Hello my beasties! Here's the next chapter for this little story you seem to love so much!(Just for reference, Magh Maell is an Irish mythology term, look it up if you want!)(Yes, this chapter includes Curtis. Finally right?)

Before we begin, thank you for 1.1k reads on my story! You guys are fabulous!

The moon was full and the night was clear.

Duke was waiting for Sindera to sneak out of the house.

As he stood outside in the shadows, waiting, he wondered what he was thinking when he agreed to go on this crazy rescue mission.

He knew that encountering Curtis again could end possibly in death(either his own or Sindera's), and Curtis probably was still angry about their last encounter.......

So why had he agreed to do something that was so risky and dangerous?

He thought back to the events of the past night. Sindera had been so worried about her friend, this y/n, and she thought that Curtis may have her friend.

Maybe it was because she looked so sad or that she blamed herself for her friend's disappearance(He knew all too well about losing someone who was close to you...) that he had decided to help her rescue her friend, but it wasn't because he liked her or anything, it was just so that he wanted her to be happy so that she'd get back to helping him reclaim his castle.

It wasn't like he was interested in her or anything, right?

Just then, Duke heard someone cough just above near the window.

Stepping out of the shadows and looking up, he saw Sindera looking out the window.

"Sorry to make you wait, my dad took forever to get to sleep so I couldn't exactly leave while he was still awake."

Duke rolled his eyes.

Humans, always caught up in their problems.

"Well, come on!"

She climbed out the window and began to use the ivy growing on the side of the house to help her climb down.

Suddenly, she slipped and without thinking, Duke ran to catch her. She landed safely in his arms, but in a rather uncomfortable pose.

Namely, Bridal style.

Duke felt his face grow warm. Well, this was rather awkward.

As he put her down, he could have sworn that she was blushing too.......

There was a bit of uncomfortable silence between the two of them for a couple of moments, then Duke tried to break the silence.

"Ummm, that's a pretty interesting outfit you've got on." He mentally cursed himself.

Great, now I just made myself sound like an idiot.

"Really? I mean, it isn't exactly my nicest clothes or anything, and I kinda threw it on at the last minute-"

A/N: Shanti's outfit is here, for anyone who's interested

"No, you look...." He trailed off, trying to find the right word. "Nice." He finished lamely.

"Oh, thank you." There was a slightly disappointed look that she tried to hide with an easy smile, but it was almost like she had wanted to hear something different.......

"So, how are we getting to this guy's nightclub anyway? Isn't it on the other side of town or something?" She asked.

Duke smiled. Oh, she probably wouldn't like this. "Well, my way is considerably faster than walking there."

"And what would that be?" She regarded him confusedly.

"Take my hand."

"Really, but I barely even know you." She replied in a joking matter.

"Just take my hand."

Sindera finally took his hand. Then, Duke snapped his fingers and they disappeared in a puff of red smoke.

When they reappeared, Sindera had her arms around his waist and had an expression of shock on her face. She then noticed and withdrew her arms.

"Sorry, it's..... just my first time doing something like that and it was way freakier than Once Upon a Time made it look..." She trailed off uncertantly, a faint blush appearing on her cheeks.

"Hey, it's no big deal, I guess powerful witches like you don't know everything, right?" She got a look on her face, almost like she wanted to tell him something. It was a sort of nervous look, like she wanted to tell him something, but what was it?

A/n: Hmmm...... I guess there's something Shanti wants to tell Duke, my beasties. Why did she look so nervous when Duke mentioned how powerful she was? Could it be she isn't as powerful as she told him? We'll see.....

They had ended up somewhere behind the nightclub(Due to need to sneak inside), and the onyx black building loomed before them.

Out of the single door in the back, a girl with long black hair, a white dress, and cat ears(yes, she was a Neko) came out, leaned against the railing, and started fishing around in her purse.

Duke motioned to Shanti to stay behind. "Stay here, I know this woman, she's an old friend of mine."

He walked up to her. "Lia my darling, I see that you're looking as lovely as ever."

Her eyes grew wide with recognition, then she reached out her hand, and slapped him across the face.

"I'm not sure I deserved that." He muttered as his face stung with the force of the slap.

"You damn well deserve it, for breaking up with me the way you did! And all because you said you didn't like the little gift I gave you for your birthday!"

"Well, I'd hardly call dead birds a gift." He muttered, suddenly aware of Sindera behind him, trying desperately to hold in a laugh.

Splendid.

"What are you doing here even?" She narrowed her eyes angrily and her tail began to twitch in the way that Duke knew she was really mad.

"Look, I'm just here to talk to your boss....."

