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Deamon Queen Raven
“You can be the king, but watch the Queen conquer!”
“I am Raven of the Titans, Daughter of Trigon!” Her voice holding many echo’s, its sound in all frequencies, hearing and beyond.
Power tore out of Raven, she screamed. The land under her and the ocean before her screamed and trembled with her. Water shot up from the ocean, the palm and coconut tore as if uprooted, and every blade of glass stood on end.
Conner fell to his knees, Krypto whined softy. All around Damian and Raven their Team withered on the ground. Covering their ears, contorting, sobbing. Donna, Cassie from the Themyscira Institute, desendents of ancient Amazonian shadowhunters, their weapons lay dropped beside them.
Raven had reduced elite Angle blessed warriors, the Titans of their generations to crying out for their mommies.
At Raven’s feet a whirlwind of darkness coalesced, looking like obsidian made flame, keeping any who dared approach at bay. Selectively burning any and all monsters, just about sparing the nephelim. The flames surged higher spiraled, visible was a Stygian headband with black pearls, her hair was now braided, blowing in phantom winds that reached further than before. Covering most of the courtyard, steadily chasing monster who en mass retreated to the ocean shore.
Slowly, Raven frowned, tilted her head, then nodded. As if listening to some voice no one else could hear.
Black smoke curled from Raven, swirling around Damian’s body and her’s. Her long dark hair was now no longer a undone mess, but braided with threads of what looked like pure gold. She had piercing violet eyes, glowing with power, she wore no shadow hunter armour, instead a silky black dress adorned her figure with impressions that seemed to move in the obsidian fabric: animal shadows, black upon black, like creatures fleeing after spotting a predator in the dark.
Raven was always beautiful, in that moment Raven was out-worldly. She looked over the remaining deamons with a twinge of disapproval, as if they didn’t go with the image she had in mind. Her hands, ignited from within by icy radiance, moved back and forth with amazing grace, then in response all remaining deamons disintegrated.
Damian tried to push with a part of him that was Raven. Their love and connection. Standing beside her Damian touched her shoulder physically and reinforced their connection. To support, to ground Raven to reality. Damian had this fear that if he didn’t hold on, Raven would become one with the universe. Forever out of his reach. Never to be the warmth of his heart.
The deamons did not die and disappear only to reappear in hell. They were obliterated. One moment the beach was littered with creatures that moaned from near fatal injuries, disappearing, and dying. Suddenly they were all destroyed, utterly wipe out and the beach only held those of shadowhunter blood.
Raven smiled, magic radiated, warm and brilliant. It pulled me like a moth to a flame. It sought supplication. Worship.
This was not Raven. Gritting my teeth, uncaring to the damage to my jaw, I gave in. I gave in to Raven, my beloved. Flawed and wonderful for it. Not a cold goddess, but warm, alive as only a mortal can be and no less dangerous.
Water fell back into the ocean, the churning mess drenched them. No longer covered in blood and gore but salt water, sea weed and coral.
Raven frowned at their prone friends, as if not sure why they withered in red puddles ridden earth. The pressure died down, the unnatural shadows dissipating, leaving twilight and the deep blue of the shadow ocean before them. The shadow the the Institute felt comfortable and warm. The sky purple in the east and blood red in the west. They had survived. But the battle had taken better part of the previous night and most of today.
Not wanting to startle Raven, Damian stayed where he was, a warm and comforting presence, he hoped. Now that the beautiful fire had died down and the push push of magic all but receded, Damian’s heart quickened. Was this his Raven. Waiting for her to notice him as her eyes roamed their surroundings and reason filtered through.
”I will not be denied” she whispered, luminescence spent. Listing, trying to correct her posture.
Finally, Raven looked at Damian. Her eyes searching for wounds. Finding none, our stares connected. Raven smiled at him, her black flames had healed him. Damian in turn cautiously approached her.
“Raven?”
