Free Crystal and the Damned - Possession by Burggraf Audrey Page A

here….”
    She threw her arms around his neck, desperately hanging onto him, and he held her tightly. She let herself go, totally, completely. The Paladin tenderly caressed her hair and her back, sliding his fingers through the golden strands.
    “I’m sorry, little flower. You shouldn’t have to suffer all this drama. But I want you to know….” Falada gently detached himself from her and enclosed her face in his hands. He gazed at her with a deep and loving look. “I want you to know that I am here. I will always be here for you.”
    “But you don’t want me,” Crystal objected with difficulty. It was more than she could bear for the night. Not him too, not now. How many times did he have to break her heart ?
    Letting go of her, the Paladin clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth.
    “Would you stop, already ? Do people need to sleep together to love each other ? Does our relationship come down to that for you ? I care about you, I worry about you, I want to be there to protect you ; isn’t that enough for you ?”
    Crystal breathed heavily. No, it wasn’t enough. She would have yelled it at him if she had had the strength. She loved him, and being his friend would never be enough. But after her confrontation with Prince Dimitri, she no longer had thecourage to fight. She just wanted a reassuring shoulder, and Falada’s shoulder was the only one she wanted.
    “Fine, let’s be friends. But you will never make me believe that there is nothing more between us.”
    “Crys, that’s not what’s most important…” the Paladin quarreled ; then, more gently, “Look, this is a horrible moment, and I don’t want to argue at a time like this.”
    “A time like this ? Wait… what are you talking about ?”
    Falada’s eyes filled with gravity.
    “About Sybil. What else would I be talking about ?”
    “Sybil ? What’s the matter with her – is she depressed again ?”
    “She’s dead,” announced the Paladin, more bluntly than he would have preferred.
    Crystal reeled as if she had just received a blow to the head.
    “What ?”
    “Sybil committed suicide. Because of what happened to her daughter, because of the abductions of children that have started again, because she couldn’t do anything about them. She shut herself in her room, saying that she wanted to rest. We found her half an hour ago. Too late. She slit her wrists.”
    Crystal remained petrified. The world collapsed around her. Vertigo filled her. Nothingness. She put her hand to her lips.
    “Oh my God….”
    Falada lowered his head, then warily put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her toward the white living room. She let herself be led as easily as a robot. On the way, her Paladin was unable to spare her the coarse, dreary vision of Sybil’s body spread out on the bed, a bloodbath, her flesh slashed from her wrists to her elbows.
    The young woman screamed and he hid her against his body, forcing her head against his neck with one hand, guarding her from the reality of this desperate and useless suicide. The Paladines surrounded them. Crystal did not hear them, just a buzzing noise. The world seemed to lose its consistency. Death. But in that nothingness, Falada held her.
    Delicately a hand detached her from the Paladin.
    Her chin trembling, Crystal regretfully abandoned Falada’s chest and opened her eyes. I don’t want to see. I don’t want to know . It was Cornelia who held her hand. The Paladine’s face was marked with sadness. She seemed almost old.
    “Sweetie, your father just arrived. He’s waiting for you in the living room, come on.”
    “My father ? But…” she started in a hushed voice. Then she shrugged her shoulders and let herself be led off by her friend. After all, the All Powerful coming was rather predictable. The girls had always told Crystal that her father never left the island. He had not even come looking for her when she was still human. But then again, how many of his Paladines