Chapter 50: Doomsday

Doomsday, Murray Gold (from Dr. Who)

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With the music pulsing through the floor, it was easy to forget how messed up his life had suddenly gotten. He’d lost the only thing that’d ever really mattered to him, at least, besides Lilith, and it was his own fault and the reality was, he knew that. And yet, it was for the best, all the same. Caleb couldn’t be what Morgyn needed, he didn’t think. Truth be told, he didn’t even know what that was, but he was clearly not it.

Caleb downed some of his Plasma Jane, sitting at the bar and watching the dance floor. He had no rhythm to speak of, at least, not for dancing, so he stayed where he was, watching the other patrons of the bar dance. Some of them were quite skilled, and, from time to time, they’d get the Spin Masters out on the floor. That was always a fun time, though they had a nice side-effect of making him feel even more self-conscious about his dancing.

As he watched the other dancers, his hand raised to his lips, and he took a drag off his joint. He didn’t stay in Spire for very long anymore, partially because if he did so, he had the feeling Miss Hell might follow him back there at some point, and partially because he didn’t really want to be at home smelling strongly of something that wasn’t normal to smell of.

Somewhere amid watching the dancers, and taking another drag, someone sat next to him. He didn’t even need to glance at her to know that was Miss Hell; she had a notably strong perfume she liked to use. It would’ve been less annoying, pleasant, even, if he wasn’t a vampire and it wasn’t so damned strong to him.

“Change your mind yet?” she asked coyly.

Caleb snorted. “No,” he answered. “And I don’t intend to change my mind, either.”

“I see,” she answered. “You and I both know Caleb, Morgyn’s better off without you. What else do you have, then, if not me?”

“Lilith,” Caleb answered.

“She won’t be enough, either,” Miss Hell answered. “She can’t love you the way you need to be loved, if only because she’s your sister. And there’s nothing wrong with wanting… companionship.”

“I don’t need it,” Caleb said, taking another drag, and purposely blowing the smoke in her face.

If she noticed he’d done that on purpose, she didn’t show it. “Of course you do,” she said. “Everyone does in some manner. Humans are social creatures, and everyone knows you’re more human than vampire.”

The ‘and that is pathetic’ graciously remained unspoken, but he heard it in her tone all the same. Or maybe he heard it in his head. She was his sire and all, it stood to reason she’d be able to do that sometimes. Which did lead to wondering if she was fucking with his head, because that would be right up her alley. Certainly it sounded like something she’d do.

Caleb kind of side-eyed her, then took another drag. “Maybe I am,” he said. “And maybe I’m not. It’s not really the point. The point is, I don’t need anyone.”

Miss Hell laughed quietly. “Oh honey,” she said, reaching over and brushing her fingers against his cheek. “It’s okay to need people too. But you’ve gotta need the right people.”

Caleb snorted, moving his head. “And let me guess,” he said. “You’re the right people.”

“People like you,” she said, “with all their delicate pieces and tendencies to believe the wrong things and in the wrong people, need people like me. I can keep you safe. I can stop all of this pain from ever happening again, and the only pain you’ll ever feel again is my teeth.”

Yeah, right. Caleb didn’t believe that, because she had a habit of hurting him in other ways besides the physical ones. Those too, though. He had a few scars from her that’d never gone away.

It took a ridiculous amount of something to scar a vampire.

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Caleb said. “I’m fine on my own. Go bother Markus, maybe he’ll play entertainment for you.”

Miss Hell smiled that golden honey smile, taking his hand in hers. She took a drag off his joint again, and then slid into his lap, just like the last few times they’d talked. All the little charms were on at once, and Caleb was both fascinated at how quickly she could turn them all on, and a little bit revolted at how easy it was for her. Like it meant nothing at all, and the fact of the matter was, it probably didn’t.

And the not so dull ache in his chest made him hold still this time, as she did what she always did, ran her hands up his chest, leaned over with that mischievous glint in her eyes. He didn’t turn away, either, when her lips met his, and he remembered she tasted like blood and danger, which he both found fascinating and hated.

