Chapter 7

Antonino Styx grits his teeth as he looks at his watch once again - it's only noon, still eight more hours to go until the sun sets. Eight more hours for Fiore to get further away from him, eight more hours for her to do who-knows-what with that little nobody she ran off with.

Normally, he'd be asleep right now - normally, Fiore would be in the room next to his, sleeping as well. Or she'd be in his bed, where he could feel her heartbeat and smell the intoxicating scent of her blood, maybe have a snack if he felt like it or maybe just reminding her who she belongs to by kissing her until she begged.

He's too wired and furious for 'normally' right now.

'When I find them,' he seethes, 'I'm going to rip his throat out and drain him dry of blood while she watches. Maybe turn him into a Vampire to let him know just who it is she belongs to before I run a stake through his heart.'

He can't believe she got away, honestly - what's more, he can't believe she was capable of getting away. He couldn't believe she knocked him into a wall, couldn't believe his eyes when he tripped over Boris and Farkas convulsing in front of the doorway, couldn't believe it even more when their scent disappeared out on the road.

And she tossed her phone, for that matter, the shattered remains were brought to him three hours ago by a terrified servant after a Witch retrieved it - rightfully so, because he's down a servant now as well as Fiore.

At least he's had a meal now, though nothing compared to Fiore's blood - as even a half-Fae, her blood is an intoxicating, addictive mix that no mere human can possibly come close to. Not even the most powerful Sorceress, Witch, or their male counterparts can come close, even with the power that runs through them.

The biggest difference between the two?

A Witch or Warlock makes deals with demons from the underworld in exchange for power, entering a binding contract with them that's almost impossible to get out of except by dying - the stricter and more binding the contract, the greater the powers relieved and the greater the price they pay...and the more tightly they're bound to their specific demon.

A Sorceress or Sorcerer, on the other hand, draws energy from themselves, their surroundings, and occasionally other realms to - there's natural talent involved, yes, but it can take years of study to master.

Translation: Witches and Warlocks take the easy way to power for a steep price while Sorcerers and Sorceresses work for it. And work hard, from what he's heard.

And then Antonino's pulled from his thoughts by a knock on the door, and he whirls around to it and snarls "What could anyone possibly want with me at this hour?!"

Two females and a male walk in at the sound of his voice, and Antonino narrows his eyes at them - he recognizes the three of them easily: a pair of very powerful twins, a Witch and a Warlock in his father's employ that bound themselves to the same demon at once, offering up everything in return for the blackest of magic, and a Succubus he had the intense pleasure of being introduced to 100 years ago.

Not in the mood for Kylsyss' usual games, he bares his fangs at her in warning and waits for someone to say something.

Salazar steps forward, his twin sister Sagami doing the same, and the two of them unanimously say "We heard about what happened in Mythos. We've come to offer our services to re-acquire the half-breed for you as we did once before for your Sire."

Antonino's borderline-murderous glare lessens some at the declaration, and he asks "How did you hear of it? Word of mouth? Or your own special way?" Not even his father knows just what demon it is they serve, or the exact nature of their pact with it - what everyone knows, all they truly need to know, is that they're ruthless, powerful, and have never failed yet. They even managed to defeat Fiore's parents, and seal her memories, ensuring she wouldn't remember anything before being brought to his father - an impressive feat, as both of her parents were rumored to be extremely powerful for their respective races.

'They may have also sealed away any powers she might've had at the time,' Antonino muses, 'and now the Seal is fading. Either due to age or her eighteenth birthday.' It would explain why Fiore has shown none of her parents' supposed abilities...until now, that is.

The twins get matching smiles, and Sagami says "Not to worry. Your Sire is busy enough without this minor inconvenience being brought to his attention. We'll get her back and ensure he never learns of her bout of rebelliousness."

Antonino nods his head sharply, and says "See that it is done. I want her returned to me whole and undamaged." His tone takes on a warning edge as he adds on "In every way." He's heard the stories about those who cross these two, how they're left broken, empty shells of who they used to be, devoid of personality or thought. 'Brainwashing' is what the humans would call it, and it's an apt description in this case.

The twins share a glance, and then nods their heads saying "But of course. As you command."

Once the twins leave, Antonino turns towards his bed to try and sleep once more - and then Kylsyss' hands land on his shoulders, stopping Antonino in his tracks.

"Mm," Kylsyss hums, running her hands along his shoulders, "so tense, so...pent-up. Why bother with something that could never satisfy you?"

Antonino grits his teeth as he feels her breath brush his neck, and bites out "I never tried to find out, if you must know." He was waiting until she came into her full Succubus powers, as it happens.

Kylsyss lets out a low laugh, hands running down his back seductively, and murmurs "That's why she left, then. Went to find someone who wouldn't wait."

