Hunters and the Hunted

"Oh, it's going to hurt and I'm going to enjoy this." Death pushed Faye towards the window. "Go give that pale, frail little thing her life back and I'll deal with this one here."

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Faye appeared suddenly in the bedroom, startling the girl who had started settling in Scareth's arms into crying again. Faye winced, but gestured silently, asking if she could approach Aria.

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"I don't know why she's so frightened of me." Ian sound petulant, like a child, Cain obviously in front and sulking. "I just wanted to greet another of my kind and she looks as if I threatened to hang her with her own spinal cord."

"You do come off as quite violent Cain."
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"Would there be a point in saying no?"
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Sirius looked at him.

((i think we should let aria die, just to add drama))

((Permanently?))

"Christ, honestly. I'm not that bad." Cain snorted softly. "Not as if I go round broadcasting or anything. Do I broadcast?"

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"If you say no, then I can start digging a grave in the backyard, unless you want her cremated," Faye whispered in a broken sounding voice. She couldn't stop herself trembling.

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Death moved to sit on the bed, getting himself comfortable. "I hope this won't take long, I'm not that fond of letting her loose on her own quite yet. She can't grasp that fine control at the moment."

((no, but for a while))
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"I don't know what that means."
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"Just do it Faye."
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"You say like you ever could."

((Okie dokie))

"Broadcasting?" Cain shrugged, ruffling his hair with both of his hands. "We, uh...demons project a lot. Emotions, sometimes. Personality. Apparently mine is violent enough to scare people off."

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Faye rubbed her hands together gently, walking towards the bed. Just by getting closer, she scared the baby who started crying.

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I have perfect control Sirius. It's what keeps every soul on this earth beating. Faye, well she hasn't quite got the strength or finesse yet. I only sent her off so we could talk, there's absolutely nothing she can do for that Psychic. She's dead as a doorstop."

Scareth tried to calm the baby.
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"Oh..." She thought for a moment. "You do a bit."
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Sirius raised an eyebrow. "What do you want to talk about?"

After a few moments, Faye flinched back, trying to keep the horror off of her face as she turned her head away from Scareth. "I...He...I wasn't given Aria. T-There isn't anything I can do, oh god, Scareth, I'm so sorry. I-I'm so sorry."

The baby whimpered and wriggled in his arms, chewing without teeth at his shirt with hunger.

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"It's not as if I mean to." He huffed, obviously sulking. "Just too much energy to cram into one place. Bound to leak out somehow, just depends on my mood at the time."

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"Your tendency to father children that don't die. It's starting to piss me off. You don't seem to get the message either, I induce miscarriage, after miscarriage, after spontaneous abortion yet that wife of yours still gets pregnant. I want you to stop having kids. Might be that one has the gene code to replace Faye and I don't want her dead just quite yet."

"What makes you think that I listen to you?"
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"Just get out." Scareth told her, though he wasn't looking at her.
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"Come on Cain, don't sulk."

Death leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "I will make you listen to me. I will pick this family apart piece by piece until it's a broken mess that nobody could fix. Alarick, Kai, Scareth, Penelope. Perhaps, then, Alex and Scarlet. Zero, and the grandchildren, Cole, Tiffany. That newborn Aria died for. I will rip everything you love to shreds before I let you be the cause of another life in this world. You are so tainted yet you continue to survive, you even thrive and that disgusts me."

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"I-I can still try and help if you want me to." Faye's voice cracked and she hugged herself warily, watching him warily.

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"I'm going to sulk as much as I want. It's not as if I'm inherently scary, right?"

"You're not scary to me or Hayden or Rachel." She told him.
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"Faye I said get out!" He actually sounded pretty threatening.
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"You can only touch Faye, no one else is within your reach."

"Our kids are born with the subconscious instinct not to be scared of me. You're just crazy." He teased her, leaning close to rub his nose against hers in an affectionate Eskimo kiss.

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Faye scrambled out of the window on the brink of tears, running into the forest.

Once again, the baby was whimpering, but this time it was because her chewing on Scareth's shirt hasn't got her fed.

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"Whoops." Death deadpanned and a thud sounded in the hallway. "There goes Alarick. Should I test it on Kai, or should I bring back your son and we negotiate some terms we both agree on?"

She smiled. "Well, you're probably right about that." She moved to kiss his lips.
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Scareth made a bottle appear in his hands and he fed his daughter.
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"Just give me back my son."

Cain lazily kissed her back before mumbling, "Ian hasn't been doing so well, you know. Didn't want me to tell you. Hard to keep me from speaking if I really wanted to though."

