The fog pulsed like a heartbeat.
Cass stood at its edge, her veins glowing like blue lava—flickering, incandescent, violent.
Lorelai watched the woman scan the impenetrable fog.
She would have advised Cass to stop, as it was nearly useless to use Neurite on Daemons. Oh, what a lovely fix that would be if those things had any mind to penetrate.
Cass paused during the scan; her green eyes transformed into an electric blue that perceived far more than Lore could. The woman then reached out, her fingers yearning and clawing towards something.
Whatever it was, reaching into the mist was always a bad sign, right?
"Cass?" Lore asked, not sure about this. "Cass?"
And like that, the eerie fog curled and slowed like calling fingers—A handshake into another realm.
Suddenly—
A centipede down her spine.
The shiver wasn't enough, but the presence, coiled in her core, sent her bones shivering. It told her to cut the connection.
"Cass," Lore asked.
The woman stared straight, a statue with vibrating fangs.
She asked again.
"Cass."
But nothing.
Then footsteps. Not from the fog. Not a daemon. Not a monster.
Cass stepped, a siren in a trance, fingers in want.
"No." Whispered Cass. "No. Don't go."
Lore rushed forward. "Cass!"
Her fingers touched scale, and a bolt of Neurite screamed up her arm, blue strangling her neck, and then touched her brain.
Nerve fused to nerve. Mind nailed to mind. Siren and succubus, screaming in sync.
"Die. Die. I should die." Said Cassian. "And you should come with me."
Lore gasped. Her veins burned. The pulse of scattered thoughts hit like mental gunfire. Each ping slapped her skull—louder, faster, tighter. The firework of commands, howls, and cries prevented her from fighting it.
"Cass", Lore pushed out, "CASS!"
But her words meant nothing, as the voice screamed louder, her voice, Cass's voice, the three sisters bleeding through each other.
A Neurite reserve, long, punchy and infinite.
Both twins bounced off each other.
Waves formed an echo chamber.
Pressure boiled inside her skull.
A scream that wanted to go pop.
Lore's cries pressed against the tiles, tears streaming.
"CASS!" Lore howled, "Turn it off! Turn it off! You're killing me."
Nothing.
Like a boat vs a sea, the demon tongue was a pebble in comparison. Lore bled and screamed, the Hemarite burning within her blood, and forced out a shout so loud that it made her jaw dislocate.
"Cassian Sinclair!"
Everything froze.
Cass trembled. The air crackled—
Lucien fired.
"St-o", Lore started, but her jaw didn't want to continue speaking.
A second crack later, some mental commands were severed. Cass's voice returned to mortal ears as she cried her heart out.
Lore's body tightened as Cass bled. The woman flickering in Voidium, her trace of blue, unable to start, red flowing too fast.
Lore's fingers were wrapped around the girl, the slime of the wet scales, shivering against the tiles.
Lore felt her bones grow heavy. "Cass..."
But the words only snapped Cass's eyes dark, a new black swallowing her green. Her fangs said more than words ever could. Then she flared her reserve; the hate and the swallowing wish for death filled Lore.
"You want to take more, huh! Fine, let me take interest!" Cass roared.
Images of thousands of pins and blades pulled her body, the stretch of flesh as she was ripped apart, slowly layer by layer.
"Cass", Lore coughed, "C.."
It was too much; she could hardly think, much less scream, endless needles, endless stretching. Lore held her head, Cass's mind, a blade inside her skull, twisting—her entire body locked in paralysis.
"Feel it! Feel what I feel! Burn as I burn."
"Please, Cass," Lore begged. "It's me… it's—"
Then again came the fairy; Lucien, not so gently, grabbed Cass's face and shouted.
"Be quiet and help carry Rosa." He commanded.
Cass growled, tears raining down her cheek, the woman cracking, "Don't make me."
"Follow. My. Command." He ordered.
Cass screamed bloody fire for a millisecond, then stiffened. Her face dropped all emotion, and she nodded, moving over like a puppet without free will.
Then Lucien turned to Lore, her tail freezing as she met those Neurite-flared eyes.
"Go check. Marshal is still breathing." He said.
Lore hesitated for a second, watching the glow of blue on Lucien's lips, but he didn't command her.
"We can cry later," he said, "she can hate me when she is alive." He looked at Cass, "No doubt she has much to hate me for."
Then he turned, not leaving Lore to answer him, his back open, ready to stab. All she had to do was jam her fingers right in, and she could pull his core out.
Was she no longer a threat now?
She merely rolled about under a jolt of Neurite to the mind. Anyone could relate. That didn't make her weak. She would demand a rematch; she could withstand it next time.
Then she looked around towards someone who might be more sturdy. And honestly, she half expected a corpse, a mess, a blood pool at whatever she left. But she found a vampire, using a pipe to get up, his slip forcing her to pounce to her feet and catch him.
"Are you stupid?" she said.
He glared at her, drenched in crimson, his diamond skeleton shining. His steaming body still pulsing after what she did. So she guessed that calling this Inquisitor stupid was wrong, especially considering it was directed at someone she had...
She flushed, the words from before clawing back up—make him mine. Had she really said that? Why had she claimed it? Her tail scrunched; it was in the heat of the moment; she meant nothing by it—a rush of dopamine and hormones.
"What?" she said, "If you stare at me like that, it won't change that you bit me first."
She sensed her tail straighten; yes, he bit her. This was his doing, and now she was giving herself a taste. Simple. She didn't do it cause she felt anything. No. No.
"I-" his jaw opened, but he lacked the lips to say anything understandable.
"I hope you know I don't speak, grunt, grunt hiss, right?" she said.
Marshal dropped his eyes, the closest thing to a frown, she guessed.
"You can let go now," he said, his neck channelling blue.
She scoffed. Did everyone possess a realm supply of Neurite on hand, a handout of all-you-can-take mind power stones, buy one, get one free?
But looking back at the big, bad, broody vampire, "Oh, you're reading my thoughts; well, how about this?"
She tightened her grip and imagined the most filthy thing she could, something along the lines of fucking a corpse, you know, something universally bad unless you're a necrophiliac.
She eyed him, his twisted brow evidence enough to know he was not into corpses. She sighed, expecting, you know, a more significant reaction, but no…
Was he already normalised to such a sight? Although fluttering her lashes, the sight of him all battered up, rough, tumbled and hot, and more undead than man. Her tail wagged; objectively, she couldn't fault a bit of flesh and bone on that frame. In fact, she would prefer to have some Neurite to preserve this memory for later.
Marshal's eyes flattened, and she flushed.
"Let's pretend you didn't see that," she said, clearing her throat, her fingers fanning her neck, pretending to cool off or something, her lips trying to hide the excitement.
But his eyes were not so convinced. But why did that make her want to keep going? Are you gonna tell a succubus not to think those things? She scoffed; she liked to see him try; no, she wanted him to try.
"Hey, you can hear me, right? I can imagine you naked, and I can do it whenever I want."
He frowned, and she grinned.
But before she could find a new way to annoy him, the mist rumbled, and the sound of footsteps, boots, and claws howled and screamed through the fog, the Voidium flickering, cracking and opening to a horde of Daemons, a fuck ton of monsters that drooled and thirsted for demon flesh.
The sight made Lore freeze up, but luckily, an inquisitor was in her arms, and he snatched her hand and well… ran.
The sight of Cass, Rosa and Lucien faded as she got pulled and disappeared into the halls. Her feet moved, her eyes fixed on the group till the last second.
"Cass?" Lore whispered.
But she couldn't turn back now.