~ Chapter Six ~

Two years later (Ivy and Theo are 18yrs old)

Ivy was about to receive the best birthday present ever. Her first kiss, from Adam Menken no less. Well...her first kiss in her opinion-the other one didn't count. She smiled up at the tall panther in front of her and blushed when he reached out to cup her right cheek in his palm.

"Happy Birthday, Ivy," Adam murmured. She let her eyes slowly drift shut as he moved closer and sent up a quick prayer of thanks for her amazing parents. Raine and Noelle had reached out into the community to other werepanthers, hoping to unite them as a strong front to the demons, harpies and Hunters that were aggressively pursuing them. As a result, Ivy met Adam along with many other werepanther kids who didn't care that she and Theo were supposedly fated to be good and evil. They hadn't grown up under Theo's influence and by the time they had arrived on the estate, Theo had pretty much given up on harassing Ivy. In fact, Ivy had noticed that he seemed preoccupied with something else. Like something or someone else was bothering him.

Right now, though, she couldn't be bothered with any of that nonsense. Right now, she just wanted to be kissed by Adam Menken. Ivy felt his warm puff of breath as his lips drew closer to hers. Just before their lips touched, though, a dark husky voice whispered through her mind, "Not so fast, little girl."

Ivy jumped back with a yelp, looking at Adam with fear in her eyes.

"Ivy, what's wrong?" he asked worriedly, wondering if he had done something to scare her. "Did I scare you? I'm sorry, I really wanted to kiss you and I thought-"

"No," she choked out on a whisper, "it wasn't that. Did you say something or hear something a second ago?"

Adam gave her a worried look as he shook his head. "No, it's only us out here, Ivy. I didn't hear anything and I certainly didn't say anything."

Fear slithered down her spine as she closed her eyes and thought, "Please gods, no."

She heard the same voice chuckle again and say, "I'm not a god, but it is your eighteenth birthday, love. Don't you remember what I told you?"

"Noooo," Ivy moaned aloud, clutching her head.

"Ivy," Adam asked, unsure about what to do. "Are you...what's wrong?"

"Get my dad," she told him. "Tell him he's back." When Adam didn't move, she glared at him and motioned for him to go. "Go, Adam. Please!"

"What, you're going to run to your daddy?" Zeke teased smugly.

He was enjoying torturing Ivy, knowing soon enough she would snap at him. He loved her fiery spirit and her quick wit. It had amused him to watch her over the past two years, to see her grow and mature. He had watched Adam too, seeing the way he looked at Ivy, seeing the desire in his eyes. Zeke had felt a foreign emotion, realizing that he was jealous and wanted to rip Adam's eyes out for even daring to look at Ivy. Adam had to right to look at Ivy that way. No one did. Not even Zeke, although he would admit that he would love to be the only one allowed to look at her, to take care of and protect her.

"Show yourself!" Ivy demanded, wondering where the hell he was hiding.

"I can't, cupcake," he said nonchalantly, "I'm in your head, not hiding behind a bush."

Ivy bared her teeth and growled angrily, wanting to have the satisfaction of punching Zeke in the face. However, with him not in the vicinity, it put a little crimp in her plans. "Coward," she hissed. "Too scared to actually see me face to face. You think you're all bad ass when you're in the demon realm, but I know you're actually scared of my dad. Coward."

Zeke snarled something in a different language, sending what felt like little electric shocks throughout her brain. "I am no a coward," he said in a low voice. He seemed to compose himself before continuing in a flip tone. "Now is not the right time to see you face to face. However, since I know you can't resist me for long, I'll be there soon and we can greet each other the same way we said goodbye."

Ivy gasped in outrage and did everything in her power to not think about their last meeting. However, with a couple words, he was able to bring that dreadful-glorious-memory up to the surface.

"Ah I see you do remember our farewell," he teased lightly.

"What, you can read my thoughts now?" she hissed, trying to find a way to block her thoughts. Which is relatively hard to do. WHenver she would attempt to not think of something, it would become the thing she thought about the most.

Zeke chuckled darkly, "I'm in you're head, love, of course I can read your thoughts."  

Ivy snarled and felt her claws ache to break through her skin, but she pushed down on the urge. "Well get the hell out of my head," she said snarkily.

"I can't," he replied happily. "By the way, you don't have to talk out loud for me to hear you. Remember I can read your thoughts. But, if you want your daddy to keep staring at you like you're insane, by all means continue having a conversation with yourself."

"What?" Ivy gasped, before focusing on her surroundings again. Raine was standing a couple feet away from her, staring at her like she had two heads. Noelle and Theo were next to him, watching her with worry on their faces.

"Ivy?" Raine asked carefully.

She nodded and felt tears form in her eyes. "He's back daddy," she said, hating the way she was reduced back to feeling like a helpless twelve-year old.

Raine cursed, earning a reproving look from Noelle, before walking closer to Ivy. "What has he said, sweetie?"

"Um..." she bit her lip. "Nothing too important, although he did say he was going to come meet me soon. Soon could be any amount of time with him though."

"A week," she heard Zeke said in her head.

"Oh...erm, a week," she added uncomfortably. When they gave her strange looks she flushed and said, "He just told me."

Raine's features tightened and Noelle turned pale, no doubt remembering her own experience being visited by a demon. "Can he hear everything we're saying?" Raine asked Ivy, worried about his daughter's safety. He needed to come up with some sort of plan to capture the demon before the demon got to his daughter. He was tired of having his family constantly threatened and was more than ready to put an end to it.