Still, he didn’t want to push her away, he wanted her against him, someone against him, he wanted the touch of someone else, he wanted Morgyn’s touch, but that was a long gone pipe dream. He wanted Morgyn so badly it was like a buzzing under his skin, and for some reason, he didn’t push her away, though he knew he should. Instead, he reached over and gently tilted her head slightly with his fingertips, and his tongue dove into her mouth.

She loved every second of it, happily reciprocating, shifting in his lap to grind against him, and Caleb found it took a lot of control not to throw her against the bar and fuck her right there. He could almost taste her desire, and it was turning him on, but like it always did, thoughts of Morgyn flashed through his mind. Abruptly, he backed up, separating from her, and shoved her back into her seat.

“Damn it,” she huffed, breathing slightly irregular. “I will eventually get you to submit to me. I’ve managed it before, Caleb, and I will do it again.”

Caleb stood up, finished off his Plasma Jane, took a drag off his joint, and walked away. She always said that. And he always resisted her.

* * *

If he hurried, he could get to the library before it got too crowded, and maybe get some things done without the peanut gallery enforcing the illogical and irrelevant separation of Laurel into dragon and lobster sides (seriously?). Ezio still had a little bit of coursework left before the end of term, and his graduation, and now would be a really terrible time to start failing. He intended to do everything in his power not to fail, but it was turning out more difficult this last term than it had been the entire rest of his time in school.

Ezio gathered up his books, shoving them into his messenger bag, finished off his tea, and then headed for the front door. “Be back in a few hours!” he called, more for Cassandra and Drake’s benefit.

“Okay!” Cassie’s voice answered from the dining room. “Be safe!”

Yeah, he’d sure try. But somehow he had a feeling Morgyn was going to start having fewer issues with Sarnai, and he was going to end up with more. With any luck, she’d give him long enough to mostly recover from being thrown around Uptown and crashing through glass. (On more than one occasion, Cassandra and Drake had threatened to take him to Troi if he didn’t quit moving around so much.)

He scurried out into the entryway, pressing the button for the elevator. There were apartments on the lower floors, but for the most part, the elevator was rarely ever hung up for long. It came within a few seconds, dinged, and Ezio stepped in, pressing the button for the ground floor.

“Wait a second,” Caleb said, stepping out and heading for the elevator, too.

Ezio reached out, stopping the doors from closing, to let him in. As soon as he’d made it, Ezio let go, and the doors closed, and the elevator headed down.

“Thanks,” Caleb said.

Ezio smiled. “You’re welcome.” He smelled just slightly of smoke and something else, but that wasn’t normal cigarette smoke, he didn’t think. Why would Caleb smell like smoke? It seemed kind of rude to just lean over and breathe in right next to him, so Ezio didn’t do that, resting his hands on his messenger bag. He had no idea what to say to Caleb anyway, so maybe it would be better if they didn’t talk at all.

Of course, Caleb did have a habit of asking him for advice, because no one understood Morgyn the way Ezio did, but he really hoped Caleb wouldn’t. He wasn’t sure what to tell him, except, ‘stop being an asshole’? Was that even proper advice to begin with? Ezio was thinking, no.

They rode in silence, though Caleb kept glancing at him. Ezio pretended not to notice. The elevator came to a stop, and the doors opened. Ezio moved to step out, but Caleb grabbed his wrist and pinned it against the elevator wall.

Ezio sucked a breath in out of surprise, but when his grey eyes met Caleb’s, strangely, he didn’t feel terribly afraid of him.

The elevator door closed. Caleb didn’t look away, and neither did Ezio. Then, Caleb reached up, and gently pulled Ezio’s glasses off. Ezio blinked a few times, but the blurriness didn’t quite go away, of course. It was kind of a shame. Caleb’s eyes were gorgeous, and Ezio rather liked being able to see them clearly. It might also help for figuring out what in the fuck he was doing.