Then, another farmilliar face stepped out but not exactly in the same form he remembered(being a gender-fluid shapeshifter and all). "Taylor, how nice-"

Yes, he was slapped again, but this time by a very angry currently male shapeshifter.

"Okay, I may have deserved that." he muttered.

"What are you doing here Duke? I thought you were supposed to be dead or something." Taylor rolled his eyes clearly not amused.

"Wait, you knew about that?" How had they heard about that?

"A few years back, there was some ghost that the boss summoned because he needed to find some sort of magic artifact or something. The ghost kept raving on about this vampire who had defeated the rulers of the underworld and now ruled over the entire place. When the boss figured out it was you, he was actually surprisingly happy about it."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he said something like, well at least I don't have to kill him myself." He made his voice into a silky purr for the last bit. "And then he left the room and laughed maniacally for like five minutes."

Great, just great.

Then, Taylor noticed Sindera behind him.

"Who's your new friend here?"

Sindera introduced herself. "I'm Shanti-"

Lia narrowed her eyes. "So, what exactly are you doing here with your new paramour?"

Okay, this was getting annoying. Duke leaned over and whispered: "We're here to see your boss about this y/n girl."

"Oh, that girl he's been going on about. Well, if you're looking for him, take the stairs to the right inside, then there's a secret entrance behind the painting beside it, not even he knows it's there, so you should be able to sneak in unnoticed."

"But if you get caught, don't tell him that we helped you get in, because things around here have been really tense if you know what I mean, and it probably won't do any good for me or Taylor to get on his bad side right now."

"Thank you my darlings."

"Yeah, yeah, hurry up and get in before someone spots you two, you big goof." Lia rolled her eyes and motioned for him to hurry up.

As Duke and Sindera went inside, she turned to him.

"So, those were..."

"Two of my old lovers." He briefly looked embarrassed.

She raised her eyebrows. "Yeah, I could tell that because of you know, the reactions from them."

Seeing Duke's embarrassment she responded. "But it's okay, I should know because I've had my share of ex-lovers, and I know a thing or two about being a real jerk."

They continued for a while, leaving Duke some relief before she poke again.

"But you're still kind of a creep you know."

"Hey!"

"What? You kind of are."

A/N: AAAAW! Look at them, they're getting along! But enough of awkward almost flirting, it's time for our very first P.O.V for a character that I created and introduced in the first chapter!(You know who he is!)

Curtis's P.O.V

He awaited his minions in his office, and they were late as usual.

How typical of them, always underfoot when he didn't need them, and when he actually needed them for something they weren't around.

After a couple of moments, they finally came in.

First, Eben. Tall and gawky, terrible taste in clothes, forever messy sandy hair, and hopeless at social situations. But he was an excellent hacker and inventor, which was probably the only useful trait about this human. (and his skills had gotten them into y/n's phone.)

Then there was Vanessa(or Nessa as she preferred to be called). An annoyingly perky female ghoul who sometimes never seemed to shut up. And she could be absolutely mental at times...

And there was Stergi or "The bear" as he was famously known(due to his impressive strength and his other powers....).  Useful, but he was more of a gentle giant than anything.(a decent minion, but why was someone of his strength a pacifist?)

Currently missing from this gathering was the fourth minion he had hired a while back, Ernie.

Ernie was..... Something else. Too cocky, too much of a yes man(so annoying), and seemed to have delusions of grandeur as far as Curtis was concerned because he mentioned far too often that he was interested in moving up in the "business" as it was(he often said that with an edge in his voice that Curtis really didn't like....).

He had been starting to have his suspicions about Ernie, and he would have to arrange for him to "disappear" sometime later........

They stopped at the front of his desk.

He regarded them coolly. "Any word?" He asked Eben, who looked very nervous about being singled out.

"No." Eben responded.

Curtis's eyes narrowed and Eben gulped. "We scoped out the bookshop, her neighborhood, and the high school, but nobody's seen her."

"Of course they haven't! She's been missing for almost a week remember?"

He stood up and looked at his minions pointedly. "Of course, we might have gotten a lead on her whereabouts if you guys had managed to bring her friend in to see me." But they had botched it up, as usual. Instead of what he needed, they'd brought him a bunch of excuses about how the car had gotten away from them and how by the time they had gotten back to her place, she was gone.....

"But if she isn't in town, where is she then?" Vanessa piped up nervously.

"That's the problem, her scent went cold several days ago and there's been far to many people searching the woods for her at night to look around properly. But she must be getting some sort of outside help, that's why she's practically untraceable."

"And vat happens if we can't find her?" Stergi asked.

Curtis rolled his eyes.

Really? He was going to have to explain this again?

