Chapter 4

I groaned as I opened my eyes. My soul ached after the reaction and rather delayed yet violent reaction to the mixing of the warp energies of my birth and the shard's energies. The fact I'd lost pretty much everything I'd managed to pour into my body and any reserve I'd had both before and after joining with Taylor's body and soul rankled more than anything else.
However, it was something that in the end had to be done if I was to prevent myself from becoming something like a warpspawn twisted to the entities whims. I wouldn't let that happen and my natural inclination to kill the thing only mounted.

Now I didn't even need my creators orders to kill it, I wanted to kill the thing with every fibre of my being on principle alone.

To inflict even a tiny bit of the agony I'd been forced to endure as I had to literally rewrite my entire body over and over again to cleanse it of the things influence. Burning through my own reserves and anything I could coax out of the warp left me as weak as a kitten but perhaps due to my original nature of being Neverborn there was opportunity opened before me where I hadn't even thought it possible before now.

I looked down at my sleeping body, my host… my meat suit.

I flinched at the thoughts but maintained my gaze down on my own sleeping form.

Reaching out gently I placed my hand into and through my own chest, the hand sinking into my chest cavity like I was a ghost. There was sensation certainly but there was no resistance or even evidence of my hand reaching inside myself.

I breathed in and felt it at last.

It wasn't perfect but I had become more attuned to the warp here and I was currently within its flows in some odd astral projection of my souls self. Absently I noted the freeing feeling of spreading out my wings, arching my back and stretching out my tail.

Sensations I'd forgotten since being bound within flesh as I had been till now.

I revelled in them as I pulled my hand back and floated up through the ceiling and stretched out in satisfaction above the house. So much that I'd forgotten and hadn't realized I even could do.

Yet I couldn't help but frown as I looked down at my taloned hands.

I was still Taylor right? And yet I was also so much more at the same time. Wasn't I?

I ended up lowering myself down once more and watched dad's sleeping form, reaching out I felt a connection to his dreams and couldn't help but smile at what I saw. Memories of a happier time still slightly tinged with grief and the depressing sorrow of loss but far less than it had been before. It did bring a soft smile to my lips and I ran my talon's gently through his thinning hair. I channelled a little energy to make his dream even more pleasant and his rest more fulfilling.

I hadn't been able to tell him then, probably never would be able to but his presence when I was more than half way finishing the cleansing of my body and soul had actually been that little push I needed to finish it. The rock I had to grip so that I wouldn't drown in the sea of pain, agony and torture. I had been close to passing out, to finally just giving up and letting go of the pain.

I realized now that it would have killed me… in a sense. It would have ended in the death of the piece of me that was Taylor Hebert. I wouldn't, I couldn't have that. I was made of eight and of eight I should remain.

I blinked.

I felt it then, a revelation as ideas and memories came crashing down upon my mind.

The roaring of the lives I had been made up of, what I was in truth and what I could become hit me like the meteor shower of an apocalypse. A cleansing inferno of the mind body and soul and I screamed. The warp so placid and calm here, quivering around me as it flooded into me in the wake of that terrible flame.
I had become a void within the warp, a void it eagerly filled despite my howling in protest. The sparse life within the Warp fleeing at the sound in terror and fear.

I ran from my fathers room and into my own. I plunged my ethereal hands into the cavity of my flesh's chest, funnelling the fire into the flesh for some manner of release. Some small mercy from the purifying flames, to reach some succour or comfort from the agony.

It opened my eyes as the warp flooded and infused my being, flesh and soul.

I now knew why the warp here was so calm, so placid and so alien to what I had expected it to be. It had never known the touch of the old ones, never felt their mastery of its flows and essence. Neither had it been plunged into turmoil at the horrors of the war in heaven and a galaxy plunged into never ending war and rampant corruption. My pain lessening as I funnelled part of it into my flesh allowing me to gain some control over the flood that didn't wish to stop.

At the end I felt detached as if I was watching myself from outside myself. Numbed to the sensations I was to feel.