“You,” Caleb said, almost under his breath, “are ridiculously beautiful.”

Wait, what? Okay wait a minute, of course Caleb thought that because Ezio looked exactly like Morgyn, okay, yeah, that made sense. Alright. That explained in his head, Ezio squinted slightly.

“Uh, thank you?” he said, his tone making it more of a question. “Are you going to let go?”

“Yes,” Caleb answered. And then didn’t let go. It was starting to hurt a little, but he didn’t think Caleb was doing it on purpose.

All the same, he could feel his stress response start to react. But something in Caleb’s eyes, the way he was talking, it was very weird for him. Ezio breathed in through his mouth slightly, and caught the slight tang of something weirdly familiar in that smoke scent Caleb was giving off.

Alright… what was he on? Ezio was familiar enough with the tang of drugs to be able to recognise that as one. It was right there, but he couldn’t say off-hand what it was, and Ezio didn’t think asking was going to go well.

“Ezio, I-” Caleb started, but cut himself off again. Then, he handed Ezio his glasses back. Ezio slid them back on. “Never mind. I’m sorry.”

Caleb let his wrist go. It fell suddenly, and Ezio caught it, and then Caleb turned away. Ezio reached over, taking his hand. Caleb turned back around, looking a bit confused.

Ezio had never been afraid of Caleb, and he saw no reason for that to change now. “Caleb, are you…” Ezio trailed off slightly. “Okay? Are you okay?” That was a very good question about now, because no, he didn’t think Caleb was okay.

And then suddenly, Caleb shifted and pinned him against the elevator wall, this time with his entire body, and Ezio barely registered it before Caleb’s lips were on his. Come to think, if he could taste it, he might be able to figure out what it was. It only took a slight nudge, Ezio parted his lips and Caleb immediately took the invitation and dove right in. Ezio was paying attention to the flavour; the drugs he was on, not him, though he found he strangely didn’t mind him, either. Ah, actually, Ezio thought that it tasted distinctly like synthetic cannabinoids.

Oh man, that’d be really fucking with his anxiety. But it wasn’t unheard of for people to end up doing synthetics trying to deal with anxiety, and Ezio could absolutely see Caleb falling for it.

The fuck was he going to do with this? One thing at a time, Caleb was all over him right now and Ezio wasn’t sure how far he wanted to let him go. Caleb was high as fuck, if he still tasted this strongly of the shit (hopefully it didn’t give him a high, too), and Ezio didn’t think consent was really possible when one was this high. On the other hand, Caleb’s hand just went down his pants, and clearly he knew what he thought he wanted.

What were the rules for this anyway? He was pretty sure it was bad form to fuck your twin’s ex-boyfriend. It was made even worse by the reality that Morgyn was still in love with Caleb, and Ezio knew that. Not that Morgyn was a jealous type, so maybe it would be just fine. Just a couple friends shagging each other because one really needed the intimacy, or something like that, right? It wasn’t like it meant anything, and Caleb was probably only interested in him because he looked so much like Morgyn.

(Everyone always fucking was.)

But then it would be upsetting, probably, if Caleb fucked him first before Morgyn, all things considered. And then there were Drake and Cassandra to consider. They didn’t mind each other, but they hadn’t exactly had the conversation about what to do if Caleb started kissing him like it was from Ezio that he drew breath.

Shit fuck mother fucking unholy god damn it.

It took some shoving, but Ezio got Caleb separated from him. And the hurt in his eyes from just that, it was almost enough to make Ezio’s heart hurt. Shit, that wasn’t something he’d considered just yet; he could seriously hurt Caleb’s feelings telling him no, but…

“Caleb, not here,” he said. Right, yes, okay, redirect him somewhere else, and maybe Ezio could figure out what to do from there. Crap, though, Caleb had started to get him turned on.

