Chapter 4

"So," Antonino drawls, a cocktail glass in the hand that's not pulling his stunning companion into his side, "whatever is somebody like you doing in a place like this?"

Jack swallows, and says "I'm looking for something, and the most fantastical scene in the night seemed as good a place as any to start looking."

Antonino takes a sip of his drink, even as Fiore sets hers down and pulls away from him some, and asks "What sort of something, exactly? This world has a lot of somethings."

Jack swallows, trying to remember the story he and Taylor rehearsed, and says "Saw a story on the news, some conspiracy theorists and headcases talking about a dragon." That sounds believable enough, right? They both thought so, at any rate.

Antonino sits up straight at that, eyes narrowing slightly - red eyes, Jack now notices, not brown like he'd thought back home when he was staring at the picture on the phone - and asks "A dragon, you say? How...interesting."

Actually, Jack's thinking Antonino's girlfriend's reaction is more interesting by far - her purple gaze has a determined glint in it, not unlike actual amethysts as she scans the surrounding bar.

Antonino sees where his gaze is, and pulls her into his side sharply while coldly saying "I see you've noticed my lovely companion. Fiore, here has a...way, shall we call it, with people." As if to emphasize what 'way' she has with people, he grabs her by the back of the neck and shoves his mouth into hers.

Fiore immediately pushes him away, ripping his hand from her neck in the process, and says "I'm not in the mood, Antonino." Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she attempts to put some distance between them.

Antonino grabs her by the neck once more and pulls her back, growling into her ear "Aren't you supposed to always be in the mood?"

Fiore glares at him hotly, amethyst-purple gaze changing to something darker, and then grits out "No. And if you don't let me be, Antonino, I swear-"

"Ah, ah, ah," Antonino chides, anger suddenly replaced by a teasing attitude, "I wouldn't finish that sentence if I were you. No telling how many of my father's loyal ears are here tonight." This time, when he kisses her, she doesn't push him off - her hands fist in his shirt, her eyes close and tears leak out of the corner of her eye that Jack cans see, but she doesn't push him away like before.

Antonino pulls back after a moment, and runs a finger up the tear track before saying "So moody lately…one more week to go. But we both know you already belong to me. Nothing to worry about, then."

Fiore glares at him, cross her arms over herself, and mutters "He might've been wrong about me. We don't know for sure."

Antonino smirks, running a hand through her hair as he does so, and coos "Fae bond to one person for life."

Fiore quietly hisses "Well, in case you've forgotten, I'm not a Fae." That's the whole problem, though. What her parents were thinking when they got together is beyond her.

Antonino gives her a sickeningly sweet smile, pulling her onto his lap suddenly, and says "I remember all too well. You're not a Fae…not a full one, anyway. Half Fae, Half Succubus…that's why neither group wants you." Fiore closes her eyes again, as if she's been told this a hundred times before and the reminder is just as painful as the original, and Antonino hums in satisfaction before nosing at her neck. "But I wanted you, remember?" He continues, "I wanted you when nobody else did. When you ended up before father at just four years old."

Jack frowns, then says "That's enough, alright? She already said she's not in the mood."

Antonino snaps his head up, even as Fiore's eyes snap open in shock before staring at him with a glint in her gaze, and the red-eyed man says "Not many people can keep their heads around Fiore, you know. Part of her charm, she attracts people like flies to honey. And yet, here you sit, as if immune. When most everyone else that lays eyes on her or even gets close enough to smell her scent becomes extremely stupid until she's gone. Why is that, I wonder?"

Fiore hisses "You're so ridiculously possessive! I can't help it that people have functioning eyes, Antonino! If I could turn this curse off, I'd have done so years ago!" She got the short end of the stick in whatever fucked-up mix-and-match drawing that happened with the powers she has - she has a Succubus' Allure, but unlike a full-blooded 'Bus she can't control it. It got altered slightly, far as she can tell, thanks to her Fae Heritage.

She can make anyone attracted to women, be they male or female, suddenly overcome with desire and lust for her. And, unfortunately, they almost always try to act on it - something Antonino apparently can't see any longer that she doesn't appreciate any more than he does.

Antonino bares his teeth to her, anger having apparently reignited and growls out "Yet, you can't. Can't stop drawing men and women to you like ants to food, can't be accepted anywhere, can't do anything with the few powers you have. Unless, of course, that changes in a week."

Antonino leans forward suddenly, forcing Fiore to curl up some, and then inhales sharply through his nose - making Jack feel distinctly like prey right then and there.

