A/N: Mmmmmm, chocolate chips are gooooooooooood.
"Visualize your mind as a partly opened door, this door determines both how well you are able to pick up on the information flow from other doors, as well as how suceptable your own information is to leaving your door. There are three types of these doors, the first is what you have, a door that can open you up to others, and allow you to enter others. The second is one that is only open for information to go in, and the third is what most all humans have, a door that only allows others to enter, but not you to go into others.
"It is much easier to close and reopen the door than it is to learn how to open it wider. Now, mind this metaphor isn't fool proof, it merely helps to have a foundation of understanding in what you are trying to do. These doors aren't exactly doors, nor are they quite like portals. In fact it is quite hard to accurately describe them in physical terms. But what you want to find is that which allows your mind to be access as well as what allows you to access others.
"This sort of meditation is very hard, but all ancient magics are quite difficult to use, as you already know. It will take you some time to master, took me the majority of a year, but I was much younger and inexperienced at the time. You, on the other hand, probably won't have that much trouble."
"So what do I do?" Raven asked.
"Close your eyes and first empty your mind. Just think of nothing, it's different from your version, though, because you don't have to release all of your emotions, you just need to think of nothing for a moment and relax your body." He explained. "Now, this chant will help you to find your 'door', think of the words and the magic in them, that's about all I can tell you." He answered. "Let's try it, Expositus Me—"
"Hey RAAAAAVEEEEEEN!!!" A voice called from the door. It felt like a hammer had suddenly slammed itself down upon them, breaking both the mood of meditation, and their concentration.
"Beast Boy, I, am, busy." Raven hissed.
"Well, I was wondering, could you pleeeeeeease watch the movie with us?!?!?!" Beast Boy exclaimed.
"Are you still trying to get us to watch that thing?" Raven asked, looking ticked.
"Well, yeah, we're not gonna watch it unless there's someone else with us!" Cyborg's voice called. "It's boring then!"
Raven sighed, "Alright, alright, I'll watch it with you, but not right now, okay? Let's do it tomorrow." She told them.
"Yeah!!! You won't be sorry Rae!" Cyborg called.
"Come on, lets go play some more Stink Ball to celebrate!" BB's distant voice was saying.
"Well, that takes care of them." Raven said.
"Are you really going to watch their movie?" Rorek questioned.
"I don't have a choice now." She sighed.
"In that case I suppose I'll go with you, so you don't have to suffer alone." He said.
"Misery does love company."
Rorek laughed, "That's a good one, did you just make that up?" he asked.
"No, it's an old figure of speech that's been around for a long time." She answered.
"I can see why." He chuckled. "Shall we continue then?" He asked. She nodded and them closed her eyes again. "Now, repeat after me. Expositus Meus Perspicientia Mentis." He said
"Expositus Meus Perspicientia Mentis."
"Arcanus Meus Perspicienta Mentis."
"Arcanus Meus Perspicienta Mentis." She repeated.
"Right, just repeat those two several times to memorize them. Expositus Meus Perspicientia Mentis, Arcanus Meus Perspicienta Mentis." He told her.
She repeated it several times before the words became natural, and even then she had to concentrate on remembering all of it. It helped that only the first word was different in the two parts of the chant. But when she could remember it correctly, she started to realize that she was becoming aware of her own mind and, after about an hour of this, her 'door' as well. She felt it, felt the connection she had with other minds, the two-way track that she had obtained, which gave her her empathy and Malchior a window into her mind through her power. If she could close it, if she could control when it was opened, and when it was closed...
"Alright, Raven, sorry to interrupt but I want to try something else." Rorek's voice came. Raven opened her eyes and nodded. "I want you to focus your empathy on me, and in doing so, try to figure out how I 'open and close' my mind to you." He told her.
"Alright." She said, she then focused on Rorek. At first she couldn't feel anything from him, it was as if he were an emotionless shell of a man, mindless almost. And then she felt a sort of calm, meditative feeling from him, as if she had suddenly broken through a barrier. She focused on his emotions, but before she could figure out what he was thinking it closed again.
