It was the first day of May; he would later find out that it was Beltane, the day in which the barrier between the mortal and the fae was at its thinnest.
He saw her in Central Park, during a routine patrol. He knew she wasn't from this world, surrounded by all sorts of strange creatures. The air around her and her party wavered in the light of the full moon. The light intensified the pale glow that she seemed to give off, only adding to her allure.
She wore a dark hunter green dress that seemed to move on its own in an unnoticeable wind. The color contrasted her milky-pale skin that teased him from beneath its low bodice cut, revealing the soft curve of her cleavage. Dark red hair famed a narrow face with bright blue eyes, eyes that seemed to bore into his very soul when she looked into his own amber ones.
"Come here," she commanded, beckoning him with one slender hand. "We mean you no harm."
He went to her, as if he was not in charge of his own body, unable to stop the steady movement of his feet as he moved towards her. Standing in front of her he felt shame at what he was, fearful that she would reject him as the humans would if they ever discovered him and his family.
The woman merely smiled at him, and reached up touch a tail of his mask. Stroking in a way that made heat course though his body, she looked up at him and smiled. She then moved her other hand up and laid it against his cheek.
"I've always loved the color red," she muttered. "The color of flames and passion, it always gets me started when I see a man who can wear it so well." She leaned up towards him; until their lips were a mere hair width's away. "Tell me, what is your name, red one?"
"Raphael." He replied without any hesitation on him part. What was wrong with him? First he reveals himself to a person that looked human, even if everything inside of him says she's not. Then he gives her his real name? But looking at her, he knows he wouldn't lie to her even if he could. Raphael, who is no coward, looks her straight back in her eyes, and asks her "What is your name?"
She looks startled for a minute and one of the things besides her pulls a spear from seemingly out of nowhere. She stops him with a wave of her hand and says something in a language that he doesn't know. Turning back to him, she smiles.
"I am April. I rule the Seelie court of the fae." She says with the tone of someone who excepts to strike awe into those who she speaks with. She gives him a look that only further fans the flames that were coursing through his body. "Would you like to join me on my hunt?"
It was only then that he noticed the white and red horses tied up behind her. They all seem too small for him to pet, let alone ride. Not that he could ride a horse to begin with.
"I don't think I can get on any of those things. They look like I could crush them just looking at them." He said, flexing slightly, and taking note of the way her eyes traveled across his frame, the appreciation in her eyes at his form.
"I can fix that." She stated simply, and with a wave of her hand, one of the horses increased in size, until it looked like it could hold him and his older brother at the same time. She turned back to him. "Do not fear of falling off, ether. My magick will not allow you to. So, I ask again, would you like to join me on my hunt?" Her eyes bored into him, and he couldn't help but be amazed at the flash of desire that was there.
"Yes." He answered in a husky whisper, and she held a hand out to him. As he toke it, she pulled him through the waving light and every seemed to grow fuzzy after that.
Raphael had been missing for a year, just gone out of in the dead of night. No news casts about a vigilante roaming the streets of New York, no National Enquirers claiming to see a turtle man in the sewers, nothing. It was like he had disappeared out of thin air.
Leo was on patrol that night, back in Central Park, where Raphael had last reported his location. The oldest of the turtles looked up to the sky, to the small sliver of the moon that hung up there. The loss of the red-clad turtle had been the hardest on him. Raph had been his sparring partner for as long as he could remember. He was the only other brother to take fighting seriously enough to be an equal to Leo.
The blue turtle was so wrapped up in his thoughts, he failed to notice a pale light that began to envelope were he stood. It wasn't until a familiar voice spoke that he was pulled out of them.
"Leo?" The oldest of the turtles looked up, to find the missing brother on top of a huge red and white horse, a beautiful young woman looking at complete ease sitting on his lap. Behind him, on smaller versions of the horse he rode, were creatures that came straight for a book of fairies that he had enjoyed looking at as a kid. He gave his brother a weak smile.
"Hey Raph, where have you been?" He managed to ask.