"May I remind you the last time someone found out about us?" He picked up a skull that served as a paperweight on his desk. The words: MURRAY, were engraved on the side.

"This is what remains of that so-called intern Murray. Do you remember how he wanted to blab everything he learned to the papers? If that girl emerges and her story gets heard by those damned Helsing's warriors..... Well, you remember last time we encountered them, don't you?"

They seemed to take his words into consideration for a moment then immediately began to panic, talking over one another.

Annoyed, Curtis threw the skull behind him and then proceeded to speak, putting his considerable charisma to good use.

"Boys, do I look nervous."

They stopped panicking to listen.

"No one knows where, y/n is? Fine, we'll find y/n."

Eben spoke up confusedly. "But how are we going to do that boss?" Stergi and Vanessa added in their options of doubt.(talking over each other, again.) 

Curtis silenced them again. "Boys, remember who you're talking to. I know y/n, she's scared prey and sooner or later the predator will always catch the prey. After all...."

A/n: Villian song time! Yay!(Been wondering if I should maybe animate this in the future....)Just so you know, Curtis is a pretty great dancer, almost as good as Duke, but I can't write dance moves well so just watch this video (skip 3:27 to 3:47 okay?) and let your imaginations do the rest okay?

https://youtu.be/v7Gu2qTNZwE

https://youtu.be/i_j1uW1Ng4k

He moved out from behind his desk.

I know the way that she thinks, I know her habits and kinks

I know the stuff she's all about

He made a sweeping motion over the desk, with all of the various papers they had collected on y/n.

I know the people she knows, and all the places she goes

I know her up, down, inside out

He got a thoughtful look on his face, almost as if he was considering something.

I know the needs that she's got, I know what gets the girl hot

I know I've got the inside track.

He put a hand on Vanessa's shoulder, and looked into her eyes.

And yeah I know she's upset

He shrugged

Well let her play hard  to get

A look of determination came over his face and he released his grip.

'Cause if I know one thing, I'm getting her back!

His voice took on a more easy tone.

Because I know that girl, I mean I feel that girl

I understand that girl, and if I want that girl

I'm gonna get that girl, ain't gonna let that girl get away

He moved on.

No way!

He came to Stergi and threw his arm around him.

And when I find that girl, I'm gonna kill that girl

As he sang the next few words, his tone became darker, and his teeth seemed to become sharper as he sang.

I'm gonna Wham! Bam! Blam! And drill that girl!

Won't rest until that girl is safe and sound six feet below

Oh no!

Oh, when he was done with y/n, let's just say that there wouldn't be much left to be put into her coffin....(He could practically picture it.)

When I find my baby, I ain't letting her go!

He paused, and let out an evil sounding laugh. Then he turned to his minions.

"The only reason we haven't found her is that someone is helping her, someone powerful who is making sure she's protected from being found by us. But let me tell you, there's one thing they don't know."

"And what's that?" Eben asked.

"One, you can't hide a girl like y/n, and two, you can't hide a girl like y/n from me!" He continued his song, but this time his minions fallowed along.

I bet wherever she's at I bet she's at, I bet she's trapped like a rat

And pacing up, down round the floor(Sure, Sure!)

He whirled around, an evil look on his face.

I bet she's starting to sweat, the girl is bugging I bet,

bet she's got one eye on the door(tell us more)

He went over to Eben and Vanessa until he was right between them. He grabbed onto their hair which caused them to nearly shriek  the next few lines.

I bet she's missing her friends, I bet she's missing her books, I bet she's tearing out her hair.(Yeah, Yeah)

He released them and continued his pacing.

I bet she's missing her fun, and getting ready to run

And when she does you bet I'm gonna be there!

He spun around with a wicked smile on his face. Stergi, Eben, and Vanessa smiled back, finally understanding. A/N: Next bit is his minions with the main vocals and Curtis with the background ones, in case you are confused

Because you know that girl!(I know her!)

You see right through that girl!(see right through her)

You understand that girl!(I understand what I)

And when you get that girl(have got to do to her),

You're gonna waste that girl('cause when I get her),

'Cause you can't let that girl(ain't gonna let her),

Go and squeal!(For real!)

Curtis's eyes became midnight dark and he stalked toward Eben, with Eben moving back in surprise. A/n: now it's just Curtis with the minions as backup

I'm gonna shoot that girl(shoot that girl)!

And then I'll stab that girl!(stab that girl!)

He reached out and grabbed Eben, his eyes flashing black as the monster took ahold of him.

And then I'll take her(take her),

And shake her(shake her),

And meet her meet her maker! (meet her maker)

He released Eben, leaving Eben to stumble around disoriented.

