“I swear I didn't know!” Yelled a young man in his late twenties. He fell to the floor, the crash slightly muffled by the red carpet below him where he then started trying to crawl backward with one white, gloved hand. His other hand held a brass platter with a lit candle sitting in the middle of it, wobbling as he hurriedly clawed at the ground behind him. The dim candlelight cast a shadow across the right side of his face but glistened off the sweat on his left. The room itself was too dark to make out details but his attacker, she never faltered.

Even if she couldn't see, she was all too aware that he was wearing a red tunic, pale blue breeches, clean, white leggings, and white poulaines. He had chestnut brown hair slicked back and starting to turn grey despite his young age. A five o'clock shadow covered almost half of his face and the hairs on his upper lip were starting to curl in front of his mouth. Some distance behind him was a large spruce desk, the top no doubt littered with loose parchment and gold coins, an old quill at the front right corner and several ledgers riddled with messy notes. The red carpet itself was only as wide as the desk and the remainder of the floor was made of dark green marble. Two velvet chairs occupied the right side of the room, roughly centred with the wall, each carefully placed underneath paintings of the building's previous owners who dressed almost identically to the cowering man on the floor.

The crawling man rushed backward, still on his rear until he bumped into the desk. Coins rattled in response and he turned to look at his obstacle. The invader slowly edged towards him, stepping over fresh corpses with growing pools of blood around them. Her hand tightly grasped a black short sword with a bloody blade. “Liar.” She snarled calmly, a slight curl to her lips under her ebony face mask.

His gaze shifted back to her and he started blindly running a hand across the top of his desk without getting off the floor. Books and pieces of parchment could be heard in the darkness falling, the coins bounced off the marble with loud clangs. When he found what he was looking for, he held it behind the candle so she could see. A leather pouch with a decorative 'G' engraved on the front. “Forty gold coins!” He cried. “If that's not enough I can show you to the treasure room! You can have whatever you want!”

The woman stopped in front of him, some of her attire being illuminated from the candlelight. She was wearing a charcoal black dress open at the side, revealing obsidian pants underneath. She bent down and wrapped her arms around her knees without ever touching the ground. Her weapon stayed upright, pointing towards the ceiling. Blood ran down it and onto the hilt then onto her lightly tanned fingers. Her torso was covered by something similar to a black tunic, though a little bit thicker and left her back completely exposed. An onyx hood paired with her mask hid any definitive features, save her obsidian eyes which flickered with anger.

Now at eye level with the man, the woman reached up and lowered her hood then slowly removed her mask. The man's face turned a shade paler and his eyes grew sombre. “It's you...” he said mournfully and dropped the coin purse at his side. He started shaking his head, his lip shaking and tears began to well in his eyes. As the attacker pressed her blade against the man's throat with a sinister smile, he opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. His fresh blood mixed with the blood coating the sword as the blade gradually cut deeper. The brass chamberstick fell to the floor and the burning candle dove headfirst to the ground. The dropped candle lay innocently on the carpet, giving rise to a growing blaze in a matter of seconds. The coward closed his eyes, devoid of any guard as he accepted his fate. The steady blade lacerated his flesh and then-

Stella's eyes shot open but her body remained still. Without looking around she noted that she was laying her own couch, both of her hands resting just in front of her eyes. It was just getting to the good part. She thought to herself and slowly sat up. She brushed her obsidian hair aside, giving a clear view of her dark-blue eyes. Her purple plaid shirt was slightly wrinkled from her nap. She then got to her feet and wandered into the kitchen.

Her immediate plans were to start preparing for when Luna and Aileen got home but then she noticed that Luna was going on roughly half an hour late. Stella took a quick glance out the kitchen window to see if she had been playing with Ossory and them but didn't see any indication that they had even been around yet that day. That's when Stella got very noticeable goosebumps and in one swift motion, she grabbed a kitchen knife out of the block and threw it behind her with alarming accuracy. The blade flew straight and true without any degree of spin, and it flew much too quick for most to detect with an untrained eye. Despite her aim being spot on though, the blade was caught out of the air by a pale hand. Stella then relaxed her stance, gave her intruder a disapproving glare and stated, “I didn't know you were still alive.”

