Uriel

The beast was out.

And it wanted blood.

It wanted more. It wanted to feed. It wanted her. It could taste the power in her blood. Pure, Unfiltered, eternal.

All of it: the beast wanted all of it.

Every last drop of power.

"No" the voices spoke, and the beast snarled at them.

"She is important," they whispered, petting ghostly hands through its main. "Protect. Keep. Safe place. Danger here. Protect." They clambered in a single command, but it did not care.

They did not starve as the beast did.

Her power permeated the air around them and the beast had gone too long without to deny such a pure source of sustenance. The scent of their enemies still hung heavy in the air, but their blood was a bitter disappointment on their tongue next to the taste of her, so it reached for her again.

Pain split its mind as the voices called to the other. They knew he would not let the beast consume her.

Would not let it feed.

This time the beast howled in fury and pain. Death loomed like a dark cloud, pulling it closer to the mortality unknown to its kind. Still the other pushed closer to the surface, slowly wrestling back control of the weak clumsy body they shared. The beast felt the other shoving it back toward the dark lonely cage of its prison, but it would not go willingly.

It did not want to go back to the cold empty darkness.

It did not want to be alone.

In one last desperate act of survival, it lunged at the female. Too late the other woke to full consciousness, jumping to intercept the beast's intention, he was not fast enough. With a triumphant hiss, the beast called on the essence of life that flowed in their blood and the blood of the forest and commanded nature to bend to its will.

The trees did not resist his request to use them as his vessels. They knew the beast, and they knew the Other, and the Sil'dysa; she knew them more deeply than the beast ever would and excepted her as their own. But their willingness was soured by the darkness dividing the beast from the other, and his agony shuddered their limbs so hard their leaves fell before their season as the hunger biting at his heals left their roots shriveled in the dirt. Pained by this betrayal, they spit the beast and his dying soul out in anger.

Tumbling across the floor, the beast was left disorientated by the sudden expulsion, but familiar scents were instantly recognizable and the other screamed his own fury. He did not want the beast here, nor the female who might harm the offspring, not of his blood. The beast screamed back its vengeful defiance. The female lay unconscious just a few feet away and in the small, enclosed space the scent of her was stronger than before. And her power; he could feel it humming through the air. Could taste it. Needed it.

All of it.

He reached for her.

And felt his own claws score his face. Bellowing in pain the beast stumbled back. The other attacked again, swiftly pressing into the gaps left by the beast's unintentional retreat and wrestling control farther from its grasp. But the beast still held on, however little like a dying man with nothing to lose, and fought back.

The beast tore at their hair with their other hand so hard it sent them crashing sideways into the wall. The pain belonged to them both, but it was the other that felt the brunt of it. Letting go of their hands the other turned on the beast's mind, striking with lethal efficiency at the sores that had never healed. The beast shook its head, violently trying to dislodge the other's hold, and stumbled back from the unseen attack. Their foot caught on a piece of furniture, and they went down. They twisted and rolled as their body contorted to meet the demands of both. Rolling onto their back the other used their feet to push them across the floor, smashing their skull into the wall and making the beast hiss. In retaliation the beast repeated the action, bashing against the wall again and again until their back was slick with blood, and he felt the other loosening his grip.

Close to unconsciousness, the other poured the last of his strength into their hands. Constructing a spell as quick as he could, he freed his weapon from its holster and laid the construct along its blade. Forcing himself to focus through the beast's rapid banging, he shoved the dagger deep into his leg.

Madness closed in as the world disappeared. The darkness and cold and hunger were nothing to the empty void the other created for the beast. This was not death; this was to not even exist. And if this was its punishment, the beast would beg for a cage.

For anything.

Uriel had tasted death before, but the beast had always been the one to consume it. It was the beast who needed it, the beast who feed off it. But now, without the monster to take it from him, it weighed heavy on his chest, stealing away his breath and constricting his heart.

He felt empty.

He and the beast were tied together too closely to ever be truly rid of the other. Splitting their souls would kill it and might amount to suicide but he would die before he let it win. Intelligence was not the beast's strength, but it knew when a fight was lost, and it had to survive if it was ever to sate the hunger.

So, it submitted to the master that should have been its brother and Uriel almost passed out from relief when he felt it let go, submitting to his will and retreating to the back of his mind, cowed if only temporarily.

Releasing the spell, Uriel shuddered. The beast's power rushed in like a tidal wave and it took everything he had left not to let it drown him. Using the raw bonds connecting them, he began to build. Construction after construction, he recreated the walls the voices had torn down, crafting each stronger than the last and feeding as much of the beast's power into them as he did his own. The beast didn't like sharing its power with Uriel, but it could not stop him from taking what he demanded of it. the beast snarled in displeasure but, still wary of another punishment, stayed in its corner.

For several long minutes, Uriel sat, focused only on refortifying his mind before soft footsteps broke the silence.

"Uri?"

A hand on his arm prompted him to open his eyes and he winced at the damaged living room. The couch had been knocked askew and the usual mess of books was now spattered with blood. His blood. Bright patches of the stuff were smeared across the floor too, all the way across to where the girl from the dinner lay splayed out across the entrance as though she had been tossed there, her own darker blood pooling under her.

"Are you okay?"

Suddenly Uriel wished he had killed the beast.

It had brought this stranger here. To Nina.

Why?

Pushing away that question Uriel turned his attention to Nina. She stood over him, eyes wide and worried. She had to have seen him fighting with the beast, though she didn't understand it. Nor did she know how to react to the sight of a foreigner in her home. A stranger who, it occurred to Uriel, was the first to ever see inside these hidden walls.

"What happened."

Now she was looking at the damaged books and floor.

