~Chapter Twelve~

The End

Holding you down until you're all alone,
All alone and drowning in your past.
Take it back, take it back.
I still believe you can.

How much longer are you gonna give in to the fear,
Holding you down 'til you disappear.

~Disappear, by Evanescence

Disclaimer: Me No Own; You No Sue.

"Who could have possibly summoned her, then?" I asked, staring down at her in clear disbelief.

Miine did not dignify this question with a response, choosing instead to hide her sad expression behind a curtain of chestnut brown hair. I bit back a cry of pain, because that was something that my girlfriend always did, as well. Still, I must have released a sound that could be interpreted as anger, since the white witch ducked for cover, using her taller boyfriend as a shield. Neither one of them would budge an inch, so my attention shifted to the stronger male that was protecting her.

"Ayame!" I growled at the younger male, barely resisting the urge to shift into my canine form, which was howling deep inside of me for release – and his mate. "Who…summoned….her?"

Ayame hesitated for a brief moment, but at the sight of such anger darkening my face, the snake admitted, "Sohma Akito."

Sammy's P.O.V.

Ketchup slipped down the side of my pale face and over the tip of my chin, before falling to the ground beside a pile of thick French Fries. Those salty, fatty, and incredibly delicious fries had been part of the value meals that Caleb and I had ordered from a nearby Burger King. We both hated McDonald's or Hardees, since the food at those lovely establishments tasted like –

"Shit!" I hissed, furiously scrubbing at the spot of ketchup that had dropped onto my neon green converse, right over the cute little Gir decal. Cupcakes didn't taste very good with ketchup on 'em, you know?

"Pass the ketchup, my darling home skillet, wok, frying pan!" Caleb exclaimed in a rather demanding tone of voice. He caught the handful of small packets that I tossed at his head without even glancing away from his cheeseburger. "Thanks, Sam–I–Am!"

I snorted into my cheeseburger, amused, and bit into the meat, bun, cheese, and pickles. Around a mouthful of burger, I dryly asked, "What does that make you, then?" Another snort. "The Cat in the Hat?"

Caleb grinned widely at me, winked twice, and deadpanned, "Meow~!" He clawed at the air, alternatively purring and growling loudly.

Groaning, I rolled my eyes, crumpled the burger wrapper, and chucked the greasy paper at his face. I began laughing at the faint twitching of his eyebrows, which resembled two fuzzy, red caterpillars. GO! I choose you, CATERPIE! And Caleb, the Drama Queen, sneezed into the wrapping paper, before lazily chucking it back at me. Use STRING SHOT!

My train of thought derailed, because I had just reached up to touch the skin on my nose, which was wet and slimy, thanks to Caleb. I grimaced at the sensation, moving a hand up to wipe the snot from its spot beneath my right nostril. Yep. Put a whole new meaning to the old phrase, Bat in the Belfry.

With a snicker, Caleb tapped his shoulder against mine and proudly declared, "Hole in one!" A smile darted across his lips, flickering into a smirk as the older witch leered down at me.

"Oh, oh, oh!" Jumping to my feet and pointing at him like a moron. "That's what she said," I crowed with glee, clapping both hands together in a manner eerily reminiscent of Miss London Tipton. "Yay, me!"

"Not that the itty bitty virgin would know, eh?" Caleb quipped, reaching over to tweak the erect nipple that was visible through the thin material of my white shirt. He laughed at my squeak of obvious embarrassment. Soft cooing in my ear, and he whispered, "You are just so adorable!"

I slapped him on the shoulder, trying to hide the bright blush on my cheeks, because that would surely give away the fact that I had found the attention rather interesting. Not that I was a girly girl! As a girly girl, I would have to wear makeup, tight clothes, and thongs. And I didn't own any of the above, which made me a tomboy, right? Hell to the Yeah!

"Shut up, eat that burger, and quit bugging me, ya perverted bastard," I angrily growled around the mouthful of hamburger meant and pickles sitting in my mouth. He opened his mouth to argue, but I cut him off with a pinch of his ass.

We ate in silence for the next fifteen minutes, which had to be a personal record for the two of us, seeing as Caleb and I had this habit of talking nonstop. Like the Energizer Bunny hopped up on sugar and Red Bull. 'Cause the Energizer Bunny was a rabbit, and bunny rabbits hopped. Get it? Got it? Good!

