“Stop talking and listen,” he warns her, studying the room as though checking if anyone else is listening. “Forget the book, we’d expected you to be gone. You’re in danger, Naira. You will be hurt if you stay here any longer,” Wayra stops talking and his eyes glow an even brighter gold his fingernails slowly transition into claws. Naira notices that Kiran is no longer lazily lying on her chair with her arms crossed, rather sitting up properly and the whites of her eyes glowing a wine red, her fangs fully visible. The twins scowl, and their skin glows iridescent, with a scaly texture. Both look to be sweating profusely, as their normally dry hair now drips and covers their faces. Naira can feel the moisture start to leave the room.
“I’m sorry, I’ll leave right now if you want. It’ll only take a second,” Naira answers, clueless to what is truly happening. Her hands shake, and she feels her body tremble. She feels the urge to run to her room and lock herself in, yet she is fully aware of all of their capabilities. Mermaids, were-folk, and vampires would be difficult to escape in any normal circumstance, so she understands she stands no chance trying to escape the three.
Naira’s heart races even faster when she notices that they haven’t been staring at her.
They’ve been looking behind her.
Before she turns to check, she feels a hand on her shoulder. “Now why would she be in any danger?” a familiar voice asks. Naira turns around and sees Asha, who she thought she’d feel safe with. Her body however would not be so easily fooled as her heart pounds even harder while looking at Asha.
There’s silence for what feels like an eternity, no one moves a muscle. Naira continues to stare down at the table, unsure of what to do. “Is there something I should be aware of? If so, please do tell. Isn’t that what Kiran is here for? You are “just security” right?” Asha asks, breaking the silence, a threatening look emanating from her red eyes.
“Ow!” Naira exclaims in almost a whisper. “Asha, that hurts.” Her grip on Naira’s shoulder tightens a bit more; Kiran flinches, almost as if she wants to lunge at Asha.
“I’ve really come to like Naira. I hope you wouldn’t be trying to scare her off already,” Asha demands in a deceptive tone. Her grip on Naira’s shoulders got tighter with every word. Naira wasn’t certain if she was bleeding or not, she can’t seem to feel anything but pressure and fear. Her suspicions were only verified when she felt something warm drip down her arm. Asha lifts her hand, and makes a slurping noise that Naira can only assume is licking the fresh blood off of her hands. “Hm just as I’d expected, sweet-savory. Almost like orange chicken!” Asha shouts, letting out a chuckle, startling everyone.
“Asha, she isn’t going to be a part of this. You know that what you’re attempting to do is ridiculous. Look… we cut a deal with the SCU. They'll be here in no time, if you’d just speak to them, just maybe hear them out. I'm sure they'll be very lenient, but this… this butchery has to stop. You said you’d only have a taste and then you’d release him. You said we’d be done with this madness. Why has it gotten this far? Why can’t you see what it’s done to you? Asha, I love you dearly, but I won't allow you to hurt anyone ever again, not while I’m still breathing,” Wayra affirms calmly. Asha seems to think for a second. Naira feels her hands sweat.
“You betray me and then have the nerve to give me ultimatums. And I thought you were the smart one,” Asha’s hand swings so fast it vanishes for a second. Kiran disappears and Asha is sent flying. Naira turns to see Kiran holding a smiling Asha against the wall far behind Naira. Sharp jagged shards of red glasslike material begin to emerge from Kiran's arms and back, shredding her shirt. The twins stand up and charge toward Kiran and Asha. Kiran moves right before Chae punches Asha with enough force to slam her head back into the wall, creating a larger indentation than Kiran's initial blow did. Dean follows up immediately after Chae removes his hand.
“You bitch!” Dean shouts before punching Asha hard enough that her head flies back, leaving a hole in the wall. Wayra’s arms are covered in blonde fur and large claws replace his fingers.
“I’ll remove the heart, I’d really hoped she’d see reason. She’s too far gone” Wayra says confidently as he marches toward Asha. He lifts his hand, which resembles a cat’s paw, and goes to drive it into her chest.
Just before it grazes her, she speaks strongly, as if she was unaffected by the assault. “To me, the one thing that is worse than death, is betrayal,” she affirms, her head still resting through the black crater in the wall as she lifts her left leg and kicks his forearm away. Her left leg flies up and kicks him hard enough to daze him, and she vanishes again.
Naira feels a slight breeze, and hears a loud crash behind her. “You already tried that, remember?” Kiran protests as she stands with her crimson shard-covered foot on Asha’s neck.
