Ch 3: Inner Demons

Dove was holding her neck, Talou handing her a rag as Loki was still trying to get Dove to tell her anything, "Dove, say something will ya?!"

Dove glanced her way briefly before taking the rag, moving her bloody hand to hold the rag to the remarked neck, Loki seeing the buried teeth printing on her skin, "Look at your fucking neck dove, christ!"

She reached for her girlfriend but Dove jerked away, voice sharp, "Don't!"

Pink eyes glared at her, temper rising again, watching Dove turn her back to her. The two siblings eyed one another and stepped out to try to gather supplies, wanting nothing to do with this mess as Loki's voice raised, "You better tell me what the hell is going on."

Dove was digging around some cabinets for anything she could wash the itching wound with, frustrated at having it back on her skin, "Drop it Loki."

The barely stable woman growled a bit and slammed her fist to the table, startling dove for a moment, "Dammit Dove! I saw the way you were touching that thing out there! You need to tell me what's going on because this whole mess almost got me killed! Don't you fucking care?!"

Dove turned on her heels, shouting sharply back, eyes burning as they were welling up, "How dare you! How fucking dare you!"

She leaned back into a countertop, rubbing her face and taking a deep breath, forcing herself to try to regain composure. Loki Watched her carefully, the subtle tremble in her body, the watery eyes, the way her voice had pitched when she yelled. Dove was in pain. Not from the bite though she was sure that probably hurt like a bitch too. No Dove was hurting inside in a way she was struggling to keep a handle on. A crack in the facade. Like a porcelain doll that had fallen from its shelf trying desperately to remain put together.

Dove had two forms of true vulnerability that Loki knew of. One, the one more easy to catch sight of, was tied to her family or her own vices and weaknesses. Physical pains or simple moments of surface level negative feelings. But the one few people got to see, the rare moments like this one, those were delicate. The wrong words or actions and a person could kiss goodbye any true ability to know the woman. While dove was one you normally handled roughly and with fierce dominance, these rare moments required a different kind of care.

Loki stumbled closer, willing her weak numb legs forward, until her hands braced the counter on either side of Dove, softening her voice though still staying strong, "Hey… you're inside where it's safe. Breathe Babe."

Dove's shoulders were shaking as Loki reached and took the rag, doing her best to try to help clean Dove up but the woman kept pulling away, keeping the wound from Loki's eyes. Pink orbs scanned over the shame across Dove's face. She lifted Dove's chin, "Tell me who that is."

Dove pulled her chin away, looking anywhere else, "I won't."

"Tell me now" Loki demanded more firmly, forcing her face back again.

Again Dove tried to look away, her own tone starting to fail her, "I can't."

Loki gripped her chin tight, staring straight into Dove's eyes, "Babe, I would die for you. But it isn't fair to ask me to lay my life down and not tell me what it is that is going to take it from me. Who is that out there and why is it so interested in you? Tell me. Tell me right now or I will leave."

Dove's eyes widened a bit, surprised at how serious Loki sounded. Slow tears rolled down her face, "Why are you making me do this?"

When Loki didn't say anything, still waiting with waning patience, Dove whimpered, "I was a stupid teenager Loki. We were lonely and I…"

"She is the one who hurt you so badly isn't she? That faunus marked you once and now she is marking you again right?" Loki's voice was impossible for Dove to read, unsure what to make of how the woman was taking this information.

Dove couldn't answer, averting her eyes, "Please stop… I don't want to talk about all this… I just want to forget about all of it. Why does this have to keep following me everywhere… haunting me like this…"

Suddenly, the collar of her coat was grasped in Loki's hand, pulling a gasp from Dove as Loki yanked her back onto the counter, stepping closer, staring at her with a dark expression, eyes glaring at her, "Say you love me and I'll drop it."

Dove stared into Loki's angry eyes and bit her lower lip but shame filled her deeply and another tear fell, "Loki please stop…"

Loki gave her a sharp jerk, "Say it! It's not enough anymore to just expect me to know. Not when you let that… that thing that tried to kill me mark you like it owns you. Now say it!"

More tears rolled down from those two colored eyes watching the woman that held her in her grasp. Loki, for all her pain and injury, was still very strong. Dove loved her so much but she was right. Wendie had not only marked her skin in the past but still there fresh on her flesh was that mark again, proof that faunus claimed her body for itself like some sort of prize. All this time Dove had remembered it was once there, she had let it linger in her mind holding her back from truly moving forward with her love life and so had she really let go of Wendie to be with Loki? Was Loki right? Was Dove just pulling her along? "Please don't do this…"

"Say it dammit!" Loki shouted inches from her face, trying desperately to hold herself up on weak legs as she raised her other hand and gripped the other coat lapel, practically slamming Dove back into the cabinet.

The woman yelped in Loki's grasp, closing her eyes, her voice barely a whisper, "I love you so much Loki. I was so scared when you got hurt… please… I can't do this… this is all too much…"

She felt Loki slam her again and she gasped, coughing a bit as the air was knocked from her lungs, squeezing her eyes shut and her knees shaking at Loki's hips, feeling her breath on her face. Dove still turned her head trying to hide her neck from Loki's eyes, as if it was some disgraceful sign she had willingly cheated or betrayed Loki in some way even though she didn't want anything to do with this mark and hadn't for years now. She just wanted to be with the woman who was holding her against the cabinet and try to finally be happy in her life.

"Oh, you can't do this? You?! What is it gonna try to fuck you next?! Huh?! Am I gonna end up dead so it can take you off into the sunset like some god damn fairytale bullshit?!" Loki was livid but there was her own hurt in some of her words.

