Post by ShadaAntoinette on May 25, 2010 3:17:05 GMT -5
After Mandy's shift was over, she and Shada went out. It was late, but not too late to where none of the bars were open. Seeing as how Shada had drank at TerraBelle's, she was well on her way to getting hammered. Mandy, on the other hand, was on her way to tipsy yet. Still, they were enjoying themselves.
"I... I gotta curse on me... tha's why Ah look like dis.." Shada giggled, her tail wagging.
"Oh yea? Well, I still think it's cute." Mandy laughed, watching her wolfen friend curiously. She seemed to be able to tell that Shada was going to lay something important on her at some point.
"I gots another one too... my ex put one on me... I's s'pose ta screw him.. But I don't wanna. I don't wanna but he wants me too!" She squealed with laughter. "He thinks... he thinks I'm gonna let 'im but I's not gonna do it! Will ya help me? Huh? Will ya? If ya help me then I won't have to do him!" Shada took another long drink of the vodka she had in her glass and leaned heavily to one side. "Uh-ohs... I'm fallin'!" And then she literally fell off the bar stool and on to the floor with a bang. She squealed and tried to get up, laughing and dizzy at the same time.
"You okay?"
"I dunno... I can't get up!" Shada giggled, trying to sit up again. Her red hair had come loose from her ponytail to hang around her face. Mandy stared at her, trying not to laugh. "All right, all right. C'mon, I'll take you back to your hotel."
"I dun wanna go back to mah Inn. I wanna stay wit you!" Shada protested, positively drunk beyond compare. Mandy slid from her bar stool and helped the Xurenae woman from the floor.
"I'd love to have you over, but I don't think my boyfriend would like it if he saw a strange woman on our couch." Mandy replied, smiling. All of this hit Shada kinda hard, even in her drunken state.
"You have a boyfriend?" She asked, eyes wide.
"Yea, why wouldn't I?"
"I dunno, you just never mentioned him."
"I didn't? Huh, well now you know. Sorry about that." She didn't look sorry. It could have been the drunken haze she was in, or maybe the woman just wasn't sorry, Shada wasn't sure. Either way, it was enough for her to push the woman away from her and stand up on her own. She stood up to her full height and stretched, not looking at the woman in front of her. She raised her arms above her head, stretching out all of her muscles.
"Ah, I think I'm at my limit. I'll see you later, okay?" She was hurt but she wasn't going to show her that. Nope. Couldn't even do it.
"Are you sure you'll be alright, I can--"
"I'll be fine." Shada said. "Later." She Traced, leaving her friend behind.
When she got back to the Inn, Rhys was waiting for her.
"What happened?" He asked, seeing her face.
"I don't want to talk about it." Shada said with a sad sigh.
"She rejected you, didn't she?"
"Not exactly. She has a boyfriend, and I can't get in the way of that. I just can't." Rhys came to her side and laid a hand on her arm.
"It's not the end of the world, Majesty. There are others."
"I guess." Shada plopped down on the bed, which groaned under her weight. "It's not fair. All I wanted her to do was help me break this freaking curse. Why can't the Fates just appease me this once?"
"Perhaps it was done for a reason." He sat beside her and rubbed her shoulder muscles.
"Maybe. Still sucks though." She sighed and laid her chin against her chest. She knew what he was thinking and at this point, she just wanted to just get rid of Arnoz's charm and be done with it.
"So what are you going to do now?" He asked innocently enough. She lifted her head, her red hair falling around her shoulders again.
"Well, I'm still going to break this charm. I have no plans of finding Arnoz, or allowing him to touch me, sooo would you do the honors?" She was going to regret this... but as long as it did what it was supposed to, what the Hell?
"I would be glad to." He said, smiling at her. She cocked an eyebrow and watched him, to which he chuckled. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you, Majesty." He said. She closed her eyes tightly and a grin spread across her face.
"Oh, I have no worries about that." She giggled. "Do your worst."
And he did. At the height of passion, a loud ringing sounded in her ears, almost deafening, but as quickly as it came, it was gone and she was free. Lying there afterward, she was smiling. Not because she had enjoyed it, though she had, but because she had beaten Arnoz at his twisted game. She'd had the will to ignore him and his charm, and to take matters into her own hands... paws.
She giggled a bit and sighed, curling up into a ball and falling asleep.
She was awakened to the sound of glass breaking nearby her. Something hard and sharp hit her, sticking into her fur. Her eyes flashed open.
"What's going on?"
"What the FUCK is this?" Arnoz's voice had her sitting up straight in the bed.
"Arnoz, what are you doing in here?" She snapped, jerking the sheet around her body. She noticed there was glass on the bed. "And what did you do?"
"All I wanted you to do is consummate our marriage and you go and sleep with a demon!" He snarled back. "You fucking WHORE!" THAT got her up out of bed, not caring that she was naked anymore.
"Whore? Did you just call me a whore?" Her eyes were black now and her fangs were out. "What the Hell gives you the right to call me a whore? The fact that I refused to fuck you so that you put a charm on me to force me to do it?" She clenched her paws into fists.
"YOU SLEPT WITH THIS!" Arnoz shouted, pointing at Rhys, who was silent yet glaring at him, his usually pale gray skin darkening to obsidian again.
"Because I hate you! Because you tried to force me to fuck you! What about that don't you understand? I. Don't. Love. You! The only reason I married you was because I was honor-bound to do so! What the Hell makes you think I ever actually wanted to be with you? You want to know why I left after I killed Azazel?" She was breathing hard now and her hair was blowing around in a wind that didn't exist.
"Oh please enlighten me. Please tell some more lies that you think I'll believe." Arnoz gave her a dead glare.
"I hoped you were gone by the time I came back, but your stubborn ass wouldn't get the mother fucking hint! It took my mother dying for me to find a place far enough away from you, and yet you seem to follow me around anyway!" He began to laugh now, approaching her.
"Nightshade, you have no idea who you speak to, do you? I am the one who killed your father, your sister. I am the one who saved you from the filthy dungeons you were imprisoned in and I can send you back, if I choose to." He grabbed her arms suddenly, his face inches from her. "So I will forgive you this time, if you give in to me."
"Forgive me? Give in to you?" She spat back. "You can kiss my white wolfen ass, Arnoz! I'm not going to give you what you want!" His face darkened with rage.
"Then you give me no choice." He shoved her away from him, which made her trip over the bed and fall upon it, the base boards giving way beneath her.
"What are you going to do, rape me?" She snarled at him, her voice little more than a growl. "I'd like to see you try it."
"As would I." Rhys finally spoke up, his body almost literally burning.
"Oh no, that would be too easy." Arnoz cackled, rubbing his paws together. She didn't wait for him to finish. She rolled off the bed and spread her hands before her.
"Nightshade, what are you doing?" He warned, coming toward her, irritation in his eyes. "You better not be doing what I think you're doing..."
"I banish you to the lowest depths, may your soul be pilfered hourly by the demons of the Pit!" Her voice went deep and her eyes turned completely gold. Her body heated and she began to the see the heat waves.
"You have to stop, Majesty! It's not safe to do this!"
"Shut up you piece of trash! This is what I've been waiting for!" Arnoz's laugh cut through her senses.
"You waited for what? For me to snap at you?" She snarled at him.
"For you to show your true powers! I wanted them all along!" He reached for her, but she grabbed him and Traced from the room.
When she saw the park, she shoved him away from her, throwing him fifty feet from her.
