Present Day-

Lauren opened her eyes before dawn. The feel of the breeze on her face, the quiet rustling of aspen leaves tinkling with the wind; it felt like years since she had known moments without unbearable consequence. A fraction of the peace she felt now. Looking back, perhaps it had been lifetimes. From her tenuous relationship with parents not of her birth, to the exploration of her gifts in the world, to war and back, to plague, discovery and heartbreak. Enslavement and betrayal. To love. The one saving grace in the lineage that had become her life.

Bo.

It hurt to lose. To a wolf who's life and chi were so strong. Their dance would end hundreds of years after hers. It hurt to breathe, even as the thought caught in her lungs. Bo loved him. She knew it in her heart, felt the stab of it when confronted with Bo's true purpose in seeking out Taft. Every other moment between them those fateful months-from Bo's confession to their ending, he was there. Like the coda you just couldn't shake. It burned in her chest so fiercely. She had given Bo everything she had, stretching herself to emotional limits untested. But Dyson… Dyson was simply beyond her strength. Her lover had once said life was short. But it wasn't Bo's own life she was talking about. It was her own fragility and mortal failing. As Lauren thought of this, feelings of unworthy jealousy flooded her. She couldn't bear the thought of having the wolf shifter constantly there, waiting in the wings, hovering over the day of her demise. To watch Bo watching him as she grew old. Better to cut the woman loose, follow her fae heart. Biology demanded it. Methodic in its cadence, the wheels of time would push her well past endurance when Bo was simply beginning. It was madness. The impossible reach of a human asking for a normal life with a succubus.

Impossible.

Wet drops fell on her jacket front.

Unbearable that she just couldn't quite let go. Of Bo. She felt the salty moisture track her cheek, sliding down the disfiguring mark. Wishing she could just stop. The price was always more than she could pay.

The work. The work is what you have. It will do. It may not have the grace to save you as you are, but it will save her. Yes. Like a template written in stone, she clung to its unerring truth and logic, even while her heart rebelled.

Breathing out, eyes still watering from evocative memories and thoughts swirling inside her, Lauren closed her fists and willed the emotion away. It was hard to get used to being in a place that was safe from the reach of the fae, sheltered from the apprehension that constantly plagued her choices. A place to actually feel again. She had fallen into old patterns that decried the need for vigilance. Late last night, emotionally exhausted from the constant chase, the doctor had plummeted into the hammock that Leena had provided them, crashing into a dreamless, forgiving sleep within the grove. This past night there was no echo of Bo, nor the elusive blue eyed fiend that dogged her lover's steps. This night there was no expectation of touch, the electrifying pulse that shot through her every time she thought of Bo's eyes and the way they captured light. Drowning in the smolder and desire that always seemed to transform them when she looked at her. Perhaps it had been a reprieve for them both.

Staring out into the pre-dawn glow, she could make out the coals of the fire they had warmed themselves by. It had been a long night of sharing before exhaustion fully set in, dredging up those horrible months of apprehension and torment. She remembered Kenzi's words to Leena as she spoke of Massimo, her transformation and the weeks of unerring bloodlust. Remembered her own bitter lessons in trust.

Getting up from the shelter of boughs and the swing of a cocoon that had lulled her to sleep, Lauren decided to do what she knew best. Industry. Her most versatile weapon; keeping her hands learning, working through problems, modifying their methods of protection.

The only way out was through.

Adding wood to the still warm coals, she breathed on the dry branches, whispering oxygen around carbon atoms, emboldening the fire's spirit. Smiling she thought it wasn't unlike what she, herself, was attempting; rousing the body to meet fire's demand. Seemed fitting. Logical. I can be both air and earth to her fire, even if it's only for a little while. Kenzi will add the water to put us out. Laughing quietly at her own joke, the doctor rolled her eyes and pulled her pack closer, opening pockets and pulling out the tools she would need to proceed with stage three.

Perhaps Leena would return with some much needed answers later in the morning hours, but in the meantime, being left to her own devices without a lab or data to work from, meant making do. She had asked Leena for a chi eater in her group. Someone that could verify test results. I would help aid the process.

Her backpack carried most of the ingredients she needed to continue her experiment. The modern Dewar vials held precious mRNA viral vectors; insertion points she had modified with the technology that Taft has afforded her. The fire grew a bit as she finished her preparations, channeling immeasurable emotion into quantifiable resolve.


The crackling of the fire woke Kenzi from a deep slumber. She hadn't known sleep that well since last calls at the Dal and top shelf booze night with her bestie. The cutting bite of hunger had calmed since yesterday's impromptu feed from Lauren, and she could barely feel the restless energy of the creature inside her. If she didn't know better, she would say it was asleep in a way. The doctor was tinkering again within the filtered early morning light, over a circle of rock and flame.

