Callisto’s disbelieving look barely faltered as Finntello spieled off his explanation of a world war. A rather idiotic thing to participate in, if he were to say so himself. Would that not cause far too much damage to be beneficial to anyone? His gaze remained stern as he stared across the table at Finn. Only when Finn had placed Xevon on these gruesome battlefields did his eye twitch, a hint towards his discomfort. The other man had never mentioned anything about it, he still had all his memories..why would he not want to talk about it? Even the smallest comment, after all the years they had spent trapped together. Perhaps Xevon wasn’t as fond of Callisto as he had thought. His eyebrows creased together.

“You are saying a lot of words that make no sense to me.” Callisto began before waving his hand gently. “No need to explain it all in further detail. You are implying that because of Xevon’s self sacrificing behaviour, you think he was in this..war?” His head dipped down and a sigh peeled out from him. “If it makes sense to you, then I suppose it is possible.” As much as the though of Xevon staggering through that landscape made his stomach turn, the small comfort that it was only a theory for the time being soothed him.

“Whenever he came from, I want to get him out of Veles’s claws as soon as possible.” There was the smallest hint of a growl to his words, only reverberting in the background of his voice.

Lily’s eyes snapped up at the feeling of a hand on her shoulder, taken completely by surprise. Her pupils slitted thin and her head whipped around to look at her, muscles taut and the adrenaline in her body spiked. Only when she saw Alma looking down at her did the initial panic settle, but her muscles remained tight and her eyes slowly expanded back.

“Thank you.” She tried to recover herself quickly enough so that the other woman, nor the men noticed her rather large reaction to simply being touched on the shoulder. Lily had been so engrossed in her own mind, focused, that she had not noticed Alma walking over to her and had almost leapt out of her seat.

–

Eventually, the body of Veles shifted in place, adjusting his shoulders so that he was more comfortable. It had been the first time he had moved other than gentle breathing for many hours, his eyes still remained closed.

Then he twisted again with a small grunt before his eyes flashed open, only glancing at the ceiling above him for a moment before they slid sideways to look over at Xevon curiously. He knew the other man wasn’t asleep, it was literally impossible for him to sleep any more.

Veles stared hard for another long second before he rolled himself onto his side to face Xevon, his arm extending towards him. He was debating whether or not to grip at his throat and engage in their usual violence, or play into the more desperate side he had bore witness to the night before. In the long run, loving manipulation was the obvious route to go down, but he was so entertaining when he tried to kill him.

Resigned, Veles grazed his hand past Xevon’s head and flicked back a portion of the dark hair that was laying there. He hadn’t really altered his appearance since the day he had arrived, obviously his current natural state was not this, but how he was when he was roaming the hotel halls with a beating heart. Not that that lasted very long, especially considering Callisto had done a spectacularly wonderful job of splitting the sacrifices up for Veles. That man really was useless.

Callisto’s eyes drew up to look at Alma as she spoke, the woman had a point. How were they going to get into the cult? How would they actually attack Veles? Another important hole in their ideas was the fact that Veles could even die.

“In all honesty, I never would have dared to do something like this. Finn is the ringleader here, I thought you might have a solid plan forming in your head by now.” He cocked his head as he pointedly looked over towards Finntello.

Lily’s eyes slowly made their way up to look at the rest of the table, still unsure about her stomach as she sucked on the mint. It was helping a little bit, but the imagery of not only Finn but Alma both being mauled by her own Veles creation still made her stomach turn.

“Whatever the plan is, I want absolutely no sacrificing behaviour.” Lily muttered, also casting a pointed look towards Finn, she didn’t really care what Callisto did, but Finn was the one she knew would do it.

–

Veles’s hand hung in the space above Xevon’s head as he listened, a small chuff of amusement came from him before he pulled his hand back. His eyes were only pulled away from the other man at a reverberating feeling that ran through him, something had come into his realm. Slowly, a sick grin began to split his lips, leaning himself up to all but crawl over Xevon to get out of the bed.

“A gift awaits.” Veles growled, a black mass beginning to take form along each of his arms, coating his hands and forearms in the same boney amalgamation he was used to, tipped with bone sharp claws.

“You can join if you wish.” He cooed over his shoulder before he began to stalk his way down the hallway. After missing out on the two sacrifices before, he was hungry.

Callisto’s head tipped to one side, skepticism blasted across his features. It was Finn’s desire to try and kill Veles, he was merely interested in getting Xevon out of there. It just happened to be in line with this grand idea of murdering a god, which was not exactly Callisto’s forte.

“That would work.” He finally hummed, leaning back into his chair. “Veles is a vain enough deity to require everything to be exactly to his liking. The offering of a bride not being adequate would work to both fool her father,” He paused to flick a wrist over towards Lily. “And the rest of them.”

Lily wasn’t so sure about how she felt, her father had obviously given the order to send her away to essentially be a breeding mare for a sadistic god. Yet, she felt a sting of betrayal at the edges of her mind. Her mother, yes well she had been vile. But her father was kinder, it felt strangely cruel to be taking away the god that he had devoted his entire existence to.

“I suppose it would work.” Her voice was quiet, only giving a small peek towards Finntello as she spoke. “My dad would believe me.” Lily offered, it would work on this end. However, the whole slicing themselves with the blades would still need to happen. Which wasn’t very nice to think about, in fact it made her stomach tense again and her eyebrows knitted together. Her migraine had faded into the back of her head, but she was exhausted.

