- Jak could be accurately described as a feral sort of man, who had to be guided towards appropriate ‘human’ behavior. He’d spent a lot of time with wild wolves and in the shape of a wolf, so those mannerisms just came easier to him. Honestly, it had never bothered him much, since he’d never really met a person beside his brother who he wanted to leave a favorable impression on. But Astilbe was different; he’d taken one look at her and felt certain in his heart that the fairy was meant for him. So he wanted to impress her, which meant picking up on more ‘human’ cues… which wasn’t exactly Jak’s strong point. Still, he was genuine in his desires, so the rusty haired werewolf was committed to trying his best… and was immediately hit with evidence that ignorance is bliss at the exchange between Astilbe and Henbit.
"W-Whaaaaa…?" Jakobi’s jaw dropped and his eye visibly twitching. Were the Princess and the Knight lovers?! Jakobi had suspected Henbit from the beginning as a matter of principle, but proof from the mouth of the princess herself was damning. The werewolf –normally quite the spitfire—felt like his soul was leaving his body behind at the implications. "There’s… no way… Astilbe… and that guy…" he muttered a bit feverishly.
Landon hesitated, only glancing at the shell-shocked Jakobi before replying to Henbit. "Our job is… a dangerous one. We often have to fight others to save lives. And sometimes, that gets out of hand." Landon confessed, his silver eyes darkening at the heaviness of past memories. Landon had the build of a god, but he had the heart and the conscience of a human being; with great power came great responsibility, and Landon had learned that the hard way. "Maybe… you’re right. But intention is everything. And the New Harkers have made maintaining life a priority. It’s always our goal to spare lives if we can. But the safety of the many is more important than the lives of the few… and, sometimes, we have to make that call." he said in discomfort.
This was an issue Landon had struggled with more than most; his immense strength had been rigorously trained ever since he could remember. Some of his earliest memories were of his mother, silver eyes that matched his own stern and demeanor rigid, but with an undercurrent of gentleness that only those that she loved were subjected to. Landon could remember her voice, low and steady, telling him that he was stronger than other children his size, faster than other children his size, and that it was his responsibility to be more mature than other children his size, too. Lydia struck most as cruel and unrelenting, but when Landon experienced his first slips of control with his strength when most children were just learning how to ride their bikes, she was the steady certainty that he wasn’t able to provide for himself. Despite the fact that his mother had no extra strength of her own, she was adamant that Landon grow up never ignorant to what his powers could do to both himself and to others. And when the first flickerings of his secondary power started crackling along his fingertips at the onset of puberty, the voice of his father –the father he wanted and loved, not the one that had contributed genetics to his creation—was the first he had heard, talking him to calm. Lydia’s unrelenting drive and Kalen’s even-tempered control had kept the demigod sane. It had garnered an intense desire to master his own strength and at least tolerate his additional power, something that Landon could take pride in.
The infiltration of the Harkers, however, had required the demigod to put aside some of his personal convictions. When he had been presented to them –a silver eyed candidate of Death with strength beyond measure—the Harkers had been understandably smitten; after all, Landon was, ironically, their ideal perfect human. He had been hailed as a suitable successor of Lucy, who was still hailed as one of the most perfect hunters produced in modern times despite her abandonment of the compound. Enamored with him as they had been, the Harkers had almost immediately sent young Landon into the field to kill ‘monsters’, and the boy who had spent the entirety of his young life practicing discipline to keep his powers from killing anyone had been forced to kill in the pursuit of the better good. With the domination of the Old Harkers and the prominence of the New Harkers, the mortality rate of their interactions had dropped dramatically. There was more of a focus on control and non-lethal reactions these days; Landon liked to remind himself of the organization revolution, and the good that they could do now whenever they had to do otherwise… or when memories of the past resurfaced, as they did under Henbit’s pointed inquiries.
Still, he was uncomfortable with this line of questioning, and the brunette took a deep breath, struggling to decide how else he could respond to Henbit. Silver eyes lifted, and Landon felt his body relaxing in relief to see that Layla had captured Henbit’s attention instead. Had Layla done that as a way to save her brother from the anxiety she instinctively knew he was experiencing, or because she had a knee-jerk interest in Henbit that she acted on in that impulsive, animalistic way of hers? Not even Landon knew; even though he’d been with his sister since she’d been born, it was difficult for him to get a read on the redhead at times.
