I'm sorry this is so late - FFN crashed. But thank you so so much to people who brought a spark of sanity back into my life :-) Thank you:
Mal, Danel, Ky, Magelet, Werepanther, Innocent, Kittykatt, Night Goddess, Queen Kat, Tough Fluff, Dark Princess, Mandy, Himiko, Eleyne, Kay, Aquilla, Kendal, Insane, Adelaide and the delightful Dominique,
The lyrics are the Fugees 'Ready or Not'. (Album: The Score)
Hope you enjoy!
Ki
Chimera Part Nine
Ready or not, here I come
You can't hide
Gonna find you
And take it slowly.
The place reeked of magic.
He had had to slip in carefully, because while he could explain Sean Doyle, intrepid explorer, in the middle of a cemetery, explaining away Sean Doyle in the secretly hidden remains of a aeons-old temple was something else altogether.
Iager tried to keep his breath shallow, so the waxen, oregano taste of magic didn't coat the back of his throat like the rest of his mouth. No one ever talked about the downsides of being a dragon. It was all universal dominance this, and supreme evil that.
No one ever wrote about being able to feel magic in a way that went beyond the psychic and into the physical.
No one ever told you that constantly shapeshifting left you with serious complexes about how many legs you should have.
"Damn me," he breathed, crouching down to draw his finger over what would have appeared to be empty air to anyone else. To him, it was a seam that glowed with a faint phosphorescence, a place where the fabric of the world had been carelessly ripped in two, and sealed shut.
And he recognised the magic.
He had felt its herbal tang around another person only yesterday, tasted it on her skin. That intriguing witch girl who he had been informed was Malefici's soulmate, and who could be very useful indeed.
What had Chatoya Irkil been doing in an underground tomb to leave such scars?
What had she been doing in his tomb?
He remembered this place when it had been the Nightfire Temple, and not a decaying hole. When he had sat high upon a dais, wreathed in gold and fire, and passed judgement on them all. Things had been different then; he was the last dragon, the one who had escaped the enchanted sleep and fled to a corner of the earth where dragons were unknown to become, instead, a god.
The place had been laced with torches and statues, bright with life and bright with blood. They had prayed to him, and he had led them to war and led them to victory, countless voices shouting out for their dark god, the one god, the only god.
He could still smell blood on the air, clinging to the altar, and was irrevocably drawn to it, moving in the fluid and slow strides of that dragon who had been a deity. New blood, and old blood mingling together, as heady and delicious as he remembered, and as he ran his fingers down the tiny stone gutters hewn into the stone, he seemed to see the crimson liquid flowing down them, wine of the body.
In the name of religion, people would do anything.
He had been a god who felt no remorse, cared not how many of his followers lived and died because there were more, always more, flocking about him. He cared for nothing and no one until a sorceress came, and threw him into sleep, and when he awoke, forced him to care.
Even now, the deep hum of their voices seemed to ring in his ears, chanting praise as they genuflected, pouring blood into his waiting maw, obeying without question or hesitation.
Even now, part of him wished things had never changed, and that Fireblade had not become Iager.
But the rest only sighed, and remembered that he was chasing not ghosts but the living. He was here for a reason, and that reason was to take back what had been stolen, and to destroy what should never have been.
But still...he cast a last glance back over his shoulder as he walked out, and thought he glimpsed the maddened throng kneeling before him.
Some memories never fade.
X - X - X - X - X
"What do you mean you don't have a dress?" Lisa yelped, aghast, and threw the book she was reading to the floor. "Toya, this is your last Samhain prom as a senior, you have to have a dress!"
Alisha arched an eyebrow. "Definitely. Come on, make Cougar shell out for it."
"Cougar is broke," the vampire said hastily, his golden eyes glittering with alarm. "Though he won't complain if you turn up in something short and tight. We all like to see your fabulous legs."
"Hey!" Alisha objected, giving her ex-brother her coolly disgusted look. "Please, less of the coarseness."
"Excuse me, Miss Beach Fantasy," the lamia purred. "I wouldn't want to offend your female sensibilities."
The moment the dragon turned her back, Cougar gave her a one-fingered salute.
She whipped round so fast her hair slapped her face. "I saw that!"
"Really?" he said innocently, and raised the other finger. "Can you see that too?"
