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Ficlet - A Path Forward
Verse & Timeline: 6-8 months after Jordan and David were killed.
Warning: Fighting, bantering, cussing... tenses are all over the place. It's fine. They're fine. It'll all be fine.
Les can’t remember what those first few weeks felt like right after they were killed. All she remembers is the blind blur of anger and overwhelming sadness.
After they’d done what they could to honor their memory, she took off to basically anywhere that didn’t make her think of them. And Ben, no Adonis now, had taken off to the Underworld to find every bit of information that he could get on the assholes that got away.
Literally walking into the devil’s den.
Now, months later, she was sitting at some café in Greece, the third or fourth place she’s been to learn everything she can about well… everything and an attempt to suppress her feelings.
“So, this is where you’re hiding now,” Adonis asks, helping himself to the seat in front of her, eying her critically. “What are you doing?”
“I’m not hiding. Least of all from you. I’ve tried that and it doesn’t work. And what does it look like I’m doing, I’m reading an old as fuck Greek grimoire that has been translated into modern Greek, and frankly, I’m still shit at Greek. I know reading is foreign to you, but some people enjoy it. What the hell do you want?” She gives him a withering look before looking down at the text again, rubbing at a temple.
As she speaks, he settles in and crosses one leg over the other, wearing a suit far more expensive than his former self would have worn. He’s had the beginnings of a plan forming in his mind and to see that plan come to fruition, he’s had to dress the part. And bring that plan to the one person that he can trust (now) since it would require her power as well.
“Sure, you’re not,” he hums unconvincingly.
It was a habit to pick fights with her. One that was far too easy to do. They were so similar and knew exactly what to say to rub each other the wrong way but it seemed to work for them. It helped them get through whatever it was that was bugging them or helped them focus on what really needed to be done.
Besides, he knew her. He’s lived with her for the last six years and knew she was spinning her wheels, needing a goal more concrete other than the eventual demise of those who killed David and Jordan.
That’s where he came in. First, he needed to get her to focus on him.
Les narrows a look at him and cocks her head. “Is there a point to this in-person chat? Because you could have just called if you wanted to tell me how wrong I’m doing all of this,” she motions with her hands.
“Like you would have picked up? Because, I’ve tried calling a half dozen times in the last month alone, Piper.”
“It’s Les, Alessandra, De Luca – I don’t care but it’s not Piper.”
“I’ve known you since you were… what, fourteen? Sorry to say, it’s going to take a lot longer for this new name of yours to stick, Piper. You have a hundred years or so before you need to worry about changing your name for whatever bloody reason. Besides. They all fucking know you. Your power isn’t subtle.”
She clenches her fist and slowly breathes, knowing what he was doing. She couldn’t even hate him for it. “If you wanted to fight, you could have just said so without being an antagonistic asshole. It has been a while so it’s not surprising that you’re feeling that itch.” Not that she was much better, let’s be honest. She’s been antagonistic herself since he showed up.
“What, and ruin your sickening normal afternoon in bloody Greece?”
“As if that’s ever fucking stopped you before,” she remarks dryly and closes the book in front of her with a muttered curse and stands. “There were plenty of normal days that you ruined.”
He snorts and stands from the table. “I’ve missed you,” he says. “I have a plan and we need some privacy to discuss it.”
“Whatever,” she says and walks out of the café with her bag and the book, watching him fall in step beside her out of the corner of her eye.
Adonis takes her arm as they pass an alleyway, and slips into the shadows before making them both disappear within a blink of an eye. This conversation and their fight would be better not happening in front of people who would call the police lest they get the wrong idea.
Seconds later, they appear in his gym attached to his penthouse in London.
She was thankful it wasn’t Majestic.
Not that she expected him to take her there. Hell, she hadn’t expected him to bring her here either honestly, but it was the better alternative. Les sets the bag and her book to the side before folding her arms and looking at him.
“Is this place fortified? In case it catches on fire?”
“As fortified as I could make it without the aid of an Enchanted.”
She hums and looks around before throwing a fireball at the wall, watching it burn before going out and leaving only a black mark. “Not bad.”
“How long has it been,” he asks, walking over to her.
She arches her eyebrow. “You’re going to have to be more specific, perv,” she says dryly, watching him step closer but not taking a step back. Being this close to him and without the added distractions makes her senses prickle and she could tell, other than becoming Adonis again, that something else was happening with him. He was spending more and more time with demons so perhaps that was it.
“How long has it been since you’ve fought with anyone,” he says with a roll of his eyes before throwing a fairly low-impact punch, testing her reflexes.
