Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Bloody Skies	By : TokiMirage Category: Harry Potter AU/AR > Slash - Male/Male Views: 44802 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: JKRowling owns Harry Potter. Everything else is mine. I do not make any money writing this fic.

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
- 17
Bloody Skies
oOo
Chapter Sixteen:
oOo
Cyrus slammed the book shut in disgust and ran a frustrated hand through his hair, ignoring the way the replacement librarian glared at him. There was nothing. Well, nothing useful in the library. Which made sense, now that he thought about it. The headmistress was a vampire. Why would she keep a book on ‘how to kill a vampire’?
Burying his head in his arms, he cursed softly under his breath. After that first bite from Asteras, he’d researched vampires. He hadn’t found much then either. It was almost like there was a ban on the library concerning that information. Or the authors who wrote about it got killed off, which could be quite the deterrent. All he’d found out at the time was about a vampire’s bite when they fed off you, and other useless information that was decades, or centuries out of date – most of it being history. There was very little about their culture or customs.
Someone needed to make a ‘need to know’ guide to vampires. This was frustrating.
But if books couldn’t help him… and Tara was off looking for Dalesh’s corpse… Maybe it was time he fully exploited his other source.
He needed to talk to Severus.
Gathering up his books, he was about to take them to the librarian for reshelving when Yalmireth walked around the corner of a nearby bookshelf.
“Cyrus,” he greeted with a small smile. “I’ve been looking for you. I had hoped we could practice wandless magic again this evening.”
The human bit his lip and put the last book on the top of the stack in his arms. “Today isn’t really a good day, sorry Yalmireth. I’m… I have to leave Shikaan for a couple hours. Maybe longer. And I have a lesson with Yankovich later tonight.” When the demon looked crestfallen, he internally winced with guilt. “But hey, I’ll make it up to you okay? There’s just some… stuff going on right now that has me a little worked up, and the homework load hasn’t exactly been light lately with that project Rivehn assigned.”
Yalmireth lowered his head slightly, his bangs falling into his eyes and hiding them from Cyrus’s sight. “I see. Are you still going to study with us tonight?”
The human shifted the weight in his arms. “Maybe. If I have time.” He started walking off. “I’ll see you later, Yalmireth.” The demon said nothing, but Cyrus caught sight of him staring out of the corner of his eye. He really did feel bad for just ditching Yalmireth like that, but he did have killer vampires on his ass. He needed to protect himself, and hopefully Severus could help.
Once he’d left the books with the librarian, who glared at him scornfully, he disapparated straight to Spinner’s End.
Both eyebrows rose at the sight that met him when he apparated with a soft crack. “Merlin! What happened to you, Remus?”
The werewolf smiled half-heartedly from where he lay on the couch, half his body covered in red-soaked bandages. “Hey Cyrus, how’s school?”
He stared. “School’s… stressful. What the fuck happened?”
Severus came out of his study at that moment, a box of potion vials in hand. The scowl on his face could have scared a giant shitless. “Werewolves within the clan have been challenging him for the right to be Alpha. I have told him time and time again that he needs to rip someone apart to set an example for the others, but he foolishly continues to rule with a peaceful hand.”
Remus let out a tired sigh. “I hate the pack mentality where violence is the only solution,” he explained, a dull tone to his voice as if he had been repeating himself too many times.
Cyrus stared. “You’re kidding, right? Hell, I was there, Remus, when they tried to lynch you.”
“And yet this has only made his argument stronger. That he must ‘civilize’ them. You can remain a civil man and rule with an iron grip, Remus. You must find the line where peacekeeping is no longer suitable to control the situation. Violence is a necessity in most cultures, Remus.”
“That’s not true! It’s mentality like that, that creates wars and never ending conflicts. If I could just get them to see reason-“
“They are a pack of animals, Remus!” the vampire snapped. “And while they walk on two feet for most of the month, not all are so willing to return to pretty human sentimentality even though their fur has disappeared! If you continue to believe in the good of everyone under you, you are going to get yourself killed. And I won’t have my mate dying because of his foolish ideals of peace!”
Cyrus grimaced. Wow. He’d just walked in on a lover’s spat he definitely didn’t want to get involved in.
Remus ignored him. “So, Cyrus, what brings you here?”
Severus glared at him and shoved a vial in his face. The werewolf drank it without a word, as well as several others.
The human twitched. “Well… I’m in a bit of a bind, and I need some information on vampire culture from Severus.” He proceeded to explain the ‘situation’ he’d found himself in.
“Are you an imbecile?! Getting involved with ACIF? The Akkad Criminal Investigation Force?!”
The human looked away nervously from the positively furious expression on Severus’s face.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed on a weekly basis on purpose? If death is what you want, I’ll gladly kill you myself!”
Cyrus’s sputtered for a moment. “Hey! I don’t do this on purpose! And as this is my life on the line here, how about a bit less anger and a bit more constructive problem solving? I need to know how to kill a vampire if it comes down to that, and none of the books at Shikaan have enlightened me an iota.” He crossed his arms defensively across his chest.
Remus had covered his face with a hand and Severus was looking at him like he was a bug on the wall, and he just wanted to squish it. “Trouble follows you like a magnet. Next time you’re neck deep in vampire territory, don’t try to kill someone.”
“Yeah. I got that. Any other brilliant suggestions for keeping myself alive?”
The vampire got up and went towards the liquor cabinet. “Killing a vampire is notoriously difficult. The only way to be sure they are dead is to remove their head. Organs can be regrown, flesh wounds healed. Vampires can take a substantial amount of damage, and unless you rip their body to shreds, they will likely regenerate.”
“Can a killing curse take one out?”
The vampire nodded. “The reason why the killing curse is an unforgivable is because it kills anything. Of course, the amount of power you put into it is also a factor. If you cast a curse that will kill a human at a giant, you may give it a bloody nose. It is similar for vampires. Without enough power, it will not kill them.”
Cyrus swore softly to himself. He had the power to cast multiple killing curses, but if he wasn’t careful the Dark magic would begin to insinuate itself into his mind. They were taught how to resist the Dark in Dark Arts and Their Defense, but not everyone succeeded in fighting the temptation to let down that mental barrier and let their essence revel in the power of it. Cyrus was pretty sure Severus was addicted – he was a Death Eater after all – but like most Shikaan graduates or dropouts, he had learned how to quell it and aim it in directions that weren’t damaging to other people or himself.
“And what do I do if they come after my head? Can I escape and hide myself?”