Most people didn't mess with Cougar, even when he was in a quirky mood. However, as one of the few people who had absolutely no fear of him, Tali didn't hesitate, but threw herself across the room with the kind of audacious violence more often seen in pre-menstrual elephants.
Lisa and Chatoya hid shamelessly behind the sofa until the sound of kicks, punches and breakages stopped, then she peered over the back in pure curiosity, wondering which one was still standing.
Both as it turned out, eyeball to eyeball and snarling. Cougar had a graze running across his face and arm, and she could see how taut he was, stretched and strained like a rope bridge about to give way.
"You deserve everything you get," Tali said furiously, rubbing at a bruise on her arm. "God, the charm school just took your money and ran, didn't they? I'm not surprised Ria left!"
There were two thumps as Lisa and Chatoya dived for cover.
How could she say that? Chatoya thought feverishly. Tali wasn't exactly famed for her tact - her first meeting with Cougar had resulted in her punching him - but even she should have known better.
There was a hanging silence, tightening like a noose.
"Maybe I do deserve it," Cougar said at last, and Chatoya lifted her head to see him sink into a chair, his black hair touched with blue bands of light. "But you didn't have to twist the knife."
They made an odd scene, Tali and Cougar. Since she had become a dragon, Tali seemed to Chatoya to have lost some of her humanity, and become harder, perhaps colder. Maybe she had to, simply to survive what she now was. It didn't make Chatoya like it any more.
She was lovely now, one of the prettiest girls Chatoya had ever seen and envied a little, cut in colours of the earth; her hair was a bold red-brown akin to the rain-smeared mud, and her skin the pallid shade of marble, veined in delicate blue at her wrists, and of course, there was no escaping the aged and direct sapphire of her eyes.
Not inhuman, not endless like Blue's, but simply so painfully candid that it was hard to meet them and not be intimidated by the sheer force of personality there.
And Cougar...always at his most enticing when at his most vulnerable, with shadows in his eyes and his smile nothing but memory. Here, it said, was the angel that had plummeted down so far that he had dipped a toe in hell, and remained haunted by the horror. Here was someone with their wings clipped.
And then Tali sighed. "Maybe I shouldn't," she admitted. "I remember I didn't like it much. Sorry. I didn't mean it so harshly. I know you and Ria didn't get on...it cuts both ways."
He shrugged, his hands linked loosely and hanging between his knees. "Yeah. It does. We just...we weren't right, that was all."
The dragon girl looked down on him solemnly. "We'll have to find you someone," she said determinedly. "You need someone to look after you."
"I can find someone myself, thank you," Cougar said with all the dignity he could muster.
Lisa giggled and got up from the floor. At last, the atmosphere grew less tense and Chatoya was glad of it. She hated it when her friends fought. "Does that mean you've found someone, you hunk of burning love?"
""That's not your -" The vampire's face was a picture as he leant back, looking faintly aghast. "...what did you just call me?"
"Oh, that's what one of the juniors was describing you as," she said, and winked. "Toya heard them too."
His eyes flicked to her, widening and deepening in colour. "Did you?"
"I did indeed, you reckless sex machine," she said, and laughed out loud at his blush. "Or so I hear. Where do you get this reputation?"
He shrugged. "I don't know! I've only been out with Ria...though I might have made a few...remarks in their general direction..." He looked at his feet hurriedly.
"So..." Tali murmured, perching herself on the sofa, "Who's your special someone then?"
"I didn't say-"
"No," she interrupted, "but you were about to tell Lisa that it wasn't her business which means that there is someone. So spill!"
"No!" Cougar said indignantly, ducking his head though Chatoya could still see the flush creeping over those sharp cheekbones. "If there is someone, it's my business."
"Is she the reason why you're going to the Samhain Ball?" Chatoya said slyly, wondering if it was one of the junior girls he was interested in. After all, that would explain his coyness - they were human, for a start.
"Mind your own!" He held up his hands in a warding off gesture, then blinked. "Do you think that's why I asked?" he muttered, wounded. "I wouldn't use you like that, Toya. I just know I'll enjoy myself if I go with you."
His eyes pleaded with her to believe him, and she relented. He never liked being teased. "Thanks."
"Correct me if I'm wrong," Lisa said dryly, "but last time you two went anywhere together, wasn't it the survival course out in the woods, and didn't you end up terrifying some poor humans by spinning them ghost stories and then walking through the campsite in the middle of the night wrapped in a mosquito net that Toya had witched to glow?"