"You want the power given to me by my Father, is that it? Is that the reason you wanted me? The reason you freed me from my prison?" She knew it was, it all made sense now. He wanted what she had, and had to push her to get it. She screamed, her body heat rising. She threw her head back and roared as her transformation began. In the back of her mind she thought Liir was taking over, but when she didn't feel the weightlessness of being only a spirit, she knew this was something different. The pain was staggering as she changed. Her fur melted in the heat her body had created. Her features took a more human quality to them; her muzzle shrank and became a nose and cheekbones again. Her paws became hands again, but her claws lengthened and sharpened. Her legs had kept their same basic anthro form, though her paws melted and became big, cloven hooves. Her tail elongated and a six inch, solid bone blade stretched from it. Wings stretched from her back and opened fully to a ten foot wing span. All of her muscles stretched and her form filled out, curving in all the right places. She roared again and clutched her head again as horns pierced though her skin and grew up over her head, curling back as Liir's had done. Her ears went back to their human form, but stretched again to become more elven in appearance, just under her horns. Her hair burst into a living flame and her transformation was complete. She stood up straight, marvelling in the way she looked now. It was like nothing she had ever seen, but somehow she knew this was who she was inside, who she was supposed to be. She started to laugh, wickedly, stretching her claws, whipping her bladed tail, stretching her wings. Ah, this was glorious!
Things started to come to her then. Her name, who she was, what she was meant to do, everything. As her golden eyes met Arnoz's she saw a bit of appreciation reflected there.
"You would gawk at me, Arnoz? Have you no shame?" She growled at him, taking a step toward him. She now towered over him a good four feet and her tail thwapped the ground hard enough to leave deep, charred marks.
"I need none. My plans have finally come to fruition. A pity you took forever to allow them to do so, but that is no matter. I will have your powers and you, you will be dead!" He declared. She laughed which made the trees shake.
"You speak as if you know what is going to happen, Arnoz. You don't know a thing. You are a fool if you think I'm going to allow this." She did an abrupt turn and slammed him with her tail, sending him flying away from her. She heard him land with a harsh thud and grinned widely. Oh, she hadn't had this much fun in a long time! She sensed Rhys appearing at her side, his small form dark against the light she was giving off. "A pity Father isn't hear to watch this." She mused.
"You have to stop, you weren't supposed to transform on the Mortal Plane! You're upsetting the balance!!" He screamed at her.
"Silence, you. He wants my power and he will have a taste. He will never be able to kill me, I don't see a reason not to have my fun whilst on this Plane of Existence.. if you could call it that." She laughed again as she saw him coming, bracing herself on her hooves. "Bring it, Arnoz. You killed my Father, didn't you? Show me the Power you showed him!" He did something with his paws, which made the earth split beneath her hooves. One of them got stuck, throwing her off balance. She stumbled a bit but recovered in time to catch his next attack. His fist connected solidly with her face, and she kicked him away at the same time.
"Majesty, you can't keep this up, what if the Elders..."
"I said silence, Rhys. And I don't give a damn about the Elders. None rules over me!" She snapped, resetting her jaw with a strong crack. Arnoz had a blade, and she had to watch, lest she get gored with it or something. She dodged him, fast despite her size. The ground where she'd stood smoked from her body heat and she could see twin hoof impressions there. She had made her mark upon the Mortal World. In her distraction, Arnoz ripped his blade across her abdomen, which left a burning laceration there. She roared in fury and dove at him, whipping him with her tail again.
"You'll pay for that, creature!" She snarled, diving at him. He moved deftly, which made her hit the ground, roll and get back up, circling him.
"Hetu-Ahin... for all the hype about you, you're pretty weak. A true Goddess would never have allowed me to cut her. A true Goddess would have smited me a long time ago." Arnoz spat at her. She grinned wickedly, a laugh boiling in her throat.
"Oh no, I just like to play with my prey before I smite them. That is something you'll learn from me, creature. I play with everyone." She grabbed him by his leg and lifted him into the air, snatching the offending blade from him, which crushed his paw under her vice- like grip. He screamed in agony and fury, fighting her. She just laughed and slammed him against the ground. "You see, you might have killed that part of my family, but I've killed far many more people than you, stronger people than you. Hell, I've tortured for the sheer fun of it. You use your so called tactics and think you've won. Well, Mr. Fierce, I have to tell you, you're a weak opponent. You're worse than the Mortals, as a matter of fact. You wanted to see this form so that you could see what reason you had to kill me, and now you have. Too bad you won't live long enough to finish your plans." Her jaws opened, stretching wider than they should have, like a snake's jaws. Her serpentine tongue slithered from her mouth. "You will live out your days as Demon meat. I bade the Demons take their wrath out upon you, that you grow weak and useless, more so than you are at the moment. You have failed. How does it feel to know you've lost to the person you were hoping to kill? Doesn't it just eat you inside?" She sneered at him, her eyes narrowing. "Farewell, Arnoz Fierce. Your Damnation awaits you."
"Wait!" He shouted at her, holding his crushed paw in his other hand. His blood popped and sizzled around her. "Aren't you forgetting something? I own Hell, it is MY domain! I will just come back and finish this as soon as you close the Gate!"
"I have forgotten nothing. You do not own Hell, not as long as I live." She grinned at him.
"Ah, but I do. I killed your Father, so by all rights, Hell is mine. You have no claim on it." He smiled smugly. "You will never get Hell back, whore. Not unless you kill me in Hell. In the mean time, I will come for you and keep coming for you until you are dead. You may have won this battle, but you have not won the war."
"Enough talk." She opened her jaws a bit wider until he could almost feel the inferno inside her body. "As soon as you enter my mouth, you will be in Hell. I am not a Seam or a Portal, I simply can open them anyway I see fit." She laughed and dropped him into her mouth, chewing until he was actually gone from her mouth and into Hell. His bones crunched between her teeth and his screams were the last thing she heard from him before the raging infernos of Hell swallowed him up. Satisfied, she turned to look at Rhys, who was staring at her strangely. "What?" She snapped, her eyes nothing more than slits now.
"You defeated him, Majesty. You defeated the One who has taken over Hell." He sounded awe struck, which bothered her.
"You had doubts?"
"Oh no, Majesty. I am surprised you used so many tactics to do so. A simple Gate would have ended the problem..."
"Rhys... do not question my judgments. I did what I wanted to do and it is done. " She snapped at him.
"Yes, Majesty. She began to cool down rapidly as he said this, her body transforming back into its old form. Her vision started to get fuzzy before it faded and the last thing she remembered was someone screaming and arms catch her before she hit the ground. Only after she was unconscious did she realize the person screaming was herself.
When she awoke, she was in a room she didn't recognize, in a bed she didn't recognize. Rhys was standing beside the bed, looking as if he been in a fight himself. She blinked in the dim light and rubbed her face with her paw.
"What happened?" She croaked, throat raw and scratchy. Rhys immediately offered her water, which she drank greedily.
"You transformed into this form again and passed out. The magick needed to become the other form took a lot out of you." He answered, voice calm but a thread of worry threaded into it. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I just got hit by a automobile. Where are we?" She asked, sitting up, holding her head.
"Well, a friend of yours came to aid us. He saw you fall and offered to bring you here. You burned down the Inn we were staying in." Rhys added that last part matter-of-factly.
"Did I? Friend? What friend?" She was confused. She had made no male friends since she had been here.
"He said his name is Viktor." Rhys said, voice emotionless. "He said we could stay here." Vik? Really? She thought the guy hated her, especially after this last time she had seen him.
"Oh okay, thank you, Rhys." She said, releasing her head. "Where are my clothes?"
