Dragon Dolor: Chapter 2
Anger
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Filia whipped around to face the person whose voice she reconized instantly, her fists clenched and her face wrinkled with distaste. "YOU," she scowled, her voice practically dripping with hatred. She continued to glower at the intruder as he twirled lightly in the air with a joyous expression on his face.

"None other!" he agreed. He faced the dragon girl and placed a hand on her shoulder as he floated in front of her. "It pleases this mysterious priest to know you remember him so fondly, Filia," he said almost mockingly, his eyes closed into the usual half moon shape. Filia glared daggers at him for a moment, then realized that he was touching her. She grimaced and raised her fist, catching the one named Xelloss slightly off-guard by socking him right in the face. He tumbled in the air for a moment and caught himself before he hit the cabinets across the kitchen. He rubbed a bit at his cheek, the smile having never departed from his face. "Thanks, Filia. You have no idea how much I needed that. It's a wonder I didn't come to visit you sooner."

Frusterated that she hadn't managed to upset her mortal enemy, she turned her back on him and began placing her now clean tea set into it's proper place on the counter. Xelloss watched as she did so from his perch in the air, still smiling happily. Filia was very much aware of his continued presence and soon she could take it no longer. In a flash she stood before him. "What the hell are you doing, contaminating my home with your...your filth!" she exclaimed, and Xelloss recoiled slightly, amused by her outburst. He lifted a finger.

"That..."

"Is a secret. Yes! I know! That's why I want you out of my house! OUT! I've lived happily for the past two centuries without your meddling and your secrets and the problems you single-handedly create. I will continue to live happily for many more centuries to come. I do NOT want to see you. Ever. I do not need a disgusting monster hanging about my home! LEAVE!"

Xelloss's expression turned to one of thoughtfulness. "Yes," he murmered as his face turned to the ceiling. It HAS been centuries, hasn't it? I always manage to loose track of time somehow..." Then his entire attitude shifted and he looked at her, his amethyist eyes open and glinting. Those eyes, Filia thought, taking a step back from the shocking stare. Those frightening eyes... "You're lying," he stated plainly, his words filled with a sort of malice.

"WHAT!?" she yelled, fury replacing her fear.

"You. Are. Lying," he said, smirking wickedly.

Filia shuddered with rage. "I am most certainly not lying. I want you out of here. Forever!"

Xelloss's gaze did not waver. "That much is perfectly clear," he said calmly. "However..." he paused and narrowed his eyes accusingly. "You are not happy. And you haven't been for a long time, have you, Filia?" It was more of a statement than a question, and though Filia knew it would do no good to deny it, she tried to anyway.

"What would you know," she huffed, turning away to walk out of the room. But Xelloss would have none of that. He stepped to intercede her, and when she tried to walk around him he moved directly in front of her. She glared at him.

"My dear Filia," he said, "I am a mazoku. I know more about pain and suffering than you will ever know. And I must say," Filia noted with disdain that he had closed his eyes and was smiling at her once again, "that you are radiating negative energy! I'm basking in your dark aura!" He floated around the room as if on a high, and Filia restrained herself from basking him...right in his disgusting face. She was a bit more mature than she used to be, and she knew that this garbage pile of a creature was not worth the risk of destroyingf her home.

"I remember," he went on, lost in nostaliga, "when Hellmaster had me go on that mission to destroy Gaav. Meeting up with Lina Inverse was the best thing that ever happened to me. Hell breaking loose wherever she went. Bursts of anger and annoyance. All that negative energy, flowing through me at every second! I kissed her, you know," he said nonchalently, pausing in his story to see her reaction. "Twice."

Filia was so angry that one could almost steam rising from her ears. The very thought that he would degrade a treasured friend like that... "You...Why did you tell me that?" she demanded of him, and he grinned.

"Because I knew it would upset you, of course! You're so very wonderful when you're upset." She fumed as he went on, not wanting to hear more but having no way to remove him from her home without damaging some furniture, or worse, some vases. "I just couldn't help myself. Her anger had gotten the best of me, I suppose, and I felt the need to taste it from a...closer...range." He licked his lips, the memory still crisp in his mind. He glanced at Filia once again. She was getting angrier by the minute despite her attempts to calm her emotions. She wanted this monster to have no reason to stay here. He grinned at her, and the hair bristled on the back of her neck. She began to back away from him right when he began to move slowly towards her.

"The flavor was...exhilerating; the best I ever experienced," he said, his eyes opening and fixing themselves on Filia. "That is, until I met you, dragon dear." She gasped as she backed into a counter, unable to move any farther away from him. His eyes locked on hers with an almost hypnotic quality to his gaze, and she found herself unable to move for all she was struggling. "You, Filia, are the sweetest creature I have ever had the pleasure to taste." His eyes closed, breaking his hypnotic stare, but he moved so quickly that before Filia could react she had to squeek out a wimper of pain. Xelloss had bitten her ear lobe. Hard.

Her senses returned. Her anger flared. With a swift motion she had the mace that was normally strapped to her leg in her hand. "HYAAAAA!" she screamed as she swung her weapon and bashed the intruding mazoku in his side, causing him to crash into the opposite wall near the entrance to the dining room. He lay slumped against the wall for a moment, head hanging down. Filia was closing in for another blow when he rose his head and again caught her eyes with his own, victorious, purple ones. He licked a drop of dragon's blood from his lip and smiled.

"That was well worth it," he said; then he disappeared. And not a moment too soon, for Val ran into the room.

"Filia! What's wrong? I heard you scream and I got here as quickly as I could..." He saw Filia staring at the wall where Xelloss had been, breathing heavily and looking mighty pissed. He reached out and touched her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

The golden dragon turned, and upon seeing Val's concerned and worried expression, she immediately felt foolish. "It...it was a rat," she said, flushing slightly. Val's eyes narrowed slightly; he didn't believe her.

"A...rat." he stated flatly, lowering his arm. "Then how did it get your ear?"

Filia touched her ear, suddenly aware of the hot blood dripping down her neck. "It was a jumping rat," she said quickly. "It got away." She forced a disappointed look onto her face, as if she was thirsting to murder the creature who had damaged her precious ear. She WAS, of course, but she was more angry than disappointed that she had not done so. Thankfully, Val only laughed when he saw her expression and led her away from the scene of the crime.

"That's my Filia," he chuckled. "Always ready for a fight!" He gently pushed Filia towards the washroom. "Go ahead and clean yourself up; I'll look around for the rodent." She smiled and nodded, and then reached the washroom. She cupped her hands into a small fountain and splashed the cool, clear water on her ear, washing away the blood and subsiding the throbbing she had only just begun to feel. She hated to lie to Val like that, but how could she tell him that a monster had come here to feed because it found her energy to be a delicacy? She could not, of course - then she would have to explain her depression. She knew she had to find a way to make herself happy so Xelloss would never come to bother her - no, them - again. Either make herself happy...or forget her pain.

Meanwhile, Val was back in the kitchen, searching for Filia's "attacker". His nose wrinkled as he ran a hand through his bright green hair. Something had been in here with her. He could smell it throughout the room, though he couldn't quite place the aroma. Oh yes, he smelled something...but it didn't smell like a rat.

(To be continued...)