Drink

He'd never felt a pain like this before. Clenching his gut, Isaac folded in on himself. His entire body was aching. It was like a demon had found its way inside of him. Claws of pain raked down the inside of his gut, and the demonic entity possessing his stomach was wrecking him from the inside out. There was a throbbing in his canines. Every skin cell felt like it was being lit on fire. Agony was getting a new definition when the torment shredding through his body caused his back to bow against the bed.

His mind was scrambling. He couldn't think for the pain, and he couldn't yell due to teeth clenched tightly. It was a kind of cramping that started low in his gut and shred through everything before re-concentrating itself with his fangs.

Cognitive thought was growing weaker. A voice unlike any other entered his mind. Starved. Famished. Dying, that dark voice whispered from the back of his conscience. It was not his voice. No. It was something much different than the voice he used to think with. This voice deeper. It was darker. It was… otherworldly.

It was a voice of evil. That much he knew for certain when his body began to jerk in ways in which he did not command.

Black talons distended from translucent fingernails. Those talons stabbed deep into the gypsum board walls of the bedroom. The framed painting that had been on the wall above his hand crashed to the floor. Glass shattered against carpet. The sharp sound of it alerted the girls in the room next to his.

Immediately, Risley yanked open the bedroom door.

The only way that Isaac knew it was her was due to glimpses of her jet black hair entering his peripheral vision. As soon as she dashed to his side, a new sound entered his ears. It overran the gritted out screams pulling from his clenched teeth. It slid beyond the thrashing of his hand digging into the wall. When her hand laid down on his chest, all he could hear was the sound of rushing water.

No. Not water. Blood.

From the main chamber of the catacombs, Kagura could still hear Urian and Loki arguing. While the god had been playful with his introductions, the conversation had gone from teasing to almost serious. She kept her body flush with the stone interior of the catacombs as she tried to get a better look at the conversation.

"So, to what devious god or giant do I get to thank for the curse of your presence in my new clubhouse?" Loki asked, stretching his arms out wide and showing off the many skeletons decorating the interior walls of the catacombs. He strolled with a nonchalant gait towards a throne of skulls then plopped down atop it.

The god was in human clothing, women's clothing to be exact. He had on cherry red lipstick, and his eyes were decorated in sweeping lengths of kohled black eyeliner. A bustier top made of leather was suctioned onto his broad chest, and a pair of leather skinny jeans showed more around the god's crotch than Kagura had any interest in seeing. When he hiked one leg over his thigh, Loki showed Urian a pair of black, stiletto boots most women couldn't even think to walk in, yet the god had more grace than any woman when he made his way to his throne. Kagura wore boots on a daily basis, but even she didn't think she could pull off those shoes.

Unlike Kagura, Urian paid little attention to Loki's state of dress. According to lore, the god was mischievous one. There was no telling just what kind of man or woman Loki had been wanting to harass when he'd been shifted into the body to fit those clothes. Kagura may not have been as well versed in Norse and High Lance mythology as she should have been given the influx of Lancet immigrants, but she did know Loki was a shapeshifter. How could a shape shifting god be able to teach Ice God Slayer Magic?

"No god this time," Urian explained as he took a stone chair for his perch instead of another throne of skulls. "My brother, Loki. What do you know of him?"

Checking his red painted fingernails, Loki took a moment to think before stating, "Well, he's twenty-seven years old. His hobbies are trying to keep you in line, cooking, and recently, drinking the blood of virgins. King Isaac likes long walks on the beach and—"

"How long has he gone without drinking from his flask?" Urian growled. Surely, Loki had been joking about the Blood of Virgins thing. Isaac had a silver flask with him, and while there had been blood that tainted the color of the whiskey, that had just been from getting slammed around in the ocean. There wasn't any way Isaac actually drank blood. The idea was ludicrous. Humans had no reason to ingest blood.

For the small amount of time that Kagura had known Isaac, he'd always had that flask. Even on the battlefield, it had been clipped on his side. She'd seen it flipping this way and that way when she'd assisted in capturing Princess Adamine's mother dragon. To be honest back then she'd just assumed the man had a drinking problem, but… Kagura had never seen Isaac drunk. Not even at the feast to celebrate a battle won and not at the crowning ceremony where Adamine gave her crown over to Isaac. Isaac had seemed like one of the few sober people around during each of those celebrations. Why the flask then?

When Loki parted his lips, Kagura narrowed her eyes on the god. They could give her the information she needed.

