Dyson was aggravated, it wasn't like Bo to accept something from the Morrigan. Especially after what she tried to do. He was sat at the Dal, drinking a beer with a dull expression on his face. After explaining what his case was about with Kenzi, she decided to leave to try and gather evidence for her own client. At this point in the day, the Dal had gotten quite busy and cheerful music played through the air, combined with the hum and buzz of people talking. He rolled the bottle around, making a noise on the surface of the bar. His mind was distracted by thoughts of Bo. He always did worry about the Succubus, and the thought of her being with one of the Morrigan's mercenaries made him sick to the stomach. The Dark leader would never tell somebody the truth, and he knew that she must have tricked Bo into helping her somehow. As always, Trick was there to offer an ear when he wasn't pouring drinks. However this time, all he seemed to be doing was making things worse.
"But what could the Morrigan want Bo to do, that none of her mercs can't?" The blood king thought out loud. Over the past couple of hours, he had mulling over the same questions only worded differently.
"I don't know…" Dyson grunted, his gaze focused on the bottle in front of him.
"I don't like this, Dyson." Trick murmured. "Is there no way you can go out and find her?"
Dyson took another gulp of his drink, hissing as he swallowed. "I promised Bo I'd give her until tomorrow before I start looking for her."
The blood king growled under his breath. "Dyson. She's my granddaughter." He raised his hands for a moment and then let them fall, exasperated. "She's tough, but we both know that the Morrigan is up to something." He leant forwards. "This case of yours, what if the Morrigan has something to do with that, too?"
Dyson let out a laugh and shook his head. "I don't doubt that a Dark Fae is behind this." He sighed and took another drink. "But the Morrigan?" He examined his bottle, working out how much left he had to drink. "I don't think so. Well, she could have hired someone. But why?" He shook his head again. "It doesn't make sense."
Trick sighed and looked down. "I know it doesn't." He shrugged. "I just…" He paused and looked back up to Dyson. "I just don't like the feeling of any of this. It's off."
The wolf tilted his bottle and took another sip, drinking the rest of the liquid. "Me neither, Trick. But I'll find whoever is killing off these Fae and Bo?" He smiled and looked down. "She'll be fine, Trick. As soon as tomorrow morning comes round, I'll look for her."
It had already started to become dark, the sunset's blunt glow filtering through the leaves of the trees as Bo and Tamsin made their way through the forest. The Succubus' mind was still distracted by Tamsin's outburst. She knew that the Valkyrie had a temper on her, but she had never seen her attack an innocent like that. She wasn't afraid of the Valkyrie, but a part of her was anxious. The brunette had no idea she could be so aggressive towards someone that hadn't harmed her. Maybe the Elf was in her way, but Tamsin was prepared to force the girl to slit her throat just to stop her intervening? The only thing that consoled her was the thought of being able to change the blonde. She hoped, that after all this Tamsin would spend time with her and the others, and that her memories would come back. The only person that would determine whether that would happen or not would be Tamsin herself, convincing her to meet the others would be tricky.
"So…" Bo began, wanting to break the silence between the two. "It's starting to get dark." The brunette looked up, by the scarlet hue she could see from the blobs of sky she knew that the sun was setting. "Do you think we should set up camp?"
Tamsin rolled her eyes when the brunette started to speak. She had enjoyed listening to the silence, with nothing but the leaves shaking in the light wind to disrupt her. She was concentrating on the one thing she had been thinking about all day. Who her mark was. In all these years of owning the Wanderers contract, she had never imagined she would find the one he was looking for. To her it seemed like the perfect deal. A mountain of gold and jewels for a target that would never exist. The person he existed sounded like the perfect being, and of course she knew that such perfection would never exist. She groaned, in response to the brunette.
"Camp?" The blonde repeated, looking at Bo as if she had just come out with something incomprehensible. "We're almost out of the woods, and you want to set up camp?" The blonde knew that travelling in the woods in the night was dangerous, but the two could handle themselves and she wanted to get back as soon as possible.
