The Darest Days

Aiden stood in the kitchen. He'd woken up once again before his alarm clock had gone off. It was still dark outside the window. The bright green lights of the clock on the oven declared it was nearly half past five. Ella, Marc, and Alani were awake as well. It didn't surprise Aiden, as they had all slept the previous day away.

Alani walked into the kitchen and Aiden smiled slightly. Her hair was sticking up at all odd angles and she wore a pair of old sweats and a t-shirt. She still looked incredibly beautiful. For a moment Aiden wondered why he didn't feel any pull of desire towards Alani. She was definitely gorgeous. She was kind and smart. Everything a guy could ask for in a girl.

But when he looked at her, all he saw was a sort of little sister. Sure it was a, incredibly attractive younger sister, but none the less he couldn't imagine her ever being anything more. He didn't think he could even stomach the thought of kissing her without it feeling vaguely like incest.

"Sylbie and Ryland should be here soon." Alani said as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

"Yeah, Ella said they were arriving around six."

Alani nodded and took a sip of the steaming liquid in her mug. "Are you excited or nervous?"

"Excuse me?"

Alani rolled her eyes. "We all knew you had a thing for her. It was pretty obvious. We all saw the looks and the way you watched her. Well, all of aside from Sylbie. I don't think she ever had a clue how you felt." She paused for another sip of coffee. "Which is really tragic seeing as she was just as in love with you as you were with her."

"I was not in love with Sylbie. I was protective of her." Aiden defended. Had it really been that obvious?

"Aiden, you were protective of me and you didn't look at me like you wanted to gobble me up like Ella's apple pie that you love so much."

"Ella does make great pie."

"Stop changing the subject!"

Aiden rolled his eyes. "Alani, Sylbie was like a best friend to me. I loved her in the same way I loved – love – you."

"I love you too Aiden. But you were head over heels for Sylbie. Even as a young teenager I could tell. There was a brief period around the time I hit puberty when I was incredibly jealous of her."

Aiden shook his head. He remembered the time the teenage Alani had declared her undying love for him in front of everyone. He had quickly been replaced for a very dream movie actor, whose name Aiden couldn't remember.

"I'm not discussing this with you Alani. Sylbie and I were never anything other than friends."

Alani shook her head. "Tell it to someone who believes you."

As she left the room, Aiden made his own cup of coffee. Not that he was tired, but he hoped that the caffeine would give him a little more energy. He had a bad feeling he was going to need it.

There was a knock on the door. Aiden stiffened as he heard Ella answer. The sound of a happy greeting was instantly taken over by Ella shouting. "What happened to you Sylbie? Get yourself in here right now. You look like you can barely stand. What are these bruises? What happened? Ryland Green Osmond what in the hell happened to my sweet girl?"

"Ella, I'm fine."

There it was. That voice. A voice so sweet, so incredibly light and quiet, that it was almost inaudible. It cut strait to Aiden's gut. She sounded weak.

With a deep breath, Aiden walked out of the kitchen and into the family room where everyone was now gathered. He stopped dead in his tracks. The woman sitting on the couch, flanked by Alani and Ella, was not the girl he remembered. She was still as tiny as ever. She'd never quite made it over five feet tall. Instead of the sharp angles or the body he'd remembered, she had soft looking dips and curves. Where her hair used to be short and strait, it now flowed down around her waist in the natural white blonde waves he'd always loved so much. It was her face though that shocked him. She still looked almost doll-like. It was uncanny how much she portrayed the porcelain dolls she'd collected as a child. From the pale ivory complexion, to the huge blue eyes and perfect cupids bow mouth, she looked like a toy. But there was a haunted expression in those baby blue eyes he'd once dreamed about.

She was bruised on every exposed part of her body. Angry purples and blues mixed with the perfect creamy skin tone. Aiden felt anger unlike anything he'd ever before encountered. He hid it.

"Aiden! Oh, it's good to see you son!"

Aiden jumped as he was enveloped in a hug from Ryland. Ryland had always been an affectionate person, even though he was one of the fiercest warriors Aiden had ever known. He relaxed and hugged the larger man back.

"Ryland, it's good to see you too." Aiden said. He meant it. He'd always been close to the older man. Even as a child. At times he'd wondered why Ryland couldn't be his guardian instead of Marc.

