The World of Myth Magazine

The group settled into an uneasy truce. There would be no peace until Reese had found the rest, but she was willing to put aside the desire to kill Tiana and use her powers and those of her children to find the others. Ash and Cynthiana had spent most of the last few weeks talking to everyone they knew who had any sort of magical or otherworldly power. Tiana had spent her time talking to Reese. There were so many painful memories, it was a long process. Tiana broke down. A lot.

"Look, we are getting nowhere." Marlon grumbled. Tiana was sobbing uncontrollably again and they had barely gotten started.

Reese stood and walked from the room. Marlon followed.

"Something doesn't feel right. Every time we circle back to that night, she loses it. I can feel the block, the energy, It begins to swirl around her, and it gets stronger the closer she gets. It has a familiar feel to it. I've felt it before but I can't place it." Reese paced the hall, her brow furrowed in concentration. She was absorbing some of the energy from the room Tiana was in. Marlon knew that look on her face. She was tracing.

He leaned against the wall and just watched her. She had never scared him, not even when she was sucking the life out of the village he had known his whole life. Not when she had bound him to her with nothing more than her desire and a thought. He never once feared her. Nor had he feared for her. This woman, Tiana, had brought a fear to him that he felt in his core. She was one of the first. One of Reese's children. If they had found one, they could find more, and that stirred a fear in him. He didn't know why but he something told him that solving the mystery, finding all of Reese's missing pieces, would bring about the end of not just Reese's search, but of something else as well. Something important.

Reese turned and looked at Marlon and his breath caught in his throat. He had looked at that face for hundreds of years, and still, at times, she could steal his breath and make his heart beat a little faster. He loved her. He had never questioned that. It just was. He had never pursued it, but he had never pursued another either.

"….down to the river." She said. She squinted at Marlon. "Are you listening?" Marlon blinked at her, trying to clear his thoughts. He had never had this much trouble before. She had never had this much power over him like this. She had tried, but they had found that even though she could command his body to follow her words, his will was always his own. Now it felt as if she was taking that.

"I…I….what?" he stammered.

"Are you having stroke?" she came and placed her hand on Marlon's arm. A current shot through the two of them almost knocking them to the ground. If Marlon had not been leaning against the wall they would have ended up just there.

Tiana burst from the room and Ash and Cynthiana came running up the stairs.

"What have you done?" cried Tiana "Why would you call him?"

"Mama, who? Who did she summon?" asked Cynthiana trying to comfort her mother.

"Adrian." Tiana said flatly.

Reese untangled herself from Marlon's arms and looked at Tiana confused.

"I didn't call him." She said. "I was trying to figure out what was wrong with Marlon."

"I felt it. The call. The specific energy that summons him to you. It is full of lust, desire, longing, and anger." Tiana stalked towards Reese, no more the broken woman she was a moment before. "You told me you had a relationship with him, but no longer. Now you summon him to my home? To where my children are? You lied!" she turned and Reese grabbed her arm.

As they made contact a sound like a wounded lion shattered the air. A light blasted from the two and swirled about them. Tiana and Reese continued to screech as fast as they could draw breath. The ball of light grew in size and intensity until it almost consumed the whole of the hall. When the pressure seemed more than the two could stand, the ball smashed into Reese. The two fell to the floor and were silent.

Ash and Cynthiana raced to their mother's side and Marlon to Reese's. He gathered her onto his lap, brushing the hair from her face. She slowly opened her eyes and looked up at him. Relief coursed through him, and he smiled at her.

"Can you speak?" he asked gently.

"Shiiiiiiiit." She whispered. His laugh was so abrupt it sounded like a bark.

Three feet away, Tiana was sitting up. She was shaking her hands and muttering. Her children knelt beside her.

"NO!" exclaimed Tiana. "This can't be!"

Reese stood and watched as Tiana stood and turned towards her. "You stole it!"

Reese, sore and unamused now, glared at Tiana. Her eyes mere slits. "First you call me a liar, and now a thief. You better explain before the last of my good humor is gone."

