Netta had been piling luggage in the back of the new car when she was interrupted by the sound of the teenaged Witch speaking behind her. "I'm coming with you."

Netta stopped as she readied herself to throw a duffel bag in the back of the vehicle. "Uh, no thank you," she murmured, not bothering to turn around to look at her unwanted companion.

Ophelia continued, undaunted. "I didn't want to go to his temple, I wanted to follow you as you started to hunt down your Sisters."

"I can't let you come along. Go back inside of the house."

Ophelia let out an exasperated sound. "You're not even trying to understand me -"

"I understand completely. You're a young Witch with your whole life ahead of you. Don't waste it on me. Trust me, I'm not worth it."

"I can hold my own on the road. Besides, a Coven rule states that we're never to be alone. It's too dangerous to travel alone-"

Netta cut her off. "-especially when you're an untrained Witch who's much too young to even consider a Sacred Contract -"

Ophelia, who had been standing at the beginning of the long and winding driveway, walked up to Netta's side. Quickly, she grabbed onto one of the remaining bags to help.

Netta turned around to snag her bag back from out of the girl's hands. "In short, hell no, and go back inside with the others who are watching me from the windows." Netta turned and watched as the faces in the large front windows disappeared, replaced with hurriedly shut blinds.

Ophelia growled. "I am not a burden. If anything, you need my help. You - your Familiar's not exactly useful in a fight, being an Incubi, and your old Sisters are dangerous. I think that extra help shouldn't be turned down, you don't have the luxury of turning away help -

Netta tossed the bag into the back of the car with more force than was necessary, winging it into the back of the car. "Inside of the house. Now." She snapped.

She stared down the severe, but undeniably pretty girl. Finally, Ophelia rolled her eyes and stomped back inside. With the girl gone, Netta turned around and make quick, angry work of flicking the remaining two bags into the back before slamming the trunk closed. Rushing to the driver's side door, she threw the door opened and slammed it behind her as she dropped into the seat.

Before she could let the deep breath that she had taken out, Ash remarked, "That went well, considering."

Netta didn't bother to ask what he was alluding to. "This is why I did not have children."

Ashwood, still wearing his rough, almost cruel-looking face, said, "No, you didn't have children because I am physically incapable of giving you children."

Netta bit the inside of her cheek and turned to look at Ash, who gazed at her. The deep red of his eyes were hidden behind dark Aviator glasses - a carry over from his old form. One that she was not certain if she approved of or not, to be able to see his red, burning eyes. She shook her head at him and pulled down the drive, leaving with a brief twinge of regret over what she was leaving in the rearview mirror.

When Netta had dug around with Sia's information, using a bit of Ash-influenced charm that he had more than eagerly lent her, Netta discovered that Sia's visa had been used the day before. Ash did not bother to hide his enjoyment over the fact that the first head on the chopping block was to be Saorise's.

At the end of the day's drive, she found a bed and breakfast to rest for the night. Getting upstairs, Ash made it clear how keen he was on finishing what they had done the day prior.

With his pants pushed down, Ash had begun to grope and kiss Netta with a relaxed aggression.

Netta was close to pushing herself into him, trembling the with need to give in in spite of her misgivings about jumping into this lust-fueled bad idea, the fear that she could not control it was being worn away.

He had been murmuring to her in her mind and against her ear, long licks of sweet and not so sweet endearments. "Nettles, you don't know how much this shit drives me insane." His voice was rough, lacking in any finesse.

Netta shuddered as she felt his lengthened tongue as it swelled and lengthened against the hill of her forehead, the concave of her cheek and to her chin. It was a Monster's organ that ran the length of her face - something that should have been repugnant, disturbing.

Instead, she felt a shudder that ran down the length of her body, pooling in her abdomen. Sense memory was too much and her body recalled with ease the feeling of being ruthlessly penetrated by the same tongue.

The sound of the phone ringing made Ash actually roar.

Stuttering, Netta extricated herself from an only partially willing Ash and answered the room's phone with a timid, "Hello?" She had a hand clamped between her legs, and she could feel her own pulsing, thrumming desire - was surely echoing it in her words.