Severus got a thoughtful expression. “I’m unsure. The Akkad clan can be quite… persistent. And the clan has vampires of many skills. They would probably be able to track you unless you sealed your magic and became a muggle.”
Cyrus stared. “Seriously? Shit! So they would be able to find out that I’m Harry Potter?”
The vampire nodded. “If they were forced to look for you, then yes, they could. Your best option is to prove that Dalesh killed this Amelia woman.”
Cyrus bit his lip. “You’re sure that there’s no way I could hide from them?”
Severus shook his head. “I used to be a vampire of the Akkad clan before I… creatively got myself banished. Now I’m an outsider, affiliated with no one. To say the least, I have an idea of how they operate.”
The human blinked, surprised. “Really? You were an Akkad?”
“Yes.”
Cyrus nodded slowly. Well, at least this visit hadn’t been a complete failure. He knew how to kill a vampire now, though he wasn’t sure if he’d survive long enough to cast Avada Kedavra.
Shit.
oOo
“Come in.”
Cyrus slipped inside the office, closing the door quietly behind him. Yankovich sat behind his desk, writing something in a notebook with a look of deep concentration on his face, a small pink tongue peeking out of the corner of his mouth. Cyrus stifled a smile at the sight. It totally didn’t suit the demon’s normally demonic visage of… demonicness.
Yankovich snapped the book shut and stood from behind his desk. “You ready to go raise some corpses?” he asked cheerfully.
Cyrus blinked. “Suuure.”
The demon put a hand on his shoulder and the world disappeared in shadows. When light finally reached Cyrus’s eyes again, and the falling sensation had faded, the human looked around at the graveyard Yankovich had shadow walked them to.
“Where are we?” Cyrus asked curiously as he ran a hand along a rather nice looking gravestone. Usually Yankovich had them raising dead in neglected and old graveyards – less chance of running into mourners that way. So why were they in a nice, cheery, snow-spotted graveyard that didn’t fit Yankovich’s M.O?
“Somewhere in Kansas, I think,” the demon said, brushing the snow off a headstone with a wave of his hand before plopping himself down on it. “Today we’re going to work on two methods of raising the dead, and figuring out the advantages for both. Now, from how you’ve explained the way your death magic works to me so far, the first method is keeping your natural magic in your channels and the other is flooding your channels with death magic, right? From my understanding, you didn’t have such huge control problems until you required more volume of death magic and had to switch cores.”
Cyrus nodded. “When I raised my first zombie, I kept the thread connecting it to me easily enough, but as soon as I… er, flooded my channels the other day, the magic just poured out of me and raised the entire graveyard.”
Yankovich nodded. “I’m going to have to teach you how to remain in control of the larger amounts of magic, and to not automatically use large amounts of death magic when your raising doesn’t work the first time. I want to see if you can manage to raise one zombie and regenerate it like you did with that soldier zombie that attacked… Zirala was it? The hard part will be keeping a tight hold on the flow. In order to do that, use the non-flooding method the first time so you can feel how much death magic you need. Pick a corpse and get crackin’.”
Cyrus blinked. “You’re in a very good mood today.”
The demon grinned. “Rivehn and I were… working on an interesting project last night. So yes, I’m in a good mood. Now stop wasting time, Obsidian. Chop chop.”
Unable to ignore the infectious grin, Cyrus smiled and bit his lip to try to keep some of the amusement off his face. Turning around in search of a dead body to raise, he wondered whether he should start older or younger. Shrugging, he closed his eyes and cast out a mental net of death magic. Feeling the bodies in the ground, he blinked when one grave had two corpses in it. Getting curious, he focused his attention in on them. His eyebrows rose in surprise when one of the dead was in a casket and the other was underneath the casket. Had someone been murdered and buried there? It really was the perfect place to get rid of a body if you were a muggle.
Shaking those thoughts out of his head, he focused on the task before him. Finding a body around fifty years old, he wrestled out as much death magic as he could past the natural magic in his channels and sent it out into the ground like a rope. It wrapped around the corpse and brought it to the surface.
“Not bad,” Yankovich said from where he still sat on his headstone. “Now remember the quantity you used, put it back in the ground, flood your channels, and try again. Don’t forget to keep the thread attached to your core, like you learned in class. You have to constantly keep your attention on the connection in case the zombie fights you or your lack of concentration snaps it.”
Cyrus nodded and did as he was asked, mentally commanding the zombie back into the ground. It fell asleep without any problems, sinking into the soil. With a gentle snap, the connection broke. Closing his eyes and taking a breath, he pulled his natural magic back into his channels and let his death magic fill him to the brim. Holding on tightly, he didn’t let a single drop of it leak past his skin.
“Good. Now, remember the quantity and raise that zombie again.”
Nodding absently, Cyrus cupped his hands together and slowly let death magic pool between them. When he had measured it as closely as he could, he formed the ball of magic into a rope and sent it down into the ground. The death magic behaved a little differently this time, writhing in his grip and trying to slip out of his control. It also tried to draw more magic out of him, but he kept a tight leash on it, mind focused on raising the zombie again.
The rope attached to the corpse, and the magic just poured into the body. It was only with a quick mental ‘grab’ that he caught the rope before it all got sucked into the zombie. Taking the end of the rope and attaching it to his core, he commanded the zombie to rise from the ground.
The first thing he noticed was how much… healthier the zombie looked. He’d used almost the same amount of magic, but it seemed to work better than before. The muggle woman stared at him eerily, looking for all the world as if she had just walked off the street, and not out of her own grave.
Creepy.
“First thing you’re doing wrong,” the demon began, and Cyrus cringed. “When you pull death magic from your core, never let it separate. I thought I explained this to you in class? If you don’t keep your connection between your death magic and the zombie during the entire process, the chances it can escape increase. Why are you having trouble with this now?”
The human licked his lips nervously and thought about it for a moment, staring at a random headstone. “I dunno. It just seems more… slippery.”
Yankovich raised an eyebrow. “You’re going to have to stay conscious of your control at all times if you don’t want to get eaten alive by your own zombie as soon as someone throws a spell at you.”
“But how do I do that?”
“Practice. It’s called multi-tasking, Obsidian. That’s why battle necromancers are so rare. Few have the instinctive concentration necessary to control dead and cast spells at the same time.”
While fascinated with that little tidbit, it didn’t exactly help. Cyrus wanted to bash his head against the wall. Practice. The one word no student wanted to hear when they were trying to learn something.