The intruder was a grown man a little above average height with jet-black hair, hungry-red eyes and like his hands, clammy-white skin. He was wearing a black sports jacket with a yellow t-shirt underneath, navy blue baggy jeans and black running shoes. He lifted his free hand with his fingers slightly curled towards him but Stella spoke again before he could. “Vampire, I know. Stupid statement. You're immortal.” His hand dropped, he scowled and tried to make a witty comment but was cut off again, this time by his companion.

“At the very least we don't age.” Commented a girl dressed almost the same, except she had a pink t-shirt and wore leggings instead of jeans. Her hair was the same jet-black and descended to just below her butt, as well her eyes were the same hungry-red as the man she came with. She stepped towards Stella with her arms out and told her, “Long time no see.”

“Do you always try to sneak up on your old friends?” Stella teased and returned the hug. They then broke off their embrace and Stella continued. “It's been sixteen years. Why'd you two wait so long to come by? Did it take that long for Styx to figure out how to get dressed?”

“It's actually been a thousand sixteen years, thank you very much and matter of fact, if we had actually been trying to catch you by surprise, I assure you, you never would have known we were here.” The man, Styx, declared. His hands danced excitedly as he spoke. “If you must know though, it took us these past sixteen years to psyche ourselves up for dealing with that ominous stench of bird excrement that you always seem to have about you.”

“Joking aside,” The woman, Shaffra, called out unnecessarily loud, giving her partner a threatening sideways glance, “We've been spending most of our time over the last few hundred years in the underworld. With all humans save the oddball here and there believing that magic -and vampires- among other things don't exist, reasons to stay in this plane are few and far in between. We would still pop back in every ten years or so to check for when you guys returned to reality but we weren't expecting all of you to be as discrete as you are. We thought for sure we would be hearing about a girl with wolf ears and a tail no more than a few days after you arrived.”

“We didn't mean to disappoint but we acted a bit more delicately than that. We couldn't be certain what kind of dangers awaited us in this new era so we laid low.”

“Yes, well, it made it especially more difficult to track you down when, besides showing up at an unknown time, you didn't reappear in Síocháin.”

“Síocháin still stands?”

“Some guardian you are, not even realizing that the place you're responsible for defending still needs defending.” Styx scoffed.

Shaffra gave him another disapproving glare. “To be fair, she had no way of knowing that Idel moved all of Síocháin into its own reality marble while they were time surfing.”

“What she said. When we arrived here sixteen years ago, I was sure the forest had already given way to this city. You're saying we can still go back there?”

“With a proper guide, yes. You won't just stumble across it in the dark. Idel made sure that no one could accidentally wander inside. Eve has been guarding it all by herself ever since you and Aileen disappeared. Counting Cain, that's three of the four guardians absent.”

“Thankfully for you demi-humans, the three missing guardians are all together at least, so returning all of you at once shouldn't be much of a concern.” Styx joined in on the conversation again.

“Three?” Stella paused to think. “Aileen and I are only two.”

Styx then slightly pointed one hand at her and enthusiastically asked, “Surely you must've expected Luna to take his place as the Wolf Guardian? She does have the ears and tail after all.”

“Cain didn't have the ears or tail.”

“Cain wasn't born a demi-human. Well, not in the sense that he was half of another species of animal. He was indeed only half-human at birth- anyway, point is, wolf genes didn't factor into the development of his natural body, hence why he didn't have a permanent tail and ears. Regardless, the Wolf has to be her. The Ríastrad already chose her.”

Stella crossed her arms and bit her bottom lip. “How did you know that?”

