Of Powers and New Sides

"I'd jump down to talk but I don't want to break my knee like some idiot." Kabek said, leaning against the white marble railing. Why was he here, why had he seen this, and why did it bother Nelly so much that he had. If this had been an animation Nelly feared her ears would pop out steam. Paco stepped in between the two and glared at the man above. 

"How are you even here?" Nelly said peering at Kabek from behind Paco. Absently she laid a hand on Paco's back, who jumped. He gave her a quick glance, with an expression she couldn't make heads or tails off. She tried to spell out 'what are you doing' with her expression, but he only straightened himself and looked back at Kabek. 

"Why don't you ask the statuette in front of you?" Kabek said, and wiped away a tear from the corner of his eye, smirking ever so wide. Nelly could stand a lot of playing around, she even was one to initiate often, but Kabek had a unique quality of getting under her skin. Nelly didn't need to ask for an explanation, Kabek couldn't hold his mouth shut. "He invited me, knowing I'd be a loyal guard in these trying times, but I think he didn't want you to know I was here. He might be well built and a scary beast, but doesn't mean he doesn't feel fear in some battlefronts quite unknown to him."

Nelly had never seen Paco shaking before. Who was this man, but she digressed emotions did run high in all of Nelly's close confidants. He didn't refute any of Kabek's words, so they seemed to be true. If Paco was angry at Kabek, she could do something about it—he was running weary on her as well. Time to test out something fun. She closed her eyes, turning her sight beyond the realm of light. 

In the darkness that was lit by her crimson haze, she first saw a clump of hundreds of hearts pumping blood inside the grand hall. She looked upwards, focusing in on where Kabek had been, it was hard to make out as she was still so weak. There, a heart with her unique vampiric markings imprinted on it, beat surprisingly fast. Was he nervous too, she wondered, before she willed the connection to the real world—with a whisper in words she did not understand. Words older than all remaining civilizations, words that came naturally from her inherited blood, whenever invoking vampiric craft. 

"Get down, now." Nelly said stepping out from behind Paco. Kabek laughed, but she could feel his pulse heighten, like a secondary heart beside her own. 

"You think I will jump down just because you ordereee…" Kabek said, his voice holding on to the 'e' and stretching it all the way to the ground. His legs had moved on their own, jumped down before he had paid any notice. He landed with a crash, small amounts of dust puffing up from the flowerbed he had landed in. 

"Shame you didn't break anything." Nelly said after making sure he had landed safely. Kabek touched his legs, eyes wide from the shock of falling and loss of control. He stretched them out, making sure they worked. One tangerine flower had got caught in his boots, and he carefully unfastened it. 

"What did you do to me?" he said and looked up at Nelly standing over him. She was imposing standing there, but here unaccustomed limp to get there hadn't been such. She had a tic in her upper lip, her body remembered, that sweet crimson that could flow in her again.

"When I said you are mine, I meant it." Nelly said and gave her hand after pondering it for a bit. Kabek shook his head, eyes caught on her twitching lip, but reached for her hand. A big body stepped in between the two. Nelly almost fell over as Paco bulldozed his way in, grabbing Kabek's hand, and pulling him up in one go. To say she was shocked at Paco was an understatement, he had never been one to enter situations. He was the guard, the one variable that she could safely ignore in all her official and unofficial engagements. 

"Now who is the dog protecting its territory." Kabek said dusting himself off, but not taking his wary eyes off of Paco. Nelly couldn't really follow anything anymore, a headache was coming on and her knee continuously reminding her of its existence. When Paco wound up his fist in a punch at Kabeks new incoming quip, she had had enough.

"Stop!" she yelled, unwittingly adding a fair dose of vampiric power in her scream. The two geese raring up to fight both lost their consciousness for a split second, their eyes rolling back, but they both returned in time to catch themselves from falling. The same couldn't be said for any glass objects nearby, the decorative lamps outside had all their glass shattered, leaving the ground shining like stars from the remaining light sources. 

The music inside ground to a halt, and Nelly turned to see the worried expressions of Red and Green, their gaze caught between the glass door—that had a massive crack—and Nelly. She waved at them, but didn't bother trying to smile. 

Paco's hands were grasping the air, caught between his two selves. The guard he was and whatever this new him was—the fact he couldn't decide even in this situation had her teetering on the edge of snapping out again. Kabek wasn't much better to bear, he was hanging his head like a bad puppy who knew they'd done a mess. She was done with both of them, and couldn't bear to see either of them for a second longer. 

"Know this, that if I was here today as Heiress, you both would be sent flying out from this house." Nelly said and turned away, walking too quickly and stumbled. 

"Don't!" she yelled again, as Paco was about to help her. This time glass didn't shatter, there was no power infused. She didn't look back and limped away, one wince after another.