Four cheeseburgers and several liters of Coca Cola – courtesy of three free refills each – were now sitting in the pits of our respective stomachs, both of which were otherwise known as the Bottomless Pits of Doom. Both were aptly named, too, because the two of us required a remarkable amount of sustenance, as most kids our age did. Teenagers like us were, well, supposed to eat their parents out of house and home, though, right? Like Chihuahuas! Er, I mean, Golden Retrievers! Woof, woof, woof. Bow wow.

Of course, Daddy and Seth, as members of the Chaos Clan, were too busy wreaking havoc on the local farmers – killing beans, corn, peas, and other miscellaneous crops – to worry about feeding little ol' me. Thank Anubis that Caleb was the main cook at this Burger King! Otherwise, I, the amazingly talented shadow necromancer, might just black out and starve to death. Pun actually intended this time, by the way…

"Ugh!" I groaned, rubbing my stomach with a small hand and smiling with the satisfaction of having a full belly. "Man, I could not eat another bite." And I leaned backwards, tilting my chin towards the sky with the intent of soaking up some sun. Yay, for brown skin and skin cancer!

"My dear Sammy, I cannot control the urge any longer!" Caleb exclaimed, and the older witch clutched dramatically at his heart, before thickening his accent to hiss – "I want to suck your blood…!" He placed the sleeve of his black shirt in front of his face and wiggled his red eyebrows at me. "Yeah, baby~!"

His Romanian accent was more similar to that of Austin Powers than any of the countless movie portrayals of the famed Count Dracula. That last line didn't help matters any, either, since it had been taken directly from the movies – well, the movies for the first character mentioned in the scenario, anyway. And Count Dracula, the dignified vampire, wouldn't be caught dead – er, alive – in that ridiculous outfit that Austin Powers favored in those stupid movies.

Alucard, however, would be another story entirely. Batshit crazy, that vampire! Pun intended. Again. Duh.

At that last thought, I burst into loud peals of laughter, and then hastily clutched at my stomach, listening as it groaned loudly at me in irritation. My bloated belly was apparently rejecting that second damn cheeseburger. Why did I not want to be rid of that fattening meal, then, like most teenage girls would, if given the chance to do so? Well, I wasn't bulimic, for one! Also, I did not, under any circumstances, want to vomit the remains of those two tasty cheeseburgers. It would be a waste of a perfectly good cheeseburger! Even if that meal didhave almost four hundred calories, over twenty grams of fat, and…

Did I mention that it was a really tasty cheeseburger?

"Since I can't really stand the taste of TruBlood," Caleb added, almost as an afterthought, and slicked his hair back like Eric Northman, the Viking Vampire.

My lips twisted upwards in a silent scream, and I pointed at my weird best friend, the latter of whom had resumed making stupid faces at me and using his long sleeve shirt as a cape. Viva la Dracula! A startled expression crossed his handsome face, lightening the feigned scowl as it shifted into a small, lopsided grin. Blue eyes were wide with confusion, because, normally, Caleb could easily predict the extent of my reactions. He and I were with one another almost every single waking moment of the day – and sometimes every single sleeping moment of the night, too! We'd both had dozens of sleepovers with one another. I had, after all, known the boy for over a decade and a half. Seventeen years, to be exact. My entire lifetime.

In other words, Caleb Lee Jenkins and I were amigos, besten Freunde, two peas in a pod! He knew me, in a sense, much better than I knew myself. The redheaded male was aware of each and every single one of the faults that I had. Like the false bravado, the sarcastic references, or the need to prove myself with rich vocabulary and a barbed tongue, even towards people that I liked. Yeah, I was a bitch to almost everyone. Even so, Caleb loved me, and I loved him.

"OMG!" I stupidly exclaimed, channeling my inner cheerleader at the sight of his (please insert: very, very cheesy) vampire impersonation. "It's, like, a werewolf!" I batted my eyelashes at him. "Would you, like, have my children, Jacob Black?"

Caleb stuck the tip of his tongue out at me, lifted his nose into the air, and primly crossed both of his arms in front of his muscular chest. He sniffed and rudely grumbled, "STFU! Yeah, I said it, Princess Gloom and Doom!"