Speaking of Layla, the redhead tilted her head to the side, a thoughtful expression on her freckled face. "A tradition? No, not really. Fina and I tried to dye our hair blue a few years back, and my mom nearly killed us. She says hair color different from the one you’re born with isn’t professional." Layla replied with a slight shrug, a small smile on her lips when she remembered that little misadventure. Amethyst eyes blinked as she stared down at Henbit, and then the strange girl’s lips split into a huge grin. "Are you sure? Not even once?" Layla giggled, touching Henbit’s unrelenting grip on her wrist. "Because you’re violating my personal space right now, aren’t you?"
"It’s not supposed to be fun. It’s supposed to be functional." Landon informed Fina, making a face. "The uniform does look good when you wear it properly." the demigod countered smoothly, effectively dodging the devastating effects of Fina’s flirting. The two had been going back and forth like this for some time, so though Fina was a devastatingly beautiful woman he had turning down her advances down to a science.
Landon used awareness of Fina and forethought to turn aside her advances, but Jarrah clearly favored bullheaded ignorance. If Landon toed the line and carefully stepped aside to let subtlety pass, Jarrah would head butt it into submission and then tell it to stop laying around on the job and fight like a man. One method might have seemed far more straightforward than the other, but it was clear that Landon had a better comprehension of how to deal with Fina than Jarrah did.
"So you like to eat the hearts, huh?" Jarrah said tightly, recalling horror stories of wolves from the past that he’d read when he was a child. "Heh, like I’d ever give my heart over. Your witchy magic may work on normal men, but it’s useless against knights of the fairy courts!" he decided.
"No." Jarrah said bluntly when Fina’s ears and tail slid out of sight. "Because I know you’re still a wolf; you can’t trick me. I’ve spent a lot of time fighting Ryu, so I’m used to wolf tricks like that." he explained. The dark haired knight blinked, then puffed his chest out slightly as Fina conceded that he could defeat her swim suit; actually, Jarrah wasn’t a hard guy to please. "Change my opinion? Hm… I doubt it. You’d have to try really hard, and stop eating hearts. I don’t think you can do it. Even wolves like Ryu have had to work for years to be trustworthy enough to join the knightly ranks. You’d have a long way to go."
"Because my brother loved you. He died loving you. And you… you just…" Animosity bristled around him, and there was a look of absolute disgust in his mismatched eyes as he looked at Fina. Once he had so admired her, the girl who was a match for the elder brother he revered, and Jak had thought of her as family. He didn’t have the words to explain how betrayed seeing her now made him feel. His brother was going to have a stable family, the kind Jak had only heard about… and then it was all ruined. By her. It was laborious to drag his attention from what in his mind was a treacherous woman to Henbit, but Astilbe made good bait. "Careful, or I’ll make you regret saying that!" he huffed.
"Hmm…" Layla kicked her feet like a child, turning Jennifer’s words over in her head from their position in the kitchen. "Maybe. But how would you ever know unless you try? Otherwise you’ll just live in limbo forever, tormented in place. Isn’t moving forward for the better, even if it’s towards something uncomfortable? You have to move forward to get past whatever it is that’s bothering you."
The addition of Orcus changed the whole tone of the conversation, and Layla couldn’t help being wary. The redhead cocked her head to the side as she mulled over Orcus’ words, her body slowly relaxing. "No… I don’t think so. It isn’t human nature to be happy with what you have; there’s always something more to strive for." Layla replied, then blinked. That was not the point… at least, she didn’t think it was the point. …what was the point, again?
Orcus’ grin caught Layla off guard. She wasn’t the sort that immediately equated a smile with kindness; after all, baring teeth in the animal kingdom was usually an act of aggression, and besides, Zeus was always smiling broadly any time he came around to cause chaos. But Layla had associated Orcus with Death, and apparently hadn’t expected him to be the sort that smiled. His smile had banished the animosity that had billowed up with his show of power, and the strong contrast left Layla feeling a little unbalanced.
"Sheltered?" Layla wasn’t sure what to make of that; was her stance so unrealistic? And what was she supposed to make of his words? Out of respect for what Landon had gone through, Layla had decided to avoid gods of any flavor, and since this one was trying to steal Jennifer from them, she figured he would count for this more than most. Still, despite her badmouthing of cats before, Layla shared their curiosity. As Orcus escaped the kitchen with Jennifer hot on his heels, the redhead stared after them warily, not sure what to make of her encounter.
"Then you should have listened so you wouldn’t have to hear it again!" Jarrah scolded an unapologetic Orcus.
"She IS my princess!" Jakobi argued in a growl.
"I see…" Petra murmured, turning her grateful eyes on Logan.
"Ngh…" Landon didn’t know what to make of Jennifer’s response, nor of the what seemed to be to him a bashful air to her words.
