Romeo could feel energy pulsing through his veins- a welcome addition, considering the situation.

The intruder sneered, though Romeo could practically hear the hesitation in his face. "Big deal. So you've powered up a little."

"I'd actually rather say it's a lot." Romeo couldn't help but chuckle a little, glancing at his hands. Little sparks of electricity came popping off of his gray hands. "Certainly enough to do what I'm about to do."

"Oh? And what's that?"

Romeo almost beamed at that question. Really, he hadn't done this in a while.

Granted, he hadn't had the need to.

He clapped.

The sparks of energy collided with each other, creating tiny particles that started to vibrate, expand, connect to each other.

In the instant where it started forming, Romeo focused on connecting something. It was as if he was searching for a connection...

There was one, warm and friendly.

Two and three, floating a little just farther out of reach- slamming into each other like little bumper cars.

And the fourth, seething with rage and also a little bit of being a prat.

"What, you're just going to clap? That's so-"

Romeo clenched his fists, making the connections snap into focus.

There were four pops of light in the office- so bright that if Romeo's glowing red-and-gold eyes hadn't been able to shield the light, he would've had to squeeze his eyes shut, like the intruder. A moment later, the intruder was able to blink slightly light-stunned eyes open.

The October Children straightened up.

"What?" For the first time since this entire ordeal had started, Romeo felt (with a little flash of smug satisfaction) that the intruder looked afraid, off-guard, shocked. "But the October Children are- are in the North, we saw-"

The intruder cut off again.

Because now he'd taken them in again, fully.

Taken in charcoal-gray skin.

The glowing gold eyes with red scleras that stared blankly back at the intruder, with nothing but a readiness to attack him.

The faintly glowing smoke trails that connected to Romeo's heart.

Romeo's lips parted to show a smug grin. It was almost like he was baring his teeth at the intruder.

"Let's just say that a part of them agreed to join me here today."


Xara was twirling her champagne flute quietly when she noticed one of the October Children quietly approaching her.

She grunted and turned to glare at them- it was the smaller brown-haired member of the October Children. Aaron or something.

"What do you nee-?"

"Something's wrong with Romeo."

Ugh. Was he throwing a tantrum after the incident? She rolled her eyes to heaven and huffed as she turned to face him more. "Why? Has he contacted you?" she asked, drily.

"No. He just borrowed some of my soul out of the blue."

Xara's sarcastic response died on her tongue.

The way contracts worked, a contract would allow a demon lord to keep a heart as 'hostage', to avoid the half-demons running away. But that also granted access to their soul, if only partially.

To remove someone's soul entirely would be worse than killing them; so a lord could 'borrow' a small section of it to use in fights.

This entirely depended on the ability of the lord and the skill level, of course, which meant that if Xara were to borrow a bit from a contract soul, she would probably have a somewhat low level of control over it- that soul fragment would just meander about to do its own thing.

However, to borrow the soul fragment now... even a tantrum wouldn't justify it. Because that was draining. You could borrow a soul fragment, sure, but the power needed to keep it under control, without it just meandering around doing its own thing...

Well, Xara had seen Fred do it once back in the day, and he'd practically hibernated for a week.

"Guys, something's wrong," Maya whispered, pulling up next to Aiden, "with Romeo, he-"

"Borrowed part of your soul?"

Maya stared at Aiden, mouth half-open in mid-sentence. She shut it a moment later and nodded hastily. "Yeah... did he borrow some of yours?"

Two soul fragments?

Despite herself, there was a tiny worm of worry forming in Xara's chest. That sort of stunt took up more than enough energy. If borrowing one soul was draining, she couldn't imagine the effort and mental fortitude needed for two at once.

Gill pushed past Karen (she gave an extremely indignant shriek, but he ignored her) to stand with them. His eyes flicked from face to face; his shoulders slumped. "Romeo's borrowed your guys' fragment too?" he asked, voice soft.

Aiden and Maya nodded like bobble-heads.

Now Xara was distinctly worried. Upon becoming a lord, Isa, Mevia, and Harper had sat her down for tea once and talked about controlling soul fragments. As the experts in it (as there were three minds to handle extra bodies), she distinctly remembered them telling her to almost never use three if she could help it.

"It's exhausting with three of us controlling one each," Mevia explained, Harper mixing in an abominable amount of sugar into Xara's tea, "it'd be worse with only one person controlling three."

Xara distinctly remembered Romeo getting the talk too.

As much as Romeo was prone to screaming, and shouting, and raging, he was not stupid enough to drain that much energy on a tantrum.

"Xara, I- oh." Lukas had drawn level with them, face deadly serious (even though most of his face that could express that was hidden behind a blindfold).

"Did he borrow some of yours too?" the other three October Children chorused in unison.