"You were naked when you transformed and all of your other things burned." He replied. She was starting to get annoyed by his tone of voice, but before she could call him out on it, there was a knock at the door. It opened a second later and Vik came in.
"Oh, you're awake. Good." He said with a slight smile. She raised an eyebrow and nodded slowly. "You took a nasty fall." Exactly what did he see? "But I'm glad to see you're okay."
"Aye.. thank you for letting us stay here. How long have I been out?"
"Well, about a week, I would guess. You must have been really tired." You don't even know the half of it, Shada thought to herself. Liir snickered.
"He really doesn't, does he? Unless he saw more than we think... I don't know, I can't read him. Makes him a bit interesting to me." Liir told her. A muscle in Shada's jaw ticked.
"A week? Hell, I have to get up and get out of here. We have overstayed our welcome."
"Oh no, please, it's no trouble. I assure you." Vik said, smiling. Okay, she was weirded out now. He was an attractive man, sure, but she had had bad luck with attractive men thus far in her life, and this was not the time to start trusting them now. Not only that, the last time she had seen him, he had been nothing but rude. Sure, he had helped her get away from Max... but eh... she didn't know. Nothing about the man was making sense. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she had missed what Vik was saying.
"What was that?"
"I said I heard what happened down at TerraBelle's. You probably shouldn't have hit Max, though the slime ball had it coming."
"Thank you... I think."
"What were you doing in there anyway?" There was that look again, the one that made her want to hit him.
"I was with a friend. She was one of the dancers."
"I see." He said, stroking his goatee some. She couldn't help but notice his blind eye. He didn't bother to wear an eye patch over it, so she could clearly see the milky white film covering the eye. She could see that his eyelids were heavily scarred as well and wondered what happened to him. "Cigar burn. My father did this to me when I was young." How had she not seen it before?
"I'm sorry for staring. I didn't remember seeing it the first time we met."
"I got this after that, when Nora left me." He said, his jaw clenching.
"I am sorry, I did not mean to pry." She said, looking away.
"It's all right. You were curious." He said. She looked at him again, taking in his features. "Have you fed recently?"
"I have eaten, aye. I can do either in this form and eating is far more respectable in these times than feeding, I have found." She said with a grimace. He nodded and rubbed his face.
"Oh yea.. I noticed you didn't have anything with you when I found you, so I asked your friend to get some things for you, they're in the closet." She nodded again, and watched him squirm a bit.
"Thanks Vik." She said with a half smile. "For all of this."
"Yea.. no problem." He said. "I'll see you later." He seemed to rush from the room, which made her wonder just what was wrong with him, but as soon as he closed the door again, she was out of bed and standing in front of the closet. Rhys approached her cautiously.
"Are you truly all right, M'lady?" He asked her.
"Aye. I've felt better, but after what happened I suppose this is to be expected." She turned to look at him. "What is it? You've been... cold to me since I woke up. What happened?"
"Well..." He began, wringing his hands a bit. "After you transformed to take on Arnoz... I told you you had to stop otherwise the Elders would come, and you ignored me. They did come, M'lady. They did come. And they want me to come back to Hell now." He said.
"Why is that?" She asked.
"They feel that I should have been able to prevent what happened. That I should have been able to stop the fight before it progressed like it had. But I was unable, so I failed. I am going to Hell to be punished." He said, emotionlessly.
"Punished? For something you couldn't do? That's ridiculous." She said, eyes darkening.
"I know, and I told them you would be displeased with the news. I am... supposed to bring you back with me." He said.
"That's not going to happen either. I have no desire to do so, and you will not have to leave, if you don't want to." She told him. "If you want to stay, then I will allow you to do so."
"You would do that?"
"Aye. I don't think you should be punished, in fact, you should be praised for the work you have done for me." She smiled and laid a paw on his shoulder. "Do you wish to stay?"
"I do, M'lady." He said. She nodded and for some reason ripped her claws across her chest hard enough to make it bleed, hissing in pain as she did so, before dipping her claws into the blood. She painted a symbol she didn't know upon his forehead; it glowed golden for a moment before disappearing under his skin. "There. Now, you mind telling me what I just did and how I knew how to do it?" He smiled at her and began to tell her what was happening to her. She took everything in stride, eyes wide. She apparently had finally opened the power that her Father had given her. She had just sealed his body with a magick she had never heard of, and would not likely encounter again. Interesting. She wanted to learn so much more about what had happened, but didn't ask him. It was something she was going to have to find out on her own. It was better that way, it always was.
She sighed and turned back to the closet, though it didn't matter what she put on, as long as she had something on, right? She was out to impress no one, didn't need to, didn't want to. It wasn't worth it in the end. Settling, she pulled on something from the closet and closed the doors behind her.
"All right, dressed. C'mon Rhys, let's get out of here."
"Where are we going this time, M'lady?" Okay, that had to go.
"Call me Shada, stop with the M'lady stuff." She said, looking at him and running a brush through her long, matted hair.
"I cannot." Rhys said, standing behind her; his true form showed in the mirror, and she realized why they had given him this body. Blinking, she returned to the task of brushing out her hair.
"Why is that?"
"That is not what I was ordered to call you. You are my Goddess, my superior...." She held up her paw, which silenced him.
"You just said I am you superior, and I want you to call me by my Mortal name, all right?" He nodded.
"As you wish." Her eyes darkened and suddenly she felt magick, heavy, foreign magick. Her spine when ridged and she stopped brushing.
"What the Hell?" She lowered the brush to the vanity table slowly, her eyes trained on the door. Why did it smell like Divinity magick, and yet so... not? That was impossible. Even the newly Fallen Angels would smell mostly of wickedness.... this was merely tainted, and therefore was quite a bit more dangerous than the Fallen. Curiouser and curiouser.
"Do you sense that... Shada?"
"I do. What do you suppose that is?"
"A trap, perhaps?"
"No one knows what or who I am here, I don't think it's a trap, unless Arnoz is already back here from Hell, in which case, we could have a problem." She bit her lower lip and sighed. "Come on, we need to go and find out what that is." She stood up and the two left the room, going downstairs.
All they found was Vik, who was sitting in the living room sharpening some blades that looked like they came from her homeland, which was possible, since she had met him in Mindavia first.
She was confused by the Divine feeling she was getting from the house itself, since she was part Demon, but dismissed it since Vik was human. Perhaps he had some sort of priest bless his home, who knew?
"What are you doing?" She asked, coming to stand in the doorway. Rhys was behind her, though she could tell he didn't particularly like Vik, which she also dismissed. He was supposed to be helping her, and maybe he had a general mistrust for everyone, as she did. Thinking about that, her mind went back to the few people she had met on the road. Lady Aerithea.. the girl in the woods, the huge wolf man, Alistor... all of them. Perhaps her reasons were unfounded, but then she was cautious. If that was something she had learned from Azazel, it was that.
"Hm? Oh, I didn't see you there." He eyed her with his good eye, the blind one seemed to look her over as well, which made her skin crawl. "What does it look like?" She rolled her eyes at this comment and crossed her arms over her chest, which did nothing but draw his eye to her bust line; the top she had on was a little tight, thanks to Rhys... she made a mental note to kill him for that later.
"I can see that. But why? Surely there are other weapons in this world to use. Why stick with blades?"
"It's what I'm used to. Besides, blades are still useful, if you know how to use them." She nodded slowly, eyebrows raised.
"I see. Is that a stab at me, human?" His mouth twitch.