And then he jerks back just as suddenly, bursting out into a coughing fit and waving his hand in front of his nose. "Okay, Boris and Farkas had a point. Who wears that much lotion at a time?!"

Jack defensively says "Had a run-in with a particularly nasty patch of poison ivy, if you must know."

Antonino coughs out "So you decided to bathe in scented lotion for a month?!" He quickly grabs the nearest glass and downs it to try and breathe clearly.

Fiore uses the opportunity Antonino's distraction makes to slide off his legs, saying "You don't know what I can do, Antonino."

Antonino doesn't even glance at her, too busy trying to clear his airway, and waves a hand at her as if to say 'I've heard this a hundred times before.'

Fiore glances at Jack, and jerks her chin towards the door in a silent warning to get ready. Jack nods, then glances at Antonino as he still coughs and sputters - looks like ten pounds of different lotions actually is good for something after all! - and Fiore smirks at him for the briefest of moments.

Quickly pasting a concerned expression on her face, Fiore says "Like I said, Antonino, you don't know what I can do. Only what I can't. Want to find out?"

Antonino glances up at her now, confusion writing itself all over his too-pale face, and between coughing he asks "What…are you…talking about?"

Fiore gives him a smile, and says "This. I've been experimenting." She shoves a suddenly-glowing hand into his chest, a beam of light erupting from it and sending him flying all the way to the back wall where he crashes into a rack of different drinks behind the bar counter.

The entire club goes dead-silent, except the drinks still crashing down onto Antonino, and Fiore grabs Jack by the wrist and pulls him along towards the exit. Most of the other people in the club quickly get out of their way, those that don't are knocked down or to the side by Fiore - as, for being so petite, Jack's quickly realizing she's got a deceptive strength he'd never have guessed at.

Antonino's voice yells "Stop them!" And then Jack hears a crashing sound once more and a series of Italian cursing as Fiore slams the door open - seems their luck is holding for a few moments, as Antonino just slipped on the glass and alcohol around him.

Farkas and Boris are there, guarding the door - Fiore takes them by surprise, grabbing Farkas by the arm and he immediately starts convulsing as if tased. Dropping the Werewolf to the ground, she shoots a burst of lightning at Boris that knocks him down before yelling "That car, the black one!" More specifically, the ridiculously-expensive Maybach Exelero - only the best for Antonino Styx, after all.

They quickly hop into the car Fiore pointed to, Jack locking the doors just to be safe, Fiore fishing a set of keys out from a clutch on the floor in front of her, and in twenty seconds she's speeding out of the parking lot. She speeds out onto a busy street, nearly hitting two cars in as many seconds, and Jack grabs onto the doorhandle and quickly straps himself in while yelling "Are you crazy?! Where did you learn how to drive?!"

"We're going to be hunted down by Vampires, kid! We don't have the luxury of going slow!" Fiore weaves the car between vehicles, then suddenly takes a ramp up onto the nearby freeway without warning.

Jack yelps when he crashes into her shoulder at the sudden turn, electricity going up his arm and down his body when he makes contact with her, and quickly pulls back before she can try to electrocute him for it upon seeing how stiff she's suddenly gotten - and it's only then, when he's finally close enough to see how her skin seems to glow from within and her dark gaze is threaded with green, that he notices something he missed back in Mythos. She smells like flowers, a seductive combination he can't quite place.

And then he's promptly jolted out of trying to figure out what the scent is when Fiore suddenly says "Put one hand on me, and I'll break it."

Jack blinks, asking "What now?"

"I've seen that look before. Plenty of people get it where I'm concerned. And it always ends the same way." Usually, it ends with Antonino getting a meal and then being a possessive jerk afterwards. But, Antonino isn't here now, so she's got to protect herself. "So, I'm telling you right now, you try anything with me, anything at all, and I'll make you regret it for the last few minutes of your life."

Jack blinks, then says "Gods, what do you take me for? Of course I won't try anything, I'm not some kind of animal!"

Fiore navigates into a relatively traffic-free stretch on the freeway - as in, there's a car-length in front of them and behind - and frowns at him asking "What are you, then? Because you're either an impossibly-strong-willed human - which, doubtful - or you're one of the few beings in this world that's immune to a Succubus' Allure."

Jack looks away from her intense dark-and-green gaze, and eventually says "I…don't know, really." He's been trying to ignore that question, in all honesty - what is he? A human? A dragon? Some strange combination of the two?