Five minutes later, Netta was standing by her bed as the door opened. The familiar face of Ophelia appeared in the space between the partially opened door and the frame. "I got the room right next to this one."

"Hello to you, too."

Opehlia paused as she pulled away from the door, then pushed the door open a measure and said, "Look, I'm sorry. I know that you didn't want me to tag along, but Miss Kienna has a rule that we're never to journey away from home alone."

Netta sighed and motioned her away, not for a moment believing her apology. Once the door closed, Netta turned to Ash, who was standing in the corner of the room with his arms crossed. "This just keeps getting harder."

Ash shrugged. "You Witches and your pack mentality."

They had a meal at a surprisingly nice restaurant. It appeared to be an Italian place kept alive by the sheer love of the local foodie population, and the prices reflected that. Netta counted herself lucky in that she was able to not look at the prices for longer than it took to glance over them, now. Money was another of those "human" things you didn't have to worry about when you were more concerned with trying to keep your ex-family members from killing other people.

With Ash, dressed in surprisingly elegant green sweater that had a folded turtleneck, and with some clothes that Netta had been able to procure for herself - a dress that was daring for her with how it ended above the knee - Netta could almost make herself believe that she was there for a lovely meal. Just a very odd-looking couple and... their young, black ward?

Ophelia herself was wearing a yellow blouse and a colorful pair of jeans that only teenagers could pull off. Netta found herself surprised when she first saw the girl in the outfit she was wearing for dinner, and her reaction was noted by the girl.

"Stop looking at me as though I've turned into a female."

Netta had said nothing, only turning around to drive with her two passengers remaining almost ominously silent in the car.

Once they were seated, Netta planned to wait until they had ordered their food until she would broach what needed to be said.

As she was scanning through the steak options, Ophelia suddenly said, "What's the plan, exactly?"

Ash, who had been feigning interest in the menu, murmured against his raised fist, "Traveling with a Witchling for a pet."

"If anyone's the pet, it's you, Monster," Ophelia retorted.

Netta shut her menu and tried to control the heat in her face. "The both of you, please. Not in public." When both were quiet, Netta said, "I have a lead on my eldest sister, Saorise. I expect that they think that I'm dead, so I should have the element of surprise."

"So you know where your eldest sister is?" Ophelia asked.

Netta looked down at her menu then. "I know where she is most likely to go - and where my other sisters likely are." Netta shifted uneasily, feeling the full scrutiny of the intelligent and headstrong Witch's eyes on her.

"So - you don't know." The way that Ophelia said it was so flat and harsh that it made Netta wince - and become all too aware of how, rightfully, unplanned she sounded.

Netta could feel the blush in her face, a violent warmth. "I know where they're going to be. I can't think of anywhere else that they would want to be other than the old Homestead. They all have some form of egotism, they never think that they'll get caught for anything that they ever do." They never did.

She could sense the girl's dismay at her now obvious lack of reasoning, and it engendered doubt in her.

"So, do I need to say that this feels like a bad idea?"

"Hm?" Netta blinked, realizing then how close she had been to falling asleep just before that moment. She glanced to her left at Ash, who looked, as always, cramped in his small seat as he drove.

Ash glanced at her before turning to look back at the road. "Before the kid wakes up at some point, or I have to make her sleep. We need to talk about the obvious. Aloud, since you have an aversion to sharing your mind with mine while we're not..." He cleared his throat meaningfully.

Netta glanced back, saw the teenaged girl laid out on the seat, using one of her bags as a pillow.  She watched until she was certain that Ophelia's eyes were shut, her breathing soft.  

Goddess, she's still just a babe.  Wu had called Netta a "child", but the one in the backseat, the one who acted as though her childhood had been a light that had been snuffed out from her soul, looked, asleep, as though she possessed a face that deserved to be gently kissed by her mother, to be tucked in bed when her sorrows grew too heavy during her waking hours.

Not someone who surely had to of run away from home, as was the story for almost all Witches her age who joined a Coven that did not count among its Sisters someone from her family.  And certainly not someone who counted her blood sister - her twin sister - as a soul she could have somehow prevented the loss of.