That had been years ago, not long after she'd first arrived. Everyone was still under the mistaken impression that it had been his idea. She had to work hard to stop her mouth twitching with mirth, and it didn't help when she glanced Cougar's way and saw him fighting to keep a straight face.
"You're utterly wrong," she said.
"Innocent until proven guilty," added the lamia, and got to his feet. "And before you start piling up the evidence, I'm out of here." He paused at the door, and threw a mischievous look over his shoulder. "Buy something nice," he said. "Shock me."
The door slammed firmly after him, shaking loose a few splinters. Cougar always knew how to make an exit.
"Wear shrink wrap and a smile then," Lisa said dryly. "That's about the only thing that will shock him. But he's right. Come on, Toya, let's shop till we drop!"
X - X - X - X - X
Unbeknown to Chatoya, there had been a second and silent conversation taking place, and it flicked through Cougar Redfern's head as he unlocked his Porsche, a very expensive apology from a friend for wrecking his last car.
He didn't like to see Lisa Ochai unhappy, but it had been clear that she was, however well she tried to hide it. He'd known her a long time, and had been able to recognise that too familiar grief in her face.
After all, it took one to know one, and he'd been too unhappy too long.
Oh, stop being so self-pitying, he told himself, and started the car with an angry flick of his wrist. It was one of his worst traits, and he knew it.
It hadn't taken long to wheedle the truth out of Lisa, looking so forlorn with her slumped shoulders and tired eyes whenever she thought no one was watching.
Cern Akafren was the problem.
Cern Akafren, who had lost his soulmate. He'd always been close to Lisa and had always been the mellow one, the one who sat through arguments without a flinch, and had a gently cynical view on life. He was one of Cougar's best friends, and frankly, he'd been bugging him no end lately.
Cougar could understand him being upset that his soulmate had died. Yes. Fine. Even fights with Ria had hurt him; he couldn't imagine what it would be like if she had been torn from him.
But he really didn't approve of these listless suicide attempts.
It wasn't as if he was even trying properly. If Cougar had been going to kill himself, he'd make sure there was no chance of anyone finding him. It would be neat, and above all effective.
But then...Lisa had made Cern promise he wouldn't.
And that was why he was going into Pack territory, where Cern could be found. Ever since Jal's death, he had spent more and more time with the wild werewolves of Ryars' Valley, discovering his feral side. Maybe hunting helped.
Cougar could still remember a time when he had thought the taste of blood would take everything away. Humans had alcohol, vampires had blood, and half-breeds like Cern Akafren...they had whatever power they could find to overwhelm their mind and take away the anguish, at least for a while.
He was driving on dirt tracks now, further into the woods that were thick and deep as fairytale forests and just as full of wolves. It was very easy to miss the turning to the Pack's lair if you weren't careful, and-
He swung the car sharply right, into a patch of shade that turned out to be a well-disguised road entrance. Something howled - their sentry, he guessed; the Pack weren't too popular with anyone - and Cougar was tempted to try and run it over and make his total accident count up to lucky seven, but left it.
He was surprised at how empty the place was when he finally pulled up by the one or two battered cars parked in a patch of cleared land. They had to be out hunting.
There was a girl waiting for him, her arms folded and her eyes hard amidst a wealth of black eyeliner, half-veiled by an overlong coppery fringe. The ramshackle den of the Pack was behind her, scattered with stolen picnic tables, sleeping bags and half-eaten food.
"Nice of you to drop by," she said, and nodded curtly. Cougar had to wonder how she avoided hurting herself on the massive spikes attached to her dog collar. "Now get out."
He bared his teeth at her. "Can it, Felicity, though I know you like your meat fresh. I'm here to see Cern."
"Oh..." Felicity Serafine relaxed a little. "He's not here."
She had a lovely voice, at odds with her harsh appearance. It rang like miniature bells, while the rest of her was only a discord. You had to be a certain type of person to pull off gothic and consumptive, and she wasn't it.
"Well, where is he?"
She shrugged. "Don't know, That's where the rest of them are. For a guy who only just started mingling with the beast within, he's fast."
"Damn," the vampire muttered, and glared resentfully at the cigarette in her grubby hand. He'd been conclusively banned by his friends on the grounds it was unsociable and revolting. Cougar didn't agree with either of these, but couldn't afford to buy a new pack every half hour after the old ones were either thrown in the bin, on the fire, or into the lake by whoever caught him. "How's he been?"