She blocks his punch and throws a stronger punch to his upper chest. “Three days ago, I fought a guy who thought he could mug me and two weeks ago I fought a vampire who decided she wanted to try and get a taste. She’s no longer part of the living or unliving.”
“So, a human and a weak vampire, well that’s not going to do,” he says blocking her punch and stepping to the side to throw another at her.
“Can you stop being so fucking cryptic,” she says, moving out of the way of his punch before aiming a kick to his knee. “What’s this plan you have?”
He pushes her leg away and then steps aside, his hands coming up as a sign to pause their fight, cocking his head to the side. “The plan is about how exactly we will kill every single bastard who was there that night.”
“You could have just said so instead of making a production of it, drama queen.”
“Now where is the fun in that? Besides, these demons, witches, and vampires aren’t your mugger or the peckish vampire – they’re very powerful and we’re going to have to be at the top of our A game to take them down.”
“Yeah, no shit,” she said, bouncing on the balls of her feet, itching to fight. They had to be powerful to get Jordan and David. “Details, Adonis. See how easy it is to use a requested name?”
He rolls his eyes. “Do you want to fight first or talk?”
“You knew exactly what you were doing earlier, don’t play dumb. Let’s fight,” she says without a single hesitation. “There will be plenty of time to talk afterward.”
He nods and steps to the side, removing his suit jacket, then untucks his shirt and starts to unbutton it. He didn’t want to get blood on it or ruin it and if their history had anything to say, one of the two of those things would happen. “Want to change first?”
“What was it you two would say, “You need to learn to fight no matter what you’re wearing in case someone sneaks up on you”? I thought it was always an excuse to test us whenever you were bored.”
He gives her a mock gasp, setting both his suit jacket and his shirt on top of her bag. “You actually listened to us?”
“Him? Yes. You? Sometimes, only when it made the most sense. Otherwise, it was a lot of fucking hot air.”
Adonis snorts and slips off his shoes before walking back over to her wearing just his slacks now. “Typical. Usual rules? No magic?”
“What, you don’t want to play with fire today? That’s disappointing. I guess I wouldn’t want to hit you accidentally with a fireball just yet. So yes, usual rules.”
“Later we can see where your powers are, and we can see you try to hit me with a fireball.”
“Promises promises,” she says before getting into position.
“Don’t hold back on me, Piper,” Adonis says before rushing her and tackling her to the mat.
She doesn’t bother responding as she rolls him over and punches him in the face – both for the name and because he said to not hold back. It was lucky they both healed quickly otherwise she’d have to listen to him whine.
“If you wanted to be on top, all you had to do was say so,” he says before grabbing her hands and rolling them over.
“In your dreams,” she says before bringing her leg up and using her momentum to flip them over again. She pulls her hands from his and quickly stands, putting space between them.
It was nearly two hours later before Adonis overtook her a final time. “Come on, Piper – tap out,” he said with a huff, holding her down.
“Fuck you,” she says, upset that he’d gotten the best of her but reluctantly taps out a minute later.
“Next time,” he says and stands, helping her to her feet. “You didn’t do as bad as I expected.”
Les takes his hand and stands as she catches her breath. “Was that supposed to be a compliment I can’t tell.”
“You can take it how you like. Come on, I’ll get you a change of clothes and we can finally talk,” he says, heading toward the door to the gym and walking out only limping a little bit and pressing his hand against his jaw from where she punched him.
“I’m not staying!”
“Sure, but your clothes can’t be comfortable now that we’ve been fighting for two hours, and that shirt has seen better days. Really, Piper.” He steps out of the way quickly sensing a fireball heading in his direction. “Testy.”
“Asshole,” she mutters and grabs her bag and book before following him out.
***
“How positively pretentious of you to have a penthouse in London,” Les says, walking out of the guest room and into the sprawling living room.
Adonis walks over and hands her a glass of whiskey and motions to the couch. “As if you expected anything less from me, I’m sure.”
She takes the glass and brings it up to her nose for a sniff before taking a sip. “No, this is very you,” she admits and takes a seat in a chair.
“Now who’s pretentious,” he asks, watching her sniff it before taking a seat on the couch with a chuckle.
“About the whiskey? Of course, I am,” she says and settles into the obnoxiously nice chair and stares at him. “So, let’s hear it then. What have you found out and what’s this plan of yours?”
He takes a drink from his glass and rests it on his knee. “I’ll start at the beginning. One of the key players is the second in command of the underworld. As close to the current king as you can get. The rest are high-ranking demons, witches, and vampires under his command. As we expected they went after them because they wanted to get to Jordan before her twenty-first birthday. If they took her out, you’d be only half of what the Enchanted was rumored to become. David was a bonus.” It could have easily been him.