Ivy scrunched her brow as she mentally asked Zeke if he could hear anything everyone else was saying. He paused for a moment, as if he was going to lie, and then sighed. "Only if you think about what they say." She repeated what Zeke said to her family and waited for her father to announce the plan.

"I'm sorry Ivy," he said carefully, "but we're going to have to plan without you, and keep you in the dark. We can't risk Zeke finding out about it. It's for your own safety."

Pouting, Ivy nodded and motioned that she was going to go to her room. Her room was the only place she felt relatively safe in because it was her escape.

"Ivy dear," Noelle said softly. "Please don't leave your room unless asked by your father or I, okay?"

Ivy resisted the urge to roll her eyes, "Yes mother." For goodness sakes, she was eighteen years old, she didn't need to be put in isolation. But, if it would make her mother less worried, then she would put up with it.

"I hate you," she thought to Zeke heatedly.

"Love you too, sugar," he sang.

"Ivy!" Raine called out quickly. "Please don't let anyone into your room unless it is your mother or me, understood?"

"Fine!" she growled, reaching her tipping point, "but I'm going to find Alexia right now and bringing her with me into the room. I refuse to be isolated!" With that she stormed off, ignoring Zeke's cheers of approval in her head. At this point she half thought she was going crazy; hearing voices in her head.

"You're not even close to crazy," Zeke reassured her, "Only marvelously adorable."

"Will you stop reading my thoughts!" Ivy snapped. After a moment she added mulishly, "and I am not adorable." Blocking out his annoying reply, Ivy quickly found Alexia, and motioned for her to follow her to her room.

"What's going on?" Alexia asked good-naturedly, following Ivy up to her room. Ivy quickly explained the situation to her, making sure to add how annoying Zeke was, knowing he could hear her.

"Dude, that really sucks," Alexia said sympathetically. I feel for you."

Ivy frowned and fell back on her bed with Alexia, "He's just so annoying."  

Zeke scoffed and muttered something. "Listen, pumpkin, I'm heading out, but I'll see you soon, alright?" Ivy thought back a 'whatever' and focused her attention on Alexia. They talked about simple things around the estate, and Ivy announced that Adam had almost kissed her.  

"Seriously!" Alexia squealed. "You lucky duck, and on your birthday too!" She grinned and nudged Ivy playfully. "Don't worry, Adam will be back to kiss you properly this time. You're so lucky."  

Ivy laughed, "What are you talking about? You're dating Marcus and from the look of things are quite happy."  

"Eh," Alexia replied with a nonchalant wave of her hand. "I guess, but he's not that exciting anymore. I don't know, he's a nice guy, but not 'the one' for me, you know?" Truth be told, Marcus was just a distraction...a filler for the guy Alexia really wanted, but would never want her back. She had to find happiness somehow.  

They spent the rest of the night chatting and gossiping and eventually fell asleep in the early hours of the morning. Ivy woke up when Alexia abruptly sat up in bed at 10 am.  

"Alexia? Are you okay?" Ivy asked worriedly, but she didn't answer. Instead, she got out of bed and made her way to the door. "Alexia?" Ivy asked again.  

"Someone knocked," she answered in a monotone voice. Ivy heard someone knock on the door and jumped.  

"Don't let them in Alexia, you know what my father said."  

"Ivy?" a voice called out. "It's me, Adam. Please let me in, I just want to talk."  

Alexia made her way to the door and began to turn the handle. "NO! Alexia don't open the door!" Ivy called out.  

Alexia turned around to look at her and Ivy gasped. Her eyes were completely black and devoid of any emotion. "I have to," she said simply. With that she twisted the knob and threw open the door to reveal Adam. Without saying anything to him, she walked out of the room and down the hall.  

"Adam you shouldn't be here right now," Ivy said hurriedly, moving to shut the door.  

He looked at Ivy and grinned evilly, "Hello love."  

Ivy paled and felt her entire body freeze. "Oh no," she whispered.  

"Oh yes," Adam said, slowly materializing into his true form. Zeke.  

"How...why...?" Ivy said flustered. "You said a week!"  

Zeke smiled and leaned against the door, brushing his dark hair out of his eyes. "I did...and it has been a week. Time moves a lot faster in the demon realm."  

"Bastard," Ivy hissed. "You lied."  

He flinched slightly at her accusation, but otherwise didn't seem bothered. "Technically, I just didn't give you all the facts."  

"I still hate you, and all of your kind!" she announced spitefully. "All you do is cause problems for everyone. You're a bunch of parasites, living off of everyone's misery and reveling in the pain. It's disgusting."

"You're so full of anger...you're perfect," Zeke said reverently, resisting the urge to reach out and cup her face in his palm.

"What...what are talking about?" Ivy asked, unconsciously tilting her body away from him.

Zeke shook his head as if to clear his thoughts and wrapped his hand around her wrist. "Come on, follow me."

"Hell no," Ivy snapped, pulling her arm back with a sharp tug. He didn't loosen his grip on her though and gave her an exasperated look.

"Either come calmly, or come kicking and screaming. It doesn't matter to me, either way we're going."

Ivy gave him a skeptical look, "Going where?"

"To fulfill your destiny, of course."

"Okay, Buddha, where am I really going?"

He smirked at her and wrapped an arm around her waist, "The demon realm."

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Lookit a whole day early! Right, I should be studying, but I decided to finish writing this instead :/ I'm a bad student. Alright Comment, Vote, Whatever. I'll post The Pawn sometime tomorrow or this weekend.

<3 nich