“How much death magic would it take for a muggle zombie to become more… aware?” They hadn’t discussed the cognizance of different zombies in class, much. At this stage in their education they were simply learning to raise the zombies. Getting into their heads didn’t come up until second year, unfortunately.
“No amount of death magic can make a muggle zombie completely cognizant. It’s impossible. Their souls have moved on, and they have no magic themselves to animate their bodies and brains to the point where they can act like real people.”
Cyrus frowned. “You mentioned that in class, once. What are the other differences between raising muggles and magical people?
Yankovich raised an eyebrow. “You don’t need to know any more about that for a while yet, Cyrus. Why the sudden curiosity?”
Cyrus thought of Dalesh. “No reason. You couldn’t give me a hint, could you?”
Sapphire eyes narrowed. “All you need to know is not to try to raise one until I tell you to. Got it? A lot of shit can go wrong even when you’ve had proper training for it.”
The human deflated. “Oh. Alright.” Damnit. Now how was he supposed to raise Dalesh and not fuck up? ‘Bring lots of salt, I guess. And a torch,’ he thought miserably to himself. Learning how to cast fiendfyre, the most powerful fire spell he knew of, was now on the top of his list of shit to do. He wasn’t getting mauled by a zombie again if he could help it.
“Good,” Yankovich said, a suspicious glint in his eyes. Cyrus did his best to look innocent without being too innocent. After a rather awkward and long staring contest, the demon poked the zombie one more time. “Put her back in the dirt. I want you to raise two zombies at once now.”
Letting out a breath, Cyrus nodded and put the inferius back in the ground. “Does it matter how old they both are when I raise them?” he asked.
Yankovich raised an eyebrow. “If what you meant was does it matter to me, then no. But you might want to keep it under a hundred to make it easier for yourself.”
The human nodded and closed his eyes to look for another dead body nearby that was close in age to the one he’d already raised. He found it a few meters away and pooled magic into his hands again, this time measuring out twice as much as last time. He smiled slightly. The hand-measuring thing was really helping so far. Forming the magic into two ropes, he attached the ends to his core like Yankovich had told them and sent the other ends into the ground. He was completely unprepared for the way his concentration broke under the strain of keeping two dead bodies in control. It was like trying to juggle with three balls when you only knew how to toss two. The threads just snapped like hairs.
Swearing, he pulled his death magic back into his core in five seconds while pulling a shrunken bag of salt off his belt at the same time. Letting his natural magic fill his core again, he tried to keep calm as the two flesh-eating zombies that had pulled themselves out of the ground started walking towards him. His panic only faded when he’d wandless enlarged the salt, split the bag, and maneuvered the grains of salt into a circle around him.
A sigh whistled from between his clenched teeth as the zombies walked into the edge of the circle and tried to claw their way around the invisible ‘shield’. Yankovich floated in the air a distance away, watching with an amused expression. Cyrus glared and crossed his arms, watching the two zombies paw at his circle.
That was it. He was officially drawing a protective salt circle every time he raised the dead from then on. Because this was just not cool.
“Do you remember how to reattach to them, Obsidian? Or do you need me to walk you through it again,” Yankovich’s voice jeered from above.
Cyrus was sincerely tempted to flip him the bird, but settled for just getting the zombies back in the ground. Eyes warily watching the zombies, he switched cores again. Stretching ropes out to the bodies, he reattached to them one by one and kept an iron grip once the threads were secure.
“Good,” Yankovich said, floating back down to stand on a nearby headstone. “At least this time you only raised two flesh-eaters. That’s an improvement.”
Cyrus gave him a look.
The demon grinned. “Now now, no reason to get feisty. You know I’m right. You’re like a walking disaster-waiting-to-happen.”
The human scowled. “How am I supposed to concentrate on both at the same time? I don’t get it,” he complained moodily.
Yankovich crossed his arms. “Practice.”
“But that doesn’t tell me anything!”
“Don’t get snippy with me, human. I’ve given you all the tools you need. It wasn’t like you were skipping classes before we got your death magic working.” The demon picked at a fingernail. “If you need to practice by raising animals, then that’s what you need to do. There’s not shame in that.” When Cyrus opened his mouth to shout, completely insulted, Yankovich continued, “I started on animals.”
The human’s mouth clicked shut for a moment before opening again. “Really? But… Zirala said only really bad necromancers had to start on animals.”
Yankovich snorted. “Bullshit. Raising animals is for people with little death magic or little control. I had both when I first started. And now look where I am.” His lips spread in a feral grin. “I’m one of the best necromancers in the guild not because of raw power, but because of my fine control. You would do well to learn some. Practice on something big, first. Animals need far less death magic to raise, so pumping them full enough to explode will only cause you problems. When you’re good enough to raise a fly, we’ll have our next lesson.”
Cyrus backpedalled. “Wait, what? Next lesson? Are you saying that you won’t have any more lessons with me until I learn how to raise a fly?”
The demon raised an eyebrow. “You’re a waste of my time until then. Practice makes perfect. Whining to me and fucking up more zombie raisings will get you nowhere. You need to learn control, and then how to split your concentration of that control. So, animals. I’ll help you with multiple, simultaneous raisings of animals once you can make a fly dance a jig in mid air for a whole minute. See you in class!”
And without another word, the demon fell into the shadow of the headstone behind him, leaving Cyrus to stare after him.
Fucking flies.
oOo
Cyrus spent most of Wednesday locked in his room doing homework. His lesson with Yankovich had shown some improvement, but apparently not enough for the Necromancy Professor. He had to practice raising flies before he got another lesson. Letting out a disgusted grunt, he returned his attention to his Runes Transfiguration homework.
“Cyrus!”
The human nearly overturned his small table as he got to his feet with both wands in hand, surprised. When he saw it was only Tara, he let out a breath. “Jeez, Tara. You trying to give me a heart attack or something?” Sheathing his wands, he righted his chair and let himself collapse into it with a raised eyebrow at the excited look on the vampire’s face.
Tara grinned. “If you would get a magi-com, I wouldn’t have to drop in on you like this.”
Rolling his eyes, Cyrus pulled the new magi-com out of his pocket and flashed it at the vampire. “Ha. You can’t use that excuse on me anymore.”
She snatched the magical phone out of his hand before he could react, flipping it open and punching away at buttons. “I hope you know how to find your address book because I’m programming my number into it,” she said distractedly before pulling out her own magi-com and punching something into it. Closing his with a snap, she gently tossed it back to him.