Bo stopped walking and folded her arms. "Tamsin, I am not going to risk us getting jumped by bandits and them stealing the amulet." She smiled and cocked her head to the side. "Seeing as though the amulet is in my possession, I suppose you don't have a say in it."
Tamsin turned and glared at the woman, also stopping in her tracks. Was the Succubus really doing this? She rolled her eyes. "You're scared of bandits? I'm a Valkyrie and you're a Succubus…" She laughed, "And you're scared?"
The brunette pursed her lips and shook her head. "I never said scared. But they could easily grab what we came all this way for. So," She paused and opened her arms, gesturing for the both of them to stay where they were. "Let's set up camp."
The blonde was about to retort with something, but the brunette started to walk away from her. "What are you doing?" she growled, feeling her patience wearing thin with the Succubus.
Bo didn't say anything. Instead, she went about gathering pieces of wood that had fallen out of the trees. Along the way, she gathered dried up leaves. If they were going to rest, they would have to make a fire to keep them warm and keep predators away.
The Valkyrie groaned as she watched the other woman wander about gathering the items. She already knew what she was doing, but she didn't approve at all. "We're wasting time." She murmured, unfolding her arms. Her light hues stayed with the brunette, expecting the brunette to respond. When the blonde realised she wasn't going to get an answer, she groaned again. This was going to be a long night.
The two were sat either side of a makeshift fire. The light of the flames made each of the women's features glow in the now dark night. Its flames cracked and spat every now and then, and Tamsin prodded it every so often to keep it going. The blonde decided that although this was going to delay their journey, it would be a perfect opportunity to discuss the Succubus' alignment. She decided that without completing both tasks assigned to her, the Morrigan probably wouldn't give her the answers she was looking for.
The Valkyrie looked past the flames at the Succubus. If she could have predicted what sort of Fae the woman sitting opposite her would be, a Succubus would be right up in the first few guesses. Her beauty was undeniable, her eyes now their soft tone of hazel beaming at the warmth of the fire made Tamsin smile slightly. There was something about the brunette that made her feel at ease, like she could trust her without question. The only person the blonde ever truly trusted was her mentor and leader, Acacia. Of course, Tamsin would never show Bo that she felt at ease. The two of them were mere partners on a one off occasion, so it was irrelevant to her in the end.
"Do you want to talk about what happened back there?" Bo asked, her eyes meeting Tamsin's over the flames.
The blonde blinked, not realising the brunette was looking at her back. "Um…" She scrunched her nose and shrugged. "What do you mean?"
Bo sighed and looked down at the base of the fire. "When you went full Valk on that elven girl?" She looked back up to her, worry in her eyes. "What was that?"
Tamsin looked away from the fire and bit her tongue. She should have known that the brunette would have questioned her about that. She knew that Bo saw her as the monster she was, just like all the others. "She got in my way." Tamsin looked back to Bo and smirked. "So, I was just doing what was necessary."
"Necessary?" Bo almost choked on the word. "Tamsin, you almost killed her." Her voice became a whisper as she tried to make sense of it all. She knew that the blonde had a hardened life before Bo, but was she really a ruthless killer?
The Valkyrie knew where this conversation was going, and pretended not to be hurt. Every person she worked with she had to explain how she didn't care, how everyone's just a target to her. It was all standard. "That was the plan." She looked at the Succubus as if there were no point to the conversation at all.
"Tamsin…" Bo frowned, trying to convince herself that this was the same Tamsin. "You're more than that." Her voice was still a whisper, and it barely reached the Valkyrie across the fire.
Tamsin scoffed, but unsure of whether it was because the brunette tried to sound like her mother, or because nobody had ever said anything like that to her before. "And how would you know, Succubus?" She tilted her head, her blonde locks still loose, cascading down her shoulder. Her eyes narrowed slightly, maybe her previous meeting with Bo in her last life would be her opening to get her to side with the Dark. "From my past life?"
