Ooops... This is later than I wanted it to be... I blame an international flight and losing a day because of it :) The third chapter is almost written, though!
This chapter has triggers (rape, gore, killing, lemon-ish stuff etc). M for a reason. You've been warned...
Disclaimer: Hiro Mashima is the genius behind Fairy Tail, and the Pradesh family is Desna's creation (and I hope I'm doing them justice!). I can only take credit for my OC, Amalie.
Chapter Two. Lick.
A short car ride later, Arman was showing the two young women to the room they were sharing and instructed them to go to the kitchen as soon as they were settled for some afternoon tea. They'd found Mr Elan mixing some batter for a cake, and he'd wordlessly passed them the bowls after he'd poured the batter and placed the pans into the oven. Lucy hummed happily as she scraped the bowl, fighting Amalie's own spoon for it as they giggled. The Pradesh house truly felt like a home, and it was something she sorely missed. It sometimes got lonely living by herself, and she'd never had siblings or rally anyone around her own age growing up at the Heartfilia konzern.
"Cosplayer, this is Vander," Bickslow told her as he entered the kitchen, a man with shoulder length black hair and dark red eyes, with leather pants that were practically painted on, following him. "Oh man! I thought I was your favourite, Mr Elan!"
The blonde's eyes widened as she paused mid-lick of a wooden spoon covered in chocolate cake batter. Mavis, of all the times he could have walked in with yet another drop dead gorgeous sibling, and she was shovelling food into her face. She watched, mesmerised, as the red eyed man sauntered over to her.
"Don't mind me, gorgeous," Vander told her with a wink, reaching over and swiping some of the batter from her spoon with his finger. The blonde followed the digit as he slid it into his mouth and sucked it clean, blushing when he gave her a flirtatious smirk. If all the brothers were like this, Lucy was concerned her face would be a permanent shade of red by the end of the trip, and that she'd have no clean and dry panties left by the end of the day.
"You're still an outrageous flirt," Amalie laughed, sliding off the stool she was perched on. She was desperate for a swim in the Grass Sea, and her blonde companion seemed too distracted eye fucking the youngest Pradesh brother to go with her. She turned her attentions over to the older Pradesh brother, reaching out and grabbing his hand. "You coming, Bicks?"
"Just a second," Bickslow mumbled as he drew on his magic, watching as Vander's soul reached out to Lucy, and he realised that he'd never stood a chance with her. They'd had a flirtation and he definitely enjoyed her company, but they'd never gone any further than teasing over all the years they'd known one another. His younger brother, however, clearly needed her more than he was probably even aware of. When they were younger, Van's soul had been blindingly bright but his soul had been darkening over the years, probably due to the work he was doing for the Steel Council. It was already starting to look brighter, the same as Amalie's always did, with just with a tiny bit of exposure to the blonde. He let Amalie tow him out of the kitchen, making a mental note to keep an eye on it while they were here.
"So, Vander, was it?" Lucy asked, trying to sound nonchalant. "Where do you fit in here?"
"I'm the badass of this family," he told her with a conspiratorial wink. "If you want to have fun, I'm your guy."
The blonde giggled. "Oh, really? Well, I am in a guild with Bicks so I have pretty high expectation of fun!"
You need to go. Now! His older brother, Kaleb's, voice in Vander's mind was urgent and more frantic than the Shadowquip mage could ever remember hearing him. Take Amalie. She knows what's going on.
"Sorry, beautiful, but I have to go," Vander told Lucy, giving her a forlorn look and pulling her close so he could press a lingering kiss to her sweet full lips. Her eyes widen delightfully in surprise, stunned by his actions.
"I'll see you later," he promised with a smirk before he released her and leapt into action.
Amalie barely had time to register what was going on before Vander materialised and pulled her with him into the voids.
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Amalie doubled over, bracing herself against her knees as she gagged in what appeared to be a filthy back alley, exactly where she didn't know. Sure, she'd travelled with Vander through the voids before on jobs, but only for brief periods and she'd always had a chance to prepare herself for the smothering cold and the voices beforehand. Gods, the voices were the worst - they begged her to open her eyes, to save them, and they sounded so similar to her loved ones. She'd just barely managed to cling to the Shadowquip mage as it felt like their icy fingers were tearing at her skin for what seemed like hours.
"Fuck you, Van," she finally managed to gasp. She silently thanked the gods that she'd actually had a mind to put clothes into her Requip storage since she was still in the damp bikini she'd been wearing when he'd taken her. She had no weapons, though, because her Requip skills weren't strong enough for carry them for a long period of time. "What's up with the snatch and go?"