"Well, Wolfy, I don't see anyone else here giving me grief, so I suppose it is." He said, setting his whet stone aside and raising the shiny blade to look at his handiwork.
"I'll have you know I've very good with a sword." She said, raising her chin.
"Oh? Both times I've seen you, you've been unarmed. Not very smart there or here." He pointed out, satisfied by his work and placing the blade into it's scabbard.
"Just because you see no weapon, doesn't mean I don't have one." She said to him, smirking a bit.
"Like what you did the other night?" Oh, so he had seen more than he'd let her believe.
"Well, that is something special I can do." Now the sense that she was going to be exorcised was wearing thin on her. "What the Hell is that?" She asked, stomping her foot. "I can't take it anymore!" She growled and went outside, stomping her feet all the way there and slamming the door behind her. She felt like she was suffocating, and that wasn't a good thing. Exorcisms were to send Demons back to Hell, and she just was not going to go. Not unless her Father came to her himself, and since he was dead, that wasn't going to happen.
Rhys looked at Vik, who was staring after his Mistress.
"What's her problem?" He asked the Demon.
"We sense... there is something here that is going to prevent our staying. It is wearing on her." Rhys replied stonily. "Please forgive us." He walked out after her, ignoring the confused look on Vik's face.
"Shada... are you all right? Is there anything I can do?" Rhys asked, standing beside her.
"Nothing, unless you can tell me what that damnable pressure is in there."
"I cannot." He answered, sorry that he could do nothing to help her.
"I thought not." She rubbed a hand over her face. "All right, we're leaving. We can't stay here, and I burned down the Inn we were staying in...."
"It's called a hotel here." Vik's voice cut her off.
"What?" She turned to look at him, her eyes a hunter green.
"They call Inns here hotels." Vik repeated. "You burned down your hotel."
"Oh. I fear I'm not exactly up on the slang here yet."
"No, you're really not." He snickered. She wanted to hit him.
"You want to tell me how you know what I am?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest again.
"I don't get the question."
"I think you do. There is no reason there should be a blessing on this house unless you know what I am, so spill it." She glared at him.
"I really don't know what you're talking about." He said, shrugging. "And the house isn't blessed." She raised an eyebrow.
"You have to be kidding. All right, look. I'm a Demon and I can sense when there is Divine Magicks around me. It makes me feel uncomfortable.." She just realized that she could still feel it, even outside and back down the porch and into the yard. "And I can still feel it. So whatever you did to this house... I gotta go." She started to turn when a hand grabbed her arm. She whipped her head around to see Vik and growled at him. Her skin was starting to itch and burn.
"Let go, Vik. You have to let go...!" She yanked on her arm, but he didn't release her.
"It's not the house, Shada, it's me. That's my magick you feel." She could tell that now, her paw was starting to smoke.
"Why didn't it effect me when I fed from you?" She asked, still trying to break his grip.
"I don't know. It just didn't." He said, ignoring her attempt to get him to release her.
"Vik, you have to let go... you're hurting me, literally and I don't say that about just anything." She was practically begging him now; she had lost feeling in her arm. He released her then and she could have sworn she saw a bright blue glint flash through his eyes, even the blind one. Her eyes widened and she backed away from him slowly.
"It's me. I don't know why it never effected you before, maybe it's because you hadn't transformed yet, I don't know." He shrugged, but watched her. "I know what you are and I knew when I saw the form you were in that night. I don't know what your real name is, and I don't want to know. That secret is your own." He said, shrugging. She was surprised by that. No one had ever done that for her before. Most were at least curious, but she could tell he wasn't and that interested her.
"All right. So what do I do now, since it's clear you aren't going to let me go." She sighed.
"You're right, I'm not. If I did, Max would have an easier time looking for you. And since he's likely still in a bad mood, I'm not going to let him get to you. It's easier to let him think you left town, rather than having to fight him. You might be a Demon, but Max doesn't fight fair.
"Oh, you haven't a clue what I can do, Vik, you saw the tip of the iceberg." She laughed.
"Whatever. You're going to stay here, and that's final. Max isn't going to come here, and as long as I'm not around you a lot, your scent isn't going to be on me, that way, he'll never know."
"Hmmm, for a... whatever you are.. that's good plan." He smirked, but told her nothing, as she had known he would. Eh, she would figure it out eventually.
"By the way.... I'll be leaving tonight to spend time with my family, you'll either have to come with me, or stay here by yourself and do nothing." He said, shaking his head. He mumbled something under his breath that sounded like 'Yea, this is going to be fun', which made it all the easier to get the upper hand on him.
"Oh, I'm going. Rhys, you'll stay here, but I'm definitely going." She was going to enjoy watching him squirm and she was going to make sure he regretted giving her a choice.
"Suit yourself." He shrugged and turned to go back in the house. "We leave in like an hour." He said, disappearing beyond the door. She laughed and followed him into the house, knowing this night was going to be interesting.
Vik pretty much ignored her the whole trip there, which was fine, since she had pretty much determined that her presence was already driving him nuts. It made her laugh thought, the way he pointedly ignored everything she said. She could see the muscles ticking in his jaw.
"Am I annoying you, Vik? You know, you asked me to come with you..." She started whistling. "Oh yea.. I have to change." She waved her hand over her face and took on her vampire form.
"What did you just do?" He asked, cutting his gaze to her momentarily. She batted her eyelashes at him and grinned, showing fangs.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" At least in this form, his Divine energy would leave her, for the most part, alone. She didn't like that she had to do this to herself just to feel safe, besides it was probably best if she didn't come to his family as an over six foot monster.
They arrived at his family's home with very minimal damage, since he ignored her and she had her fun torturing him. He stopped the car, and turned it off. He seemed to be contemplating something, thought she didn't know what it was. Probably was better for her that way. Still, he came around and let her out of the car, mostly since she had no idea how to do it herself, and led her to the door.
The door opened before they got to it, and a woman rushed out to greet them. She was about the same height as Shada was in her current form, with long, curly dark hair. Her skin was a few shades darker than Shada's was, and she had pretty brown eyes. Shada could see the life brimming in her eyes, and was instantly on edge. She didn't let it show that this woman could potentially be her prey; she smiled at her, and the woman smiled back.
"Vik!" The woman said, happily. "Oh, it's so nice to see you!"
"Hello, Niya, it's been a while, hasn't it?"
"Far too long." Niya replied, turning to look at Shada. "I'm his cousin, Saivianiya, but you can call me Niya." She told her.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Nightshade, but you can call me Shada."
"Uhm... Niya, this is my... girlfriend, Shada." Vik said, attempting lamely to introduce them. Shada looked at him for a long moment, surprise in her eyes. He had called her his girlfriend... why? Why did he just do that? He gave her a look, telling her with his eyes. It was better this way, rather than telling Niya that she was a Demon that he had saved and was currently hiding out in his house because his crazy friend Max was trying to kill her. Eh... charades, wonderful. Well, two could play that way...and play she would.
"Aye.. I'm his girlfriend." She smiled on the outside, on the inside she was dying. Oh, what fun she would have with this! He had set himself up for a lot, and she would see to it that he got what he paid for.
"Oh!" Niya was surprised, her brown eyes were wide as she looked at the two of them. Shada took a hold of his hand, though she could tell he was already regretting what he'd said to his cousin. "Come in, come in! Oh, Vik... Jean Pierre is in the living room, if you want to see him." Vik nodded and took his leave, extricating his hand from Shada's and walking away, leaving the two women to talk. Shada smiled, watching him go. He had placed himself in a vulnerable position.. all she had to do was wear him down and he would break, but at what cost? She chatted with Niya, following her into the house, that question in the back of her mind. She was going to have to keep her real self a secret... but how long would she be able to keep up this facade?
