"Get Malik's clothes," Dirdos said, and Jagum moved away to obey, his posture limp and broken.
No one ever paid much attention to the werecat. He was always so quiet and watchful. But he was always there, watching them all instead of watching her as they all did. He had accepted that she would never be his early on, and had made it his mission to keep her safe from them instead. It worked for the most part, their flirting always cutting off when those gold feline eyes turned on them as if to say, 'you dare to try that with such a perfect creature'? It always worked to get them to back off, knowing they would never be good enough to touch her.
But now Jagum was not glaring at them. He was slumped, and his fur glittered with his tears. He too had failed to keep her safe, though he had not thought to keep her safe from the God who had been so quiet for so long. Everyone forgot about him, and he had used that to get to her.
Turning to Uzo, the Fae was frozen in place, eyes on the spot where she had fallen as though he could still see her there, bloody, and still in death.
Uzo and he had become close since she had come back from the Hunter compound. The only ones who were allowed close to her. Why she had chosen him was a mystery, but he knew why she had attached herself to the Fae. He was her kin, and he was violently protective of her, even if she had never seen him do it.
Jaia had seen the full brunt of the Fae's wrath when they had learnt what he had done.
Uzo had been careful not to kill the vampire, but Mother it had been close.
The incident might have been funny had it not been so utterly, unexpectedly horrifying. The Fae had seemed perfectly calm about the whole thing when she had left, leaving them all to wait for her return with her blood still on the floor. He had poured the vampire a cup of tea, the pot still fresh from before the fight. Daemon had been indignant at the sight, the Fae offering the rapist tea. But Jaia had refused, his eyes furious at the attempt to kill him.
No one had seen the Fae move; it was so fast, and the vampire had screamed. Those pale fingers had curled around the back of the vampire's head, and he had smashed the delicate porcelain into the dark eye that had so captivated her. Blood splattered as the Fae ripped the cup out again and smashed it back in, and then a third time. When the cup shattered, he used the saucer and, with a terrible calmness, he smashed the shards of porcelain into the vampire's eye. Over and over and over, they watched in horrified fascination as the Fae beat a teacup into a vampire's eyeball, and then the saucer had broken.
Without missing a beat, the Fae picked up one of the knives Etani had left behind and he drove it again and again into the vampire's gut, his face entirely devoid of emotion except for that same smile he always wore, small, and polite.
The vampire had doubled over and Uzo held him by the back of the head, stabbing and stabbing until the knife no longer met resistance. Only then did the Fae stop, blood covering his clothes and face.
Turning, he had tucked his hands into his pockets and walked away, whistling a soft tune that had always drawn Etani's eyes to the man, though no one knew why.
The vampire had slumped to the floor, barely moving, and Kai had gone to him, desperate for the life of his rapist twin.
None of them had helped him, none of them wanted to sully their hands by touching him, and none of them ever drank another cup of tea again.
They had never seen the Fae the same way since, and they all immediately came to the same conclusion 'one does not fuck with Uzo.'
None of them had told her what her uncle had done. She had no idea of what the man would do to any one of them if they hurt her in any way. All while smiling and whistling to see if he could get her to smile.
***
The sobbing coming from the Goddess was tearing at his heart and he turned to the woman, so elegant and beautiful with her black fur and tall ears, white eyes, and feline face. She looked back at him, silently begging him for something he couldn't give her, and when she saw his face, she turned away bitterly.
He wanted to comfort her, but what could be do? He was just a man, and she was Goddess who had lost someone so precious to her.
Hunter had managed to get the writhing woman from the lake and had wrapped his arms and legs around her to keep her from hurting herself, screeching like a banshee herself as she sang for the loss of her twin.
Vincent moved to help his friend, and not for the first time, Versalis wondered when the two had become close. Perhaps while they had been hunting Etani down? Perhaps it was as Daemon suspected, and they hadn't been hunting her at all, but hiding her.
With what they knew about Neah, it was seeming more and more like that was the case. She had never mentioned the man before, and then he had been watching her when she returned from her attempt to run from them all.