Caleb was breathing a little hard, but he turned away, eyes darting around the elevator, and then he wrapped his arms around Ezio’s waist.

“Teleport,” Caleb said.

Ezio looked up at him. “Where?”

“Rattlesnake,” Caleb answered. “In Oasis Springs.”

Ezio nodded once, and before he could think about it too hard and linger too long, pooled his magic, and teleported them.

* * *

“Wait, Caleb-“

There was almost no point in making any noise about it, because Caleb hardly paid it any mind. Ezio wasn’t terribly surprised, given this was a very high, and very upset Caleb. They’d gotten where they were going, apparently a hotel not far from Rattlesnake, and Caleb wasted no time practically throwing Ezio onto the bed and kissing him stupid, or really trying.

Lord knew the poor boy probably needed the closeness and the warmth, and Ezio looked so much like Morgyn it was probably quite easy to convince himself the difference didn’t matter. Or maybe he was so far fucking gone he couldn’t tell there was a difference.

Ezio didn’t want to hurt him, though, either emotionally or physically. Sure, Ezio could get him off him, no problem, but he could hurt Caleb along the way.

Almost instinctively, Ezio shifted around under him, trying to scoot out from under Caleb without having to shove him off first. Caleb grabbed his wrist and held him down. Panic started crawling up Ezio’s spine, but he closed his eyes, took a breath in, and another… it was Caleb. He’d never been afraid of Caleb before…

As gently as he could, Ezio pushed Caleb upward. Caleb at least separated from his lips, and stared at him in confusion.

“Not now,” Ezio said. “Not with you like this.”

“Like what?” Caleb asked. “Morgyn please…”

Ezio closed his eyes for a moment, and breathed out. That stung. But he didn’t think Caleb knew who the fuck he was, nor did he think Caleb was sober enough to know who the hell he was in bed with. The truth was, if they slept together, it’d just overcomplicate everything, and they’d both probably end up feeling terrible about it. Ezio didn’t want that. They both deserved better than more regrets and bad memories.

“You’re high,” Ezio said, brushing Caleb’s hair out of his face.

“No I’m not,” Caleb answered.

“Count to ten,” Ezio said. “If you can do that then we’ll talk.”

Caleb made a face. “One… five, nine, ten.”

Ezio smiled. “Come here,” he said.

Caleb immediately attempted to go back to kissing him, but Ezio gently pushed him back again. “No, hold me,” he said. “And lose this.” Ezio reached over and pulled Caleb’s shirt over his head, then his own. There were a few bandages still around his chest and his waist from slamming into things, but they were all still off-white. He hadn’t torn anything open recently, thankfully. Some shifting around, and Ezio then held his arms out.

Caleb looked a little confused, but then slid his arms around Ezio, and laid down on his chest. Almost immediately, he seemed to relax a little.

“See?” Ezio said softly, one arm draping over Caleb’s back, the other raising so that Ezio’s fingers could get lost in Caleb’s hair. Gently, he slid his fingers through the strands. “There are ways of being intimate without sex.”

Under his gentle touch, Caleb seemed to kind of melt into him. But he was calmer, and quieter, and he wasn’t trying to get into Ezio’s pants, either. Absently, Ezio started humming under his breath, a song his and Morgyn’s mother used to sing when there were storms and they couldn’t sleep. His hands sparked with magic, layer after layer of spell going into Caleb’s hair.

And just like that, Caleb passed out. If Ezio remembered rightly, he had trouble with nightmares. The spells would keep him from dreaming. Ezio reached into his pocket, sending Drake a text message to tell him that he wouldn’t be home tonight, set it on the side table, and curled around Caleb almost protectively.

The sunlight streaming through the windows was the next thing Ezio was aware of. Caleb hadn’t moved all night, and Ezio hadn’t moved much, either. Caleb was at least still breathing, soft little puffs that almost tickled Ezio’s arm. He was an early riser, so it didn’t surprise him that he was awake before Caleb was. Of course, Ezio wasn’t entirely sure how long he’d just knocked Caleb out for, either, but he should be waking up soon.