"I... I gotta curse on me... tha's why Ah look like dis.." Shada giggled, her tail wagging.
"Oh yea? Well, I still think it's cute." Mandy laughed, watching her wolfen friend curiously. She seemed to be able to tell that Shada was going to lay something important on her at some point.
"I gots another one too... my ex put one on me... I's s'pose ta screw him.. But I don't wanna. I don't wanna but he wants me too!" She squealed with laughter. "He thinks... he thinks I'm gonna let 'im but I's not gonna do it! Will ya help me? Huh? Will ya? If ya help me then I won't have to do him!" Shada took another long drink of the vodka she had in her glass and leaned heavily to one side. "Uh-ohs... I'm fallin'!" And then she literally fell off the bar stool and on to the floor with a bang. She squealed and tried to get up, laughing and dizzy at the same time.
"You okay?"
"I dunno... I can't get up!" Shada giggled, trying to sit up again. Her red hair had come loose from her ponytail to hang around her face. Mandy stared at her, trying not to laugh. "All right, all right. C'mon, I'll take you back to your hotel."
"I dun wanna go back to mah Inn. I wanna stay wit you!" Shada protested, positively drunk beyond compare. Mandy slid from her bar stool and helped the Xurenae woman from the floor.
"I'd love to have you over, but I don't think my boyfriend would like it if he saw a strange woman on our couch." Mandy replied, smiling. All of this hit Shada kinda hard, even in her drunken state.
"You have a boyfriend?" She asked, eyes wide.
"Yea, why wouldn't I?"
"I dunno, you just never mentioned him."
"I didn't? Huh, well now you know. Sorry about that." She didn't look sorry. It could have been the drunken haze she was in, or maybe the woman just wasn't sorry, Shada wasn't sure. Either way, it was enough for her to push the woman away from her and stand up on her own. She stood up to her full height and stretched, not looking at the woman in front of her. She raised her arms above her head, stretching out all of her muscles.
"Ah, I think I'm at my limit. I'll see you later, okay?" She was hurt but she wasn't going to show her that. Nope. Couldn't even do it.
"Are you sure you'll be alright, I can--"
"I'll be fine." Shada said. "Later." She Traced, leaving her friend behind.
When she got back to the Inn, Rhys was waiting for her.
"What happened?" He asked, seeing her face.
"I don't want to talk about it." Shada said with a sad sigh.
"She rejected you, didn't she?"
"Not exactly. She has a boyfriend, and I can't get in the way of that. I just can't." Rhys came to her side and laid a hand on her arm.
"It's not the end of the world, Majesty. There are others."
"I guess." Shada plopped down on the bed, which groaned under her weight. "It's not fair. All I wanted her to do was help me break this freaking curse. Why can't the Fates just appease me this once?"
"Perhaps it was done for a reason." He sat beside her and rubbed her shoulder muscles.
"Maybe. Still sucks though." She sighed and laid her chin against her chest. She knew what he was thinking and at this point, she just wanted to just get rid of Arnoz's charm and be done with it.
"So what are you going to do now?" He asked innocently enough. She lifted her head, her red hair falling around her shoulders again.
"Well, I'm still going to break this charm. I have no plans of finding Arnoz, or allowing him to touch me, sooo would you do the honors?" She was going to regret this... but as long as it did what it was supposed to, what the Hell?
"I would be glad to." He said, smiling at her. She cocked an eyebrow and watched him, to which he chuckled. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you, Majesty." He said. She closed her eyes tightly and a grin spread across her face.
"Oh, I have no worries about that." She giggled. "Do your worst."
And he did. At the height of passion, a loud ringing sounded in her ears, almost deafening, but as quickly as it came, it was gone and she was free. Lying there afterward, she was smiling. Not because she had enjoyed it, though she had, but because she had beaten Arnoz at his twisted game. She'd had the will to ignore him and his charm, and to take matters into her own hands... paws.
She giggled a bit and sighed, curling up into a ball and falling asleep.
She was awakened to the sound of glass breaking nearby her. Something hard and sharp hit her, sticking into her fur. Her eyes flashed open.
"What's going on?"
"What the FUCK is this?" Arnoz's voice had her sitting up straight in the bed.
"Arnoz, what are you doing in here?" She snapped, jerking the sheet around her body. She noticed there was glass on the bed. "And what did you do?"
"All I wanted you to do is consummate our marriage and you go and sleep with a demon!" He snarled back. "You fucking WHORE!" THAT got her up out of bed, not caring that she was naked anymore.
"Whore? Did you just call me a whore?" Her eyes were black now and her fangs were out. "What the Hell gives you the right to call me a whore? The fact that I refused to fuck you so that you put a charm on me to force me to do it?" She clenched her paws into fists.
"YOU SLEPT WITH THIS!" Arnoz shouted, pointing at Rhys, who was silent yet glaring at him, his usually pale gray skin darkening to obsidian again.
"Because I hate you! Because you tried to force me to fuck you! What about that don't you understand? I. Don't. Love. You! The only reason I married you was because I was honor-bound to do so! What the Hell makes you think I ever actually wanted to be with you? You want to know why I left after I killed Azazel?" She was breathing hard now and her hair was blowing around in a wind that didn't exist.
"Oh please enlighten me. Please tell some more lies that you think I'll believe." Arnoz gave her a dead glare.
"I hoped you were gone by the time I came back, but your stubborn ass wouldn't get the mother fucking hint! It took my mother dying for me to find a place far enough away from you, and yet you seem to follow me around anyway!" He began to laugh now, approaching her.
"Nightshade, you have no idea who you speak to, do you? I am the one who killed your father, your sister. I am the one who saved you from the filthy dungeons you were imprisoned in and I can send you back, if I choose to." He grabbed her arms suddenly, his face inches from her. "So I will forgive you this time, if you give in to me."
"Forgive me? Give in to you?" She spat back. "You can kiss my white wolfen ass, Arnoz! I'm not going to give you what you want!" His face darkened with rage.
"Then you give me no choice." He shoved her away from him, which made her trip over the bed and fall upon it, the base boards giving way beneath her.
"What are you going to do, rape me?" She snarled at him, her voice little more than a growl. "I'd like to see you try it."
"As would I." Rhys finally spoke up, his body almost literally burning.
"Oh no, that would be too easy." Arnoz cackled, rubbing his paws together. She didn't wait for him to finish. She rolled off the bed and spread her hands before her.
"Nightshade, what are you doing?" He warned, coming toward her, irritation in his eyes. "You better not be doing what I think you're doing..."
"I banish you to the lowest depths, may your soul be pilfered hourly by the demons of the Pit!" Her voice went deep and her eyes turned completely gold. Her body heated and she began to the see the heat waves.
"You have to stop, Majesty! It's not safe to do this!"
"Shut up you piece of trash! This is what I've been waiting for!" Arnoz's laugh cut through her senses.
"You waited for what? For me to snap at you?" She snarled at him.
"For you to show your true powers! I wanted them all along!" He reached for her, but she grabbed him and Traced from the room.
When she saw the park, she shoved him away from her, throwing him fifty feet from her.
