Tony walked back in to her apartment above the garage, of course Puck was there. He was still staring into the depths of the jar that contained his 'prize'. The strange stunning woman from the masquerade, which Tony had just gotten off the phone with, had held up her end of the bargain and delivered the source of magical energy that Puck had asked for. It came in a mysterious package in the middle of the night. The jar contained a heart over twice the size of a human's. It didn't beat, why would it? But energy seemed to pulse from it regardless.

"Puck, I did a bit more digging. You need to eat the heart whole and raw if you want it to do you any good."

"I was kinda thinking that's what I had to do." The face he pulled showed it's what he didn't want to do, "I could get a surgeon to put it in my stomach and stitch me back up?"

"Good luck finding a doctor willing to do that." Sometimes Puck was brilliant, but not when it came to anything academic, "What if you used a shrinking rune on it? Or maybe a growth rune on yourself instead?"

Puck had been playing around more and more runes; his sketchbook was filling up quickly, "Good idea!" With no qualms at all he dove his hand into the jar, removed the heart, and scrawled some strange rune with a sharpie straight on the heart. Nothing happened. Puck looked disappointed, "Wait…" he plopped the heart back in the jar, "Of course it's not going to work. I don't have a source of magical energy, that's why we went through the trouble of getting this thing in the first place!"

Tony shrugged, "I don't know how runes work, let alone magic. And you're the one that wanted it, so buck up and eat your heart if you want your magic so bad."

Rather than getting offended, a mask of determination came over Puck's face, "Looks like we're doing this the hard way."

"Well, if you're going to eat it, eat it here, in case I need to drive you to the hospital or something." Something included having to kill him if worse came to worse.

"I'm gonna need a bucket…and a bib…"

Tony nodded curtly and ran down to the garage and grabbed one of the many five gallon buckets and blue mechanic's rags that are usually lying around a mechanic's workspace. There was an unspoken pact between the two. Puck knew Tony didn't trust anything magical or supernatural, yet she desired knowledge, and Tony knew Puck craved power at almost any cost. It wasn't something they argued about, it was just something that they each accepted in the other. All they could do was try and make sure the other didn't get caught, go crazy, killed, or any combination thereof.

When she returned, Puck was more deeply engrossed in the heart's energy than ever before. Tony set the bucket and rags down next to him, "Puck?"

He didn't look away from the heart in its jar, "I'm gonna need four candles, and some kindling."

"You aren't going to cook it are you?" Tony pulled out four of the candles she kept in case of power outages and some matches.

"No, no, no, no, no, I need to pray to Brigid first."

"Who's Brigid? Some new infatuation of yours?" Puck took the candles and matches, but seemed distant still, "Ha, yeah, kinda, but she ain't new by a long shot." With candles and matches in hand, Puck left the apartment, leaving Tony in the uneasy care of the heart.

He returned an hour later, empty-handed; with his face painted in markings of blood. Shirtless and shoeless, dew-wet grass stains on his knees and covered in a fine layer of earth, his lithe frame hunched over the bucket like a wild man, "Forget the bib. Let's do this."

Picking up the heart, he began to feast.

Tony was actually mildly shocked and confused by everything that seemed to be happening so fast now. It was only two months ago that they had encountered the homunculi, and now they were playing games for peoples' lives and sources of magical power with strange women and whatever powerful organization she was a part of at college masquerades, this was even overlooking all the crazy in between. Who was this Brigid? What had come over Puck? Either way, there was nothing she could do now but watch as one of her few and precious friends devoured a questionable heart from a surreptitious woman. Blood dripped down Puck's feral painted face and body accompanied by particularly juicy sounds of mastication. It would be enough to send anyone's breakfast back up the way it came. Tony just stood silently waiting. Car keys in one hand, phone in the other, and 9mm exposed on her belt. She could almost feel her heartbeat rising along with Puck's.

The minutes passed, and Puck continued to eat away at the heart with no signs of slowing down. When the last bite had disappeared, they were left with an unnatural amount of blood in the five-gallon bucket.

"Start drinking…"

Puck blew a raspberry, it was an obscene picture in his current state, "Screw that. Go grab an air pump, a funnel, and some rubber tubing."

Tony felt nervous about leaving him alone, but went back down to the garage and returned with the items. Puck had gathered a few things from around the apartment as well. He began to craft all the items into a makeshift I.V., as Tony watched him with the eyes of a hawk. While he was funneling the blood into the top of his contraption, Tony sanitized the needle, "How did you build this?"

"I MacGyver this shit!" He grinned, savage, through paint, dirt, and blood.

Puck tapped any air out of his I.V., and found a nice ripe vein. With the rest of the blood now flowing steadily down into his arm, Puck sat back down and exhaled, "I got this, go get some rest Tony."

"I don't think I could." Instead she pulled a chair up next to Puck and turned on the late night news. What was one more night without sleep? She'd just have nightmares any way.

They sat in comfortable silence for a moment.

"Hey, Tony?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't let me fall asleep, 'kay?"

"Of course Puck."