Everything was different. My eyes didn't sting as I opened them, overcome with surprise and stiffened shock when I could make out every stitch of the fabric against the mattress's quilt, the aged lines of the mahogany wood, the dust that danced in the air, and the bare strings of light that bounced off every object in an eight-colored rainbow. The eighth color having no words to describe it.

Odd. Distracting.

The moment I felt like sitting straight up, the moment it even became a thought in my head, I was already up in a tenth of a second. My eyes scanned around, and body stiffened again in surprise.

Disorienting.

And then the searing pain like the venom that had closed my veins was alive in my dry, pained throat. Another quick thought, and my smooth hands were up cupping my throat as if my smooth, cold skin could relieve the pain. It didn't. I whimpered. It hurt.

A warm sound, a deep melancholy beat, not far away did little to sooth the ache – only continued to ignite the pain. Venom pooled in my mouth. My nostrils flared. Everything, every action, was confusing, unstable.

I breathed in, though the action felt wrong, it felt more than right. I could taste every particle in the room – even the scent of sun thick against my tongue. Vanilla, salt water, earthy, and a harsh bite of spice from a presence behind-

My body tensed completely, and deep gurgling hiss rose from my throat. The instinct to defend roared in my ears, and compelled me to move. Less than a thirty-eighth of a sentence I was crouched against the farthest corner of the room, lips pulled back to bare shining teeth at the two men. A harsh, buzzing sound fought its way past my clenched teeth. A warning. I wasn't overreacting.

Dark human memories tried to break through, but it felt like I was looking at a world half-blind. I didn't like that feeling so I let it go away. All I was focused on were the two figures dressed in non-descript – no, not non-descript anymore. Every stitch, every detail, I could make out. The curve of the fabric against their forms, each individual glimmer of light against their gold and ruby crests. The shining sculpt of their faces and the unique cut of their hair.

The bigger one stood tall, sculpted well – Hercules, Hydra, well – and I could see each individual strand of his dark hair as it fell down against the smooth curve of his facial features. Those horrifying dark crimson eyes, each flare of the red and black in his irises, was focused solely on me. I inhaled, my nostrils flaring. The sharp bite of cinnamon. Cajun spice. Freshly moved dirt. One word. Dangerous. My mind screamed to defend myself.

The second one, smaller, leaner – the familiar one – had a more balanced figure. He smelt of fresh rain, vanilla, salt water. But the scents weren't really that for either of them – the most I could try to compare to through faint half-blind human memories that I didn't want to dig back into. The memories felt wrong, destroyed, and fragmented into things that shouldn't exist.

I tried to place names to these new faces, but it was difficult. Especially with human memories meaning little to me now.

The blonde-haired one advanced forward a step, and a buzzing snarl ripped from between my teeth. In less than a sixty-five of a second I was on top of him, baring my teeth. It should have been a blur, but everything – everything – was clear. Yet, the only thing I focused on was this threat. He shouldn't have moved!

My hands were at his throat and in defense, I began to pull up, feeling the stone-like skin begin to crack underneath. Until there was another hand on mine. I looked up to stare into the goliath's face and snapped my teeth. But he only reacted by twisting my hold off of the blonde predator, pulling them harshly behind my back – held by only one bulky hand – and his other squeezed around my neck to bare it.

We were off and a few feet away in less than a second, and I writhed in the goliath's hands to free myself. They were dangerous. I needed to protect myself from the danger.

"Ivory." I abruptly stopped, nostrils flaring, angered eyes searching for the one that said my name in the sound of chiming bells. My eyes found his face – the blonde one. The eight-sided rainbow fragmented off of his face and he was in front of me in an instant, the cracks in his throat evident. I snarled at him in warning to stay away, but he merely held up his hands, his palms – a gesture that meant he didn't want to harm. Bullshit. Yet I could see every line, every pore in his skin. "You're alright, my little dove. We're not going to hurt you." He acted as if the seconds before hadn't happened – like I wasn't just trying to rip off his head. Or he was just very good at hiding it.

"She's feral," I felt the rumble of the goliath's voice in his chest as he spoke – like the quakes of earth. I writhed again, hissed out in anger. These emotions were raw, bewildering – it was hard sticking to one train of thought, especially between these two predators.

"It's normal," the blonde purred. Then his attention was back on me. "Ivy, little dove, I know this must all be disorienting and overwhelming but you have to trust that we will not harm you. We want to help you, to teach you... to feed you." At the last three words the fire in my throat roared to life, making it so much harder to focus past this unsettling pain.

Past the smoldering pain in my throat, I remembered my veins burning – the one that caused me to burn. "Demetri," the name slipped from my lips and I was shocked from my own voice, taken aback. Like the careful flow of water over stones, soothing, but in an instant could become deadly and suffocating. "You did this." I listened to my voice again, my eyes scanning him.

Was I happy that he did? I vaguely remember him hunting for me, his closed in a thick embrace that I started, but again – all distant human memories.

Demetri grinned, a method so perfect, so distinct. "You must be starving." At that, the fire in my throat flared again and I sucked in air, wrestling against the hold of the titan. "I'll get you someone to eat, just stay." But I wouldn't. I merely struggled again this dangerous titan as Demetri left, out the door. Venom pooled in my mouth once again as I heard the wet yet warm beat draw closer, a smell so enticing that I wanted it to only be mine. Only mine.

"Easy Ivory." I heard the goliath rumble, his scent thick in my nose. "Neither of us will take her from you." Good. And I wouldn't allow it-

Wait. Her?

Demetri returned with a scrawny thing in hand who didn't compare to him or the goliath – or me. She had a familiar face but not really. A thin black dress clung to her form and her doe-like eyes widened at the side of me. I hissed out in pain and frustration as she started to shout, instinct driving me. Aching to hunt. To kill. To feed.

Demetri held the doe in his grip so she couldn't pull away. He merely looked to the goliath and cocked an eyebrow, a wondrous movement. "Felix?" His voice rang like bells, smoothed like ocean waves.

Then the goliath's grip was gone. I was free – to do what I wanted to do. Needed to do.

My teeth were in the woman's neck in less than a tenth of a second. I felt her scream, I felt her writhe. Yet the rush of something hot and wet was right. It soothed the ache. I drank it eagerly, exhaustingly, harshly. One of my hands had wound around her waist and the other in her roots of her hair to pull her head back.

She was finished before I was – she a gurgling mess. Her eyes rolled into her skull and her body arched backwards. My body merely fell forward to take in the fall of her body, but I remained standing. She was limb in my hands.

I felt a pressure against my neck but a thick snarl ripped from my throat and the pressure was gone. Once she was finished, once I had taken what I needed from her, I let the limb sack fall from my hands. I expected the painful ache in my throat to go away, but it only roared to life again, the rusty nails digging into the flesh, the flames licking at every dry inch. I hissed in frustration and spun to face Demetri and... Felix, I think.

I must have been a sight – wild, crazed, uncontrolled. I licked at my bloody fingers, distracted from them for a mere minute, to once again soothe the ache. But it did little.

"I need," I hissed out, almost breathlessly. I inhaled, trying to pinpoint another wet and warm beat I could hunt for. "I need-"

"More." Demetri's grin was wide and I looked into his dark burgundy eyes. "We know."