Snickering, I dropped the act and teasingly quipped, "Bite me, Count Spatula." I turned towards the redheaded cook to offer him a sarcastic smile, thusly displaying my set of fake fangs, both of which had been created via salty albeit tasty French Fries.

"It would be my pleasure, my lady," Caleb purred, sensually, and with a seductive smirk darting across his thin lips. He reached forward to wrap an arm around my waist, chuckled lightly, and began to nibble at my neck.

I halfheartedly tried to remove myself from his tight embrace, before giving in to the stronger witch and jokingly muttering, "Hands off the merchandise, ya filthy rapist!" Because I hated the fact that Caleb liked to pinch my nipples. Damn tease.

Still, I happily remained trapped in his strong arms, because this person was one that I could trust with anything and everything – even my own life. He would never intentionally hurt me. After all, Caleb had always been there for me, and that fact wasn't going to change in the near future, either. We had always been best friends, from the time that I had been born, only three years after the redheaded twins. Caleb and I were members of the feared Broken Blade Coven together, too. Shadow witches had to stick together. Like peanut butter and –

"You taste like grape jelly," Caleb happily informed me, all the while biting the tender skin on my pale neck and gently sucking at the flesh with his lips. He growled, before widening his mouth to act like Pac Man. "Nom, nom, nom…!"

Magic flared brightly beneath his white teeth, then, the likes of which had mysteriously managed to pierce my skin. Red and yellow flames flickered in his eyes, a sign of the black magic within his soul. A frightening sensation of horrible pain exploded within my entire body, and, without even a moment of hesitation, immediately began racing through my unsuspecting cells, veins, and arteries. Black magic started battling against my own in a valiant attempt to merge the separate entities together. Hot and cold, red and blue, fire and ice. Complete opposites.

Now, I was at the mercy of this individual – my neighbor, my classmate, my comrade in arms, and my very best friend. Because Caleb Lee Jenkins had just marked me. Not as a dog, though, because that would have involved pissing on me. And I was not a fire hydrant!

No. It was actually much worse than being drowned in urine, come to think of it. My shadow magic was now completely intertwined with his dark Hellfire, like strands of tangled hair, and virtually indiscernible from one another. That, along with the red mark permanently engraved upon my neck, indicated that I belonged to him, and the two of us were supposed to be mates – forever, and ever, and ever, and ever, and ever.

Yeah, I love you, too, I thought, sarcastically, and with this strangely amused expression on my parted lips, though this new relationship was unwanted. Too bad I don't have a dick, though, right?

Yes, Caleb definitely played for his own team, which was a damn shame. I mean, seriously! He was one of the sexiest boys in our school – and the Broken Blade Coven, too. Why did all of the attractive, funny, kind, and intelligent males have to be homosexual? Life was so not fair!

Soft lips touched the swollen skin surrounding the mark, before Caleb darkly whispered, "You may now kiss the bride…"

Tentatively, I leaned forward and cuddled into the gentle touch, which was entirely too familiar, and not in regards to our positively ancient friendship, either. I did not like this feeling burning beneath my naked skin. It was as though the magic within my soul had recoiled at the touch of his lips, hands, and fingers. I reached up to touch the mark, attempting to sooth the mark with my own, instead. Thin fingers lifted themselves towards the mating mark that had been – forcefully, brutally, evilly, painfully – placed at my neck.

Sirens were screaming and blaring within my mind, and I could hear a voice screaming to the world: Warning, warning, warning! My lips trembled lightly, before lifting into a small smile of satisfaction. No one would be able to break through that police tape that I had erected around my mind to save it from the incoming attack. Not without the proper identification, anyway! Even the utterly brilliant Dr. Spencer Reid would have trouble bypassing that barrier.

Trespassers will be shot! I smirked darkly at that thought, before allowing the next sentence to drift forward from behind the cautionary police tape. Survivors will be shot again.

And I could only assume that the trespasser had indeed been shot, since there was a small trickle of blood dripping down the length of skin belonging to my right hand. Blue eyes examined the pasty white skin with barely concealed fear. I relaxed, however, upon noticing that the sticky, red substance covering my hand had to be Heinz ketchup. It was the only logical explanation, after all!