Dove felt a tight hand grab her chin and force her face to turn against her pleading protests, revealing the branded bite, "You truly are some slut aren't you? You get your rocks off over monsters too I bet. Is that what I am to you, a good time while your monster is away? Bet you knew all along that thing was your old fuck buddy didn't you?!"

Dove whimpered, knees squeezing against Loki's hips trying to gain some ground between them as she reached, gripping at Loki's arms with soft fingers, "Loki… never…please… I didn't want this. I just want you."

Scorching pink eyes bore into hers, watching Dove's tears. Loki pressed into Dove harshly and pressed her head so hard into the cabinet Dove felt dizzy for a moment, "tell me who you belong to!"

Dove gasped a bit, nails digging a bit into Loki's arms as she tried to rub her fingers along the skin, attempting to massage into the skin, trying anything she could to convince the hurt woman that she only loved her, but her voice was failing her and she hardly made a sound, "y…you…"

Loki shoved her arms off and pressed her head back again, reaching with her other hand to grip over the bite mark and squeeze it tightly, making Dove see spots and squirm in her firm grip for mercy, "Tell me who your heart and body truly belongs to!"

Dove choked a bit, closing her eyes for a moment before letting herself relax. She took in a few shaky breaths and rested her knees into Loki's sides, legs tucking behind the woman's hips and gently pulling Loki closer, slowly opening her eyes, "You. Loki can't you see I only have eyes for you? I attacked the beast to protect you. It bit me because I am covered in you."

Weak hands cautiously reached up to Loki's cheeks, "I'm sorry. I don't know what to do to prove to you I love you and you have nothing to worry about. She was from my past. I was a stupid teenager who didn't know any better. I just want to be with you Loki please… please believe me… please…"

Loki allowed Dove to lean close and kiss her, feeling her shaking body pressing close to her own as she let her hands hold the woman. Loki grew up around a lot of faunus. She knew how serious these bite claims were and she couldn't help feeling cheated and jealous especially with Dove refusing to tell her about the faunus or let her see it. The fact Dove didn't say those words wasn't helping nor her body barely able to stand from the spinal damage still trying to recover. Whether Dove wanted this mark or not, it was about equivalent to kissing someone else and knowing this was someone Dove clearly had history with did nothing to help the situation.

Loki shoved Dove back again with her own body, lips still pressed to hers as she gripped her thighs tightly, feeling Dove tremble at her touch. Her tongue and teeth traveled along skin biting at Dove's lip before gnawing aggressively at the marred flesh on her neck, refusing to relent even as Dove jerked and shook at the pain, closing her eyes and listening to her lover's whimpers and moans and feeling Dove clinging to her shoulders tightly.

Loki's teeth were relentless as they forced into the injured skin, tearing at the wound to tatter the mark so it was no longer clean, destroying the faunus's evidence on it, the taste of copper thick in her mouth making her groan a bit but she let it slide from her lips and tongue down Dove's neck and chest. Dove's neck was searing in pain and her hips twitched against Loki even when it was too much pain, fully aware Loki was trying to change the mark to take away the faunus from her skin and desperate for Loki to do so too.

Her nails dug into Loki's shoulders when the burning pain shot through her nerves and was too much, body pressing tightly into Loki trying her best not to rip away, the tight grip on her thighs yanking her closer as the two squirmed, Loki determined to prove Dove was hers, rolling her hips into the other's in heavy grinding, making Dove dizzy in all the various signals going to her brain.

It was way too much. Between the intense pain, all the emotional distress, and Loki's amazing movements against her soaking core, Dove was falling through either bliss or delirium or both, even Dove wasn't sure but she was sure she was losing consciousness and felt herself slump into Loki who struggled to hold her up, the whispers all she heard before that eerie shriek in the woods then she was slipping into the black, "Don't you ever waver again with that thing."

—-

The beast was stalking around the cabin at the trees, senses able to smell Loki within the building, hunting the woman who had taken her Dove from her. Wendie had no awareness that any time had passed, still believing she was back with Dove before the final year at Signal so this all felt terribly messed up to the beast.

From where it stood, it could see inside the cabin windows and grew angry at the sight of Loki touching what was hers in such ways but when it was clear Loki was biting Dove and "mating" Dove, the faunus was losing her mind with fury, shrieking a grotesque howl and stalking the home closer, daring to wander around the clearings nearby.

If she could enter the cabin. she would slice Loki to bits but it was protected with ancient wards and kept her from stepping foot there. No matter, she could wait them out until they were starving. The creature spotted Talou and Luna returning to the cabin and growled, quietly advancing. She needed to send the two a warning. No one was safe and no one would get out alive unless Wendie wanted them to.

Sharp claws swiped down on the unsuspecting Talou who was a bit too slow to truly keep up with Luna, slicing him into several pieces in the one powerful quiet swing. When Luna turned to see how far back he had fallen and to wait for him, she screamed out, his body laying in pieces with Wendie hunched over, red eyes in a dead stare on her as the beast devoured Talou in messy chunks, clicking that growl and practically taunting the woman before she took off towards the cabin.

no rush to chase her. Eventually she would need to forage or hunt again and Wendie could get her then. Patience was after all the best companion of insanity. If she wanted to drive the two to their wits ends and drive Dove back to her, she would need to be patient and induce fear into them until they went insane or kill off Loki or both. The bloody boney face watched the cabin as Luna entered, nonchalantly gnawing on Talou's meat as she did, brain calculating the best ways to destroy the two.