I observed myself there, my soul elbow deep in the chest cavity of my physical body. The four wings, the four eyes and the crown of eight horns. My tail curling and swaying around behind and around me, the sharp talons of my feet and the greyish tint to my skin.

I was a nightmare made manifest in the guise of a fallen angel if I was to be metaphorical which I realized I could in fact utilize to my own ends.

Then the numbers came to me and my awareness expanded out towards the city itself. This state I found myself in granting me far greater access to my own abilities far beyond what I could while physical. Of course the downside was I could only affect the warp and not the material this way. Not until I managed to bridge the gap between at least.

It was a good reminder though of what I was capable of, like having been stuck in an area I could only drive at a maximum of 10 miles per hour before being suddenly allowed to go on a nice flat straight road with no speed limit at the seat of a super sonic capable vehicle.

Liberating was putting it mildly though it was also rather frustrating not being able to do the same while I inhabited my physical body. Though what I sensed had me humming to myself in interest. When a Greater daemon manifested in the material realm back in my birth realm be it through warpcraft or even through a daemon host they were still horridly limited. I might be able to go beyond those limits if I forged my body to accommodate my being in the same way as the Emperor had done for his own body and minorly to his sons. the potential was there, I just had to be patient and methodical in my work.

I kept my hands inside my body as I channelled the warp and restructured my own body as best I could while not having to face the pain such an act would inflict given the slightly extensive changes I needed to implement before I could leave it to mostly grow on its own. It would take me at the very least two weeks of full and careful work, infusing my bones to be of wraithbone infused with Necrodermis would be done over the course of these two weeks as I needed them to be able to grow with my body considering the idea I got of the end result. I certainly would be similar to the Primarchs when it came to height at the very least.

Through it though I remembered something the Neverborn so often used to influence the Psykers of my birth reality. Dreams were a potent tool and now I knew I could access others dreams through dreaming myself. Four of the few shining souls within the city that I felt now in my expanded awareness had that same spark, no matter how latent and slight that talent was it was still there. Among the others those four had sparked my interests the most, for theirs were among the brightest of lights.

The gene that would need to evolve further with time and through countless generations of natural selection and evolutionary refinement that wouldn't grant the current holders of those genes any of its promised gifts. A waste if only counting their souls strength that was left unrealized and unattainable, their potential wasted.

Unless I stepped in.

"Four eyes… Four wings… Eight horns..." I muttered to myself as I decided on what to do. I'd need to decide what I'd keep so I could interact with more ease with humanity so having a second set of eyes wouldn't really be very conducive to those ends. More than the usual set of eyes had the effect to unnerve them after all.

I'd also require servants, minions or…

As my mind snagged on the idea I couldn't help but grin wildly. My very own custodians.

Why not try influencing these four souls I'd sensed already? I sensed the taint of the shards within their souls, a taint I was confident that I could rid them of but if I could offer something for them to gain in return then perhaps I could truly bind them to my service?

Their numbers might grow further in the future as the Emperor did with his own Custodians but for now I think I'd content myself with just these four slightly brighter souls as a form of testing out that idea. Something to think about later but I would investigate the souls for now at least, get to know them and see how well I can influence them. Thankfully two of them were close to one another so I didn't have to spread myself overly thin to reach them.

Rolling my neck around a little in preparation to act I then flared out my wings and felt them detach from my back. The minor instances of connection to my own mind that inhabited each wing then shot off leaving me with plenty of time to slowly and delicately work on my own body over the course of the night.

My lips curling upwards slightly as I felt this might be some providence of some sort. The warp here reaching out to aid its currently strongest inhabitant in its wishes and will.

I might like becoming a god.

The idea had me softly laughing in amusement as the majority of my mind was brought to bare upon mine own flesh. Making sure I'd cleaned my body in full and beginning my changes of it in truth.