"Now, notice that I am able to sense your power taking in the information flowing from the opening of my mind, I can tell what you have been told by it. This is extremely useful if you come across a powerful psychic, you'll be able to keep what you don't want known inside of you, and will be able to control what they see and know of you. It isn't a crucial talent, but I feel it might come in handy. However since you are the only empathic one available to us, we won't be able to truly train in this part of it. My teacher was a psychic, you see, so he was able to figure out where I stood in my studies and how well I could block his external force. But maybe all I have to do is teach you how to do it." He said.
"First, though, I think we should focus on the present task." Raven suggested.
"Right." He said with a chuckle. He then started to look around her room, as if lost in thought. He seemed to study her huge book collection (which didn't include Malchior's books at the present moment), her wall ornaments, the statues and tapestries. She had a lot of stuff, but it was all put away accordingly, adding to the décor of her room. Not even the hangman tapestry stood out very much, though his eyes did linger upon it some. "Raven?" he suddenly spoke. Raven was suddenly jarred awake it seemed, had she been staring at him?
"Yes?" She asked, swiftly regaining any composure she may have lost.
Rorek turned his eyes back to her and they locked together. Raven was suddenly conscious of the fact that they were sitting, cross-legged, and facing each other on her bed. "Do you...do you trust me?" He asked.
It seemed like such an odd question that Raven just stared at him for a moment, blinking. That was a good question, but, she wouldn't have let him into her room if she didn't, she wouldn't be allowing him enter such a private domain, nor would she have thought to ask him to teach her how to close off her mind if she didn't trust him. "Mostly. Why?" She questioned.
"'Mostly'?" Rorek averted his eyes again.
"I don't trust anyone, or anything completely. It's dangerous." She answered. Or rather, she didn't anymore...or did she? She felt like she could trust most of the Titans with her life, she felt she could trust Rorek with her life...but that was about it.
"Hnhn, I suppose that is wise, but how can one live if one cannot give their trust fully to anyone? If only so that they might have an anchor when everything else crumbles." He said.
"I can trust the Titans with my life, if that's what you mean." She told him.
"Can you trust me, Raven?" He asked, still not looking at her.
"Why? Are you hiding something?" Raven asked him.
"No, Raven," He turned his eyes back and locked with hers. Raven nearly gasped, his eyes, they held so much emotion, emotion that she did not dare interpret. But suddenly he took her hands in his own and leaned forward, as if to push the emotion in his eyes into her. She didn't lean back to compensate, in fact it felt as if her body wanted to lean in along with him, she wanted to be near him, wanted him to hold her, to hold her closer than Malchior's paper body ever could. She wanted to trust him...trust him with her heart.
But she couldn't. Not again, never again.
So why couldn't she tell her body that? Well, it wasn't like she was really leaning in, but the fact that she wasn't moving away was probably encouraging him.
He'd pulled down his scarf with one hand and then used it to balance himself as he leaned closer to her, his eyes, and hers, were slowly closing so that they were only half opened.
Their lips touched just enough that she could feel it, and then he pulled away, as if suddenly realizing what he had just been doing. "S-s-sorry, I, I forgot myself. Please forgive me I, I was...I don't know, I," He spluttered. Raven saw his cheeks were flushed, as her cheeks were flushed, just before he pulled his scarf back up over his mouth and nose. He was avoiding looking at her, and wasn't even on the bed anymore.
"Er...yeah, well, it's not like I...uh...resisted..." She said, trying to make him feel better, but now her face was completely red.
"Um, tomorrow...er...somewhere else maybe..." He said, facing her, but still not looking at her.
"O-okay. Yeah..." She said. They both mumbled a 'later' and Rorek quickly vacated her room.
It had been nothing like Malchior's relentless invasion of her mouth, not hardly. It was gentle, almost not even there. But the fact that they had been that close...A shiver ran down Raven's spin as she hugged her pillow, biting her lip as she suppressed the rising emotion. He hardly touched her at all, all he had done was held her hand and barely grazed her lips with his own. He'd been so...gentle.
No, she couldn't, she couldn't. Raven got up off her bed and slapped her face a bit to straighten it out. What was she thinking?! It was dangerous letting her emotions get the better of her like that! She couldn't let it happen again. She checked the time and deduced that, if she took long enough, she could shower and get ready to go on to work.