"…Hades has a big family?" Layla said, deadpanning. So much for her terrifying mental picture of Hades; that was now effectively shattered and replaced with the mental picture of a congenial family man. It was… weird. "I don’t understand. Does that make you a demigod? And your siblings, too?" Layla asked, careful not to link the word demigod directly to Landon.
"Stole your mother?" Landon repeated, his body tense.
"Ryu?" Jarrah glanced at Ryu in surprise. "What’s a Hellhound?"
"Ah…" Juniper’s lavender eyes found their way to Orcus’ face, and the fairy girl’s own expression softened.
There was no denying the fondness in Orcus’ eyes as he mentioned that Ryu was part of his family, and that genuineness seemed to resonate with what Juniper had already seen between Ryu and the Lord and Lady of Death. Ryu had never mentioned this red eyed brother to her, but then Jarrah did have a bad habit of interrupting any such personal talk with challenges. The dark haired girl fidgeted slightly; she wanted to know more about Ryu. She had known him for so long, but felt like she knew so little; Ryu was always coming to her on her level. He didn’t keep the waters calm by any means, but he never dragged her from her world of life into the land of Death that he had apparently come from. Something about this mission was bringing the consideration with which Ryu had treated her into focus for Juniper, and standing before someone who clearly valued Ryu so much, but about whom Juniper knew nothing, the fairy knight didn’t know if she was okay with the way things stood between them anymore.
"What’s complicated about it!?" Jakobi demanded to know in a snarl. Of course, Jakobi was in no position to judge someone on that, since his own reason for joining Jarrah’s band of fairy knights was pretty complicated in the first place.
Landon swallowed hard, struggling to control his emotions. Jennifer had looked so crushed by his words, and he felt the same; he cared more about Jennifer than anyone else, and the thought that he could doubt her threatened to suffocate him. So when Orcus spoke up Landon was left struggling; on the one hand he was relieved that there was a culprit other than Jennifer, on the other he immediately hated himself for doubting her. A hand snapped up to shove his chocolate locks back from his face –a stress habit, to be sure—and took a deep breath. He couldn’t look at Jennifer just yet, so he focused on Orcus. "Don’t read my soul. You have no right." he snapped.
“Are you tired, lass?” Dómhnall questioned his new charge. Dómhnall had never had children in his lifetime, but he had a soft spot for young people. Not that he got much time to bond with Astilbe, as a knock at the door threw the residents of the apartment into chaos once again.
"I’ll kill them…" Jakobi threatened as he collected himself off of the floor, knocking his clothes back into place and throwing a dirty look towards the now closed door. He didn’t know what those siblings were up to, but he didn’t like it one bit. But his ear twitched at Astilbe’s tone, and he looked at her in immediate concern. "Astilbe? What’s wrong?"
Dómhnall stared out through the window and the adjacent (and completely unexplained) hole in the wall and his craggy expression softened. There was a beautiful sunset beginning out on that horizon, and being dead and in the Underworld for as long as he had, it had been a very long time since he’d seen a sunset. A small smile settled on his lips… and quickly vanished as he too picked up on the distress in Astilbe’s voice. “Come now, don’t be upset… take a deep breath. Won’t you tell us what’s going on, lass?” Dómhnall encouraged, but Astilbe didn’t seem to hear him and focused only on Henbit.
Jak felt his heart give an unhappy little jerk when Astilbe and Henbit moved towards one another. Now that he’d received ‘proof’ that the two were together, their every look and touch reeked of love to him, and it made his heart drop into the pit of his stomach. Was he loosing her to that knight? No, he had to fight for his love! "Hey, what are you doing to her? What’s going on? Astilbe…" Jakobi reached out to catch the Princess’ wrist even as Henbit pulled her back. It certainly didn’t help that Jak looked every bit the wild wolf he had all the potential to be in strong contrast to Henbit’s gentleness. "Hey! Talk to me!"
“Come now, none of that!” Dómhnall said a bit sharply, lifting a hand and thwacking Jak on the arm that touched the fairy princess.
"Don’t you start, too." Jak snapped.
Meanwhile, Juniper found herself in quite the pickle. Oh, she’d been in more dangerous situations before, scenarios that were more stressful on paper, but there was nothing that got her heart racing like being trapped in a small space with Ryu, apparently. The fairy knight was embarrassed just by their closeness and the suddenness of their being alone together as it was; when Ryu wrapped his arms around her and drew her close, Juniper almost choked.