He caught it with seeker reflexes and flipped it open to see what she’d done. Suddenly, the song ‘Over the Rainbow’ came from the tiny contraption as it buzzed in his hand. Confused, he flipped it open. “Hello?”
“Yo,” Tara’s voice came in stereo half coming from the speaker by his ear and the person standing not three feet away from him.
The human raised an eyebrow. “Really, Tara,” he muttered under his breath as he hung up and tried to figure out how to change his ringer. No way in hell was his pocket going to start singing about rainbows in the middle of class. Unable to find what he was looking for, he settled for turning the volume down until it was set on vibrate.
Pulling his mind out of the black hole that was figuring-out-the-magi-com, he turned his attention back to Tara. “So, what’s up?” he asked, shoving the device back in his pocket.
“I found Dalesh’s body. Well, I know where they stashed it. It’s been sealed in the family’s tomb. Apparently his mom is a huge stickler for tradition.”
Cyrus made a thoughtful noise. “Alright, so, how do we get at it?”
“Well, we’re going to have to slip past a few patrols of guards, steal the body, and then escape, but it should be a smooth sailing once we get out of the building. Then you can do your thing.”
The human internally winced. He had no idea if this was going to work, but he didn’t think telling Tara so late in the game was a good idea. He remembered telling her once before, but didn’t want to bring it up if she’d forgotten. If he took the proper precautions he should be fine. He’d spent all last night learning the fiendfyre spell, after all. And he had around ten large bags of salt on his person now at all times.
“So, when are we leaving?” Cyrus asked curiously, brushing negative thoughts from his mind.
Tara reached into her bag and enlarged the piece of parchment she’d pulled out of it. “Well, I stole some old schematics of the mansion.”
Cyrus’s eyebrows rose. “How’d you manage that?”
She grinned. “Blood magic creates some interesting back doors into wards if they haven’t been set up to protect against it.”
The human frowned. “Blood magic? What the heck is that?”
“It’s one of my majors. To keep it simple, it’s manipulating the magic found in blood for different effects. Depending on the species of blood you use, and whether or not it’s magical, you can achieve some pretty cool things. You can also use it in conjunction with actual spellwork. One of the masters I’m studying with has a bunch of old manuscripts on it, and he’s teaching me what he knows.”
Cyrus blinked. “Huh. Will this help us with getting into the mansion?”
She bit her lip. “I don’t know. Most of the major families took blood magic into consideration when they had their wards built, so I really don’t know if it’ll work. Do you have any brilliant ideas for getting past them that you haven’t shared yet? Didn’t think so.”
“Well, actually, I might,” Cyrus interrupted her tirade.
Tara stared. “Wait, what?”
“I have… well, do you promise not to tell anyone?”
She raised an eyebrow. “I won’t tell anyone if you don’t let out a peep about the blood magic thing. No one’s really supposed to know, but I figured I could threaten you into silence if we survived this.”
Cyrus grinned half-heartedly. “Deal. We both keep our mouths shut. I have rune sight, and I’ve already broken into one warded location. I’ve gotten pretty good at reading them, but I’m not sure if vampires have more sophisticated wards than a magical human would.”
Tara made a thoughtful noise. “They probably do. Vampires accumulate a lot of wealth if the leader of each family has decent business sense. That allows them to buy wards from a proper Rune Master. If we put our knowledge together, though, we might be able to slip under them. I’ve heard about masters getting through wards completely undetected before. If we’re lucky, we might be able to do the same.”
“I hope so. So, what’s the plan?”
She conjured another table, as his own was covered in homework, and spread the blueprints flat across it. “The mansion is completely surrounded by a ten meter wall made of stone reinforced with spells. From the information I’ve been able to gather, they have two guard details each night, and they change the times every day, so we’re going to have to sit around and wait for the right moment. Or hope we can neutralize the guards before they can send out the alarm. The latter option is less likely to succeed. It’s better if they don’t suspect that anyone’s there.”
Cyrus nodded. “So, undetected.” He blinked and reached into his pocket for Rivehn’s ruby. “This could help. Rivehn gave it to me a couple days ago. It keeps me completely undetected.”
Tara’s eyebrows rose, and she plucked it out of his hands. “Really?” She stared at the ruby as if it would give away its secrets. “Doesn’t look like much. So he’s anchored some spells to it?”
Cyrus nodded. “It’s pretty complicated, too. There are a number of spells woven together and then attached to the stone.” He took it back when she held it out to him. “Hopefully it’ll work. You probably have more experience going undetected, right?”
She made a noncommittal sound. “Well, not really. I mean, I’ve had Shikaan training in subterfuge and stuff, but it’s never been something I’ve trained seriously in because of a career choice. I’m better than a first year, but most of the guards are probably trained in detecting those kinds of spells.”
“And you couldn’t shadow walk or something?”
“Vampires can feel each other shadow walking. While it’s subtle when dealing with magical humans or werewolves, it’s like lighting a torch to our own species.”
Cyrus let out a small sigh, trying not to get discouraged and failing. This was looking to be even more impossible than before. “So what, should we just give up now? Wait for those Akkad guys to come back and cut off my head? And your head? There’s got to be a way to get inside undetected. Do they have anti-apparition wards? What about portkeys? Or what if I shrank you and put you in my pocket while I slip by using Rivehn’s ruby?”
Tara blinked. “You… that might actually work. I trust Rivehn’s spellwork more than my own skills.”
Cyrus grinned. “Great. So, I’ll have to memorize the route or something, and then enlarge you once we’ve gotten to Dalesh’s grave.”
“Tomb,” Tara absentminded corrected as she stared into space, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “Yes… that might just work.” Turning her attention back to the map, she conjured a marker and started drawing the route onto the map. “This is the quickest way in and out of the mansion. These are two alternate routes in case our entry gets blocked or we have to split up because of detection. Think you can remember them?”
Cyrus adopted a pathetic expression. “I dunno. I hope so.”
The vampire frowned. “What do you mean ‘you hope so?’ Haven’t you learned Occlumency? You should be able to memorize this stuff.”
He twitched. “Well, not exactly.” Letting out a sigh, he ran his finger over the markings Tara had drawn. “If you give me around half an hour, I could probably memorize it enough to get through the building.”
Tara let out a frustrated breath. “That’s ridiculous. You should just let me use the ruby and I’ll shrink you.”
Cyrus frowned. “But you won’t be able to activate it. It’s designed for someone with rune sight.”
“Couldn’t you activate it before I shrink you?” Tara asked flatly, an eyebrow raised.
The human blinked. “Er… I suppose that could work.”