Idly, Ezio pet his hair, watching the sun come up over the horizon. Oasis Springs wasn’t his favourite place to be, but he didn’t dislike it, either.

Eventually, Ezio didn’t know how long it was, Caleb began to stir. He moved slightly, nuzzling under Ezio’s chin, stretching his legs out. If Ezio remembered right, waking from those knock-out spells was kind of slow-going, but that was why Ezio had chosen those, at least in part. Then, Caleb suddenly jolted awake, looking up at Ezio in surprise.

“You… are not who I was expecting,” Caleb said.

“I’m quite sure,” Ezio answered.

“Oh fuck, I just fucked Morgyn’s brother,” Caleb said. “Oh god. I am so sorry.”

“No,” Ezio said. “It’s fine. We didn’t actually do anything. … okay you kind of kissed me like you were trying to suck out my soul a lot, but I didn’t let you go further than that, it’s okay.”

Caleb kind of loosed a sigh of relief. “Thank god.”

“No, thank me,” Ezio said. “So anyway, you’re on spice.”

Caleb sat up, turning away to watch the sunlight filtering through the window. “How’d you know?” he asked.

Ezio snorted. “I did tell you I used to deal, right?”

“Yeah, I guess you mentioned that,” Caleb said.

“It has a distinct taste,” Ezio said, sitting up and scooting over to sit on the edge of the bed with him. “You do know what that stuff does to you, right?”

“I’m a vampire,” Caleb said. “It won’t kill me.”

“That’s the least of the concerning things on the list of what it can do,” Ezio said. “Paranoia, hallucinations, episodes of psychosis, violent behaviour, Caleb, this stuff’s pretty nasty.”

“It keeps me calm,” Caleb said.

“Yeah, and then it turns you into a borderline psychotic mess,” Ezio answered. “You didn’t wonder why suddenly you don’t trust anyone anymore? Why you turned on Morgyn and started questioning things that didn’t matter before? Caleb, it’s this shit.”

“Oh what the fuck would you know,” Caleb snarled, standing up and pacing around. “It’s how I stay functioning.”

“I know you think it is,” Ezio said. “I know a lot more than you think I do. I know how you work. You’re an empath, Caleb, you take other people’s problems into yourself and you make them your own, and I know that it hurts. God, sometimes it hurts so much you can’t breathe, can’t think, feel like nothing will ever be right again, and damn if Morgyn doesn’t have hurts that run really deeply.” Ezio breathed out, standing up and taking Caleb’s hand.

Caleb stopped pacing, looking at him.

“But this isn’t how you process that,” Ezio said softly. “This only makes it worse. You have to stop, Caleb. Before it destroys your life and makes you think you’re better off for it.”

Caleb didn’t say anything, just watched him. And then pulled his hand out of Ezio’s. “Don’t look at me like that,” he said, then picked his shirt up off the floor, and walked out the door.

Ezio closed his eyes for a moment, and then sat back down on the edge of the bed. Caleb had to want out of this. Ezio couldn’t make him stop this.

* * *

The barrier was slowly coming down. It’d taken almost a week of working on it, but Drake had made good progress on it. Lilith breathed out, watching him work.

“How long do you think it’ll take from here?” she asked.

Drake shrugged. “Maybe another day or two,” he said. “This is a pretty tough barrier, but I’ve broken worse.”

Lilith looked curious, but she didn’t ask. Drake was a relatively secretive person, and Lilith had already resigned herself to never fully understanding him. It was just as well. It gave him a nice mystery vibe that would probably be really useful for snagging the ladies, you know, if he cared to. But no, of course not. Drake only liked Ezio, and that had remained true for over two hundred years.

Drake and Ezio were goals, to be honest.

“So when it breaks,” Inna started, over there helping Drake in taking the barrier down, “do we have a plan of attack?”