"W-Wolf!" Juniper squeaked in objection, a flustered expression on her lovely features. A fetching blush still staining her cheeks, the fairy knight screwed her face up in objection. "Y-You seem to be the one that’s forgotten that we’re hiding!" the girl whispered, not missing that laughing light in his eye.
Ryu often had that look about him when he teased her like this, and though Juniper wanted to be angry with him about it, she could never quite pull it off. True, this always left her feeling off kilter and flustered, but something about Ryu’s smile had a way of luring her into thinking that it wasn’t such a bad thing after all. Even now, when Ryu leaned his head down towards hers Juniper felt her reservations leave her and her body relax almost without her noticing; Ryu just had that effect on her. In a way, Jarrah was right to be worried about Ryu around Juniper; were Ryu a different sort of man, the pretty fairy girl he had entranced would have been in quite a bit of trouble.
"Not honest? What are you talking about? Nm…" Juniper murmured in confusion, biting her bottom lip as she found herself thoroughly trapped between Ryu and the wall. The fairy lifted a hand and pressed it against Ryu’s chest in what surely would have been a halfhearted attempt to push him back, but instead her fingers froze against him. Juniper snapped her eyes up to look at Ryu directly, the first note of actual panic showing in her eyes as he voiced his question. The fairy didn’t know what she’d been expecting him to ask, but it was clear that she was caught off guard.
"I… I don’t know what you mean." Juniper stumbled to say. She wasn’t the lying sort, and lying to Ryu was the most difficult kind of lie. Especially since he seemed to see right through all of her efforts to do so. "I… I’ve just been training. Just like Jarrah wants us to do." she added, fidgeting under the weight of his stare. She wanted to tell him the truth, but the consequences she had imagined scared her too much. Still, Ryu didn’t seem inclined to let her get away with just this much, and the fairy girl swallowed hard.
"…I… I really have been training." Juniper said softly. "With Poplar. He’s been… trying to help me." For a second Juniper was silent, struggling with herself. She wanted to keep this a secret, at least until she showed progress, but something about this private moment was loosening her tongue. Juniper slowly tightened her fingers in the material of Ryu’s shirt, holding on to him tightly as if that could alleviate her anxieties and her shame in herself. "………I………… I don’t want to tell you. I’m afraid." she finally said, her tone miserable. "Ryu, you… I don’t want you to think less of me. I don’t want to disappoint you. More than anything, I want to be someone you can rely on, no matter what." she confessed her fears at long last. She wanted to stop while she was ahead, but the floodgates were apparently open, and Juniper couldn’t stop herself.
"…did you know that the most powerful weapon smithies have the ability to pull a weapon out of a living person’s very life force? These kinds of weapons are unbreakable, and a person wielding their own soul weapon is said to be much more proficient in battle. With an ability like that, a weapon smithy is supposed to be a powerful addition to any team… and yet I… I can barely even fight after creating a weapon from something as passive as a tree." Juniper lowered her eyes to stare at Ryu’s chest, shame etching its way across her features. She felt downright queasy confessing this to Ryu’s face; it was clear to tell that she was taking her personal failings quite hard, and that she believed that these failings were letting her team down.
"So… I’ve been creating weapons, and having Poplar attack me as soon as they’re created." Juniper confessed, leaning her head to rest against Ryu’s chest slightly. "We’ve been at it for at least four lunar cycles… but… I’m not getting any better." she continued, eyes sliding closed in frustration. The training she described had not been easy on her; though Poplar was hesitant to use his full strength against his petite sister, Juniper had insisted he do so. The result had been months of bruises and carefully hidden wounds in addition to her physical and emotional exhaustion; Juniper had been paying a heavy price for her training. The weapons she had created were lovelier with each effort, intricate and strong, more like art than weapon while maintaining lethality… and yet the picture of success that Juniper had in her mind eluded her. So she continued to push herself, and continued to despair when she couldn’t meet her goals. It was wearing her down, and though the girl was worried about loosing Ryu’s respect, it felt almost like relief to finally air her worries to the man she loved.
"…!" The relief didn’t last long, and Juniper moved her head back to rest wearily against the wall, anxiety flickering in her lavender eyes once again. "But Henbit told me his father is like me, a weapon smithy, and he’s supposed to be a great warrior! If I go with Henbit to meet him, maybe he will know how I can become stronger. So Ryu, please," Juniper added, a vulnerable air haunting her words, "Don’t give up on me. I may not be as strong as Poplar, or as skilled as Jarrah, but I won’t let you down. I’ll definitely be someone you can rely on." Juniper promised, her head spinning. She felt so foolish for spilling all of her secret fears in such a frenzied rush, but these feelings underlined more than just one worry Juniper was carrying around with her. She was worried of loosing Ryu’s respect just as she was afraid of loosing his interest, as she had confessed to Kitty; after all, if nothing else, she could be his knightly comrade… but with this perceived weakness, even that certainty was in danger. Why was she so uncertain about where she stood with Ryu? Because the girl loved him, but hadn’t been able to tell him directly yet; being open and honest was forever the option to sooth Juniper’s worries, it seemed.