“Good.” She tapped her finger on the map. “You memorize this the best you can while I go get ready, just in case we get separated. Another thing, have you considered where you’d like to take the body to raise it?”
Cyrus bit his lip thoughtfully. “Well, I don’t want to raise it near other people, in case it goes flesh-eating. I think I’ll do it in a cemetery we’ve used in class before that’s been abandoned. There shouldn’t be anyone nearby.” That place in Switzerland should be perfect.
“Alright.” She nodded decisively. “I’ll be back in an hour. Make sure you feed yourself, okay? And pack something extra. There’s nothing worse than getting stuck on a stakeout without any food or water.” She disapparated with a crack.
Cyrus glared down at the map that taunted him. Time to get cracking.
oOo
An hour later found Cyrus and Tara crouching behind some bushes nearby, Cyrus using his ruby to remain undetected from the guards nearby, and Tara using her own skills. As soon as they’d arrived, they’d cast a silencing spell around them so they could communicate and started trying to figure out the wards.
“I’ve never seen anything this complicated. I’m no ward expert, but… so many things are accounted for. There’s a subsequence that triggers a chain reaction if the spells are changed in any way. I can’t add on or destroy any part of the spell without the wards setting off the alarms. This stops me from adding us to the list of those have entry. It also means if I separate any part of the ward, the alarms will go off. And if I tamper with the anchors, we have the same problem. I can’t think of any way to get inside.”
Tara made a thoughtful sound. “This is getting annoying. Have you checked for blood magic resistance? The rune for blood magic should be this,” she said, drawing a symbol on the dirt at their feet.
Memorizing the new rune, Cyrus turned his attention back to the ward in search of it. He didn't find it anywhere. “I can’t see it. Does that mean they haven’t adapted the wards to protect from blood magic?”
Tara grinned. “Probably. It’s a very rare skill. The Aengar protect their techniques mercilessly. My own master only managed to get his hands on some of their scrolls by accident. And it’s not like the Aengar are known for breaking and entering. They’re rather reclusive.”
Cyrus blinked. “Who are the Aengar?”
“Interesting story for another time. If you give me a couple of minutes, I should be able to open a hole in the ward. Right after we get through, you have to give me the ruby and I’ll shrink you. I can run faster than you can, too.”
Cyrus nodded. “Alright. Do you need me to do anything?”
“No. Just keep an eye out in case someone discovers us.” Tongue peeking out from between her lips in concentration, Tara slipped forward through the darkness. Frowning, Cyrus increased the light sensitivity of the spell he’d cast on his eyes in order to see in the dark. The world brightened to lighter shades of gray, and Cyrus watched in fascination as Tara cut her finger with something and started marking the stone path that surrounded the house, right on the edge of the wards, with her blood.
After around ten minutes, Cyrus watched in amazement as she literally pried a hole open in the wards. She motioned him forwards with a jerk of her head, so he moved as stealthily as he could and slipped past her. She followed quickly after, closing the ward. The blood on the ground vanished itself without a trace.
Not daring to make a sound, Cyrus’s mouthed the word ‘cool’ and grinned.
Tara tapped him impatiently on the shoulder and held out a hand. Blinking, Cyrus cast some basic stealth spells on himself before he handed over the ruby. She slipped it into her pocket and shrank him before he could so much as twitch. Cyrus had to bite his lip to hold back his surprised squeak when her hand gently wrapped around him and slipped him into her pocket.
This was, hands down, one of the most bizarre experiences in his life.
Gripping the fabric of her pocket, utterly terrified, Cyrus held on for dear life as G-force knocked him onto his ass. Swearing when his elbow got hit pretty hard as his whole body was jostled, he quickly cast the full body shield bubble to protect himself. He’d rather not break his arm or get a concussion, thanks.
Finally, after what seemed like hours of banging and swinging, Tara came to a stop. Looking up, light slipped into the pocket as a large, sharp-clawed hand reached for him slowly and gently. He hopped onto the curled fingers and gripped on tightly as he was slowly lifted.
After Tara had put him on the floor and enlarged him, it took Cyrus a moment for the world to come to rights again. When it didn’t feel like the ground was going to swallow him whole anymore, he took the ruby back from Tara and slipped it into his pocket. Casting a silencing charm around them, he asked, “Where are we?”
The vampire grinned. “In the Akkad family burial vault,” she said, walking up to the many stones in the wall with different names on them in odd writing.
“What language is that?” Cyrus asked curiously as he watched Tara walk along the underground hallway. The structure was massive, so every time one corridor became full they probably just punched out another wall and continued the tunnel.
“Akkadian. It’s an old Semitic language.”
Cyrus blinked. “Akkadian? As in, Akkad, Akkadian? And what’s Semitic?”
She shot him an amused look. “Maybe you need to do a little more historic reading.”
“Why read history when I have you to explain it to me.” When she glared at him, annoyed, he grinned. “So, care to share while you look for Dalesh?”
She huffed. “Fine. You plebeian. Akkad used to be an empire way back in the third millennium BCE. Akkadian was their language. The written form was adapted from cuneiform. And Semitic basically refers to Middle Eastern languages. You with me so far?”
Cyrus blinked languidly. “My brain is oozing between my ears. Please, continue.” God but she reminded him of Hermione in that moment. A Hermione with fangs and a bad attitude, of course.
Tara snorted. “Right. Well, Sargon was the King of Akkad at some point, he had some sons, some of them got changed into vampires, and to make a short story short occasionally those descendents would have children if they were magically powerful enough. Dalesh was one of those descendents. That’s why people are pissed off that I killed him. He really was a waste of space, though. Not a useful bone in his body. Ah! Here you are.”
Cyrus watched curiously as Tara conjured a crow bar and started trying to pry the stone tablet labeled with small tees off the wall.
“Can you ca-“
It fell out with a grating sound, and Cyrus wandlessly caught it before it could shatter on the ground and bring the entire complex down on them.
Tara whistled softly. “Nice.” Reaching into the vault, she started to pull out the coffin.
“Uh, Tara? Wouldn’t it be smarter to just levitate it out? I know you’ve got strong arms and all, but…” he trailed off.
The vampire stopped and blinked. “Oh, right. Less noise.” She pulled out her wand and waved the coffin out with a silent spell. Once it was settled gently on the ground, she pried it open and peeked inside. She nearly slammed it shut again right afterwards. It took a moment, but eventually Cyrus’s nose caught a wave of the stasis potion he’d been embalmed with and gagged. God but it was awful.
“Should we take the body or the whole coffin?”