"I know just as much as you do," Loki mentioned. The sound of the god's voice had Urian's head jerking towards the god in aggravation.

"Then, where is he? Here? In Crocus? You know what could happen if his mask was ever lifted."

"Something about the end of the world does come to mind, but I haven't directly seen Isaac since coming to Crocus. Is he here? Is he there? I have no clue. Do I look like a clairvoyant, boy?"

The god was avoiding the question.

Urian's mouth opened up to ask something when a groan filled the air. Was Loki hiding something?

Placing a hand on the back of Urian's vest, Loki hefted the boy up from his seat. "Well, this meeting was grand and loving. It's always nice to see you, Urian, but you really must be off. The Angel of Death series comes on in about twenty minutes, and I need to make popcorn. Maybe, I'll order a pizza. Not sure if they deliver to catacombs, so I'll probably have to pick it up myself," Loki explained. He was walking Urian out the door like he had something to hide. Was it the owner of that indeterminate groaning sound? When Urian's mouth opened to complain, Loki cut him off. "Now, if you need to find your brother that badly, I suggest you find a little woman named Kagura Mikazuchi. Cute girl. Nice figure, dark purple hair. She's got a crush on your brother, so I recommend not trying to seduce your way into her ranks."

A crush! On Isaac! The god had to be kidding himself. Kagura barely knew the man!

From the inside of the catacombs' main chamber, Loki's hand thrust Urian out of his skeletal throne room, and the god slammed a wrought iron fence in his son's face. "Loki!" Urian snarled, wrapping his hands around the iron. "Damn it, Loki! I finally found you, and you're already shoving me off. What the hell are you planning now?"

"Planning!" Loki gasped. He spun on his heel and flashed Urian a look of absolute betrayal. "Why, Urian! I can't believe you would accuse me of such a thing. Me? The God of Mischief plotting something? Why I never!"

"You're a pathetic excuse for a god and an even worse excuse for a father. You know that. Don't you, Loki?" Urian growled.

He had a point. There was too much at stake for Loki to be goofing around right now. The God of Mischief may have been the man's title, but there was a country sitting without a king. Isaac's regent didn't even know what had happened to the man. Unless Adamine had gotten to Lancet in time, the group of five that ran Capitol Lance and the country in the king's absence could still be working without knowing how dire their situation was.

"Take it up with administration," Loki snarked back, tossing his middle finger towards the sky in reference to the heavens above. He shapeshifted into the form of a wolf before flopping on his belly amidst the bones. The god's black furred tail flopped side to side as he happily gnawed on the bones of some currently degraded skeleton. The message in his actions was clear. "Screw you."

"Damn you, Loki!" Urian snapped back. The sides of his fists lashed out against the wrought iron gate, but ice creeped up to defend it. Though Loki taught Urian God Slayer magic, Urian didn't look like he could break that ice. So, the god was still more powerful than his student?

Even as Urian punched the iron gate, the god didn't budge. In his wolf form he looked to have drug out the leg of a still clothed skeleton. Thanks to the darkness in the catacombs, Kagura couldn't see just what Loki was gnawing on, and she was glad. Just being in here was creepy enough. To see a god chewing disrespectfully on the bones of citizens long past just made it all worse.

Still, Urian was the one Kagura had come for. He would know all that she needed to find out for taking care of King Isaac. When he pulled his arm back to throw it once more towards the frosted over gate, she mentioned, "So, I take it you're looking for your brother."

Black hair so familiar to the Lancet family whipped in her direction. When two pale blue eyes narrowed on Kagura, the God Slayer hissed, "I hate you, Loki."

Back on the streets of Crocus, Kagura led Urian towards the Emerald Ivy Inn. While the God Slayer had been rambunctious and fiery in the face of a god, he was currently somber and snarling at anything that dared look his direction twice. With his hands in his pockets and tension in his shoulders, the playboy looked less like the handsome stud Kagura had known him as and more like a pissed off teenager after getting scolded by his father.

That wasn't the face of the man portrayed in Sorcerer Weekly, and it definitely wasn't the face of the man shown in PlaySpell.

Not like Kagura would know anything about that magazine, of course! Millianna was the one that liked reading it. Kagura just always saw the issues hanging out in the guild's main living space.