Fiore looks back at the road, asking "How could you not know? You know about us, obviously. Humans have been meticulously kept in the dark about the rest of us, kept believing we're nothing but bedtime stories told late at night."

Jack shrugs, running a hand through his hair and dislodging the hood, and says "I don't, alright? Two weeks ago, I was living with my mom, fresh out of High School! Then, one day, this freaky rash starts up, and now I've got this growing on me!"

Fiore glances over for a moment to see what he means, then has to do a double-take before physically forcing herself to look at the road once more.

Jack gets the distinct feeling, after a long moment, that he's actually managed to surprise her. Well, at least they're both thrown now - he's just seen several things he'd have said were impossible in the past ten minutes, from Werewolves to a Vampire to magic lights and lightning shooting out of this woman's hand.

He's at his limit, for right this instant, for surprises, if he's being perfectly honest.

After a long minute, Fiore breathes out "Unbelievable…"

Jack frowns, asking "What's unbelievable?"

Fiore snaps "You have got to be, without question, the single luckiest person I've ever met. You know that? You managed to get brought in by the two stupidest Werewolves Dakkar Styx has in his employment, anyone else would've checked you over for weapons and discovered those - and then, it wouldn't have been Antonino you'd have been brought to, but his father. And, let me tell you, that's not a good position to be in." Add to it, those two reek so bad the pages they handed Antonino were completely useless for identifying any kind of scents other than theirs - anything they touch and anywhere they go is simply contaminated by their stench.

How it happened that this kid is currently untraceable by Vampires or Werewolves is far beyond Fiore, but she's not complaining. They don't even have a name to go by!

Jack swallows, asking "Why's that?"

Fiore side-eyes him sharply, then shakes her head and says "You really don't know anything, do you? Dakkar Styx is the most feared Vampire Lord in the entire country, a real-life Godfather that just so happens to be immortal unless someone shoves a stake through his heart or tosses his behind into sunlight - and that's never going to happen, I can promise you that. He's cruel, he's ruthless, and he won't hesitate to hunt us down for what happened tonight."

Jack swallows, asking "What about the one back there, then?"

"Antonino?" Fiore scoffs, saying "Barely three hundred, a child by Vampire standards. A spoiled rotten child, used to getting his way. Possessive, controlling, and easily sparked to jealousy at the stupidest of things." Especially lately, with her eighteenth birthday coming up.

Jack nods as Fiore passes a white truck, and says "I noticed. Who are you, then? And why was he so possessive of you?"

Fiore sighs, then says "I'm…the first thing I can remember is being brought before Dakkar Styx. Antonino asked to have me, Dakkar agreed…" She pauses, then spits out "so long as he looked after his little pet."

Jack feels disgust run through him, and says "I see. That's…"

Fiore shrugs elegantly, and says "It's the lot I was dealt. It was bearable enough until recently."

Jack asks "Is that because of…what happens next week?"

Fiore's reaction is instantaneous, electricity running up her arms and her purple eyes going a brilliant green the color of Holly leaves as she snarls "None of your damn business!"

"Woah, woah, easy there! I wasn't trying to pry, I was just asking if that's why he's gotten worse! Take a chill-pill!" Because that was, without question, the single scariest thing he's seen all night and all his life. Boris and Farkas were nothing compared to this strange woman he somehow ended up sitting next to in a car they stole.

Fiore takes a long breath in before letting it out, the lights in her eyes and lightning running down her arms dying as she does so, and she eventually says "I see. Yes, it's why Antonino's gotten worse in regards to his possessiveness about me. And why I helped you in the first place."

Jack quickly says "Thanks for that, by the way. Erm, I never actually introduced myself. I'm Jack, Jack Fallon."

"Fiore Rhian."

After about twenty minutes spent in silence as Fiore drives like their lives depend on it - which, to be fair, they most certainly do - Jack asks "What now?"

Fiore doesn't even glance at him, and doesn't hesitate as she says "We drive until daylight hits."

Jack shakes his head, asking "I meant after that! Mythos was the one lead I had for finding my father, whoever the heck he is, wherever the heck he went! And now, if I go back home, I'll probably lead this Dakkar Styx to mom! Again!"

Fiore sharply asks "Again? You mean she was hunted before?" And got away?! Dakkar Styx doesn't give up, doesn't lose his target. If Jack Fallon's mother was truly hunted down by him, she'd have been dead years ago.

