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Meghan leaned back against the wall to the building behind her and pulled her cloak tighter around her as a cool breeze came up. She stared off into the night becoming quickly lost in her thoughts. She never noticed the shadow come out from the side of the building. After a few moments Meghan stepped away from the building and took a step towards the hall. An arm shot out and a hand covered her mouth and at the same moment another grabbed around her waist and pulled her into the shadows. She screamed out to Xarroch and his name was the last thought in her mind before her world went dark. When she woke she found she was in a large room of some sort. She was lying in a huge four poster bed. She sat up and looked around. The room was very dimly lit with a few candles. She slowly slid from the bed and realized that she was not wearing her own clothes anymore, but a thin slip of a nightgown instead. Her eyes slowly traveled from item to item in the room. There was what looked like a writing desk against one wall and a dresser against another. There was also a small vanity with various small bottles on it. They sparkled from the glow of the candles. There was also a window and Meghan made her way over to look out. It was to dark to see anything, but she knew she was not in the city anymore because she saw no lights at all. Suddenly there was the sound of the door opening and Meghan turned quickly. A man stepped through the door and closed it behind him. He was a few inches taller than Meghan and had short dark hair and a neatly trimmed beard. He was wearing dark pants and a lose ivory colored shirt. He took a step into the room and Meghan could see his face more clearly. His eyes were the coldest blue she had ever seen. He took a step closer and she pressed up against the cold stone wall behind her. "Well you are every bit as pretty as Damien described, aren't you Meghan?" he said to her. She just stared at him. His lips turned up into a twisted smile and Meghan felt her blood turn cold. Without thinking about it she reached up to touch her necklace, but it was gone. She gasped and looked down, and the man chuckled. "We have your treasure safe my dear," he said. "Soon we will have its power as well." Meghan looked up at him but said nothing. In her mind she called out desperately to Xarroch, having no idea where she was or even if he could hear her. The man seemed distracted for a moment and then quickly covered the distance between him and Meghan. She shrank away as he reached for her and he roughly grabbed her arm. "Seems he needs you," the man said absently as his eyes traveled the length of her body. Meghan tried to pull away but he had a firm grip on her arm and drug her form the room. They walked thorough many hallways and up and down a few flights of stairs. From what she could tell they were I some sort of old castle. Everything was made of stone and there were torches lit in various places to light the way. After about five minutes of walking they stopped at a huge wooden doorway. The man knocked and after a moment the door was opened and Meghan was pushed through. She looked quickly around the room and her gaze settled on a man sitting at a huge desk looking intently down at her necklace. After a moment he looked up and she found herself staring into the face of the Mage who attacked her those few nights ago. "Put her in the chair," he said shortly, and Meghan felt herself pulled to a wooden chair with leather straps hanging from it. The man pushed her down into the chair and secured her with the straps. She struggled a bit but knew she was not getting out of this alone. The Mage walked over and placed his hands on either arm of the chair and leaned in close to Meghan, his eyes penetrating her own. She tried to look away but couldn't. "Somewhere in that mind of yours," he began, lightly tapping on her forehead with his finger, "is the key to unlock this power, and I am going to find it." Meghan shrank back as he leaned closer looking deeply into her eyes. Then suddenly it hit her with such force all she could do was scream. It was as if a hand was reaching into her mind and pulling memories from her one at a time. She fought with all her might and for a moment there was some hope she would be able to keep him out, but he fought a bit harder and broke through her wall. She screamed again and tears ran down her cheeks. Then almost as abruptly as it began it ended. Meghan slumped down in the char barely breathing. The Mage stood and looked down at her. "Such power," he whispered, "what a waste, princess." He walked back to the desk and waved at the man who brought Meghan to him. "Take her," he said, "do what you want with her. She is of no more use to me." The man nodded and gathered Meghan up in his arms, carrying her back to the room he had taken her from. He laid her on the bed and gently caressed her body. She felt him touch her and was aware as he removed his clothes and got on top of her. Although she knew what he was doing she didn't have the strength to fight him. All she could do was lay there. For the next few days he came once or twice a day and forced himself on her. And with each day she felt herself slipping farther and farther away, becoming less aware, until all she could think was his name, and she repeated it over and over in her mind. Xarroch. Xarroch like a wisp of a breeze it flitted through his mind, and he grunted, straining, trying to answer, to locate... He flexed his wings and lashed his tail in frustration. The demon shook his head for a moment and concentrated again, harsh syllables tearing from his throat and seeming to hand in the air in a moment of tangible power. "Close. Finally," he said quietly, and launched himself into the air. After some time he squinted, seeing it in the distance. A smallish castle, a bit run down but commanding a good view from a