And he was having trouble remembering how to speak

"Who is that?" she took a step closer to the prone figure just as he finally found his tongue.

"Don't- stay away from her." He told her, to use the language of his father if only because it felt the most familiar.

"Why? Who is she?" again she drew closer, more curious than afraid now.

Grimacing Uriel pulled himself up.

"bad news."

Cautiously he stood. His skin felt raw and everything else just hurt, but he made it to an upright position and over to the girl. He didn't like that the beast had brought her here, and he certainly didn't like not knowing why the voices had let the beast out. They had wanted him to help her but didn't tell him why and now she was bleeding out on his living room floor. Blasted voices never clarified anything, if he ever wanted to find out why they had sent him to her he would have to heal her, and he didn't like that either. He still felt unsettled from his fight with the beast, and he didn't trust it to not try taking advantage of his distraction if he did.

But if he didn't...

Uriel studied her injuries. A face that would have been exotically beautiful was almost unrecognizable on one side and a cut on her head still seeped a steady flow of blood. She was covered in ugly bruises that were already turning a deep purple, the most prominent of them a definitive handprint around her throat. Disconcerted by the sight, Uriel flexed his fingers uncomfortably and moved on to inspect the deep hole in her dislocated shoulder. The bullet hadn't hit anything vital but the gash running along her inner thigh all the way to her knee could be fatal. And if it wasn't, her shredded ankle, with stirps of skin hanging loose from the bone, would keep her from ever walking again.

"She's hurt," Nina said as if it wasn't perfectly clear already. When he didn't respond she reached to touch the girl's exposed thigh.

"No." He grabbed her wrist before she could make contact.

"But we have to help her."

He hesitated.

He could not risk Nina's safety for this girl.

But would either survive what came if he did not heed the voices.

Fragmented memories of hours spent alone on streets littered with the bodies of the dead and dying, as those who slept dreamed of a nightmare world shaped by the horrors of war, flickered through his mind, sending a shudder down his spine. The beast reared; its panic was almost as foreign as his own but easier to soothe.

He had learned his lesson.

Releasing the child, he nodded in grim acceptance.

"Careful." He warned her. "She's not like us."

Nina sucked in a deep breath and held it as she gently placed her hands over the gaping wound on the girl's inner thigh. Nina had never touched any soul besides Uriel's and the unfamiliar shape made it hard to focus on. The tangle of thoughts, intentions, and memories was massive, somehow extending beyond her body in a complex web of connections but like every living thing, it had a pattern. A natural flow of energy from one point to the next and the next and the next, that had been disturbed by the injuries to her physical body. Using her own as a bridge between the gaps where the torn flesh left holes to big fill, Nina pushed the diverted energy back into its proper rhythm.

For a long agonizing moment, nothing happened.

Then muscle remembered its place and skin its shape. Knitting back together to heal themselves they slowly became whole again. There was an audible pop as her shoulder slid back into its socket and her blood, still alive with her essence, remembered its purpose. The pool around her disappeared as it fought gravity, entering the closing exits it had left just minutes before and flowing back to the heart and brain it was meant to sustain.

Uriel watched as Nina poured herself into the girl's body, forcing it to mend itself, and grew increasingly uneasy. He wanted to trust that she knew when to let go, but Nina was not like most. She gave too easily and had no awareness of her limits.

When Nina wavered, Uriel knew something was wrong. She should have let go. Why didn't she let go? Without thinking he grabbed Nina, meaning to pull her away and break the physical connection tying the two girls together, but the moment he touched her he felt it. The circuit Nina had created to heal the girl was overrun. It should have collapsed on itself once the healing was done, but somehow the girl was still pulling from Nina, draining her. And now by touching Nina, he had added himself to the circuit, unintentionally feeding in his own energy and locking himself into the same vortex pulling at Nina. But he had the strength of the beast and in an instant, it overloaded the tentative connection, snaping them apart with the force of an explosion.

Nina landed on Uriel as they both hit the ground. The girl rose, her back arched as she writhed in agony and her mouth hung open in a silent scream. Power poured from her like a bottomless well of energy, pinning them down and sucking the air from his lungs. The beast wanted to draw in the excess around them, but Uriel kept it leashed.

"Uri, S-somethings wr-wrong" Nina trembled above him. she was too cold, too pale. A sick feeling of dread roiled in his belly.

This needed to end.

Now.

Rolling he deposited Nina and struggled to stand against the flood of energy. Like a concussive heartbeat leaving catastrophe in its wake, her power flared as if in response to him, pressing harder and calling the beast out of its corner.

Uriel snarled. His fear turned to fury.

The voices be dammed.

Nina was his. This Stanger could not have her.

Calling on the beast, Uriel used its strength to cut through the thick haze of pulsating power. Sliding a hand across the floor he grasped his forgotten blade, the blood coating it too bright, almost bioluminescent. He had to drag himself to get close enough and his hand seemed to weigh a thousand pounds. the last few inches of space he had to fight to keep the knife straight as he brought it down.

He aimed for her heart and his blade struck true.

But the moment it touched her, it shattered.

Her eyes snapped open just as shrapnel and bone burst from his hand. And when she looked at him, a familiar blue had swallowed up her pupils. the unnatural glow of her eyes shining so bright he could see the veins in her expressionless face, and he had a disconcerting sense that what she was seeing was something beyond him. And then she spoke, and the words that fell from her lips were in an ancient tongue: a language of power and knowledge that filled the room with the weight of time. Words beyond his understanding made his ears bleed as his body tried and failed to comprehend them.

Only when she breathed the last syllable did the spell holding her in its grasp collapse, leaving the room with a strange emptiness that not even the silence could fill.