Io.

Ash seemed to emit a low, rumbling purr from deep in his chest. What?

You said her name was Io.

Ash turned slightly, arm thrown over his forehead. Slowly, he cracked his eyes open, gazed at Netta with the purest, warmest, green eyes that she had ever seen. Yes, and she was also a child and, as is should be noted, died well before the first true Human civilizations ever existed.

Netta felt a blush cover her from her head to her toes. I'm not - Ash, I'm not jealous of your first friend!

After a moment of gazing at her, Ash cracked a wide - wicked, sharp - grin. Cut me some slack. I still need to find entertainment somehow. Especially if you insist on dredging up my past. Waking me from comforting rest.

So you actually can sleep? When Ash's eyes slid closed and his chest fell into a slow rhythm, Netta found relief at no longer having to stare into his eyes. She found could not bear to gaze into those hazing green eyes, feeling that rather than looking into her lover's, Netta was, instead, peering into her own stolen soul.

She watched him sleep, or as was more likely, pretend to sleep. It was his way, she had learned while she had been in his head, to pretend with so many aspects of human behavior. Pretending until he could not only make others believe in the lie, but also until he began to believe it himself. 

Netta looked at the ungentle, sharp curves of his lips, made softer by how bruised they had become, as well as by the tired smile that had settled on them. She took in the lines and edges of his large nose, heavy brows, then the animalistic touch of his so very dark facial hair that had left her skin raw from where he had mercilessly run his face over her body.

It was still shocking to look at the wicked, legendary curving of his bastardized antlers.  With the hot desire wrung out of Netta, she found that she did not have the boldness to gaze at them, even now.

What did you feel for her?

Ash was silent for so long that Netta found the courage to look into his eyes once more, knowing that she would find them open.  She found that Ash had a wistful - but not altogether unhappy - look in his eyes. 

Still, Ash's smile had faded almost entirely. He struggled for a moment, trying to articulate something so personal while his mind wanted to linger in glowing warmth and stillness.

Finally, he said, I used to rail, scream, wish that I could do something, anything, to stop how it... she made me feel, when she left me. He looked away, closing his eyes. Time makes things that used to seem so damned painful - warm. Beautiful.

Netta waited patiently, knew that this was a moment she could not dare to intrude on. She willed Ash to unspool the memory, nevertheless feeling as though she was experiencing some of the pain.   There was pain, yes, but among it, there existed a host of other emotions as well.

Listen to me. Ash scoffed and Netta could feel his self-loathing, wished that she could take it away. What kind of a selfish bastard blames a girl for her own death? A girl too young to even know what love is supposed to be, beyond what she feels for her family. Not enough in her small heart for a fucking - beast.

Netta could not resist, thought it before she could stop herself. So you - her -

Ash closed his eyes, this time more gently, rubbing a hand over his face, his mouth. Always had a weakness for adventurous ones, I guess.

Did Netta have any shame? Why did listening to Ash describe his feelings for a lost girl, one who had been lost so long ago, leave Netta wishing that he was instead describing how he felt about her?

Netta walked into the kitchen, expecting her adopted sister to be waiting for her. When she wasn't, Netta let out a relieved sigh and began to cook for herself. Did I get any real sleep last night?

I let you rest, after some time.

Comforting, lover boy. Comforting.

In the middle of steadying an iron skillet on the stove, Netta heard a voice calling out to her from the doorway.

"Hope I didn't leave the kitchen in any disrepair."

Netta didn't turn around to acknowledge her Sister. Rather, she turned the pan onto one of the trusty old burners and began to heat it. She coughed, then said, "Everything looked fine." How did one mention to her Sister that she now well and aware that she had been married to the Bogeyman for some time now?

Ash was offended by this comparison. In response, Ash filled her head with images of her going down on him. Seemed to not have a problem sucking the Boogeyman's co-

"What have you been up to" Netta bit out, glad that she was not turned around for her Sister to see the blush on her face. Fuck's sake, Ash.

"Um... have been having trouble sleeping. I - me and Ophelia, we stayed up most of last night down here, had a sleepover minus the sleep."

Netta winced, realizing then how noisy they must have been in her room. Not that she had any recollection of the night before, but could guess what a combination of her being sucked into the vortex that was what sex meant between the two of them and being more than a little mentally preoccupied could have lead to.

Winnie continued, thankfully cutting short Netta's train of thought. "It's the first time she's ever really talked to me. We ended up having some pretty intersecting ideas about - well, about our future."

Netta turned around, looked at Winnie. She decided, even before she looked at the other woman's face, that Netta did not like the tone of her voice. "What viewpoints?"

Looking at her Sister, she was surprised by the way that she looked every day of her physical age. Puffy eyed, her expression betrayed a stricken quality to her emotions that she had not initially heard in the woman's voice.