"What? No. I mean- yes, he did," Lukas rubbed the side of his head, frown deepening, "but that's not what I came here about."

Xara's lips turned down in a frown as she turned to face him. "What did you come over here about?"

Lukas opened his mouth, then paused. He hesitated a moment before sighing and looking around the room again quickly.

When he was satisfied that nobody was listening in, he leaned in slightly- everyone automatically doing the same.

The next words he whispered sent chills down everyones' spines.

"Where's Jesse?"


The whip lashed out, the intruder ducking just in time to avoid a chunk being ripped out of the shelf right where their head had been a moment earlier.

Aiden's Reflection flicked his wrist, snapping the bladed whip back into the handle. The intruder took the moment to rocket forward at Romeo-

Maya's Reflection darted out from the side, blocking the slash of the blade with an easy flick of her wrist, staff barely even scratched from the damage.

Gill's Reflection took the opportunity to fire the pistol, blasting a hole right where the intruder's head was-

The intruder lunged sideways, narrowly avoiding Lukas's claws swiping off his head. The whip slammed down, sending a shockwave that sent the intruder sideways.

Romeo was staying in the air, clenching his teeth tight. As skilled as he was at keeping all four soul fragments going, it was rapidly becoming clear that he couldn't do it for too long. He was already starting to shake, and he could feel sweat beading on his forehead.

"Hiding behind your charges, huh?" the intruder taunted. "Why don't you come out and fight me like a real demon?"

Romeo grunted as he flicked his hand, causing Maya's Reflection to parry a blow with scary ease. "That's overrated."

"Oh? And yet you took on Fred directly."

Romeo felt himself go stiff, almost losing control of all four at the same time. He immediately focused back on them, keeping a very little part of his brain engaged with the conversation. "That wasn't on purpose," he replied tersely.

The intruder laughed. Romeo felt his teeth clench even tighter; he thought he heard squeaking from how tight his jaw was. "Oh, don't be so generous with yourself. He was such a popular lord, you know. Good, kind to people... so many of us hated him. He stood in the way of what we really needed to do."

Romeo's jaw was so tightly clenched that he was wondering how his teeth weren't cracking from the pressure.

"And then you did us the delightful favor-"

He was shaking, Gill's next shot missed and blasted a bookshelf apart. Thankfully it was just the shelf of cookbooks that he'd been gifted over the years.

"Of killing Fred yourself-"

"You don't get to talk about Fred!" Romeo screamed, all four soul fragments lunging at the intruder in eerie, robotic unison as his mind snapped into a hyperfocus to kill this piece of shit. "You don't even get to say his name-"

The intruder's arm whipped; a tiny pain sprouted in the back of his hand. Romeo gave an enraged roar and ripped it out, throwing it aside to get lost in the piles of books on the floor. "You fucking bastard you piece of shit you-"

He stopped, chest heaving as he tried to regain his breath from the screaming. The four soul fragments had vanished, his mind scattered and wandering about, through a haze of rage and pain and grief.

"Are you alright?" the intruder asked, pouting and giving Romeo a ridiculously mocking face.

"Just fine, you rat's bastard," the lord snarled. He lifted his hand, ready to snap his fingers and snap this intruder's neck-

He suddenly found himself stumbling back a little instead. A wave of exhaustion settling over him.

"Are you sure you're feeling alright?" the intruder asked. Suddenly beset with an eerie calm.

"I..." Romeo faltered.

No, he wasn't.

There was something clawing at the inside of his stomach now. Dim at first, but growing stronger and more overpowering with every heartbeat.

And it hurt.

"Aiden, do you want these flowers?"

Aiden only glanced at Romeo for half a second before jumping half-out of his skin and leaning away from the pleasant-smelling blossoms. "Whoa! Where the fuck did you get these?" he almost shouted, not bothering to hide his shock.

Romeo's brow creased. "There was a botanist in town... why?" He'd thought he'd make a nice gesture by getting Aiden some flowers for his growing garden, but Aiden looked more like he'd pointed a sharp weapon to his throat.

The intruder held up a tiny segment of flowering vine, with tiny white blossoms curling off of it.

"Grow them as a defense measure, not in my garden," Aiden said, red eye fixed on it with an eerie focus, still trying to lean away from the flowers. "Those are Rayiha flowers."

Romeo glanced down at them. "That means... scent, doesn't it?"

"Yes, but these flowers are seriously dangerous. I don't make it a point of growing those types of flowers in my garden," Aiden said, language only slightly more respectful now that his initial shock had worn off.

The smell was so nice that Romeo couldn't help but snort. "Dangerous? How could these be dangerous?"

The smell. Jasmine and chocolate and a whiff of roses. The same scent that had filled the hallways that day, except tinted with something else... what was it?

