The next afternoon found them appearing in a flash in the middle of the living room of the house they were residing in, a whole world apart from that small comforting cottage, and with that distance Cas found himself tensing back up.
In the cottage he had been comforted by its reclusivity- only Ophelia and he could suppose her mother could find themselves there with him- no Viscera, no strain to stay close and never ever stray from the protection TrayceOne offered him.
No, it was not a trial to be with them, and yes, he did take pleasure in helping to lay waste to Viscera, but that cottage had done something to him that he hadn’t felt since that day, that awful awful day- it had offered him an almost completely assured safety and it was hard for him to want to give up.
But he had dressed and woke Ophelia up and they had returned.
Thorn had chucked a milky spoon at them in surprise when they had appeared and it had hit Ophelia in the chest and she had frozen stock still before slowly turning to glare at the archer who wisely bolted from the room, Ophelia swiftly giving chase with spatterings of curses and insults.
He laughed quietly to himself and found Jules sitting in the kitchen nook reading a book which he could recall Zaria teasing her for. A ‘bodice-ripper’ the turkish assassin had called.
Zaria was one of the only faces on TrayceTwo Cas cared to acknowledge. The dark eyed woman had been cold to him at first- well, maybe not cold, but certainly stern- but had slowly began to try and charm him out of his shell.
She had been the most recent addition beside himself, Jules coming in a close third behind the two of them.
Zaria had quickly charmed Dash into allowing Cas to join Trayce, which was a subsidiary group that answered off and on to U.V.- a group that had been created by the american government following the civil war, but had gone silent during WWI, pretending to have died off.
U.V. stood for unknown variables, and the organization tracked people, groups, etc… who seemed suspicious whether it be for certain skillsets, certain abilities, certain talents- if it seemed off, U.V. made its business centered around those outliers.
Normally, it took years for U.V. to accept anyone into its subsidiary groups, but he had been verified by two other figures in the parent organization.
He didn’t know who they were- U.V. did not refer to people with names but with serial numbers or sometimes they labeled the people who worked for them simply as Unknowns- but he was thankful.
Finn thought at least one of them was a seer he had worked with in the past, but they hadn’t kept contact long enough to verify.
Cas leaned against the wall and waited for Jules to acknowledge him.
“You’re thinkin’ fairly loud over there.” She hummed, nibbling on a cracker.
“Have you heard anything? Are we going back stateside or are we headed somewhere else?”
Jules flipped over her book and spun around in her chair after placing it facedown on the table and crossed her legs to look at him innocently.
She fluttered her lashes at him, “Me? Be nosy?”
Cas snorted and she dropped the act.
She smirked, “Apparently we’re headed stateside. TrayceTwo cut ahead and took care of the outlying bases.”
“I’m jealous,” he joked and she waved him off.
“But anyway, you should really talk to Finn. He got a little worried when you two disappeared-yes, even though you left a note. You know he’s a worrier.”
Cas sighed.
Jules waved him out of the room before going back to her reading.
In the living room he found Baptiste deconstructing one of his birds and putting it back together again while petting a second. A third was perched on the back of the overhanging bar its red eyes narrowing on Cas as he entered.
“Ophelia went downstairs.”
Cas cocked a brow, “I wasn’t-”714Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJrgRE6rGVp
Baptiste cocked a brow in return, not looking away from his work, “Lies.”714Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCeBi4I0PXE
Cas shrugged it off, “I’m looking for Finn.”
Baptiste quit with his prodding for a moment to look up at him with spectacled eyes.
“He’s in the study. He just pulled Ophelia off ‘da fool’. They have both been sent to their respective rooms.”
Cas hummed.
“What?” Baptiste inquired.
“How well did that go?”714Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTtGNCxD0gY
Baptiste waved him off, “Thorn is nursing his wounds in the attic and Ophelia went to her room with a good impression of the cat that ate the canary.”
Cas abandoned the man to his work and walked through the room and into the hall where he found the study closed off.
He knocked and entered the study to find Finn getting off the phone with a growl of frustration. He looked like hell and was pulling at his flawless hair.
“You know, I am awfully jealous of the whole ‘perfection’ thing you always have going on.”
Finn looked up with a wry grin, “I can recall saying the same thing to you once upon a time.”
Cas chuckled, “And look at us now! Immortal and yet again interfering in mass world events.”
Finn laughed lowly and leaned back in the leather chair behind the desk.
“You know,” He began, “Something weird is going on. Everything is going quiet. U.V. has gone quiet in the past week- all we have right now is each other.”714Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVC3LcOzLEZ
Cas tensed up at the admission.
“That can’t be good.” He surmised, dropping the smile.
