Chapter 18.

Ho ho ho! A little J+J background! I'd come up with tons of flashbacks but decided to go with the first time they met... mwahahaha!

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Pain, death, so thirsty… why won’t the thirst go away? It hurts! Things are blurry, she can’t seem to be able to focus. There are some screams in the distance, are they far away? They sound human. She wonders for a second about it but the pain comes back, it drowns her inside its black hole, she swings her arms, trying to swim out of the Bloodlust, but it’s no use. BLOOD! Suddenly, there’s blood. She opens her mouth, she must drink it, it will quench her thirst for a while, but not for long, sweet release, so fleeting and ephemeral, she wishes for a magical fountain of blood that never dries out… maybe there are things like that out there in the world, who knows? Anything is possible, now that she knows such nightmares as what she had become actually exist.
The blood she swallows soothes her pain, it engulfs her in the usual delirious euphoria, so good. It’s gone too quickly! No! The pain comes back doubled, it licks her insides like fire, it burns her. It must be the flames of Hell. Damnation is inside her now. This is Hell on Earth.
She must find more blood! But there’s something blocking her path, she kicks, what is it? Wood, stone? It feels so soft, it’s nothing to her, like walking through spider webs. She runs, the overpowering stench of death and decay that continues to surround her slowly decreases, maybe she should turn back, there’s no blood when the air becomes clean, she must go somewhere else.
The burning continues, it becomes all she knows, her skin burns now too, why? Why? Why must this happen? The pain is too unbearable, she drops on her knees. She looks up. It’s too bright. Is it morning? There’s something coming down to where she is, is it a figure? A man? Storms surround him, something starts to collect on her skin… snow?
It calms her… it’s cooling her… she closes her eyes… she lets the cold seep inside, maybe the man’s magic will put out the fires of hell burning inside her…

♥

Jack had long hair the first time Jime saw him falling from the sky. It was shiny silver and the way it moved around him made it seem like it had a life of its own, it was beautiful, she kind of envied him for it. Whenever they fought she used to grab it and yank him around by it, very dirty girl-fight, but it worked. Now though, it seems he finally learned, because he had it cut short since the last time they fought back at his club. Jime reached for it almost by natural reflex and grabbed air. Jack snorted. They continue to grapple with each other. Jack landed a hit on her shoulder, Jime twisted around and took hold of his hand, crushing the bone. A millisecond opening presented itself while Jime used her force on his hand, Jack took the chance to put his arm around her neck, locking her with his body.
The front seats they were fighting on suddenly collapsed and they fell backwards.
Jime kicked her legs out in an attempt to disentangle herself but Jack managed to get his wrapped around hers, Jime threw her fingers at Jack’s eyes, poking them viciously, he scream from the pain and his hold slackened a little, allowing her to once again twist around and while doing so she got on top of him, pinning him down.

♥♥

She was a vision, a red vision. While he descended, after his joke of a death in Asgard, he thought life on earth would be at the very least boring, but look what was waiting for him down there. A red woman. He wondered for a second if humans had changed since the last time he came into contact with them and somehow had become obsessed with painting themselves entirely in one color, but as he got closer to her he realized she was only covered in blood.
Old blood and new blood, she was also covered with bits and pieces of stuff -human clothing, human meat, human bones and the like- what was she? How intriguing.
He could now see her blood-shot black eyes, they seemed tormented, she was suffering from something, the pain radiating through, and somehow they were beautiful. She was also burning now that he looked closer, huh, maybe he could do something about it.
He casted a snow storm to surround her, ice forming in all the places where she had caught fire.

She closed her beautiful eyes, her expression reflecting some peace. He was glad.

She was now fully encased in ice, but she hadn’t died like a normal human would have, confirming the fact that she was something else. Her heart had slowed and she slumbered.

♥♥♥

The temperature inside his car had risen, Jime was always hot, literally too, and she always made everything rise. Jack chuckled to himself. That was she, still the red vision caught in fire, stirring things inside him. He wondered when she would finally realize she needed him to cool her. When his eyes (and his hand) came to normal once again he opened them to find himself staring at her face, this time she looked down at him, she was straddling him.

