Chapter Twelve: Horrible Echoes

"You're killing her!"

Dyson rushed Bo, knocking her off the valkyrie. Bo screamed in a rage, her eyes wild, and she clumsily pawed at Dyson, who now had her pinned to the ground, an awkward imitation of how she just had Tamsin.

Craning her neck, she glanced at her fallen lover. Her chest moved up and down slightly, that was good. Bo thought about the taste still lingering in her mouth – the sweetest nectar she had ever sucked from anyone. Something had changed in Tamsin's genetic make-up, she was certain of that, she was no longer the fae she once was. But what did that mean?

"Dyson," she said, feeling the wolf's heated breath on her collarbone, his lips an inch from her flesh.

"Yeah?" he said, all but pulsing on top of her.

"Get. The fuck. Off."

She shoved him aside, scanning the room. Massimo was brutally wounded, the boy he had brought with him gone, and Kenzi and Trick had also disappeared. Her heartbeat flared in her chest. "Kenzi!"

She rose from behind the bar, her eyes rolled back in her head. "It sates itself… Do you still seek to know? And what?" Her frail body vibrated.

Bo rushed to her friend. "What are you talking a-" Her sentence cut off when she saw her grandfather's lifeless body in a small pool of liquor and broken glass. Anger welled within her, and she spun on her best friend. "What did you do to him?"

Kenzi wasn't registering anything around her. Body still shaking, eyes still showing pure whites, she continued to babble. "… Paints red the powers' homes with crimson gore…"

The succubus realized she had no idea what to do next, and knew this was one of those rare times that she was completely powerless. Lauren lay in a bloody pile of charred parts, and now her grandfather had been killed as well. Vex had to be behind this, she knew that much, but she still didn't know what his endgame could possibly be. Was he reaching out like this to hurt her, or was the picture much, much larger than that?

Massimo had brought the boy here for sanctuary, and they had not found it. The druid seemed to be recovering, albeit slowly. He would soon be running off after Dylan, but Bo knew he would return eventually.

Her head was still spinning with this whole lamplighter business, but she didn't have time for that now. Grabbing Kenzi, she guided her shaky friend away from the corpse.

"… Black become the sun's beams in the summers that follow…"

"Kenzi, snap out of it!"

Her eyes returned to normal and she collapsed onto some debris. "Bo!" she cried. "Oh my god, Bo…" her voice trailed off as she looked upon Tamsin. Her face paled. "This is not good."

"What are you talking about?" Bo asked, more confused than ever.

"Listen to me." Kenzi didn't take her eyes off the valkyrie. "Find some burbon, vodka, beer, whatever that wasn't blown apart in the bomb." Tamsin stirred on the floor, moaning slightly as she struggled to her elbows. "Hurry!"

"Listen, you have to tell me what's going on. Did you do your Cat Sidhe part do something to Trick? Did you…"

"I didn't kill him Bo, he was already dead when I found him. You have to believe me on this. But right now, I have all of Trick's memories circling through my head and there is something very, very dangerous coming." She spoke quickly, urgently. "And honestly, if you want to delay this for as long as possible, get that girl a fucking drink, right now."

Massimo got to his feet, cringing from the pain. He surveyed the room, taking in the chaos surrounding them. "Vex," he seethed.

The druid and the succubus exchanged a glance, and Bo simply nodded at him. "I have enough to worry about here without you and that child you brought with you. Go."

He was out the door and in the sunlight in seconds, jerking his head in all directions trying to decipher which way Dylan would have gone. If he knew Vex as well as he thought he did, Dylan might already be lost to him – but that wasn't going to stop him from trying his hardest to get the boy back into his custody.

First, he had to regroup. The injuries he had sustained were not fatal, but they would slow him down considerably. He had to head back to his place, concoct a potion or two to get him back to full health, and then he would rain fire and fury down on that annoying Mesmer.


For Dylan, it appeared as though the horrors might never cease. Basically the minute he fled the bar, Vex showed up from the back alley. Now, less than twenty minutes later, he was once again back in that long, dark conference room from before. And again, there were three people occupying the space, except the third person wasn't Massimo this time.

The newcomer unnerved Dylan. He towered over the other two men in the room. Fur lined the canvas vest with leather straps that showcased the man's muscular, tattooed, and scarred arms. Thick, powerful thighs threatened to burst through the brown leather pants he wore. His face was pierced and studded, with a tribal tattoo snaking up his neck and stretching across his forehead. So far, he had remained silent, which only made him more imposing to Dylan. Dylan wanted to know this man's purpose, because it seemed as though he was only built for one thing: to rip someone apart. And judging by the spark in Massimo's eye, that was exactly how he was going to utilize him. Dylan just prayed that the man wasn't going to turn his gaze on him.

"Dylan, allow me to introduce you to Balo here," Vex said with a sneer. "He's my new best friend, aren't ya? And he's literally freshly arrived straight from Valhalla."

"From where? What are you going to do to me?"

Vex leaned closer. "To you? Oh, I'm going to give you the world. As long as you listen and do as I say, you will have whatever you want."

Dylan shivered. "I want Massimo back."

"Fuck that miserable twat! If he comes back here I'll have Balo soften him up before I sneak in for the kill. He will rue the day he crossed me." Vex's rage came through his voice and radiated off his body. "You belong to me now, and as soon as I clear up a small tangle in my plan, I will solidify the pact between us."

"What do you mean? What do any of you mean about any of this? Why am I so special to you people?" Dylan couldn't halt the gears grinding away in his mind. "This whole situation is insane!"