Before Styx could answer they heard the front door swing open then bounce off the wall behind it with a loud rattle. Aileen came around the corner swiftly and halted in her tracks with a shocked expression on her face. “Styx, Shaffra. Hi. It's been a while.” They waved at her in response but she didn't pay them any further attention. She instead looked to Stella, her expression changing to serious. “Big problem, some beast-bane survived. I just ran into a priest wearing the head of one on his robes back at the hospital.”

“Beast-bane? Bestia Nocuit as I recall, yes?” Styx inquired. “The stuff that's toxic to demi-humans?” Aileen nodded very quickly, giving herself whiplash. Stella immediately starting moving towards the front door, not stopping for anything. Styx called after her, “What exactly are you doing?” Stella didn't answer. Instead, she grasped the handle of the door and froze. Next, she dropped to her knees, colour drained from her face. Before her senses betrayed her, she swore she could hear the sound of a car window being lowered. Aileen, though fine for a moment longer than Stella, sniffed at the air once and found herself in the same state. Styx then rolled his eyes and barked, “Leave it to the bloody blonde one to see the consequences first then make the mistake! Demi-humans and their ability to control how sensitive their senses are; you would have been fine if you kept your senses at the level you had them at, but no! Just had to see Stella fall then follow suit by sniffing at the very thing that knocked her down!”

Shaffra knelt down beside Aileen first and then checked on Stella, completely calm. “Speaking of beast-bane...”

Upon realizing that no one was listening, Styx turned his focus away from the victims and began to look for the culprit. He noticed that he could see out the window on the door from where he stood. Sitting in an old black sedan on the other side of the street was a priest with a hint of red showing on his chest behind the car door. “It would seem you haven't been as discrete as you thought considering there is beast bane just metres away from your front step.” He then lifted his jacket up so that it sat more comfortably on his shoulders and adjusted his cuffs to be a little looser. “Right then, I'll get rid of him and that flower to boot. If push comes to shove, save Aileen. Síocháin could use a different Raven Guardian anyway seeing as Stella here has a bit of an attitude problem.”

Outside, Thomas climbed out of his vehicle being sure never to take his eyes off the house. He stayed beside the car, not moving any closer then quietly said a prayer to himself. Before he could finish though, a pale hand grabbed him on the shoulder from behind and twirled him around. “I thought most priests stalked children or encouraged them to take part in... what do you call them? 'Confessions?'” Styx exclaimed.

Thomas was startled and tried to pull away but he was held in place effortlessly. “Who are you?” He asked nervously.

“All in do time kind pervert, all in due time. We just noticed that you seem to have a rather strange affliction with this household to follow a doctor all the way here. Did she do the DNA swab for your young boyfriend? Those tests can be rather troublesome, can't they?”

The priest tried to speak against Styx but couldn't get a word in. Styx pulled away from Thomas chuckling, a small smartphone in his hand. Thomas felt at his pockets and realized it was his own phone that Styx was now holding. “Oh, don't you love these things?” Styx started. “A thousand years and these cancerous devices still amaze me more than anything, especially their ability to take capture a visual instant.” He then started to look around, his gaze falling on a young couple leaving a yellow house a couple doors down from where they were having their exchange. Styx waved to them and started wandering in their direction, the phone still in hand. Thomas followed after him but his jog barely rivaled Styx's stroll. By the time Thomas had caught up Styx had finished taking pictures on the priest's phone with the couple, the man's face scrunched up slightly like he was distressed. “Look at how amazing the quality of these photos is!” Styx instructed and showed the phone to Thomas. “You get a perfect frame by frame reaction as I grabbed his ass.” The man tilted his head, making it more known that he was uncomfortable.

Thomas tried to apologize to them and demand he get his phone back, but Styx had backed up a couple of quick paces. He was holding the front of his pants away from his waist, the camera pointed straight down into the gap. “One for the road as they say?” He smiled at the priest.

