Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction biased in the world created by Anne Bishop in her Black Jewels Trilogy. The characters are however are original and copyright of their maker. Keep in mind that not all of these characters are mine. I use them with permission of the maker. This is a thread from Ebony, a forum I role-play on. The link is my homepage if you wish to check it out. As such not all of this is written by me and again is used with permission.

Shemjaeza Malakhim and Raith Malakhim are characters made by J and I use them with his permission. Demonica Lunaris is mine.

Place: Hayll
Characters: Green Jeweled Prince Shemjaeza Malakhim
Black Jeweled Black Widow Warlord Prince Raith Malakhim
Grey Jeweled Black Widow Queen Demonica Lunaris

Writer of this chapter: J and Me


In the real world everything happened at once. Demo fell to the floor in a boneless way as Raith fell to his knees, face contorted in effort as he fought her in his mind, locking down the barriers the Blood had to keep each other out to keep her in, it was dangerous, she was were he was most vulnerable and though ensnared in webs he had woven in his mind a long time ago she was fighting like a bitch, Grey against Red.

Raith was at the disadvantage, he may have had the element of surprise but without the Jewels she would eventually burn through them no matter how good he was, unless he could force her deep enough into the Twisted Kingdom it's self, if he could manage that then all that would be there would be a drooling shell of the Queen he had once loved.

Stood feet away, Shem saw his Queen go down and let out a strangled cry and felt that anger and resentment of all the years under Raith boil to the top. Anger turned to rage and hate and he raised the hand with the secondary ring on and the one with the Green on at the same time to pour all that hate and fear and anger into the same blast.

In his mind Raith felt it coming, roaring towards him in a thick cloud, smashing his barriers in its path, he screamed in pain and fury as it lanced through his mind and lunged at Demonica. He didn't care if it shattered his mind, didn't care as the stained glass windows rattled under the oncoming pressure and the smoking fog of the Twisted Kingdom boiled over the landscape, all he wanted was his Jewels.
He reached, desperate, raw passion giving him the will to go on, till, as the Green wave crashed through his last barriers cold, smooth darkness touched his fingers.

Raith grinned wildly at Demonica for a moment and vanished, taking his webs with him, stained glass shattered, raining black and red shards down which exploded as the Green power crashed over the Altar and the grey world of the Kingdom racing through to meet it.

There was a moment, as the webs vanished and glass fell amongst the shadows, in which Demonica looked over to the Altar and saw Raith's dark chalice shatter into a million splinters before she threw up the Gray shield and her lover's power washed over her.

Shem grinned victoriously, as wild and as vicious as any Warlord Prince for a moment, till Raith suddenly rose the Red around his neck and his fist closed round the Black crystalline shadow in his hand.

For a second he seemed confused, as if he had no idea where he was before he looked down at the Queen at his feet.

"Hey?" He said softly, "Hey you ok Lady?"
He knelt down next to her and brushed one long strand of hair from her face, a strange soft expression on his face. Shemjaeza's eyes flew open.

How dare he, how fucking dare he after all the shit he'd put them through how fucking dare he touch her. SHE WAS HIS.

He blindsided his brother, rage and fury forcing him to forget everything, all he wanted at that point was to see the man in front of him dead, dismembered hung from the rooftops for all too fucking see. Pale eyes dilated down to pin pricks as he burned, catching his brother across his face with his fist.

Shem rained blows down, not caring about forms and skills just wanting to hurt, to rend. A shudder went through Raith, and he moved, one elbow catching his brother in the neck, one hand catching his fist and he just pushed, walking the Prince back towards the wall till the rough surface slammed against his back. Shem hit him, the rage too much to make him think of the ring and Raith took the blow, it spilt a lip and the smell of dark power suddenly filled the room.

He smiled. Teeth red with blood and held up his right hand between them.
His brother watched, still angry, still hurting, but the fight was leaving him, Demonica racing into his mind, was she all right, oh Mother Night let her be alright.

"Pay attention." Said Raith and nodded to his hand, "I'm going to let you into a little secret."

Pale eyes met pale eyes before both sets flickered over to the hand between them and the Warlord Prince flexed his fingers and bared his teeth in a bloody smile as the snake tooth slid out. "And now you know too." He muttered, grinning madly and pulled it back for the final strike.

Demonica heard Raith's voice. Cold, vicious, death-seeking… and there was only one other person in the room… and Raith was not on top of her. Her heart leapt into her throat and despite a splitting headache, Demonica was on her feet, lips working as her eyes took in the situation.

"PRINCE!"

Raith's head whipped round and he hissed.

Demonica stood there, cold and imperialistic, beautiful in her rage and relief flooded through Shem as instinct crawled up his belly, Mother Night, Mother Night he wished to serve. Her golden spheres flashed dangerously, a Queen's equivalent to a warlord Prince's Killing Edge. The volume of her voice had been to catch his attention, pull it from Shem.

"Prince." She said again addressing Raith with her voice dark, rolling wind. It was soft, a chilling as the room, hazardous; but Shem didn't care, she was alright. "Is your word worth anything or not?"

A Queen's tone, a Queens rage, not a thing to be trifled with, cutting through the haze of madness and anger and Raith looked at her, his head cocked to one side as he just dropped Shem like a rag-doll to the floor.

"Lady." He said turning and looked at her for a long, long while as if considering things and then smiled and bowed. Perfect Protocol. "I'm yours to command."