It would have been a good opportunity for Juniper to share her feelings at long last… but she’d already shared much more than she meant to; she wasn’t going to press her luck. Besides, there was a sudden noise and the fairy knight’s head snapped to the side, distracted even from her own pounding heart at a hint of danger. "Was… was that a scream?"
While Juniper confessed her secret fears to Ryu, tensions were feeling the living room area of their hiding place. The source of the tension, the stern faced man named Joshua, smiled slightly at Jennier. “Hello, Jennifer…” he greeted her, then scoffed. “They say that if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it must be a duck. So, if it looks like a monster, it is a monster…” Joshua concluded, giving Landon a withering look. Joshua had been one fooled by Landon the hardest; when the boy had first joined the ranks of the Harkers, Joshua had championed him as a hallmark of his breed. The humiliation Joshua felt when Landon’s parentage was revealed had rocked him to his core. Still, Joshua had begrudgingly voted to work with Landon… or, more accurately, to regard him as a thing, as a useful tool to kill other monsters. In Joshua’s eyes, Landon at least had his uses… unlike Layla. “Why? It would be a shame if the monsters forgot their places. They’ve already flown too close to the sun; any further, and they’ll crash into the ocean and drown. Speaking to them like this is a kindness they really don’t deserve, really.”
“Of course she’s doing it on purpose. That woman’s entire purpose is to destroy the strength of the Harker clan.” Joshua said with a grimace, laying a hand on Landon’s shoulder. “She’s a monster’s whore as well as an usurper; her whole purpose is to destroy our best and brightest. What other explanation is there? You’re the most talented of our family, Logan. The most skilled, the one with the surest instincts, with a practiced hand and natural ability… and she fails you! For what reason? Your hair?!” he sputtered, enraged by this perceived injustice.
"Do not speak that way about her." Landon said sharply. "And you have no proof that the testing is unfair."
“Only because your mother has clever little ways of burying reasoning in legal documents.” Joshua growled, his eyebrow twitching. He’d been trying to get proof of his suspicions for ages, but every time he thought he had something, Lydia would smugly offer him one piece of paper or another that would disprove his claims.
"It wouldn’t matter even if Dina didn’t write all of our documentation to be ironclad." Layla spoke up, glancing at Logan from the corner of her eye. To be honest, she had her suspicions that Joshua was right about why Logan couldn’t pass his exams to become a full-blown, card carrying Harker. Lydia could be downright heartless when it came to completing her goals, after all. But it wasn’t something she wanted to say in front of Logan; the man was her friend, and she didn’t want to discourage him in any way if she could help it. "You’re just looking for things to be angry about, Joshua."
“Don’t use my name so casually, you monster.” Joshua snapped, open hatred in his blue eyes. He thought of Landon as less than human, but it was clear that he loathed Layla. He made his distaste of the redhead no secret; it was possible that he hated her more than even her mother. But were one to ask around, no one would know the reason why. The reason behind this animosity was a secret shared only between Joshua and Layla. And the secret was that Layla knew a secret, one Joshua was reminded of every time he looked at her. Even now, the memories rushed to the forefront of his mind, stirring his mortification… and his rage.
It was sunset once again, but not a peaceful one; war had broken out among the Harkers, and their numbers had been overrun in the most efficient example of divide and conquer that had ever been seen. Power had been wrested from the hands of the old guard and was now held in the hands of one woman. Her husband was a fairy of some power, a power which he now could wield over the entire Harkers from his position, and the two children these usurpers had spawned were revealed to be halfas of the most obvious order. Had that been all, the chaos would have been short lived, but with the seizing of absolute control came the tripping of every trap that had been laid out. The large, burly human who had been promoted to guardian of all weapons was revealed to be a boisterous Minotaur as the spell disguising him faded, and the odd technical man that had linked all of the Harker’s technology to himself had displayed supernatural abilities to the surprise of all. The vivacious judge who had been working with their new leader to ‘modernize the Harker legal footprint’ had wrapped the organization in the legal equivalent of a cat’s cradle, the suave doctor that had been curing them all growing green under disbelieving eyes. It wasn’t just one family trying to take over an organization; the Harkers were an organism that had been so completely overwhelmed by the virus of deceit that it had no use but to give up and die when the ruse was revealed.