“I don't-”

“Oh, dear,” Styx said as he released his pants and began to check the quality of the picture. He swiped the screen a time or two and mumbled, “That's not my pecker.” Thomas turned red and the couple gave him a funny look. “He can't be any older than seven, my heaven's how flexible children are these days.” Styx continued to make comments as he searched through the pictures on the phone. Thomas made a dive for it and snatched it away from Styx who made no effort to keep it from him. “I question your tastes father, blonde really isn't my type.”

The couple gave Thomas a disgusted look and started to back away. As the couple turned out of sight, Thomas tried to yell out to them, “He's lying, no such pictures-”

“Hello father, what have we here?” Styx questioned and reached into Thomas's robes. Thomas's face turned from red to purple as Styx pulled out a roughly two-foot-long, green, jello-like rod through the robe's collar, temporarily choking the priest in the process. Styx gave it a quick sniff, gave the priest a curious sideways glance then took a small bite out of the strange object. “Mm, two feet long, edible watermelon flavoured sex toys? My father, you really are a freak in the cloth, aren't you? Do you practice the hanky-panky in the confessional by chance?”

“I don't know how-”

Styx shoved the “appendage” into Thomas's chest, knocking the wind out of him for a moment and interrupting him. “It would seem we have quite a lot to talk about indeed father. The ones that pretend to be good are always the most exciting. Come now, let us be off.” Styx used one hand to force Thomas to twirl again and face the town, leaving the car at the curb. Behind Styx's back, he was holding the red and black flower in his palm. The petals were rapidly building a layer of frost over top of them as the pair traversed the empty street.

Within the house, Stella released the breath that she had been holding. Her senses didn't betray her completely and she was almost immediately able to lift herself up to see out the window. “You recovered quickly.” Shaffra observed as she brought over two glasses of water.

A moment of silence, then a couple of dry coughs later Stella responded, “You get used to dealing with these things after so many encounters. Not that a being who is immune to poison and doesn't require breath would understand.”

“I wasn't always a vampire for the record. I'm no stranger to how tedious poisons - especially airborne - can be.”

Stella took a deep breath of oxygen and pointed towards her collapsed partner. “Keep watching over her.” She instructed. “She can cure someone else of its affliction but not if she's also affected. Not to mention she's not near as resistant to it.”

Shaffra knelt down beside Aileen once more and lifted her head up slightly, offering one of the glasses to her. Aileen's eyes were closed and she could have easily been mistaken for being unconscious if she hadn't reached for the glass. Meanwhile, Stella managed to lift herself up high enough to see out the window, using the door frame for support. She watched Styx and the priest walk away. Thomas turned his head and gave the house one last glance and their eyes connected. Stella's eyes widened at first then her irises shifted from dark blue to obsidian, the door frame cracked then splintered as Stella's strength returned and her blood began to boil. He looks just like him. She thought to herself and the man from her dream flashed before her eyes, the man cowering away and begging. He's much older but I've no doubt it was at some point in time a spitting image. When he was dragged out of sight, Stella's eyes returned to their original colour. “Don't lose sight of him.” She spat and in the distance, several ravens flew out from the trees in Thomas's direction.

* * *

“I'm starting to regret telling you to do whatever you want.” Luna muttered under her breath to her stalker as they entered the butcher's shop. He gave her a strange look but didn't make any remark. Luna sighed, “Just stay here for now. I don't like the idea of you breathing down my neck whilst I'm bargaining.”

“Little Luna!” the butcher called out to her as she stepped away from the entrance. His usual, cheery smile was replaced with a fake grin, confusion made his face scowl slightly. As Luna approached the counter he leaned in towards her, his expression unchanging. “I don't think I've ever seen you come in with company excluding Stella or Aileen.”

“He's just a lost puppy that can't take a hint.”

The elderly man leaned in even closer and whispered, “Should I throw him out?”

