Lily rolled her eyes lightly, if Finn could fly and had super strength, now that was something to be jealous of. In what world would turning into a lion be helpful in everyday life? Finn could fly himself around all over the shop. She half wished she had turned into a domestic cat so she could perch on his shoulders and join in for the ride.

She was pulled from her thoughts as Finn spoke again, she had missed the beginning of his sentence but her brow still lifted in surprise to the crux of the question. She heard Callisto from behind her give a short huff at the words. Could she even dance? And..what kind of dancing did he mean? Whichever it was, it would pass the time and at least it was more enjoyable than talking about their potential deaths.

Lily’s lips split into a small smile and she offered out her hand towards Finntello. “Of course!” She hummed, her head tilting to the side slightly.

Veles’s lips only drew into a tighter grin as he saw the drop in expression, the flick of wings on either side. He tucked his hands into the pockets of his black slacks, but remained a hair's width away from Xevon, allowing no space to back out. Of course he could drift backwards through the wall, but he had a sneaking suspicion that he wouldn’t.

A quick huff of air left his nose as his smile dulled for a moment. His eyes scanned over Xevon, taking his sweet time in formulating a response.

“Yes, well.” Veles drew out, lingering his gaze on Xevon’s torso as he began. “I am a hedonist. I take what I think will please me.” His sharp eyes lifted up to meet the red one staring back at him. “You please me.” He finished, lips drawing into a slightly maniacal smile.

“Oh, but when I brought you here, you just had to go and try to rip my throat out.” He sighed, tipping his head to one side as if he were analysing Xevon. “Who knows what I could have made you if you hadn’t tried so desperately to kill me. Such a shame.” Veles’s hand raised again, drawing the back of his first two fingers gently over Xevon’s cheek, finishing by running the tip of his finger along his jawline.

“As much as I enjoyed killing you, I would have preferred for you to have remained alive. I already had one pest in my halls, now I have two.” As he finished speaking, he took a half-step backwards, allowing for a small amount of pressure to be removed from the other man.

“Now,” Veles lifted a hand and adjusted the front of his shirt. “Why are you in my quarters? Seeking me out for something more than violence?” His tone was teasing, dripping with suggestion.

Lily had slipped into place, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration as she tried her best to follow the instructions that Finn was dishing out. Her head tipped down to watch their feet as she almost stood on his, narrowly avoiding it. She clearly was not a dancer, that much she could tell without her memories.

Eventually, they had begun to turn and she wasn’t so focused on not standing on his toes anymore. Instead, she had lifted her head up to look at Finntello and matched his grin. “You’re a lot better at this than I am.” She laughed out,

Callisto had resigned himself to lurking in the corner, idly waiting for the time to pass by. He was good at that. Sitting and waiting. But the longer he watched the pair in front of him, the more strange envy he felt towards them. Not for the dancing, but for the idea of being alive. Prancing around , enjoying the fact that blood still pumped through their veins with a purpose.

Veles cocked an eyebrow towards Xevon at his obvious distaste towards the mere idea of pleasing him. It quickly divulged into an amused smirk, Veles could see the flurry of thoughts whirling around the other man. Too fast for him to grab onto and process, he was fidgeting and his voice was tilting up and down. It had been a long time since he had witnessed this.

A short chuff of laughter came from him, his head turning to look across the room towards where the mirror was. “I am still unsure about your intentions.” He quipped honestly, twisting on his heel to step towards the mirror once again. However, he slipped past it and reached towards the back. Pulling the mirrored front open, revealing a small jewellery storage unit within the mirror.

Veles studied the options as he spoke, one hand lingering on the door. “It sounds as though you are pining.” His gloved hand reached forwards and plucked a golden chain necklace from the hooks. Fiddling with the rectangular pendant for a moment before he slipped it around his own neck.

“For what, you can figure that out. Touch, love, pain, hmm maybe even death.” Veles mused more so to himself than to Xevon.

Turning back towards him, Veles extended his hands out in a display of himself. “I want to know if your opinion of me looking and smelling like butt-crack as you so eloquently put, has changed?” His lips curled into a smile. “Though, I thought you would remember how I looked when we met. I must not have made a strong enough first impression.” His voice cooed, eyes staring straight at Xevon, refusing to draw the icy gaze away.

Her lips parted in a small laugh, ignoring the brief eye contact she had made with Callisto as they spun around. “I feel like a baby deer on rollerblades, you’re the only thing making sure I don’t trip over.” She jabbed at her own ability, it was true. Lily was clutching onto Finn to make sure she didn’t tangle up her legs, but it was getting a little bit easier. They were moving slowly enough to where she could make sure her feet were in the right place. It made her wonder how people did faster dances, what were they called? Tango, samba? She brushed the thoughts away as she almost stumbled over her own feet, forcing herself to concentrate again.

She refocused her attention towards Finn instead, meeting his eyes she felt her own lips mimic his smile. It was pleasant to see an emotion other than panic and fear, it gave her the warm fuzzies.

Veles clasped his hands together into front of him suddenly, the sound echoing softly around the stark room. He strode back up towards Xevon, but remained an arms length away from him this time. He bent down at the wait, only marginally so that they were on the same level. His hands were intertwined behind his back.

“If you are jealous, then I shall kill them. The pale one will simply mope around, as you said.” He hummed, letting his eyes carry over Xevon once more. He hadn’t missed the pauses in his sentence. “I did desire that woman as a wife, considering my future plans. However, I do have eternity.” Slowly a grin crept onto his lips.

He drew in a deep breath and raised himself back up to his full height, retrieving a hand from behind his back. “Besides, why should I take you and not her? You are both beautiful specimens. Perhaps I desire both.” He ended his train of thought quickly, decisively.

