Magi and Djinn World Tour! Student of the Dark Arts –

by INKblOt32

Raku; after beating back an alien princess's take over, now has a lot to learn as a full fledged half djinn and demi god sorcerer in training. In this series, John helps Raku to navigate his choices, to fend for himself and overcome adversity. Yet, will his actions speak loud enough when an old foe returns to find him at his weakest point? Find out!

28. Chapter 28

Magi and Djinn World Tour- Student of the Dark Arts-

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Chapter 28: Perfect Attendance…or Else.

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The boy had left his trance and Ignito had even helped to bring Raku into the present. Ignito said it was as a serpent that was molting, an analogy for the god – like might that Raku was cautious in releasing. "I'm in a trance every day of this time…I feel wrong, it's no escape from reality."

~ Mmm, nay. It is your rite, my lord.~ Ignito told the boy as he went to cast a curative spell on each of his rics that the imposter Lothos's soul had tampered with. ~ I am very sorry, not that I was able to leave your new mentor-

"It is alright, Ignito…" Raku curled up and hugged his knees to his chest as the grandfather clock swung in the House's main room. "Then again, John hasn't called. What…" Raku bit his lip, searching the floorboards for a clue. They stayed silent, those wooden tiles.

~ There are interests that even I dare not tamper. My lord? Johnathan is, quiet. This disturbs. Will Lothos not think to have attacked by now?~

"He already has, Ignito…" Sighed the boy as his hair fell to his eyes. "Whatever Lothos lies to have, it is not me. Nor is it my blood any longer."

~ Your bond to the eternal fire of creation is, still?~

Raku huffed into his arms as he hid beneath them like a scared boy. " It is, and…I cannot stop it. If it calls him to thee, then…"

"Lad?"

Raku saw the door open as he jolted, Ignito vanishing on instinct.

"You have a bit of mail, just came." The sealed note wasn't typical of human carriers as Raku bounded up, reluctant at first to grip it. "Is…"

He checked it without lifting a hand. Eyes shot open. "He…" Raku's face fell, he gripped his arms to him as he turned to the hearth. "The headmaster wants me to return, with John…"

Chas looked at the note, unopened as he gawked before realizing that Raku was growing stronger the more he dipped into the realm of his illusionary meaning. His truth, his…

"Is…this wrong, maybe I –

" It's all true. I'll be ready to face Marcus's resurrected face, but…you must come. As John's support. Please?"

Chas smiled down as the boy was hugged by the reluctant father. "I'd never live it down either if he got nipped by a vamp under my watch. You two are a pair. Sure."

Raku smiled, wiping back tears as Chas let go. "Would it be alright then to walk you in? Or am I the janitor again?"

"I'm afraid you will be something like that." Raku smiled with a sideways expression. "Till it's safe."

Right.

"Safe for all of us, lad. You and him."

/

( I know Chas just used an informal usage of "you and he, vice versa," but it's all part of his caregiver dynamic. He's a bit if a teddy now, yet like Sherlock's Watson, he knows how to keep the peace.)

John was up with a splitting headache. Zee rose to her cells call as she groaned into it once she'd set it back down. "I'm totaled. Vacation." She wined into her pillowcase. "John! I'm on hiatus with my act, so you'd better not loaf around. We have work to do."

John knew it, they all had. Last night…Lothos had scared John to shite. In his dream.

He'd been there with Zee as her Nosferatu before John had to get up to wipe off the sweat from his body in the hotel shower. Zee offered to throw wards over her own flat if they were looking to go to a safe house, though John refused it. "The energies of the other residents will mask us while Lothos powers through his plans. We have to play nice. Play along as the dolls he wants working in those classrooms…"

The thing though was not being coerced. The bags under their eyes mirrored how much manna had been taken. Incubi for Zee, Vampire for John.

It was worse than when John had been trapped in a parallel House before trying always escape and die. Over and over. Zee was the succubi in that story ( house of mystery dcau.)