“You see, I could conceive death, but I could not conceive betrayal. Let's not get carried away child,” Asha says bluntly. Long crimson tendrils emerge from Asha’s back, grabbing Kiran’s leg and slamming her into the stove, destroying it, and Kiran disappears in a puff of smoke and debris.
Asha’s tendrils lift her into the air, helping her stand thirteen feet above everyone as she scans the room and her red eyes land on the still-seated and petrified Naira. “Naira, honey, I'm sorry these treasonous degenerates had to turn this already solemn occasion into such childish pugilism. I assure you I was planning on turning you… But these cravings, these damn cravings always get the best of me. I just wanted a taste,” she licks her lips, “but something tells me you wouldn't have the stomach for what we do here. The last girl would've been a fine candidate too, but it’s kind of like… chips,” she smiles, as an attempt to empathize with Naira. Her tendrils shorten as she gets closer to Naira, “you can never stop at one.” She says while laughing with a deranged expression and towering over her once again.
Naira sits breathless, wishing she’d gone home when she had the chance. When she opens her eyes, she catches a large cat-like Wayra lunging at Asha, his claws digging into her chest.
Once he’s found his footing, he opens his large mouth and attempts to sink his teeth into her throat. “The faucets on!” Chae shouts.
“I’m on it!” Dean yells back, running toward Naira. Asha flings Wayra toward Naira, hoping he’ll crush her. Dean snatches Naira by the hood of her onesie as Wayra slams into the spot where she once sat, and slides until he slams against the wall.
“Thanks, brother,” Wayra says as he stands up.
“No problem! Naira, listen,” he speaks loudly, holding her by the shoulders, “listen to me!” he shouts when he catches her looking away. “When you reach the main area, you need to run away from here and keep running until you’re far away from here. Until then, don’t get off this stream no matter what,” Dean lifts Naira up by her underarms as you would a baby, and places her belly up on a stream of water. He grabs her shirt and tries sliding her with as much force as he can muster. “Wait!” She screams as she slides toward the kitchen’s exit leading toward the hallway.
“Awww, did you really think that’d work? I wonder where you four think you’ll be going if your little coup is successful. Your hands are just as red as mine are. The second you step into that interrogation room, you’ll be finished. All of you will be sent to Blackgate to rot. You had your chance to stop me, why now? Why must you betray me when we're just so close to our goals? Don't tell me it’s because of this simpleton,” Asha complains as one of her red tendrils extends toward Naira. Dean stands up again and takes the shot to his stomach, preventing it from striking Naira who slides, picking up more speed.
“Sorry, but my skin’s pretty tough,” Dean says, smiling at this perceived check mate.
“Oh, trust me, I’m aware.” Asha grins as her tendril splits in two and shoots toward Naira.
“No!” Dean shouts, and Naira lifts her head to see Wayra and Chae running toward her. She sees the tendrils closing in, she is sure this is where she would die.
A red blur slices both tendrils before they reach Naira.
“Did you really think that would work?” Kiran asks mockingly as she stands from the rubble of the stove clearly hurt badly. Chae dumps a pot of water onto the floor and Naira’s speed increases dramatically. She glides down the hall on the stream.
“I gotta help them! What the fuck is happening?!” Naira yells in desperation as she feels sharp pain on her neck, and realizes she's bleeding. “Dean doesn't want me to leave this stream, I won’t leave but maybe if I-” a loud explosion resounds from the kitchen, interrupting Naira’s thought. The stream slows down and Naira lays in a puddle. Naira stands and begins to run toward the exit, but remembers that her friends are fighting for their lives and hers. Naira runs toward Kiran's desk and picks up the phone.
Before getting the chance to dial 911, she hears a voice on the line already.
“Naira Ayad, this is Brandon with SCU’s intel division, I need you to list-”
Naira interrupts Brandon on the other line. “Please send help! It’s Asha! She's crazy, she's trying to kill us! My friends are gonna die, send help right now please!” Naira screams, crying profusely.
“We're aware of the situation, and SCU’s best are en-route. I just want you to calm down and listen. The premises have not been secured yet. I want you to crawl under the desk and take the phone with you,” Brandon indicates calmly. Naira quietly crawls under the desk.
“Okay… I’m under the desk,” she says in a shaky voice, still wiping tears off her face.
“Okay, good. We’re on our way, stay hidden and quiet.”
Naira pants, and she cries in between broken breaths.