She gazed at him curiously. "What's it matter to you?"
"He's my friend," he said curtly. Why did people always give him that suspicious look when he said that? Was it really so unlikely? "I have this strange compulsion against seeing them hurt, call me Mr Radical."
"Well...look..." The young werewolf bit her lip, and then beckoned him into the den. "Sit down. It'll take a while before they find him. If they do," she added dourly.
His surprise must have shown on his face, because she half-smiled, though it was acid. "Took us three days last time. He's not like us...he uses spells to hide himself."
"He's always been best with magic," he agreed, and shook his head as the wolf tentatively offered him a cigarette. "I quit."
She peeked at him from under her bangs. "You don't seem like the quitting type."
"I was ruthlessly tortured until I gave in," he muttered.
Her eyes widened, grey as fog. "Really?"
"Oh yeah," he told her, enjoying her complete attention. "They sang Kumbayah at me until I caved in."
She laughed, and he was surprised by the way she covered her mouth with her hand, as though she was afraid to show the world. "Wish I had friends like that." She looked around the clearing, gloomy and messy. "They're...strange here."
"How long have you been here?" he asked, making conversation. She reminded him of Toya in a strange way. It was something in the eyes, a deep and fiery willpower that said whatever you threw at this girl, she would not allow herself to break.
"Two months," she said, reaching for a half-opened sixpack of soda. "I ran off from my family 'bout half a year ago." She told the story emotionlessly, and it rang true with Cougar. He remembered using that tone himself, trying to chop off his emotions from his past. It never worked. "I guess I'm lucky. I don't have the Nightworld after me like most of you."
Cougar raised his eyebrows, wondering what caused that bleak look on her face. "Can I ask why you ran?"
She shrugged. "They all tell me I was crazy. I had it all, you know." She looked at her hands, and Cougar realised with a start that her fingernails were beautifully manicured. "Expensive education, nice house, good hunting grounds, even a kitten. Perfect parents, always at dinner parties and the Rotary club - I'm sure you know the kind. Then this old friend of theirs came to stay."
She paused, and toyed with her hair. "Guy called Laburnum Martin," she said flatly. "A lamia. They all called him Bernie. Came from some enclave near Milwaukee - he said he was looking for his son who'd run away, that they were all real worried about him because he was a bit unstable and told all sorts of crazy stories. I can't remember what the son was called...it was something like an Aston Martin."
Cougar froze quite still. God...he remembered Bernie Martin, yeah, no one could forget the bastard, though he'd never dared mess with a Redfern. Even now, his name evoked a sharp picture in his mind not of him, but of his son, of Aspen Martin as a kid, scared of his own shadow and terrified of the dark.
He remembered screaming at his parents to listen to him about how bad Bernie was, and why the hell they let him stay on the enclave, and even hitting his father. All he had gotten for his pains was more pain.
If Blue had done one good thing in his life, it was getting Aspen away from the enclave and away from Bernie.
But Felicity didn't notice; her face was still, almost rapt. "I didn't think anything of him at first," she said slowly. "Then I started seeing him looking at me in a funny way. Like...like I was prey. But I thought he'd be gone soon, and that would be the end of it." She laughed. "God, I was stupid! Little Catholic school girl, so sweet and so - god - damn - stupid! I went down to get a glass of water one night, and he must have followed me because when I turned round he was there and..."
"I can guess the rest," he said flatly.
Her eyes snapped from the past to the present, and lost that awful dead light. "You know him!"
"Knew," Cougar said. "He used to live on my enclave." He shivered. "Us kids used to steer well clear of him. But the parents didn't know, or if they did, they didn't care, so he stayed there. The son's called Aspen - and he lives here."
Felicity sucked in her breath. "Aspen? His last name's Martin?"
He nodded. "Yup. For god's sake...don't tell him you met his father. He'll go ballistic, and he's only just on this side of sane as it is."
She was pale. "Christ," she said, and looked at the Coke. "Maybe I need something stronger."
"Why?" he asked. "Bernie doesn't even know about this place."
"Doesn't he?" she said. "He stopped at ours because he needed somewhere to wait for a while. Said there was someone in our area who had information in some organisation. And Mom was asking him if it was one of the big three - whatever that means, and then he said a word...Pursang, that was it, and Mom told him never to mention that word at her table again. I thought that was so weird...do you know what it is?"