Les’ hand clenches around the glass, resisting the urge to throw it against the wall as she thinks about it and knocks back the entire glass. “Great. So, where are they?”
“As you can imagine Tempest, the second in command stays as close as he can to the King. Hiding in plain sight and arrogant as hell. Many of his friends are less protected and have been in hiding for the last several months. Word has gotten out that there is a pissed-off Enchanted and vampire out for their blood.”
What he didn’t tell her yet was that Tempest, Dom, and himself had been old friends. So it was even more personal than ever before for him.
“But you have their names and where we can find them, correct?”
“I have the names and locations of a few of them and I’m working on the rest.”
She narrows a look at him. “What’s your plan.”
“Short term, I make nice and play along with the plans of the underworld. I’ll sneak information over to you as I learn it and we take them out one by one. Long term, I plan to take over Hell.”
Les studies him quietly for a long time before snorting softly and standing from the chair, walking over to the wet bar. “Thank god someone with half a brain will be in charge then,” she says pouring another healthy glass for herself before walking back over, topping off Adonis’ then setting the bottle on the table, and taking her seat again.
“So, what do we need to do? I need all the information, Adonis. If we’re doing this, I want to be in on it fully. No leaving me half out.”
Adonis nods and takes a drink from his glass. She took his plans for the underworld decently enough, which was promising. “I have a folder in my office with our first three targets – name, location, species, and known weaknesses. If my sources are true, we can take the first one out tomorrow. As long as she’s still there. You should be able to manage it at your current abilities.”
Les nods sharply, focusing more on the fact that they could take out one person and not the little dig at her abilities. “Tomorrow then. Are your new friends going to be upset when you start taking out their comrades?”
“On the whole? Demons are self-serving and if there’s one less person to contend with, they’re not going to care. Of course, as we get higher up the food chain and there’s more loyalty involved, we’ll run into a bit more problems but until then, we shouldn’t have a problem.”
“Bring me the file, I might as well do something instead of picking my way through Greek and getting ready for tomorrow.” This, she could focus on and hone her skills.
There was a path and one day, they’d take out Tempest and take out the current King.
If it meant Adonis would be King, then so be it. She’d support it. It meant it was one less thing she’d have to worry about, so long as she didn’t suddenly become an enemy.
Warning: Fighting, bantering, cussing... tenses are all over the place. It's fine. They're fine. It'll all be fine.
Les can’t remember what those first few weeks felt like right after they were killed. All she remembers is the blind blur of anger and overwhelming sadness.
After they’d done what they could to honor their memory, she took off to basically anywhere that didn’t make her think of them. And Ben, no Adonis now, had taken off to the Underworld to find every bit of information that he could get on the assholes that got away.
Literally walking into the devil’s den.
Now, months later, she was sitting at some café in Greece, the third or fourth place she’s been to learn everything she can about well… everything and an attempt to suppress her feelings.
“So, this is where you’re hiding now,” Adonis asks, helping himself to the seat in front of her, eying her critically. “What are you doing?”
“I’m not hiding. Least of all from you. I’ve tried that and it doesn’t work. And what does it look like I’m doing, I’m reading an old as fuck Greek grimoire that has been translated into modern Greek, and frankly, I’m still shit at Greek. I know reading is foreign to you, but some people enjoy it. What the hell do you want?” She gives him a withering look before looking down at the text again, rubbing at a temple.
As she speaks, he settles in and crosses one leg over the other, wearing a suit far more expensive than his former self would have worn. He’s had the beginnings of a plan forming in his mind and to see that plan come to fruition, he’s had to dress the part. And bring that plan to the one person that he can trust (now) since it would require her power as well.
“Sure, you’re not,” he hums unconvincingly.
It was a habit to pick fights with her. One that was far too easy to do. They were so similar and knew exactly what to say to rub each other the wrong way but it seemed to work for them. It helped them get through whatever it was that was bugging them or helped them focus on what really needed to be done.
Besides, he knew her. He’s lived with her for the last six years and knew she was spinning her wheels, needing a goal more concrete other than the eventual demise of those who killed David and Jordan.
That’s where he came in. First, he needed to get her to focus on him.
Les narrows a look at him and cocks her head. “Is there a point to this in-person chat? Because you could have just called if you wanted to tell me how wrong I’m doing all of this,” she motions with her hands.
“Like you would have picked up? Because, I’ve tried calling a half dozen times in the last month alone, Piper.”
“It’s Les, Alessandra, De Luca – I don’t care but it’s not Piper.”