Luna shook her head. “I appreciate the thought but I don't think that'll be necessary. I made it painfully clear that he'll regret trying anything. Emphasis on painfully.”

Regaining his upright stance, he laughed heartily and exclaimed, “I don't doubt that for a second.” He then immediately silenced himself when he noticed that Ryan was watching him so the butcher gave him a threatening glare, pointed at his own eyes with two bloody fingers then pointed them at Ryan. Luna smiled in response, her body letting itself relax for a moment.

“So, what have you got for me today?”

Returning his attention to Luna, the butcher grinned once more, though this time he seemed somewhat embarrassed. “Truth be told, it's nothing special. Another shop opened up on the other side of town and for their grand opening, they bought out all the good and expensive cuts for some sort of sale. Most of what I've got is either getting up there in age, is very fatty or has a lot of grizzle to it.”

“Hm.” Luna hummed silently as she thought about her choices. “Fatty stuff means a good amount of flavour right?”

“That's one positive aspect of it, yes. Would probably go better in a soup than be served by fork and knife.”

“Can I get six cuts of that then if you've got enough?”

He nodded, appeared to hesitate but moved into the back room, searching through different cuts of meat. Luna saw him carefully inspect each one individually in great detail. On occasion, he would put one in a plastic bag on top of a white plastic tray but most of them he pushed off to the side. Once or twice he tossed a whole slab of meat well away into what Luna thought must've been a disposal for excess bones and the like.

As he continued searching, Luna tried desperately to prevent herself from drooling. She had always found a particular interest in meat products due to her wolfish nature but with her heightened senses, she could make out every smell present in the old shop. She could even point out which cuts of meat caused which bloody stains on the butcher's apron. The collective smells hit her in the face like a delicious phone book when she had walked through the door and she was sure her stomach would start growling deafeningly loud if she stuck around much longer. When he finally returned, Luna's tail started to twitch and would have broken free of its disguise had she not pressed her arm down into it. She grinned widely, showing teeth for the first time that she could remember and it didn't go unnoticed.

“You must be really hungry today to look that excited for some poor cuts of steak.” The butcher commented, returning an equally wide grin. Luna raised her eyebrows as she realized just how much her composure had been broken. She wiped at her mouth with her sleeve and with difficulty, switched to a poker face. As she reached for the bag however, her lips began to tremble and her mouth opened yet again. The butcher laughed once more but stopped abruptly. Something caught his attention and he threw his head towards Luna, unblinking. “Is it just me or do you have abnormally sharp teeth?” He asked quietly.

Luna's shoulders raised slightly and her smile relaxed, her teeth clenched like she was brushing them. She looked down at the glass countertop, eyeing her reflection. Her canines appeared to have grown slightly longer and each tooth looked like they had become slightly pointed, though not dramatically. “I never noticed.” She replied meekly without looking back up at him, hoping he didn't press any further.

He scratched his head. “I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable or self-conscious. My bad.”

Luna's body tensed up and she raised her fists in front of her, forearms parallel to the ground, just below her chest. She shook her head, “It's nothing like that, it just took me by surprise is all.”

The butcher, his hand still on his balding head, beamed. “I'm glad.” His expression turned hesitant, much like from before he left to get the cuts and Luna tilted her head, letting him know that she noticed. “You get six steaks every day without fail.” He started. “No one in your household strikes me as the gluttonous types, you're all too skinny. Doesn't steak get boring after so many times? Not that I mind the patronage or anything.”

Luna tightened her grip on the bag and debated with herself whether or not she should tell him to ask what he was really thinking. She couldn't be sure why, but she had a strong feeling that he was trying to force himself to not see through her, no matter how much his curiosity ate at him. In the end, she decided it was best to let sleeping dogs lie. “I've been taking care of a small family of wolves behind our house for some time now. They need a substantial amount of meat in their diet, so I get steaks every day to give them each one. We usually have the extras and on days we decide to have something else, I give the leftovers to the wolves either later that night or with the next serving the following day. They don't seem to have gotten expectant of it at least, so I don't have to worry about them searching for more.”

