Blix:Wow, another chappy! Thanks to Gravity Of Love for helping me write. Songs like that always make me want to write.
Nana:It's a good song by enigma. Go download it everyone, or buy it, or whatever.
Dressi:Everyone, this is an odd chappy, but everything will make sense as the story goes on
Blix:Sere's cruelty flashes a bit in this one guys. Still no real romance though
Nana:Say at the end of the chapter if you want a lil side story about Sere and Tweaks walk in the garden! If you do, say what type!
Dressi:Yeah, the characters inspiring Tweak and Sere hate each other right now lol
Authors Notes:Okay,so heres what happens to Pyro. Sere's cruelty flashes. Life begins to suck. Blah blah.
Ephona,thank you so much for the continued reviews, they make me really happy, you have no idea how much it keeps me wanting to write.HugglesThank you thank you thank you!
Ebony Thunder
Chapter 7-Frozen Emotion
Tweak awoke the next afternoon feeling like he had a hangover. He groaned and buried his head deeper into the pillows and pulled the warm body next to his closer. He smelled jasmine, like the incense his mother used to burn. He felt the body cuddle deeper into his embrace and wondered who he knew that smelled like jasmine.
Then his eyes flew open and he couldn't see past the mass of black hair. He moved his head slightly and his eyes widened when he saw that he and Sere were in the same bed, plastered together so that a ruler couldn't fit between them!
Tweak very carefully removed his arm from around her waist and quickly moved off of the bed. He walked and sat in a chair, watching Sere sleep peacefully.
Seeing nothing amiss, he retreated into his thoughts and let his mind wander. He thought of Lorn's praise and felt more than a little pride, not to mention he was a Black jeweled Warlord Prince.
Then his mind wandered to Pyro.
What had Lorn done to the scumbag? Had he shattered his inner web and thrown him into the Twisted Kingdom? Tweak almost hoped not because he wanted a chance to beat the hell out of the bastard.
The door suddenly opened and Daemonar popped his head in. He looked at his sleeping cousin,then made a hand gesture for Tweak to follow him.
Tweak obeyed and they closed the door behind him. They walked down the hallway and through the corridor in silence. It was as they walked down the stairs that Daemonar finally spoke.
"Thank you. Grandfather told me what you did in the abyss," He said softly. Tweak thought he heard a slight sob in the tone.
"She's my Queen, it's my duty to do anything, sacrifice anything, to keep her safe," Tweak told him as they arrived at the bottom of the stairs. When they did, Daemonar turned and looked at him.
"You have a strong grasp of what it is to be Blood, to be a Warlord Prince. Welcome Brother," Daemonar said as he embraced Tweak.
And for the first time since before his mother died, Tweak felt like he was truly in the right place, and that he was beginning something right..
Sere awoke to her mother's gentle prodding, and she felt the magic that had covered her in a protective embrace as she had slept.
"Finally awake I see?" Jaenelle said as she handed her daughter a glass filled with shimmering liquid.
Sere downed the sweet tasting fluid and sighed in relief as her abused throat began to feel less sore. Jaenelle smiled slightly when she noticed her daughter looked the same pretty much. The mismatched eyes didn't carry the haunted look Jaenelle had so often seen in the mirror back before she had let the memories go.
"Where's Tweak?" Sere asked suddenly, as if frightened that he had died. Jaenelle sighed, knowing there was good reason for Sere to be afraid. Tweak could have easily broken his new jewels by trying to save her.
"He's fine. Right now he's tucking into a large lunch while listening to the males bicker amongst themselves. It will be interesting considering he's stronger than a couple of the males, not to mention he ranks equal to your father and grandfather," Jaenelle giggled. Sere smirked when she realized that her father was finally going to have to contend with a male just like him. Then she almost gasped when she realized he would probably kill Tweak in ten minutes.
She almost flew through the corridors and down the stairs. She ran into the informal dining room and saw Saetan, Lucivar, Daemon, Daemonar and Tweak all chatting amiably as Tweak wolfed down the plate of food. She almost fell over with relief when Tweak spotted her and growled after swallowing the mouthful of food.