"You want the power given to me by my Father, is that it? Is that the reason you wanted me? The reason you freed me from my prison?" She knew it was, it all made sense now. He wanted what she had, and had to push her to get it. She screamed, her body heat rising. She threw her head back and roared as her transformation began. In the back of her mind she thought Liir was taking over, but when she didn't feel the weightlessness of being only a spirit, she knew this was something different. The pain was staggering as she changed. Her fur melted in the heat her body had created. Her features took a more human quality to them; her muzzle shrank and became a nose and cheekbones again. Her paws became hands again, but her claws lengthened and sharpened. Her legs had kept their same basic anthro form, though her paws melted and became big, cloven hooves. Her tail elongated and a six inch, solid bone blade stretched from it. Wings stretched from her back and opened fully to a ten foot wing span. All of her muscles stretched and her form filled out, curving in all the right places. She roared again and clutched her head again as horns pierced though her skin and grew up over her head, curling back as Liir's had done. Her ears went back to their human form, but stretched again to become more elven in appearance, just under her horns. Her hair burst into a living flame and her transformation was complete. She stood up straight, marvelling in the way she looked now. It was like nothing she had ever seen, but somehow she knew this was who she was inside, who she was supposed to be. She started to laugh, wickedly, stretching her claws, whipping her bladed tail, stretching her wings. Ah, this was glorious!
Things started to come to her then. Her name, who she was, what she was meant to do, everything. As her golden eyes met Arnoz's she saw a bit of appreciation reflected there.
"You would gawk at me, Arnoz? Have you no shame?" She growled at him, taking a step toward him. She now towered over him a good four feet and her tail thwapped the ground hard enough to leave deep, charred marks.
"I need none. My plans have finally come to fruition. A pity you took forever to allow them to do so, but that is no matter. I will have your powers and you, you will be dead!" He declared. She laughed which made the trees shake.
"You speak as if you know what is going to happen, Arnoz. You don't know a thing. You are a fool if you think I'm going to allow this." She did an abrupt turn and slammed him with her tail, sending him flying away from her. She heard him land with a harsh thud and grinned widely. Oh, she hadn't had this much fun in a long time! She sensed Rhys appearing at her side, his small form dark against the light she was giving off. "A pity Father isn't hear to watch this." She mused.
"You have to stop, you weren't supposed to transform on the Mortal Plane! You're upsetting the balance!!" He screamed at her.
"Silence, you. He wants my power and he will have a taste. He will never be able to kill me, I don't see a reason not to have my fun whilst on this Plane of Existence.. if you could call it that." She laughed again as she saw him coming, bracing herself on her hooves. "Bring it, Arnoz. You killed my Father, didn't you? Show me the Power you showed him!" He did something with his paws, which made the earth split beneath her hooves. One of them got stuck, throwing her off balance. She stumbled a bit but recovered in time to catch his next attack. His fist connected solidly with her face, and she kicked him away at the same time.
"Majesty, you can't keep this up, what if the Elders..."
"I said silence, Rhys. And I don't give a damn about the Elders. None rules over me!" She snapped, resetting her jaw with a strong crack. Arnoz had a blade, and she had to watch, lest she get gored with it or something. She dodged him, fast despite her size. The ground where she'd stood smoked from her body heat and she could see twin hoof impressions there. She had made her mark upon the Mortal World. In her distraction, Arnoz ripped his blade across her abdomen, which left a burning laceration there. She roared in fury and dove at him, whipping him with her tail again.
"You'll pay for that, creature!" She snarled, diving at him. He moved deftly, which made her hit the ground, roll and get back up, circling him.
"Hetu-Ahin... for all the hype about you, you're pretty weak. A true Goddess would never have allowed me to cut her. A true Goddess would have smited me a long time ago." Arnoz spat at her. She grinned wickedly, a laugh boiling in her throat.
"Oh no, I just like to play with my prey before I smite them. That is something you'll learn from me, creature. I play with everyone." She grabbed him by his leg and lifted him into the air, snatching the offending blade from him, which crushed his paw under her vice- like grip. He screamed in agony and fury, fighting her. She just laughed and slammed him against the ground. "You see, you might have killed that part of my family, but I've killed far many more people than you, stronger people than you. Hell, I've tortured for the sheer fun of it. You use your so called tactics and think you've won. Well, Mr. Fierce, I have to tell you, you're a weak opponent. You're worse than the Mortals, as a matter of fact. You wanted to see this form so that you could see what reason you had to kill me, and now you have. Too bad you won't live long enough to finish your plans." Her jaws opened, stretching wider than they should have, like a snake's jaws. Her serpentine tongue slithered from her mouth. "You will live out your days as Demon meat. I bade the Demons take their wrath out upon you, that you grow weak and useless, more so than you are at the moment. You have failed. How does it feel to know you've lost to the person you were hoping to kill? Doesn't it just eat you inside?" She sneered at him, her eyes narrowing. "Farewell, Arnoz Fierce. Your Damnation awaits you."
"Wait!" He shouted at her, holding his crushed paw in his other hand. His blood popped and sizzled around her. "Aren't you forgetting something? I own Hell, it is MY domain! I will just come back and finish this as soon as you close the Gate!"
"I have forgotten nothing. You do not own Hell, not as long as I live." She grinned at him.
"Ah, but I do. I killed your Father, so by all rights, Hell is mine. You have no claim on it." He smiled smugly. "You will never get Hell back, whore. Not unless you kill me in Hell. In the mean time, I will come for you and keep coming for you until you are dead. You may have won this battle, but you have not won the war."
"Enough talk." She opened her jaws a bit wider until he could almost feel the inferno inside her body. "As soon as you enter my mouth, you will be in Hell. I am not a Seam or a Portal, I simply can open them anyway I see fit." She laughed and dropped him into her mouth, chewing until he was actually gone from her mouth and into Hell. His bones crunched between her teeth and his screams were the last thing she heard from him before the raging infernos of Hell swallowed him up. Satisfied, she turned to look at Rhys, who was staring at her strangely. "What?" She snapped, her eyes nothing more than slits now.
"You defeated him, Majesty. You defeated the One who has taken over Hell." He sounded awe struck, which bothered her.
"You had doubts?"
"Oh no, Majesty. I am surprised you used so many tactics to do so. A simple Gate would have ended the problem..."
"Rhys... do not question my judgments. I did what I wanted to do and it is done. " She snapped at him.
"Yes, Majesty. She began to cool down rapidly as he said this, her body transforming back into its old form. Her vision started to get fuzzy before it faded and the last thing she remembered was someone screaming and arms catch her before she hit the ground. Only after she was unconscious did she realize the person screaming was herself.
When she awoke, she was in a room she didn't recognize, in a bed she didn't recognize. Rhys was standing beside the bed, looking as if he been in a fight himself. She blinked in the dim light and rubbed her face with her paw.
"What happened?" She croaked, throat raw and scratchy. Rhys immediately offered her water, which she drank greedily.
"You transformed into this form again and passed out. The magick needed to become the other form took a lot out of you." He answered, voice calm but a thread of worry threaded into it. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I just got hit by a automobile. Where are we?" She asked, sitting up, holding her head.
"Well, a friend of yours came to aid us. He saw you fall and offered to bring you here. You burned down the Inn we were staying in." Rhys added that last part matter-of-factly.
"Did I? Friend? What friend?" She was confused. She had made no male friends since she had been here.
"He said his name is Viktor." Rhys said, voice emotionless. "He said we could stay here." Vik? Really? She thought the guy hated her, especially after this last time she had seen him.
"Oh okay, thank you, Rhys." She said, releasing her head. "Where are my clothes?"
"You were naked when you transformed and all of your other things burned." He replied. She was starting to get annoyed by his tone of voice, but before she could call him out on it, there was a knock at the door. It opened a second later and Vik came in.