Finn shook his head, “It usually isn’t. Calm before the storm and all that.”714Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeTu9BoSCQU
He sighed and stretched out, sinking lower into the chair cushions.
Cas tossed a neighboring book at him and it struck him in forehead.
The offending book fell into his lap and Finn rubbed his reddening head, “Hey!”
“Get to bed, asshole. You’ve worried the others with your worrying.” Cas chided and Finn nodded and stumbled to his feet with surprising grace.
“Yes sir.”
Cas rolled his eyes as the other man passed him and suddenly stilled as he took in a breath.
Cas tensed up so tightly that he felt fit to burst, a sense of his tingling with unease at Finn’s actions. He didn’t move until the other had progressed a few steps more. He pulled the door to the office closed behind them and stayed a good pace behind his friend.
Finn had yet to tell him exactly how he came to be immortal- but Cas had an inkling and he was simply waiting for his friend to admit it.
He had come across two other vampires in his time- and one baby vamp shortly after those two met their ends at Viscera’s hands.
The first had been an imposing male- more of a beast than anything sentient, when he wasn’t gnashing his teeth in hunger he drolled on and on in his cell about his mistress, ‘a goddess to them all by the name of Yelyah’.
Viscera had experimented on the male, extracting… something from his bloodless body for weeks before injecting Cas with a concoction of whatever it was and his normal injections, and he was willing to bet something else too, but he tried not to think of it as he had that last something several times that he could recall- rendering him bed bound for a year at a time. The only time it hadn’t was when the vampire’s whatever had been injected at the same time.
He had been thrown into a cell with the vampire the next day and the male had been mad with bloodlust, no sense of grace or coordination in his limbs beside the energy that drove him to drink blood to continue his miserable existence.
Cas had killed him in almost a single heartbeat.
His damaged hand ripping through the male’s flesh like a surgeon’s blade, shattering the vampire’s ribcage and encompassing his heart, ripping it back out the very next second.
The second vampire had been used in a similar purpose. They had tried using the second vampire’s whatever on another asset, but the asset perished within an hour after injection.
They had poked and prodded Cas for weeks after that to figure out what had made him of all beings survive.
When they failed to draw a conclusion they used the second vampire up till it was a dried out husk- continuing with their no doubt toxic injections into his system.
When he had killed that female vampire he had made it quick.
She had been an older vampire than the first- but from his early sightings of her one would never have guessed it- not until they had seen her as that awful husk.
He would never forget the look she graced his with when he snapped her neck.
She had seemed at peace with it and it haunted him still.
But it was just another penny in the fountain.
The baby vamp though- he had been shocked at the sight of her.
Viscera had not tortured or experimented on her- no, even they couldn’t bear that.
She had been made immortal as a child and would forever have remained a child had she not perished while under Viscera’s hold.
A doctor had found her, feeding her cold donated blood. That had not satisfied her and she went on a rampage at one of the bases during a tantrum.
Cas had been the one sent down the halls to end her.
She had appeared more animal than anything else; ruthless, irritated, and willing to kill anyone that got in her way.
He got in her way and so she had attacked.
She met a similar end to the second.
Oddly enough, her death numbered very low on the gauge of death he kept in his mind. He felt very little guilt over it.
She would never have been able to live in the outside world and from what he could gather, the vampires native to the area she had been found in would kill any that was changed as a pre-pubescent.
He could see why, since that had been but one tantrum.
So no, he was not afraid of Finn. How could he be, when he didn’t doubt he could easily kill his friend if he so wished it?
He would rather die himself than kill Finn though, especially having lived with him and seeing how many people cared about him. Not to mention that Finn was all he really had anymore.
A flash of red entered his vision as Ophelia flitted into the hallway.
Her head cocked to the side like a bird, “Would you like to go hunting with me, Father?”
Finn stilled like a statue, he gaped.
“I-uh, sure.” He glanced back at Cas, turning his back on her for a moment.
Did she just call me ‘Father’? He mouthed and Cas nodded.
“What else do you want me to call you?” She asked and he froze up a little more at being caught.
“Uh…” He droned for a few moments before she rolled her eyes and flitted out of the hall to the front door.
Cas smirked at his friend, “You’ll catch flies, Finn.”714Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ01OXgfCfRc
Finn pouted, “Shut up.”
He paused at the entrance to the foyer, glancing back at Cas.
“You need to shower. You smell like a pig.”714Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡofgSJCMBhA
It was Cas’ turn to pout and pout he did.
“Like father, like daughter.” He muttered before turning on his heel to head downstairs.
Finn’s laughter followed him down the halls.
