Strange Love

Fern swallowed hard, fear settling in the pit of his stomach for the first time ever as he backed farther into his dark hiding place.

He hadn't thought much of it when he happened into the basement, in fact, he'd thought it had been his lucky break. He'd quietly hid, retrieving his phone from his pocket with the hopes of catching something he could use against the trio as they moved furniture around and talked unaware of his presence. He'd even laughed silently to himself at the obvious tension between his nephew and the giant of a man who was his constant companion.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm always willing to help... you know that... but I don't understand why you'd need me here." Giorgos mumbled as he raked his hand over his hair.

"Don't worry about it and bring that chain over here." Russ said sending Ry a glare as he slid a chair into the center of the room. He scratched his head as he arched a brow. "What else did he say we needed?"

Ry was just about to answer when two other people popped into the room. His lips curved into a smile as Giorgos's mouth all but hit the ground in awe. With a chuckle, he clamped the man's back. "Trust me, man, that's one fiery red-head you'll be glad you hadn't met til now." His eyes moved to the man in his father's arms, recognizing him instantly. "Well, there's a shocker... wouldn't have guessed it but also not surprised..." He shrugged. "Will that work? It's all we could find."

Poseidon flopped the man into the seat, holding him into place with one hand as he extended his other hand for the chain. "In all honesty, I'm surprised your brother left him alive. I had my doubts for a second."

"As was I." Chary chuckled as she sauntered over to the still gape-mouthed wolf and pressed his mouth shut with the push of her finger under his chin. "Russy, you didn't tell me you'd made such a delectable friend."

Giorgos was just about to reply when Ry yanked her away from him. "Yes, FRIEND, no eating him!"

Giorgos's mouth dropped open again. "Wait! Eat?! What?!"

Ry shrugged. "Yeah, sometimes it takes her a while to come down after a..." He sent Chary a questioning look.

She smiled widely up at her brother. "Nice meal out." She filled in with a wink.

This had not disarmed Fern. He'd continued digging in his pocket for his phone as they continued with their cryptic banter. Surely a few pictures and videos of this bunch torturing a member of the council could have many uses. It wasn't until the stranger they'd introduced as Don released his hold on Marcus and summonsed water out of thin air that the puzzle picture he'd thought he knew began to shift.

Marcus sputtered as the water brought him back to consciousness. He glared at Poseidon. "God or not you won't get by with this!" He began sputtering again as Poseidon sent another gush of saltwater into the man's face.

Poseidon forged surprise as he pressed a hand to his bȧrė ċhėst. "I won't get by with this?" He twirled his finger into the air indicating the surrounding setting before pointing to Marcus. "You, my friend, is the one who'll not be getting by with your bullshit, but before I let my beautiful daughter here have her way with you... I'll need some answers." He wiggled one finger in Ry's direction, and the giant man stepped forward.

Ry tugged his shirt up over his head and tossed it to the side, flexing his muscles for good measure as more color drained from the vampire's face. Ry sent Marcus a charming smile. "I hope you don't take this personally; I still like you... for now..." He nodded toward Russ. "Though I figure by the end of this night you'll have more enemies than just my brother." He sent Russ a smile. "What do you say, kid? Want to try out some of those interrogation tricks I taught you at the Embassy?"

Marcus snarled as he pulled against the chains. "I knew that was the two of you!"

Ry turned a serious glare back to him. "Pity you'll not live to tell it." His fist came down hard against Marcus's cheek. "Why don't we start with why you and your crew attacked Jos tonight?"

Russ's attention peeked. "What?!"

Ry nodded as the vampire spat out a mouthful of blood onto the floor. "Yeah, he brought a heavily manned, heavily weaponed ship to the shores of Ogygia tonight."

Marcus glared up at Ry. "That bitch deserves what we did! She deserves so much worse!"

Ry punched the man's face even harder this time. "Not what I asked... Why did you attack her? You're not telling me you waited until now to carry out a 520-plus-years grievance all of a sudden. Why now?"