Even he hadn't been able to sense where she was for much of her journey. The ocean had been one barrier, all that saltwater causing a barrier they all experienced. Then the mages in Istralis had kept her hidden. They had got a few glimpses of her, but then she had vanished again. He had not felt she was in danger, only sad and lost. She had appeared again in his mind a few months later and Daemon had ordered them all to go get her.
She had looked clean, tidy, and fed, partly confirming their suspicion that she was hiding out in the compound with the Hunters.
She had escaped from them again and he had felt her loss so keenly. But her scent was that of caves.
The demon had demanded to go to the caves after that, certain he would find her there, and he hadn't been wrong. She had appeared in his mind just as quickly as the demon had vanished, and they had their orders.
None of them had liked the plan, knowing it would mean a loss of her trust in them, but the demon would not be refused, and they had planted themselves in the forest.
She had appeared with the vampire male that had made them all turn wary, possibly even jealous, but the plan was in place, and they knew her.
Letari was the perfect bait, and she fell for it, the man standing back to watch the two. He watched her in the same way they all watched her and none of them liked it.
Daemon had arrived with the other two, and they all watched as the creature inched forward. Her need to be with her sister clear on her face.
They were perched in the trees, and she looked for them. She knew they were there, and yet she couldn't not go to her beloved twin. Letari was too much of a lure.
Daemon was panting in his excitement. She was so close, and they waited, eager to have her back.
She cried for the vampire to run, and they ran for her, knowing they had only seconds to get to her before she was gone again.
She threw her twin off her and she was gone, vanishing into a blur of movement, but Kai was after her. Kai would catch her; they all knew he would.
It was only minutes later that they heard the scream as they crashed through the trees and then the whistle, all heads turning. He had caught her. She was contained.
Turning in that direction, they had found her on her side on the ground, beautiful and perfect even with blood running down her arm, that blood that screamed for Versalis, demanding he take it. Jaia moved for the vampire, whose face was covered in her blood, trembling with the need to take what didn't belong to him. He wanted to hold her down and drink from her, to bury himself and move inside her while he revelled in the blood. He didn't resist his twin, and Versalis stood watching that wounded animal who had been betrayed by them all.
He had felt terrible in that moment, like they had caged a lion, and it could do nothing but pine for freedom. But then, she was back with them, and he was happy for that. They couldn't live without her in their lives. It was impossible, unthinkable.
Daemon had her by the jaw and they all saw the resentment, the betrayal. They all saw her hurt, and yet they were all too selfish to care that she was betrayed. It meant they got her back, and that was all that mattered.
The dragon pulled her up, and she yanked her arm free of him, Versalis feeling a savage glee at the rejection of him, and he found himself unable to focus on the conversation as she stood there, captivating him always and forever.
The scum vampire had returned, and he was dragging along the vampire man. Her cry told them all his name, and a vicious jealousy ripped through Versalis as he saw the way she looked at him. She had to have created him. Epharis recognised the man and when she reached him, they all tensed.
There was too much tenderness in that touch, the way her body moved around him, drawn to him.
The vampire had looked incensed at the name of the one holding him, but he went eagerly to her and clung to her like a child at his Mother's skirt.
He had been horrified and fascinated by the fact that she was even capable of turning a human. It shouldn't have been possible for her; she was less than a halfling, but so much about her defied the rules of magic. So little about her made any actual sense.
The thought that she was capable of turning a vampire was terrible, and he knew immediately that she would be in even greater danger with this new development. She had the capacity to become a vampire queen with enough effort, and what would the vampires do if they knew she could turn humans? More than that, she had created a vampire who could walk in the sun.
Versalis felt a thrill of fear for her as the demon reached for the stake. He couldn't just kill the vampire, it was sadistic. It was exactly something the demon would do if he felt threatened by her creation.
Her cries for mercy were terrible and her magic exploded out of her at the demon, ripping its way through her bindings and her flesh. How powerful was she that she could rip through the gold chain like that? He didn't think it was a good thing, and he turned his head to meet the concerned eyes of her uncle, exchanging a worried glance.
She had begged for his life as he knew she would. He understood her fear completely at that moment. She was his creator, and they had an incredible bond. Deeper than that of a Mother and her child, it was boundless, and to lose him would utterly devastate her. Odds were she would not recover from that loss, just like so many first-time creators didn't survive the loss of their scion.