"Oh, you're awake. Good." He said with a slight smile. She raised an eyebrow and nodded slowly. "You took a nasty fall." Exactly what did he see? "But I'm glad to see you're okay."
"Aye.. thank you for letting us stay here. How long have I been out?"
"Well, about a week, I would guess. You must have been really tired." You don't even know the half of it, Shada thought to herself. Liir snickered.
"He really doesn't, does he? Unless he saw more than we think... I don't know, I can't read him. Makes him a bit interesting to me." Liir told her. A muscle in Shada's jaw ticked.
"A week? Hell, I have to get up and get out of here. We have overstayed our welcome."
"Oh no, please, it's no trouble. I assure you." Vik said, smiling. Okay, she was weirded out now. He was an attractive man, sure, but she had had bad luck with attractive men thus far in her life, and this was not the time to start trusting them now. Not only that, the last time she had seen him, he had been nothing but rude. Sure, he had helped her get away from Max... but eh... she didn't know. Nothing about the man was making sense. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she had missed what Vik was saying.
"What was that?"
"I said I heard what happened down at TerraBelle's. You probably shouldn't have hit Max, though the slime ball had it coming."
"Thank you... I think."
"What were you doing in there anyway?" There was that look again, the one that made her want to hit him.
"I was with a friend. She was one of the dancers."
"I see." He said, stroking his goatee some. She couldn't help but notice his blind eye. He didn't bother to wear an eye patch over it, so she could clearly see the milky white film covering the eye. She could see that his eyelids were heavily scarred as well and wondered what happened to him. "Cigar burn. My father did this to me when I was young." How had she not seen it before?
"I'm sorry for staring. I didn't remember seeing it the first time we met."
"I got this after that, when Nora left me." He said, his jaw clenching.
"I am sorry, I did not mean to pry." She said, looking away.
"It's all right. You were curious." He said. She looked at him again, taking in his features. "Have you fed recently?"
"I have eaten, aye. I can do either in this form and eating is far more respectable in these times than feeding, I have found." She said with a grimace. He nodded and rubbed his face.
"Oh yea.. I noticed you didn't have anything with you when I found you, so I asked your friend to get some things for you, they're in the closet." She nodded again, and watched him squirm a bit.
"Thanks Vik." She said with a half smile. "For all of this."
"Yea.. no problem." He said. "I'll see you later." He seemed to rush from the room, which made her wonder just what was wrong with him, but as soon as he closed the door again, she was out of bed and standing in front of the closet. Rhys approached her cautiously.
"Are you truly all right, M'lady?" He asked her.
"Aye. I've felt better, but after what happened I suppose this is to be expected." She turned to look at him. "What is it? You've been... cold to me since I woke up. What happened?"
"Well..." He began, wringing his hands a bit. "After you transformed to take on Arnoz... I told you you had to stop otherwise the Elders would come, and you ignored me. They did come, M'lady. They did come. And they want me to come back to Hell now." He said.
"Why is that?" She asked.
"They feel that I should have been able to prevent what happened. That I should have been able to stop the fight before it progressed like it had. But I was unable, so I failed. I am going to Hell to be punished." He said, emotionlessly.
"Punished? For something you couldn't do? That's ridiculous." She said, eyes darkening.
"I know, and I told them you would be displeased with the news. I am... supposed to bring you back with me." He said.
"That's not going to happen either. I have no desire to do so, and you will not have to leave, if you don't want to." She told him. "If you want to stay, then I will allow you to do so."
"You would do that?"
"Aye. I don't think you should be punished, in fact, you should be praised for the work you have done for me." She smiled and laid a paw on his shoulder. "Do you wish to stay?"
"I do, M'lady." He said. She nodded and for some reason ripped her claws across her chest hard enough to make it bleed, hissing in pain as she did so, before dipping her claws into the blood. She painted a symbol she didn't know upon his forehead; it glowed golden for a moment before disappearing under his skin. "There. Now, you mind telling me what I just did and how I knew how to do it?" He smiled at her and began to tell her what was happening to her. She took everything in stride, eyes wide. She apparently had finally opened the power that her Father had given her. She had just sealed his body with a magick she had never heard of, and would not likely encounter again. Interesting. She wanted to learn so much more about what had happened, but didn't ask him. It was something she was going to have to find out on her own. It was better that way, it always was.
She sighed and turned back to the closet, though it didn't matter what she put on, as long as she had something on, right? She was out to impress no one, didn't need to, didn't want to. It wasn't worth it in the end. Settling, she pulled on something from the closet and closed the doors behind her.
"All right, dressed. C'mon Rhys, let's get out of here."
"Where are we going this time, M'lady?" Okay, that had to go.
"Call me Shada, stop with the M'lady stuff." She said, looking at him and running a brush through her long, matted hair.
"I cannot." Rhys said, standing behind her; his true form showed in the mirror, and she realized why they had given him this body. Blinking, she returned to the task of brushing out her hair.
"Why is that?"
"That is not what I was ordered to call you. You are my Goddess, my superior...." She held up her paw, which silenced him.
"You just said I am you superior, and I want you to call me by my Mortal name, all right?" He nodded.
"As you wish." Her eyes darkened and suddenly she felt magick, heavy, foreign magick. Her spine when ridged and she stopped brushing.
"What the Hell?" She lowered the brush to the vanity table slowly, her eyes trained on the door. Why did it smell like Divinity magick, and yet so... not? That was impossible. Even the newly Fallen Angels would smell mostly of wickedness.... this was merely tainted, and therefore was quite a bit more dangerous than the Fallen. Curiouser and curiouser.
"Do you sense that... Shada?"
"I do. What do you suppose that is?"
"A trap, perhaps?"
"No one knows what or who I am here, I don't think it's a trap, unless Arnoz is already back here from Hell, in which case, we could have a problem." She bit her lower lip and sighed. "Come on, we need to go and find out what that is." She stood up and the two left the room, going downstairs.
All they found was Vik, who was sitting in the living room sharpening some blades that looked like they came from her homeland, which was possible, since she had met him in Mindavia first.
She was confused by the Divine feeling she was getting from the house itself, since she was part Demon, but dismissed it since Vik was human. Perhaps he had some sort of priest bless his home, who knew?
"What are you doing?" She asked, coming to stand in the doorway. Rhys was behind her, though she could tell he didn't particularly like Vik, which she also dismissed. He was supposed to be helping her, and maybe he had a general mistrust for everyone, as she did. Thinking about that, her mind went back to the few people she had met on the road. Lady Aerithea.. the girl in the woods, the huge wolf man, Alistor... all of them. Perhaps her reasons were unfounded, but then she was cautious. If that was something she had learned from Azazel, it was that.
"Hm? Oh, I didn't see you there." He eyed her with his good eye, the blind one seemed to look her over as well, which made her skin crawl. "What does it look like?" She rolled her eyes at this comment and crossed her arms over her chest, which did nothing but draw his eye to her bust line; the top she had on was a little tight, thanks to Rhys... she made a mental note to kill him for that later.
"I can see that. But why? Surely there are other weapons in this world to use. Why stick with blades?"
"It's what I'm used to. Besides, blades are still useful, if you know how to use them." She nodded slowly, eyebrows raised.
"I see. Is that a stab at me, human?" His mouth twitch.
"Well, Wolfy, I don't see anyone else here giving me grief, so I suppose it is." He said, setting his whet stone aside and raising the shiny blade to look at his handiwork.
"I'll have you know I've very good with a sword." She said, raising her chin.