"Hey," Raven looked up from her book and put it away so she could take care of the customer. "I'd like to—whoa." The guy's eyes widened when she looked at his face. Raven ignored it and took the item he wanted to buy.
"$4.75 is your total." She told him in her usual monotone. She put the book in a sack and waited for his money. She waited and he just stared at her, Raven frowned. "Ahem." She pointed to the electronic numbers on the total screen next to the computer.
"Oh! Uh, right..." He fumbled for his wallet and gave her a ten.
"$5.25 is your change, enjoy your book." She told him, holding out the sack.
"Uh...yeah..." He took it, "Hey, what's your name?" He asked her.
"Raven, why?" She questioned.
"Raven, I like that. Hey, why don't you give me a call sometime?" He asked, pulling out an already prepared slip of paper. "Ask for Terry." He said as she took it. "See ya."
Raven leered at the number and looked around. "Hey, Elsa?" She called. The girl was there in a moment, looking eager.
"It was the guy who just bought something, right? He's cute, what do you want me to do to him?" Elsa asked, taking the number.
"He says to ask for Terry when you call, and be creative. Just don't mention me in any way shape or form." She answered, picking up her book again.
It was a regular occurrence, having boys give her their number (Mostly because she refused to give them hers), or try and hit on her right at the desk. And this was the regular solution, Elsa. She was a happy, boy crazy goth who was excelled in the art of 'psyche' as she called it, because she loved to play mental games with people. Some, she reported, had actually thought they were going insane. She could do creepy, but only over the phone and in the darkness, and not for several hours a day constantly. She also had many different evil laughs that she had perfected, some, of which, actually sounded inhuman. It was obvious how she had gotten the job, but also apparent at why her employer wasn't exactly happy with her image. She only called a number once to avoid being sued or accused of harassment, so every new number she got from Raven was a special treat.
"Whoa, check, it, out." Elsa whispered. Raven wanted to roll her eyes, but she looked up anyways. And there was Rorek, browsing through the spell book aisle, fully armored, and getting a lot of female attention. In fact it looked like a girl from one of the café tables had been dared by her friends to go up and talk to him. Raven couldn't keep the smirk off her face as she watched the girl try and get his attention. "I wonder who he is." Else said, looking like she had been hit by one of Cupid's arrows.
"Why don't you just go up and ask him?" Raven asked, going back to her book.
"Why don't you?" Raven raised an eyebrow at her co-worker. "Oh come on Raven, you've turned down every single hot guy who's had the courage to come up and flirt with you, are you looking for a specific type? Because he looks like just about anyone's type." Elsa jerked her thumb towards Rorek, who was indeed engaging in conversation with the girl, and looking a little uncomfortable too. Poor guy, he was too polite to just say no.
"Elsa, some girls can't go a single night without thinking about guys, while others would prefer to focus their energy on other things." Raven said. Suddenly it seemed Rorek saw her out of the corner of his eye and looked at the counter towards her.
"Omigosh, he's looking this way! Quick, is my hair okay? What about my makeup!?" Elsa exclaimed.
"You look fine." Raven sighed, giving Rorek a slight wave of her hand (without Elsa seeing of course). He bid the girl (who looked extremely put out) a swift goodbye and hurried over to the counter, a book under his arm.
"D&$& it, why couldn't I be manning the register today." Elsa whispered, apparently thinking he was coming over to buy the book.
"Raven! There you are, I've been looking for you." He said when he got there. Elsa looked thunderstruck.
Raven smirked at the book under his arm, "Hn, sure you have."
"Ah, well, heheh. I might have been a little preoccupied by these books. The spells I've skimmed are fairly week and easily deflected, but new to me all the same." He said.
"You think they'd sell the real treasures to the public? Even if most people can't use them, they're still quite valuable." She said.
"I suppose you're right." He said.
"Raven, Raven!" Elsa hissed in her ear, jabbing her arm quite painfully.
"Oh, Rorek this is my co-worker Elsa, Elsa this is Rorek." Raven introduced. Elsa emerged into Rorek's view with her most seductive smile plastered on her face.
Which wasn't going to work well on Rorek. "A pleasure, Lady Elsa." He said, nodding his head in a slight bow.