Netta's train of thought was stopped by the sound of Ash's hushed voice. "Has this occurred to you that all of this seems awful on-purpose, leaving you for dead, but with enough energy to be picked up by the near-by band of the very Witches that they had killed a member of?" He scoffed. "Come on, if they had wanted you dead, they would have just done it then." Ash huffed out an indignant breath, shook his head.

Netta leaned back into her seat and found that she could not seem to find any comfortable position. "Maybe they just wanted me to suffer. It seems like a typical homecoming to me." She crossed her arms over her chest, glanced out at the snow drifts outside. "Hell, sounds like a normal birthday to me."

"Come now. I need you to speak plainly to me." There was a note of sincere worry in his voice that surprised Netta. "Surely you know why they sent the Witchling with you, to keep you from -"

Netta sighed and sat stock-up in the seat. Around the car, the ensuing darkness from sun-down cast them in an eerie world where only she and Ash existed. In the vague glow of the light-up dashboard, Ash's face looked menacing. His facial hair, its darkness clashing with the deep gold of his face and the flash of his unnatural eyes more than lent him the look of a demon.

She interrupted him, saying her words in an annoyed ramble. "I'm not stupid, I think you know that. Though - this'll be the first time that any Witches have ever taken a personal interest on my behalf, when it's not humiliating me. I may be purposefully naive, but I know what this all looks like. Their well-meaning attempt at not letting me turn this into a suicide mission is noted, but I have no other choice." Netta stopped with a huff, trying to stop her hands from clutching onto the wheel with hard claws.

Ash was quiet for a moment, so when she finally did speak in the unnatural quiet of the car, his whispering voice sounded like a part of the ambiance. "...Duty." He snorted. "Everything always comes back to that - that... fucking idiotic term." The snarled, hateful way that he said the word shocking Netta. "Why is it your job to rise to the occasion? Why can't we be happy together? Why?"

Ash turned to look at Netta. For a moment, even with the hardened carapace that seemed to have ensconced her, she felt her heart turn at the uncertain, vulnerable look in his eyes. She recalled, then, seeing a similar expression on his face in the woods.

Netta felt her mouth open and the words left before she had a chance to censor them. "I was happy when I had Dad in my life, and then I was happy when I thought that I would always have you. I've never been truly happy since I was young. My life slips out of my fingers even as I'm immortal, watching as humans live a more vicarious life than mine, letting my body going to shit and allowing the melancholy to rot my soul. I left... my feelings for you, from when I was a girl, they're gone."

Netta turned to look out of the window, and not caring if Ash could hear her or not, she murmured, "I've been living my own death for a hundred years. Dying now wouldn't make any difference."

Ash said nothing for a long time, and then she heard his voice in her head. You might be surprised by what you might find along the journey of your life, Nettles.

"-So, this is... the desert." From the back seat, Ophelia spoke up for the first time in over an hour awake.

Netta, who was driving after having been grudgingly awake, turned around and glanced at the girl. A quick look back revealed the teenager looking out of the right side back window. "Yeah."

"So, this is where you're from?"

Netta chuckled. "Sort of. I guess you could say so, but I was born in Ireland."

"Why did they bring you - here?"

Netta shrugged. "A lot of people were fleeing it around that time. There was enough blame to go around the superstitious Humans about any possible Witches, that's for sure."

The girl didn't say anything. For a moment, Netta's mind wandered to thoughts of a cottage that was cold mostly all of the time. Unerringly, she thought of the all-encompassing love of her father.

What was your youth like before you met me?

The feel of Ashwood, entering her mind so readily like an unlocked door, made Netta jolt up in her seat as though he had just slid a wandering hand down her shirt.

She could feel the ensuing bolt of rippling laughter in her mind.

"Are you alright?" The girl in the back seat asked it softly.

Netta rose a hand up to her forehead instinctively. "I - I'm alright. A little too tired right now, maybe." I can't think of how to describe it right now, Ash.

You don't have to, his voice was warm, entreating in her mind. You can let me feel what it was like.

Netta hesitated with a shiver. This - what he was suggesting - was almost more intimate that having sex with him.