Constantine The Laughing Magician Presents – Life in the Real World

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Chapter 23: I Got Lost in Your Eyes – And then, I couldn't Believe Myself When We Took it all Back for a Blood Feud in the Ancient Past!

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Sitting with cramps feeling if "is this going to be done soon" syndrome. Course work is no big but work? Around nov? Call me a dead woman walking…. and.

Another flashback forward into the after. We are still going to finish this arc up! No worries!

Here's Johnny!

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"Ah…. you, and he, Mate?"

I'd stopped by to play a game of cribbage with Chaz and the old-time heroes of my time at the usual spot. Those unsung heroes at a poker table represented some artist's impersonation of everyday strife, and that really? Half of the men at this table had it coming.

"My hand, blokes. You'd have a better shot at a win IF you have your head in the game. Not after one of my sorry stories, you'll lose even if they're bloody awful." I chuckle as Chas agrees with a sigh and a smirk.

"The count of Transylvania tried to use you, John!" Jason Blood was at my table tonight as well, and he was rife with grief over my misadventures for the very last time. Up would go the table. A shouldering pile if I didn't finish off the rest of my tale for this fussy lout of a demon knight.

"He didn't eat me, because I volunteered to do his dirty work. But he wasn't all - seeing as I'd pictured im." I grinned and showed my hand eagerly. Everyone at the table groaned. "Pay up, ya louts. It's my birthday; four in a row does sound like a better day in the life of poor, old Johnny? Doesn't it, boys? As I said." I collected chips and a fee from each party member. An annoyed Blood rolled his eyes and Chaz had to snort at my cocky behavior. Like the good ole' times, they were meant to live on. "Are we in agreement, gentlemen? One more hand on me. She if you can win back your cab fare, maybe?"

Everyone raised a hand, not Blood though. He was still waiting on his pre- bedtime fairytale.

"So." Blood sighed and sat back in his seat while I dealed - up a new deck of cards to each bloke still waiting to get served. "What happened to you inside of the Count's castle. Did the story end there, or is there more left to tell, Constantine?"

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We stood eyeing one another before the door to the Count' library shut. The wall hidden from trespassing soldiers and wizards of this dangerous world.

"Yourself. I'd call you a bleedin, fraud, highness." My words came out rather quickly, but it was all true. The fight was over humans; the bloody war beneficial to the Vampir and to the dragon, the mortals left as fodder to salvage instead of their regular intake of pigs and sheep or lustful damsels. The biggest pig right here had allowed the conspiracy of a third race of fame, and yet …it wasn't true at all.

"Humans threatened you both. This fae "creationism" was an excuse to take them away in chains."

"You're wrong, Constantine." The Count growled in his voice as his red tinted eyes spoke in waves across the floor. "Far were not responsible, yet they played a part in having the humans…. like this. A breed of them. Gone, all but a strain left like that boy in my lap."

"I don't much care for helping along criminals to find peace, always." I sneered at the fact that Dragul had called that boy a prize because if his heritage; one that was only maybe a quarter fae. "Was it a lost lov? A forbidden romance?"

"No, I…. protected the ones that I came to find." The Count seemed to be pondering a time ago. Though time would not protect us from another attack from the air. "Vampir…you're not all human but fae as well. That explains the transformation. More daemon than any I've seen. You walk like a mortal but barely, and yet –

"MORTALS were the problem, Constantine!" Hissed the angry, repressed Count. "Dragons tried to kill them, but they tried to erase us both, so? We flipped the world over and at once, the humans were to our whims. Then, then…the dragons thought they could overtake the Vampir army by force while having humans infiltrate our ranks…disguised to slaughter !"

"Ah, so the blood feud was quite…. bloody?"

"MORE than you can guess, Constantine. "Sniffed the Count as he had me follow him to the top floor again. "I need you to come with me. I want to know…. if a spy is among our ranks. A fae spy."

"Weren't they wiped out?"

"Nay." Dracula shook his messy mane and gritted his jaw, blood trickling as he didn't bother to lap it up. "The dragons and the fae…. are instead working to put us in the ground, Magi." I blinked. "So, there are armies left to fight. Why did your kind and the dragon –

"The fae, are unstoppable. We must protect what weapons we have. Because, in a way elt my throat tighten up as my knees began to buckle. "And you, sir magi…. will be the perfect weapon of my hand to carry." Grinned the floating fool. He didn't want to bed me, he wanted to use my power to sneak attack up on the dragon and fae armies! He was seducing me to the dark side, alright. But I didn't forget to stay dead to this whole issue. I had a mission to stop the war, not prolong the fighting…

"Funny thing about my alliances, Mate."

I smirked as Dracula had only to guess what I was up to, letting me from my leash to breathe.

"They, are usually…. pretty one – side-

"Ach!" I suddenly choked out a lame sound of forced gratitude. "You'll fight this battle, Magi." Dracula demanded coldly to my suffering face. "Otherwise…I know of your party's plan to live. It won't happen. Not…." He crouched to one knee beside me and gripped my throat with a mad man's touch, just as my body went slack. "Damn…. demon….!" I seethed with no strength left to fight it. This curse was all for me, a branded label across my spine if he caught my throat between his jaws. " Serve me without my bloodied brand, magi…and you may return home as you desire. If not, then I shall take your life." He grinned with pointed choppers shining back like a shark in the dark ocean waves. "In one bite , I'll make you mine. Forever."