“I’ve known you since you were… what, fourteen? Sorry to say, it’s going to take a lot longer for this new name of yours to stick, Piper. You have a hundred years or so before you need to worry about changing your name for whatever bloody reason. Besides. They all fucking know you. Your power isn’t subtle.”
She clenches her fist and slowly breathes, knowing what he was doing. She couldn’t even hate him for it. “If you wanted to fight, you could have just said so without being an antagonistic asshole. It has been a while so it’s not surprising that you’re feeling that itch.” Not that she was much better, let’s be honest. She’s been antagonistic herself since he showed up.
“What, and ruin your sickening normal afternoon in bloody Greece?”
“As if that’s ever fucking stopped you before,” she remarks dryly and closes the book in front of her with a muttered curse and stands. “There were plenty of normal days that you ruined.”
He snorts and stands from the table. “I’ve missed you,” he says. “I have a plan and we need some privacy to discuss it.”
“Whatever,” she says and walks out of the café with her bag and the book, watching him fall in step beside her out of the corner of her eye.
Adonis takes her arm as they pass an alleyway, and slips into the shadows before making them both disappear within a blink of an eye. This conversation and their fight would be better not happening in front of people who would call the police lest they get the wrong idea.
Seconds later, they appear in his gym attached to his penthouse in London.
She was thankful it wasn’t Majestic.
Not that she expected him to take her there. Hell, she hadn’t expected him to bring her here either honestly, but it was the better alternative. Les sets the bag and her book to the side before folding her arms and looking at him.
“Is this place fortified? In case it catches on fire?”
“As fortified as I could make it without the aid of an Enchanted.”
She hums and looks around before throwing a fireball at the wall, watching it burn before going out and leaving only a black mark. “Not bad.”
“How long has it been,” he asks, walking over to her.
She arches her eyebrow. “You’re going to have to be more specific, perv,” she says dryly, watching him step closer but not taking a step back. Being this close to him and without the added distractions makes her senses prickle and she could tell, other than becoming Adonis again, that something else was happening with him. He was spending more and more time with demons so perhaps that was it.
“How long has it been since you’ve fought with anyone,” he says with a roll of his eyes before throwing a fairly low-impact punch, testing her reflexes.
She blocks his punch and throws a stronger punch to his upper chest. “Three days ago, I fought a guy who thought he could mug me and two weeks ago I fought a vampire who decided she wanted to try and get a taste. She’s no longer part of the living or unliving.”
“So, a human and a weak vampire, well that’s not going to do,” he says blocking her punch and stepping to the side to throw another at her.
“Can you stop being so fucking cryptic,” she says, moving out of the way of his punch before aiming a kick to his knee. “What’s this plan you have?”
He pushes her leg away and then steps aside, his hands coming up as a sign to pause their fight, cocking his head to the side. “The plan is about how exactly we will kill every single bastard who was there that night.”
“You could have just said so instead of making a production of it, drama queen.”
“Now where is the fun in that? Besides, these demons, witches, and vampires aren’t your mugger or the peckish vampire – they’re very powerful and we’re going to have to be at the top of our A game to take them down.”
“Yeah, no shit,” she said, bouncing on the balls of her feet, itching to fight. They had to be powerful to get Jordan and David. “Details, Adonis. See how easy it is to use a requested name?”
He rolls his eyes. “Do you want to fight first or talk?”
“You knew exactly what you were doing earlier, don’t play dumb. Let’s fight,” she says without a single hesitation. “There will be plenty of time to talk afterward.”
He nods and steps to the side, removing his suit jacket, then untucks his shirt and starts to unbutton it. He didn’t want to get blood on it or ruin it and if their history had anything to say, one of the two of those things would happen. “Want to change first?”
“What was it you two would say, “You need to learn to fight no matter what you’re wearing in case someone sneaks up on you”? I thought it was always an excuse to test us whenever you were bored.”
He gives her a mock gasp, setting both his suit jacket and his shirt on top of her bag. “You actually listened to us?”
“Him? Yes. You? Sometimes, only when it made the most sense. Otherwise, it was a lot of fucking hot air.”
Adonis snorts and slips off his shoes before walking back over to her wearing just his slacks now. “Typical. Usual rules? No magic?”
“What, you don’t want to play with fire today? That’s disappointing. I guess I wouldn’t want to hit you accidentally with a fireball just yet. So yes, usual rules.”
“Later we can see where your powers are, and we can see you try to hit me with a fireball.”
“Promises promises,” she says before getting into position.
“Don’t hold back on me, Piper,” Adonis says before rushing her and tackling her to the mat.