Hands held a glass vial with tongs, warming over crimson sparks. The smell was acrid as it wafted in the girl's direction.

Generally, nothing could tear Kenzi from a comfortable bed and the edges of unconsciousness, but at the sight of the vial she jumped up tossing everything aside, running over in bare feet firmly planted to confront the doctor.

"You promised you would stop!"

Lauren continued filling an injection needle with the warmed viscous, blue colored liquid, unfazed by the girl's reaction. Tying off a tourniquet on her left arm with her teeth and right hand, she picked up the needle and tapped the air out, quickly plunging the solution into her bloodstream.

Grabbing the vial that was placed precariously on a flat rock, Kenzi threw it into the fire, shattering the glass as Lauren laid back, eyes glazing over.

"I don't have a lot of options, Kenzi. I need to finish getting this ready, and the only way to do it, is to test it."

"With WHAT? You have no lab out here, no equipment and no one to fix it if you fuck up," Kenzi's panicked words filled Lauren's head with exasperation.

"I measured carefully. This dose should be close to maximum," Lauren breathed out, slowly sweating from the strain the mixture was causing, cascading through her heart and internal organs. The last round has been extremely effective, double dosing her with a vibrant energy that lasted for days. But it had left her incapacitated initially, as the enhanced enzymes forced her cellular structure to make more.

"You are a dumbass, Lauren! What the fuck? Dude, you cannot leave me here alone in the Forest of the Pixies. Sparkly Glenda was nice and all, but what about her evil sister? The green one? Or the lollipop gremlins? Goddammit… doc, you are NOT expendable."

The blonde's face contorted into hard set features, scar blazing as she grew angry, her heartbeat fast and irregular. "This is the ONLY way I know how to fight for her! Being fae is NOT the answer, Kenzi. But if I can repair some of the damage I've done, I'm going take the chance. If I can make sure that the energy is there when I need it to be, I'll damn well try for it. She's losing, Kenzi. I can feel it. Every night we connect, I can see her falling into the monster. And she's going to need everything we can bring to the table. All of it."

"How do you even know that's her?" Kenzi shot back; her eyes flaring blue as her hands held onto Lauren's jacket sleeves, the intensity of her question sizzling between them.

"Because I know," came the response, unquestioning. To be anything but faithful in this was inconceivable. "She's there; she needs us to find her. And I know we're close. I know it."

In the past, Kenzi would have questioned Lauren's motivations and focus. But ever since the Morrigan, she couldn't bear to think that the doctor was wrong on this. Faith was all they had now. That and the connection they shared with a succubus empowered. It would either be their salvation… or damnation.

"You could use me, hell you could use ANYONE but yourself. This is suicide if you continue. Last time was bad. Real bad. You don't remember because you passed out, but I swear you had zombie flu for HOURS!"

"Doesn't work on adapted humans, Kenzi. What Massimo did to you, altered you to the core. And I'm not sure I can fix it, without a better understanding of what….. happened. Besides, you're…you are... a bad ass predator now." Smiling a bit at the last, she continued quietly. "You've saved me… more times than I can count. Please. Protect me while I finish this," the last was whispered out as she curled up into a ball on the ground. Hands press out against the dirt, as the shaking began her breathing tight and labored.

"What do I do now? How long does this last? Should I get Leena? Where the hell did she go anyway? Lauren?" Eyes squeezed closed against the unsettling fear, the raven haired thief knelt down and put a hand out, trying to still the blonde's tremors. Kenzi would never voice the fear she held onto with the awful experimentations, but she would show up for someone who showed up for her. Her debt to the doctor was fiercely personal. Blue eyes slowly grew into violet, her cat like reflexes engaged against the world while she waited.

"Lauren. Just come back, ok? Remember how you said Bo needs me?" Looking away into the distant first rays of sunrise over the trees, Kenzi finished, " Well… Bo needs you too."

But Lauren couldn't hear her anymore.


Three months ago.

Bruce was a veritable fountain of information on everything from Mozart to the machinations of the dark fae court. Patting his arm as they drove through town, Kenzi required only one thing. Druid mojo and location. Finding Massimo had been easier than the thief had anticipated, as they slide up to a tall condo skyscraper. Generally when something seems too good to be true, it usually is.

Bruce held onto his trepidation as he stoically accompanied the slight woman to her destination. "This is a bad idea, Kenzi. He rarely plays fair." The ding of the elevator announced their arrival at the top floor, as door opened to a hallway of armed guards.

"Doesn't matter. It's what I have to do," came her steely reply.