Tara frowned. “I dunno… You any good at transfiguration?”
Cyrus blinked. “Not really. That’s why I conjure everything.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Conjure? You can permanently conjure?”
He nodded. “Sure. Piece of cake.”
The look she gave him was odd, to say the least. “You have trouble with transfiguration, but you can pull off permanent conjuring easily?” When Cyrus just shrugged, not knowing what the big deal was about, she snorted a laugh. “You are so weird. Well, conjure a replica of this casket and body. Take a quick peek.” She motioned him over and opened the coffin again.
Ignoring the smell, he ran a cursory look over the carcass to see the level of deterioration so he could copy it. He’d seen enough dead bodies that he should be able to manage. Because of the embalming potion in the veins, however, there was very little discoloration he had to account for. Closing his eyes, he focused the details of the coffin and body into his mind and conjured a replica with his phoenix wand. Checking that the body had turned out alright, he nodded his satisfaction when another wave of death came at him and closed the lid. “Shrink the real one while I put this in the… thing,” Cyrus said.
Tara’s lip quirked in amusement. “It’s called a burial vault,” she needled, shrinking the coffin with a wave of her wand and picking it up off the floor.
Cyrus floated the fake into the vault and levitated the block that sealed it shut back into place, careful not to break the stone. Taking the shrunken coffin from Tara, he cast a charm on it that would the body in place so it wouldn’t move about. Without further ado, he dropped it into his pocket. “You ready to go?”
Tara grinned. “You b-“
A loud bell sounded through the mansion, surprising both Tara and Cyrus. “Wha-“ the human began, confused, but Tara interrupted.
“The alarm!” She bit her lip and tilted her head. “Shit. I don’t know how they found out. You, get out of here and raise that body! It’ll be harder for them to catch us if we separate.”
Cyrus opened his mouth to respond, but she had already disappeared down the hallway. Swearing under his breath, he activated the ruby and ran down the other way.
“There’s one down this way!” a voice shouted, and Cyrus’s eyes widened as a group of vampires came bolting down the hallway. Flattening himself against the wall, he held his breath and watched with horror as the leader of the small group came to a stop right in front of him.
Oh shit oh shit oh-
“What the hell was an intruder doing down here?”
“Where is he now, Obernath?”
The leader, Obernath, walked forward and peered around the room. Cyrus let out a breath as the rest of the vampires continued past him. They hadn’t seen him.
“I don’t know. Stop lazing about and find him!”
“Yessir!”
The vampires disappeared in a blur down the hallway.
Shit shit shit.
Cyrus ran down the hallway as fast as he could, trying to remember the route. When he ran into a dead end for the third time, he had to admit he was lost. He was fucked. Swearing in his mind, he activated his rune sight in the hope that he would be able to navigate better if he could see the wards.
He blinked. The dead end in front of him wasn’t actually a dead end. It was… an illusion? Checking to see if he could walk through it unaffected, he mentally swore again. Solid. Checking to see if the illusion had a built in traps, he grinned. With a tweak of his mind, he shattered the anchoring sequence and the illusion fell.
“Down here!”
Cussing, Cyrus ran forward hoping that he wouldn’t be sensed by anyone. Seeing another group of vampires coming careening down the stairs ahead, he plastered himself against the wall again and just barely managed to avoid getting trampled. Checking both ways for more traffic, he booked it down the hallway again.
Climbing the stairs taking two at a time, mentally thanking Rivehn for making the most amazing stealth rock ever, he tried to remember the blue prints of the mansion. Going in what he assumed was the right direction, he dodged vampires everywhere and tried not to knock anything over and give himself away.
“Well, well. Tara. I’m surprised that you’d have the audacity to break into the Akkad family mansion. Just how stupid are you?” a familiar voice echoed down one hallway.
Screeching soundlessly to a halt, Cyrus poked his head around the corner in search of Tara. He found her bound and held by the arms by two vampires, while Zirala smirked and poked fun at her.
Tara hissed. “Just doing a little sight seeing before I get decapitated, Zirala. How’s your brother doing? I hear he’s a little under the wea-“
Zirala slapped her across the face, silencing her. “You killed him, Bast. As I’m sure you’re aware.” Scoffing aristocratically, he waved a hand. “Take her to the dungeons. I’m sure father will know what to do with her when he returns.”
Cyrus bit his lip and watched as Tara was dragged away. Should he try to save her? Or raise Dalesh? Shit. He didn't know.
“Wait.” Zirala ordered, and the guards stopped and turned back around. “Did anyone else come with you, Tara?”
She sneered. “Even if I came with someone else, they wouldn’t be stupid enough to stick around, you imbecile. What’s your father thinking, leaving an idiot like you in charge during his absence.”
Zirala slapped her again, but she just grinned. “Take the bitch away,” the vampire ordered.
Cyrus bit his lip. Well. If that wasn’t a subtle direction to get the fuck out of there, he was a purple camel. Going in the opposite direction of the dungeons, he tried to find the way outside. Finally, after much navigating with sight and rune sight, he found a door. Now all he had to do was… sneak across the yard. And get out of the wards. How the hell was he supposed to manage that?
Standing on the walkway that led to the gates, he felt the magic of the ruby in his pocket weaken for a few moments before it sputtered and died. His eyes widened. Fu-
“INTRUDER!”
Cursing, Cyrus cast an invisibility spell on himself and ducked to the ground as spells started flying overhead. Casting a full body shield, he tried to slip between the gaps of the circle surrounding him to no effect. Desperate to escape, he tried to apparate through the wards. A loud, high-pitched bell-tone echoed through the courtyard, making the vampires drop their weapons and grip their ears. Reeling from what felt like running into a freight train, Cyrus tried to apparate again with more force. The ringing got even louder. He swore, pushing and pulling and trying to get through, vampires writhing on the ground around him, and he still couldn't get through.
A cutting curse slammed into him and sent him tumbling head over heels with the force of it. Merlin. Did all vampire families have such powerful guards? He healed the wound and vanished the blood, not wanting the vampires to have any way to track him by scent or lay the blame on him if… when he managed to escape. His death stick was in his hand before he even realized what he’d done, spells flying in every direction and sending vampires blasting away from him.
Finally, he had a long enough moment of reprieve to call his full body shield into existence around him. Letting out a small breath of relief, he kept throwing spell after spell as he tried to make his way to the edge of the wards with little luck. Even though his over-powered spells were nailing vampires left and right, they just kept on coming. Were they wearing a spell-resistant armor or something? Cussing under his breath again, he sent a particularly Dark curse at a vampire and watched, disbelieving, as it threw the vamp back a few feet but otherwise had no effect.