"My dear boy, you are going to help me take control of this sorry city. You are a very unique fae, you see, and I plan to use you to your full potential. The only tick is," Vex closed the distance between them, pressing their chests together, "you have to consent fully to me. Now just tell me what Massimo did with you, and I'll do better."

Dylan, almost disgusted, shied away from Vex's leather-clad touch. "So how does Balo fit into this? What is he?"

"See, now you're starting to ask the appropriate questions. Balo is going to stop that gang of bitches you just ran out on for me. He's an einherjar, a fallen warrior. And he's going to solve my valkyrie problem." Vex turned to Balo. "You may go now. Do your worst."

Grunting an assent, Balo turned to leave the room. It was awkward to see someone that looks like he was ripped out of a Norse myth cram himself into an elevator, but Dylan had other things to occupy his mind.

Once the doors closed with a small chime, Vex turned his full attention to Dylan. He grabbed Dylan's arm and tried to lean in for a kiss. Dylan turned his face, trying to avoid any prolonged contact with this man. When Vex's attempt failed, took Dylan's other arm and shook the boy roughly. "Now listen, you little shit, there are two ways this can go. You can give yourself willingly to me, or…"

Vex walked towards a wall, dragging Dylan behind him. He slid open the panel as he had done not too long ago and revealed the over-sized hamster cage. "Or I will shut you up in here and let you rot until you feel like changing you mind."

Dylan had no words to describe the gamut of emotions flailing through his head. True, he hadn't known Massimo for very long, but the druid had shown him a great kindness, and he felt that doing anything with the Mesmer would be a grave betrayal. Vex was wild and intense, but a clear villainy shone through his rogue exterior. But the survivalist within him knew that once he was placed in that cage, there would be a very slight chance of him returning to Massimo.

So he chose, and did what he thought was best. He took Vex's hand in his own, and whispered, "Alright, I choose."

Their lips twisted together and Dylan felt violated. These were not the gentle, probing kisses he had grown accustomed to – they were rough, dangerous. Vex began peeling off the layers of his leather in between gasping breaths. He pushed Dylan's body down on the giant table and said, "Good boy."


"Kenzi I don't know if there is anything salvageable here!"

"Find the liquor faster," Kenzi said in a pained voice, her hands massaging her temples to no effect. "I am being serious here. The memories are starting to fade, but that girl needs to be medicated before she kills us all."

Bo popped her head over the countertop. Tamsin was still working on regaining her strength, which apparently was a good thing. "And what exactly does that mean?"

"Trick was way smarter than I am, and it feels like I'm trying to put a puzzle together that has maybe half the pieces. So just do as I say while I try to put together what I can. But seriously Bo, she's coming to and I think she's way more unhinged than any of us have realized. The booze has been keeping her powers mostly in check, and we need to keep that up until we can find a way to fix things."

Bo rifled through more debris, finally finding a bottle of rum that had been tucked away under the counter and remained intact after the explosion. "Do you think she'd want a cocktail or a shot?"

When Bo came around the counter she was surprised to find Tamsin standing right in front of her. She hadn't seen the valkyrie move from the ground. Just how much power did she actually have?

"Bitch, please," Tamsin said, yanking the bottle from Bo's grasp, spinning the cap off, and commenced to downing half the bottle in a few generous swallows. She instantly relaxed, her posture drooping a bit. "Yeah, that's what I needed."

Dyson was all but licking his wounds in the corner. "Dy, Ken, come on. We need to have a little chat." Bo gave Tamsin a worried look before adding, "Tamsin, you stay in here. Just don't do anything stupid."

Already well on her way to being smashed again, Tamsin replied, "Well if you aren't here, what stupid things would I do?"

Rolling her eyes, Bo ushered her two friends to the backroom, which had been relatively untouched by the explosion. Once they had assembled, she took stock of herself and her friends. All were pretty banged up, but they all seemed to be alright. At least they were all standing, unlike Lauren.

"This has Vex written all over it," Dyson growled.

"I am just as worried as you are about the bomb, and I want to kick that smug grin off Vex's face as much as the rest of us, but we need to get whatever information Kenzi got out of Trick before she loses the memories. That's how it works, right?"

"Yeah," Kenzi said, head throbbing. "And it's already fading."

"You were saying some pretty random things earlier. It sounded like some sort of scripture maybe?"

"It was. Trick was researching some Nordic text he found in his personal library. After Tamsin's accident," Kenzi's eyes fluttered over to Dyson temporarily, "Trick noticed something changed in her."

"My wolf nose has been a little off lately," Dyson admitted. "I got really rattled in that accident, it changed both of us."

"What changed? What is happening to Tamsin?" Bo's concerns were growing exponentially. She had at least a hundred problems to deal with, but her instinct told her this had to be dealt with swiftly, and then they could worry about Vex and the Lamplighter.

"There's a word that kept rocketing through my mind, like an echo of an echo," Kenzi said, trying to concentrate. "I know I've heard it before, but I'm not sure what it means. I'm not sure what any of it means."

"Kenzi, the word."

She tilted her head up and eyes both her friends. The word came from a dark place within the swirl of memories, fighting for attention yet receding at the same time. "Ragnarok."

Dyson paled and went ridged.

"Dyson, what is it? What does it mean?" Bo asked, placing one hand consolingly on the wolf's arm.

He turned his head towards her, his eyes glassy. "It's the end of the world."

A/N: Longest chapter to date! And one of the fastest I've written. Take that, writer's block!