Taste me, drink my soul
Show me all the things that I shouldn't know

Toil and Trouble
Chapter One: I'm Alive

Power is a funny thing. Fickle. Addictive. The Sons of Ipswich had each had their brushes with power and all seemed to run from it, tail tucked firmly between their legs. Chase had sworn he would be different. That he was going to have a power so great that he could become power. It'd all been planned out - Caleb, Caleb was the strongest, he'd been the center of their group and the one with the most to gain, to lose. Chase had realized that his higher understanding of magic meant that he was also the most afraid. Chase figured that he'd spare him of fear. Of everything.

Then why was Chase lying in the smouldering ash of the barn, left for dead?

In the Salem Witch trials, condemned witches were either burnt or hanged. It was probably to do with trying to purify the criminals and convicted. Or, to get them warmed up to the fires of hell. Either way, lying there, Chase could begin to form some kind of empathy with his ancestors and the bullshit they'd been put through. Which was strange, considering he didn't form empathy with anyone. It was part of the crazy - he assumed. But to hold onto great power, to use great power as he intended to, you had to be a little unhinged. But it didn't matter how good Chase's evil laugh was, and what his plans had been. The cold, sobering feeling that had sunken into his stomach made Chase fully understand what defeat was. He hated it. The flames had charred his skin, and the throbbing redness across his body at least proved to him that he was still alive. Rain was still pouring, and it helped cool the pain slightly. But it wouldn't wash off his blackened skin, the rain wouldn't rebuild half his face. It wouldn't even give him lips, so that he might be able to call for help and try to salvage something. Not dying when they were supposed to seemed to run in his family.

The rain grew heavier and lightning flashed overhead. The fight was over but at least the mood weather hadn't let up. Chase groaned in pain and that's when he heard the footsteps. His brown eyes looked in the darkness for the source, and his head slowly turned to try and look too. Some unknown voice cut across the darkness, tutting as though the warlock were naught but a child. "Shhh baby, don't move" it cooed, and the face of some young woman appeared, followed by the rest of her body. Rain slid off of some matte black umbrella, dripping like a cheap Chinese water torture onto Chase's disheveled face. "You're okay now, Mary's here" the woman - presumably Mary - crouched next to him. Her eyes burnt out to a deep black like the night around them, and Chase felt the pain nagging at his body vanish, though his injuries were still there

"And who do you think you are?" he demanded, still lying in the dirt feeling water soak into his back and skin. With the pain gone his thoughts were sharper, and he stared back into the woman - girl, really, she could be no older than him - and trying to figure out what was happening.

"Did you not understand, sweetpea? I'm Mary, and you want my help" she said assuredly, leaning down to gently tuck what was left of his hair from his face. Well, it could have been gentle, if her nails hadn't dragged along his flesh, nearly slicing into his scalp like claws though putty. Something in Mary oozed danger, oozed power and now Chase began to understand how seductive magic really was.

"You want to help me?" He coughed, ash from the air filling his lungs.

"You tickle me" said the blonde cryptically, smiling down at him with what could of easily been pointed fangs that threatened to break her red lips.

"What-" Chase paused again to try and dislodge the ash, but with one simple wave of her hand she seemed to do it for him. "What could you even do for me?" he managed, feeling the magic surge through him, his own eyes turning black to match hers as the young warlock tried to search through Mary's mind for some answers. But he was met with silence, and a smirk that held a thousand secrets.

"I can give you what you want most" Mary shrugged one of her shoulders and leant over his smouldering body, shielding him from the rain briefly, "I can give you power" she whispered into his ear, breath caressing his ear. "I can give the other sons head's, on a platter" she cooed again, leaning back up and letting the rain drench him once more. Chase drew in a sharp breath, letting his mind play over all the choices he had here. He could lay here, in the ash and dirt, letting her walk away and leave him for dead. Or he could take her help, and rely on some strange woman, who probably had no purer intentions than he did.

"What do you want in return?" Chase asked, still trying to weigh his options. Mary shrugged one shoulder, looking up into the rainclouds and then to his face.