Cyrus’s eyes narrowed. Well, if they were going to play dirty then so was he. Lifting his death stick, he sent an Avada Kedavra at the closest vampire. He watched with some satisfaction as the vampire’s eyes widened and she jumped out of the way, just barely dodging the dangerous green light. He was in the middle of swearing when a curse hit the ground behind him and the resulting explosion of dirt and stone sent him flying through the air and careening into the ground. He just barely managed to roll with the force of it, narrowly avoiding breaking his neck.
Getting up to dodge another dangerous-looking spell, he didn’t notice the vampire behind him until he was ploughed face-first into the ground. Cussing again, he tried to buck the vampire off of him to no avail. It was almost as if the vampire was made of steel. Suddenly, a pair of fangs sank into his neck and there was pain. Screaming as the fangs pulled at his flesh, he tried to throw the vampire off him with a wave of magic. When the familiar repressing aura of the vampire settled around him, he used the trick Tara had taught him and deftly sent the vampire flying into the air. Gripping the bleeding wound on his neck, he managed to vanish most of the blood and heal the bite enough for the blood to stop before he had to dodge another volley of curses sent his way or chance his shield failing.
Shit. Fuck. Damn. Vampires. With a roar of pure magic, he called the whip of fiendfyre he’d recently learnt into existence with a wave of his death stick. Pouring power into the spell, it literally came alive around him, encircling him in a protective tornado of fire. Knowing he wouldn’t have much oxygen left, he panicked. Let the fire dissipate, he probably died. It would likely be gruesome. Keep the fire, he’d definitely die. But it would be quick.
Fuck.
Biting his lip for one more try before he surrendered or killed himself bringing down the wards on the mansion, he focused on a single thought with his entire reserve of magic.
Escape.
The world dissolved in a flash of light.
oOo
Cyrus collapsed to the ground, staring uncomprehendingly at the four walls of his room at Shikaan. How… the hell? Patting himself down to see if he had any wounds or had lost some limbs without his knowledge, he let out a disbelieving sound of relief. He was alive. He was free, and he was alive.
How the hell had that happened?
Falling back against the floor, he pulled the dead ruby out of his pocket and examined it with his rune sight. The spells were gone. There was absolutely no magic left in the stone. Did that mean that it only had a specific amount of energy? And the charge had run out? That was the only reason he could think of for the spells to just fail out of the blue like that.
Cyrus snorted. He had the bad luck to fall into this kind of shit, and the good luck to fall out of it. That was it. He was cursed.
Rolling over with a groan and pushing himself to his feet, he pulled the coffin of Dalesh out of his pocket. He needed to get Dalesh to confess to raping and killing Amelia, and he needed to get Tara freed somehow. He rubbed his forehead. One crisis at a time.
With that in mind, he apparated to Switzerland.
As soon as he arrived, he conjured several lights and set to work making two salt circles. One for around Dalesh to hold him in, and one around himself in case the cemetery got raised again by accident. And just as an extra precaution, he kept his large bag of salt sitting next to him in case he needed to wandlessly whip it around.
You could never be too careful. Not with zombies.
Closing his eyes and centering himself, he drew his natural magic back into his body and let his death magic reign free. Taking in a calming breath, he sent a large ball of it into the dead body in the casket. Just in case.
Nothing happened.
His jaw fell open, and he pumped more death magic into the corpse. Still nothing. Letting out a frustrated scream, he pulled at his short hair furiously.
What the hell!
Plopping down onto the ground, he tried to think of anything that might be preventing him from raising Dalesh. He came up empty. It must have something to do with the fact that Dalesh was either vampire, magical, or both. Yankovich had said there was a different between raising magic beings, and then between each species. Why couldn't he have just answered Cyrus’s question instead of giving him that ‘you’re not ready’ crap?
Taking a deep, calming breath, he tried to think about it logically. One: raising magical dead was possible. If it weren’t, Yankovich would have just told him so. Two: pumping zombie-army levels of death magic into said zombie didn’t make a lick of difference. Three: Er, why was that? Why didn’t it make a difference? He was missing something here. Something important.
Chewing on his lip, he stared at the dead body of Dalesh. Maybe… maybe his magic sensitivity could help him. Well, even if it didn’t it was still worth a shot. Closing his eyes, he opened his senses to the world around him and tried to find the dead body. It took a moment, but soon he could feel the massive amount of death magic he’d stuffed into the carcass. Reaching out, he took most of it back into his core and left just enough behind to raise a two hundred year old zombie. Better safe than sorry.
After that, he just ‘felt around’ to see if he could find what was missing. After poking around the body for a couple of minutes, he kept coming back to an odd, empty hole. Curious, he tried pouring death magic into it, but whatever the hole was just spat it right back out again. Frowning, he bit his lip. That ‘hole’… it was in the dead body’s chest. Where Cyrus’s own core was. It couldn’t be… could it? Didn’t magic leave the body along with the soul when a person died?
His eyes widened at the thought. No way. What if… what if a magical being needed a core to function, as well as death magic to animate the dead tissue?! Trying, and failing, not to get his hopes up, he tried pouring some of his magic into the hole and grinned when it didn’t get immediately rejected. He kept pouring until it was full and wouldn’t accept any more magic.
Damnit. Still no raised zombie. Willing to give it one last try, he stuffed another wad of death magic into it, not really expecting it to rise.
With a hacking cough, Dalesh rolled over onto his side, dust flying out of his mouth. Cyrus flinched back, taken completely by surprise, and watched with wide eyes as the vampire stood and turned around in a circle.
“Ah shit,” was the first thing that came out of his mouth. Turning his head a bit more, Dalesh caught sight of Cyrus and raised an accusing finger. “You?! What the- you little shit!” With a hiss, the vampire jumped at him and smashed face first into the barrier created by the salt. Swearing under his breath, the zombie glared at him and cracked his broken nose back into place, leaving it purple with broken blood vessels. Cyrus winced. “What the fuck do you want, clot bag?”
Cyrus glared. “I want to know if you raped and killed Amelia!”
The vampire stared at him for a moment before smirking and laughing. “Even if I did it, I would never admit, human. Do you know nothing about vampires?” he mocked, crossing his arms across his chest.
Shit. Cyrus frowned. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. Dalesh was supposed to admit to his crime and then this hell would be over. “I order you to tell me if you raped and killed Amelia.”