"You're supposed to still be in bed, resting," His voice rumbled. Sere groaned and went and sat between her father and grandfather. She was so busy trying to ignore Tweak that she didn't notice the males of her family looking on with intense interest.
"Sere," Tweak growled. She blithely ignored the newly jeweled Warlord Prince and began to butter a piece of toast she grabbed from a platter.
Tweak felt his temper rising,then leashed it. He knew that keeping safe came before serving. In his heart her understood the distinction suddenly. Witches were proud, strong women. They would not admit any weakness.
He wanted to groan when he realized he was serving someone who was probably going to fight him and his safety precautions like a cat getting dipped.
He leashed his temper and his anxiety. He could think if he didn't let himself become angry or emotional. He could deal with the problem at hand if he didn't let himself become tangled in his feelings.
"Fine my Lady. You may continue to ignore precautions made for your safety and health. But each minute you stay down here, I will let another one of the kindred know you are not taking care of yourself. And each one will come here and find out why you are placed on this restriction in the first place," Tweak told her,his voice laced with ice.
Sere turned several shades paler than she already was and whispered one word. "Bastard." Then she fled the room and Tweak knew she was running for Draca. He felt her emotions down to his core, and silently called himself the very thing she had several times.
He stopped when he noticed all the men at the table staring at him with open jaws.
"What?" He asked defensively, his suppressed emotions came boiling to the surface and made themselves known in his voice.
"You've gotten the hang of serving rather quickly," Saetan said calmly, when his mind was telling him Tweak was the mirror of himself and Daemon. "Safety comes before obeying," Saetan told him simply.
Tweak merely shrugged wearily.
"I know she doesn't want anyone to know that she had a moment of weakness. I know that she doesn't want the kindred tearing Pyro apart. She knew he was a dreamer, but I think everything he'd been through in his life warped and twisted him to the point where he let hope go and when he saw the dream, he treated it as he has always been treated," Tweak told them quietly.
"By raping her?" Daemon roared.
"That's what he knows,all he knows. I never thought he'd end up just like his father okay? His father claimed he loved him and beat and raped him for the first fifteen years of his life until Pyro finally ran. I thought he was strong enough to break the cycle," Tweak suddenly sobbed. He had tried so hard to keep his anger, knowing it was the only thing blocking him from seeing the loss of someone he had tried to help, someone he had tried to save.
He had failed. He had failed Pyro, he had failed Sere. He had failed all the people Pyro had hurt that he didn't know about.
"Old son, I know it's hard to accept someone you love can do horrible things. But all the Blood have the characteristic. Especially a Warlord Prince or a Queen. If one of the Blood is cruel to another, the one hurt can become the exact same thing,or worse," Lucivar said with a flinch, remembering what he had seen in a queen's bedroom so long ago. He remembered the shadows of his son and wife that had been created just to convince the two bitches that Daemon was on their side.
Daemon was still cruel when he had to be.Saetan was cruel when he had to be. It was part of being Blood. But Lucivar would never compare to those two's ability to make it last.
"I failed Sere though,because I wasn't there in time," Tweak whispered brokenly. "I don't deserve to be in her court."
"No, you didn't fail her by being too late, no matter how much you think you did. We cannot change what happens. But you saved her Tweak. You went into the Abyss and brought her back to us," Daemon told him. Tweak nodded. He would carry the scars of the past few days forever.
"What's going to happen to Pyro?" Tweak asked after a few moments of silence. Saetan sighed.
"Lorn took him into the Abyss and showed him everything in his past. Until now I didn't know how that was so bad, but now I see. Pyro is barely alive. Little by little the girls he hurt are taking his sanity, his energy, and his power. By midnight he will be nothing more than a demon dead husk of his former self," Saetan told Tweak, being blunt and honest. He didn't tell Tweak that Pyro had called out for someone to save him over and over, or that broken, mad sobs were interlaced with a little boy's voice crying out to his father to stop and that he was sorry.
Saetan knew it would make Tweak go mad himself, and Saetan would not risk the blame should Sere demand the life of the one who sent one of her court into the Twisted Kingdom.
And knowing the mindset she would force herself into to deal with the situation, he had no doubt she wouldn't hesitate to demand the full price of anyone.
Even her family.