At least now I knew exactly what I'd be doing during the nights I managed to recreate this phenomenon on. I just had to hope my body could keep up with the changes I'd bring upon it. Perhaps I'd have Sekhet make some dense nutrient paste to consume during the day and dense nutrient iv's to help with the work during the night?

-/-/-

"What's the matter? Nazi Bitch not gonna say anything?!" The boy screamed before the fist thundered into her face and sent her sprawling on the ground. She coughed and looked up through eyes stinging with unshed tears as the black boy took hold of a large stone and raised it above his head.

"Well isn't this just utterly pathetic." A new voice, inhuman and echoing, bored and unamused sounded that made both freeze in their tracks. The owner of the voice standing over both of them and staring them down with four glowing pale blue eyes before a feathered wing, the colour of pitch black, swung out and the boy dissipated like a bubble of smoke burst open.

"Too stupid to understand that by acting like an animal all he'd do is prove that stupid ideology true in the end in the minds of its followers. Then again children so often are too stupid to realize the consequences of their actions. Or is the term naïve?" The being spoke to itself but reached out to her and she flinched back. Trying to scoot back from the clawed hand reaching for her.

The hand hesitating as it had been reaching out to her then turning around in a clear offer to help her up. "I mean you no harm child." The voice lost a bit of its inhuman echoing quality and became soft, enough that Tammi recognized it as not an it but a her.

"W-who… what are you?" She asked as she skittishly and hesitantly took the offered hand and was pulled up to her feet. Her eyes looking around and seeing that they were no longer in the juvenile centres yard but instead on top of the Medhall building. The wind chilly yet gentle as it tugged at her hair and robes even if her face was left bare and hood pulled back.

The being looked her over, she could see the amusement twinkling in those eyes that shone pale blue but had a single slash of vertical white acting as the pupil which showed the beings focus on her. As she took a step back she saw more as she took the being in fully, something she noted the being actually moving to show off to her.
A strong muscular body yet feminine in an Amazonian manner, taller than any human with limbs a bit too long to be human, each finger tipped with a claw that seemed made of the void itself.

While under shadows from the now four wings spread out behind her back the pale grey skin only peaked through every so often making Tammi believe or view the thing as clothed or wrapped in shadows. The long and thin yet whip like tail that emerged from behind coiling and swaying around in an oddly playful manner as the being walked around her, showing off if the posturing and posing told her anything.
Digitigrade legs ending in four dinosaur like toes each tipped with a claw like her fingers who appeared more talons than hands. A tunic appearing made from shadows reaching down between the creatures legs and covering the body in shadow ending in a hood that covered the head.

The eyes shining in the shadowy depths as the crown of eight horns sprouted from the hood and silky and rich brown hair spilled out from its depths as well. The hair falling down to the upper abdomen and showing the swell of a modest bust that had made Tammi thing this creature was a she in the first place.

Her observation and thoughts brought back to focus as the amused sound of the beings voice echoed once more. "Enjoying what you see?" She asked in a highly amused tone though the slight suggestive nature of the tone had Tammi blush furiously.

Then she froze as the being moved, one minute several steps away and posing like some sensual body builder for her eyes to being right in front of her. One talloned finger gently running the claw along her cheek. It hadn't been teleportation as she'd seen speedsters before but it made Velocity seem slow and mundane with how this being had moved, it had been ethereal, graceful and fluid.

"I am Samael, the Arch-Fiend and your soul as piqued my interest." The being said softly and gently as her claw moved to comb through Tammi's hair. She shivered and felt horror rise up in her at the parallels to how her mother had usually helped her with her long blonde hair. The way the claws gently scraped across her scalp as Samael did so sending a shiver of fear and pleasure down her spine.

"M-my soul?" She squeaked, terror latching onto her heart at the implications and the fact this thing had just hijacked her dream. Turning it from a nightmare of memory into a nightmare of lucidity, she realized she was dreaming but she had no control besides over herself. The whispers at the edge of hearing not helping matters in the slightest.