"Kaleb thinks he's found Zen," Vander told her grimly. It had been sheer luck on the Mindbender's part; he'd been visiting a guild in Bellum and caught the magical signature during training one morning. He'd monitored it ever since and when it had flickered, he'd panicked, not willing to lose it again. "At a gladiator stadium in Pergrande."
There had been a plan to investigate it before acting - it was the whole reason the Change mage had been engaged by Arman. The two assassins were supposed to go and do recon work first, and plan everything out beforehand, but it looked like they were going in blind.
"As in the Zen that everyone thinks is dead Zen?" the pinkette asked, eyes widening slightly when the dark haired mage nodded. She opened her magical storage and pulling out a pair of black leggings, black long sleeved shirt and a pair of soft knee high leather boots. She quickly got dressed and pulled her pink hair up into a high bun. "You'll need to make me some weapons. I have nothing."
Vander had intimate knowledge of all the weapons she liked; this wasn't their first rodeo, and it probably wouldn't be the last. He set to work creating a black bow and half a dozen variously sized daggers out of his shadows that were identical in size and weight to what she usually used, before also handing her a quiver full of sleek black arrows. As an afterthought, he also created a hooded cape. Pergrande was a disgustingly patriarchal kingdom, and women didn't have any rights so it wouldn't do if she was noticed or recognised. "Dad said you know the layout of this shit hole. We're a couple blocks away."
"I know of it. Fucking Karadin made us watch a few of those shit shows when I was younger," Amalie clarified with a roll of her eyes before pulling the hood over her face. She remembered those matches well, for all the worst reasons. Her own kingdom had similar stadiums, but the men and women there had trained their whole lives for it and were voluntary competitors. They made money, rarely died, and also fought in the Queen's army.
Those who had fought in Pergrande stadiums, especially at Skys Reach, were nothing more than underfed slaves being raped and slaughtered by half crazed bigger slaves, and the occasional monster, for entertainment.
Vander led the way as they kept to the shadows and rooftops, shifting them both into his shadows to get inside the stadium before pausing to let the Change mage take the lead. He watched as she sank to a knee and pressed he hand to the stone floor. He wasn't a hundred percent sure exactly how her magic worked to track things, but knew enough that she could trace objects that were touching. There was a surge of magic and he had to hurry to catch her as she raced forward. They navigated the hallways, only pausing when they heard shouting ahead.
The pinkette slunk back, wordlessly letting the Shadowquip take the lead again. He slunk off into his shadows, reappearing seconds later holding 4 fingers up and indicating the hallway straight ahead before holding up two fingers and indicating left. Amalie nodded, unsheathing the daggers on her forearms.
They moved forward as one, silently slitting the throats of the four guards in the hallway before they even knew the assassins were there. The Shadowquip mage disposed of the bodies into the Voids and nodded at Amalie.
She slunk into the room to the left, apparently an observation room, and was confronted by the back of the very naked king, who was too busy watching whatever spectacle was going on through the window and stroking his dick to notice Vander grabbing the guard that stood right beside him and disappearing.
The blade of her dagger pressing into his throat hard enough to drag blood finally got his attention but didn't stop him from playing with himself.
"My mother sends her love," Amalie crooned into his ear, feeling Karadin's whole body stiffen when he recognised her voice and his precarious situation, as the other knife slid like butter through his back, between the vertebrae, and severed his spinal cord. Arman had been very specific in his orders not to kill the King, but he'd said nothing about paralysing the sick fucker. She released him and he dropped to the ground, finally releasing the hold he had on his cock, and she turned her attention to the room beyond the window as she wiped the king's blood off on her leggings.
A tall golden skinned man stood in the centre of the room next to a marble slab, magic draining manacles adorning his throat, wrists and ankles. The most striking thing about him was the pair of large black wings that sprouted from his back.
"I think maybe it's best you go in there," Van suggested, reappearing at her side and ignoring the man swearing at their feet as he tried to drag himself away. He wasn't happy about having to make the pinkette deal with it, but from what he could see through the blood splattered window his older brother was drugged to the eyeballs and had probably just been raped by the King of Pergrande. It wouldn't be wise for a strange male to enter the room, lest he be dispatched like the others. "I can't take him through the Voids in magic cancelling cuffs. It'll fuck with my magic. I'll take the pervert back to Bosco and meet you at the sky port in Sin."
"Gee, thanks," Amalie snarled at him. Sin was going to be at least 2 days walk unless she could acquire a few horses. She accepted his authority, though. This was a job ordered by his father, so he got to take the lead on it. "Leave me with the crazy one."
"Maybe lose the weapons..." was Vander's final suggestion as he grabbed Karadin by one of his now useless feet, and they both disappeared into the Voids.