"Oh? Both times I've seen you, you've been unarmed. Not very smart there or here." He pointed out, satisfied by his work and placing the blade into it's scabbard.
"Just because you see no weapon, doesn't mean I don't have one." She said to him, smirking a bit.
"Like what you did the other night?" Oh, so he had seen more than he'd let her believe.
"Well, that is something special I can do." Now the sense that she was going to be exorcised was wearing thin on her. "What the Hell is that?" She asked, stomping her foot. "I can't take it anymore!" She growled and went outside, stomping her feet all the way there and slamming the door behind her. She felt like she was suffocating, and that wasn't a good thing. Exorcisms were to send Demons back to Hell, and she just was not going to go. Not unless her Father came to her himself, and since he was dead, that wasn't going to happen.
Rhys looked at Vik, who was staring after his Mistress.
"What's her problem?" He asked the Demon.
"We sense... there is something here that is going to prevent our staying. It is wearing on her." Rhys replied stonily. "Please forgive us." He walked out after her, ignoring the confused look on Vik's face.
"Shada... are you all right? Is there anything I can do?" Rhys asked, standing beside her.
"Nothing, unless you can tell me what that damnable pressure is in there."
"I cannot." He answered, sorry that he could do nothing to help her.
"I thought not." She rubbed a hand over her face. "All right, we're leaving. We can't stay here, and I burned down the Inn we were staying in...."
"It's called a hotel here." Vik's voice cut her off.
"What?" She turned to look at him, her eyes a hunter green.
"They call Inns here hotels." Vik repeated. "You burned down your hotel."
"Oh. I fear I'm not exactly up on the slang here yet."
"No, you're really not." He snickered. She wanted to hit him.
"You want to tell me how you know what I am?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest again.
"I don't get the question."
"I think you do. There is no reason there should be a blessing on this house unless you know what I am, so spill it." She glared at him.
"I really don't know what you're talking about." He said, shrugging. "And the house isn't blessed." She raised an eyebrow.
"You have to be kidding. All right, look. I'm a Demon and I can sense when there is Divine Magicks around me. It makes me feel uncomfortable.." She just realized that she could still feel it, even outside and back down the porch and into the yard. "And I can still feel it. So whatever you did to this house... I gotta go." She started to turn when a hand grabbed her arm. She whipped her head around to see Vik and growled at him. Her skin was starting to itch and burn.
"Let go, Vik. You have to let go...!" She yanked on her arm, but he didn't release her.
"It's not the house, Shada, it's me. That's my magick you feel." She could tell that now, her paw was starting to smoke.
"Why didn't it effect me when I fed from you?" She asked, still trying to break his grip.
"I don't know. It just didn't." He said, ignoring her attempt to get him to release her.
"Vik, you have to let go... you're hurting me, literally and I don't say that about just anything." She was practically begging him now; she had lost feeling in her arm. He released her then and she could have sworn she saw a bright blue glint flash through his eyes, even the blind one. Her eyes widened and she backed away from him slowly.
"It's me. I don't know why it never effected you before, maybe it's because you hadn't transformed yet, I don't know." He shrugged, but watched her. "I know what you are and I knew when I saw the form you were in that night. I don't know what your real name is, and I don't want to know. That secret is your own." He said, shrugging. She was surprised by that. No one had ever done that for her before. Most were at least curious, but she could tell he wasn't and that interested her.
"All right. So what do I do now, since it's clear you aren't going to let me go." She sighed.
"You're right, I'm not. If I did, Max would have an easier time looking for you. And since he's likely still in a bad mood, I'm not going to let him get to you. It's easier to let him think you left town, rather than having to fight him. You might be a Demon, but Max doesn't fight fair.
"Oh, you haven't a clue what I can do, Vik, you saw the tip of the iceberg." She laughed.
"Whatever. You're going to stay here, and that's final. Max isn't going to come here, and as long as I'm not around you a lot, your scent isn't going to be on me, that way, he'll never know."
"Hmmm, for a... whatever you are.. that's good plan." He smirked, but told her nothing, as she had known he would. Eh, she would figure it out eventually.
"By the way.... I'll be leaving tonight to spend time with my family, you'll either have to come with me, or stay here by yourself and do nothing." He said, shaking his head. He mumbled something under his breath that sounded like 'Yea, this is going to be fun', which made it all the easier to get the upper hand on him.
"Oh, I'm going. Rhys, you'll stay here, but I'm definitely going." She was going to enjoy watching him squirm and she was going to make sure he regretted giving her a choice.
"Suit yourself." He shrugged and turned to go back in the house. "We leave in like an hour." He said, disappearing beyond the door. She laughed and followed him into the house, knowing this night was going to be interesting.
Vik pretty much ignored her the whole trip there, which was fine, since she had pretty much determined that her presence was already driving him nuts. It made her laugh thought, the way he pointedly ignored everything she said. She could see the muscles ticking in his jaw.
"Am I annoying you, Vik? You know, you asked me to come with you..." She started whistling. "Oh yea.. I have to change." She waved her hand over her face and took on her vampire form.
"What did you just do?" He asked, cutting his gaze to her momentarily. She batted her eyelashes at him and grinned, showing fangs.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" At least in this form, his Divine energy would leave her, for the most part, alone. She didn't like that she had to do this to herself just to feel safe, besides it was probably best if she didn't come to his family as an over six foot monster.
They arrived at his family's home with very minimal damage, since he ignored her and she had her fun torturing him. He stopped the car, and turned it off. He seemed to be contemplating something, thought she didn't know what it was. Probably was better for her that way. Still, he came around and let her out of the car, mostly since she had no idea how to do it herself, and led her to the door.
The door opened before they got to it, and a woman rushed out to greet them. She was about the same height as Shada was in her current form, with long, curly dark hair. Her skin was a few shades darker than Shada's was, and she had pretty brown eyes. Shada could see the life brimming in her eyes, and was instantly on edge. She didn't let it show that this woman could potentially be her prey; she smiled at her, and the woman smiled back.
"Vik!" The woman said, happily. "Oh, it's so nice to see you!"
"Hello, Niya, it's been a while, hasn't it?"
"Far too long." Niya replied, turning to look at Shada. "I'm his cousin, Saivianiya, but you can call me Niya." She told her.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Nightshade, but you can call me Shada."
"Uhm... Niya, this is my... girlfriend, Shada." Vik said, attempting lamely to introduce them. Shada looked at him for a long moment, surprise in her eyes. He had called her his girlfriend... why? Why did he just do that? He gave her a look, telling her with his eyes. It was better this way, rather than telling Niya that she was a Demon that he had saved and was currently hiding out in his house because his crazy friend Max was trying to kill her. Eh... charades, wonderful. Well, two could play that way...and play she would.
"Aye.. I'm his girlfriend." She smiled on the outside, on the inside she was dying. Oh, what fun she would have with this! He had set himself up for a lot, and she would see to it that he got what he paid for.
"Oh!" Niya was surprised, her brown eyes were wide as she looked at the two of them. Shada took a hold of his hand, though she could tell he was already regretting what he'd said to his cousin. "Come in, come in! Oh, Vik... Jean Pierre is in the living room, if you want to see him." Vik nodded and took his leave, extricating his hand from Shada's and walking away, leaving the two women to talk. Shada smiled, watching him go. He had placed himself in a vulnerable position.. all she had to do was wear him down and he would break, but at what cost? She chatted with Niya, following her into the house, that question in the back of her mind. She was going to have to keep her real self a secret... but how long would she be able to keep up this facade?