Sere walked down the stairs, her face a cold mask of indifference. Only Tweak and her father saw the flashes of pain underneath the coldness her eyes held.
Her court and her family followed in the dim light of the torches. As they arrived at the bottom, Sere opened a door in the corridor and walked inside.
Only her court followed, as protocol dictated.
Daemonar and Tweak saw the young man curled into a tight little ball, sobbing brokenly. Sere's mask slipped for a moment,and she closed her eyes and almost sobbed. Then she clenched her eyelids together for mere seconds and when she opened them again, her cold mask was back in place.
Tweak shivered when he saw no trace of the Sere he knew in those eyes.
"Prince Pyro, you have been charged with attempted rape and assaulting one of my court," Her midnight, chilly voice was empty of everything.
"Kill me,please kill me Sere. Don't let him hurt me anymore," Pyro sobbed. Sere simply closed her eyes again, and told Tweak and Daemonar to leave the room. Tweak was about to protest when Daemonar dragged him out.
"She needs us gone so she can do this," Daemonar whispered after he had closed the door. Tweak nodded, understanding suddenly.
Suddenly the Keep shook violently and the door to the room Sere and Pyro were in shattered in a million pieces, each one covered with ice. Sere walked out of the room and passed everyone, and walked up the stairs. Tweak began walking towards the room and Daemon clamped a hand on his shoulder.
"You may not want to see," Daemon told him when he shrugged the hand off.
Tweak looked anyways, then rushed out of the room and choked holding the bile surging up his throat down.
He steadied himself, then closed the doors on his emotions. He couldn't fear Sere if he was going to serve her. He couldn't fear what she could do.
He made sure the door he had closed in his mind was locked tight, and then he looked at the room again.
Frozen pieces of what was once a human lay everywhere. Tweak noticed there was no one piece bigger than the two inch piece of a broken jewel he found. Drained of any trace of spirit or energy.
He walked out once more and looked Daemon straight in the eye.
"She did what she had to do," Tweak said as he walked past them. He didn't notice the worried glances everyone sent him as he walked away.
How much of a mirror of daemon would he be? And of Daemon's past self, who had possessed the ability to be infinitely cruel, or the healed Daemon who's emotions often stopped him from being as he used to be.
Everyone watched Sere that night, and they watched Tweak as well. Sere had not dropped the mask of cold indifference, and Tweak had kept his own emotions locked away even after he had come back down from his rooms.
"Sere, Titian is going back with you," Jaenelle told her daughter. Sere dropped her fork on her plate, stood up, and looked her mother square in the eyes.
"No."
"Yes, and you will not argue further," Jaenelle told her daughter. Sere smiled coldly, put her hands on the table, and a black ice began to spread. Everyone stood quickly and backed away from the piece of furniture rapidly covering itself in ice.
As Sere finished covering it in ice, a flash of gray energy appeared within the ice's depths,then one of red, then suddenly the surface of the ice was flashing with a tone of each jewel becoming a lightning bolt.
Tweak smiled at everyone else's fearful expressions. He knew that Sere was strong, and he knew she didn't want Titian with her for whatever reason. So until he found reason to defy his Queen's wishes, he would stand beside her.
He walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder.
"You've frightened everyone enough. Let's go for a walk," He told her. Sere nodded and suddenly a surge of dark power shattered the table.
The two Blood left the room without any obstacle.
"I'm not sure which scares me more. Her display of power to scare her own family, or his support of her," Jaenelle whispered.
"He has no allegiances except to her right now. He will do anything, sacrifice anything, to keep his Queen safe and happy. But at least he will keep her safe," Saetan told her.
"Was I like that when I began to serve?" Daemon asked hoarsely.
Lucivar looked at his brother and saw the shamed expression in the male's eyes.
"Yes," He answered honestly, almost against his will.
"What happens now?" Daemonar asked.
"They choose their paths on the tangled web," Saetan replied honestly.
Everyone shivered at the fear that laced his voice.
Blix:Everyone,tell me if you want me to write a lil side story one shot about the garden walk and what you want to see and Ill see if my muses and I can comply.
Nana:Please review so Blix will smile again
Dressi:Shes having boy trouble right now,so please review,itll make her happy