"Oh, Yessss" Samael purred gently as she finished combing back her hair from her face and cupped her face with its hands. "It is so bright and it sparkles beyond the rest of the rabble in this city. A jewel I can't help but wish to see, to pluck for my own, maybe even possess if you'd let me~" She purred in seductive tones that had Tammi confused and scared in equal measure.

"Not yet a psyker but showing the potential for one further down your bloodline should you have descendants to pass it on to. Yet your soul is already growing to the point you might be… hmm… Very interesting..." Samael began almost muttering to herself now as she looked Tammi over with critical eyes. Eyes that made Tammi feel infinitely small and vulnerable.
"Hmm telekinetic talent… immensely so… prescience? Perhaps… Scrier to some extent…" Samael continued to mutter and Tammi froze at hearing those words.

"W-what are you doing?" She finally asked as Samael began to position Tammi's body and look her over like some mannequin she didn't want to overly twist or toy with.

"I'm observing your soul dear…" Samael purred affectionately before all four eyes focused right into her own. "You are so talented and yet so constricted by biology and that parasite both."

Tammi frowned at hearing that but Samael continued. "If your body allowed you to be a psyker what you can do now would be little more than parlour tricks to entertain children." The being said before raising one hand up in an 'observe' gesture and pointed out towards the city at large.

Tammi's eyes went wide as sky scrappers ripped themselves to pieces and began to swirl and grind together in a maelstrom of power the likes she dreamed to be capable of. The debris flying in strange esoteric patterns in the air before rearranging themselves into a wholly new structure of alien design that hurt her mind to see for a brief moment before she managed to wrap her mind around the restructured shape.

"This is the sort of power you'd be capable of and so much more. This is why your soul is a like a beacon or torch in a sea of sputtering candlelight's to my eyes. Why I was drawn to you from the sea of souls." Samael said gently, her touch now no longer frightening to Tammi but oddly comforting as the large woman(?) crouched next to Tammi and held onto her shoulder in a comforting manner.

"I-I'm capable of… THAT?" Tammi sputtered almost unbelieving of what was before her as more debris floated out from the city to join and twist into the structure that now towered over the other skyscrapers and was reaching out with strange passages to connect to them. Like tendrils of an alien web reaching out to connect and bind everything around it.

"Oh yes." Samael said as if it was a basic matter of fact turning her head to look at Tammi when she did the same. "Would you like to learn what you can truly do as you are now? I want to teach you, take you under my wing even." Samael chuckled as Tammi felt the warm comfort of one of the larger upper pair of wings moved around her like a cloak, feeling almost like a large comforting hug around her body.

"What's the catch?" Tammi asked, her eyes narrowing slightly as Faustian bargains and other such stories from media and the like came to her mind. Fiend sounded an awful lot like some type of demon to her.

"I am not like that fustian liar Kaiser. I will play my cards straight and honestly if you'll do the same to me." Samael said with an amused little laugh. "I want you to join me. To come under my wing and into my service. Even to become mine~" Samael purred.

As Tammi's head spun at the implications Samael cupped her face once more and brought her close, close enough her breath caught. It was intimate and a fingers length from becoming an intimate kiss which sent her mind reeling in all sorts of different ways that only got worse when the words Samael said then registered.

"I want you to be mine." She'd said, in a soft loving manner, promising everything Tammi might want. She'd be treated like an adult, like her own person. She'd be listened to, taken seriously and elevated as far as she could go on the merits of her own talents and ability while provided everything she'd need to do so. If she only said yes.

She didn't register how her face was burning as other thoughts entered her mind, thoughts that would have her ridiculed and kicked out of the E88 at best, made into an example of at worst.

Biting her lips as she looked down and ran through everything in her head to try and come up with an answer. She couldn't look into those eyes, the promises and fondness that could grow to affection that they promised too distracting to allow her to think things through.
Then she brought her hands up and took a gentle yet firm hold of Samael's wrists as some instinct whispered to her that this would quite literally be a once in a lifetime opportunity for her.