–

The creatures they had sent this time were not handling their arrival well. Veles could hear loud voices in the hallways below as he made it to the main stairwell. They were all but screaming at each other, accusing one another of their amnesia and imprisonment. Pitiful little things really.

Then as Veles descended the stairs, the black mass on his arms writhing, he had a thought. Xevon had always tried to help these people. A smirk lifted his lips as the blackness absorbed back into his body, instead clicking his fingers and his suit short returned to his bare skin. It had been so long since he truly played with his food.

He took in a deep breath and then ran, making sure his footfalls were heavy so that the pair could hear him coming. Forcing himself to pant as though he had been sprinting across the hotel. Veles skidded around the corner of the hallway and stopped abruptly as he saw a blonde man and a brunette woman.

“There you are!” He puffed out, frantically making his way towards them with his palms out. “You need to stop yelling! You’ll summon the creature.” Veles grimaced and peered above him as though something could drop down from the ceiling at any point. Which, in reality it truly could just float down from the ceiling above.

The woman was looking at him with a hint of suspicion, but the man only seemed relieved to see someone who looked like they knew what was happening. If Xevon wasn’t keen for his little display, then these two would be easy to consume. One swipe and he would cut through them like a hot knife and butter.

Lily scrunched up her nose. “There really isn’t another way to get back with our memories?” She pushed, looking over to Callisto who simply sighed.

“The only method is sacrificing yourself. Which would mean the whole ‘shanking’ bit needs to happen.” Callisto confirmed much to Lily’s disappointment.

“Okay, so stabbing ourselves can be pushed to the back of my head for now.” She grumbled. “But what about when we actually get back there? Other than storming the place, actually planning what each of us is going to do is a good idea.” Lily drew her eyes back around to Finn. “What plan can we make with two giant cats, wings and Alma?” That sentence alone sounded insane.

–

Veles’s eyes flickered sideways as he heard Xevon’s voice, he did not turn around instead only locked his gaze upon Xevon as he made it to his side. Ah, yes that was an important point he had forgotten about. Oh well, he could plan a little better for next time. It seemed he had jumped the gun here in his excitement.

“What are you talking about?” The woman spat out, frowning as Veles’s eyes were locked sideways as Xevon drew his hand up to his jaw, eyes flashing with amusement. Following him around to the two living, he cocked his head to one side and let out a small sigh. The facade of a fellow scared survivor dropping from his features and his eyes hardened. If he wanted to play this game out then these pair needed to find a stupid talisman, which could take days. That and Veles was extremely hungry, his eyes locked with the woman as she stared at him.

Veles strode forwards, headed directly between the new people to the empty space they perceived and lifted a hand. He grasped the collar of Xevon’s shirt and began leading them both down the hallway.

“Then we wait, I want to see you in action.” He mused under his breath as the woman called out to him again. Veles ignored her as they rounded the corner to make a 180 back up the hallways to the main staircase.

Lily glanced to the side, drawn to the movement of Finntello’s wings as he adjusted them. Noting how he was sitting, she hadn’t really considered it before but he couldn’t do most things she could, at least easily. Sleeping for one, he couldn’t lay on his back and the bed well he’d have to either droop his wings off the side or buy the world’s biggest one. Then sitting on a normal chair. Lily was a little relieved she had received Callisto’s talisman, though his wings did still look cool.

A small sigh drew from her lips and she moved to rest her head on her hand, peering down at the grain of the table blankly. She must truly be crazy to have agreed to go back there.

“When do you want me to find my dad?” She questioned, eyes sliding along to peek at Finn from where her head was positioned unmoving. “I know where we lived, but after mum..I don’t know if he will be there.”

Callisto blinked a couple times at Finn’s plan, but then again he couldn’t think of anything better. He had waited so long to get out, the sooner they went back in to retrieve Xevon the better.

–

Veles’s eyes narrowed as he continued to walk, barely giving Xevon a glance as he spoke. Sure enough the sound of footsteps were following them. His eye twitched, hand removing itself from Xevon as he flexed his wings.

There was a heartbeat that passed after Xevon had finished talking before Veles whirled around on him. Lip curled back, his hand securing itself around Xevon’s neck and gripping the sides. A heavy enough pressure to restrict any airflow a living creature might possess, but merely pressure for Xevon.

He drew the man close to him, staring daggers down at Xevon as his other hand moved to flex beside their heads. Slowly leaking back the black substance as the bony claws formed at the tips. He drew a clawed pointer finger along Xevon’s jaw, grazing the skin.

“You could never be the cat, darling.” His voice was tinged with the cacophony of voices he usually held, a quiet whisper of other voices behind his own.

Just as quickly as he had snatched Xevon up, the footsteps had drawn so very close, Veles unlatched himself and turned to walk back towards the living. His gruesome hand concealed behind his back, a human one in view as he turned back around the corner.

“What are you doing?” The woman had asked again, staggering to a halt, but the man had fear in his eyes. Delicious.

“I thought I heard it behind here, but it must have moved on.” Veles crowed, shaking his head. “Come, I will show you where you will both be safe.” He continued and the man seemed to be up for it almost immediately, the brunette however. She was still staring at him apprehensively.

If Xevon wanted to play games, he’d bite, Xevon just wouldn’t like it.

“Come, come.” He flicked his normal hand to gesture towards the hall with the main stairs, aiming to lead them all the way up to his lair, or as Xevon had put it their room. Veles only paused at the entrance to the large room, he had answered the idiotic questions the living had peppered him with the entire time and ignored Xevon’s hovering around them. Now the trio stood in the threshold between the hallway and the room.