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The girl calmed down instantly, drinking from the bottle and lifting her hands to curl around it.

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"Thought so. Have a seat." Death smiled pleasantly. "Don't worry, he's perfectly fine. Reattached the spinal cord all nice and clean."

"I prefer to stand."
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Scareth smiled watching her. "I'm never going to let anything happen to you." He whispered, kissing his daughter's forehead.
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"What do you mean?" She asked him.

"And I want you to sit, so please sit." Death's smile tightened, his eyes narrowing.

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The baby cooed around the bottle, brow furrowing a little before she peered open her eyes with an inquisitive noise in Scareth's mind, not quite sure how to formulate words to speak psychically properly.

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"The seals are disintegrating at a faster rate than I can put them back together. Ordinarily, I'd be ecstatic to be back at full strength and the benefits that come with it, but I'm sort of fond of Ian now. Plus, it'd sort of break you and I don't want that to happen. Can't deny he was the one you fell in love with."

"Why are telling me this Cain? You know that Demon seals are beyond my skillity."
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"And I'd rather not Death, because I don't trust you."
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Scareth smiled softly at her. "You need a name don't you?"

"Because I would rather you have the truth than watch Ian waste away without the knowledge of what was happening," Cain deadpanned in reply. "Seems more cruel that way, I understand, but at least it'll make the transition easier. I'm holding it off as best as I can, no doubt Vivian might be able to catch someone who can help, but unless someone with considerable knowledge of seals and is of the Earliest Age, well..." Cain shrugged. "Don't worry. I'm strong, we've got decades, centuries left. With each seal broken, the next becomes harder to break and so forth."

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"Well, put the trust issues behind you and sit the fuck down before I get into a fouler mood than I already am."

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She cooed again, approaching his mind more firmly this time with a clear sense of delight and excitement.

Scareth thought for a minute. "How about Lucy?"
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In fear for his children, Sirius sighed and sat down.
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Scarlet slid her arms around him, resting her head on his chest. "Good."

She let go of the bottle, reaching towards his face with a happy noise.

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"Oh, are you finally seeing sense? Faye's coming with me for a year," Death stated straight away, no question in his voice. "In that time I'll give her the necessary control needed and give her an anchor. Lover boy is all well and good, but you can't leave a fledging with an inexperienced child. Expect her to come back with a handler, who will stay for a minimum of three months. If you say yes, on the grounds that Faye stays with for the whole year, exactly three hundred and sixty five days, I'll return her with the psychic. Don't say no, Sirius."

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Cain ran his fingers through her hair gently.

"I can't make that decision alone Death, I have to consult my wife - Faye's mother."
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"Please don't let either of you leave me Cain." She whispered.
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Scareth put the bottle down and he let her touch his face.

Death waved a hand dismissively. "Tuesday will say yes. She's seen me enough by Penelope's hand, I'm not sure she could stand seeing me face to face without having a heart attack or something stupid. I have lists, endless, endless lists of life. When a person dies, a line is run through their name. I've already put hers across as well as seven tally marks next to it. She doesn't need to see me any time soon. Even I, with my infinite control would have trouble not reaping a soul already long, long dead. Being around you is hard enough, don't bring another into the mix."

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"I'm not making promises I won't keep, Scarlet. I'm not inherently a nasty person."

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As soon as Lucy had skin contact, she filled his mind with unintelligible words and dozens of blurry images of his face and the room, finding it easier to broadcast her thoughts to him with contact.

"This is your home Lucy." Scareth told her.
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"I don't have to stay in the same room with you to talk to her about you."
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She looked at him, and her eyes showed her fear at the thought of losing him.

Lucy blinked slowly at him before giving a smile, patting his cheek and cooing happily.

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"She'll say yes. I just want your confirmation. Now, preferably, so I can get this over and done with."

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"I'm tough. If this body deteriorates, I'll drag Ian with me and find a new one. Demons body hop if we have to."

"One quick question, what will this do to Rosco when she comes back?"
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"Ok..." She nodded.
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He smiled at her smile.

"Absolutely nothing at all. She can still phone him, I'm not cutting her off from the rest of the world. I just want her to be able to thrive without incident. Is that a yes? Because I don't want to have to force the issue."

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"We have years upon years left Scarlet. Don't look so worried."

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Lucy curled her fingers against his cheek before slowly swinging her head around to blearily peer at the bed. She was too young to see any far distance and so couldn't really see Aria.