"WAIT!" I am running after my sisters but my screams don't matter, they can hear me but they are determined to reach the door first to beat each other!

Geraldine wants the priest to save us.

Juny was desperate to piss her off, just because – and now I knew the danger this priest presented, but it was far too late.

They even beat the butlers to the front double doors, and Gerry is first. She swings open the doors, while I am still full sprint down the corridor.

I abruptly skid to a stop behind a tall pot plant and I choose to stay behind it, after I immediately see Onyx's shadow and giant stature, overshadowing Juny and Gerry, who both scream and stumble backwards.

Fuck!

When I look down the corridor at the cleaning ladies who have come out to peak at the guest, I motion for them to hide back in the rooms.

They're too curious why Gerry and Juny had been screeching so loudly, and so they remain standing out in the hall, looking down with wide eyes at the visibly distressed girls.

Geraldine and Juny are clutching each other for dear life. They freeze as Onyx waltzes into my home a few steps – right before he's flanked by many others.

Man after man walks in, demons in disguise, while Onyx is smiling charismatically and looking the terrified girls over with obvious adoration in his gaze... but there is intent, also... and it's not friendly.

I am still hiding behind the indoor plant, watching between the palm leaves as seven men in total flank Onyx on the left and eight more on the right. The one closest to him on the right wears skull rings with satanic symbols. I recognise his face. Sardonix of T L T. The Lycan Temple. He was famous. He's almost the dead ring of Onyx, aside from the moon-silver hair, I'm guessing it's his son and his pack as well.

Jesus Christ.

This was the opposite of an exorcism. They were probably going to possess us with some brand new curses.

"Where is Selene?" Onyx asks for me, wondering if Gerry and Juny will answer him.

"N-n-not not here," Juny lies badly, barely able to keep the squeak out of her tone.

"Really," Sardonix drawls, loving how they tremble on the spot, visibly shaken.

"Why are you here for us again?" Geraldine whispers, her throat closing off and barely able to voice the question.

"Relax, sweetheart, we're here to welcome you into Lycan territory," Onyx opens both his palms, and I note he has a real priest collar on. He is a priest – it doesn't look like a fake uniform. What a trip.

"What is the meaning of this?" Joplin, my favourite butler, has the courage to finally come forward and intervene, "Are you the priests scheduled to perform an exorcism? Priest... Oswald, I presume? Are you heading this up?"

"Yes, that's me," Onyx adjusts his collar proudly, his inquisitive brow twitching as he looks over the mansion, and assesses how many people are watching us right now – we had over fifty staff taking care of this place, "We're just a little hungry, so we might eat first," Onyx's voice drops a few octaves, and as Juny is whispering 'no, no, no' repetitively, Onyx adds three fatal words calmly, directing his two packs, "Kill them all."

The Lycans, all in human form – start to strip from their fancy uniforms.

Juny and Geraldine scramble off each other and start to run back down the corridor toward me and my hiding place.

I'm watching from behind the plant as the Lycans shift into being.

The twilight had turned to night just in time for the slaughter.

With the shifting demons, a red piercing crimson light blasts forward, painting absolutely everything.

The lights all blink out or explode with a surge in magic.

The only natural light is the moon and demonic red light painting everything.

Juny and Gerry sprint right past me, while the sixteen Lycans are giant, taking up so much room in the spacious lobby, as they eye off the staff, and prepare to lunge out at them.

I step out from the plant and I face straight down to the front door – where Onyx is standing in the middle.

He's slammed the door shut behind him with his Lycan paw, the moonlight dancing off his blades.

I am just standing in the way, in clear view, hoping like hell he focuses on me instead of Joplin – who has dashed behind a curtain.

The Lycans disperse into the shade, a few running up the stairs for the screaming staff, and choosing any which way to pursue the rest who are scrambling for exits.

Onyx's nostrils flare with Juny and Gerry's lingering perfume, which came down this way, and he finally looks toward me, along with the dark silver Lycan at his side – his son.

Their red eyes focus on me at the same time.

Sardonix and Onyx.

I try my best to be brave and stand still, in plain view, but when I start to hear bones crunching and the screams of the dying, I turn in my black gothic ballet flats and I run back to my bedroom, where I know Juny and Gerry will be hiding.

I had guns in there and they knew it too.

I just had to be the strategic bait.

Now that the Lycans have their target, I run through the red light back toward my bedroom. I am confident I'll make it, not because I can outrun supernatural demons who can move as quick as the shadows themselves – but because of their obvious tendency to prolong and increase the fear in their victims.

When I reach my bedroom, and I do reach it unharmed – I don't slow down, I swivel and grab the doorframe, turning around to see where the Lycans are at.

Onyx and Sardonix are right behind me, literally on my heels, their huge wolf-heads touching the ceiling, their fur on their legs caressing the side of my calf as I jerk back into my room, moving backwards into the further darkness.

The only light is the moonlight shooting down in beams through the heavy gathering clouds. And the red light also remains. The way it bathes over everything, like a dream, it has my blue eyes focused on the opposite-beings who don't belong in this Earthly realm.

These giant, terrible demons – Onyx's red hellish eyes focus on me as he walks in with Sardonix.