All she had to do was take it. To accept becoming Samael's.

So in the end she looked up, met those four gentle blue glowing eyes that danced with amusement and wondrous curiosity with eyes full of resolve and desire of her own.
And she made her choice and answer clear. The wings closed around them in a comforting embrace and she woke up panting and sweaty in her own bed. A soft smile splitting her lips as she started to laugh.

-/-/-

She stared at the large hound standing in front of her. The garden she usually took her dogs to slightly warped around her with the overcast weather giving it a dull lifeless grey look. The breed a strange mix of Dobermann, great Dane and German shepherd, sleek, predatory and beholden of a dark sort of grace.
The green eyes staring her down causing her core to quiver under them. Instinctually causing her to lower her head in submission even if it rankled her to do so.

Yet those same instincts that had her gather and train her pack screaming at her that the hound in front of her was a natural pack leader that wouldn't think twice of putting her in her place if she proved difficult and worse should she prove hostile.

The hound letting out a soft chuff of amusement as it leaned down and sniffed at her as it circled around her. Her prone body shivering a little as she noted the way that shadow seemed to billow a little from the fur, reminding her of Grue's power yet the barely perceptible black electricity crawling within that shadow left the comparison feeling insufficient. Like comparing a shadow to what cast it in the first place.
The opened maw displaying not white teeth but black fangs that drank in the light around them while gleaming like obsidian at the same time making a dichotomy that hurt her eyes to look at.

"Hmm well aren't you an interesting study in perceptions." The hound rumbled in a distinctly feminine voice, yet the almost saurian growl and rumbling undertones to the voice had her spine tingling in ways she honestly couldn't describe how they made her feel.

Of course she flinched when the hound spoke but didn't move, her usual approach for dominance when interacting with others telling her this hound would dominate her at the slightest hint of disobedience. Something she didn't want to test even if a small voice at the back of her head told her to do so or at least try.

"You seek a pack? No… that's wrong. Hmm… what is it?" The hound muttered again as she moved and lay down in front of Rachel and still loomed over her as she was curled up on the ground before her as she was.

Rachel looked up and noted the soft look in green eyes that no canine should have. Far too intelligent and more reptilian than she was used to. She swallowed.

"Who are you?" She asked her usual grunts and short responses feeling insufficient to her now.

"I am Samael." The Hound almost purred in amusement. "Who are you?"

"Bitch…" She immediately responded then cringing to herself as the hound laughed. Though she did feel annoyed at the response, it was the way the hound laughed that somehow told her Samael wasn't laughing at her but more at the situation.

"Bitch huh?" Samael then said as she leaned forwards and nudged her nose against Rachels cheek. "Come now, I'm rather certain you aren't a bitch seeking her hound, who are you really?" Samael then asked and the soft encouraging lick at her cheek had Rachel let out a soft shaky breath that felt like all of her frustrations, all of her fears and insecurities seep out of her. This was a dream right? No one would know besides this strange dream hound so what was the harm?

So she looked up and shivered at the gentle eyes that met hers and the soft encouraging chuff Samael let out. The promise of no judgement and genuine curiosity of who she was, who she wanted to be and everything in between had her shiver. Then she started to speak, telling Samael of herself. The catharsis soon having her curled up against the Hounds flank and crying as Samael listened with immense kindness and patience she hasn't felt the likes of in living memory.

Perhaps the first time she ever felt such comfort and acceptance from anything other than canines she'd trained herself. Somehow knowing this hound wasn't a hound at all yet not caring all that much for the simple fact Samael could fully communicate with her unlike her dogs.

-/-/-

"So… you ever going to tell me who you are?… what you are?" Sherrell asked the visitor that made her dreams into lucid ones. The same visitor that had helped her tinkering in the waking world and listened to her raged filled rants towards and against Skidmark and his bastard merchants.
Her breakdown the first night as she came to terms with all of the changes to her life that had happened when the lucidity of the dream had granted her an objective view of her life. A perspective her otherwise drug addled mind would have never achieved. From the teen that ran away from home to the young adult that had been grabbed unawares in merchant territory. Drugged up to her eyeballs and half brainwashed to join them, kept in line through addiction and Skidmarks fucked up idea of a relationship.