Cougar recovered himself. "Not a clue," he lied bluntly. "Don't worry about it, Felicity. Look...maybe Aspen should know. But I'll tell him, okay? I know him a little so he's more likely to believe me, and less likely to kill me."
"It's Flick," she said quietly. And now he understood where that smouldering willpower had come from. The determination not to lose herself, the reason that there was no sweet Catholic schoolgirl, only this hard, brittle girl. "Look...the Pack could be gone days. Why don't you give me your telephone number, or your friends'? When I hear something, I'll ring you and you can come and knock some sense into Cern."
"Thanks," he said, and as he drove away, saw her still sitting there in his rearview mirror, staring into space.
X - X - X - X - X
Chatoya had had her doubts about the dress the moment Lisa and Alisha had cajoled and bullied her respectively into trying it on. It was long and clinging, made of a soft black velvet that whispered with each step. A slit ran from ankle to mid-thigh and the neckline dipped scandalously low. It was, Lisa had said with a sparkle of delight in her eyes, a witch's gown.
They dragged her around Ryars Valley's small, expert and excruciatingly expensive shops until they found a perfect pair of high suede strappy shoes that curled around the length of her feet like snakes, elegant and emphasising her height. Making her stand out uncomfortably.
Their frantic shopping had ended as the sun began to sink and the shops closed, leaving Chatoya considerably poorer and the shops considerably richer.
"I'm not sure about this," she said to Tali as the dragon girl twined her brown hair into a complex knot secured by about half a can of hairspray and enough grips to build a small fence.
"I am," Alisha said firmly, and forced a clip in with a hiss. "You cannot miss this!"
As the doorbell rang, the dragon got up, brushing at her short scarlet dress briskly and ran downstairs.
"Hey!"
She looked over at the window and stared as Cougar Redfern slithered in. "Does this look like an episode of Dawson's Creek?" she hissed, moss eyes wide. "And how did you...?"
"Oh, I learned how to break into houses ages ago." Cougar said airily. "And you left the ladder outside." He took a moment to look at her. The hazel eyes widened and filled with gold. "Please tell me that what's under that dress is as good as it looks."
"You certainly aren't going to find out," she answered tartly but was secretly pleased. "Where have you been?"
"Oh, around," he said casually, leaning on the wall and watching her brush at her fingers with her hair. "Went to see the Pack. Found a little problem. Look...would you kill me horribly if I turned up a little late? There's someone I should go and see."
There was a nuance to his voice that puzzled her, a wariness. A glance at his face in the mirror confirmed that this was serious. "No problem."
"Are you sure?" he began. "I mean...I feel like such a bastard just leaving you here-"
"You wouldn't do this unless it was important," she said mildly. "Whatever else you are, you're not unreliable."
"But what about you?" he said, those extraordinary eyes flaring. "I can't let you-"
"Cougar Redfern," she said, adopting Lisa's thou-shalt-obey-me-or-get-thy-ass-kicked tone. "You shall not go to the ball, at least until later. I am a strong, confident and, let's face it, amazing woman. I can cope. And if you don't go, I'll...I'll...turn you into an aubergine."
He threw his hands up, looking startled. "I hear and obey, O master! And," he added as he turned to go, "...why an aubergine?"
"I just think it's you," she murmured and smiled as he slipped out the window to land ten feet below with a yelp and a crunch. Chatoya leaned out to see an angry vampire hobbling up to glare at Alisha, who was holding the ladder and glaring right back.
"If you ever, ever, ever break into my house again," the dragon-girl was shouting, "I will..."
"I know," she heard Cougar say gloomily. "You'll turn me into an aubergine."
A long pause and then Alisha's baffled voice floated up. "I was going to kill you actually...but...that sounds way more interesting."
"Hey."
She turned away from the raised voices below to see Jepar in the doorway, grinning and looking unusually formal in a tux, as though he had stepped straight from the set of a James Bond soiree. The elegant-boned face was framed by the sleek gold hair, and his emerald eyes were aglitter.
He wolf-whistled softly. "Wow! Remind me again why we stopped dating."
She laughed despite herself. She and Jepar had dated a couple of years back, but it had fizzled out eventually. "You kept stealing my CDs."
"I knew it was something important," he parried, and shook his head. "You look great."