Veles closed the gap between them again, noting how the winged man had yet to remove himself from against the wall. First the tips of his gloved fingers pressed into Xevon’s chest before he splayed his fingers out across the muscles. Eventually flattening his palm against him. A smug glint flickered to life in his eyes.

“Would that bother you?” Veles let the words drip from his lips slowly.

Lily felt a tiny warmth climb to her face, but her smile didn’t falter. It felt good to give this energy to him, he looked well..happy. Which was a gift in this hotel it seemed. She didn’t think she had seen Callisto nor Xevon crack a genuine happy smile the entire time they had been there. It must be a sad existence. Her heart ached slightly at the thought, as much as Callisto was a stubborn grump, he had good reason to be one.

“Do you know any other ones?” She wanted to keep him thinking about the dancing rather than anything else. In truth, it was distracting her own mind as well.

A sharp glint in Veles’s eyes shone brightly as he listened to Xevon, his smirk twisting into a sick smile. His head leaned down closer towards the other man, moving slowly and deliberately.

“You’re so cruel, Xevon.” Veles lowered his voice, drawing out his name. “If you want them out, fine.” He conceded. Veles could request another woman. It was simple. This one was of interest because of her bloodline. But there would be more. Perhaps even her children or grandchildren in the years to come.

Veles let his breath fan out towards Xevon for a moment longer before he swiftly pulled away and swept himself back towards the mirror that he had left open. His dress shoes tapping lightly on the wooden floor.

He skimmed through some of the items. “Ah, ha.” He murmured softly, hooking a shorter necklace from the case. Turning back towards Xevon, he held out the hand with the silver chain. It was thicker, a heaviness evident to it. After a second, the chain took on a slightly more translucent appearance and Veles’s eyes darkened.

“Wear this and I will do what you ask.” That was all he offered as an explanation. The true nature of the piece of metal would be revealed after the fact. “I think it would look lovely on you, darling.” His voice was still lowered, waiting for the ghost to approach him and take the item. “I shall send them away, return them to where they’re supposed to be. Then the next that come, I will kill them. I need some sustenance, you cannot starve me due to jealousy.”

Veles felt a wave of satisfaction come over him as the chain was lifted from his palm, his eyes followed the item as Xevon reached to secure it around his own neck. A small laugh drew from his throat.

“I could. They are sheep. I do not want followers for children. I require conquerors.” He pulled his hand back to his side and held it up with a tilted head. “Now then..” He hummed with a small smile. “I shall hold up my end of the bargain.” With that, he summoned that ball of light in his palm once again. This time it was larger, much larger. He did not plan to dawdle. No, he would throw those memories right back to Callisto and wreck him.

Veles gave a small sound as he snapped his hand closed and the orb dissipated. Immediately from below them, a sharp dreadfully painful cry rang out. Ear piercing as it travelled through the hotel. Then it was cut off. As quickly as it had started, Callisto’s voice had stopped.

“Ah.” Veles sighed out, lowering his hand to his side. His expression bored, completely unphased by the pain he had just caused. “Much better. Quieter.” He commented more to himself than to Xevon. He turned his back on Xevon, now that the necklace was on him he had little to fear. A hand moved out dismissively and waved to the side of the room.

“Situate yourself however you would like. If you are going to linger here with me, then may as well make yourself comfortable.” For once Veles was being truthful. If he could twist Xevon’s wrath into something he could use, a weapon that had a mind of its own. That would be perfect.

Lily tried to absorb all the information that was being thrown at her. Concentrating hard to remember the steps as they came, it was a lot. But again, it was mostly Finn leading as she took his hand once again. It took a few rotations of the sequence for her to understand the flow. Without music it took some effort to make sure her timings were correct.

However, it was fun. She found herself grinning once again as she settled into her clunky movements. Flinging herself out from him in one of these so-called butterfly moves. Her eyes closed briefly to shield them from the air. Then she heard a sickening cry from behind her and her eyes flew open.

She stared ahead of herself in spite of the cry that had turned to soft painful sobbing from behind her. She did not see the plasterboard walls of the room. Not at all. There was…warmth on her skin and a delicate breeze brushing past her and dislodging her hair. It was bright and colourful. A rolling field of grass revealed itself before her. Her breath caught in her throat and she felt tears welling in her eyes.

Her hand was still firmly planted in Finntellos as she whirled herself back around to look at him, ecstatic joy brimming from her watery eyes. They were in a field, where she didn’t know and didn’t care. As she met the eyes of Finn, she felt a wall in her head slip away and a flurry of images passed through her head. For a second, she faltered and confusion came over her expression as she began to have her memories dished back out to her. Strangely there was no pain, no aching like before. It was simply happening.

Callisto had been watching them silently as they changed their chosen dance, he wasn’t really thinking. Just watching and waiting. Then he felt a wash of dread come over him that made his blood run cold. His eyes widened and before he had time to shoot up through the floors to find Xevon that same earth-shattering pain came over him and he bowed over at the waist. His lips parting in a shriek, the scar on the side felt like it was going to rip back open.

His eyes had scrunched closed and he fell backwards, his heart was struggling to keep up. His skin felt like it was on fire, his head was going to crack open and his eyes run bloodshot. His head was being abused with memories. A whole lifetime’s worth of memories had come crashing back down into his consciousness, forcing their way in and making him recall everything.

Callisto stumbled backwards, but instead of slipping through the fall he felt his hips hit the floor with a dull sound. It wasn’t hard floorboards, it was softer and a lot warmer. But he did not move. Callisto simply curled his knees to up to his chest and reduced himself to quiet crying. Trying to reel in his mind, to stop the pain. To piece himself back together.

He wasn’t sobbing from the pain, he was crying with the realisation of who he was and what had just occurred. His heart was being broken.