Her eyes moving from the engine in front of her to the other woman in the garage hangar that these dreams usually took place in. The woman athletic and strongly built, rich brown hair and those piercing green eyes that Sherrell noticed had a reptilian cadence to them, marking the woman as decidedly not human to her mind.

The woman had looked up from her own strange bone like contraption that had her Tinker abilities howling in frustration of how they were supposed to work but her curiosity clawing at her to find out how they worked alongside who the woman was in truth.
The woman smiling a toothy smile that showed the elongated canines of her teeth, both upper and lower, that had her annoyed and frustrated in strange ways. Her eyes looking Sherrell up and down in a clear way that if she were unkind would have called sizing her up like a piece of meat to be bent over a table yet something about the gaze made it seem the woman saw much deeper than simply skin deep.

"You sure you want to know? I mean I'm perfectly content just spending time with you chipette~" She teased in a sensual purr that had Sherrell's core squirming in all the wrong, or right, ways but she shook her head and glared at the woman. The nickname had her feel strange even if it was used in ways that clearly didn't intend insult and more term of endearment. She was onto her though using her voice and purrs in that way to distract and wasn't going to let the woman wiggle her way out of answering her now.

Not after a week of being with her and listening to her. The woman probably knew more about Sherrell now than her supposed "boyfriend" Skidmark did.

"Answer the question please." She groused, trying to make her voice not sound like a chipmunk. The woman frowned a little before she leaned over the table she was working on and propped up her head with one hand while the other used a finger to spin around a disk against the table.

"I'm… well I'm not human as I'm sure you have been wondering, I'm also not a part of the parasite that gives you, your wondrous instincts for machinery and tinkering." That had Sherrell blink owlishly in response, much to the woman's delighted amusement if the twinkling of her eyes was anything to go by. He finger moving off the disk and pointing at the shadow she cast behind her.
"What I am is… difficult to explain really. I'm not a Parahuman either just to let you know." She continued and raised a finger to stall Sherrell's questions right as they where about to spill from her lips.

"I am Samael at least that is the name I've decided to use while among you humans." She said, the shadow of the inhuman figure that she cast now becoming much more understandable to Sherrell and the four wings that spread out had a sudden welling of terror begin in the back of her mind.
Samael clearly took notice and the tittering sound she let out sounded highly amused if in a strangely comforting manner.

"I'm not the Simurgh or any other of the high priests troublesome gets so you can stop and smother that fear in you right were it is. I do not mean you any harm Sherrell, it's quite the opposite actually."

She furrowed her brows at that. "What do you mean?" She asked and the slight yet soft smile Samael returned to her made her feel strange.

"I want you Sherrell." She said and the choice of words had all kinds of images pop up in Sherrell's mind that had her squirm a little at where she'd sat down.

"I'm.. I-I-I don't swing that way." She answered in almost a stammer on reflex, her voice sounding like a weak mutter of protest even to her ears while her thoughts swam through her head in all sorts of ways.

"Are you so sure?~" Samael purred once again before she chuckled good-naturedly as she stood up and moved around the table heading for Sherrell, causing her to breath in sharply at the saunter the woman walked with.
"While I wouldn't be against any of those thoughts likely to be running and twirling in your mind right now. That isn't what I mean, not really nor completely." Samael said as she approached and placed her hands on either side of Sherrell to pin her back against the suddenly closed hood of the hummer she'd been modifying.

"I want you for your soul Sherrell. It is like a torch in the blackest night compared to the pathetic guttering candle flames of most other humans. I want you Sherrell Bailey. In my service, my companion, confidant and partner." She said and the breath that Sherrell felt upon her neck as Samael loomed over her had her face burning with embarrassment, even as she chided herself for acting like some school girl being hit on by her crush. A comparison that didn't feel as out of place despite not being true in the least either.