I put the couch between us.

While Juny comes out of the bathroom with her hands loaded with two hand guns.

Gerry is standing just outside the chest at the end of my bed, holding up a shot gun at the intruders.

Onyx and Sardonix pause at the doors when they eye off the guns and assess the danger.

In the background, we can hear the occasional scream of someone getting quickly murdered.

"We are bound to Oni, Arma and Amon!" I yell at Onyx, "Get out of my house. Or they'll surely kill you. Or we will. Heed my warning, beast."

Onyx smiles with his teeth, "You kill us," Onyx reminds us, "The remaining Lycans will slaughter you slowly. Regardless of your empty threat, we did not come here to kill you. You are bound to Lycan Kind – you belong with us. We've come to take you home. To fetch you."

"This is my home!" I scream my fury, picking up the nearest weapon. I might not have a gun, but I pick up a spare high heel, which I can at least throw if I have to, "GET OUT!"

Onyx's blades twitch – and both Sardonix and Onyx move with the shadows.

Juny and Gerry fire their guns rapidly, and I end up covering my ears and crouching down, scared by the sudden shooting sounds.

Surely they're dead now.

The bullets stop, and I look from the floor, up, to take in the carnage or possibly the dead beasts.

At first I see nothing.

In my confusion, I look around the empty room, until I see the commotion in the dark bathroom.

Both Juny and Gerry have been moved in there, and Onyx steps out, slamming the door and leaving them with Sardonix. I gulp. Ok so... they... were lightning fast.

I do what I can now. I jump back up from crouching low and I throw the high-heel at Onyx's abs.

In the meantime, I turn to the window, trying to open it – but in my action, I also hear Gerry and Juny start screaming, then they stop screaming, mid-scream.

W-What happened to them?!

I turn around, staring at the closed bathroom door.

Did they –

Were they –

I stand there trembling uncontrollably, frozen to the spot, just standing in the moonlight.

Onyx is watching me carefully, as he shifts back from Lycan to priest.

Still tall, and only marginally less threatening now that the blades have been put away, I look him in the eye and my question holds. He knows what I'm asking.

"Sardonix took them through the reflection in the mirror – into hell," Onyx explains, barely showing any expression for me.

No.

My knees almost collapse under the weight of me.

We were still wanted by the devil, then?

Oni promised otherwise. He said we were tainted now!

"Why?" I ask, pained by this.

Onyx doesn't advance, he just explains for me, "Not where you think. We're not taking you to Satan. They're at the Lycan Temple."

"N-not to the devil?" I whisper, relief slamming into me, "B-but why... why there... to a temple?"

"Like I said, you're being welcomed home," Onyx has to pause while someone screaming bloody murder from the top floor, interrupts our little quiet moment.

"...why did you order the death of so many innocent people –" I hiss.

"Because I am the Lycan King and you directly disobeyed my orders when we first met," Onyx snarls over me, "Oni is stupid to defy me. He follows my command – and he knows his place."

"...but he attacked you," I murmur now, confused, when all the screaming finally stops, and my eyes search the ceilings, "He saved us. The three of them, saved the three of us. Wh-why..."

I look down from the ceilings and try to ignore the loud heavy thumping of Lycans throwing corpses around as they tear into them.

I focus on the demon before me, disguising himself in his human form, a simple lure.

Onyx's mouth finally twitches into a smile, now that I focus on him, "Witches."

"Yes," I raise my chin, "We are."

"Like I said, you're being welcomed – we provide what is ours, eternal protection – it's all in the exchange. The price of a soul is the protection from a demon. Oni – and all Lycans – is your gift. But your soul is the price –"

"No. Oni freed us from that slavery, he told us we were free – you're lying to me," I grit my teeth, "I don't trust you Onyx, nor your word."

"Oni is a rebel, I'll give him that," Onyx barely keeps in his clear irritation by the thought of the younger Lycan, "But I know the rules, Selene, I follow the rules, and I implement the fucking rules. You fuck Lycans, you belong to us. It's that simple."

"I signed no contract with you," I still defy him, shaking my head, "Even with you standing there, in all your naked glory – you look so fine I could paint you... yet... I will not heel like the bitches that serve you so thoughtlessly. I'm not a dumb horny bitch."

Onyx closes his eyes, looks away and breathes deeply to seemingly keep his composure.

Huh.

I was right!

But then he moves toward me.

Shit. I keep my chin up as high as I can, my back straight, my eyes on target – keeping in line with his red orbs, so I don't look away from him.

Onyx casually waltzes into my personal space and stands over me.

He says nothing.

He just looks down at me.

I wait.

A-and not long later? I... I feel... this warmth like a whirlpool, swirling away all my resistance and common sense. Still, with the trance like state slowly being forced upon me, detaching me from reality, I hold onto the single part of me that knows my identity, my soul, my soul, my soul not his.

Fists clenching so hard I almost cut myself; I keep. Looking. Up.

I do not fall.

"I've never met," Onyx drawls, while tilting his head, "Such a defiant slut-pup. Most drop to their knees when they realise with every fibre of their being that it makes more sense to obey the demon who has an appetite," he reaches up a hand, trying to touch me with a finger under my chin. However, I whack his hand away, back down to his side.