"Damn, Caleb," I muttered, gazing down at my palm in amazement, "I cannot believe that you actually managed to prank me!"

Seriously! I had been proclaimed the Queen of Pranks by the entire middle school, shortly after my second year at that horrid prison. Thanks to my creative ingenuity, I had remained a proud prankster in my own right, and that rank had remained with me, in spite of the years. With his latest stunt, however, it appeared that I had finally met my match. I was about to be dethroned by my ol' friend, Caleb. Like Napoleon versus Marie Antoinette. Hopefully, I would not be decapitated, too…

"Nobody will be able to take you away," Caleb hissed, and the harsh whisper was accompanied by an even harsher kiss to my sore and bruised lips. "Never…ever…again…!" Each word was punctuated with lips pressing into my own. "You are mine." Red eyes glittered with triumph.

I obediently parted my lips to speak the words in return, thusly sealing the bond between Caleb and myself. Three words – you are mine, you are mine, you are mine – and the rest would be history. We would be together, forever, like all of the couples in those fairytales that I had religiously read and memorized during my early childhood years. Prince Charming and Cinderella, Aladdin and Jasmine, Beauty and…the…Beast…

It suddenly occurred to me at that moment, then, that those evil red eyes could not possibly belong to my one and only childhood crush. Generation after generation of boys within the Jenkins family – and the Hellfire Clan – had been gifted with a small portion of Leprechaun blood, because the first member of both clans had actually been Fae. And Caleb, as a typical Irishman, had fire engine red hair, blue eyes, pale skin, and thousands of dark brown freckles spattered across the thin bridge of his pointy nose.

This creature, on the other hand, looked nothing like him.

Thick locks of dark black hair had been slicked back, almost plastered to his skull in an effort to appear more sophisticated, and the olive colored skin of this creature was softened with rich hues of brown and yellow. Of course, Caleb had never been able to darken or tan his white skin, even with the aid of the expensive bronzers stolen from his twin sister, Katie. This perfect stranger did not have any visible marks, blemishes, or freckles present on his skin, either. He was incredibly beautiful, like the Greek God, Adonis.

Caleb the Clone traced his fingers over my pink lips and slipped his pinky inside of my mouth –which was still hanging open in shock – to circle around my wet tongue. He laughed and teasingly asked, "Do you approve of this form, little witch?"

His fingers were still buried deep inside my mouth, searching the inner caverns with eager ease, and almost half of the slender digits had wrapped themselves around my thrashing tongue, thusly preventing any verbal answer on my part. And I still couldn't move, so it was pretty impossible to respond to his question at all. Instead, I could only glare up at him, a pathetic response to his strangely pleasing torture. My bright blue eyes darted to and fro, intent upon finding an escape route, before settling on the gaze of the man pinning my small form to the bed. Caleb smirked.

No. That was not Caleb. Those crimson red eyes could only belong to an evil creature, a monster, a beast, or a…

Demon.

That single word evoked hundreds of different memories in my head. The single strip of film darted through my mind, displaying the days that I had spent with everyone within my family, my small circle friends, and the Broken Blade Coven.

A few of the memories were absolutely beautiful, due to the strong bonds that I shared with the aforementioned people. Some of them were even pretty damn funny – in retrospect, anyway. The majority, however, were riddled with hours of tedious magical instruction by various witches.

Not to mention the dozens of duels, ruthful duelists, the resulting wounds, and day after day of bedridden boredom. AKA: Hell on Earth!

Being an intelligent and strong witch – in other words, a necromancer – had its perks, though. I had been able to create contracts with numerous creatures of the night. Vampires, werewolves, ghosts, lichens, zombies, and even demons were to come at my beck and call. Hell! I could probably summon an army of undead to take over the Tri-State Area! Of course, Perry the Platypus would not stand idly by and let that happen, so…

A hand suddenly cupped my right breast, before following the curve to the tip of the pink nipple at its end. Caleb the Clone pinched the nipple with two nimble fingers, leaned forward to brace himself on the ground – no, the bed – with his hands and knees, and opened his mouth to release his previously confined tongue. The pink appendage slithered forward to wrap itself around the breast that rested beneath his warm palm. His tongue was wet with saliva; thus, it easily teased the tip into a thick point, tender to the touch and ready for affection. Caleb the Clone eagerly complied with my whispered pleas for more pleasure and kissed the naked flesh with soft, talented lips. Traitorous body!