"Well, I'm going to be giving you everything..." she pondered, dragging it out and she tried to play on his impatience. Torment him with possibilities until Chase could snap. But for a man lying in his defeat, the warlock was eerily calm and silent. "So in return, I want whatever i ask for, whenever I want it, for as long as it takes for you to be content" she decided, looking back down into his brown eyes. Chase tried to stare intently back at her, so that he could fix some kind of power within their relationship - whatever their relationship was - but he was in no place to make orders and the two of them knew it.

"Deal" He agreed simply, nodding to her to heal his body, give him back the ability to move and so forth.

"Woah there tiger" Mary teased, and once more her face came to hover above his, her voice soft and enticing, "You have to seal a deal, remember?" She grinned and lowered her lips unto his. Fleshing melding together as rain pattered around them. A stabbing pain pierced Chase's lower lip and the metallic tang of blood swam between them. With a contented smirk, Mary lifted her head up away, red liquid dribbling down her chin. With a wave of her hand, Chase's body healed and he felt strength surge in his muscles. The pair rose, Mary's black eyes fading so that they were a deep russet brown - almost red, Chase imagined, with the right lighting.

"Well," the boy began as he rose from the mud, feeling carnage drip off what remained of his black clothing. "When do we begin?" he looked to Mary now that she also stood. The woman - witch, he assumed - wore all red, her long peroxide blonde hair hanging over her breasts, that were tucked into a red dress that stopped just below her ass. Even though the wore boots, Mary still seemed to have legs that went up and on forever. Chase smirked, and let his eyes look over her. He had it better that way, being attracted to both boys and girls. Perhaps, there was still time for him to come out on top with this deal. Mary felt the weight of his eyes upon her and shrugged, letting her own gaze fall upon his body, half shrouded in the remains of some all black suit.

"I think, once we get out of those clothes" She shrugged, turning her back to him and walking through the destroyed landscape around them. With her she took the safety of her umbrella, a circle of dryness in the storm that raged around them. She didn't miss a beat, and her head never turned to look at him. "Are you not coming?" she questioned - both drawing him in and taunting Chase. Even the way she walked commanded respect and oozed power. She was a goddess, fallen from grace. Nothing good ever came flocking to him.

With the hole school at prom, Chase found no trouble getting back into his dorm room. Mary sat on the spare bed - he'd arranged it so that he'd never had to share his room with any of the simpering idiots that made up the school population. Once again sharply dressed in a half unbuttoned white shirt and blue baggy jeans, Chase emerged from his bathroom. His hand ran through his hair, looking at the blonde who'd stretched out on the bed, flicking through the spell books he'd accumulated with the look of someone who thought that they were for children. Chase lazily threw himself down onto his own bed, back pressing against the wall and watching her with an equal mixture of intense distrust and curiosity. Finally, he broke the silence, "Haven't I see you before?"

"This body, perhaps" Mary answered, still not looking at him though he were talking. That almost made him angry. She'd helped him, she was clearly eager to be around him, but yet she failed to treat Chase with the respect he thought he deserved. "It depends how much attention you pay to the people outside of your fascination"

"Well, hardly any" Chase spoke as though it were obvious, "They're unimportant"

"Everyone is important" Mary said coolly, arching one of her thick eyebrows and flicking a glance in his direction, but not bothering to try and find his face. "Perhaps not to you, but you especially should understand all that it means to remain... unimpressive" she explained, without actually shedding any light on her identity. Chase rolled his eyes in the manner that suggests she was talking beyond crap, but Mary seemed to be apathetic to his "devil may care" attitude.

"So your body..." Chase began and faltered as the gears in his mind began to process what she had said, "Your body?" he looked at her as though expecting the woman to turn into something ethereal at any minute.

"This body" she spoke again, as though the meaning of it was obvious. With a coy realization, Mary lowered the book to look at him with the look that adults give children who are just too slow to get to the truth on their own. "Oh, babydoll" she teased, letting her lower lip stick out and curl into a smirk. "You didn't think I was human, did you?"