"W-why?" She squeaked, some numb part of her mind commenting that this was one heck of a recruitment attempt if she ever had to guess.

"Because I hate seeing such potential wasted and unfulfilled because you aren't evolved enough. Shackled by something as mundane as biology and how advanced humanity has become so far. Then there is your mind, so limited by that parasite that has latched onto you and forces your intellect in directions you are suited for yet in such limited ways." Samael continued as she had one of her hands walk up from Sherrell's exposed belly until the hand reached her neck and gently took hold of her chin to make sure their eyes locked with one another.

"Because a short sighted fool and degenerate like Skidmark doesn't deserve someone like you." She said, Skidmarks name uttered with such contempt it almost dripped from Samael's lips. "Because I want my beautiful chippette to be healthy and hale, able to make her own decisions. Not some drugged up squealing harlot at the whims of an inconsequential shit stain like Skidmark." Samael growled inhumanly and the deep resentment of the tone had Sherrell stiffen.

Samael gently pulled her closer, almost to make their lips touch, deepening the hold Samael's gaze held with hers. "Not when you can be so, so much more if only you'd let me help you." She then softly whispered and it took a moment for Sherrel to realize her legs had almost locked around Samael's hips causing her cheeks to burn at the soft playful chuckle that Samael let out when she glanced down and then back up.
"Shall I take that as your acquiescence? Will you be mine?" The strange inhuman being in her dream asked and Sherrell bit her lower lip in thought. Then she thought of her body in the waking world and shame filled her.

"But.. I'm…" She started. She was addicted to drugs and most likely riddled with diseases that would see her dead before she was thirty if she even lived that long. Why would anyone want her for anything but her abilities as a Tinker or some druggies booty call.

"Because I want to fix you, make you whole once more and so much better than you are. To give you the keys to your potential. All I ask in return is you. In anyway you wish to give yourself to me." Samael softly answered, leaning in and kissing Sherrell's forehead.

Realizing somehow that this might well be the lifeline she'd hoped, that she'd begged, bartered and prayed for to get from under the merchant's thumb and the offer of anything she'd want Samael to be to her. The offer that Samael would be lover, friend, sister, healer or anything else Sherrell would need her to be had her clutching at the woman like the lifeline she thought her to be. Samael's hands wrapping around her and her face burying into the crook of Samael's neck. The dam finally bursting as she cried while begging for the help she'd so desperately wished for. Her heart feeling the warmth as Samael's hands wrapped around her in a comforting embrace that invoked the idea of a warm feathered blanket being used to swaddle her in.

"I will come to fetch you Sherrell but I will need you to show me where you are." Samael softly whispered into her ear. Then she woke up and her tears continued to flow as she buried her face into the pillow, wishing she could go back to sleep. Back to her comforting dreams. Back to Samael.

-/-/-

[Visited. Not Human.]

Lisa groaned as she woke up, rubbing her face as she slowly sat up in her bed. She'd been having dreams that she couldn't remember at all for the past week now always waking up to her power stating the same thing. It terrified her and had her trying her best to stay awake and it had worked for about three days before she'd been forced to bed by Bitch of all people when she'd been roaming like some zombie around the hideout.

As she put on pants and a sweater she shuffled out of her room. Rubbing at her face as she yawned from how tired she was. Another side effect of these strange dreams she was getting, she felt drained and even when she slept the whole night she woke up feeling like she'd already been awake for twenty hours already.

As she stumbled out of her room and was heading towards the bathroom to hopefully wash some of the tiredness away she came to a halt as she noted Alec standing in the middle of the living room of the hideout staring at the kitchen nook. Stumbling over to him she looked him up and down before following his gaze and freezing as her sluggish brain came to a halt.

Bitch was in the kitchen cooking, and as bizarre as that was the thing that caught her attention was the fact she was cooking for them as well as her dogs. The three dogs happily noses deep in their bowls to the side as she fried up some sausages and eggs that clearly was enough for the three of them.

