The first three hospitals had gone by without a problem.

Thanks to Bethany, Stilas had added over two thousand Elementals to his collection. They stood on the roof of an abandoned mall as they cased the next target. A calm breeze pulled his attention in her direction. The afternoon air swatted at her hair, moving the dimming rays of sunlight in a hypnotic reflection. For a moment he forgot what they were doing until she held out her hand. He looked away as he passed the binoculars.

“Are you ready?” Bethany asked

Stilas nodded. He flexed his fingers. He hadn’t run across any Mages in the hospitals. That meant he had been using magic most of the day and hadn’t given himself a chance to recharge. He needed to find a Mage to drain or to take a nap, but there was only one more hospital. Then he would recharge.

The ledges around the roof weren’t tall enough to make a portal. To get out he would have to make a portal on the door in the middle of the roof. But it wasn’t time to leave just yet.

Stilas bent down and slammed his right hand into the concrete of the roof. Magic oozed off his tattoo and melted a hole the size of his hand. The magic stopped as he lifted his hand up and looked in the hole.

It was dark inside. Power was being diverted to areas that needed it. Specifically hospitals and military bases. Residential areas were next, but most of those were being forced to do without. Stores had none. There was no reason to waste electricity when there was a curfew that kept people in their homes. It hadn’t just been him that had begun hitting the hospitals and prisons. Humans had begun attacking them as soon as the military had been ordered to switch to nonlethal force. He had read the memo this morning while he had been in the second hospital.

“If only they knew.” Stilas thought as he called fire from the ring into his hand. He tossed the fireball through the hole and watched it roll across the top of an aisle of cereal boxes.

Stilas got up and walked fifty feet to his left and knelt down again. He was beginning to get into rhythm. After taking a few hours cautiously sealing the first hospital, Bethany had given him the idea to set a store on fire near the hospital they were about to hit. Then while all the soldiers were out checking on the fire, they would slip in and steal all the prisoners. The plan had worked wonderfully. The last two hospitals had been cleaned in less than an hour. The downside was that it was draining him faster than he had expected, but they were almost done, then they could hide until the fleet showed up tomorrow.

Stilas grinned as he tossed a fireball through the fourth hole. The fire was spreading by itself now. He was free to begin the second phase of the plan.

Stilas walked over to the door to the roof. A quick tug on the handle and the door swung open. He stepped to the right out of the way of the metal door. He could feel the heat from the fire on his face. Dim light flickered down the stairwell as the fire ate its way through the store toward its creator.

“This one is spreading faster than the others,” Bethany remarked from behind him

“Probably more flammable materials,” Stilas said. There were things he was starting to like about Earth. Doors were one of them. Doors around the rest of the universe slid back into the walls. That was a safety precaution. While in the wall the door would move in and out of the frame by a hair. It wasn’t much but that was enough that if you tried to create a portal in the doorframe the magic would disconnect quickly. On Earth there wasn’t that probable, swing the door out of the way and you had the perfect frame for a portal. Drawing the circle was only a rank three skill, but they still took magic to build. With minimal effort, he filled the doorframe with magic.

Blue film covered the opening. Once it had filled every crevice it snapped closed and changed from blue. The hot air coming from the other side of the door changed to cool hospital air. No longer was this a door to the store. In front of him was the hallway of the fifth floor of the hospital’s bed ward. Bethany walked through it with her pistol held ready. Stilas followed behind her. The portal closed behind him with a quiet snap.

“I’ve got the doors.” Bethany put on a pair of goggles as she ran over to the door behind them. She pointed the pistol at the door’s hinges. The pistol was turned down to a low setting for fusing metal. She traced the laser around the outside of the door, sealing it closed.

Stilas walked over to the first room and walked in. They had their routine down. Bethany sealed the doors to the stairs and the elevators while he marked the prisoners. It was a seamless operation. The soldiers were busy searching the fire next door and by the time that they realized that it was put out, he would be long gone.

Stilas rubbed the mark on the foreheads of the two men in the room then backed out of the room. Ten minutes later he was done with the first ten rooms. He paused at the elevators to admire Bethany’s work. She was fusing the middle of the steel-wrapped glass doors together. The elevator would still work, but it would take a saw to open the door. Or someone shattering the glass.

Stilas looked down the hallway on his way to the next room. Bethany was working on the last elevators at the far end of the hall. He was amazed at how she threw herself into the work. She really seemed to be driven to help him, even though there was nothing she was getting out of their partnership. On one hand, it puzzled him, but he was okay with that. There had been too many times that she could have killed him or sold him out. It went against everything that he had ever been taught, but he trusted her completely. He knew that he had only known her for a day, but being around her felt natural. He had heard of such relationships between people but had never dreamed he would feel such a bond with anyone. She completed him. He couldn’t imagine what life would be without her.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“You need to pick it up.” Bethany’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

Stilas realized that he had been standing in the doorway, lost in his thoughts. He turned around to look at Bethany’s blue eyes, “How long have you been standing there?”