"What about me?" Lisa protested as she sashayed out of the bathroom and gave him a model's twirl in her daffodil-yellow dress. The hem fluttered like petals; the left side reached to her knee and the right swept up to end alarmingly high on her thigh. Long sleeves covered her arms, and her hair was bright with tiny yellow flowers.
Jepar put a hand to his forehead and pretended to faint. "Radiant," he declared. "Sumptuous, divine...I hope I'm getting kudos for this." He glanced out of the window. "Now come on, our chariot awaits."
"Chariot?" Chatoya said, confused.
"Well..." the blond shapeshifter said, his emerald eyes alight. "When I say chariot. I mean Thom's pickup truck."
"Never mind," Chatoya murmured, looking at out at the first flush of violet sweeping over the sky. "It's still some enchanted evening."
She was to be proved exactly right.
X - X - X - X - X
"I hope he's abandoned his old burglar alarm," Jacqueline Trehet remarked dryly, looking at the deceptively cosy house. "Honestly, there had better be a good reason why you dragged me all the way from the Med."
Aspen Martin beamed brightly at the second most powerful person in Pursang - himself included - and she saw that madness roll over his face like a hot spring, obscuring all with the steam of his broken thoughts. "He had a burglar alarm? Blue?"
"Well," she said, wondering how on earth this boy could manage to look so wretchedly innocent. "Burglar alarm, bear-trap. Same difference. Nearly took my damn leg off." She pulled the slit in her skirt apart to show him the welt of pale pink scar tissue. "I only just missed the landmine."
The dual-coloured eyes, an unsettling heart's-blood red paired with ice-core silver, were far too intense for her liking. "When did you need to see Blue?"
When had he got so smart? Last time she had seen her superior - and Jacqui's teeth still gritted at the thought - he had been about as bright as an eclipse, and unable to notice a hint unless it came in the form of an ICBM.
She decided not to mention she had been planning to overthrow Aspen, and head Pursang, and went for the acceptable substitute of, "I was trying to kill him."
"Oh, of course," Aspen said guilelessly. "Last time I tried that, he'd spilt water all over the floor and left wires in it." He shrugged. "Cunning. Did you know electricity and water are seriously fatal? You think they'd let the general public know, wouldn't you?"
Jacqui let it pass that the general public able to count above twenty usually did know.
"So what is this about?" she murmured, as the pair of them instinctively checked before the door in case of sudden surprises. "Is there a reason why we're going to see Chronic Sonic?"
"You better hope he doesn't hear that," Aspen remarked, ruffling her messy, blond-tipped hair with a careless hand. Jacqui fought the urge to drive an elbow into his stomach. She hated tactile contact, but Aspen seemed to thrive on it. "Anyway, he's got worse lately. He's found his soulmate."
"His what?" Jacqui said, completely forgetting her jet-lag, and the fact she should have been in Kos, enjoying a long break, and her thousands of schemes, and her superior's numerous failings.
"Soulmate," the lamia said casually. "They don't like each other much. He's playing games with her, but Jacqui, you won't believe this - she fought him last week and she won."
Close your mouth, Jacqui told herself, unless you want birds to start nesting in it. Well, you knew there had to be someone better than him! She must be one of those warrior types, probably every bit as gorgeous and deadly as he is. Knows all the martial arts...a very old vampire, maybe a tough shifter...a dragon, even.
"I'd like to meet her," she said and gave a bark of laughter. "By all that's sacred, I'd like to meet her!"
Aspen half-smiled as he pushed open the door with one finger, ready to leap back at the first sign of explosives. If he hadn't nearly killed her three years ago in that vicious fight for control, she wouldn't believe the power and danger that was coiled in him. "You will."
"Oh?" she said absently. The green flecks in her eyes gleamed brightly as she stepped after him. Green on brown, a woodland beast. "Why's that?"
There was a breeze on her cheek, and a thud. When she whirled, a knife quivered in the wall, and pinned the bottom of her earring neatly. Her fingers fumbled to her ear, and felt the top half of the sterling silver jewellery still whole and attached. It had been hit precisely where it joined.
She turned her eyes to the doorway and saw through it Blue Malefici straddling a chair, his arms folded along the back of it and his chin on his hands, looking at her with a deep and frozen amusement. His voice made her breathe in, shocked at the fathoms that slunk beneath it, layers of inhumanity and shadow that had not been there before.
"Because she's about to take over Pursang."
Ready or not, here I come
You can't hide
Gonna find you...
And make you want me.