‘Give up’ was a relative term, of course; the Old Harkers railed against this sudden domination that had blindsided them. As in their heyday their elders held a council for trial, a traditional first step for declaring a traitor and sentencing them to death. But –to their fury—they had to be cautious about whom they convicted and killed. Until they wrested control back into rightful hands, at least. So that night was the trial of one of the ones less immediately involved in the takeover, a sinful creature no less deserving of death: Serafina Kilgore.
Mere hours stood between Joshua and the trial-council on which he served, and he was eager for it to begin. Serafina Kilgore was not, as he had been led to believe, a poor girl cursed by a monster and suffering from disfigurement to her eyes, but a monster in disguise. On seeing her, Joshua had championed her acceptance into the Harkers before the Great Deception was unveiled, and he had worked hard to try to find a cure for her curse. He, more than anyone, had been floored when he realized that Fina was a Kelpie; his interest in her felt dirty, and he was eager to convict her and sentence her to death. Standing outside his home and breathing in the cool air, Joshua’s stern face was tense and dark; he wanted to hurry up and finish it… for his own sake.
There was a sudden sound, a downbeat of wings, and a sprawling shadow that had him whipping around to stare at the branch of a nearby tree. Every muscle in his body tensed and he grit his teeth as his eyes settled on the form of Layla, massive feathered wings out and on full display. She made no effort to appear human, perching on the branch above him and staring down at him with an animalistic disregard for him that riled his blood. “Get off my property, beast!” he snapped.
"No." Layla said coldly, moving her hands to her belt and removing a small paper square.
“Don’t be stupid. I could shoot you out of the sky.” Joshua growled. “Or do you want to be dragged in to stand trial too? Tonight’s the night we condemn your little ‘friend’… oh, have you come to plead for her life? Don’t waste your breath; the words of monsters are meaningless.”
"I’m not here to beg. I’m here to blackmail you." Layla said in a straightforward fashion.
“Wh… What?” Joshua could hardly believe this brazen statement. “And what do you have to blackmail me with?”
"Your feelings. The feelings you have for Serafina Kilgore."
Joshua froze, his eyes slowly narrowing. “…what the hell are you talking about?”
"You want her; you’ve always wanted her. You lusted after her before you knew she was a Kelpie… and after." Layla said coldly.
“…vial lies!” Joshua sputtered, his body rigid.
"Even now, your feelings are driving you. You want her, but you can’t have her; you hate her for enticing you, even though it is YOUR feelings that are at fault. And you want her to die, because if she dies you think your feelings will be buried and unknown forever, your shameful desires hidden, and all of your problems neatly tucked away." Layla continued relentlessly. "I won’t let it happen. I won’t let you decree to kill my friend, especially not for such a selfish reason."
“No one will believe such slander.” Joshua snapped. “You’re a monster with nothing but words to use against me. You think you can blackmail me with jus-?!”
Layla tossed the paper squares into the air and the photographs –for photographs they were—floated to the ground; Joshua reached out to catch one out of instinct, and as he turned it over his face contorted in horror. Feeling sick, he snatched up one picture, then another, then another, horror overtaking him; each picture was of him, watching Fina was hungry, lustful eyes. Most were of him just watching her with that look of desire, but one was of his land lying on her back as he escorted her through a door, another taken through a window showing Joshua at Fina’s bedside in the night, watching her hungrily. Every single photo was incriminating, for though they were very sloppily taken, they all clearly captured Joshua’s shameful feelings for the much younger supernatural.
“How… how could you have….?!”
"My birds see everything." Layla reported, a small sneer on her face. "Animals sense intension far better than people do; they warned me about the intentions you held for my friend. They watched you… they even took these pictures for me. All the better shots were taken by crows. They’re natural artists."
“What? What are you even… what the hell does that even mean?!” Joshua sputtered, still overwhelmed by the information thrown in his face. He had been so careful with his reactions; no one knew of his forbidden desires. No one knew of the real reason that he was so driven to have Fina slain, not because he felt deeply and innocently betrayed but because he was ashamed of the passions that burned him. And yet here was this freak of a girl, who not only knew, who not only had obtained proof, but who claimed to have been set to this conclusion by birds?!