“Not long.” Bethany pointed into the room, “Hurry up and do your thing. Those soldiers won’t be gone forever.”

“I want to ask you something.” Stilas shuffled his feet

“While you work.” Bethany pointed in the room again, “I really don’t want to shoot our way out of here.”

Stilas turned into the room, “Have you thought about what you’re going to do after the fleet lands?”

“I guessed I’d help you with whatever you’d be doing.” Bethany backed out of the room to glance down the hallway.

Stilas nodded as he marked the old Indian woman in front of him. “What if I told you that I was going to leave the Dark Legion after this?”

“Why would you do that?” Bethany asked, “What about making the Universe a safer place?”

“There are thousands of others that can fight.” Stilas marked the young blonde woman and walked out of the room. He stopped so he could look Bethany in the face, “When I’m with you, I don’t feel like I have to fight anymore.” He took her soft white hands in his scarred ones. “Being with you makes everything right.”

Bethany was taking short, shallow breaths. She squeezed his hands and smiled, “You make me feel safer than I’ve ever felt before.” She stood on her tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss.

Heat washed over Stilas as his breath escaped past his lips. He pulled back and stared into her blue eyes. The feeling was like nothing he had ever experienced. And he had been around for almost a century.

Bethany blushed as she backed up and looked at her feet. She brushed her red bangs behind her right ear, “I’m sorry.”

Stilas took both of her hands in his and pulled her close. “It’s okay.” He slid his hand up her arm and gently picked her chin up, so he could look into her eyes, “Do you trust me?”

Bethany nodded without making a sound.

Stilas reached down to the Indian woman’s arm. He took the IV needle out and pricked his left pointer finger. He held the needle out towards Bethany. She reached out and pricked her finger.

Stilas flipped over his right hand and smeared his blood over the power stone. He held his hand out to her.

“You already checked me for powers,” Bethany stammered, “You said I don’t have any.”

Stilas bit his lip. She thought he was double-checking so he would have an excuse to kill her. He turned his hand around, “Power stones are used for many things besides testing for power in the blood.” He held his hand back out to her, “Trust me.”

Bethany slowly reached out and smeared her finger across the stone.

Stilas closed his fingers over the stone in his palm. He had never used a power stone to test bonding, but it was a simple enough concept. Once two people had donated their blood to the stone magic was applied. The stone would act as a medium, mixing the blood. Since there were very few power stones, they were rarely used to test unions. Back before the days of the Dark Legion, the stones were used to find partners, and on rare occasions; to find a soul mate.

Stilas felt the magic working in his palm. He longed to know, but fear kept his fingers closed. Black would mean that the blood would not mix. White meant nothing, silver meant that the union would work, But gold, gold was what he was hoping to see. The thought terrified and excited him at the same time. A week ago he would have killed Bethany and never thought about it again. There was something about being on Earth that had changed him, something about being around her that had changed him.

He clenched his fist tightly but kept his eyes on hers.

“What are you doing?” Bethany asked in a soft whisper

Stilas took a deep breath. He turned his palm face up but kept his fingers over the stone.

“A power stone can do more than just reveal powers.” Stilas looked up at Bethany’s eyes, “Elves have no need for power stones. Our eyes reveal what powers we have.”

Bethany nodded, “What is it used for?”

“Unions.” Stilas bit his lip, “High Elves don’t get married like humans do. They bind their souls together.” He swallowed. The thought of such a thing would’ve turned his stomach a few days ago, but now he was anxiously hopeful that the stone would tell him that he had found the one person that would complete him.

“They bind their souls?”

“With magic.” Stilas said, “It strengthens the bond and enhances their fertility.” He grinned, “It also punishes infidelity with death.”

“That’s harsh.” Bethany said,

“Bloodlines must be kept pure.” Stilas answered, “After the banishing powers got diluted.” He looked down at his closed fist, “The strongest bloodlines are paired together from birth unless-“

“You don’t have love?” Bethany asked,

“Love is the only loophole.” Stilas couldn’t believe he was talking about rules that he hadn’t followed in decades. “Powerstones can find a soulmate. They can prove that it’s really love and not something else.”

“Whoa.” Bethany looked down at Stilas’ hand, “That’s what you’re checking?”

Stilas nodded.

“Whoa.”

Stilas twisted his wrist. His fingers were getting stiff and begged to be opened, but fear was keeping his hands closed. He felt something for Bethany, something he had never felt before. If he had been human then he would’ve taken time to see what happened. He wasn’t human, and he had magic. Now he had an answer in his hand and he couldn’t bring himself to let the answer out.

Bethany took his hand in both of hers. She pulled so close to him that he could feel her heart racing.

“It doesn’t matter what this stone says.” Bethany looked at Stilas, anticipation filling her eyes, “I’m not going anywhere.”

Stilas began to relax his grip. His fear melted as Bethany gently opened his hand. Gold light escaped from his hand, coloring the walls.

“What does that mean?” Bethany asked

Stilas dropped his hand, “Everything.”