Let 'em hide that girl(let 'em hide that girl),

Sure as the tide that girl will show,

Oh!(Oh)

When I find my baby, I ain't letting her go.....

Shanti's P.O.V

"So, this used to be a smuggling passage decades ago?"

"Yes, I believe it was used for transport of magic artifacts, I'm not even sure that Curtis still knows it exists."

Then, a thought struck Shanti. "Hey Duke, how do you know all this stuff about Curtis anyway?"

Duke looked nervous. "Well....."

Then, he spotted something. "Oh look at that, there's a little panel in the wall we can use to see where we are!"

Shanti had the feeling that he was avoiding her question on purpose. What was really going on?

It appeared to be a sort of pane of glass(a mirror perhaps) that allowed one to see what was happening in the other room.

As they peered through the glass, they saw something that left them rather speechless.

"Well okay, that happened." Duke said in a state of shock.

Shanti took one look and then turned to Duke.

"Oh my God. This guy's a Disney villain."

A/n: Well, you aren't exactly wrong there!

Back to Curtis's P.O.V!

Yeah, yeah

Oh yes I know that girl!(know that girl)

And man I need that girl!(need that girl)

I gotta have that girl!(have that girl)

He temporarily shifted into his monstrous form(eyes, fangs, claws) as he sang the next line.

So I can snuff that girl!(snuff that girl)

If I know my baby(Aaah),

she's already running(Aaaah),

and that's how my baby is going to be done in!

Excited at the prospect of murder, his minions joined in.

I'm gonna drown that girl!(drown that girl)

Or disembowel that girl!(Disembowel that girl)

Or give her skull a big dent(OOOhhh)

with a blunt instrument!

I tell you soon that girl, is looking at a world of woe!

He shifted back to his human form and regarded his minions.

When I find my baby, I ain't letting her go!(No!)

I know she ain't got to far!

He grabbed Vanessa by the shoulders and practically spat the next words in her face.

Go and check each discotheque, tavern and bar!

He let her go, and his minion nodded their agreement as he pointed at each of them.

Go and find my baby(we'll find your baby)-

'Cause I ain't letting her go!(Ah, oh no!)

Oh no!

Shanti's P.O.V

Well, that was the first villain song she had seen up-close and it was a lot stranger than the movies made it look.

"So, do you see anywhere that they could have y/n kept?" She asked Duke in a whisper.

"No, there's only four scents in the room. One human, one ghoul, one were-bear, and of course the forsaken. No other scents that indicate she's there."

As Duke said those words, Shanti realized what he had just said.

Sure, "Curtis" had appeared human at first but the others? They looked normal as far as she could see, but Duke said there was a were-bear and a ghoul in that room?

Just then, she noticed something on the desk in the office that was very familiar to her.

A f/c hoodie that appeared to be spotted with blood.....

She turned to Duke. "That's y/n's! He must have her here! That hoodie belongs to y/n!"

She must have said the last few words too loud, because Duke looked panicked and the figures in the room suddenly stiffened as if they heard her.

Duke put a hand over her mouth. "Stay quiet."

She nodded, and put her hand in his free one. If he noticed, he certainty didn't stop her.

"Vat was that?" The tall marine looking man asked.

The awkward, sandy haired man reached into his pocket as if to get something out, but Curtis motioned for him to stop and he withdrew his hand.

Shanti wasn't sure if she had seen it right, but did Curtis appear to sniff the air? It was a barely noticeable movement, but she could have sworn she saw it.....

As Duke and Shanti stood frozen in fear, he moved toward the opposite wall, an expression of concentration on his face.

His henchmen were uncharacteristically quiet, as if they'd seen it done before......

Curtis approached the wall and sniffed again.

H e can't find us right? We're like behind several feet of wall... Shanti thought desperately.

He seemed to examine the opposite wall for a moment, then he moved on out of sight.

Duke removed his hand from Shanti's mouth and they both breathed a sigh of relief.

But their relief was short lived, as the wall in front of them rolled open, and there was Curtis, an evil smile on his features.

Crap, so he found a secret entrance, and it looked like they both were in deep trouble.

He regarded them for a moment, then spoke.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?"

To be continued.......

Finally done this chapter! I hope you beasties like this one!  I finally got Curtis back in the story, and wrote his villain song out too!(Yay!) I hoped you like your daily dose of monstrous gangster!(and the first to be continued of this story....)

Well, it looks like our slowburning ship of Duke and Sindera is in trouble, but we'll have to wait to see how they get out of it for the next chapter(You and me both), so see you soon my beasties!

*Tomatoa voice* Did you like my song?