Antonino spins around at once, and sees Kylsyss' usually-brown hair is now black as night and she's got amethyst-purple eyes that look like gemstones. Whether she's mocking him or trying to tempt him with his favored look on Fiore, he doesn't care.

Kylsyss smiles at him, and runs her hands up his chest while saying "I could help you relax a little. Spend a few hours you won't be out anyway letting off a little stress?" She nuzzles into his neck suddenly, her hand running up to his hair, and Antonino stiffens when he feels her tail brush against his cheek teasingly even as her wings form a cocoon around them.

Antonino glares even more when she pulls from his neck and hovers just far enough away that there's some distance between their mouths, and says "Kylsyss, if you don't stop teasing me, one way or another-"

Kylsyss hums in amusement, and asks "What? What will you do, Antonino? Push me away? I may not be able to arouse you just by being here, but...we both know I've managed anyway."

Antonino growls, then leans forward to bite her lips - she's too damn good at this, unfortunately.

And she knows it, if her satisfied hum is anything to go by.

Fiore glances over when Jack switches the radio on, and asks "Anything in particular you're looking for?"

Jack shrugs, saying "Music, preferably. My best friend growing up, Taylor, she knows all the words to all the songs playing, like it's ingrained in her head."

Fiore hums, then says "Sounds like she has a good memory."

Jack laughs for a moment, and says "Sometimes. Other times, it's in one ear and out the other. Usually if she's studying, working on a project for school…or if she's just really into something. But she's insanely smart, straight A's through High School."

Fiore hums, a smile forming on her lips despite herself as Jack goes on about his friend, and asks "What's she doing after school, then? If she's so smart?"

Jack shrugs, saying "More school. Got accepted into college early, with a full-boat scholarship to boot. Oregon Health and Science University."

Fiore raises an eyebrow, asking "What's she studying?"

Jack rubs the back of his head, saying "Best I can tell, she's going into Biology to start with. Wants to get into the Genetics program - she's convinced the key to curing cancer is Genetic Engineering, though most of what she said when she tried to explain it just went straight over my head."

Fiore hums as Jack mimes just how far over it went, and frowns as a strange feeling goes through her - she places it after a moment, jealousy. Why would she be jealous, though? To try and take her mind off it, Fiore asks "Who is she, anyway? Your girlfriend or something?"

Jack laughs again, and says "No, she's more like a sister to me than anything else. We've been best friends since we were five. Went to the same schools, had classes together, stuff like that."

Fiore hums, feeling her unexpected, unexplainable jealousy disappear just as quickly as it came, and says "She certainly sounds interesting."

"You might like her. She doesn't really interact with people much, preferring books, music, and animals." At Fiore's curious look, Jack reluctantly adds "She's not much of a people person, and used to get picked on for it when we were younger. She actually got an award for reading the most books in a single year at High School."

Fiore grins, asking "Oh, really? How's that?"

Jack shrugs, saying "I'm not sure just how she did it, but she went through the books like water. Every day, she'd be up at the school library checking out a different one - a month in, they knew her by name."

Fiore whistles in appreciation, and says "Now I'm impressed. How big were these books?"

"Depends on the book. Some were smaller than others."

Fiore shakes her head, asking "Wow. Just how bad did she get picked on?"

Jack scowls, and says "Bad enough that I cornered the worst of them and- argh!"

Jack suddenly scratches at the entirety of his left arm as if there's bugs crawling under his skin, and Fiore asks "What's wrong? Jack? What's happening?"

Jack grits his teeth, and says "Not a clue, my entire arm just started burning!"

Fiore puts a hand on Jack's arm before he can tear through the sweatshirt by accident, and says "Take this off, lets take a look when we find a rest area. Can you think of anything that might've caused it?"

Jack shakes his head, and says "Not a clue. I don't even know what 'it' is unless my incoming scales decided to kick into overdrive and get here now."

About ten minutes later, Fiore pulls into a rest area and hits the ignition button to shut the car off, saying "Let me see, Jack."

When he shows her his arm, the entire limb looks red and puffy, almost like it's swollen - not helped whatsoever, she's sure, by his scratching. And from the look on his face, it's taking every ounce of his willpower to not continue to scratch at it some more.

When she puts her hand on it, though, she can very clearly feel something hard under the skin - undoubtedly more dragon scales, ones that apparently weren't ready to come to the surface when whatever happened triggered this if the lumpy, uneven texture is any indication. After a moment, Fiore asks "Could it be because you were thinking of your friend getting bullied?"

Jack full-body jerks, then grits his teeth and grinds out "Maybe…"

"Try thinking of something else, anything else. Try…I don't know, a field of flowers. Or being on a canoe in a lake. Something, anything that you won't feel the need to protect."