Now, they were rooming together like a bunch of college dropouts. He groaned out and Zee was already towards the bathroom sink, her face as matted as drying clay. "Get up, ok? I'm making eggs if we still have anything." Zee rolled her eyes with teenaged angst as John recalled all of it. She'd learned from the best how to procrastinate on the weekly.

"Set up the Java and I'll join you, love." John brought himself to rise, only to have his ears ring very strongly –

"JOHN??" Zee ran back to his shoulders and shook. "Wake…wait! Hey!"

He gasped, as if his out if body moment were a threat on the waking dead. "Z…see? Not exactly here –

"You're taking a shower. Go!" She dragged him out of bed as he was shoved to sit on the toilet seat. Hands between his knees with his top still on and wrinkled to death, his hair and breath just as foul. Zee frowned and got the water going. "Settle in, wash off. I'll do a cleansing of the room."

"There isn't an off-switch for these episodes, Zee."

"I know." She held a hand to the side of her neck. "We'll have to try. Anything we can, just…" He got up and pulled her into a hug before patting back, letting go. "What? You think I can't feel what you feel? We did have a fling before, but it couldn't be. This time, we're equals in this mess. Understand that you are as important right now as Raku is with quieting whatever his past is attempting to start. It's a trial, Lothos wasn't wrong."

"Lilith was, Eris and Mir, they all focused on getting what they wanted…but, what you told me and not him…"

"Raku must know more than he's let on, Ignito. His little spy in the air?"

"Astral plane is more like it." Scoffed Zee as she stepped away from the nozzle to the shower. "Get in, rinse I'm making a pot of the best stuff this crappy place can find…but it'll have to do, so don't you dare complain!" She grinned and zipped to kitchenette without blinking thrice.

John though, had to wipe his face and didn't bother waiting. He got out his special lighter and lit himself a summoning towards the mirror.

~ Again we do this, John?~

The man bit his lip as Lothos yawned at him, drowsy and with the sound of a moan in the background to pick on poor Constantine.

~ I see you're refreshed, yet not freed of me. ~

"How could I be? You were in the room, while Zee thinks that inspection of our quarters was only the bloody sandman coming through! What do you really want?"

~ Want. Desire. Crave. Long for it, ah… I want you…to give to me, that spark of a soul. If I have that, Raku won't be able to match my might again. Is what you are thinking, right?~

"You have his powers, some of them you said. He's gotten stronger. I know he's unconsciously waiting to kill you, Lothos."

Smirking, he seemed once again to find John no threat to his plans. ~ Whatever catch you claim, it was as I said. Besides, I'll have my entertainment soon. For now?~

"The trade, you…what? A number? You wanted that, so leave Zee out of this first. You know you can't get a hair off of the boy. I know. He's already had demon's before; even I know, mighty as you claim –

~ I'm not. Not unless you keep saying I'm worth bargaining, otherwise…why would you be here? The mirror tricking your adverse reflection of a future traitor to that boy?~

John worded it in his head and hoped it was false.

Curiosity.

Lothos chuckled with delight at his mental answer. ~ You want to know what I'm up to so much that in order to keep an eye on them, you think being my mate is enough? How about, we trade. Something that will keep me here –

" No contracts."

~ Then, the girl.~ Girl, as in Zee to this thousand-year-old psycho.

~ Trading her life for yours isn't it, but what of manna? I can make it so that every so, I will take a moment in time, drain its essence and it will repeat. You won't lose the memory or the feeling. You'll be the perfect little machine to pump out spillage after spillage of threads to bind me down. – and if you are lucky, Constantine…~ He hinted and sat back in what looked to be a cushy armchair, ~ I'll stay, leave them be to meander and wander as free and unfettered as they can…because you don't know that boy as I have. He's nothing but a masked soul. Madness behind the meek.~

"Meek?? He was –

~ Was that why? Nay.~ The demon shook his head slowly. ~ He was born of dark beginnings, red ones. The red lord in him is waiting to pop back out into the world. It craves something it cannot gather as a magi, John! But still, I will be patient…until.~

John's breath grew to ice as the mirror warped, the demon's lips closer to his. ~ Until I tire of you. So, keep me entertained, or the deal is off.~

"W – what??" John gripped the sink's edge as Lothos laughed red puffs of smoke as a dragon, right through his nostrils and into John's poor clouded eyes.