small rise in the landscape. The first hints of false dawn showed on the horizon, and Xarroch circled the castle once quickly, then swooped into a pair of sentries pacing the wall, claws extended and tearing through armor, flesh and bone with the force of the impact. Two nearly severed bodies hit the walkway at the same time as a burst of force hit the wall of the inner keep, shattering a piece of the wall. Xarroch swooped into the hole and landed hard. He took in the room at a glance and straight-armed the heavy oak door, sending it flying into the far wall of the hallway. Shouts and alarm bells already rang through the fortress, and several soldier charged around a corner and spotted Xarroch's huge form in the hallway. The lead moan drew a sword that gleamed with obvious enchantment, pointing at the invading demon. "We're prepared for you, beast! Get him, men!" He charged, instantly followed by the five men with him, all wielding similar-looking weapons. Xarroch smiled haughtily and laughed a low, menacing chuckle as he dodged back from the first attacks and grabbed the weapons of the lead men in either hand and snapped the blades with his thumbs. He dropped the now dull and broken swords with a clang that echoed in the sudden silence and shock of his assailants. Xarroch flicked his own blood from the cuts and seized the disarmed men by their throats in the blink of an eye. "You can't possibly be ready for me." The snapping of two necks was followed in a rush of action that left the other four men quickly dead, and even the men with crossbows that appeared and lodged several quarrels into the big demon, a guttural snap and a flick of a finger reduced them to charred embers. Moving quickly but showing a bit more caution, Xarroch broke down another door to reveal a sparse bedroom, but one with a familiar form curled up on the bed in a fetal position. He moved quickly to kneel beside the large bed and brush Meghan's hair with a surprisingly gentle talon. "Meghan..." She lays still and quiet, unresponsive and withdrawn, and even Xarroch's demonic feature show great concern that gives way to a smoldering anger. He rises and turns quickly, catching the sword deep in his side, and sees the blue-eyed captor standing there with a nasty grin. "She's mine now, demon! And I'm going to send you back to the depths you crawled from!" he cried in triumph, lunging again. Xarroch flowed out of the way quickly, eyes flicking between the man and Meghan, then narrowing dangerously as he turned aside the blade's flicked with quick flicks of his claws. The blue-eyed man's eyes widened in surprise as Xarroch continued moving, then studied him hard, looking for an opening, a sign of weakness to exploit. The two fought for only a moment before the man began backing out the door, trading space gradual retreat for life and barely holding off Xarroch's relentless advance.. blood flowed from the near wounds that nearly claimed him several times, and his strength was quickly draining. "The mater will get you, fiend! He's prepared for you!" He spun to flee and heard a sickening crunch as he felt a huge weight pin him to the stone floor. Live for now, if you can little man... I'll leave it to the girl how much you will truly suffer." Xarroch's voice hissed low in the fallen man's ear, and he shivered and passed out Xarroch went back to the room and gently lifted the comatose Meghan from the bed, wrapping a bedsheet around her before cradling her against his shoulder on the unwounded side. He murmured some soothing words the echoed with power and a soft, shielding glow enfolded the young woman. Then he strode quickly down the stairs, sniffing the air and moving with purpose to the mage's office. The door was shrugged easily aside and Xarroch entered with ease, taking in the office with a glare. With a sneer he smashed the wooden chair with the straps, then paused as he spotted Meghan's necklace in the center of an empty desk. "Do you think me that much a fool, mage?" A voice echoed from seemingly all directions at once, "One can hope that their prey is as dumb as it looks, my large friend." Xarroch snorted in derision and cradled Meghan protectively. "So how do you think you've 'prepared' for me, as you underlings seemed to think you had?" His voice sounded patronizing and unconcerned. "I'll deal with that tongue of yours soon enough, beast! There are ... means of research available to such as I. And a true name always holds power over your ilk." With a note of triumph, the voice echoed with several long syllables, seeming to writhe in the air, weaving themselves around a now motionless Xarroch, over and over again, circling him with intangible rings of power. With a final hoarse and guttural cry the spell ended, and the mage materialized beside his desk, smiling. "And so the hunt comes to a close my new slave," he walked around the desk and picked up Meghan's necklace, fingering the stone fondly. "I admit I was intrigued at the possibilities of unlocking the power of Sissra's stone, and I am close. But with you, and this...," chuckling, he traced a finger along one of Xarroch's talons with the same fondness he had used to handle the stone. "The possibilities are endless!" He blinked in surprise for a moment, then gurgled as blood spilled down his chin. Mouth working soundlessly, he looked at the powerful and scaled arm protruding from his chest. Xarroch spoke quietly, almost sadly, "And a true name is what a creature is... I am not that beast any longer, but there is some, perhaps too much...," Xarroch shook his head and pulled his arm from the dead mage, watching his body slump to the ground. A little half-grin touched his lips. "And perhaps sometimes, not quite enough." He leaned down to snatch the necklace from his fingers, and closed his eyes for a moment, mouthing inaudible words before winking out of existence. |
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