Darren

"What did you do with my sister you psycho? I swear I'll kill you if you did anything to her." I held the knife to his throat. I had waited for him patiently, paced back and forth in front of his office for hours. Long enough that the sun had started peaking through the crack in the curtains. The door to his office  sprung open to revealing his brother, Niklaus. He was looking back and forth between the two of us completely still as Alexei stared down at me. I wanted to slice his throat, my fingers tightened around the hilt of my blade. The silver gleamed, freshly sharpened from this morning. 

Alexei reached up and put his fingers to the blade, letting cut into his skin as he pushed it away, "I believe you think you mean that, Druid but you'd be wasting your time threatening me. Your sister is much better now that I've seen to her. When she wakes up she'll be as good as new." I gritted my teeth as his over confident words. He didn't take anyone seriously, not even Poppy and out of our entire family she was the prodigy.

The red headed female who had saved Poppy squeezed into the small space next to Niklaus, "What the hell, Alexei?" She looked like she wanted to skin him alive by the way she was glaring at him. She launched herself with speed none of us had been anticipating. Her hand collided with the side of his face, knocking him back a couple of steps. 

Her chest was heaving up and down, as Alexei let out a out gut holding laugh. He had gone completely lost it. He turned his face toward her, teeth on full display in a wolfish grin, "Now now, there's no need for violence." 

Her eyes narrowed further, "I should rip your head off and mount it above the fireplace in the elder house. I'm sure everyone there would appreciate that." 

"Loren, Calm down." Niklaus grabbed onto her shoulders, giving them a squeeze before he narrowed his eyes in his brothers direction, "If anyone is going to take his head it's going to be me. You have a lot of explaining to do, brother." 

"Of course." He replied in a bored tone, turning his gaze in my direction, "I'd love to stay and play. You Druids sure know how to entertain me but business calls." I ground my teeth together as the three of them walked back into his office, closing the door in my face. I clutched my blade a little tighter before I holstered it. I spun on my heels and marched toward the back door. 

The past couple of days had been hell. I had been completely useless when it came to helping find my sister. If anything all of this was proving to me why my parents had never let me do anything on my own. It was hard not to feel jealous of Poppy and how naturally attuned to everything she was. What made it worse was that she didn't care about any of it. She didn't want any of what she had been given. She had all of the power, all of the talent without the hard work.

I sucked in a deep breath when I stepped outside, trying to calm down the raging emotions inside of me. When I saw Poppy again I was going to give her a piece of my mind for running off like she had, leaving me behind like I had been extra baggage. She could be so selfish sometimes, thinking only about herself and what she wanted. 

I made my way around the back of the house to find a circle of people. They were cheering and shouting wildly with excitement. I followed the sound of the raised voices, curiosity stirring deep inside of me.  I moved closer and closer to get a view at whatever had them so entranced. None of them seemed to care about my added presence as I came to stand near the back, peering through the spaces of the shifting bodies. 

My heart hammered in my chest as I watched two half-dressed men, pummeling each other for sport. My eyes raked over the firm muscles of a bare back, unable to stop myself. There were layers of scars, that glistened like my sliver blade in the rising sun. I itched to follow the lines with my fingers, trace the intricate patterns that they created. 

When I caught a side view of who was fighting, my heart jolted and my cheeks rushed with warmth. As if he sensed my presence Cole met my gaze through the crowd, blood dripping from his raw knuckles. The ones that he had been using against his opponent that was now laid out on the ground, spitting blood into the dirt.

The frost of fear crept up my spine as his eyes took in every curve and line of my body. Those dark eyes were assessing me the way a predator would when they were consumed by the need to devour. He wanted to devour me, heart and soul like the monster that he was. I could see that, clearly. 

I glanced to the half naked man at his feet. Who was struggling to pull himself together, while the crowd roared with excitement. This was brutality unleashed, a culture of violence unhinged. My soul magic sizzled in my veins, hungry for a taste of the violence as it sprung to life with Cole's emotions. 

He must have felt the pull too because he gave me feral smile that had me backpedalling. I didn't have much experience with these types of things. I didn't 

"Grab the witch." He commanded, as he snatched his opponent off the ground. I watched him toss him out of the circle toward the surging crowd as hands wrapped around my arms and pulled me forward, launching me into the circle. I stumbled over my feet as tried to catch myself from face planting into the dirt. 

I lifted my eyes to beast that was walking a predatory circle around me, "What are you trying to do?" I questioned anxiously. I had no idea what he was trying to accomplish. Some part of me screamed that he wouldn't actually harm me but that part of me was hard to trust with the beast breathing down my neck. 

"You've made me look weak in front of the pack. I'm one of Alexei's beta's. He chose me personally for the job." He growled at me, lip curling up to show his anger over the situation he was in. 

My gaze traveled around the crowd, looking for a route of escape, "Well that explains a lot actually. You're both fucking psychotic." My hand drifted to the hilt of my blade. I wasn't going to take any risks. A nearby person in the crowd laughed at my comment. Clearly someone had a sense of humor.

Cole snarled, twisting quickly--throwing his fist into the hecklers face. The heckler dropped like I fly as Cole swiveled his body in my direction. He didn't give me a chance to debate whether or not he would actually attack me. He charged toward me, and I nearly missed being taken down as I tucked and rolled out of the way. 

He spun back around with narrowed eyes and I smiled at him, "You're going to have to try harder than that big guy. I hunt demons for a living." I had never felt so alive, my magic surging more as his rage consumed him. It was as if I was feeding off of his energy which only made me stronger. 

His dark eyes raked over me and I couldn't ignore the way my body burned under his gaze. He must have understood the effect that he was having because he gave me a wide wolfish grin, "You are three hundred years to early to be getting cocky, witch." He stalked towards me. As he came closer he shifted into his beastly form, his jeans splitting in nothing but scraps. His lycan was huge, I felt a wave of anxiety rush through me for a moment as I tilted my head back to meet the beasts gaze.  

I twisted as the beast reached for me with a clawed hand, slicing with my silver blade. It snarled as I the small flesh wound I gave it, sizzled and smoked. I knew I had pissed the damned thing off as it came at me much quicker. I kept leaping back and ducking out of the way of his attacks. I couldn't get ahead of him, all I could do was defend myself.  

He knocked me to the ground as we bumped into each other, my head knocking against the hard earth. I shook my head to recover myself. I squinted through my blurry vision to see that my knife was just out of my reach. I pushed myself up, scurrying forward for the weapon but my fingertips only graze the hilt as a clawed hand wrapped around my leg and pulled me back. 

I rolled over onto my back to face the beast, stretching my hand out in front of me as I called on my magic. I watched at the beast shift back into the man who had been stalking me since I had arrived. He reached out and grabbed my hand as my magic snapped out like a whip, wrapping around his arm. It burned me us as much as it burned him. 

That was new. That had never happened before. 

He gritted his teeth as he pulled me up off the ground, our bodies colliding, "You are mine, Witch. Mine to do with what I will...nothing can stop that now." 

My eyes widened as he spun me around and sunk his canines into my neck with shocking percision. A piece of my mind snapped in half and my magic surged out into the world in one powerful blast that took me away into the darkness. It was to overwhelming to hold on, the only thing I could do was ride the wave as it carried me away to some place else. 

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Song: Raw --Bloody Beetroots