"Oh, God!" I bit back a scream as my nipples were swallowed into a warm mouth and gasped loudly, surprised at the fact that the sensation of this sexual act was strangely familiar. Because I was a virgin.

Virgin. A snippet of hushed, passionate words swiftly shoved themselves into a seat at the front of my mind. "Please make love to me, Shigure!" And I was amazingly content, filled to the brim with three long fingers, all pumping into my vagina. In and out, in and out, in and out. "Breathe." I desperately wanted to do so, but the pain of his manhood ripping through my virgin barrier hurt more than I had expected. "My precious little Sammy…"

Did I know that man? Well, I must have at least been friends with him, since his tongue and fingers were shoved firmly between my wet lower lips. My policy for dating strictly stated that there were not to be any one night stands, faucet boyfriends, or spring flings. In other words, I wanted nothing to do with men that only wanted sex. Because I wanted to love him.

"Oh, sweetheart." Stormy gray eyes were positively glowing with the tender love directed towards me, and only me. Forever and ever. The End. "I love you so much."

Salty tears dripped down my pale cheeks, one right after the other, and I bit back a small sob at the painful feelings burning through my cells, my blood, and into heart. There was something seriously wrong with this entire situation, in spite of the pleasurable sensations crawling down my spine and into my vagina. No, I was wrong in that respect, because there was something seriously wrong with me. I was responding to the sexual touch of Caleb, my best friend, my childhood crush, and the first person that had kissed me. Or rather, I was sitting here and allowing his lookalike to touch, fondle, and ultimately fuck me into oblivion.

What the fuck was wrong with me?

"Enough!" Caleb the Clone roared in my ear, desperately attempting to distract me and stop the length of film from continuing on its track. "I do not want that filth tainting this sacred union between us!" Snarling, spitting, and hissing again. "You…are…mine!"

He brutally attacked me, without provocation or warning. I could feel his lips on mine, and the lookalike began sucking, and nipping, and biting at the pink flesh with his tongue and teeth. My eyes were closed, in an effort to block the sight of this man kissing me. So, I'd almost forgotten to mention the (incredibly noticeable) fact that every single one of his teeth was sharply pointed, in a manner eerily reminiscent of Toothless, from How to Train Your Dragon. His tongue was also scaly, orange, thin, and forked at the end. Like the Devil.

And I wanted to scream until the lungs in my chest had been blackened with disease, and my lips were blue from lack of oxygen, as though the Bubonic Plague had devoured me, both inside and out. God, I was horrified at that fact that this cruel creature was forcing himself on me. I could only liken it to making out with Nagini. It was an utterly disgusting experience, one that I did not care to repeat ever again.

I wanted to be free.

Softly, I began muttering to myself the banishing chant. "By air and earth, water and fire, so be you bound with this rite." My tattoos began glowing faintly with the magic whispering through my veins and rushing into the air. "Your power takes flight!"

Yeah, I thought, almost deliriously, and laughed. Snap, Crackle, Pop. Taste the rainbow, bitch!

"Fuck!" He bit the side of the left breast, snarled once in anger, and growled, "Quit fighting me, you stupid bitch!" And I was slapped once on the ass in reprimand, too. "Pedicabo ego vos et ratione ad pugnam!"

Those words were spoken in an ancient language, known to most witches as the Origin. Latin, as it was more commonly known amongst regular humans, was also commonly referred to as the language of the Bible, God, and his warriors, the Angels; however, Satan and his unholy spawn, the Demons, were also native speakers of the dead language. As a necromancer, I had to learn and be familiar with the words and nuances of the language in order to communicate with the aforementioned creatures. Or I would die. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

This dark creature of the night was well aware of that fact, as well. So I knew that the words were actually meant to be understood by others. The wires in my brain automatically began translating the harsh sentence into the languages most familiar to me, including German and Japanese. Finally, I could block everything out and hear the words only in English.

"I will fuck you, regardless of the fight."