"The pleasure's all mine." Elsa said in her deep voice. Raven had to look away in order to keep them from seeing her expression.
"So did Starfire show you where I work?" Raven asked.
"Well, yes, considering you forgot I asked to come with you today." He answered.
"Oh yeah, I did forget about that. Sorry, my mind was a little preoccupied." Raven said, though neither her face, nor voice, betrayed any hidden meaning.
Still, Rorek wasn't stupid. "Ahem, well, I'll just let you work then." He said. He was blushing under that scarf, she knew it. And only with extreme will power was she able to keep her blush down as well.
"Alright, out with it, Raven!" Elsa exclaimed when Rorek was once again out of earshot, "Where have you been hiding him, in your closet?!" She demanded.
"No, in my sock drawer." Raven said, going back to her book.
"Ha, ha, ha." Elsa sighed in frustration. "So, is he your boyfriend?" She asked.
"Elsa, I prefer to use my time and energy focusing on things more important than boys." Raven told her frankly.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, so are you two steady?" She asked again.
"We are not going out if that's what you mean." Raven answered.
"Okay, alright, we'll play it your way, do you like him?" She questioned.
"As a friend." She answered.
Elsa paused a moment, looking extremely irritated, "Raven, I'm about to scream at you, I really am. Superhero or no, you cannot have a good comic book, or movie, without some sort of romantic interest. Robin and Starfire would make a good couple, so he's out of the picture. I can not see you with Cyborg at all, and Beast Boy is just not your type. He is the best and only candidate for your love life." She said.
"Tell me, Elsa, do people sit at home and play match making games between us all? Or is it just you?" Raven asked with a slight vein pop. Who was she to decide that the other guys weren't compatible with her? Not that she had any romantic interests in them whatsoever, but still. It was the principal of the matter.
Elsa backed off at the tone of her voice and decided to occupy herself with the shelves and displays.
"So, how much money did you get?" Robin asked. Raven handed him her paycheck and his eyes went wide, "Whoa, this is a...book store, right?" He asked.
"More like a goth shop, it has a café and some witchcraft stuff in it. Sometimes there are items they've found and appraised that are very valuable and sell for a lot, so it's a pretty wealthy store." She answered him.
"I see. Er..." He looked over at the couch where Rorek was currently playing a video game with BB and Cyborg, and winning. It was Friday night, so everyone was staying up late tonight. "So, anything...uh, suspicious?" He asked, jerking his thumb towards the white head of hair that was Rorek.
"Not, really. No." She answered with consideration. "What do you think?" She asked.
"I think you should probably stay on guard, just for a little while longer." Robin said.
"DANG IT! HOW ARE YOU DO'N THAT MAN?!" Cyborg suddenly yelled. Raven and Robin looked over to see Rorek's car had beaten the other two, by quite a bit.
"I suppose it must come naturally, though I have only recently learned the ways of these 'controllers'." Rorek answered good-naturedly.
"Beast Boy and Cyborg seem to like him well enough." Raven said with a slight smirk.
"They like anyone who's good at video games." Robin responded.
This was bad, this was very bad. How could she have miscalculated this?! Wasn't the potion suppose to give her dreamless sleep? Raven leered around the dark expanse, she knew Malchior was here, where else could he be? He was there, watching her, laughing at her, she knew it. Come on, wake up! She told herself, trying to open up her eyes in the real world, it wasn't working very well.
Something appeared to move, instantly Raven crouched, her hands ready with a spell if she saw any color of Malchior's. But that wasn't it, the movement she had seen wasn't movement at all, but a change in surrounding. As the darkness seemed to give way to solid walls and ground, Raven found herself in a luxurious bedchamber of medieval design. Which did not bode well.
It was dark still, the walls seemed to have been made from ebony, the only light source was many candles decorating the interior. Raven did not particularly like the fact that she was standing right in front of a two-person couch called a love seat, nor that her costume had suddenly become a black, low-cut, form fitting dress of regal design. He was toying with her, she knew it, and if his sole intention was to tick her off, he was doing a professional job of it. Unfortunately she had the feeling that he had more on his mind than taunting her.
"Show yourself Malchior." Raven said, facing the room with her back to the fireplace. She had a spell ready and waiting for him to rear his despicable face.