Her smile got brighter, losing all its out-worldly radiance. Damian caught his breath. Only his Raven remained. Utterly beautiful and precious to him.
She was gulping air in shallow breaths. I crouched by her. Raven looked totally spent. Still in that dress with a black delicate circlet at her brow, but Raven.
They had survived, but this attack had been coordinated and multi-pronged. The Titans got to them just in time, which tipped the balance but they didn’t know which other Institutes were targeted and what the deamons were after. That was a thought for later. Raven wasn’t doing so well. Their friends were coming too, just realising that the source of pain had stopped. Shifting and getting their bearings. The Thymascarians were the first to get up.
Raven fell to her knees and sank down, curling into me on the muddy ground. My arms the only thing holding her upright. So much power expelled to quickly. No trace of it remained.
“Raven” Damian breathed, her name a prayer, “are you, you?” he asked quietly.
“Damian”
The way she said my name made me want to claim her lips. Proclaim her mine, now and forever.
“I need to know where we stand.” Damian insistent, but resigned. “Are we okay? friends, on a first date, are we together?”
“We never did have our first date.” Raven smiled and closed her eyes. Going limp in my arms. Where I stayed, crouching on the ground, us intertwined till our friends found us.
*****************************
He knew the best thing he could do for her was to let her go. The Head of the Azarath Institute all but said so. But he didn’t want to. The Angle help him. But he couldn’t. Not now. Not yet. And maybe not ever. He cursed the selfishness of it, but he didn’t care. He just wasn’t ready to ever let her go. His Beloved, his lover, his closest confidant. He wasn’t ready for it to be over. The very thought was unbearable.
While all these thoughts raced through his mind, Raven lay there, fighting for her life. Memory surrounding her power exhaustion all but lost, and all Damian could do was listen to her heart beat and watch her breath.
Damian had known Raven for only three years, the last Institute before he went back to Nand Prabhat, then college, and yet it felt like a lifetime.
The Silent Brothers warned of Raven getting her memory too quickly. She had to take it easy, Cyborg insisted, his metallic red eyes had zeroed on Damian. What had he persevered from his sigil sight.
Besides temporary or permanent memory loss around the event, a few months here and there, but Cyborg assured them she’d wake up soon.
Raven needed to take a back seat and not be involved in anything too stimulating. No emotional highs and lows, the Silent Brother told them.
Where did that leave him? Raven loved him. She must. At the sight of him about to succumb, Raven had unleashed pure magic. Let go of all safety chains and tethers on her magic and transformed into her highest power potential.
That form, Cyborg warned them, was not compatible with her humanity. Nephelim were human, a type of human. Shadow hunters could conceive viable offspring with humans, nephelim blood always showed true. But in special cases, a faerie could sire a nephelim, wherein some of their kind's characteristics or attributes may manifest in the child. Damian had discovered, Raven was one such child. Trigon, Raven had called her supernatural parent. The power literally burning her soul out. After the power was done with her soul, what would be left the Silent Brother’s best guess was a soulless being full of pure magic and unfettered power.
If he stayed with his Raven, his Raven would be lost forever.
*********************
Sometime in the not so distant future:
His gaze wandered over her face, stopping at her mouth. He stared at her full lower lip and longed to run his thumb over it. His hand moved looking for a sketchpad, Damian folded his arms over his chest to keep control of them. He didn’t care to think that he might be hugging and just maybe comforting himself
He couldn’t believe she still had the power to stir him so. Even with as much as he’d tried to distance himself. And now all he could think about was being on top of her, inside of her. He dragged in a deep breath. He couldn’t let himself think about that, think about her again. It would open up the wound that had never truly healed. So he did the only thing he could think to do to protect his heart. He used arrogance and aloofness as a shield against her.
**********
The kiss started out soft, gentle, exploratory. Two lovers coming together after what felt like a lifetime apart. And yet, at the same time it felt like they’d never been apart. She clung to him, never wanting the kisses to end. Surrendering to his mouth, silently letting him know she wanted more!