Jack grits his teeth as another wave of itchiness runs through his arm, followed by a sharp pain throughout his shoulders, and asks "Why's that? Any theories?" About an hour ago, he'd said he was hoping to get some cool powers to even things out if they got attacked - because what's he going to do, football charge a Vampire and hope he connects? - but he certainly didn't have burning arms and aching shoulders in mind!

Honestly, he was thinking fire-breath or being able to lift a truck like his mom said Drayce could do.

Fiore urgently says "All the stories humans have of us have a grain of truth somewhere if you know where to look. Vampires aren't killed by Garlic, it just smells far too strong for them to stand. They can be seen in mirrors, pictures, humans just see what they want to and made that up. Dragons are always depicted as greedy, gold-hoarding creatures that will kill anything that dares to steal from them. The gold bit isn't universally true, not all dragons are greedy creatures at heart. But that willingness to protect what's theirs? I'm willing to bet that's the truth behind it all. So, you need to try to relax, stop getting all protective, got it?"

Jack nods, then let's out a short breath as another bone-deep ache runs from the top of his shoulders to his back. And then he feels something move in his back, followed by another wave of pain all the way down to his hips.

Fiore swears, then climbs into the backseat and pulls them down, saying "C'mon, get in back. You lay down, I'll put some of that gel stuff on your back."

Jack nods, then yelps when Fiore suddenly pulls him in back by his armpits and drags him over to the closer futon - the red one, as it happens.

"Okay," Fiore mutters, "get the shirt off and get the gel on him… Jack, put your arms up, alright?" She's got absolutely no idea what she's doing, much less what's going on, but she can't possibly hurt him worse than he's already hurting…right?

The two distinct bulges on his back, bulges that look like they're spreading outwards towards his sides, certainly give that impression.

"Okay," she says after a moment, "I've got…news."

Jack twitches, then asks "Good news or bad news?"

Fiore winces, then says "Good news…I think. And not-so-good news."

Jack's body shudders, and he rasps out "What's the good news, exactly?" He can't see anything 'good' in this particular situation.

"I'm pretty sure this is wings that are forming on your back causing the pain."

"And what's the bad news?!"

Fiore worries her lip for a moment, then says "I think they're still forming, and when you got worked up enough to trigger this you accidentally tried to flex them." And she's fairly certain his wings are still trapped under the muscles of his back - if they were to flex now, they'd have to go through a layer of thick muscle.

It's a good thing, then, that she doesn't think they're strong enough yet to do as much - that doesn't mean they can't react when he tries to use them, though, no matter how subconscious the attempt.

Squeezing some of the Biofreeze gel onto his back, Fiore quickly starts rubbing it in to try and ease the very obvious pain he's in - it doesn't seem to help much, but it's hard to tell with the way Jack hisses a string of curses at the freezing cold and twitches at her every touch.

After about thirty minutes, Fiore leans back on her thighs, having been kneeling the whole time, and says "That's about all I can do." Her hands feel tingly, with it running up her arms, but she'll worry about that later.

Jack breathes out "Thanks. Feels better..." His back is all tingly now, but he'll gladly take tingles over the feeling of his back trying to rip itself apart. Trying to lighten the mood, he cracks a pained grin and adds "Hey, at least you know my mind wasn't in the gutter."

Fiore scoffs, saying "Jack, the last thing on my mind…" She trails off, a look of utter amazement on her face for a moment, then breathes out "The last thing on my mind was whether or not you'd lose it." She's had her hands all over his back for a full half-hour, and not once did she even think to worry about the effect she might have on him or that he'd suddenly try anything.

Not something she ever thought would happen - even with Antonino, she was always waiting for him to suddenly get jealous and make a demonstration out of the two of them.

It's a novel concept for her, as up until now only Vampires, Succubi and Incubi, and a Witch-and-Warlock pair she saw one time in Dakkar's company have ever been unaffected by her - and Antonino loved to act as if he was affected, even if he never said he was putting on an act to that effect, the Succubi and Incubi were always contemptuous of her for being a halfbreed, and the magical twins scared her so much she's been grateful every single day since she only met them once. Something about them terrified her to the core, she's not sure what and she never wants to find out - maybe it was their ashen skin and dark, sunken eyes, or the bone-chilling cold that seemed to sap all the energy out of her just by being near them.

'Or,' she considers once more, 'maybe it was something else.'

She's heard of Witches and Warlocks, of course, and the more powerful ones are rumored to be able to do some truly terrible, terrifying things.

'And Dakkar wouldn't employ anything or anyone but the worst.'

Could they have done something to her and she just can't remember it?