Worth The Price To Live

Ashley immediately dropped to his knees, ripping off his shirt and pressing it to the wound in hopes of stemming the gushing flow of blood. "No, Andy, no. You can't do this to me. You can't-"
Ashley broke off as a pair of familiarly tattooed arms crossed into his line of vision, hands taking the blood soaked rag. "Go," Jinxx insisted. "I've got him. Go."
Despite his reluctance, Ashely turned and fled through the open doorway, hoping his superior speed would allow him to gain some ground on his brother. Being smaller and lighter than Holton, Ashley was always faster. That, and he spent much of his adolescence running away from his older brother, who had a tendency to be cruel even then.
Ashley rushed forward, wings tucked tight to his back, feet pounding hard on the earth below. He caught sight of the other vampire's deep red wing tips flickering between dark green foliage. Just as he burst through the tree line into the clearing, Ashley saw his brother kicking off the ground.
In a moment of fleeting desperation, Ashley threw himself out into the clearing. His outstretched hand just managed to clasp around an ankle, and he flared his wings open behind himself for strength and balance as he flung the other vampire to the dirt. He launched himself forward, landing atop his brother, knee pressing hard into chest. "You were always slower than me," Ashley growled, hands moving for Holton's throat.
A red gleam flashed through the older man's eyes as he brought a knee up under his brother, shoving with all his might to launch the smaller man off of him. "But you have always been weaker, little brother."
"That was before!" And Ashley launched himself into the air with a hard kick to the earth, then, stretching one wing and pulling the other tight to his side, tilted himself downward toward his brother.
Holton launched himself up in kind, angling upward and grabbing for the younger vampire's arm. Using his wings for leverage, Holton managed to reverse Ashley's trajectory, sending him crashing into the trees before landing with light footsteps back in the clearing. "Some things never change," he goaded.
Ashley pushed himself up from the ground, hands flying to his hip as he stumbled forward. In a flash, he drew the wooden sword, its surface so polished it gleamed in the moonlight. "Everything has changed," he panted.
The rogue's red eyes flashed slightly darker in fear. "You wouldn't-"
An empty, hollow laugh bubbled up from Ashley's chest. "I think you have already proven there is NOTHING a vampire who's lost his mate won't do." That was the moment Ashely felt it - the empty cold that rushed through his veins as the half of his soul that was Andy faded away. He took a few slow, deliberate steps forward, lightly flicking the sword backward in a circular motion as he raised an arm to point it, much like a javelin, over his head and towards his brother.
"C-come on now, little brother. Let's t-talk about this." Holton's hands raised up before him in defensive surrender.
"There's nothing to talk about," Ashley spat. "My mate is dead BECAUSE OF YOU!" He launched forward, stabbing the sword out ahead of himself.
With a panicked squawk, Holton hit the ground, rolling aside. But the blade managed to catch his right wing, tearing through the soft, velvety skin. Dark blood splattered the dried leaves under their feet. "P-please brother. Have mercy on me."
"Like you had mercy on my mate? Should I let you say goodbye?" Ashley swung the blade downward, catching Holton's shirt, but nothing else. "There's no one left for you to say goodbye to." Another fruitless swing. "Ana's dead." Swing. "Mom and dad won't have you." Swing. "The council has disclaimed you." Swing.
This time, the blade found its target, slashing open the rogue's throat. Ashley tossed the sword aside and knelt down, catching his brother's falling body. "And I just killed you." The statement was filled with more hatred and pain than Ashley ever thought himself capable of feeling.
Holton's eyes flared once more in realization, then slowly, the color drained away. Blood poured out of his wound, staining his white shirt crimson, soaking Ashley's arms and bare chest, splattering sickeningly against the leaf covered earth.
"I just killed you," Ashley repeated, this time, in almost a whisper, as if he couldn't believe what he'd done. He collapsed the rest of the way to the ground, hip colliding painfully with a sharp rock. But Ashley didn't notice. He just clung to his brother's limp body, hands fisting in blood soaked cotton as his own tears joined the mixture of blood and sweat that collected on skin.
oOo
Jinxx felt the Prophet's life force fade. He glanced, panicked, up at the figure he had brought back with him. "He's almost gone."
A tall, lanky man with tanned skin and dark hair tied back with a bandana slowly crept from the shadows. He shuffled hesitantly towards Andy's limp figure.
"It's alright, CC, come on," Jinxx softly encouraged the band's new drummer.
The lanky form of CC slowly lowered himself to the floor beside the guitarist. "Not yet," he whispered in a hesitating tone, hand hovering shaking over Jinxx's. "When his heart stops, we will have seven minutes. Six for you to repair his body. One for me to replace his soul."
Jinxx nodded. "Still a pulse going, but it's weak. Can you touch his heart? Tell me when it stops..."
CC nodded, understanding the other man's reluctance to finish the sentence. He placed his deep tanned hands against Andy's crimson stained porcelain chest. The muscles fluttered slightly beneath his touch. Focusing hard, CC extended the reach of his power into the Prophet, letting its blackness wrap around the still beating heart. But unlike the last time CC had done this, he did not constrict the black hold around Andy's life force. Instead, it simply surrounded the organ, monitoring the strained, half empty heartbeats as they slowed.