A knock to the door. The entrance to the goal she sought. Inside Kenzi found the druid lounging in a robe, waiting for their apparent inevitable arrival.

"The pet. Of course. Did you ever finish your chores with the Ash? Perhaps a snack below before he sold you out to the dark?" Intensely, he awaited her answer as a cat waits out its prey.

Kenzi's mouth betrayed a break in her thoughts at the siren. Frowning, she returned to the present. "You know what I need, Massimo."

Getting up, the fae eyed her form, eyes lingering over flesh as if sizing her up for a meal.

"Well, since you no longer want to be a human, as you wish. Exceptional gifts can be given to those that prove themselves worthy of such noble aspirations," he stated.

"Now. Bo needs me."

"Well, with all things, there comes a price," Massimo turned his back from Kenzi as he polished off a glass of wine. The hulking figure of Bruce, stood by the penthouse door, strong arms crossed in front of him as he watched the petite human face off with a druid.

"Whatever it takes. Bo is my family. I may be a kickass human, but as a fae I could do a lot more. I could really be the difference instead of being just the mouth that gets shit done!" Her voice almost rose as she crossed the room, pulling the glass from Massimo's hand. "I can't do it like this. I don't want to go toe to toe only to become fae food, or used in one of your bake offs. This is for Bo."

"No. This is for you. Tell yourself whatever you want, but the sinking feeling you feel, every time you approach one of us? It's admiration. It's fear and awe and desire. Because humans are truly nothing but food to us," he turned looking out at the skyline, a satisfied curl to his mouth. "You want the real deal? Well ok then, but the payment comes now. And it comes every single moment you care about what you were. Are you willing to make this exchange? "

"Is it permanent?" The hesitation in her voice didn't concern his ominous warning or his blatant disrespect of her species, it came from the idea that someday she would fall back. To where she was now.

Someone capable but inferior. Someone less.

"Let's just say, it lasts as long as you want, and ends when you can endure beyond your desire. Freedom isn't free. Isn't that what the Americans say?" the cryptic response was nothing less than Kenzi feared, but she was too afraid of doing nothing to listen.

"Do it."

Massimo regarded her for a moment, hands clasped together as he paused in thought. "Very well, wait for me here. I might be a few minutes." With a smirk he strode off into the adjoining room and shut the door. A female voice could be heard, murmuring sweet nothings that whispered through the wall. Moments later sounds of rapacious pleasure invaded Kenzi's ears, the permanent thud of a bed hitting the wall, and Kenzi sat down on the plush couch, rolling her eyes at the irony of it all. Bruce stood by, eyes to the floor, saying nothing.

Disheveled, returning sometime later, Massimo emerged from the room and handed her a neatly labeled phial.

"I'm not waiting for you to finish with your brothel and Ew. What is that?"

Smugly, Massimo flipped the glass container in the air and caught it with a wink. "I'm a druid, and usually larger requests, require larger power. Sex magic is my vocation. Your friend, the succubus? Let's just say, she always on my wanted list. Think of this as an IOU, Kenzi.'" Pointing at her chest, he reached up to finger one of her dark locks of hair. "You owe me…one succubus ride. And I always make sure the debts owed me are paid in full."

Pulling her head sharply out of hands reach, Kenzi regarded him with a dispassionate gaze. "We'll see how much you like her when she takes everything you are to charge her car battery."

An arrogant smile graced his full bodied lips as Massimo ignored her comment and instead gestured towards the container now in the thief's hands.

Kenzi regarded the phial. "'Drink me', it says. Seriously? Alice in Wonderland?"

"Just a joke, something from back in the day."

"Wow, do you ever get out? Or do you just molder here at the top of your world?" she finished the retort, her hand pulling the glass to her lips and she downed the entire potion, bubbly and pungent.

At first nothing happened. The air was quiet and still. Within a minute Kenzi was breathing heavily, eyes wide in terror. The changes were rapid and brutal. Spilling to the ground, with Bruce at her side, she shuddered and shook, rocking and gasping like a broken fish on the floor.

Bruce growled low in his throat. He knew better than to challenge a druid in his chambers, but it didn't stop the raw hatred that scorched his heart. The girl had a pure soul. Watching it being violated and corrupted by this poison was hideous and vile.

"Hurts like a bitch, doesn't it?"

Kenzi couldn't respond, her entire body was alive in sensations; sharp sounds once dull were horribly ruthless against her eardrums. It was, as if she couldn't breathe from the pounding that now resided in her skull. The skin stretched where her mouth had been, into a small snout. The eyes once vivid blue a dull pulsing purple. Her body screamed for nourishment she had never before craved.