This time a tooth hit the ground with the spray of blood as the vampire glared at him. "I didn't realize revenge had a timeline."

Ry slammed his fist into the vampire's face again, this time breaking his nose with a nasty-sounding crunch. "One more time, ȧsshole. Why did you attack her?"

Marcus gasped against the pain but glared at Ry. "Why should I tell you anything? You've already said you plan to kill me regardless."

Ry's lips turned up into a smile as he slammed his fist into the vampire's face again. The man was almost unrecognizable with all the blood and swelling. Poseidon flicked his wrist and produced a towel. Handing it to Ry he stepped forward. "Here son, you've got vampire all over your..." His eyes moved over the spray of blood covering Ry's hand, arm, face, and ċhėst. He lifted his finger and flicked it in a circle indicating all the areas. "There..." He turned his attention back to the vampire as he held his hand out to Chary. "You will answer our questions because you and I both know there are many much worse fates than death." He tilted his head. "Ever wonder why there are no stories of individuals going up against my beautiful daughter and surviving? Because there isn't any... A face-off with Charybdis... well will cause any man to lose his head..." He crossed his eyes as he spun his head mockingly.

Chary laughed at the vampire's obvious fear. She let her head fall back with guttural laughter, shifting her mouth as she had on the boat as she raised her head back to meet his terrified gaze.

Fern covered his mouth, all thoughts of the cell phone in his pocket forgotten as he tried to work out his best way of escape without being detected. The puzzle pieces quickly fell into place and as the one last piece turned to answer his own phone before instantly vanishing and reappearing with the other massive twin and the silver-haired girl of his nightmares. The other hulking twin rested a massive hand against her back protectively, but it didn't stop his nephew from running to her and throwing his arms around her in a tight hug. Fern could see the love and concern reflected in the young wolf's eyes as he searched her for injuries.

"Are you alright?" Russ asked holding Jos out at arm's length.

Jos nodded, "I'm good now..." Her eyes shifted to Marcus. "Has he said anything?"

Russ snarled his lip up over his sharp teeth. "Not a fuċkɨnġ thing, the bastard."

Jos sent Arei a questioning look. "Go ahead, I have another in my pocket in case you lose control."

She nodded and began walking toward the restrained vampire.

Russ sent Arei a questioning look. Arei chuckled as he clamped a hand over the young wolf's shoulder and guided him toward the others. "We've been meaning to work on some training, I thought this would be a good start for her..."

Fern clamped both hands tightly to his mouth as the others stepped aside for the bitch who had ruined his plans nearly sixteen years ago. He began backing up farther into the dark hallway he'd been hiding in as a tentacle began to wrap around the corrupted councilman's neck. Two more caught each of his legs pulling them painfully wide as the redhead settled onto her knees in front of the chained man. Any other time he'd think such a scene arousing, but after seeing what the silver-headed winch was capable of fifteen years ago and seeing the redhead's mouth just moments ago, there would be nothing arousing happening here tonight. He was careful as he backtracked his path inside. and made his way back to his room. He quickly packed all of the things he could fit into the small duffle bag. He pulled out his phone and called his lead guard. "Be prepared to leave in the next twenty minutes. Don't let anyone know what you're doing... don't even let them see you."

[What about the prince, Sire?]

Fern swallowed hard. "Don't worry about the prince, he's out of our grasp now."

***

Chary smiled wickedly up at Marcus as she worked the buŧŧon of his pants free and unzipped his fly. "It's been so long since I've suċkėd a nice thick ċȯċk!" She purred seductively as she licked her red-stained lips and wiggled her hɨps from side to side in excitement. She pressed a finger against her smiling lips as she forged concern. "I hope I haven't forgotten how... Dear me... I'd hate to bite!" She flashed him a wide smile revealing razor-sharp teeth.

Marcus jerked against the chains and tentacles restraining him. "Don't come any closer! Just tell me what you want!"

Jos's white eyes glowed down at him as she tightened her hold around his legs. "That's easy, why did you attack me?"