“I can’t say I’m disliking this much.” He rubbed his lower half against hers. Things always rose when next to her.

“You pig-” Jime used her knees for leverage to separate herself from him, but put too much force into it and ended up hitting her back against the roof of the car, which made her ricochet back on Jack’s body.
They both lost breath from the force of it, among other reasons. 

♥♥♥♥

“Give her to me.” He said, stepping closer to the woman in ice. These ants sure were impudent, did they think he was someone to trifle with? Humans or not, he would get what he wanted.

“No. She belongs to me. You interrupted something here, whoever you are…” The self-proclaimed King of Vampires started to wonder out loud with his annoyingly snide voice if this man was an ice elf of some sort, he certainly looked the part, too tall, too silver white, cold seemed to come out of him, and he had his set of bow and arrows strapped on his back; but he didn’t have the tell-tale physical signs like the long ears, then again he could be changing his appearance with glamour. He also didn’t seem faced at all to be surrounded by an army of vampires.

“Let us exchange goods.” Maybe a transaction was all that was needed here, he must remember that he couldn’t smite others anymore. But battling was always fun, so he was half-expecting the man to say no so he could shake his bones a little bit. Do some exercise.

“I doubt you have anything I could want.” The king made his move.

He growled, excited about the coming violence, the king seemed happy to have pissed off his opponent, the fool.

“I will take her by force then.” He thought this would end fairly quickly, such a shame, but a nice way to begin his life on earth.

The so-called vampires unsheathed their swords and other weapons while he screamed his battle cry. The king flashed to a near-by hill to watch the proceedings, coward. His army was taking a beating though, and he wasn’t even using his arrows. The king looked like he came to a decision and suddenly a new power emanated from him, connecting him to his lackeys. They dropped their weapons in unison and started to attack with inhuman force, they had grown claws that were obviously poisonous, and others seem to have plenty of different tricks up their magical sleeves.

He was thrown off guard for a few moments, he didn’t have all his powers anymore, and now these vampires were using powers he didn’t know about. A twist, how entertaining. They were still flesh and bone though. The gruesome fighting continued, but he was careful to direct it away from the woman in ice, he didn’t want to break her.
After a while the vampire numbers dwindled, while he remained. Like always.

“Stop.” The king said, flashing back into the battle field.

The vampires froze in place while he walked to stand in front of him. What an arrogant bastard, he wondered how he controlled his lackeys like puppets.

“I see you have much power. You are good in a fight.” He caressed his chin while he seemed to ponder, what an ass. “I have decided we can come to an arrangement. If you join my group, you can have all the time you want with the woman, her name is Jimena by the way and she also belongs to my group. I will not get in your way if you wish to be with her.”

There were many things the king wasn’t saying, it was clear. Some of the soldiers had weird expressions on their faces when they heard this deal, a few from the group that was the toughest looked pained, a couple disgusted, and one looked at him with murderous eyes. This was all very interesting, he was intrigued and desired to learn more about them all, but most of all about Jimena. He made his decision.

“Fine.”

The king extended his hand for him to shake. “You haven’t told me your name.”

“Call me Jack.” He said.

♥♥♥♥♥

“Let go!” Jime yelled while Jack was doing everything in his power to keep her in a wrestling lock, in his arms. She always managed to get away from him, maybe this time- Jime concentrated her power and divided her body into bats, it was a difficult trick, her consciousness split into pieces that only her will power could bring back together, she hated to use this so soon after she discovered it, and now Jack would know she could do it, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

“What the hell?” Jack yelled while bats flapped all around him, trying to fly inside the car, screeching. They forced him to sit awkwardly in the back seat.
The black blurs seemed to regroup again in the front of the car and melted into Jime once more.

Jack and Jime looked at each other, in a stand-still.

“You always surprise me.” He half-smiled.

“You always underestimate me.” She half-smiled back.

They lunged at each other once again.

♥♥♥♥♥♥

She had been floating inside a white space, or so it seemed to her mind, the latest Bloodlust a thing of the past. Cold had her in its grip and it felt so soothing, like final peace. She had almost convinced herself that it was all finally over and she had actually died when heat started to sneak up into her soul. Bloodlust heat.