But Aiden couldn't think of anyone better than Marc to train him to use his element and how to fight, or Ella to teach him the ways and history of his people. He wouldn't have, couldn't have, asked for better guardians to suit his needs.

"Sylbie, let's get you upstairs and laying down baby." Ella was saying. Sylbie looked as if she were about to argue. Aiden walked over to the couch and picked up the tiny woman. She winced, but he merely held her tightly to keep her cracked ribs from moving.

"Hey, Aiden." She said quietly, her arms coming up to wrap around his neck.

"Hey yourself. What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into?" he asked. His heart was pounding. She weighed next to nothing.

"Demons." She whispered. "I couldn't take them."

Tears began to form in her gorgeous eyes, and Aiden cursed inside his head. He was helpless against a crying female. He suspected all me were.

"Don't cry Sylbie. No one would have expected you to be able to defeat them, being blindsided as you were."

Sylbie closed her eyes and nodded. He could tell she didn't believe him. She hadn't changed a bit. She was the same old Sylbie he remembered. She would undoubtedly blame herself for Amara's death. No one would be able to convince her that she was up against unbeatable odds.

Aiden walked into the room that Ella had set aside for Sylbie and laid her down on the bed. He sat down beside her, wishing he knew how to comfort her.

"Ella will be up her soon to make sure you are comfortable, and probably to bandage you up. Do you need anything?"

"A soda would be nice." Sylbie said.

Aiden couldn't help the grin that appeared on his face. "Same old Sylbie." He muttered and left her room to get her the drink.

Sylbie stared after Aiden as he left the room. Her heart was suddenly full with so many different emotions. He looked amazing. In the six years she'd gone without seeing him, he'd changed. He was more muscular than she remembered. When he'd carried her to the room, she'd felt muscles she didn't remember him having when they'd been younger. His dark hair was cut in a short buzzed style instead of the short ponytail she remembered. He didn't have that five o'clock shadow when they were younger either. It made him seem older, fiercer than before. His eyes were the same though, those amazing amber colored orbs that had always seemed to see into her very soul.

Oh but she'd loved him once. She'd been a fool to believe he'd loved her though. The last memory she had of him was the one where he tore out her heart and stomped on it, shattering it to pieces.

Seeing him now brought that heartbreak back to the surface. If she was honest with herself, she'd never gotten over him. It made her feel pathetic that after all this time, she still loved him. Or loved who he had once been.

Sylbie closed her eyes and sighed. She didn't even know if Aiden was the same person she remembered. He could have changed into someone completely different for all she knew.

He was still a gentleman. They way he'd carried her to her room and tried to calm her was something the old Aiden would have done, and had done, in the past. She remembered many instances when they'd been young when he'd carried her to her room when she'd been injured or upset. Aiden had been her best friend for her entire childhood.

It had completely broken her when he'd walked away from the love she was sure he reciprocated. He hadn't even given her a chance. He'd seemed to go out of his way to be cruel to her when she'd so foolishly confessed her feelings for him. Aiden had told her that love was a weak emotion that he would never feel. He had told her that, to love someone made you vulnerable, and that was dangerous.

Part of her hoped he was still the same Aiden she loved and had always admired. Another part of her hoped desperately he had changed and that her heart would see he wasn't the same boy she'd once known. Either way, Sylbie wished that she didn't still feel anything for him.

She looked up as her door opened and Ella walked in.

"Oh dear heart, what have you gotten yourself into my love?" the older woman sighed and walked over to the bed. "You look like you went a few rounds with a heavyweight and lost."

"No it was just a demon." Sylbie said with a small smile.

Ella had always made her feel comfortable. She was a mother figure to everyone who knew her. Amara had always been her maternal figure, the one she'd always looked up to and loved, but Ella had a special place in her heart.

"You poor baby. I wish you didn't have to go through any of this. It's so unfair that you had to watch Amara die. She was the best of us. It just shouldn't have happened." Ella said whipping a stray tear from her eye. "Now let's see what we can do to make you more comfortable."

Thirty minutes later, Sylbie had been wrapped, bandaged, and given enough pain medicine to knock out an elephant. She drifted off into a deep sleep, where thankfully, she didn't relive the nightmare that had been her life over the past few days.