"Netta, please." Winnie motioned wordlessly, shutting her mouth before she opened it again. "We're lucky - all three of us - to be alive. I take that back about you now, actually. You're stronger than us, and - and maybe when Ophelia's of age, she'll be powerful, too. But, for now, I'm pretty certain of one thing about our future. If we go after Oleander, we'll be killed. If you chase after them, they'll torture you when they catch you. And I have a responsibility to someone that young, without a home. Call me a hypocrite if you want, maybe I deserve it. But I learned from my past mistakes, I know that doing nothing is as bad as allowing something... wretched to keep going."

Netta tried to look unworried, turning around to retrieve what was left of the bacon from out of the fridge. After she deposited the package on the counter, she turned around to her Sister, cogs turning ceaselessly in her head. 

"I never thought of myself as a Witch for the longest time. In a way, I was never really grown up. Now that I see what our world's really like - I don't want to go back, Winnie."  She took a breath out, as though she had confessed something that she had almost been ashamed of herself. "More than anything, I don't think I'd ever want to go back to the way things were."

Her Sister winced and drew a hand up to her face. "But I'm not asking you to give up on being a Witch - or an adult. I just - I want us to be happy. For once, Netta, I want us to know peace."

Netta smiled sadly. "You forget that being an adult is taking responsibility. There is no greater responsibility than to your kin."  It was a shock, to find herself echoing the mantras of Calliope, her mother.  But then again, she knew that their intention had been far from her own.

Winnie sighed deeply and took a step forward, her hand outstretched,  She said, "They used to believe that when you killed a Witch that her power flowed in you. Have you ever given any consideration to how powerful they could be, with our murdered Sisters fueling them?"

"If that's the case, then I'm powerful too, then, aren't I?" She said it softly, then watched as Winnie flinched, took a step back. "Well, aren't I?"

Winnie looked down, allowing her hand to drop, limp, to her side. She seemed to not be able to make eye contact. Finally, Winnie spoke, closing her eyes. "The kid idolizes you, Netta. She was all gung ho about you going out for revenge, but once the others - when they - that is to say..." her lips seemed to be pulled by gravity into a deep frown. When she spoke again, her voice was cracked. "Goddess, we could hear their screams, even from how far in the woods we were."

Winnie looked back up at Netta, tears forming in her eyes. "They took everything that girl had. If she loses you, too... I mean, do I need to paint you a picture of why she's so angry at you?"

"Why would she idolize..."

Winnie snorted. "Lucia thought the world of you, based on what I overheard from her. I think she thought of you as a kind of heir. For a while there, it sure looked as though we almost could have, you know, had a family here. Or something like that." She sighed, it was a deep, sorrowful sound. Winnie continued. "We could try without them, you know. We may not be much, but those loose Monsters of yours, they haven't made a move of corrupting the girl, burning the wood down or even trying to poison us, so I think that I could deal with even their presence to make this house feel a lot less... haunted."

Netta blinked, stared at her Sister. Embarrassment spread through her and her immediate impulse was to deny that she was anything special.

But you are, Ash reminded her.

Still, Netta twisted her hands in her shirt. "We could - stay here, make a new family, once I finish."

Winnie sighed. "If you leave here, I have no choice but to run and take the girl with me. This place is too dangerous. If Oleander returns, we could be slaughtered. And we'll have no protection when our luck does run out."  She let out a deep breath, said, "I won't be letting her die where everyone she loved was tortured."

Netta's mouth had grown dry, then she felt pinpricks against her eyelids, realized that tears were building in her eyes. "Winnie, if I don't go, they could return here any way. I need to do this to protect us."   Please, you and Ophelia can't leave me.  I don't know what'll become of me if I lose all of my ties to the Human world.  What I'm capable of.

Winnie shook her head violently. "No, Netta, no. They think we're dead - all three of us." her voice had grown thich with sorrow, and even as she sniffled, tears began to pour down her face. "They'll leave us alone, here -"

Netta dropped her facade of cool indifference, walking up to her adopted Sister to embrace her. "Shhh. Come here."

Winnie leaned over and allowed herself to be embraced. She sniffled, allowing Netta to pet her hair. Finally, Netta pushed aside some of her hair and murmured into her ear, "If they ever learned about us, they would not spare us a second time." She paused, the continued, saying, "They might have more numbers than me, but I sold my soul for evil power, remember?"

To this her Sister said nothing. 

Netta turned around and continued to prepare breakfast. She did not know how long Winnie was there for, but when she turned around, she found that she was alone in the room.

Sometime later, in a diner, Netta recalled another greasy meal that she had shared with a Witch. It felt, she decided as she bit into a fry, like a lifetime ago.  Someone else's lifetime.