Romeo could feel the clawing in his stomach growing stronger, more violent, like there was a beast trying to rip Romeo to bits from the inside.

The lord could feel himself trembling all of a sudden. Dimly, something at the back of his head made the third, foreign smell... familiar.

Blood.

"They're incredibly toxic. Some demons have eaten them because they smell nice, but if you do that, that's the death of you," Aiden explained. "Your death is almost certainly guaranteed at that point."

Romeo frowned, rolling the harmless-looking little blossoms in between his fingers. "They're that bad?"

Aiden looked up at him.

Romeo looked down at the spot where the dart had landed, at the back of his suddenly-trembling hand.

"You might as well bash your own brains out and make it a quick death."

The veins around the spot were slowly turning black.

The intruder chuckled, walking past Romeo. He could only watch, stumbling clumsily at the intruder (why were his legs jelly all of a sudden) as the intruder opened his drawer, plucking the key out with casual ease. "Why, look at that. And that makes all of them."

"All of..." Romeo's lips were numb. His entire body was numb, actually, he could hardly feel a thing.

The intruder chuckled. "We can't travel nearly as quickly as your charges. But in a few days... Abrecan will have everything he needs to open that gate."

"Should... should you be telling me that?" Romeo asked, trying to sound sarcastic but slumping against his desk a little.

Instead of pissing off the guy, like he'd intended, the intruder just laughed. "Oh, it doesn't matter."

He looked at Romeo with a smug grin, already halfway out the door, Kaster and Bedivire hissing and screeching and trying to grab the key, which the intruder deftly avoided.

"You'll be dead by the time that happens."

Then he was gone.

Romeo slumped more against the desk, staring at the patterns of wood. They were very pretty, actually, but they were dark oak.

Fred had always... always preferred birch more.

Romeo fumbled around the desk. He had to tell the other lords. That he'd failed, to check on their keys (everything Abrecan needed- who the hell was Abrecan?).

Romeo slammed his hand down on the communication orb, clumsily pulling up a call between the lords. He didn't have enough focus, so he picked it up clumsily in case it was facing the wrong way.

"Romeo, the hell- Romeo-?" Xara's voice had tightened all of a sudden, almost fearful (what was she afraid about? She wanted him dead too, didn't she?).

Had Romeo been able to see himself, he would've seen dark veins snaking up his skin. The gray skin had sloughed away, leaving nothing but veins that were steadily turning black pulsing up his neck, grappling with his eye. His lips were turning faintly blue too.

"Romeo, what the hell happened?" That was Ivor, worried.

Romeo blinked hard, trying to focus. "Failed- guy came," he croaked. "Said... said..."

What had he said?

"Said that- said that they had- 'vrythin' they needed t'open th' gate..." Romeo stood up, the world lurching and spinning. He was vaguely aware that it was probably in his best interest to lie down, or something.

The small flight of stairs up to his desk thwarted him. The moment his foot touched down, the world went black. Romeo's eyes rolled up into his head as he tumbled down the tiny steps, the orb rolling out of his head.

There was shouting, alarmed yells (he thought he heard Isa telling Aiden to fly back now), but there was only one scream he made out before he knew nothing anymore.

"ROMEO!"


A/N: Things have improved. Psyche no they haven't it's gotten WORSE

anyone remember the rayiha flowers? :P

I forgot to mention that I'm in Taiwan for the next month to see family. It's. actually a lot safer here than it is in the US; I can go outside as of tomorrow haha.

Responses to reviews!

procrastinatorAT: Have an even WORSE cliffhanger! MUAHAHA! :D

Darkbeast Dend: He's very powerful! But unfortunately Rayiha is. worse xD

DubstepDragon14: Who knew that being angry also meant losing control of the situation? Not me :3

ThePlayaJam765: And now he also be ded (not yet)

jessicanightmarewolf: I was waiting to see if anyone would catch on haha. To be fair the overly scary monster forms look scary for a reason; they are pretty OP in Cosmos haha.

Happygoluckymegami: I thought I made it really obvious, but now I'm wondering if I made PAMA too obscure lol

TheAmberShadow: It is indeed xD / Not likely to happen now haha / PAMA's not wearing a visor here since the visor makes the vision worse, and if it accidentally dropped it would be a hint to who was there. / Humans cannot handle the keys; that sheer amount of power is... pretty explosive :P / Poor Romeo xD / I did in fact forget to mention it xD

Toni42: They're going to be even angrier now xD / PAMA was in several locations to see if a lord would go handle the situation (with the key); but unfortunately Abrecan wasn't. particularly brilliant about it.

Parakeetlover3: Thank you! / Yeee! He's not doing much fighting though haha / It's actually an interesting backstory! Which we'll get to in several chapters haha.

That's all for now! See ya, so long, and g'bye!

x.X. A.L. X.x.