Jack shakes his head, saying "No, my dad was. Mom got caught up in the middle of it…I think." What reason could a Vampire Mafia Lord have to go after an ordinary human? No threat to them, no idea of this insanity, she isn't even anyone well-known or influential - she's worked odd jobs for as long as he can remember to raise him, she's nobody important! And he means that in the very best way, she shouldn't be on a thousand-year-old Vampire's radar! Or...however old this Dakkar is, anyway.

Fiore stays quiet for a moment, then says "I heard Dakkar talking once, about a failed hunt for a dragon. It might well be your father." Screaming, more like, but the point still stands.

Jack leans towards her at once, asking "Where? Do you have any idea-"

"I do. Now, lean back already before I make you." Jack leans back at once, and Fiore says "Last he's ever said about it, nobody's come back from Washington State for nearly two decades."

Jack lets out a slow breath, trying to consider the possibility - Washington State is about as far from South Carolina as one can get while still being in the continental US, and if his father was trying to draw this Dakkar away…that'd be the place to go, then. As far away from his mom, and eventually him, as physically possible while keeping close enough that Dakkar would stay interested in capturing him. After a moment, Jack says "It has to be him."

Fiore snorts inelegantly - or, as inelegantly as she can, anyway, everything she does is ridiculously graceful - and says "No. It might be him. It might be a dragon, or it might be something else altogether. There's been no word of anyone coming back from there, so no word of what's there. It could be a dragon, it could be a sea-monster, it could be a malevolent spirit or evil Kitsune for all I know - for all anyone knows."

Jack deadpans "Well, it's my only lead. Just like Mythos was."

Fiore presses her lips together, then sighs near-inaudibly and says "Fair enough."

Jack stares out his window for a moment, then asks "Why'd you help me? I'm, honestly, too scared to ask about next week-"

"Good."

Rolling his eyes, Jack continues "But you said you helped me because of whatever's going down with you then. Why me?"

Fiore's quiet, seeming to debate with herself about whether or not to tell him anything, and finally says "Dragons are one of only a few species that are immune to magic. Especially mind-altering effects. They can't be controlled or manipulated, can't be enchanted by even the most powerful Witch or Warlock. And, whatever else you are, you've enough dragon in you to keep your senses around me." It makes dragons extremely valuable as bodyguards, among other things. They're highly sought-after, having a dragon in one's family is considered extremely prestigious, like getting into an Ivy League school and graduating as Valedictorian with top marks, Honors, and ten different companies vying for you to accept their offer of employment.

And that's to say nothing of the effect a dragon has on their environment, enriching it just by being in the area. A dragon gives off Elemental Energy, the life force of this world, just by being alive - wherever a dragon decides to make its home is guaranteed to thrive so long as they're left alone. Maybe not the people, depending on the dragon's whims or whether it tolerates said people in its territory, but the land itself will be healthier than ever.

Jack asks "And…I take it you want to find the dragon as well?"

Fiore simply says "I want my freedom. I want to not be bound to the whims of Antonino Styx and his cruel monster of a father." And, being under the protection of an immensely-powerful being who's completely unaffected by her Succubus Allure that pretty much every supernatural creature she knows of would hesitate to cross is her best shot at it.

Jack frowns, that's an…extremely specific phrasing for something like that. Still, her display earlier has him convinced to leave the prickly topic be.

Scrambling for anything else to discuss, Jack latches onto the first thing he notices. "Erm, you know your eyes are still green, right?"

Fiore hums, saying "One of my abilities. I can change my appearance. Eye color, hair color, skin color…Antonino preferred me to have black hair and purple eyes, but I revert to my original form if I use some of my other abilities too much. Or if I'm not focusing on it."

"Like the light and the lightning…"

Fiore nods silently, then says "Get some sleep, Jack. We're currently heading west. Once the sun comes up, we'll stop, get food, clothes, and a new vehicle, and head towards Washington State."

Jack asks "Get a new vehicle? How are we supposed to manage that?!"

Fiore smirks, and says "Antonino convinced his father to get him this car because I wanted to learn to drive. It's in my name, as he signed it over to me since he never had much of an interest in it. I'll trade it in, get something new, and hopefully we'll make a decent distance towards Washington before needing to change again."

Jack glances at her a bit warily, asking "And, what exactly will it go for?" Usually, he'd be relieved that they hadn't stolen the car - usually is still back in South Carolina with his mother. The car being stolen or not is the least of their worries, at this point.

Fiore says "This is a Maybach Exelero, one of the fanciest cars there are. Antonino once told me his father paid nearly eight million for it. I'm sure there'll be someone willing to buy it."