“I’m sorry this is happening to you. I've personally been following this case for some time. We would have come sooner, but there were just so many politics, no one wanted to give us the proper clearance to detain her. We can talk about that later, just stay here on the phone with me and try taking deep quiet breaths. They're on the way and I hear your fri-”
“H-Hello? Can you hear me? Brandon!” Naira whispers into the phone with a trembling voice before realizing the line is completely dead. Her heart drops when she begins to hear footsteps and repeated tapping on the walls. Naira slowly and gently places the phone into her lap and covers her mouth with her hand as she tries to muffle her panicked breathing. The footsteps continue toward the desk, and they come to a sudden stop. Naira finds the silence to be more uncomfortable than the steps. With two taps on the surface of the desk, the large stone desk weighing well over two tons is lifted and tossed in front of the exit, cracking the black tiling of the floor when it lands. A man with long hair and a cane stands over a terrified Naira. He wears black leather pants, covered in chains, and black leather BDSM straps draped over his cadaverous torso.
He opens his mouth, and green smoke leaves as he exhales, and a black liquid drips from his mouth.
“Looks like I finally get to touch the newbie, that guy in the basement was no fun at all. Smart ass mouth though, I enjoyed making him scream,” he speaks in a raspy tone, as if he only smokes cigarettes and drinks acid. Naira begins to run toward the window, but is jolted by excruciating pain and collapses to the floor. The stranger grabs a kicking and screaming Naira by her hair and pulls her to the center of the room.
He speaks unintelligible words, and she finds herself floating in the air. He begins to walk around her, and with every step he takes, his menacing face grows even more detailed and grotesque. His cheeks are gaunt, his skin is almost green, his teeth jagged and rotting.
She tries to resist whatever force it is that’s holding her.
He stands in front of her, tilts his head and grabs her by the chin. “Don’t struggle. I know you’re excited, but we have plenty of time, as I was saying, your friend- Uh, what was his name? Oh, Cole. Yes, Cole. He isn’t nearly as fun as you. All he does is stare at me with those judgy elven eyes,” he shakes his head. “He said some not-so-nice things to me last night, guess he heard you were gonna be here during the feast tonight and got all angry about it. Oh, I didn't like that, I can't help how I look, but the bully just wouldn’t stop picking on me,” he squinted as if remembering. “I bet you heard him moaning last night, huh? Oh, I beat him for hours. Fuck, my hand even started to hurt. I guess all that noise was his weak attempt to warn you, but you didn't even notice, Asha told me you were dumb… but to not recognize your own friend's voice. That's somethin else. Anyway, I had to shut him up. He almost made me scramble my potions. Asha loves the guy's blood. Elven blood on its own is lethal to leeches. But when it's a hybrid… oh God is it divine. Divine!” He yells, hands up in the air. “Her eyes glaze over and she laughs like a crazy person. You know what? She works really hard. I'm glad she lets herself have fun from time to time… but you and your punk-ass coworkers just want to take that away from her,” he smiles as he lifts his cane and places the tip on Naira's neck. The tip grows hotter and hotter as it burns her skin. She tries to struggle away as she screams a terrified scream.
“Oh yeah, this'll be fun!” he shouts before striking her across the face with his cane. A bruise forms on her face as blood begins to spill out of her mouth.
“Let me go, mother fucker! My boyfriend’s gonna fuck you up,” she shouts and spits her blood on his face.
“Aw, is he now? Last I heard, Credence was summoned to the council. I bet he’s in Blackgate right now, being buried in cement.” He takes a hand to wipe the blood off of his face and looks her in the eyes as he begins licking it off his fingers, going back to wipe more off and continuing the process.
“Get the fuck away from me!” Naira screams while trying to pull away from his force in vain.
“I need more,” he says with a grin. As he goes to stick his finger in Naira’s mouth, she bites his finger down to the bone, and as he tries to pull away, she rips the tip of his finger off with her teeth.
As he shouts and holds his finger, she spits his finger on the floor. “Don’t ever put your hands on me again you freak! He’s gonna come so you better just let me go now,” she scowls as tears roll down her face.
He holds his stomach as he cackles. “Oh God, you really are an idiot,” he says and picks his finger up and whispers an incantation that fixes his once separated finger. He looks at her and whispers another incantation. Suddenly Naira is filled with excruciating pain, and her body begins convulsing as he begins to laugh. He taps his cane and the pain stops.
Naira takes a gasping breath between cries and screams. “Let me go!” she shouts.
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