“No!” She couldn’t help but scream when she opened her eyes, the word coming out of her lips before she could stop it.
That was not smart, if the Bloodlust was back it meant she was still suffering the king’s latest punishment which meant she should not show signs of any weakness lest the king be near-by.

Yes, he was there, right in front of her, laughing out loud, of all the languages she had learned there wasn’t a single one that described the level of hate she felt for him. Her vision started to blur, signaling the Bloodlust’s commencement of insanity yet again, but before it took hold it suddenly stopped.

She was shocked, it was over? She couldn’t believe it, no punishment had lasted… how long had it been? 1 year was it? She could only be sure of the lucid times in between the crazy spells in the induced Bloodlust of the king’s making, but still, one year was too short a time. He usually liked to follow her path of destruction, reveling in the aftermaths, herding her to the places he wanted to destroy, it was all so funny to him he liked to have at least a few years of front-row seat entertainment. She had counted on that.
And this time… she had done everything so meticulously, had been so careful in her manipulating and setting things up…  she should have been able to get away from his power long enough to break the sire bond, the potion Sage had made working itself slowly into her system, powered by the Bloodlust, even her team had been sure it would work… but not enough time had passed! Her big plan had failed! Why did he break his Bloodlust so soon!
She noticed she was on her knees inside the king’s throne room, she looked up, searching for her team, she suddenly feared the king had wised up to her plan and had done something to them, and they were there, all in one piece, and they all looked defeated. Damn.
She focused her attention on the king, who was whispering something to a man standing next to him, she didn’t know this man. What was happening now?

The man was tall, had a swimmer’s body, lean muscles almost sculptured, he was attractive, very attractive. His coloring was white, too white, he wasn’t human, his long silver hair moved ethereally, it reminded her of something, as if she’d seen it before, it was mesmerizing. His face was hidden behind a full beard but she could tell he was gorgeous. It all was very masculine put together though, features that sounded feminine in writing looked manly on him, that kind of pissed her off, he suddenly looked right at her, gray eyes that seemed to hold storms inside them pierced her soul, what the hell?

The king spoke then. “His name is Jack, Jime. You two should get to know each other.”

“Over my dead body.”

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

“Stop it or-” Or he was going to embarrass himself, yet again.

Jime and Jack continued to wrestle, rubbing up and down against each other, they both acknowledged inwardly that this specific bout of fighting had turned into something else at some point, but they would never say so out loud. Never. Too much water under the bridge as people say, they had centuries of on-off love/hate push and pulls, and it had been almost impossible to even begin to clear the air between them, and after that one time when they had gotten together… and it all exploded in Jime’s face, she just didn’t want to go there. Jack, on the other hand, still didn’t understand what went wrong.

Mustang jack had other plans though.

While Jack and Jime started to get hot and heavy, mustang jack turned on the radio. Kylie Minogue’s (also known as Aphrodite) “Cupid Boy” started to play.

♫ If only you knew, I shimmer for you, oh the very thrill of it, I’m hooked on your line, under your spell, your love is king…  ♫

“Eh?” Jime was distracted from the fight for a second, Jack took advantage and pinned her down, silently thanking his honey-boo.

♫ So why don’t you thrill me like you did before? Why don’t you give me a little bit more? Why don’t you call me, start hittin’ me up? hittin’ me up, hittin’ me up… ♫

They stared at each other’s eyes, and the inevitable happened. They kissed.

♫ Cupid boy, when we touch, I’m in heaven in your arms, fire me up, they way you love, feels like heaven in your arms, sky rocket to Mars, straight through to your heart, every time we touch, I’m shoottin’ the stars,
Cupid Boy, when we touch, I’m in heaven… ♫

A long time had passed since the last time they did this, they were so involved in deeply kissing they missed how Mustang jack had found Suri and with super-sonic speed crashed through the wall of the place to get to her.

Suri gasped and was so shocked she didn’t have time to teleport away again, she was frozen sitting on the toilet she was in the middle of using.

Mustang jack’s roof disappeared, he catapulted Jack and Jime off of him using the seats and they landed inside the tub.

“What-?” Jack snarled.

They three of them looked at each other, speechless.