Even so, he was just as attractive as Kagura remembered. During the battle to free Lancet from tyranny, Urian had moved with the grace of a well-trained courtesan. Even when he skulked, he had this sensual grace about himself. His black hair was short but spiked over to one side. Shorter lengths of hair couldn't help but tumble loosely across his forehead. Beneath his forehead, his strangely shaped eyebrows rested over his eyes. They were almost square when looking from the center of Urian's face, but then they tapered down from a rectangular main form. Right before the finish of the taper, they were cut into like a stylized oval had been pressed there to keep the hair from filling out. Those interestingly shaped brows only highlighted the intensity of his pale, ghostly blue eyes.

His blue eyes narrowed whenever Kagura took a turn away from the main entertainment district and towards the quieter educational district. He must have assumed what she was doing because he commented, "You could have just started asking questions instead of taking the long way."

"I wasn't sure the short way would give you enough time to answer them," she stated, her voice a clipped timbre of authority. Urian was a flirt. He used his charms to avoid topics. Kagura wasn't going to let that happen when she had multiple topics to discuss with him.

While Isaac was shown as the more educated and regal brother in Sorcerer Weekly—his title being the Wealthy Bachelor King—Urian was portrayed as the Playboy Prince, an untamable bachelor that always got what he wanted. He wasn't going to get what he wanted from Kagura. She would give him no inch to avoid discussing Isaac.

"Fire away," he stated, a voice completely different from the tone she was suspecting. He sounded upset and weary. He sounded as if there were a thousand things on his mind and Kagura's questions were just a pest flying around his ear.

Not letting the tone send her away, she asked, "What was Isaac doing when he came ashore in Fiore?" Kagura knew well that Isaac wasn't coming to the pageant. It wasn't something she could imagine himself even bothering with. He wasn't someone to be entertained by women parading about onstage. Besides, Isaac was a workaholic. He had more interest in his kingdom than he did finding a wife. That had even been recorded in Sorcerer Weekly.

A pair of shrugged shoulders was her answer for a while. Just when she wanted to make him state something, Urian explained, "I really don't know. Isaac isn't the type to watch pageants or have any interest in women for that matter. I'm sure that if he could marry the kingdom, he would. It's the only thing he ever took up learning about."

Kagura had expected that much. She was the same way. There was a reason she was never around the opposite sex. She was much too focused on getting her revenge for Simon to worry with the ideas of dating.

"Why did you run off after hitting shore back in Fiore? Everyone expected for you to join Fairy Tail, but you didn't." That had been a topic long questioned about. Urian had enjoyed being around Fairy Tail. He'd trailed Mirajane like a dog on a leash. People had expected him to join just to be around the super model.

For a while, Urian didn't answer her. His eyes just turned back in the direction of the catacombs. Even from this distance, sounds could be heard from the graveyard. Slight roars of thunder and a strange chill seemed to emanate from that direction. After some time he sighed, "Loki. I thought that finding my father would be as rewarding as when Adamine found Firmalione. Apparently, I was wrong. Loki's still an ass."

Kagura couldn't argue with that logic. She'd been around the god for less than thirty minutes, and he hadn't said anything that sounded remotely informative. All he'd done was anger Urian and cause Kagura to worry even more over Isaac. "His hobbies are trying to keep you in line, cooking, and recently, drinking the blood of virgins."

Did Loki mean what he said? Did Isaac keep blood in his flask like Araña accused?

The god had even mentioned the End of the World. That had to just be a joke. Even so, she had to ask.

"And, Armageddon. Was Loki being honest about that?"

"Loki is an ass who likes to talk more than think. You'd be better off watching grass grow than listening to anything he has to say," the slayer growled. He was still glancing off in the direction of the catacombs. Was Kagura hallucinating when the foreign script on his armlets began to glow?

Too busy watching Urian, Kagura stomped flat through a group of men. At the sight of her forward march, they hastily fled away from her in preference to the stone fountain that signaled the entrance to the Emerald Ivy. A girl that had been surrounded by the guys mouthed a grinning, "Thank you" before heading back down the road.

Stopping at the wrought iron gates that made up the entrance to the Emerald Ivy, Kagura made sure Urian was following her before she headed inside. Once she opened the door to the inn, Urian commented, "Very Garden of Eden."

Well, he wasn't wrong. The Emerald Ivy had a theme: ivy. Ivy covered the wrought iron gates. It was a carved embellishment on the front door, and when they got inside, ivy plants were growing on the interior walls.

"It was affordable," Kagura mentioned. Her tone was only half interested in his comment. The main thing on her mind right now was getting back to Isaac. He'd appeared pale and sickly when she'd left him. Hopefully, he'd recovered by now. They had much to discuss, and Urian might be able to wake Isaac from his Familiar Amnesia. Surely, a brother was closer than a lover.