Jinxx watched the new member of their group carefully. He knew what the boy was capable of. He knew just how easily this could go badly. But he held his breath, hopeful that CC had as much control over his powers as he claimed.
"You can start, now," CC's tentative voice insisted. The taller man began wrapping Andy's heart tighter in his magic, then shot a bit of it out at the escaping white wisp of Andy's soul.
As much as Jinxx wanted to watch the black force clinging to the Prophet's existence, he only had so much time. Taking a steadying breath, he removed the blood soaked t-shirt from Andy's throat. Blood no longer gushed from the singer's open veins. It was disconcerting, but at the least, Jinxx could see to work. He began slowly weaving the veins, muscle, tendon, and skin back together across Andy's neck. His magic made the tissue crawl in ways that made Jinxx want to scratch at his own throat in discomfort. He moved painstakingly slow when he got to the pharanex, knowing if he didn't get that put back just right, it would ruin Andy's career as a vocalist. As well as the rest of the band, as it would put them out of a front man.
"Two minutes," CC warned. He'd managed to subdue the struggling, silvery white wisp of Andy's soul. Black energy danced around the white, darting about chaoticly, which seemed to be the main reason Andy's soul had given in to capture.
Jinxx hurriedly pieced together the last edges of skin over Andy's throat. His fingertips danced lightly over the new skin, sealing over imperfections to ensure that a scar would no be visible. That was a scar not so easily explained to fans. "Okay," he said with a nod after one last thorough check of the rebuilt neck. "Do it."
CC settled his trembling hands on Andy's chest, drawing his energy downward and dragging Andy's soul along with it.
"Wait!" The guitarist caught CC's eyes. "You've done this before, right?"
The drummer nodded, but he didn't dare speak. Jinxx didn't need to know that it had been years since he'd last done this. Nor was it relevant that the only reason he did so was for a chance to kill the man, again.
"Okay, okay, go on..."
The cloud of black magic slowly seeped down into Andy's chest. For a brief moment, the white wisp of his soul resisted, not wanting to be trapped again. But after a slight prod from CC's magic, it sunk back down into its host.
With a slight squeeze of magic around Andy's heart, CC withdrew, standing and backing himself into the dark corner once again.
A shuddering, gasping breath wracked the singer's long, slender body. He shook as if from the cold, then his eyes flew open. "Ashley!" Panic flickered in his eyes as he tried to get up.
"Easy there, kid," Jinxx insisted, pressing a hand to Andy's blood stained chest and pushing him back down. "You just died. Give your body a second to catch up. Get the blood flowing proper."
Andy turned a pair of fierce, angry eyes on his Mystic. "I can no longer feel my mate," he said in a cold, dead voice. "So you are going to let me get up and go find him."
Jinxx sighed, but settled back against the wall. "Whatever, kid." He was too exhausted to fight.
Andy stood, thin body swaying with the effort.
"CC, why don't you go with him...just in case."
The drummer emerged from the shadows again. He pulled a long silver dagger from his hip, black energy swirling around the shining blade. "I don't know what we're walking into. If it's Ashley or...the other one..."
Andy nodded, and set off, not bothering to see if the new drummer was following. He walked at a brisk pace, as that was all his body could keep up with. The treck out to the clearing seemed to take an eternity. He didn't know what he was expecting to find. He hoped to all the gods that Ashley was still alive. He couldn't imagine a life without him.
Finally, the trees broke open into a clearing. The first thing Andy noticed was the sword, covered in blood and laying at his feet. He stepped over it with a nervous swallow. Then he saw it. Across the clearing, almost in the tree line, were two bodies huddled close together. He broke into a run. "Ash!" he called, bulleting forward as fast as his abused body could carry him.
The vampire didn't move. He pulled his brother's body in tighter, mentally begging death to just take him, already. But then he felt a familiar, slim hand on his shoulder. He looked up, tears tracing paths down his face through the dirt and blood that had collected there in the fight. "A-Andy?"
The Prophet offered a sad smile, settling against the base of a thick tree and pulling his beloved to his chest. "Yes, baby. It's me. It's okay."
"But...but how?"
Andy smirked. "Apparently our new drummer is a Destroyer."
The words didn't process at first. "A what?"
Then CC was standing protectively over the pair, black energy swarming around his arms up to the elbow. He had sheathed his blade, and now just stood watch.
"Oh." Ashley was quiet a moment, and then, "Jake is gonna have a fit."
Andy laughed, shakily, and pulled Ashley harder against himself. "It's gonna be okay, Ashes."
Reluctantly, Ashley released his brother's limp form. "He's better, now. He's with Ana..."
"I know, love," Andy whispered, tucking a bit of bloodied hair behind his mate's ear. "I know."

Notes

So that's the end of this story. Hope you all have enjoyed it. I do plan on writing an immediate sequel but also I have a bunch more stories in this universe to work on. Also I need a minute to recover from all the emotions in this one. Anyways until my next story, so long!