"Miss me, Love?" A pair of powerful arms grabbed her wrists from behind and held them as they wrapped themselves around her form, practically sapping her of the magic she had prepared. Malchior pressed her back against his chest as he bent down, his lips finding her exposed neck.
"Get your hands off me!" She hissed, her eyes glowed white and she tried to jerk her hands out of his grip while turning at the same time, hoping to dig her shoulder and elbow into his chest. Which was forebodingly possible considering he wasn't wearing his chest plate.
He let her go, he let her go, causing her to stumble as she sped to get as far away from him as she could without going anywhere near the bed. He smirked at her, his eyes dancing with amusement. "You tried to escape me with a dreamless potion, didn't you?" He asked. Raven glared at him fiercely, but it only seemed to make him laugh. "Sweet Raven, even you should have realized that this is more than a mere dream. I have pulled your mind into the pages of my book, and here, I control all." He said.
"Azrath, Metriom, Zyn—" She began, summoning up her spell again, but the next instant he was there. He grabbed her and spun her around, holding her, once again, in a bent over position.
Malchior nuzzled her neck, and then whispered into her ear, "You still don't get it, do you? This is my world, I make the rules here. Your magic is useless, Raven, and so is your struggling. So why don't you just give it up and surrender yourself to me? Hm? Things will go so much easier for the both of us if you did."
"Never!" She hissed. She brought her fist up and struck his face. It didn't do much, her hand felt like she'd just punched a statue, but his grip was released enough that she could slip through his arms and fly away from him. "Azrath, Metriom, Zynthos!" She exclaimed, using the time she had stolen for the spell. The fire in the fireplace turned black and a beam of it shot at Malchior, who dodged just in time to avoid it.
Malchior shot at her, but she was wise to this trick by now, she flew to the side to avoid him and summoned a charge of black lightning to attack him. He dodged it again, but before he had time to fly after her she shot another beam at him. She hit him, causing him to get knocked out of the air and landing in a rather painful position on the love seat. He got up and faced her.
She wished with all her heart that he had been glaring at her instead.
The look on his face wasn't frustrated or angry, quite the contrary, it was a look of lecherous enjoyment and lust. It made her want to throw up.
He came after her again, and she dodged, but he had also grown wise to her tricks and anticipated which way she would try to escape. He wrapped his arms around her waist, practically snatching her out of he air, and pulled her to the floor, face first, and in a position where it was hard to struggle.
"My Sweet Raven, I really do love you, and I want to be with you. I know you still love me, you can't just let go of what once was, so why do you continue to fight me?" He whispered.
"How do you expect me to believe that lie?!" She shouted, turning her head so that she could glare angrily at him if nothing else. "Do you remember what conspired when you were released?! I do, I remember all of it. 'Oh dear, you're not going to cry again are you? This is the truth, accept it. I got what I wanted, and I don't need you anymore.' You had planed on the dark magic you taught me to kill me off didn't you?! And when it didn't you decided to attack me." She hissed.
"Oh Raven, you can be so gullible at times." He said caressing her cheek. She jerked her face out of his hand, that much she could do. "I was only trying to scare you a bit. I made sure you would be able to handle the dark magic spells before I taught them to you. You are a very powerful sorceress, though I didn't expect you to be able to use that curse so efficiently." He ran his hand through her hair and placed a kiss on her neck.
"Liar," She hissed, "All you want from me is to be free! Well I'm not going to, so just give it up!" She told him.
"Raven," The pressure against her back was released just enough for Malchior to turn her around and face him, "If I wanted you to free me, do you really think I would be making such advances upon you? I know how you operate, you like things to be gradual and smooth. The only reason I stole your heart so swiftly was because you were desperate for someone like you, and I am like you Raven. Only a dragon in human skin. No, all I want from you now is you." He bent down and, though she tried to get away, captured her lips with his, kissing her fiercely, hungrily.
She pushed against him, fighting to get away. Biting down on his tongue, his lip, anything to hurt him, get him away from her. She didn't want to believe it, it couldn't be real, he didn't love her! So why was there so much emotion in his kiss? It wasn't real, it couldn't be real.