Isaac would remember his brother. The gods knew Kagura could never forget hers.

Turning towards the stairway in the themed inn, Kagura led Urian towards her rooms. All around them the interior design was highly influenced by the Art Nouveau Movement in architecture. Everything was in fluid lines. Hand crafted, wood chairs lined the hall, and the wallpaper was reminiscent of more vines. Suggestive paintings were hung on the walls in the form of elegant, artistic nudes. Even the rug beneath their feet was handwoven. Handwoven, hand-painted, handcrafted, that was the entirety of the building while they walked to the room.

The entire structure had a mythical feel to it until a tormented scream shred into the air. Hazel eyes jerked to meet ice blue ones.

"Isaac!" they snapped in unison.

A key appeared in Kagura's hands, but it went flying when a door burst open. Green dreadlocks filled the doorway as a woman nearly slammed into Kagura. Her heels came to a sliding stop before damage could be done. "Kagura!" Araña cried, "Something's wrong with Isaac!"

Without a word Kagura charged past the jumpsuit sporting mage then hustled deeper into the hotel room. Urian wasn't far off behind her. He completely brutalized his famous gentleman's code and headed straight into a women's quarters without permission. His hand met the doorknob before Kagura's could. When she tried to push him out of the way, Urian growled, "Stay here!"

He couldn't have uttered a more ridiculous command. As soon as he threw himself into the bedroom, Kagura was hot on his heels. Her forehead collided with the bedroom door. That bastard! She could hear the lock on the door clicking into place from the other side. The heel of her palm immediately collided with the paneled wood, and she hissed a curse when it didn't budge.

Pay for the damages or wait for Urian to unlock the door?

When Isaac's tortured wail entered her ears once more, she kicked her leg straight through the wood. Unlike in the movies, it didn't break the lock. Kagura was one leg into the bedroom as she kicked and scraped towards her tormented king.

Isaac was her client! He was hers to care for!

As soon as she entered the bedroom, her eyes went wide. Isaac's mouth was opened wide. An unholy roar was pouring from it. Even as he thrashed, a spider web kept his wrists and ankles tied in place. His back bowed from some unknown agony. Unimaginable torment was keeping Isaac's body wrenching this way and that way. By the looks of the two girls around him, it had taken some effort to get him tied down.

Claw marks from Millianna's feline paws ran down Isaac's face. The markings shredded the front of his black shirt wide. Blood was dripping from open wounds, but Kagura wasn't sure if she should be mad at her partner. Given the thrashing and screaming, she probably would have knocked him out with her sword.

"The things I do because of you," Urian grumbled, getting the women in the room to turn their heads towards him.

"Urian?" Risley and Millianna breathed.

Ignoring the women, Urian shrugged out of his vest. "How long has he been like this?" Urian asked. He took a step, but the girls tried to stop him.

Unlike everyone around him, he was acting like a doctor with an unruly patient. His movements were methodical like what he was doing was a routine thing for him and his brother.

"You can't go near him! He tried to kill us!" got shrieked from the two girls on the other side of the room. Millianna's eyes were wild. Risley had entered her shifted form in order to hold down Isaac's thrashing. They'd had to fight against Isaac?

"Yeah, that's kind of what happens when someone seals a hungry demon inside of you. So, how long has he been like this?" Urian repeated over the screaming, snarling, and foaming sounds of his tormented brother.

What the hell was going on with Isaac? Loki had been right about more than the blood drinking but how?

Gulping, it was Millianna who explained, "About ten minutes. We thought he was having a nightmare, but when someone came in to check on him, he tried to bite her. What the hell is going on, Urian?"

"Umbrianna is going on." When he got questioning looks, he chose against answering them. Urian tucked fingers beneath the wrappings someone had put on his arm. Sidestepping the girls, Urian moved towards Isaac's writhing body.

There was no explanation for his movements as everyone sat in tense, silent questioning.

"What do you think you're doing?" Risley asked.

"My job." Summoning a black dagger made of ice into his hand, Urian made a careful slice down his forearm. He made sure not to hit any vital veins or arteries. He also made sure not to accidentally snatch any tendons or ligaments that could be near his incision.

The scent of blood wafted directly to Isaac's senses, and a single, purple eye zeroed in on the crimson liquid freed from Urian's skin. Zac looked absolutely… starved.