"My power!" sobbed Tiana. "You stole it. It's gone."

The four others in the hall looked at Tiana, shocked.

Reese was the first to speak. She could feel the power, racing through her, it felt like her power but it had much of Tiana in it. That would fade she was sure, as it rejoined her own.

"I stole nothing. Do NOT forget how you came to have that power. You ripped it from my body. What was mine in the beginning has merely returned to me. As for being a liar, Adrian and I have been over for more than a century. I would not ever lie about that man."

She turned towards the stairs when the realization slammed into her. The power. The block she felt. What she now assumed was Tiana's power, was not. It was Adrian's. Her gasp was barely audible but Marlon heard it.

"Reese?" he asked.

Reese continued down the stairs. She had to be away from him to think. She would never tell him, she never had, but he was a distraction. She found it hard to concentrate when he was too close to her. Lately it had seemed to be stronger than she had ever allowed it to be. Since returning to New Orleans, the thought of kissing him, and tearing him apart at the same time, was almost overwhelming. Now that she knew it was Adrian's energy that had been blocking Tiana, she also knew it was he that was driving her passion. Marlon was a lot of things, but he was still very much human. If she were to let go, to lose herself with him, she would kill him. He could not withstand the power of her love. Which is why she had never allowed her feelings for him to be known. The last few metaphysical encounters they had had, let her know that he felt the same about her. She knew he would die for her, but she had always assumed it was her command. Now she knew. It was so much more.

She fled to the courtyard. The night had settled in like a dark damp blanket. A fine sheen of sweat broke out across her skin. She looked at her arm in wonderment. That was new. That was very much a human thing, and she was far from that.

"Bonjour ma cher." She could feel Adrian standing behind her.

"You can not be here. You do not own this house." She snarled.

He laughed. "No, I do not. But the courtyard is public domain. So here, I can be."

"What do you want?" he had moved up behind her. She could feel his breath gently caressing her cheek.

"You." He answered.

"No."

He laughed and it felt like silk on her skin. "You say no now, but soon. Soon you will have no choice. It would be easier to come to me by your choosing, than by my force."

"You will never be strong enough to make that happen. You have become delusional Adrian." She pulled the breath from him until she could feel him gasping. She tore at his flesh, feeling it rip to ribbons. Although her hands never touched Adrian, her eyes never actually saw him, she could feel his blood, sticky on her fingers. Smell it, pungent in the air. Reese walked towards the door she had escaped out of moments before but stopped in her tracks. She could feel Marlon. He was screaming. It took a moment for the metaphysical to allow the physical to penetrate.

He was howling like he had never before. Behind her she felt Adrian laughed. This time it felt like a snake, sliding around here, tightening. Reese raced towards the sound.

Just under Marlon's screams, she could hear Tiana calling her name.

"Reese! Stop!" she screamed.

The courtyard faded, the hallway she thought she had fled, reappeared before her. The smell of blood and other things filled the small space. She blinked several times to clear her vision.

Marlon lay at her feet. His eyes staring up at her. Tiana was silent and stood holding Ash and Cynthiana. All three had a look of terror on their faces.

Reese's brain refused to let her eyes see what lay before her. She knelt slowly and the carpet made a soft squish sound under her knee's. That simple sound snapped everything back into hyper focus.

Blood splattered the walls and dripped from the ceiling. Marlon stared at Reese, but there was no life left in his eyes. The only spot on him that wasn't covered in blood or torn to shreds was his face. The rest was almost unrecognizable. Pieces of his body stretched from one end of the hall to the other. She looked up at Tiana in confusion.

"Who?" was all she could get out.

Cynthiana pointed at Reese. She looked around to see if someone else stood there.

"You did this." Ash whispered.

She stared down at Marlon's lifeless body. She began shaking her head, mouthing the word no, over and over.

When the reality of it all finally broke that last shred of denial, she let out a sound that shook the walls.

Adrian had clouded her mind and she had killed Marlon.

She had killed Marlon.

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