Yes, Lex?” She turned to look up at me.
“We need to go to the morgue soon. You need to release that girl from her body. You know how they suffer when they are trapped.” I was reminding her of the next steps. It would be better to do that here and now while we were alone. If she were to get upset again, then I would be able to calm her down before the others came back.
“I know.” She nodded at me. She didn't argue. She didn't say anything to oppose it. She just rested her head on my arm and looked out the window. “I will help her. And I will help them all. It is something that only I can do after all. And I will never give up, Lex. I will never stop. Not until these people are caught and punished.”
“And how should they be punished?” I asked her, not sure if she had the conviction to say what I knew needed to be said.
“I have all of eternity to figure that out after they are executed.” She turned to look back at me with that carefully crafted mask that she wore when she was eight. When the voices in her head took on physical forms for her to see. This was the look that she said made her an adult. This was the look of her anger personified.
“That is a good way to put it, Talia.” She was right, though. Once she became the ruler of the underworld, then she would be able to make sure that these people got their punishment to its fullest. She would be able to see to that personally. And knowing how much she was suffering right now, I knew that she was not going to let these people off easily.
It was a little while longer before the others came back. They had been investigating the scene of the crime before it was time for us to head over to the morgue. Even if that wasn't where they were planning on going next, it was where Talia and I were going to make them go. This was important. And I would make sure that Talia had that small amount of closure. She deserved at least that much. She deserved more, but that was all that I could offer her at this very moment.