"Destroy these copies if you’d like; I have more. And the film negatives; birds aren’t good with digital photography." Layla reported, watching the photos crumple in Joshua’s hands. "So now for the blackmailing part. If you go through with what you plan to do, if you nominate Fina to die… I’ll release these photos. To the newspapers, to the internet, to every single wall in the Harer compound. Fina won’t die even if you nominate her; we’ll secret her away. But you, and your precious reputation… you’ll be ruined. Say nothing, and neither will I." Layla looked down at Joshua like a bird of prey that knew its prey could not escape its talons. "So, Joshua, tell me… what’s it going to be?"
Joshua had not opted to nominate Fina that night; instead he had nominated Layla, only to have his suggestion shot down as being too close to the main player herself to risk as a first sacrifice. They were looking to use stealth similar to what had been used on them, after all. And so time passed with this tense stalemate; Layla never again brought up Joshua’s sinful interest in Fina, but every time those amethyst eyes looked his way he knew she knew. It made his blood broil. Fina couldn’t be allowed to die even though she was a terrible temptation every time she sashayed past… and that was Layla’s fault. Joshua would never forgive her, and through that animosity into everything that involved Layla. He had to bide his time… and one day, he would rid himself of both these annoyances.
The scream made Jarrah start up from behind the couch, his sword already drawn and ready for action. His sudden appearance made Joshua start, but the handsome knight didn’t have time for that as he turned towards the source of the sound. "Princess?!"
"Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing?! And after I went to all the trouble to hide you guys, too…!" Layla lamented as Jarrah and Orcus blew their cover. There was none of the mercilessness that Joshua had once experienced on her face as she looked at Orcus, her lips turned to the side in a pout. "She’s in my room; she’s safe… it’s not like we’re on the ground floor or anything." she tried to explain, but went still when Orcus greeted Joshua.
“Orcus?” Joshua was caught off guard by the sudden appearance of Orcus. As an avatar of death, Orcus had the potential to be revered by the Harkers as few people of supernatural origin could. “It’s true…” he said slowly. Despite his humiliation and instinct to demean supernatural beings that threatened his peace of mind to less than human and therefore capable of disposal, he held respect for Orcus and his power.
"What? Really?" Landon looked back and forth between Orcus and Joshua in confusion. So not only was Orcus romantically linked to Jennifer when Landon couldn’t be, but he was on good standing with the Harkers in a way that Landon would never be again? It was as if the Universe was deliberately setting up Orcus to obtain the things that Landon couldn’t; though Landon knew jealousy was a terrible thing, he was having a difficult time with it at that moment.
“Fine. Finding a woman should be simple enough.” Joshua said, crossing his arms over his chest. “A fairy princess? What are you doing getting involved with a fairy princess, Orcus?” he wanted to know as he looked down on Astilbe’s visage. “…fine. I’ll get the girl for you. A plague won’t be necessary.”
"What’s happening?" Petra questioned, peaking out of Jennifer’s room by cracking the door open. "I thought I heard Atsy… oh!" the nymph started as Orcus kicked Layla’s door in.
"Hey!" Layla yelped at the damage, even though she had no right to complain as the one who had busted a hole in her own wall to make it easier for birds to come in and out.
"They’re gone…" Landon breathed, his heart sinking at the empty room. "Where could they have…?" Landon didn’t have the time to grasp the summation of the facts before Orcus jumped out of the window. "HEY!" Jealousy or no jealousy, Landon’s instincts led him to try to save Orcus, snapping an arm out to reach for the other man. But he was too slow as Orcus slipped out of range, making Landon’s heart drop. He slammed into the window lining and looked down at Orcus anxiously. "Reckless!" he coughed out, glancing at Jennifer as she came to stand at his side. "You need to keep a better hold on that fiancé of yours." he said in an undertone as he pushed off of the window. "Layla!"
"H’yup." Layla called back, easily darting into a room and vaulting out of the window into the sky. Hidden wings unveiled once more, the redhead soared after Orcus and their fleeing guests.
"What is going on?!" a worried Petra wanted to know, emerging from Jennifer’s room and moving immediately to Logan’s side, grabbing gently onto the Harker’s arm. "Where is the Princess? Did the wolf take her? Or…" Petra’s eyes moved to the setting sun now visible through the bay window, and her voice lowered. "Oh no…" she murmured to herself.
"They can’t get far; let’s go!" Jarrah began to charge out the window just like everyone else, but Landon grabbed his shoulder firmly to stop them.
"Don’t be dumb. We’ll take the stairs."
“So you were housing supernaturals here?! In the Harker compound?!” Joshua spat out, looking at Landon in disgust.