She doesn’t bother responding as she rolls him over and punches him in the face – both for the name and because he said to not hold back. It was lucky they both healed quickly otherwise she’d have to listen to him whine.
“If you wanted to be on top, all you had to do was say so,” he says before grabbing her hands and rolling them over.
“In your dreams,” she says before bringing her leg up and using her momentum to flip them over again. She pulls her hands from his and quickly stands, putting space between them.
It was nearly two hours later before Adonis overtook her a final time. “Come on, Piper – tap out,” he said with a huff, holding her down.
“Fuck you,” she says, upset that he’d gotten the best of her but reluctantly taps out a minute later.
“Next time,” he says and stands, helping her to her feet. “You didn’t do as bad as I expected.”
Les takes his hand and stands as she catches her breath. “Was that supposed to be a compliment I can’t tell.”
“You can take it how you like. Come on, I’ll get you a change of clothes and we can finally talk,” he says, heading toward the door to the gym and walking out only limping a little bit and pressing his hand against his jaw from where she punched him.
“I’m not staying!”
“Sure, but your clothes can’t be comfortable now that we’ve been fighting for two hours, and that shirt has seen better days. Really, Piper.” He steps out of the way quickly sensing a fireball heading in his direction. “Testy.”
“Asshole,” she mutters and grabs her bag and book before following him out.
“How positively pretentious of you to have a penthouse in London,” Les says, walking out of the guest room and into the sprawling living room.
Adonis walks over and hands her a glass of whiskey and motions to the couch. “As if you expected anything less from me, I’m sure.”
She takes the glass and brings it up to her nose for a sniff before taking a sip. “No, this is very you,” she admits and takes a seat in a chair.
“Now who’s pretentious,” he asks, watching her sniff it before taking a seat on the couch with a chuckle.
“About the whiskey? Of course, I am,” she says and settles into the obnoxiously nice chair and stares at him. “So, let’s hear it then. What have you found out and what’s this plan of yours?”
He takes a drink from his glass and rests it on his knee. “I’ll start at the beginning. One of the key players is the second in command of the underworld. As close to the current king as you can get. The rest are high-ranking demons, witches, and vampires under his command. As we expected they went after them because they wanted to get to Jordan before her twenty-first birthday. If they took her out, you’d be only half of what the Enchanted was rumored to become. David was a bonus.” It could have easily been him.
Les’ hand clenches around the glass, resisting the urge to throw it against the wall as she thinks about it and knocks back the entire glass. “Great. So, where are they?”
“As you can imagine Tempest, the second in command stays as close as he can to the King. Hiding in plain sight and arrogant as hell. Many of his friends are less protected and have been in hiding for the last several months. Word has gotten out that there is a pissed-off Enchanted and vampire out for their blood.”
What he didn’t tell her yet was that Tempest, Dom, and himself had been old friends. So it was even more personal than ever before for him.
“But you have their names and where we can find them, correct?”
“I have the names and locations of a few of them and I’m working on the rest.”
She narrows a look at him. “What’s your plan.”
“Short term, I make nice and play along with the plans of the underworld. I’ll sneak information over to you as I learn it and we take them out one by one. Long term, I plan to take over Hell.”
Les studies him quietly for a long time before snorting softly and standing from the chair, walking over to the wet bar. “Thank god someone with half a brain will be in charge then,” she says pouring another healthy glass for herself before walking back over, topping off Adonis’ then setting the bottle on the table, and taking her seat again.
“So, what do we need to do? I need all the information, Adonis. If we’re doing this, I want to be in on it fully. No leaving me half out.”
Adonis nods and takes a drink from his glass. She took his plans for the underworld decently enough, which was promising. “I have a folder in my office with our first three targets – name, location, species, and known weaknesses. If my sources are true, we can take the first one out tomorrow. As long as she’s still there. You should be able to manage it at your current abilities.”
Les nods sharply, focusing more on the fact that they could take out one person and not the little dig at her abilities. “Tomorrow then. Are your new friends going to be upset when you start taking out their comrades?”
“On the whole? Demons are self-serving and if there’s one less person to contend with, they’re not going to care. Of course, as we get higher up the food chain and there’s more loyalty involved, we’ll run into a bit more problems but until then, we shouldn’t have a problem.”
“Bring me the file, I might as well do something instead of picking my way through Greek and getting ready for tomorrow.” This, she could focus on and hone her skills.
There was a path and one day, they’d take out Tempest and take out the current King.
If it meant Adonis would be King, then so be it. She’d support it. It meant it was one less thing she’d have to worry about, so long as she didn’t suddenly become an enemy.