Opening the adjacent door, the handsome druid escorted a nude female figure onto the carpeted living room floor, who watched the girl's transformation with unmitigated horror.

Kenzi saw red.

The smell of it was everywhere, a taste that slipped into her nose and poured down her throat. A coppery, bitter scent cascading over her like a relentless tide. It was an uncontrollable, ruthless need.

Unable to comprehend her actions, she fell upon the woman like ravenous hound.

Covering her hands, filling her mouth, it flowed over the neck, shoulder, and arm. The scream lasted but a second. She'd never felt so powerful before. A mortal stripped of life, the shag carpet saturated with scarlet hues. Eyes staring at the ceiling, vacant.

So free.

"There is only one catch, Kenzi dove. Fae will never satiate your hunger. Besides, that would be like cannibalism, right? Or it would be… if you were fully fae. Unfortunately, humans can't evolve quite that far. Ascension comes with a price. And your price is sanguine in nature. Only the taste of human blood will end your need. You will want it like a dog in heat, like a succubus in love, like you have never needed anything before."

Crying out at the horrible price; shuddering at the loss of life, Kenzi clung to Bruce as they were escorted out of the building. She had never known such sweet flavor. Such terrified howls as the fangs bit into the soft flesh. The contradictions were cacophonous in her mind as she tried to grasp the purpose. Her purpose?

She was free to help Bo now. But… where was Bo? She had to get back…to somewhere. Everything seemed less imperative than before. The Dal. Yes, they would return to the Dal.

Shielded from eyes, Bruce picked the light girl up and carried her to the car, far away from the druid's power. Putting her in the passenger seat, he regarded Kenzi with worry. Her slitted eyes glimmered in the muted light of the shaded car windows, as small satisfied smile spread her mouth.

So much to do.


In an observatory, far from the bustling downtown, work was proceeding to schedule. The wolf shifter had been contained, the doctor's abilities harnessed, her genius approaches to genetic manipulation bent to Isaac's will. Soon, the world would know. He would have his power, and his gracious collaborator would have their prize.

"Make sure the she's returned the Miss Marquise after this. I'd hate to keep her waiting. I have what I need once this is finally finished." The instructions left to Taft's men, before the surgery that would either alter him or kill him, were very specific. Lauren was scrubbing in on the opposite end of the corridor, framed in another room's glass window. Taft turned, regarding her for a beat. "She was my key. But…once the door is unlocked, what use is a key?" Shrugging with a whistle between his teeth, he turned towards the wolf.

A few hours later, time found Lauren treating Dyson's aspiration point and checking on his fluids. Hastily, she snuck a note from her lab coat and shoved it into the shifter's pocket, hoping beyond hope that he would find it once he woke. She had mitigated his anesthetic to lessen its effects and provide a faster consciousness time. The only thing she couldn't do was lessen his pain. Time was critical. There were explosive chemical charges set in the lab and office on a delayed combustion cycle, giving them maybe another hour. Regardless of where she was, those canisters would explode, and hopefully Dyson and Bo would have a fighting chance to free the captives and run before it all blew. It was a horrible choice. There would be loss of life, but leaving the research in the hands of this madman, unchecked, was unthinkable. As she turned to reenter the operating theatre to monitor Taft's condition, she collided with a sharp end of a rifle butt, and conscious fled her body.

Waking to a throbbing feel at the back her head, blinding agony greeted her when she tried to draw a breath. Her bonds sealed her hands tight together against her back, as she was dragged from a dank cell. Her lab coat was a dirty mess. She was unaware of the time that had elapsed, as a sick, stale taste of bile formed in the back of her throat.

Dumped unceremoniously on tiled floor, she tried to climb to her knees, to get a sense of bearing. Hands roughly lifted her up and held her fast.

"The succubitch's whore. Excellent." Honeyed tones from the Morrigan filled Lauren with slow dread as she lifted her head, to a room filled with darkened light. Twelve faces greeted her, robed in black. The Morrigan stood in front, clad in a silken red dress.

"Human, former doctor of the light. No sigil defends your body. That makes you fair game, wouldn't you say?"

Unable do more than raise her face to the slippery light, her lips formed a hard line, saying nothing. It was pointless to defend what she had willfully thrown away. Protection and security. Hale had warned her. She had trusted incorrectly, and in saving Dyson's life she had forfeited her own.

A raised hand came down hard, splitting Lauren's upper lip wide open as the ring struck tender flesh. Blood escaped her mouth, as she looked back up, eyes flinty and resigned.

"Since you refuse to answer, let me do the talking for you," Evony spoke, inches from Lauren's brutalized face.

"You. Are. Mine."