Finn had been surprised to find Ophelia sitting outside on the overhanging porch roof, ashamedly jumping like a scared rabbit when she hopped down to walk with him to the end of the block into a park.
It was small and quaint almost, untouched by most everything. A few swingsets were set aside beside a few sandboxes and the like, but it was mostly empty save for sparse looking trees.
Ophelia was quiet, contemplative if he had to guess.
They walked on a path silently for a few minutes before she spoke.
“Why do you not tell them what you are?” She asked and he swallowed.
“It is not something I am proud of. I never wanted to be like this. I never wanted to be separated from everything I once knew.” He paused, “I… do not want them to look to me in fear.”
Ophelia hummed in reply.
They went silent for a few moments more and he glanced away from her to see that they had diverged from the path, their shoes crunching against dried leaves and stiff grass.
“I-” She cut herself off before she could fully begin.
She went silent once more in contemplation.
“I will admit, I have never thought of being human as desirable. Humans are odd creatures and make odd sounds and creations and well, humans are odd. What is it that makes you think being human would be better than this? You seem to have found people who care about you, I know Caspian looks to you more so than anyone else, at least. What is it that makes you think your life would have been best served as mortal aged. Would you not be dead by now if you were mortal?”
He glanced away from her at the trees and found that they were entering a dry field- what had most likely once been a meadow, or at least would be a meadow come spring.
Her words rang in his head for a few moments.
“It is not that being human is more pleasant- it is that without time constraining me I feel so little motivation to do anything on my own. I have lost my purpose.”
Her nose scrunched up into disgust and she looked away.
“Purpose.” She breathed, “All beings seek it yes, but a person’s purpose is their dictate alone. Only you can decide whether you have it or lack it. I-in Court, the lesser royal sidhe constantly decorate themselves with human Craft because they can not craft themselves. These lesser royal sidhe have forgotten the one truth that was once passed down by the Elders. Purpose is what you make of it. Do not think that because time is no longer a constraint that you can not accomplish great things. That would be false, I can assure you.”
He looked down at her as they approached the opposite end of the field.
She sighed before turning her gaze up at him, “I will show you some of the relics my kindred once built. We were not always so shallow, we once craved innovation so much that we were driven to innovate ourselves when those places and those peoples that we visited could not yet.”714Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCEvCX6vxFC
His eyes searched the forest that was deepening around them.
“I suppose you’ll have to show me someday.”714Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡldrzsz21Xy
She nodded in the way that a child would when they knew something definitively.
“Very well,” She breathed, “Shall we hunt then? You need only imagine your prey for the forest to summon forth.”
“I don’t think they’ll have any of my prey here, Ophelia.”
She frowned, “Why not?”
“I feed off of criminals. Forests don’t usually have those in abundance.”
They silently stared at each other for a moment and her brows furrowed, “You do not have forests infested with criminals normally?”
He shook his head and she pouted like a toddler who had just been told an unpleasant truth.
“That sounds awfully dull.”
He began to chuckle slowly and patted her on the shoulder.
“Don’t worry about it, tonight. I’ll head out later tonight to hunt. What exactly did you plan on hunting in the first place? Even I can’t sense anything.”
She snorted, “That is because fae hunt what is within the earth.”
It was his turn now to furrow his brow and he wisely chose not to ask.
As Ophelia prepared for bed that night she counted backwards from ninety nine like one would count sheep. It was more of a habit than anything else to be honest, but it reassured her as the Wild Hunt’s power reached out to her from holes in the Otherworld’s veil- searching for any wayward faerie to join in the dastardly hunt, gripping any who were too weak to stand up to it as it continued to grow in strength and would continue to until dawn broke on November first. In only three hours would the Hunt become available to any vengeful ruler of the faerie courts and even though she felt silly about it, Ophelia counted backwards from ninety nine three times as her grandmother had taught her when she spent her first autumn within her court.
The Autumn court had flourished with power as its season was at its full strength- rich reds, bright oranges, and comforting chocolate browns painted her grandmother’s cottage just on the edge of the court’s lands and even though apprehension wormed through her now just as it did then, Ophelia took comfort.
She stripped off the dress she had worn that day and threw on her umber colored nightslip that ended just above her knees, sliding her arms into a thick rust orange cardigan and settled herself into bed beneath the thick comforters and piles of blankets.
She flicked off the light on the bedside table and began her final countdown.
99, 98, 97,96…
45, 44, 43,42…
13,12,11,10…
5, 4, 3,2...714Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKMde2mhxSE
1.
She closed her eyes and fell into sleep’s embrace.
What came to her in her dreams was a nightmare beyond belief and one she knew was destined to come true.
It was not surprising that she screamed till she was awakened.
Nothing was going to be alright. Not ever again.
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