Bo's lips parted, her eyes widening slightly. She felt like she was crumbling under the Valkyrie's intense stare. This was it, this is where she could open up to the blonde and tell her everything. But would she believe her? Would she believe that she befriended Bo and then chose to side with her? "I…" She cleared her throat. "Maybe." She shrugged, trying not to give too much away – knowing that the Valkyrie would never believe her. "You're just so much more."
Frowning, Tamsin prodded the fire again. Her gaze fell upon the flames as she brought her head back up from her shoulder. "Then you didn't know me too well." She gave a huff, and flung the stick to one side, realising that the piece of wood had become tiny with the fire burning it.
The brunette shook her head slowly and looked down at the bottom of the fire, knowing that nothing she could say to Tamsin would convince her otherwise.
"So, how come you didn't choose a side?" Tamsin spoke up, wanting to ease onto the subject of her alignment. "Between Light and Dark, I mean."
Bo hadn't expected the woman to speak to her, but was pleasantly surprised to hear her voice over the crackling fire. "It's like I said, I had no reason to choose either." She shrugged as her gaze kept at the fire. "I was brought up by humans, I never met a Fae until just a couple of years ago."
Tamsin blinked. She had met Fae in the past that had grown up with humans without any knowledge of their talents. But for Bo to have not come into contact with a Fae until just a few years ago? Things like that were unheard of. The blonde couldn't think of any other way of life. "A couple of years ago?" She smirked and let out a laugh. "How is it you managed to feed without getting caught all this time?"
It was strange to Bo, explaining all this to the Valkyrie. Even when they had known each other, their initial meeting wasn't all the best. Tamsin hated her since day one, and it took her a while to warm to her. Because of that, Tamsin and Bo never really got chance to discuss their pasts. Would this what Tamsin would have been like had they not met with her wanting to lock her up? Inquisitive? The brunette smiled and looked up to the blonde again. "I ran." She shrugged. "There wasn't much else I could do. Feeding off of humans killed them…" She looked away, ashamed of her past. "If I stayed in one place too long, the authorities would have figured out I was…" She paused, trying to pick out the right words "A monster?"
Tamsin's smile had fallen, and she held a strained gaze. One that Bo recognised all too well. She had given her the same look in the bathtub, like a look of hurt mixed with regret. Bo could practically hear her own heart break from the look she gave her. Back then Bo did think that she was a monster, and even some times now when she had to feed she felt exactly the same as when she killed her first boyfriend.
The Valkyrie knew all too well how she felt. Each life that she remembered she was always a killer. That was the use for a Valkyrie. To be used as a weapon, to take lives and then for them to be recycled over and over again until she met her end. Tamsin shook her head, her gaze still staying on the brunette. "You're not a monster." The only monster sat around the fire was her, in fact there could be a whole bunch of people there and she would still be the worst one there. There was only one out there that she could think of that had committed worse offenses than her.
A lump was forming in Bo's throat. Even in her past life, she knew that the Valkyrie always considered herself a bad person. She had told her before that she was one of the good ones, but even then it seemed to have fallen on deaf ears.
Looking down, Tamsin broke her stare. Now wasn't the time to be moping about her past lives. She was a killer, a murderer and that was that. She had to focus on getting Bo on their side. "The Morrigan mentioned that you favour the Light." She looked back up, the strained gaze disappearing and a more relaxed expression appearing.
Bo frowned at the sudden change of conversation, but was glad that Tamsin had dropped that look that made her heart ache. "I'm sure she would." She sighed and forced a small smile. "She's always throwing a tantrum, like she's a child and the Light are taking too much time playing with her favourite toy." She gave a small laugh at the thought. "But honestly, I try to stay as neutral as possible."
Tamsin laughed along with her, knowing full well how Evony can get. "Well, that may be." She shrugged and sighed. "But when it all comes down to it, the Dark are the lesser of two evils."