She gasped when he finally stopped mashing his lips to hers, but then he started kissing and licking her chin, on down her neck and collarbone. "Even if you did love me, what makes you so sure I still love you back?!" She demanded, trying to get him to stop any way she could.
"You can keep on telling yourself that I'm lying, and you can tell yourself that you don't love me and never did, but the fact remains that you can't forget about it, you can't release my presence from your heart." He said, nuzzling her neck.
"I don't love you! I hate you! So get off of me or I swear I will take your book and rip it to pieces!" She declared.
Malchior laughed, he laughed at her! "You couldn't, and you wouldn't. Face it, Raven, you still love me." He said. His breath tickled her ear.
Something was beginning to well up inside of her, something dangerous and familiar, she couldn't control it, her wall was beginning to crumble around her. "No! I don't love you! And I never will again!!! I hate you and I love Rorek!" She blurted. Red fire was beginning to cloud her vision as it raged inside of her.
Malchior stopped, was he angry? She could hardly tell, she was still struggling with all her might to get him off her. "Oh you do, do you?" He hissed in a voice she had never heard before. He grabbed her in his arms, and the next moment was laying down on top of her again, only this time on something soft. The bed?
Her ears were ringing, she couldn't understand what he was saying, or what he was doing. All she knew was that she was continuing to struggle, and the fire in her eyes was nearly blinding her.
Then something snapped, her ears stopped ringing, her eyes stopped burning, the fire was inside of her, flowing through her veins. She could see clearly, her body felt infused with more strength than she had ever known. Malchior was yelling at her angrily, shaking her as if to force her to listen to him. But his words didn't matter, she didn't care what he said, all she wanted was...his blood.
He stopped yelling when she grabbed him, his face twisted in surprise when she rearranged their positions so that she was on top of him. She pulled down his collar to expose his neck and instantly sank her teeth into it. Now the rolls were reversed, only she had him bound, sewing a spell into his blood while she drank it. He wanted to struggle, to cry out in pain, but he was paralyzed.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" She screamed, she couldn't help it, it had been too much, far too much. Thankfully she had screamed into her pillows, but soon was on the floor, spitting out blood, coughing and reeling as she threw up on her own floor.
"Raven?! RAVEN!" Rorek's fist pounded on her door, "Are you alright? Raven can you hear me?" He called.
She couldn't answer, if she spoke her voice would betray too much. So she stood there, shaking, staring at the blood she had thrown up. Rorek phased through the door and ran to her. "Raven? Raven what's wrong? I heard you scream and..." He had knelt down beside her, and she threw her arms around him, not caring what he might think. She didn't cry, she couldn't cry, she just clung to him like an anchor, shaking. And he held her, shielding her in his arms so that she might be safe.
It was a while before she could calm herself down, before she had regained control over herself. She raised herself a bit to face him. Rorek kissed her on the forehead like a child, and that was when she saw it.
He was bleeding, from two holes in his neck.
A/N: MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! CLIFHANGER!!!! BASK IN MY EVILNESS PUNY MORTALS!
Ahem, anyway, that was probably worthy of a pg-13 rating, dontcha think? Well, maybe, maybe not. But I'm gonna keep the rating sos not to invoke the wrath of yonder rate-watchers on Besides, (Checks rough draft) there seems to be a few more, ahem, questionably kid-safe stuff coming up in later chapters. And no, I don't mean risqué type stuff, I mean gore and violent type stuff. But I'll stop right there, don't wanna give anything away!
PS: (Clears throat) This dragon spirit would like it to be known to a one, (looks at clipboard) Dr. Evens, that she has no intention, and never did, of taking over the world. She would also like it to be known that she is too hot and sexy to be slain, again. She'd also like him to know that the last immortal to slay her, and the one before that, and the one before that, were all smited into oblivion, which is not a very pleasant place to stay for eternity, by the dragon god Ryuujin-sama. She would like it to be known, also, to anyone else with the intention of slaying her, that Ryuujin-sama is very protective of his cute little dragon and will only place her spirit in another teenage girl. If this happens, then she will no longer have her files on Spellbinder and will not be able to write more upon it. Which will be a very unhappy thing as she has left it at a cliffhanger. Thank you. So thpthpthpthpthpthp :P!!!