"I let Oni fuck me," I state it crudely, "Not you."

Even so, with Onyx's spelled aura which is flooding all my senses, my knees are starting to wobble.

I realise my eyes have faded downward, submitting a few inches, giving away his eyes to stare at his collarbone. Shit – I let slip – !

But then the door to the bathroom slams open and I get enough of a fright to look back up – as Sardonix walks back out.

In human form.

He scares me more than Onyx.

I try to hold his eyes but they are truly devilish, while Onyx is just burning hot.

Sardonix, rather, is cruel.

He doesn't smile at me when he comes up behind me, and instead of keeping his distance, he wraps his hand with all the cursed jewellery around my throat. Sardonix doesn't squeeze, he barely touches me – aside from pushing his fingers under my chin, holding my head upright as he holds me between him and his father.

They don't look any different in age, although Onyx is surely the Ancient one with his calm demeanour.

My knees are really shaking now, and Sardonix is ironically supporting me in the moment.

I'm trying my best to hold onto Onyx's gaze once again, but eventually my last effort in resolve completely shatters and I look straight down to the ground, exhaling a chopped up, dying breath.

NO!

My resistance weakened.

Not all of it, but phase one, eye contact was impossible now.

I can't even bring my eyes back up from the fucking floor.

And nothing has even been said, either, they both just waited for their presence to overwhelm me.

"Don't feel bad," Onyx's voice is surprisingly soothing, "It just means you're a good girl. It's the light in you – to look at me the way you want, you have to know darkness. You're still too innocent for that."

"Hey, pretty bitch – you haven't even met the whole family," Sardonix finally speaks and I jerk with his insult, as he holds my throat and his heat touches the back of my gothic dress, burning through to my back. It's like the material isn't even there, like his abdominals are rubbing against my spine and his crotch is snug against my stockings as my short dress rides up, "Cheer up, you whore –"

I close my eyes as I breathe out in reply, "I'm not your whore. You're a stranger."

"You'll be disappointed to know this, naughty witch," Sardonix presses his hot lips to my ear, hard and intimate, "Oni loves to share his cunts with me. We're best friends."

Before I can stop his hot velvet lips caressing down my ear, Sardonix is pressing his mouth to the side of my neck, right over my heavy pulse. It feels too foreboding. I can only imagine how that would have felt if he had been in his Lycan form, pressing all his fangs to my pulse.

He finally lets me go, and shoves me into Onyx. I steady myself by slamming my palms into his shoulders, so we're not too close.

Sardonix moves off to the bathroom to open up the door once again.

I watch as he disappears into the dark shade and then walks through the mirrors.

A portal.

I remember to move off from Onyx, and I step back from him, finally my knees give out and I stumble back onto the bay window's seat.

As I sit I lay my face in my hands and I hiccup as a sob escapes my throat.

I cry off my mascara, unable to look back up. I hated that my resistance was seemingly futile.

Eventually I wipe my nose and cheeks with my arm and look to the demon preparing to 'escort' me home to Hell.

Onyx is waiting patiently.

When I look up at his arm, he holds out a hand and opens the palm toward me.

"Come, Selene," Onyx drawls, "You'll love the fairy garden. I know you don't believe me, but we take protecting what's ours... very seriously."

"...but Oni doesn't share, he beat you up," I whisper, unable to shake it. Unable to believe Sardonix's prior statement about Oni sharing with him.

"Oni wanted your innocence – he took it, even though I forbade he mate with mortal women," Onyx explains, "Even so. He sealed your fate with us. The devil will not touch you."

"I'm starting to feel dizzy, Onyx," I whimper uncontrollably and I look away, to the outside.

My fear was growing exponentially.

"Because you're fighting your natural slut-pup instincts – you'll be okay, sweetheart –" just as Onyx is drawling over me, calm and sweet and patient... there is a liquid splatter on my window – from high above, "Fucking hell," Onyx whispers, annoyed by the horrific blood-fall appearing out of nowhere from the outside, "My Kind can be messy – I apologise for that, Selene..."

I look up anyway.

Above my bay window, was a small balcony.

Dripping down was a fountain of someone's blood, hitting the window pane and flowing down into the garden.

I am captured by it.

I stare at the blood in absolute horror.

The night terrors were starting all over again.

It's not just the colour that holds me in one spot. In the dark crimson blood, I also see something else – the reflection of the demon behind me.

Onyx's form in the make-shift mirror, looks back out at me.

Behind him, I can see Juny and Gerry being rounded up in the Temple, being chased and tormented by the playful Lycans.

I turn to Onyx in the bedroom – but he's no longer there.

I turn back to the reflection, and he's staring out at me still.

I try to pull back, but it's like a magnet pulses me forward. I'm falling now toward his reflection, as my elbows and wrists feel weak and my body is sucked in.

Into the portal I go.

Into the nightmare.

I'm pulled down through realms. Down through blood. Into the awaiting torment of Hell itself. I just pray Oni is there.

I just don't know if he'll save us this time round.

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✝FUNERAL ‡ FLOWERS - YΛ NΞ ONI