"Where would you be without me," he sighed then reached his arm out. He didn't get close enough for his blood crazed and demon possessed brother to touch him. His arm lingered over Isaac's face. Droplets of blood spilled onto the bed sheets, the pillow, and Isaac's face until he got his arm into position.

"He's really a vampire," one of the girls breathed. Kagura didn't know who. Her eyes were too focused on the unnatural bend of Isaac's spine. He looked possessed.

"They make this look a lot sexier in the movies. It's just gross in reality," Millianna mentioned.

Casting a scowl in her direction, Kagura took a step closer. She wanted to stand beside Isaac but the sharp glare of Urian's icy gaze stopped her only a few feet from the side of the bed. She could do nothing but watch when Isaac's maw opened wide. Fangs protruded from his canines. She was watching them lengthen before her very eyes!

Blood drained from her face, and she stabilized herself by holding onto one of the bed posts. "What's going on?" she breathed, unable to comprehend the madness in front of her. Her eyes zeroed in on a steady stream of blood flowing into Isaac's mouth. Blood drinking. King Isaac was blood drinking.

"Bottle feeding," Urian commented. He watched his blood reflect in the moonlight filtering through the sheer curtains. He'd done well with his cut. It was just deep enough for the blood to maintain a steady flow, but it wasn't hurting him too much by the looks of things. Turning an almost scowl to his group of onlookers, Urian asked, "So, are you girls just going to stand there staring, or do you want to help the man out?"

"I-er-I," one sputtered out, trying to wake herself from the shock of seeing a human being drinking blood straight from the vein.

"What do I need to do?" Kagura's voice rang. It was clear and strong. She may not have had a single clue what was going on right now, but her client was in danger. She had been the only thing keeping Isaac from whatever wanted to eat him from the inside out, and she hadn't even known it. She needed to do better. If she was going to take care of Isaac, she would have to do a better job. No wonder Adamine had offered so much money to have him taken care of.

"Before I came here, I had Bickslow do a little scrounging around for me. He snuck into a hospital and got all the equipment needed to draw blood. One of you go find him. I want another one of you to grab me something to wrap this wound in when it stops bleeding. Somebody else, get me Isaac's flask. The rest of you had better get ready to become donors because my brother's going to need more blood than what I'm giving him right now," Urian commanded, his voice colder than it'd ever been.

Obviously, Isaac was in danger. The girls taking care of him were in danger. If they let their tongues slip and wound up saying something about Isaac's blood drinking, it could spell trouble. Thankfully, most people in Fiore didn't believe in vampires, but there were others out there. Any foreigner from Lancet could hear about Isaac's condition and come to take the man out. With Isaac being a current amnesiac, he wouldn't know to protect himself. Isaac was as fragile as a child. Kagura had to protect him.

When Kagura appeared with a med kit, Urian finally pulled his bleeding arm away from Isaac's mouth. The snarling and writhing had stopped just a few moments after he'd realized the blood was getting to him. Now, Isaac's eyes were closed. His long, dark lashes laid against flesh growing more colored by the second. The paleness was fading out to give a much healthier color to his skin.

She couldn't stop thinking about what Araña had confessed. She had been right, and Kagura hadn't believed her. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Of all things, Kagura should have been more open-minded. This world was a strange one. Should she have just dismissed one of her most trusted friends? No, Araña had never lied to her before. Feeling like the biggest ass, Kagura tended to Urian.

She would have to apologize to Araña after this.

A cotton pad swept across his forearm as Kagura cleaned Urian's skin. She did the usual nurse things of rinsing the wound in rubbing alcohol before wrapping it up in bandages. The Gravity Mage did pretty well on her technique when she finished tying Urian's new wrappings.

"So, who's getting Bickslow? He's at the Honeybone inn," Urian explained. His eyes were looking at the four other women in the room. Kagura's team was all still hanging out. Their eyes were wide. Their skin was pale. Urian was pretty sure all it would take was for Isaac to flinch in sleep for all of them to leap and scream.

Clearing her throat, Kagura stepped beside Isaac's bed. "Araña, you're the one who's been accusing Isaac of being a vampire all this time. You get the Seith Mage." When the Thread Mage opened her mouth to say something, Kagura's brows only furrowed. With just that go-to-hell scowl, Araña made herself useful, but Kagura wasn't done yet. When Beth handed her Isaac's flask, Kagura promptly placed it in Urian's hand. "Now, you have some explaining to do."

She didn't even care when Urian's brows went up in surprise. All that she cared about was making sure Isaac stayed safe.