Avoiding meeting Joshua’s eyes since he simply wasn’t in the mood to deal with anything Harker related at the moment, Landon moved towards the door. Sucking on his teeth, Jarrah followed him only with a glance at Joshua. The closet door creaked open and a flustered Juniper spilled out, counting on Jarrah’s focus to keep him from asking too many questions. Before she could even open her mouth, Jarrah cut in. "C’mon, Juni… we’ve got to go after the Princess!" And that was just that, apparently; after all, Jarrah was his happiest when there were important knightly missions to be completing.
Muttering to himself, Joshua pulled out a smart phone like communicator and clicked the device on, tapping into the compound’s security camera feed. “Ridiculous… supernaturals running wild…” he grumbled under his breath. “No one should be surprised if these idiots get themselves killed. It may be a ‘new age’ for the Harkers… but monster hunters will always be monster hunters.”
Meanwhile, Jakobi was snarling in open frustration. "I said WAIT, damn it!" Jakobi howled as he chased after the knight with the superior speed.
“I don’t understand. Why are we running?” Dómhnall ghosted at Henbit’s side, looking at the man and the covered princess in concern. “Please, we want to help you. If something is wrong, tell us!”
Jak growled, ready and willing to shift into his wolf form and run down the knight and the princess. But when they crossed into a edge of a large training field, there was something suddenly large and metallic lying in his path, and almost in slow motion Jakobi felt himself trip over it and take a dramatic tumble. This was bad because he was falling and in pain, but good because the momentum sent him rolling to finally contact with Henbit… and trip him, too. Astilbe, Henbit, and Jak all slammed into the dirt and rolled, coming to a stop in a heap; Dómhnall twisted around to stand beside them, crouching to look at them in concern.
“Ack! Are ya’ alright?” Dómhnall asked, concerned.
"What… what happened?" Jakobi groaned from the bottom of the pile, his face buried in the dirt.
“You tripped.” a voice answered Jak rather unexpectedly as a shadow fell over the group. The speaker looked down on the new arrivals curiously, red hair slicked back from his face and silver eyes seemed almost skeptical. The Harker was dressed in the regulation field uniform, but his airs seemed relatively casual even around obvious supernaturals. “I laid out my hammer because the handle needed to be rewrapped. But I guess I shouldn’t have put it here.”
“Is that so?” Dómhnall said with a small sweat drop. Something about this redhead seemed so airy that, though he was armed, it was impossible for the ghost to see him as a threat in that moment.
“Are you hurt?” the stranger asked, studying them with a growing frown. “Ah… you’ve scraped your knee.” he realized as he looked at Astilbe. “And you’ve scraped your hand.” he continued with a hard look at Henbit. “And you’ve scraped your face.”
“Yeah, I know, I can feel it. Don’t need to point out the obvious.” Jakobi snapped as he was finally able to sit up, holding a hand to his stinging forehead.
“I’m sorry. Since it is technically my fault, I’ll help you. My name is Hayden.” he reported in a straightforward fashion, silver eyes turning curious as he looked at the new arrivals. “A ghost. And a werewolf. No unusual abilities.” Hayden reported, moving to Henbit. “And… a nymph? Fairy, but an unusual kind… Ah, a blend. I see your speed.” he pointed out. Silver eyes moved to Astilbe’s partially cloaked face, and for a long moment the Harker just stared at the fairy princess that made all of her guardians uncomfortable. But as had been made evident, Hayden was looking at more than could be seen on the surface; he had the Slayer Sight, and it told him many incredible things about the things he saw. Even years later, the redhead still had a bad habit of staring relentlessly at something his special Sight showed him that he didn’t completely understand, which was clearly the case as he studied Astilbe. “And………………… what are you?”
"What the hell are you talking about? Stop looking at her like that!"
“Hm………… you should see Cassey.” Hayden decided. “She’ll have Band-Aids.” Without giving his new companions much chance to object, the Harker set his massive hammer to lean against the wall of the nearest building and moved to tug them to their feet. “Come on; it’s right around the corner.”
"And why should we follow you?" Jakobi growled.
“The Princess is bleeding and needs medical attention. And, for that matter, so do you, lad.” Dómhnall pointed out.
"Tch…" A glance at Astilbe was really all it took. "…fine. And you, don’t just run off again!" he snapped at Henbit as they followed after Hayden.
Hayden didn’t take them far; right around the corner, it seemed, was a wooden building with an open door, and it was there that the Harker led them. “Cassey?” Hayden called out as he peaked inside. “…at least, this is where she was when I left. Maybe she left, too.” the natural airhead said in a thoughtful, serious tone that made even Jakobi sweat drop.