Dalesh looked at him like he was stupid. “My mind hasn’t changed in the past two seconds, you infantile excuse for a sack of flesh.”
Cyrus let out an angry breath. Thinking back to the other time he’d raised a vampire that was almost capable of sentient thought, he wondered if infusing his voice with death magic would work… Oh well. Wasn’t like he had anything to lose, right? “I order you to tell me if you raped and killed Amelia.”
Dalesh looked for a moment as if he’d been punched in the stomach, but after a moment he straightened again looking completely normal. “Whatever that was, it didn’t work. Now why don’t you crack open this circle and let me go, hm?”
Cyrus was the one this time looking at Dalesh like he was an idiot. “And let you start feasting on the first person you ran into? Not likely.”
The vampire glared at him. “Does it look like I’m going to break out in a case of rabies, human?”
“Yes.”
Dalesh punched the salt circle again, and this time his fist turned into a ball of dead flesh and shattered bone. He examined his own hand for a moment and glared at Cyrus again. “This is all your fault. It’s your fault I’m dead, and it’s your fault I’m standing here with a bloodless, smashed fist.”
The human snorted. “It’s your own damn fault you mutilated your hand, idiot. And I may be partially responsible for your death, but you’re the weakling who couldn’t survive Tara. Your own shortcomings aren’t my fault.”
The vampire hissed at him. “You keep telling yourself that, human. Doesn’t it bother you that you’re responsible for the death of someone? A fellow student?”
Cyrus pretended to ponder that for a second. “Nope.”
When Dalesh hissed again, Cyrus started to get irritated. “Weakling human! Release me!”
“Uh, let me think about that for a second. Nope.”
Dalesh hissed.
“If you fucking hiss at me again, vampire, I’m going to shove a broom down your throat and then sew your mouth shut. Do we have an understanding?”
The vampire sneered, and then hissed with a smirk. “What are you going to do about it? I’m already dead, moron.”
Cyrus wondered if pain curses worked on dead bodies. Pulling out his wand, he cast crucio, dredging up enough hate of the vampire in front of him to get it to last for a couple seconds. And low and behold, it actually worked.
Dalesh stopped writhing on the ground and screaming a few moments after the spell ended. When the vampire rolled onto his side and glared, Cyrus could taste the hate on his tongue. Brandishing his death stick again, he raised an eyebrow. “You want another pain curse? Or are you going to admit to the raping and killing of Amelia.”
The vampire spat at him, but as he didn’t have any saliva, nothing came out. “Go fuck a corpse, necromancer.”
Cyrus raised an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t fuck you if I was paid in souls.” With a yank, he pulled the magic and death magic out of Dalesh’s body. The corpse collapsed to the ground with a thud.
Now what.
Letting out a frustrated breath, he stuffed the dead body full of magic again, and this time added less death magic. After a moment, Dalesh twitched and slowly pulled himself to his feet, staring ahead with a vague sense of intelligence in its eyes.
“Did you rape and kill Amelia?”
The vampire raised an eyebrow. “Why would I tell you?”
Cyrus cussed viciously. Fucking stupid vampires. “Did you rape and kill Amelia?”
Dalesh twitched for a few moments before breaking out into a full seizure. Cyrus swore and cast a restraining spell on the vampire before he could beat up his already damaged body even more my accident. This just wasn’t his day. Pulling the death and normal magic back out of the corpse, he sat down on the ground with a huff. Shit. What was he going to do now?
Levitating the corpse back into its coffin, he stared guilty at the many purple markings all over the vampire’s face and his destroyed hand. Using a bit of healing magic, he healed the broken blood vessels in his skin and the broken nose. Opening his eyes, he nodded to himself. It wasn’t entirely obvious that the dead body had been through the ringer now. Next, he tried to reconstruct the hand. It wasn’t as simple as he thought it would be. He had to break the bones back into place, and sometimes the pieces didn’t fit back where they were supposed to be. He did his best, but it still looked a little… off, from the outside.
Posing the dead body in the coffin as it had come, he cast a stasis charm to hold the body in place and closed the lid. He needed a game plan. He needed to get Dalesh to confess, or this entire thing would have been pointless. And he needed to get Tara out of the Akkad mansion. Rubbing a hand over his face, he thought of Yankovich. Would the demon help him? Could he try to cash in that ‘favor’ that Vladovich mentioned? Or did Yankovich still see the private lessons as being sufficient payment for Cyrus helping free Marianna?
Letting out a depressed sigh, he shrunk the coffin and disapparated back to Shikaan. He hoped he’d be able to find the demon. It was almost eleven at night.
As it turned out, Yankovich was nowhere to be found, so Cyrus found himself wandering around the empty and dark halls of Shikaan, ignoring the students he passed, but not so much that he was unaware of any potential attacks they might send his way. Finally, his wandering feet brought him to Rivehn’s classroom, and then the vampire’s office door. Staring at the foreboding, loopy script of his Runes Professor’s nameplate, he tentatively knocked at the door.
To his immense surprise, the vampire opened the door a few moments later.
Rivehn stared down at with a puzzled expression. “Mr. Obsidian. Is there something I can help you with?”
Cyrus licked his lips nervously. “Actually, there is.”
-Toki Mirage-
Yay! Finally got 16 out. I had a lot of trouble getting it up to word count, but I’m proud to say that I didn’t succumb and commit a horrible crime: useless padding. :) So I’m happy.
I’ve heard some very nice things about my smut! And I’d like to send out a huge thank you to everyone who took the time to either post a comment or come back to ffdotnet to review!
For those of you who don’t like gay smut:
I’d like to take a moment to remind everyone that this story will contain such sexual material again in the future. I had someone make a negative comment about the smutfic (‘I read with growing horror’ comes to mind), and thought I should clarify the rating of this story: While on ffdotnet it is rated M, there will be huge chunks cut out of the story later on where sex has been removed. I will not be editing the ‘cut’ to make sense, so those of you who don’t want to read the sexual bits will be missing the character development and plot weaved throughout these scenes. If this bothers you, go read a het fic.
Forum:
Please feel free to come join us on the forum! There is a section for BS-related questions as well as a conversation thread where you can talk with other fanreaders and myself. We’ve had a couple new faces in the past week, and someone told me I should advertise more. Thus, this paragraph. :D
Thanks for reading!
AFF-ERS, THIS STORY IS LOCATED ON FFNET IF YOU WOULD LIKE ALERTS FOR UPDATES. LINK ON MY PROFILE
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Bloody Skies