This was not the case and there was no passerby to lend a helping hand when the young man in question stumbled and fell, coming to rest face down and unmoving on the cold wet sidewalk the water pooling around the still form turning pink with the runoff of the unfortunate travelers life’s blood.

Across town another man waited for one whom would not return to his home this night, or perhaps any other.

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Jim Ellison stared listlessly out the balcony doors, watching the rain fall in sheets upon his city and fighting a growing sense of dread taking up residence in his stomach. His Guide, his lover was hours late arriving home. Blair had not called, had not answered Jim’s calls, no word and the Sentinel Protector was ready to begin the hunt for his missing Guide. The decision made Jim threw on his coat and set out in the rain in search of the one most precious to his soul.

The rain hit him like daggers of ice, boring through his clothing and skin to penetrate his bones. In that instant an image flashed before him that cooled his blood like the rain, in that moment he shared the pain of his Guide lover and he knew. Blair was dying. He was frightened and alone and…he was dying.

The Sentinel raged against his sight and ran to others seemingly blind through the pouring rain, but Jim knew where he was going. Knew to where he needed to be, but did not know if he would be there in time. His heart was heavy with the loss ere the event, he was feeling and seeing every experience that would be his over the next days as he identified the body that once held his life, laying cold, blue, dead on a metal table at the morgue, as he saw the looks of sympathy sent to him by those he called friend. He saw himself walking into the empty space he once called home, with no other following him past the threshold. He saw the funeral, the wake and after he saw the man he would become huddled in the middle of the bed they shared shaking as the tears of pain and grief fell. He saw them never stop, he saw that he would drown in them, the man on the bed did not care when death came for him. Jim knew he would die this night as well if he failed to reach his guide, it would only be a matter of time before his body caught up. A person with half a soul could not be of many years.

His sodden clothes did not slow him as he moved through the city streets, turning corners, running for all he was worth to the side of his fallen lover. Long minutes that the Sentinel was painfully aware of passed as he ran, trying desperately to bridge the distance between them until finally on a barely lit street, in a neighborhood that was no longer alive with anything but fear and hate, he came upon his guide.

The panther within him Roared its defiance at the sight and Jim was on his knees extending his senses to confirm that his lover lived, to confirm that he himself lived. He listened, he watched and he felt. There was life there and there was hope.

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The Sentinel watched his Guide’s restless sleep, taking in with sorrow the lines of pain that creased Blair’s forehead and wanting more than anything to ease his lover’s agony. He could not take away the physical representations of the brutal attack on his partner, but he could ease the troubled mind of the man in the bed before him. He could to that with a light caress of the battered face. He could do that with a whispered assurance. It was all he had to offer the life he was sworn to protect, the life, which he loved more than his own. In his heart he knew it was enough when his lover opened his eyes for a brief moment and smiled at him, when the hand he held within his own flexed its fingers around his in reassurance. The startling blue of Blair’s eyes spoke more to the Sentinel than words ever would and they told him that everything would be okay.

He believed, the panther purred deep within its throat and settled at the foot of the bed.

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Blair awoke to pain, the cuts to his arms, legs and chest throbbed in time with the beating of his heart. His head ached, his face hurt but the cold hand that had wrapped around his soul, preparing to rip it from his body was gone. He was safe. He was not alone dying on the street. His Sentinel had come for him, Blair had known he would and he had held death at bay until he could fight no longer. When his body finally gave in, he had known that Jim was by his side. He had watched death retreat, chased into the rain by a wolf and a panther.

Slowly he opened his eyes and rejoiced in the smile that greeted him. The man he loved like no other, staring at him with laser blue eyes and a smile that would light up a city, sitting at his bedside, eyes bright with unshed tears, holding onto his hand like an anchor and telling him in a voice thick with emotion that he loved him.

Yes, he was safe and he was loved. Death would have to wait for another day, many many years down the road to come for him. Blair Sandburg, Guide to a Sentinel, soul mate to James Ellison had a lot of living and loving yet to do.