Essentially, I was going to be raped, and that was extent of the matter. There were no other alternatives – unless I could finish this chant, anyway. Caleb the Clone had other ideas, though, and sank his teeth into my clitoris. I hissed at the pain of being bitten so roughly on such tender skin but refused to give in to the dark command to stop fighting. Fuck that shit! I wasn't going down without a fight, asshole! Words trickled into my mind, all of them belonging to the one banishing spell, and I allowed them to breathe the air around us. Inhale. Exhale. Chant.

"Sky and sea," I whispered, stubbornly continuing the chant and wincing at another particularly hard nip to the skin at my sternum, "Keep harm from me!"

Caleb the Clone did not pay me any mind, choosing instead to focus his attention once more on my sternum and breasts. Hellfire rippled through his form, battling my weak wave of protective magic, and he kissed my collar bone with his two longest fangs. "Tastes so good…"

Time to fight fire with fire! I thought, desperately, and squeezed my eyes shut, attempting to center myself in the universe. Like little ol' Flameon versus wickedly strong Typholosion. Difficult, but not impossible.

And I blindly searched through the darkness, willing the sun to begin shining again. No such luck. Two hands reached upwards, instead, frantically searching for the tendrils of bright blue and white magic that signified the Jackal God, Anubis, was nearby and willing to offer his help to a witch of his bloodline. An icy wind touched the naked flesh of those outstretched limbs, chilling them to the bone, and water trickled down my skin. My lips trembled lightly at the sudden cold, but I refused to back down or submit. Because I needed his help to escape.

Samantha Steel. The God of Death solemnly stared down at me with two crimson eyes. You have been tainted, little Jackal. Anubis placed his cold hand around the tattoos on my wrist, just above the tendrils of magic belonging to the Blood Summons, and he snarled darkly at them. Be gone!

Shards of black magic ripped through the tendrils wrapped around and around me, and I quietly added my power to that of my patron spirit, whispering, "Cord, go round…"

My captor twisted my wrist in his left hand, burning the white skin with only the power of his mind and the corresponding fire spell. "Not on my watch," Caleb the Clone snapped quietly in irritation, determined to fight the force of the stronger black magic.

Pain seared through my mind, body, and soul, a distraction in its own right as wave after wave of white hot magic burned through the shield surrounding my thoughts. Cord, go round. It fizzled and then crumbled under the force of the opposing magic, in spite of the fact that both had been formed from black magic. Before I could blink, the words had left my mind, and none could pass over my parted lips. Power, be…

I struggled to think coherently, attempted to reconstruct the remaining lines with swollen lips, and desperately stuttered the words aloud. Power, be…be… And then, in a moment of clarity, I understood the last word in that line to be bound. My eyes widened in complete horror. Dear God, I was bound to this creature! That certainly explained the gravitational pull from him to me, and vice versa. Those words came back to me, then. Blood to blood, I summon thee.

Chapped lips detached themselves from their resting place against my right nipple, an act that was accompanied by a sickeningly wet noise. My breast ached oddly, as though it were missing the attention that had recently been lavished upon it. Wetness dripped down my nether regions, pooling in the junction between my thighs, a constant reminder that I was enjoying the rough ministrations.

Immediately, I could feel him kissing along my collar bone, my neck, and my chin, and it felt so good, and then…

"Hmm…" A dark voice whispered into the silence of the night, laughed once in apparent joy and amusement, before murmuring, "I do believe that you've had enough time to place your claim upon the little whore, Kazuya."

My blue eyes opened with an audible snap and darted to the closed bedroom door, towards the speaker of those last words. The man was tall, lanky, and dressed in that traditional kimono. I couldn't suppress the startled breath of air that zipped through my mouth, a soft sound that had ultimately captured the attention of the familiar man in question. Akito cocked his dark head to the side, blinked, and smiled widely at the sight before him.

Black locks were tangled with thin strands of blonde hair, olive colored skin was glistening with sweat, gray eyes were narrowed into a cloud of lust, and long limbs were shaking with the exertion of forcefully pushing my naked form into the mattress.

"Are you absolutely certain that you wish to go through with this?"