[Happy, load lifted, anticipating something.]

Lisa blinked and shook her head before she headed into the bathroom to wash her face and finally wake up properly before she came out again. Alec still standing frozen in shock staring at Bitch as she'd started humming some tune Lisa couldn't for the life of her place.

"So… think she's mastered?" Alec stage half stage-whispered to Lisa as she moved to stand next to him again as they observed Bitch's behaviour.

Lisa was about to answer when her power snagged on something that Bitch did, she was holding a folded up booklet that she was clearly reading. Absently noting it was a booklet on dog behaviour and biology.

[Enjoying the read. Couldn't before.]

"Bitch…" Lisa started, drawing the word out just a little as she hesitantly began to approach the usually abrasive girl. "You ok?" She asked before flinching and taking a step back when she turned around. She was pleasantly smiling, actually smiling!

Granted it wasn't some wide ear to ear smile that showed teeth, she wasn't showing any teeth in fact, but it was a pleasant smile none the less. Lisa only snapping out of the deer in headlights state she'd been shunted into from the sight when Bitch placed a steaming mug of coffee on the table for her to enjoy. The soft grunt she let out not like usual though still familiar enough that Lisa could restart her own brain again.

"You want breakfast?" Bitch asked as she turned around again and started to portion off what she'd cooked into three portions. Alec starring after he'd moved to the table in an almost mechanical way and sitting down. The sound of his rumbling stomach plenty explanation of why he had.

Lisa observing him as he hesitantly took a bite of the breakfast on offer and then start scarfing it down like a starving animal provided succour. It made Lisa swallow in unease before she sat down herself and taking a sip of the caffeine go-juice she was feeling in desperate need of.

"You know if Bitch is mastered can we keep her like this?" Alec said with his eyes almost shining from how he was scarfing down his own food already halfway done with his plate already. "I hadn't imagined she'd be a good cook!"

Bitch snorted in amusement, actually snorted! "Don't get used to it Alec." She said as she started in on her own plate after putting away everything to be cleaned once she'd finished.

"Who are you?" Lisa asked so utterly out of her element at the change to Bitch's behaviour and disposition that she felt lost, even her own power momentarily drawing a blank on the situation.

Bitch shrugged as she looked down, appearing more like her usual self if in a more pleasant mood than usual now. "I met someone, she's been… nice. Even been teaching me how to read." She answered as her cheeks got slightly rosier than was usual for her.

[Embarrassed she had to admit her lack of ability. Fondness for the teacher.]

Alec's fork dropped out of his hand and he looked at her incredulously. "How?! You've been cooped up in the hideout with me for the past week, only time you leave is to walk your dogs and that's it, most of the time you've been napping. Tat's the one with the computers and I haven't seen you even use a phone!" He asked in his incredulity and bafflement.

Bitch shrugged. "She's not human and we've been meeting through dreams." The statement said so innocently so matter of factly that she might as well have been saying the sky's blue but it hit Lisa like a brick shithouse. Her mind snagging and halting like a piece of cloth thrown into delicate clockwork gears, stalling the machinery in their place.

The mug falling from her fingers and shattering on the floor as she remembered the statement her power had woken her up to since she'd started sleeping so badly. Both Alec and Rachel looking at her in confusion and Rachel with a bit of worry in her eyes.

[Visited. Not Human.]

"Holy shit." She breathed.

-/-/- = POV Change

-/-I-/- = Time skip

Authors note:

So I was testing a bit of the other POV's and I'd love to hear how I did with the characters. Was I close or might they as well be completely different people to how Wildburn wrote them? I'd love any tips, criticisms or reviews to help me make this story better and more in line with the universe it's set in. Other than that Hope you guys have enjoyed it so far and have fantastic days! :D
Had a bit of a rework though not too much, just a little tidying up in a short edit, if you've already read it you won't have missed anything.