"I own you. And what I own, I do with as I see fit. These, my dark brethren? The fae elders of night want your life. For your treachery of the fae. For using your knowledge in willfully seeking to destroy your betters."

"In simple terms, you know far too much. But your knowledge could be my gain. Give me the answers I seek, help me build an army of dark fae, and I will reward you with continued breathing."

Slowly gleaning understanding, Lauren's mouth opened to fixed and unshakable truth. "It was you all along? You funded that monster. You sold out dark fae too, sacrificed your own people to his loathsome science. Turning humans to fae."

It all clicked, as the doctor breathed out quietly, stricken. "My god, you want a war."

The leader of the Dark moved towards the doctor, whispering in her ear. "You blew up my opportunity to realize victory. All that groundwork, destroyed. You took everything I paid for. You. Did this."

Lauren's lips turned a bit on the corners in a smile, knowing this was the one triumph she could claim over their blinding arrogance. Taking Taft out of the game. If only she had been able to take herself too.

The Morrigan's anger was palpable as she grabbed the doctor's face tightly, spitting out the words. "Tell. Me. How to make humans into fae!"

"I'd rather die."

Snorting, the Morrigan moved to her henchman, pulling a long curved blade.

"Death is soooo overrated."

Smiling with a saunter, she came close once more, the sharp edge of the knife a hair's breadth from Lauren's eye. "There are so many ways to gain your cooperation. Taft promised me a weapon. I'm here to collect. And you have all the answers I seek. "

Snapping her fingers, the guards holding Lauren dragged her over to the brazier off the side chamber, hot molten metal bubbled in the pot. The Morrigan gestured at her shirt as it was ripped shoulder to breast baring the skin underneath.

"We don't do things the way the Light does. Here, things are permanent. Here you can't hide from what you are. And you will most certainly… never forget."

Without warning, the fae leader slashed down, striking Lauren's face with the edge of her knife, drawing a dark gash temple to chin, hideous and raw. The doctor didn't feel the force of it so much as the blood that dripped down her chin and neck, pooling into soft fabric. The sharp pain came after as she sucked in a cry, unuttered. Strangled in her throat.

"I like knowing who my servants are when I look them in the face. No muss, no fuss. Easy management. But this? " She pointed to the cauldron.

"This binds you to us. You can never leave. Never go back. Never return to anything but the dark. Lands, temples, druids will recognize you for what you are. Our property."

Lauren trembled as Evony pulled a brand from the fire, coated with a shiny metal. The heat was palpable as it neared her flesh. She pulled back against the guards, knowing what was coming.

Bo would protect her. Bo would come. Pleading for her lover in her mind, for a split second she held onto the hope that rescue would burst through those doors and take her from this.

But Bo wasn't here.

When it touched her skin, she screamed, unable to contain the searing agony that ripped through her shoulder and her body. A rippling black light glimmered brightly with a magical aura as the brand was embedded. Bound. The smell of her own burned flesh flared in the doctor's nostrils before she lost sight of the glowing orange rod and the hand wielding it, and knew no more.


Present Day-

In the grove that held an unconscious human and her hybrid companion, Kenzi felt the earth move and shift with footfalls, her hearing magnifying the movement as eyes caught shadows flickering in the trees.

She shook Lauren, trying to rouse her from her senseless state as the doctor groaned and shifted her body, convulsing a bit at the touch.

The smell was wrong. Something familiar but not one she could place. The catlike girl raised herself up, dropping her back legs into a crouch, claws extending slowly out for a fight. She trembled with unreleased energy and snarled low in her throat.

"Unless you have a pepperoni pizza with extra cheese, and a bottle of aaaaaamazing tequila, turn around and walk away slowly."

Leena moved into view, her countenance sparkling, holding up her hands in a steadying gesture. "It's alright dear. No one here will harm you. I gave you my word."

Kenzi stared hard past the woman into the trees beyond, her nostrils flaring. "Who's with you? I can smell them."

"One is Falwyn, the chi eater I promised Lauren to bring. The other… well, you may yet know him."

A diminutive man slowly came forward, balding head graced in the light above the grove. "Will a bottle of Buckthorn do? Hello Kenzi."

The girl's face drew back in amazement and shock, disbelieving the sight before her, as she shook her head. Tears streamed down her face as she covered her mouth briefly. She ran full bore at the man, unable to contain her overwhelming emotion as he crushed her to him, holding fast and strong.

"Trick."

"I'm so sorry," he murmured, keeping her close as the warmth of the sun's rays sheltered them in light.

A/N: Warm Fuzzies Finally even as the pain is poured on! Thanks to everyone for their lovely thoughts and encouragement.