With a gasp, I remembered that night, this hotel, and the familiarity of being pressed into this very same mattress, albeit by another man. A lanky male form had hovered over me, pressing against my hips and thrusting his thick length in between my parted legs – over and over and over again. Gray eyes gazed into a pair of soft blue ones, shining with lust and love, and he tenderly made love to me.

And I made love to him, too.

"Indeed," Kazuya purred in agreement, leaning forward to nuzzle the tip of his nose against the swollen mark on my neck. "The only step left in this spell indicates that I must bed the mate of my choice." He smiled gleefully. "Then, Samantha will be mine, yes?"

I screamed, horrified, and began thrashing against the demon that I had once trusted with my magic – and my soul. My necromancy was a secret, even bigger in size than the old elephant in the room. Dumbo also dictated with whom I could speak back then, too. It was difficult to make allies whilst hiding the fact that my magic was created with the aid of summoned demons and the undead. The Council Elders had figured it out, though. Targeted me and mine. Desperation had led me to make a deal with the Devil himself. Now, I wanted only to remove the magical collar that Kazuya had placed around my neck. I was a mutt. Not a purebred dog with a pedigree.

The Head of the Sohma family turned to face me and yawned, feigning boredom with the situation at hand. "Would you just shut up already?" Akito asked, plainly, and in an annoyed tone of voice.

Per the norm, Kazuya focused his attention on the threat at hand. He gracefully pulled himself into a sitting position, which involved him straddling my naked waist, and narrowed his crimson eyes, suspicious of the other man. A pair of thick horns was now sticking up and outwards from their position amongst his locks, and an even thicker tail had sprouted from the end of his jagged tailbone, making it about fifteen feet in length. No wings had made an appearance as of this moment, though. Thank Kami. No pun intended!

Akito was undeterred by his new appearance and murmured, "Yes, Kazuya." He rolled his eyes at the demon and mockingly adding, "I expect that the curse upon my family will be broken in exchange for all of my assistance in this matter, yes?"

Oddly enough, I admitted to feeling betrayed at this admission, too. I'd spent the better half of the last five months researching, studying, and fighting the curse that had been cast on a select few within the Sohma family – the Zodiac. Finally, I'd figured out a solid method of removing the curse, and with a minimal effort on my part, too. The only questionable part of the matter involved my summoning the strongest demon in my magical arsenal. In order to fulfill the plainly listed requirements of the counter curse, I would have had to summon the contracted demon, Kazuya the Calamity. Kinda like Lord Ciel Phantomhive and Sebastian from Black Butler. Minus the eye patch.

"I want her to be broken by her own magic," Akito softly whispered, clenching his fists into his kimono, and continuing, "As I have been broken by its will, as well." He viciously punched the wall. "Cursed to live, and breathe, and die an unwanted God!"

In disbelief, I stared up at the traitorous bastard and thought to myself: Akito helped this demon capture a witch, and he was willing to let the monster rape me, too? I scowled at the evil fucker that had wanted to kill me – and probably Tohru – from the start. And I was going to risk life and limb to end this cycle of the curse cast upon your damn family, too!

Kazuya growled, and I took that to mean that I was not the only one under the influence of those dark emotions, either. He appeared to be incredibly pissed off. Red eyes glittered with anger, a sign that this human ally was now considered too troublesome. Akito was aware of this change in status quo, too, and the thin male responded by slowly backing away, in the direction of the curtained window. Pale hands clutched at the neckline of his black kimono, before moving to grasp at the soft material of the curtains behind him. The stale scent of fear was strong in comparison to the crisp, cold air that drifted through the room.

Kazuya scented the air and licked his lips, pleased with this reaction. He slowly stood to his full height and drifted towards the other man, intent upon ending his miserable life – once and for all, it seemed. I remained seated on the bed, trapped there by the fear gripping my erratically beating heart between its frozen hands. To fight an angry demon was not on my current list of things-to-do, ladies and gentlemen. And I had to admit that fighting this demon in particular would more than likely be the last duel that I fought in this lifetime. Thus, I would have a bucket list on my hands, instead! Ding, dong. The Wicked Witch would be dead. R.I.P.

"Do not touch me, you filthy creature," Akito hissed and backed into the shadows of the nearby wall. His blue eyes were wide with fear, a stark contrast to the confident tone of his voice and those nasty words. Fake. He was always such a goddamn fake.