Lilith shook her head. “Not really,” she answered. “Unfortunately, by now, they’d have to be pretty stupid not to notice we’ve been out here hammering their barrier, so they’ll probably be expecting us.”

“Probably,” Inna answered. “That’s why… having a plan of our own is probably a good idea.”

Lilith went quiet for a moment, thinking it over. Miss Hell was the more dangerous of the two. Not to say that Markus wasn’t somewhat dangerous in his own right, but he was notably less so than Miss Hell was. Either Inna or Elle should be able to handle him on their own, but it would probably be better to send them both after Markus, just to be sure.

Taking Miss Hell down was going to be a little trickier. She was potentially still too strong for even Lilith to handle, but on the other hand, Lilith doubted it to some extent. Miss Hell thought herself the baddest cat on the street. Why would she check the alleyways or look both ways before crossing the street? Lilith had a feeling her hubris was going to lend toward her getting herself killed, but getting far enough to manage it may be somewhat trickier.

And for some reason, Lilith didn’t exactly have Caleb to fall back on, either. That wasn’t terribly surprising, he’d been inexplicably missing for the last few… uh, come to think, she’d long lost track of when the last time he’d been home was. She should seek to rectify this when she was done with this.

At any rate, she was making battle plans. “Inna, I want you and Elle after Markus,” Lilith said.

“Got it,” Inna answered.

“I’ll take on Miss Hell,” Lilith said.

“I’ll help you, then,” Drake said.

“You’re helping?” Lilith asked. That was news to her, she’d figure he didn’t want anything to do with this mess. (It was kind of a mess, in all fairness.)

“Of course,” Drake answered. “I said I was going to help, and here I am, I’m helping.”

Lilith smiled. “We appreciate it, really,” she said. “I think I can handle her on my own, but I’m not entirely sure.”

“Well, now you won’t have to, at least,” Drake said. “She won’t necessarily be expecting a spellcaster hybrid, and I happen to know a few tricks. I’m no Ember in offensive magic, but I’m decent enough to get by.”

“You know my hatred of Miss Hell is kind of personal,” Lilith said. “She turned Caleb, a long time ago.”

Realisation sort of dawned in Drake’s eyes. “I see,” he said. “Then, I’ll stay out of it unless it looks like you can’t manage alone.”

“Thank you,” Lilith said, shuffling around the side of the barrier and looking at the manor. What was she going to do with it when she’d gotten it back?

Pfft. Probably, nothing.

“Why’d you back down?” Inna asked quietly, leaning over close to Drake as they worked on breaking the barrier together.

“There are two kinds of fights,” Drake said. “The first is for survival, and the second is for pride. This is the latter. Miss Hell isn’t necessarily a threat to survival, but she is a threat to Lilith’s pride. Well, Caleb’s, more accurately.”

“That’s odd,” Inna said. “I’ve never thought of the motivations behind battle and war before. It all seems really dumb to me.”

“It is,” Lilith said, shuffling back to her place near them. “The best kind of soldier is the one that never goes to war in the first place. If you can ever win a battle before ever touching the battlefield, do it.”

Inna tilted her head. “Why?”

Lilith smiled. “There are a lot of battles I could’ve won without fighting that I didn’t,” she said. “I regret that now. Regret isn’t good for anyone.”

* * *

Lilith paced around, almost impatiently. She should learn to have a little more of it, no doubt, but presently, she wasn’t really in a forgiving mood about it. She could be impatient just this once. Multiple times already, Lilith had caught sight of Miss Hell or Markus peeking at them through the windows. Oh, yes, they knew they were there, though Miss Hell seemed amused.

Lilith couldn’t wait to wipe that smug little smirk off her fucking face. That was okay. She’d get in there soon enough, and Miss Hell would have very little left to smirk about.

Ever since that day, Lilith had vowed that sooner or later, no matter how long it took her to do so, she was going to end the bitch that’d ruined Caleb’s life, even if doing so took her down too. It was probably kind of sad, but Lilith had never claimed that it wasn’t, and it was motivation to keep moving forward and striving to become better. Being realistic, it was probably some of the best motivation for that she could’ve come up with.