Luna's stomach roared in response to the conversation and while blushing, she began to wonder if she'd have to start ensuring she eat a good share of meat every day as well. Following the embarrassing sound, Luna looked down at her feet, avoiding the butcher's gaze. She thought for sure that even Ryan had heard that from the entrance. She then started fishing through her pockets, hoping to pay and get out of there before her stomach thundered again.

Luna held out the money towards him but instead of immediately accepting it, he held out one hand underneath hers and reached towards her head with the other. She dropped the money in his palm then realized he was trying to pat her on the head. He'll feel my ears if he does that! She thought to herself and considered pulling away but also didn't want to risk offending him. His hand stopped over her head for a couple of seconds then grasped her shoulder. She looked up at him, looked into his eyes not even attempting to hide her confusion. He merely held up one finger before shuffling into the back room again. He emerged after only a couple minutes with two small pork-chops. “There isn't a lot of meat on these, but every little bit helps right?” He handed them to Luna, winked and whispered, “I figured you'd be hungry tonight, so here's a little treat on me.”

Does he know or is it just because my stomach wouldn't shut up?

“Oi!” Ryan whined and Luna jumped. “I didn't think someone could spend so long buying meat.”

She shot him an annoyed glance and bowed her head slightly to the butcher. “Sorry, the child is crying. I'll get out of your way now.”

“Don't sweat it. He gives you any trouble, let me know.” He responded and waved to her as she left with Ryan following close behind.

“You two seem close but he doesn't seem like one of the family friends who have been taking care of you.”

Luna attempted to hide her face from view as it was still red from when her stomach demonstrated its mating call. “Shut up.” She murmured.

Ryan tilted his head in confusion like when they had first arrived. “Where to now then?”

“I'm going home. I strongly recommend you do the same. You're annoying.”

“You don't even try to sugar coat your words, do you?”

“Actually, I am. I would prefer to tell you to beat it else I'll tie a cinder block to your leg and toss you in the ocean.” Luna suddenly stopped in place, her nose twitching.

“You would be so much prettier if you kept your attitude in... check...” Ryan halted when he noticed that Luna wasn't walking beside him anymore. “What's the matter?” He asked as he turned to face her. She was looking at the ground, her eyes burning holes into the sidewalk.

“Go home.” She barked and sprinted forward, leaving him behind.

“Hey!” He yelled after her and tried to follow but couldn't even run at half the pace she could. Luna left him in the dust. Her ears twitched now like her nose as they detected something familiar. Something that she grew to hate in such a short amount of time.

She zipped through the streets with so much speed that passersby stopped to stare, even vehicles hit the brakes in order to watch in bewilderment. Luna first ran towards her house but after only a couple turns, shifted her course almost in the opposite direction so that she was still moving away from Ryan. She then dipped into an alleyway and scanned her immediate surroundings. Roughly twice her height above her was a fire escape which lead all the way to the building's roof. Luna clenched her teeth together and with a grunt, jumped up onto the fire escape without even having to grab onto anything for balance or support. Her feet were planted on the railing of the bottom platform and she heaved herself to the roof beside her. In no more than two swift jumps, she was sitting on the edge of the rooftop, looking over several city blocks. From there, she spotted an old priest wandering the streets with a tall pale man leading him around.

* * *

“...So long story short, for some reason disrespecting women makes his eyes hurt. Odd things come out of people's mouths when they drink, huh?” Styx told Thomas, his arm around him as they quickly traversed the city streets.

“Enough of this!” The Priest cried out and began to lecture Styx, breaking free of his grip. He howled about how inappropriate it was to sully the name of a man of the cloth with distasteful lies in front of strangers, about how pick-pocketing even just for a joke was sinful and finally that Styx should repent and apologize before moving forward.

Styx laughed.

“What's so funny?”