A dark laugh escaped from between chapped lips, and Kazuya reached down to grip the human male around his neck, lifting him into the air with only his left arm. Otherworldly strength was a trait common to most demons, second only to longevity. He sneered at the weaker man, a mortal that was now writhing in his strong hold and gasping desperately for breath, like a fish out of the water – opened and closed, opened and closed.

Kazuya sneered at the pathetic creature wriggling about in his grasp, squeezing his neck hard enough to leave several purple marks across the skin and break the blood vessels in his eyes. He placed his lips against a single bleeding ear and cruelly whispered, "I do not take orders from the likes of you, mortal."

"How about from the likes of me, then?"

The room was silent for the briefest of moments, because the intruder had actually managed to catch us all by surprise. Then, I heard the unmistakable sound of metal whistling through the air and tearing through soft cloth – and flesh ripping apart, bit by bit. Blood spattered across the old hotel walls, painting the pastel wallpaper a sickening shade of bright red. The matching white headboard, king sized bed, and nightstand, as well as the candles, were now covered in thick globs of blood. My naked flesh had not been spared, either, and blood dripped into my eyes.

Still, I could see everything happening in clear definition, as though I had decided to watch this scene on a gigantic television screen. Famous horror movies, including A Nightmare On Elm Street and Dracula. And I loved watching every single Friday the 13th, in spite of the clichés. Bring on the popcorn, folks, because it had finally started getting to the good part!

What is going to happen to the heroine?

The demon blinked once in surprise, glanced down at the gaping wound, and opened his mouth to speak. His next words were lost, however, in the waterfall of blood that cascaded from between his parted lips. Finally, Kazuya managed to sluggishly mumbled, "What…?"

Blood trickled down his chin, over his chest, and onto the sword that was protruding from his lower stomach, thusly traveling through the chest of his second contractor, Akito. The latter had been frozen on impact; the former fought tooth and nail for the remaining thirteen minutes of his life. Thus, Kazuya and Akito were pinned to the bloody wall, a single entity frozen there by the Claymore that had been magically summoned by magic. Both were silent, frozen, motionless, and…dead.

Everything snapped into place at that moment, roaring in my ears with the strength of the ocean during hurricane season, and with about as much sound, too. I could feel the tendrils of black magic leaving, slithering from my skin, to the bloodied ground, and into this strangely opaque pool of water that had collected alongside the large bed. As the Blood Summons disappeared, the faces of the Zodiac flashed before my eyes, one right after the other, and there were several whispers of happy laughter accompanying this collection. Kyo and Tohru, Ayame and Miine, Hatori and Yuki and Momiji and Haru. Smiling and laughing.

Cord, be bound. Wings were swiftly released, unfurled, and spread with only a soft whisper of wind. Power, be bound. A breath of fresh air whistled through my nostrils as wings moved towards the glowing sun, and the sweet sensation of freedom finally took flight in my soul. Henceforth, I will be safe from harm, and protected thusly by this charm. My blue eyes were calmly staring into the stormy gaze of the man that I had fallen in love with only three months ago. I am free. And I closed them once more on the last chapter of the story. So mote it be.

Because I knew then that the curse had been broken.

***Author's Note***

So, so, so, so sorry that this is two months later than the last chapter! I wanted to update, but the words would not come to me, even though I had the scenes planned out and everything. Um...yeah...moving onwards! ^^;

Obviously, I might have confused some of you with the setting of this chapter. It was kinda like a flashback, based on the Blood Summons spell, and one that confused Sammy into thinking Kazuya was her best friend. The illusion shattered, Kazuya threated Akito, and the two villians were killed by Shigure. The End! :D

-_- Weird how simple and fast it was to write the summary to a fourteen page Word Document. *Pause* Oh, well!

Anyway, I want to thank you all so, so, so, so much for reading this story, favoriting, alterting, and keeping me writing until the end! Seriously! THANK YOU!

There will also be one more chapter, otherwise known as the epilogue, that will explain the content of this chapter in further detail. It will wrap up a few loose ends, too, like the status of their relationship and that vision from Miine in the last chapter. *Evil Grin*

Until then, I would love to hear from you all! It would be nice to get about 100 reviews before this story is complete... ;)