The Dance Floor

"Abby, I'm worried about Jules." Ren could tell she would tell him to stop being paranoid and lifted his hand up to stop her talking. "Look, Abby, don't argue with me. Please, just help me look for her. If we find her and she's fine, you can chew me out."

Abby searched his eyes then said, "Okay, I'll help. Do you want me to ask the others to look as well?"

"Yeah, the more eyes looking the better," he said grateful she hadn't put up more of a fight. "Thanks, Abs." Then he pushes his way through the crowd in Alex's direction.

Ren found Alex dancing with a shapeshifter and grabbed him on the shoulder. When Alex looked at him, Ren signalled with his hand that he wanted Alex to follow him to the wall. "I told you to keep an eye on that slimy friend of yours," Ren hissed. "I should've known better than to think I could let my guard down for one night and trust you."

"Look I know I'm gorgeous but you're not my type and I'm not in the mood for your stupid riddles and games," Alex said in a flippant tone.

"You're taking the piss, ya moody fang-boy. Look I bloody well don't have time for your crap. Damien dragged Julia off somewhere and now she's missing. I honestly didn't think he'd try to pull anything with all of us around."

Alex looked at him with a cold stare, like he couldn't give a damn, "And this concerns me how? I'm not her babysitter that is your job, Pixie. Besides, she looked happy to go off with Damien."

"For gods sakes are you that blind or just stupid? All that blood you drink must mess with your brain." Ren ignored him Alex baring his fangs at him. "Come off it. I saw you two dancing, and what the two of you were doing afterwards. You ran off leaving her behind. Julia didn't want to go with Damien. In fact, from where I was standing that girl may very well be in love with you. But the pair of you are too pigheaded to admit it even to yourselves."

Alex glared at Rin and shouted, "Enough! You annoying, Tink. You need to butt out and drop it."

Ren raised his hands giving up. "Okay, I see you're going to be pigheaded." He didn't have time to argue with fang-boy. "That still doesn't change the fact Julia and that leech have been missing for almost an hour now. I don't care if you want to continue to bury your head in the sand regarding your true feelings." Ren needed to get Alex to help, and he knew exactly how to manipulate him. "Just help me find her. We both know Mormo has always offered his allegiance to the highest bidder. If Thorsen has offered that power hungry wizard something juicy enough; he wouldn't think twice before handing her over to Thorsen with a ribbon tied around her neck."

Hearing this made the colour drain from Alex's face. He looked around the room. "What can I do to help?"

Ren knew he had Alex in the palm of his hand. Stifling his smirk he said, "Abby and the others are looking for her. I want you to make sure none of those slaves, you dark fae love to use to do your dirty work, are around. Make sure you check inside and outside."

Alex gave him a nod then walked off.

++++++++

The hallway was empty, but Abby could hear voices behind the door at the far end. Normally she would've dismissed it but she heard someone say Thorsen's name. Intrigued, she hurried over to the door and cracked it open praying to the gods no one heard it.

"I can't do anything here," A man said with a very sharp voice. "I have to get her back to Klamath Falls."

"Mormo, you can't do that!" Damien shouted.

"Tell me boy, exactly how are you going to stop me?" the man replied condescending. "Thorsen will kill anyone who gets in his way. And I don't intend to get in his way. Now, you had better back away from Julia."

Abby gasped, as she heard Julia's name.

"I'm not going to do that," Damien's voice was dripping with rage.

Clapped her hand over her mouth hoping no one heard her, she backed away from the door and ran off down the hallway to find Ren.

Mormo poked his head out the door and saw the girl running down the hallway. He looked back at Damien with a smug smile. "Well boy, looks like the plan's changed. Sorry about this but we have to set the scene and protect your cover."

A flash of dark green lit up the room; Damien was picked up off the floor and slammed against the back wall. Two anti-dark fae long swords, mounted on the wall as decoration, ripped away from it. They hovered in the air and turned to form an X before wrapping around Damien. The tip and the hilt dug into the wall caging him to the wall. Mormo walked over to him and tore a few holes in Damien's clothes exposing his skin, so the byzantium swords burnt his bare flesh.

He gave Damien a wicked grin, "we have to make it look real," and slapped Damien's face a few times. "I don' recommend moving too much. You don't want to burn your lovely skin off." Mormo walked over to Julia, picked her up and hoisted her over his shoulder as if she was a sack of potatoes.

Damien roared as Mormo walked out of the room. "Come back with her. I swear to the gods Mormo I will make you pay!"

Mormo didn't look back as he left. "Looking forward to it."