The Succubus blinked. Tamsin would never say anything like that. Whenever Tamsin had discussed anything Dark related, she never had a reason why she would have joined the Dark, she didn't remember. So why would she try to be a poster girl for the Dark now? The brunette furrowed her brow. "Are they?" She pursed her lips. "Let me think. They lie, murder, steal, backstab and don't even get me started about how they pitched to treat humans as enemies and uh, kill them all?"
Tamsin nodded, taking her points on board. She knew that the Dark were the 'bad guys', but she wasn't letting go of the chance to be rid of the Wanderer. "So tell me about how the Light enslave humans, steal Dark property, disown any family member that associates with Dark and don't forget to tell me how they don't kill humans at all." Tamsin scoffed. "You're delusional if you believe they don't kill humans. Every Fae does at some point."
Bo scoffed herself, feeling anger rise within her. "Tamsin, what are you talking about?" She shook her head, not wanting to continue the conversation. "What does it matter? I'm not joining the Light or Dark. Ever."
If she had to put her doubt on Bo, she would do. There was no way she would return without completing her tasks and not getting her answers. She wanted to end the hold the Wanderer had on her, and if that meant hurting Bo, then she would have to. As much as she hated the thought of having it come to that, she would do it if it were necessary. She was a Valkyrie. That's what they do. "Maybe you should just choose a side." She sighed, leaning back on her hands. "Make sure it's the right one."
The brunette shook her head. Tamsin never did care about her being unaligned. Why on earth would she start caring now? "The Morrigan." She growled, her eyes starting to glow blue. "She's put you up to this?" Her voice was stern as she leant forward, almost leaning over the fire.
Tamsin rolled her eyes as she saw her hues transition. The blonde rose to her feet as the brunette leant over the fire, not intimidated by the other woman. "Who cares?" She brought her hands up to her hair, tying her golden locks up into a neat bun. "Time for you to join the Dark, BabyFae." Her face turned skeletal, the glow from the fire below her accentuating every contour on her face. The vision was petrifying, and any normal Fae would surely crumble under her gaze.
Bo had been threatened by Tamsin's doubt before back at the compound, and she managed to fight back then. But this time, the Valkyrie was stronger. Whispers clouded her mind and clawed at her brain, willing her to succumb to the woman in front of her. Her hues darted up, still maintaining their icy glow as she stared into the depth of Tamsin's hollowed out eyes. Bo fought the best she could as she staggered up to her feet, trying to prove to the blonde that whatever she was trying to pull it wasn't working.
The Valkyrie slowly walked around the fire to stand directly in front of the Succubus. She put everything she could into trying to convince the brunette to become Dark. She sent whispers, doubts, worries, fear. Everything negative she forced onto Bo, trying to convince her that the only way out was to side with the Dark and give in.
"Tamsin, please…" Bo's eyes returned to their natural hue, not being able to fight against the Valkyrie's strength. "You're more than this." Her voice was strained and barely audible. She could feel her eyes opening and closing, not sure of whether or not she would slip into unconsciousness. "I…" Everything became out of focus and blurred. "You're not a monster." With that, Bo felt herself lose consciousness, and her body became limp.
Tamsin's features changed as she released her hold on Bo after the brunette told her she wasn't a monster. Even after trying to control her and make her doubt herself, the Succubus would still think she's better than any of that? The blonde realised that Bo was slipping into unconsciousness and caught her. She slid down to the floor with the brunette in her arms. From a distance, it would look like the two were embracing. Tamsin held her tightly, her head positioned on Bo's shoulder. Her gaze was strained again as she stared into the black distance. How could someone still possibly believe that she were anything but a monster after what she had done? She needed to find out what she did in her past life that made Bo believe in her so much. Tamsin decided that when the brunette awoke, she would ask her exactly that.
AN: I'm so sorry for the late update! Usually I like to post a chapter up either every day or every other night but a few things came up! For some reason this chapter feels kind of rushed, I think it was because I felt so awful for not updating sooner! Sorry! Next chapters will be better, promise haha :)