John opened them to see his own face. He saw no marks as he stripped, getting onto the stall while scrubbing his entire self quickly. He'd now saved time. His manna was going to be drained unlimited times, but…he wasn't immortal!

Lothos could bend realities like Raku, which had John to wonder…

What was Lothos at all if he had the abilities of a time God?

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Zee made her coffee and John slouched in the seat he'd been able to find. The damned curse had grown over as a storm loud and now, the burden was dropped. Lothos had become the devil, the Nergal without the extra pecs – or from what he hid, he was toned in other ways.

John flushed red and rubbed his face, the bite itching by the lust curse. How would he tell them now? That he'd placed the burden on himself? That he had to be a walking jester until they broke it together? Raku, was the only one besides Jen, Jenny , Chas and Jack that were untouched. Zee, Michael maybe and Atticus and he were fucked truly and overtly.

"John??" Zee was at his arm again. "Not again, you're too hot all if a sudden." She ran to the fridge and grabbed an ice pack. "I come well stocked. Take your pick. Four? Two?"

"None. I needed… a pint –

"JOHN." She put down her foot and the coffee was through. "Drink, then talk to me. Where is the last place I can….get a damned book to –

"Chas will send it. We'll burn around it to nullify a reaction, after." Grumbled the magi. "Zee, Raku can't…I need to tell you, before I regret it. Lothos…"

She stayed there before knocking over the chair, eyes shut and screwed shut enough with her growl. "God – no! No! No! You…you did that?? You said we were equals, you idiot! John?"

She went around to go fir the bathroom. "It smells like you burned a curtain in here! It's…." She huffed and shut the door. "Is he gone?"

"Anytime he gets peckish, I'm his immortal meal ticket to keep you all safe. I won't die, yet if I don't keep our friend "entertained," he'll kill me then come after you. AND Raku."

"You…gambled. You're going to suffer because that's what he wants. You cannot tell Raku, he won't handle –

"Of course not! That boy wouldn't last. Ignito would get me first, then steal him off through a vortex. And, Astarte…" He shook his head. "We're dead, Zee. Lothos can read me, my mind. He snuck in there like a worm. I can't get rid of it!"

"Someone has to try. I can call in a psychic-

"You need a God's help. Another Solomon."

"Raku isn't ready." Zee bit her nail, looking out the one window as the day dawned on. "When are classes?"

"Later. Today is a Saturday. It's a late start. We have until Monday." John ran a hand over his face as the coffee tasted far too bitter. Too cold. Would this, really hurt him? Was Lothos going to pull a damned –

"We have to catch him, so I think…" Zee sighed out a deep breath. "One of us that is not …possessed, should be here when he comes back."

"In the dead of night, last night." John swallowed another chug of the mud. "He went for you, to tug at me to save…I thought it was a dream. I even woke up with…he can manipulate illusions in waking and slumber, Zee…how can we know?"

"Spells, curses. I was taught by the most powerful wizards in all the multiverse." She tried to stay positive. "We can do it, John. I'll be here, just..stop keeping secrets for a little while longer. Chas will be a janitor again. I got a spell to keep –

"Who else." John ran over the details in his mind. "Lothos disguised himself before. You know, I do. There was another contractor he had help from besides Atticus."

Zee's eyes shut as she seethed out and put her hand over her eyes "Fuuuck…."

"Conspiracy, correct." John hit the table as he snapped his fingers, The council is in cahoots, possibly the headmaster's prefect and his father. My bet is that he knows that Michael is a reused soul from another time line. Raku is already resonating, and whatever he's searching for like that demon claims…we'll find it first."

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