When he didn't answer, instead, only glared up at her, Chary shrugged. "Fine, have it your way. One bloody blowy coming up!" She wrapped her hand around his flaccid ċȯċk and smiled wickedly up at him as she licked her lips.

As the devilishly sėxy woman began to lower her mouth down to the head of his ċȯċk, Marcus yelled out. "Vivian! Vivian DeMarco, it was her idea!" He narrowed his eyes at Jos. "But she didn't have to bribe me to do it! I've wanted you dead for years! Since you killed everyone, I've ever loved! Everyone that's ever meant anything to me!" Tears began streaming down his cheeks as he continued to glare hatefully up at her. "Kill me! It makes no difference to me, everything that's ever mattered to me in this lifetime is gone! The only reason I continued on was to see you come to justice for what you've done and what a joke that proved to be!" He rocked violently against his restraints. "There's no justice in this world! Only revenge! And I almost had mine tonight!"

Arei arched a brow. "If not for us meddling kids? Was that what you were about to say?"

Marcus spat at him. "You've all taken countless innocent lives, yet you mock me! You bastards! You're all the same! No sense of moral outside your own selfish dėsɨrės!"

Arei was just about to slam his fist into the vampire's face, but Poseidon stopped him. "Hold up, what innocent lives have we taken that would have Vivian DeMarco's pȧntɨės in a bunch? I'm sure she's perfectly aware as are the rest of you ȧsshole of how not innocent her darling husband and his brother were. To be perfectly honest, I'm half tempted to bring the bastards back from the dead just to kill them myself."

Marcus glared up at the sea god. "That may be so, but did his children have to suffer for their father's crimes as well? If that's the case, then you all should die a thousand times over!"

Poseidon sent Russ and Ry a concerned look, before moving his attention back to Marcus. "DeMarco thinks we killed... Drake and Mattie?"

Marcus snarled as he tugged against his restraints. "Don't tarnish their names by acting as if you had nothing to do with their disappearance!"

Poseidon nodded as he pulled his phone from his pocket. He nodded toward Marcus. "Peg was right, Drake and Mattie didn't double-cross us... which means your uncle has done something to them." He sent Peg a quick text before turning his attention to Chary. He held his hand down to her. "Enough, let's get him to the Embassy. Peg's getting in touch with DeMarco on our part. He'll let her know where she can find this useless ȧsshole."

Marcus's eyes widened. "Wait! You can't send me back there!"

Poseidon smiled widely. "I can and I will. As I said, there are so many other punishments than death. Watching your fall from power will be quite amusing and turning in your dirty deeds will be enough to open up an investigation of your fellow councilmen." A smirk spread across his lips. "I just can't wait to see what other dirty little secrets shall come to light." He turned his attention to Ry. "Would you do me the favor?"

Ry shrugged as he nodded toward Arei. "I'm sure he'd like to get one last hit in before ya throw him into a cell..."

Marcus's eyes shot from one massive twin to the other as they both smiled wickedly down at him. The last thing he saw before everything around him went black and silent was a gigantic fist coming toward his face.

Ry's evil glare faded as he stepped closer to Jos. "You alright?"

Jos nodded. "Yeah..." She wrapped her arms around herself as she watched Poseidon scoop up the unconscious vampire and vanish from the room.

Ry nodded. "That's good..." He looked around the room. "Well... That leaves only one question..." He ran a hand through his hair. "What the hell did Fern do with them?"

Russ frowned as his eyes gave Jos another once over. He wouldn't have been able to believe anything they'd said about tonight had it not been for the obvious dishevelment of Poseidon when he'd first arrived with the vampire in tow. Other than a few bandages on Jos's upper arm, she looked perfectly fine. "I have an idea..." He muttered as he pulled out his own cellphone. "One of Rin's abilities is tracking..." A 'hello' from the other end brought his attention to the phone. "Hey man, um... I hate to ask this right now... I know you... um... just got back and all... but we could really use your help..."