Ash, sitting across from her and seemingly busy at a phone as real as his physical form was, looked up at her as the moment of loss passed her mind. Even though his presence in her mind was more than enough company than Netta could have asked for, she was relieved by how he kept her physically company. And that he did so without his horns or sharp teeth for the benefit of the Humans around them that he was surely shielding her from the draining influence of.

You've been worried about more than what's going to come next for the last day.   He could read almost anything he wanted in her mind, but Netta found herself immensely respecting the once-selfish King's regard for her, how he allowed her to tell such things to him.  Gave her the consideration to converse with him in such a Human fashion.

Netta looked at her burger and pushed it back against the edge of the plate. For some reason, the image - the smell - of burning corpses would not leave her. What'll happen if I can't go back to them?

Well, that's just not going to happen. I'd like to see them go toe to toe with me when I'm really, really unhappy.

Netta paused, her mind no longer on any vestiges of her late lunch. Ash. Can I ask you something?

She knew the answer before he answered it. Always.

What do you want - that is to say - what do you see in our future?

Ash stretched then, placing the phone down on the counter. The sight of him stretching his sizeable arms, raising them so that the tips of his fingers came close to brushing against the quite high ceiling, brought Netta a close sight of his powerful chest underneath the ripple of his simple black t-shirt.

Netta blushed and again felt a private thought pass through her mind before she had a chance to censor it. It was an image of that naked chest as she had seen it moments before collapsing on it, pressing her face and naked breasts to it.

Well, it looks like you've got the right idea already there. He smiled lazily, but that softness didn't carry to his vivid, sharp green eyes.

Netta felt a blush creep up her face at his words. Without realizing it, she reached forward and began to eat her burger.

Ash continued, his eyes becoming half covered by his lids so that those eyes, a swirling thunderstorm of green, were only partially visible. I suppose I'm married and retired from being pissed off at fate. I'm up for whatever you want - that is to say, after we've finished with this dreadful, nasty business of killing some rather naughty Witches. Hmm, I suppose if I had to have one request, I would like to travel - a humble request, from someone that can help you go anywhere, I should add.

Ash, Netta looked up at him and felt the question in her mind before she asked it. Are you... tied to this chain?   She lifed a hand, running her fingers over the knot of links on her neck, felt the answering surge of warmth in answer to her touch. 

Ash's smile, a wicked thing that had seemed to suggest that he had other things planned on their traveling, began to fade. He sighed and rested his elbows on the table. 

Don't know, but I thought that I had nothing to do with that thing around your neck, until I got sewn to it. It makes sense, though, the more I think about it. The already forbidding lines of Ash's rough mouth turned deeper into a frown, an irritated crease forming in his forehead. You and that chain, together. I suppose it makes more sense that someone tied me to the fucking thing than I happened to re-awaken in the middle of nowhere.

Except that doesn't make any sense, Ash. Dad gave me the thing -

Ash sighed, tossed a bothered hand through his dark hair to push it out of his face, tousling it. You say that like that alone would keep it from being what brought me here. Could be that he either had the worst luck of any Human since my heyday, or, depending on how you view my machinations on your fate, you had incredible good luck. Any way you look at it, seems to me that I must have been tied to an object that became my prison.

Netta said what had been bothering her, in spite of everything that wanted to keep that voice quiet. You don't think he gave it to me on purpose, knowing what it was, do you?

Ash leaned onto his elbow, bracing his chin in his hand. He shrugged. I never knew the man, wouldn't be able to tell you if the man fancied himself a "warlock". Knowing you intimately, though, I suppose the better aspects of your personality had to come from somewhere, and that somewhere isn't Hera.

To call Netta's father a Warlock had been a joke, Netta knew.  Men had no magical abilities to speak of.  Well, Netta considered, unless they happened to be Monsters who had fashioned themselves into especially fetching, dangerous men.

Netta was silent, thinking on this for some time. It was as she seemed to come out of her daze that Netta realized that she had begun to finally eat her rapidly cooling meal. She looked up at Ash, wondering if, somehow, he had some effect on her, had made her eat.

The man leaned back in his seat, then waved a hand over the plate of food that Netta had gotten him for the benefit of the Humans in the diner. He swept his hand over it, and when his hand had passed over the plate, the food on it disappeared.

When she looked into Ash's eyes, she found a familiar - wicked - mischief in her green irises, but there was something to the inhuman glow that seemed to tease.

Netta found a sick horror starting, low in her throat, one that took away her earlier, reborn hunger. The thought, that she could be controlled without even knowing it, made her feel sick.

The lopsided grin that had started on Ash's face, faded, and the warmth in his eyes disappeared.