Styx looked around him slowly, the beast-bane still in his palm, now completely coated with black ice. His eyes fell on Thomas once more and the priest backed up instinctively as those hungry red eyes flared with discontent. “You humans really are quite daft. Maybe I spent too much time away after all if you people genuinely believe that what you call 'God' is on your side.” His voice turned to a low growl as he finished his statement and a soft crunch could be heard as he made a fist.

Thomas backed up another step, noting that a threatening aura was spreading rapidly from the pale man. “If you don't call him God, what do you call him?”

Styx smiled grievously and took several short, slow steps forward. “A fraud... a sack of shit... a slimy scoundrel... a notorious coward...” He then grabbed Thomas's wrist. Styx's fingers were so cold that it burned, even through the robes. Thomas again tried to pull away but the more he resisted, the colder and tighter Styx's grip became. Thomas noticed that the skin on his hand was starting to blacken and the burning sensation spread. Without a word and beyond Thomas's control, his fingers were pried open easily, like someone else had taken control of his body. Styx dropped several bleak, frozen red and black shards into the priest's hand. The icy petals, though sitting innocently, felt like needles on his palm. “A murderer.” He finished, glared at Thomas then released him. “I see you around that house again...” Styx fell threateningly silent and the priest felt something bony grab his ankle. He jumped and went to inspect but nothing was there. He looked up at Styx again but found that he was no longer standing in front of him.

Thomas didn't turn to search for him though. Instead, he reached for the arm that had been grabbed with his good hand, gingerly feeling at it. He was afraid to move his sleeve up as his arm felt completely numb but his bones themselves felt like they were engulfed in a cold flame. It took several more seconds for Thomas to realize that at some point during their exchange, he had started to hold his breath. By the time he realized, he was already seeing stars and lost his balance, stumbling backward. He braced for impact, expecting to crash to the floor but he stopped early, sitting on something well above the ground's surface. He felt at the unknown object first before twisting to look at it. What he had landed on and was none other than his own black sedan, but the wheels had been removed. Now, it stood on cinder blocks, the wheels nowhere to be seen.

He stared silently at his vehicle in shock and awe. He wasn't sure if he had a million thoughts going through his head all at once or none at all. His attention wasn't broken until he heard a grunt of confusion behind him. A crowd of onlookers had started to build upon the street around him. All of them shot him curious glances, some of them pointing and taking pictures. It was then that Thomas felt an unknown source of weight on his tail bone. He peered over his shoulder to find the green sex toy attached to the back of his robes, just below his waist as though it were a tail. He slowly leveled his gaze in front of him and leaned against the car once again in complete silence.

He ignored the onlookers and simply continued to stare at his own reflection in the store window closest to him.

* * *

“Is that you or your breath that smells like death and disease?” Luna questioned, seemingly at the air.

“Your father once said nearly that exact same thing.” A disembodied voice replied and Luna felt the temperature around her drop rapidly. A layer of frost then quickly covered the rooftop.

She turned on her heel slowly, ignoring the biting cold and watched as a collection of unnatural shadows clumped together and took on the form of a male human. “Who are you supposed to be?” She asked the pale man.

“Styx.” He replied, his lips curled. He stepped closer to Luna, the temperature dropping further with every inch he advanced. The frost turned to ice yet he walked across it without any concern for slipping. His feet appeared to stick to the ice more so than the concrete. When he was only a step away from Luna, he bent at the knees in order to look her in the eyes at level. “On the outside, you look just like your mother, even the eyes. That glare though... that glare that screams 'drop dead', you most certainly get that from your father.”

Luna stood unflinching, no matter how frigid the air around her became. Even when her shoes froze to the rooftop, she refused to so much as wince. “How do you know my dad?”

Styx smiled mischievously then turned away. As he did, the temperature began to rise and the ice thawed briskly. “Let's check on Aileen before I answer that.”

“What about Stella?”

“Don't remind me.”