He quickly headed down the hallway, as he approached the end; where it would take him back into the mass of party goers, Ren, Kuro, Ella and Abby turned up. The two shapeshifters and the inugami wouldn't have been a problem for him; as his was a high level warlock, but Ren was another matter entirely. Ren was an ancient faerie and his powers were unimaginable.

Mormo charged up all his energy into his left hand. The air around him was electric, and it started crackling as white hot sparks spiked out of his hand. He steadied himself and aimed his hand at the group letting off a giant white ball of energy.

Ren felt the hairs on his arms stand on end as they ran down the hallway. He looked up and saw the orb cutting through the air barrelling toward them and shouted. "Get out of the way!"

He pushed Abby away then planted his feet bracing himself lifting both hands in front of him. He didn't have time to counterattack; he could only deflect Mormo's spell. The ball of magic hit an invisible wall and exploded all around them. The explosion caused Kuro and Ella who hadn't gotten out of the way in time, to go flying backwards into the crowd of people. There was a huge boom, the whole house shook and all windows near them shattered.

"Damn it! I hoped that would at least blow an arm off of you, Oren," Mormo said with contempt.

Ren let out an elated laugh. It had been decades since he had a good fight; way too long for a light faerie. The fire in his eyes was raging with excitement and anticipation. "I wish you had you dumb wizard then it might've been a fair fight. Although, I probably would have to tie my other arm behind my back if you wanted to make this a fair fight."

Ren gathered energy in both his hands. One was a bright blazing crimson the other was an icy blue. All the air was drawn into those balls of energy as they grew in size; sizzling and crackling with a deadly force.

Mormo said, "Now, now little Tink you wouldn't want to harm your dear friend would you?" He turned his body using Julia as a shield.

"You and I both know what she is," Ren said excited, wickedly grinning almost jumping up and down with joy, "and this measly attack wouldn't even scratch her." Then he let loose both orbs of power. They swirled and combined heading straight for Mormo.

"You crazy faerie!" Mormo shouted, fear and anger laced his voice. "Gods damn all of you fae are the same, insanely blood-thirsty." He lifted his hand and deflected some of the energy. It bounced off of his hand and blew a massive hole in the wall. The magic that wasn't deflected charred Mormo's hand black and smouldering.

Ren licked his lips like a hungry hyena that got its first scent of blood. He pulled out two smaller blades from his belt and ran after Mormo. "That's right you incompetent old hack. But you should know the only other faerie crazier and more vengeful than me is my Queen. So I guess it sucks to be you, because I'm gunning for you. And I won't stop till I've your severed head."

Mormo adjusted Julia on his shoulder, calmly looking through the huge hole in the wall, over the strewn unconscious bodies that had taken the full force of the explosion. He turned toward Ren and shrugged as he said with mock annoyance, "Do you know how rude it is trashing someone's house? Oh well, I wanted to redecorate anyway. Thanks for the door, sprite." Then he walked through.

Kuro shouted as Ren ran after Mormo, "What do you want us to do?"

Ren shouted over his shoulder before he disappeared through the hole in the wall. "You guys try to cut him off outside. If you see any dark fae-slaves don't let them take Julia."

Kuro, Ella and Abby turned around and ran for the front door. Ren followed Mormo jumping over the injured bodies with ease. He spotted Mormo leaving out one of the back doors. Ren raised his hand and let off a bright orange burst of energy that narrowly missed Mormo; causing all the windows along the back of the house to explode.

"You'll have todo better than that, Tink." Mormo laughed raising a hand over his head and let off an orb that painted the sky in a bright scarlet light.

Ren knew it was a signal, and he shot off an orb into the sky that exploded bathing everything in a blinding white light. When the darkness returned and his eyes adjusted, he saw Mormo running toward the woods and met up with a half man half bird-like creature. It had huge black bat wings protruding from its back, a long tail and claws for feet and Mormo handed Julia to it.

Ren picked up speed and was at a dead run. "Bloody harpies!" Then threw both blades at the harpy, but they miss their target as it swerved out of the way.

As the winged creature lifted into the air carrying its cumbersome load; Mormo let out a huge dark khaki sphere of energy at Ren. Ren jumped and it missed him; but with his attention still focused on Julia, a slate grey orb hit him knocking him to the ground.

Ren's body was smoking as he sat up and laughed. "Was that supposed to hurt cause that tickled." He jumped up and shook his head, as if he was trying to dislodge some cobwebs. Then let out a burst of violet and lime energy from both his hands. They combined to form a huge colourful swirling mass and hit Mormo. But the warlock deflected it and the energy rebounded off an invisible wall scorching the earth and trees around him.

"You really want to kill me don't you?" Mormo said. "Well, keep it up elf cause I have all night to play with you."

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