And so, when she’d decided to become friends with Miss Hell, it was more to learn her. To learn her style of battle, how she handled herself in fights, the kinds of tactics she’d tend to use, and Lilith studied them. Because one day she was going to bring all of Miss Hell’s cute little methods and planning down, along with her and her glass castle.

Yes, once, they could’ve been called friends. If scheming to murder one another the entire time was the standard of friendship anymore, and maybe in some places in the world, it was. Certainly, for a time, it was in Forgotten Hollow, and Vladislaus had found it too amusing to ruin the show.

In hindsight, he was always speaking off-hand remarks about how Lilith was the better of his offspring, and he’d never said it didn’t include Miss Hell. Somehow, the thought that Vladislaus had believed her to be the stronger of them made her think maybe she could win this after all.

No, she could. She had no room for doubt, not now. Not this close to getting what she’d strived to achieve for so long.

Drake made a startled noise, and Lilith stopped pacing. “I got it!” he said. “Ready?”

Lilith nodded. Inna moved over close to her and nodded too.

Within seconds, the barrier shook and wavered, and then fell. Lilith instantly bolted through it. Markus appeared in front of her, but she moved out of the way, and slammed into Miss Hell behind him. The two slid across the entryway in Straud manor, and then Lilith stood up and threw her back outside.

She rolled slightly, and then regained control of her trajectory, firing psychic bolts. Lilith threw her own right back, breaking every one of Miss Hell’s.

Behind them, Markus went toe to toe with Inna and Elle. While they were decent opponents alone, they were even better together. Drake shifted around the side of the manor’s parameter, and then kicked the stone. Rock shot up from the ground, hurtling towards Miss Hell. Trapped between one and the other, Miss Hell vanished, but Lilith was expecting it, turned around, and socked her in the face the second she materialised, hard enough to send her flying into the fence around Vlad’s cemetery.

The two groups held their ground decently well. A burst of lightning from Drake ended up causing Markus to get scared, however, and he stood up, looked at Miss Hell, and vanished. Inna giggled, but Elle seemed a little vexed that he’d run at all. Then, the two women turned their attention to the battle out front of Straud manor. Lilith had a few cuts by then, but Miss Hell was a little worse for wear, and Lilith showed no signs of slowing down. Drake was having slight trouble keeping up with them, but he was managing a protective barrier here and there to help Lilith minimise the amount of damage she was having to sustain.

As Inna and Elle turned and headed that way to help with Miss Hell, the vampire in question seemed to realise she was outnumbered, stood up, and vanished too with a soft snarl in Lilith’s direction.

Straud manor was theirs. Lilith breathed out. Well, that was a start. With nowhere to really hide anymore, as Miss Hell couldn’t manage defences like that without the power nexus, they had the upper hand now.

“This is bad, isn’t it?” Inna asked, looking upset.

“Why would it be bad?” Lilith asked in return.

Elle snorted. “She got away, that’s why,” Elle said. “Remember what I told you, an enemy still breathing is a problem still standing? Or whatever it was that I said.”

Lilith smiled. “We have the upper hand now,” she said quietly. “Miss Hell may have a few more places to hide, but the only good ones have covens in them, and acting a fool around the wrong coven alpha will quickly be her undoing without my interference. She’ll have to be careful now.”

“San Myshuno?” Elle asked.

“Run by the Desert Storm,” Lilith answered. “A few smaller ones have some minor territories, but most of it is Storm, and as you know, the Storm is the second oldest coven in existence.”

“Oh, right, run by the guy with the white hair,” Elle said.

“Surya,” Lilith said. “So, I need a new barrier around this place,” she mentioned, turning to Drake. “How big can you make it?”

Drake smiled. “All of the Hollow, gotcha,” he said, and then went to casting.

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